Open Log

[the_archive]

Who: Jon Sims and YOU
Where: A few places in Thorne Castle
When: Before the Festival
What: Getting Acquaint (Let me know if you want to continue a TDM thread, and we can link it here and go on)
Warnings: N/A, will probably add.

Room 7

The first day, Jon just can't let himself just stop moving. He's already done everything he can to try to get the apprentices to give him more information, and they just keep assuring him that he'll know everything he needs to when he needs to. Which he interprets as; when they want him to. But they've also promised his powers will return, whether he wants them to or not, so there's that.

A bunk in a shared dorm doesn't shout 'honored guest' to him. He spends a few minutes stripping his bed, checking it minutely, and then making it again, using the activity of his hands to try to still his thoughts a little. To try not to worry about Martin. And the statement he can only hope he left entirely behind. When he's done that, he takes a moment, leaning on the bedpost to stare out the window beside it.

It's unsettlingly soothing, how little he can see from here.

Upstairs

Jon would have found the library even without it having been on that first rapid tour. He doesn't even intend to find himself there until he's there, looking down the rows of shelves. He prides himself on his research skills, but here he doesn't bother to look for something specific. Instead, he walks down one aisle at random, then another, keeping his hands folded behind his back until the distant, nagging feeling in the back of the head selects one volume, then another, then another.

He does check the flyleafs carefully, however.

In the study hall, he steers wide of those trying to learn to summon flames – Jon's not having anything to do with that, and the observant can guess why – one hand is already so scarred by burns that it doesn't move fluidly. And maybe that's why he's pulled to the young mage demonstrating a spell that heals small wounds.

Downstairs

He follows the dark stairs and rumors down with some anxiety, but it's no Panopticon down here. Only too-cramped cells, and conditions that would seem unrealistic in a movie. He eyes the guards, but doesn't like what he sees, and so keeps his distance as he moves along the cells. He's looking for someone in particular, but he won't find him. Instead, when the guards are out of earshot, he pauses.

“Do you know if there are more prisoners? Anywhere else?”

Comments

[the_archive]

He just exhales a laugh. "Don't I wish.

"Used to? Ah, you don't need to answer that," he corrects himself, because he can feel there's a lot to that answer, and he won't take it from him. That door of knowledge might feel impossibly distant right now, but he knows damn well it's still there.

[lone_horse]

“More recently, I drove a cab.”

Which is true for all the timeline feels strange to explain. Sometimes he thinks back to so many years ago, the psychic who’d told him his fortune far too accurately. He’d thought it was mad at the time, but more of it than not had come true. He has wonder what that woman saw.

“Do you do other things than the kidnapping?”

[the_archive]

"Recordkeeping," he says, with a faint qualm for the half-truth. But he's not certain what he's ready for who to know. A few days. He'll know in a few days, he's sure.

"The sort of job I hope I've left behind."

[lone_horse]

He's not quite sure why recordkeeping would be something one might leave behind. He considers if the man was an accountant, someone who kept the books, and potentially kept the books for an illegal enterprise. He can't say for certain that's what it is, but it would make sense. Either way, he nods.

"Then I hope they haven't asked you here to help them with their records."

Completely sincere.

[the_archive]

And Jon is just as sincere as he nods agreement. The idea had occurred to him, which is why he hasn't discussed his employment - if you could call it that - with anyone here.

"Not yet. And I don't expect they've asked^* you here to drive a cab, either, or run an orphanage."

^* No one was asked. Enough sarcasm drips from the word enough to leave a puddle.

[lone_horse]

That earns him a wince. No, no, he’s reasonably certain he knows why he’s been asked.

“I would guess it has more to do with my fists than my employment history.”

Not that he wouldn’t love to just… quietly run a cabaret club or something. He looks over at Jon, and the tone he’s hearing makes him feel that there’s, potentially, a kindred spirit here. Someone who’s as skeptical, and even outright displeased, with their ‘hosts’.

“What are your feelings on our hosts, Jonathan?”

[the_archive]

"Just Jon's just fine. And just now, resentful." He's sure there's at least someone listening, and he doesn't care. "They haven't been forthcoming with us, and their flattery is dishonest. To be honest, I don't know what explanation they could give me that would make me think they're making a smart decision in all of this."

