Last Train to London

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen told himself that he'd celebrate every good thing that came his way from now on--no matter how small. He wouldn't celebrate it in want of something but for it's own sake. After all, there was no higher power to bargain with. It was just him.

Him and two kids.

Him and two kids and a giant VW Bus he was 60% comfortable handling. And a magical piece of paper that kept their entire lives packed neatly and lightly.

He kept reminding himself of how far he'd come in just a few weeks whenever he started really missing a nice matcha. He had Doppio on a strict assignment to look out for even the instant stuff. Every day was a new lesson in unpredictability but they'd found that there were clusters of stability. Some towns had mostly escaped the rupture unscathed and others were like patchwork from a monkey's hands. You just took what you got, hustled, and hoped for the best.

Today--today wasn't bad. They'd lucked out with a highway cutting through a sprawling plain with small patches of life in the distance. There was no telling how long the road would last, but word had spread across the town they'd just left that it went on for awhile. The street signs weren't in a language he recognized but it's not like they'd serve their purpose even if they did. Reigen spared a thought for all the taxpayer dollars gone to waste.

"Quartermaster," he snapped his fingers and adjusted the thick technicolor shades on his nose, "coffee me."

Comments

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“I picked up a wicked nicotine addiction in college. I was in a major I couldn’t stand and the pressure was getting to me.” Reigen was slightly red. This was more honest than he was used to being. “I tried to quit a lot and it never stuck. I finally kicked the habit a few years ago. I was committed, but…it sucked. Oddly, out of everything I tried, what helped me most was carrying around a worry stone. I pulled it out every time I got the itch and rubbed it until the urge passed.”

[aoihitomi]

Hitomi's fingers clasped the worry stone tightly. "But... won't you need this?"

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen waved that off. “I’ve been clean for three years. I know you’ve got that incredible pendant of yours, but this is a gift from the magnificent and wise psychic, Arataka Reigen.”

Thunder clapped in the distance. Reigen turned the wipers up to max speed and smiled sideways at Hitomi. “So every time you get anxious, take it out and remember that you’ve got friends here. And if you need to, come talk to me.”

[aoihitomi]

"Thank you, Reigen-san," Hitomi said gratefully, smiling down at the worry stone.

[throughthelookingmax]

"You said you're a psychic?" Max asked from the back. There were a lot of people with powers here. Nothing like back home. And she hadn't met a psychic before.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Ah, crap. He thought he had been speaking quietly enough.

“Oh, yes.” Reigen cleared his throat. “You couldn’t tell? No offense taken, most people can’t. I’m actually an acclaimed exorcist by trade.”

[throughthelookingmax]

Okay, so maybe her willingness to take him at face value wasn't the best decision.

"A traveling exorcist, huh." The doubt was definitely there in her voice. Just the way he talked about his profession signaled deceit to Max.

"Okay." Still, he didn't seem like a bad guy. Max knew firsthand that sometimes people had good reasons to behave suspiciously. She just hoped to find out what that was.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“Well, I am traveling and I am an exorcist but the market out here isn’t exactly what it was back home.” Reigen looked at Max in the rear view mirror. “Don’t tell me…photographer?”

[throughthelookingmax]

"Photography teacher. Well, at least I was. For now, yeah, guess I am a photographer."

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Reigen snapped his fingers. “I didn’t need my powers for that one. I know an artist when I see one.” That, and the camera pack she clearly had.

[espresso_doppio]

“Okay!” Doppio announced, having finally finished his arrangement of the day’s food on the drop-down table. His eyes were sharp as he prepared to explain them.

“The dumplings are made with potatoes, cheese, and mint. The soup was made with potatoes and onion. The onigiri…is a little different. It’s not potato. It’s sweet potato.”

[throughthelookingmax]

Max chuckled. "Did the camera give it away?"

But before she and Reigen could shift into their back-and-forth, Doppio interrupted them with a display of food.

Max was awed. "Where did all this come from?" She wasn't complaining, though; this was way better than what she had in eaten in... probably days now.

[espresso_doppio]

“Oh, I made them. There was a potato field we stumbled on the last time we camped. We bartered for the other ingredients.” Doppio stared at her expectantly to take a bite, unable contain his excitement at having a new person to show off to.

[throughthelookingmax]

Max forced herself to wait until she was finished chewing her rice ball before she finally spoke. "It's really good," she said. "A lot better than anything I could make."

[espresso_doppio]

“Oh, have some tea to wash it down.” Doppio pulled out a mug and a huge ziplocked bag of tea leaves. “Do you want ginger or peppermint? Afterwards I can pull out the dumplings with honey if you want dessert.”

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

“Hey, uh, Donna. Top grades for hospitality but let her breathe a little.”

[espresso_doppio]

“Oh…sorry.”

[throughthelookingmax]

Max suppressed a laugh. "Thanks, but I'm good. I don't know if my body could handle this much food after the last few days." She was starving, but Max didn't want to push it and make herself sick.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

Smiling, Reigen readjusted the rear view mirror and looked back to the road. The rain had become an all-out storm and he felt grateful that they picked up a passenger when they did. But damn was it hard to see. ‘Wait, is that something moving—’

“Whoa!”

His foot slammed on the break and the wheels squealed as they slid on the rain-slicked road. Reigen gripped the wheel for dear life as the van fish-tailed before it mercifully slid to stop. Before he could open his mouth to apologize, the creature he had come close to barreling into stared curiously at them up ahead. It blinked.

“…Ah.” Reigen blinked back at it dumbly. It was a horse, but it wasn’t a horse.

[throughthelookingmax]

Max peered from over the seat. "Whoa, what is that thing?"

[aoihitomi]

"It doesn't look like anything I've seen on Gaea." Though Hitomi hadn't come close to seeing everything in this world. "So it probably had to come from somewhere else."

[espresso_doppio]

“Oh! There are more…” Doppio pointed out of one of the left windows. It was hard to make out through the rain and the mist but there was over a dozen of them grazing in the plain nearby.

The first creature’s curiosity piqued another’s and it broke away from the herd to come investigate. Even if it was clearly a young one and smaller than all the others it was still a good five feet tall. Doppio could just see it’s dark snout right under the window, nostrils flaring as it sniffed the air.

[mp_strikinglyblessed]

The fact that Hitomi didn’t recognize it wasn’t comforting, but they weren’t acting threatening or even terribly spooked. “Good…horse-thing…” Reigen craned his neck to try and see how much clearance there was but it was taking up the middle of the road. He debated on whether or not to nudge it or wait it out, but he turned when he felt a gust of cool air come in.

“…Hey. Are you…?”

[espresso_doppio]

Doppio had his hand out of the window with the young creature eating bread right out of it. “It looked hungry…” He said in his own defense.

When it was done, it nudged his fingers with its bristly snout. He gave it’s nose a soft pat and it raised its head to press further into his touch.

[aoihitomi]

Hitomi climbed into the back of the van to get a closer look. Nearby, Max pulled out her camera to get a perfect shot.

"It's really cute," Hitomi observed contentedly.