Participants:
| Scene Title | Fancy Meeting You Here |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Miles finds an old friend in a new place. |
| Date | February 9, 2019 |
Namiko's Place
It isn’t something Miles likes to do — teleport to someone who he has no way of knowing where they are in the world — but he can do it. There are many ways it could go wrong, of course, which is why it isn’t his preferred method of teleportation. Ironically, however, it is also the easiest method he knows. Or maybe it’s not ironic. But in any case, he doesn’t usually do it.
Right now, though, he has no choice if he wants to see who he’s trying to see. He could be teleporting into another country where he doesn’t speak the language and with people who want to know what exactly he’s doing there, and why. He could teleport into the middle of a gunfight. He could teleport right smack that wall of light in the tunnel, too! But now that he’s free and clear, he’s apparently going to take his chances.
So, he visualizes Namiko’s face as he shimmers out of existence. Hopefully not completely out of existence.
The first thing he's likely to notice is the music. It's blasting through the room he appears in. Nirvana plays out of surround sound speakers in the spacious living room of a very fancy and expensive apartment. Colorful pieces of art are on display around the grey and black space, Namiko's attempt to make it more… her. Most of the paintings and photographs depict wide expanses of land, in varying degrees of abstraction.
He can hear the sound of a blender pulsing in and out through the music, just moments before Namiko steps out of the kitchen, a fruit smoothie in one hand. Her steps come in time to the music, which is possibly the only familiar thing he sees around here. Besides Namiko herself.
Miles has already braced himself for something horrible — so when it doesn’t come, he’s left wincing a little bit that looks kind of funny when he’s just standing there in the middle of a room blasting Nirvana. It’s very Namiko, though, and while it takes him a second, that wince turns into a very relieved smile, accompanied with a sigh that he might’ve been holding a while. Longer than even he realized.
“You made it!” That’s the first thing he says when she comes into the room, and he takes a couple quick steps toward her — his own not to the music, but quite a bit faster — to engulf her in a hug. Sorry about that fruit smoothie. Hopefully she had a good grip on it!
Namiko turns at the voice— that wasn't exactly expected, although normally she's used to hearing Miles come out of nowhere, this time maybe he'll forgive her surprise— just in time to get swept up into a hug. There is a splash, strawberry banana something hitting the floor, but most of it stays in her glass as she returns it. "Miles! Oh my god," she says, through a laugh. A relieved laugh. "I thought you were dead," she says, blinking when her eyes decide they need to get teary. "I thought you were dead."
It's very important he understands.
She leans back, setting her drink on the same table that holds a vase with one of her plants growing wild out of it. "You're in one piece? Hardly anyone made it through the— I thought…" that he was dead, but she's been over that a bit.
It’s not like they never hug — they do — but this particular hug is a little bit tighter than usual, and goes on a little longer. “I thought I was dead for a minute, too,” he admits with a little laugh of his own, but more like a release, like hers, than amused. He understands.
He does eventually pull back, too, glancing down at the floor where her smoothie has spilled. “Sorry about that,” he says. “But you know, can’t make an omelette, et cetera, et cetera.” Not that it’s an omelette, but it’s sort of breakfast-y. He gets a little more serious, and he nods. “I hit the wall,” he admits. “I’m not sure how. But I ended up in Japan. I really wished you’d been there then.” HIs smile is a little bit wryer then. “I caused a little bit of a stir. Ended up in a tourist cave or something. Then I got hustled off to some government bunker and they interrogated me for a while, and gave me something so I couldn’t jump. But eventually they forgot to give me one, and I bounced. To Eve of all people. You know there’s a version of her here? Just as crazy, though. She can turn into this red mist. I don’t even know.”
"Who cares about a smoothie," Namiko says with a wave of her hand. She might be a little emphatic about that, but she's just relieved that she didn't end up here and totally alone. And she suspects he probably feels the same. "Come sit down," she says, swiping her finger on a black wall panel to turn the music down. "So you shocked Japan, huh? At least you made an entrance." Her was more cowering and explosion filled. Which is how she missed that there was an Eve here. And that she should have been worried about her. "I'm not surprised she's around— fate's favorite over there. But she's not a prophet? That's weird." She leads him over to a couch that she plops onto. "I landed in the government's arms, got set up. Have you found them yet? They were ready for us. They're willing to set us up in a new life so long as we don't run around telling everyone we're from another timeline. Which, you know, I didn't think would be hard, but some of these Nirvana lyrics are different in this timeline and man it's hard not to talk about that." She pauses to breathe and lets out a sigh as she looks over at him. "I'm so glad to see you."
