towerofanimus | 9th pokéball [closed]

Entry tags:

9th pokéball [closed]

Characters: John Egbert and Dave Strider, both of the Pokémon variety
Setting: meadow first then the mirror maze
Format: prose
Summary: John decides to test one of the rumors he heard and drags Dave along because that's what best friends are for.
Warnings: They're both going to die but not in a particularly gruesome fashion

When the writing first started to appear on the wall, John thought it was pretty fucking weird. But what was even weirder was the fact that he actully found himself believing what he read. Though...then again, poisonous plants in the cafeteria food could be a legitimate concern. Especially with all the flowers in the food this month. The tower being attacked by a whale though? Now that's just silly.

And yet he believed it. Worse yet, upon seeing that some people had been changing the rumors, he had decided to be a part of the moment as well. Rubber chickens were far more harmless (and also funnier) than a giant flying whale, right? This basically made him a prankstery hero...except for the part where he'd accidentally almost made it worse. And the cut down his right forearm dangerous giant chickens are attacking the tower. wasn't letting him forget that any time soon. If he had known about that particular side effect, he might not have raised his pen so quickly. In any case, he hadn't tried changing any rumors since that day. In fact, he had spent two days trying NOT to look at the walls.

That had worked well until one caught his eye on the 21st floor as he made his way down towards the library. Reflections in mirrors are living, separate entities? Haha what? Yeah sure, ok-- no he totally believes it. Though instead of filling him with a sense of foreboding, all it does is make John curious. Probably because there's nothing innately sinister about the way the rumor is worded. Sure, they could be murderous reflections, but they could just as easily be funny copycats or something. He's getting kind of bored of his retrieval unit so why not head up to the mirror maze and knock out two birds with one stone? He can test the rumor AND pull his usual clone stunt with Michael J. to send his unit trailing after the wrong John.

Turning around, John heads back up the way he just came and heads for the forty-ninth floor. He stops on the twenty-fifth instead. Because he'd either managed to miss Dave on his way down or the other boy had only just arrived at one of his usual haunts. But whatever the case, surely Dave would want to check this out too, right? But instead of acting like a normal human being and approaching Dave to ask him to come along, John stays on the stairs and shouts at him."

"Hey, Dave!! Stop whatever it is you're doing, I just read something that we totally have to go check out. For science or something, get your dumb butt over here!"

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Any normal human being would tell John he's being crazy. Dave just puts his right hand back down on the ground, rebalancing himself from his practice with keeping balance and drops back down onto his feet. Then he vanishes in a blur of movement, suddenly at John's side with his hands in his pockets.

In the time he's been in the tower, he's not only reclaimed his former mastery over a sword but improved his speed and reflexes a bit. "And naturally you can't tell me what it is until we go look. To get that full effect you have to keep it in suspense. Come on, let's go."

And that's perfectly fine because normal human beings are overrated and John would pick Dave as his best friend over Joe Smith the Normal Guy every day of the week. And even some days of the week that don't exist.

Once Dave appears at his side, John starts moving up the stairs again, clearly not wanting to waste any time.

"Naturally. Though I can sort of hint at it to build up the suspense as we go. Because we have like thirty floors to go and who wants to walk in silence? That being said: you've seen the writing on the walls by now, yeah?"

"Yeah I've seen it. It's all crazy talk that makes no sense at all." He sticks his hands into his pockets and follows John up the stairs. They can talk and chat as they go. "But some of it seems to be true. Like the poisoned food thing." Which had been really stupid and painful. Hard to say if it will end this month or just keep going. Because it would be just like this place to make them play 'is it poisoned bingo'.

"I know, right? I kinda wonder what's causing all this. I've seen a few people changing them but somehow I don't think any one person actually started this." It's probably Riki fucking with them or something. It's his month in charge, right? Has to be Riki.

"Anyway, I saw an interesting one a few floors down and I kinda want to see what it's all about. The wording was just vague enough to be enticing and it didn't involve poisonous plants or giant space whales."

"And you trust it to not end in our brutal murders." It seems like everything in this tower can kill them. He puts as much skeptical cynicism into his tone as feasibly possible. John is after all, the brainac who thought strapping a rocket pack to his back and blasting off was smart.

Dave pauses on the stairs to really ponder what could be vague and enticing yet it seems to boil down to movies and tv screens then slimer eating them alive. He catches back up with a sigh.

