Video

[theweakhavepurpose]

[The video turns on to show the outskirts of town, nearby is a fence of sorts made of junk Pratt collected from the Colosseum and some baling wire. It's encircling a fancy new shooting range complete with training dummies and targets and some other items that aren't immediately identifiable.

Okay fancy isn't the right word, everything is made of remnants he found and some of the targets are empty soup cans on sticks but it looks serviceable.]

This is Deputy Pratt. I know we're all busy freezing to death, but if you'd like to take your mind off that, I've finally got this all together. Range is up and running!

It's set up by the orchard, or well.. where the orchard should be anyway.

[He pans the camera towards the orchard to show where it is and then starts walking towards the range. The camera is surprisingly steady, this is someone who has filmed hundreds of Vine videos of him and other deputies doing stupid stuff on slow days. He's a pro at this shit.]

I've got training dummies up front for anyone who wants to get their melee fighting on. But uh.. try not to completely destroy them because I don't have a ton of wood to fix them up.

For the range itself I've got targets at 10 meters, 25 meters, 50 and 100. It's not perfect because I'm measuring this with my feet, but it's close enough. Spinner targets are for guns, and the bigger baled ones are dirt and wood so they shouldn't chew up your arrows too bad.

This thing is a work in progress.

[He sets a can onto a contraption off to the side of the range, stomping his foot on a pedal and sending it shooting down the lane and a little to the left. The camera gets unsteady here as he launches a knife that's far too big for this at the can and it tumbles to the ground.]

Keeps shooting them off to the side, but it's better than throwing something and then trying to hit it.

As for weapons... [He walks over to a large but very battered chest and opens the lid.]

I've got some throwing knives that aren't stupid like the hunting knife I have. A few bows. And some arrows in here. Keep them in this crate because the weather is not kind to bowstrings and you don't want these things snapping when you're shooting.

It's on the honor system because I'm not going to freeze my ass off monitoring this twenty-four seven. So try not to burn it down in the next two days.

[Please guys. He worked hard on this. Don't set it on fire.]

Comments

[braveoff]

Hopefully it won't be months, and the cold should keep them from rotting -- there's a pile of carcasses just outside the city, people have been dragging them out. Maybe we can just point her at them and get our shit for it.

[ Then he blinks. ]

Why did your uniform smell like rotting corpses...?

[theweakhavepurpose]

A pile of ammo in return for a pile of corpses. I didn't know it worked like that. I should have tried harder to kill some of those mammoths that were stampeding, I was too concerned with getting them to go around the range.

Because I was around a lot of them. That shit sticks with you.

[That's normal right?]

[braveoff]

I think we killed plenty, we'll have meat for months. They were just scared, anyway... didn't really deserve it, I blame the tentacles things. And we'll get more corpses after the Door opens again, for sure.

[ Uh huh. That's not normal at all, Pratt. Drake is back to work as he talks, though, mending another frame. ]

My ex worked in a morgue, so I kinda know how that is. Not the case for you?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Too bad no one managed to kill one of those things. Not that I want to eat it, but I'd rather it be dead than starting stampedes.

[he hesitates, wondering how much he should say. Not everyone knows about the cult, and far fewer people know his part in that, and he'd like to keep it that way.]

I'm a Deputy, there's been a lot of murders back home.

[Not the whole story, but at least that's true.]

[braveoff]

Too bad for a bunch of reasons. I kinda know the guy that they killed, and he's a badass with magic. If he couldn't defend himself it's bad news for everybody.

[ Drake wasn't around for it, or the stampede, but he read through all the posts carefully. It sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, one more reason to put off asking to be made human again. ]

Yeah? That sucks. The cops don't usually deal with the corpses, though.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Well that doesn't bode well for the rest of us. Especially boring humans like me.

[he's not making assumptions about Drake, for all he knows the guy can bench press a blue whale and shoot lasers out of his eyes. Anything is possible here.]

Ever heard of Hope County, Montana? I'm twenty-five percent of the entire police force. It's not like we have a special squad for homicides.

[braveoff]

From what I read he was hitting their shells instead of their faces, it'll be about aiming carefully I bet.

[ Drake can do neither of those things, but he does have a certain advantage he doesn't share. For now he just nods, letting Pratt believe he's human like he wants to be. ]

I haven't, no. You only have four cops for a town with enough people to bury you in corpses? Sounds like you need to call in the cavalry. [ He hesitates, then... ] I was an undercover cop in Seattle. Joint task force between vice and major crimes.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Yeah go for the squishy bits.

Well we brought in the US Marshall, but that... made things worse.

Seattle huh? Never been there, but I've seen the pictures of Rainier from the Space Needle. That's quite a view.

[Who cares about the cop stuff, tell him about the mountains.]

[braveoff]

Oh. Sorry, then. Our big guns are usually FBI and they're pretty helpful.

[ He's running in very different circles, though. And sure, they can talk about scenery. ]

Yeah, it's a great view. And a pretty cool city, not that I've lived anywhere else but I've traveled a little. How's Hope County? Somewhere that small, it sounds like you'd have a view, too.

[theweakhavepurpose]

The US Marshall came in and started throwing his weight around, didn't understand the situation. And it just escalated from there.

He's dead now, so learned his lesson.

[He didn't much care for Burke, and while he feels for the situation he was in with Faith drugging him to kingdom come, he's not exactly sad he's dead.]

Big sky country, and it lives up to it. Best hunting and fishing in the whole state. You can climb up to the top of the Whitetail Mountains and get a view of the entire valley. It's gorgeous.

