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Who: Jefferson and YOU!
Where: Genessia City, near the Bay
When: April 19th
What: The Hatter is here, and he's kind of mad about it.

--

He couldn't stop thinking about it.

Those first moments, seconds, minutes, that he had awoken in this place; they played in his head over and over, making less sense each time. It was as if his brain was stuck in a hopeless pattern like a broken record, reliving it all again and again as if somehow the 100th attempt at recollection would somehow bring meaning to the madness. But nothing did. How he had gotten here, why he had woken up in that strange contraption, what purpose the necklace served, what purpose this entire place served... he just didn't know. None of it registered as reality.

The only solid concept he could grasp was that he already hated Genessia.

Jefferson had so foolishly thought that he would finally get to live his life happily. To have his happy ending with his daughter who he had so long fought to have at his side again, but no. Of course a man like him could have no such ending. Not forever. Only long enough to trick him into thinking it would be.

He sat on the sidewalk outside the Bay for a very long time with his mind in that perpetual state of circular chaos, and he didn't care to pay much mind to what was going on around him. Occasionally he would lift his head and hope that he would see his little girl there, only to curse himself for daring to wish she was ripped from her home again just to be with him.

To anyone passing by, he likely looked a mess. He didn't have a clue as to how he would react to strangers at this point. In fact, there was only one damn thing he did know: again, he was trapped in a realm where he didn't belong, and it made him insane.

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Jefferson, against his better judgment, didn't stand back either. He wasn't in the business of fighting people nor did he much care for making enemies, but something about the statement made him crack. He clenched his jaw while the man spoke, his hands balled into fists so tightly that it made his knuckles turn white.

He wasn't going to hit him, but he really wanted to.

"Do you think I care about any of that?! What kind of home can I have without my daughter?" He retorted loudly, his anger exploding beyond his control. "None of those things matter without her."

Senji was almost disappointed that he didn't get punched, he would have loved a reason to fight someone. The convict tilted his head back a little more when Jefferson spoke. Ah, so it was about a kid, was it? Not like Senji would ever understand, but he got it.

"...Alright, now we're gettin' somewhere," Senji smirked, "but you can't just walk back to her, it doesn't work that way here. All you gotta do is hold out until you can return- simple as that."

He gave a derisive, bitter laugh at the sight of the man's smirk. He didn't get it.

"Do you think I'm naive? Stupid? Born yesterday?" His voice grew louder as he continued, but he was too wrapped up in his emotions to care. "I know I can't go back! Do you think that hasn't crossed my mind at least a million times?!"

He breathed heavily, fists still at his side. He stood back, his face red from yelling. He stayed silent, only glaring, for a very long handful of moments before desperation began to intermingle with the rage on his face.

"You're just patronizing me." He fought to keep his tone even, but his voice shook as he spoke. "Don't talk like the solution is so simple."

Senji watched the man collect himself, and he already thought that this was better than moping around on the ground. The convict rolled his shoulders, seemingly amused, but it wasn't in the way Jefferson thought.

"I ain't patronizing you, not the type to do that. The solution is pretty simple, but it's the journey to get to that solution that's overly hard. In order to come to terms with your life here, you gotta put your other one on hold- the one that's back home in your own world."

Senji was fine with leaving his whole life behind, he didn't really have a good one to begin with, "and that's the difficult part."

He was far from collected. Every part of his mind wanted to rebel against what he was being told, but what choice did he have but to listen? Maybe that was the worst part. That he had no choice.

"If the solution is so simple and you've got it all figured out, quit wasting both your and my time and get on with it." He grumbled his response, starting to lose his patience again. Tick tock.

Jefferson might have been begrudgingly willing to listen due to zero alternative options, but one thing he would never do was put his other life -- his real life -- on hold. Sure, the life he was meant to live and the life he was currently living waging war in his head would likely to drive him to pure madness eventually, but letting himself forget what he was fighting to go back to would do just the same.

"Like I said.... this place? It's just a big waiting game. Get a job, live somewhere, and just wait it out until you can go back."

