Rat | 001 | Video | Day 68

[bluesrat]

[It's pretty clear from the video that the device has been turned on by accident, since the first view is partly up someone's nose. It's not a small nose, but a squinting blue eye quickly replaces it as the central focus, before the video pulls out to show the whole, narrow, lined face. The owner of the face mutters, half to himself, but clearly audible over the sounds of the water on the shore nearby.]

Hunh. It didn't do that before.

[There's another startling moment of video while he taps the screen with one calloused finger.]

Calling Dick Tracy? I don't know where Cape Kore is or how I got here, but I'm pretty sure you don't want me. If anyone's listening, I'd be glad for directions to the train station, and I'll just be on my way.

Comments

[bluesrat]

[Rat is a creative thinker. Those wacky artist types.]

Not sure where I am. There's a lot of waterfront, but the docks are empty. I can sort of see a church spire, from here.

[On the one hand, he's not in a real hurry to meet up with a gangster, but on the other hand he doesn't have many options.]

[dowhatisays]

There ain't much to this place, pal. If yous can see docks I knows where you are.

[And will be there in a few minutes. The allure of nicotine is strong.]

[bluesrat]

I'll be here.

[As soon as the video cuts out, he'll be scrambling to wrap up a few important things (cash, some of the cigs, odds and ends) in a kerchief and hide them somewhere out of sight, but when Lucky gets there, he'll be waiting and looking calm, just a bum sitting on the beach with his guitar.]

[dowhatisays]

[It really takes less than five minutes for Charlie to get there. Nothing's really too far apart in this town. He greets Rat with a nod.]

[bluesrat]

[He's sitting, when Charlie comes strolling up, just a shabby, skinny guy fiddling around with a guitar. The case sits beside him on the scrubby grass that grows at the sand's edge. When he sees Charlie approaching he gives a wave, and gets to his feet... all six plus seven inches of them.]

Hey. Nice to meet you in person!

[dowhatisays]

[Wow. Charlie's pretty tall for his age but even he's craning his neck for this guy. But he shakes his hand because he can be polite when he needs to be.]

Yeah. Yous too.

[bluesrat]

[His hands are pretty big, too, large and long-fingered and calloused from playing the guitar. He's not overly strong, though, and it's simply a firm handshake. His palms aren't even sweating, although he is inside. Height means nothing against somebody who might have friends in dark alleys.]

You're the first live person I've seen here. It's like a ghost town.

[dowhatisays]

No fucking kidding. I thinks we reckons there's about fifty people on a good day.

[bluesrat]

I'll probably regret asking this, but if there's no way off, and new people showing up, where do the others go?

[dowhatisays]

That's the fucking kicker, ain't it? Sometimes, round here. People just up and fucking vanish. Poof. No one worked out who's taken 'em or where they go. Sometimes they shows back up, most times they're gone for good.

[bluesrat]

That's... not the most reassuring thing I've heard all day. [...Sigh.]

[dowhatisays]

Ain't it just? Sos, uh, you gots something I was looking for, didn't you?

[Excuse him getting to the point but smooooooookes.]

[bluesrat]

Hmm? Oh... yeah... {He hasn't forgotten at all, in fact, but he's trying to play it cool because this guy makes him just a little uneasy. Rat turns back to the half-open guitar case to pick up a pack of cigarettes. It's not full, and a little crumpled, but there's almost ten Lucky Strikes left in it.]

Sorry, I would've bought more if I'd known I was going to be whisked away to Never-Never Land.

[dowhatisays]

[OH THANK GOD. Charlie doesn't waste any time at all plucking one from the package and lighting it up with the pack of matches he keeps in his pocket. The first drag is slow, indulgent, filling his lungs like he hasn't been able to in so many days. Jesus fucking christ, that's the stuff.

He slumps back happily as he takes another drag.]

Yeah, I would've brought a fucking factory if I knew I were on my way to this place.

[bluesrat]

[Rat smiles a little, watching, but there's nothing patronizing about it. He's been there, man. Sometimes he can't afford cigs at all for weeks. It's forced him to be less dependent on them, though, so that may prove to his advantage here.]

I guess there's no tobacco plants, either. [He splits up what's left in the pack, and offers Lucky half.]

[dowhatisays]

[He looks genuinely surprised at the offer, but doesn't argue it. He tucks his cigarette in the corner of his mouth as he slides the extras into his cigarette case.]

Not that we've found. But believe me, if I do I'm making that fucker grow.

[bluesrat]

[On the one hand, he knows this may leave Lucky thinking of him as an easily exploitable schmuck, but on the other hand that might be worth it to stay on his good side.]

I'll keep my eyes open, but I can't promise I'd know it if I saw one.

[dowhatisays]

I probably wouldn't neither.

[He laughs, after all the cigarette is putting him in a good mood. God, he missed these.]

I let my partner deal with the brainy shit.

[bluesrat]

[Rat keeps smiling what he hopes will be taken for a friendly smile, and not the wrong way at all. He'll also try to keep his vocabulary limited.]

Guess I'd better try to make them last. Nobody goes around prepared to vanish to a ghost town...

[dowhatisays]

It ain't just these. We're running low on food, too, and ain't nobody found any coffee yet.

[bluesrat]

[He winces.] No coffee? This place sounds worse all the time.

[dowhatisays]

Yeah, ain't it just a little fucking paradise.

[Still, he inhales again deeply. He can't be in too much of a bad mood right now.]

Town I live when I were a kid, I thought that were a little bumfuck nowhere town and it had three time more people than this place.

[bluesrat]

Yeah? Where was that? This place looks like it's pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, even if it was ever fully inhabited.

[dowhatisays]

Little coal mining town in Sicily.

Middle of nowhere is right. Ocean on one side and woods on the other and no one's managed to get out the other side of either of them.

[bluesrat]

[He nods, because somehow that really fits with the ideas he has about Lucky so far.]

I don't come from the big city, exactly, but this is a little too rural for me.