I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2005-12-13 11:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | jesse custer, john wayne, stephen strange |
i_seekgod Released (Open to anyone!)
Ah the taste of freedom. Sweet fresh air. Glorious beautiful day. Night. He realized it was night. The hospital had deemed him fit and healthy at some point during the afternoon. Discharge had taken a few hours, it seemed. He'd given them an address somewhere in Texas, to send the bill. More than likely, they'd get that mail back. Some time ago, he'd stopped hearing the gunfire. Or he was just used to hearing it now, and it didn't register as anything strange anymore.
As soon as Jesse stepped outside, he lit up a cigarette.
The delicious tobacco gave him a slight head rush on the first drag. A sure sign that it'd been entirely too long since his last smoke. The nicotine filled his lungs and his eyes involuntarily rolled back in his head. This is why he smoked. Moments like this. Remembering the flavor and the feeling. Ah. Beautiful.
A shadowy figure fell across him and spilled onto the ground at his feet. Jesse's smoke haloed it's head. The shadow smoke moved with the breath of the form. he didn't turn to see who it was, he already knew.
"What now, Pilgrim?" The voice itself was a swagger. The tone that could only belong to one man.
"Now what? I guess it's time to explore. I arrived here, or was sent here, for a reason." Jesse turned now and looked on the face of his childhood hero.
"And that fella, that Saint?" Thumbs hung in a gun belt. Hip canted. Hat forward.
"I don't know if he's here. I don't know if he even can be. But I suspect we'll find out sooner rather than later if he is. " Jesse enjoyed another drag before speaking again and turning to look at the dark city. "Don't think I'll just sit around and wait for him to show. Didi made the city seem pretty interesting, and I think I'd like to take a look around."
He could hear the shifting of spurs when the Duke moved. "Well then, what's first?"
"First. I need a drink." Jesse put his hands into the pockets of his jeans and realized then just what a mess he looked. "Maybe first I need to find some new clothes." He chuckled and shook his head. "No. Definitely a drink first."
It was a matter of trusting instinct and following the suggestions that came from Genesis that got Jesse to a bar. And before long, he'd settled in with a bourbon. The drink warmed his insides and let him have some time with his thoughts.
Already he was finding himself too comfortable. Too willing to stay here and forget what it was he was looking for. From what he could tell, the city wasn't the normal sort. There was something absolutely alive about it.
Every city has a pulse, but this one seemed to breathe.
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/14/2005 18:13:57
Well a man who was not comfortable with the city. Who was not pleased with its peculiar pulsing and breathing and -- well, more like hacking, really. Who felt that its entire existence was creeping towards something far more drastic and more evil than he could have imagined -- not that he was one to exaggerate -- was the new resident magic-wielder, Dr. Strange.
The gunshots from earlier had cemented in him the idea that this was a place to be wary of. Perhaps he was taking it too personally. Afterall, he hadn't asked to be sent there. And he wasn't entirely sure that he could even do anything to help people there. Not that he'd seen many people as it was. But it pushed forward his desire to be the proverbial 'helping hand'. Something he'd been doing for most of his life.
Which was why he was on one of his astral patrols. Hovering in a purplish-opaque appearance down the streets near the hospital. Maybe it was because he knew that if anyone needed immediate help, they'd be around the vicinity of the medical building. Or more than likely it was just his familiarity with such places.
Either way. There he was. Passing over the ground with a long draping cloak, looking quite misplaced and --
He paused. Curiosity drawn to the windows of the bar located just across the street from the hospital, overlit by a dim and blinking neon light. Odd, perhaps, to the normal viewer. But it brought back to Strange memories of how many times he wished the hospital he had worked at had a place to throw back the drinks nearby.
His reasoning for passing through the doorway and into the little place was simple. Aside from Death, whom he couldn't really consider a person, not in the actual sense of the word, he had yet to run across anyone in that city. So it was half curiosity, half desperate need to know that he wasn't just going crazy in some alternate dimension.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/15/2005 17:59:54
Jesse's gaze settled on something he hadn't expected to see, but he didn't have to wonder what it was. Genesis whispered at him that it was an astral... something. Jesse waved away the voice before he could fully understand what was going on.