Senji paused for a moment, staring right at Jefferson and his amused expression dropped, showing that he was completely serious about what he was saying, "people leave all the time. I left once, but I was brought back here again. You will go back to your own world some day."

That wasn't good enough. It just wasn't.

Jefferson put his hands to his head and started pacing the immediate area, his fire giving way to a fit of delirium.

"I don't have time to wait." He was talking to himself more than his present company. "I'll find my own way. I-I'll get something to work. I'll --"

He turned suddenly, pointing back at the man.

"There have to be people here with magic. Wizards, sorcerers, witches. I'm right, aren't I?" He already knew he was right. He didn't wait for an answer.

"Who's the most powerful? There has to be someone stronger than the rest. Has to be." He was nearing a desperate frenzy, his mind sooner willing to plunge him into madness than accept the truth.

No time huh? Senji had all the time in the world, he wasn't in any sort of rush, so of course he couldn't relate at all. He just sighed at the man, allowing him to finish his hysterical rant. Senji glanced off to the side, "yeah, there's tons of people like that here. Don't think they can help you though. Not even their abilities can penetrate whatever barrier is around here that's keepin' us in."

He glances back at Jefferson, "the most powerful? ....Cheh, don't ask me- I don't know the answer to that. I used to be the strongest back home, but even I know I can't go up against the magic of this place."

He left out a frustrated scream, his hands entangled in his hair as he began to pace again, more rapidly this time, mumbling incoherently. Not even he knew what words were coming out of his mouth anymore. He hated letting people see this side of him, knowing he couldn't control himself, but what was the point in hiding it? There was no point. Without his little girl to give him a reason to be a better man, it didn't matter who knew how insane he really was. Without her he didn't matter at all.

Without her he couldn't exist.

He collapsed to the ground then, his knees bent as they hit the hard pavement and his body curling in on itself as he leaned forward in nothing short of raw anguish. The rambling ended abruptly, the sound replaced only by his ragged, unsteady breathing. He was about to self destruct and he couldn't put out the fuse.

....Senji did want to help the guy, he did, but then again he didn't know if this guy would even be able to move on. There was no point in assisting someone that refused to move forward, that was just his own way. He would only help those that needed it, and if they started to spiral and go back- he wouldn't even look at them twice.

Senji ran a hand through his spiked hair, sighing, "...you'll find your way here, you'll have to. If you start to crumble and collapse... then you really won't survive here very long."

And Senji was about to leave, if Jefferson didn't have anything else to say.

Moving on was without a question one of the things Jefferson was nearly incapable of doing. It was that very incapability that had driven him to so called madness to begin with, and what was bringing that sense of insane desperation bubbling back to the surface. He had only been able to continue on after the loss of his wife because he had their little girl as his salvation, but he'd been torn from her as well. Once in utter isolation, the second time within arms reach but just out of his grasp.

Part of him didn't know if he could do it a third time. But some how the man's words had found a way past the unwavering chaos in his so very dysfunctional brain, and he knew they were true. Surviving was his only option. Not for himself, but for her.

"How?" Jefferson raised his head, his voice strained and a sense of pure aching despair seeming to blanket his entire being. "When you came here... how did you figure out how to do it? To survive?"

It wasn't when he came here he figured it out, it was when he was framed and tossed into prison. Back then, he had just been a kid and he wanted revenge more than anything- and he had thrown a way the person he was in order to simply adapt and survive. It had been such a brutal decision, but it had sculpted him into the person he was today.

Senji paused, looking over his shoulder at Jefferson, "this isn't the first time I've been put in some crazy place and expected to just live. But- when I had been thrown into jail, I realized the best way to survive is to understand how to change yourself in order to adapt. You just need to be willing to accept the person you will be once you change, that's the hardest part."

Senji laughed more to himself before he continued, "and the people here.... they're pretty righteous, they'll help you whenever you need it. I would say.... you need to learn that one day you may just leave this place, so everything you do is temporary until then."

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