savetheearth | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Alexander, Anthony, Bakura, Banagher, Hajime, John, Lyall, Ravindra, Reilanin & Vanessa
Where: Alex & Ravi's apartment
When: Friday, Sept. 13th (ooooh)
What: Movie night!
Warnings: --

[ and so it happened that tonight was a movie night slightly different from the one alex, anthony, john (and ravindra, when he wanted to be included) had grown accustomed to -- namely, the volume of bodies had doubled, plus two. the cats were split in opinion; adhirat sought shelter in ravi's room, while olivia got cozy with anyone who'd give her the time of day and gomez poked around and occasionally darted off.

the more the merrier -- for anthony's sake, partially, as holing up in an apartment couldn't have been very fun (thought alex) while his peers enjoyed (or enjoyed to hate) school. bakura was a friend of his, so alex was more than happy to have him over. lyall could always use a break. hajime had been an invaluable asset at the water bust and seemed like a swell guy. john was an 'of course'; a founding member of movie night and someone alex got along with splendidly. vanessa, well.

vanessa could do with the company of good people. she seemed to get along with banagher fine, too, and alex was fond of both of them.

as for reilanin, he was basically continuing to offer the branch of friendship, or something like it. he'd actually been surprised when she accepted the invitation. as a librarian, she was probably familiar with the movie they'd be watching tonight.

twilight (or the save the earth equivalent of). ]

[ ooc: more or less a mingle log! throw up your own threads, go hog wild, yeah!
here's the apartment layout for reference. they're on the second floor! ]

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"Diary, journal... same difference."

She looks at him a moment- he doesn't understand. She hesitates and looks behind him again, then pulls back somewhat so that she can tug at his arm and turn him slightly with her. "That, tucked away."

Something else to think about. She puts a knee to the ledge of his bed and leans up, taking it in hand without regard for what it looks like what she's doing, which, yes, is snooping in his room. While he's there.

"Polka-dots?"

He follows her lead without thought, hand falling to his side as she leans over his bed. The ledger she procures has him narrowing his eyes.

A sense of dread clutches his heart. He breathes in, holds it, lets it go.

"That's the book," he says quietly. "The journal I wrote in."

Something else from then, just like his ring...

"I don't know why it has polka dots on it."

Somehow the polka-dots catch her off guard, and her troubled expression is momentarily bemused. It sobers up a moment later. His ledger.

"...here."

Even curious, she can't bring herself to look in it so casually. She holds it a moment before she holds it out to him. "Objects, too...?"

Ah, it's too much. She feels tired. Once the book is handed off, she takes her turn to sit on the edge of his bed.

"...you know, the first thing I remembered was waking up. It was... mm, like waking up from a good nap. I think that's what I did. It was very peaceful." She looked up to him. "...what was yours? Do you know?"

Reluctantly, he accepts the ledger. It feels heavier than it ought to -- a conjured weight.

At her question, he opens his mouth to speak, closes it, then glances down at the ledger. "Another conversation in this," he says wearily. "With Vin and someone else, about the at--"

The attack on the Hour, made by a wolf. Referred to as a 'she'.

His lips set into a thin line. Reilanin? He doesn't know for sure, but maybe...

She doesn't need to know that right now.

"About an attack on 'the Hour'," he continues, sitting down beside her. The space between them dips with his weight. He's staring at the stitches in the polka dots, each cut from cloth and sewed on.

Those conversations, the ones he remembered, the ones he didn't, they were all in this book.

Just as he was reluctant to take it from Reilanin, he is now reluctant to flip open the pages.

"Vin?" she prompts, looking to him as he speaks and then, for whatever reason, stops. It almost makes her forget her own question, staring at him with a painfully innocent expression of concern.

She knows what she can do, but she is unaware of what she's done.

She watches him sit down, blinking at the odd pause but saying nothing to it, just a noise of acknowledgement. The Hour. She looks ahead, thinking... no, she doesn't know anything called that. Head tilting down, Reilanin looks to the floor, poking at another article of clothing there.

A ledger. She remembers writing in just such a thing, but the thing itself... will she get hers? Will it matter? She looks over to his lap where his ledger lies. "What does it have in it?"

"Ravindra, my roommate."

His thumb presses into the leather cover, then relaxes, then lifts up as he opens the ledger. Written on the first page in passable calligraphy is the name Anders Brown.

His handwriting. That Alexander's handwriting.

For a brief moment, he's confused by the discrepancy until he remembers that snippet of conversation he received back in May, in which he had told Ravindra that he would use an alias.

He pauses, then flips the page over.

Nothing.

He flips through more pages. Still nothing.

He continues turning page after page, slow, almost lethargic. Just as he's about to give up, the next page is filled to the brim with writing, the style of which does not belong to him.

There are, in fact, many styles, and all of them with names attached. Lord Romund Myron. Ermesinda. Anson Kratochvil. Shiri Qattawi. Diya Medellos. Many more.

