strike_you_out | seventeen | but when we start making fires we can't have a soul

[ phone | filtered from: drones ]

Are there any flamethrowers in Mayfield? How do I get one?

Unrelated, someone who has killed their target and is willing to talk, I have a question...

[ filtered to: Pokey ]

Pokey.

...

Pokey?

[ action | Slugger never thought he'd see the day when he would have to use the gift Susan had given him at Christmastime. The surface of the wooden bat was still polished and smooth. He never thought he'd lose his real bat again, either, along with everything else the town had restored to him. Or perhaps the security of having his powers had gone to his head and he simply hadn't wanted to think about other possibilities. Now, with nothing left---not even his golden bat, he wishes he'd thought of it more. Better preparation could have served him well, but for the time being, he'll have to depend on improvisation.]

(A) Backyard at Home; 726 Anderson
[A gunshot rings out from behind the house. Minimal investigation will lead you to find Slugger standing in the yard with his back to the house and a revolver aimed to the ground. On his face is a sheepish look, eyebrows raised and cheeks puffed out. Somewhere, there's a bullet embedded in the dirt.]

(B) A Range of Accessible Public Buildings (school, hospital, dime store, etc.)
[A single swing of his bat shatters the glass casing around a fire extinguisher. Slugger, wearing a protective baseball helmet and an identity-concealing cloth over the lower portion of his face, bolts toward the nearest exit with the extinguisher under his arm. However, there is no indication of a fire in sight.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I gathered. Had he been more ruthless, I wouldn't have stalled as long as I did.

Slugger, if you think you're learning to use a gonne to defend me, I'm touched. And a bit concerned. But the last time someone tried that, I ended up shot and killed instead, and it all would've gone much better if we had used a little more sense and a little less habitual stupidity. Aside from which, the man who had me down as a target is already dead.

[Those are details Slugger didn't know about, but nevertheless, he isn't going to back down.]

People are assigned new targets once they've killed the first. That's how it works. You're still a target.

[Slugger looks down at the weapon in his hands. Maybe if she knew how to use it, she wouldn't be so afraid of it. She's certainly not against killing in self defense.]

I didn't get it to defend you. I got it so you could defend yourself.

That's a bit bothersome. How do you know?

[Susan frowns slightly. The town would be reshuffling names around, then. But how could it work? People were being killed at different times, and not everyone even intended to carry out their murders. It wouldn't be an efficient process at all. ...Aside from doing it in that manner, but if that were so. ...Was it worth thinking about?]

Slugger, even if I knew how to use one, I wouldn't. It's... too easy. Too effortless. Do you understand? Particularly for me.

Someone who's killed their target told me. His reward was a regain and a new target.

[Her second remark catches him off guard and no matter how hard he squinches his eyebrows together, it still fails to become clear. After a moment's thought, he shakes his head. Effortless should be a good thing, shouldn't it? Especially for someone who is newly mortal.]

...I don't understand.

...

Have I ever spoken of my world to you? Not enough, I'm sure. In many ways, the Disc is similar to the Roundworld. The people aren't any different, somewhat unfortunately. But... everything is so much... more.

There's only ever been one gonne created in the Disc - Leonard of Quirm decided it would be a splendid project to work on, of course, being who he was. Upon completion, the ruler of our city immediately ordered it to be destroyed. No one listened, of course, and a lot of mess had to be cleaned up as a result. More than a simple weapon, a gonne is... power. Complete power, such that Death himself doesn't dare to touch. In the hands of a human being, greater atrocities have been committed than due to any other impetus in the history of the Disc.

I know what you're thinking. I don't have any fear of the gonne. But I can't conscientiously use one. It wouldn't be... right.

I get it, but you're "human", now.

[Already he knows this argument will not hold up against her. Sighing, he can only hope that she hides Edward's pistol like she said she would and arms herself with something else. But if she won't allow him to arm her with a gun, he can at least arm her with a warning.]

...Edward's acting strange.

Everything's normal, then.

[The quips are too easy, but Susan's excessively casual remark betrays her eagerness to change the subject. Not that this one was any more comfortable. She will pause for a few moments before continuing.]

...Slugger?

If anything happens, I want you to head towards Grandfather's. You'll be safer with him. I don't think he's participating in this game.

[Hopefully she isn't too surprised when her quip is met with an eyeroll. Welcome to life with a pubescent boy. She will receive no committing answer to the second statement.]

...

In the study, it's locked inside the desk. The key is in the second drawer on the left.

Right. I'll see what I can do about tossing it down the nearest well.

Oh -- And put that thing away before you shoot your eye out.

seventeen | but when we start making fires we can't have a soul

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