Living on the Edge!

[Vinny Patterson]

Vinny led Basil down to the point and the workshops.

"There she is!"

It was....a Skoda 1203. A mid-70s example of Eastern European engineering which might, technically, meet all the definitions of 'a car'.

[Basil Benson]

Basil had grabbed a few accessories from his giant horde of such things to hide his invisibleness better. Gloves,a scarf, and a hat more or less fixed things, as long as he didn't raise the brim of his hat too high.

He raised it now though to get a look at what Vinny had brought him to.

Basil made a soft snorting sound, not unlike the one he'd made at Colette's confused idiom. I wonder how often she goes about? Basil put that thought aside for a moment, instead focusing on his thoughts about Vinny's van.

"Where the bloody hell did you find this? Did you swipe some poor country sod's ride?"

[Vinny Patterson]

"Ebay, my friend! They were selling it for a song, can you believe it?"

[Basil Benson]

"Yes." Basil stated. He tilted his head to the side in thought. " I can see why you'd have a difficult time fixing it in the US, though with it's age I am not entirely certain it will be easier here."

[Vinny Patterson]

"It's just a matter of bodging; these things are really simple."

[Basil Benson]

Basil tilted his head back. " Wouldn't it be more prudent to find a permanent solution?"

[Vinny Patterson]

"Nah, they don't make stuff like this any more. Wouldn't have the heart to just throw it out and start over, you know?"

[Basil Benson]

Basil paused, deciding this affection for a useless machine must have been a gearhead thing, which he was decidedly not.

So he changed the subject.

" Where are we going? " He asked again, even if he was starting to suspect the real answer would end up being 'nowhere because this piece of shit won't start.'

[Vinny Patterson]

"Well, out is the first step. Then we'll figure out where from there."

[Basil Benson]

"Alright. " Basil seemed to take the answer he was given without further questioning and followed along with Vinny for what he suspected was probably going to be the most harrowing car ride he'd ever have.

[Vinny Patterson]

"Do we need to, like, hide you so no one sees you leave? You said you couldn't leave campus..."

[Basil Benson]

"That's not university rules, it's my parents. If they're really paranoid enough about their image to have me watched, hiding me probably won't help as they would likely position people in Maldon proper, not the school itself. "

Clearly he had thought about this.

[Vinny Patterson]

"Then we'll drive in the other direction," Vinny nodded.

[Basil Benson]

"Is there something good in the other direction?" Basil asked, his curiosity getting the better of him again.

[Vinny Patterson]

"I mean, probably! It's a big island."

[Basil Benson]

"So, we're just going to keep driving until we find it?" He laughed.

[Vinny Patterson]

"Why not? You got something better to do?"

[Basil Benson]

"Not especially, no." Basil admitted. His need to ask questions ceased for the moment, instead he began eyeing Vinny's dash to see if this thing at least had a functional radio.

[Vinny Patterson]

It did!

Vinny popped into the driver's seat.

"Let's see here," he mumbled, phasing his hands into the dash and fiddling with something in the engine.

[Basil Benson]

Basil had an inkling to reach out and play with it, but once Vinny's hands went through the dash he swallowed it back, at least for the moment. He wouldn't want to touch something and accidentally hurt the other boy while he was meddling with internal parts.

That tinge of jealousy started creeping in again as he watched Vinny. Why couldn't I have gotten something useful? Or controllable for that matter...

"Should I be doing something to help?" Basil offered.

[Vinny Patterson]

"Nah, we're good.

...I think..." he said, retracting his hands and turning the key.

The engine revved, stopped, and then sputtered to something that might be considered "life".

[Basil Benson]

"Ah! Progress! Now let's see if it makes it off the lot." He jokes, reaching out to mess with Vinny's radio now that his mitts aren't inside the finer workings of the vehicle.

[Vinny Patterson]

The radio was static-y, but it worked!
"I would go out tonight / But I haven't got a stitch to wear / This man said "it's gruesome / that someone so handsome should care..."

"I'm sure it will. We'll have to see where it stops, however!" Vinny said, slowly pulling the shambling wreck out of the garage and towards the main road.

[Basil Benson]

Basil's wired up body started to look a little more relaxed, as he shuffled a bit into his seat. The jumper and jeans he'd traded for his suit made him look a bit less wound tight as well, though those shiny shoes kind of gave away he had no idea what relaxed actually was, clothing wise. He reached out to roll down the window a bit and began to hum along with the radio, bobbing his head.

"He knows so much about these things, He knows so much about these things."

[Vinny Patterson]

"So, not Maldon or the 5-0 will get ya, huh?," Vinny said, pulling out onto the A12. "Your parents must really have it out for you."

[Basil Benson]

"Not anymore than any other rich student attending Xavier's." Basil replied after a long pause. "The university has a secret even it may only be partially aware of."

[Vinny Patterson]

"Oh? C'mon, dish it."

[Basil Benson]

Basil shifted uncomfortably.

"What do you know about Asylums?"

[Vinny Patterson]

"That they're kind of wicked cool when they're abandoned."

[Basil Benson]

Basil laughed.

"Well here at least, they became a convenient place for the rich to dump off anyone they didn't want anymore. Someone can't get over the death of their child and is acting a bit strange due to it? Send them to Asylum. Uncle Herman's incontinent? Ship him to Asylum. Little Mary won't stop reading books? Education is bad for women, better get her into Asylum."

[Vinny Patterson]

"Yeah? Gotcha.

What's that got to do with Xaviers?"

[Basil Benson]

"Xavier's has made itself a new, convenient asylum. One where people like my parents can dump their embarrassing offspring while they figure out what to do with them on a more permanent basis.

There's already myself and one other I am familiar with that have been sent here. One of my biggest fears is that all those prats from secondary are going to start showing up here."

[Vinny Patterson]

"Eh, if they do, we'll teach 'em a lesson, right?

And you're an adult, yeah? You get to decide if you're here or not."

[Basil Benson]

"... That's not how it works in high society. If you don't play ball, embarrassing people go somewhere else, very far away."

[Vinny Patterson]

"Well, that's when you flip 'em off and keep doing your own thing, right?"

[Basil Benson]

"I suppose. I'd rather go for option B. Figure out what I can do to keep myself off the radar as long as possible while I figure out what that thing is."

[Vinny Patterson]

"Doesn't seem too hard for you to stay out of sight."

[Basil Benson]

"You'd think, eh? Until you start to starve to death anyways." He laughed.

[Narrator]

"Man, you gotta start looking on the bright side of life. I mean to tell you..."

Whatever Vinny was going to say was interrupted, as the van slammed into a Mongol on horseback who really wasn't there a moment prior. Nor was the rather alarmingly large army behind them there when they had first started.

[Basil Benson]

Having had the good foresight to snap his seatbelt, Basil lunged forward in his bucket seat, then slammed backwards into it again.

"Bloody fucking hell!" Basil exclaimed.

"Did you just hit a fucking horse?!" Apparently, stress got Basil to loosen up his vocabulary, but not necessarily in ways one might want.