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Apr. 19th, 2025 at 7:28 PM
[A few hours of open road makes for easygoing fun. It's great to be traveling again, and the feeling of Chrissy leaning up against his back, holding on tight while he whips ahead on a wide-open freeway through the pitch black of night is like nothing else. The last time they were racing up and down this freeway, they were on the way to go burn a bunch of people's lives down - but now that's hours back, back with the rest of the city. They've left the lights and have nothing to look at but the pavement in Johnnie's headlight, the glimpses of stars shining weakly through hazy clouds, and occasionally an oncoming car.
Johnnie hasn't exactly been trying to tune in to his senses or abilities or whatever it is he has - he's just been cruising, letting the night go by, enjoying their plunge northward without a care or a thought. So it is deeply irritating when the pavement quickly fades to a well-worn dirt track that almost tosses him and Chrissy to the ground, and it takes all of his skills to get the front wheel under control and to slow down before they hit a rock that really might launch them into the nearest alfalfa field. Or whatever it is that's here, whenever they've found themselves. Somewhere pre-freeway. Boo.
But there are a few lights ahead, and he did need a stop to pee, so, fuck it.]
Well, shit. Y'know, I dunno exactly where we are. Last sign said San Jose was still fuckin' hours off. You good? That was kinda shaky.
[As long as this dirt road stays packed, they can drive it, but it's going to be slow. Good thing they're almost to somewhere.]
Johnnie hasn't exactly been trying to tune in to his senses or abilities or whatever it is he has - he's just been cruising, letting the night go by, enjoying their plunge northward without a care or a thought. So it is deeply irritating when the pavement quickly fades to a well-worn dirt track that almost tosses him and Chrissy to the ground, and it takes all of his skills to get the front wheel under control and to slow down before they hit a rock that really might launch them into the nearest alfalfa field. Or whatever it is that's here, whenever they've found themselves. Somewhere pre-freeway. Boo.
But there are a few lights ahead, and he did need a stop to pee, so, fuck it.]
Well, shit. Y'know, I dunno exactly where we are. Last sign said San Jose was still fuckin' hours off. You good? That was kinda shaky.
[As long as this dirt road stays packed, they can drive it, but it's going to be slow. Good thing they're almost to somewhere.]
Comments
[But he's pretty sure he can determine if the shrooms are the usual sort of thing or not, probably. First, though, he needs to deal with his bashed up nose, and grabs for his handkerchief to blot at it. It's going to be bruised and sore for a while.
When he decides he's done, he dabs at her own nosebleed with a clean corner of it, then wads it up into a pocket to wash or toss later and fishes out the mushrooms. Under a street light, he examines them, then has a tiny nibble of one.]
They don't taste any different, I dunno. Gotta be fine.
[The name of it still makes her laugh a little, and she definitely glances down at his crotch before looking back up at his face. What a silly name.]
If it's safe though, I want to try! Give me some penis envy!
[There is absolutely no chance she's going to let him get high on mushrooms and not do them too. Her hand outstretches palm up, and she looks all kinds of eager to take whatever he gives her. She can't remember the name of the other mushroom, so she's very focused on getting the one with the name she can say out loud.]
Yeah, I bet you want some. Wait. Right? What does that even mean, anyway?
[Laughing, he chews up the rest of the piece he'd taken for himself, and follows it up with the other. Seriously, for all he knows, Dante was talking total bullshit, but they're small and this feels like the right amount to him. There's about one more dose left in the bag for each of them, which they can save for a special occasion.
And once those are back in his pocket, he takes her by the hand and leads her on back toward downtown. Toward the lights, and out of the area in case those assholes come back for some revenge after all, though he can't imagine they'll want to come chase the two of them down so soon after what happened.]
Edited 2025-06-02 02:20 am (UTC)
What exactly is penis envy, anyway? Like do guys really get jealous of each other?
[She's still fixated on the name and won't apologize for it, even when she asks the question about five minutes later. Actually, it's hard not to giggle at saying penis envy at loud. It's pretty funny to think about being jealous of someone's penis.]
[Which makes him laugh. He doesn't care that much, thankfully - he's ever-confident, at least now. Maybe not as much when he was a kid. And now now, Chrissy only has, what, one other dick to compare to? And that dude was such an asshole that Johnnie can't possibly imagine her giving him any kinds of positive reviews.
These mushrooms are slow to act, but they were promised a smooth ride. Johnnie is pretty sure he's noticing the lights feel brighter, a little more vivid, but it's a thing that's taking its sweet time. Hopefully they're not just fucking weak. He wants San Francisco to dazzle before they leave.]
