Re: Journey to the Center of the Dome (Hito and Ciro graduation)
Joker paused, his hand falling to his side as he came to two realizations. One was that the gas was not deadly, and as such he no longer bothered with holding his oxygen converter over his nose and mouth. The second was that he was no longer with his partner.
“Ara, Joker has blown it this time… Joker should not have ventured forth without asking her NAME!” Shaking his head he pouted and folded his arms, “How is Joker meant to call for her if he does not know what to call out? The rudeness of the girl to not introduce herself, was she brought up in an uncivilized time?”
Sighing and knowing that his monologue would not help him find her sooner, he turned and tried to make his way back up the stairs.
“White haired girl! Where did you go? You’re starting to worry me!” Joker walked a few more steps then froze as his words echoed around him. No… he wouldn’t have said that.
“I…I’m talking… normally?” his words came out half whispered and cracked in horror.
“The gas… it’s having an effect on my speech patterns? No not just that… it’s… my thought patterns. I’m thinking as I did before I encountered the Dream Realm, back when I was…” blinking he stretched one hand forward and tried to summon a portal.
“Damn it! It’s like it reset my mind to a time where I couldn’t do such things, and as such I can’t think, speak or do anything that I learned after that point!” Frowning hard, he began to pace up and down a short distance of flat earth.
“I’ve become a normal person, bound by normal rules. That’s the effect this gas has on me. Does it have the same effect on that girl? I really have to find her, she might be in danger and if we both have no powers or skills at our disposal…” groaning, Joker slammed a fist into the wall. How he hated being normal of all things. To be common place, mundane. It threatened to throw him on a mental loop.
“No no no, I’m beginning to wallow in my own self pity. I never do that anymore! For God’s sake, did I lose the teaching Kinrei gave me on not being such a self absorbed prick?” Growling at himself, he made his way back upwards, his hand on the wall beside him a guide to know he was ascending and not venturing further into the gas. Hopefully, his companion wasn’t too far behind otherwise it would be too bothersome trying to find –
“Argh! I was about to think she wasn’t worth going back for! Even my thinking is becoming selfish again!”
Slapping himself, he continued his trek, determination set on his face. He would find the girl and they would go forth through the gas til it ended.
Pausing, he looked around seeing no real change. Stamping one foot however, made him realize that the sound echoes as if he was within a large room. When he had done the same earlier, the sound had been the shorter echo of a stairway.
“White haired girl? Are you here?” Joker moved forwards slowly, squinting in a futile effort to see through the gas. Nothing changed for what seemed to be a few meters and then the haze became a little clearer.
“Lady? If you hear me, say something!” wincing as his language was starting to become more formal, Joker was suddenly afraid that the gas was constantly making his mind move backwards. It was a frightening thought as it meant if he didn’t find the girl within a certain amount of time, he might well revert to the mind of a child.
A glint of white at the corner of his eye, and he spun around to see the girl sprawled out on the floor and staring upwards at something with a transfixed yet slack look upon her face.
“Milady, thank the powers that be, I’ve found you! Are you injured in any way?” as he knelt beside her, her face tilted towards him her eyes dazed looking, the pupils dilated.
As he felt her forehead, she giggled, “Stop that, you’ll disturb the cow and it’ll fall if I don’t keep watching it!”
Joker blinked, her words making no sense to him at all. It annoyed him since he might have understood it had he been his old... or should he say his new self.
“What on earth are you talking about, woman? There are no cows, nothing but rocks and that noxious gas that seems to be making you giddy.”
“Noooo, peaceful. I’m peeeeaceful. It seems new, I like it and want to stay here. With the peaceful.”
Joker frowned at her, a muscle in his jaw ticking at her nonsense words, “Milady, I must insist we depart from here swiftly. This gas is nothing that will bring you real peace.”
Her eyes focused on him suddenly, narrowing dangerously, “You wants it all for yourself!”
“No I- Oh what ever. You may keep your peace.” Joker threw his hands up and stood, glaring down at this girl who had changed so drastically from the one who had near spat acid at him before.
Seemingly placated by his sudden change of heart, she settled back to watch her cow – only to have her view obstructed then upended on her as Joker’s shoulder invaded her sight as he hauled her up in the air.
“The cow! He’ll fall!!!! Don’t you care if he dies?!” her cries for the safety of a cow did nothing to restore Joker’s humor, though he was glad she was still ‘peaceful’ and not attacking him.
“Milady, after we make it through this mist, I do hope you’ll have forgotten the way I speak at this moment… that is all I care about – oh and having my mind restored to its original state.
So saying, he tuned out her words and walked down the staircase, hoping the gas would end and that his new found lack of patience would last the journey. It wouldn’t be polite for him to dump the girl on her head after all. She was addled enough already."
Did he just say that all aloud?