multiversallogs | (no subject)

Shrieky glances up at the voice, and though he doesn't understand the words being addressed to him, he still smiles widely at the sight of Jae. "Hello! I'm glad you came!"

Not that there had been any reason to assume that Jae wouldn't come, of course. He had offered to bring Shrieky here, and he'd not shown any sign of recanting that offer, but the concern had still been there.

Straightening up from the wall, Shrieky surreptitiously admires Jae's outfit. He's taken to wearing whatever clothes are the easiest to put on, and while he doesn't think that his black t-shirt and sweat pants combo is that unattractive, he still can't help but notice that it doesn't look actively good, the way what Jae's wearing does.

"You ready to rock and roll?" A beat. "I mean, go."

He'd better be ready, because Jae isn't going to go inside the Inn with him if he forgot anything. Even being this close to the arrival room is twigging his anxiety, though he's currently experiencing a curious emotional clash; usually he just feels panic, today he thinks it might be a better use of his time to blow up the entire hotel.

... Time to go to the beach!!

"Hopefully it'll be a little warmer on the other side of the city."

Cheerily oblivious to any quiet terrorist urges which Jae might be experiencing, Shrieky steps away from the side of the building. "Yes! Always ready!"

Well, that's a bit of a lie, but he's ready right this particular second, and that's probably the important bit. The cold doesn't bother him enormously, but he still gives a little nod at that suggestion, "Is the city large enough for the weather conditions to be substantially different on the far side of it?"

"Sometimes." He shrugs one shoulder and begins to lead the way - it's an easy trip on the El Train, and by now, Jae's learned how to keep from getting too wigged out as they pass over Bonetown. "It seems to heat up quicker by the water, but I think it's just... light reflecting off the ocean, or bad weather getting blown inland or... something."

He's not a meteorologist, okay.

Shrieky falls into pace beside Jae, trusting him to be able to figure out a route that won't leave them lost and broken hearted in a ditch somewhere. "Perhaps the side with the water is closer to the sun? Or maybe it's got something to do with how the two moons pull the tides..."

Shrieky is enjoying this game of 'speculate wildly about the weather'.

"You know, I really can't figure out the two moons thing. I keep thinking of stories where planets get moved and gravity from them all being too close together makes everything implode."

What a comforting thought! But really, it is pretty strange. Jae's magical senses are in a poor state and he is effectively nearly nose-blind where that occurs, but even he can sense the other-worldliness of Baedal. He knew the moment he came outside that it wasn't Earth.

"It sounds as though you're overthinking it." Shrieky offers, although this might partly be because his understanding of how the universe works is pretty archaic, "The way I look at it is: Having one moon is good, so having two moons is even better."

Concerns successfully laid to rest. You're welcome, Jae. It may have been through a sheer lack of worldliness which spared Shrieky from feeling the same sense of strangeness as others did in Baedel. Of course it was all very new to him, and a little daunting, but for all he knew this was what all cities were like, once you you into the depths of them.

Jae laughs a bit at that, soft, because it's a nice thought, even if he can't help but wonder at the state of ... well, astrophysics, and beyond. He's sure he could understand if he studied enough, but the idea grates on him.

The train isn't crowded, as they're traveling in between typical shift-change hours, and it's a nice little trip - Jae points out a few things as they pass (carefully not tripping out as they skim over the part of town that makes his head feel like it's full of static), even his own neighborhood.

It's still chilly when they get off the train near the coast, but not quite so dreary - it's clear, and even grey-toned, the ocean is lovely.

Shrieky spends most of the journey staring out the window, looking for the sights which Jae's pointing out to him, as well as just enjoying the ride. Eventually, his eyes begin to feel a little uncomfortable, so he began looking at things inside of the train instead.

By the time they step off the train, his mood has shifted across from polite attentiveness into stomach churning anticipation, and he's notably silent as they walk out towards the ocean. Shrieky isn't certain what he'd expected it to be like. He'd seen drawings of course, but somehow even in his most ambitious fantasies, he'd never been able to envision it being quite so vast.

"My goodness..." The words are mumbled, slightly breathless. He glances to Jae and clears his throat, "Can we go down to it?"

"Of course." Jae'd made sure they arrived at the southwest part, anyway, so he could go down to the shore - the water up by the harbor is still clean, but full of boats and persons generally irritable about having to fish out swimmers from their dangerous shipping lanes.

Chimer, however, is soft-sanded and mild, with an expansive boardwalk that is in places shined and polished and weather-beaten and antiqued in others. For someone who won't take off his shirt unless his life depends on it (or he's getting laid imminently), Jae's been to the beach kind of a lot - but he likes the atmosphere. He's always liked living near water.

Shrieky's descent down the steps onto the shore is somewhat inelegant. While on a flat surface he's more or less adept at using his feet, when it comes to descending stairs, he's still a little overly concerned about miscalculating a step and breaking his neck. Because of this, he moves down the steps in a crouch, low enough that he can balance with his hands if he needs to, and that he doesn't have too far to fall if he loses his footing.

Upon reaching the bottom, he glances up after Jae, to make sure the other man hasn't lagged behind. Because truly, crawling is the fastest way to get down steps.

-Oh good lord.

Jae doesn't actually make a startled noise, but he almost does, and when Shrieky looks back, Jae is watching him with owlish eyes, looking nervous and, privately, slightly terrified the other guy is going to end up going headfirst in a roll down the sandy steps.

For his own part, Jae is totally fine, navigating the steps with ease.

"You okay?" He's plunking down the last two, bag in hand.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine." Shrieky straightens up and dusts himself down, before looking at the recently conquered steps a little ruefully, "I'm still... I haven't descended many flights of stairs before. People have this way of making it look easy, but it just doesn't seem safe to me."

