video; un: white_lotus

[pummelling]

[With only vague recollections of his child self and even vaguer ones of his teenage self leftover from that last unfortunate week, Kung Jin's stopped being so concerned about what might've happened then. He can't control it, after all, and what (unsalvageable) damage could he have even done to anybody as a teen punk? It's fine. It's totally fine. Yup.

Onto now. He's trained alone as much as he can stand, nearly as much as he'd done during those years at the Wu Shi Academy, even; hung around the library longer than he could stand, and without falling off any bookshelves this time, too; loitered his way across as much of the castle and grounds that he could get to and then some. With all of that done, then, Jin has settled into something much more dangerous: boredom.

He talks a lot, when he's bored. For an opinionated jerk with a tendency to run his mouth, this is never a good sign.]

Let me get this straight.

[The magitek's feed'll treat viewers to the sight of a dark-haired young man seated on the foot of the bed in his quarters, clad in ALASTAIR's uniform and idly polishing an ornate staff with a cloth as he complains speaks.]

ALASTAIR picks up a whole crop of new recruits. Out of the multiverse, as you do. They're supposed to give us the rundown on this timeline stabilizing thing, except their translators are busted-- so they make their old recruits run the welcome wagon. Then we get a big ol' bug infestation, and, what d'you know! All of us recruits are the ones playing exterminator, while some of us are reliving the total joys of puberty for days at a time. And we still haven't seen anywhere else except this castle.

Anybody else beginning to see a pattern here? [He tosses the dropcloth aside so he can focus on rolling his eyes for the camera.] Yeah. Some saving worlds we're handling: all we're doing for them is the chores they're too lazy to do themselves. How much you bet all our rocket ships break down when we're about to fly off to that Q-65 dustball? And that we have to wash and wax all their hulls, too? I swear, I'm gonna quit.

[you cant tho jin... but okay.]

I mean, I've had a lot of bad gigs in my life, but... yikes. This is just embarrassing.

Comments

Video; un: zenyatta

[iomnic]

And what would you do, if you should quit?

[ Didn't think that through, did you Jin. ]

[pummelling]

Make 'em give me a ticket home. Or find one for myself.

[when does he EVER think things through]

audio; un: cardmaster

[fateality]

And to think, we're not even gettin' paid. Rude as hell.

[pummelling]

Right? All this work without even a little cash to show for it.

[Not that that's his priority. But still.]

audio; un: JASPER

[hardnosed]

You're going to quit.

[pummelling]

[the condescension is v nearly palpable, enjoy it big orange meanie]

Good job! You can hear words!

video; un: cuttlefishCuller

[fintastic]

[ She stares for a few moments, fins twitching thoughtfully-- it seems like she should have thought through her response before starting the feed. ]

How are you going to quit? I don't think we are allowed to do that!

[pummelling]

I'll figure something out. I've traveled to other realms before, so I can go back to mine, no problem. [no. not without the special forces tech your team used buddy. don't front.] Can't be that hard, right?

[have a beat of silence from jin's end for good measure.]

You're a fish girl?

video, un: shirogane

[racking]

Is that an option? Quitting?

[ Not that Shiro necessarily wants to, but it hadn't seemed to be on the table as far as their options went. ]

[pummelling]

Better than what it'd imply if we couldn't.

[Which'd make this less a job and more indentured servitude. In his highly skeptical opinion, anyway.]

video, un: I CAN B UR DADDY

[moneyballer]

[Jin will note a marked change in Asher's typical demeanor. It's mousy, almost, and guarded to a certain respect. What does Jin know? Does he remember any of the sadness and dismay he had been feeling when the lawyer in training last spoke to him? Asher certainly does, and he's not entirely sure that boy is gone for good.

He wasn't going to respond to this, as he suspects there are others who would say the same thing, but Asher is bad at keeping his mouth shut especially when he feels strongly about anything at all.]

I don't think they care, you know?

Whether we quit or not.

[That's worse than being punished for it.

Why, their very existence isn't important.]

[muffled drake feat. future playing in the distance]

[pummelling]

[The memories of the week before are faint, at best. He remembers his ten-year-old self's rose-tinted admiration of Asher Millstone, a 'cool' (ugh) guy who'd flipped through useless books in the library with him for what'd felt like ages. He remembers being eighteen for a little while-- shaky timelines or not, he'd never forget the cold loneliness of rock bottom-- but nothing past the knowledge that he'd gone there at all. Certainly not that he'd met Asher during those scant hours.