Well, at least it wouldn't be a boring demise.

"Well when you put it like that..." And now John's stopping to think for a moment as well. "I guess I don't really trust anything this tower does. But if it looks like it's going to end badly we can just run like hell, am I right?"

With a shrug, he starts climbing the stairs again. "Of course, if you are really that worried we will be brutally murdered you don't have to come with me."

But when he puts it like that, with the vaguest of implications that Dave might be a chicken, is he really going to refuse? John's pretty sure the answer is no.

When John puts it like that Dave just squares his shoulders and trots after him. Now he can't back out. Whether they die in some unspeakable way where they'll never be able to mention it, or something really stupid, he's in it for the long haul. "Like I'd let you die alone. What kind of bro do you take me for??" He bounds up a few steps to catch up to his best friend so he can walk side by side with him.

"Besides if you need to run like hell you want someone a bit faster than you are to help you escape, right? Right. So keep talking. What is this vague thing."

Aaaaand bingo. Exactly as planned, he knew there was no way Dave would be able to resist that hook. Mostly because if the situation were reversed, it totally would have worked on him.

One day they'll learn.

"It involves mirrors, hence why we are headed to the forty ninth floor. I figured that would be the best place to test it."

And in actuality, it's the exact opposite of that. Completely unaware of the true nature of the rumor, John has no idea just how badly heading to the mirror maze will screw them. After all, it's one thing to be faced with only one set of murderous reflection doppelgangers. Had they headed up to the bathrooms, they probably could have escaped no problem.

But when there are enemies on all sides...

"I can't remember what's on that floor besides mirrors." He has no idea what the rumor is or he'd have smacked John upside the head. But died anyway. Pride really is the downfall of man. "Keep going, what does it involve besides mirrors?" All he can think of is that old bloody mary crap that people used to play at parties for laughs.

Which isn't so funny right now. He can just picture their lifeless bodies with their eyewear broken and blood staining the floor from the numerous stab wounds. Man, do eyes repair themselves if you die with them gouged out and revive? He's not precisely sure he wants to know. It's probably true that they do. He has been crushed to death in the cogs of his smaller alternate self.

This can't be worse than that.

"That's it, that's all that's there. Just mirrors. Which is what makes it the perfect place to check this out. Plus it'll confuse the crap out of my little buddy whenever it eventually ends up catching back up to me."

He jerks his head over his shoulder. He's clearly referring to his retrieval unit stalker though it's nowhere to be seen at the moment. Though there is the faint sound of footsteps on stairs maybe a floor or so beneath them.

"Anyway, it doesn't have anything to do with Bloody Mary. But alright, I will spoil the secret for you entirely because I'm out of vague hints and it's not going to take us that much longer to get up there. Supposedly, according to this rumor, our reflections are alive. That's all it said. Vague, right?"

~~Curiouser and curiouser.~~

For a second, he thinks 'little buddy' means something else and he's about to tell John that he probably confuses his flesh porpoise by calling it 'little buddy' in the first place. His trap shuts before the insult can be given life and he keeps walking while letting everything sink in. No bloody mary, good. Living reflections...

....

Processing.

....

.........

"Huh. Yeah it kinda is and I don't think you could kill me even if you did have a hammer." His reflection on the other hand. Well, that is a bit of a problem.

He doesn't even bother to consider the fact that every mirror would have living reflections. "What so they just hang out in the mirror and stare you like those creepy ghosts pressing their faces against the glass?"

Or maybe they just reach out and murder you. Which he thought of before, but nah. That would be dumb.

John shrugs. "No idea, that's why I want to go check it out. Who knows if it's even true or not. Because it seems like there are a bunch of duds mixed in with the real ones."

Or more like, not enough people believed in them...

"How many are duds?" It's a legit question. If there's a certain average, they could survive. He is just optimistic enough to think maybe, it will be a dud. Maybe.

"I don't know, it's kind of impossible to tell. I read on earlier about a whale and at the time I was absolutely convinced it was true but looking back on it now I feel a little silly. Because there aren't any whales attacking the tower so it obviously wasn't true but..." He trails off. He still can't reall explain why he was so sure that one was actually happening. "The fact that new ones keep popping up all the time and people keep changing them aren't really helping either." He pauses briefly before realizing that, hey, now would be a good time to mention something.

"Though on that note, if you do decide to change one? There are consequences so don't just do it for shit and giggle's sake."

