deercountry | Some nights, I stay up cashing in my bad luck

[Ryan has another excellent point, they did promise not to keep anything from each other anymore.

1, Because that's what normal, communicating people (much less couples ) do.
2, Because not doing it is how corruption builds up.
3, It's just the right thing to do.

And Min-Gi has been harping on Ryan about it since he found out it was a thing. Yet here he is with it crawling up behind his eyes and he didn't even realize. He doesn't really realize even now, with Ryan holding his hand up to sharp fingers (not just nails, the whole shape of them has changed) and glowing paleblood.

(You hurt him, Min-Gi)

His stomach drops. That was never the intention, he just wasn't thinking. And since when have his fingers been like this? What's happening?

It pulls the breath right out of his lungs. There's black in the corners of his vision as it tunnels in. The sounds of the street are a muddy roar.

He's fucked up. He's fucked up so badly.]

Ryan I-

[You what, idiot. You absolute good for nothing, you should be able to handle this!]

I-

[He feels the change in him like a change in air pressure, an incoming storm.]

--I'm okay. I promise, it's only a little scratch.

[He would show him right now, but it would mean letting go of Min and he's not at all prepared to do that. He keeps a firm hold on that wrist, but a more gentle touch to his shoulder with his free hand.]

We're going home, okay? We're going back to your place.

[But, he doesn't actually move to make them leave. Instead, Tomo forms in a cloud of smoke on Ryan's shoulder.]

Tomo? Go figure out where the closest lamp is.

[They squeak in the affirmative and bamf from one perch to the next to the next to avoid getting trampled in the crowd. Ryan turns his attention back to Min, and gives his shoulder a squeeze.]

Can you hear me, Min? We're going to go. Tomo's going to find us the quickest way, and then we'll go. Okay?

Edited 2022-04-17 21:05 (UTC)

[Min vaguely registers Tomo's appearance but Yeong remains to be seen. Locked out, maybe. Guarded by barbed wires and LEDs.

Ryan sounds like an echo. A little numb, not quite putting together the grip and the words and the omen bounding off.

He was okay a second ago, why is this all turning upside down?

More fractures shatter through his wrist under Ryan's fingers. Unseen.]

No.. no, you shouldn't--

[It's delayed. Finally, he looks up.]

If I'm dangerous then you shouldn't be anywhere near me-

[Ryan shakes his head.]

Nope. Nope, we're not doing that. You're going to let me help you.

[He's not scared of Min. Even when Min was lashing out, he was never scared. This is...admittedly kind of unsettling, sure, but. Now that Min knows, Ryan is sure he won't do it again.]

Besides, if you really think you're dangerous now, then let me get you away from this crowd of people. Okay?

[This is something that might be almost soothing in other circumstances - letting Ryan ground him and bring him back to the moment. Tomo is on their way back. This is the part where things are supposed to start getting better.

But something else is gliding towards them in the crowd. A few people in the crowd gasp and move out of the way, and turn to watch the little fallen star make its way to its target. Behind Ryan, it skids to a stop and starts to grow into something more...wormhole-shaped.

Ryan is so focused on Min that he hasn't noticed it yet, but Min likely has an extremely clear view.]

No matter what, it's going to be okay, Min.

[Min-Gi takes a shaking breath before letting it out and nodding.

He's turning into a monster, he can't be out here with people. As scared as he is of hurting Ryan, if he goes insane out here on the streets a hunter will arrive and kill him.

Maybe that will still happen. Maybe he'd deserve it.

No, no, no, chill out, Min. You've got this, you can handle this. You don't need to get anyone else involved. This is something you should be able to deal with, just fucking focus.

The fractures deepen.

But very suddenly a shining light finds purchase behind Ryan, casting him in the blinding silhouette of fiery green. The air pressure changes again, buzzing with ozone and it becomes the gaping, open maw of a rip in space time reflected in Min-Gi's horror-wide eyes.

There isn't time to say, only to act, because pushing through the bubble like surface of the divide are the three pronged forceps of a terrifyingly familiar creature. Six of many, followed by a lifeless mask face and blazing blue eyes.