He returns his attention to the main entry, finds himself apprehensive to read it.

It's a heavy read. The plethora of information lacking context clouds his mind. He tilts the ledger towards Reilanin, a position easier to read.

Ravindra, the Indian man out in the living room. She recals having seen him at-

She tugs at her hair again. The first aid seminar that she'd refused to fully participate in.

Glancing aside, she twists that one section of hair and then lets it be, hands back in her lap. He's going through the pages without her watching, and it takes a moment for her to catch on that there's nothing to see. Frowning, she sees them pass by, one after the other, blank as can be. "But why...?" She looks up to him. Did he not know it would be like this? She glances to his pillows again and then to the book. It just appeared...?

The pages tilted towards her, she shifts to read. It's a little hard- she should have her glasses, and the light is low- but she squints and silently follows the lines.

It seems to draw on forever, as though she were reading it all again at the speed it had originally been written. It's not familiar- it is familiar-

She reaches out suddenly and shuts the book, before snatching her hand back.

Startled by her abrupt action, he flinches back and stares at her.

"What?"

She looks at him, just as startled, and she looks away, pushing up from the bed and stepping aside.

"...I don't want another echo."

Is it even possible to avoid them if you can see it coming? She's willing to try. "...sorry. I'm sorry."

She breathes in and looks back to him. "Should we be in here? The movie was nearly over."

"Oh."

Right, of course, that makes sense. He feels a little spark of guilt for showing the entry to her.

"No, don't worry about it," he says, shoving the ledger under his bed. "Um... You can go back if you like. They, uh." He forces a smile at her, weak and fleeting. "Might get the wrong idea."

She doesn't want another Echo.

Maybe he shouldn't be trying to connect with her. The thought leaves him with a bit of melancholy to add on top of everything else, but he understands why she wouldn't want any more instances that would trigger an Echo. He wouldn't, either.

But it feels lonely, too.

"The one boy- Anthony. I know him from the library." It's an awkward, roundabout sort of explanation- she isn't even sure why she's trying to explain it. "It wouldn't really matter much, but my job..."

It wouldn't do to have that kind of rumour going about for that reason. Not that she thinks Anthony would do anything, but...

She doesn't leave right away, hesitating to do so. She doesn't expect anything good anymore, but...

"...there's got to be something good in all of it, right?" she asks after a moment, crossing her arms in front of herself. "It's not all... like that. It can't be. If I gave up... there must have been something to give up. Right?"

He regards her with another smile, this one natural, small, and glum.

"Do you want to forget?"

She rubs an arm slowly, venturing up to her shoulder and digging in there. Even she can see how miserable he looks. Is it just at the idea that she would want to?

The phonecall comes back to her. Well, not the call so much but the feeling behind it after the echo.

Not alone.

Still, she's surprised- he sounds like he wouldn't. She tempers that surprise as best she can when she speaks. "Wouldn't you?"

He considers her question for a few seconds, then says, "No. I wish this hadn't happened, but I wouldn't be comfortable forgetting."

He bites down on his lower lip, releases it. "But it's an option. People who leave the city forget. It's like none of this ever happened to them."

It isn't an option he'd choose, but it is an option -- provided she has the funds to uproot herself like that, which not everyone has. Alex sure doesn't. It's his family far from Locke, but still viable that makes this option realistic for him.

Viable... yes, it is. It's almost arbitrary that she's here. Close enough to family, if they need help... but far enough away to be comfortable, to be left alone, left out of the daily business of her brother and father.

She could transfer. That would be no problem at all. Personally speaking, she hasn't much to lose with a big move. Even what few friendships she might have been forging, they aren't really that much. She's made no real efforts, and because of that, not much of anyone has made any real efforts with her.

Except Alexander.

Eyes on the floor again, she reaches up to push her hair back behind her ear, considering that, and considering it seriously. It had already been mentioned on the network, but she hadn't paid much attention to them. It's all viable, though.

It's the look that's been on and off his face throughout this conversation that makes her pause, it's the efforts he has made that keep her from making that snap decision. It's that feeling of loneliness that may or may not be hers- she can't tell- that's somehow eased by his being there, simply by his existence. Because he has the potential to be as much of a monster as she was.

Why couldn't they have something else in common, like a favourite book, or some point of philosophy they agreed on that wasn't I will not let myself become a monster?

She slowly sits down again beside him. Her posture is off- it looks strange for someone normally so rigid and proper.

"...is it all right? If I stay?" She puts a hand to her face to rub her cheek. "If this continues?"

Edited 2013-09-17 18:32 (UTC)

He follows the movement of her hand, fingers brushing her hair back, and drops his gaze to her shoulder, then behind her. It seems a vulnerable moment for her. He's not sure he should be watching.

The dip of the bed, this time caused by her, coaxes his attention back onto her. "That's... up to you. I'll help you."

