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

[ closed to tohru adachi and ryotaro dojima, all threads beneath this one are open ]

[adachy]

[ and adachi finds himself dragged along, outside the inn, to the side of the building where there's a little shade and privacy. he's got about a million questions running through his head right now, like "why won't you talk to me", "why are you trying to break my arm", and "how did you magically heal from your car wreck", but he keeps them to himself for a moment as he leans up against the wall, one foot on the ground and one pressed back against it with his hands in his pockets. ]

Look, sir, if you wanted to talk alone, all you had to do was say something. Having the kids around has never stopped you before.

[runandseek]

[He's barely listening. At least, he's not listening to Adachi's words, but Adachi's tone. (He realized somewhere along the way that that's where the truth really lied.) It's enragingly normal. He's dreaming, he's sure of it. A mysterious woman at the end of a long journey, his still-suspicious nephew, and the partner he once (thought he) knew, all jumbled together in his absent daughter's storybooks to tell him... what? To tell him what?

He doesn't want to reply just yet, and he can't- not with the cigarette in his mouth. He pats his pockets down again looking for his lighter- ah.

He really has his priorities straight. He's got a serial killer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, and quite honestly, the cigarette's more important. He needs it, to steady his grip. Adachi hasn't bolted just yet, but Dojima is certain. Any second now, he'd vanish, like everyone important in his life ever has.]

[adachy]

[ in turn, adachi's getting seriously bothered by that expression of his - but maybe it's understandable. after all, the guy just lost his daughter. he's trying not to get too aggravated with dojima's attitude; he should be used to this by now, the gruffness and lack of communication. had they really reverted back to day one of their partnership? because that's how he feels right now, like he just stepped off the train in inaba with his bag in tow, shaking hands with his new superior officer and answering his questions in short, awkward sentences and nods, wishing he were anywhere but there

[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

[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

[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