I guess I get it. I always was jealous of girls who had bigger boobs, or girls who were skinnier than me. If someone had a flatter stomach, I -
[Thankfully, she's distracted by the lights on a nearby apartment building. Each window glows in a different color, and she stops walking to stare in awe at how it makes her think of a giant stained glass window. There's no reason to talk about purging or not eating anything at all when she's having a religious experience out in the middle of the street in San Francisco.]
It's so pretty, isn't it? All the colors are there, even some that don't have names yet.
[He's following just along behind in terms of the progression of his own trip - maybe on account of being a little heavier, maybe it takes more time, more mushroom. But the city glows regardless, beams of light flowing from one building to another in a growing monument to the stars.]
Hey, look right here, you gotta see this.
[Up, at the tallest building around. It's a pain in the neck to keep looking up, though, so he bends his knees and then flops backward onto the street, arms spread, to get a better view.]
Yeah, that's the good shit. City an' stars all part of the same fuckin' sky. It's like people tryin' to reach on up to the shit lookin' down at 'em, like maybe they'll go there themselves.
We'll go there someday.
[It's said with such certainty that she laughs a little, because how could the two of them wind up in space? It's ridiculous.]
We'll be the first couple in space. Maybe we'll even discover whole other planets!
[Her eyes go wide with all the possibilities, and for a second she reaches up like she's going to gather stars in her hand to weed out the planets she catches with them.]
[Thankfully these city lights are somehow keeping him grounded enough where he can appreciate them without drifting off into those nightmarish visions.
Though he could swear he sees what moves between them, if he tries.
But maybe that's just the fog. Fucking San Francisco, supposed to be foggy, right? Maybe not here in the middle of summer though. No, instead it's just big and new and full of steep hills and people trying to kill him, only that latter part isn't all that new, he's fine with it. The pistol at his belt makes lying in the street a little uncomfortable, but he can't get up now with Chrissy's head where it is, so instead he strokes her hair and ignores the weird lump.]
Where we gonna go tomorrow? Or, wait, we still gotta grab stuff here, right? I want pop tarts.
[It's just barely like a normal conversation, thinking of food while splattered with some other dude's blood and watching skyscrapers bend and swerve to meet the sky.]
We can get pop tarts. And some other stuff here. We just need to hit up the cash registers at lots of stores. Then we can go back to the hotel because you really need to sleep, babe. You gotta rest before we go anywhere else.
[She has a feeling once this nice high wears off she's going to crash and burn too. They can rest up after robbing some places and then get on the road before anyone finds them. She sighs happily and sits up for a second so she can shift to rest her head beside his on the ground. There's absolutely no concern for the fact they're laying out in the middle of the street covered in blood.]
I kinda do want to go to space though, Johnnie. Just a little.
Whatcha want with space anyway?
[She means not very far out, obviously. She's dreaming of planets after all, she said it herself.]
Just seems like there's a lotta nothing up there, 'til there's too much. You wanna see if we can go find us a view? Maybe that'll get you closer.
[See, he's willing to play along. A view is space enough for him tonight. She shot down his chance to buy something that would've taken them farther out anyway, that's on her.]
[Her sigh matches his, and she slowly sits up. Her eyes go from the sky over to the building that still looks very much like glowing stained glass. A frown slowly overtakes her face, but it's more thoughtful than anything.]
I guess I just want to grab a star and put it in a necklace so I can glow forever.
[She'd be the brightest person on the whole planet if she could do that. But she's pretty sure a star would burn right through her hands.]
Let's go find a view.
[Another soft sigh escapes her as she moves to her feet and dusts off her butt before offering him both hands to get him up too.]
But it doesn't have to be the stars. Maybe we can find something new. Something neither of us has ever seen.
[Thank goodness for her hands, he's a little wobbly on his feet getting up. Something about adrenaline and refusing to be tired and also being a little disoriented by the swirl of lights around his head as they swarm his vision.
They don't have to find the fancy fuckin' bridge, he has no idea how far that is, but they can sure walk until they find something new. Hills, though, shit, speaking of hills. It isn't long before they're out of the small downtown and have only steep choices to make - hills to the west, hills down to the east toward the bay, undulating streets to the north as he heads that direction through old homes and a little cluster of Chinese restaurants. He winds up laughing at how breathless he is after a few of them.]
Shit. They fucked up building this city, huh? So fuckin' up an' down. That's not just me, right?
