[ PRP ] That's no moon, that's a -( Gale, Mark)

[Zoobey]

Gale's phone rang. About ten thousand times.

About five seconds later the pile of text messages began to flood in.

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

So I was thinking like, you're my padawan and it is time you

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

Graduated and stuff and became a real jedi master

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

Get your own lightsaber

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

visit disneyland maybe??

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

How much money do you have?

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

wanna lend me 15 bucks

kuropeco

Text from Mark:

we should get popcorn too

 

[kuropeco]

The return text messages took about minutes to arrive because Gale had taken at least ten minutes just to sit and stare at them and wonder why he was still questioning Mark's behavior after all this time.

zoobey

Text to Mark:

What exactly do you mean by graduating?

Quote:

Text to Mark:

Fifteen dollars for what...

 

[Zoobey]

kuropeco

Text from Mark

Cool, meet me at your closet

kuropeco

Text from Mark

I mean office

kuropeco

Text from Mark

i'm outside you can come out of your closet

It was uncertain whether Gale was actually in his office, but Mark was definitely waiting there outside, playing some sort of mobile game involving a lot of screen tapping.  

[kuropeco]

The door opened after a moment, the sounds behind indicating that there was a lot of shuffling going on, and a crash that indicated that he had probably (definitely) tripped over his own chair in the process of getting up.

"Mark," said Gale, slightly out of breath, and looking, as he always did when the Death Assistant was around, "What do you want?"

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"If you're my assistant," Mark interrupted, entirely unable to answer questions properly, "does that mean if I die you become me? Wait, what if you die, do I become you, or do I just find a new assistant?"

He didn't wait for a reply before he said. "Cool, anyway I registered us, let's go, the mission is in like, fifteen minutes and I really don't want to be late."

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

"I am not your - " Gale began hotly, then finished with, "Wait, where the bloody hell are we going? What mission? Hey!"

He had the presence of mind to snatch up his coat and shrug into it, Gale staring suspiciously at Mark.

"What mission?" he repeated.

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"The mission," Mark emphasized, "the one I just texted about. The one where if he don't go right now there will be oh I dunno, explosions. And dying. Lots of dying. Think of how many lives you'll save - you like that kind of stuff right?"

As he talked he pulled Gale through a series of rather complicated corridors that really didn't seem like they would fit in the main Deus headquarters at all until they reached pretty close to the lighthouse. Any conversation in between the tin minutes was filled with Mark rambling something about graduating and finding his true calling, and the Force being with them, and making sure they did this properly, and so on so forth.

A couple of Hunters were stationed at the lighthouse, one of them held out a hand, which Mark sighed and finally relinquished a wrinkled twenty dollar bill before they were allowed entry. Once inside, the Death assistant took off his backpack and threw Gale what looked like a set of brown bathrobes. "Quick put these on, you don't want to go out looking like well, let's just say your chances aren't good without these."

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

Gale opened his mouth to deny this blatant pandering, then promptly shut it again, because yes, he did like saving lives. Less so the actual dying part, he could definitely do without that. And without whatever nonsense Mark was spouting the more they walked.

The robes at the lighthouse were given another suspicious look, but Gale had worn weirder. Like a Pikachu costume.

As he tugged them on over his head, Gale asked the most important question possibly ever asked on Deus Ex Machina:

"Will Caelius be there?"

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Mark was already one foot in the portal (quite literally) before he paused, quite comically, mid-step. "Why?" was about the only thing he managed to utter before he disappeared into the portal entirely.

Just like a Death Hunter to answer a question with another question (or sometimes ignore it entirely).

When Gale decided to finally step into the portal as well, he would find himself conveniently in the changerooms of some sort of clothing store, a franchised American Eagle. Nobody would really pay him much attention and Mark, as per usual, was nowhere to be seen.

The store itself was lodged within a mall, an enormous, sprawling mall. An enormous, sprawling mall that was filled with honest-to-god actual people of the non infected type, doing honest-to-god menial daily tasks.

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

Gale's sigh was very long suffering.

He followed Mark into the portal, because of course he was going. The clothing store on the other side made him pause, however, Gale frowning, wondering if they'd been sent to the right place. Mark had scurried off - no surprise there - and Gale, in his ridiculous robes, stood there in the middle of racks of clothes that looked as though they were for people who spent a lot of time on boats.

"Mark?" Gale whispered, stalking forward, trying not to seem out of place (and failing). "Mark? Where the devil are you - "

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

And then, as a gaggle of pre-teen girls departed (some giggled at him), ten feet ahead of Gale was a Mark, also wearing his Jedi robes, talking to a lady very obviously in charge of the children's lost and found booth. "Yes," his voice could be heard quite audibly from that distance, "I'm looking for a lost kid, he's like I dunno, really british and stuff. First name Padawan, last name, Gale, wait do you need me to spell this, it is P-A..."'

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

Gale studiously tried to ignore the giggling, or the flush to his cheeks as he turned around a dress rack, only to find Mark standing there, thankfully.

Or maybe, not so thankfully. Gale took three seconds to hear what Mark was saying and stalked over.

"I am not lost - what are you doing?!"

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

"D-A-W-A-N G-A-L-E," Mark finished, "G as in 'giraffe' - oh hey Gale, how did you find me?" The help attendant stared at the two before deciding to fastidiously ignore them. "I was going to get them to dramatically call your name but I guess since you're here we can just skip the formalities." What formalities.

The Death assistant scanned the masses, and for a second it looked like he was serious. "I sense a great disturbance in the Force - this way." The direction he pointed did have a large gathering of people, and it was up the escalators (using general Deus logic, the most difficult bosses were always at the top floors), so it was probably actually the mission.

The escalator was quite impressive, spanning several floors. Mark made sure to quote every single notable line from Star Wars the entire way while every single person between the ages of six and sixty headed the other direction simply stared.

When they finally got to the top of the escalator, they were indeed in a very notable location. The movie theatres.

kuropeco

 

[kuropeco]

"I followed the sound of stupidity."

Gale still hadn't figured out why he was in such ridiculous clothes, in a clothing shop that had a fair number of people staring at them by now, in the middle of what looked like a normal, every day shopping mall where one went to get trampled by crowds of sale seekers.

But still, he followed after Mark, because he thought it might be better to keep him within eyesight because look at what happened when he looked away for two seconds.

Their final destination - Gale ignoring Mark's stream of chatter yet again, just as fastidiously as the help attendant - was given a narrowed eye, Gale turning to look at the assistant.

"And why," he asked, wondering if he was going to regret asking a question at all, "are we at the cinema? What are we doing here?"

zoobey

 

[Zoobey]

Mark did a Jedi hand-wave. "All will be revealed once we enter the sanctuary within."

Fortunately the movie ticket line was very sparse, and within seconds, Mark was talking to the salesperson who was also dressed in the same weird type of robe. A giant sign was lit above the theatre that clearly read STAR WARS ANNIVERSARY MOVIE MARATHON BEGINS AT 4PM. It was currently 3:55pm local time, according to a clock to the right. After some shuffling and exchanging, Mark gave them another Jedi hand-wave, which the ticket salesperson reciprocated.

"May the Force be with you," nodded the Death Assistant, hand tickets over to someone else also dressed in Jedi costume.

That person nodded, and to perhaps Gale's horror, began to also LARP. "May the force be with you too. I see you have brought an ally today."

"My Padawan," Mark interrupted, reaching for the top of Gale's head only to have to reach a little higher. "It is his time today to begin his trials."

"My sincere best regards," said the ticket-person-slash-also-Jedi, nodding to Gale and handing him a pair of 3D glasses, "use these on your journey ahead."

kuropeco