( action ) / ( audio)

[dropkick]

[ Wandering through the City in something of a daze, Arthur is on his way to the outskirts of the City proper. From there it isn't terribly far from the forest, which isn't really the place for him - prepared or not, and he's more the former than the latter today. His mind is one-track though his goal is anyone's guess.

It's an unexpected day all in all. What had originally been intended as a day spent to scout around for different work has become, instead, an indefinite search for the end of a rainbow. He doesn't give much thought to others wandering around him in a similar state, doesn't give much thought to anything except his destination where he's 100% certain there's something he's looking for.

Or, well, someone.

If you happen to run into him, it might be literally, because that's how attentive he is to his surroundings at the moment - hardly.

At one point, turning his device over and over in his hand absently, the audio clicks on, just barely picking up the end of him muttering: ] ...the woods? Figures.

Comments

[archivy]

Are you all right?

1/2 ;-; ivyyyyyyyy

[dropkick]

[ er....didn't realize he'd turned the device so he pauses, surprised ]

[dropkick]

Yeah...yeah just...

[ busy? distracted? CURSED...all of the above...and he certainly sounds the first two ]

...didn't mean to turn that on.

[archivy]

Why are you going to the woods?

[dropkick]

[ some more mumbling to himself, as if he's going through a list of some kind but it's not really audible in an articulate way except for his actual answer to her, ]

Looking for someo-- something.

Think it's there.

[archivy]

[ he is clearly cursed. she should know better than to attempt to engage in rational conversation with the cursed. ]

What are you looking for?

[dropkick]

[ More pausing and just the footfalls as he keeps walking, though there's a subconscious apology in his tone, like part of him knows he's being rude to someone he normally wouldn't be as he says, ]

A friend.

[ He can't explain it, why he's so sure he's there even though he'd settled with the idea of him having left back when the City was made of glass. ]

[archivy]

You believe Mr Cobb to be in the woods.

[dropkick]

[ this is the pause of AM I SO TRANSPARENT followed by a pause of WELL MAYBE and then the far less self-away um.... ]

Well, wherever this thing ends.

But yeah.

[ thing being a fucking rainbow which really just...tells you how cursed he is :| ]

[archivy]

[ yes arthur. yes you are. or maybe she's just really smart. ]

You are very cursed.

[dropkick]

[ :( or both sob....ivy ;-; ]

What?

I don't think it's that.

[ Other people he ran into seem to have been searching for their own things, sure, but...as sometimes is the nature of a curse, he's sure it's different for him. If the rest of it is a wild goose chase, fine. But if there's even the most remote of chances Dom is still around, doesn't he owe that to him, to look? Some of the strongest curses play into preexisting truths. ]

[archivy]

Of course you do not think so. [ Reasoning with a cursed person. But for better or for worse, she— likes Arthur. ]

Be that as it may, you should be careful while searching.

[dropkick]

[ Mutters something that is suspiciously like I know so (which, of course he does...ahem.) Her suggestion for caution does make him pause, however. Where he might argue with someone normally, or at least reply mildly that he planned on being absolutely reckless, he answers honestly instead, insofar as the curse allows. ]

Sure. I mean, yeah, of course.

I will be.

[ 'Careful' while cursed of course is not all the usual is cracked up to being. ]

[archivy]

Good. It would not help your search for Mr Cobb if you were injured while searching, after all.

[ perhaps beating the curse in its own logic will help. ]

[dropkick]

[ that brand of practicality does resonate with him, cursed or otherwise, and though she can't see him, he nods, in this case to himself ]

True.

[ Considering how long he's been missing, last thing he needs is a faulty rescue-party. Party of one...but, well, details. ]

You...looking for anyone...or anything?

[ still interconnected to the curse but part of him wants to know if she might be, because if she is then he could keep his eyes peeled for that too. ]

[archivy]

No, I am not searching for anything or anyone.

[dropkick]

Probably better off.

Feels like I'm going in circles anyway.

[archivy]

Perhaps you are. You may wish to re-evaluate your directions.

[dropkick]

Whenever I backtrack, I just reconfirm where it looks like it's going. But it's harder to say the farther it goes.

[archivy]

Of course. It is very difficult to find the end of the rainbow.

[signatures]

Gone to the woods to pick some few daisies?

[ PLEASE DON'T SAY YOU'RE LOOKING FOR TOOTHPASTE TOO. ]

[dropkick]

[ SOME of the deadpan is natural, some of it is just distracted as he says: ]

Not really a daisy kind of guy.

