trustfell | Looks like this will be a weekly thing

Looks like this will be a weekly thing

[This whole week has been awful. This whole experience has been awful. Mordecai wants to go straight to his room and deal with his frustrations, but that's not what a mayor does. A mayor takes charge, a mayor fixes what's wrong, a mayor makes things better. Even if he can't do everything on his own, he's has to do something.

Two hours after the end of the trial, the living will find another note slipped underneath their doors.]

There's cookies in the kitchen. The dining room is ready for anyone who needs a quiet place to talk it out. I'll be in the bar if you need a drink, alcoholic or something more appropriate for the underage crowd.

-Mordecai Benmont Jiminy

[There's a pile of warm chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen. Two more candles are lit at the memorial - one for the victim, one for the culprit - and Mordecai has left a pile of blankets from the storage room on one of the dining room tables.]

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Apparently not. The man was an idiot - I spent damn near twenty minutes trying to convince him to send someone! Those people could have come and found me at any time? It's not as if they were just letting me make phone calls whenever I pleased!

I cannot believe that. How could a group devoted to preventin' trouble let it happen like that? London's got one heckuva problem with it's government if it can't keep its law force in line!

...Well, now I'm even more fired up to get back to mayorin' work when I come home.

It sounds like you don't have quite as much work to do in that department, at least. I'm not even sure there needs to be a Marshal if you're just flying around using the Force on things.

Force Galactic.

[Gotta keep things straight.]

And I don't recall ever flyin'. Besides, my wife don't allow me to use it in town. Apparently. Don't know why. [There's too much empty space between Evil Jim killing everyone and him being mayor to understand what the hell is going on.]

Also, I can't be in more than one place at a time. As a barkeep and mayor, and have plenty of problems to deal with myself. The Marshal knows a lot more about arrestin' folks than I do, so I leave that part to him and whoever wants to help. He's got a Martian and a vigilante on his side; and now town's got a sheriff. We should be fine.

It sounds too useful to worry about where you use it.

[But you know what, she doesn't want to get invested in any of that.] What do Martians look like?

Well, if my wife tells me not to do somethin', it might be due to my usin' it would lead her to worry, which I do not want. Plus, I respect her wishes, as any decent husband such as myself should.

[But marriage advice can some later.]

The ones I know? Blue, but the Martians that invaded Earth a thousand years ago were grey. Never seen any of those kinds around. They kinda look like two-legged bugs with huge antennae. They apparently don't have emotions, accordin' to what I'm told, but I reckon it's more that they like stickin' to logic and feelin's are too messy for 'em.

What else? Right, Croach has a lotta senses that are stronger than hours. Can practically detect anythin', hear just about anythin' that's goin' on. And like I mentioned, they got nano in their bodies that let 'em regenerate when they get hurt.

[That marriage would probably go for a lot on the Internet]

They sound strong. Nice of them to let you live on their planet. [HA HA HA she knows that's not how these things generally work]

Well, uh.

[Yeah...doesn't happen like that.]

They haven't bothered us too much in recent years, no, so long as we don't bother them, but there have been some fights when I was a kid. They, uh, live in their own tribes while we got our town, so...ain't anythin' bad so long as we stay away from each other.

[...There may have been a bit of a war going on before humans could settle on Mars, but let's not get into that.]

[It's not as if Susan's people weren't the kings of shitty colonialism]

That could be worse, I guess. What did you all want to go to Mars for anyway?

[It's not like Britain would do a better job than America if they went to Mars.]

Personally? It's 'cause my family wanted to find someplace better to live. I been to Earth a few times in my life, but Mars is more of my home.

It's like askin' why anyone moves somewhere new. Maybe there ain't any affordable housin'. There's more job opportunities there. We need to grow more food. It's better for Mars-Earth relationships if we live close to each other.

We also have the Moon, so why not somewhere farther? Plenty of aliens live off their home planet, and we humans have to do the same.

