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Entry tags:

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Characters: Chase AND YOU
Date: anywhen Jan 30 - Feb 2
Location: Breakwater Wing + out and about
Situation: discovering his Talent + this is what rank 5 commerce has wrought
Warnings/Rating: n/a

A. Destruction
[He'd returned to the room he'd been assigned last night, and so it is that he gets up bright and early, ready for the day, swinging his legs out of bed without any need to throw off a blanket because he didn't sleep with one, and heads out.]

[Opening doors...it's a fact of life. But not once in his life has Chase pulled on a doorknob to have the doorknob get pulled without the door. He's left standing with a doorknob in his hand, door still firmly closed, while pieces of metal fall to the floor and roll by his feet.]

[Hope no one wanted to exit or enter Breakwater Wing today.]

B. Commerce
[Chase doesn't interact with the proper residents of Aifaran often; the daily lives of the people who belong here simply doesn't concern him most of the time. But today he's accosted by a man. Wearing shades. Indoors.]

[Who takes one look at Chase's purple leather outfit and, upon declaring Chase the perfect man for the job, has dragged him outside, across the street, and stuck him out in front of a store with a sign.]

Hip & Trendy Clothes
They're hip! And trendy!
[The sign is made of only moderately stiff cardboard and glitter paste. The store may or may not be a front for something. And Chase looks entirely deadpan to be there.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Padparadscha helping him open the door simply hadn't even occurred to him. For one, he'd also need to retrieve his key.]

[He takes the shirt cautiously, watching it. The door was made of wood, the doodadamajigs had been made of some kind of plastic as far as he can tell, so it isn't a matter of material. After a few seconds, though, it doesn't look like the shirt will dismantle, so he wraps it around a hand.]

[Yep, looks like this will work.] You have my thanks.

Nothing like this has happened to you?

Nothing. I'm sure I'd remember if things started falling apart when I touched them. [Of course, there's all this talk of magic, and rumours about Dreamfolk, so Padparadscha can make a guess that this might happen to them sometime soon as well. But for now, it seems, they've escaped it.

They give a smile somewhere in the vicinity of amused.] Seems like I have something to look forward to, huh? Though I don't know if that's the right way to think about it.

[Destroying things at a touch seems like a little much, even for someone like them.]

[He carefully pulls out his key when he reaches his room number, and has no trouble unlocking the door since he'd made sure that he'd wrapped Padparadscha's shirt around thinly where his opposable digits meet.]

[Which is a long way of saying that he might have accidentally grazed the doorknob when the shirt slipped a bit, which he notices, but it doesn't seem like the doorknob will collapse this time, so he enters with only the barest pause.]

You look forward to it...? [Still can't detect Padparadscha's jokes. (Film at eleven.)]

It is unpleasant.

[He opens the drawer and unwinds the shirt from his hand but doesn't hand it back to Padparadscha yet, cautiously picking up the glove and staring at it for signs of decomposition.]

You also have a pair of gloves? [Just in case it really does mean something that they have the same tattoo, and already having a pair would mean they wouldn't have to go buy one.]

[Padparadscha watches his interaction with the doorknob fairly closely, but it doesn't seem like this one's going to fall to pieces, so they let it pass without comment. Rather than follow him into the room, they wait at the door, leaning on the doorframe and taking the opportunity to inspect another dormitory while they're there.

His apparent inability to pick the joke just seems to amuse them, and they wave a hand.] It's still interesting, isn't it? Besides, I'm no stranger to unpleasant.

[As the gem-filled holes in their torso probably attest to. Their existence has not been an easy one.

As for his question, they hum an approval. Diamond-class gems and those of similar strength were always fond of long gloves, even if they hadn't had a pair with them.] I "bought" some with those coins we got when we arrived.

[He glances up at "interesting," because, of the people he knows who would use that word with a situation like this, not many of them are...pleasant. But, after a moment, Padparadscha doesn't strike him as one of those people, so he turns back to the gloves and places them aside.]

[He's spotted the little toy that at some point he'd picked up at the festival. It was tiny and doll-like, meticulously assembled and painted, but which he'd had no use for at the time. He holds it up and stares at it for a moment, until—it breaks into its component pieces and falls out of his hands.]

[He rolls over the piece left in his hand. So that's how he controls it...intuitively, like the difference between Mashin and Rider. But he puts the gloves on anyway, because he had just been dismantling things accidentally, and he should make sure he can't do it unintentionally again.]

Unpleasantness is inevitable, but it is not enjoyment.

[When he makes to exit, his eyes land on the gem-filled holes briefly. He'd asked about them, and then had chalked them up to a simple species difference. But with the talk of unpleasantness, for some reason the holes look like scars.]

[He hands the shirt back.]

Would you rather it be a surprise, or will you find out now? [The magic, that is.] There are some things we can try right now.

