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Babel; [Ask First; Closed to Charles, Hanako, Aleph, Eri]
Topic Started: Dec 20 2013, 12:19 AM (624 Views)
Czernobog
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Best Influence.
He didn't spend much time on the roof. Generally speaking, it was where most people went during lunch to avoid the watchful eye of the faculty -- such that it was, with so many of them drowsing like that -- and was, as such, kind of an unpleasant place. Still, in the afternoons, when club activities were going on, the roof was empty enough and made for a good spot to study. The quality of light was just right, and on days like this it wasn't too cold.

Studying was important. Especially with exams coming up like they were.

Naoya poured over his notes and textbooks, making marginal comments in his chickenscratch handwriting. He tried very, very hard not to think about everything that had been happening lately. Not all of it was necessarily bad, but much of it was. The warehouse and his possession, the attack on the metalworks, everything.

He began working on the rough draft of an essay. Moore-sensei hadn't been too happy with his handwriting in the past. He needed to get up a worthy rough draft and then painstakingly copy it out in a sensible script. Which would be the difficult part. He knew what he meant but actually communicating it was so difficult. And --

And the page in his notebook was full. He had filled it completely, just while sitting here and letting his mind wander, and he couldn't understand a single word of it. A tremor went through his hand, and the pen rolled out of it. None of these things on the page looked anything like characters. They were just shapes. There was no sense to them.

He glanced up and looked around.

No one was here.

He strained his ears, trying to hear the sound of human voices somewhere nearby. Tried to judge whether the faculty of language had fled him or if something else was going on. So much of what was happening to him lately was strange and unfamiliar, and he was slowly losing his ability to cope with it.

He checked his textbook. None of the words made sense. Were they read across or vertically? He knew this. He knew this. He should know this.

Getting up, he walked a circle around the small patch where he had set up his things. He had spread out in the sunlight, taking comfort from the warmth of it, but now he couldn't finish the work he had been planning on doing. What was it he had been working on, exactly?

He rubbed his head. This shouldn't be happening.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Naoya would hear footsteps, quick ones... and then, then he would hear mumbled curses, or probably just indecipherable mumblings, whatever the state of his brain happened to be. In the off chance that he was capable of deciphering the curses, these were the curses in question:

"Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker... tits? ...Nah, don't quite work as a--"

At this point, the door flew open, and Kyo stomped through it, looking distressed and grumpy.

"--curse word, does it..." she finished, rubbing at the back of her head and turning her eyes upward, toward the sky. She allowed herself a sad look for a few moments, before shaking her head and walking toward the fence. It was her intention to walk over to the fence and just put off having to even decide whether to go near Archery Club, and by proxy near Suzume Kageyama...

...But then she saw Naoya there. She first forced a smile that looked a bit uncomfortable but not exactly fake (it was good to see him, after all). But as she popped off a casual salute and said, "Yo..." she registered that he didn't look terribly comfortable just then. Her smile faded. "Hey, somethin' wrong?" Her eyes drifted to the schoolwork spread out on the ground, and then she snapped her finger. "Ah, stuck on somethin'? Need a bit o' help? Can't promise I got that but I can give it a go."
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Czernobog
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What Naoya heard was the approach of a grumbling noise, and then "Jann, splandlin' legene? Un, humple ni splandlin'? adm u tak fa deregid? Mcnexteton descul O obvisin entiva tut O nib deregid ta u obvisingo."

He flinched from the sound of her voice, turning towards it and raising a hand as if to ward off the unexpected. He blinked. Before him was a person he knew: a woman, green hair cut short, eyes yellowed, rounded figure, very short -- but more compact than small, given her capabilities -- and looking somewhere between worried and confident.

His mouth worked, but no sound came out. There was a thing that you were supposed to do with tongue and teeth and lips and throat to make sounds that worked the ear and shiver meaning into the brain in a way that a person's mind could unpack and use. He tried to do it, but all he produced was a strangled grunt.

