Post by Mundo Kindo on Nov 9, 2021 1:00:07 GMT -6
Mundo Kindo gathers up a collection of the metal bracelets in his arms. All of them have the familiar blue glow ebbing out of its top, the single embedded crystal doing more than enough to light whatever space the already dimly lit room can’t illuminate.
Working at midnight in Viet-fucking-nam tends to have that effect on the environment.
Mundo tosses the bundle of bracelets into a nearby crate, one already filled with numerous amounts of the devices.
Mundo wipes his hands before turning around, returning to the metal table.
“I'm ready to get these devices distributed out. If you’re going to start narrating again, at least help me figure out how to beat that Magnus guy,” he says.
I roll my eyes.
Did they have Russians where you came from?
“Probably. I never tended to leave outside of the three regions, and the only place that got cold enough to justify it was either the mountain or Pryce’s area. And trust me, nobody ever went that far up the mountain.”
“So…no?”
Heather floats up from within the crate. She rests her translucent arms on its corner, holding her head against them in a facsimile of casual interest.
Her narrows narrow as she glares up at where she thinks I am.
“No, probably not. And if they were, they weren’t the kind that are here. In case you forgot, I lived nearly three years in my brother’s dimension before I was sent here and had a further two years in this one. So yes, I know what fucking Russians are and what asinine stereotypes are associated with them,” he says.
He picks up a couple of bracelets from the table, tossing them through Heather and into the box. She levitates up, keeping her legs crossed as she posts herself in Mundo’s line of sight.
“Kinda hard to be a stereotype when they’re true.”
Technically being true is what makes them the stereotype.
“The point?” Mundo asks, grabbing another couple handfuls of the bracelets in his arms.
Tough, mean, stubborn, rugged, won’t back down from a fight, and probably tougher than you think they are.
Mundo scoffs, tossing the bracelets into the crate.
“Riveting lesson there.”
“I hate to be that bitch—”
That’s a fuckin lie.
“True, but anyway, it’s gonna sound repetitive, but—”
“What, do the same shit I’ve been doing?”
Mundo picks up another couple bracelets before tossing them into the crate. He grabs the last one off the table and stuffs it into his back pocket.
“Real fucking original guys. Yeah, keep on that same train. While you’re busy dealing with that, I’m making deals with devils here that’ll make sure we have a chance of survival.”
Mundo snaps his fingers and two guards with visible bracelets on their wrists approach. Their eyes are wide, but their movements are a lot less stilted, almost as if the fight is dying out.
I grimace.
“Seal that crate up and take it to transport. If anybody tries to look into it, tell them Dukes said no,” Mundo orders.
The two men comply, and once the crate is sealed and nailed shut, they lift it up together and take it out of the isolated walled-off tent he is temporarily calling his laboratory.
Also known as his ‘safe zone.’
“Fuck you too,” Mundo says.
“Hey at least we’re confident you can win this.”
“First time for everything. Spit out your sermon already, I know you’re both dying to tell me how evil or villainous I am for daring to try to do something to help us survive. No, wait, actually, save us the fucking time. You two want to call me a villain? Great. Wonderful. Well, here’s the bad news I was waiting to drop on you.”
Mundo points to an open crate, inside which contains numerous amounts of crystals.
“I’ve been getting loads of those delivered by Conrad. Know what that tells me?”
They’re easy to get?
“They’re worthless?”
“Congratulations, you’re both right. They’re powerful when enough are used together or when used with a conduit, but alone? And with me trying to use their raw energy to power our way home? It’s like putting pennies in a vending machine and expecting a soda.”
Both Heather and I have the generosity to cringe.
“Yeah, thanks, now you see what I’m going through. Do you think I want to ingratiate myself to Conrad? Look, I won’t pretend that the idea of joining him has…merit, and that…maybe giving him the idea of mass producing these bad boys…” a point proven by taking the bracelet out of his back pocket “…in an attempt to finally get rid of the nuisance that’s Von Brandt comes off as kinda…”
“Evil?”
Villainous?
“…morally incorrect…”
Heather and I share an eyeroll as Mundo returns the bracelet.
“But! I don’t have any other options. Other people have reached this dimension like I have with no way home. There has to be another way back that we haven't though of.”
“Well use your big brain and think of one.”
“I’ve fucking tried. These crystals were our best bet, and without a conduit strong enough to power a whole city, there’s no chance it can power a portal strong enough to send us all home.”
“So what, you’re just giving up and going back to being a bad guy again?”
“I wasn’t a fucking bad guy! Nor a villain! Nor a criminal! I saved my children from the ones that were! The fuckers that would treat them like tools to be used and tossed away when they couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt! You really think forcing friendship onto them is good? Or are those that would force them to change the real bad guys? No, I saved them from that life, and they chose to remain how they were! And look at me now! Dimensions away and eons apart with no way back! How the fuck do you think I feel knowing I’ve abandoned them? Knowing how alone they are? Again! I’m not a fucking monster! I saved them from those that were!”
