Jade Curtiss (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fonomena) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
come_sailaway2024-01-14 01:05 pm
fonomena) wrote in come_sailaway2024-01-14 01:05 pm
iron bridges, melodic chimes; things i made for you back then
Who: Jade Curtiss & you
What: You ever wake up from a nap so long and ill-advised that now it's four months later and everything's been on fire and the apocalypse apparently may or may not be incoming--
When: Latter half of January, we're wobbling timelines as much as we like for this one folks
Where: Cabin 133 --> Cabin 109, various locales of the ship afterwards
Warnings: Potential high volume of gross feelings and unexpected hugs from unexpected places, also mad teenaged punching probably, but otherwise uuh probably nothing terrible??
(closed to steve & natsuno); folding chairs and building blocks
[For the first thirty seconds or so, Jade doesn't notice anything amiss. This is on account of not actually opening his eyes, and not actually thinking about anything, for the duration of those thirty seconds. It's quite nice.
The perpetual rock of the ship still sways, as it always has. All is quiet, as this hour of morning always is. This has been...a rather deep and dreamless sleep, which does happen for him on occasion, though it's a rarity. The couch-bed is oddly quite comfortable for once, as well. All told, this might just be the best night's rest he's had in possibly years--
And then he opens his eyes, and turns his head, and the serenity promptly evaporates.
(Gets up from an--actual bed, which is ostensibly Natsuno's bed. The rest of the room--all articles of furniture technically where they should be, yet there's a clean and distinct emptiness, more akin to inn quarters freshly turned over by housekeeping than a place two people have lived in for well over a year. Nothing in desk drawers, or the wardrobe. And all that before stepping out the cabin door, and into...a portion of the residential hall that's far further along than it ought to be. "133", reads the placard on the wall...?)
It's more an automatic impulse than practical sense that leads Jade's highly disoriented self down the hall to cabin 109. Are there...singe marks, on some of the walls? A scattering of debris even here, that he's rather certain hadn't been here yesterday? Later, worry about it later, whatever has transpired overnight. First things first. He reaches for the handle and the lock...does not budge. So.
Jade knocks crisply on 109's door instead, frowning slightly and arms folded expectantly. Surely not a particularly alarming sort of person to find on your doorstep at just a few minutes past six in the morning: a tall man in some sort of teal military uniform, unnaturally red eyes peering critically behind a pair of glasses, when the person on the other side of the door is revealed to be...hmm.]
...Well now, you're certainly not Yuuki. [It's not meant to be accusatory, at least?! ...Well, alright, it might be a little accusatory. Sorry Steve--]
(open i); magic mirrors to pretend
[The rest of the day progresses along, of course, as days tend to do. At some point Jade manages to make it out of the cabin hall(if not probably without sustaining a good punch or two from potentially multiple emotionally compromised teenaged youths in the process), but his feet take him around on something like autopilot while the rest of his thoughts still reel from the inevitable news reunion brings. Months, several months of absence. All while events continued transpiring, the situation upon the ship slowly but surely unraveling ever further out of hand, and now...
It really is as if some sort of disaster has swept its way through the majority of the public areas, residue from the chaos of the "launch" yet to be entirely cleared. Jade wanders from the atrium to sundries, the dining room and the library, the sprawling mess of the promenade and all the way up to the sports deck, a rough mimic of the route he'd always take in semi-daily walks of the ship to canvass its status in the past. The strangest part, of all this, is how it still feels as if he'd taken such a walk just the other day...and yet.
...Lingering overly long upon it only makes it increasingly, stiflingly disquieting. As his wandering progresses, Jade is increasingly wearing an air of searching for something, though it's difficult to divine exactly what that might be from a distance. In the interim, he can be accosted just about anyplace: perhaps squinting at the new shirts in the Bric-a-Brac, or opening the door to the Tommy Bahama and nearly tripping over the small wave of hot dogs that pour through it (???????), or peering pensively at the single lonely signpost holding sentinel between the pool bar and the adult pool. "The signs have been hidden. If anything comes here, it’s better that we tell it where we come from or where we want to go on our own terms..."
It really does seem that he's been returned none too soon. But whether it's entirely too late...well. Perhaps there's no point in fretting over that now.
Perhaps...]
(open ii); seismographic data in our hearts
[In the end, it's the memorial that finally makes it feel truly and unnervingly tangible.
