Day 56: Bus 1

[tightsofmight]

Previously, on Peter Parker's Sucky Life:

Pain, pain, fourth wall bulldozing, fire and pain, and teeny useless swords.

Yeah, so Peter wasn't feeling so hot today. It was a marked improvement on waking up after getting shanked by Grell, but this was in no way a good morning. They had all made it through the basement trials and got their dinky rewards, but man did they pay a hefty price for it. All of them. (Scott and the others had to fight robot raptors? What the hell...) Peter rose from his bed oh so delicately and with much wincing, thanking whoever it was that carried them back to bed every night for putting him belly down on his mattress.

His back, oh god. Peter seethed and hissed and grunted in pain. It felt like it was scabbing over, and the bandages yanked at the tender skin with every minute muscle spasm, every move he made. Cripes. Better his back than his arms or legs, but still. It was going to make things so difficult if they got stuck in Doyleton all over again.

Brainy was so thoroughly wrapped in his blankets on the other side of the room that Peter couldn't make heads or tails of his current state. But he'd stayed in the whole night, right? He should be fine.

Sometimes he just needed extra convincing of that. Considering the guy's track record and all.

From the sounds of it, this Aguilar guy wasn't changing too much of the routine. Being field trip day, Peter had wondered how the new man in charge would handle it (or how General Lieutenant Burger would, apparently). If he planned on letting them out at all. The announcement squashed that theory, and so did the orderly tromping in with a second-hand change of clothes. The burly man passed him the goods without so much as a word, stomping right back outside to wait behind the door. Guess they weren't going in military gear.

...Orderly? Peter pushed the door open again after performing the hastiest change of clothes he could manage in his state, peering at the man. That guy was in an army uniform yesterday. He remembered him. His buzz cut was uneven and he had a pointy old mole on the back of his neck.

"Uh. Are you going incognito?"

He was suddenly on the end of such a pointed look Peter could swear he was talking to Nick Fury. If Nick Fury was white and still had both eyes. "...Right. Okay. Lead the way, hombre."

So undercover it was. The people of Doyleton didn't know this was a military operation. Briefly, he wondered what the advantages of revealing that to the townsfolk could be, but then he remembered how they'd all up and morphed into the living dead at sundown. Put to rest any usefulness they might have had. They were just puppets, the same as the rest of the creepy crawlies in this hellhole.

Though that did beg the question as to why you would have to hide your secrets from puppets in the first place.

He was bequeathed with the usual paper bag lunch and packet of coupons, though he was still surprised to find himself a $15 gift card in the mix. Intercom Dude wasn't kidding about that?

He had money?

...What would he even do with money in Doyleton? What was fifteen dollars and worth buying that wasn't a gourmet burger? Peter boggled at the card as he clambered onto the bus. He'd never gone through the town with any inclination to window shop, so he couldn't even say what was available. He might actually have to look around. Even something simple might be a big help.

The orderly-formerly-known-as-Private-Dwight followed him on tucked a pillow into his seat for him. "Sit down. And don't do anything stupid. You'll heal a lot faster if you don't agitate it."

Peter fidgeted, but quietly settled into the pillow. This was kind of awkward. "Um. Thank you. I deeply appreciate your concern." The man nodded, and was gone.

Peter was the only one on the bus so far. The emptiness was kind of creeping him out.

[Reserved for Harvey Dent. WHY AM I TOP POSTING EVERYTHING YOU JERKS.]

Comments

[teabastard.livejournal.com]

Silence? Would miracles never cease? England took advantage of the lapse in conversation to eat some more of his breakfast. He didn't want to waste food that was actually not slop. He doubted that they'd let him have tea any time soon either. At least no-one was getting coffee either. That would have been intolerable.

He paused for a moment thoughtfully. It had worked on Prussia after all, and he wasn't feeling too charitable towards America...

"He's from a similar time as you," England replied blandly. "But in 2008 he's calmed down a lot. Ever since you became Communist and all."

He was going to get punched again wasn't he?

tl;dr srs buznesss it'll get funnier later xD lol sorry

[brb-burgers.livejournal.com]

Now the silence was much louder, America tensing up considerably as he looked over-- slowly-- and England. Taking stock of things, England was from another time, Canada was from another time, there were folks here all brought together in this strange combination of medical institute and terror institution. The more he considered the information he had the more he was confused. But he knew himself far better than England did and he knew for a fact he would never become communist.

"Heh, maybe you are nuts, Arthur." but it was clear that he was sort of shaken by that sort of a statement. Shaken but unwilling to believe it because he smiled, something almost vicious because he was violently rejecting any doubts he might have. Then, in an effort to desperately change the subject, he snagged England and got him in a neckhold, noogying him hard. Maybe a little harder than necessary but it was clear to him that England was probably crazy or telling him the truth and he hoped for neither.