[Probably worse, somehow]

That's not really what I meant. It's not exactly the most hospitable environment? I can see the Moon, at least it's close enough that someone might get up and help you if whatever you live in malfunctioned.

Well, about the Moon...it ain't the best place no more. The folks up there wanted to be independent from Earth about seventy years ago, and the Earth government made 'em pay for that by forcin' several youth from each district to participate in the Deathletics each year. Only one kid survives.

Last time I recall, the sport was Punishment Soccer. They broadcast the whole thing across the galaxy for some reason, and I ain't seen any successful overthrow of it, Earth or Moon.

[And the majority of other species do not give a damn about human politics. They must be laughing at the whole ordeal.]

...When I think about it, livin' in our own, self-governing' place on Mars is a safe bet.

...that's terrible!

[YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THINGS LIKE THAT]

But what can you do against the whole government of Earth?! Even if we did manage to make an army, we'd have to make sure Earth won't do the same thing again, then institute a new government on the Moon, and not risk havin' your kids thrown into those games - which I don't have, but there are plenty of kids on Mars.

...I wish we could all do somethin'. Those kids deserved better.

You've got superpowers, Mordecai?

[Weren't you mentioning moving planets and changing the weather or some shit?]

Not that it's all on your shoulders. Earth ought to have kept its own government in line.

Sure, but I don't magically fix everythin' with one thought. I had to manipulate the timeline a good while just to organize a small event in town. Imagine how much time that'd take if I had to stop an entire planet on my own?

[If he were as likeable and charming as Jim, he might be able to convince them otherwise, but alas, his powers don't add points to his Charisma stat.]

But as mayor, my first thought is gonna be Mars. It'll be up to me to keep everythin' there in line, as much as I wanna help the kids that died on the Moon.

[Like...bring them back to life, but reviving them would be difficult he can't remember them well. Sure, there's the images from the broadcast that slip into his mind from time to time, but nothing like--

Wait a minute. He pulls out the soccer photo he carries in his vest and checks for something.]

I suppose that's -

[She was going to say that's fair, because she really can't expect him - a mayor of some town on Mars - to take off and wage war against Earth, even with powers. He's got responsibilities of his own.

But then he abruptly starts looking at a photograph.]

- what's that?

[He covers his face with a hand as he studies the faces in the photo.]

...I got this from the machine the first week I was here. I was thinkin' it's a fake this whole time, but there was somethin' familiar about this...

[Shit. It hits him.]

Look! [He lays the photograph on the countertop. There's a group of teenagers lined up in soccer uniforms, smiling at the camera while Mordecai stands by in a coach's outfit. While the green soccer field is visible behind them, there red mesas and plains or Mars are clear in the distance.]

I thought they looked familiar for a reason! I-I think some of them are the kids that died in the last Punishment Soccer game!

Ah.

[And even if Mordecai didn't have any direct relation to stopping that death game bullshit, he hasn't mentioned anyone else with resurrection powers running around.]

You have done something, then. Good.

[But why would he do that? Why go through the extra effort of coaching soccer if he had to deal with being mayor? Why the sudden philanthropy?]

...But I don't remember this.

[Sports aren't that bad, when he thinks about it. Teenagers can be dealt with, if the past month locked with several of them proved anything.]

I wonder if I even brought back the ones that murdered the others.

Are you planning on doing that here?

[He looks at the photo one last time before putting it back in.]

Yeah. Definitely.

[Byakuren, Ashley, Luna...maybe Chie. He's not too sure on the others.]

None of this ain't supposed to have happened.

Then you probably did then, too.

[She's not so sure on the subject of resurrecting murderers, but he's going to do what he's going to do. Anyway, she doesn't want to get in a fight over what's still a distant hypothetical.]

...I'll see how things turn out. The folks that got killed first, then everyone else on a case-by-case basis.

First we gotta find a way out.

Right. None of it really matters if we can't do that much.

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Looks like this will be a weekly thing

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