i can't hear the fireworks

[Cicada]

((Cedar Dalisay’s Friend, Thread 4))

“So. Ghost hunter tools are going to work in this case too?”

Yeah… they’d driven this far before Cedar had even thought to clarify because. She trusted Fitz? Someone as confident as he was made anything make sense- more so than confident, maturely confident. In his own way. In her opinion. Maybe two qualifiers too many but, again, they’d driven out this far.

“In DEVOUR that’s the case, if you’ve ever played. This is my first time doing this in real life though.”

And she fully hoped that a super fast demon spawn wouldn’t be hunting them down unless she ran around an arbitrarily large space looking for ten macguffin items to defeat it.

There were supposed to be more people on this trip with them but the guestlist had become three excused absences and one no-show who had seen-zoned her check in text. Not at all minded though. Gas going back home would be more expensive because dad had left her with half a tank, that was the only rankle. An outing with friends was a good time whether it was all of them or none but one. Rare enough that she actually got to see one through herself, anyways. She wouldn’t blame others for bailing, not when she was the queen flake of all snow.

The trees whipping by the sedan window looked frigid and bare already. Bit early in the year for that, or maybe it was the demonic ambiance of Dover.

“I know you’re going to lead us to greatness but what is, like, the actual plan.”

Cedar also would need help figuring out where they needed to find parking.

[ViolentMedic]

((Russell 'Fitz' Fitzroy continued from Into the Woods.))

“Well, this one doesn’t really have any links to ghosts or, y’know, spiritual sorts of demons. Like… I know it’s called the Dover Demon, but nothing suggests it was a ghost. Kinda looks more like an alien or just a weird flesh boy to me.”

Fitz would have rather chased something with more substantial sightings, but most of those weren’t within driving distance for teenagers. But it got him out of the house and hanging about with friends. In theory, if most of them hadn’t tapped out for the day.

The others might have realised that being on this daytrip would lock them in a small box for hours with a Fitz in full chatty mode. Well, that’s fine, maybe small doses were the way to go. Or they could have had legitimate reasons.

Honestly surprising that the only one who’d seen this trip through was Cedar, because she tended to cancel a lot, and she was more of a friend-of-a-friend sort of deal. But she had a pretty open mind about this whole chasing maybe-demons thing, and it felt less awkward than wandering around a strange town on his own.

“I haven’t played. It good? About ghosts? ...Hungry ghosts?”

Fitz checked the GPS on his phone, peering at Farm Street. The sightings mostly seemed to happen along there, even if it was like nearly fifty years ago. Though parking was proving difficult to find along such a long road.

“Ah, yeah, I got a plan for greatness.” Fitz gestured ahead of them. “I’m going to awkwardly fumble about in the trees, and see if anything mauls me. Hasn’t worked yet, but there’s always a first time. Little guy’s like… only reaches up to my knees so he’ll prolly just scratch up my calves a bit.”

[Cicada]

Cedar, inevitably, did not know what the fuck Fitz would be on about. She was just happy to feel good enough to have gone through with it. Huh. Maybe everyone else had canceled assuming she would too. Jokes on them then, she was enough conversation for… one person, rest of the group worth’s would inevitably be supplied by Fitz in big brain mode.

His big brain was interesting though. She’d never heard anything quite like it, she guessed.

“Lab escapee. Or I guess, ye olde alchemist’s shop, back in those days.”

They were driving down a really long road of the typical pseudo rural Massachusetts long road variety. The one with the perfect amount of creepy clusters of trees where corpses could be dumped, this probably being the origin story of their demon. The side of the road was often either ankle-height narrow stone walls or the tree line itself.

“Maybe he has super strength and can bring you down to his level though. In, like, a violent and unpleasant manner.”

Cedar was short enough that she needed the seat all the way forward and still needed to stretch her calves like it was PE. Compared to Fitz, who could actually use the legroom installed on behalf of her ridiculously tall mom.

“And what will I be doing? Bait? Need me to stay in the car in case we need a quick escape?” She smiled, easy, business-like. Surprisingly fun to buy this wholeheartedly into it. She almost believed what she was saying.

[ViolentMedic]

“Maybe. That’d be pretty sweet. I think the Mothman tried to grab a baby once, so even if they’re not always violent, like, who knows.”

