Route 29: ｍｏｄｓ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
these_balls) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
route_292013-04-26 07:27 pm
these_balls) wrote in route_292013-04-26 07:27 pm
Entry tags:
live tonight at channel EV studios...
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This was a fun first round of secrets, everyone! Gym leader and trainer alike, it was very fun reading all of your submissions and we would like to thank you on behalf of the entire EV News Staff! The love, the heartbreak, the friendship, the deep, dark, secrets!
- EV Editors
This was a fun first round! We'd like to issue a reminder that for whenever we choose to do this again, please submit your secrets in image form, as we will not be turning text secrets into images ourselves. We did a few this time, but next time they will be omitted.
The secrets will be broadcast via Pokégear as a slideshow, which one can pause and skip as wished. Questions, comments, etc. go here. Thank you for participating! Sorry about the short notice; next time, we'll think ahead of time.
You're free to use this post for IC reactions if you'd like, and if you put "Anonymous" in the header of your comment it will ICly show up as such. It'll count for AC!
video;
Anyway, despite being struck by the urge to make up an excuse to bug out of the conversation entirely, Yusuke instead finds himself staying on the line, trying to think of something to say that'll snap Blake out of... whatever this is. He doesn't know anymore if a part of him really is worried about him (blech) or if this is just in reaction to feeling a little creeped out by the absence of their usual tête-à-tête, but he's trying not to question it too much either way. Besides, it's not as if this is Sensui or some other big bad guy he's, uh, whatever-ing about right now; the only thing Blake's done to him so far is boss him around and shove him against a wall, which, on the grand scale of things, isn't anywhere near as bad as some of the shit he's had pulled on him. The guy's a bastard and a windbag, that's for sure, but Yusuke's pretty sure he isn't evil.
SO AGAIN, WHATEVER, YUSUKE'S JUST GONNA DO WHAT HE WANTS, and try not to let it lead to any more navel-gazing than it absolutely has to. With this in mind, Yusuke eyes Blake for a moment before looking away again and reaching into the pocket of his jacket. Man, if it turns out his neat freak streak kicked in and he didn't actually leave it in there like he's pretty sure he did, he's gonna feel like such an ass-- aha! Success. Score one for Mom's slob gene.
Yusuke spends another couple of seconds smoothing it down with his thumb, then turns the 'Gear so that the screen now focuses on... yep, a slip of paper out of a fortune cookie, slightly wrinkled and frayed at the edges, and held carefully between his thumb and forefinger. He's not holding it close enough for the writing to be clear, but regardless of whether Blake actually wants to know what it says or not, Yusuke kindly takes it upon himself to read it aloud. What wonderful advice could this piece of dead tree have in store???]
"Hope is like food. You will starve without it."
... yeah, or it'll give you indigestion.
[AH, CYNIC HUMOR. With the cookie's uplifting message callously dismissed, Yusuke crumples the paper up and turns the 'Gear back on himself, careful to keep his face neutral.]
How about it, old man? That "hope and dreams" crap resonate with you any?
[Is Yusuke... actually trying to be helpful? Maybe, but it'll only last as long as Blake decides to disrupt the delicate balance of their relationship and not bitch him out like he usually does. YOUR LACK OF ASSHOLERY IS WEIRDING YUSUKE OUT, BLAKE. STOP IT.]
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[He might've let his eyes wander away from the phone and started brooding, but he's distracted by Yusuke pulling something out of his pocket. Somebody reaching into their jacket is a motion that naturally snaps his attention into focus.]
[He actually bothers to listen to what he reads from the little piece of paper.]
That's about as realistic and useful as the lotto numbers. You keep that from lunch today?
[He can't wrangle much bite into his tone.]
[He gives a heavy shrug of his shoulders.]
You know what they say about hope and hands.
That's kid stuff. Anybody still fixated on it by my age has to be on the loopy side.
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[And of all the things from Japanese culture to screw up, why would it be the food? Some priorities you have, Johto.
(Seriously, though, it's, uh... pretty surprising, actually, how similar some of the buildings around Violet City look to the temples and other buildings he's used to seeing back home. Between that and the fact that the neighboring continent is apparently called Kanto, well... it all feels kind of weird, to say the least. Creepy, too.)
