savetheearth | video via numbers scratched into the asphalt of an alley; backdated to jan 8th

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video via numbers scratched into the asphalt of an alley; backdated to jan 8th

[So Kotetsu's never actually attempted physically talking into something that lacks a microphone as a possible network usage, but he's presently lacking in better options. He's not sure he can actually touch anything without breaking it right now, and would really like to avoid needing a new phone when it likely won't be possible to go out and get one for awhile. So at the risk of looking like a complete lunatic if this doesn't work, he...tries to talk at the ground where he's managed to scratch in the numbers with a piece of broken metal that was lying around the nearby dumpster. Aside from a few minor scratches and bruises, he's more or less alright, so the most notable feature of the video is perhaps that he is glowing bright blue. It's a bit sporadic, flickering on and off at unpredictable intervals, in one of which the metal makes an odd sort of crunch before falling out of his hand, bent in half.]

...So, uh.

I kinda ran into a couple Keys earlier. I'm alright, but now I need someone to come pick me up, because I can't really be seen like this. Lyall, you--had that werewolf-proof room thing in your house, right? I hate to ask, but...could I borrow it? I don't remember feeling a pulse, but all of a sudden I'm freakishly strong. [Because his echo from the farmhouse just kicked in, whoops. `_`a]

Karl, could you--cover for me? Say, I dunno, that I got sick and can't finish off my shift, or something. You ordered me to go home, maybe.

[A pause. He glances over to the two unconscious people in the alley with him.]

If--a medical or healery person could come down here too, that'd be great. This one guy was getting mugged when I showed up, he's hurt.

[A slight beat of hesitation. This next point is something he knows people might have an objection to.]

And um, I kinda. I think I broke a couple of this one Key's ribs by accident, so.

[....]

I know they're thugs and with ThunderCorp and all, but I can't just--leave him here to suffer. They're still people.

[private to Skyler, later on; text via backyard dirt]

can we talk

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[Oh hey this dude's seen you at work what's up bub]

I'm on patrol right now, I could always swing by. Just got a motorcycle though, not much I can do for moving more than one person.

[Holy shit. Shit, he knows that glowing. He does that glowing.]

...you're a NEXT too?

[ Skyler sees the text on the network, immediately tries not to throw up, then proceeds to ignore the hell out of it for the next week solid. Nope. Nope. This isn't happening. This isn't happening, and every single time he logs into the network afterward and sees that message hanging around, everything goes cold and he goes right back into denial, so really, it's like the message and the entire thing didn't even happen.

Except he needs the network so he has regular updates about the bad shit that could be going down, and having that one alert telling him to check his messages for the text that he doesn't want to see, ever, and knowing that it'll just stay there if he doesn't man up and try and get rid of it and its sender once and for all, it's going to haunt him forever. It's not gonna just fix itself.

So he sucks it up long enough to text back a short message. ]

don't talk to me

[oh my god, oh my god what the hell, it's a cop right there on the network with Keys that he's done god knows what to.]

What did you do to them? You broke his ribs?!

[He looks at the message sent to Skyler more than a few times over the course of that week, wondering if he should send another one, if he should try a more direct channel of communication (or maybe go though Karl? the kid has to go to school...), if Skyler is even okay.

By the time the reply finally gets to him, Kotetsu's been getting a bit better at controlling his powers. It's still going to be a few days until he feels comfortable going out in public, but at least he's not constantly breaking everything he touches.

It seems like it responds to his emotions, though, and the sharp flare of relief and disappointment both makes his power spurt up and the pencil snaps in half. He takes a deep breath, waits for the blue to subside, then picks up the pointed end and writes back.]

don't do this, Skyler
please

Edited 2014-01-13 05:42 (UTC)

[Huhhhh, a new network cop, he must have missed this one's entrance. :o]

Thanks...but I really wanna make sure someone comes to take care of these guys before I leave, y'know?