Miles doesn't need too much encouragement to sit; he comes easily, sagging down next to her and stretching his legs out in front of him with a little sigh, this one comfortable. “Yeah, you know I like to do that,” he says with a wider smile as he looks over at her. “I don’t think they liked me very much. I don’t think I missed a calling as an ambassador.”
His smile fades a little bit when she goes on, though. “Oh yeah? Huh. Seems like everyone knew more about this than us, huh?” He’s not that bitter…but maybe there’s a little thread of annoyance running through that. “I have a hook up to them, but I don’t know. I might’ve had enough of governments and rules and regulations. I did okay making my own way before.” Of course, this world is quite a bit different than the other. The tiny bit of tension when he talks about governments is probably not really based on this particular government, and the edge of guilt there that it’s trying to cover is one she understands quite well. He leaves it then, though, and his shoulders relax again. “I’m so glad you made it. I thought I might’ve been the only one, honestly.” He looks around then, at the space that is her and yet not her. “So where are we?”
Namiko nods, both to his words and to his annoyance. Because they really ran in mostly blind. "They really did. And some people who knew were trying to stop the whole thing, so we landed in the middle of a fight. There was a big, monstery Evo and everything." However, she's landed in comfort now and the memory of her rough beginning is easy to let go of. "Can't blame you if you don't want to jump into their arms here. You know you can come to me if you need anything. Take whatever time you need to figure out what you want." She didn't get a choice about it, where she landed.
His question brings a smile back out onto her face, though. "New York City! Kind of a sad New York City, but not as sad as ours was. Right now you're in a place called Yamagato Park, which is technically Japan within New York and is the only place around here that is half put together. They had a war, New York got hit with the brunt of it, from what I gather. There's rebuilding efforts and stuff." Boring stuff, obviously. "I got offered a spot here because my power is awesome." And, of course, useful. Especially here in sad New York.
“Really? That’s crazy. I guess it’s a good thing they didn’t.” Not that he specifically wanted to be here, per se, but he certainly didn’t want to die in a fire on the Arc, which had looked likely for a minute. He seems to relax even a little more when she reassures him, too. “Thanks,” he says. “Maybe I’ll end up doing it, but…” He trails off, waving a hand in the air not particularly pointedly. You know, Namiko.
He brightens considerably when she says New York, too. “Oh, yeah? Good. That’s where Eve is, too. I kind of got the feeling she knew another me.” This makes the smile twist just slightly, since he doesn’t know how keen he is on there being another him. “Your power is awesome, though. That’s great. I guess things being a little bit better is a good thing. I should probably figure out something to do with myself.” A pause, before he admits, “I guess that would be easier if I had papers and stuff.”
"Eve tends to know everybody," Namiko says. If there was another Miles— and who could possibly know for sure, right?— it wouldn't surprise her at all if Eve was at least acquaintances with him. "But she'll find out, there's only one you," she says, putting a hand on his shoulder. No other Miles would be exactly the same, and to her, that makes them all but completely different people.
At the compliment, even though it's an echo of what she already said, Namiko smiles broadly. It's different when someone else thinks so. Especially someone you thought you lost. "A lot of things are better with papers," she says, dryly. "Any ideas on that? Got a dream you didn't get to chase because our world got wrecked?"
“Yeah, no kidding. She really does. Of course, good luck getting her to tell you anything helpful about them.” Though Miles does say it fondly, more or less. Somewhat fondly, anyway, coupled with a healthy respect, like one might have for a tiger at the zoo that one goes to see a lot but wouldn’t actually get in the cage with. His smile widens at her last words, though. “Thanks. Same goes for you.” There’s a little pause, before he adds, “Hopefully literally, because I don’t know whether one reality could handle two of you putting your heads together. I don’t think we’d survive it.”
