[open] monstas!

[amberhearted]

Who: Alexander, open!
When: March 29th through the first week of April.
Where: Various locations in Locke City.
What: Encounters with the no-longer-quite-so-mundane item monsters both on and off the clock.
Warnings: tba!

Various prompts in the comments!

A: Playing cards versus Starbucks
B: Answering a monster-related 911 call
C: Bring your own adventure

Prompts are in prose, but it doesn't matter which format you use. I'll match!

Comments

[amberhearted]

The crowbar clatters to the ground. It's shortly followed by the King's sword.

"No, I--" His face scrunches up in confusion. " 'Pretenders'? Whoa!"

He ducks and sidesteps a swing of the Seven's metal bat with inhuman grace -- yet another product of Echoes. Speaking of Echoes, though, whatever trigger set off an Echo in Hajime finally hits Alex. It leaves him temporarily disoriented -- an easy target for the Seven and its bat.

[chalicejoker]

"Yes, pretenders!" Hajime sounds annoyed. He throws another kick in the direction of the card that was trying to slash his tires, revs the motor, and charges over in an attempt to run over the Seven. "Stupid thing isn't even a jellyfish..."

[amberhearted]

The Seven is just about to bring its bat down on Alex's back when Hajime runs it the fuck over. The clatter of the bat falling to the asphalt snaps Alex out of his reverie in time to notice the Jack stirring. He jumps on the card before it can rise.

Thus the battle has been won. The King and Seven are flattened, the Eight cut in half, and the Jack is pinned under Alex's weight.

Alex takes a moment to catch his breath and sort out the fishing knowledge that had flooded his brain after the Echo. What even... Why fishing?

He casts Hajime an odd look. "Why jellyfishing? I mean, jellyfish. Is it supposed to be?"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime hopped off the motorcycle, the better to look at the other downed cards. "I...the monsters I fought. That I remember fighting. Playing cards were important, and the suit of Clubs wasn't like this. The Seven of Clubs I remember should have been some sort of jellyfish." Not that he remembered what it looked like, just that it should have been a jellyfish. "Like if you're going to do something stupid with card monsters, you should at least do it right..." He nudged at the pinned Jack with one of his feet. "This one's supposed to be an elephant. You want me to finish it off?"

[amberhearted]

"Uh..."

He lifts the side of his foot, looking at the ridged rubber sole of his sneaker, then glances back up at Hajime. "Sure. Do you want me to get off...?"

There's something a little odd about the prospect of finishing the card off when it's already down. Alex isn't bothered, exactly, but he isn't raring to deal the 'killing' blow in this scenario, even if the card isn't human... or animal...

[chalicejoker]

"Yeah, get off. I'll do it with the bike." Hajime, on the other hand, has no issues with finishing the card off like this. Something deep within him is quite happy to see these very wrong things get taken care of.

Besides, Alex should have seen what happened to the rat that ended up in Hajime's apartment a few years ago. No mercy, even without any echoes inducing questionable behavior.

[amberhearted]

Rat extermination is something Alex can get behind.

Regardless, he steps off of the Jack slowly, one foot at a time, and keeps the tip of his sword on the card's surface until Hajime's in the position to flatten it even more into the asphalt. Then he pulls his sword back and watches, though not without a wincing tug on the corner of his lips.

"So these, uh, these cards..." Vague, circular hand motion. "They're not related to you at all?"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime doesn't really know how one properly kills a playing card like this, so he pops a wheelie and just sort of bounces up and down on it, while trying to rub it out like it's a cigarette butt. "Not at all. They're not...I don't know, they're not right. Not monster enough."

[amberhearted]

An incognito Lord of the Bugmen bouncing up and down a playing card with his motorcycle. Even with all the hard-to-believe experiences and sights Alex has witnessed, the one before him is odd enough for him to pause and appreciate the absurdity of this situation.

