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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 19, 2017 0:25:21 GMT
The small town was essentially in the middle of nowhere, one small stop on the backroads that connected cities to cities. This town had the only car charging station for miles, and that still supplied gasoline along with the newer sources of power. Usually the only people who came here were truckers, farmers, people who were trying to avoid the toll roads, wanderers, and folks who were working on the sanctuary train lines. The old rails were rarely used, but workers (more commonly bots) sometimes came near for the bullet-train and freight lines that ran from the capital to the big cities in tje south. Usually things were quiet with one or two visitors a week, and no more.
Today the small town was packed with activity. Due to complications in the capital, more migrants had come in over the last three days than the town used to get in a whole year.
Sheut hated it. He had work to do as a low-level hacker and a writer for one of eden's well-established mags. Instead he'd been stuck on orientation duty. He'd just shown around an annoying group of 'house-pets' who'd been so used to city life that they'd balked at the comparative lack of tech. What no hovercars? No 3d-printers? No instantaneous take out? Even worse, the town was bursting at the seams so they had to sleep in tents and trailers? They'd been used to the easy life. Sheut was almost tempted to send them really off the grid for their griping. Yet he hadn't. The lack of tech was one of the reasons they could be here at all without pinging the system.
He climbed up the steps to the old railroad platform, taking them two at a time. He was done playing shepherd. The lanky bandage-covered humanoid leaned against a pole which held up the old station's roof. He cracked open a can of pop, which he waterfalled, crushed between his palms, and tossed towards a rusted trash bin. "Come ooon." He groaned as it missed the rim and bounced off the side instead. It was like the third time this week that he'd missed a shot. And the week was barely started yet. He could blame sanctuary. They messed up everything.
Feeling lazy, Sheut didn't bother to retrieve the can yet. Instead he looked out over the rails into rugged land beyond. It was one of those places that made it look like this was the only civilization for hundreds of miles, but there was stuff out there, mechanized production and government stuff.
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Post by 0 on Nov 25, 2017 2:51:59 GMT
Pop!
Pop!
He was dead bored.
How was he supposed to enjoy anything when there was absolutely no cause nor source of adrenaline to be found?
Where was the fun in chaos when half the population was buried in the town's only bar, and the other cozied up in their houses, and the rest of them who didn't even belong here were too busy weeping in their bags?
The lanky young man walked through what few streets the town possessed with a backpack and fingers wrapped around the black bandaged handle of a silver bat, lazily letting the object swat and swing with the flow of his arms, clanking bins and cracking bottles.
After the authorities had suddenly decided to go hot on his tail, he'd had to cut loose from the capital city.
Turned out he was far from the only one who'd been caught in their sights, and from his scarpering he stumbled upon some folks with plans.
He fell right onto a haystack ride through the countryside, jumping off as they crossed into the town.
He ambled aimlessly through the town, even through its outskirts, if one didn't consider the town a part of the wilderness.
He headed out into the rugged landscape for a couple miles before deciding there was nothing out there, spinning on his heels and returning a different way.
He crossed a dirt road over onto some old rails, the metal clinking against his soles as he stepped across the gravel, weaving his way around a crossbuck, behind a rotting shack, and then ducking under an elevated railway platform.
There was a wall on one side that caught his attention, the man peering through the gloom as he dragged his bat along the graffiti-stained concrete.
As he neared the end he withdrew his bat, pulled it over his shoulder, and then slammed it hard against one of the metal columns that held up the platform.
His arms vibrated with the bat and the column, feeling the loud bang and ring as much as he heard it that echo loudly throughout the shaded space.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 25, 2017 4:54:14 GMT
A loud sound rung out around him as the metal parts in the platform were set vibrating. He'd of had to to be deaf to not hear that wonky chord.
Damned kids.
The spindly bandage wearer turned towards the other side of the platform. He didn't have to twist far. The old station was so exposed that it couldn't have hidden much from anyone bothering to use their eyes to really see their surroundings.
It wasn't really a 'kid' but it was clearly a stranger. Probably one of the ones someone else had had the luxury to show around.
With resignation, Sheut strode over to the rusty railing on the side of the platform, to give the matter a more conversational distance. He laid his bandaged arms over the edge of the wobbly metal "So newbie."
"I guess I'm gonna call ya Racket."
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Post by 0 on Nov 26, 2017 1:29:04 GMT
He folded the bat over his shoulder, turning slightly at the sound of a voice.
His eyes rolled up, chin stuck out a little as he looked at the face leaning over from the platform above.
"Been called worse," he said without much thought, stepping halfway out from underneath the metal roof to get a better look of the guy.
His gaze trailed over the other's bandaged arms.
"Guess you're just 'Burnbaby'."
It was hard to tell whether he meant it in jest or as an insult.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 26, 2017 2:51:54 GMT
Well bandaged all of him. There was not one inch of exposed skin there. What wasn't hidden by bandages was hidden by t-shirt and shorts, and shoes, but the bandages seemed to extend well under the clothes. Sheut laughed. He did look a bit like a burn victim. "You just haven't seen beneath the wraps. burns look nicer." well that wasn't true, but there were reasons that he was all wrapped up.
"so I'm guessin you're another refugee outta the concrete jungle." had to be if he didn't know the face in this small town. "that or a space alien lookin for a ballgame."
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Post by 0 on Nov 26, 2017 5:50:36 GMT
He cracked a grin, curiosity piqued at the bare bones release of information.
