unrelenting_rhapsody | You know, it's probably the carbon monoxide levels....

Entry tags:

bprd

You know, it's probably the carbon monoxide levels....

Who: Dera and Yama
When: Some time after the damn company softball game.
What: Well, and then there were Thunderbirds.

Dera leaned his head back against the overly warm metal and giggled tiredly. Yes, he giggled. It all seemed so damn stupid now. It had been a normal day after all. Yama had been stretched out in the break room after the morning workouts, and he'd been reading a book, his legs draped over his partners...granted, it was a safer book than normal, but no point in taking chances. So, yeah, a normal afternoon mingling with the other agents before getting called off to the office.

It seemed a good week for monster migration. Everyone was getting pulled, their personal assignment? Get their asses to California and tag the first pair of Thunderbirds anyone had seen in decades. Tag. Like they were fucking Bald Eagles or something.

Sure, they were endangered and sure they were awesome as fuck and all that? But tagging. For fucks sake! Their lead had suggested drugging the cattle being stolen so the birds would sleep. Simple plan. Yeah.

Except the fucking BIRDS HADN'T EATEN THE DAMN COWS. One of the pair had scooped up unripe burger and they'd flown off, they were halfway along the flight trail in tailing the pair when the damn things came back. He'd been the one to reach out and grip Yama's wrist; they couldn't kill the birds...plus a sword would be a VERY BAD IDEA with LIGHTNING BIRDS. It wasn't exactly magic, his partner's powers might not cancel out a natural ability like energy conduction.

FUCK FUCK FUCK "Kiss the dirt!" DOWN DOWN DOWN!

The birds were grabbing more cows.

THE FUCK WOULD THEY NEED MORE COWS FOR?

In hindsight he should have figured that one out; when they ran out of cows to snag they went after anything that even moved. Or after anything that had a bioeletric impulse system. He was pretty sure they sensed nerve conduction. And it kinda fucking hurt when they got picked up by giant birds and yanked upward fast enough to force a nosebleed and then blacking out.

Why did normally private creatures migrate across country borders?

Nesting.

FUCKING NESTING.

The thunderbirds were set up in the local electric company; the factory burned coal and coke if the scrubbers and smoke stacks were any indication. And more importantly there was always a dim layer of smog before the tops of the exhaust vents were visible. The birds were practically invisible in their chosen heights. They had pulled the top scrubber out of one stack and were stuffing cows (and agents) down in the space between the main cycler and the outer steel plating. Apparently babies preferred their meat smoked. He came to with his head stuffed at an awkward angle under Yama's arm, his chin bearing the brunt of his weight since most of his body was wedged above his damn chin and against Yama....and cow. Well then. He was kind of grateful he hadn't broken his damn neck in the drop?

The birds were sitting at the top of the smoke pipe. They were blocking smoke release.

And CO2 release.

And that was probably why he giggled helplessly once he managed to wiggle off his damn chin. "Shiiiiiit....this can kill us!" Carbon Monoxide poisoning was not a dignified way to go really.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If he sat still long enough, Yamamoto was going to end up sprawling on him, sort of like a creeping vine. A really cuddly creeping vine. When he spoke, it was a little wistful, as if they were talking about one of the more pleasant mythical critters they'd encountered. "When was the last time we got a vacation?"

Yeah, well, as long as Yamamoto didn't mind him wiggling over enough to stick a radio outside the hole in the smoke stack to hopefully get a signal he was good with it? "Well, by law we fucking earned days off, it says so on our paychecks and shit." JUST SAYING!

"And we tried, remember that lake?"

Naw, he was used to having a pillow that moved around a lot. Gokudera was squirmy at the best of times. "I don't know if the law was thinking about giant birds and stuff when it made that one."

"Oh... oh yeah. Don't remind me."

Hey, if he was absorbed in reading something he didn't wiggle! He was very still when his brain was properly engaged! "Hah, one fucking bar," he grinned, triumphant as the radio started squawking. Granted, it had to be out the hole and they weren't, but the fuckers knew Morse right? Right.

"Just saying we have had a vacation, technically, in the past few years. Due another though. No lakes."

If he was engaged in reading, though, half the time Yamamoto had fallen asleep, so he wasn't awake to appreciate it. "Maybe a lake, as long as there's nothing living in it. Think there's anything nasty in the Dead Sea?"

Well, that's what he got for having a power he didn't need to actually pay attention to! "Probably, remember that report of the disappearing, reappearing temple?" IT WAS POSSIBLE!

With their luck.

"Disneyland?"

But he was so well-rested those days!

He tipped his head back to eye Gokudera. "You want to go to Disneyland?"

Yeah, well, Yama sleeping well was also up there on Dera's priority list so hey.

