i'm not the same person as yesterday 王 closed

[controlsdesire]

who: Shuji Kiyokumi (controlsdesire) and Mort Yokugawa (talktothedoll)
what: Shuji's been persuaded into therapy and their events coincide
where: Mort's office
when: July 15th, evening.
warnings: Nothing yet.



Shuji had been reluctant to take the advice of his superior. It wasn't that he didn't like taking orders, but he had never seen the point in opening up to someone and talking about his problems. Wasn't that what he had Shou for? If he had to talk to someone, Shou would be his outlet. Not a stranger he didn't know anything about. Not someone he couldn't trust. His life had been built around the presence of strangers who pulled and poked and prodded.

Unfortunately, his superior was persistent. They had noticed his work efforts starting to slip, little by little, ever since he had arrived. His direct superior had informed Shuji that he didn't care whether it was tied to personal issues, culture shock, or something tied to the case, but felt it was best to recommend him to someone regardless of the cause for his sudden shift in attitude. The pain in his chest and the resurging memories were certainly a distraction from work that Shuji tried to ignore, but he could see now that it wasn't going away easily.

Maybe it would be like pulling off a band-aid. Nice and quick. He sincerely doubted that.

Shuji arrived at the office after work, having called a few days before to make the appointment. Nothing had been found in regards to his chest pains when he'd gone to a physical doctor, but the ache was still persisting even now. He rubbed a bit at the center of his chest with the bottom of his hand, standing as he waited. This atmosphere was far too uncomfortable for him to sit down.

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[controlsdesire]

Shuji couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at no longer having the hopper in his hands, but he had to remind himself that the object wasn't his, even if it greatly resembled something of his own. And he couldn't push away the feeling of having used it before. He had no idea where the hawk had come from, let alone where all of these people were getting different looking versions of the same object. Maybe he could risk admitting he was the person on the Network, to be able to find out where it had come from. ... on the other hand, if this man knew nothing, then Shuji didn't want to have wasted revealing himself.

There was a long, uncomfortable pause while he weighed his options. Maybe there was no harm in admitting it, if he could figure out the potential source. It had to mean they were connected somehow... right?

"I wasn't aware I'd made myself so obvious." The tone of voice Shuji used had come out much more bitter than he'd intended.

[talktothedoll]

"Ah, well, it wasn't obvious... more of an educated guess on my part." Though now Shuji certainly was obvious. "Your voice sounded quite familiar from your earlier transmission with that similar robot, and then when you seemed to know how to activate this one, I simply put two and two together." Mort kept his voice professional, upbeat.

He once more gestured to the comfortable-looking armchairs by the window. "Please, won't you sit down?" It would be much easier to hold a conversation if Shuji were relaxed and not quite so guarded. Mort had caught that bitter tone, and he needed Shuji to feel at ease...even if he still had no idea why he just couldn't stand the guy.

[controlsdesire]

"I make a point of not broadcasting my voice or my image. I don't see the point in doing so." The bird broadcasting his voice had only happened for a moment, but it had been enough to make him recognizable to a small group of people. It was a stupid, simple mistake he was now cursing himself for. He'd tried to be so careful...

Despite the internal argument with himself, Shuji adjusted his hold on the bag and made his way to one of the chairs to take a seat. He reluctantly slid the strap from his shoulder and set it on the floor, keeping the strap wrapped around one hand in an attempt to keep it close. His trust of others was obvious.

[talktothedoll]

"I can see the reasoning behind that...it's certainly safer, and I'd imagine there are those of us here who are less than trusting of the police." Mort moved to join Shuji in taking a seat. He took careful note of the body language, and he wondered if it were simply part of Shuji's front against the world...or if he and Shuji actually had similar feelings towards one another. "You needn't worry about my exposing any secrets, Mr. Kiyokumi. I assure you, doctor-patient confidentiality is very important to me. I'm not going to be telling anyone else on the network about this."

Which meant not telling Eugene about the guy showing up in his office and messing with his grasshopper robot and that surely this was the sign of a man they could not trust...which was probably for the best, given how silly that reason sounded. They'd had enough arguments about the man after he'd broadcasted on the network with the bird robot; Eugene was ready to go offer the guy a job then and there, and Mort maintained his own feelings of foreboding.

Mort leaned forward slightly, making sure to keep his body language as casual as possible, given the levels of illogical dislike he was wrestling with. That wasn't him. He could do this. "Is there anything you'd like to talk about first?"

[controlsdesire]

As far as Shuji knew, there were no issues between the two of them. He hadn't sensed any of the hostility the other man was holding towards him and seemed more wrapped up in his curiosity of the hopper device and his own issues to care much. Leaning back in the seat, Shuji put his hands in his lap, looking a bit nervous but not so much that he was squirming uncomfortably. Much, at least. The hand he kept on the strap of his bag seemed to be holding it as some sort of comfort.

"I haven't seen any reason not to trust them, aside from what everyone else has seen." Which was referring to the death of the teenager he'd come across -- something that had happened before he'd even arrived in the town. He didn't know how to act around the police other than trying to pretend everything was okay. If he kept a wall between himself and the Network, then he could potentially save himself if things took a bad turn. It was selfish, but he believed in self-preservation.

