007 ☀ action/voice;

[sablemeister]

[ Crona stands motionless in front of the Rainbow Fountain, staring down at a coin-- that's right, a real coin, this little speck of at least some shade of home, previously acquired from Claire and currently laid in the center of his palm. there's been a lot on his mind lately. a lot about things that have happened during his stay at Splendor, and

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action

[valhallicity]

[ he was small and timid but Crona always really stood out to Izaya, dressed in his all black tunic, making a sharp contrast between himself and the area around him. not that he was one to talk about dressing in all black but regardless, that was why he had particularly caught sight of him.

listening from the seal as he approaches, he responds into it even as he's reached the space of only a few feet and clearly visible to Crona. ]

I wouldn't go back. And you wouldn't either, right?

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[sablemeister]

[ if it were anything like the district (which it sadly isn't) to have such a thing, a tumbleweed might have symbolically rolled through the space separating them, the tension surrounding Crona is suddenly so great.

he glances up from the seal with a jolt at the sound doubling in volume, denying the urge to step back and giving the other a glance which could only be translated as "you". ]

No...I wouldn't.

[ Izaya is perhaps the last person he wants to be talking about this with but-- there's no use lying. he's learned that, by now. quietly, teeth clenched as his eyes scatter away from the informant: ]

I'm not surprised to hear that, coming from you.

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[valhallicity]

It doesn't? Why's that?

[ Izaya chuckles a little and comes to stand beside him at the fountain, looking down into the water. ]

Is something back home troubling you? Or have you just come to like this place too much to leave?

[ he puts his own seal back into his pocket, eyes the smattering of coins. making a wish in a place like this was so much different from dropping a coin in a well somewhere else. making a wish of any kind was so much different. like wishing after blowing out the candles on your birthday cake-- would that kind of thing come true, too? ]

Never mind. I don't need to know any of it and you don't want to tell me. As for me, I want to return home. Just not quite yet. I have to see something through at the very least.

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[sablemeister]

[ ever-wary of where Izaya is, what he says, Crona stands and listens to his words quietly, lips dragging into a grim line.

it's very true, that a "wish" is something so very, very different here. but...maybe that's why he did it-- threw a coin, this rarity of an item to find here, into a fountain to make a wish, rather than any he could simply make by wanting them.

but...maybe that's appropriate, considering the wish. ]

You're right-- I don't. [ a beat, he turns slightly towards the other, arms crossed over himself as he watches the other put his Seal away. ] As long as you get back, t-this is all entertainment in the meantime, huh? L-like what you said to Kid.

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[valhallicity]

[ who's to say what's granted here or not based on it's appropriateness or it's gravity? Izaya doesn't know, doesn't even particularly care what Crona might be wishing for. a lot of things had been dragging lately. ]

Most of it, yeah. But what else is a person supposed to do once they discover they're stuck here? Anything of value that may have been lost in the transition is going to remain lost more likely than not. If I don't want to be bored, then the best I can do is to find some entertainment.

[ he really isn't going to bother lying. there was at least one part of it that served another purpose, though. ]

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[sablemeister]

[ dragging. he might laugh, if he heard that-- after all, the incident with izaya and juuta, followed by the incident with stein...also, that nasty hayfever and the...kissing...thing... -- he didn't really think that was "dragging", at all. ]

M-maybe it's irretrievable, a-and...I wouldn't mind that. I wouldn't mind it at all.

[ a beat-- he glances back towards the fountain, thinking of his wish. being unsure of it already. when he speaks, while staring intently at where the coin he'd tossed in rested, it's as if he's mentioning something offhand. something he doesn't want looked into, too far, doesn't care to look into it too closely. ]

You could be happy, Mr Izaya.

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[valhallicity]

[ maybe not for Crona but he wasn't as easily satisfied nor was he as easily shaken. this whole affair was slowly dwindling as far as he was concerned. sooner or later, he wouldn't have any part in it. maybe he didn't want to anymore. then again, he couldn't say which was better-- being here and waiting for this to end or going back home. Crona didn't want whatever was waiting for him back home either but he couldn't imagine it was anything like what was waiting for him, good or bad.

it might come across as mocking to hear that from just about anybody but for some reason, it was different when Crona said it-- ah, not for some reason but a very specific one: Crona had no reason at all to say something like that or to put a concern forth towards it. ]

What do you mean? I'm pretty happy now.

