Day 21 - Sun Room

[soul-defender.livejournal.com]

Ichigo was only too eager to leave the cafeteria and its fresh memories behind when the softened chime of the intercome rang clear. What had begun as another ordinary meal, a rather agreeable one despite the lack of the proper utensils, quickly became somewhat unnerving. His conversation with...what was his name again?...took so many sharp turns, he should've felt dizzy. It was easy to feel a little sorry for the guy, though; surrounded by stangers in a very strange place, it was hard to blame him for being so alarmed.

The Sun Room occurred as a more enjoyable choice to spend the time; he had nothing against music, but something about being surrounded by some of the most unruly characters he'd ever met, each of them armed with cacophonous weaponry, didn't sound smart. Once his nurse departed, the young man picked out a cozy little spot near a flood of sunshine and settled in, cradling his head in the palms of his hands. There, he stared up almost bitterly at the ceiling with sharply focused eyes, still exuding the same unapproachable sense of being as ever.

The room was warm, even a little comforting, for any of the tired, weary masses found in Landel's halls, or even those who just craved a little peace and quiet. All he could hear, from end of the room, were soft footfalls and hushed voices. That sounded just fine to the 'berry head.

Comments

[norainu]

Renji snorted. "And until I decide if you're false or true or just here to fuck with me, I guess I'll be politely distant." He grinned. "Because those needles the nurses have? They look pretty effective. And really, it'd be best for everyone involved if we weren't enemies, eh?" And as for his last comment... well, Renji had in mind how he ought to deal with turncoats. He was really saving it for Aizen, but it wouldn't hurt to get a little practice in first.

"Your turn for story time, then," he said. "What's got the people from your world so angry with you?" Maybe that would explain the creepy vibe. Or maybe not.

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

From his world? Hojo decided not to ask. "For the most part I have no idea. One person is entirely justified, I suppose; I did shoot him. But the others seem to have a vendetta I can't explain. I certainly don't recall doing anything to them." There was the matter of the redhead from the library; there hadn't seemed to be any real pointed dislike there, just distaste and avoidance. Hojo didn't fault that at all, though; he was generally a rather unpleasant person, mostly on purpose. It kept him from having to deal with stupid people.

[norainu]

"That's kind of weird," Renji remarked. "Have you tried asking them why? Because it might not be something you've done. It might be something you're going to do. Which might be good to know about. You could always avoid being a complete bastard or something. If you're so inclined."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"Mm, if I was so inclined." More people talking about the future as if it had happened already. It was slightly irritating, but perhaps there actually was something to it. Perhaps. "Of course, if I could avoid doing whatever it is they're angry about, you'd think I would... due to being here and everything, and wanting to avoid broken bones. And then, if I avoid doing it, they've no reason to be angry with me now. The fact that they are tells me that I have no choice in the matter."

[norainu]

"Huh." Renji shrugged. "I don't think things are so set. This place doesn't exactly follow the rules of logic, let alone time. There's a guy here that I know from back home. He's from my future, and if you take him at his word - and I do - we're pretty good friends. If we're good friends, I would sure as hell have told him about being sucked into this crazy hell hole, and he's talked to me and stuff after the last point that I can recall." He shrugged. "So that seems to say to me that my future isn't exactly fixed. Because if it was, I wouldn't be here."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"But if it wasn't, what would your friend have to go on? It's his past, so it's happened for him, but it's your future. It hasn't happened for you, so presumably you can change it -- change his past." Hojo shook his head. "I've never had a reason to think about it before, to be honest. I suppose it works if time is nonlinear, but I have a difficult time picturing that." Even if he didn't strictly believe in the timelines the way most others seemed to -- and e didn't -- it certainly made for an interesting thought exercize.

[norainu]

"It helps not believing that reality works the same way everyone thinks," Renji says. "Because most everyone is wrong." Since no one had interfered with him just stretching, he began slowly - very slowly, flowing one move through to another. Just so he could move a bit. "Then again, I'm not some scientist type." He grinned. "I'm just an officer on the beat. But it gives me less of a headache if I figure that my future and his past might not be exactly the same thing. Because there's always a choice."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

Hojo laughed a little, though he sounded slightly distant. "I suppose. But if the past isn't set, well, what do we have to go on? I have to trust that the sun goes down at night -- figuratively, of course -- or that if you drop sodium in water you get a rather violent reaction. If time can be messed with like that, what else can?" He shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable. It was strange; he'd been out of his element ever since he woke up in this bizarre place, but so far he'd been able to keep from showing it too obviously. Maybe the monotony was getting to him. "I don't know." Shit. Time to stop talking.

[norainu]

Renji grinned. "I think we all have this moment some time," he said. "The 'laws' of time don't bother me as much as the fact that I'm here at all. Reality isn't as steady as you'd think. Try not to worry about it too much. If I were you, I'd look at this as a good chance to avert some serious fuck-ups in my future." He shrugged, then continued on with his slow movements. "We're stuck here for the time being. Might as well find something optomistic to go with the monstrous wad of shit."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"You can't be satisfied with that, can you?" Okay, maybe he'd allow himself a bit more outward incredulity. "I mean, if we're going to accept this whole unstable time thing -- if -- that should affect everything, not just something as inconsequential as a person's memories." He couldn't believe it; it wasn't possible. It defied everything and he was starting to become angry with himself for getting pulled in like he had.