Fitz peered at the road, scrunching up so he could duck his head and get a better view of it. The main problem was there was nowhere to park closer to the area he wanted to investigate, or at least he didn’t understand the road well enough to see it. Phoo.

“Nah. This isn’t some kind of King Kong situation. I got standards.” Fitz grinned at Cedar. “I’ll be heroic and take the mauling, and you can take photos while I’m being mauled. How’s your grip? Good with angles? I can’t take pictures for shit, if it helps.”

[Cicada]

“What’s the motive for the zoologically dubious attacking humans, exactly. We encroach too much on them and they want to be left alone?” The first thing that came to mind anyways. Perfectly tracked with her being a casual doomer like any good Gen Z native.

“I can do…” Okay so maybe she wasn’t supposed to hold her phone and drive but they were moving below the typical old person speed limit at the blistering velocity of ten miles per hour. This in mind she felt justified in ignoring the PSA replaying in her mind’s eye. “This.” Her tiny hand at three smoothly dragged itself and the wheel to nine as she followed a curve in the road. Her other hand tilted a phone screen Fitz’s way and smoothly caught his likeness. Little motion blur, bit of odd framing. The camera added ten pounds too many with that particular shot, unfortunately.

“Not bad, right?” She dropped her phone into his lap so she could stop driving in a way technically and actually reckless.

“But it's 2021. We both get mauled or we both live to go to another day of school.”

[ViolentMedic]

"Depends on the creature. For the Dover Demon? Who knows."

Fitz picked the phone up once it was tossed in his lap, eyeing the picture. “Already pretty good, especially while driving. If he runs across the road, you’ll be ready.” He carefully placed the phone down between their seats so she could pick it up again when necessary. “Mine always turn out blurry in, y’know, the bad way. Though I think that may be a curse with cryptozoologists to begin with. Bigfoot’s always blurry. Unless he’s just, y’know, like that.”

He glanced back down at his own phone and the GPS in question, and said, “I think there’ll be somewhere you can park over on the left? We’re still a little ways off, but it looks like the parking on this road is, like… not great? I can stretch my legs a bit.”

He’d have to do the honorable thing and stay between Cedar and the demon if they got ambushed, though. She was sick a lot, so she probably would need him to be between them. He could leave her behind if they had to run, but, y’know… rude. That was fine, though, like at least that would make his corpse physical proof of a demon. What a way to go out.

[Cicada]

“Couldn’t that be, like, one of those anti-magic things?” Cedar’s most obvious reference point for the shenanigans afoot was anime. For all she knew there was a one to one between the strange things that went thump in the night of the real world and isekai. “Like, the creatures are specifically designed to counter those looking for them but can be caught fine by the normies who don’t believe. Actually, hold onto the phone. We can test that theory if we both try to catch a shot.”

Somewhere they could park turned out to be grass. But at least that grass was dead and dying in large, conveniently tire-width chunks, so this spot probably was regularly used as parking. Possibly even by people on the exact same fool’s errand the two of them were on. Cedar glided to a cool stop and set the breaks, keeping the car on. Consciously she had already decided they might need a sudden getaway.

“Stretch away.” Her door opened, she hung her legs out but otherwise didn’t make any obvious moves. All about them the trees of unpropertied land formed into an almost ceremonial copse of shade.

“By the way, you’re not thinking of sacrificing yourself, are you?” The gravity of the subject seemed to move her to some mirth, a cackle audible in the teeth of her grin. “Everyone makes it out or no one does. I think that’s the bro code, anyway.”

[ViolentMedic]

“I don’t believe in magic,” Fitz said mildly.

Well, it wasn’t that cut and dry, really. Fitz believed in a lot of things that people would class as weird and possibly magic. But really, he just figured ‘magic’ just meant ‘this was weird, and we don’t understand how it happened,’ and anything could sound like magic if you didn’t understand it. Show a computer to a caveman, and they’d probably think it was a cursed magical item. He believed in ghosts and possessed dolls, he could believe in demons and weird areas where reality didn’t quite work how people thought it should, but he believed there was probably some kind of science behind it. Just not science that anyone really understood yet, like how the sun might as well have been a god before people could send spaceships up to look at it.

“It could be an… anti-something, though,” he conceded, as Cedar pulled up. “Oh, good, I’m getting all crackly.” He opened the door and stretched out his limbs, which had not quite had enough room for comfort.

