[Console/Video] - Grade +1.00

[strokeofgenis]

[Genis is feeling all out of sorts. Yes, he'd been told that this massive headache and otherwise feeling completely lethargic and terrible would be gone by tomorrow, and so he would have considered putting this out there until then, but someone had told him that he looked somewhat familiar, that there was some older girl with the same hair colour. And while there were possibly a zillion people in all the infinite worlds out there that he didn't yet know about that had elder girls with a silver-white hair, the description sounded like a shoe-in for Raine. He had to make the post.

[But Genis looks just... terrible. He's tired and just feels just empty, not to mention hungry. You'll see a 12 year old's face just looking like he could use a really really nice sleep. And as a result, he's not afraid to be cranky. Granted, he's always unafraid to be cranky, but that's his excuse at the moment.]

I really hate to gripe about this first thing, but come on. I come straight from one world where I'm hated just for being a half-elf, and now I'm in a world where I'm hated just because I'm not from around here? Greeeeeat. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a world out there where people don't discriminate against other people for completely stupid reasons.

I mean, what'd you guys even do to the kedan anyway? Did you go out and kidnap everyone's kids or something? Because if it wasn't as big as something like that, I don't know what you could have possibly done to get them to hate you so badly.

[He says this with the most deadpan delivery ever. He then just shakes his head as if just in disbelief that he's already stuck in a world worse than the one he'd just left.]

Okay, at any rate, I don't know who exactly is out there listening to this, but... hey. I'm Genis Sage.  I don't suppose any of you know someone named Raine, would you?  Anyway, as for me, I guess I'm just a student at the moment, though I really haven't been attending school for a while since I've been travelling around my world for the past while with my sister and my friends.  Despite that, I could probably still graduate at the top of my class even without having been diligent on all my homework last year.  [He says this with a remarkable amount of pride despite his general malaise of feeling empty and tired.]

Anyway, I'd say that I'm looking forward to meeting all of you soon, but right now I'm much more interested in waiting for this massive headache to go away first. Though I'm told that's supposed to go away tomorrow, so that's one thing going my way.

Comments

[strokeofgenis]

If only you could rewind the clock to go back in time to before you died and could change that. Of course, I'm pretty sure that violates the Theory of Relativity.

But other than that, I guess so.

[solo_patria]

Rewinding clocks. That IS a nice idea, in theory. But I suppose escaping destiny is never good for very long.

[He does expect that he will not live here forever, after all, and that someday he will have to return, but to that moment. Enjolras tries not to think of it, or of Grantaire and what he's learned the man's death really meant. Or the time he saw his friends as slaves in the alternate dimension where he fought Malicant. It is too much information to process, really, but he hopes, really, that he can go back and see they are alright. It's only that he wishes to hold on a little longer here. Isn't it? ]

We return to where we came from, eventually. At least a great deal of people have moved on. And then, well, it IS a respite, after all.

[strokeofgenis]

I guess so. Even half-elves aren't meant to live forever. Nor should they, probably.

[solo_patria]

Half elves?

[He's leaning forward, interested.]

Is that what you are?

[strokeofgenis]

Why? Do you have something against half-elves?

[solo_patria]

What?

[Even though it's a screen, he's backing up a bit, looking a little embarrassed.]

Of course I have nothing against half elves. Or full ones. I apologize if I gave you that impression.

[And then another thought occurs to him.]

So among other elves...would a half one to us, well to humans, be considered a half human instead?

[strokeofgenis]

[And Genis will feel a little sheepish at that.]

Sorry. I'm just not used to people not being antagonistic to half-elves yet. We kind of get the short end of the stick in my world.

[But the thought does provoke an interesting one.]

I mean, I guess you could say that we're half-human, since I've got an elvish mother and a human father... but everyone just calls us half-elves, which always seems to have the ring of "not human."

[solo_patria]

[Enjolras is just going to...shift a little, looking unsure of himself for a moment as Genis speaks, but then he is nodding.]

Not all worlds are kind ones for everyone. I suppose...there are no elves in my world, so I wondered a bit. I...can be a bit too direct, I am told. I apologize for making that...uncomfortable for you.

[And probably that last bit was a little too much too, he realizes, nodding.]

It IS a shame that things like that come to matter so much, isn't it? Not human but you are a person, still.

[strokeofgenis]

[Genis still doesn't look at ease, certainly due to the fact that he isn't quite familiar with Enjolras yet. Trust... sometimes comes very hard. But he's still talking.]

It's alright. It's just weird. I guess a good weird.

But yeah, still a person. It shouldn't matter what you are, whether you're an elf, a human, a dwarf, or anything in between. Everyone's got the right to live.

[solo_patria]

[Oh good. Yeah, Enjolras can, uh, come on a bit too strong sometimes, with new people. Not sending people running for cover because he's scary is a good thing.]

A good weird...That does seem to be a thing here.

And so we do. Luckily, I think that here, only the kedan seem not to like any of us.

[strokeofgenis]

Yeah, they don't seem like the friendliest sort here. Everyone keeps telling me they've got reason to hate us, but really, I just don't understand what their problem actually is.

[solo_patria]

The problem is that a lot of things, very circumstantial ones, but still things, happened while those of us who WERE here, were asleep. It's led to quite a few difficulties. Not our fault by any means, or especially those of you who weren't here but...it does make things look bad for our side.

[Enjolras is sighing here, rubbing his face.]

Insanity, in short.

[strokeofgenis]

[Yeah, Genis can concur with that... even if it's not exactly what Enjolras is talking about.]

Yeah, it pretty much sounds like everything is insane here.

[Everyone too. Or at least the kedan.]