He scootches his feet out of the slip on sandles he's wearing, and bends down to pick them up with one hand. The sand this far up the beach is dry and loose, and he shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet, sinking his toes into the beach a little curiously.

"You'll get used to it," he says, because... well, what else can he say? Does Shrieky turn into a mermaid in the water like Ilde does?

Jae leaves his sandals on for now, taking care not to tread on too much loose sand; despite being dressed in things outfitted for it, he still doesn't want to end up covered in it. Nature is fine to look at, it's very lovely, but it needs to stay the hell out of his pores, thank you.

Shrieky nods, shifting his weight from foot to foot in the loose sand, "I'm sort of counting on it, actually. Someone mentioned to me recently that my current method for descending stairs isn't entirely dignified..."

He takes a few experimental steps down the beach and towards the sea. He's still getting used to the feeling of sand shifting under his feet, between his toes.

"Do you come here a lot?"

"The boardwalk pretty regularly," he says. "There's a couple of bars I like." Ladies and gentleman, Jae's priorities. "But I'm not really a beachy person otherwise."

He's not even sure if he knows how to swim, anymore. Maybe. Probably. He thinks it's probably like riding a bike, but he doesn't want to find out.

"Have you ever been in a body of water with a really strong current?" Shielding his eyes against the glare off the ocean, Jae peers down the beach, looking to see if the life guard shack looks occupied. And it is, fortunately - there are apparently enough species in Baedal who don't mind the cold water that it's still considered viable wading weather.

"No. The River here had the strongest currents I've ever been in." Shrieky... hadn't entirely thought through the problem of the ocean having tides and currents and water which moved in directions, but as they approached the water, and the roll and swell of the tide became increasingly obvious, he was quickly amending his expectations about how far out he could safely go.

"I don't think I'll go in far. I mean, I don't want to just leave you, after you came all this way with me, and I'm not really a very strong swimmer anymore."

"Have you talked to anyone about finding out how you got turned into a human?" Jae walks beside him, angling them down the beach a bit nearer to the lifeguard. Jae doesn't mind sitting on the sand and observing - the atmosphere is pleasant - but he's not qualified to go in and drag Shrieky out if anything happens. Might as well play it safe.

Once they're in a spot that Jae has deemed optimal, he sets his bag down and pulls one brightly colored beach towel out, unfurls it, lays it down, and then sets the bag on top of it, all very neat. Only then does he take his flip-flops off. He'll tolerate going down to the water's edge and getting his feet wet, but that's about it.

Edited (sometimes i actually notice typos, it's nice) 2012-02-10 02:23 (UTC)

"I've not been turned into a human." Shrieky replied, but without any real ire in his tone, "I was made to grow legs, and my gills stopped working, but neither of those qualities are human exclusive." He's aware that it's not really an answer to Jae's question, but that one's... a little complicated, if he's perfectly honest.

He takes a few steps out into the water, and waits for it to roll in over his feet and ankles letting the still sensitive skin acclimatize to the temperature before dashing in deeper. It's cold. Colder than the river had been. Colder than the moat had ever felt.

"I've not talked to anyone about it." He confessed, edging forward a little further, "This probably sounds strange, but... did you ever miss something, but at the same time, really desperately not want it back?"

If Jae was someone else, he might talk about human privilege, here, but he isn't so he won't; he doesn't want to not look human, either.

He thinks for a little while before answering. As he does, he rolls up his white yoga pants to his knees, careful. "Yes," he admits, and then stands back up. "It's always very bittersweet."

Shrieky leans down to roll up his own trouser legs, mimicking Jae's movement. "That's how I feel about it. It's like... if you spent your life, not being able to see, so your hearing became incredibly strong, and well attuned? Then one day, you woke up, and suddenly you could see everything, but your special hearing was gone. I miss it greatly, but I would never give up what I got in exchange."

Fabric protected from the water, Shrieky takes a few more steps, letting the water rise up to his calves.

"I understand." And he does; Jae's had enough experiences in small degrees (and one large one) to equate it. Still, he thinks it's awfully unfair that this man has had his entire species toyed with. You'd think there'd be someone in Baedal who could figure out a button to turn it on and off. (He thinks again of the number he got from Hellsing he's supposed to call, somewhat guilty.)

Jae digs his toes into wet sand, and watches as... neon turquoise sand crabs? ... dig into the sand as well. ... Okay. Vaguely alarmed, he moves one foot.

Anyway.

"There could be worse places to experience life above water. You get stuff from a million worlds."

Shrieky nods, taking a few more steps out. A neon turquoise sand crab skitters over one of his feet, and he glances over his shoulder, shooting Jae a loose little smile, "I do like it here. I don't want you to think that I'm unhappy at all, because I'm not."

He's still smiling when he looks back down, shifting up onto his toes, as a particularly high wave creeps up towards his knees, "I know that people don't take the pamphlet seriously, and I assume that it makes sense not to believe it, but what I heard from it, I thought was good. About being lucky to have been brought here. Being chosen. I would like to believe those things."

"I'm sure there's plenty of people who believe it. Maybe even the people who wrote it."

People are born here, people put a lot of heart and soul into Baedal even before that; someone loved it enough, over five hundred years ago, to name it after a sacred Korean city. He can't ignore that.

"To some of us, though, we've been kidnapped from our homes and lives. I don't hate it here. But there's a lot I miss."

And the looming reality of being trapped doesn't help.

"I understand that." In the very first conversation he'd had here with Narcissa, she'd made it clear that she felt great grief about being removed from her home. There's still a small part of him that finds it ironic to hear about how upsetting humans find having been kidnapped, but he's getting better at hiding that part of him. This is why, when he turns to face Jae directly, he looks genuinely sympathetic.

"Was it very different where you came from? What kind of things do you miss?"