MINGLE TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT

[these_balls]

Who: ANYONE AND EVERYONE
Where: ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE
When: November 25 - 27
Summary: GET IN HERE AND MINGLE
Rating: BUT PLEASE MARK YOUR THREAD CONTENT ACCORDINGLY
Log:

Comments

[justlikehim]

[...Yep, that's Mr. Blake alright.

Shaun sets the eggs he's holding carefully down on the ground. Guess it is that time of year, isn't it.

Weirder things have happened. When he stands back up, he's grinning a little in a playful 'I know something you don't know' way.]

I'd say you do. It's me, Shaun.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Right when he says it, Blake pinpoints the familiarity.]

[The guy looks like a younger Ethan Mars.]

[Blake shakes his head hard.]

Like hell you are. Shaun Mars is a little kid. If you're gonna try to impersonate somebody, do your damn research.

[justlikehim]

[Shaun expected this. How could he not. So he does about the only thing he can to prove it - pulls out his pokegear and a single, well-used pokeball. The former he flips open first, booting up his trainer card and turning it around to show Blake.

Shaun Mars
DOB 1-19-2001
Trainer Since 1-21-2013

The little display in the corner happily showed 11-25-2028 as the current date.]

You're a lot younger than last time I saw you, old man.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake takes the gear right out of his hand for a closer look. His eyes widen in disbelief.] No fuckin' way.

[The numbers don't change.]

[he grumbles as he looks] I'm not old.

[Blake glances from the screen to the man calling himself Shaun Mars a few times.]

You're telling me you're from the future.

[justlikehim]

[Shaun lets the man take his 'Gear - an action that his child self would never allow from the lieutenant. But 15 years is a long time.]

You're telling me that this is the weirdest thing to happen?

[Now that the 'Gear's not in his hands, he rolls the pokeball between his hands.]

Do you believe me, or do I have to wake Susie up from her nap to prove it?

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake pushes the phone back toward him.] Sure, I seen weird. But not time-travel weird.

[He thinks of a flaw in the logic.]

You can't be him. You don't hate me enough.

[justlikehim]

I have. But I guess I've been here a lot longer than you have.

[Ouch. Shaun winces at that remark.]

Fifteen years is a long time, Mr. Blake.

I quit hating you around the time I got taller than you. You look like less of a boogeyman from up here.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[He echoes] I do, huh.

[He's not familiar with hating as something people stop doing.]

[Blake keeps staring. His eyes keep getting caught up on how he can see the kid's face there in the scruffy young man's.]

Jesus Christ. It's really you.

[justlikehim]

[Shaun doesn't know what to make of the steady eye contact or the intense scrutiny from the older man. The Blake he knows is pushing sixty and is reaching the point where fucks have pretty much ceased to be given.

He smiles.]

Yeah it is, Mr. Blake. Nice to see you, too.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Blake's eyes stay wary. This is real, real weird.]

Huh. That's something I'd figure it'd take a lot longer than 15 years to hear from you.

And after all that time, we're both still stuck here?

[justlikehim]

[From this, Shaun can ascertain that Carter is still experienced with the littlest Shaun - the one who hated his guts inside and out.

Come to think of it, wherever little-him is at that second, this might be around the same time that he started to question if Blake was truly a lord of darkness and emissary of Satan.]

Sure are. Don't get me wrong, I've grown up here. It's hard to find a better place for a kid to grow up.

[He rubs the back of his neck.]

But I haven't seen home in fifteen years. I don't even think my mom would recognize me anymore.

[lieutenantantichrist]

[Plenty of people never question that. He doesn't usually give them much reason to.]

[If he's telling the truth and this is really Shaun Mars...what would anybody lie about that for? And this place does plenty of strange-ass things, time travel would be right in its wheelhouse. If this is really Shaun Mars, that means that someday he stops hating him.]

[Weird what a relief that is. Blake thought he'd long since given up giving a damn what anybody thought about him.]

Yeah, it's all pretty much made for kids, huh.

[He shakes his head.] Fifteen years. Christ. I don't know how you don't lose your mind.

[justlikehim]

[Yeah to be fair it's not exactly a thought that only Shaun has ever managed to have.

He chuckles when Mr. Blake remarks about how he's retained his sanity for so long.]

You keep it together pretty well yourself, if it's any consolation.

Mostly you spend a lot of time shaking your cane at the whippersnappers and telling them to get off your lawn.

[That was a joke. Mostly. Or was it?]

[lieutenantantichrist]

Good to know. Nothing like having a time traveler come vouch for keeping your feet on the ground.

[Blake is unaware that his scowl makes him look exactly like a cranky old man.] You're fulla crap.

[A bit of curiosity nips at him. While he's got somebody claiming to be from the future around here, he might as well ask. Just to humor him.]

What about Norman? Is he still around too?

[If he somehow managed to get back home and Blake was still stuck here, he'd be all kinds of pissed.]