a long way home. (OPEN)

[adachy]

Characters: thefool, stereophoned, topsicles, hotstuds, doesnthavea, adachy, runandseek, bomberhat, earlship, worthpraise, unforgotten, libraria, verydangerman, farces, ofmanyfocuses, YOU!
Setting/Location: The lobby of an Inn in District One of Sleepywoods.
Date & Time: Day 0 in the morning after waking up.
Warnings: Mild language and Persona 4 spoilers.
Summary: The Inaba crew run into each other and others; confusion and hijinks ensue?
Note: The first two threads will be locked to

Comments

[runandseek]

[Dojima only smokes half his cigarette before dropping it and crushing it into the ground with the toe of his shoe. He can feel grains of sand scraping underfoot. The sensation is as clear as Adachi's voice in his ear and the pain he's starting to feel in his own hand. Would it be this clear when he woke up? Or would he be left, once again, with nothing but that vague bitterness in his mouth? The taste of the things he's lost... and the regret he knew he'd live with for the rest of his life.

He turns to look at this Adachi, the Adachi in his dreams, the one who talked sense, the loyal partner who stayed by his side and wheeled him at his most pathetic to and from his daughter's bedside, the man he ate and worked and joked with for however many months-

-and levels him with the reading stare he gave the Adachi in reality, the one who killed two women and carefully strung them up on telephone poles and rooftops for all his town to see.

Instead of responding to any of what Adachi has actually said thus far, Dojima asks the one question he wants to have answered, before this reasonable, talkative Adachi slips from his grasp again.]

Why?

[adachy]

[ ...seriously? is dojima high or something? this isn't the time to be asking deep, philosophical questions. they can sit out on a balcony and smoke and talk about god and the universe later, if that's what he wants. adachi can't for the life of him figure out what else he'd be asking about. ("why did nanako have to die?" is a viable one, but not a viable topic for discussion at the moment.) it seemed pretty stupid to be asking why they should check this place out - for one, they're in a fucking fairy village and adachi's pretty sure he sees a gigantic man in the distance. ]

Why what? [ he's starting to seriously consider that maybe the doctors pumped him up full of painkillers and sent him on his way. ] Why should we check it out? Well, isn't that what we do? Or why are we here? I hope that's a hypothetical question, because I sure as hell don't know.

[ he rubs the back of his head, idly toying with his hair in an attempt to focus on something other than how uncomfortable he is at the moment under dojima's stare. ]

You haven't made much sense since we got here. Last time I saw you, you were in a hospital bed falling asleep. If you're still feeling like shit, we ought to find you a doctor or something.

[ grasping for straws at this point. say something to him, anything, or he really is going to walk away forever (or at least until dojima gets mad and comes looking for him - which is what he fully expects). ]

[runandseek]

[He hadn't expected a straight answer. He never got one when he asked- not in reality, not in his dreams. He hesitates... but he lets Adachi's arm go, half expecting him to vanish the moment he does.]

You're telling me I'm in the hospital still?

[adachy]

[ ...blink. ]

...No, I'm saying you were at the hospital. You're not anymore, and you look fine to me. That's the weird part.

[ something bizarre is definitely going on here. you don't need to be a detective, ace or no ace, to figure that out. ]

Don't you remember what you were doing before you got here?

[runandseek]

[Adachi hasn't disappeared yet, and the longer he's there, right where Dojima put him, the more he (foolishly) trusts him to stay there.

Dojima looks down, at the crushed remains of his half-smoked cigarette, and the tiny black smear it left between them.]

... I was... reading Nanako a bedtime story...

[adachy]

[ whoa HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE

you were reading who a bedtime story?

you mean your daughter, whose death was indirectly caused by adachi, who's been dead for a few days now?

if one listens closely, they might be able to hear adachi's brain frying at this point in time, because he'd swear that some fuse just busted. maybe dojima really is high as a kite right now, but how does one tell a guy who's high that his daughter is actually dead and he's fucking delusional?

or hell, maybe adachi's the crazy one and nanako is still alive, maybe there's something he missed. even souji didn't react like he expected. the kids were in fairly normal straits for the situation. it's not like they have to be depressed forever, but jeez, mourn the girl for a few days or something.

he tries to say something. he opens his mouth but nothing comes out and his throat feels dry. it's only a minute later that he manages to squeak out his next words. ]

N...Nanako-chan, sir?

[runandseek]

[He caught it- the hesitation. He looks up, locking eyes with Adachi again, reading what he can there- but as always, he doesn't even know what to look for. The chief tragedy of his career: his detective's intuition only told him something was there. It could never tell him what that something actually was.]

[Eventually he breaks eye contact and sighs with resignation.]

I'm guessing you don't know where she is, either.

[adachy]

[ at this point he honestly doesn't know what to say. adachi saw her lifeline go flat right before his eyes, was right there outside the hospital room leaning up against the wall waiting while he held his dead daughter's hand and cried. he had to listen to the whole thing and this is probably the saddest thing he's ever heard in his life, second only to that crying. where is she? hopefully somewhere nicer than where she was before. with her mom, wherever people go when they die, something that's beyond adachi's comprehension and something he prefers not to think about much. because if he starts thinking about what happens to people when they die, he has to throw away his humanity bit by bit and slowly become a monster. ]

Hopefully she's in a nice place.

[runandseek]

[He's not sure he likes the tone of that particular statement. There's something off- besides the blood he knows is on Adachi's hands, besides the fact that he is relatively sure he saw a giant in the distance and tiny hand-sized men scurrying by his feet.]

"Loophole."

[lifts his Junogam out of his pocket]

You--... you're going there?

[an afterthought:] We're going there.

