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2012-11-07 [Ravenclaw]: Yay! Post then, jump, push us back whatever, I'mma go play halo 4... if it'll fukin read this time.
2012-11-08 [Ravenclaw]: Need me to do anything?
2012-11-08 [Sideways]: Um... To be honest, I know it's kinda rude to say so, but I really just want to get to Balazar's stronghold. There's little for Roland to do til then
2012-11-08 [Ravenclaw]: We're rather up to that point now. In the book there's just a bit about him building a house of cards and his goons juicing up Henry while they play trivial pursuit. If this were one of my games I'd archive this bit and write a cut scene to intro them bringing in Eddie. Perhaps slip in a mention about Henry and get on with the dialog. But I don't wanna tell you what to do.
2012-11-08 [Sideways]: No that works well!
2012-11-08 [Ravenclaw]: So... am I gonna do that or you?
2012-11-08 [Sideways]: You? Please?
2012-11-08 [Ravenclaw]: ... You're lucky I'm obsessed with the Dark Tower...
2012-11-08 [Ravenclaw]: Cue Rol's freak out at the sign.
2012-11-08 [Sideways]: I'll post a little tonight.
2012-11-08 [Sideways]: Roland felt a pang of shock at the bright red tower glowing on the front of the building. It was one of those blinking affairs that showed the tower inthe motion of leaning. Roland saw it as falling. He could make out the word "Tower" below the sign, and he poked at Eddie's mind.
"What is this place? It says "The Tower!" what is here??"
2012-11-11 [Ravenclaw]: ???
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: When they entered the building, Roland was mildly dissapointed. The place looked nice by his own standards, but cheap by the rest of the worlds. Men in finely tailored suits and obvious under-arm holsters stood in the hallway.
"Dont worry about your ko-cane. I can give it back to you."
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: Roland felt his mind go cold. This situation was volitile, he could see it in every man's eyes.
"They think you betrayed their king."
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: "Tell him you need to use the john." Roland said. "The ko-cane is in my world. I can bring it back here. I just need a minute or so." Roland didn't like this Ricky Balazar at all. The man had killer's eyes.
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: (and Balazar sez?)
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: "Good," Roland said "But too agressive. He can't be commanded..." Roland found an appropriate phrase "Bossed around"
2012-11-11 [Ravenclaw]: this is the dude who shoved his hand up eddie's butt. wanna play him?
2012-11-11 [Sideways]: "I don't think that's a good idea." Roland felt a little of the panic in Eddie's mind could be his own. "Is there a way you can convince him the powder is already here, somewhere?"
2012-11-12 [Sideways]: Roland felt something like an ice cube running down his spine. Not Eddie's, but his own, somehow, and the effect startled him. He saw the false wall in his minds eye, with small little tins and rolls of fabric inside. He turned back to the door and saw, but not heard, Jaqi shouting. He knew that the message had come from her, but not how.
"Eddie." Roland heard the parade of fucks and shits going through his host's head, however. "Eddie, panic will get you killed, do you understand? Do not panic. If you panic, you don't just die, you kill yourself, understand me?"
2012-11-12 [Sideways]: "Wait! You see the door?" Roland nearly swore, himself. "The Ko-cane is no longer important Eddie." he started pulling at the reins of Eddie's mind. "You to get through the door!"
2012-11-12 [Ravenclaw]: (He's seen the door for a while now, it's why he kept turning around in the cab.)
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: ??
2012-11-13 [Sideways]: Not my turn to post
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: his statement makes no sense. Eddie has always been able to see the door.
2012-11-13 [Sideways]: Ithought the whole point was getting them to come through the door which they can't do until they see it. That renders everything that's happened as stupid because why Eddie hasn't come through the door hasn't been discussed.
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: Because Henry. They've not saved him yet.
Once Eddie accepted that what was happening was real, he could see the door. He began accepting it when the Godzilla dogs and Pepsi vanished.
2012-11-13 [Sideways]: Oh.
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: lol, you forgot all about Henry didn't you?
2012-11-13 [Sideways]: No, I forgot on why that matters when Roland didn't know that Eddie can see the door
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: He's in Eddie's head, how does he not know Eddie can see the door? He turned around like a dozen times when they were in the cab.
2012-11-13 [Sideways]: How was I supposed to know what that meant?
2012-11-13 [Ravenclaw]: Cause... it was in the book? I duno, fuck it.
2012-11-14 [Ravenclaw]: ?
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: The Gunslinger wished he could slap Eddie for that outburst of childish whining. But that would have to wait.
"Eddie." Roland said calmly. "Stay frosty, I will return in two shakes."
Roland gasped in a breath of air again and got hammered by the vertigo that always greeted him on the way back.
"Jaqi," he said huskily. "Your gun."
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: Roland sat up, grimacing at the tightness in his back.
"Get your gun." He glanced around in the growing darkness, bothered by how dark it was getting.
(Hold on, does the door stay in low tide?)
2012-11-14 [Ravenclaw]: The door follows Rol no matter what. He consciously drug himself up the rocks in order to keep above the high tide line to stay away from the lobstrocities.
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: Roland frowned.
"No, girl. You get your gun. We may have vistors soon." Roland drew his own pistol with his still whole hand, rolled out the chambers, checked his cartridges, and snapped the chambers back with a heavy metal sound. The gun looked bigger than a pistol had a right to be. Roland was not a small man, but one might doubt, at first, his ability to use that gun with one hand. He fit the gun back in his hip holster, and scooted himself at an angle to the door, lying on his back, watching Eddie's view of the floor.
"Where are the powder packages?" the Gunslinger asked Jaqi, watching Eddie argue with the anvil-headed brute in front of him.
(since I don't remember exactly the choreography of this event, please don't be upset if it goes differently)
2012-11-14 [Ravenclaw]: I was just going to say the same thing. I might have read it 3 times but with SO MUCH information over the course of now 8 books, it's hard to keep things straight. All I know is for certain is that Henry's head gets rolled into the office before the final wave of the skirmish and Jack Andolini ends up on this side eaten by lobs, that's the last thing before the door closes. Oh... and there's a giant tiger, but that's later lol.
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: I just need to know what triggers the Epic Gunbattle of Nudes
2012-11-14 [Ravenclaw]: Let me open my audio files and I'll see if I can't find it. It'll be quicker than hunting for it in the actual pages.
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: "Don't know," Roland said, eyes still on the door. In his current dishevaled state, with his long stringy hair sunbleached far lighter than the blackish brown it was supposed to be, and his face still red from sunburn and sickness, and his clothes turned hard like stale bread from exposure, his eyes still kept their predatory nobility, somehow keeping him from outright looking like the (trashcan man) hobo's in New York's back alleys
"I don't know if the door will only let Eddie through. Kingpin Balazar's posse might come through after him."
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: "No," the Gunslinger said simply. "If we all come through this little door, how would you shoot them and not Eddie, or me?" he pointed across the overhang of dirt and roots she had been dragging him up to a spot about ten paces away. "There, at an angle to the door. If I get Eddie through, I will make sure he stays low. You shoot any big man who is standing." he eyed her with his hawk-like dark eyes. "You know where to shoot a man?"
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: Roland nodded. "Only because you have splinterheads. But those are troublesome at distance and unreliable against anything even slightly armored. Good for a man in his leisure dress, though. Thus you go there," he pointed to the spot again, "and try to hit them in the chest. Heavy calibur or no, your bullets will not pierce limbs." he looked back to the door. "And I want this to end quickly." then he went slack in his position propped against a dirt mound to the right ofthe door, having gone back inside.
2012-11-14 [Ravenclaw]: He wants her behind the door right?
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: To the right of it.
2012-11-14 [Sideways]: "Eddie," Roland said calmly, "If I bring the package back, they'll see it come out of nowhere just as the food left." he tried to get Eddie to see what the poor addict was already repressing in his own thoughts: the likelihood of this ending with a bullet through his frost-tipped head.
2012-11-15 [Ravenclaw]: Rol consents to letting Jack go, they go in, close the door, Rol does the eye change thing, they grab Jack and the door appears to him. He whacks Eddie in the mouth with the pistol, splitting his lips and they fall back through the door. Cue scuffle, Jaq probably shooting Jack, lobs, perhaps a little planning and back out into the office, bang bang you shot me down, bang bang I hit the ground.
2012-11-15 [Ravenclaw]: Great... now I have that song stuck in my head.
2012-11-15 [Sideways]: Roland seized at the Eddie's reins hard.
"Eddie, let me handle this." Roland said sternly to him. "At this moment, you need me to leave here alive. " Roland knew the look Balazar gave Eddie. Roland had seen that look before. Many times. It was the look of a man relishing the promise of blood. There was no other expression like it.
2012-11-15 [Ravenclaw]: I edited, then added some more.
2012-11-18 [Ravenclaw]: ?
