(no subject)

[wastingtime]

WHO; Elian & Aaron PEOPLE
WHERE; LET'S SAY a park. Because.
WHAT; Elian wants more information about the whole losing-remembering Echos thing. Some folks are willing to help. Together, THEY DO SCIENCE. Sort of.

---

He'd contacted the others again, with a suggestion that they meet at a public place; as it was a clear day, the park seemed like a good place. To start, if nothing else, and discuss what Elian had in mind. And considering he'd needed something to occupy his mind as of late...

...well, drafting a proper procedure was easy enough. Even if it was along the lines of 'go that direction until you forget things'. Elian was rather glad he wasn't submitting this to a board of any sort, but he privately thought any such board he'd been before never had such an odd mystery on their hands.

He sat on one of the benches, watching the young people stroll by as he waited for his new friends. Partners. Subjects. Whatever their relationship was, or would be, at least if nothing else he was getting some fresh air.

Comments

[show_my_cannons]

Okay. So this sounded about as crazy as a guy talking to fish and breathing underwater. But, in all honesty, if this got him out of these numbers for a while, why not try? Why not let things feel normal again? And while part of him screamed that losing the memory of familiarity, the feeling of closeness with that guy, was far from normal, the rest of him stubbornly overruled it.

He had to take a bus to the park. Driving would have been simpler, but that would require actually owning a vehicle. He was on time, though, limping slowly through the park in hopes of spotting the man he was here to meet. The ex-soldier was hard to miss, given his sheer mass and distinct half-limping, half-marching strides.

And, with any luck, this meeting wouldn't trigger anything bizarre.

[wastingtime]

For what it was worth, Elian had walked. And now he watched another man walk, frowning a bit - what had he been told...?

Well, if he was wrong, he could always be dismissed as a half-senile old man. There were perks to being his age.

Elian waited until he managed to make eye contact, then raised a hand and waved. Over here.

[show_my_cannons]

... Well, there probably wasn't going to be any other old man waving at him in the middle of a park. That, and coupled with the description he had, this had to be the one.

He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets, and headed over, broad shoulders hunching ever so slightly.

A few feet away, he paused, giving the man a slow nod of greeting.

[wastingtime]

Friendly-looking fellow, wasn't he.

Elian eased himself up, briefly using a hand on the back of the bench to brace himself. Ever since his outing with Christobel, he'd still felt weak, but...

He'd recover. He had to.

"I don't believe I ever caught your name?" he asked politely, extending his hand. "I'm Elian."

[show_my_cannons]

The scar across one side of his face probably didn't help matters, did it?

His hands stayed in his pockets, watching the man rise. What was the matter there? Old age? Or something else? He didn't know, he wasn't a doctor.

"Harding," he all but grunted. A calloused hand slid out of his pocket, and gripped the other's. It was a clipped, precise introduction, as he'd always been drilled to give.

[wastingtime]

Elian arched his eyebrow at the shortness. Well, he was trying to be friendly; perhaps this Harding fellow simply was the closed off sort. Or, he thought, as he returned the grip...

"Military?" he ventured. If nothing else, it could be a compliment.

[show_my_cannons]

He nodded, again, and the gesture all but screamed "sir".

"Yeah, years ago." He shrugged, as if the matter were of no consequence. It shouldn't still be a sore subject, after so long, but. You felt how you felt, he supposed.

"That obvious?"

[wastingtime]

"You carry it with you," Elian observed, a sad sort of smile on his face. He'd distanced himself from it so quickly...exhaustion, they called it. But Harding was still every inch a warrior.

So he'd treat him as one.

"I'll get straight down to business, then." Easing himself back down, Elian reached for the notebook next to him, pulling the pen out from its spine. "First is knowing how far you're able and willing to go, and how quickly."

[show_my_cannons]

He grunted again, his hand sliding back into his pocket. It wasn't self-consciousness. He wasn't really sure what to call what he felt. Tacit embarrassment, maybe, for not still being part of the organization he still felt such ties to. "Hard habit to break," he said, by way of explanation.

And then it was business. Right. His posture shifted, and he all but stood at attention, suddenly more open than before.