Turning away, he hunched his shoulders. A feeling of shame and confusion washed over him. What was he supposed to do here. He had something for this. Something in one of his pockets....where was it...
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Naoya opened his mouth, didn't talk. Didn't even seem to comprehend. Kyo tilted her head to the side, looking confused. "Oi, what's up, dude?" she asked, moving to walk closer. The way he'd motioned to ward her off just then was weird. Was he working on something he didn't want others to see? Moving closer, Kyo looked again at the things on the ground... but no, just vanilla schoolwork stuff. Nothing special. Nothing special at all.

In fact, was he working on--no, there wasn't any way Naoya would be that stuck on something like this.

Looking up, Kyo frowned. Her eyes flitted to his bandanna. And then...

"Oh." And she didn't say anything else. If he hadn't understood, then talking would probably cause him even more distress--he'd be trying to decipher it, wouldn't he? Yeah... but what was happening? Something brain-damage related, obviously, and Naoya had been under a lot of strain lately, so maybe it was being aggravated. "Uh..." she hummed, moving slowly closer. What was she supposed to do in this situation? Get help? Take Naoya to the nurse? What?

Looking around, Kyo saw the nearest bench and figured the first step was probably just... sitting down. Yes. So, motioning to Naoya in as clear a fashion as she could, one finger, a come-here gesture that wasn't quite come-hither, too casual and stiff for that, she sat herself down on that bench and patted the empty space next to her.

It was weird trying to help someone without talking. Kyo wasn't sure she knew how to do that, now that it came to it.
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Naoya saw where she was looking, and then moved to gather up his things. Something to do with his hands. His hands never failed him. Not his left hand at least. But, then again, the left hand had never been terribly skillful to begin with. Never managed to form words or make fine motions that well. It just never could, really. He knew people who were ambidextrous. Could think of their faces, their voices -- not their words, but the sounds that made them up, -- the way they smelled, even, but not a single name. Not a one of those patterns of sounds that indicated identity.

The last two fingers on his formerly-skillful right hand bent in and wouldn't cooperate. He grabbed the hand and massaged the tendons that guided those fingers. The green-haired girl was indicating that he should sit next to her, and he trusted her. She had never led him astray, though she was a bit of a troublemaker sometimes.

He sighed and slouched down into the seat, then sank lower. He was the platonic idea of a slump given anthropomorphic form. Beyond apparently being unable to speak, the boy was nearly in shambles -- his flesh was drawn tight over his bones, making his cheeks stand out like knives, and his gray skin was hot, apparently from fever.

Looking over at the green-haired girl, Naoya once again attempted to speak, but stopped after drawing breath, allowing his chin to sink down and red on his breastbone.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Help without talking. Do something without talking. Don't talk, communicate without talking.

You are the worst person who could have possibly stumbled in on this, whatever it is, Nevan said in a bland, humorless voice.

Kyo's response: ...Yeeeeeeep. She had no idea what to do, but it wasn't like she could do nothing, so she decided to wing it. Naoya looked horrible. He was probably stressed beyond belief right now, with that prediction hanging over his head and all, but he looked worse than when she'd last seen him, too. She remembered the Bedlam Blotter post that had come up while she was at Kinzaki's estate, stressing over Daichi being stabbed in an alley... Naoya seemed to have lost control there. If his Shadow encounters were making his health worse, that couldn't have helped either.

The green-haired Osaka girl leaned forward a bit. Even slumped, Naoya was a bit taller than her, so she didn't have to lower her head to make contact with him. She gave the boy a reassuring smile and then leaned back. Someone who might know what to do. She needed someone who would know what to do. She needed--

--she needed Shin.

