[4th FLOOR] what protects our hearts

[twoninths]

Characters: Reverie/Aizen (iniquicity), Argent/Christopher (twoninths), Ran/Gertrude (nobodysheroine)
Date/Time: August 28, mid-afternoon
Location: The City Without Walls
Rating: PG
Summary: When the elevator finally stops, Argent, Ran, and Reverie are just in time to witness a memory from Argent's childhood.

Comments

[iniquiticity]

Reverie was surprised in that he was simply not as taken aback as he thought the sudden elevator departure would have made him. He supposed that perhaps it was simply becoming accustomed to the general oddities of Edensphere, though, he supposed, this also opened a thousand more questions relating to disappearances of a few key people who tended to make things shifted around them. Though it opened up a number of holes in his theories, it allowed for a number of answers to be found - like Gungnir's name.

Though he did not know the surroundings of small-Argent's escapade, there were things to easily figure out about it - white coats, but not like his had been in his memories - and the unmoving slabs. Argent had been dead and had woken up. It was a strange thing, but death had really never struck him as permanent, though the idea of not being able to effect his surroundings gave him a little inner frown. Even then, dying hardly seemed so terrible. It seemed like a beginning, not an end.

This was a thought for another day. "Perhaps cricket is an activity, and not a thing? After all, it would be hard to practice an insect."

Strangely enough, it seemed that death had an unexpected effect on Ran. She was - or at least seemed to be - human, but she accepted the clear death and revival of Argent with something that might have been a posistive reaction, rather than a negative one. Had she died too? That might have indeed been the case, which lead to a whole new book of questions - but seemed like it would great as an answer to her cynicism.

But Reverie couldn't shake the thought of rebirth, restart. A new beginning. Like he had died and started where he was now. There was death or no death in Edensphere, but this death existed outside and meant little.

"Perhaps we all are," he said, slowly. "Strange, I mean."

[twoninths]

Ran's words were enough to startle a small, genuine surprise out of Argent, so he nodded as well and gave her hand a fond pat before looking away again, letting himself sink back into thoughtful vagueness. It was much cleaner feeling, on the inside, to simply sweep all of the puzzling or difficult bits of this memory off to some far corner of his mind where it could be turned over and inspected at a detached distance. This was certainly not the correct circumstance for analyzing such matters closely. Even though both Reverie and Ran seemed somewhat preoccupied with their own thoughts, Argent much preferred the safety and familiarity of his own room for matters of the potentially emotionally distressing sort.

He ran a hand through his hair and gave them both a dreamy, if slightly tired, smile and said, "Yes, I am certain we are all law-of-nature-defying snowflakes, my friends. And I thank you both for your concern." This was said with a little tip of his head toward Ran; mostly because he couldn't quite tell if Reverie was in fact concerned at all. "But it seems our show is over for the day, so we should see about returning? If this has been anything like the last elevator trips, we have likely been gone far longer than it feels." He smiled again, pleasantly, and makes a careful, studied shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, I have the sudden urge to find some books on this 'cricket' phenomenon."

[nobodysheroine]

Ran turned her head towards the door, even as her gaze lingered on his dreamy expression, causing her eyes slide sideways in their sockets. If he was hoping to fool somebody, it wasn't going to work on her -- his nonchalance was practiced and almost completely transparent, and she would have been none-the-wiser if it weren't for her inherent wariness of all things too pleasant and easy, which was exactly how Argent was behaving at this moment. Perhaps this was the way Argent reacted around revelation, or perhaps he had a thing about letting something slip in front of Reverie or even her, or maybe this was merely the way that young men from wherever Argent came from were socialized to behave in moments like these. Or maybe -- and this eventuality wasn't lost on her -- Argent was just a self-repressed jerk who was too selfish to see beyond himself. For a moment, Ran considered all of these things. But in the end, there were a million and one possbilities to consider, and she found herself -- for some reason -- not caring about the whys. So Ran did something that, in the end, surprised herself. She gave Argent the benefit of the doubt.

"I'll see what I can dig up a the store," she said almost absently, her eyes slightly narrowing as she spoke, and Ran nodded at him once very shortly as if in silent understanding. "Vanilla's got books on everything. If there's one on this cricket of yours, I'll find it." Her hand finally slid from Argent's arm as she took a step forward, away from him, allowing her eyes to find center and focus now on the door.

"Does it work?" she asked Reverie warily, both hands now adjusting the strap of her bag upon her shoulder. She wondered if he was having the same response she was -- his expression almost as placid as Argent's as he looked between the two of them. As if in response to her question the buttons on the control panel made a very loud clacking noise and the floor indicator above the door suddenly flickered on and off several times before finally brightening to full power. "Oh, I guess the Powers that Be have finally spoken." She gave a small nod towards Reverie -- who stood closest to the small operating buttons -- as if to say shall we.

[iniquiticity]

Reverie liked Argent's defensive vagueness. If there was ever a way to hide your thoughts without seeming to hide them, it was probably the best to appear disinterested. But Reverie knew better, being a pretty damn good judge of character himself. But also, like Argent, Reverie preferred his privacy where he could work out his thoughts in plain view and not have to worry about being judged or suspected - though he had a good hunch that all of that had already happened.

It was not the matter that Reverie didn't care about Argent, but as a matter of fact he simply knew better. Argent was fine here and was fine there - clearly, it would take more than death to stop him. Unlike Ran, Reverie did not discard his whys but simply flicked through and shuffled off to the side which whys might have been the correct one. He nodded once to the bookstore, and made a note to check out a number of books, mostly on food, but some on tircks and more than that.

When Ran asked her, he shrugged, his casualness much less forced than Argent's. Edensphere would do what it would. "I think it does now," he said, after watching the elevator flicker to life - or back to the present, either way. He pressed the door open button with his thumb again, though to his satisfaction, this time, something actually happened.

"After you."