(no subject)

[the_prisoner]

The sounds were familiar. People, pigeons, the city beyond.

The sun was on his face, grass under him. He had fallen asleep in the park. And all that seemed right.

Until reality started to filter back in. The fact that asleep in the park was not where he was suppose to be.

He shot up, looking around. No, he wasn't wrong. The city peaked above the trees at the far end on the field, a soccer game playing out before him. Everything was so normal.

What the fuck.

Comments

[the_prisoner]

"Yeah, you don't really get very nice around here." He snorted, looking over at the other man.

Would he be able to get ID? What if...shit, what if there was another Eddie Dean here?

That'd be weird.

"I can start contributing pretty fast. I know where to get work when it's needed."

But he had to stay clean.

[ka_mai]

"Better'n nothing. And give what you can when you can, don't worry too much about it now." Bert knew what a shock it had been to him, to come to grips with the idea that he still had some sort of life to live. Eddie knew this place, but Bert couldn't imagine that made it that much easier.

"I do alright for myself. I catch on to things quick, and you can learn anything in a library. Nearly shit myself and died all o'er again when I saw the one here! Inside, I mean. All those books...didn't think there were that many books in the whole world!"

It was, he realized, something of a relief to be able to properly explain his fascination with so many things people here concerned unremarkable.

[the_prisoner]

"Cool, man, thanks."

He would want to give what he could. Because even if this was home, he realized this was the only person who was going to make sense to him here.

A weird sorta realization.

"Oh I bet. It's a pretty awesome place." He laughed. "There's a lot...have you been to the Met yet? Or the MoMA? The Natural history museum?"

Modern art and a Gunslinger. He hoped Bert hadn't, just so he could see it.

[ka_mai]

Bert shook his head.

"Can't say as I have. Looked at'em, the buildings I mean, but haven't gone in yet. One of these days!" There was just so much, and even he found himself overwhelmed sometimes. Especially when he was busy trying so very hard not to seem out of place, to blend in with the rest of the people from this world.

Thankfully slightly odd folks weren't an abnormality in New York, and he was happy to let other people fill in the blanks he left open. It was easier that way.

"I've got a little book, though. All about the things to do and see here, and how they all came to be. It's fascinating stuff! What did you do, when you lived here a'fore? In your leisure time, I mean."

[the_prisoner]

"Uhhh...a little of everything."

It was hard to sum up what one did in their entire life full of leisure time in New York. It triggered off some sort of child like response of 'nuthin' which seemed pointless.

"You'll never see everything. We use to go to Coney Island a lot. Wander around. You can go in a lot of museum's free but..." But he hadn't don that as much as he would like to claim he did.

[ka_mai]

"Coney Island, aye." Bert nodded, recognizing the name. "Haven't been, but I know of the place. The boardwalk and all. Keep meaning to give it a look one of these days. I like the old churches, though, the cathedrals. Looking at them. I'm not a Christian, but they're familiar - the stone and the colored glass and the bigness of'em. And they don't cost anything to poke around in!"

Bert pushed himself up to his feet and offered a hand to Eddie.

"Come on. I wot you could use a proper place to sit your ass and sommat to eat. Got both back home."

please excuse that this is super the wrong eddie journal.

[wiredup]

"Sounds good to me." Eddie heaved himself up with Bert's hand, and paused for a moment, face to face with his twinner.

He studied the man, looking at all his feature. He could see similarities to himself, though he had a feeling that was an expectation he was imagining. But more, he could see similarities to Roland. Even thought the two were different, a way of holding themselves, a way of moving.

Something all gunslinger trained in Gilead probably had, if e meet more than two of them.

"Let's roll."

Pff, no worries!

[ka_mai]

Bert toed on his shoes and met Eddie's scrutiny with a grin. Man Jesus! He still couldn't quite believe it, but it all made perfect sense, really. Everything was connected. He might not have had the highest opinion of ka, but he didn't deny it entirely. The big things, those were controlled.

And ka was a wheel, wasn't it? Everything came 'round again, one way or another. And perhaps, just perhaps, the good were rewarded. If nothing else, he wasn't alone anymore. Here was someone who could understand him - his world, his upbringing, his attempts to fit in to a strange new world. If that wasn't an answer to a prayer, Cuthbert wasn't sure what was.

"S'not too far," he promised, turning with his hands stuffed in his pockets to lead the other man back home. It was quicker by the underground trains, but Bert preferred to walk. Hurtling through dark tunnels in a shaking metal box wasn't high on his list of enjoyable activities. And walking let him take in the city, absorb its rhythms and patterns.

"How starving are you? There's a plethora of fast food opportunities along the way!"

[the_prisoner]

Fast food.

Beautiful, terrible fast food.

"Oh man. Let's get some Mickey D's."

He had not realized how much he missed junk food. While, he had, but in a vague, abstract kind of way.

No, he pretty much just missed junk food. He was just trying to convince himself he didn't.

[ka_mai]

"To the Golden Arches it is, then! There's one down the block from my building. Disgusting stuff, but it's delicious. That and Taco Bell. I swear I can feel it sickening my body as I eat it, but damned if I care!"

It wasn't as though he lived off of the stuff. But it was like nothing he'd ever tasted back home - as was much of the food here in America.

"And of course there's dozens of places that'll just bring you food right to your door, instead of having to go and get it! It's like some god given miracle, when it's ten o'clock at night and you're pleasantly drunk and craving pizza and nothing else. And lo, it can be yours!"

[the_prisoner]

"Ah, you're learning the ways of my people so quickly!"

He laughed as they walk, starting to feel like a weight was lifting off of him. He could still feel the ties, securely, to the other world, but in a good way. Right now, though, it was a beautiful day in New York City, and he was about to eat the first Big Mac he'd had in a long time.

"So what have you been up to? Where are you working?"

As they walked, he looked around and realized that he, too, was gonna have a culture shock. For one, Central Park was beautiful and clean. For two, everyone seemed to have little...calculators with them.

"The hell are those."

[ka_mai]

"I am nothing if not adaptable! And the ways of your people are such attractive ones." And life here was easy, at least compared to the life Bert had lived before. There were machines to do everything, services to tend to every need, miracles were common acts of machinery...

"Whatever I can, mostly! All sorts of odd jobs. Labor work, exercising rich people's horses for'em, tending people's pets... Wealthy folks will pay a damned nice bit of cash, jest for yeh to make sure their animals are played with and walked and pampered when they're at work! Assuming yeh've for the right references."

And Bert always managed to have the right references.

"Hmm? Oh! Those are phones! Mobile ones, they're like little tv internet tablets that can make telephone calls but I hardly see anyone using'em for that."