Heather glances to the floor, significantly cowed into silence.
“So yeah! If I had a choice, I’d get the fuck home to Johto and never look back! But we’re stuck here with no way to communicate with the other dimensions, and no way for anybody to come to us!”
…
…
…
…
…
Mundo slowly, methodically, with a sense of controlled anger, frustration, and exhaustion…crosses his arms. He tilts his mask up, using his right hand to lift it onto the top of his head. With clear, dark green eyes, he looks into the ceiling. With arms sitting in their folded position, his right eyebrow lifts.
“There was a definite pause there.”
Um…
Heather’s eyes narrow as she glances around the room, trying desperately to figure out where I am so she can probably warn me at how fucking stupid I’m being.
“No shit, genius. What are you thinking?”
Weeeeell…
“Who?” Mundo asks.
There…might…be an…entity…who could…maybe…possibly…come to this dimension…
“An entity?”
More like…two?
Heather’s eyes widen as her feet hit the ground. She stands firm as she glares at the ceiling.
“Josh.”
“Who are they?” Mundo asks.
Um—
“Don’t you fucking answer that.”
“Josh, do the mute thing.”
I really shouldn’t.
Mundo narrows his eyes and points towards a Jabberwock guard standing silently in the corner with eyes filled with rage. The bracelet on his wrist glows blue.
“Max, get over here.”
Despite fighting it, Max does approach Mundo. With his blue glowing rifle in hand, Max stands in front of Mundo.
The latter holds out his hands, and with a narrowed set of eyelids, Max hands the rifle over.
“Stay still. Do not move.”
Mundo then points the rifle at Max’s forehead.
Max’s eyes widen.
Heather’s eyes widen.
Fuck me, my eyes widen.
“If you have a fucking chance, an opportunity, any sort of way for us to get home, and for me to get back to my children, then I would fucking tell me right now, or Max gets a shot between his eyes.”
The rifle is shaking due to Mundo’s inexperience wielding it as anything more than an invention.
“Mundo what the fuck?!” Heather exclaims.
“Josh! Tell me!”
Are you seriously going to do this? Right now? With the argument we just had?
Mundo presses a button on the side. The blue light gets brighter and starts to pulse much faster. The rifle itself starts to whir, almost like an engine on a plane beginning to start up.
“I just increased its power. Tell me or Max’s brain becomes part of Vietnam’s soil. I’m not letting my babies be alone one more second! So tell me Josh!”
…
…
…
I…I look down at Heather.
For the first time in a long time I allow her the safety of knowing we’ve met eyes.
She sighs and looks to the ground.
“Tell him.”
There’s a high chance that their influence reaches this far.
“Whose?”
…The Lutece Twins.
Working at midnight in Viet-fucking-nam tends to have that effect on the environment.
Mundo tosses the bundle of bracelets into a nearby crate, one already filled with numerous amounts of the devices.
Mundo wipes his hands before turning around, returning to the metal table.
“I'm ready to get these devices distributed out. If you’re going to start narrating again, at least help me figure out how to beat that Magnus guy,” he says.
I roll my eyes.
Did they have Russians where you came from?
“Probably. I never tended to leave outside of the three regions, and the only place that got cold enough to justify it was either the mountain or Pryce’s area. And trust me, nobody ever went that far up the mountain.”
“So…no?”
Heather floats up from within the crate. She rests her translucent arms on its corner, holding her head against them in a facsimile of casual interest.
Her narrows narrow as she glares up at where she thinks I am.
“No, probably not. And if they were, they weren’t the kind that are here. In case you forgot, I lived nearly three years in my brother’s dimension before I was sent here and had a further two years in this one. So yes, I know what fucking Russians are and what asinine stereotypes are associated with them,” he says.
He picks up a couple of bracelets from the table, tossing them through Heather and into the box. She levitates up, keeping her legs crossed as she posts herself in Mundo’s line of sight.
“Kinda hard to be a stereotype when they’re true.”
Technically being true is what makes them the stereotype.
“The point?” Mundo asks, grabbing another couple handfuls of the bracelets in his arms.
Tough, mean, stubborn, rugged, won’t back down from a fight, and probably tougher than you think they are.
Mundo scoffs, tossing the bracelets into the crate.
“Riveting lesson there.”
“I hate to be that bitch—”
That’s a fuckin lie.
“True, but anyway, it’s gonna sound repetitive, but—”
“What, do the same shit I’ve been doing?”
Mundo picks up another couple bracelets before tossing them into the crate. He grabs the last one off the table and stuffs it into his back pocket.
“Real fucking original guys. Yeah, keep on that same train. While you’re busy dealing with that, I’m making deals with devils here that’ll make sure we have a chance of survival.”
Mundo snaps his fingers and two guards with visible bracelets on their wrists approach. Their eyes are wide, but their movements are a lot less stilted, almost as if the fight is dying out.
I grimace.
“Seal that crate up and take it to transport. If anybody tries to look into it, tell them Dukes said no,” Mundo orders.