2012-11-19 [Sideways]: Eddie's hand, against his will, shot up and jammed into Andolini's neck. Unfortunately, Eddie lacked Roland's muscle strength and his hand didn't quite make the intended shape. Thus Jack was likely still able to breathe, and Roland successfully jammed the ring and middle fingers of Eddie's right hand.
2012-11-21 [Ravenclaw]: "Grab em' Eddie!"
2012-11-21 [Sideways]: Roland was stunned himself with the totality of the situation. Eddie's body wasn't going to win shit, and the doorway was a serious risk. Roland's instinct to back into the doorway metsome difficulty when he was sure his feet should have hit brush-choked sand and instead his ass hit porceline sink. When Jack came at him, he weighedthe leap of faith to look back, and thus away from the man with the gun, and thus the sink gave way to air without transition, and quickly Eddie's soft naked flesh was replaced by the crusty, hairy scratch if Roland's own.
Without a choke of air or occasion to open his eyes, the gunslinger, seated directly left of eddie's entrance, drew his pistol.
2012-11-21 [Sideways]: Roland hissed quietly at his bodies unwillingness to obey his sense of urgency at getting to his feet. Eddie was a physical body to contend with now, regardless of the somewhat pleasingly economous quick death of Andolini. He grabbed a chunk of Andolini's hair with the three fingers of his right hand and yanked the staggering man out of his way, calm in his knowledge that the anvil-faced ape would be dead before he hit the ground, and leveled his eyes at the bleached-tile white, scrawny bodied, green-eyed, two-toned haired prisoner before him.
2012-11-21 [Sideways]: "Maybe the stroke-joke was preferrable to the truth, Eddie?" Roland said. He looked at the door, somewhat puzzled to find it still open. "So. Henry." Roland said. His voice always had that rustic, but flat tonal quality that seemed almost parental in it's calm, matter-of-fact
2012-11-21 [Sideways]: "Eddie." Roland intoned again, not harsh, but urgent. "It washes off." he picked up the cocaine. He looked down to the beach line, at the lobsters for amonent, then bent down, retrieving Andolini's gun. He was dismayed to find it mostly foreign, being a semi-automatic smith and wesson 9mm. It was less because of the foreign, but comprehensible set up of a magazine loaded weapon, and more because the weapon was needlessly complicated to the point that maintaining it would be a horrendous chore. He held these items in front of the Prisoner, ignoring Jaqi's crisis.
2012-11-22 [Sideways]: Roland opened his mouth to say something, but for once, his original intent admonish someone felt out of place. It didn't feel right. Eddie, what he said, didn't feel right. Or wrong, just... Out of place.
"I think I do." Roland grabbed Eddie's shoulders with a grip that left some nice purple fingerprints later. "Today is the day the monkey leaves your back." he placed Andolini's gun in Eddie's hand. Roland didn't see fit to wager his own guns in Eddie's realm. Not on their safety or their effectiveness. Not after the man in black. This, given the circumstances, gave Eddie/himself eight shots to get in and out.
2012-11-23 [Sideways]: "You only need have courage, Eddie Dean," the Gunslinger said. "You won't be alone." Roland turned to the doorway, which sat, static, looking at the bathroom door from the view of the mirror over the sink.
2012-11-24 [Ravenclaw]: Is Jaqi going with them?
2012-11-28 [Sideways]: I thought Roland had to go inside Eddie. I don't think they can enter New York in body yet.
2012-11-28 [Ravenclaw]: i always read it as they both physically went through independantly of one another. Esp now that Eddie's been drawn.
2012-11-28 [Sideways]: Oh. Well, what do you suggest?
2012-11-28 [Ravenclaw]: Roland could tell Jaqi no, perhaps even something nigh on misogynistic like "No, in there is no place for a girl." to which of course she'll argue considering she just killed Jack. Henry gets killed, rolling head, Rol and Eddie kill everyone, come back out, onto the next door. Or she could go through and maybe Henry lives, but that might not give Eddie the closure he needs to really truly kick his addiction. I don't mind her getting left out. It just gives her more to bitch about.
2012-11-28 [Sideways]: Hum... I'll give it some thought. It's sort of a defining moment for all three characters and requires careful deliberation..
2012-11-28 [Ravenclaw]: Indeed.
2012-12-01 [Ravenclaw]: Been three days. Decided yet?
2012-12-01 [Sideways]: They should all go in :P if only because I have an idea.
2012-12-01 [Ravenclaw]: kay. THEN POST LIKE THE WIND!
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: It's been 10 days man...
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: Look, I'm not sure what to post and all your posts defer action to me. sometimes I run out of ideas. You are fully allowed to post stuff without me in this rp. I don't really consider it Godmoddibg in this case.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: You just said you had an idea yesterday, which is why I was confused. And I'm not going to post by myself. That's writing not rpg'ing.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: I've had some drama happen lately. This rp isn't the only one I have mostly on hold. It's all of them. Though sometimes I lag more on this one ecause you can be much too persistant about it.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: I've not been persistent. I've been patient. Considering I'm used to an average of 50 or so posts a day in my more active games I think I've been pretty damn considerate. If you got stuff going on, just tell me. I understand that life gets in the way of things, but treating me like a child because you think I'm too persistent is just asinine.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: I don't treat you like a child. I treat you like you annoy me, and remarks like that at the reason why.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: I annoy you? I've done everything you've asked me to for this game, to the point of basically taking over because you don't seem to want to do any research. All you've had to do is play Roland and post once every couple of days. Which you've completely stopped doing for the simple reason that I asked you to post, bumped the page or asked a question. I have never abided such rudeness from another player. If this is how you tread your other players it's a wonder you have anyone to play with at all.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: Now who is asinine? Look, don't pretend to care about the reasons why I post or don't post. You only care IF I post or not. And I guess you're allowed to take that personally, because I would post more if you weren't so damned obnoxious. It doesn't help that when I am posting, Jaqi is always either turbo-emo or queen Mary Sue. Im sure that will get better as the story gets rolling, but we won't get there if you keep pissing and moaning when you don't get your way.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: It's a little hard to flesh out a character when she only gets to post once a week. It's hardly been twenty four hours since her drawing, she's not going to make drastic character developing changes in the span of a day.
And I do care what reasons you may or may not have for posting. Real life gets in the way of things, I understand that. I just figured it was best to stay out of your personal life considering what happened last time. Apparently my attempts to give you your space have led to you thinking I'm a post hungry and obnoxious. Which I have tried very hard not to be. Lately, yes, because not posting in a span of 10 days with no reason why is rude. If you'd told me you had drama before yesterday I'd have just shut up.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: I don't feel the need to argue semantics. I'm not trying to take a moral high road here. I generally don't like talking to you, and the roleplaying is good, but I'm in the midst of internal and external conflict that has been going on all year and it sucks ass. This roleplay means almost nothing to me in the grand scheme of things, and ALL my roleplays have suffered from my writers block.
But, like I said, I give you a free pass to take it personally, because you regularly piss me off, so I don't give you the due courtesy I give others. I take forever to answer you, because if I don't feel like it, I freaking don't answer you.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: Well it's about time you were perfectly honest. If you didn't like me in the first place why did you bother agreeing to try this again? A simple, "No, the moment has passed." was all I needed instead of strung along for weeks thinking that at some point this game was going to actually get somewhere. That maybe in the future we could warm up and start talking like a couple of friends again. I see the real problem though. Instead of dealing with the issue, you avoided it all together, made false promises and basically hoped that I wouldn't care. Now that it's gotten awkward, you became defensive and made me out to be the bad guy instead of turning that microscope of yours back on yourself and realizing that you're just a run of the mill self important ass.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: Please. Please get a dictionary and look up the word "Pretentious." "Hypocrite," as well. I was willing to try again, and stuff came up that had nothing to do with you. I said you were obnoxious, and rude, and an egotist. I didn't say I didn't care about the roleplay. I said it has been an extremely low priority to me because of what I'm dealing with.
Now, you annoy the shit out of me, and you may take that personally. But I actualy do like this roleplay and do appreciate the amount of effort you put in. But beggars can't be choosers, RC. You take what you can get. When I feel like posting, I will. The depression has nothing to do with you, but it doesn't help when I anticipate bickering with you every time I see you. You have been on good behavior for a good while. But you were only refraining from saying out loud what I knew you were thinking.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: My god you're patronizing. Do... do you actually listen to yourself or do you have program or something that comes up with these responses for you? You've already admitted that you don't give a damn about the game. If you did you'd be willing to admit that maybe I'm not the problem. Take a moment and reflect on how many times you end up in arguments like this. If it's often, perhaps you should consider changing your behavior. I know depression sucks, but that doesn't give you the right to be insulting and belittling when I react appropriately to days and days with no word from you at all. Stop acting like such a victim.