[norainu]

"Oh, but I can be," Renji said. Wow, exercise really was clearing his head and putting him in a better mood. That, and this conversation was starting to get fun. "I'm pretty sure that time can manage to sort itself out without my help. That's not my job." Stretch, and hold. "There's a lot more to world than what you can measure, Doc. Might be the same case with time."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

Hojo scowled. "Then why would there be evidence of it now? Why hasn't it been irregular all along?" This line of questioning wasn't going to get him anywhere and he exhaled sharply, clamping down on the things he still rather desperately wanted to ask. He still didn't believe this, after all; there was no reason to get vehement about something that was so clearly untrue. For things to happen they had to be possible, and thus logical. They had to be.

[norainu]

Renji was really enjoying himself now. He hadn't had a conversation like this sober since... ever. And it was more fun while sober, he concluded. "How do you know it hasn't been?" he asked. "Have you been looking for it before now? Have you had an opportunity to before now? I bet not." He shrugged. "Do you think that your world's the only one, too? What about your dimension?"

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"Dimension? Which dimension? The third one?" His tone was becoming more agitated the more he spoke. "And if it's been irregular all along, why is it only showing up now? You'd think that if time has had these bizarre properties all along they wouldn't strike anyone as odd. Why am I even asking this? I don't even believe it." The last part was said softly, mostly to himself. Hojo wanted to leave, but he didn't want to admit defeat, so he stayed. For now.

[norainu]

"Dimension. World. Plane of existence." Renji offered all of those to see which Hojo would understand. "I don't know, maybe there hasn't been a situation before where this could come into play." He seemed unconcerned as he continued on with his exercise. "The world would be pretty boring if it were limited to what you believed." And Renji himself wouldn't exist, really. "It's happening, after all. Guess maybe it believes in you."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"It has no consciousness and therefore can't believe in anything." The scientist's tone was rote, as if he were reciting memorized answers to a test. He pulled his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose, burying his fingers in the corner of his eyes. "Shit." Calm. There was really nothing to be gained by getting so angry... not that knowing that helped, but he could try.

[norainu]

"You are sure nitpicking at figures of speech because you want to avoid the question," Renji said, taking a decent stab at mimicking the doctor's tone.

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"You're giving me bullshit answers. Though I really shouldn't be asking you anything since it's clear you don't have any idea what you're talking about either." He wasn't quite through being annoyed but at least his voice was becoming more controlled. He kept his eyes shut, finding that it was much easier to keep a hold on his temper that way.

[norainu]

Renji, you are such a bastard, sometimes.

God, I love being me.

"Actually," Renji drawled, "I do. But it ain't my fault you're not asking an intelligent questions. I've been throwing you bone after bone, man, and you're still stuck on this whole time thing."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

It took a lot of self-control to keep from snapping at the redhead. Hojo actually didn't say anything for several moments; he didn't trust himself to, not without making a bigger fool of himself than he already had.

"What would you have me ask, then?" he asked after a rather long pause. "Different dimensions? Or plains of existance or whatever you want to call them?" He shook his head. "That's more believable than the idea that time has been operating according to a completely bizarre set of rules and no one's noticed before now."

[norainu]

And stretch some more. "Well, I can tell you that there are different planes of existence. At least three that I know of, probably more." And stretch some more. "And there have got to be different worlds in addition, because you and I aren't from the same place. We could be anywhere, right?" And stretch some more. "Different places, different rules."

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

"Hn." At least he wasn't close to ranting any more. "And I suppose that despite having different laws of physics, everything works more or less the same way, yes? Except of course things that would be more convenient if they changed." Granted, he was mostly being stubborn at this point, but annoyed stubbornness was worlds better than anger.

[norainu]

Renji shrugged. "Wouldn't know about that, necessarily. I can't speak to the laws of physics. Not really part of the education where I'm from. But I'm finding things to be decidedly inconvenient." Another shrug. "And I don't think everything works the same, either. For example, there's at least a couple of places where people can only use... hm... magic," that seemed like the best generic term, after listening and watching, "if they have some kind of object to hold on to. How weird is that?"

Actually, what he was more interested in gleaning at this point was where Hojo was from. He thought he might have talked to one of the other people from his world on the bulletin board, but he wasn't completely certain yet.

[walking-complex.livejournal.com]

Hojo slid his glasses back on. "Not weird at all. It's extremely bizarre to have any extra abilities or strengths outside normal human capacity without materia." In his experience, anyway; he didn't know what some of the people here could do, after seeing Xigbar teleport. If it hadn't been a complete figment of his imagination... he would have to ask the scarred man to do it again come nightshift. Just to make sure.

[norainu]

"Maybe most people can't," Renji said. "But it's really bizarre that you have no one at all that can." He shrugged. "Different world, different rules. Either that, or maybe you're all just very weak."