The no good, very bad day...part 2.

[basic_powers]

[OOM: Dear Journal,

I didn't get any doors to Milliways today, or for the past week, and man I really wish I could have gotten Usagi or Ray's help with what happened today.

I'm too tired to write more about it...I just wanna take a bath and go to bed...]


'Beauford Tannen' left the grounds this morning after a quick calender check and won't be back for a while.

This evening, a very tired looking young boy walks into the bar rubbing one arm tiredly before he looks up and realizes where he is.

One second after that he's looking for any familiar faces to talk to.

It's been a long two days.

Comments

[hecu_marine]

Well, there's one. Shephard stomped into Milliways after he finished his hunting today, and he's not going home until he really has to. He glances up from where he's going over his copy of Robert Ruark's memoirs and waves. "Yo, Tyler," he calls out. "How's it goin'?"

[basic_powers]

From the way he's holding his right arm, and that absolutely dog-ass tired expression on his face.

"...bad."

He doesn't feel like lying right now.

[hecu_marine]

Shephard thinks for a moment, then puts the book aside. "C'mon," he says. "Outside. We gon' take care of that."

What's going on he doesn't know, but he knows when something isn't gonna work in front of witnesses.

[basic_powers]

Tyler nods, looking up at Shephard a moment before following him outside in his pajamas. He doesn't even know where to begin with all of this, and he's trying to remember if he told Shephard about what his world is like.

But he does trust him, so maybe it's well past time to tell the whole story.

[hecu_marine]

Once they're outside far enough, Shephard says, "Okay. You c'n talk if you want, or you c'n come on over to the heavy bag and beat the shit out of it, or you c'n just cut loose'n scream your lungs out. Looks like any of 'em'll do you good near as I can tell."

And it's not like he hasn't seen all three options deployed for dealing with hell stress in the past.

[basic_powers]

For a moment Tyler looks at Shephard again, and then at the heavy bag before taking a deep breath. For now, for all intents, the bag is Charles Brigman.

It's not suprise that Tyler just about launches himself at it.

"Why did you do that?? WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO USE YOUR POWERS TO HURT PEOPLE?! WHY DID YOU THINK THAT TELEPORTING EVERYONE YOU DIDN'T LIKE ABOVE THE LAKE WAS GONNA MAKE YOU WIN?!"

[hecu_marine]

Oh, boy, it's gonna be one of those.

Shep's just going to position himself to hold the bag in place so Tyler doesn't get hit by the thing's recoil or anything.

[basic_powers]

"YOU HURT HAROLD AND USED HIM AND EVERYONE ELSE!" Whump! Whumpwhump!

Some of those kicks are pretty well aimed. Whoever set this off...they really pissed on someone.

At somepoint though, the screams just become less coherent, and some of the time it's dog barks and snarls leaving that boy's mouth just as easily as the words.

[hecu_marine]

That's kinda new. Shephard's going to have to ask about that once Tyler tuckers himself out.

Beats the kind of language he'd be using in Tyler's shoes, though. Kid shouldn't be talking the way Shephard does at his age. Let the dog noises come out first.

[basic_powers]

It doesn't take long, sustaining that kind of beserker rage takes a lot of effort. And Tyler came in just after two days of AUGH.
Eventually it all boils back down to punches and kicks, and when he hits with his right hook hard enough to yelp..he backs down to hold his sore arm and snuffle a bit, shaking.

It's dim enough that Shephard probably can't see the boy crying with frustration, but... not like he needs to see it to know it's happening.

[hecu_marine]

Yeah, no. Shep's just gonna put a hand on the kid's shoulder here, mm'kay? Kid's ten and he just exploded like a man twice his age. He's entitled.

[basic_powers]

He's almost ten. But somedays, he's got the mental maturity of someone about where Adrian's guessing.

It's another moment before Tyler starts getting his breath back and wiping off all the snot and tears from his face to look up at Adrian.

"...can I have an Ovaltine?"

[hecu_marine]

"Yeah, sure," says Shephard. "You, uh... here."