Tilting his head to the side, Shuji took a deep breath, then turned his attention towards the window. "I'm not a very interesting person." Shuji figured that could be a lie in some cases, but his life was certainly less interesting compared to others on the Network.

[talktothedoll]

The nervousness was understandable. Not everyone wanted to go to therapy, after all, and Mort knew Shuji had only been pressured into it thanks to work. He didn’t comment on Shuji’s holding onto the bag, though he did have to wonder what was in there. The paranoid, hateful part of him that had popped up strongly suggested it was nothing good, but he clamped down on those feelings.

“Yes, well...” Matters of trusting the police in regards to the network seemed counterproductive to the real reason Shuji was here, but then again, that might be an adequate way to open up conversation. “You like your coworkers, then? Get along with them?” And of course, there were other things to address. His own gaze followed Shuji’s to the window. “You’re far too hard on yourself--”

He was about to say something else, but as he looked out that window, there was a bright pink pulse lighting up the sky. He felt that hollow ringing sensation once more, and with it this time came a bit of a pain in his chest. He reflexively reached up to clutch at the area, and he quickly mentally ran through a self-assessment of the signs of a heart attack as he wondered just what on Earth that was.

[controlsdesire]

Really, the only things inside the bag were papers from work that he was a bit protective over (after all, he couldn't let it fall into anyone's hands) and the red can-bird he'd placed in there after deciding he didn't want to leave that alone for too long either. There was the chance, he knew, that it might activate itself and try to do something, but as long as the bag was sealed, the chances of that happening were lowered. He hoped. Didn't birds sleep when it was dark?

Shuji had been waiting for the doctor to finish what he was saying, only to be caught off guard by the same pink light. Shuji was on his feet before he realized what he was doing. He hadn't been in town for the first flash of light and had only heard people talk about it, but he was already reaching for his bag to grab the mechanical bird out to tell it to track down the source.

However, he stopped partway, his breath catching in his throat again. It was becoming painfully obvious what this reaction of his body meant. For a moment, he couldn't figure out what was going on. It felt as though he was dreaming while being awake, watching something that wasn't really happening.

Hurry and do it, Eiji. Transform.

Don't!

I've been to many places, but saving lives is equally different everywhere. It was him saying this. He could feel it. Then he was holding the same sort of red medal he had in his pocket, though it was whole... Putting the medals into a device around his waist to transform...

The feeling in his chest that was usually nothing more than a pain swelled up in reaction. It had to be him, because he could remember the feeling of finally gaining the power he wanted. He wouldn't be helpless anymore. There were things he had been unable to do before, but now he could.

Just like the power growing inside of me...

He had never been sure about what the pain was caused by, but that fleeting thought made him stop to think. Shuji's hand went to his chest. ... what exactly was this power?

Not wanting to waste more time than he had, Shuji fought down what he was experiencing, taking the red can out of his bag and activating it, tossing the bird into the air where it hovered as soon as it was open. Shuji looked up at it, motioning out the window.

"There was a pink light in that direction. See if you can find out where it was." And with that, the bird was off. At least that part of having it had turned out to be useful.

[talktothedoll]

Mort was still clutching at his own chest and making his way over to his desk when Shuji sent out the red bird robot. It moved in the same sort of way as the grasshopper and octopus ones he was familiar with. He watched it with that odd sense of this should be more famililar as he popped some aspirin he kept in the top drawer. If this really was a heart attack, well, he was taking precautions.

Only he didn't really think it was. The pain was subsiding, and he knew he was having none of the other symptoms. He considered activating his own robot, but the grasshopper was slower, not as nimble when it came to getting over obstacles. It wouldn't be fast enough. "And what if it finds it?"

[controlsdesire]

"Then I'll know where to start. That's the sort of thing people saw when all of this started." Who was to say this wouldn't be some other large, life-changing event for the people in the city? Shuji stared after the bird as it flew out of sight, waiting until then to pull himself away from the window.

The memory he'd gained was still fresh in his mind, causing him to hesitate for a moment before he dug in his pocket and pulled out the red medal. It was jaggedly broken into two pieces, but he could see the resemblance to what he'd been using in his memory. ... a hawk. It was a hawk, just like the animal can and the bird he'd seen that had sparked his first memory. ... there had to be more to it.

[talktothedoll]

"Not a bad idea..." Mort sat down heavily in the chair behind his desk. It was the closest one now that he'd gotten the aspirin, and he was starting to calm down a bit.

He spotted that medal Shuji was holding, and he almost opened his mouth to ask what it was when that hollow feeling rang out in his head again...and he suddenly came to the realization that whatever the red medal was, he had been the one to break it. That was his fault. Yet there was no guilt over that, only something that was not quite a sense of pride, but a sense that breaking it was a thing that needed to be done. Seeing it broken like that made Mort rather pleased. "...what is that?"

So he wanted to know what it was he had broken.