I get that you don't like me and I actually appreciate you telling me. I know not everyone in the world is going to think I'm awesome, but you sir, have been one hell of a pill to swallow. I've tried to be understanding and patient, but I can't deal with someone who refuses to at least meet me half way.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: I don't have any incentive to "meet you halfway." I don't have any incentive to patronize you either. I wouldn't have made or participated in this rp if I didn't care. If I think you're a bitchy narcissist, I wouldn't have to say I appreciate you writing a boatload of stuff for this rp. The thing is, I do recognize you put in hard work. I also realize you are exceptionally annoying to argue with. You are fantasticly pretentious. But I think it's kind of cute how serious you are about it, so I don't get too mad. "Exasperated" is the better term.
Look, the burden of winning the arguement is on you. I'll be fine if this roleplay disintegrates because we don't get along. I'll be fine if it doesn't disintegrate, because I don't have to like you to continue the roleplay. I might have to like you to qualify as an "active poster" here, but I'd continue the story when I felt inspired and had good ideas. Even if you're like the whiny little sister in a family drama. It doesn't bother me so much that I'd hate you or anything... Just sigh. I sigh a lot.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: Oh I'm not mad. I don't get mad when I deal with petty people who refuse to see their own faults. I get mad when someone takes a shit all over something I'm passionate about, which you've done with your behavior. Still, I'm not mad. Disappointed and frustrated are more accurate terms to describe how I feel about this situation. Disappointed that you seem to not care anything about the commitment you've made and frustrated in the fact that you refuse to see that you're the one at fault here. I will admit that at times I'm sure I've been a little annoying, but you seem to have elevated an eagerness and passion to play into intolerable insufferable behavior for having to wait. I have players where I wait weeks for for one single post, but they're worth it. I thought perhaps that you were worth waiting for, but I'm beginning to understand that that's not the case. You're too busy wallowing in your own self importance to give a damn about what rping really is. It's fun and that fun is based on a commitment you make to another person to keep up your end of the deal. A person that if you're lucky, you can become friends with. Without give and take, there is no progress and with no progress, games die. Which this one died roughly about the same time as Jack Andolini.
I've come to the conclusion that you take yourself way too seriously.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: Now I'm just laughing my ass off. Again, I'll repeat the burden of winning the argument is on you. I don't care what you think about me. I think your idea of me and my motivation is as flawed as your conception of roleplaying. I don't owe you shit, sugar. I don't lose anything if you pitch a fit and unfriend me. I potentially gain something if you come back.
Your "behavior," to use your rhetoric, today is the very definition of taking things way to seriously. I'm absolutely certain you get along fabulously with most people you meet. I'm sure you and your friends have excellent, successful roleplays.
Now, that being said, Hi. my name is Darran. I am an individual and I have a unique perspective of you. My perception is that you're an argumetative, uber-intense egotist who gives approximently 10,000,000 more shits about this issue than I do. I believe that could be construed taking it "way too seriously."
I'm pretty lackadaisical about it. If you quit your shit, "hooray!" if you don't quit your shit, "whatever!" if you leave and unfriend me, "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!" I'm cool either way. You're the one invested in convincing me of your correctness and right-ness. I don't give a fuck if you listen to me or not. I'm still not gonna see it your way.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: Now see, you're just trying to piss me off. Which is petty, quite passive and extremely bitchy. If you've nothing more to argue than the utter lack of the shit you give, then I've gotten my point across rather well. You may see my pulling out of the game as a hissy-fit if you want, but frankly, I refuse to invest any more time in a game or player that is/are going to go absolutely nowhere. See, I give a shit. I give quite a few shits, because that's what people do. Real people give a shit about things they're invested in. But I'll find some other forum to place Jaqi in and earn much more satisfaction with her character development than I ever could have here. So think what you will, consider this a last effort to win the argument if you want to. I could care less what you think of me at this point because you've proven that with your small-minded, lackadaisical attitude, the point I was trying to make in the first place.
2012-12-05 [Sideways]: Cool. Wish you the best. If you change your mind, this rp will still be here.
2012-12-05 [Ravenclaw]: Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice...
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: The man was 22 year old Shane Williams, and the book was a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous, given to him in his little S.W.A.G. bag along with a toothbrush and the little travel-size toothpaste, 2 in 1 shampoo conditioner and hotel bar of soap. He'd only arrived in detox an hour ago.
For him, there was an immediate rush of vertigo as his body moved on it's own. In his head, Roland heard the
"Woah! What the fuck was in that triple-stack?" Reactionary thought Shane had. There was no immediate resistance to the Gunslinger's control. Shane was a veteran tripper, and he believed forcefully resisting the lossof control drugs brought was as potentially harmful as panicking when the cops show up.
Stoner Rule #1 is do not panic.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Not any psychedelic drug, not even DMT, had produced spontanious personalities in Shane's head before. No, this might have something to do with the mental breakdown that got him in here.
Yet, Shane was into all that mystical shit. Shane watched Alex Jones online. He didnt believe President Obama was a motherfucking lizard man, but mind control could be going on here. Or some alien from the Pleiades or alpha centauri was brain hacking him, or--
Shane took a deep breath. Shane could go shopping at Sooper Saver and pick up his groceries on four hits of acid, then drive home straight as an hour. This shit wasn't going down with him as a helpless bystander.
Roland felt the controls get yanked right out from under him. Shane had much more cognitive self-awareness than Jackie, at least interms of mental/emotion
"Okay," he said out loud. "Deep breaths, Shane, deeeeepfuckin breaths man."
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "The fuck?" He said outloud, but quietly. His heartbeat jacket up and adreniline went through his system, cutting way down on the effects of the roll pill he took an hour before showing up at detox. He'd considered many times what he should do if he were abducted by aliens, or contacted by spirits. The first directive there was the same as Stoner Rule #1.
Don't Panic.
In his head, he spoke at the prescence.
"Hey dude, why don't you declare YOURself and YOUR intentions first. I mean, no disrespect, but this conscioussness happens to belong to me, bro!"
Behind that, his mind flinched at his own discourtesy. This could be Jesus or Amon Ra or something.
"No offense," he added directly.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Again, Shane answered with his thoughts.
"Not a lockdown facility here. I can walk right out anytime. Of course, thats a damn good way for me to see 45 year in prison down in Loxahatchie, so I think I'll stay. 7 day detox, 28 days in treatment, 7 years probation. Thats what the lawyer says, and I like that deal. So I appreciate the offer, Roland Deschain, but I'm gonna have to say 'fuck that"
Shane took a deep breath again, and decided to lie down and close his eyes. This crazy ass event should take his full attention. If its a mind thing, put the body on hold.
Then, of course, the door by the foot of his bed opened and a massive black man in blue hospital scrubs came in unannounced, wheeling in a big vitals-taking machine mounted on that metal thing with wheels that hospitals have patients carry around their IV bags with.
"All right, mister Williams," the rehab tech said in a heavy basso voice. "Wake up, gottatake your vitals."
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Shane fel it when the voice left. It was like the feeling of abscence when our pet dog jumps out of your lap. It was bizarre. But, if the guy was gone, it was a good thing. No needto look crazy here. These people had the judge's number, fax, all that.
"Yeah, yeah," he said tiredly and handed his arm to the tech, who put a bloid pressure band on and put a thermometer in his mouth.
"Comin' down yet?" The tech asked.
"Last ride finishes in probably four or five hours, good sir. Then Im on the clean and serene path again." Shane answrred, slurring slightly because of the wand under his tongue.
"For real this time?" The orderly said with an incredulous laugh.
"This time I got prison time to sweeten the deal." Shane said asthe machine squeezed the fuck out of his average arm that was on an average body.
"You know that dont mean shit, right?" The orderly said as he took the thermometer back and finished the vitals.
"It better this time." Shane said with a sigh.
"120 bpm. You feelin okay?"
"Nervous as FUCK about that legal stuff." Shane answeres.
"I would be too, kid." The orderly finished up, wrote on his clipboard, and cleared out
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Roland came to life in Jackie's arms, the sudden movement and tensing of all those slack muscles probably startling her. He blinked rapidly, feeling how dry his eyes were.
"He's loose in the damn head from the look of it," he said to Jaqi as he satup.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "The Prisoner. He's not imprisoned, not yet from the way he tells it." Rland said, dusting himsely off as the black man soundlessly talked at the doorway. "But his mind... moves to fast and thinks strangely. And he's drugged. But I don't think that's why." He looked at Jaqi. He seemed to glare at her a little. She was still acting like a cornered animal. Maybe she wasnt aware of it. But it annoyed him.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "He calls it 'detox'" Roland answered. "He's a drug addict. It's a hospital for that, I suppose." Roland looked at her. "I think I can get him out quickly. He's due to be charged with long imprisonment. I guess I should try convincing him this is a better alternative. Im going back in," he told her.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Shane hunched over and held his head. The vertigo was back as his eyes went right to left by themselves.
"How do you know my--" he said out loud, but switched to his head again.
