[OPEN] To beg a tale of breath too weak

[roleholders]

[ Characters ] SYLVAN and YOU FOREIGNER!
[ Location ] The Clock Tower [and all over Wonderland once Sylvan kicks you out]
[ Date/Time ] The morning of Day 1
[ Warning ] Heated arguments and such will be expected.
[ Content ] Welcome to Wonderland, foreigner. You've been drafted for war

Comments

[liketofu]

Rise had learnt, throughout her few years of showbiz, that there were different types of people in the world. Some of them were slightly...kooky. They told you not to indulge them, but it really was more polite.

...having spent a good half of a year fighting Shadows in the TV World helped loosen that "Hell, no way!" attitude at least. Or at least, taught you that you had to look at them with this strained smile.

"One question," she spoke, raising her hand up high in the air. "Tell me again how we can get out of this place?"

[roleholders]

Sylvan turned to her. "You can either go back the way you came in. That is, climbing the sky but I won't count on it. Or you can win this war."

[liketofu]

"Okay..."

A smart-ass response. Well, couldn't say that she hadn't been expecting that, not after their curt introduction earlier. Not that her next question was going to make any more sense, anyway.

"You wouldn't happen to have a TV to go through either, would you?"

Stupid question, really- this guy was no Teddie. Couldn't stop a girl from trying, though.

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"No."

[nowheresman]

"Hey, baby."

Thankfully, despite possible misconceptions, the interrupting voice wasn't directed at anyone but the mirror being held in Adachi's hands (sideways). He was shouting loud enough to it for half the building to hear, likely because he had no feedback to know whether or not talking lovingly to an inanimate object was really working. Adachi was facing the wall as well, so either he didn't realize how disruptive he was being, or frankly, he ceased to care.

"Hi...honey? Sweetie? Darling?"

[liketofu]

The sound of that "No" was very obviously obscured by the yells across the room. And she...definitely recognised that voice. Hell, she'd had nightmares about it for the whole week after they sent him to jail.

She grasped the circular mirror tighter as she glanced to her right, then to her left. Nope, no Adachi there. He was somewhere in this sea of faces.

...maybe this was a good way to test out this new Looking Glass thing. Turning it so that it was faced away from the Watchmaker now, she muttered, "Looking Glass."

A pause.

"Adachi."

[nowheresman]

It was difficult to distinguish specific messages when the network was being flooded with handfuls of people all trying to frantically find their friends, their answers, or just plainly, their senses, but Adachi had no trouble picking out his name from the general hum of conversation, especially when it was spoken in a tone like that. Like Rise, he also lifted his head, looking over his shoulder - but no, no teenagers with self-righteous glares pointed his way. He tapped the surface of the mirror again, holding it too far away from his face for it to register an image, and after a moment, answered.

"Who's looking for him?"

[liketofu]

The image wasn't registering- he was obviously trying to find out who exactly was calling for him. Well, two could play at that game. She turned her mirror to the floor, letting it record the image of the parquet. If Adachi had been paying attention then, he'd probably have noticed that she was seated behind someone with a really bright yellow scarf. But only if.

"As if I'd tell you," she muttered, partially to herself. "What are you doing here?"

[nowheresman]

He hardly needed to ask anymore past that. The voice stank of Self-Righteous Brat, and as far as he was concerned, they were all the same. Trying to distinguish between them was like trying to distinguish between a littler of dumb animals. At the end of the day, they might look and sound a little different, but all that came out of their mouths was, 'Yap, yap, justice and truth, yap yap.'

"What are you?" he asked in return, voice disinterested and nonchalant in contrast to the vehemence in hers.

[liketofu]

"...work."

She hardly found it necessary to provide an additional explanation. What kind of sick place was this anyway? Not only bringing normal people but...murderers as well? Jeez.

She aimed a quick glance over her shoulder, looking for that telltale scruffiness that came with Adachi. Was that....? At that corner?

"Don't think this means that you've gotten off scot-free. We know what you've done," she spoke, watching that figure in the corner for a reaction. Would he react?

"In fact, we're watching you right now."