Joking aside, at her last words he pauses again, this time for a little bit longer. Finally, he shrugs. “Not really,” he admits a little more quietly, looking away and toward one of those pieces of art that make the room quintessentially hers. “I guess, with a totally clean slate, I’d want to make up for some of the stuff I did in our world.”
Namiko can only grin at the idea of what kind of trouble two of her could cause. But, she shakes off the notion a moment later. "Don't worry, there's really only one of me. I looked up my family, my parents don't have anything to do with each other here. That I could find, anyway. You're safe. Ish." There is still this one he has to deal with.
When he turns serious, she does, too. Her head tilts during his silence, but she straightens up to let out a sigh when he answers. She understands— in this world, it's a lot easier to look back at their choices back home with harsher judgment. "Well. That's like, a real answer, Miles. You want to go out there and do some good? There's a lot that needs to get fixed around here. I mean, not here," because Yamagato Park is pretty swish, "but out there in the city."
“That’s lucky. If also kind of weird.” Miles leans forward a little bit then, though, reaching up to rub a hand over his face as she speaks. A real answer, indeed — perhaps too real, though now it’s out there. He doesn’t reply for a few seconds, just considering what she’s said.
“Yeah,” he says, “it kind of seems like it. I guess I just don’t really know where to start.” He does look over at her then, with a little half-smile, not as broad as his usual ones, though it is genuine. “Maybe you have some pointers. Probably that involve me going to get registered.”
"Super weird," Namiko says, because obviously things didn't turn out how they should have around here. Even though the way it should have involved a world-destroying flood. She smiles when he goes on, amused but sympathetic to his plight. She got lucky, having an offer fall in her lap right away. "Well. There's a lot of rebuilding, if you want to get into construction. There's a marketplace if you want to sell something. There's here, lots of techie stuff. I don't understand how half of it works, but it's fancy. If you really want to stay off grid, Staten Island seems to be the place to be for shenanigans. If you want to be legit, I'll help you find something if nothing pops out at you." There's official things, too. Government organizations and cops and things, but she doesn't seem to remember to bring them up.
Maybe they're still a little too foreign for her.
“Staten Island, huh? I don’t think so. I know New York is an island but I think I’ve had enough water to last me a lifetime.” Miles shudders, and though the movement is exaggerated and mostly fake, it’s not completely fake.
Instead, though, he lets out a long-suffering sigh, and says, “I guess if you got legitimized it can’t be that bad. I don’t have a lot of useful skills unless you count jumping from here to there, but I guess I can get on the grid. And don’t put yourself out or anything, but if you hear of anything good, let me know.”
"Okay, so more inland for you," Namiko says, as if she didn't pick an apartment with a view of the city instead of the water for the same reason. "It isn't bad. They're trying to be cool about us Evos. I feel like maybe they're still fighting against an urge to dislike us, but no one seems to be trying genocide, so I call it a win."
She might be easy to please on this front.
"I can help you get to the right people. New York is weird with giant holes in it. And not being underwater. I bet there's not even one pirate here."
Miles smirks, though he looks away briefly at her first words, reaching up to rub a hand over his forehead. “That’s good,” he says, but that’s about all he says about it. Unsurprisingly, probably.
However, he doesn’t spend too long feeling sorry for himself about choices he made without any sort of coercion, and instead he looks back with a little laugh. “No water pirates, at least,” he amends. “There’s probably some people who’d fit the description if you took out the boats.”
He gets more serious then, looking at her for another moment before he gives her another hug, spontaneous and not that long, but heartfelt. “I’m really glad you’re here.”
"What kind of pirate doesn't have a boat?" Namiko asks, but doesn't seem concerned with an answer, particularly when she gets a hug. It's returned, just as heartfelt, because he is her only piece of home left. His words get a small laugh and she wipes at her eyes for no real reason. At all.
"I'm glad you're here, too." She hooks her arm in his and guides him toward the kitchen. "Come on. Reunions make me hungry." Of course, food is Namiko's answer to a lot of things in life. "And you look like no one's fed you."
And she can't have that.