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 Posted: Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:05 pm
Caleb was enjoying having a roommate. It felt…nice to not be alone. Though, he had to admit, there were some strange feelings that he kept having for Xi, but he had to keep reminding himself that they weren’t a couple any longer. Had to remind herself that Xi had a boyfriend of his own.
He still hadn’t met Gabriel, but he was judging him, at least a little bit. If he wasn’t good enough for his ex…well. Caleb would know.
One of these days, one of these days they would meet and he could see for himself what the other male was like.
He was hungry, and was feeling much too lazy to do any cooking today, and so he decided to take a break from overthinking everything to go and get something nice and warm to eat.
Making his way to the nearest fast food restaurant, he went inside and ordered the meal that looked the best, and then glanced around for somewhere to sit.
Sadly, the whole place was utterly full, though there was a pink haired male sitting at a two person table, the only empty seat in the place.
When the food came out, he walked over, nodding at the chair. “…I know this is awkward, but. Can I sit here? Every other seat is full, and it’s way too cold to eat outside.”
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:01 pm
The best place to gather information was, more often than not, in plain sight. Leander had been busy of late, between his bookings and freelancing, but discovering the mysteries of the city was still very near and dear to his heart.
...Except, now that he was part of all of these conspiracies it was a little harder to make sense of where he stood in the grand scheme of things. Besides simply eavesdropping for the latest gossip of the town, he was working on an article about a potential bio hazard from the runoff of one of the facilities further north, and while it may have been a stretch that their pollution was affecting Destiny City, it still warranted investigation. Especially because part of the woods in the North had decayed and aged, apparently overnight.
He hadn't made a trip out of town just yet but he was planning on it.
At first, he didn't necessarily notice the person standing by him, or even realize he was being spoken to, but it registered a few seconds later. His keystrokes on the phone in front of him tapered off and he brushed some of his files off to the side.
"Oh, I don't mind. Let me clear you a bit of space. Like lunch on the first day at a new school, no?" He offered a friendly enough smile and, while he was a bit disappointed to be disrupted from his work the fact was that his eyes were stinging and he knew he needed a break. And anyway, you never knew when a stranger had a good story to tell.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2020 7:39 pm
Caleb nodded and sat down, putting his tray in the now empty space on the table and giving a small smile. “I suppose so, though I’ll have to admit, I spent most of my school lunches, at least in high school, in the robotics lab. I didn’t have time to actually eat.” Or make friends. Nor did he really care to, anyway.
He took a fry from the cup and chewed for a long moment, his eyes roaming over the different files that were on the pink haired male’s side of the table. “…What is all of this? College work? What’s your major?” Taking another fry, he paused and swallowed, holding out his hand.
“My name’s Caleb. Sorry for being nosey, but if you’re saying this is lunch on the first day of school, I guess I was just…” He paused and shrugged, beginning to unwrap his burger. “…Being nosey.” There weren’t many people who would just move their stuff and strike up a conversation with a stranger, so. Why shouldn’t he take advantage of it.
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2020 9:15 pm
Leander glanced up, admittedly a bit surprised to hear that the stranger--Caleb--was asking about what he was working on. "No," he said after a few seconds, and instinctively shuffled some of the papers into a neater stack. "I'm not in college. I'm interested in journalism, I was just gathering some information for an article I'm working on."
He stacked the papers neatly and reached for his coffee, sipping at it before introducing, "I'm Leander. I'd shake your hand but you're eating, and I've got ink all over them. So," he waved instead. "Nice to meet you. I suppose I can't blame you for being nosey. Most people don't make this much of a mess when they go for fast food. I work best when I've got white noise," he shrugged. "Helps me stay focused. Though...they were still serving breakfast when I got here. Seems I...missed the transition into the lunch rush."
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Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2020 9:11 am
Caleb nodded, taking another fry, his eyes once again raking over the stacks of papers. “Journalism? I’m going to go out on a limb and infer since you said you had an interest in it, that you’re not…in a career involving it? Though, I guest most journalism is all online now, isn’t it. Do people really ever read the newspapers nowadays…?”
He didn’t. He looked up whatever news he wanted to know about on his smart phone. Though, a lot of times he just didn’t bother. At least after everything had happened. There didn’t seem to be any point. He had to get his own life back in line before he worried about the news and the state of the world.
