November Catch-all

[bluecastleace]

Who: Hajime Iwaizumi + YOU!
What: November catch-all log
Where: Various locations
When: The month of November
Content Warnings: None thus far; will add as needed

((ooc:This catch-all will also serve as Iwaizumi’s introductory post! Please feel free to hit up any of the open TLs found below. I will likely be adding them as the month goes on! Please feel free to add me on plurk @ pantheraliam for plotting/updates on TLs being added!))

Comments

[forethinking]

All these were at least national news over the last year.

(He could even have mentioned Akechi, since his opposition to the Phantom Thieves made his popularity skyrocket. If Iwai had said yes, he would have.)

We assume we're all from different realities, since nobody sees eye-to-eye on the news.

[bluecastleace]

[It’s tempting to ask what year - maybe that’s the difference here - but Iwa figures there’s little point. Plenty of people here come from different years, but for a second he’d thought this Ren guy and he had some common ground to stand on. Apparently not. The resigned distress is probably clear in his expression.

[He laughs, but there’s no humor to it.]

Go figure, I guess. There probably isn’t a single person here where I come from.

[How depressing. He wouldn’t even be mad at seeing Ushiwaka right about now (well, maybe).]

[forethinking]

(They still do - it is Japan nonetheless. Just with a different set of events. That's how Ren sees it with all the other fellow countrymen that don't come from the same place.)

Perhaps not yet. (Ren only shrugs before sipping on his coffee.) I was one of the first. The girls arrived recently enough.

[bluecastleace]

Yeah, well. [Iwaizumi takes another sip, perhaps cued by seeing Ren do the same.] I’m not sure I’d want them to be here anyway.

[A lie, really. Maybe he should feel that way - selfless. Who would want to impose on their friends what’s been imposed on him, after all, but no one is completely selfless, and Iwa is lonely.

[There’s one person in particular that he’d kill to see right now, and the reminder of that makes his gut twist, a pained expression coming over his face. He grips the mug a little tighter.]

[forethinking]

(That's always Ren's dilemma. He was over the moon when Ann arrived, and little by little, the people he made a home of started coming. He's still wary, suspicious of the Void, but it'd be a lie to say he isn't happy to be around the girls once more.)

It might get weirder. (The Void, he means.) We never know what to expect.

[bluecastleace]

Comforting.

[Said as flatly as possible, but a bit weakly also. He’s been feeling a little nauseated since coming here - or is that just in his head? Sometimes he feels like he doesn’t really feel much of what he should be at all in this place. It really is like everything here is half done.]

It’s all just some stupid...stupid dream anyway.

[Back to that, are we? At this point, he knows that isn’t true, but—-] Just easier to think that way sometimes.

[He stares at Ren, silently communicating that he doesn’t want to be corrected, that he’s fully aware of what he’s saying. Then he takes another sip.]

[forethinking]

(Ren is not one to lie to himself and he isn't in the business of letting anyone do that to themselves either. Right in front of Iwaizumi is a man who freed the minds of the masses from a lifetime of contentment and lack of thought autonomy against their very wishes. He challenged God himself, the wills of the people drumming against his ears to not unchain them - and he didn't really give a shit.

What's right is right, and living with eyes closed is not it.

But this is a different situation, isn't it? While Iwaizumi seems to want the lie, he knows the bitter truth and is coping with it rather than closing his eyes entirely. Ren can't blame him for wishing this wasn't real. Gray eyes stare at Iwazumi's behind a pair of unpractical lenses, only needed to water him down in intensity rather than correction, and it might not do that good of a job before Ren himself nods and takes a sip.)

I'll introduce you to as many people as I can as well. I know most of the people here.

(There's strength in that. Ren himself knows that if it weren't for the friendships and bonds he built, he might not be the person he is today - he'd be angry.)

[bluecastleace]

[This is the second time now in this world that Iwaizumi has gotten the feeling that someone is looking through him, and that’s no doubt an uncomfortable feeling. It makes his arms prick with goosebumps, and suddenly he gets the impression that there’s more to this guy than he’s letting on - just one more thing that’s easier to ignore for now. He seems to want to help at the very least, so he can’t be all that bad, right? Right...

[Iwaizumi shifts a bit uncomfortably in his chair, but eventually breaks eye contact to take another sip of his coffee.]

Maybe just the ones who don’t deserve a kick in the nads, eh?

[A joke, an attempt to break this odd, sudden tension between them. He hopes it works.]

I’d appreciate that. [I guess.] Thanks.

[forethinking]

(Oh, right. He notices the discomfort right away, as if his brain was trained to it. He's been letting it slip more often than not, he's taken notice, but at least Iwaizumi has no reason to distrust him or fear him when he knows nothing of Ren's life. Thank God.

The laugh he lets out is purely genuine and he shakes his head.)

From what I know, those are the minority. (Iwaizumi did!! The Lord's work!!)

Ann, the blonde one, and Yoshizawa, the redhead, are from my home.

(Perhaps Iwaizumi hasn't gotten the best impression of them, but there's such fondness in Ren's eyes that perhaps that opinion can be changed.)

[bluecastleace]

[At the mention of Ann, AKA “the blonde one”, Iwaizumi wrinkles his nose. He resists the urge to say, “Your friend is fucking nuts,” but if Ren could read his face like a book, those would be the words.

[As for Yoshizawa though...]

I met the redhead, actually. Before all the bullshit.

At the beach trying to lug some furniture this way.

[He’d almost forgotten. That particular girl at Gamer Boy’s side had been the very one to show him to these apartments.]

She’s nice enough I guess. [Won’t ever understand why either of them flocked to Kaiba’s side, but it’s nothing he’s not used to seeing. His expression becomes pained again, but it passes after a moment without mention.]