At any rate, Yusuke's not sure he follows Blake, and it's made obvious by the look on his face as he tries to think of the phrase Blake's referencing and comes up with nothing. He's pretty sure he's heard this one before, but uh, CLEARLY, he never bothered to commit it to memory. Such is life. He'll take a guess as to what it is anyway, though, just to be sporting:]
What, that you need hands to pull it out of your ass?
[you tried.jpg
Yusuke scoffs.]
Then I guess most of the adults I know are braindead. I mean, I kinda guessed that they were anyway, but I pretty much only get that "follow your dreams", "don't lost hope" speech from people way older than me.
[To be fair, this is usually when they're trying to convince him to stay in school, but he figures it should be obvious by now that he doesn't exactly have much in the way of academic aspirations. Who has time to study when you're saving the world, anyway? :I]
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[gestures vaguely] No, you know. That thing. Hope in one hand, shit in the other, see which fills up first.
Nah, it's smarter to expect the worst. Then you're ready, and anything else is a nice surprise.
[A shadow passes over his face.] Course, that's only when the worst is something you can see coming.
[He looks up, some of the old asshole coming back into his expression] What would your dream be, anyway, setting fire to some shit in a parking lot?
video;
[Aside from that, Yusuke is pretty sure Chinese people from China don't sell fortune cookies, that it's just Chinese Americans who popularized it overseas - or at least, that's what Keiko's dad told him, anyway, and given that the guy owns a restaurant, he feels pretty secure in trusting him to know his food trivia.
(Now that he thinks about it, he hasn't visited the Yukimuras' restaurant in ages; maybe once he busts loose from this joint and kills Sensui, he'll pop in to see how they're doing. Like, "oh hey, how's it going, guys? Me? Oh, y'know, just getting kidnapped to Animal Planet for X number of months and slaying crazy psychics bent on destroying the planet and everyone in it. The usual. What's on the lunch menu?" Hell, knowing Mr. and Mrs. Yukimura, they'd probably just think, 'oh, there goes Yusuke, kidding us again' and laugh it off. What good people.)
Yusuke doesn't have anything to say in response to Blake's explanation of the "hope and hands" phrase - he just kind of gives him a look of recognition, like, "oh riiight", and doesn't comment otherwise - but he's got plenty of opinions about all the other stuff Blake says, none of which necessarily reflect disagreement with his cynicism. In fact, it seems like he might... actually be starting a conversation with him! Alert the presses!]
I dunno, old man. Just 'cause you can see the worst coming doesn't always mean you're prepared for it.
What matters is how well you can bullshit when it comes.
[And if there is anything Yusuke is an expert at when it comes to navigating sticky situations, it's bullshitting. Fake it 'til you make it! That's the Yusuke Urameshi way of getting things done. Also, if something tries to bite you in the ass, knock it the fuck out.
On that lovely note, hey! Looks like Blake is back to insulting him. That's a good sign. It even gets on Yusuke's nerves, as comments like that are wont to do, but rather than snap back and get all blusterous and aggro, he snorts derisively and gives Blake a steely look and a tight-lipped smirk, his tone of voice almost casual as he tells him:]
Nah, arson's not really my thing. I'm more of a "breaking and entering" type of guy, with an emphasis on the "breaking".
[He's also a "shoplifting" type of guy, but he's just, ah, gonna keep that one to himself. Knowing his luck, he'd run into this dirtbag at the Mart later, or something, and that would undoubtedly turn into the biggest pain his ass has encountered since getting here (menagerie of animals excluded).]
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[When it comes to bullshit, Blake's taken and dispensed his share. A lot of the time all you had to do to get somebody to spill was to act like you knew everything already.]
[The kid looks more like himself when he gets that jackass gleam back in his eye. It's more solid ground, but Blake still can't quite manage to get as pissed off as he should.]
Not the point of what I was asking.
[offhand, his heart not fully in it] I'll add burglary to the list of things to call your parents about if the real world ever comes back.
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What, did you actually wanna know? [Because if so, color him surprised. He just figured Blake was trying to give him shit.
Either way, while it's kind of against his better judgment, Yusuke can't resist the impulse to scoff a little at the comment about his parents. It's not bitter-sounding or anything, just - amused in a kind of dry way, like, "yeah, okay. Like that's gonna happen."] Tch. Good luck with that. My mom's not even conscious half the time.
