I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-07-11 21:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | jake chambers, kyle rayner |
i_throwplates in my mind's eye [Kyle]
"Oy! Stop!"
Jake didn't have the time to wonder if it was something inherent in the billy-bumbler. Some genetic trait leftover from the part of him that was canine.
"Come back here!"
Maybe it was some kind of racial memory. Or maybe, somewhere in Mid-world, there were some smaller versions of the cougars they had seen in the Callah that had prompted Oy's reaction.
"Oy!"
He didn't have time to wonder these things. Because as soon as Oy had spotted the orange tabby, the bumbler's mind had been dead-set on one thing: catching it.
So Jake had chased, and was trying to catch the billy-bumbler with both hands and mind, using a fairly uncommon approach. But the bumbler stopped short, his mind going strangely blank, and Jake saw it through Oy's eyes before his own.
The Tower.
His breath caught in his throat and he almost fell over, trying to move around the man who was standing in the way. Part of his mind registered that the frame was too small, that it was only a painting, but the part of him that knew (Tower! Key! Rose!) thought that maybe, just maybe, this could be a door. Like the one that had brought Eddie and Susannah to Roland, like the one Eddie had used to draw Jake himself.
Can'-Ka No Rey. A place he had only seen in his dreams, but a place he knew intimately. A red field, so deep a red that it took a moment, and a skilled eye, to realize that the red was not blood, but a field of roses. And there, standing in the center, with brick of dark, not-quite-black ash and soot, was the Dark Tower.
Jake was helpless to stop himself. One hand reached out, moving towards the door -- (the canvas? the DOOR) -- and his feet moved him closer.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/11/2006 18:42:16
It was a nice day out and Kyle had decided to enjoy it. Granted, that didn't take much effort on his part, just a trip down the stairs outside of his apartment which let to the coffee shop below it. He didn't even have to present an order to the owner behind the counter. The other man saw the art supplies in Kyle's hands and immediately whipped him up a strong cup of coffee with plenty of milk and sugar.
Though Kyle added about five more packets of thr stuff after he got set up outside. He couldn't help it, he liked his caffine tasting like candy.
His assignment for the afternoon was for an advertisement for some product which he didn't particually care about, but the paper owned it and they wanted the advert, so he'd been coming up with ideas. On the white paper already was a sort of tower-castle hybrid. It was black, only because he was experimenting with black and white negative space. He figured originality would be key here.
Kyle stopped for a second, propping the canvas up between his lap and the table edge and examining the work. Not horrible, not amazing either. It needed something else in all that negative space.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/11/2006 18:59:42
"Roses," came Jake's voice, sounding distant to him. "Can'-Ka No Rey."
He took another step, hand nearly brushing the canvas, before his eyes rolled back and Jake crumpled to the ground.
The field stretched on for miles, climbing a gentle slope of land, and standing at the horizon was the Dark Tower. It was a pillar of dumb stone rising so high into the sky that he could barely discern its tip. Its base, surrounded by red, shouting roses, was formidable, titanic with weight and size, yet the Tower became oddly graceful as it rose and tapered. The stone of which it had been made was not black, as he had imagined it would be, but soot-colored. Narrow, slitted windows marched about it in a rising spiral; below the windows ran an almost endless flight of stone stairs, circling up and up. The Tower was a dark grey exclaimation point planted in the earth and rising above the field of blood-red roses. The sky arched above it was blue, but filled with puffy white clouds like sailing ships. They flowed above and around the top of the Dark Tower in an endless stream.
As the boy fell, the billy-bumbler was shaken out of his own trance. "Ake! Ake!" Oy barked, making frantic noises.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/11/2006 19:14:22
Kyle had just picked up his ink brush again when he heard the strange voice behind him. It actually wasn't much of a voice. He wasn't sure what to think it was until he put the brush back in the bottle of ink and turned around.
"Shit." Was the first word out of his mouth when he saw the small boy laying on the ground behind him. He barely noticed the strangeness of the dog's bark.
