[video/action] ~ 1 ~

[path_to_dawn]

[At first, there's a flicker of an image of a young man's face, chin propped against his fist from an angle below him, an image blotted out by his fingertip coming down on the medallion as he drums it. Otherwise, the silver-haired youth seems to be concentrating on something else--or reading.

It doesn't take him long to notice this idle gesture has done the solving for him, as far as figuring out how to activate the video function is concerned.]

--Easier than I thought.

[Climbing to his feet, the video catches a glimpse of how his rumpled jeans are still damp to the knees, before the sight is obliterated by presumably the palm of his hand as he retrieves it.

A moment later has him peering down into it with interest. He waves a rolled-up pamphlet near shoulder-height a moment as he says:]

Can anyone believe this stuff? Says here a guy named Dresden wrote it.

[Would it kill you to introduce yourself, Riku? Really? Must still be groggy.]

[ooc: Threads can be action if you want to run into Riku around Genessia City.]

Comments

[video]

[found_heart]

Unfortunately, there's currently very little evidence to prove or disprove quite a few things.

[Have a sigh from the inventor. Never mind the level of amusement that he may, or may not...appear to have. He finds it all absolutely dreadful, really.

Really.]

Nevertheless, it does seem we all get to enjoy doing nothing more than pissing around, for the time being. Whether we like it--[A faint smirk.]--or not. It also appears the nice fellow doesn't even care to hang around for a proper questioning.

Though, I supposed I can't blame him. There are quite a few people that aren't fans of being spirited away from home, from what I've gathered.

[video]

[path_to_dawn]

[To say Riku defaults to suspicion of strangers is a gross understatement; where one might find the inventor's unique brand of chagrin confusing, the Destiny Island youth sees reason to pause and question why.

Can't smell Darkness through a video feed, either, and Riku's not exactly a fan of taking people at face value.

Have a deadpan sort of nonchalance, stranger.]

Isn't everyone? Sure, bet getting kidnapped is all the rage.

[His gaze cuts off to the side a moment, thoughtfully. So the author of those pamphlets isn't exactly available. Which leaves canvassing the locals. The ones with these communicator pendant things, in any case.]

No one's tried to leave?

[video]

[found_heart]

[Alexander's about as far from trustworthy as a person could get- and so...the teenager would be right not to trust him.]

Shouldn't it be? What could possibly be more fun than being forced to get a job, and lead a painfully dull, domesticated life on a world that's not your own? Sounds perfectly smashing, if you ask me.

[So, that deadpan appears to simply have him matching it with very dry sarcasm. He gives what might very well appear to be a genuine thoughtful expression. Complete with him glancing to the side, one finger scratching at the side of his face.]

Well, from what I've seen...there's genuinely no way to even begin. There have been random, unannounced disappearances. As of this moment, there's no pattern. People arrive, at random; they return home, at random. [Well, at least he's honest about some things.]

[video]

[path_to_dawn]

[Sounds like the kind of prison that would drive people crazy after a while. Might as well surround this place with water, to boot, and leave the lot of them with no way off this world.

Man, it doesn't even have the benefit of being his home. Riku challenges him for an answer, because that part about being sent home at random is interesting.]

How do you know they got back home?

[Video]

[redsnowangel]

Yeeeaahhh, haven't seen a trace of that guy other than the welcome pamphlet. You'd think he'd bother to come great us in person, but apparently not.

Guessing you just woke up, right?

[Video]

[path_to_dawn]

[No! He just went wading through the Bay and overslept in a round pod for fun!

Considering he has entirely different associations to place with such pod-like sleeping devices, one might understand why he's a little cranky.]

...OK, great. Let's take it to vote: enough of you guys saying it's more or less the real deal should do it.

[Because no one pulls off a prank so elaborate that a whole crowd can keep it up indefinitely.]

[Video]

[redsnowangel]

[Wait, you mean people don't just take a nap in those things? No, just him? Okay.]

Aw, you mean you don't trust me at my word? I'm hurt!

[Did we mentioned that he could whine. A lot.]

[Video]

[path_to_dawn]

[...What, does he go back to the Bay to sleep in those pods?! Creepy.

Or that's the impression he'd get, had that actually come up. There are few things that aren't universal about whining no matter on what world you find yourself. That it sounds annoying as heck is not one of them. Riku presses the ball of his palm against one eye.]

'Course not. Only a dork trusts everybody he meets.