Besides, it's not like I'm going into peoples' houses. Just abandoned buildings, construction sites... y'know, places with signs that say "keep out". Makes it harder for people to interrupt me when I'm kicking a bunch of guys' asses.
[DON'T MIND HIM, JUST NONCHALANTLY DISCUSSING HIS DELINQUENT TENDENCIES WITH A POLICE OFFICER. Whatever, it's not like Blake can really do anything about it, aside from get all judgmental and huffy, and Yusuke's pretty used to that by now. Greaser hair don't care.]
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[shrugs] Why not? I've got nothing better to do.
[Better to keep the brat talking than to let his mind wander back to that image and the little boy waiting to see his father again.]
[That explains a lot.] Comatose or drunk?
[Blake and tact rarely meet.]
Oh yeah, trespassing. That's better. You know those are closed to keep idiots from getting killed climbing on them, right?
Your very own Fight Club, huh? That wasn't even that good of a movie.
[WASH YOUR HAIR.]
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Okay, then... I dunno. I've never really thought about it.
[Aside from the fact that it'd taken getting killed in a car crash and then resurrected to become the designated defender of humanity for it to even occur to him that he had a future worth considering in the first place, Yusuke... well, Yusuke is fourteen. Or, well, he's almost fifteen, if you want to be exact, but the point is, even the most well-adjusted people his age don't often know what it is they want to do when they grow up. He knows Keiko wants to go to college to become a teacher, but she's the kind of person who would know which direction she wants to take in life, and what she'd have to do and how she'd have to do it to get there. Him, though... he can't even imagine what not being a Spirit Detective would be like, at this point. Maybe he'll just keep being one 'til he's forty and then call it quits; it's not like he isn't damn good at it, after all.
Fortunately for Blake's brain, that isn't anything Yusuke mentions aloud. Instead, Yusuke shrugs and gives him a blithe grin, and says:]
Maybe I'll become the next prime minister. Or uh, the next-next-next-next prime minister. There's no way I could do the job worse than the current guy does it.
[... not that, you know, he actually pays attention to politics all that much. Hell, he doesn't even know what the current guy's name is, much less his policies and what-not; he just sort of assumes that whoever's in power is corrupt and skips the news to watch sports instead. What a responsible young citizen he is.
And fortunately, Yusuke isn't very sensitive himself - not about this, anyway, and not if they were just talking about his mom's alcoholism and not badmouthing his mom on a more personal level. He won't pretend to approve of Atsuko's drinking problem, but the fact is, well, alcoholism is a disease, which means that his mom's sick, not... deliberately trying to be a bad mother. He knows she cares about him. In fact, after he came back to life, she kept having nightmares about him going back to Spirit World to get away from her, which, while he probably wouldn't put it this way himself (or even talk about it at all in the first place), totally broke his friggin' heart into little itty-bitty pieces. So yeah, as long as Blake doesn't start telling "yo momma" jokes, Yusuke doesn't have any issues with him being blunt. It is what it is, you know? No use dressing up the facts.]
Drunk. 's a wonder I wasn't born with webbed toes, or something.
[Is that even a thing that happens when you drink while pregnant? Well, whatever. Yusuke moves on.]
Yeah. So what? I've never gotten killed climbing on 'em. Besides, I figure it's charitable for me to make it a little challenging for myself. Means I might not totally wipe the floor with whoever it is I'm fighting.
[... aaand whoosh goes that pop culture reference, right over his head! Normally, Yusuke would assume this was just an American thing, say "IDK what that is", and change the subject, but that... actually sounds like something he might enjoy, if, of course, he could find it with Japanese subtitles. Hence why he sounds pretty intrigued when he asks:]
Oh yeah? What's it about?
[WASH YOUR BEARD.]
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[Not that the kid asked. Had something to do with fighting bad guys to begin with...and maybe more about power and authority later.]
[that politicians are full of shit is a safe enough bet.]
[amused despite himself] It's hard to imagine you in a suit, kid. You know it's all paperwork, right?
[Not a big surprise. There has to be a reason a kid like this hasn't been smacked into line.] Dad's not around either, huh.
Yeah, so far, or you wouldn't be able to brag about it. Can't you fight on the playground like somebody normal?
[mutters half to himself] The kind of shit that's happened just because some kids were playing around a construction site.