"Its SHANE. Man--Roland, Guy, sir... fuckin.. no, no mirror. What the hell do you want? Where are you from? What the fuck is this about?"
Inwardly, he wondered if he really was that depressed. Sure, Amy, the love of his life left hin for his best friend, and his mom found him dead on the bathroom floor with foam coming out of his mouth, but that was a coincidence. Sometimes mixing benzos and alcohol stops your heart. Fact of life. Wasnt on purpose, for chrissakes.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "Oh...kay..." this time, having hisbody move itself was just plain cool. "Yeah, so you know I'm a mess. That's just fine. But I can't leave man. I got serious drug charges. This place is the only way out of that. If you wanna come back to take me on your spirit quest in about... 60 days, give or take a couple, when I don't have to see my P.O. for a while, then we can fucking do some shit man. That really does sound cool. Seriously." Shane had a habit of talking fast and without pause, and his thoughts came at Roland fast with no pauses, like a nervous man yammering to avoid trouble with someone.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Shane was blown away. The wall with the wire mesh window seemed to have like a wormhole in it. A hot girl and a cowboy outside on the ground was all he saw. That could have been underwhelming, but it was A FUCKING WORMHOLE IN THE FUCKING FABRIC OF FUCK REALITY.
"Okay, Roland. Worst case I smash my nose in a wall and have one damn good war story to tell the asshats in rehab. Best case, mystical adventure... Oh man, get a grip, this isimportant."
Shane hyperventilate
"Okay, man. You gotta gimme the hard sell. What's this about? What do you need me for? Whats the actual plan?"
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "Dark Tower..." Shane thought. The phrase "Dark Tower" was far more provacative than even "center of existance."
"You know what? Fuck it! FUCK. IT." Shane clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, moving on the balls of his feet. He started speaking out loud. Emphasis on loud.
"I have been tired of this whole fuckin' plane of EXISTANCE! My whole life I've waited for a chance like this. I dont even give a shit if CARE BEARS are on the otherside! Lets go!" He turned to yell back at the door to the facility. "SEEYA LATER, SUCKERS! HAHAHAAA!"
And leaped head first into the doorway without any warning.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: What tore out of the doorway was a 22 year old guy of about 6 feet in height, a ittle shorter than Roland. He wasnt fit, but he had some muscle and a slight chubbyness, but really just a normal looking guy from that standpoint. His face was vaguely good-looking in a mostly forgettable way. He had a slightly jutting chin and high forehead, pale complextion and big, deep blue eyes with long eyelashes. His hair was close to shoulder length with a lazy wave to it. He hadnt shaved recently, but his beard was incredibly patchy and looked awful on him. He was in jeans, black Nike Hi-tops, and a black shirt with the gold Batman emblem on it. The shirt was a size too big. Maybe two.
Shane stumbled and fell as he plowed over Roland, but rolled straight through the fall, somersaulting to one knee facing back towards Jaqi and Roland.
"That was quick! ... man, no Willy Wonka tunnel? I feel cheated..." he looked around, up down, back.
"I was gonna say "we're not in Kansas, anymore," but this country shit looks awfully Kansas-esque..
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: Roland placed a hand on Jaqi's shouldet and, not too gently, but not forcefully nudged her away from him so he could stand.
"This is midworld, Shane. I hadn't asked where I found you."
"Pescadero Plains detox in New York-Holy shit Youre Clint Eastwood." Shane said then shook his head "Excuse me, that was rude. You're Roland... I see." He stood up too, grimacing that he got mud all over the knee of his pants. Then he looked around at the sky, the tree the hill, turning in place.
"Awwwwwwww man, what a RUSH! Woooo!"
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "Shut up," Roland said to him. It was abrupt and did the job. The Gunslinger stood and walked towards him.
"Hey, easy man," Shane said back to him. "I grateful for the oppurtunity and all. I mean, we're going to a castle, right? Is there like some King of fuckin' Narnia or some shit? Like a quest?"
"Stop talking and I'll tell you," Roland said. He was already finding this kid wholly aggravating.
"Hey, cheese the aggression, dude. I'm sorry if I'm acting all excited and HOLY FUCK those guns are huge! Wtf are those, like fifty magnums? Holy Chistzilla! Dude do you duel wield those? That's insane!"
Roland grabbed Shane by the collor and shook him.
"Calm down and be silent! You're drugged and you're scaring the girl!"
"Bro. Take your hands off me right now. I don't know you man. Don't touch me!"
Shane put his hands on Roland's wrists.
Roland growled and pushed, backpedalling Shane towards the the dirt pile...
And suddenly found himself on his back, looking up at the canopy of the willow tree. Shane had grounded Roland with a martial arts throw, a Judo hip throw, to be exact.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "Hey, woah, ahh look, its not personal!" Shane put his hands straight up where he stood. "Just had to protect myself, okay? I dont know you people, and--"
Roland put his boot straight up into Shane's balls. Shane crumpled, crying out in pain. The gunslinger got to one knee and cracked Shane with a left hook after that. The blow didn't knock him over, but as Roland regained his footing, Shane stayed down, holding his face.
"AhhhhhHHH! MotherFUCK!" Then Shane keeled over into the fetal position, groaning and cursing.
"My sentiments, as well, Shane of Pescadero Plains." Roland stepped back towards Jaqi, removing his duster to shake the mud off it.
2013-05-25 [Sideways]: "No harm done. Save perhaps my ears." Roland put the duster back on. Shane continued to roll on his back like a turtle, alternating his hands between his jaw and his crotch. Roland looked to Jaqi.
"That was good. Just sink into your knees more." He looked to Jaqi and nodded.
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: Roland closed his eyes, rolled his right hand in a gesture Shane found similar to the jerking off gesture that was popular with his friends. The meaning was the same: "whatever."
"We can cook now." The willows around had dumped enough limbs and brush to make a fire.
Shane sat down cross legged, looking from the girl to this cowboy-looking Roland guy. The man had a peculiar look to him. His initial idea that he was the spitting image of Eastwood seemed way off now. Now that he thought about it, he couldnt swear to what race the guy even was. His skin was the ugly red-brown of a construction worker who got too much sun. There was some features that made Shane think Spanish, others like his eyebrows and squinty, puffy eyes said native american. But the guy was pretty much white, he guessed. There was a dryness and weariness to his voice that reminded Shane of his grandfather.
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: Roland parked himself on a drier section of that six foot dirt wall that the stream pooled behind. The willow provided excellent shade from the late morning sun. Roland looked at his maimed hand, interested in the fresh, scarless pink skin where his fingers had been.
Shane sat quietly, feeling shamed and humbled. This was a lot to take in, he hoped Mr.Roland didnt take it personally.
"So it's not a castle?" He asked meekly.
"The Dark Tower?" Roland let his hand fall to his side, feeling awkward with the lazy pace he had when he had been running so hard for the past few years. "It's probably not a castle. But I don't know."
Shane looked around more, his mind finally noticing the weirdness of the tree, the abscence of any other people. No people, no cars, no buildings.
"What year is this?" He asked.
Roland arched an eyebrow "Pardon?"
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: Roland's lips scrunched up as he thought about it.
"I havent seen very much of where you two come from. But.." he looked at Jaqi. "Hardly anyone keeps the same calender. And mostly people dont care anynore. The world has moved on." He stopped, lit a winston, and ripped out the cotton. "Where Shane is from, it looks more like what the Old People lived in here. Legends Bout the old people say they all killed each other with their technology at least. . Thousand years ago. Maybe two." Roland knew this was the sort of irony that asked for a joke, but he didnt have one. He wasnt the joking type. He didnt even smile.
"If this world is yours too, than this is not an "ago." It's what is to come."
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: "Probably not," Roland said, dragging on his smoke.
Shane looked around, and was grateful he quit. He did enough to himself without those useless cigarettes making it worse. "So this is an alternate universe?" Shane asked.
"A what?" Roland responded.
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: "Definitely that." Shane said. When Roland looked quizically at them both, Shane added "if you got me here from New York, and this isnt earth, and you did it like.. telepathicly or something, I mean... now I dont even know how I got here, but--"
"Magic," Roland said simply.
"...no shit?" Shane's eyes widened.
"No shit." Roland responded.
"So what are we in for? Like, the next step?" Shane asked.
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: Roland's eyes flicked to Jaqi. He hadnt mentioned Marten Broadcloak to her. But he kept that to himself.
"I was told I would find three companions to help me. Jaqi, you were heralded as "The Child Lost." Roland eyed Shane.
"And you are The Prisoner."
"Deep, man. Somebody prophesized my coming? Shit, I hope that's a good thing." But when he thought for a second about that term, "Prisoner," he remembered that he'd just arrived in detox. There was no Xanax or Jack Daniels in sight. He paled. That was very bad.
"The Somebody," Roland said, "The Wizard, he is not to be trusted. Not for a second. We wont concern ourselves with any gabbing about titles he gave."