"Take a train out, far as it'll go," he said. "Don't have a car, or I'd drive it." He frowned, slightly. "No planes. I draw the line at planes."

[argents]

As promised, Banagher shows at the park promptly, more or less, being tailed by something green and spherical and miraculously quiet. (For now.) He has a road atlas in hand, one that he's already marked down a few prominent places on just to give them somewhere to start. The park's a familiar place to him thanks to hobbies he's long since run out of time for — shooting hoops, and the like — so he makes his way through it with little incident.

Now he realizes that he's never actually met Elian face to face, but one bench in particular does harbor a familiar face, if only in passing. He's sure he's seen this person around the university, before...

"Excuse me?"

Well, the least he could do was say hello regardless.

[wastingtime]

They'd find each other eventually...right? If all else failed, he'd pull out his notebook, and perhaps could track down one of his new acquaintances that way.

Or he could just turn towards those that approached him. He offered a smile in greeting. "Can I help you, young ma...n..."

Oh. That's an odd floating thing next to the young man.

[argents]

First impressions were often lasting ones, and luckily, his intuition had some help along the way. Next to him, the robot lands in the grass, flaps once, and pings back up of its own accord, rattling off a tinny, "Hello! Meeting time?" in the process.

"Sorry," Banagher starts, tapping the folded atlas against one of his open palms. "I was supposed to meet someone here, and he gets a little ahead of himself."

[wastingtime]

Elian's eyes widened just a bit. He's never seen anything like it before, and is clearly enchanted by the small robot. Complete with chuckling at its eagerness, even as he reaches to touch his chin. "What a curious little thing! Though it has a rather good sense, I think. I'm meeting someone as well."

Coincidence? Perhaps not. Now Elian moves his gaze to Banagher, then to what he's holding, this time a bit of recognition creeping in.

"That wouldn't happen to be a map of the surrounding area, now, would it?"

[argents]

Rolling off and belting out a mechanical chorus of, "Map! Map!", the pet robot leaves him to pick up the slack left by the impromptu greeting. A bit of a smile touches him anyway, knowing that he wasn't wrong.

"Got it in one. Elian, right? Um, if it's okay to call you that."

Because he's really feeling like it ought to be 'Mr.'-something...

[wastingtime]

"Elian will be fine. You're not one of my students, after all," he said with a brief dismissive gesture. "A partner, if anything. Though I do have a few peers who call me 'that doddering old man', but I would appreciate you not calling me that."

Humor aside...

"May I see it?"

[argents]

"The map, or Haro?" he responds in kind, though honestly he looked a little abhorred by the thought of calling anyone something like that to their face, joke or not. Despite himself, he offers up the map first regardless. On it, the Dead District is marked off, along with the locations of the Hugh P. Thadson gallery of fine art, Fort Turner, the police station, and on the outskirts, Meadowland Amusement Park.

"Students... then I really have seen you around the university. I'm Banagher, by the way."

I MISREAD PART OF YOUR TAG herp

[wastingtime]

"The map. I think that - Haro, you called it? - would be a bit too much for me." And whatever happened to having a dog or cat? Pets these days...

And oh. This was useful. "Good to meet you, Banagher, and very good to see you've taken the initiative. Though I'm afraid I was only visiting the university; I teach back in Colorado." Spreading the map out on his legs, Elian studies it for a few moments, considering...

"If this is man-made, than one of these buildings...but if it's an uncontrolled tear...well." They'd find that out given time. He then looked up, studying the young man for a moment...then continuing. "I've already one who's volunteered to help, and I'll tell you the same thing I told him. If you're willing to help with this, it will be repetitive and tedious, and may take some days."

[eras]

Aria's not actually certain who else is coming -- Banagher, of course, and an LCU professor apparently? - but she shows up promptly when requested. She's been told to look out for a green spherical basketball (which sounds about as normal as anything else in her life these days) so she's doing so. Poking around in a park has never struck her as not laying low - she does this for fun, when she's geo-caching.

Beyond having made sure to wear a lot of red to be easily recognizable (well, a red sweater and blue jeans and red shoes, but that's "a lot", right?) Aria's not sticking out much beyond looking around for the people she's meant to come and help out.