Burns look nicer than what lay beneath his body wrap?
Maybe the guy was just a pile of random organs under there, or a bunch of rats stacked up on top of one another.
He was almost tempted to strike out at him and see what came of it, but, eh, no reason to go batting up the stranger.
Yet.
He took a few more steps until he was standing right at the foot of the stairs leading up to the platform, letting the bat hang from his fingertips as he leaned against a metal pole.
The young man himself looked no different from any other ordinary human who commonly ran about the capital city, if a bit messier than the usual: a skinny body donning athletic shoes with no socks, worn black jeans, hands wrapped in black bandages the same as his bat's handle, and a stained t-shirt that showed between the folds of a reddish brown jacket; lightly tanned skin dusted down with streaks of dirt and muddy patches, scruffy black hair that had begun to go oily after some time without wash, and beady brown eyes with a harsh glint just under the eyelids.
"Yeah, the last one," he said.
"I'm lookin' for the giants.
And my team," he added sullenly after a beat, "who went an' split on me."
He spat on the ground as though in disdain at this mention, rubbing the little ball of saliva into the dust with the toe of his shoe.
Then he looked back up at yonder mummy and said, "So, where's your ball field around here?"
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 26, 2017 17:05:37 GMT
"That'll be 'cross the way by the ol' school." The 'mummy' pointed out across the town, all the way towards the opposite side of town, far away from the tracks. "Problem is its kiddy sized and used for everything but a game most of the time."
"Sucks I know." This town didn't even have a true stadium or a full sized field. What a shame. Everyone was missing out unless they bothered to travel to the nearest city, and that wasn't safe.
Sheut actually didn't care much about baseball, or most sports for that matter.
Sheut hoisted himself over the rail, taking the brief drop to an easy landing on both feet. "Guess you'll have better luck elsewhere. Unless ya wanna try to find someone ya know 'n this haystack." His 'teamates' perhaps.
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Post by 0 on Nov 26, 2017 17:22:47 GMT
His gaze followed the stranger's pointing finger.
He hadn't been that way through the town yet.
"An ol' school, eh?" he said thoughtfully, watching as the man hopped over the rails and nailed the landing from the short drop.
"That happen to be abandoned?"
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 26, 2017 18:32:58 GMT
"Nah, we use it." Sheut explained.
"For town meets and events and sometimes actual ed-ju-cation."
He didn't make it sound like a normal matter of classrooms and lectures.
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Post by 0 on Nov 26, 2017 19:17:55 GMT
There was a moment of silence as he thought.
When it was through he shrugged, hooking the bat back around his shoulder as he began to walk away from the railway platform.
"No big," he said; "might work even better.
Have fun usin' the outhouse, bandages."
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 26, 2017 20:06:27 GMT
Sheut laughed. Outhouses. He didn't even need them.
He reached between his bandages around his collar bone, and pulled out a worn out dirty greyish softball from who knows how many decades ago.
How it came to Sheut's ownership was a whole nother story.
But lots of things got 'lost' beneath the wraps.
"Try not to anger any temperamental ghosts dude 'n the process dude."
He lobbed the ball at the back of the other guy's head.
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Post by 0 on Dec 1, 2017 22:19:58 GMT
He began a dismissive wave at the ghost comment when something knocked him upside the head, causing a hiss to slip out from under his breath.
One foot slid out to turn him halfway around, where during the shift his eyes fell on an old softball rolling through the dirt.
Using his foot to pop the ball up into the air and into the palm of his free hand, he looked towards the other man and said with a crooked grin, "Not very nice to throw things."
He tossed the ball once into the air before pocketing it behind his jacket.
His now whether the other liked it or not, although he loathed to think where the guy might have been storing it.
"If you wanted to play ball you coulda just asked."
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Dec 3, 2017 19:11:34 GMT
"Yeah, but yanno its more fun t' sock ya in-th' noggin." Sheut pegged 'Racket' as a guy who might be able to relate, who might poke at the borders of tolerable behavior in order to get a reaction out of peeps, if not for some legitimate gain.
Pranks could be fun.
He still didn't want to play ball tho.
"Keep the ball. Hit me up if ya ever wanta play GTA, Battlefront or skate."
Sheut had a decent collection of slightly dated videogames at his place. It'd be fun to have someone else who could play someday.
The bandaged wrapped bloke wasn't bothered by the loss of the ball. To him it had just been one thing lost in the junk he had sitting around in the dark corners of his universe.
He really should hire someone to clean up.
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Post by 0 on Dec 4, 2017 3:17:53 GMT
His muscles had tensed momentarily, a small grin poking at the corners of his lips, but all that retreated soon after, and he ended up merely shrugging.
He'd thought a fight had been coming up, but apparently not.
Fine, fine, whatever, fine; he wasn't much in the mood anyways.
He just wanted to break some shit and then probably hit up the one bar once he worked up an apetite.
"Sure," he relented, swiping a hand through the air and letting it fall to his side.
He bounced the bat on his shoulder with some manner of impatience.
"How am I supposed to find ya?"
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Post by Loner。 on Dec 7, 2017 14:26:04 GMT
He laughed. "you could ask just about any local 'bout where t' find me if yer really lookin." He was hinting at the fact that in a small town like this one everyone really did know everyone else.
"Its just a small twofer in an alley back o' the grocery. long as I don' hav'ta move"
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