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Entry tags:

(open)

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.]

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No--no, it's fine!

[Wow, he is really bad at this. Maybe he can try making himself seem a little less obviously suspicious.]

It's just...I have a few sensory issues right now. Nothing major, just...I kind of want to know if it's getting worse or not.

[Not that he can really do anything about it, so he's trying not to worry about it.]

But if everything's doing what, well, what I guess it's supposed to be, then good.

You are not fine. [If Eiji is having sensory issues, that is the definition of "not fine."]

[But there's nothing he can do but believe Eiji when he says it isn't anything major, for now. ]

I do not know what it is that the mark is supposed to do. That's the problem. [Well—not quite. He knows part of what the mark is probably meant to do, based on what someone who's experienced a past iteration has said. But that's not proof.]

Nothing has changed in you?

[That question is just general enough that Eiji can't completely look Chase in the eye as he answers.]

Not that I know of, no.

[Chase may not be that good at socializing, but he knows suspicious when he sees it.]

...Show me your arm.

[Eiji does. It's perfectly normal. There is nothing unusual about it at all.

For now.]

See? I'm fine.

[He looks at the arm, then back to Eiji’s face. You win this round, good sir...]

It is something that comes and goes, then.

[...But Chase can still get a shot in.]

[Either way, Chase returns the sign to the shop and then starts heading away.]

You were walking this way before you started talking to me. Where were you going?

[Eiji averts his gaze. He is neither confirming nor denying that.]

Actually, I was kind of just walking around, getting a feel for the city. That way, I don't end up getting lost.

[Chase recognizes a guilty conscience when he sees it, but people can only be helped if they want to be helped. Kiriko had asked him to help Go, and Go had resisted every step of the way.]

That is...a good idea. The Dreaming Bridge has been helpful. [Which is...what it's for, but he knows there must be people who don't trust it.]

[He crosses his arms.] How much progress have you made?

I'm not really sure."

Eiji scratches his head, trying to think through his mental map of the city.

"I started toward the center, but I don't think I'm anywhere near any of the coasts. I know this place is big, but I didn't realize it would be this big."

Why wouldn't it be big?

...I have not made a mental map, myself. [Pretty much offering himself to go with Eiji. He has just ditched his job, after all.]

Well, I mean, it depends where you go. In some countries, a big city is a lot smaller than what another country would think.

[He scratches his head. He suspects he's doing a terrible job explaining this.]

Have you ever traveled before? Outside of your hometown?

I haven't. [He does understand what Eiji's getting at, anyway.]

So you thought it was a smaller "big city."

[But there was still no reason to think that the place wouldn't be big, generally speaking, in Chase's view, but he also didn't have any preconceptions of Aifaran.]

...You have seen the barrier? [That covers the entire archipelago, that is. He'd observed it when he was talking to someone who'd been made very aware of it; maybe that accounts for the place seeming small.]

Kind of? I'm originally from the Tokyo area, but I used to travel a lot. I grew up thinking that, for example, Singapore was really big--since it was a city that made up its own country. But when I visited for myself, I saw that it was a lot smaller than the city I was used to. If that makes sense.

But that was in terms of people. I think...I don't know if it's just because I'm still new and kind of overwhelmed, but it feels like there's more space.

[Eiji shakes his head.]

That's a lot farther than I've managed to make, so far.

[As someone who has no opinion on Singapore one way or the other, he can’t say that he relates to that particular thing. But there’s a lot that he doesn’t relate to in the first place.]

Take it little by little...eventually it can be done.

[There's no pressing need to do so, as far as Chase can discern, anyway.] Unless you are looking for something in particular?

Yeah, I guess that's true.

[He blinks for a second at Chase's next question, then shakes his head.]

No, not really.

[Nothing that he's trying to find. Maybe running away from.]

[He peers at him, because from his perspective, Eiji's still being a little cagey. But people's private things are their private things.]

Then there is no hurry.

But...how can we know for sure how long we're going to be here?

If you will return soon, then there is no need to know it.

[Knowing the lay of a land one will not be returning to isn't critical for anything, after all. In fact, it's quite inefficient.]

Does that worry you?

Well, I guess...

[It's just that Eiji has gotten so used to having to worry about everything immediately all the time that he doesn't even know how to stop doing that anymore.]

Not really. I mean, it's nice here, and it does give me a chance to breathe a little bit and think of ways to solve the problems back home, but I still worry about what I left behind.

[...He supposes that that's one advantage to being most likely dead; he doesn't have to worry about that sort of thing, even though he'd..."disappeared" in the midst of a fight. He trusts his compatriots, though, and there's no doubt in his mind that they would have brought about a conclusion one way or the other.]

Do you trust the people you left behind?

Well, yeah, but...

[But the only one left to fight the remaining Greeed was Goto, who had a Rider system that wasn't designed to stand up to them. There were only so many times he'd be able to trade between that and the Proto-Birth Driver, and sooner or later, both would be broken beyond repair.]

Right now, there's only one person fighting against some really strong enemies, and we could barely hold them off as two of us to begin with.

I have heard...that we will be returned to the moment we left.

[He isn't sure how much of that he believes, himself, but at the very least it would be better than spending the entire time worrying. He's seen what that kind of desperation can do to someone. And this case has much less known about it than the one back home.]

If you believe in them, then believe they will find a way.

[As soon as Eiji hears that, he breathes a sigh of relief, and all of the tension leaves his body at once. He hasn't abandoned everyone. He has time to plan something.]

Good. That's...I do believe in them, but I feel better knowing that I'll be able to help.

You will not be able to help them if you break down. Being too hasty...clouds your head.

[...And that's assuming that this "dreaming" isn't permanent. But that's just his own conjecture supported by nothing (certainly not to the more widespread knowledge about returning to the moment they left, so he doesn't mention it. Theories and ideas wouldn't help anyone now.]

[Eiji hesitates before nodding.]

Yeah. I guess you're right.

[Not that he's ever been good at listening to this kind of advice.]

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