And it's not as though the steward was particularly aggressive towards them, it's the fact that thing from the train is making contact. It's making contact and it's going to pull them through isn't it- this is it he was right and Ryan is right in the way-]

Ryan!

[All processed in the split second before Min-Gi grabs Ryan as hard as he can and yanks them back into the busy road. It's too hard and too fast and his foot slips on the cobbles, so they both come tumbling down amongst passers by and clattering carriages.]

[Ryan sees Min's face before he sees what he's actually looking at, and at first he wonders if it's something he said. Maybe pointing out the crowd was a bad move? He was just trying to say anything that would get Min to relax and let him help, and then he could worry about the rest later.

But then Min's yelling his name and pulling him back into the street so fast that they both fall.]

Min, what the--?!

[But then he hears it. Dozens of tiny, unnatural click-clacks on cobblestone and a mechanical whirring that feels too familiar.

He turns, and looks, and there's the tentacle-bot from the train a few feet away.

It's looking around as if scanning the area for something - for them, obviously.

A small crowd is forming from the passerby on the street, who mostly seem unsure whether to regard it as a threat or not. Monsters have been coming out of the portals, but so have pets and other things, and their first association is that it...sort of looks like a mechanical pthumerian? They're wary, but deeply curious.

Ryan doesn't have to be told twice though. His impulse is the same as Min's. They need to get the fuck away from that thing. The fear is pounding in his ears, threatening to overwhelm him - nononono he doesn't want to get dragged back to the train no, nope!!

He tugs on Min-Gi and points silently to a space in the crowd in front of them. It's lost sight of them for a second, so if they crawl right into the crowd maybe they can get away unnoticed? Hopefully?]

Edited 2022-04-18 01:24 (UTC)

[Hopefully. They'll do their best.

Min scrabbles up off his ass and follows Ryan, dodging between horse hooves, wheels, and bystanders entranced by the newest addition to the world.

They're so close, they're so so close, but they're human. And that thing looking for them? Is anything but. It's got scanning and telemetrics and it's looking for two passengers who seem to be misplaced.

It can feel them. Their number is cleared but they shouldn't be here, this isn't a part of the train. This isn't part of it's programming at all. How strange. The signal to the engine room is routinely interrupting. Status reports are being sent but not received. Location identifiers are not present.

Process dictates completing it's retrieval.

Aha! There, crossing the street and scurrying around the corner. Targets are locked, visual and heat signatures verified.

And off it goes after them.

Please return to your seats.]

[For a beat, Ryan thinks they might actually get away without incident. They get around the corner and he stands, helping Min up to his feet as well so they can run.

But the crowd it took them so much time to cross? The steward clears it in a single, forceful hop. Trenchies dash to get out of the way of the impact, and it slinks towards them. It makes an ominous noise as its eyes glow, something that sounds almost like a fucked-up dial tone.

The magnet boots are long gone, but Ryan freezes in place anyway.

They're definitely going to die here. They're either going to die or get forcibly dragged through a wormhole - or maybe both! They apparently can't outrun the robot, and even getting to the closest lamp would probably be impossible.

The only thing he can do is cling to Min and brace himself for the worst.]

[This is it. This is the end of them. They're gonna get clobbered or abducted and there is so escape.

The robot thing bears down on them, an umbrella of cabled pincers that found them in a heartbeat.

Then all at once, every thread of shadow and darkness in the area implodes. It's as though the vacuum of space twists up from all directions, harnessed with bright, neon purple and blue lights that draw it closed like petals.

The ground glows in the same colors and bows under their weight, a wormhole opening under them.

Min-Gi is clinging to Ryan, so desperately sorry that he was being an asshole and so sorry that they're going to die and it's probably his fault. I'm sorry, I love you, I don't want to die-

But then they're gone. Swallowed with a sudden rush of vertigo.

And somewhere else. Floating but not. Existing but not. In a small but limitless galaxyscape whirling all around them before it's settles into something a little less dizzying.]

Edited 2022-04-18 03:41 (UTC)

[Ryan looks around as it's happening, but there's no time to process it before they're forcibly pulled into the ground, into a psychedelic hole that looks nothing like anything from the train.