2013-05-27 [Sideways]: Roland removed his blackened iron pan and cracked the eggs it, stirring them in with a stick. He set about it silent, which bugged the shit out of Shane. The guy was ten kinds of intimidating to him.
"So is the Wizard the adversary? You know, the guy we have to stop? Is he in the Tower?" Shane asked, scooting a bit closer tothe fire.
"No." Roland said. "I wish it were that simple. But if we see him,we will hope we're able to kill him. Which is doubtful."
"Lemme guess." Shane chuckled. "He's immortal and your hand cannons are powerless against him!" He said jokingly.
"Good guess," was all Roland had to respond.
Shane laughed again and rubbed his jaw. After expecting some exposition and getting none, Shane's face fell.
"Oh shit, you're serious."
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Shane felt the edge come off from the roll he was on. He still felt light as a feather and spacey as Niel Armstrong, but the solid realization that New York, and maybe America, had gone bye bye.
"Awww, shit. I'm in the Matrix." He mumbled, then blinked twice. "Or out of it."
Roland gave a sidelong look, not knowing what the hell that meant.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "A pan is a plate with the right perception," Roland said absently."
"Hold on, you havent seen The Matrix?" Shane asked Jaqi. "Where are you from? You aint like hippy Bat Masterson over there, cowgirl."
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "Nineteen-seve
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "And what do you wear? Fucking 70s, hahaha.." he smiled. He sung abar of an old Eric Clapton song from the singer/guitari
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "No. And Ive known men like him before. Obnoxious does not always mean useless." Roland had barely noticed Shane had attacked him until he was put prone and vulnerable. No, this boy wold be useful, even if the Gunslinger had to torture himself to teach him.
"Very wise, Mr. Miyagi. Now... this being a country-wester
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "Good luck to you finding one," Roland said. "Out here, people ferment corn. I dont care for the taste. I doubt you would either." Roland watched Jaqi cook, finally noticing how fucking famished he was!
Shane paled even more than he was already. "No kidding."
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Shane picked at his, not feeling terribly hungry. "Incoming DT's," he said morosely."
"D.T.?" Roland asked.
"DT...?" Shane looked up. "Oh, you thought I meant Dark Tower? Fuck, if only." He pouted again and picked moreat his eggs.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Shane cocked his head to the side, a row of his dark bangs falling over one eye. The look on his face said it all.
Woman, are you for real?
"You want the eggs, man?" He said out loud to Roland.
"Eat them yourself. You might regret it if you don't." Roland said simply as he used some leaves and water to wash the pan.
"You might have upgraded to Confucious, now that I think about it..." Shane went back to eating, looking pretty sour for how excited he was earlier.
Roland looked at Jaqi, as if she could decipher what the fuck that meant.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "Confucious? Chinese revolutionary philosopher?" Shane glared at Jaqi. "Tried to civilize the people; brought about chopsticks because he said people shouldn't eat with weapons..?" He squinted and continued with a stereotype oriental voice, "Confuscious say: man who stand on toilet is high on pot! None of this ringin' a bell?" He crossed his arms and scoffed. "I thought that was a school uniform. But maybe it's a stripper outfit." He shrugged.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Shane opened his mouth to say something, saw Roland pinch his nose bridge and then remembered something about himself, more particularly about Amy. He shut it again and shut his eyes as well, taking in deep breaths through his nostrils.
"If you promise to learn to take a joke, I'll learn to tell jokes better." e said calmly, and opened his big blue eyes, looking right at her. "Deal?"
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "You can finish mine, if you aren't afraid of cooties," he said, holding out the tin cup his was in. "Us druggies are fucking rife with cooties." He shook the cup a bit to beckon her.
Roland was beginning to realize his acclimation to solitary living with the occasional interaction with semi-savage, superstitous desert people was beginning to wear on him. And he hadnt the first idea how to get these two children to take this seriously.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Roland looked at her again. "I'm finished with mine." He looked at Shane, "How long until you fall ill, then?" Those eyes of his were hawk like, somehow both more and less than human.
"Long enough to find out if you're Morpheus, or not," Shane said, finally standing up and dusting himself off.
Roland stood up, as well. "Until then, we walk." He looked up to the sky as he shouldered his purse and skin. Even after he was all set, he looked up at the slightly overcast sky for a few moments. Then he continued North along tbe stream, walking steadily.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Shane blinked rapidly, then nodded, kicked dirt repeatedly over the fire with his Nike Air Jordan's then jogged to catch up. He looked around as he went. The landscape was patchy with grass that seemed more yellow and wilted the taller it was. The dirt was consistantly damp, with lots of give and littered with dead twigs. The weird weeping cypruses grew thicker quickly, looking like big mushroom clouds of stringy leaves, with thin, vine-like streamers flailing out, needing to be brushed aside as they walked. The air smelled of salt and sea, with thick, cloying humidity but very little heat as of yet. It reminded him of Floridai n February.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: He took it, practically swallowed the eggs at a gulp, if only to shut her up, and ran afinger around the tin to get it mostly egg-free, then shoved it back in his purse, all without breaking stride. He was a bit miffed at her attachment to him once an even stranger male came along. But young people were slaves to their instincts. Even he remembered the weakness of his own youth.
"Decided I'm not so bad, after all, did you?" He asked her as Shane followed behind.
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: Roland sighed loudly. He'd done enough coddling.
"I've told you that you think too much. Now I'll tell you how to be useful. Smarts are useful. Thoughts are not always useful. Sometimes they are a bad thing. Do you know why I say that?"
2013-06-01 [Sideways]: "When your life is in danger, you dont need to outsmart your enemy, you just have to kill him FIRST." Roland looked up at the sky again, squinting and acting like he wasn't even thinking about what he was talking about. "When you and another are intent to kill each other, your true enemy is time." He looked back to her, still walking at a steady pace, his long gait perhaps making him move too fast for the other two's comfort.
"Those pitiful fears in your head, your desperation to understand everything. Those doubts will get you killed. When you "shoot with your mind," THAT is not" the mind you shoot with.
2013-06-02 [Sideways]: Roland winced and decided to drop the subject. He was no teacher. He would just have to lead by example.
"Your gun." He said. "Let me see it."
(((Explain what it looks like and a few things about it in your post, please.)))
2013-06-03 [Sideways]: He smiled, and didnt say "you think too much" to her again. Technically the unloading was a good habit.
"Son of a bitch, this gun is about to rust. You dont use this at all, do you?" He said, peering down the barrel, examining the cyllinders. He recognized the numerals on the bullet casings. "Three, five, seven... Pok?" He said. It was an upper case M, but he thought it was a varient of a lowspeech K. Why a gun would be stamped with low speech didnt make sense to him, so he asked Jaqi.
2013-06-03 [Sideways]: She required him to be blunt. "I was curious as to what the markers on the cartridges mean." He said. "We know now we can take provisions from the worlds beyond the doors, and we have only one more oppurtunity." He looked at her. "I make my bullets by hand. I think a machine made this. If its a mass produced item, like much of the old people's things are, I may be able to find ammunition for even my guns."
2013-06-03 [Sideways]: Roland stopped walking. That was the third time she said something she had no business knowing. Shane was about to make acomment that heridea of what a dollar was worth was wayyyyyy more than what a 2009 dollar, and that he prayed #3 was not from anytime in the future, but he stopped too. Roland had avibe, a merkaba like the zen meditation masters. And the guy was either cold and dead as steel, or full of fiery violence. He even took a stepback.
"Who is the Working Man?" He asked her straight out, glaring right into her eyes. He knew something was wrong about her. He had taken her from a Between Place
Way Station
And she knew things only Marten would know. She could be an agent of his. He looked at her very, very closely.
Like the machines of those who lived before, he exists to build for others to prosper, yet his very human heart begins to sicken and waste.
Marten had claimed all three of these allies
Rods
Would be troublesome, insane, or even dangerous. But Marten never played with his cardsface up.
2013-06-03 [Sideways]: "I never told you Shane was The Prisoner, and you said he was before I told you. Back then, I thought you could read High speech. But the third door hasnt appeared, and I did not tell you the title of my third." Roland squinted, nearly motionless.
"I'll ask you again. Who is the Working Man? And how do you know of him?"
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: "As if you're not acting like a caught cheat," Roland grumbled. "If you don't have anything to hide, then calm down and answer the question" when she took another step back, he used that commanding voice that he rarely used, and people rarely believed he had. It was that kingly voice that wasnt so easy to disobey. "Sit down."
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: "You dont remember saying it?" Roland looked down mulling it over. It could be the Touch. But the memory of his palaver with Marten wouldnt let him just ignore such coincidences. But she had just said something else unusual. Women were not so often literate, and "writing" as she had so passively used the verb, was something hardly anyone did anymore.
"And it comes when you write?"
