savetheearth | 20

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20 | [Video]

So I've been getting cards back. So far, they've all looked like normal playing cards, pretty much. Numbered with suits, things like that. Maybe a weird picture or two. Maybe the giant bug liked to play cards every now and then, I don't know. But then I got this one.

[He'll hold up a blank playing card for everyone to see. He does not want to mention that it's making him uncomfortable, but it is. Something about this card isn't right.]

Has anyone seen anything like that before? It feels like there should be something on it. Like it's missing something.

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[Jack does not like the look of that thing, not in the least. He's got the video feed on, but is refraining from leaning in to look too close. He doesn't want it to mean something. He really wants things to stop meaning something.]

...there's nothing on it? Why would it be blank?

Edited 2014-02-10 03:17 (UTC)

I don't know. The others had things...

[He hesitates, then goes on.]

But from what I'm remembering with cards and monsters...I think it's supposed to have something on it.

That... sounds right. The ones you have, the one that... changed you back, that had something on it.

[He's still trying not to look too close, or too much, and is kind of sitting so he's in profile.]

Maybe it's waiting to be filled.

[And as he says that, he grimaces involuntarily. That is what it's for, isn't it? There's that hollow feeling....]

Yeah. Uh...about that one...I...

[He did not want to get into this with Jack. It's awkward. So awkward. He remembers sealing a man into a card to take his human form, but he does not remember what that card looked like. He made this post in the hopes that someone might give him other ideas, even though he's starting to think it's futile.]

Erm. That makes sense.

[He's starting to wonder why Jack's not looking at him.]

Is something wrong?

[There's a long pause.]

You didn't remember anything, did you?

[That involuntary grimace worsens, and Jack clutches his chest and doubles over as the memory hits him. There's burning, there's pain, then a man in armor looming over him. He has a card in his hand just like the one Hajime's been showing off, then he drops it atop him and...]

Put that thing down! It's dangerous!

[And now he's looking at the camera, on the edge of panic.]

I was... I was in one of those things! Sucked into it! Trapped in it!

[At that warning, Hajime automatically drops the card. And at what Jack's saying, he pales.]

Did...when it happened, did your belt buckle split in half? And hurt worse than anything else you'd ever felt...?

[He nods to both of those things, a hand moving to clutch his gut in remembered pain.]

Yes. Yes, it was exactly that. Worse than how he beat me, worse than...

[And Jack let that thought trail off awkwardly, as he realized what this must have meant. As if the green blood that he had gotten back (and told no one of) wasn't enough. He looks away from the camera.]

...had it happened to you? The same? Someone... trapping you, like that?

It...wasn't a card. I think. All I remember is a big black stone, and then everything getting constricting...but the same thing, pretty much.

[And the guy doing the trapping had his face, or at least his human face.]

But I got out somehow. I...got my revenge on him.

A stone... [He frowned at that, the concept bringing up no particular memories.] Maybe the cards were made based on it? If buckles like yours were being built, then maybe we were making cards to go with it. It's what powers them, right?

[Two and two suddenly snap together, and he sits up straighter from the shock of it.]

...was I being used to power something?

[That's not a pleasant thought at all. He shakes his head, passes a hand over his face, and then actually turns his full focus back onto Hajime and the video feed.]

Who did trap you? How'd you get back at them? ...how'd you get out?

Maybe? I...know the cards work with the belts, yeah.

[He doesn't seem to like that idea, but it makes a terrible sort of sense.]

It...maybe. Maybe. I don't remember enough...

[He's looking even more uneasy and is unwilling to make eye contact.]

I don't know who he was. But he had my face. My human face...and then...I don't know, another memory, another time, and I sealed him into a card and took his form instead. It might have been one like this.

[He's visibly unsettled at admitting that. He hadn't meant to, but then he started talking and it all sort of spilled out. He's running a hand through his hair like he's trying to force himself to calm down.]

[Jack leans himself in closer, a hand reaching out to grip the side of the tablet that he's communicating with. If Hajime were actually there, he'd be grabbing him and shaking him. This is urgent. And frightening.]

You sealed... and then...

[The reality of what precisely this means has almost hit him, has nearly sunk in... Hajime's face isn't really his face, he's really this Joker thing, but...]

...and that's what you used to change back, isn't it. That card. That you put him in.

[His face scrunches in confusion.]

So those can trap humans, too?

Yeah...yeah, I sealed him, and without that card, I...

[It's still really hard to say the word "can't" there at the end of that sentence. He trails off to answer Jack's last question.]

I guess so, yeah...isn't that what happened to you?

[Hajime's answer catches Jack by surprise. He looks momentarily startled, before forcing himself to nod and agree and look blank and serious and undisturbed.]

Yes. It would be, wouldn't it....

[Had he already stopped thinking of himself as human? No. He couldn't. It wasn't a sure thing. It might turn out entirely differently.

He lets out a sharp sigh and lifts his head.]

We need to talk in person. Enough of this. We need to sit down and just... sort this all out. And catch up. And figure out how we want to manage all of this.

[That gets a definite nod of agreement, even if Hajime still looks a little shaky. Shaky enough that he's missed that startled look Jack got.]

Yeah. Yeah, that would be a good idea. A really good idea. Some time when we're both off...

[Plans in reality were something different than all of this talk of strange memories. Some strength and certainty comes back to Jack's voice.]

I'll be busy clear through until the end of the month. But if you've got an evening you know you won't be busy, then I can try and at least get away from the office early. What's your work schedule looking like?

I'm at the restaurants most days all day unless Mom or Dad makes me take a day off.

[Overworking oneself is a perfectly valid method of coping with becoming a bugman!]

Makes you take a day off?

[He seems to want to laugh, but only manages a 'heh' that's more of a 'wow, that's awful' than anything actually containing mirth. Everything was all screwed up, wasn't it?]

...I'll swing by when I get the chance, then.

Yeah. Makes me. I...like to keep busy.

[He tries for a weak smile, even if it's painfully obvious that he's just admitted to overworking himself.]

Do that--I'll probably be there.

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