d-day + 187 through 193 ✯ spam

[withtheoldbreed]

[Open Spam, throughout Port]

[Gene doesn't regret joining the Marines - God help him, it's true - but there's no doubt that the Army, Air Force and Navy guys over in Europe have the better deal when it comes to leave. There's no Paris or Rome to liberate in the Pacific, no London to be shipped back to for R&R, just the shitty shacks and tents on Pavuvu, overrun with land crabs and rats and still reeking of rotting coconuts.

So the idea of actually getting to explore the city - especially now that there's no war on, no Nazis running the place or snipers to look out for - is kind of neat, even if Gene's not so sure it's enough to really make up for the ship seeming like it was falling apart. Or the last port.

But he still hits the town - in civvies, probably for the first time since getting on board the ship - and does his best to enjoy himself. He doesn't speak French well enough to really communicate with anyone, but Snafu does, and they're so used to being in each other's company that it just makes sense to team up anyway... even if Snaf nearly gets them kicked out of at least one museum.

Because Gene's that kind of tourist - he gets up as close as people are still allowed to be to the Eiffel Tower and goes to the Arc de Triomphe, visits the Louvre and eats at some of the more modestly priced restaurants, walks along the Seine and finds himself oddly drawn to war memorials and places he recognizes from pictures when the city had fallen to the Nazis.

He can also be found in book shops and staring with mild confusion at the Apple Store. This Paris is very different from the one he imagines his brother had seen. Everyone's on their phones and looks different from what he's used to, and it's not bad, but he feels out of place. He has no idea with how Steve coped with waking up seventy or so years in the future, because even just this is very, very eerie.]

Comments

[tucky]

[Oh look, it's Dillon's clone. Tiffany runs into him outside the Apple Store - she's neither going in nor coming out, just passing by, but she recognizes Gene from the Barge and notes the confused look on his face.]

You lost?

[withtheoldbreed]

[Gene recognizes her voice and turns around, grinning a little sheepishly.]

No. [Not really, anyway. He has a vague idea of where he is.] It's just a lot different than the pictures I've seen of Paris.

[tucky]

Ain't you from the past? This is modern day; my modern day.

[withtheoldbreed]

Guess seventy years really does make a difference.

[tucky]

Oh, yeah. Y'all didn't even have computers back then.

Wanna go in and look? Or you wanna see my iPad?

[withtheoldbreed]

Is that different from an iPhone?

[Yes, he's curious!!]

[tucky]

Yeah. It's a tablet, not a smartphone.

[She pulls it out and shows him. Her background is set as a picture of her and Merlin, her dear departed warden.]

See? It's got photos, music, games, a calendar...

[badgerms]

[Snafu - also dressed in civilian clothes and looking unusually clean - has been kind of a pain so far. It's a good thing he's never really been anything else in the entire time Gene's known him because at least the other marine is used to it. He speaks French fine - Cajun French, not French French, so there have been a few cultural differences - and his extensive knowledge of swear words and obscenities have been getting a work out. It's honestly kind of a miracle he hasn't managed to get them actually kicked out of anywhere or in any fights yet.

There's still time though.

Anyway, right now, he's hanging around outside the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, calling out occasionally to passing women and grinning when they get huffy about it, smoking and waiting impatiently for Sledge to be done looking at dead animals.]

[withtheoldbreed]

[The thing is - the probably stupid thing - is that Sledge trusts Snafu with his life and everything else, so his willingness to stick around has little to do with his friend's ability to speak the language and more to do with the fact that it's just... natural. So it's true: he doesn't really mind the other marine being a pain.

And, knowing his friend is probably bored out of his mind waiting for him to be done in the Grande Galerie, he tries not to take too much longer after Snaf decides he's had enough and needs to get some air. By the time he locates him - and it doesn't take long - he witnesses the tail end of one of those catcalls and the look it receives, which means he's grinning at him with something like exasperation when he catches up with him.]

Anyone try'n slap you while I was gone?

[badgerms]

[Snaf's sharply amused grin smooths into something more lazily cocky at the sound of Gene's voice and he takes a drag on his cigarette before shrugging.]

Couple'a broads looked like they wanted to.

[It's probably good you arrived when you did, Gene.]

[withtheoldbreed]

I'll bet. [This isn't a side of Snaf he's really had opportunity to see before - there aren't any women in their corner of the Pacific - but considering how much he enjoys harassing new recruits and... everyone else, honestly, it hasn't been a surprising development.

Gene reaches into his pants pocket for his own pack of cigarettes and a lighter.]

Where d'you wanna go now?

[badgerms]

[Snaf watches Gene for a couple moments while he lights his cigarette and starts to smoke.]

Long as it ain't another fuckin' museum, I ain't that fussy.

[If Gene really wanted to see one, he'd probably go but this is a sign that he will complain endlessly if you try to make him go right now.]

[withtheoldbreed]

[It's going to be a long trip to Paris at this rate. He'll make it up to you somehow??]

Eggsy said there's a zoo a couple miles west of here. We could go look at animals that didn't die a hundred years ago.

[But the suggestion's offered open endedly, because if Snafu has other ideas or suggestions, Gene's open to them. He did force you to step foot into a museum, after all.]