Kyo pulled out her phone and hesitated for a moment, wondering if Naoya would approve. But she couldn't exactly handle this on her own, so--

She found Shin's contact number, a phone number she hadn't called directly ever, and typed out a short text:

with naoya on the school roof
he can't understand me or talk
i don't know what to do
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Czernobog
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Best Influence.
Naoya sat down heavily on the bench, hands hanging limp between his knees. He wagged his head back and forth, but it wasn't clear if he meant it as a denial of something or if it was just a tremor passing up his spine. Taking a deep breath, he puffed out his chest and then deflated, looking up at the slowly sinking sun.

Kyo's phone buzzed.

Text Message from Shin Imoto
 
This has happened several times before and will happen again most likely. It will pass before I arrive, but I'll be there within a half hour. Stay with him. He's most likely distressed. Being alone will make it worse.


Naoya began feeling through his pockets, began emptying them out and making a pile in front of him. The color red was entwined with this experience for some reason. The pile contained a puddle of keys, his phone, his wallet, a small ball of twine, a half-dozen pens in various colors, his multi-tool, a reporter's pad-style notebook, and a pocket-sized paperback book with "Bhagavad Gita" written on the spine.

He went through his wallet, and then his eyes went wide. He pulled out a small card, which he handed to Kyo:

card with a red sticker in the corner
 
I cannot currently speak or understand what you are saying.
If it is important, please wait a bit until I return to myself.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
The text message was reassuring, even if it didn't really do anything to make Kyo feel empowered in this situation. It was a recurring thing, a symptom or something or other... the only option was to wait it out. Kyo sucked in a breath, and typed out the words, okay, thanks. Then she sent them, pocketed her phone, and leaned back.

That was about when Naoya started sifting through his pockets. Sifting, and then emptying, a pile of things in front of him. First it was ordinary stuff, keys, phone, wallet, but then other things: twine, more pens than anyone should ever have on their person at one time, multi-tool, notebook, and then a book. Kyo blinked blankly at this, wondering if it could possibly be comfortable to carry so much in one's pockets.

And then the card. A card with a little red sticker in the corner. Kyo took it, and her eyes quickly took in what was written there. She found herself staring at the thing, running a finger over the sticker in the corner. So, not only did Naoya have these weird spells, he expected them to happen to the point where he carried a card with him. But if he couldn't read, he had to mark the card in some way that he could understand even in this state. That would be the sticker. But it had taken him this long to work himself to the point where he even remembered he had the card...

...Was that normal?

Kyo looked up, smiled, and nodded, holding the card out for Naoya to take. There was nothing else for it, then. She would just have to stay here and... wait it out. Keep Naoya calm while she did. Kyo couldn't even imagine what it must be like to be stuck alone in that sort of situation. Really, it was lucky she'd decided to come up here--Naoya might have been stuck this way for a while. And who knew what might have gone wrong during that time...
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Czernobog
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Naoya bowed his head forward, and took several deep breaths. Things were beginning to come back, things were beginning to come clear. It was only after a moment that he noticed she was handing him the card back. He took it and considered the text for a moment, some of it was beginning to make sense.

He took a breath, and then made a strangled grunt.

Pausing, he considered. No, that wasn't right. Whoever thought to make it so that words and drawings were intertwined? Why should the one map on to the other? Why was this so obvious to people? Or was it simply obvious once you knew about it.

"I...hrmn..." he began.

Yes, that sounded right.

"I...Urgh..." he said, and rubbed his forehead. It wasn't quite there, yet.
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The One True Nobody
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"...does this clockwork hand follow you... or guide you?"
Kyo heard Naoya's eventual attempts to speak. He was coming back? Seemed like he was coming back. Tentatively, Kyo placed a hand on the boy's back and rubbed at it, grinning in anticipation.

"There y'go, almost there," she said, sounding as if she knew exactly where "there" was as opposed to "not there," which even now couldn't be further from the truth if she were parked on the sun. "Don't force it, just let it come."

Hand still on Naoya's back, she leaned forward, smiling around into Naoya's face.

"Almost..."
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