Another rueful smile for something that doesn't warrant smiling. "We can keep each other in check."

She looks back to him, searching his face to see if she can tell what he's thinking. He's trying. That's about all she can tell. Reading people isn't something she's good at, and she desperately wishes she were now.

The smile doesn't provoke one of her own, but for some people, smiles are precious things. She isn't offended by it, just... confused, maybe. This isn't something to find humour in. It can't be. They know what they are. It's just a matter of time.

"Is anyone trying to find out why this is happening?"

A sudden, almost sharp question, leaving her lips the moment it hits her brain. "Someone's got to be. The Thunder Corp stuff, is it related? Is that why-?"

She stares at him. "If that's it, then- I want to help. I want to try and stop this. I don't want to be the person I'm becoming."

Once again taken aback by her sudden sharpness, he regards her silently.

"The church meeting," he finally says. "That's all we know -- all I know. A group went into the mines, but Vin said they didn't find anything but remnant monsters."

He glances to the side, then half-heartedly throws his hand up. It lands on his thigh with a soft pat. "The only 'why' we've gotten is that we're supposed to 'save the earth.' "

Edited 2013-09-18 04:00 (UTC)

That's all he knows, the same as her... and a little more. But it isn't much. She stares at him and finds herself biting her lower lip, glancing aside. Is that all? Monsters and some directive to save the earth. "What does that... even mean... is this like some sort of game?..."

There's a tightness to her words, a narrowing of her eyes on him, even though she knows it isn't something he can do anything about. It's almost as though she's getting mad.

Because she is mad.

"I don't recall anyone asking me if I wanted to do anything like that," she mutters, looking down. "And how on earth am I going to do something like that... like this?"

A kind of rebellion kindles inside of her. She'll take a lot of nonsense, but having her free will comprimised in such a way is not among them.

Frowning, he bites his lower lip again. He'd chew the inside of his cheek, but after enough times of forgetting that he's got fangs, Alex has long since trained himself out of that habit.

With a sigh, he closes his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair. "I wish I had an answer for you," he says wearily, "for all of us, but I don't. None of us do. Right now, we're just trying to keep up with our lives."

His hand drops onto the space between them. "I don't know if staying away from me will stop all of your pulses-- your Echoes -- but it'll probably prevent some of them. Do you... want to do that?"

She seems about to say something, but bites her tongue. She's being unfair. He's had to deal with this longer, he's got more going for him- it's not right of her to make it out like she's the only one affected here. The tired look on his face, the way he's sitting, they're all signs that this is all old news and if there's an answer, he hasn't thought of it yet, and not for lack of trying.

The suggestion has her glaring at the floor again. She wants to say yes. She never could have imagined their association would have so much trouble following it. She wants to leave the city, she wants to forget everything that's happening to her, that will happen, because it's all laid out now. There are no mysteries, as far as she's concerned.

(Oh Rei, if only you knew.)

She breathes in, then out again, repeating the process a few times before she sighs a little. "I don't know. Yes and no. It's- it's hard to explain. It's going to happen anyway, isn't it? I've had them with and without you. We were- we knew each other, at least. It seemed... it seemed amicable enough. At least- at least there shouldn't be any problems between us."

There's a strange silence and she says softly, "there isn't really anyone else to talk to about it on my end, either, so... I think I'd just end up coming to you again regardless."

His brows pinch together. "That's so sad."

Whoops, that wasn't supposed to leave his head.

He grips the sheet, averting his gaze. "You know, I was so excited when Vin got his number. It meant I didn't have to keep everything a secret from him. I was pretty excited when we got the same memory at the church, too, because it meant there was someone else I shared a... life or experience or whatever it was."

He lets out a breathy laugh, just the one. "That was pretty fucking stupid."

She shoots him a Look, one that was likely part and parcel of why he started calling her Miss Banshee in his head. It falters easily though under the weight of the truth in it, and when she speaks, there's no sting to it. "... I put up with a lot to get to where I am now. To have my own space, my own peace and quiet. I'm already aware of how strange it sounds, but..."

Excited. She looks at him again while he speaks, turning that around in her head. He reminds her of her brother, with a greater inclination towards cheerfulness, even if it's forced, an amiable nature she never quite got the hang of. She tries to imagine her brother in just such a position and it isn't so far off from Alex's words- the more the merrier, as it were.

"...not really," she says, like a reassurance. "I don't think so, anyway. I think... I don't know what I would have done, if I'd been going through this on my own. I can't imagine what it must have been like for you in the beginning. It's easy to see how it would have been a relief to find others."

"It was fine in the beginning. Well, compared to now. I got my fangs before Vin was in, and he's the one who pointed them out to me. I dunno, though, he just let it go..."

"Not much to be done about them, I suppose. File them down? But, ah... well, so long as you don't bite anyone, it doesn't really matter..."