[americasdirtiest]

[It's early on in the port enough that Mickey is still mostly functioning, if also almost as bewildered and out of place as Gene is. In fact, he's at the Eiffel Tower with his phone out, trying to figure out the best angle to get a picture from, when he takes a step back and literally bumps right into him.]

Hey--

[He turns, the watch it dying on his lips as he sees who it is. He takes a hasty step backwards, then freezes, staring uncomfortably at Gene.]

Oh.

[withtheoldbreed]

[Gene turns too, expecting it to be some other tourist and has his mouth half around an apology (even if he was just standing here, not doing anything) before he realizes who it is.

If it helps, his answering stare is a lot less uncomfortable once they're a comfortable distance from each other.]

Hey.

[Um.]

You alright?

[americasdirtiest]

[There are worlds where this encounter goes a lot worse: where this is happening right after the Night with the Thing and Mickey is still feeling defensive and panicky; where Mickey had gone to bed right after Gene had left, and so Gene is still the most recent mistake on his mind. He'd gone on to do way stupider things, though, and somehow the world still hasn't exploded or anything in the aftermath. He feels like shit, but not because of Gene.

The upshot is that Mickey is incredibly ill at ease, but his first instinct isn't to lash out again just yet. Instead, he shrugs, looking basically anywhere but at Gene's face.]

Yeah. Yeah. Just-- you know.

[He holds up his phone and makes a click click sound with his tongue, which... may or may not mean photo to a guy who predates him by seventy years.]

[withtheoldbreed]

[Fortunately, Gene's had some of the inner workings of such things explained to him over the last couple months, so it takes a moment, but yeah, okay. Taking pictures. He gets it.

He nods, and while there's a part of him that's still thinking about what happened - and Mickey probably is, too - fortunately they're standing right next to a giant distraction, and Gene... really doesn't care about what happened. Not really. He's got so much other fucked up shit to deal with, some guy trying to get his pants off isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

So he glances over and squints up at the Eiffel Tower for a moment before looking back at Mickey.]

Weird to see it like this. [In person, with half the top missing.]

[americasdirtiest]

[He draws in a breath and lets it out as something almost like a laugh, shy and embarrassed and relieved all at once. He's socially awkward at the best of times, significantly moreso when faced with a situation like this, but -- yes, good, let them never talk about it again. That works for him just fine.

He turns to the Tower instead, still grinning strangely, rubbing the back of his neck until it stops feeling quite so warm.]

Yeah.

[He cranes his head back to look up at the broken top.]

Be fun trying to explain this shit back home, huh?

[As opposed to any of the other completely insane shit they've been through -- but he feels like this is a thing anyone could turn on the news and be like, uh, no, it's fine over. No one can prove that giant rabid dogs and demon parasites don't exist that easily.]

[withtheoldbreed]

[Gene grins easily and chuckles, suddenly kind of pleased he doesn't have a camera. Not that he'd probably be taking pictures, anyway, because being able to explain this back home takes on a whole new meaning when you're a couple decades behind all this. How's he supposed to explain having weird, futuristic pictures of Paris, or anywhere else?]

Not even the Nazis fucked it up this bad. [But the Barge comes in, and of course, they apparently take the top off a national icon. Great driving, whoever's at the helm.

(There's a brief moment when he wonders why the Germans hadn't done more to destroy the city. There's still plenty he recognizes from pictures he saw before the war.)]

[rickitikitarr]

[In one of the bookshops, Ricki spots him over a low shelf. It takes a second for him to place where he recognizes his from, but when he has it he gives a low whistle to catch his attention, and a quick, informal salute.

He'll come closer if Gene doesn't look like he wants to bolt.]

[withtheoldbreed]

[He doesn't - Ricki gets a small but genuine smile in greeting, and he doesn't start looking like he's about to move on, or head out, even if part of him knows he's probably only got so much time before Snaf texts him to let him know he's either bored out of his mind or ditching him for something more fun.]

[rickitikitarr]

I've got this thing I can't resist.

[He admits, on his way over, voice dropping a little lower- bookstores are like libraries, in that the good ones have a hush to them.]

I know it's pointless, but reading future histories of my past, seeing how it all turned out-

[withtheoldbreed]

[Gene shakes his head immediately, glancing down at the biology textbook he's looking at, because he understands what that's like, he does, but he's on the complete opposite side of this.]

I've been avoidin' all that. I don't wanna know what happens. [He doesn't want to know where K/3/5 is headed next, or what horrible stuff might happen to his buddies after Peleliu. He's read enough war literature to know someone like Ack Ack could be mentioned in a book about Peleliu, and Gene has no interest in finding out who else isn't going home.]

[rickitikitarr]

If it helps, it's totally useless. I can see the shapes of my world in the books- a fellow named Kim Philbin who did many of the things my old boss Bill managed to pull off in my world. A few of the same POW camps but with different names on the prisoner rosters.

[He hunts and hunts, but never finds what he's looking for.]

Like we're a half-step out of sync.

[withtheoldbreed]

[Gene shakes his head firmly, glancing up at Ricki and then back to the book again.]

I don't wanna know.

I know specifics about what I'm goin' back to, I'll spend too much time worryin' over stuff I can't change.