video | un: w.park

[mutemail]

[ The magitek had made the most sense to him as a kind of smartwatch, so that's why he's talking up into his wrist right now, sitting somewhere in the village by himself. He's looking particularly scruffy, like he hasn't bothered to shave the entire few weeks he's been here.

He's having a hard time, obvious from his face even before he says morosely, ]

Couldn't be with my family in the first place, but at least I knew... where they were. You know, in relation to me? One of those cliche 'we're looking at the same stars' kind of things.

[ He tongues one of his canines, wrinkling his nose. Not the kind of sentiment he was usually good for, but it's how he feels even if it sounds like it's out of a kids book. ]

I'm homesick. Been homesick a long time. Want to see my kids. Anybody else out there got kids? I promise not to get my wallet out again with the pictures. Just wanted to... commiserate.

Comments

video | username: xXx_trueblue_xXx

[competing]

[ well dang if that didn't hit right in the bullseye of home.

lance himself has settled in that squidge park, sitting among a small gathering of unhatched eggs with his back against a large rock, knees drawn up as he fingers the seashell necklace fhat serves as his own magitek. nestled on top of his head is what appears to be a fat yellow-green mouse... snoozing soundly away.

for a good while, there, lance had managed to keep himself distracted enough to — not forget, never forget — but momentarily pause on his own homesickness... the particular way rain sounded against the ocean water... his mother's hugs. ]

I used to call every Thursday night, [ he says by way of commiserating. definitely too young to have kids. young enough to definitely still be someone's kid. ] I thought being away at school was hard enough, but...

[ he shrugs, gesturing vaguely to his surroundings. ]

What're their names? [ his kids, he means. ]

[mutemail]

[ He lowers his wrist, letting the response illuminate in front of him. He studies the the boy's face for a long moment. There are a lot of kids in this place, Waylon has noticed. He lets that slosh around in his head for a moment. Lets it slosh around, the idea of feeling the way he does now but being what... fifteen years younger? He closes his eyes for a moment, but when he responds his tone is a bit less somber. Yeah, he wants to commiserate but he also doesn't want to drag this kid down either. ]

Liam and James, they're twins. Just turned five this last year.

[ A limp smile, and a he sure tries for a teasing tone, ]

How old are you?

[competing]

[ even in his melancholy, lance can spot the teasing tone. call it the talent of being a younger brother — he's had all his life to get used to the sound of that. ]

Older than that, [ he then responds in kind, his own lips twisting into a faint grin. it doesn't hold the usual brightness or mirth one of his smiles might, but it isn't any less genuine.

he doesn't look too old, the angular lines of his face still somewhat dulled with a boyishness that indicates he is likely just on the cusp of adulthood. but there is a weariness in his eyes that seems to say he's been thrust into a situation a little out of that purview, and hence, the quiet tone of his response. ]

Why couldn't you be with them...?

[mutemail]

I couldn't tell.

[ A little wry sarcasm. Yeah, he was miserable, but if there was a chance to cheer up why not try. Although it fades quickly enough: ]

I got into some trouble I didn't want them to be in with me.

[competing]

[ he probably shouldn't have said anything, but that's sort of par for the course with lance. slowly but surely he's getting better about his filter, but it's definitely still a work in progress. ]

Sorry, man... I hope that works out for you eventually.

voice, @TARANTO

[heavyhitter]

You're gonna be looking at the same stars again, at some point. Don't worry.

[ this is a terrible first impression she's making, not nearly enough irreverence. after a beat: ] Why couldn't you be with them, anyway?

[mutemail]

[ He's not really the kind of guy for easy empty platitudes like that, but when you're hurting enough any little thing can help sometimes. He exhales. ]

Got contracted to some bad business. My employers didn't like that I exposed their nasty secrets.

[ As he says it he gives a startled little snort of laughter, ]

It's kind of nice to be able to just say that without looking over my shoulder.

[ Silver lining to fantasy land nonsense? ]

[heavyhitter]

Yeah, right? And thank god you noticed so quick, people get so fucking cagey sometimes, for a place where it doesn't fucking matter.

So what kinda nasty secrets? Sounds juicy.

[mutemail]

Weapons experiments on the patients of a mental institution.