He watched the purple figure curiously, a cigarette hanging from his mouth, and his drink in hand. He leaned an elbow on the bar top and sat back.
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/15/2005 18:24:08
Strange glanced over at the man at the bar with a wary suspicion. Well, he supposed it shouldn't have surprised him so much to see someone else. That was what he'd been looking for after all. Another entity. Human, preferably. And from appearances this guy seemed to fit the bill.
Yes. And astral something-or-other. No worries, he'd heard that one before. And he would hear it again. Undoubtedly.
The Eye that hovered over his chest began to sparkle a goldish hue, popping little planetesque bubbles around his physique.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/15/2005 18:57:40
Jesse smirked. That was awfully impressive.
"So, Sparkly. Are you going to sit, or are you just going to hover there?"
He turned back to the bartender and motioned for another drink. As soon as it was given to him, he slid it over to the empty seat next to him. Everybody could use a good strong drink now and again.
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/15/2005 19:06:13
Sure, everyone could use a strong drink provided that they were actually in the room. Unfortunately Strange was in a trance-like state of meditation on the other side of the city.
"I can't actually sit."
But he could hover his way on over to the chair and give an illusion of sitting. Which was really him looking like he was stuck partly between the seat and the air.
"Are you a resident of this place? The city, that is. Been here long?"
That was Strange for you. Always getting right to the point.
He gave the bartender a funny look. The man didn't seem too phased by a purple glowing figure.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/15/2005 22:05:28
"Not rightly." Jesse said. "I sort of fell in. Haven't been here long, and most of what time I have been here has been spent in a hospital bed. Not really what you'd call residence."
He eyed the purple man. "So why not get yourself into a way that you can sit, and come have a sit. Landlord here might not be unused to talking to folk like you, but I'm a touch new to this whole supernatural hoopla. Having only recently met the lovely Death. Beside, what good can it do ya if you can't enjoy a good whiskey?"
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/15/2005 22:26:32
"I'm not really in the position to make myself tangible. I'm too far away. This would be a long walk. And I'm pretty sure you would have finished both our drinks before I made it halfway here. So I'll have to raincheck this time around."
Not entirely true. He supposed, assuming that the magical laws of this dimension were the same as the ones back home, that he could find a way to transpose his physical body to that bar. But that didn't seem to be a worthy junction at this point in time.
"You met Death?"
And he was still here? Strange made a contemplative face. That little entity was making quite a number of rounds lately, he presumed.
"She is .. quite the character."
He paused.
"Fell in .."
He sighed. This wasn't helping him any.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/15/2005 22:37:43
"She's a wonderful gal." Jesse held up his glass in a toast. "Cute too."
With his mouth full of liquor, he pointed to the sky. When he swallowed, he finally spoke. "Plane. I fell out." His tone was maybe a little too nonchalant about the whole thing. Jesse motioned to his still tattered and quite ruined clothing.
"I was over the desert, but I woke up on pavement. That's all I know."
As if he'd been invited, he slid Sparkly's drink back over in front of him and had a good swallow of it.
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/16/2005 09:45:19
"Sure she is. As long as she isn't stopping by to pay you a visit," Strange replied with a certain amount of mocking curiosity. He quirked a brow at the man's remark about having had fallen out of a plane.
He stroked at the hair on his chin. A funny action really if one really thought about it. Just an idiosyncratic tick to make him appear more there, and not just some transparent ghost-like entity.
"I fell too, I suppose. Or just woke up in my body but in the wrong place.."
And then he briefly wondered if any of his books might have more information on this 'falling' theory.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/16/2005 13:15:09
"Hey, she can visit me any day. Even if it does signify the end of my time here on this fine planet."
Jesse ordered more alcohol, finally getting to a point in his drinking that he was starting to feel calm.
Falling out of a plane tends to rile the nerves.
"What I mean by I 'fell out of a plane' is that I fell out of a plane. No sort of... metaphorical thing. My friend was holding onto me, but if he kept holding onto me, he would've gotten seriously hurt. So I told him to let go. I remember seeing vast expanses of desert. So I don't know where the pavement came from. Arizona. That's where I was."