Well, not everyone agrees on what's unpleasant, huh? It could be something very different.

[Padparadscha takes the shirt back, swinging it back around themselves with a rather casual air. They still leave it open, and the gem fillings open to view from anyone who might happen to look.

He does have a good point about the powers, though, and Padparadscha hums a little.] I think a surprise like this might be more of a problem for someone else than it is for me. So maybe I should try now. But where to start? I don't think it will be as easy as the same thing for both of us.

[It's never that easy, in their experience. Different people align to different things, and people express different skills. Even if their mark is the same, Padparadscha can't believe it will be as straightforward as all that.]

The variation isn't that high. [Though Padparadscha did seem very amused about Chase breaking things. It seems to him that Padparadscha is amused at a lot of things in general, though.]

[He starts to head back to the broken door.]

We use something disposable. [Rocks, for example. Loose bricks, even bits of paper.]

I was built to protect...to fight. The magic just now...uses my fighting mentality. [...Something like that. He's never had to explain his instincts other than as blunt statements of fact.]

Maybe it works the same way for you. [In any case, it seems to him that if this magic were thoroughly uncontrollable, Dreamfolk wouldn't be as welcome as they are.] Someone said once that that tattoo is connected to our souls. If it really is connected to this magic, I don't think it would be something alien to you.

[Padparadscha follows him, hands behind their head and manner rather casual. They don't remark until he mentions being built to protect, which gets an interested hum and a glance over from them.]

Oh, so you're a sentry, then. That's one thing we have in common. [Those roles seem to be considered a little differently in this society than the one Padparadscha came from, but it's still similar enough to make the connection. Protecting, fighting threats, staying alert and in control - all the roles of a good sentry, a job Padparadscha has done for several thousand years now.]

I haven't gotten to have a good fight for a long time...but maybe you're right. Something like that would feel a lot like something inherently "me".

[Being broken, causing other things to become broken. That those are facts of who they are is something they've reconciled with a long time ago, even if it's not an enjoyable position to occupy.]

[He glances at Padparadscha for a second, because the only Sentry he's heard of lately is the Verdant Sentry, and he's certainly not a member of that. But he catches on a second later.]

That will make this easier, then. [He wouldn't call himself a sentry, exactly—there's a reason he's called "Chaser"—but if Padparadscha has made the connection, he supposes there's something to it. In fact, that might be one of the reasons they have the same mark, though of course, without any other idea of what the mark does or is supposed to do, it's hard to say.]

[Outside the Dreaming Bridge, he picks up a pebble.] You have already tried touching...

How about this? [He tosses the pebble lightly at Padparadscha.]

[Padparadscha just waves a hand as if to indicate that yes, the touching was already a failure. When he throws the rock, though, Padparadscha is prepared to catch it, using that same hand to cup it out of the air. Even with that fairly gentle motion, it chips a tiny bit off the pebble.]

Ah, well, I broke it a little, but that's just because I don't think this is a very hard kind of rock compared to me. [Padparadscha opens their hand to show it - it definitely doesn't look like anything magical, just the result of something hitting something that outclasses it in hardness, knocking a tiny fragment off.]

Did you think I was going to burst it in the air? [It's a funny thing to think about, admittedly, but perhaps not the most likely thing he was testing there.]

[His forehead creases a little as he looks at the rock in their hand. He'll have to be careful.]

I don't know. [Because, in a very literal way, he didn't. But combat was the first thing that came to mind, probably due to Padparadscha's talk of sentries. But Chase's didn't activate when he was thinking of fighting or protecting.]

[But he said that these were things that they could try—and having something thrown at someone was one of the more basic ones.]

[He crosses his arms.] How about jumping?

Jumping? [Padparadscha seems even more amused by that suggestion, but they do so anyway, stepping forward and then kicking off the ground properly to leap up. Their jumping arc is extremely high, but they've tried not to overdo it, at least, so they come down again before too long, landing in a crouch on the stone.

Straightening up, they stretch a bit, turning on their heel.] I don't think that one worked, huh? Maybe we'll have to cast a wider net.

[Jumping. But as that doesn't seem to work, either (though that was an impressive jump, but if Padparadscha says that isn't it, then it's probably not), he moves onto the next.]

Next throw something at me. [Or attack him conventionally, same difference.]

[But Padparadscha will probably have a better idea of what will work.] What net are you thinking of?

[This one is very literal, isn't he? Padparadscha lets out a rolling laugh.] Not that kind of net, little one. I mean we should broaden what we're looking at.

[They open their hands to indicate they don't have anything to throw.] I don't think you want me throwing a punch, either, but maybe you have something?

[They reach out to tap his shoulder lightly and somewhat teasingly - but if they make contact, Chase may feel a short sharp shock, just enough to make someone jump back.]