[lone_horse]

“A friend of mine is in the dungeons below,” he says plainly, arms crossed. “Venerating me while incarcerating him puts the lie to everything they say, in my eyes.”

If they’re interested in his exploits, then they’d know Majima was there the whole time, helping him.

[the_archive]

"Bringing me at all was my first clue. I can't do any good for this world."

[lone_horse]

Kiryu can't help peering at the other man. He doesn't look like he's much for a fight, but there's no reason to be that down on yourself.

"I'm sure you have strengths even if they are not obvious ones."

[the_archive]

Jon stares at him a moment, and then rubs a hand across his mouth, looking away as he masters a little smile.

"That's generous, thank you."

He's not ready to expand on what he actually meant. Not quite yet.

[lone_horse]

Kiryu nods, giving a quiet thumbs up to the other man in encouragement. Then he tips his head towards the door.

"Have you had lunch yet?"

[the_archive]

"No, not yet." And now that he thinks about it... he is actually hungry. He pushes himself away from the windowsill, running a hand through his hair to push it into some attempt at order. "I think I remember being told where the dining hall is."

[lone_horse]

"Would you like to take lunch with me?"

He's also getting hungry (a bottomless pit this one) and besides, he needs to get some supplies. Jon will watch him go to his bed and reach under it to pull out a set of handkerchiefs. He'll tuck those away before he turns back and nods to him.

"I can show you the way."

[the_archive]

"If you've found the castle laundry too, you have to share." Ready to accompany him, he plucks at the sleeve of his own tunic, flicking dismissively at the golden embroidery. "Never was one for team sports, and I don't like uniforms."

[lone_horse]

"I spent some time helping there, yes," he says mildly as he starts to walk, "but I think there would be some alarm if anyone noticed us wearing something else."

Which isn't to say he thinks having other clothes is a bad idea. But it is a gentle warning.

"The symbols on our backs seem very important to them. What was yours?"

[the_archive]

"The High Priestess." He frowns absently. "All the ones that I've seen match the trump cards in a tarot deck. The High Priestess is a new addition from the early 1900s, replacing The Popess, who might have represented the mythical Pope Joan or just the Mother Church itself. Either way, Popess or Priestess, she carries a book or a scroll, with all the knowledge of before, present, and after. Which is... appropriate. For a recordkeeper."

[lone_horse]

He looks more than a little surprised. He's been able to get some complimentary information from the people here on what the symbols are but nothing so complete.

"What does the Tower mean?"

[the_archive]

Jon pauses in the corridor, taking a second. This isn't his powers returning, this is knowledge from before - he'd had reason to look them up twice in the last year. But it being so complete is absolutely a whisper of that door creaking open.

"Revolution," he says, cherry-picking the best of the meanings he knows. "Sudden change, maybe violent change. Sometimes the card is drawn showing the Tower of Babel, or Lucifer falling from the Throne of Heaven, or Adam and Eve fleeing a burning Garden of Eden."

[lone_horse]

He doesn't know most of those references but they seem pretty big and important, and the words he uses to describe his own symbol...

Fair. Entirely fair.

"I wouldn't say that's wrong for me. Things change very rapidly when I'm involved, or so it feels like."

[the_archive]

"I wonder if that's something our abductors were looking for, or if they're marking us to know what to be cautious of."

[lone_horse]

"I can't help but wonder why I'm not behind bars, given what you've said."

Revolution? This place screams for it. Injustice is being done right now. Kiryu hates it, and if he thought he had a chance of stopping it this moment, he'd be marching through the castle to find the mage responsible to make him stop.

But he's felt that weakness, is unsure of his strength against a foe for the first time in decades. It means he has to be thoughtful, needs to watch and learn.

[the_archive]

"I'm still not sure we're not."

Just not sure why they've been given the gilded set, when these people have no problem with dungeons.

[lone_horse]

"Do you think it's possible they're trying to pit us against each other?"

He doesn't know any better way to do that than to treat one half poorly and treat one half well. Especially if you want to use all of them for something.

[the_archive]

"Upstairs versus down? Or caste by caste." He indicates what he means with a flick of his fingers at the embroidery. "Or us verses locals. We're a very easy outgroup to blame, should something big happen soon."