mayfield_rpg | Hold #5: The Saskatchewan Spinning Nerve Hold

Entry tags:

Hold #5: The Saskatchewan Spinning Nerve Hold

[Phone]

[The message is simple, quick, and to the point, although it's not the question everyone else is asking.]

...I know I went to sleep in a different house. Is this still Mayfield?

[Action: John Doe Park]

[Yeah, this was definitely Mayfield. The bench she broke her first day was still there, not cracked anymore but otherwise how she remembered it. Same with the tree standing over it. She sits down, taking a deep breath and taking in the scenery. If it weren't for the monthly chaos and the fifties middle-America sensibilities, this might actually not be a bad place to live.

Still not as good as home, though.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Arisawa. [ Just that statement; no question in his tone just yet. Doesn't he sound happy to hear you? ]

[She may or may not sound happy to hear him, at least. She's not really sure how good she is at hiding it. Still, it's the first she's heard from him since before her erasure, and while she's glad she missed him at the time, she did, in fact, miss him.]

Yo, Kamijou. Been a while.

Yeah. And the fact you said it like that and not "Oh, it's that boy from across town! How nice!"— [ Doesn't he do a nice impression of a drone woman? ] —makes me think it really is you this time.

Good to hear. I was starting to have my doubts about that.

[ Oh if he could glare through the phone. ] Doubting if you were the real you? That sounds familiar. Maybe because that's exactly what I was doing a few weeks ago.

[If? She can feel it through the receiver even now.]

This is gonna be a lecture, isn't it?

If you wanted to avoid it, maybe you shouldn't have fallen for such an obvious trick in the first place. What were you thinking?

Obviously, I wasn't.

Why, were you expecting resistance on this? It was stupid. I'm acutely aware that it was stupid. It happened anyway. Just say what you have to say and get it over with.

[ Touma is silent for a long moment. He wasn't expecting her to admit it; honestly, he was expecting very little, since he wasn't planning on ever seeing or talking to her again (the REAL her, that is) so her admission was like hitting a speedbump on the road he didn't know existed. ]

It won't happen a second time. Right? I want to think you wouldn't fall for something like that again.

Like hell. I'll even promise you that, just to make sure. Once I make a promise, you know I'm gonna keep it.

[Tatsuki Arisawa does not break promises. It's a law of physics.]

Heh. We'll just have to see about that. I'll hold you to it, though.

...I can't even say "good to hear you again" since what kinda person wishes for anyone they know to be trapped in Mayfield? [ Though he's sounding more like usual self, so that says something. ]

Not if you put it like that, no, but I'm not ashamed to admit I don't mind. The company actually makes it kinda tolerable.

Kinda.

Hm, maybe. But I don't like it. Especially when I get to know someone enough to figure out they don't deserve to be trapped in American Suburban Hell.

You said you woke up somewhere weird?

So, then, there's our reason to get out, isn't it? Hell, maybe when we get home, I can find out what part of Japan you're staying at, and we can chill sometime. Then you don't have to worry about what you can say.

Oh, and don't worry about that. I'm still in Mayfield, just in a different house.

I should warn you, even when it comes to Academy City, I'm not much of a tour guide.

—a different house, huh? That's kind of random. I woke up in the same place as always when the sirens went off.

Ah... yeah, I guess you wouldn't be. Not like I'd be going for the scenery, though, so it's no big.

It's sounding like I was droned for the last month, from what people're telling me. That might be it.

It's not a tourist trap in the first place, so you wouldn't be missing much.

[ He scratches his chin. ] That's still weird. I mean, your drone was in the same house for at least a day or two after things calmed down — that's how I talked to her in the first place. You don't remember any of that at all?

Should I have? I mean, it was just a drone, not me.

Sometimes people remember. Must be something with the way they program us when it happens.

...probably better if you don't, though. The thought creeps me out.

...Wait, the way they program us?

[Boy, if you weren't hoping to creep her out, you just absolutely failed.]

Figure of speech. The way they get in our heads. They don't call it "droning" for nothing.

In our heads. In our heads.

[NOT. HELPING.]

I think I'm gonna be sick...

[ Shit. ]

Arisawa...? Just relax. You're fine now, and who... who says I even know what I'm talking about, huh? I'm just spouting off. Don't listen to me.

Fine? I feel violated! What the hell did they do to me?!

[ Smooth going, Touma. He feels a pang of guilt because, even though this isn't his fault, maybe he could've gone about this differently.

But mostly? He feels angry. ] I don't know. I don't know and I don't like that I don't know. I've tried to snap people out of it, but nothing worked. [ Not even that. ]

(no subject)

guardiandragon - 2012-01-18 22:10 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

punch_illusions_get_harem - 2012-01-18 22:11 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only