[Because it does occur to him that the mushrooms might be moving the ground under his feet, actually. Maybe it's some of both. As he looks on, the road waves and bends like it's unrolling a carpet to beckon him forward.]
I think this is the right way!
[It's late, but she still shouts anyway, laughing before she howls up at the lights overhead. She winds up dazed and staring upward as they all howl back in blinding white light, and stumbles until she falls back and winds up rolling right down the hill they just walked up.]
I'm okay!
[She hops up as soon as she stops rolling, and raises both arms over her head in victory. Those silly hills are playing hard to get.]
You're right. It's too much up and down. It needs to be flatter.
[In fact, she sees no need to go up the hill. So she sits right where she's at and figures she can take a breather. If she ends up distracted by staring straight ahead into a void where she can see the air swirling as it breezes over her, it's not her fault. It's just too pretty.]
So while she stares off at nothing, he finds himself doing the same, though it's a different nothing - one where the buildings roll like waves and where the sky billows like sails catching the wind.
Someone's car is parked by the road here and it offers the perfect seat to hop onto and watch from. It's a chunky Jeep, not his style, but it's in the right spot. He's in no rush to get back on his feet and tackle the hills, he's enjoying this just fine. This is all he'd wanted from the drugs anyway, a spectacular easy night.]
Hey baby girl, you're lookin' real good. I got me a car, you wanna see if we can take it for a spin?
[Keys would be nice, but they're not necessary after all.]
Let's drive this thing right into the ocean!
[It seems like as good of a idea as any. A joyride and crashing into the ocean. She leans over, lips pursed like she's waiting for him to kiss her. At the last second her attention span shifts, and she quietly presses her hand against the horn to hear it give a soft honk. That gets her started giggling, and she can't stop.]
[He's a little disoriented right now and he's not sure where the ocean is, but he's aware that San Francisco is mostly surrounded by it so it can't be too hard to find. And besides, maybe the ocean will come to them if they drive so fast they make it all impressed.
That's how that works, right?
Anyway, he misses the attempted kiss and howls with laughter at her little tap of the horn, then jiggles his knife in the ignition to see if he can get it started. But it seems like cars in this day and age must have made some modifications to make theft a little more challenging, so he sighs and starts pulling off pieces from the dash to find the wiring. He knows how to do this, too, it just sucks and usually is reserved for when he needs to swipe something in particular and has the time to fuck around.
Eventually he finds the cables he needs to get the engine to spark to life, and he gives himself a cheer of victory before slamming on the gas. Except it's still in park, right. Okay. Cool, he can drive. Reverse, then - until he gets it out of its parking spot and on the road, moving at a pace that's too fast to keep up with but feels absolutely right.]
Ocean, here we come!
[Just because the sound is fun, she lays on the horn in quick bursts as Johnnie speeds along. It's good fun, but what's more enjoyable is turning on the radio full blast and letting rock music blast through the speakers. It's a song she actually knows, and she's able to scream sing and pretend head bang as she plays an invisible guitar. There's not much more fun than singing to Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf, especially when she can howl every now and then.
All the while, colors and shapes blur and zoom around them. The ocean is there somewhere, she can feel it. Smell it. She's pretty sure she can even taste the salt in the air. ]
Let's try going that way. I bet we'll find the ocean there.
[It's decided after sticking her tongue out to feel how much salt winds up on it. The saltier her tongue, the closer they must be. The ocean is practically reaching out to drag them in close now.]
[Johnnie spins the wheel to follow her gut sense about the ocean, grinning as the rugged little car swerves responsively. The road rises up to meet them - or maybe it's another hill - and after a long climb it drops back down. He guns it and lets out an exhilarated shout as the speedometer ticks up - 40, 60, 80 on tiny city streets until he has to slam the brakes to make a turn and the tires screech and squeal in protest.
They swing around the corner like they're in a roller coaster, and in his mind the road swirls them around and the whistle of the tires is music. It's all music and lights, and somewhere down below in the financial district, the city beckons them forward. The dark blue-black of the night reflects off of office buildings, the same color as the sea at night.
He's not quite so lucky with the next turn. The car clips the curb and skitters sideways across an intersection, and before he can regain control they crash into a hedge, leaving a long back streak across the pavement behind them as they finally come to a shuddering stop. Johnnie is laughing despite the hard landing, and spits leaves out of his mouth as he reaches forward to shove the mirror, which is stuck under a branch. It creaks and pops off entirely with one last creaking gasp.]
Whoops! Hey, we're still good though, car's still running! I can fix this! Which way's the ocean now?
