You Find Yourselves Stirred By A Voice....

[strangerpeople]

[You feel as you are on a fluffy cloud of warmth and the urge to not want to move is great. However, the voice speaks again as if it is urgent...and maybe angry?]

Damn brats! Get off the merchandise before I call security on you!

[Oh. Well.

When you come to, the familiar scenes of your bedrooms fill your sight. However, the barriers are gone and strangest of all, there are people around. They can SEE you and for sure, they are gawking at the weirdos that are somehow sleeping in department store beds. But on the hands of Croix and Chariot, there's something on their hands...a phone number and a message saying 'Call me! :D' from some weird girl with an A name. But when you finally move and get away from any nosy customers, you have to wonder 'What just happened?' 'Is everyone ok?'

And why do you have the urge to go visit Cafe MYJL?]

Comments

[scienceofmagic]

...I understand if you hate me. But I can't judge your actions. Not after everything I've done back home and here. Helena... Helena did something that took real courage. ...Courage I didn't have until far too late.

[ ...She wanted to save Chariot. That was what was important to her. ]

...Little by little, my horizons expanded. I was wrong about a lot of things. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to make amends to everyone. ...That includes you. But I am glad that you've got another chance. ...I meant what I said when I was going to do everything within my power to save everyone I could. I'm just glad that things turned out okay.

alcohol mention

[notgentle]

[By the time Croix calls Helena courageous and hits her stride in the conversation, Dio has tossed aside his ironic leer for a look that while not friendly at least conveys intense concentration. There is silence, and then he speaks.]

Croix, you are a coward.

[He just lets that consuming cold contempt sink in for a second.]

But. I can't call you a totally worthless coward. You have been getting some shit done. I used to think that anyone who changed their convictions was weak and pathetic... now I can get behind a little of that changing and growing information jazz you were going on about. Some people have really stupid convictions and need to get over those, apparently.

[He does not name names and turns his back on her.]

Hey, back then, I told your little girlfriend that "my guardian angel" should get a drink. I guess I can't take it back now that I know who you are.

[scienceofmagic]

...Yeah. But I think... I'm getting braver, day by day.

[ ...The guilt and fear of losing someone. The fear of failing. So many fears, compiling into something horrible. ]

I'm going to pass on the drink for now, though. Maybe if we pull off getting rid of the source of it all, though.

[ ...She'd felt guilty since the first investigation. Since the first trial. Since he... Since the first deaths. ]

...By the way. I don't know your situation, but given your stated occupation on your profile... If you're ever looking for a new place to put on a show, you'd probably be a pretty decent wizard.

[notgentle]

Aww. Thanks. My situation is... Pretty complicated, though, let's put it that way.

[His tight little smile is deployed carefully as he sweeps the offer under the rug. Is he feeling mocked by the kindness? Or too overwhelmed to engage?]

You're probably right that I could use a bunch of spells, since I trained up my psychs more than anyone. [Dio plows forward; he's perhaps a little offended to have been rebuffed, though not on a deep level that insults his identity or anything.] Look, I'm just saying, if I talk with you about all the shit that went down in the underground, which is pretty freaking relevant to your source of the problem adventures, you're probably going to want at least water or something.

[scienceofmagic]

...It honestly can't be worse than a bunch of hatred becoming sentient and turning into a literal world-destroying missile, only to be destroyed by two teenaged girls through the power of belief. ...Also, powerful enough witches regularly turn into trees where I'm from.

[ ...She's pretty sure that's weird. That's not getting into anything else. ]

...Honestly though, I've never really had a lot of alcohol. Drinks and magic don't really mix well.

[notgentle]

I'm not saying you're some kind of stupid shrinking violet, I'm saying it'll take a long time! Whatever.

...I guess if you're used to using so much witchcraft, fighting an angel doesn't seem totally insane.

[scienceofmagic]

...That's fine. I have time, then. But yeah, this whole thing with Noise and such... Really isn't very different from the Wild Hunt back home. ...Uh, witches gather and watch special Wild Hunters chase down and exorcise wandering ghosts. It's a yearly event.

[ ...So really finding out what was going on behind the scenes was actually comforting and almost normal??? ...Maybe everyone should just stay away from their world, honestly. ]

[notgentle]

You make it sound so... mundane. But, I mean, before there was a hunt, did you seriously worry about the ghosts swarming over the whole world? It sounds like we're going to be acting a lot more than once a year.

[scienceofmagic]

...I guess it kind of is, to me. But really, it just means we have a system to mimic to begin with there. So I think we'll be fine. What about your world?

[ Listen, she has faith her world will be fine, because, yeah, this shit is weirdly mundane to them? But not everyone has shit like the Wild Hunt. ]

[notgentle]

Uh, I'll have to get back to you on that one. [He launches into more serious science that he's never had the need to discuss around Croix before.] We don't deal with "magic" or "monsters" the way you do. Like, at all. Theories about mind reading or different timelines might seem the same amount of mystical from the outside, but it's all based in genetic expressions that manifest in perception levels of the human brain. I'd have to look a lot harder for anyone actually capable of scanning.

What we do have in good supply is biotechnology to prohibit people from the worst ways of acting on their negative emotions, so that's what I want to look into first.