[Especially dorks with gravity defying hair and the ability to light up whole worlds by smiling incessantly.]

action;

[watchesthesea]

[Kairi had been gathering cleaning supplies and was currently carrying the bags back home when she came across what she figured to be a nice surprise, especially after all that happened. She was sure it was Riku, except he looked... different. His hair seemed much shorter than what she could last recall but never the less he was here as she dropped her stuff and ran all the way over.]

Riku! Your here! [She couldn't help it, when she reached him she swung her around around him. She hadn't been here so long but she had to admit she missed him so much and was kind of glad he was here of all places.

After a minute of burying her head, she let go and moved away, giving off a slight puzzled look. There was something she had to ask.]

What happened to your hair?

action;

[path_to_dawn]

[Riku might have prided himself on being someone devilishly difficult to sneak up on, but there's no tell-tale scent of Darkness (not so much as a whiff) when it comes to Kairi.

His attention is only drawn from the medallion in his fist when he hears her footsteps on rapid approach, and turns in time for her arms to get thrown over tense shoulders.

To his credit, he doesn't stagger back. To her credit, he's caught gawking for long seconds.]

Wh-- [By then, she's explaining away her lack of recognition with a question that has him blurting out in exasperation:] Wh--hey! You insisted, didn't you?

[Do you know how convincing she can be while wielding a pair of scissors and a determined stare?]

action;

[watchesthesea]

[She slowly lets go, knowing that Riku wasn't the type for extremely long hugs like she was. But she could help but be a little confused. She insisted... She didn't quite remember such a thing, not at home nor in the world before. Sure she cut her own hair and that was still slowly growing back in, but that was her hair not his.]

I don't remember insisting, but having short hair I found can always be a good thing.

[I takes her a couple moments before she realized she left her backs a distance away as she heads over to pick them up before returning.]

When did you arrive here?

action;

[path_to_dawn]

[Hugs are verboten.

Unless they come from his friends, then they're welcome for some ambiguous period of time (too short, perhaps, by Kairi's standards) before he gets awkward about it.

Go figure, he was sent back home to try to retrieve Kairi, but then he wound up finding her in this other world, instead.

Or, rather, she found him.]

Today. [Riku follows along in her wake, craning his neck to get a look at what she'd been bringing with her.] Lemme help carry that.

[Whatever it is. He turns his attention to her.] What about you?

and now this guy in person...xD;

[shutupkai]

[Simply walking along, Val was still in the process of taking everything in. The place, for most, would be easy to adjust to. It was calm (for the most part), fairly friendly, and...what most were referring to as "normal"...

And Val had really just...grown to hate the place.

He didn't even know why, either. Perhaps it had to do with what he'd become accustomed to, back home. Fighting, every day, just to stay alive. Having to steal food, just to keep from starving. Having to keep everyone at a distance, so he wouldn't get attached to anyway- after all, you never know when they'll vanish to the castle...only to never return...

...right?

Nothing about the current world was like that. It was unnerving and had him about as restless as he could get. The thing was, being restless had that spirit in his head stirring rather strongly. Kai didn't like such a stagnant lifestyle, one bit. He encouraged the brunette teen to do something- anything...which Val always managed to ignore.

Spotting the unfamiliar face, he blinked at the words being spoken into the videophone.]

...Well, even if we decide to never believe it, it's not as though it'll change anything. We go home when we go home.

[Hands stuffing deeper into the pockets of his black jacket, the fairly short young man was glancing to the side, face turned to the side.]



[OOC: Feel free to check out his Permissions Post and here is an info post on him!]

[path_to_dawn]

Yeah? Well, I don't take kindly to someone else deciding--

[Riku flinches, nose wrinkling with surprise. He had intended to issue his off-handed defiance over the videophone, but the stench of Darkness that suddenly hit him like a shove wrested his attention from the medallion.

He turns, pocketing it, trying to free up both hands as he sought out the source of that smell.

Cloying, heady, full of the whispered promise of the strength to protect what (and whom) was most important to him, but eminently familiar, he followed the Darkness inevitably to the figure now just a block away.

It's just a black jacket. Doesn't smell like a Nobody anyway, more like someone whose hands got dirty.

Remind you of someone?]

Not now.

[shutupkai]

[Dirty hands, indeed. Silver eyes blinked at the stranger, one brow quirking. That person with the unfamiliar face is not far away, now. A strange...feeling's being emitted from the person.