[argents]

Since this bright idea was partially gleaned from Aria anyway, he felt it was only right to get her in on it. Luckily Elian had been a huge help, since he wasn't the best at trying to gain a tactical advantage, being a little more on the impulsive side. Right now he's on his lonesome — well, mostly. He's parked on a bench just on the outside of the round, gaudy fountain that serves as the park's centerpiece. Next to him a road atlas sits open, already marked up with sharpie.

As promised, a green basketball sure is wheeling itself around and around on the lip of the fountain's reservoir, pausing only to harmlessly flap its arm... ear... things at any birds brave enough to muscle in on its turf.

It also seems to notice Aria first, if its high-pitched, "Guest! Guest!" is anything to go by. Banagher swivels to look, expression brightening.

"Oh, hey!"

[eras]

The green basketball definitely gets a lot of her attention, although she spares Banagher a grin. But, well, come on - you really can't blame a girl for paying attention to a floating basketball, can you? Or if you can, you're just not going to have a leg to stand on, unless the world is filled with them, in which case you might have a case.

Outside of anime and cartoons, though, this is the first floating robot Aria's ever seen. And certainly the first one to ever speak to her. Or about her, rather, to Banagher.

After a moment of flat out staring, she manages to refocus, though. "Hey!! You're right, that's pretty hard to miss."

[argents]

Banagher leans forward on the bench, resting his elbows on his knees.

"Believe it or not, he gets really awful cabin fever. I actually feel bad leaving him at home, sometimes. But he came from a pulse, so I figured it's not so bad, letting him come along."

So he gets to field the less obvious numbers club meetings, here and there. Or you know, chase all the birds trying to get a drink in edgewise away from the fountain while stating the obvious a lot. Which he continues to do once he's announced Aria's arrival. Banagher swipes the folded road atlas up from where it sits next to him without much more ado, turning to offer it out with a smile.

"But I'm glad you could come! Looks like we weren't the only ones with this idea after all."

idk if you heard about the faq answer about fields being the same now and centered on tuning towers?

[eras]

"Does he have a name?" Aria goes to sit at the bench, glancing back at the robot, amused. She's turned half towards Banagher, since they're speaking, but isn't sitting overly close.

"And of course! Wouldn't miss it. And do you mean...?" She takes the offered atlas, unfolding it to look at what there is to see. It's easy enough to read, since she has plenty of practice.

yes i did!

[argents]

"It's Haro." Which does more or less sound like 'hello' in the robot's tinny little speech patterns. "Or so he told me. All good cartoon mascots come with one like that, right?"

He's more or less resigned himself to that fate, even if the robot was only slightly less conspicuous than, say, Winter's sentient plush toy. Looking back at the fountain again while she spreads the atlas out, he hums an agreement.

"And yeah, trying to find where it is that whatever's around Locke is coming from. See," he raises one hand. "If we use the amusement park as a reference, and start out from areas where we know weird stuff happens —" he raises the other, "— we should be able to find out some kind of shape."

OKAY COOL, i just wanted to check

[eras]

"Haro...? How cute!! What does he like to do?" She was looking over at the robot again, still impressed. "And yeah, I think it's a cartoon mascot requirement. ...Geeze, I'd never have believed someone if they'd said I would meet...well, a robot. Like, a few months ago."

Or if they'd told her any of this. She would probably have laughed and been nice about it, but belief - that was asking for a step further than she would have been able to give.

"Oh, right! That'll definitely give us a frame of reference...and might even shed some light on the enemy's movements, if you think about it."

[argents]

"Neither would I, believe me," he chuckles, despite himself. Thinking about space is something he still doesn't like. "I think he likes being outside like this a lot. And meeting new people, probably. He's always first in line when I bring him anywhere. Let him get tired of that, and you won't hear the end of it."

Though right now he was having a grand old time wobbling around the edge of the fountain. Luckily he'd already braved rain once, or he'd be worried about the robot taking a plunge and short-circuiting. His attention quickly turns back over to the topic at hand, though.

"Their movements... you think so?"