He switched into semi-hero mood, getting up from his table and bending over aside the fallen boy. Kyle reached out, checking for breathing and a pulse, both of which were present. That was good at least. "Hey. Hey, kid." He shook him slightly. Couldn't blame him really, Kyle was anything but a trained EMT.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/11/2006 19:23:43
How beautiful! Jake marvelled. How beautiful and strange! But his feelings of joy and triumph had departed; he was left with a sense of deep malaise and impending doom. He looked about him and realized with sudden horror that he was standing in the shadow of the Tower. No, not just standing in it; buried alive in it.
Jake drew in a breath to cry out, eyes opening as he did, and he pulled back, sharply, instinctively, from the man standing over him. Oy bounded onto his chest and bared his teeth at the stranger, hackles rising. "Wh... huh?"
From: i_imagine Date: 07/11/2006 19:47:10
What the weird little rodent looking thing was, Kyle did not know. But it had some sharp looking teeth and apparently wanted him nowhere near the fainted boy.
Kyle glanced around quickly, thanking his lucky stars that he was the only one out on the small patio. Green glowed for a brief moment creating a nice green box for the odd looking raccoon-dog cross breed... thing. Whatever it was. Kyle just didn't want it biting him. He floated the box to the side of the boy.
That done and his immediate skin out of danger, he turned back to the boy and looked as normal as possible. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you."
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/11/2006 20:04:03
Jake blinked, and stared at the green box that was holding Oy. It didn't seem to be hurting the bumbler, but...
One of Jake's hands slipped into his satchel, gripping a plate warily, despite the guy's words. "Did you...? Oy?"
Oy was decidedly confused, and clawing in vain at the box that held him, whimpering. "Ake! Ake-ake, Oy!"
Jake put a hand to his head, trying to remember the vision of the roses while putting it out of mind enough to calm Oy. He looked at the guy instead. "Tell him that," Jake answered, pointing at Oy. "He's the one who thinks otherwise."
From: i_imagine Date: 07/11/2006 20:17:03
Kyle was not telling the raccoon-dog anything. Not until he was sure the kid was alright and the animal didn't have rabies of any sort. It sure didn't sound like any animal he'd heard before and that enough was cause of worry.
Sometimes supervillians liked to mutate things. Every hero had to know that.
"You should sit up," he said to the kid, keeping one eye on the box and its occupant. It would hold. "What happened? Do you want some water or something?"
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/11/2006 20:26:05
Try telling an eleven-year-old kid that his best friend in the world is a mutation. Well, in this particular case, Jake was pretty well aware that billy-bumblers were probably the result of mutation, but still! That was Oy!
"I'm fine," he said, rolling onto his knees. "I just saw the roses, and I..." Jake risked a glance to the easel, and stopped. "The... roses?"
It was just a tower. A black tower. Not The Tower. And a white space where there should have been a field of roses. "Can'-Ka No Rey," he said, in voice thick with disappointment.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 09:01:39
"The roses?" There were no roses out on the patio, as Frank the owner had opted for the easier to care for Germaniums and Mums and they were all in pots surrounding the windows and door.
Kyle didn't understand the language Jake was speaking, whatever it was. It was nothing he'd ever heard spoken before. "No roses, kid. You must've tripped over something."
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 09:03:55
Jake shook his head, realizing he'd spoken aloud. "No.. just dreaming."
"Ake!" The billy-bumbler whimpered again.
Jake looked at the box, and then back at the man. "Did you do that?" he said.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 13:50:31
"No," Kyle said immediately. He pushed himself up off of the ground and held out his hand (the hand sans ring) to the boy to help him up as well. "What's your name?"
With a quick wave of the hand behind his back the green box disappeared, but only once he was backed away far enough from the little rodent.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 14:39:23
The man had done it, but now that Kyle had dropped it (for the knowledge of both the power ring and the man's name came to mind, unbidden), Jake just held out his own hand and shook the one being offered, giving his usual greeting. "Jake Chambers of New York."
Oy shook himself off and sidestepped his way beside Jake. With another shake that ruffled his fur, he sat down and barked his name. "Oy."
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 14:48:58
"Kyle Rayner, also of New York," Kyle said with a small grin, playing along with whatever the boy's game was. He'd just passed out on the side walk, so Kyle was willing to cut him some speech slack.
He shook Jake's hand, and glanced at the dog once again. The dog-thing that apparently spoke. Or, just didn't bark.
