saveourearth | ROAD TRIP (Backdated Log)

Walter rolls his eyes.

"It wasn't so much looking as listening, anyhow. And I'll leave my bike over here," he adds.

"That should be reason enough for me to come back. That, and you're still over here, and I'm certain I'll still remember you, Echoes or no."

He hasn't started walking yet, however.

Edited 2018-12-27 01:44 (UTC)

"Look, listen, same difference."

Russell rolls his eyes right back. It's getting to be an eyerolling competition, if only because it distracts from the nervousness of actually crossing that unseen barrier.

"If it can take away that many years, you might get startled by how old you are."

He shifts back and forth on his feet, a little too antsy to stand still, and glances sidelong at Walter.

"...Can't help noticing you're still over here, thought. Second thoughts?"

"Haa, haa."

Turning abruptly to face parallel to the road again, he says, "Don't tempt me," then starts trying to focus on absolutely anything else as he walks - the Boundary wasn't a shield, he shouldn't expect to see any glow, what if a satellite were passing ahead of them right now, could it detect anything, what if he'd done the math wrong and he never reached it, what if something like Zeno's paradoxes occurred and he never got there-

He tripped, eyes widening and mind suddenly blank. Face first in the dirt in... where was he? What time was it? And why on Earth...

"Whoa!" Russell takes a couple rushed steps forward, then stops himself before risking both of them crossing. "You alright, there?"

Seeing Walter fall over like that was a surprise, and not one he'd had any reason to anticipate. Back around that bomb scare he asked Stone if crossing the barrier did anything that made flying a plane dangerous, and the man had said no...

But then, that was months and months ago. Things might have changed, with the sheer amount of time that these changes have happened over. Sitting on a bus or train into London's not the same thing as walking and losing oneself.

Well, it's not as if he's forgotten how to walk, right? This isn't even rough forest terrain, he has no excuse.

Whatever, then; Walter does his best to shake it off - he's spent so much time covering up the physically evident traces of his enhanced speed that from Russell's point of view there should be almost no visible difference.

He does still end up almost clocking himself in the head, though.

"Yeah, I am... Russell...?"

He starts to make his way back to the familiar face - and his bike, why in the world did he leave it just lying there, surely that's what the kickstand's for? - then stops.

"Did you talk me into a long ride, or did I talk you into it? Can't imagine why we'd come this way sightseeing."

His head's a muddle of confusion right now, and he doesn't like it.

"Hold on, don't come all the way over."

Russell holds a hand up, and reaches for his phone, which he navigates one-handed to open the video recording function and start it.

"We came here to test something... Supposed to take turns... You really don't remember anything?"

He shakes his head, because Walter doesn't look different, but it's obvious that Walter's disoriented. Just falling over like that, and sounding so confused.

"How, uh, do you feel?"

... They didn't come all this way just to prank each other, did they? Somehow that strikes Walter as too juvenile for the two of them.

"No. The events of- gods, not just today, the past six months? - are all sort of, vague."

His frown is intensifying as he starts really trying to go back through his memories. Everything seems somehow both clear and... empty?

"Nothing's bruised or broken. Didn't inhale any dirt."

Baseline health check, something familiar.

"Why are you recording this?"

"So you're alright, but everything connected to the strangeness isn't there..."

Russell whistles a drawn out surprise, the camera jostling around in his hand.

"I want to watch this when I'm on the other side of it. See if I remember this conversation. If you don't even remember planning to come here..."

Well, it's like Stone in the plane, forgetting why he was in the air. So it's not just the changes, not just the network, but the decisions they make connected to those things.

"Is 'strangeness' the only word you've got to describe this? Not that it's inaccurate," Walter verbally backspaced, still blinking a little in the early-morning light.

"... Are you done yet?" And yes, there was a definitive, human-normative pause before that sentence. No sign he was making a conscious effort to add that space.

"I'm not just recording you," Russell complains, and pointedly turns the phone around so it's panned on himself. It's going to make for a wobbly video, but that's fine, he also wants his own reactions recorded.

Right now he's making a face, because he's just realized another odd thing - something about the way Walter's talking. There's nothing strange about it. It takes Russell a moment to notice why that's strange, but this morning, the last few months, even a few minutes ago, there was something different about his flatmate's cadence. And now that's gone, and Walter's back to talking the same as he has since whenever they first met.

"It... It's more than strange, it's insane. What would you say if I told you..."

He hesitates, mumbles to himself: "I don't know if you can even see the network right now, what could I show you... OH."

"Would you believe me if I told you, I can make bones appear out of thin air?"

Russell waits, not yet summoning any, because he wants to know what Walter's reaction to that question will be. Whether it'll sound vaguely familiar, or a complete non sequitur, or just something insane.

Sometimes the most anomalous thing is normalcy; it had certainly seemed that way to Walter when his family started settling in in London, anyway.

And Walter just stares at Russell, dumbfounded.

"I'd think someone had sold you a tall tale, that's what. And you didn't answer my first question, either."

About the bike ride, though he'd take confirmation that he could walk back over, too, for what it was worth. What was he missing?

"Uh." What was the first question, again.

"Why we're here...? We're here for this. To find out if we really can't remember, outside the... radius. Of the strangeness."

If he can't decide on a better word for it, he might as well double down on reusing the same one.

"It's not a story someone told me, it's... It's real. If you walk over here, next to me, you'd remember. small>I think."

"Oh, so it's bound by geography now."

Great.

"Well, show me first, then?"

Because, actually making shit happen? Not just talking about it convincingly and cutting you off from anyone who could show you different?That would immediately put Russell on a different level from what Walter grew up with.

Defensively, Russell grumbles, "I'm not making the rules, we hardly know what they are."