He isn't Kai, however. There's not a chance he'd be able to just up and read the person's spirit, the way the spirit would be able to in his own body. No, instead, Val's left with nothing more than a weird feeling. There's a hint of familiarity, actually.

And a very annoying nagging to just..."pick a fight with him", put nicely...

Really, at this rate you'll become pathetic...and helpless...again...]

................

[He's ignoring Kai's annoying mental nudge, in favor of holding a blink, and then sighing. Of course, then...the words of the stranger have him opening his eyes right back. "Not now", regarding what, exactly? After a pause, he studies the stranger, briefly, in silence. When he speaks, it's with a forcibly calm tone. He's curious enough to be polite, for the moment.] New here, right? Got a name?

[path_to_dawn]

[Riku can only pretend to be preoccupied with something, anything else for so long, until the steady gaze on him simply begs to be met lest he think himself defeated by his unwavering attention.

Not even previous events can cure him of an occasionally ridiculous tendency towards competitiveness.

He opens his mouth to reply, eyebrows furrowing in aggravation--

(It's the feel of the medallion's metal biting into his palm where it's buried in his pocket, the rough denim scraping against the back of his hand. These things root him in the present even as the dark passenger rumbles his low whisper from the deepest crevices of his heart.

"Remind you of someone?"

He'll never be rid of him, he's made peace with that. But man, couldn't he be less inconvenient?

"Not now.")

He breaks eyecontact when he shrugs, eyes closing a moment.]

Riku. Yours?

[caelum_melody]

Seems I'm not the only new kid on the block.

[A blonde haired, tall statured person stares into the feed. Guy or girl, its really not clear. Haruka nods]

Yes, but I have yet to find this Dresden, though I can't say I've come right out and asked for them either.

[though to be honest...the devices hadn't exactly been easy for her to figure out fully, so she might be a tad jealous in that regard. She smirks anyway.]

[path_to_dawn]

[Haruka's in luck; Riku is an equal-opportunity 'suspicious of strangers' kind of guy, which accounts for his guarded neutrality.]

Kinda getting that impression. [No one's seen hide nor hair of that Dresden person, and most of those he's spoken to so far have been about as new to this as he is.]

Since no one's coming forward, gonna hazard a guess the author's not feeling sociable.

[caelum_melody]

That or he is gone...I gather that people can actually die or be sent back home- or at least somewhere as far as anyone here knows.

[Haruka just folded her arms and shrugged]

Action - Around the city

[greenmagick]

[Terra is walking, trying to remember something, when she see's the silver haired boy. He had been on her comm awhile ago but she never did answer those calls.

His hair stood out to her and she feels the need to walk up to take a closer look. Her shyness stops her from speaking but she still quietly approached, her eyes intent on his hair.

It reminds Terra of something and she realizes that she was reaching for it before she could pull back her hand.]

Action - Around the city

[path_to_dawn]

[Terra's approach is unnoticed for the simple fact that Riku has momentarily run afoul of that utter loss of spatial awareness unique to people who have just discovered a handheld communication device.

People everywhere who have ever owned a smartphone can relate.

However, considering how the sight of fingers reaching for his hair has completely and entirely taken him by surprise, this is not a mistake Riku will repeat. As soon as they enter into the periphery of his field of vision he flinches guardedly, half-turning to face the offending stranger.]

Woah!

[...Oh.]

Action - Around the city

[greenmagick]

[Terra realizes her own mistake and takes a quick step back while retreating her hand towards her chest.]

I'm sorry.

[Her eyes flicker between his hair and his eyes. She doesn't understand why but it feels familiar, maybe it is the color? Even so she realizes that people don't go up and try to touch other peoples hair.]

video;

[whiteas]

Honestly? I saw that pamphlet, but I have yet to actually meet this Dresden fellow and I've been here since March. I'm starting to think he's a myth.

video;

[path_to_dawn]

Since... huh?

[Riku pauses a moment, ticking off months on one hand until he shrugs, shaking his head. He remembers something from Twilight Town -- or, at least, the Twilight Town as it was in a dream. Of people coming from different versions of the same world, and time had run differently for each of them.]

Wait, so how many months ago was that?

[Hey, don't judge. It's worth figuring out!]

video;

[whiteas]

It's been five months.

[ If he's new, he might not know what month it is. Weiss doesn't comment on it, but her tone certainly says that she's a little disbelieving that he couldn't even figure that much out. ]