[nowheresman]

Adachi answered with a sharp, loud bark of laughter. The rest of the room hardly noticed it, too caught up in their own frantic conversations, but if someone were watching, they'd see him nearly reel back with amusement.

"Man, how cliche can you get? What do you think you are, the police?" His voice dropped. "You can't do anything here."

Another laugh. "Now, do you get what I mean? I was telling the truth, you know. You guys are suckers for that, aren't you? In the end, the world sucks when you realize how powerless you are. Guess your wake-up call just came a little earlier."

[liketofu]

He fell for it! She hadn't expected it to work- yeah, she'd learnt cheesy lines like that from Really Bad Scriptwriters- but he'd actually reacted visibly enough. Rise was this close to replying with a heated denial- but paused.

Sure, the ball was in her court now- she knew where he was while he probably didn't. Yeah, she could hide and continue with this exchange but...

It would make her no better than him, wouldn't it? Egging someone on just to watch their reaction and the unfolding chaos...the team'd denounced that kind of sneakiness when they'd brought him down. If she did that, she'd be no better than him. But what if he'd brought his gun? He wouldn't point that at her in the midst of so many, would he?

Paaaaause. Someone else was asking questions now and most of the other people in the room were probably too much into trying to make sense of anything than to worry about the possible looming crisis.

....oh, damn itShe scrambled to her feet, pocketing her mirror -hope you enjoy that momentary static, Adachi- and made

[nowheresman]

Adachi didn't turn around, but he angled the mirror to show her reflection behind him, causing the light to glare in her eyes (though that was more of an added bonus than an intended effect). He had assumed, upon hearing the static, that she had simply refused to listen to him any further, and that was that. Kids were like that nowadays, after all. They never listened to you, but demanded that you always hear what they had to say. Bunch of stinking hypocrites.

Adachi's reflection smiled slowly. "Kujikawa," he identified immediately. Ah, right. The idol who said she didn't want attention and fled to Inaba, only to attract more attention by doing so. Lowering the mirror, he finally turned. His free hand was in his pocket, his head was tilted back. To any bystander, it looked more like a normal conversation than a confrontation. He wasn't stupid; he wouldn't try anything just so that ten other high school kids could jump him the moment he even raised a finger.

"You came all the way over here just to give me your play-by-

[liketofu]

The glare from the mirror had made her wince, raising a hand to shield the glare from her eyes; Adachi probably would have had the pleasure in knowing that he'd managed to tick dear Rise off with that, even if the action was unintended to irritate. When the spots before her eyes finally faded, she folded her arms, still retaining that distance between the two of them. No need to close the gap when she still didn't know what he was capable here- even outside the TV world.

"Think whatever you want," she shot back. "But I'm not here to offer any apologies. I just don't want to be called a coward for not facing up to you after that."

[nowheresman]

"Nah, I'm sure you get called that enough on your own," Adachi said, dismissively. It wasn't founded on evidence. He knew as much about her personal life as she knew about his - amply about the worst facets, hardly anything about anything else. That was a disadvantage of the Midnight Channel, after all. Like all media, it was biased.

Slowly, Adachi drew his attention back to her - eyes sliding to the side before his head turned. Much more suddenly than that, all in a second at most, he raised a hand, drawing it back, fingers together and palm open as if to slap. It swung, but the gust of air that the flat of his hand pushed against her cheek was about as much of a blow as it delivered. Adachi stopped his arm a couple inches from her face.

"Is that what you wanted?" he asked. "Was it enough? I'm sure now you can run back to your friends and brag about how courageous you were."

[liketofu]

Rise didn't flinch, choosing instead to stand her ground, eyes narrowed. There was a pregnant pause before she exhaled and raised her right hand to knock his away. Her nerves were already raw from the panic that was slowly setting in (an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces -save for a particular one- wasn't quite the most nurturing environment) and she really didn't feel like arguing at the moment. At least, not with Adachi, of all people.

She turned away, huffing. "Yeah," she agreed, her voice steely levelled. "I think you're right. I shouldn't even have bothered."

And with that, she walked off. There were people and there were jerks. And mixing around with jerks wasn't something she'd do unless she was feeling particularly masochistic.