He lifts a brow at Hajime's answer. "Not monster enough?" His gaze slides down to the felled cards again. After a brief moment of consideration, he says, "I guess so... They're more 'what the fuck-y' than 'monster-y'."

The observation is accompanied by a hand wiggle.

[chalicejoker]

"Yeah. They're...kind of offensive, actually." He sounds appropriately sheepish about that as he finishes snuffing the card out, because, really, getting this worked up over playing card monsters is just not right. But at least it doesn't look like the card's moving anymore. He can stop with the bouncing. "Probably better that than some of what I'm remembering...less collateral damage."

[amberhearted]

He starts gathering up the now-discarded weapons from the parking lot as Hajime answers, eyes narrowing in slight confusion.

With another sword in his other hand and a crowbar held in the crook of his elbow against his chest, he glances at Hajime over his shoulder and asks, "Why are less dangerous cards offensive to you?"

Less dangerous cards sounds great!

[chalicejoker]

"I...don't really know." Because that sounds really reassuring, right? Hajime is not at all reassured by it. "Like it's making me look bad, I think..."

He's watching Alex pick up the weapons. Weapons are a good distraction from the implications of relating oneself to walking playing cards. "What are you going to do with those, anyway?"

[amberhearted]

Maybe Hajime's other self was really proud to be a dangerous badass...?

Before Alex can voice his thought, Hajime continues forward to another topic. He shrugs, letting the transition run smoothly. "Keep 'em. As backup," he adds, lightly swinging the King's sword up, "since swords aren't exactly easy to come by in this day and age."

He nods towards the fallen spear. "You mind grabbing that one?"

[chalicejoker]

"Not a bad idea. Here's hoping they can't be traced to anyone..." He bent to pick up the spear before getting back on his motorcycle. "But do you know anything about fighting with spears?"

[amberhearted]

"Not a bit," he says lightly. Clearly, this lack of knowledge doesn't seem to faze him. "But someone else might. It won't hurt to have it on the ready."

Satisfied, he walks back to his truck, just assuming that Hajime will follow since he's got the spear. He opens the back door and carefully lays the weapons one by one onto the floor, keeping his own sword for last so he can re-sheathe it.

Belatedly, he asks, "Do you?"

[chalicejoker]

"Some sort of numbered armory?" Not that a spear and a crowbar and a baseball bat would be good for that much, but better than nothing.

"Nah. Right now, it's just the bike when I'm like this or my own two fists when I'm the...other way. It's all I need." He gave the bike a pat.

[amberhearted]

At that, he chuckles and holds his hand out for the spear. "You're a full on superhero, you know that? Not American-style, but you got the powers, the disguises, and the vehicle."

A pause.

"The bug-mobile. Bug-bike. Roachercycle."

[chalicejoker]

"Yeah, I guess so..." Being a superhero felt kind of silly, for the most part, though secretly pretty cool if Hajime stopped being so serious about everything. he was about to say something else, but then Alex had to go and name the bike.

"...Roachercycle." With the way Hajime is flatly repeating that, he does not seem to be amused by the name.

[amberhearted]

"Roachercycle."

Said like it ain't no thang as he slides the spear with the other weapons and swings the cab door shut. He holds out his hand for a handshake, continuing, "Thanks for your help, man. Things could've been a lot different if you hadn't popped in."

[chalicejoker]

No, Hajime should not dignify the word "Roachercycle" with a further response. Maybe he'd get lucky and Alex would forget about that. He did, however, accept that handshake. "Glad to do it--I don't like creatures like this running around terrorizing people any more than you do."

[amberhearted]

Alex tends to be bad with names. His assigned nicknames, however?

Hajime will be in for some disappointment.

After the handshake, he lifts his hand in a wave. "See you around, yeah?"

[chalicejoker]

Hajime can only hope the name of Roachercycle will be forgotten as he gets back on said Roachercycle. He gives Alex a lazy wave in return. Getting out of there before the cops arrive seems like a good idea. "Take care." With that, he sped off.