Visual/Wet bathroom tiles

[unreaching]

[Without quite realizing it, Renji’s “written” those numbers that he suddenly can’t stop thinking about on the ground while mopping the bathroom floor. Of course, when he happens to look down from his distracted thoughts, from what it meant that it’s coming back to him now after all these years, and sees more than just his reflection--

...well. Part of him isn’t sure he isn’t seeing things now.]

No way.

[He blinks, once, twice. Uses his free hand to rub at his eyes.] And....it’s still there.]
No way. Uh-uh. This ain’t happening. Yer kiddin’ me with this shit, right?

[It’s not clear who he’s talking to, really. Whether it’s himself, someone else, or the world in general. Some students walk in, and outright ignore the bizarre projection on the ground, and that leads Renji to just let out a laugh. It’s not a very pleasant sound, too-sharp and dissonant, and with a bitterness that doesn’t quite fit the apparent youth of his features, like a bone broken and healed all wrong.]

Maybe I’ve just gone crazy. I mean, s’about time. Woulda figured it’d’ve happened sooner.

...Wonder if you can get fired for that.

[With a sigh, he decides the network is just all in his head and gets back to mopping.]

Comments

Voice

[icy_heavens]

[Well, he tends to check the network between classes, so. Have a young voice coming at you from the floor.]

Probably depends on the job.

visual/tiles 1/2

[unreaching]

[Renji's eyebrows practically shoot toward the ceiling as a voice suddenly comes up from the floor, and he skitters backward, slipping and falling over his own handiwork.]

WHAT THE FUCK?!

[unreaching]

[Another one of those shaky and harsh laughs]

G-great. Now I'm hearin' voices. I really have cracked.

[icy_heavens]

If you're crazy, it's not because of this.

[unreaching]

Ain't you s'posed to tell me that if you're a figment, anyway?

video {iphone}

[ursoreckless]

[if he thought he was crazy before, he is now going to see a bleached blond on the tile floor]

Nope, you're not crazy; you're just another lucky member of the secret number club.

wet tile visual :'D

[unreaching]

[SDLKFJSLKDFS AND NOW THERE'S A FACE THAT'S NOT HIS IN THE FLOOR TALKING TO HIM.

Excuse him, he's just gonna try to smack at it with his mop because it's better than screaming like a little girl.]

XD

[ursoreckless]

Hey! Stop that!

[at least he's glad that the network doesn't allow stuff to go through it otherwise his face would be wet and gross. ew. mop water.]

It won't help.

hehehe. i apologize for all of renji's keywords ever

[unreaching]

Get outta the floor, then! That shit's just fucking creepy!!

[/CONTINUES SMACKING.]

[Action] (if that's okay? :) )

[professorwolf]

[Seeing that on his laptop screen at one point at the end of class, Lyall has to investigate when class is out. He locks up the classroom for lunch and starts looking for which bathroom it is. He tries three before finding the right one.]

Mr. Abarai?

[Action] works for me~

[unreaching]

[Renji blinks and peers over his shoulder at the older man. It's--still kind of weird to be addressed as "Mr. Abarai", especially since most people (when they speak to him at all) usually go for 'Renji', 'you', or, occasionally, 'hey asshole', but he's never bothered to say anything about it.]

Yo.

'Sup? One o'your students get sick seein' frog guts again?

[Action then! :D ]

[professorwolf]

[Hey, Lyall is polite. Especially to fellow employees, even if they weren't actually teachers. He offers a little smile.]

No, no. They're fine. I just... saw that.

[He pointed down at the projection in the water on the floor.]

On my computer screen, in fact. You can do that with a lot of things. And, I thought I might come see if you needed a first-hand explanation of what we know so far.

[Action /o/]

[unreaching]

[What is this 'politeness' of which you speak. Can he eat it.

Renji frowns slightly at the comment, confused. Looks down at the floor, at what he assumed was him seeing things, looks up at Lyall, and decides--this is some sort of weird new technology thing, isn't it? Well, it's better than being insane, he thinks.]

