futurology | video; un: white

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

[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.]

[Asher, on the other hand, assumes that they're friends! They've fought together and talked a little bit. That counts, right?

At the very least, he's relieved that Jin's actually listening. He had been expecting an outright dismissal, or some kind of rude insult.]

So...

Is there really a point, then? In quitting, anyway. I get it, you're probably bored 'cause you've done cooler stuff! Don't get me wrong, all this sittin' around is making me pretty antsy too.

[Because at least when there's stuff to do, he doesn't have to think about the things that make him unhappy.

In particular, the things he hates about himself.]

But I don't think getting mad and putting everybody on blast is gonna fix any of your problems, bro. For reals.

It's not my problems that I'm worried about: it's ALASTAIR's.

[Once again, Asher unfortunately has a point. Jin is bored out of his skull: his idea of making a difference here doesn't involve all of this waiting around. He'd wanted action-- an active role in stopping threats and taking on new challenges. If he wanted dull, he might as well have stuck around at home.

Not that there's a real choice in the matter for him.]

Doesn't the fact that they're so disorganized bother you? That they're letting the kids here do their work, too? It's shady.

video; un: white_lotus

video, un: I CAN B UR DADDY

[muffled drake feat. future playing in the distance]

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