Raphael Hamato (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
othersdestructive) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ya_assemble2015-01-19 01:43 am
othersdestructive) wrote in ya_assemble2015-01-19 01:43 am
Entry tags:
[LN] Candy Mountain [locked to Molly]
"So let me get this straight, you're gonna spread around on the internet that we're real to get kids to believe in us?"
Right now, Raph and Molly were seated on the floor of Jamie Bennett's room. In a rare show of trust, Nico had actually let Raph take Molly by himself, as her magic was needed on a mission. The caveat had been, of course, that they had to go to Jamie's house - which was warded all to hell and back - and come right back to the Pole after, but Raph still understood the signifance of it - and the unspoken threat of retribution that would happen if he didn't bring Molly back safe and sound.
Jack had arranged for them to talk to Jamie - insisted on it, in fact - since Jamie was the primary believer of all the new otherdimensional myths being pulled in. More than that, Jamie was the one trying to spread belief of them around so that they had more believers than him.
At the moment, he was trying to explain the nature of belief and what he could do for them - and what he couldn't do.
"How many kids that believe in stuff even use the internet?"
Right now, Raph and Molly were seated on the floor of Jamie Bennett's room. In a rare show of trust, Nico had actually let Raph take Molly by himself, as her magic was needed on a mission. The caveat had been, of course, that they had to go to Jamie's house - which was warded all to hell and back - and come right back to the Pole after, but Raph still understood the signifance of it - and the unspoken threat of retribution that would happen if he didn't bring Molly back safe and sound.
Jack had arranged for them to talk to Jamie - insisted on it, in fact - since Jamie was the primary believer of all the new otherdimensional myths being pulled in. More than that, Jamie was the one trying to spread belief of them around so that they had more believers than him.
At the moment, he was trying to explain the nature of belief and what he could do for them - and what he couldn't do.
"How many kids that believe in stuff even use the internet?"
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He had no idea what really went on in school other than pep rallies, and, judging from the rare after school special he'd caught on TV, bullying.
"Most of what I know about normal people school is from watching TV and listening to April rant about it. It wasn't like we could go to school when most people scream when they see us."
'Normal people.' The implication being that he wasn't normal. It wasn't that he and his brothers felt bad about themselves, but their...otherness was just something Raph accepted without questioning.
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"I'd be going into 8th grade soon, I think."
Molly wasn't normal anymore (technically she never had been, but she thought she was) and she was mostly okay with that, but even though she hadn't really liked school when she had it, she kind of missed it now. Moreso, thinking about how old she was now and how she was growing up.
"Anyway, Nico thinks you're really cute and probably wants to smooch you or something, but if you're a jerk to her, I'll punch you so hard you'll never ever land." And that was that. With that declaration, she turned to give him one of her bubbly grins, and then skipped ahead a couple of yards before getting distracted by what looked like a marshmallow bumblebee.
Conversation over, she was done talking about serious stuff, also don't hurt Nico or you will regret it.
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He also wasn't planning on interfering by telling Nico. All of that needed to be worked out by Molly and Nico and Molly and the rest of their friends and meddling in it would probably just make things go down worse than they would have normally.
He trotted after her, holding up his hand and checking the brand. It was actually turning, like a compass, pointing the right direction to go in. So far, they seemed to be on the right track.
He wanted to ask how Molly knew. He really wanted to. But asking would give it away, that he liked Nico, and the last thing he needed was that getting aired out somewhere.
The last thing he needed was thinking about it.
"She doesn't think I'm cute and that's fine because we're just friends." He added, stubbornly, "Which is a good thing. Last thing she needs is another weirdo crushing on her like being friends isn't enough, like that lousy, good-for-nothing liar that pretended to be friends with you guys and hurt her."
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"Puh-LEEZE. She gets all grinny and dopey when she's got a crush on somebody, and it's not like she's spending time with anybody else the way she does with you."
Molly suddenly pointed off just down the path, at some plumes of what looked like cotton candy rose above the treetops. "Look! I think it's fireplaces, come on, maybe people know where the thingy is!"
