1st hunt | video

[momchester]

[The video starts a bit awkwardly, with the shakycam and fumbling of someone who isn't very practiced at the art of video chatting. A late-20-something woman's face is up close, clearly trying to figure out "how does I tech". After some fumbling, the camera stills and she sits back, looking a bit awkward.]

Okay. So, I guess this is what people do here. Calling the Internet using cameras.

[She looks too young and modern to be so fail at technology.]

Anyway- hi. I'm new.

Let's just say I didn't go to the, um, shitshow today- Thank God... Let's say I'm not gonna register. Don't wanna put on tights and fight crime, or whatever.

What're my options? Learn to knit? [There are at least three (3) guns visible in the video. She does not look like a knitter.] Start a [air quotes] "blog"?

I can't exactly do what I did back home- no monsters to hunt. No day job to go back to.

I kinda don't know what to do with myself.

Comments

[momchester]

Never been outside of the States. But Nessie's documented- not to most of the world, but to people in-the-know.

[momchester]

[Her smile dims very slightly.]

Most people are either born into it, or they come into it through... losing someone.

[To a monster.]

[momchester]

[She looks slightly... something. It's too small to be "impressed", but it's close.]

You're a smart kid. And yeah, it is a lot of pressure. And a lot more fear than childhood is supposed to have.

[momchester]

Choice still matters. Having a safe home is important when you're young.

[Somewhere down the line, Mary got the idea that non-hunting homes are almost all safe, good places. In her head she knows that's not necessarily true, but.]

[momchester]

[A pregnant pause.]

No.

[In a forced-casual tone that indicates that her simple "no" is more like a "hell fucking no, are you fucking kidding me, rather chew off my own fingers than-"]

I didn't want that.

[Past tense. Strange way to phrase it.]

[momchester]

[If he voiced his assumption, Mary would be tempted to not correct him. On a certain level, it's how she feels. The babies she left in 1982 are gone, and she'll never see them again.

His compliment makes her smile a little. It's been a long time since anyone confused her for a good mother.]

Imagine being four years old and knowing that there could be monsters in the closet. Imagine having every reason to be afraid, because the adults in your life sure the hell are. Growing up always knowing exactly what goes bump in the night.

[momchester]

Knowledge isn't the only problem. Hunting is dangerous. Taking a life before you hit puberty- it's not good. It warps you.

[She looks at him a little softer. There's something in his insistence that she'd protect them- something in the way he talks about parents.

So she also makes a (somewhat accurate) assumption about a situation she knows nothing about.]

That kind of upbringing takes away your choices. Makes you into one, singular kind of person.

[momchester]

Yeah.

[A little half-smile.]

You're probably right. It's better if I don't have to hunt anything.

[It doesn't sound... terribly sincere. For all her protesting about how terrible hunting is, she doesn't seem too broken up about not having to.]

[momchester]

[For the second time this short conversation, Mary smiles at his sharpness.]

You're too smart for your own good, kid.

[She makes a sort of you-caught-me face.]

Guilty. It's part of me now. I'm sure I'll find something.

[momchester]

[Now there's a thought that has never once occurred to her.]

...Seminars? About what?

[It never crossed her mind that she has something to say that other people would want to hear.]

[momchester]

Maybe if this world gets an upsurge in monster activity. Or, hell, if someone discovers that there've always been monsters here.

[Nah, it's not a dangerous line at all. She's just puzzled as to how her weird life would be relevant here. But the idea that someone would be interested in what she has to say has officially gotten Tate on her Good Side.]

[momchester]

Alright.

[She doesn't entirely buy the homework excuse, because.... seriously, who would willingly go to school here? It's an eternal get-out-of-school free card. She knows what SHE would've chosen, in his shoes.]

Nice talking to you- Tate, is it?

[Names are next to the communications but she still feels weird without some kind of introduction. Call her old-fashioned.]

[momchester]

Mary's fine.

Have a good night, Tate. Nice meeting you.