[ TOOTHPASTE, HOWEVER.........no just kidding.

Kinda. ]

[signatures]

[ Oh lawd. ]

What, then?

[dropkick]

[ yais u.u ]

Not a 'what'.

[signatures]

[ Pause. ]

Who do you think is in the woods?

[dropkick]

You'll just tell me he's not there.

[signatures]

I would and I am.

Cobb doesn't go camping without a fairly large RV to tide him over.

[dropkick]

He's made do with less.

[ Pause. ]

I have to look.

[ It's a compulsion really, one nothing short of keeping him somewhere would stifle, and even then there's no real way of telling if it would just incite him to worming his way back to the search anyway. ]

[signatures]

If he was at the limit of 'making do,' he certainly wouldn't be staying in a forest.

I suppose I'll see you at midnight when you trudge back embarrassed and empty handed.

[dropkick]

'cause you know him so well.

[ this is more muttered than anything else, footsteps through the muffled device receiver falling a little heavier, frustrated, and maybe a subconscious part of him knowing it's just true - the last part anyway

he's never been embarrassed about Dom though. other things, sure, but never that. ]

[signatures]

I'm sorry - do you?

[boutant]

What's in the woods?

1/2

[dropkick]

Lots of things.

[dropkick]

[ Even his humor sounds half there though, like he's replying from only a portion of his consciousness, the rest delegated to his search, specifically for: ]

And Cobb...I think.

[ He's wrong of course, but that's a curse too. ]

[boutant]

Cobb?

[ She straightens, and though he can't see it, he might be able to hear it in her voice. ]

What makes you think that?

[dropkick]

[ That's the tough thing about it. He doesn't have any concrete proof. He's only got his own certainty and while he feels like he's never been more sure of a thing, even cursed he knows that doesn't pan out for other people. Later he'll feel ridiculous, exponentially so, but for now he's just distracted in the guarded way of someone who's more invested than he wants to admit. ]

It leads in that direction, so...either the woods or past the woods - beach maybe. That'd make more sense, actually.

[ An answer but not really an answer. ]

[boutant]

[ An answer but not really an answer, and the way Arthur's speaking -- distracted, (which, if he's searching for Cobb, makes sense... but still, this isn't quite the same sort of distraction as Arthur when you try to talk to him while he's working) glossing over the fact that he should know that not-answers aren't enough for Ariadne. ]

What leads in that direction?

[ There's a sinking feeling in her stomach; she thinks she might know the answer. ]

[dropkick]

[ Here the pause is longer since Arthur has finally made it to the border of the forest, pausing because he does contrary to some beliefs have a sense of self-preservation. If it's secondary where Dom is concerned, it's only in a pick/choose situation. Right now it's just unfortunate the stupid rainbow arcs over this way instead of, say, looping several times around the carousel.

There's a sigh, the slight muffled buffer of air as he adjusts the device in his palm. ]

It's... [ ridiculous ] a rainbow.

Seems more solid somehow though.

[boutant]

[ She's fairly certain that most people would say Arthur has a far better sense of self-preservation than she does, at least in most instances. Cobb seems to be a special case for everyone. ]

A rainbow.

[ Of course it's the rainbow. She can see it even now, arched across the sky. ]

What happens if he's not at the end of it?

[dropkick]

[ Dominick Cobb is a cornerstone of what Arthur feels for anyone who matters to him, and it's strange how convoluted that can get since he doesn't let it happen in general, or hasn't previously. It was easier on the run of course, not stuck in one place and seeing the same faces all of the time. But needless to say he's got a well entrenched foothold in Arthur's heart, in what constitutes significance - past, and present though maybe not future. It had felt terrible to have him disappear, and then it had felt worse to be that way about it when he knew logically Dom was going where he should be, where Arthur too on the whole wanted him to be.

If Dom isn't at the end of it, Arthur tells himself, well, no big deal, but it feels like quite the opposite. He just feels ridiculous even thinking about it. ]

Don't know.

It just feels like he has to be there.

[ Or...

... ]

[boutant]

Why would he be there, Arthur?

[ It's obviously that he's cursed, and Ariadne knows that logic might not reach him because of it. Still, she has to try to see if she can get him to snap out of it. ]

[dropkick]

It's...I don't know.

I just...I woke up and I knew he was there. Is there.

[ If he sounds less than certain he himself is going to ignore it in favor of the cursed necessity the City has made it for him, following that ridiculous streak of color in the sky. ]

[boutant]

I know you want him to be there, Arthur. I want him to be there, too.

[ She sighs. ]

But I think you're cursed.