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Unfortunately, asking more about it would give himself away. He had no idea how to respond to that, because he wanted so badly to know more, but at the same time, he wanted so badly to avoid the subject.
Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about his answer.
"Oh hey look, a distraction," he said sassily, not even pretending it was anything else. "Let's go check it out."
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It was a quaint place, full of gingerbread cottages on the edges, and fancy marzipan and spun-sugar houses further in, and it would've been a totally happy sight if there weren't a bunch of sugar people running around like they were trying desperately to leave.
"Uh... this doesn't look good."
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He didn't want to risk losing her in the chaos.
"Let's find the least terrified person we can and see what we can get out of 'em."
There was a gingerbread man standing on a rock candy boulder, shouting through a candy corn megaphone.
"Everyone, please remain calm!" he shouted. "We need to evacuate in an orderly fashion!"
"Hey!" Raph called out. "Cookie guy! What's going on? Why's everyone in a panic?"
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He pointed up to the top of the mountain looming over the town, which was sending up dark billowing clouds of what looked like burnt sugar.
Molly looked dismayed. "Is that a volcano?"
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"The shard's in the same direction as the volcano," Raph said bitterly. "Of course."
He turned back to the cookie man. "Does anyone have an idea on how much time is left?"
"Our fudgemologists think we only have five hours," said the gingerbread man. "All we can do is hope they're wrong - it'll take at leave six or seven to evacuate all the surrounding towns. You need to get as much distance between yourself and the volcano as you can, strangers. Especially since you're both made of taffy. You'll be at far greater risk of melting from the advancing fudge than some of us."
With that, the little man ran off to help with the evacuation.
"If we don't get that thing back soon, it's probably gonna wind up in buried in hot fudge. We'll never be able to find it - we probably won't even be able to touch because of the heat." Raph turned to Molly, letting go of her hand to put both his hands on her shoulders. "Listen, you need to head back to the door and wait for me there, okay? If the volcano starts erupting and it looks like the eruption's heading that way, leave without me."
There was no way he was taking Molly in the direction of an erupting volcano.
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She shook her head and planted her feet, her eyes flaring up pink. "And anyway, if something happens to you, I can carry you back easy, but not if you're buried in fudge lava!"
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"You're not gonna stay at the door no matter what I do, are you."
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"Nico's gonna kill me."
But Molly was right. Chances were he might need her help, what with her having the much more useful powers. And they had to get that shard to save the Guardians' reality - and who knew what would happen to the universe if they failed.
Surely, Kuk would have a much easier way of getting in if that reality was broken.
"Come, we need to move. Lemme carry you on my shoulders. You've got tiny little legs."
He could run faster.
He knelt down so he could lift her up.
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Once she was seated, she puffed her chest out. "I am Princess Powerful, ruler of ALL Candyland!"
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"Sure thing, kiddo. Ruler of all you can see - and once we get to the top of that volcano, you'll probably be able to see everything."
Then he started to move, running at a solid pace, one that he'd be able to maintain over a long distance.
They covered ground pretty quickly.
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Except--
"Raph! Raph, hang on, stop!" Molly didn't bother waiting for him to slow down before scrambling off his shoulders and hitting the ground, running a few yards off the trail they were going down to where some sort of horse seemed to be trapped in a thorny candy corn bush.
"We gotta help him!" she called over her shoulder.
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It was just a horse. They had all of reality to worry about and Raph really, really didn't want to have to worry about running away from a fast-moving fudge eruption.
And yet he stopped to take a look. It definitely looked stuck and if it didn't escape the stupid thing was going to die a horrible death when that volcano went off.
Raph sighed and jogged after her.
"Alright, we'll help it, but we need to keep this quick, okay?"
He pulled out his sais, planning to use them to whack at all the thorny branches.
"Easy," he said gently to the horse as they moved in closer. "Easy now."
And that was a horn. It had a horn. It was a unicorn. A unicorn with wings even.
"A flying unicorn. Why am I not the tiniest bit surprised? Oh, that's right: basic pattern recognition," he said, trying to break through the branches and thorny vines. (Some kind of pointy hard candy?) "My day starts weird, of course it's gonna stay weird."