He almost misses it in weaving carefully around the other various keepsakes left here, yet in the end it's the ridiculous rappig-shaped sticker affixing it to the little display that catches the corner of Jade's eye and holds it. Recognition sinks in as he approaches, the shape of the notebook paper, the densely narrow handwriting that's his own. Then, legible as he draws to a halt in front of it...the actual contents of the words. A partial argument proposal draft, started long ago, never finished. "On the societal integration of living replicas..."
The one good deed he hoped he'd ever accomplish. It had felt pointless to complete the draft, upon learning that this existence was likely simply an offshoot of the man still undoubtedly pursuing this cause back in the world of Auldrant. That other Jade who would certainly, ideally, strive to remedy the plight of replicas in his own stead. Yet still, someone looked at this paper here and now, and decided it was still a cause that could represent his memory--even here.
...Ah. Perhaps this is how it must feel, then, to stand before a grave with a heart that isn't numb. What a chilly and sinking sort of sensation. Or is this just a particularly unique sort of experience one gets, when visiting the metaphorical coffin you've all but literally been buried in?
Jade stands and stares at the paper for far too long, and even when he does reach out eventually, fingertips only pinch at a corner and do not pull--uncertain whether it'd be better to take it back, or leave it here.]
(wildcard); let's invent them all again
[Feel free to bring a prompt of your own if none of the above quite fit! 🎉 Jade can be found pretty much anywhere on the ship rn so, go wild go crazy]
What: You ever wake up from a nap so long and ill-advised that now it's four months later and everything's been on fire and the apocalypse apparently may or may not be incoming--
When: Latter half of January, we're wobbling timelines as much as we like for this one folks
Where: Cabin 133 --> Cabin 109, various locales of the ship afterwards
Warnings: Potential high volume of gross feelings and unexpected hugs from unexpected places, also mad teenaged punching probably, but otherwise uuh probably nothing terrible??
(closed to steve & natsuno); folding chairs and building blocks
[For the first thirty seconds or so, Jade doesn't notice anything amiss. This is on account of not actually opening his eyes, and not actually thinking about anything, for the duration of those thirty seconds. It's quite nice.
The perpetual rock of the ship still sways, as it always has. All is quiet, as this hour of morning always is. This has been...a rather deep and dreamless sleep, which does happen for him on occasion, though it's a rarity. The couch-bed is oddly quite comfortable for once, as well. All told, this might just be the best night's rest he's had in possibly years--
And then he opens his eyes, and turns his head, and the serenity promptly evaporates.
(Gets up from an--actual bed, which is ostensibly Natsuno's bed. The rest of the room--all articles of furniture technically where they should be, yet there's a clean and distinct emptiness, more akin to inn quarters freshly turned over by housekeeping than a place two people have lived in for well over a year. Nothing in desk drawers, or the wardrobe. And all that before stepping out the cabin door, and into...a portion of the residential hall that's far further along than it ought to be. "133", reads the placard on the wall...?)
It's more an automatic impulse than practical sense that leads Jade's highly disoriented self down the hall to cabin 109. Are there...singe marks, on some of the walls? A scattering of debris even here, that he's rather certain hadn't been here yesterday? Later, worry about it later, whatever has transpired overnight. First things first. He reaches for the handle and the lock...does not budge. So.
Jade knocks crisply on 109's door instead, frowning slightly and arms folded expectantly. Surely not a particularly alarming sort of person to find on your doorstep at just a few minutes past six in the morning: a tall man in some sort of teal military uniform, unnaturally red eyes peering critically behind a pair of glasses, when the person on the other side of the door is revealed to be...hmm.]
...Well now, you're certainly not Yuuki. [It's not meant to be accusatory, at least?! ...Well, alright, it might be a little accusatory. Sorry Steve--]
(open i); magic mirrors to pretend
[The rest of the day progresses along, of course, as days tend to do. At some point Jade manages to make it out of the cabin hall
It really is as if some sort of disaster has swept its way through the majority of the public areas, residue from the chaos of the "launch" yet to be entirely cleared. Jade wanders from the atrium to sundries, the dining room and the library, the sprawling mess of the promenade and all the way up to the sports deck, a rough mimic of the route he'd always take in semi-daily walks of the ship to canvass its status in the past. The strangest part, of all this, is how it still feels as if he'd taken such a walk just the other day...and yet.
