IC INBOX (AION TELEIOS->KENOS)

[comelately]

art by wilk_wink
COMMUNION / ACTION

Comments

text as planned

[jinxs]

i'm in town like i said

where do we meet?

[comelately]

[ oh god, she did remember. unlike his casual way of speaking, his words are written in the flowing script of someone privileged with an educated, wealthy upbringing - fortunately, his text is still generally legible. ]

How is it that you even know how to reach me?

Nevermind that doesn't matter. If you are hoping for a wide spread of places to drink then you're going to be disappointed as most of them are currently Rubble. Was the place near the front gate open?

[jinxs]

yep that's where i'm at

come on

[comelately]

All right, fine. I will head over there, just give me a few moments.

[ with that, and a sigh, he shuts his journal and starts getting ready to make his way over. The good news is that it's not too far; mostly everyone who's remained in Kiichpan has relocated to the same generally-unharmed area, and that includes Johnny. With the addition of more paths through the jungle, there are more places for him to leave Slow Dancer tethered, too, which is a relief. It's not his money he's worried about getting stolen most - it's his horse.

He arrives about twenty minutes after his message. Jinx is easy to pick out - even in a place like this, she's pretty distinctive, and that's with nothing but a shitty drawing for him to go off of. ]

You do kinda look like the picture.

[ with a dry wave of greeting, thus spoke the mysterious Johnny Joestar - who, it turns out, is a grouchy-faced blond teenager with a star-patterned knit beanie and a small stature, made even smaller-looking by the fact that he's sitting in a wheelchair. ]

[jinxs]

(unlike herself, who not only sticks out like a sore thumb, she has no idea what to expect from this new acquaintance she just stumbled upon, accidentally as ever. instead of looking, she just entertains herself with a bottle, feet up on the table with zero to no manners as she chugs it and distracts herself by listening to local gossip.

unfortunately, she can't hide her expressions, her face giving out her every reaction to all words she managed to eavesdrop until she hears words given to her.)

I did say he got the hair, kinda, and the eyes right.

(the wheelchair is unexpected, but nothing to bat an eye upon. eh, cute enough. she's not walking out of the bar like she promised.)

I went ahead and got myself a drink on your behalf!

[comelately]

[ he might make some comment about the feet on the table if he wasn't armed with the prior knowledge that 1) she doesn't give a fuck about rules and 2) she is prone to violence and he doesn't know what'll set that off. Either way, politeness obviously isn't a big part of her repertoire, to the point that Johnny's surprised she doesn't have a comment about the chair, but he's not about to look that particular gift horse in the mouth. ]

Yeah, I can see that. You better not have picked the priciest drink they got.

[ all his money here goes to feeding his horse... ]

[jinxs]

Lucky for you, my tastes ain't expensive.

(and he's smart. but look, she's even showing a bit of finesse, giving his hand for him to shake. if he chooses to, he will have a strong grip around his hand.)

So, I believe you had questions?

communion

[lifespanned]

[ Whenever Johnny is least expecting it, he'll get an expectant prod from his shard from an incoming message - and whenever he decides to accept it, he'll receive a somewhat annoyingly long blurb of words from none other than Misa herself. It'll be evident that it's from her just from their mental connection as Aions, not to mention from her voice reading out the message. ]

Johnny! I have a question about jockeys that I forgot to ask. I was never watching that stuff on TV, you know? So, I had no idea. But anyway, are jockeys really famous in America? Are you some kind of celebrity?

[comelately]

[ yes, he recognizes this voice, which is startling by itself! ]

Wait - M-Misa?! You can talk to me through this thing?

[ even though he's THE ENEMY?! he'll answer her questions in a second........ he's too flabbergasted by this. should he hang up? is she going to triangulate his position through his shard or something?! she seemed nice, but the kenoma still murdered estinien... ]

[lifespanned]

Huh? Yeah, of course I can, dummy.

[ They're all Aions? She says this like it's completely obvious? And that's because Misa doesn't think so hard about what people she calls are the enemy and which ones aren't— it doesn't occur to her that some people might not want to talk to her. So, after a few seconds... ]

I mean, I guess you could keep me out if you wanted to, but you picked up, sooo... doesn't that mean you want to talk to me?

[ is that a feigned sense of disappointment in her voice? yes, yes it is ]

[comelately]

Aren't we on opposite sides of a war? This feels risky as hell...

[ there's a lot of uncertainty in his voice. can this be tracked? Is he giving away their hideout location? If it was that easy, though, surely someone would have done it before, right? This started before he got here. And while he has many failings, he wouldn't say "weak-willed" is one of them; it's probably not that he's particularly vulnerable, especially if he compares himself to some of the other Pleroma.

So maybe it really is just Misa wanting to chat. Which lines up with how she behaved when they met. Still - what a crazy thing to do. ]

I don't mind talking - you just surprised me. [ of course, going back to her original question also makes him a little uneasy, though for entirely different reasons. he decides to leave out the fact that he's a washed-up former celebrity. ] Uh... yeah, you could call me that. What's TV...?

[lifespanned]

[ Does she recognize that she's putting him in an awkward position by calling him out of the blue, especially when the locations of many of the Pleroma are unknown? Maybe, but as usual, her personal want to just talk with him trumps what miniscule amount of consideration she might have had for his situation. As a result, his question about whether or not this is "risky as hell" goes completely ignored. And in contrast to his uncertainty, she just lets out an aggravated sigh over their communications. ]

Oh, not this again! You're not from some crazy time in the past, are you? Sometimes I'm the one who's behind, so I thought... [ A shorter, less annoyed sounding sigh. ] ...well, nevermind. How far away is 2004 to you?

[comelately]

2004?!