He downed the new drink. "But I'm getting the idea that a lot of folk here are going to have similar stories. Not sure why they're here. Not sure how they got here. Me? I have a purpose. I have a man to find."
Jesse nodded. "But you. You just woke up in a different place? Where were you before?"
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/17/2005 05:47:36
"Oh, I believe you. My apologies if you thought otherwise. Yes, falling out of a plane makes sense. So far .."
As much sense as anything could make these days. He pursed his lips and twitched his nose in momentary pausing thought.
"I was in my astral form. Such as you see me now. On the opposite side of the world, helping out a friend of a friend, you could say. When I rejoined with my body.."
He waved his hands and made a 'poof!'ing noise. As though he just appeared.
"Woke up here. In my lounge, in my house, on my street .. but in the wrong world."
Which would have been completely insane to most any men but to Strange that sort of thing went with the job description.
"Who are you looking for?"
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/17/2005 11:36:07
Jesse nodded through the explination. It seemed like it would be a pretty freaking strange way to return to your body. All of a sudden everything's the same but different. He held up the highball glass to that and took a drink.
And there was the inevitable question. Who was he looking for? It was never easy to explain.
"God." Jesse said flatly. "I'm looking for God."
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/17/2005 20:00:46
"I see."
Strange paused. He was by no means a religious man. Never had been and never would be. The sequences of events in his life never panned out for that sort of conclusion. First through a career in medicine. Second with a life in the mystic arts.
No, there just hadn't been any room for religion in his life. Spirituality, perhaps. Depending on how one defined it. But never a pew-person.
"Best of luck with that," he said in a flat tone. No sarcasm. No depth of warmth. It was semi-ambivalent.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/18/2005 15:23:07
Jesse grinned. "Haven't seen Him have you? He's got some things to fucking answer for."
He didn't order another drink when he finished off the one in his hand. Instead he put the glass upside down and motioned for his tab.
He searched his pockets and discoverd his cigarette pack empty. "Shit."
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/18/2005 17:22:52
"No, not lately. Not in a long time."
And probably never would. Unless of course he managed to stumble upon a dimension wherein there existed such a being. But Strange had little hopes for something of that magnitude.
He watched as the man searched for a cigarette. He wasn't going to get anymore answers here. No, eventually he would stumble upon someone who knew more and understood more. Then he could work towards making things right again.
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/18/2005 17:29:23
"Well then." Jesse sat back again, and played with his lighter. "If you do see the fuck, do please tell him that Jesse Custer's comin to get Him. And He'd better be damned good and ready to get the ass kicking of His existance."
Jesse paid the bartender with the cash in his pocket and stood up.
"Now, I've got to get some new clothes."
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/18/2005 18:06:31
For some reason, and at the moment he wouldn't have been able to tell anyone why, he cracked a grin at the man's statement. Perhaps it was just the absurdity of it all. He'd seen years of crazy creatures, insane places, wild madmen bent on global domination, and it never ceased to amaze him when some people could take it all in stride. Most of the time people freaked, unable to handle the unbelievable. And then there were those select few who accepted it at face value and just let it go.
He nodded.
"Will do. If I see him that is. If you see him first, though, ask him where he's been all these years."
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/18/2005 18:41:24
"Oh." Jesse pointed at his head. "I already know. I know everything that the bastard's been up to. I just don't know where he's at now."
Jesse tried to fix the collar of his shirt, and in doing so, caused his other collar to fall to the floor.
"It's never good when that happens."
From: [info]i_estrange Date: 12/20/2005 09:53:38
Strange quirked an interested brow when the man's collar fell to the ground. His formation reverted to what made him look as though he were standing, although half of his body was still passing through that bar stool.
"Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good."
From: [info]i_seekgod Date: 12/21/2005 07:47:36
"You're aboslutely right."
Jesse nodded and picked up his collar and shoved it into his pocket.
"Been good meetin you, friend. I owe you a drink." He motioned to the empty glass he'd drank for himself.
He adjusted the tattered clothing he was wearing and set off into the night.