[Well, it was before the cult started leaving corpses everywhere.]

[braveoff]

[ That's pretty harsh, Drake thinks... and you can't actually learn anything if you're dead, but he doesn't know the guy to be sympathetic or not. Doesn't know Pratt to say anything about it, just lets it go and nods his understanding of the other man's assessment, then listens to the description of his hometown. ]

Sounds great. Just not a 'surrounded by corpses' kind of situation. Something big happened, huh?

[theweakhavepurpose]

[There was a lot more caring before he saw literally hundreds of murders.]

We're having a situation with a cult. The Project at Eden's gate. They're basically running around murdering all the Sinners who won't join them.

And then the town is killing them back.

It's a fucking shitshow.

[braveoff]

[ Drake blinks, and doesn't bother trying to hide his surprise. Whatever he was thinking, it certainly wasn't a genocidal cult. ]

Seriously? That's insane. I've heard of cults killing all their own followers because of whatever it is they believe, but murdering everyone else..? [ He shakes his head. ] I'm sorry you're dealing with that.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Me too. It is what it is I suppose. Everything has it's purpose.

Honestly I think they just haven't gotten to the killing their own followers part. I've been there for months and their plan basically boils down to be prepared for the Collapse, and when it happens retreating to these bunkers. But there's only three bunkers for hundreds of people. And apparently we have to stay in them for seven years.

They have enough food for either a few months, or only a dozen people.

The logic doesn't add up.

[He may be brainwashed and half a cultist himself, but even he can see that there's not enough space or food for how many people they have. Joseph isn't going to magically proselytize another bunker into existence. ]

[braveoff]

[ Drake is listening carefully as he works, because this seems important -- which means he catches something he isn't sure Pratt meant to let slip. He looks back up, tilting his head curiously. ]

...it sure doesn't add up. But you just said we. Does that mean you were one of them?

[ There's no judgment in his voice, just a gentle wondering why, and what changed. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[ He jerks a bit, having not even realized he'd done that. ]

I'm...

[ He hesitates. He's never been a good liar, but telling the truth might be unwise. Though other than Kettara no one has judged him for it yet. Maybe that's a good sign.]

I, well.

Yeah. I guess I am.

[ He doesn't sound happy about it though. ]

[braveoff]

[ Drake's thoughts exactly. ]

Am like you still are, after all that you just told me? You don't sound too happy about that, so... why? You don't have to tell me why originally, but why still?

[ He understands how otherwise intelligent people can get sucked into those sort of things, but usually once they realize it's bullshit, they get out before the death starts. What if... ]

Would you be leaving family behind or something?

[theweakhavepurpose]

Originally? Because they strapped me to a chair torturing me for a month and I couldn't leave.

[ He says it bitterly before he realizes that it'll probably raise more questions than he wants to answer. ]

I'm going to be dead in a few hours when I get back home. So I'll die there in the bottom of the bunker. Not a whole lot to change now.

[braveoff]

[ Perhaps to Pratt's surprise, Drake doesn't ask -- just frowns, his brows knitting together with a furrow of concern. ]

I'm sorry to hear that. Both those things. How do you know you're going to die there..?

[ It doesn't sound like he doubts it, just wants to know where the information comes from. Drake himself is dead, remembers dying, and it's no walk in the park. If there's any doubt to what's going to happen, he'd encourage Pratt to hold on to it. ]

[theweakhavepurpose]

Well I'm strapped to a chair without food and water for about four days now in the bottom of Jacob's bunker. I don't even think I'm conscious anymore really.

[He supposes that Jacob could let him out of the chair since he's the only one with a key, but even if he did he might be so far gone that without being hooked up to fluids for a week he likely won't make it anyway.]

Do not recommend starving, you can actually feel your organs shutting down.

[braveoff]

....shit.

[ There's still hope, but maybe Pratt doesn't want it. So Drake keeps his thoughts there to himself, instead deciding to commiserate. ]

I've starved before... made it a couple weeks without food but without water you're done for in days. It'd sure be a shitty way to go. Why'd you merit that treatment?

[theweakhavepurpose]

[It's possible, but highly unlikely. (Though actually true since he gets rescued in canon, he just doesn't know that.)]

I'm supposed to be reflecting on my sins. Betrayals.

[Though the more he thinks about it, the less traitorous he feels. He did what he thought was right. But what's 'right' changes day to day depending on how much he's been tortured. ]

Weeks is pretty long, usually six days is all it takes before cognitive functions shut down. Why didn't you have food for weeks?

[braveoff]

Betrayal to the cult?

[ Drake hesitates, then, not sure if he should confess this but. Why the fuck not, at this point, it seems like half the city knows and he's at an advantage to Pratt right now. Might as well level the playing field. ]

It was just now, actually. I have a really specific diet that Hope provides, so no Hope and I starve. Even if I eat other stuff, it doesn't help past a certain point.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Yeah. Let a prisoner go. My .. old partner.

[who he helped capture in the first place for brainwashing, so he feels like he betrayed Rook, then betrayed Jacob by letting him go, and betrayed himself by being weak. Is there anyone he hasn't let down?]

Eugh. That sucks, to be so dependant on them. I'm sorry.

[braveoff]

Shit. That sounds like a huge mess, I'm sorry man. Sounds like they never fully brainwashed you but that's not really comforting when you're... yeah.

[ This is all very heavy for a first conversation, but Drake's trying to roll with it. He nods. ]

It's not fun. This is the third time, might be the charm for me to ask them to figure out a cure, even if there's other shit going on they need power for. I can make a deal, I just have to decide if it's worth it.