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: Roland took the paper. It was bleach white and his heart hurt a little to see it so mistreated. But he opened it. He wasnt able to make much of the words. It seemed to be a school quiz. His eyes followed the check marks, beside one of them was a phrase he did recognize, "Ka-tet." As his eyes paced, he caughtsight of a little doodle in the margins. There were scribbles, and zigzags in the corners of the page, but along the side was something more recognizable in blie ink. A halflidded, weeping eye. Nearby was another word that on second look did look familliar: "Gunslinger."
Rolands eyes shifted a second to Shane, who put his hands up."I havent the slightest fucking clue whats even going ON, man."
Roland peered over the paper at Jaqi. If she was faking her fear, or hiding anything, she didnt look the part.
"We know too little about each other." He said, lowering the test "I suppose I can tell it again to the Working Man. For now, it's best you two are put in the know."
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: "Crazy? No." Roland furrowed his brow, then resumed walking. "I tell you some while we go." First Roland detailed where he was raised, mentioned his father, and a small amount about his title as a gunslinger. Throughout, he was modest enough to be clear how little those things meant anymore.
"So there are castles." Shane said.
"Aye, but we likely wont see any. At least for a time," Roland said.
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: "Yeah. The whole blood of the old kings. Aragorn was like a... like a meta human. Maybe that's why you got such a heavy vibe, dude." Shane laughed, but his eyes wereserious. He knew this whole thing was a big deal.
Roland nearly stopped he was so baffled by the slang coming out of Shane's mouth. Jaqi's question was easier to answer.
"Yes... somewhat. Gunslingers were different than lawmen. We didnt just keep the peace. We were diplomats, mediators. And we were called when nothing else would do. Sometimes fell creatures wander from the wastes. And some towns lack even one gun to share amongst itself."
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: Roland actually laughed at that. "There's only me." He pointed back west. "Beyond those mountains, my father and his father so on owned much of the land that exists. Owned, but not ruled. Even in the best days I remember, every resource stretched too thin for anyone to RULE everything. There were baronies, noble families. All held alegiance to Gilead and New Canaan. Those days are over. There was a war, and...." he lookedfrom Shane to Jaqi. "And Gilead lost. All the gunslingers are dead."
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: Roland grumbled. "So it is the Touch." He looked at Jaqi more closely. "Asoften and as clear as you get details, it's a wonder you aren't insane."
"Oh, I get it," Shane said, smirking at Jaqi. "She's psychic. Man, I was always so sure that was all bullshit." He cocked his jaw, staring into space for a second. "Well, I mean Extra Sensory Perception is real, but the pulling-detail
2013-06-07 [Sideways]: Along the page, the numbers and strange text became the swooping scrawl of text he recognized as being common in Meijis. It was a poem, in verse.
The Good Man raked them down with the guns that shoot lasers
The horn lies with the laughing birdskull
Beyond Jericho Hill, where the bombs and fire killed the gunslingers
One way passes the Eye, and another passes the son of Eld.
Roland put the book back in Jaqi's hand. He didnt want to touch the paper, and after that, he didn't want to read it either.
"All right, I believe you." Roland said to her. "So you're from her world?" He asked Shane.
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "Ummm, I think?" Shane rubbed at the scruffy proto-beard under his chin. "I mean, if we ignore the whole idea of alternate universes, yeah. I guess so. I'm from Jersey but you got me outof a treatment center in New York State. Just outside of the city."
"What is a treatment center?" aske Roland.
"Because I'm 'The Prisoner.' You guys already know about the drugs..."
Roland nodded and went silent again.
"So, she says the present is 1973. I say the present is 2009, thats 36 years past her time. So anything I talk about is gonna sound like an acid trip to her."
Roland arched an eyebrow.
"Just think really fucked up. Like hallucinating.
Roland nodded again.
"So, the world is more than she ever dreamed of, man. No flying cars, but we have worldwide wireless communication and we fight wars with remote controlled airplanes. But no lasers yet. Hey Roland, man, maybe this is wayyy in the future? I mean you got that Road Warrior shit goin on. Post-Armagedfo
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "The future..." Roland decided to light a Winston before continuing. He left the filter in this time. He usually didnt smoke while moving. "Maybe. But the world has moved on. If this was once your world, it isnt any longer."
"What the heck does that mean?" Shane asked. He leaned towards Roland, incredulous. He flinched slightly at his long bangs falling into his eyes, and flicked his head back.
"This world is... dying... breaking, maybe." Roland said. "Parts of it are rotten, and only mutants can live there. Parts of it are pure poison. Just breathing the air kills you. Other parts are just..." Roland was going to say 'dissolving right away from the rest of the terra' but he saw that his two companions were already awestruck. Maybe that stuff would confuse them.
"Just what?" Shane asked, raising his own thick eyebrows.
Roland looked to Jaqi. "Its your turn. Say something about 1973."
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "Cars...? There was a train through New Canaan. Theres a few that work. Set foot on the moon? Wait, I cry your pardon, you mean that?"
"Chya, man! '69, the Apollo astronauts walked on the moon! Everyone saw that, bro. It's like mankinds greatest achievemet." Shane smirked. His smile was what made him look good. The rest of the time he seemed terribly plain and even a bit awkward in the way he moved.
Roland pointed to a blue, semicircle smear in a clearer swath of sky off thehorizon. "And how would men get there? No scrying ball can even see it! Who could walk there? Ride there?"
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "And Gan seperated the waters from the waters..." Roland mumbled. "You say there's nothing up in the sky....hmmm sounds truer than water. And they rode... towers.." it was a bit too much to think about, and he shook his head. "The wizard, Marten, who told me I would find you two... he was a member of my father's court. He betrayed my father and his barony to a usurper. I've chased him for nigh two decades before two nights past. When I found him, he used a glammer to lay me to sleep. Do you ken that word, 'Glammer?'"
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: Roland tensed some. "Aye."
"So magic?" Shane asked. "Like a real evil wizard?"
"Yes, you can set your watch and warrant on it. He left after he showed me the cards of ka, three for you, and one for me. The last one he was lying about. But as I slept, I fear too much time has passed. He's gone, so we must draw east by north east. The Beam of the Eagle should call us before six days walk, if we dont stop to bicker to and bicker you."
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "The Beam of the Eagle is the Beam the birds fly south along to Meijis in the winter. By the look of things, we're a head into spring. A fine time to travel." Ahead, a shadow moved along the path. In the sky above was a great predatory bird, what the men of the south called a "Rapter." To the other two, theyd see its sixfoot wing span, and its fan of a tail, but Roland could see it well. From it's brown and gold wings to its rusty tail.
"Redtail hawk," Shane said, watching it start to loop in search of gulls before it continued o the beach from whence the group came.
"Ah, you see it well?" Roland said.
"Lasik," Shane replied. "And what's the beam, a migratory route?"
"Yes. But all things follow it. It comes forth from The Dark Tower itself. Though we are too far from the Tower to feel it's pull."
2013-06-08 [Sideways]: "Moving towards one," Roland answered simply. "I should hope we see the third door soon." He looked up. "High noon. Lets rest for an hour."
"Fine by me!" Shane said and slumped down. He looked at his hands. No shaking yet, but much as he wanted a rest, the walking kept his mind off the cravings.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Shane looked at Roland.
"She's right you know. Im going to get sick. Bad sick."
Roland looked at him, not saying anything.
"You can count on me to get through it, I've done this cold turkey before. I'm more worried about you, Cap'n. You dont look good either." Shane flicked his hair away, looking right at Roland, who, as usual, was looking off in the distance.
"I'm serious man, you're acting like you got a concussion. Bleary eyes, lots of grimacing. I hope you dont resent me when I cant walk, you probably need the rest." Shane blinked at Roland a bit. The gunslinger seemed to be ignoring him. "Also, man, I didn't get the memo... what do you suggest I get for a weapon? I mean, I'm no gun afficianado, so I wouldnt ask for one of those big irons, but--"
"Isn't it strange," Roland cut him off, "That there's no animals around?" Roland stretched his left wrist out as he looked around. After that he pushed the sides of his duster back with his elbows. "Just the one raptor. Nothing on the ground. With no villages in sight, there should be possums, maybe a throcken, Jesse Jay's, something..." Roland turned, peering the way Jaqi had gone. She was well out of sight by now.
"...What's a Jesse Jay?" Shane asked.
Roland put out his maimed right hand, palm out, gesturing for Shane to be quiet.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: To her right, Jaqi heard a beeping noise, sounding like a low volume digital alarm clock. beep, beep, beep, beep
It was quiet enough that Roland didn't hear it. What Roland did hear, he didn't like. He heard the sound for sure afull fifteen seconds before Shane did. Far to the northeast came a rustling, rushing sound, like someone drawing the last few drops from a glass with a straw.
"Jaqi!" Roland shouted. "Jaqi, TO ME! Right now!"
Shane could hear the sound just barely. It was getting louder, however.
"What is that?"
"I don't know," Roland whispered. "But it's coming our way. Fast. JAQI!"