"Alright so how, when and what happened?" oh, he would challenge him, too. He'd want to know what brought about his capitalist downfall. No way in Hell was he ever going to subject his people to that anti-american sentiment. If he could prevent it.

Re: tl;dr srs buznesss it'll get funnier later xD lol sorry

[teabastard.livejournal.com]

England looked back, utterly impassive, letting America take in his serious expression while inside he was trying to stifle laughter. He simply raised an eyebrow at America, letting him draw his own conclusions about how serious he was being about the situation. In fact, he could hear the slight tremor to America's voice. The lad was really shaken wasn't he? He always had been paranoid in that regard. He could remember a few of the films from the height of the Cold War.

"Am I reall- argh!" he yelped when Americ grabbed him, rubbing his fist into his hair and he was behaving like a child!

"Huge economic crash," he said sourly. "Mass unemployment, poverty, all that. Tends to make people see things differently, even Americans."

[brb-burgers.livejournal.com]

"I smell bullshit." he was doing too well to fall. The sky was the limi-- no, not even the sky was the limit, the sky and beyond, because he'd been there and done that. Brought the moon rocks back. Eventually he released him and smiled-- some of the bravado an obvious affront to hide behind whatever misgivings he had. England wouldn't see him weak like that.

Still, he seemed a little less at ease and more anxious to get back home. At this rate. Maybe this could be the reason of the collapse of his-- oh. That clicked in his head and if England were watching he'd see it, too. "Anyone succeeded in escaping from these outings that you heard about?" Perhaps it would become a new obsession, one to replace what he'd been focused on the decade prior. Or currently, even, because as far as Cold War went, this was a different arena entirely.

And he wasn't about to sit back and let his country collapse. And why was England still so smug looking even after the treatment he'd gotten? Somehow he did always come up with the last laugh. Kind of irritating in its own way but right now they'd do better working together than against one another.

For now.

[teabastard.livejournal.com]

England shrugged a shoulder dismissively once America released him, and set about straightening his clothing after America's ridiculous display of idiocy. "Think what you want," he replied coolly. The point was that America wasn't certain whether or not England was telling the truth. He might find out soon enough, but for now, England savoured having just that slight edge over America.

"Mmm, no-one as far as I know. I would think that most patients would be continually speaking of anyone who had escaped." It would be one bright spot in a sea of darkness, for a certain value of bright.

[brb-burgers.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well, I'm about to try," because truth be told he did have work to get back to and his country would miss him if he were gone for too long. He shuddered to think about the realization of what might happen if he were gone for too long. It was not a slow sort of connection to make but once it was made he definitely had an edge to his behavior.

Never one to be still for too long he did find it necessary to fidget around. Even now as they sat next to each other, America was more inclined to the aisle than he was England. He did, however still take a great deal or snerking pleasure to look at England's shirt and roll his eyes. "You know, Flag code section 8d. reads, The flag should never be used as wearing apparel. So I think I should be pissed at you for breaking the law, but I'll let it slide this time."

[teabastard.livejournal.com]

"Have fun with that," England said sourly. In truth, he was rather looking forward to seeing America try. It would be entertaining to see how well he fared against the orderlies and the sedatives they kept being threatened with. It might actually give him a better idea of how powerful they were. It took an awful lot to knock out and incapacitate a Nation. Call it an experiement. America was sacrificing himself in the name of science.

The attention paid to his shirt made him scowl. "I hardly chose this stupid thing," he growled. "Blame the nurses who think it's absolutely hysterical. to have me wearing this thing."

[brb-burgers.livejournal.com]

All manner of curiosity in regards to sedatives and orderlies being used had yet to be tested but there wasn't an ounce of unsureness in him that he wouldn't be able to escape, fully confident in his abilities as a world-power-- a super power like super heroes had in comic books and movies. America's own attire was something of a mystery to him-- a nice one, however. Similar to what he'd expect to wear in the fall or early spring-time. A hooded shirt with jeans and sneakers-- hardly as odd as what England was being forced into.

"Why's it funny to them?" he had to wonder, did the people in this institute know what they were? Briefly he considered the idea and then narrowed his eyes toward the front of the bus. There could be the fact that England sounded English (It wasn't that strange, given who/what he was), but that the stuffy docs and military types had found humor in it...

Maybe they were incredibly bored. Or incredibly patriotic? "And it's not stupid, it's mine. But how many stars are on it?" He had to grin at the thought-- if England was from the future perhaps he'd see another star with the other fifty. Wouldn't be too far a stretch of the imagination!