this is a [test] of the emergency broadcast system

[titansno]

TEST DRIVE MEME

> The Park. Man, what a nice day out. Why not enjoy it? I'm sure -- shit, yep, there's some echo monsters.
> The Mall. Exactly what it says on the tin! Dodge the hordes of teenage mallrats or take part, whichever suits your tastes.
> Rainy Day. Agh, it's fucking awful out. And is it raining those vermilion things?? Now you've got an Echo to contend with on top of everything else. Find some shelter, quick!
> PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, HOW FUN
> The most horribly kitschy Arts and Crafts Fair you can imagine.
> Wild Card! Make up your own.

Comments

B

[gogoghostpowers]

And for the first time in what must have been weeks, Danny finally made it to school early enough to uphold the tradition. Network stuff had been keeping him up late, either to get together with other network people to do some exploring, or to catch up on all his homework that he kept falling behind in due to everything going on.

Paradoxically, though, the earthquake he'd caused a few days earlier had been keeping him up so much, he just gave up on getting a good night's rest altogether. Which was how he found himself packing his bag for school at 6 am so he could finally show up early enough to meet with Randy again.

"Hey, Randy." He lifts a hand weakly in greeting as he drops his bag to the ground and slumps into the bench next to his friend.

Re: B

[ninjaverb]

He wanted to be mad. He really did. But finally seeing his bro before school again? It brought a grin to his face. "Fenton!" he clapped him on the back and pulled another can of caffeinated heart attacks from his backpack. "Look who decided to show up today. What the bruce has been keeping you these days?"

He wanted to savor the moment for now, before Danny inevitably broke the news that he didn't finish his half of their project due today.

[gogoghostpowers]

"Oh, you know...just--just trying to beat that one level of Destroyer. It's pretty brutal." He grinned weakly. It wasn't a total lie. He had spent a good portion of the night playing Destroyer, after tossing and turning for a few hours and giving up on sleep.

[ninjaverb]

Oh, yeah, that earthquake you totally ditched him to help cause? You know, when you didn't text to say where you were as people started dying and you were nowhere to be found? Yeah, that weighs on Randy's mind a lot, too.

"Yeah. Next level of Destroyer. It's a tough one. Might help to have some teamwork going on next time you try it." HINT HINT. He took another sip of his drink, savoring the sweet, sweet caffeine. "Anything... else you've been working on? Anything, say, our lives depend on?"

THAT PROJECT, FENTON. DID YOU DO THE PROJECT.

[gogoghostpowers]

You mean like try and keep the cops from abducting and killing innocent people, or stopping alien invasions? Well, yeah, Danny has certainly been busy with that, but he couldn't tell Randy about all of that!

"Uh...nnnno?" He scratched at his hat (hiding all of his untidy white hair, save for a few tufts that poke out of it nevertheless) slowly, with all the lumbering effort of the sleep deprived. "Was...was I supposed to be working on something?" He suddenly looked a lot more awake, though, with eyes wide open and sitting up straight, now that caught on to the implication that he was clearly missing something important here.

[ninjaverb]

"Ugggh," Randy's head lolled back behind his shoulders as he made a noise somewhere between a heavy sigh and a groan. It figures Danny would do it. "Never mind, Fenton. I did your half of the project, too."

[gogoghostpowers]

"Oh. Oh jeez, I--" Danny flopped back into the bench and covered his face with his hands, mumbling something unintelligible. Then he looked back up to Randy.

"I am so sorry man, I can't believe I just--I swore I wouldn't forget, I wrote it down this time and everything!" He opened his mouth to say more, but realized he didn't have anything else left to say, so he just flopped back on the bench again.

"...Thanks for covering me, though."

[ninjaverb]

"Save it, Danny. It's fine." Randy smeared a hand down his face before glancing over at his friend again. "Can't say I did it all for you. My grade was riding on it, too. Didn't want to fail this time."

Randy finished off the last of his drink and tossed the can onto the table. "What happened to you, dude?" First the weird emo thing with his hair and his contacts, then just disappearing all together?

[gogoghostpowers]

Danny looked down at his hands resting in his lap, not willing to meet Randy's eyes. It was true, Danny knew he'd been a terrible friend the past few months, ever since he found the network in July. But what was he supposed to say?

He ended up just giving a non-committal shrug. "I dunno, just...school's been really rough this year, I guess," he mumbled. Which also wasn't really a lie, strictly speaking. But it sounded like a lame excuse. Randy could probably tell it was a lame excuse. But he got the feeling that if he said anything else, it would just work against him.