He makes a point of carrying something on the order of a hanky with him when he goes out hunting, since blowing your nose on your shirtsleeve's a great way to screw things up when you're trying to stay inobtrusive in a tree stand.

"Use that as much as you need'n then we'll git you that Ovaltine, mm'kay?"

[basic_powers]

"'Kay." Tyler replies back quietly, blowing his nose and wiping off his face with the cloth, and blowing his nose a couple of times to clear it.

"...thank you."

[hecu_marine]

"Y'welcome," says Shephard gruffly. "Ain't like there ain't times I want to do as much myself. You sure you gon' be okay for now?"

[basic_powers]

"For now..."

Then it's taking a deep breath.

"I don't think I told you about my world at all...and I know I'm going to need Ovaltine for that."

[hecu_marine]

Shephard nods. "No problem," he says, and starts heading back to the Bar. "I c'n listen. I got pretty much all day."

He may take the precaution of getting graham crackers and some marshmallows or something like that along with the Ovaltine; he dimly remembers those being an old favorite when he was a kid.

[basic_powers]

Tyler's quiet for the entire walk back, and he does brighten up a little when Adrian comes back with the big Ovaltine mug, and a little plate of peanut butter and banana graham cracker sandwiches.

Bar knows this kid all too well. It's a couple of gulps of Ovaltine before he starts talking.

"...okay...my world is one where superheroes, the kind like are in comics in your world and some others are completely real, and real people."

[hecu_marine]

"Huh," says Shephard. "Okay, that's... that why you was barkin' some back there? You got some kind of dog powers or somethin'?"

What? It makes as much sense as anything else.

[basic_powers]

...One sec, Tyler's just going to put his face to the table and take one deeeeeeep breath.

"..no, no I learned how to speak dog from Uncle Ray in here. It's handy." Another deep breath before he looks up again at Adrian. "I don't have any superpowers at all. Both my mom and my dad do though, and they sent me to this school with other kids who do have powers because they thought it'd trigger any powers I might have that would be just under the surface."

"...and I kinda don't like talking about that cause 4 times out of five, the first thing people ask me after finding out either about my parents or my world is 'what's your superpower'."

So very little of his world makes sense.

[hecu_marine]

"Oh. Huh." Shephard shakes his head. "Shit, kid, sorry I brought it up then. I, uh... I got an idea what it's like when folks start assumin' shit 'bout you based on where you come from."

[basic_powers]

Tyler just nods along with that. It's the same thing and kind of not so much the same thing.

"I also kinda didn't tell you cause I liked...just pretending things were normal for a while here." He's entitled to that much. "...I kinda owe you more of and explanation after the punching bag though."

[hecu_marine]

"Ain't a problem," Shephard says. "Take your time about it. I'm listening."

And he's pretty good with the Ovaltine he got himself. Not like he can get that at home.

[basic_powers]

It's a few pb and banana graham sammiches before Tyler starts where he thinks is the best place to begin.

"The really big stuff started happening yesterday at school...but it started with smaller stuff before that. Before I started coming here to the Bar. See, towards the end of first grade I caught a fifth grader stealing a whole bunch of snacks from the supermarket, and the clerk kicked him out of the store. After that Charles Brigman always made it a point to pick on me or beat me up, or have either of his goon-headed friends do it for him." Slurp. "The school has two parts, the superkid side where everyone gets special training, and the normal kid side where no one knows about the superkid school. Charles was part of the normal-kid side, and one day after I had been showing the new kid around the school he decided it'd be funny to pick on me and Malphast for a third time that day..and Malphast got mad at that, and did some spell that took Malphast, me, Charles, Cecil, and a bunch of other kids to some parallel place so Charles'd get judged by Order and Chaos in a game of four-square. Malphast managed to win, but only cause Charles violated his own 'no powers in play' rule...by teleporting. And because Charles lost, Order and Chaos wiped the memories of everyone there except for me and Malphast. That's the first small part that happened."

[hecu_marine]

"... four-square."

He's pretty sure he followed the other parts all right, but that's the bit he wants to be sure of.