...Lingering overly long upon it only makes it increasingly, stiflingly disquieting. As his wandering progresses, Jade is increasingly wearing an air of searching for something, though it's difficult to divine exactly what that might be from a distance. In the interim, he can be accosted just about anyplace: perhaps squinting at the new shirts in the Bric-a-Brac, or opening the door to the Tommy Bahama and nearly tripping over the small wave of hot dogs that pour through it (???????), or peering pensively at the single lonely signpost holding sentinel between the pool bar and the adult pool. "The signs have been hidden. If anything comes here, it’s better that we tell it where we come from or where we want to go on our own terms..."
It really does seem that he's been returned none too soon. But whether it's entirely too late...well. Perhaps there's no point in fretting over that now.
Perhaps...]
(open ii); seismographic data in our hearts
[In the end, it's the memorial that finally makes it feel truly and unnervingly tangible.
He almost misses it in weaving carefully around the other various keepsakes left here, yet in the end it's the ridiculous rappig-shaped sticker affixing it to the little display that catches the corner of Jade's eye and holds it. Recognition sinks in as he approaches, the shape of the notebook paper, the densely narrow handwriting that's his own. Then, legible as he draws to a halt in front of it...the actual contents of the words. A partial argument proposal draft, started long ago, never finished. "On the societal integration of living replicas..."
The one good deed he hoped he'd ever accomplish. It had felt pointless to complete the draft, upon learning that this existence was likely simply an offshoot of the man still undoubtedly pursuing this cause back in the world of Auldrant. That other Jade who would certainly, ideally, strive to remedy the plight of replicas in his own stead. Yet still, someone looked at this paper here and now, and decided it was still a cause that could represent his memory--even here.
...Ah. Perhaps this is how it must feel, then, to stand before a grave with a heart that isn't numb. What a chilly and sinking sort of sensation. Or is this just a particularly unique sort of experience one gets, when visiting the metaphorical coffin you've all but literally been buried in?
Jade stands and stares at the paper for far too long, and even when he does reach out eventually, fingertips only pinch at a corner and do not pull--uncertain whether it'd be better to take it back, or leave it here.]
(wildcard); let's invent them all again
[Feel free to bring a prompt of your own if none of the above quite fit! 🎉 Jade can be found pretty much anywhere on the ship rn so, go wild go crazy]
no subject
It's a very graceless and undignified collision all around. Caught utterly off guard, Jade is summarily tackled to the floor in a flurry of half-hugging half-punching limbs with nary a chance to get a word of surprise in edgewise. There's screaming, mainly on Rita's part. There's his glasses very nearly getting knocked off his nose entirely. And there's latte...everywhere, just everywhere now, it's a disaster. This is a disaster. This is...?
Rita--? [Wheezed out from somewhere underneath her, as a gloved hand struggles free to grasp at her back. Maybe it could be parsed as an attempt at reassurance, though it's equally also an attempt at coaxing her off of him.] I--could you kindly settle down, your drink's--
[The sentence is unfinished, on account of an errant halfhearted punch knocking out what little wind's left to him. Wow, ouch, that's probably around the same spot Natsuno had also punched earlier. Ah, some part of Jade's realizing belatedly in this moment, I should have sent her a message right after...
Alright, so maybe Rita's earned herself at least one more punch or two. So long as it's not in the face, anyway...and so she's not actually pushed off, for a few moments longer at least.]
no subject
But it's not enough to put the brakes on and he turns out to be incredibly solid--just as much as she remembers from the last time she smacked him one--and they sure are going down in a chaotic tangle onto the promenade floor. He even says her name--she hadn't even stopped to think about whether or not he was the same Jade, their Jade, but--hearing it and getting that additional layer of confirmation just makes her eyes burn, and she is going to give him another smack or two (not the face, at least!).
Eventually, taking shuddering breaths, she straightens up a bit so she's just. Sitting on top of him, seeing that face with his glasses askew and how he's apparently resigned himself to a bit of anger. Stupid, same old Jade. And there's maybe an attempt at a sniffle to keep from outright crying (an attempt that's definitely not going to be futile or anything). She has no idea what to say--she at least doesn't scream in his ear, but everything still comes out in a mess-]
You--idiot--just showing up--how could you--after you--you idiot! What do you have to say, huh?!
no subject
Not that he doesn't know why. The look on Natsuno's face still sits very clear in recent memory, and the reason for it had been laid out plainly enough, though that part still feels distinctly surreal. ...Less so, with every familiar face that reacts with such disbelief. Less so, when Rita's asking a question like that now.
For him, he'd spoken to her just the other day. But for her...for several months...]