[Jump back he does, though his brow draws together for only a moment.]

I felt a shock. Is that normal for you?

[A punch may have been less shocking; the point was for Padparadscha to attack, no matter how lightly, really. And though he doesn't care to get shocked again, he holds out his hand. Might as well see this through.]

...Do it again.

[Padparadscha withdraws their hand as soon as he reacts like that, though their expression becomes much more sober when he mentions the shock.]

It isn't. [But they think he would know that anyway, so it's not too surprising when he reaches his hand out again. Padparadscha is somewhat reluctant to take him up on it, considering they feel they do enough damage normally - but they need to figure it out at some point, and better someone offering themselves up than some hapless passerby.

They reach out again to touch his hand. This time, with more awareness, the shock may be enough to briefly stun him.]

[This was...a bad idea. He should’ve engaged his Rider form first, but he didn’t think the shock would get any stronger. But even with that, he’s experienced worse, even as he jerks away and then stumbles backward.]

[He takes a breath, and straightens slowly as the shock fades.] That was probably it. How did you feel?

["Do you feel like you can control it," he means. Though that might be slightly hypocritical, coming from him.] Do you require gloves?

[Padparadscha again withdraws their hand as soon as the effect takes hold, to make sure it doesn't do anything worse. They look at it for a moment, expression difficult to read, before their face clears up into something more typically light and amused.]

Now that I know it's there, it should be fine. Though I have gloves if I really need them. They can be useful, huh?

[In the case of gems, occasionally for holding their arms together in the event of taking a hit they're too brittle to withstand, but this works too.]

[In response, Chase opens and closes his gloved hand.] Indeed.

How does it feel to you? [He's only basing this on the fact that he could compare the control of his ability to something he already knew; he's wondering if there's a connection there for Padparadscha as well. Talking about the mark and the ability in terms of souls is one thing...having that conjecture confirmed is another.]

[He hadn't quite missed the brief change in Padparadscha's demeanor, either, even if he can't yet interpret it.]

[That moment of change in expression is all Chase will have to work with, now that Padparadscha has returned to their composure. It's not easy to break it in the first place, but this is a somewhat exceptional circumstance for them.

They hum a little, stretching their arms out.] Subtle. At my fingertips, but not unnatural. Which is strange for a power only given to us here.

[It's remarkably familiar, not like something only introduced before the equivalent of the blink of an eye to them.]

["Subtle" is one way of putting it. He supposes it describes what it felt like for him, too.]

That's that, I suppose.

[Since it doesn't seem like Padparadscha is that bothered, after all.]

That is strange, but...everything is strange. [He's alive and well, after all.] No more strange than anything else...

Well well, you sound like you're adjusting well. That's good, little one. [Accepting that everything is strange is a good start when it comes to accepting an entire new world. Padparadscha has had to do it before with the Moon Colony, and now again with this shortly after, and it's really not a hard switch to make for them.

That might just be because of how radically different their world seems to be from anyone else's, though.]

But it's a little strange that you can't control it if it feels kind of natural, right?

...I suppose. [He still hasn’t found himself a new purpose, so he could argue about how well he's adjusted...but he also isn’t programmed for culture shock.]

[As for the question...] It’s like a forgotten skill...it is not so strange. [Forgetting their skills is something that happens to humans. And Chase has recovered his programming once or twice, when it was meddled with. He can’t say that it feels exactly like that, but at the very least the concept isn’t foreign to him.]

[And, as usual, it's the fact that it might have been programmed into him without him being aware for it is what he's worried about, because it means he doesn't know who did it.]

That it feels natural...must be intentional.

Of course. [Padparadscha seems to be adapting to this new knowledge very quickly, rolling their arms back as they think on it a little more.] They would want us to use it, to become familiar with it...whoever gave it to us. Maybe they think it'll make us feel more at home here, huh?

[There's a lot of talk of magic they've heard, but not so many people who can actually use it. Perhaps a part of bringing together the people here is giving them that common ability.

It does draw into question one other thing, though, and Padparadscha gives a lengthy, curious hum.] So I wonder what it is the other kinds of magic here do.

[Both of theirs seem designed to do harm, which is unlikely to be a coincidence considering their shared marking.]

Or to make us drop our guard. [Making it feel familiar makes it more likely to be overlooked; he knows from experience. Even after he started to question his memory loss caused by Brain's rewiring, he was willing to take Heart's word. But the fact that he is on his guard now might mean that whoever did this was sloppy.]

...Too early to say. [That there is a "who" is only a conjecture, after all, and he has no proof whatsoever.]

[He lightly touches the spot on his chest where, underneath his jacket, his mark is.] All we have to do is ask. [Evolved Roidmude each had personalized abilities, so for this, he doesn't make any guesses.]

You are curious about this magic?

Edited 2018-02-24 00:21 (UTC)

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