[ He's actually out at the moment; out in the Dead District, not really on duty but with his shades on him in case Helene called him for a meeting. He's up high on the roof of a building, tucked in a junction where no one would see him from the street. It's really a good thing that the Keys keep such a tight watch on the Dead District. If anyone comes for him, he'll see them coming from a mile away.

-- Ow. Right in the guilt. He stares at the message for a moment. Don't do this? Like there was some way to undo what he did. Or make it so it was ok to talk to him again. Or safe. Huh. ]

i'm not about to stop
so we shouldn't talk anymore
so
shut up ok

[ Sharp, to the point. He'll push harder if he doesn't stop this. At least he's had practice. ]

[yeah he's a sneaky motherfucker or something.]

Eh. Well, I tried.

[barely but hey.]

No backup or anything? You don't think any more of those assholes will show up?

[SUCH A LONG PAUSE.]

...You know what a NEXT is?

[He'd gotten the term in a pulse, and didn't understand it at the time. But the man in his memory had glowed blue, and so was he...]

I can pick you up. Just give me a location.

Yeah...a "Noted Entity with eXtraordinary Talents." Someone with superpowers.

[Awkward pause. God, it will never not be weird to say that out loud.]

So it's...not just the glowing for you? It's that and the strength?

[Spontaneous Human Night-Light is so confused.]

[Okay wow, of all the things he was expecting, someone getting upset about a Key getting hurt is not at all one of them. Honestly, he'd thought he'd be hearing more along the lines of people getting upset he wanted to help the one he injured.]

First off, it was an accident, and second, he'd just finished beating the shit out of that guy [points to the much more injured guy nearby] so you'll have to excuse me for trying to protect the actual innocent here.

Edited 2014-01-13 06:44 (UTC)

You've run into them as well.

Did you notice anything [ a pause as she writes ] different about them? Different from what you'd expect.

[ maybe it's only noticeable if you take a bite out of them, who knows. with all this talk of people being augmented, even beyond the echoes, anything is possible, she supposes. ]

[kotetsu why are you blue. why are you glowing. did you really just CRUSH A PIECE OF STEEL IN YOUR HAND]

[okay you know what ravi is just going to ignore all that and focus on the part he can actually handle]

Where are you? I can come.

[Chuck is fairly uncomfortable with the implication (by which I mean outright statement) that the anonymous Key in question beat the stuffing out of some random person. He's only been in the gang like a week and a half by now, but he hasn't yet seen anyone do anything excessively violent. This seems like a bizarre anomaly to him.]

...is the other guy going to be alright too? And the other Keys you ran into?

[By the time that last line of text rolls in, that pencil is a goner, the pathetic crumbly remains of what was once (half) a pencil littering the sheet of paper, and he can't even be assed to get a new one. He's angry at that implication, more than he would have expected, and he ends up just yelling at the paper instead.]

So, what?! I'm supposed to stop giving a crap about you because you made one shitty life decision????

Do you have any idea how many shitty life decisions I made at your age??? I joined a gang too, and I was fourteen! I've fucking been there, so fuck you for suggesting I should stop caring because you've done a stupid shitty thing.

Edited 2014-01-13 07:27 (UTC)

[ -- Bullshit. Bull fucking shit, Kotetsu never joined a gang, he's too dorky and funny and he makes puns and he'd never make the same choices Skyler did, no matter what kind of bullshit life's thrown at him, he's lying, he's lying, he's--

Kotetsu doesn't lie though. And Skyler knows it. That's why he liked talking to Kotetsu. Whenever he was nice, you could feel the honesty coming off him in waves. Skyler didn't quite trust it, because he's met some pretty convincing acts in high school and trusting is something you kind of stop doing after a while, but he wanted to. A lot. He didn't deserve it, which just proved that Kotetsu was just trying to make him feel welcome because he was so nice, but not many people bothered to try anymore. (the self-pity is strong in this one.)