[The car shudders and shakes as he tries to reverse back onto the street, but it does seem to be moving still.]
[Both of her arms move like wings up and down as she insists he waits, and she laughs as she climbs over to sit on his lap. Sure, he could scoot over and she could drive. But it's more fun to sit on his lap and let him control the gas and brake while she steers. It's like teamwork, only better because they're cute.]
I wanna steer this ship. I think the ocean's...
[She pauses as she sticks her tongue out both in concentration and an attempt to taste the thick salt air. She doesn't get much of a taste of anything, but does spot the street rippling like waves beneath them. Gosh, they're really rolling. Are they on a hill? She can't figure it out, because her head swivels toward power lines that look like giant craggy arms sticking out of the earth. They're all connected by wiry lines that remind her too much of veins, and her eyes close for a second as she continues to steer.
They side swipe a few cars on the road in the process, and she gasps with a laugh as her eyes open and she rights the wheel so they get back on the road.]
This way! The ocean's this way!
[There's no real confidence there, just laughter and someone having a good time fooling around. Even if they don't find the water, they'll at least drive this thing until they crash it through a building or something. Then they can ditch it and move on to something else fun.]
The sideswiping makes him laugh harder, but also makes him take the wheel back from her, or at least hold onto it to "help" by pulling a little harder and directing them toward wherever "this way" is. They squeal their way on down back to the east side, not too far from where they first arrived in the city, and there, finally, is - well, a bay, but to him right now it's the ocean. It's a lot of water.]
Yeah! Yeah, fuck yeah, we did it! Seagulls, so that's the ocean!
[There's a wooden boardwalk and a few shabby buildings. Johnnie swings the poor sputtering jeep toward the boardwalk, but hits a curb he'd been oblivious to and the car comes to a stop again.]
Hey, I remember that bridge. That's not the famous one, but it's real big! Huh.
[Before him, it seems to stretch on eternally - like elastic, it reaches even farther over the black water shimmering with lights, pulling farther and farther away as he watches it go.]
Shit, but we gotta get this into the ocean still!
We can't be in the car when it goes into the ocean! It's like...we'd be stuck and would drown or something, you know?
[Her dream of making the car belong to the ocean may not come to fruition, but that's probably okay. She's already distracted by watching the way nearby blades of grass make music visible as the breeze colorfully blows over them.]
Do you have your lighter? Maybe we could just light it on fire, and then go. Fire is better than the ocean anyway.
[But he's not convinced. Jeep, ocean. They go together in his head now.
Except she's right that they can't be in it, and maybe if he was on some other drug he'd feel up to getting the car going real fast and then jumping out while it's moving, but he's pretty sure he's not capable of that right now, and he's extremely sure that he doesn't personally belong in the ocean. He's had enough drowning in black for - well. A lifetime.]
Okay, but what if I put it in neutral an' we push it in?
[That would work, right? They'd have to push pretty hard though. Maybe he can find a boat ramp. This place must have one of those somewhere.]
[She blinks as his voice pulls her from admiring the grass, and she turns to try and process what he's just said. It eventually sinks in and she gasps as she nods.]
That's a pretty good idea. We probably only need to drive a little more, then we can just push it off a dock or something!
[He doesn't need to give her any more incentive, she's already going to hop back in the Jeep so they can get it to the edge of something. Putting it in neutral and shoving it into the water is going to be so easy, and the sound of it hitting the water will be payoff enough that she's sure she'll remember it...well, maybe not forever. But definitely at least until the high wears off.
They somehow manage to get the thing back onto the road, and she helps direct him using road signs until they end up stopped dockside at a Yacht Harbor. The place just reeks of rich people, and Chrissy's eyes light up as she looks from all the yachts over to Johnnie.]
If we can't set the Jeep on fire, can we set some of the boats on fire instead?
[There's movement here, though. Must be getting on toward morning now - are there rich people up this early? No, it must be their boat servants, because that's probably a thing. People hired to make sure the yacht is ready to go for a morning cruise.
Johnnie eyes the figures in the shadows, but they're ignoring the car, so he chooses to ignore them. Maybe a jeep at this hour isn't that weird to them anyway. People drive. It's cool.]
Okay. I mean, we could do both, right? Set this fucker on fire an' give it a shove once it's blazing? Long as those guys aren't too bothered by it. Or if they are, I dunno. Fuck 'em.
[He positions the jeep at what looks like a good angle for running it off into the water, then hops out and slams the door shut, and wobbles for a moment once he's on his feet. Whoops, wasn't ready for that.]