...Nothing that can remedy this, I'm afraid. [Sighed out after a pause, a bit thinly. Half on account of the weight of upset teenager currently perched on his torso, yes, but also half on account of something alarmingly genuine. The shape of it indistinct, but still dragging down upon his tone despite himself.] I...do not know why it happened. Or what it was that's brought me back. I can offer neither an explanation nor an apology. ...And so that does make me something of an idiot at this particular moment, most unfortunately.
[Resigned to the new position at hand, Jade lets his head thunk back against the floor, painstakingly freeing his other arm so he can at least readjust his glasses. The scent of the over-sweet caramel latte splashed everywhere just adds another layer to it all. This...is fine. Everything's very fine, right now.]
I don't suppose setting me aflame would be of any relief to you? [Offered dryly, after a pause.] You may as well, you know, with all this coffee I'm wearing now. It might never come off this coat.
["Have you been alright?" "I'm glad you're still here." Such sentiments are somewhere on the back of his tongue, but giving them voice is another matter entirely. Clearly this is a much better thing to say while figuring out how to phrase those other things, right??]
no subject
Idiot.
[Look, sure, she has other words in her vocabulary but something about this moment makes them difficult to access!! So that's what comes out in another sharp huff or breath, though no longer shouted. As if she's going to set him on fire after she's already given him a pummelling. And--oh, coffee, huh... She didn't even realize-]
Y--yeah, well--maybe you deserved it. [There's a lack of vehemance in her voice now. Is she a little sorry about the coffee and knocking him over? Yeah, maybe. But instead of apologizing, she finds herself blurting out-]
We didn't think you were coming back. You were just...gone.
no subject
In a way it's almost more difficult to deal with the utter lack of angry vehemence in Rita's tone now, though. Small blessings she doesn't go forward with an actual apology aloud--that would truly be leaving Jade at a loss of how to proceed, after all. (Especially when she can hardly be blamed for being upset on this particular occasion; there have been times when Rita could do with apologizing, but this is decidedly not one of them.) Either way, Jade might have been sarcastic about being set on fire, but the fact does remain that at least it'd be pretty easy to know what to do about such an attack...
What to do with something like this, though? "We didn't think you were coming back." A proper frown settles upon Jade's features, and the pause that follows those blurted words is a heavy one.]
Such doubt in my tenacity...I ought to be wounded. Is it really so surprising--hmm... [The brief attempt at levity dissolves before it's even fully out; with another sigh, Jade shakes his head.] ...No, but it is a surprising thing, isn't it? We are somewhat aware of the statistics, behind the track record of those who vanish--I do remember. ...Few return, after all. Fewer still with intact memories of this place. In the case of pure numbers, the chances are really quite...
[...Mm. You know what. Suddenly he doesn't really want to talk about this anymore.
This sentence, too, is left unfinished. Instead, as his expressions flattens to a careful neutrality, Jade reaches up...to gingerly pat at one of Rita's arms, this time. --Not just in some paltry attempt at consolation, really, but also...!]
No, there's no use in lingering upon it. For the time being, I am here, and quite solid, as you've so thoroughly proven. ...Whenever you're ready to get off me, would you be so kind as to help me up? [Yes, a direct request to help, let's not examine this rarity too closely--] I imagine there is much that you'll be wanting to catch me up on. Perhaps we can do that somewhere that isn't the floor...?
no subject
And even she gets why. To them, he was essentially, truly dead, the closest thing to true death on the Serena Eterna that they know, and now that he's back... That must hit a weird note, to put it incredibly mildly. Especially to Jade of all people. (Like they looked at the sun and understood its form without damaging their eyes--a strange thought that feels like it comes from nowhere, and she's not going to take the time to think about it, not when Jade's right in front of her.)
Anyway, she's momentarily at a loss for how to respond. What should she say that won't be embarrassingly gross? Jade saves her the trouble, though, by...actually initiating some contact? Look, she's aware he's theoretically capable of it, but still--yet more evidence of just how strange he must be feeling, huh... She bites her lip, not even really able to make a stupid joke about it, but...]
Huh...up? Oh. Right. That.
[Oh yeah, he is still flat on the floor. She makes an attempt at clearing her throat to get rid of the odd thickness in her voice, and as much as it might have been tempting several moments ago to leave him on the floor until he apologized for leaving, that route's lost its appeal. For some reason. So she eases off of him, and fine, looks like a little weirdness is bound to continue happening, because she extends a hand for him to take, accepting that noticeably rare request for assistance.
She glances over the coffee stain on his uniform as he rises, and apologies stick in her throat, and before she knows it--the sniffles and burning in her eyes are back, and screw it, you know what punishment Jade Curtiss truly deserves here?