[adachy]

[ normally dojima's the one with a fucking short bullshit fuse, getting really pissed off while adachi sits there rocking back and forth on his heels and laughing quietly to himself (or cowering and hoping he doesn't get yelled at). yet here dojima's acting like he crawled out of his fucking hospital bed hopped up on painkillers - which might be the case - but adachi's starting to doubt it.

he stands up straight and grabs him by the shoulders, shaking him hard and narrowing his eyes. ]

Snap out of it, Dojima-san! You're talking in goddamn fragmented sentences and not making any sense. Did they pump you up with painkillers before you got here? Or have you forgotten everything that's happened in the past week already? ...Even if you had, you're still acting ridiculous. Snap out of it. Jeez. And you act like you have to babysit me.

[ he wouldn't be surprised if dojima slapped him for that. in fact, he'd be glad...at least it would be some degree of normalcy. ]

[runandseek]

[Adachi getting in his face and touching him does, indeed, get Dojima to react "properly"- he slaps both of Adachi's arms away immediately, stopping just short of twisting the damn rookie's arms into a hold for the stunt. (He didn't have handcuffs to finish off the maneuver, anyways.)]

I'm not making any-- [jabs a hand at the giant he is pretty sure is still behind him, at the general fairytale village they're in] You really expect me to believe any of this!?

[But he's getting a sinking feeling in his chest. There were too many people here with his same reaction. The ground felt real, his cigarette felt real, Adachi's fingers on his shoulder felt real, real, real.]

[adachy]

[ adachi's fingers are quite real, would you like to feel them again, sir? possibly in a slapping motion across your face?

but no, that won't be necessary, he got the picture, and slapping dojima is like asking for a fight adachi knows he can't win. (being on the scrawny side sucks, okay.) he doesn't want to fight, he's got no reason to, he just wants dojima to stop being a moron and snap out of whatever weird trance he's in. isn't that their job? to be able to put away emotions and get to the bottom of the situation? ]

Well, your only other option is to dawdle around like an idiot in a trance. It's our job to go around asking questions, not stand here and stare at each other. If that's what you wanna do, fine - I'll go find this...caravan thing and go take a nap.

[runandseek]

[Dojima almost wants to laugh. Adachi honestly wants to work? Honestly wants to play detective with him? Of course, of course. He'd suddenly gotten so serious that night, only to run, only to disappear from a hospital full of staff and patients surrounded by a police perimeter to god knows where Souji and Shirogane kept finding every damn suspect in the case, only to leave Dojima behind wanting to know one thing. Why?

But he can't deny the logic, here. Of all things, Adachi is giving him something solid to stand on.]

Right. You want to canvass the area. Gather information. [voice laced with sarcasm (perhaps undeserved... no, Adachi deserves a lot of things) he turns his back to Adachi... now, Dojima almost wants him to disappear. because if this isn't another one of his "chasing the suspect he can never catch" dreams, then...]

[Two breaths later, he turns back around- nope, still there. Dojima sighs, wishing more than ever he had his cuffs with him. He can't just... leave this. He refrains from manhandling Adachi again, as Adachi seems to have no intention of running away... for now.]

We're going back inside. I need to talk to Souji. [He turns towards the door, but he doesn't move. Not until Adachi moves first.]

[adachy]

[ and like clockwork, adachi's smile returns in a flash. he's not stupid, he caught that sarcasm, and he knows it was intentional, too - ha ha, so very funny as always. any time adachi wants to be taken seriously, it's a joke, like his whole life is a joke, so he's used to it by now.

well, at least he's making some sense. seta's a sharp kid - too sharp - but at this point, adachi doubts he knows more than they do. at least it makes more sense to speak with the kids again rather than stand here snapping at each other.

dojima-san's just stressed, that's all. adachi takes a deep breath and nods. just lost his daughter and is mildly delusional. that's fine. i can handle that. ]

See? That's a much better idea, sir. He might not know much more, but your nephew, he's a pretty sharp kid. It's better to ask him than these strangers around.

[ he points at a hume walking nearby. ]

Ahahaha, they haven't been much help.

[ and he glances at him out of the corner of his eye once again before raising an eyebrow, wondering why dojima's still standing there like a bump on a log. fine, adachi will go first. and he does. ]

[runandseek]

[Adachi's act is perfect but it makes Dojima sick to watch, knowing what he knows. He isn't about to say anything just yet, though. If Adachi's going to cooperate, Dojima doesn't want to provoke a fight-or-flight response from him, so he leaves the "maybe you should be in prison" thing alone for now. He doesn't take his eyes off Adachi for longer than a few seconds, though. Adachi may find Dojima's behavior strange, this entire damn fairy village might think it strange, but it makes perfect sense to Dojima to not turn his back to Adachi again.

But none of the kids seemed to mind Adachi casually standing and chatting with them... which was odd, considering the last he remembers seeing them talk to Adachi, they were almost ganging up on him, and were ultimately the ones who brought him in. Dojima doubts they all would have somehow come to some mutual agreement before he interrupted their conversation; supposedly they all arrived in Sleepywoods at the same time, and a few hours was hardly enough to suddenly get along so swimmingly with a convicted murderer.

Supposedly they all arrived at the same time, but...]

What day is it?

[adachy]

Huh?

[ it's a bit of an odd question, but for as out of it as dojima is, adachi guesses he's forgotten. right now, adachi's wondering if their calendar is even relevant in a place like this. ]

Last I checked, it was Monday. December 5th...I think.

[ there's a pause as adachi dabs away sweat from his brow and glances up at the sun, squinting. ]

Sure doesn't feel like December here though.

[ maybe they're in the southern hemisphere... ]