2nd dream [have to drive]

[monocled]

WARNINGS: R for violence / gore.
[ Soundtrack: Amanda Palmer - Have to Drive (please click) ]

A jeep full of men in the mountains, driving. The sun beats down. The smell of cordite, the sound of gunfire, and a head that's just a little too uncomfortably near being turned to fine red mist. A blade on a chain streaks across the corner of vision

Comments

[papercutrose]

[Konan isn't used to knowing other people's dreams. Or experiencing their feelings through electronic touchscreen...whatever this is. Isn't used to it. Doesn't like it. Will probably never like it, and she sighs. With one hand, she adjusts her paper flower.]

I 'overheard.' I'm sorry.

[She still can't imagine the proper etiquette for... well. That. Mutual dream voyerism...whatever.]

I don't mean to intrude.

[Those strange weapons at the beginning, like explosive tags but more directed, they made people's heads explode, she's never seen anything like them before. And his feelings at the end are too squirmy and private and undignified and she's wrong to have intruded and shared them and it's so embarrassing because these things are never to be aired by daylight and- she fixes her flower. Calms herself.]

I didn't know you were a soldier.

[A bit curiously.] Are you a mercenary who kills... [Bijuu? Tailed beasts? She struggles for the proper word.] ...monsters?

[monocled]

[ In spite of the intrusion, he seems happy to see her, politely startled. ] Konan-san, good evening!

[ He rubs the back of his neck a little, looking rather humble. ] I'm hardly a soldier or mercenary.

[papercutrose]

[Still a bit ruffled, she manages a small smile.] ....good evening, Hakkai-san.

[Then regards him sidelong, considering whether to pursue this. Curiosity gets the better of her.]

Are you a contracted killer?

[Some people, she knows, prefer to call it what it is.]

Or.. [thoughtfully]... are you just the driver?

[She tactfully avoids pointing out that he seemed to be hitting the 'monsters' on purpose.]

[monocled]

Oh my... I do believe I've given the wrong impression. I'm really nothing of the sort. I was on a journey, a road trip so to speak. Sometimes there were youkai. This dream, however, expresses some rather altered circumstances.

[ Really, he's so peaceful and polite. Can you imagine him running over a bunch of living things in cold blood with that expression? Yes you can. ]

[papercutrose]

[She regards him, and his pose of innocence. Decides. Looks away.]

I see.

[He's an undercover assassin, she decides. Probably not military-trained, but practiced. He prefers not to let his monster-killing job affect his daily life. This also means he's dangerous, but she's familiar with his kind of dangerousness. She nods, understanding.]

What were those weapons with...

[She makes a gesture of trigger-pulling, not having the words to explain what she means. There are no guns in her former world.]

...are they explosives?

[monocled]

Oh, you mean the gun? I suppose it's explosive in a manner of speaking. It uses a percussive action to ignite gun powder, and thus fire a bullet through the chamber. Do you have cannons in your world? It's a similar basic principal, on a much smaller scale. The real power comes from the force of the shot, and the shape of the bullet. [ taps his palm with his pointed index finger ] My companion could catch a youkai between the eyes even in a moving vehicle.

[ Why, hello, Hakkai-sensei, you've missed coming around, haven't you? ]