That's right--an abrupt hug. Rita even surprises herself, but maybe it's all the hugs she's ended up sharing with Natsuno and Fio. You hug someone when you're happy to see them. Even if it's a sort of angry-happy. Or maybe especially then.]
no subject
(Will the ironies never end? Some higher power out there must be having quite the laugh at him, by this point. Better people than you have never returned, yet here you are, again and again. Here's what you tried so hard to manifest and failed so utterly to accomplish. Strange, isn't it? Terrible, isn't it? It's what you could have done to others. It's now happened to you several times.)
It's all off-putting and off-kilter here. Rita quite clearly isn't sure what to do with the sincerity, and Jade can hardly blame her. So, yes, even if the contact initiated is just as strange and just as awkward in result...at least it's a way to move forward, and digest this, or so Jade's rather hoping. As he takes Rita's hand and draws upright to his feet, straightening his coat and preparing to have a look at the coffee-related damages--
--and she's hugging him.
Reflexively, of course, he freezes up. And maybe...that's familiar to her, or maybe not. For Rita it would have been a terribly long time ago, after all, and this circumstance here and now is quite different in a countless number of ways. For Jade, though, that particular memory is...not so long ago as it could be, and for some reason thoughts do leap there for just a moment. The strange weight of little arms around his neck, and a whisper of utterly guileless fondness. ...No such whisper here, granted. Sniffling, instead, and a sentiment quite different overall. But.
The occasion doesn't fade out, this time. He could reciprocate, this time. Even if it's going to be very stilted with disuse, and he'll probably never really get this sort of thing quite right. Still...
A hand is set gingerly on one of Rita's shoulders.]
...Well, now. I know I said I couldn't apologize, but you're making that terribly difficult, you know. [It's supposed to be chiding, in that sardonic sort of way he sometimes affects, but for some reason it just comes out tired instead. ...Jade sighs.] Still. I appreciate. That you refused to vanish yourself, despite it all.
[Goodness, seems the world is ending in some way after all, huh?]
no subject
He is back. Somehow, incredibly...
She doesn't even care that he freezes up like an awkward statue. Who in the world could possibly expect Jade Curtiss to be a good, practiced hugger? Something vague tickles the back of her mind, like an incredibly distant sense of familiarity, though that's strange, because she's pretty sure she's never hugged him before. And so she chooses to ignore it and stubbornly cling to him for the time being, partly because she feels that lump in her throat growing larger. Jade stirs from his reverie and she finally feels a hand on her shoulder, hears his voice from deep in his chest where her face presses against his uniform, and he gets a muffled half-shout, half-sobbed response in turn-]
Idiot--someone had to remember you, you--you...you idiot!
[She doesn't need his apologies anyway, because they both know how little control they have over their presences, apparently...]
But--if you'd...stayed gone, then--I wouldn't forgive you.
no subject
But that was home. And this is here. And somehow, hearing this from Rita in that half-sobbed fashion, as she clings to his coat and refuses to let go...it prompts some sort of feeling that isn't all bitter edges, somewhere in the pit of Jade's chest.
No idea what it is. No time to really examine it. The hand on Rita's shoulder squeezes a bit, inadvertently, and...well, quite fortunate that she can't see the look on his face at this precise moment, at the very least. Gives him some time to school it, before Rita gets around to looking up again...]
Naturally, I'd expect no less of you. I can only imagine it'd be an everlasting sort of grudge. In fact, you don't even really have to forgive me now, just for the record... [If she wants to lean into the anger, at any point. Natsuno had certainly settled for it first, this morning, and Jade can imagine that as its own sort of catharsis. Just as he doesn't blame the boy then, so he wouldn't blame Rita now, for grasping the same sort of thing--warranted or not, rational or not.] ...But, in the meantime. When you're ready. Perhaps we should take a walk?
no subject
...Either he's feeling weirdly generous or weirdly guilty, but either way: weird is the vital descriptor, here.]
Hmph...you're forgiven. [A beat, but to avoid making this too gross, it's followed by a hasty:] But you're on thin ice, okay?!
[Anyway. He suggests they take a walk, when she's ready, and it feels utterly surreal, somehow even more strange than hugging him. A walk, with someone she feared she'd never get to see and talk with again? How many times did she wish she could speak with him or get his opinion on something these past few months? And now she wouldn't even know where to begin or what to say. Besides, when she's ready--embarrassingly, she doesn't know when ready will ever come.