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Eventually, the sound grew very loud. Roland darted towards the noise, gun drawn. At least it looked like it. He got to a tiny clearing, where he could look up. Speeding towards them was a similar shape to the eagle he saw earlier, save maybe fifteen times the size.
"Shane, get down, now!" He yelled as he hunkered down and backed into the tree canopy. Shane only heard Roland call for him, for the other three words were drowned out by a piercing scream. A raptor cry.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Roland backed up, and shane ran right up to him. "What the hell is that?"
"Perhaps an angry Can Calah," Roland said. He watched it, very worried, through the thin holes in the tree canopy. The eagle screamed again, and circled, and then saw Jaqi. Roland saw it fold it's wings, that noise making a screech almost as bad as the screaming, and it plummeted from the sky, diving straight at her.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Roland and drew and began firing while jogging towards her. His right hand fanned the hammer as he unloaded the weapon at the eagle. Shane fell on his ass as Roland passed. The big iron shamed the the eagle with it's sheer loudness.
Wood and vines of leaves exploded everywhere as the eagle broke through the trees. If the bullets even hit the thing, there wasnt a noticible effect yet. But the cannopy slowed it. It's wings deployed again to push tree branches away from itself. It was made of a dull colored steel, and it's wings were like a fan of giant swords. A single red eye gleamed from above a bright, shining metal beak that was in high contrast from the rest of it. Black clawed talons the size of Jaqi's Torso reached at her.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: "Shit," Roland mumbled and rolled himelf behind a tree. Jaqi's .357 rounds splintered and richocheted off the back and wings of the creature as it turned. Roland reloaded his weapon with practiced hands, not even looking. He didnt see shane anymore.
The eagle brought one of it's wings low as it turned, shredding through dirt and roots. One of the blades that resembled a feather caught the log she had tripped over and sent it sailing away to Jaqi's right. The impact jarred the machine and his wing passed over her again.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: The shot clipped the top ring of the Eagle's eye, sending a crack through the glass over it. It screamed again, shielding the whole front of it's body with it's wings. In that moment, Shane came running through the grass from the direction the machine threw the log, north. He tackled Jaqi hard enough to knock the gun out of her hands.
"Please WASTE THAT THING, ROLAND!" He hollered over the nails on a chalkboard screech of the twelve foot tall eagle re extending it's wings. As it did so, metal darts flew from small slits in the thing's wings. Shane suddenly went limp on top of Jaqi.
Roland wheeled out from the tree and stepped calmly forward, his body fully sideways as he fired the gun from his extended left hand. The world filled with what sounded like a lightning bolt savagely fucking a crash symbol.
Once twice, six times, Roland's bullets punched through the Eagle's chestplate. giant metal bird keeled over as it's right leg suddenly crumpled under it. He continued walking forward as he reloaded.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: The Eagle didnt just shriek this time, it roared. It itself upright again with it's left wing. It's big, titanium beak yawning open, this time spewing fire. Roland dropped to one knee, even though the flames missed him high by a few feet. He was reacting to the fire breath. If he hadn't, he would have been torched. His gun snapped closed with a barely perceptible twist of his wrist and he fired again, slower this time, unloading all six shots. The Eagle lurched as, on the sixth shot, fire gutted not just from it's mouth, but from the 18 holes in it's body. Instead of roaring, the thing let out a deafening warble like a fax machine through a megaphone. Roland was about to reload again, when the Eagle's ass rocketed out clear blue fire and it bodily shot up, crunched into the gnarly branches of the tree Roland had earlier reloaded behind, and the Eagle had earlier set aflame, and then crumpled to the ground, spouting fire and white smoke.
"Shane, get up," Roland said, but didnt hear over his own ringing ears. "Move!" He stomped over, but then he saw it.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Shane had black metal, diamond shaped knives in him. One in his right bicep, one in his left ass cheek, and one in his back, high on the right side. Roland picked him up from under his arms and started dragging him westward, away from the Eagle machine.
"Jaqi," he nodded over his shoulder and grunted with Shane's dead weight. "Run, run back to your clothes! Jin-Jin!'
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: "That charry bird is going to explode! HIE! UP! UP!" He shouted he threw shane over his shoulder and started jogging away. There was an explosion, and one of the things wings cartwheeled off northward. Another gouted flame from it's mouth, scorching the base of the tree. Embers started to fall from the canopy as adjacent trees caught fire.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Roland very carefully laid Shane on his stomach. "Medical gunna?" Roland said, without being able to surpress a smile. "There's hope for you yet." Roland took out a weathered buck knife. The only part of the metal that still reflected light was the well kept edge. He started cutting Shane's shirt off. There wasnt much bblood. The little knives were only about an inch wide, and stuck in at an angle. The only one that was that deep was the one in his back. Roland ignored the daggers Shane's arm and ass and pulled the one out of his back. The wound immediately welled up and ran over with blood.
2013-06-10 [Sideways]: Roland sighed. "It didnt hit an artery. Now stop touching his injury with your bare hands!" A minute ago, he was proud of her. Now he was considering slapping her.
2013-06-13 [Sideways]: Roland nodded, took the hydrogen peroxide. Shane was lucky. The angle the blades hit him at caused his bones to stop them before they hit anything vital. He didnt even know why Shane was unconscious. He tipped the bottle and doused the cut.
Shane woke immediately, thrashing and cursing. "What the fuck! That burns!!" Roland pushed him back down. "Don't move! Unless you actually want to hurt yourself!"
Shane hissed, but did as he was told. "What even happened? I dont remember."
Roland examined the other cyllinder Jaqi had handed him. When he squeezed it, some sort of gel came out, like tree sap. Roland stuffed a big gob of it in the cut, to Shane's groaning and mumbling.
2013-06-13 [Sideways]: "You have shrapnel in your arm and ass, Shane. So just let me triage and hold still. No complaining."
Shane just groaned and held still. Honestly, all he felt like doingwas going to sleep. He was very tired.
Roland repeated the process on Shane's arm and had to yank his pants down abit to clean the cut on his ass. The sap that Jaqi gave him stopped the bleeding very well.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: Shane said "its just stitches, right? I mean, I think Ijust went into sehock... it doesn tfeel like their deep, I think Im ok."
"Shut up and relax," Roland said and held Shanes arms down and nodded toJaqi.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: At some point during the eggcooking, Shane awoke, but did notstir.
Roland looked at Jaqi. "Relax, you did well. Better than I expected" he said simply and nodded at her.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "Yes. Shane was trying to help, too. He'll be ok." Roland promised her.
Shane, on the other hand, was starting to feel a little nautious, his nerves got tingly, and he really didnt want to mive anymore.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: Roland laughed quietly and waved his hand at the matter dismissively.
He started eating quietly, wishing to go wash his clothes. But a fire had born of their battle. It seperated them from that water soyrce.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "Can I get some water?" Shane finally mumbled.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "I should probably eat," Shane mumbled. His eyes were sensitive to the firelight and just wanted to stay layimg down.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: He reached his left arm over stiffly and tilted the skin so he could drink. " thank you," he said to Jaqi with a tight lippid smile afterwards.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "I wanna stay lying flat on the cool grass, if you dont mind,"Shane said. Roland paid none of that any attention. He was just sitting quietly, looking at the stars.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "That isnt so much of why I dont feel good," Shane said, "And, uh, thank you," he said.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "Gonna need a place to do a lotta number 2, if you kniw what I mean," Shane said tiredly. Roland merely started to relax, figuring that the eagle came as the guardian of the beam. It couldnt have cone upon them from too far away.
2013-06-29 [Sideways]: "Youre a genius," shane said and rolled on his side. He accepted the tp and smiled at her. "Im sorry for kind of... being a pain," he said.
2013-06-30 [Sideways]: "Who doesnt?" Shane said passively and took another drink of water. Then he looked at the unseasoned eggs and figured it was just like afeteria food and took a bite.
Over at the campfire, Roland withdrew from his duster one of Jaqi's notebooks. He opened it to that page that he'd seen that doodle. The word "Gilead" was egible to him, mostly because it was in cursive font, and above it was a cartoonish red eye, in red ink, weeping blood.
2013-06-30 [Sideways]: "Sometimes," Roland said, cleared his throat, then pointed with the ring finger of his right hand. "The letters are the same. 'Gilead' was the seat of my father's barony." He pointed to the G, the L, the A, the D, "And this", he pointed to the red eye. It was not specifically the sigul of Farson, and that which Farson served, the Crimson King, but the eye was most certainly the same representation
2013-06-30 [Sideways]: "It is a fell sigul, Jaqi." He shut the book. "Bad news, Sai Shane of Pescadero Plains," Roland looked over to the miserable, slumped, slowly eating young man. "You'll be walking tomorrow, whether you like it, or not."