You saw the floor here from your computer? That's--kinda badass...in a creepy, Big-Brother-Is-Watching sorta way, anyway.

[What? He knows some culture, okay. A few things picked up from Seishirou, a few others on his own in the past year and a half.]

Kids cheatin' a lot lately? Or are they just paranoid 'bout 'em stealin'...toilet paper or somethin', I dunno.

text|phone

[exloserspromise]

I think there's some sort of anti-discrimination law for crazy-based firing, but I never had to deal with it so maybe not.

wet tile visual

[unreaching]

[Annnnd now there are words. Welp. Might as well just embrace the crazy.

He can't really be assed to get down on the ground and write back to the figment of his imagination, though, so he just calls out at it as he continues mopping.]

Huh. Well, ain't that convenient? Too bad I can't afford a lawyer anyway, so I guess if I do get canned I'm shit outta luck.

So, who're you supposed to be? My conscience? Ghost of Christmas past?

[exloserspromise]

I'm not hot enough to be the Ghost of Christmas Past. Christmas Present, maybe. I'm like you, someone with a bunch of numbers in my head. Everyone on here is.

[unreaching]

[Wholly against his better judgment, he decides to ask:]

...Who's 'everyone', and what's 'here'?

audio

[angelskills]

Please don't worry.

[ Even if he doesn't... sound particularly worried. ]

You're not imagining things. Hello!

wet tile visual~

[unreaching]

[Aaand now the voice is...young. And. Female? That's. Different.

For awhile, Renji just stares at the tile, because he's not sure he's imaginative enough to be this delusional. But--ugh, "she" sounds nice and Renji has a soft spot for kids anyway and...

Sigh. Might as well humor the nice young-girl-figment while mopping. What is his life right now.]

Uh...hi.

[He's definitely sure he shouldn't believe the figment telling him he's not imagining things, because he thinks if he was a figment he'd want to assert he was real too.]

[angelskills]

[ Pshhh we are the same age, Sir! Though she's not actually thinking that because she can't read minds, especially not through floor tiles. But she knows that connecting to this can be really unsettling and maybe a little scary, so showing kindness to people who first connect is very important. ]

How are you?

[ Just polite chat. No need to drop the big bombs right away. ]

[unreaching]

[He blinks, once, twice, taken sort of aback by the question.]

Uhh...fine?

[That's the way that question is supposed to be answered, right? Does it still count if you're talking to yourself (or a...female....part...of yourself???) and you know that you're not really fine but it's not really polite to burden your not-self with shit that they don't want to hear because they were just being polite (can you even be polite to yourself?!).....?

He sighs, rubs his face, and just decides to press on as if this were a regular in-person conversation with his coworkers. This is way too complicated to figure out right now.

...At least this girl-who-he-might-be-imagining is friendly.]

How 'bout you?

Action

[maxwells_silver_scythe]

"'Scuse me."

Some short kid with a long braid was leaving one of the stalls to wash his hands. However he stopped when he looked down at the ground, then up at the janitor.

"...You can see them too, can't you?"

Action

[unreaching]

[Renji just moves aside on instinct as the kid comes by, used to getting out of the way of bathroom "traffic"--the 'scuse me' ends up largely unnecessary, but he's privately amused by it anyway. It's always weird to be shown gestures of courtesy like that.

Of course, when the kid speaks again, Renji stares at him in confusion. He couldn't mean the weird image that'd been on the ground and the voices, right?]

What...what d'you mean?

[Might as well confirm. Maybe someone put drugs in the bathroom or something and it takes a little time to start working.]

[maxwells_silver_scythe]

"What do you think I mean? Unless you really find blurry reflections of your face in the bathroom floor THAT interesting."

But Duo's reluctant to straight up talk about the network to a stranger too. For more or less the same reasons.

[unreaching]

Don't be a smartass. I don't have time for fuckin' riddles.