"Fuck, not really? I could look at their hydroponics centers at Epcot, and some movie stuff? Mainly it's a main thoroughfare, heavily populated with humans which tends to discourage the beasties and ghoulies and shit."

That one, they could agree on. He didn't exactly sleep on missions, after all, so he had to make it up somewhere.

"That's Disney World, not Disneyland. That many people, there's bound to be a discontent spirit or two, though." He frowned. "I hate ghosts." They were so... not solid. "Hey, there was that one mountain spirit that kinda liked us. We could go visit her."

See? He had every right to make it a priority!

"Fuck if I care which one," Dera snorted. "And neither of us are mediums, they aren't likely to peg us among the however many thousands tend to go through the fucking place." JUST SAYING!

Huh, the mountain spirit huh? "Not a bad idea, but you remember how twitchy her domain is, we could get locked there for decades if someone chops a tree while we're visiting."

"With our luck?" They practically had supernatural bullseyes painted on them, from all the weird situations they ran into.

He was quiet perhaps a handful of seconds too long, considering that. "...Would that really be bad?"

"Yours is better than mine," he noted. "And I promise not to open any rifts while being bored in line?" THEY COULD TRY!

Oh. Huh. He was serious about that huh? "I'd get bored," he pointed out a touch regretfully. "And you'd get married or her Tengu would kill us both."

"Ha! Can you imagine some little kid's face if one of those frog things popped out?" Maybe they could dress it up, pretend it's a movie character or something.

He'd been nearly eaten (twice) by a giant, angry bird. You rethought some things when that happened. He'd get over it, though. He always did. "Yeah, guess you're right." ... "Maybe Disney wouldn't be so bad. They've got one in Tokyo, too. At least we're used to all the monsters and stuff there."

"Maybe we should look at that fucking Hawaii retreat Disney does? Snorkeling could be fun, and you could show them up in sushi." Totally. He had faith in his partner! And hey, while Disney was plastering Atlantis symbols on things near safe dives they might actually find something interesting!

"Not saying we can't go see the mountain spirit...I just want a way out that doesn't rely on me getting out through a hole and blasting the mountain open to get you. That would hurt her."

"...Snorkeling in a tropical ocean?" That didn't seem like a bad idea to him? He'd been the one that had forbidden anymore biting, after all.

He sighed, reaching back to poke Gokudera's stomach. "Already said you're right. Ha, maybe the bad air in here's blocking your ears or something."

"Sue me I kinda assume you can beat the shit out of any fish we encounter." Because Yama was a fish predator, yup. Top of the line, above the shark in food chain predator!

"No, I heard you," he admitted, catching Yama's wrist in amusement, "I just really do like her. Which is weird for me, think it's one of her abilities? But going to see ehr some time wouldn't be a bad idea, just...yeah, damn whammied brain."

"What about monster whales? Whales aren't fish." Now he was just being a brat. Oh well.

He wiggled his fingers, letting Gokudera keep the wrist if he really wanted. "Gokudera liking someone? That is weird." Mood officially gone. Points to Gokudera on that one.

"I'd be more likely to put my money on angry volcano gods," he admitted, "maybe we could just barricade ourselves in our room for a week and call it a vacation?" Except they'd go stir crazy. Being them was hard sometimes.

And, well, it was his wrist now thank you very much! "Totally fucking weird, your social is fucking rubbing off on me!"

So stir crazy. Did Gokudera really want to be in a small, enclosed space with Yamamoto for that long? Without exercise or near-death adrenaline rushes to clear off energy?

"Naw, that's not possible. I'm good, but I can't do miracles."

No, not really. He'd start opening portals and pulling in frogs just so Yama had something to kill after a day or two! It was part of the care and feeding of the sword master and all!

"Allow me my fucking delusions and shit," he snorted. "But fine, I'm not social."

Just think of the mess that would leave, too! They'd have to move and just tear the carpet up. Talk about never getting a security deposit back, they'd be lucky if they didn't have to pay extra.

"Nope." And maybe he sounded just a smidge proud of that. "More for me."

Eh, it was company property anyway, so it wasn't like they had to answer to an apartment company anyway!

"...more what?" Because that could go SO MANY ways there. "Should I be fucking jealous of the social and actually try to take some back?"

More Gokudera, of course, but Yamamoto just laughed. "Ha! I don't know, should you be?"

He actually stretched his legs across Yama's and leaned back on the metal wall of the hole, the picture of ease as he thought that over, finally, "nah. That'd be fucking pointless and I'd burn out trying to fucking compete in that area. If the social gets too out of hand I"ll just start fucking reading in your lap in public and shit. I'm good at tuning people out!" Or more public than the rec room anyway!

They were obviously both still a little loopy, but he didn't mind at all. Gokudera was fun when he was having a weird moment. "You gonna go back to trying to convince the librarians to let you check all that stuff out?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject