awashlogs | [Closed][Quest Log]

[After returning from the forest, and being checked over by Guren, Akira makes his way to find Yata. He knows the other boy went into the forest too, and if he ran into anything like Akira did...

Well. He wants to check on him.

He makes his way up the stairs, near silently as normal, but then clears his throat as he looks in Yata's room, to let him know if he's inside.]

Yata?

[ 'Worried' is a bit of an understatement when it comes to covering how Yata feels about the situation. Guren had taken a while to come back but Akira had taken a while. As in, way too damn long. Yata is dozing when Akira first gets back (judging by the latop he'd nodded off poking around the forums) and doesn't overhear he and Guren speaking.

When he hears his name, however, he blinks and glances over. When he sees who it is he shoots upright, leaping off his bed and rushing to the bedroom door. ]

Akira!

[ He stops short of tackling him, at least, but for a second it looks like he might. ]

You were gone for a whole day! What happened? Are you alright?

[He seems pretty impassive at the prospect of Yata tackling him - getting manhandled out of nowhere is something he's gotten used to since being friends with Ryuji. He overall seems calm about the flood of questions, too, even if he doesn't particularly want to answer them all again.]

I'm fine. We were eaten by some mirrors.

[He shrugs a shoulder as if to say, What can you do?, before looking Yata up and down.]

Are you okay?

Wha-- mirrors?

[ That's really fucking weird, right? How is Akira so calm? Yata blinks at the question, then nods. ]

I'm fine. Some ghost witch was trying to mess with us, but it didn't hurt me.

[ Back to more pressing questions, though. ]

A mirror ate you?

Yeah. Well, it sucked me in, anyway.

[He shakes his head, as though to shake off the question. Really, it isn't all that important. But he does wonder about what Yata said...]

A ghost witch? How was it messing with you?

[He knows what Guren said about Akechi, so he's wondering if it's similar.]

[Akira's waiting near the fountain, where they agreed to meet up, or maybe he gets there after the others; time is difficult to tell here sometimes. He thinks about the words posted to the forum, looking between the other two.]

So do either of you know exactly what we're supposed to do?

[It's something with stories, he knows that much.]

I don't know that anyone knows exactly what we're meant to do. Even the people who've attempted this.

[Fun fact: Ignis quite possibly arrived here on his chocobo, so congratulations, this trio is actually Three Guys And A Giant Bird. Please enjoy all this fluffy feathery goodness in our midst.]

"Understand the worth of a story", I believe it was. At the risk of being pedantic, the sentence construction suggests that we require a story of some given value, and that the participants here need to comprehend that value...somehow.

[ Before they can respond to either of the two, they're standing here having an existential crisis over that huge bird... thing. It's honestly horrific, absolutely nothing like anything they've seen before, and they make 0 attempt to hide how weird they think this all is. ]

I was thinking that we're supposed to understand the history of this place.

[ They'll just, casually take a little step away from the bird itself, throwing their glance to Akira. The word "story" really only invokes "history" for them; there wasn't exactly The English Classics at the library at home. ]

But obviously we can't just tell that from walking around.

[Yeah, that bird is definitely weird. Akira keeps glancing at it too. Why did Ignis ride here on a weird ostrich and why isn't he more concerned about this than he seems to be?

But at the question, he looks back at Cairngorm.]

Kind of hard the learn the history when all the books are grayed out.

[Although they might not be completely off track here. He considers it.]

Maybe we need different stories, or history.

Different how, exactly?

[The giant chicken is, at least, reasonably friendly; more importantly, it's well-trained, and largely stays put where it's been...put. Easily avoided, for anybody who doesn't want to get too close, though it is sort of eyeing the people who happen to be wearing glasses a little too intently to really be innocent.]

The fact that it says "a story" leads me to believe there's likely more than one solution. "A" story suggests one of several; "the" story would be just one in particular.

Different stories... [ They close their eyes for a moment, still thinking through this solution through a historical lens. It's hard to consider it from any other standpoint when that's all they have reference to. ] None of this makes any sense.

[ When they open their eyes again, they fold their arms loosely, brows furrowing. ]

If there are several right answers, then we don't need to settle on one method. Eventually something we try might end up satisfying whatever stupid request this is hinting at.

Throw everything at the wall until something sticks...

[It's not a bad idea, certainly. It might take some time, but eventually something has to work. They just have to keep trying until they get it right - not that it'll be easy to know when that happens.]

Does anyone have a story? One about this place?

[Difficult, since they still don't know anything about it. But it's worth a try.]

...I have something that might fit, I suppose. This place saw fit to bring someone here who I thought I would never see again.

[It's not much of a story, to be sure, but. Akira is right, they don't know much about this place to begin with, so what is there to do, really.]

However it is that the powers that be have managed it, I ran into him mostly by mistake. It was a sheer coincidence, yet I admit I'm rather grateful for it.

[ They flick their eyes up to study the other's expression, if there was anything they could glean off of that information. ]

So this place ended up doing you a favor, then.

[ Which gives them a new perspective of this place; they've definitely not thought of this place as anything but negative since being here. ]

[Akira is definitely interested in this line of conversation, looking at the other man intently.]

...Something similar happened to me, too. I never thought I would see this person again, and yet they're here.

[This place has the power to bring people from far corners of the universe... even back from the dead. It's remarkable, but it's also not why they're here.]

Do you have a story about this person?

Yes, you could say that. I'm not sure that I'd exactly characterize it as a favor, and yet...well. I don't think it was for my sake that it was done, I suppose you could say. But I have to admit a certain benefit to me, that it was.

[Still, that's a good question. A story about Nyx Ulric...certainly, he has plenty of those, but what can he say that won't in turn compromise secrets that aren't his to tell? Decisions, decisions.]

I can think of a few. He taught me to fight, for example — I had an affinity for his preferred style of combat, and that made him the natural choice to act as my mentor. He always treated me kindly, despite having no real reason to apart from those sessions we shared. We came from very different places, different circumstances, yet our common goals made us...forge a kinship of sorts, I suppose you could say.

[ They give a hum, not quite being able to relate but listening nonetheless. ]

So they are like a teacher to you. I can see why you would be glad to see them. [ There's people like that that Cairn would also like to see again, but the way things are currently, they don't forsee that happening anytime soon. ] But why did you not think you would see them again?

[Akira nods.] I'm curious too.

[He understands why Ignis would consider this person important to him; teachers can be very close to their students, after all. If they hadn't seen each other in a while, in fact thought they would never see each other again, it must have been incredible to see each other again.]

[Why indeed. What's a tactful way to answer the question without actually answering the question? Good thing he's pretty good at this, insofar as being able to give an answer that isn't a lie while not actually being the whole truth either.]

A war had separated us. Being stationed in two separate and distant places...well. One tends not to assume how things might look on the other side of things.

[He pauses, clearing his throat, then tilts a glance in Akira's direction.]

And you said you'd experienced something similar, yourself?

Yeah.

[Oh boy, how to talk about this without going into specifics? It'd be easier if Akechi already knew he was dead, but...]

I guess it was something similar. He went somewhere far away, where I couldn't follow.

[At least, not yet - Akira can't die yet, he has things to do.]

But then he showed up here, and didn't remember. It was a shock.

Are you sure they really don't remember?

[ Their head tilts, not trying to be accusatory, but rather just curious. ]

I only ask because I know someone who did something similar to what both of you describe. Going off somewhere dangerous and coming back, saying that they don't remember anything... [ It's annoying just thinking about it. ] It's just a bit suspicious. And convenient.

[Closed][Quest Log]

for Yata

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for Cairngorm and Ignis!

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