He holds his hands in front of himself, focuses for a second. And without any magician's flourishes or hints of threads or smoke or other distractions, a full humerus - a little larger than life size for a human - drops from the air into his waiting hands.

"There. Believe me?"

Though, if Walter can't remember everything to do with the alien memories and powers and changes...

"...You can see it, right?"

And Walter just stares, his jaw dropping noticeably before he closes it with more force than is probably necessary. ~~Web~~Mind, officially blown.

"Ye-e-es," he overenunciates. He steps forward, very hesitant, then stops moving again.

"... And you're sure I should be coming back? You did say something about taking your own turn."

At least now the staring isn't Walter staring at him like he's making everything up, that's an improvement.

"I... don't know what else you wanted to test... But, I know I want to know if you'll remember right."

If Walter comes back with big gaps in his memory, maybe Russell will give up on this. Or make the decision to break his mum's heart and move out of the Mossgate region altogether. One or the other.

"Uh. And we should have spotters, just in case." As if this is a matter of getting high on something new.

To amuse himself while waiting for Walter to decide what to do now, Russell tosses the bone in the direction of the boundary - not quite at Walter, but near him. It fades in the air as it goes, disappearing before it ever hits the ground, and he blinks and stares after it.

Walter squares his shoulders - at this point, he wants to know what he's somehow forgotten.

After balking a moment at the mention of spotters, and following the bone thrown only to literally dissolve what on Earth-, he heads right back over.

The enormity of, well, everything coming back to him almost bowls him over again; within even just one second its as if the world is crashing over him, and he stumbles forward wanting for something to grasp.

He's left gasping, all memories (and inability to forget them) restored, and he blinks his eyes repeatedly as he takes stock.

"How big of a fool would you rate how I looked just now, on a scale of one to, oh, infinity?" he asks, after waiting a full minute - a minute! - to be sure that everything (disturbing or distressing as it may be) is still his.

He can remember not remembering, and if that's not a mind screw, he's not sure what is!

It's a long minute of staring at his flatmate as he stumbles again on the return - will the boundary feel solid, or something? Is it just disorientation - because if it's that bad, he won't be driving himself out any time soon. And most of all... does he remember anything?

Finally, Walter talks, and it reassures that he at least remembers enough.

"Oh, you can rate that for yourself," Russell says brightly and helpfully, waggling his phone. It's still recording, even if the visual's going to be terrible from all the moving around. "I missed the start of it, but it should be enough..."

But, teasing aside, there's an important question to ask before he takes his own turn.

"Do you think you remember everything now?"

It's the disorientation, thankfully - Walter keeps checking over his memories, even the ones he doesn't want to look at, finally forcing himself back in the ever-changing now.

With a wry face, he walks the rest of the way over to grab the phone from Russell.

"I'll keep it recording for your turn, then. You don't have the other phone with you, do you? Probably don't want to take that out of the Boundary."

What if it dissolved like the bone had? More likely, it'd just not turn back on, but still...

"And yes. Emphasis on the everything."

Though there weren't any inexplicable new memories, either ~~or sudden meta knowledge~~, not that he minded.

"...Right, then."

Whether or not Walter's admitted to how much he remembers these days, it's hard for Russell to know if that comment implies it's a good thing or bad thing. So there's not much to say in reply to that, and he just passes the ordinary phone over.

"...No, I didn't take it with, didn't want to risk dropping in the dark." Russell sighs, looking out towards the invisible boundary where the bone had disappeared, and carefully steps towards it. "Just as well, I never guessed what else might happen to it."

Phone acquired, Walter backs up to where his bike is still on the ground, and gestures openly with his free arm for Russell to go on ahead.

"Exactly. At least we can't disappear upon walking through."

Though who knew if that, too, could change? A disturbing thought.

With that unwelcome thought, it's as good a time to rush out - and forget this whole conversation happening. Hopefully all the amnesia conversation will be enough to forget it altogether, even after.

He squints at his surroundings as he steps, still trying in vain to find some sign of the impending loss of the network, but there's nothing. Well, nothing besides a bit of the skid in the dirt and grass, where Walter slipped. Russell steps right by it, bracing himself, and he

He...

He's wavering out of a braced stance, standing on the side of the road, the sky barely lit up, with no idea how he got here.

"What...?"

"Russell?"

Holding one hand up, Walter waves - and keeps the hand with the phone at waist level. Not tilted, just so it won't distract his already-clearly-confused flatmate.

"How are you feeling? I know it's early, but I promise this isn't a prank."

Russell turns at the sound, trying to get the speaker in front of him, and backs up a few steps before he recognizes his flatmate. It takes a second, in the dim light.

"What?" he repeats, looking around. He's still struggling to remember how he got here, distracted enough not to register the question.

"Walter? Did someone knock me out and drive me off in their trunk? Where..."

There's a few scattered buildings around, and the road looks familiar but only somewhat - like he's driven it plenty of times, but not frequently enough to recognize anything but the landmarks.

"No, you drove yourself, and I rode my bike here," Walter explains, gesturing with his still-free hand to Russell's scooter.

"Do you remember... anything, about today? Or, say, anything in detail since June fourteenth?"

Yes, he is being specific about the date - Russell is free to needle him about it, for certain!

XDD I do not know enough YGO to be properly amused by the image, alas.

TL;DR, numb child soldier... underground adoption by the dreemurrs = huge improvement for her

;;

yeah, exactly. She'd get loving family, they'd get a (also kinda abused) kid who wouldn't buttercups

weh. ;a;

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\o/

☠

Bless whatever that emote is.

it's a crossbones - are you getting an error square?

No, I can see it fine.

then that's what it is: celebratory(?) bones

Yay!? =D

probably!

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my best guess where they are: https://tinyurl.com/yc4l9jn9

The shack-ish building made me laugh. XD