[solo_patria]

And that is, I think, the first step to surviving all of this. Embracing the insanity if you can, or at least understanding it. I do wish things were a bit more fair, but well. It has been worse.

[strokeofgenis]

Embracing the insanity? What do you even mean by that? Because, just saying, that sounds just about as insane as the rest.

[solo_patria]

Just...understanding that it is here, and there is little one can do about it, so we have to...attempt making the best of it that we can. There are things here that could never have happened at home, a talking skeleton and magic hotel that operates between the sectors of the city, and the idea that dreams and reality are...not so far apart as they might have been once. It's a matter of...becoming used to those things and maybe, even, appreciating some of them. It can help, with things you aren't always able to wrap your head around.

[strokeofgenis]

Wait, talking skeletons? You're sure you're not talking about monsters now, right?

[Well maybe now he won't just automatically greet Skulduggery with a bunch of spells to the face. One can only hope.]

Oh brother, I don't think I'm ever going to get used to the insanity here. But I guess I don't really have any other choice, do I?

[solo_patria]

Oh no, Monsieur Pleasant appears to be very much like his name. I do not know him very well, I am afraid, but every occasion we have had to speak to one another, he's not shown himself to be anything but relatively normal in personality. No evil incantations or dastardly plots have sprung up around him that I can tell.

[And then he's giving Genis an almost gentle smile.]

For now, it might help if you remind yourself that this is all real, and know that the other foreigners here are usually willing to help, I think it would be a good start. It is all so vastly overwhelming if you try to overthink the situation. But you will be all right. I was.

[strokeofgenis]

Well let's be honest. Trying to make any sort of real sense about how this place even works would probably just make your brain explode trying to figure it out. So I guess not overthinking it is probably a good idea.

[Genis blinks a little bit, clearly still nonplussed by everything.]

But if you say this skeleton guy is no monster, then I guess I'll just have to suppress my instinct to start blasting spells at him.

[Genis almost sounds disappointed.]

[solo_patria]

That is true. I often wonder at what my past self would have thought about...the concept of all of this, and come to the conclusion that he would have no idea what to make of all of this. Better to just...yes, go along with it, I suppose.

[He has to laugh at the disappointment there.]

Well, yes, generally the other foreigners are safe. We HAVE encountered an unfriendly dragon once, though, even as we lived with friendly dragons who were also foreigners for a while.

[strokeofgenis]

Well technically speaking, you actually already know the reaction that your past self had when learning all of this. I mean, it has already happened technically...

[Though Genis' eyes perk when discussions of dragons come up.]

I suppose it only follows that on some world dragons are going to be sentient beings too. Though if we ever get another unfriendly one, no thanks. Kindly let me know so I can get off the turtle. I've already almost been dragon food once before, and I'd like not to sign up for that again.

[solo_patria]

Well, if we are getting quite technical, when I arrived, I was told that there had been another me here for some time. A me with memories I did not recall, who had to learn, or re-learn everything, with experiences and friends I never knew.

[He's shaking his head here, still trying to figure that one out. And to shake the suspicion that his arrival and failed memories drove Grantaire to drink himself so ill, and eventually to leave. Dragons are the preferred subject by far. ]

Have you, then? Temeraire and Iskierka would not have harmed anyone. They came from a sort of flying navy, where they worked with humans. As for the unfriendly one, we did manage to...I was not part of the party who took him away, but he is gone, at any rate. along with the small world he started out in.

I cannot imagine what being attacked must have been like. Iskierka was rather shrunken from her normal size and she could still carry our crew and supplies quite easily here, and Temeraire once helped with rescuing many of the kedan by carrying them to safety. A full sized version of either of them alert and angry? I cannot imagine.

[strokeofgenis]

[Genis just blinks a bit at that before hanging his head.]

I would argue that that is nowhere near what I actually meant by that, but... really, I wasn't actually expecting that there could have been another way to answer that.

[Well done, Enjie. Well done.]

A flying navy composed of both dragons and humans? Now I've heard of everything. I'm actually kind of jealous because it sounds like that kind of world might not have the racial discrimination mine does.

But yeah, as for being attacked? I don't recommend it. One of the Desian Cardinals kidnapped one of our friends and brought her to a dragons' nest. Before we could get out, some of the dragons returned, and we had to attack them. Man, that was one of the worst fights we had to go through. We were lucky to get out of there alive.

[solo_patria]

That...proves how odd it is here, I suppose. [Enjolras has to admit that he is still experiencing a bit of a....a bit of a mindfuck over that one, a few years down the line. That said, he IS eyedarting a little at the blink.]

Another example of the sometimes oddities here. My apologies for throwing that in there.

[At that, Enjolras is considering, thinking back to conversations he actually had with them.]

Well, as I understand it, the dragons were cared for and respected at home in their worlds but they had nothing like sovereignty. Temeraire and I did discuss some ideas, in case of his remembering this world, of what he might do to push it further towards making them equals, so I am not entirely positive as to what all might happen where others are concerned there. Then again, they did come from England. [A Frenchman joking about the English, yup.] It is a country not entirely known for being...open to a lot of possibilities, shall we say.

THAT sounds incredibly harrowing. Kidnapping is awful enough an experience but being brought there after? And knowing how difficult a rescue may become? Terrifying.

[strokeofgenis]

Well, it's not like different races—or even species—need to have their own individual sovereignty just to live life.

[Genis is pretty convinced on this point.]

I mean, my world pretty much wanted each race to live by themselves and keep to themselves, and it just made things absolutely terrible. People should be able to live together in harmony without being looked at terribly.

[Genis just frowns at the last bit.]

Well, it was more a trap to bait us into coming after her, you know, to try to get rid of us. I think we'd proven ourselves to be quite a thorn in Cruxis' side by that point.