Room 508 - Seth & Bryce

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Seth-
"So uh, what's up man? You don't have to explain yourself if you don't want to."


Beau-
"..."

Beau silently moved to sit on the couch, and leaned on his knees in contemplation. Seth followed, trying to not let his concern show.

Beau-
"I don't know if I should say."


Seth-
"You can tell me anything, I swear I've heard and seen enough that nothing will bother me any more."


Beau-
"It's not just 'zat... It's...


Beau-
"I 'ave too much pride. It is shameful."


Seth-
"What is it? Is it something I can--we can help with?"


Beau-
"I--I found 'zeh mummy."


Seth-
"...what?"


Beau-
"The one in the video. I find it the first day I go..."


Seth-
"What happened? Obviously you're here to tell the tale..!"


Beau-
"I... I try to fight but I'm no good. Sethe... I can't fight anything. Really. 'Zat's one reason I go. I am terrible. Useless. Coward."


Seth-
"Jesus Christ Beau, you tried to fight a damn mummy? That's about the last fucking thing I'd call cowardly."


Beau-
"I try to burn it, doesn't work. I don't know if I do it right. I 'ave to run away... I don't see it again in weeks, just trying to go back, to get 'elp. No one believes. No one wants to help..."


Seth-
"Where was it?"


Beau-
"Columbia Tower."


Seth-
"Jes-Damn! Wow. God, we've got to go there."


Beau-
"No...! How-- I don't know..."


Seth-
"This is big news, we've got to tell the council. I won't tell them anything bad about you, I promise."


Beau-
"Sethe..."

He caught Seth's hand and gave him a meaningful look.

Beau-
"Thank you. No one believes it, no one cares. Thank you."


Seth-
"Yeah, um... no problem..."

Seth led the way, almost too fast, up to the comm center to gather the council.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Seth returned to his apartment, finding it empty but for pets.

Pets-
"..."


Seth-
"..."

Seth flopped on the sofa, staring off into the expanse of the nearly empty room. Wasn't many possessions to fill a place up, these days. Then he heard someone working the door. Bryce came in, and looked startled a moment, then closed the door behind himself.

Bryce-
"...er... So. Big day, huh?"


Seth-
"Yeah I guess. Big for other people, anyway."


Bryce-
"Really? Disappointed then...?"


Seth-
"Yeah. Joe and Beau ran off after some kind of cool monster that'll probably lead to the secrets of the universe, and the gun bunnies lit up the building while the rest of us stood around like schmucks. I got to poke some kind of horrible abomination with a stick at least. It was like a wagon wheel of severed arms, pretty yucky. Anyway, not nearly as thrilling as I'd hoped, especially after that scene with the council. Sigh forever."


Bryce-
"Christ, that's a half dozen crazy-ass things I've never heard of! What the hell happened?"

He forced himself to walk to a seat and sat in it rigidly, staring at Seth.

Seth-
"Which part?"


Bryce-
"Ya may as well start at the beginning!"

Seth started with Beau's admission, on to the terse council meeting, and moved through to the bizarre scenario at the building followed by Joe/Beau's monster chase.

Bryce-
"Christ. A blood monster with a Jansport backpack. What the fuck was that about? Damn."


Seth-
"I know! UGH I wish I could be there!"


Bryce-
"Are you trying to get my goat?"


Seth-
"What? No... It's just-- if I'm gonna haul my ass out there after getting shit about it, I wanna be part of the action! You know? If there's mysteries to solve, I wanna be part of that Scooby gang already."


Bryce-
"Ya don't think maybe the shit-givers had a point?"


Seth-
"I dunno man. Ugh it just... it really puts me out to not be a part of things."


Bryce-
"I'm tempted to keep on ya, but we've talked this into the ground. I guess I know what you mean."


Seth-
"What if they do find the mummy HQ or whatever? Betcha I won't be allowed to even consider going. Ughhh...."


Bryce-
"You can understand if I'm not too upset about that."


Seth-
"Yeaah I guess I should stop bitching about that. Sometimes I just think this president stuff is for the birds. So maybe let's talk about cool mysteries instead. Freaky abominations! Mystery blood guys! It's pretty thrilling."


Bryce-
"Yeah, I guess it is..."