(But...it does look a little familiar. Like mysterious lights no one could explain on stage.)

Ryan screams. He just yells and holds onto Min until the momentum is gone and it's apparent that they're just...floating, in a vast, twinkling darkness. They're...alive? Maybe? His glow has vanished since the moon can't reach him in here, but he's alive and Min's alive and it feels like they're inside a kaleidoscope.

It's beautiful, and...kind of soothing, to watch the world glisten around them.

...But then, one of their shopping bags floating nearby gently bops Ryan in the side of the face and his whole body remembers with a start that he is EXTREMELY emotionally overwhelmed right now. He pulls back, but he doesn't let go because he's just a little scared that they might drift away from each other and get lost in this void.]

Min?! Where the fuck are we?!

[They're both screaming, that's for sure.

They're screaming and then... they're... still alive?

Still clinging to Ryan, Min-Gi saw it all and is still looking around. Nothing is attacking them. There's...nothing at all besides whatever these lights are.]

I-

[His heart is thundering, anger from before vanishing for the moment. Mood stability (and coherency?) is filipendulous and swinging.]

I have no idea. Did you see what happened? Did it get us?

[He did see, but seeing didn't make it more understandable.]

No, something else happened. We got like. Pulled into a wormhole under us? There were all these bright lights and now...we're wherever this is.

[He looks up, down, and all around them. It's objectively pretty, but he has no idea where they are or how far this new cosmic place even extends. Are they still in Trench? Are they still in Deer Country?]

But...I think this might be something different? People can't actually go through the wormholes that have been turning up. [A beat, and then a muttered clarification--] That's why I wasn't like, freaking out about them...it wasn't because I didn't care.

[It's just hitting him how much that really bothered him. He does care and he wasn't being reckless like he always is. He was taking a reasonable and calculated risk, one that made sense since he didn't know Min had nearly been pulled into one. How could he have, if Min didn't tell him?]

[Through that logic, how could Min have almost been pulled into one at all?

He swishes his legs a little bit, not really enjoying the concept of aimless floating.

I wish we were standing back on the ground.

Gravity manifests all at once and they fall a good six inches. Min-Gi gives a startled noise but manages to land on his feet. Their shopping falls to the ground with a thwump. ]

That- okay that was weird.

[Ryan didn't even have the slightest idea that was coming, so he doesn't land on his feet at all. He slips as gravity returns, and falls right on his butt on the...floor? There's a floor now???

He pushes himself up on his palms quickly.]

Wh-What just happened?! Min?

[The ground doesn't feel like much in particular under his hands, and it's not very reassuring at all. Where are they?]

I said I don't know!

[But he kind of does. Weirdly. Maybe just by instinct? It doesn't matter.
Clawed or not, he leans down and offers Ryan a hand up.]

Just now I wished we were standing and now we are?

[This has to be the train. It has to be. What else could do this? Who else? His heart is still thundering in his chest, fear and anxiety in his throat.]

[Ryan takes that hand without hesitation. He's still Min, even with claws.

All of it starts to click together. The lights at the wedding performance. The fact that Min was nearly sucked into a wormhole before. Gravity seemingly responding to Min's wishes, for some reason. He wanted to be standing and then he was.

He just...boggles at Min for a second.]

...Dude. Are you doing this?

[It's not really a question. Ryan's pretty sure he's right about this one, but he wants to hear Min's take anyway.]

[The lights, the prom in their kitchen, the violet gleam in his eyes.

None of which Min-Gi has really seen, and if he has he hasn't acknowledged it. None of that stuff was him, if anything it was Ryan's powers.

He scoffs and waves it off.]

Pfff- No way. How could I? I can't do anything.

[His powers are borked. He's a dud. One more thing he isn't any good at. Another let down. Another lack of progress. The only thing he's good at is getting hurt or fucking up enough to turn into a squid.]

I've tried, remember?

[Ryan shakes his head.]

That doesn't mean anything. Half the time my powers happen by accident, or against my will and it was even worse when I first got here. Most of it isn't stuff I've tried to do, and the stuff that is? Totally doesn't work if I'm trying too hard.