The two men comply, and once the crate is sealed and nailed shut, they lift it up together and take it out of the isolated walled-off tent he is temporarily calling his laboratory.
Also known as his ‘safe zone.’
“Fuck you too,” Mundo says.
“Hey at least we’re confident you can win this.”
“First time for everything. Spit out your sermon already, I know you’re both dying to tell me how evil or villainous I am for daring to try to do something to help us survive. No, wait, actually, save us the fucking time. You two want to call me a villain? Great. Wonderful. Well, here’s the bad news I was waiting to drop on you.”
Mundo points to an open crate, inside which contains numerous amounts of crystals.
“I’ve been getting loads of those delivered by Conrad. Know what that tells me?”
They’re easy to get?
“They’re worthless?”
“Congratulations, you’re both right. They’re powerful when enough are used together or when used with a conduit, but alone? And with me trying to use their raw energy to power our way home? It’s like putting pennies in a vending machine and expecting a soda.”
Both Heather and I have the generosity to cringe.
“Yeah, thanks, now you see what I’m going through. Do you think I want to ingratiate myself to Conrad? Look, I won’t pretend that the idea of joining him has…merit, and that…maybe giving him the idea of mass producing these bad boys…” a point proven by taking the bracelet out of his back pocket “…in an attempt to finally get rid of the nuisance that’s Von Brandt comes off as kinda…”
“Evil?”
Villainous?
“…morally incorrect…”
Heather and I share an eyeroll as Mundo returns the bracelet.
“But! I don’t have any other options. Other people have reached this dimension like I have with no way home. There has to be another way back that we haven't though of.”
“Well use your big brain and think of one.”
“I’ve fucking tried. These crystals were our best bet, and without a conduit strong enough to power a whole city, there’s no chance it can power a portal strong enough to send us all home.”
“So what, you’re just giving up and going back to being a bad guy again?”
“I wasn’t a fucking bad guy! Nor a villain! Nor a criminal! I saved my children from the ones that were! The fuckers that would treat them like tools to be used and tossed away when they couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt! You really think forcing friendship onto them is good? Or are those that would force them to change the real bad guys? No, I saved them from that life, and they chose to remain how they were! And look at me now! Dimensions away and eons apart with no way back! How the fuck do you think I feel knowing I’ve abandoned them? Knowing how alone they are? Again! I’m not a fucking monster! I saved them from those that were!”
Heather glances to the floor, significantly cowed into silence.
“So yeah! If I had a choice, I’d get the fuck home to Johto and never look back! But we’re stuck here with no way to communicate with the other dimensions, and no way for anybody to come to us!”
…
…
…
…
…
Mundo slowly, methodically, with a sense of controlled anger, frustration, and exhaustion…crosses his arms. He tilts his mask up, using his right hand to lift it onto the top of his head. With clear, dark green eyes, he looks into the ceiling. With arms sitting in their folded position, his right eyebrow lifts.
“There was a definite pause there.”
Um…
Heather’s eyes narrow as she glances around the room, trying desperately to figure out where I am so she can probably warn me at how fucking stupid I’m being.
“No shit, genius. What are you thinking?”
Weeeeell…
“Who?” Mundo asks.
There…might…be an…entity…who could…maybe…possibly…come to this dimension…
“An entity?”
More like…two?
Heather’s eyes widen as her feet hit the ground. She stands firm as she glares at the ceiling.
“Josh.”
“Who are they?” Mundo asks.
Um—
“Don’t you fucking answer that.”
“Josh, do the mute thing.”
I really shouldn’t.
Mundo narrows his eyes and points towards a Jabberwock guard standing silently in the corner with eyes filled with rage. The bracelet on his wrist glows blue.
“Max, get over here.”
Despite fighting it, Max does approach Mundo. With his blue glowing rifle in hand, Max stands in front of Mundo.
The latter holds out his hands, and with a narrowed set of eyelids, Max hands the rifle over.
“Stay still. Do not move.”
Mundo then points the rifle at Max’s forehead.
Max’s eyes widen.
Heather’s eyes widen.
Fuck me, my eyes widen.
“If you have a fucking chance, an opportunity, any sort of way for us to get home, and for me to get back to my children, then I would fucking tell me right now, or Max gets a shot between his eyes.”
The rifle is shaking due to Mundo’s inexperience wielding it as anything more than an invention.
“Mundo what the fuck?!” Heather exclaims.
“Josh! Tell me!”
Are you seriously going to do this? Right now? With the argument we just had?
Mundo presses a button on the side. The blue light gets brighter and starts to pulse much faster. The rifle itself starts to whir, almost like an engine on a plane beginning to start up.
“I just increased its power. Tell me or Max’s brain becomes part of Vietnam’s soil. I’m not letting my babies be alone one more second! So tell me Josh!”
…
…
…
I…I look down at Heather.
For the first time in a long time I allow her the safety of knowing we’ve met eyes.
She sighs and looks to the ground.
“Tell him.”
There’s a high chance that their influence reaches this far.
“Whose?”
…The Lutece Twins.