Seth-
"I dunno man, what do you wanna talk about?"


Bryce-
"No, don't be silly. Talk about blood guys. What was that like again?"


Seth-
"Well, I couldn't get a good look since I was just runnin' behind it over the car tops, but it was just dumpin' blood. Like, how does it have that much blood inside it? Don't you think it would run out? And what's in the bag?! Man. So exciting.
I really hope those guys are okay, and they come back to enlighten us on this mystery. Man, Beau is such a cool guy. He just went running after that thing all by himself with just the little dog. I don't think he even uses any kind of weapon. I don't know how he does it!"


Bryce-
"I'm not sure why he does it. It's like he doesn't know what he wants, but he wants it real bad."


Seth-
"It makes sense to me, y'see... if this was a movie or a video game, we'd just have to go find the mummies. That'd be the whole point of the thing!"


Bryce-
"OK, OK, that I get. I just mean his hesitance to take out zombies. It's totally inconsistent with wanting to take out the mummies, ya know?"


Seth-
"Hm, well-- fighting zombies is kind of a W.O.T you know? Just slow ya down and stuff."


Bryce-
"I guess, but I ain't here to talk about Jean-Pierre Gandhi. Blood guys. What's the deal, really? How are they different from demon dead?"

And so on! ...

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Another time... 'Twas a knock at the door.

Pets-
"Hiss!" and "Arf!"

They were answered by a bark from the hall.

Bryce-
"If it's my mom, ..."

Seth answered it.

Seth-
"Word up."


Stevie-
"Our boys are back!"


Seth-
"Oh good! I'm guessing by the smile on your face that it's good then! Where are they?"

He stepped aside and the dudes came into the room. Bryce sat up straight.

Beau-
"..."


Joe-
"..."

The door closed. Discussion was had. And plans formed!

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

The night of return from Tukwila...

Bryce-
"Are we alone yet? Is this our room?"

Seth just looked at him. Like, duh.

Seth-
"..."


Bryce-
"Alright. HEY. We had a deal, man! You got a thing to do."


Seth-
"What's that? This whole thing makes me feel like this was another life. I don't remember."


Bryce-
"Come on man, my mom! She's terrible! She's all over it! She's stomping around and making people feel weird and almost say...shit."


Seth-
"Oh yeah, I guess I did say I'd do something about that. Did you try anything yourself?"


Bryce-
"No! Remember? You really don't remember anything? You really leave here and forget everything? You chop off a mummy head and lose your brains? Did you remember to do something with the mummy brains?"


Seth-
"Sheesh. A fine how do you do this is!"


Bryce-
"Tch, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's just things have been all stupid. She is the worst! The worst! The living end! I'm totally using that phrase wrong."


Seth-
"It's worse than before?"


Bryce-
"Its death by a thousand cuts. It's only worse than before because it's been the same for an extended period of time."


Seth-
"Hm, well... I guess I'll have to talk to her..."


Bryce-
"Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you, thank you... *sigh* So um, yeah. How you like that trip there, satisfy your lust for danger? Feel like retiring to some coastal village? Sleepy bedroom community? Set yourself up in a rambler, rocking chair on the porch. Drinking Arnold Palmers made by Chantelle in a maid outfit."


Seth-
"Uh, no..."


Bryce-
"Damn. Well, did you end up going the opposite direction and realizing you wouldn't be satisfied until you bungee jumped off Columbia Center through a cloud of ghosts with a bomb strapped to your nuts that's set to go off when you turn into a zombie."


Seth-
"And is there something wrong with that?"


Bryce-
"Please tell me you're kidding. How about a moderate level of danger? Y'know, just a skosh from time to time. You don't have to summon Bloody Mary somewhere so you can make out with her... Shit, you think that works now?"


Seth-
"Guess you could try it. Got a bathroom right there."


Bryce-
"Pft! Do you want me to die? Is that it? Try to get me to go outside, try to get me to summon Bloody Mary... "


Seth-
"Don't be silly... But honestly... uh... I'm thinking about quitting my job."


Bryce-
"Yeeeah. About that... I don't think that's gonna be very hard to do."


Seth-
"Oh? Everyone sick of me?"