Don't be dumb like he was, Dave. Don't learn the hard way.

He would have learned the hard way but he just didn't care enough because it was all dumb shit. Or so he believed. "So what happened when you decided to mess with them?" He's not a moron and can put two and two together really fast. Plus.

It's John. He speaks from experience when he says 'don't do it'.

"Uh...well." Though he doesn't stop walking, he lifts his right arm and pulls back the sleeve of his over-shirt, revealing a series of peculiar scabs. They appear to be a few days old, and the cuts that caused them were fairly deep. They will almost certainly leave scars when it's all said and done.

But that's not what's weird about them. What's weird about them is that, in John's own handwriting, they form the words 'dangerous giant chickens are attacking the tower.' Once Dave has a good enough chance to look at it, John pulls his sleeve back down.

"For the record though, that isn't what I wrote. The tower changed it for whatever reason after I wrote it. I can only assume it's because what-slash-whoever is doing this has no sense of humor at all. A downpour of rubber chickens is way funnier than a giant whale."

Dangerous chickens are attacking the tower. That's so ridiculous that he can't even dignify it with an answer. Dave notes how old it is, and tries to think of any way to prevent that from scarring. All of the things he was taught and what's available....there's no way. Well that sucks. "You know how this tower operates. If it isn't causing suffering, it don't want to deal with it."

Geeze. Some people just don't have a sense of humor. Though he's inwardly glad he didn't alter the tentacle monster rumor like he thought to do.

Edited 2013-05-27 20:26 (UTC)

Really, who COULD say anything about that? Even John has to admit that in retrospect, it's utterly ridiculous. But he's not about to kill himself just to make the scar go away.

"Yeah, yeah. In hindsight, I should have figured something bad would happen. But who expects writing on a wall to backfire like this, you know?"

"No one does. Not like I blame you. I was going to correct the tentacle one then decided not to bother." It probably would be engraved into his skin 'there's a tentacle monster in the tower writing wizard porn'. As funny as the new rumor would have been, having it on his body would not be.

Rose would never let him live it down. "Wait. What about whales??"

John laughs. "Were you really? Oh my god, it's a good thing you didn't but it would have been funny if you did. It would have completed a cycle." Though JOhn doesn't even have knowledge of the full cycle.

"Originally it was something about a new and more dangerous whale attacking the tower which just seemed ridiculous but also worrisome so I changed to to something even more ridiculous but also harmless. Only it backfired. Then later, Rose came by and changed it to the thing about the tentacles. We had a good laugh about it that night."

And compared scars. Such a romantic evening.

Edited 2013-05-27 22:48 (UTC)

He can't help but laugh at that. Yeah, they'd have all been sporting some really dumb scars if he had. "That explains the lack of face attacking dangerous chickens." Dave is glad to hear Rose is doing a little better. Sometimes he wishes he could be close by.

But then he remembers the feel of his blade sinking into human skin and parting it with such ease. The blood had welled up and spilled around it. The look of shock on his best friend's face...

That's when he wanders the halls looking for some monster to take down. Anything. To make up for what had happened.

"Ahaha, yup. Though I can only assume that that one was a dud or somebody else changed it after she did because there is a distinct lack of frisky flagella around here."
By now, they've almost reached their destination. Just another floor or so to go.

"Not that I am complaining about that in the slightest."

Another floor to go, and he's laughing again. "Better than if she wrote some of her wizard porn on the walls." Or the pokemon porn she threatened to write once. He's so glad she didn't. So glad.

"Not that I'm complaining about the lack of dubious waggling monsters." That would be such a bad way to go. Worse than being churned up by gears and he has personal experience with that.

"Shhhh, she'll hear you!" He glances around the stairwell in an exaggerated manner, as though Rose could pop out of the wall at any second. Which she doesn't, to nobody's surprise.

"Don't give her any more ideas, I don't want to see gay wizards getting it on the middle of the hallways or something."

That would just be terrible and awkward for probably everybody except Rose who we all know would just be laughing maniacally.

"You say that like she wouldn't get the idea on her own. Hate to break it to you John, but while you sleep the abyss she calls her mind is churning up new horrors to let loose." He sighs as he shakes his head like that cop saying, 'stand back this isn't for the faint hearted' as he leads the poor husband away from the murder scene.

He doesn't want to think about porn in the halls. Nope. Not even just words or tetris pieces getting it on. "So how much further is it?"

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