ioduanlogs | (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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.]

[That hesitation was a little suspicious, but after only a moment's peering at Eiji, Chase lets it pass. Problems—especially emotional ones—can't be solved in one day. Plus they've only just met.]

Thank you for your assistance. We'll meet again.

[Eiji nods with a smile.]

It wasn't any problem.

[Lies--he was freaking out.]

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