He goes for another text. ]

i dunno if that's true but if you did congratulations you got out and you're gonna have a less shitty life than you would've which is a lot better than mine was ever gonna go
because like i said i've MADE this shitty decision already and i'm gonna ride it out to the end and i don't need your fucking help to turn back because i can't and i don't want to so if making me stop is a part of this caring deal i'm fucking out
so mabye you SHOULD just fuck off andfind soem other ki d who can actulayl do the rigth thing eveyr single tiem so yuo dont havet o deea lwith allthe bullshit i'm gonna keep doing b ecause GUESSS WHAT
HEY GUESS WHTA
IM KIND OF A SHITBAG AND ALL THE WISHFUL THINK IGN IN THE GOD DAM,N WORLD ISNT GOINNA DO JACK SHIT TO CHANGE THAT SO IM GONAN GET SOMTEHING OUT OF IT WHEIL I CAN

...You're so goddamn stupid.

[Somehow, the anger just collapses in on itself and burns itself out, at that. Kotetsu wants to say that Skyler has so much in his life right in front of him. His family is whole and together, they're all alive...

But he doesn't. He remembers what it was like to be that age, to take the good things in life for granted and focus on the problems. And the last thing he wants to do is turn this into some sort of competition of things that have gone wrong in their lives. Bitterly--]

Find me a teenager who's done the right thing every single time and I will personally give them a goddamn medal.

...You wanna talk about being a shitbag? Let me tell you about being a goddamn selfish piece of trash.

[He takes a deep, shaky sort of breath. This is a part of his life he is utterly ashamed of, and he doesn't talk about it often. Only a couple people have ever heard about it, one of which has long since disappeared from the network.]

I lost my dad when I was thirteen, in a wreck with a drunk driver. And then I went and blamed my mom for it, because the whole goddamn world revolved around me, and obviously if she'd never gotten divorced it wouldn't have happened, right? I got mad at my brother for having to work to support the family, because it meant he had less time to spend with me. I went off and smoked and drank and shoplifted and did graffiti with a gang while they were putting a fucking roof over my head and never once even asked either of them if they were okay.

I treated everyone around me like garbage because I was hurting and I wanted them to hurt too. So don't feed me this bullshit about being some irredeemable asshole that isn't worth my time.

Edited (omfg i am so sorry i keep nitpicking this tag) 2014-01-13 10:21 (UTC)

Dead District. I'm...not sure where, exactly. Somewhere around the edges, on the south side?

[A beat]

Could you take R--Surya with you?

Different how? You mean the cyborg thing, or...?

[all very excellent questions Kotetsu would also like the answers to...]

Dead District, south side around the fringes. Shou offered to pick me up, maybe you could go with him? Could save some time.

No idea how to turn the glowy shit off?

You okay? You look kinda shaken.

[So, normally Henry would not respond to this. If only because he was in a similar situation today and did not want to alert the adults to it. Because wow, they did not need to know how horrible an experience that was for him and the bitties.

But one thing catches his attention.

The most important detail ever.

One that would shake the very boundaries of all of Locke city.

One that would change everything forever.]

We've got a WEREWOLF in the city?

[Nevermind your dumb old injuries, Kotetsu, this is really important stuff!

Buuut maybe he does seem a bit concerned about that. He won't ask....

okay no he has to ask.]

But, you're going to be okay, right?

[ is that what-

it goes right over her head that this is already a known thing; instead, she focuses on that revelation and how it fits into her hazy remembrance of what happened to her ]

Yes. Yes, I think- that must be it.

Sorry, yes. Something I remembered wasn't making sense, it just clicked.

[....holy shit.]

What the hell happened? Are you ok?

Edited (DAMNIT DON'T SEND BEFORE I'M DONE.) 2014-01-13 19:42 (UTC)

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video via numbers scratched into the asphalt of an alley; backdated to jan 8th

[VIDEO iphone or something]

[Voice]

[ text; dated to like the 15th HAHAHA. ha. ]

[text]

i think you mean MWAHAHAHA

video!

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[Voice]

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[Voice]

...video, derp, not text

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[text]

[permatext]

--> voice

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[text]

[Text]

video; sometime in the evening probably

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text;