Week 1.

[azumods]

WEEK 1. As Cynthia had promised, the sun does indeed rise the next morning. Whether you slept or not (and sleeping inside the Pokémon Center you were in before seems totally fine by the attendant), it seems Cynthia kept her word; she left sometime shortly before sunrise, and you haven't been bothered by Team Galactic and those that work for it in the interim. It isn't advisable to return to the headquarters building, however. At least not for the time being. However, a new day does dawn, and with it comes the knowledge that you're in an unfamiliar city, completely on your own. There are several things to be done before you can leave: gathering supplies and provisions, finding maps, obtaining new clothes... Of course, your new "companions" are still with you, and they don't seem willing to leave your side; they'll follow you dutifully, but they still seem...wrong, horribly so, and it doesn't seem to be wearing off. Maybe if you work with them a little...? Try to talk to them, train them, teach them to do things... Who knows? It might do them some good. CURRENT LOCATION: VEILSTONE CITY POKEMON AVAILABLE: WITHIN CITIES MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY [OOC: Welcome to week one of Azume; feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget that a write-up is due this weekend! Feel free to investigate the city as you see fit this week; we ask only that you try to stagger investigations and be mindful of what's already been checked. If you wish to investigate, notify the mods in your comment subject for your top-level and we'll get on it as soon as possible!]

Comments

[heritrix]

—Ah?

[Here she has to laugh, high and nervous, though her voice is tinged with absolute satisfaction. The same way one might sound if they came across a happy accident, actually.]

So I look like I know what I'm doing? That's a high compliment!

[Oh god, this is going to go to her ego. Standing straighter, Rin looks in the direction of her little campsite over there.]

Honestly, this is my first time. I've roughed it outdoors before, but that was always in graveyards or parks near the city, and never for longer than a night or two. [Grinning, she puts her hands on her hips.] I was sure wilderness camping would be much different, so I wanted to practice. If I look like more than a novice, I'd say I'm off to a good start!

[That would be one of two reasons why she's out here.]

[takestheblame]

I was completely fooled. This is so well done I thought you had done this many times before. [That's impressive, seriously] The only time I have done anything close to camping was in a park, in an improvised shelter made with plastic sheets. It'll be interesting to see what real camping is like.

[heritrix]

[...I mean, she just admitted to sleeping in a graveyard once herself, so she can hardly be judging. But at the same thing it was a temporary thing, done to throw anyone who might have been following off her tail. Creating a shelter makes it sound like for Kiryu it was more of a long-term thing?]

I thought you were a real estate agent?

[takestheblame]

There were some unusual circumstances. I was protecting someone, we had to keep a low profile, and there was surveillance by unsavory people in places like hotels and the such.

[A bit of a lie, but the gist is true, and that's leaving aside his apartment was destroyed. They spent a night or two with a community of homeless people in a local park. It went rather decently]

[heritrix]

That sounds... [Taking in a breath, she exhales it heavily, like she's imagining it.] Intense. Talk about scary stuff.

[There's something strange about this guy's answers, but she doubts he'd admit to any of it... Especially in their first real conversation. Even putting that aside, it's a potentially heavy topic.]

Did it work out in the end? With the person you were trying to protect, I mean.

[takestheblame]

It did, don't worry about that. We're okay.

[...well, he's here, and his adopted daughter is now alone back at home...so it's not like things are okay]

Besides there's not much point in thinking too much about the hardships of the past. Worrying about the future seems like it'd be a better choice.

[Because at least that way he can focus on that with all his might]

[heritrix]

[...haha.]

It's funny you should say that, because that's my prerogative as well. I don't like thinking of old "maybes".

[takestheblame]

That's your main rule to live by?

[It's a good one, but you're so young, Rin. Have you needed to not think about stuff you have done? What a life you must have!]

[heritrix]

I wouldn't call it the main rule... Maybe it's just woven into the fabric of my character?

[Rin takes a few steps backward, until she feels her heels thunk against wood. Bracing her fingertips behind her, she lets her body fall back until she's leaning against the tree there, bark to shoulder.

She looks away from him slowly, and... There's a thin veil of nostalgia, tinted to her smile. Something bittersweet.]

I once had a talk like that with someone... I told him that I wanted to live a life without regrets, but due to certain things going on, I thought that might be hard to do. That's a given, right? But it was the first time I considered it.

He told me there are two people in this world: those who can do it, and those who can't. The former, he said, are people who don't make mistakes—more than that, even when they do slip up, they don't look back on their mistakes and see them as regrets; just situations to learn from. They can believe in their own path, without agonizing over what they've done.

According to him, I'm definitely that sort of person. [...Hm. She shrugs her shoulders, and tries not to think of the way that memory squeezes her heart.] He said I should stay that way.

[takestheblame]

Regret is a reason to not make the same mistakes again. [Or at least that's what Kiryu would like to think, because damn he has big regrets and can't leave them behind] I'm not capable of forgetting them, but they're more like a reason to keep going. So they have some sort of meaning.

[heritrix]

[In her mind, whether you regret it or you don't, a mistake is always a learning experience. She's not so blind to his mindset either, however. Not after meeting Archer, and Saber and Shirou.]

I don't know of many things that can hold more meaning than regret, in terms of motivators. It's just that powerful.

But in that way, it's a double-edged sword, too. It's just as easy to take the wrong lesson as it is the right one, or fall down a more painful path.