Fitz clambered out and continued stretching, before he said, “Well, ideally not. But I dunno… I don’t think both of us dying would do any good? Then there’s no-one to pass on the truth, and we both died for nothing, right? I think passing on the truth is more important than a bro code.”

Besides, if the creature was fast, one of them would have to get eaten at minimum. Cedar wasn’t going to toss herself on the grenade, was she? She wasn’t allowed to do that. That’s against the rules of chivalry or something. Though, that was kinda all tangled in gender and was kind of nonsense anyway. If he listened to all those various rules, he wouldn’t be wearing a skirt right now. But maybe it wasn’t a gender thing in this case so much as him being the demon expert. Or… well, enthusiastic amateur, but the more experienced of the two of them. So not chivalry, maybe responsibility?

“Besides, I’ll just… hang out as a ghost or something. Point at this spot so people know some shit went down.” Fitz pointed, as if to demonstrate.

[Cicada]

“So more along the lines of something so advanced scientifically it looks like magic to us.” Cedar’s hunch was that was how it worked in the particular rabbit hole Fitz had tossed himself bravely down at his young age. A world more like Steins Gate than Certain Magical Index. She watched him, in and of himself a cryptid in how reality bendingly tall he was. She was sitting at eye level with him because of the magic of SUVs, but the moment she touched grass (unlikely), it’d be like her elementary school Slenderman nightmares all over again.

“I don’t necessarily know if I agree with that,” she idly kept an eye out over the quadrant of the clearing that was in Fitz’s blindspot, as if she’d know what to look for if it jumped out of the bushes and started dancing Cherry Bomb at her. “But I’ll honor your last wishes. Though I think realistically you’re the one who escapes with his life.”

She glanced back at him. Damn, he rocked the skirt though. Guys needed to do that more often.

“Wouldn’t we have seen other ghosts pointing us towards the demon already then? Maybe you don’t get to choose how to communicate with the world of the living.”

[ViolentMedic]

“Right, right, exactly,” Fitz said, nodding with more enthusiasm than normal. “The Dover Demon’s not dissimilar-looking to the typical Roswell greys, so hey, we could be dealing with aliens rather than legit demons. That’s probably less scary, y’know?”

Fitz peered around at the surrounding trees, not seeing anything promising–as if the Dover Demon would just pop out, no problems.

“Well, that’s true? I’m sure you don’t get to pick how or if you ghost, exactly…I think more people would come back if they did. But I feel like if I really, really want people to know about it, that maybe that energy’ll hold me here. But there’s a lot of debate as to what, like, makes ghosts be. Like there’s this whole thing about them being more common in places with running water because the water makes energy… but, anyway, point is…”

Fitz bent to peer back into the car at Cedar. She was pretty short. Plus she always had those health issues that stopped her from hanging out more often. But she looked light.

“Realistically, sure, if we both ran for it I’m probably getting back first, long legs and all. But I’m the professional here. I gotta make sure everyone gets to safety, or no-one’ll go demon hunting with me again. It’s a practical thing as well as ethical.” Fitz grinned a little, a sleepy and lopsided grin, before he said, “I’ll have to carry you, so when that happens just don’t wiggle too much because I got bony arms and I’ve literally never done, uh, arm day or whatever. Unless you count typing.”

[Cicada]

Kinda cute when he was enthusiastic. Cedar was pretty sure she was just drunk on the moment. A clean and cold breeze whipped through the clearing, she could almost smell the ocean even though it was some dozen plus miles distant. Mild sensory overload, and not the sort that would send a ripple of vertigo up her spine.

“My personal theory about aliens is they’d study us like humans study ants. So we might still die but maybe it's better if there’s no malevolent intent behind it.” Biased take, given Cedar’s probably pretty rare affection for little creepy crawlies. “They just want to feed us and see us grow, which would explain why they keep getting caught hovering around everywhere. We’re not a threat to them.”

Yeah that was definitively the weirdest thing she’d said that day that hadn’t been related to calling out yaoibaiting Genshin fanfic. She wondered how he’d like her going out on a limb like that.

“Oh, so ghosts would frequent nuclear power plants then.” She remembered, randomly out of nowhere as all things learned in school tended to fall out of the sky like lightning, a factoid from world history seventh grade. “There’s a plant in Massachusetts so I guess that’s our next stop on our next outing.”