So this behavior's weird, to say the least. Jin doesn't especially like him, not beyond the distant sense from his younger self that he's probably more of an idiot than just terrible, but if there's anything he already knows Asher never to be, it's reserved.]

Hate to say so, but you're probably right.

[And in spite of himself, he's... a little concerned.]

video; un: deathweaver

[respired]

[ What is all this nonsense chatter coming over his jewelry? He scowls into the feed. ]

You talk too much.

[pummelling]

What, did my voice offend your delicate ears or something?

[ : ) ]

video; un: Darc

[hiddenlights]

I was told they return is to the exact moment we were taken from, but when you put it like that...it's not looking good.

[He says it gruffly, his face hard-- he's kind of relying on the fact that they will do as they promise, but so far incompetence seems to be the order of the day. It doesn't bode well.]

[pummelling]

It isn't. After a track record this bad and in such short order, you really can't blame me for not having too much faith in our employers.

[It really doesn't bode well. Jin's sure it can be navigated... ish... but he's expecting to fight them every step of the way.]

un. hawkeye

[strictdiscipline]

Are you really qualified to find patterns and trends after having been here for only two weeks?

[Her feelings towards ALASTAIR are largely neutral but at least she's been here a long time. Please get the facts right here, buddy.]

[pummelling]

[ ]

If I smell something this fishy, there's no real time limit, is there?

[in other words, he doesn't especially care.]

Hawkeye, right? With the fire spell?

video | un: RHY5-W1NZ

[dbag]

Okay, you haven't seen anywhere else except this castle. It's actually a pretty sweet set-up here, comparatively. It's literally all sparkles and unicorns.

[pummelling]

[Jin's going to pointedly ignore all the things he was told he didn't know about and go right to the most important thing here.]

'RHY5-W1NZ'? Seriously?

video; un: fiona

[cachemoney]

They don't use rocket ships.

[pummelling]

Busted teleportation pads, then. Help me out here.

AUDIO. UN: LOKI

[selfimage]

Would you like a little cheese with your whine?

[ inquiring minds. ]

[pummelling]

Real sweet of you, but thanks. I've been trying to cut back.

video; un: G.SLQHV

[twinpeak]

[ ... bro... ]

Uh, dude. Some of us have seen way more than the castle already.

[pummelling]

Then why is it taking so long for the rest of us?

video; un: redlion

[secondnature]

I don't remember them dragging us by the ear and forcing us to fight bugs. These ALASTAIR people aren't great, but I think the really embarrassing one is you.

[It's tactless, but that's basically what Keith is good for. It's odd to see complaints against ALASTAIR that don't align with any of the things that are actually wrong. Does this guy think that they wanted them to fight bugs? Or that ALASTAIR is meant to have the ability to stop that? Or that they want their recruits attacked?

That's just ... that's just stupid, as far as Keith is concerned.]

[pummelling]

[pointedly shrugging that off, of course...] Come on. You think any of us-- apart from the ones who don't know how to fight-- wouldn't have tried to help if we could?

They're wasting our time. We could be doing better work than this.

video; un: greencyborg

[backthatup]

[ What do you say to the person that you beat up of as a teenager? Especially when they're saying what they're saying. ]

I cannot agree with that line of thinking. There will always be difficulties in all things regardless of what we do. That doesn't mean that we should give up because we find it hard. I understand that some unfortunate things happened and it's only natural to be upset... still...

[pummelling]

I'm not concerned with the difficulty as much as the lack of it. All of this is just... tedious, I guess I want to say.

Does any of it matter? Weren't we supposed to be saving worlds here?

[Video | un: tsukuyo]

[sekimorinashi]

D'ya think we shouldn't have helped? The translation problems came with bugs too, so it seems t'me like all issues this time around came from the same bug infestation. If we get rid of 'em it should be smooth sailin' for a while.

I'd rather have somethin' to do than just sit on my behind while they try to find a way to get us home. Might as well work for 'em since they're payin' for food and lodgin' and anythin' else that's a necessity.

[ Whine piss moan. Get over yourself. ]

[pummelling]

[he will never get over himself in 10000 years]

I'm not saying that we shouldn't have helped them, but why was it necessary?

My point is that, if they really want to make the best use of us, why are we doing busy work? Why didn't they get their act together before we all got here?