Jim Chatterjeee (superdweeb) wrote in at_the_gates, @ 2012-02-21 12:08:00 |
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Entry tags: | !plot: london burning, jim chatterjeee |
WHO: Jim Chatterjeee and Not a Horse.
WHAT: A bad couple of days takes a turn for the bizarre.
WHEN: Afternoon on Day Two.
WHERE: Streets of London.
He wasn’t afraid. That was the strangest bit.
The first night there had been screaming- more screaming than he’d thought possible from people whose faces had twisted while their broken fingers grabbed. He hadn’t been able to breathe since it happened. Whatever this was. But he still wasn’t afraid. Not when he had the cape, better than the one he’d made himself, billowed out in bright red against a changing skyline. The costume was a seamless second skin and his bracelet buzzed. He hadn’t put the disguise on that day but there it had been when he needed it. Like, well, Magic. No time to think about how or why though. Not when he had to be-
Grabbing the little boy whose mother had been hitting herself with the fire poker, beating the local blokes who decided now was the best time to make gremlins in their basement, his arm was hurt (broken? Don’t have time for it to be broken-) sometime when a gargoyle or two crunched at it with stone teeth, and each moment was met not with cheers for the conquering hero but another scream, another crisis, another reason to keep moving.
This was, he’d wanted this? No, he wanted to help- he wanted someone to need him- he wanted to matter. Not the smell of fire making it’s way through the oils of human skin and explaining to people much too small why they needed to stay at the hospital alone. Jim had gotten used to the grab and go fights of alleys but not this. Someone had taken his fantasies and tossed them in the garbage disposal to be grinded up with the rest.
He really should have called home more. In the before. If there’s an after. Definitely. But the pain shot up his arm and someone else cried out— no time to be Chatterjeee yet. Except this scream didn’t sound like someone facing their fears and failing. More like a—
Was that a horse? A horse right there in the square. What? It was so ordinary as to be an eye sore all over again. Maybe it escaped from a circus in the panic. Or some little girl had a mental break. There was a kid right there, the one who screamed, she didn’t seem to notice the people in panic but she’d ran for it all the same. The horse didn’t seem upset or even confused either but just stood there like it was the most natural thing in the world to be eating flowers out of a box in a busy London street.
Jim reached out his good arm and started slowly towards the horse. Maybe it would help to just get the thing over to the side where it wouldn’t run into trouble. Heroism isn’t just for humans. Would almost count as easy after the days he’s had. He tried to blink himself awake, focus on the ground, don’t spook the horse, all that television cowboy stuff. Or maybe that was sharks you weren't supposed to look at. Or angry blonde employers. Finally he took another look to make sure—
Not a horse. Nope. Not a horse. The opposite of a horse. No. Still pretty horse like, yeah. Of course it wasn’t that simple. That would be kind. That would be reasonable. That would probably not involve touching a unicorn with a blood stained horn. Jim took a large step back and tried to remember when this wasn’t his life. It had been duller then. “Right. Unicorn?”
The unicorn didn’t stir, which Jim took as a good sign. Wasn’t one of those intelligent things. Just a horse with a horn. He went forward again. “I’m going to pull you over here, yeah? And then we’re going to just relax. Because you’re a unicorn.” A pause. “Not gonna ride you so just forget that.”
It nuzzled him affectionately before he got it to a safer area. Just weird. He left it there but it ran faster; cutting him off like a puppy playing games. Didn’t wag it’s tail or anything but it did seem full of energy. Happy. For the rest of the day he’d fight, because that was who he was, and this unicorn would just follow him about. Back and forth.
Surreal.
He blamed this week, this new reality where Magic didn't sit in shadows but bounced into the light, but more than anything he blamed the cape. Only reason he wanted to think of for why a unicorn would bother him.