[ He has abbreviated that so deeply. ]

Extremely... extremely unethical.

[heavyhitter]

Holy shit, yeah, that's kinda the poster child of unethical. So, what, they threatened your family?

audio; un:hound

[ofobedience]

[Yes, it's cliche. Too sentimental for Giovanni to connect with, and until coming here he'd never seen the stars himself. He has no children and never will. But he is homesick. Has been since the moment he arrived here and that was what...eight months ago now? He can't be sure. It's hard to keep track.

It's the mention of homesickness, ultimately, that gets him to respond. That, and he has more time on his hands here than he knows what to do with.]

Well. At least someone said it, finally. Most people I've spoken with don't seem to be in any rush to leave.

[mutemail]

Huh.

[ He doesn't consider himself the most original nor the most sentimental of people, so it maybe surprises him that nobody has gotten to this topic before him. ]

You'd think the culture shock alone would get a few people...

[ofobedience]

Yes. And yet.

[And yet he often wonders if he's the only one who feels this way, cut adrift and unmoored and painfully displaced. Nor does time seem to make it any better.]

[mutemail]

Anybody in particular you want to see?

[ He's making normal commiseration small talk. It's an exchange, he's already bemoaned his kids, now it's the next guy's turn. ]

[ofobedience]

Oh, a few people really. Though I suppose my brother, in particular.

[Perhaps not quite for the reasons one would think, but he longs to see him all the same. That counts, doesn't it?]

voice | un: katakura

[sengetsu]

[oh look, another one for the moping club. Kojuro knows that expression and that tone of voice]

No kids, but people important to me.

[mutemail]

Friends, family?

[ His tone is light, he doesn't need any heavy details, this is just how commiserating goes. Take some time to talk about it, feel like shit, maybe feel a little less like shit the next day. ]

[sengetsu]

Both. And people who rely on me, too. [He feels responsibility about that, even if it's not deep affection. And that's still important, to him] I've been told that time passes differently here, so we might not even be missed yet, at home.

[your mileage may vary on how comforting you find that]

[mutemail]

Huh. I guess if the time-space theoretics work in any way we've laid out, that's possible.

[ He's going full nerd, starting to contemplate what would be necessary for that to be true. ]

Time would have to work as some kind of wave... With this one's heavy on the vertical frequency... And I guess there much be some kind of quantum clock in the heart of all matter that sheds with the timing of that frequency...

[ Waylon. Plz. Old man samurai doesn't know what you're yammering about.... ]

voice | un: harmonia

[digiorno]

[This is . . . weird. And confusing. Anybody else out there got kids, just wanted to commiserate. The words separately all make sense, but together--]

[This is normal, isn't it? For a parent to miss their children.]

[He debates not responding at all. But then in the end, of course he does; curiosity gets the better of him.]

I wouldn't mind seeing. Or listening.

[mutemail]

Yeah? What kind of story do you want to hear?

audio; un: white_lotus

[pummelling]

[He's switched away from a video feed-- doesn't want to give away how close to the heart this has hit him-- but in spite of it, the wistfulness in his voice is still giving every ounce of the sympathy that Jin feels away.]

[A faint chuckle.] I definitely don't have kids. [Even if he weren't just a few scant years into his twenties, he'd-- well, he'd have reasons to hesitate on that front.] But I do have family back home.

Even I've never spent this long in another realm. It's-- [hard. It truly is, to not have the security of a quick jump right back to Earth, but he won't voice that aloud.] I know what you mean.

[mutemail]

Even you? Is world-jumper an official profession?

[pummelling]

No. But it is in my job description back home: I'm an emissary for my version of Earth.

[Sonya'd kill him if she knew he were blabbing all these S-F secrets, but hey-- parallel universe and it's relevant, no skin off his back.]

In whatever pocket of the multiverse I exist in, jumping to other realms isn't just a thing that happens, it happens a lot. At least with the circles I run in. I was surprised when people didn't get the concept when I first got here, but it makes sense.

[mutemail]

It does solidify some theorems on the nature of space and time, but uh. Back home it's just that, you know, conjecture. We haven't really figured out a way to do it yet.

[ He contemplates it: a world with a multi-verse that interacted with regularity. ]

Must make it difficult to police, people hopping in and out.