“Don’t they normally kick people out of restaurants if they stop buying food? You need me to grab you a cheeseburger or something? Even if it’s just as a bribe to learn what it is that you’re looking up. If you’ve been so engrossed you missed the lunch rush, then I just need to know what it is. And, it’s really good to meet you, Leander.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2020 6:01 pm
Leander considered the offer for a moment and then shrugged. "I appreciate the offer. I'll just order something online and pick up. You've got a good point, at least." He picked his phone up and opened the app, clearly used to working like this.
"The only people who read the newspaper are old people who don't want to learn how to use a phone. But there's still a lot of information out there that's only in published works. Easier just to make copies at the library than to check out books. There's a lot of scientific journals at DCU that you can't find online, so," he tapped the stack of papers.
"Just doing my due diligence. Truthfully," he shrugged, "I wanted an excuse to go out and photograph the forest. Being paid to do it was a perk, they wanted an article on it. So I was investigating a dead patch in the forest. Looks like all the trees just died. Scientists haven't pegged down what it is, and I'm getting paid a lot to debunk some conspiracy theories about it."
Though, he had to admit, he had really enjoyed some of the theories.
"Downside is that I have to research trees, which. I don't really care about. But."
He clicked a few things on on his phone and then turned the screen to face Caleb. There were some generic photographs of different areas of the forest nearby--everything looked healthy and nothing really stuck out as being abnormal. However, the next picture he slid to--and when he passed his phone over--showed trees that looked like they'd been through a fire, or had shriveled up in some extreme winter chill. There was no color to them, no fallen leaves on the ground. In the distance, there were still lush, green trees, resilient to the winter chill.
"Thought that looked pretty interesting."
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Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 9:57 am
Caleb nodded, looking thoughtful. “I suppose that’s true, though, I suppose some that still read newspapers are just like those who still read books. They like the feel of the paper. Newsprint always made my hands feel nasty thought.” He took a moment to look at the picture, thoughtful.
“Huh…” That was interesting to look at, and Caleb took a good long look at the picture. “Money is good. I hope you find out what’s going on. You took that picture? It looks really good.”
He should maybe look into going back to school. Actually going to school. He had such lofty goals before and now…well. He could go back and get things done if he wanted to, right?
There was time.
“What kind of theories are out there about it? I’ll admit, I’ve never really been up on conspiracy theories…they all just seem like a bunch of nonsense.” Though, if he were honest…it kind of sounded a little interesting. And he wanted to know a bit more.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:37 am
"Most of them are!" Leander laughed. "You can't take any of them seriously. But, it's always an interesting take. There's more evidence for some of the theories than the science can back. So, mostly I just think it's neat to see what they can come up with. Sometimes they get a little bit right. Mostly it's just mindless entertainment. But," he leaned back in his seat, tapping his camera thoughtfully.
"I don't know. I've always been interested in things outside of the normal. Things with explanations, I guess they just seem sort of boring after a while. But things that no one can explain? Nobody cares if you say 'a bacteria infects the tree and spreads', but suddenly there's a huge interest if you say 'mysterious disease spreads through forest' and speculate on what could have caused it. Toxic runoff? Rare bugs? Monsters, aliens--it's great. I love it."
He seemed genuine and smiled. "I take more pictures than I do write articles. To be honest, I'm not exactly a huge fan of writing. But...if the topic's right. Mostly I like to take the pictures, then whoever wants to use it for whatever--they can go wild. If I write a bad article, I get heat for it. But if I take a picture and sell it to a bad article, no one cares. But I liked this one. There's something weird about it."
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:52 am
“Aliens, huh? Is that one of the routes that you’re going with this story?” Caleb wore a little smile, suddenly a little eager to read whatever drivel that Leander was making up. “You know, if you wanted to send me this story when it’s posted, I’d love to read it. I think…this might be able to become a pretty interesting hobby, and if I knew it was you writing them…I’d maybe judge it a little less.”
He took another bite of his food and seemed thoughtful, almost as though he were at war with himself and had a burning question to ask. “…Tell me. What is causing it? They really don’t know?”
Maybe he could go and investigate. Caleb looked almost excited at the thought. “…If you need to go back and take more pictures or anything, I could give you my number. I could be your assistant if you needed one. I need. Hobbies. I think.”
At the very least, it would help. It would get him back onto his feet. It would give him something else to cling to.
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 6:39 am
Leander laughed at this. "Don't believe everything you read. Some of the people actually believe this," he gestured. "...I just like to ask questions. It's a good story, at least. Here," he slid over his phone, already open onto note. "Type in your email, I'll send it to you when I finish. You can do your phone number, too. I'm going to go back there some time this week and take more pictures but I haven't picked a date just yet. But you should always judge these stories."