Bryce-
"Well, mainly Marie. Cause she's got the council by the nuts. Probably 'cause she is the council's nuts."


Seth-
"Yeah, I expected that much after we left the other day. Oh well. Then I'll be free."


Bryce-
"Free to what?"

Bryce looked disturbed.

Seth-
"Well... y'know, to go out more. I never get to go on the exciting missions, go looking for mummies, tracking down leads and whatnot. It was just as easy as going to look for them, just like I thought!"


Bryce-
"Christ, really? You're gonna like, go hunt down all the mummies and shit? "


Seth-
"Why not?"


Bryce-
"Uhhh... 'Cause it's fudgin' bonkers."


Seth-
"We got one, it wasn't that hard. Maybe if we get all the ones in the area, things might go back to normal somewhat!"


Bryce-
"No way. You think it'd be like a video game or somethin'? "


Seth-
"I dunno, I think it's important to do this though while we still can. Who knows what attack they'd plan next if we don't stop them first."


Bryce-
"Why's it gotta be you? Why would that be an appealing thing to do? There's gotta be a lot of crazy jerks out there that'd be interested in doing that. You don't have to be a crazy jerk you know, there's lots of other career opportunities in this world you know."


Seth-
"Haha. No one's done it yet, so no use waiting around for other people. Anyway, things will be fine here without me, obviously. Like Marie was saying, I should just trust that other people can take care of things without me. So thats what I'll do, right?"


Bryce-
"You're totally twisting her words around. I mean, you'd be a natural to be president. Stick with it, you'd level up or something."


Seth-
"Heh. I think I'd be a better general or... missionary or something."


Bryce-
"Missionary? Wait, who actually killed the mummy? I heard it was Patti. Shouldn't she get to be the general?"


Seth-
"It was. Uh, they weren't supposed to kill the mummy. Me and Beau had to fish it out the bloody ass swimming pool so he could cut its head off."


Bryce-
"Yeah see, so those guys are the mummy killing badasses so they should be generals right? Obviously for the missionaries you gotta have the jesus freaks for that like Ashley, and Alex. They could be like Lance Henriksen in that inquisition movie, what was that called?"


Seth-
"Man you watched some weird movies. Well anyway... why don't you want me to go out mummy fighting? Just the danger aspect? It's not like I'd be going out there alone."


Bryce-
"Yeah, you know... I don't want you to die. Get possessed. Whatever... Turned into a blood guy. 'Cause apparently that's a thing!"


Seth-
"Oh I'm sure if it happened you'd never see it."


Bryce-
"That is not exactly comforting."


Seth-
"Sorry, heh... anyway I'm not gonna be going out there right away, gotta find the next lead anyhow."


Bryce-
"Mm hmm. Oh yeah. Of course. Hot scoop. Word on the street. Whatever the ghouls are crackalackin' about around the ghoul pit."


Seth-
"Haha I wish there was a ghoul pit, we could totally interrogate them. Speaking of which, I had a dream that we reanimated the mummy head and hypnotized it into giving us all its secrets! But then I woke up because vampires."


Bryce-
"Jesus! ...You know, I want you to be able to tell me anything, so... just a moment."

He retrieved some vodka and poured it in a glass, poured in a bit of orange soda, dook dook dook.

Bryce-
"Gooo oonnnn."


Seth-
"Oh so the vampires were so freaky! They're all, give us bloods argawarga! They were all nasty about it too, like.. ugh kind of sexual. Like getting bloods would make them jizz all over or something. Nasty."


Bryce-
"Ew! Did you see one of them jizz?"


Seth-
"I don't even know if they can jizz. They'd probably jizz blood. Yuck."


Bryce-
"Eugh. I think I heard a song about that once."


Seth-
"Your heavy metals? Oh so then, they threw a freaking BOMB in the window! Like a burning gas can! We all had to run out of there and it exploded! Then they ran an SUV through the wall. It was totally bonkers dude."


Bryce-
"Jesus. Zombies don't do that kind of shit. Like, are vampires gonna take over the world? Are they the master race of undeads?"


Seth-
"I hope not. Well, they're pretty dumb in their way, once you figure some of their tricks out, and they only can come out at night soo... but yeah, worse than zombies."


