badfic_manor | 001 Beyond Birthday [Audio]

[Had Beyond Birthday cared to put in the effort, he could probably name the exact genus and species of the prehistoric flora that surrounded him. He did not care. The only thing that matters at the moment is that this place is not Room four-oh-four. His thoughts are scattered in chaotic disarray, an unpredictable, teeming mass of anger, annoyance, and desperation hidden behind a deadpan mask enhanced by perfectly applied powder. Wammy's had taught their projects well. For all of Beyond's anguish --all his plans derailed!-- not a single trace of it was broadcast through the Blackberry. Or rather, none of it would have been broadcast. Suspicious, and paranoid, Beyond Birthday would not reveal his face, for he knew very well the value of a person's face, to individuals unknown. Long fingers encircle the device, his voice, an almost soothing, rumbly sound in-between tenor and baritone. An oddly zen tone, considering his rather....unique circumstances.]

Good evening.

[A short pause, as B wets his lips.]

My name is Ryuzaki. I seem to be...

[A second pause, as he searches for the appropriate word. Lost? Confused? He frowns in the darkness. Subjective information would hardly be helpful to anyone.]

... sitting on top of a creature, a ceratopsid, long extinct. A triceratops to be exact. What is the meaning of this?

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[Tom pauses for a moment and responds. It was good that someone was coming to help but the danger wasn't over yet and he knew it.]

Okay.

[He'll wait to tell her in person what he already told B which wasn't going to be good for either of them.]

[With that, Naomi shuts off the blackberry and makes a dash for it. What kind of idea was this? Not a very well thought out one, if it could even be considered an idea at all. She's not even thinking straight anymore.

At least the dinosaur problems were at bay, for now anyway. Perhaps B wouldn't be as lucky.

Misora finally catches sight of Tom, breathing a sigh of relief only to gawk in horror at the sight of the woman he's tending to.]

We- [Gasping for breath.] We need to get her somewhere safe.

Yeah, I know. Here, put pressure on that.

[He gets up to move and rips off the table cloth from the nearby table and grabs two poles from the display that was holding up a sign. He takes out his knife and cuts the sign away in order to make a gurney.]

We don't have a lot of time. Did you bring a jeep?

What? No! I wasn't exactly instructed to do so. [Not that anything like that really crossed her mind in the momentary rush of panic. Now she felt like a fool. But she does as she's told.]

You've done this before?

Yeah, three times now. The first time was when Amy was shot.

[He let that slip on purpose since it seemed like a natural response. The other time was when he pulled a kid out of the water during a hazing incident that went bad and nearly killed the kid.]

I lost one. I'm going to do my damnedest to not repeat that.

[Tom ties off the table cloth and now plans out what to do to get Claudia to the docks with as little incident as possible.]

I see. [She has nothing more to say to that for the moment, not in their present situation anyway, but Naomi keeps it registered in the back of her mind.]

It won't repeat. We're in this together. [It's such a cheesy, cliche phrase that it almost made Naomi want to gag.

But that made it no less true.]

I can help you carry her.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

[Even though the wounds were pretty bad, Tom had to try.]

What were those? They looked like they were the size of house cats but they came in numbers.

No idea, and I have no intention to find out the hard way, but it's obvious that the Author's a fan of popular science fiction thriller films.

By the way, Tom, do you regularly keep a gun on you?

Yeah.

[Tom looks up at Misora for a moment with a brief look of confusion.]

Why do you ask?

Good, keep doing it.

Now that B's back and is aware that you might have seen someone like him before, he'll probably come track you down. You'll want to stay armed just to be on the safe side.

[There is a nod from the young cop and a sigh.]

Somehow I figured you were going to give me some advice along those lines.

[He checks his service revolver just in case.]

Would I need anything more powerful than a .38 Taurus?

As long as he doesn't get his hands on anything better, I think you'll be fine. I guess it has more to do with staying alert in the end. He's not an expert fighter or anything, but he's a planner and is sneaky.

[Tom seems relatively calm despite that he feels now like he's being hunted and nods.]

Okay. That's more than what I had to go by before. So if he feels I'm less useful, I'll be killed.

[He runs his fingers through his head.]

No pressure.

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