Codswallop and tomfoolery

[deaths_heritor]

[phone, morning]
If they aren't back by the end of the month, I'll eat my poker.  What trollop.

And please, if you're wrought with utter despair and you absolutely must subject the rest of us to incessant blather about how wonderful Disappeared Whom and Whom was and how unworthy you are to still exist, etc., ad nauseam, try to space it out evenly so

Comments

action; house

[strike_you_out]

[His name was on the list but Slugger was still here. Why has he still here? Had the town made a mistake? Had it all been a stupid joke? He doesn't feel any different and he doesn't look any different. He still has his regains.

Slugger is utterly confused, even more so at Susan's remark.]

Pod person...? No, I'm not--

[What is happening?]

[deaths_heritor]

Look, it's very nice that we get life-size duplicates while they're gone, and I'm sure you're a lovely imitation, but I'm not especially in the mood.

[strike_you_out]

You remember me? The dream said you were supposed to forget.

[This town. This town is getting on his last nerve.]

I'm not a duplicate.

[deaths_heritor]

A witty remark about being the Queen of England would go here, except I've already got a title, and I don't actually know where England is.

Please go away.

[strike_you_out]

[Panic is beginning to set in.]

Just one person, it said... It was supposed to be me. Just me... [But all those names in that list suggest otherwise. And yet he is still here. He was tricked! What was he supposed to do now? Slugger looks desperately to Susan, his voice sounding lost.]

Miss Susan, it was just supposed to be me...

[deaths_heritor]

A lot of good that would do. I'd still have been left with some pale, feeble-sounding imitation.

[strike_you_out]

[Slugger has no response for this. He merely stands before her looking confused and frustrated beneath the deep shadows of his ball cap. Could it be that the town couldn't accept him because of what he was so it took others instead? Furthermore, why didn't Susan believe him? Breathing angrily, his grip tightens around the hilt of his bat.]

You believe them? Why?

[deaths_heritor]

I believe them about as much as I believe a chimpanzee can polka. I believe what I'm seeing.

[strike_you_out]

[Her statements confuse him even more.] ...You think I'm fake?

[deaths_heritor]

There we are. The next step past recognition is admittance.

[strike_you_out]

[Suddenly, he's struck with an unsettling sense of doubt. Susan was smart, what if she's right? What if he is a fake and doesn't even know it? The notion truly frightens him to the core. And yet, what if this is just another dream or false vision? To spare his sanity, he must deny being fake.

Shaking his head, Slugger backs away quietly. He isn't looking at her anymore. He isn't looking anywhere specific. He just needs to get away from this, now.]

[deaths_heritor]

Off you go, then. Let me know if Slugger comes back.

[The dryness of her voice is like the dryness of a parched prairie before a spark of flame. Susan returns to her books and seethes silently.]

[strike_you_out]

[His back meets a wall. Not wasting another moment, he pushes through it and vanishes, leaving Susan to her books.]