[ though even he knows that's a lie this time. maybe that's what's making everything drag.You could be, too. If you tried hard enough. But you let a lot of worries and little things get in your way. You let people like me influence you and you

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[sablemeister]

[ maybe not. but maybe so-- because, even if he denied it as fiercely as he'd originally defended Juuta's honor, Crona has willingly instigated more terrible things than he'd like to admit. and that's what's waiting for him, whether he could try to escape it or not: instigation and likely...the punishment for that.

as the conversation continues, he can't help but feel a burn in his stomach. Crona's resolved to believe in himself and his decisions, his wishes, however...even if Izaya can get hold over him again (and easily).

straightening up again, he stares directly at Izaya. ]

You don't act very happy.

[ --unless he's wrong. he could be, of course, but... ]

--and you're right. But aren't you caught up b-by the same stuff? I-I mean, it may not concern you that much now, but you didn't seem very happy about me and Mr Juuta. Was that unhappiness, until you did what you did? A-and...don't y-you miss anyone from home?

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[valhallicity]

[ perhaps the whole thing was a string of maybes and maybe nots. Izaya didn't come talk to him with any particular intent today and that alone was different. he felt like maybe he was losing it-- his touch, or his understanding, so to speak. he had been caught off guard many more times than he would have liked and even here, with a kid like Crona, he didn't expect him to say that.

shaking his head, he considered it, thought maybe he wouldn't answer those questions at all. ]

That depends on how you categorize "unhappiness." If jealousy is a form of it, then I guess you could say that. But it's not over now, even after I've done what I did. And even still, being bothered by something and being controlled by it are two different things.

[ he's not looking at Crona as he says this. it's not like he feels particularly shameful in admitting it to him-- couldn't he see that much himself? it should have been obvious. but it's kind of like admitting a stalemate and he doesn't like that very much. ]

I don't miss anyone.

[ really, he's

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[sablemeister]

[ this meeting is indeed...strange. it seems almost unreal for them to be having this conversation, even if it is by no means the most civil of one. something seems different. maybe it's the lack of terrified atmosphere (as Crona's trying very hard to stay calm), or that they're in an open space, rather than a room where Izaya could corner him in, if he wanted to. but...it seems like more than that, at least to Crona. ]

If that's the only way h-happiness can be categorized, I guess we're both very unhappy.

[ meaning? he's still jealous. but he'll never say that, exactly. can't. ]

I don't miss--

[ he stops suddenly, remembering in a rush just who he's talking to. why is he even trying to open up? Izaya didn't deserve it, right? thinking he's a right bit witty (or maybe just trying to change the subject before the informant can latch onto whatever the meister had been about to say), Crona approaches this subject carefully. ]

What about..."Shizu-chan"...? Don't you miss them?

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[valhallicity]

[ it is more than that, even if Izaya didn't want to admit as much. something is obviously weakened, for him to even want to bother speaking with Crona this way. all this time, even dealing with Claire, he had thought ah, in the end, nothing's changed because at the end of the day, I'll still be fighting with Shizu-chan and smiling with Juuta-kun. but it wasn't like that anymore. and there was only so much a person could do to convince themselves that a situation they had planned to go one way had completely gone off the original track.

so, yeah-- maybe they were both very unhappy. did that mean they had reached some kind of kinship? hardly. it just meant that he didn't hold anything against Crona at the moment. it could very easily change, of course. but now, it was kind of draining to imagine how Juuta must be getting on with his best friend.

usually, he'd be pretty angry with someone asking about "Shizu-chan," and especially in such a manner but considering the circumstances?Yeah, I guess I do. But don't get me wrong- I only miss

action; 1/?

[sablemeister]

[ in the same way, something has...changed in Crona. sometimes that change makes him feel better about what he's been doing, how he's been trying to be a better friend...but other times? it terrifies him. his impulses just seem to keep coming, he just seems to keep messing up, even after he tells himself, promises others to be different. to be a better person.

it twists in his stomach and-- maybe that's why it's so easy, now, to talk to Izaya like this. after trying to kill him, and after he's been terrified and threatened and verbally abused by the informant.

...so maybe he's just setting himself up to be ripped down, again. ]

[sablemeister]

[

wait. ]

[sablemeister]

[ --h....................

................

......................"he"? ]

[sablemeister]

[

.....

.....

p-p-p-p-plaything...?! ]

[sablemeister]

[ ....oh.

um. well. that isn't very surprising-- b-because, well, the way Izaya's been acting towards Juuta, and everything... n-not that there's anything wrong with it, but-

--but doesn't that mean Juuta is just a replacement? ]

I--I see. How c-cruel you are.