Honestly she wasn’t even being ironic. Health permitting she would probably happily prioritize doing something like this again. Something about their conversations was just… natural. As if Cedar was, deep down (past the asthenosphere) just as much a believer as Fitz was. She guessed, honestly, that it wouldn’t be the worst dumb thing to enjoy.

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure a toddler can carry me around. I’m more clothes than I am human on my worse days.” She matched his smile. “You tired? We don’t have to hoof it far- I’d prefer that anyways, else I drain myself and you have to take over driving. Mom would kill me.”

[ViolentMedic]

“Oh, so we’re like cows! That’s not the worst,” Fitz said brightly. “I wonder what sort of tech aliens would have to be rocking to not consider ants that invented nuclear weapons a threat. It must be wild. But if they can just traverse the galaxy, that makes sense.”

That was fun to think about. He liked what Cedar was bringing. It’s so much better than the awkward ‘cooooool… anyway...’ he often got.

“Oh, I’d be down for a nuclear power plant."

This was good. They should hang out more often.

"I'm not tired yet, but however far is fine. But I can totally drive… I’ve never dented the car, even while daydreaming.” Fitz scratched the back of his head idly, peering down the road. “If you’re tired already, though, I can practice carrying you now.”

That came out of his mouth without really thinking about it. Whoops. Was it weird to say that? Not that he normally worried about that kind of thing, but great thing to say in the middle of a forest while alone with a girl so short he could probably squash her by accident if he didn’t watch where he was stepping.

Well, it was out there now. Worst case scenario, she just got back in the car and left him there to be eaten by the Dover Demon. Worst things have happened.

[Cicada]

“Actually,” and she was actually exerting brain energy to think about it, huh. Hadn’t seen that one coming. “That’s a good point. Even if it’s ant sized a nuke is a nuke. Might not be the most flippant about it…” When had she gotten out of the car- she hadn’t noticed. Normally when she started walking it was a conscious effort because her bones tended to creak and complain like antiques or the elderly who sat upon said antiques.

Rare she spontaneously got up and started gesticulating friendly-like in someone else’s airspace but there she suddenly was, too eager to talk to be annoyed about having to exert physical effort like she usually would have been.

“But like, my assumption is its how tech is magic when you reach a sufficient level of advancement relative to another. The natives were outclassed by gunpowder, we’ll be outclassed by whatever justifies faster than light travel. A nuke is a kiddie toy to the sort of power level they work at. Kardashev three, probably.”

Her moment of aplomb fizzled. Whoops, she’d just said it, he’d reminded her she’d just said it. She drained quick. At least when she had the freedom to feel her exhaustion. Around someone else she trusted less, maybe… wait, hold on, wasn’t this literally their first time going out without other friends around? Huh. She’d been fast to like him. She was entertaining the whole being carried around bit rather suddenly, and not being totally put off by the thought.

Or at all, really. Huh.

“I’m good for now, but if I feel faint I’ll be cool if its your arms I swoon into.”

Yep, she’d just said that. And she was smiling about it too, nice. If she was feeling the vibe she wasn’t going to bother being ashamed of it.

((Cedar Dalisay, continued elsewhere.))

“Would you need the practice though? I’m about as heavy as your blankets. And that's when its raining.”

[ViolentMedic]

“True, it might… like, mess with their spaceships. Like how, if you need to build really delicate science machines, you should use, like… shipwreck metal, because of how the background radiation of the entire world went up a little because of the nukes. But yeah, for sure. If you don’t get tech… I mean, a computer’s just a lump of metal and stuff, really, and it can do some crazy things. Spaceships are probably to us like how a computer is to a caveman.”

Oh cool, she wasn’t running. He was swoon-catch-worthy. Nice. And she was coming up with google-worthy stuff, too—Fitz couldn’t remember the deets on the Kardashev scale off the top of his head. And seeing her flail her arms around like that—okay, not flailing, but for her it might as well be—while talking about aliens was cute as heck.

“Hrmm… carrying, uh, well that depends on the distance,” Fitz mused, grinning a little sheepishly. “Catching in the case of swooning, though... I don’t have great reflexes. Tell you what, throw something at me during the walk. Surprise me. Just nothing, y’know, too concussion-dealing. Speaking of… you good to go?”

Time to go catch a demon. Or… at least confuse it by seeing it, passing out and/or fleeing. But that’s what demon hunting was all about, really.

((Russell ‘Fitz’ Fitzroy continued elsewhere.))