Bryce-
"Man. So are they gonna take over the world? They sound pretty fuckin' badass."


Seth-
"Yeah, well.. I think it's pretty hard for them to reproduce, I don't even know how they do it. They just get around. But it's a good reason for people to get out there and kill their asses."


Bryce-
"Uh huh."


Seth-
"Did I tell you about the giant arm monsters? Like Human Centipede shit? It was so groooossss."


Bryce-
"Mmhmm. Yeahh I think I heard a thing or two about that."


Seth-
"Omigod the funniest thing happened! Everyone was laughing so hard! There was this stupid little monster who was all STOP LAUGHING AT MEEEE and Beau just starts laughing and we're all laughing and making fun of this stupid little thing!"

Seth started laughing again to himself, wiping his eyes a little.

Seth-
"Maybe you had to be there..."


Bryce-
"Sounds like it! So uh, yeah, y'know. Not much going on here you know, just the usual creepy dudes come 'round, eating our apple cobbler. Uh. Somebody saw some ghouls. Apparently people on Capitol Hill are nostalgic for Twitter."


Seth-
"That's F-ed up."


Bryce-
"Oh yeah."


Seth-
"Gawd if we still had Twitter, I'd be all, "Totally fighting mummies r/n it's great. #mummykilla #pwning mumz"


Bryce-
"Hahaha.... Heehehee. Hey you want some of this vodka? We should get too drunk to fuck. Then try to do that anyways."


Seth-
"Yeeeah. Sounds like a night."

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

ANOTHER DAY...

Seth made the mistake of coming home.

Pets-
"Miao!" and "Arf!"

...and then...

Bryce-
"..."


Seth-
"Tch..."

He went to the bedroom, flopped on the bed and chose an unread National Geographic from the large pile that was now forming a nightstand. This one had a feature article about herons!

Bryce appeared at the door.

Bryce-
"Spoiler alert: The heron dies at the end."


Seth-
"*groan*"

He rolled over to face Bryce.

Seth-
"Alright, guess we have to talk. What would the young master like to say?"


Bryce-
"'Young master'? Like I'm some kinda tyrant? What's that about?"


Seth-
"It was more a crack about you being a kid, but anyway... I feel like I already explained myself earlier, what else is there?"


Bryce-
"You ... You didn't explain ditching me with my mom for a freakin' million years! The hell was that? You know how I felt, and you just left me hangin' like that!"


Seth-
"Man, okay. I'm sorry. But I mean, what else could I do? It's not like I can always be here to intervene, might as well get it over with."


Bryce-
"That's it. That's it man. You're just gonna brush it off like nothin'. That was betrayal. Total betrayal."


Seth-
"Oh my god, come on. I was the one who had to broach the freakin' subject with her, I didn't even do that with my own mom."


Bryce-
"I-- I can't even look at you right now. It's too much."


Seth-
"Gawd, are you 14? Fine, I'll go hang out on the roof or something, I don't care."


Bryce-
"Wait! Don't go! ..."


Seth-
"Aw jeez. Y'killin' me smalls."

He sat up, but made no moves to leave. Bryce sat down next to him stiffly, looking forward.

Bryce-
"... I'm sorry."


Seth-
"Nothin' to be sorry about, everything's okay."

He stayed close to Bryce, but knew from experience that touching him when he was like this was probably a bad idea.

Seth-
"Do you want to express something?"


Bryce-
"Nn... I better not. Shit. I'm all twisted. I don't want to be mad, but I'm mad."


Seth-
"I know. It's okay man, you can be mad. Both of us wanna get along so let's just chill and do whatever. You can be mad tomorrow. Sound okay?"


Bryce-
"I wish it was that easy. Um... How can we put a bow on this shit? Something to help me feel like I can move on?"


Seth-
"How about you give me a good punch to the gut. I can take it."


Bryce-
"Is that how jocks solve all of their problems?"


Seth-
"You got a better idea? What do stoners do?"


Bryce-
"Forgive and forget because of our short attention spans. Hey. It's working."


Seth-
"Perfect, easy for me. Now forgeeeet you ever saw anything and gooo tooo sleeeep."

Seth flopped down and pretended to snore.

Bryce-
"Hey! Who said you get to sleep?!"

The night passed without incident.