But--dragging out a hug with him will only make it more embarrassing, so she nods and finally starts to peel herself away, rubbing an arm across her eyes in a futile attempt at erasing the signs of crying as if she didn't just do so right into his front, anyway.]
You haven't--forgotten the layout of the ship or anything, right?
[It's an unnecessary question, but it's something to fill the air, anyway.]
no subject
So really, it's not as if she could actually be blamed for maybe not actually being "ready" for even something like a walk anytime too soon. Still, Rita powers through it all the same, and the least Jade could do is attempt taking up that momentum in turn. He straightens a bit as they separate, hands falling away, and tucking into his pockets after a moment.]
Thin ice, yes. Understood, naturally. For the rest of the day I'll be on my best behavior, rest assured. [Here, a ghost of something like his more customary sardonic lilt, attempting to make a proper return at last. Jade draws a step back, and then gestures for Rita to follow him, as he turns back towards the Promenade and...in the direction of the staircase leading away from it.] As for the layout here, no, I haven't forgotten. For me it still feels as if I were here just yesterday, after all.
[Which is still...such a discomfiting sort of thought. Let's attempt to breeze past it--]
Unless there have been any particularly immense changes in the last several months, of course. Is the laundry room at least still where it's always been?
[He's sure hoping the laundry room wasn't too completely vandalized, anyway! He's got a coffee-related problem to fix now, after all--]
no subject
But he sure is breezing right past it, huh? As if she doesn't notice. Really, the laundry? Is he going to ask about the weather next?]
Of course it is. You know how obvious it-
[Ah, wait. Having finished clearing any further offending moisture from her eyes, she lifts her gaze to look at him properly, and finds--a very obvious dark stain on the front of his uniform. Oh.]
...Oh. That--well--I mean, sorry.
no subject
Oh, not to worry, not to worry at all. You can make it up to me by filling in the wash time with sufficiently interesting chatter, hm? If you think you could manage, of course! [Sort of a prod for the sake of getting a more normal rise out of Rita, this time...the apology from her sits so very strangely at the moment, after all. (As if she should be the one apologizing for anything about this, when in the end she and other friends he'd inadvertently left behind were the ones made to suffer more by far...)] The most notable things that have transpired of late, off the top of your head--that would be a good start. I am already aware that apparently we've fired a rocket at the barrier and succeeded in piercing it. ...Was that a weapon someone acquired from sundries? It must have been quite sizeable, to have the firepower capable of such a feat...
no subject
So he might just find her not exactly rising to the prodding the way she normally would. Not immediately, anyway, though she does finally give a somewhat vacant-]
Huh, you're as well-informed as usual, even after...
[Hm. Maybe it's her turn to breeze on past that.]
Anyway, yeah, I guess it was pretty sizeable, but none of it was weaponry. It just needed enough thrust to leave the barrier, and that could be provided by magic.
no subject
Well, naturally, I do so very hate being behind on anything for too long. --And I spoke with Yuuki first, before anyone else, so between him and a few others I've started to pick up some details. [Lots of breezing along happening all around, here, let's keep it up. Stepping into the stairwell, and waiting for Rita to catch up before starting on it:] A rocket that was not weaponry, though, is that so? Perhaps we're speaking of a rather different sort of device entirely, then, from what came to mind for me. Old military habit, alas. [...Hm.] Supplemented by magic...did you contribute? With sigils, I suppose? I take it Theodora is still inert, presently...
[Seeing as the blastia had been inert just yesterday--to him. The words come out before Jade reminds himself of the months that have passed in reality yet again, though, and with this realization a part of him does suddenly wonder if perhaps anything actually did change on that front--]
no subject
He is back. He's back. They never thought they'd see him again, but here he is, and...ultimately, underneath all the pent-up anger and despair over his disappearance, she is happy that he's once again reappeared. It's not every day someone comes back from what is effectively dead. So it is that she falls into step with him on the stairs, and it doesn't feel overly odd despite all the time that's passed. Maybe because she's pretty confident this is no dream or illusion.
Anyway, he spoke to Natsuno already, and distantly she thinks that makes sense; he must have thought that Cabin 109 was still his room, and she'll have to get his new number. She's sidetracked from that by the way the subject naturally segues to Theodora, and she finally manages something that almost resembles a faint grin.]
Hey, who do you take me for? [She points her her throat, where the gold choker sits just as it used to, before that Halloween incident.] A genius mage doesn't just sit around for months while a blastia needs repair.
[Sure, she only just finished said repair, but trivial details!!]