[ his breathless shock at the number probably answers some of her question before he can. ]

That's more than a hundred years in the future... It's the year 1890.

[ he cannot even begin to conceive of what 2004 might be like. Do they have flying trains?! Did people live on the moon?! He could ask this stuff, but he doesn't want Misa to think he's stupid (he's having some foresight, for once), so he keeps it to himself; still, his bewilderment and curiosity are easy enough to pick up on through communion. ]

1/2

[lifespanned]

[ Johnny will be able to feel her genuine sense of shock over the emotional connection between the two of them, even an audible gasp for dramatic effect. He might not be able to see her, but given the animated way she'd acted when they'd met in person will give him a hint as to just how over the top her reaction is about to be— ]

2/2

[lifespanned]

[ Because in just a few short seconds after that, she busts out laughing, the sound bright and mirthful and immature. Entertained, rather than mocking. ]

1890! So you're totally old!! We're only around the same age by total chance, then, huh? Lucky you, hee hee....

[comelately]

... How's that make me lucky, exactly?

[ this isn't how he thought this conversation would go... at all. But he can't even say she's wrong. He'd be, what, 124 years old by her time? That's not just old, that's "pile of bones in the ground" old. He'll be chumming it up with the Saint's corpse. His great-great-great-grandkids will be roaming around, doing whatever people do in 2004 - not riding horses, apparently... (and having four balls.) ]

Wait a minute. If you're from the future, then there's definitely no way the world's actually destroyed.

[lifespanned]

Hmmm.... maybe?

[ Though she doesn't sound thoroughly convinced. As luck would have it, all the people she's met from Earth are relatively normal, so she's assumed they're all from the same "Earth"— the concept of there being multiple different Earths from different universes hasn't really dawned on her yet. She's really just assumed that the end of the world was experienced by them all simultaneously, or that they'd all gotten a glimpse at the end of all things. ]

All that stuff is way too complicated. I mean, it shouldn't even be possible for us to talk, [ The time difference, the language barrier, the magic effect of even communicating through shards - Horos and everything that's come along with it is all so bizarre she simply doesn't question much. ] So would it be so weird if we were all made to "feel" the same moment? Of everything being destroyed.

communion, after the regent's announcement

[dragonmount]

[ a careful reach out, at some point after the regent lets them go. ]

Are you alright?

[ with the tone of someone who's aware this is, maybe, a stupid question. but he kind of was a captive audience to [crying about gyro] so.... ]

[comelately]

[ he'll find Johnny isn't so hard to reach. The meeting got under his skin, but for someone like Johnny, that only makes him more fired up. He didn't care so much about the conflict before. Now, though? He feels like the Regent is personally standing in the way of his future. Maybe standing over his best friend's corpse, too, but he refuses to entertain the thought that Gyro's really dead. No way would he die like that. ]

Huh? Rand? [ he sounds a little surprised at the question. ] Think I should be askin' you that. I'm not the one who got strung up.

[dragonmount]

It wasn't real. Not really.

[ a quick dismissal, for someone who's more than aware of the dangers these kinds of visions can entail. he is still shaken, and communion means he can't hide that, but that isn't what he's here for. (that said, he probably is going to sleep with every light turned on in his apartment.) ]

But I couldn't help hearing what they said to you.

[ like, he literally couldn't help it. ]

[comelately]

[ things not being real doesn't necessarily mean they don't hurt, whether mentally or physically... but he's not the type to dig, so he doesn't. Besides, the reminder of what he learned today - and how public it was - has him a little defensive. ]

Yeah? What about it?

[ a sigh, or whatever the mental equivalent of one is. ]

I know I looked stupid, so you don't have to tell me.

[dragonmount]

Light, [ is breathed out on a half-hearted laugh, ] and I didn't?

[ he doesn't have any high ground to judge anyone, least of all johnny. the sense that ripples through the connection on his end is rueful. ]

I was just worried about you. That's all.

[ this is a check in, not a scolding. ]

[comelately]

[ he's genuinely so unaccustomed to people giving a damn about him that hearing it directly from Rand surprises him. Does he buy it? Not entirely - his gut instinct is always that it's pity - but he likes Rand well enough, and he doesn't have any reason to get hissy about it, unlike with Abel and his overbearing attentions. ]

Oh. [ a beat. ] You don't have to worry about me. I'm good.

[ he's probably not but he doesn't wanna talk about it!! ]

... I don't believe it, anyway. The Regent's full of shit.

[dragonmount]

[ the sense that comes through is something like a hum of acceptance, or a nod. acknowledgement that johnny says, at least, that he's okay. and that they don't have to talk about it — the regent had said a lot of painful things, and far be it from rand to push. but also, you know. he's here. ]

They are.

[ comes as ready agreement. never mind that rand does believe the regent. that, in a bizarre way, their admission came as a lifeline to him. there's no reason for him to push that viewpoint on someone who needs to believe otherwise as much as he needs to believe it. ]

But I'm glad we got the chance to see them. I don't think that's happened before, for anyone. Anyone on our side, anyway.

[ as yuuta had said, it's good to know what they're fighting. ]

[comelately]

Yeah. I've been wondering about the guy on the other side. For being a leader, they didn't seem all that charismatic to me. Talking shit, acting all high and mighty...

[ Johnny found them more annoying than he'd expected to, even setting aside their claims of destroying homes - he'd imagined the Kenoma head would have to be a sweet talker, someone who had the charm to convince people to their side and keep them on top of the power to crush those who resisted. That did not seem to be the case. They didn't seem interested in persuading: only flexing their abilities and intentions.

In a sense, it's comforting. Someone like that would be much easier to turn the people against. And while Johnny still isn't invested in this war, he is invested in getting back home, and to do that, they need to win. ]