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: Roland looked at her with a blank expression on his face. He was tempted to get angry, but, there was the fact that the second door came out of nowhere, by itself. He would have assumed the doors would be static, even if they were placed with destiny in mind. With Shane's predicament, he was forced to acknowledge that he was not in control of any of this. The door could appear over the campfire as he slept, or teleport in front of him the next time he took a piss. His urge to continue with all haste could be considered just as irrational not moving at all.
"Perhaps you're right." It was perhaps five in the afternoon. It felt like apostacy not to continue walking. "And perhaps I should get firewood, now that the decision is made." Roland stood and walked off towards the trees. The fire moved lazily, it probably wouldnt last the night. The terrain was wet, humid, likely the border of a marsh. The trees would not burn easily, and the ground was not by any means dry.
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "What a fuckin' hardass," Shane murrmurred and managed one more bite of eggs before he put the plate down. Gingerly, he inched into a seated position, wary of stretching his stitches. "Did you even understand what the hell he said we're doing? Saving the laws of physics, or some shit?"
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "Its probably not as neat as that." Shane batted his bangs out of his eyes. He had a way of jutting his chin out that made him look a little like John Lennon. The aquiline features of his face added to that too. "I mean, as simple and put together. Reality is always messier than fiction," he blinked at her a little coming to the realization that she was actually being personable to him. It made him smile.
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "Yeah, well, I was retarded." He smirked and looked down. "You at least got a gun. And, we both could have been barbequed. If I stayed out of it, then only ONE of the chosen ones would get roasted." He chuckled, thinking that was perhaps more funny than it really was.
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "1976... man, so... not just different worlds, but different times... everything really is all chaos..." Shane remembered something he read once, that order was only an exception to the rule of chaos, and that the civility and structured neatness of the universe was really an aberration, a stroke of luck, like winning the lottery.
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "The world is a different place. I wish I could show you my phone!" He laughed hard enough to double over. "Everything is advanced technologicall
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "Me? Draw? Uh... look, I'll explain.." he blew his hair out of his face with a sigh and looked up for a second, "Its not because oflike anything sci fi... just, scientists... the discovered a different way to hold information electronically
He smiled at her. "The process is the same. The military gets the technology first, then it gets made available to the public after like ten years. Standard process. Oh! And we made piece with Russia-- I mean the USSR. SO YEAH, lot changed... heh" he realized he'd been rambling and trailed off.
2013-07-01 [Sideways]: "Uhhh, no. We still dont get along with North Korea or China and we're still blowing the shit out of the middle east. Thats another, stupider story." Even though it was cool, Shane repeatedly wiped his bangs from his brow, which was sticky with sweat. He didnt say anything about it, though.
2013-07-02 [Sideways]: "I just come in not expecting to understand. My consolation is that this is better than what I was doing before." Shane settled back down to being propped up on his non wounded arm. He wasnt high anymore and was just feeling very tired and feverish.
2013-07-02 [Sideways]: Shane would have kept talking, but Jaqi started to look all spacey and far away, so he just closed his eyes. Right about then, Roland returned with both arms full of dry brush and set to improving the fire. The gunslinger could have returned sooner, but had relished the solitude and quiet.
2013-07-06 [Sideways]: "No," Roland said. "Both of you, come by the fire. There is more to discuss." He'd spent the time away realizing that he had to become a teacher and leader of Shane and Jaqi. They were mostly useless as it was, and a liability to himself, and themselves. It was up to him to change that.
2013-07-13 [Sideways]: Shane moved gingerly, sure enough, slowly too, but that more so because of the nausea. He sat down and leaned on his elbow, flicked his bangs out of his eyes and just sat waiting.
Roland was kneeling on one leg by the fire. As the day got a bit older, and the sun lazily creeped its warmest hours down to the horizon, the man wasnt sweating, not even after what just happened.
"Do you ken," he looked at his right hand, the three fingered one that held the stoking stick. "Do you understand, you are in danger now?" He turned looking at Jaqi first, then Shane, "My Ka takes me to a place no man dare go, where no civilized and safe barony has EVER ruled, and fell... things..." he waved his hand off to the smoky south east, "machines," he pronounced the word almost like "mahsheens" while his face took on a steely expression, "the men and not men you will meet," Roland looked almost upset, irritated, maybe, with a glint in his bright blue eyes, "I would have every one of ye a with me a cursed Gunslinger! A veteran killer of ten years!" He raised his voice, glared at both of them in turn. "I'd hope the four of us are all afforded a weapon, and every bullet that Gan could will us to be carrying."
Shane piped up despite the dramatic theatrics of Roland's short speech.
"At least there is three now." He said almost absently. "I mean, only if you're cool with teaching me to wield one of those fucking hand-cannons..
2013-07-14 [Sideways]: Shane swallowed his words and avoided eye contact, "I didnt mean anything by it."
"It may be the case that I need you to. Not a week ago I had two hands and two guns. Now I have three hands, and may as well give you one of the irons," Roland looked at the fire as well, still feeling uncomfortable about it.
2013-07-14 [Sideways]: "How much?" Shane asked her. He had grown too weary to paw his hair from his eyes.
Roland nodded, "A good idea, indeed"
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: "You know, if she's from 1978, and Im from 2009, who knows if that money is any good where you try to use it?" He frowned, whenever he was thinking hard, he frowned. "I mean, in my time, the bills already look different. You might get a hard time from a gun store even though those are still technically good. Say the next person you go visit is in 2109? Then what?" He looked from Roland to Jaqi, "or worse yet, 1909?"
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: Roland looked at Shane with an eyebrow raised.
"In her time, a thosand dollars, the unit of money is a dollar got it?"
Roland nodded.
"A thousand dollars is a lot of money. Where I'm from thirty years later, it still is, but not really. Now, obviously you want ammunition..."
Roland sighed, then nodded.
"Ammunition is very expensive. So, a couple thousand dollars will buy probably all the ammunition we need for four people, but you're going to need to budget it out if you want guns, too. Also there's rules about buying these things. You might have to steal the weapons and ammo annyway, if your working man isnt allowed to buy guns, or if where he lives, you have to wait a week to obtain the goods."
Roland understood most of that. To him, it just sounded like it was going to be a pain in the ass.
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: Roland frowned himself when she said that. In the syntax of the way she said the phrase, it was an insult. But she didnt know that. "Yes, I follow." He looked at Shane "so guns are common where you are from? But regulated?"
"Yes, but there's reasons for that. In America, the nation she and I are from, the citizens have the right to purchase and own guns. But... America is a utopian society..."
"What does that mean?" Roland asked.
"That America is a very rich and prosperous nation. Utopian means perfect, so thats the wrong word. America isnt perfect. But everyone is... kind of like a spoiled child, you get it? It's like they dont know the purpose of a gun is to fucking kill people."
At this, Roland did show comedic surprise, with both his eyebrows going up and his jaw hanging a bit down.
"Yeah, responsibility and discipline are lost arts over there. So getting a gun without a couple of permits, or waiting a week, that might happen. Really, though, you're gonna be pleased with the selection you can choose from. Might give ya culture shock."
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: "Hardly!" Shane said tp Jaqi. "Lets have some guy with an alienmind in his head go try to buy a gun face to face from a stranger. No, no we're gonna have cowboy here buy from a big conglomerate store, something like "Gunzapalooza" or some shit, someplace where he's just another face buying 2 thousand rounds for three different guns."
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: "No, thats a figure of speech. But yeah, there's gun stores bigger than Macy's and big conventions where they sell guns. If you're lucky you can buy privately at a gun show like that. But we're speculating way too much. And probably wearing Captain Big-Bad's ears out." Shane sighed and sprawled out on his stomach more. He was getting very tired from all the talking himself.
2013-07-15 [Sideways]: Roland nodded. "Keep it back in the box, for now. We'll probably have the opportunity to use the dollars tomorrow." Shane's door had come the next day, so it wasnt a stretch to assume the next door would appear tomorrow.
Shane closed his eyes, thinking he'd probably wake up back on a rubber mattress in rehab. But part of him knew that wasn't going to happen. No, he was going to wake up sick in a world without toilets. But at least it was with the lone ranger and pocohontas in the land of mystery...
2013-08-05 [Sideways]: Roland merely sighed and removed his boots, testing his heavily calloused feet on the grass and finding it suitable.
"I haven't given it thought. Then again, I dont think as much as you." He saw her face scrunch up a bit when he said that.
"Don't worry, sai Jaqi. On the morrow, your thinking may shame me, for true." His face was, as always, serious, but there was something benevolent in his eyes this time. "My peers, my... friends," Roland said thst word haltingly, knowing that it had been a full lifetime since he'd even considered the thought of a friend, "they japed at me for not being able to think around things." He'd almost said "corners," and wasn't sure why he didn't. "I am a great killer. But I would never make a good peacekeeper, like your da before you."
2013-08-05 [Sideways]: "Turncoat," Shane mumbled at her. The sun still crept at the horizon, and the cloudy day became dimmer still.
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