He leaned back again, still seeming a little amused. "...The city's not paying it enough attention, so the specialists aren't going out to investigate. That means that it's a bunch of half-thrown together ideas and novices trying to scrounge up enough expertise to diagnose something. The truth is, I don't know what's causing it. I just have to write an article that lists possibilities--and in the absence of actual science, actual facts--you're supposed to make s**t up. So--yeah. Could be pollution. Could be a plant-based disease. Could be aliens! The papers will tell you: it's whatever sells. I just have to make sure it's not too cringy--but that's for me, not them. They don't care," he laughed.
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Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2020 11:27 am
Caleb snickered and took the phone, putting in his email and his phone number, and then went one step further and sent himself a text from Leander so he would have the male’s number too. “There you go. My number, name and email.” He felt his phone buzz and grinned slightly. “I’ll judge them, sure but seriously, if you go back, shoot me a text. It sounds like it could be fun…and worst comes to worst…I could always dress up in a bigfoot costume and that can get put into the article too.”
He winked and took a bite of his food, finding that he was really enjoying this conversation.
It was nice to have a conversation that had no worry involved in it. With a total stranger who might become a friend. And on such a completely random far-fetched and…stupid topic. It was nearly unable to feel serious or worried about anything.
“Or, We could get one of the inflatable t-rex costumes and add to that…make a whole new cryptid monster. Maybe make a meme out of it…get popular online.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 6:34 am
Leander laughed but shook his head. "Oh, please. My credibility would be shot. It sounds like you're just looking for an excuse to dress up and cause mayhem."
There was enough of that already in Destiny City, but at least this sounded like good-natured fun. "I'll bet you thrive during Halloween. Do you have a Bigfoot costume hanging in your closet?"
He was still smiling, unable to resist laughing again from the image in his mind. He put his phone away and looked back to the man across the table. "...Maybe not for this article. I am genuinely curious to know what's causing it! ...But there's no harm in having a photoshoot out in the woods and accidentally leaking something. Just don't put my name on it!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 1:28 pm
Caleb laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t have a bigfoot costume in my closet, and honestly, I’m not ever really big on Halloween, other than buying up cheap candy on November first but…I might have to invest in a good costume now. I think you and I could cause all sorts of havoc. It might be fun…though…”
With the state of things in the city, and the normal run of the mill youma that ran around and caused their own kind of havoc…would anyone even care about a bigfoot sighting? It kind of seemed silly to even think about.
“…With all of the other monsters in this city, I don’t think bigfoot would get any real buzz, you know?”
Glancing back up at Leander, Caleb grinned slightly. “I mean…if you believe in all of the stories of monsters around here.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 2:50 pm
Leander tilted his head as he leaned back; he had an amused smile on his face and seemed like he appreciated this distraction. "You'd be silly not to believe in something, I think. But then, I've never really lived anywhere other than Destiny City. This place is all I know. I don't know if we're on par with other places around here or if there's just something special about us, but," he shrugged.
He was a Dark Mirror Senshi. He knew there were plenty of others out there--and yet, he'd never seen anything about this phenomenon on the news. He'd been suspicious for a long time now, but these days he didn't know whether to laugh or roll his eyes or throw a fit when the news incorrectly reported on every strange happening.
They were in on it. Or, someone important was. It was the only way that they didn't report on anything. A bunch of teenagers running around in costumes? Probably not the best at keeping secrets.
And yet, here they were. Destiny's biggest secret.
...Maybe.
He didn't know what else was out there, what else was being hidden.
"Why?" He leaned forward a little bit, with a curious look in his eye. "...Have you ever seen one?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:19 pm
He seemed thoughtful, stroking his chin. “Have I seen one of the monsters in the city? Yeah. Got chased by one that looked like a radioactive beaver once. It’s dumb teeth were sharp and it chased me for a good while before I managed to get into my apartment building’s elevator. It was quite frightening.”
Caleb took another bite of his food and finally just rested his chin on his palm. “This city’s insane. I almost moved out of it.” He shrugged. “I didn’t get a chance. My boyfriend got killed by one of the monsters the night we were supposed to go so. Here I am. Stuck in the middle of Strangeville.”
With a sigh he shoved the rest of the burger into his mouth and shrugged again. “You really don’t want to hear my life story so…I’ll quit talking about it for now but. Yeah. I’ve seen some monsters.”
Far, far too many monsters. And with luck, he wouldn’t end up seeing any more ever again.
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