"Are you sure you don't need something to drink? Frank'll get you some water if you need it," Kyle said, gesturing to the table that he'd been sitting at. "You can sit down. "
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 16:13:10
Oy barked. Jake looked down at him. "Ake!" the bumbler said. "Ake! Ile! Oy!"
Jake nodded, and gestured to the billy-bumbler. "That's Oy. He's sorry for growling at you, but he was worried about me." At least, that's what he was picking up from Oy.
At the offer, Jake shook his head. "No... I should get home. Babs and Roland will be wondering where I am."
He glanced back at the painting, almost helpless not too. "That's... really good. But there's a field at the base of the tower. A field of roses. And the bricks of the tower aren't quite black. But almost."
Other than that, it was damn near right.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 16:43:00
"Oy," Kyle repeated. It made sense, he guessed, that the dog was barking his name, even is it completely wasn't a normal dog. Or sound. "It's alright, no harm done. Cute, um... what is that?"
He couldn't help but ask. He'd lived in New York his entire life and had seen some pretty odd looking animals, but not this.
Looking back to the advertisment he'd been working on, Kyle grinned at the comment, humoring the kid again. "I'm technically not supposed to use any color other than white and black. But... roses? Where're you getting that from?" Another thought occurred to him. "And, home. You need a ride to meet your friends? Just in case you get sick again..."
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 16:47:19
"Place I saw once." He didn't mention that it had been in his dream.
He drew the focus of the conversation back on Oy. "He's a billy-bumbler. From Mid-World. Different kind of place." A sigh. "Very different."
Furrowing his brow, Jake glanced at Kyle. "You're from New York, too? When? I mean, what year?"
Sure, the question probably sounded a bit crazy, but in this City, only the natives seemed to think everything was peachy-keen.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 17:33:00
It was a crazy question, but crazy was the norm here, Kyle was beginning to figure out.
"2001," he answered. "You?"
Jake wasn't the only person he'd met so far from New York, but this one was talking about things that sounded vaguely science-fiction like, which Kyle appreciated generally, but it did get kind of weird when it invaded every single facet of your life.
Said the guy who regularly spoke to little blue alien men.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 18:11:00
"1977." He kneeled and picked up Oy, running his fingers through the fine, soft fur. "At least, that's when I left. But I've been to 1999, and I've got fam-- friends from 1967 and 1985. And now from 2006."
He laughed suddenly, a light and boyish laugh. "This place is pretty crazy, huh?"
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 18:43:25
"Definitely," Kyle agreed with a grin. Cute kid. "Probably one of the crazier places I've been, and I've seen some places." Alien worlds and the like, you know. Kyle hadn't seen many, but the two or three he had were quite enough, thank you very much.
Kyle looked back over at his painting and supplies. He picked up his coffee before flipping the folder with his things closed shut. "You live far from here?" Jake was a small kid, looked ten at the most and he was wearing a little school uniform. Prime target for either further passing out or just getting jumped from the other kids walking home.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/12/2006 18:53:28
"Um. Another eight or ten blocks, depending on the streets. Why?"
He glanced at the way Kyle was packing up his things, and remembered his saying something a moment earlier about a ride home. "Oh. I don't need a ride. Really."
Kyle'd probably tell Babs that he'd fallen, and then she'd worry, and he'd have to explain that no, he wasn't going insane again, and get treated like a kid for a few more days before people settled down again.
From: i_imagine Date: 07/12/2006 19:53:00
"It's alright," Kyle said, grabbing his folder and ink. He was used to sitting out here and used to having to get up suddenly for various reasons. Usually for hero duty, but walking this kid home sort of qualified as that. Didn't they say that crossing guards were a certain kind of hero?
Or something like that.
Kyle stuck his supplies in between one of the windows and the ceramic Mum pot, knowing that Frank would grab it for him if it started to rain. He did keep his coffee though, the caffine was kind of necessary.
"So you live down in the residential area?" That was new. So far all the people Kyle had met lived in the City proper.
From: i_throwplates Date: 07/16/2006 17:33:23
Jake nodded, realizing that he no longer had any way in whether or not Kyle was going to see him home. "Yeah. Just... don't tell my friend that I fell, okay? She worries."
Especially when she'd probably think he was going crazy again.