[He gestures around them widely at the kaleidoscope world they're in (now with actual gravity) and then back to Min.]

Darkbloods can manipulate reality and reality is pretty freaking manipulated right now, don't you think?!

[MIN, COME ON.]

I mean...

[He looks around. It's kind of hard to refute when you're standing in the middle of it. This is definitely warped reality.]

Maybe? But it's been months and I read that your powers are supposed to manifest right away and be uncontrollable. Am I really that far behind?

Edited 2022-04-18 06:54 (UTC)

I...don't think you are, actually? I think those mystery lights from Wu and Mako's wedding were you too. They were these colors, right? And we never did figure out the rig for it...

[And it wasn't for lack of trying. None of the light set ups at the Raccoon Room had the ability to make a laser show swirl around them, and they haven't reproduced it in exactly the same way ever since.]

I just got pictures from the wedding photographer a couple days ago, actually? Sorry, I keep meaning to bring them over and forgetting them at Shiro's. [Of course he did.] But listen, you can actually see the lights in the pictures! Whatever those lights were, they showed up on camera really clearly.

[Ryan pauses, and then he laughs a little.]

This would be way more compelling if I actually had the pictures with me.

Edited 2022-04-18 07:11 (UTC)

I wish I could see them.

[He pauses for a second, having just heard the words come out of his mouth. Min-Gi looks around like he's half expecting them to just...materialize. Maybe they do, maybe right in Ryan's pocket, who knows.]

But, hold on. I thought those lights were you. Palebloods can make people hallucinate, I thought you were just totally ruling the space.

[Was it really him? Shouldn't he have, you know, felt something? Different? Do you actively feel your abilities happening? Is this...hope in his voice?]

You really think this is me?

Edited 2022-04-18 15:39 (UTC)

Luckily, I've recently become a hallucination expert!

[What a fun new way to say he suffered from hallucinations all last month!]

Think about it man. If it was a hallucination, even if everyone in the room saw it, no one could have gotten a picture of it. You can't make a camera hallucinate.

[It sounds like the kind of argument someone would make to prove ghosts are real, but Ryan is getting progressively more excited about this realization. Because it means--]

--you were totally ruling the space!

[At that moment, Min will feel something in his pants pocket that wasn't there before - an envelope, with at least three different notes stuck to it.

THE PICTURES
BRING TO MIN-GI'S
DON'T FORGET THIS TIME щ(゜ロ゜щ)]

[He isn't so sure about hallucination expert, but then again, yeah, he guesses Ryan kind of is. It makes sense, he has been dealing with them a lot and they're a part of his power set anyway. The logic tracks, you wouldn't be able to photograph a hallucination.

Man, Ryan is really smart. Was he always this smart? Min should give him more credit.

Maybe he does have powers. Maybe he does and they're standing right in the middle of them.

A weight drops in Min-Gi's pocket and he feels it. Not startled exactly, but suddenly aware. No way, no way, no way.

Carefully, because his fingers are trash weapons now apparently, he reaches in and pulls the envelope out of his pocket. (Incidentally, one of the reasons he likes these pleated slacks so much is how deep the pockets are.) This is-

Seriously?]

Is this them?

[Like they obviously are, but what what what????]

[It's definitely them. Ryan wrote those notes hoping it would make the envelope stand out more, and he'd remember to grab it before he left the house.]

Yeah! Yeah, I wanted to bring them today, but...uh. I kinda...forgot?

[He shrugs helplessly. Oops? The thought was there.]

Open it! If it's really them, they'll be in there.

[Quickly he moves to Min's side, wanting to see for himself if this darkblood magic trick really worked.]

[Yer a wizard, Min-Gi.

He opens the envelope with wonder and pulls out the stack of photographs from Wu and Mako's wedding, flipping through a few of them.

They're really good. They look like rock stars. Real rock stars.

And sure enough, around them in several of the pictures are glittering lights that match the landscape they're in right now. Which is amazing but he's still processing the fact he summoned photographs from Ryan's room. His hands are a little shaky, photos loose in them lest he damage the precious things.]

I can't believe this.

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