031: VIDEO

[intheblanks]

[He's sticking a sign to the door of the clinic. Here, let him read it to you.]

Symptoms of seasonal flu: stuffy nose, sore throat, aches, shivers, cough, sneezing, headache, mild fever, and the incurable urge to spread it around in public.

If you've got one or more of these and you're not pregnant, suffering with a pre-existing health problem or at least reasonably certain you'll be dead before the weekend's out, don't come to the clinic. If imminent death is a possibility- [He taps the phone number at the bottom of the sign] call.

We've got a bigger crowd than usual in today already. Let's try not to turn it into a pandemic.


[ooc: have at! backtags and everything except House doubles more than welcome ♥ }

Comments

[intheblanks]

[He snaps his fingers when she turns, and grins.]

Still here. It's good to see you.

[artificialsoul]

You are.

[She'd checked the records she'd left, in one of Mayuri's abandoned labs. Things were missing- it had not survived the City's erosion totally. But it had been enough.]

It has been... a long time. Are you well?

[intheblanks]

As anyone is. [It has been a long time, perhaps longer for him than most, and the detail of it would be too much to fill in.] You remember what news from here is like - just a run down of the month's catalogue of disasters.

[He's looking her over, too.]

You?

[artificialsoul]

It has been approximately one year and four months.

[Her hair is styled slightly differently, uniform slightly changed, Mayuri's choker back around her neck.]

... Despite my efforts last time to remember this place, I still do not within my world.

[intheblanks]

[If he knew the meaning of the last, it wouldn't please him.]

I know. I went home for three years within that time. [his smile is a little tired.] Does it show?

[artificialsoul]

I am... not skilled, with ascertaining mortal ages by sight.

[She cocks her head slightly.]

If you allowed me to do some tests...

[Perhaps she's joking.]

[intheblanks]

You know, I think I'm fine with just taking that as a no.

[artificialsoul]

[It was a joke. - But seriously, she could do it.]

- I am glad to see you, even if I cannot ascertain the change.

[intheblanks]

[It's okay, Nemu. Honestly, he'd rather pretend there are none.]

Lets get off the street. [There's a cafe in the vague direction he's gesturing.] It's February, and you still barely wear clothes.

[And he still cares, whether she feels the cold or not.]

[artificialsoul]

- Ah. Yes, let's.

[She'd forgotten about that. Changes of clothing, anyway. In the year and some back in her world, it had returned to being only her uniform- then Mayuri modified it, and it was that uniform.]

I am sorry to keep you out in this weather.

[intheblanks]

[He gives her a look.]

Maybe I just want to buy you a drink.

[artificialsoul]

[She looks back. Compared to her stay... it takes her longer, to remember how to react less submissively. Being back with daddy does that.]

- I would like that.

[intheblanks]

[Chase is, as ever, stubborn in the re-education of it.]

Good. [He waits until they're walking, and he's still stealing glances across, to continue.] I'm sorry you didn't remember.

[artificialsoul]

[For the first steps she walks behind him, head down- before she moves to his side instead.]

... as am I. I had hoped that storing my observations and transporting them within my body might suffice, but it was not successful.

[intheblanks]

It must be a culture shock, getting it back in one hit.

[artificialsoul]

It is... more than startling.

Difficult to accept, perhaps. At first.

[intheblanks]

Just because you lost what you learned here, it doesn't mean there isn't a way of learning the same thing back home.

[He walks sideways to talk to her.]

The only thing you don't realise there is that you're capable.

[artificialsoul]

When I am "home"...

[The 12th division was where she resided, but. It didn't quite feel like "home" compared to her memories in this place.]

... there is no one like there is here. Like you.

[She smiles but it's a touch sad. People who tell her it's okay to express herself, to be more than she was created to be.]

[intheblanks]

Maybe you just haven't run into them yet.

[People who are helplessly hopeful?]

I remember some of the others from your world. Given them time to grow up a bit.

[artificialsoul]

I did one- but he is gone now.

[Ishida Uryu. The first person who had said such things to her. First questioned why she had to listen to that person.]

... they are kind. [But obedient to power structure.]

[intheblanks]

And you're smart. That's not a bad combination.

[But, here they are.]

Coffee?