if the elephants have past lives

[invoking]

WHO: GIL and YOU
WHERE: anywhere! The park, a grocery store, the streets, around his workplace, etc.
WHEN: between 12/10 and 12/13
WARNINGS: references to Thunderhungerdome events
SUMMARY: In spite of everything that's happened, Gil has to try and carry on with City life.
FORMAT: starting with quick but tagger's choice!


[ If there's anything Gil is always quick to buy, no matter how stingy he can be with money, it's cigarettes and a brand new lighter. He's not too fond of those cheap ones from the corner stores, even if they do work in a pinch. But so do matches. (The odd stare every now and then doesn't both him when he's craving a long drag of nicotine. While he's well are of the laws against public smoking, when he really needs (re: wants) a cigarette, he can't help himself. When he's working, he avoids it as long as he can before he lights one outside the building.

Attempting to quit doesn't cross his mind. There's a lot on it.

He's even lost count of how long it's been since that night in the stadium. There are fleeting moments it feels like it was a decade ago, buried under the other painful events that seemed to consistently plague his life-- and then the vivid moments like it was just yesterday and his senses are overloaded with the smell of copper and screaming ringing in his ears.

It's the brief seconds of remembering Lenalee and Damian's bodies that jostles him out of his daze and he needs to stop and catch his breath. ]

Comments

[invoking]

[ He thought of home and the Sealing Stones... Glen, Jack, Oz in the entirety of the moment he asked. He doesn't know how any of this would help even if they could remember everything when they were ported back, but it's better than not knowing, he supposes.

Still... ]

This is truly beyond someone like me...

[foreshadower]

Is it? If you believe it is, then it shall be so. [ He dropped his cane to the ground with a soft 'thunk', the metal end hitting the concrete, and he held onto the bird's-head end, a gloved hand drawing across the surface as if in thought. ]

But I believe nothing is truly beyond anyone. Why, in my example, I belong to another age altogether, and yet here I am, just as well as any other person raised in this time.

There was a time when such technology would be magic, and then it was a luxury out of the hands of most, and then it became common.

Time, I have found, changes things.

[invoking]

Well, I'm no practitioner of magic and I don't stu--

[ He freezes in that second at the little tidbit Shade had just shared with him. He thinks he means he's like Gil, from a different world that is still in its apparent infancy with technology.

Or so, a part of him does.

He thinks there might be more weight in those words than he'd like to believe. ]

Your world isn't like this one?

[foreshadower]

No world is like this one! Of course, it is a similar time, and there are metahumans galore, and we both have a history that is somewhat similar, but in the modern age, we branch away, or perhaps it's the City that does so.

[ He pauses thoughtfully at that, mulling over the concept that lit through his thoughts like a dark spider, skittering along, before he lifted a hand in something of an "eureka!" gesture. ]

Or perhaps it was the advent of the metahuman in mine. It seems that such an event diverts things.

Why, look what happened in this world, with our arrival. Things certainly changed, and not necessarily for the better. [ But not for the worse, either. }

[invoking]

Oh. [ Short, but tinted with vague disappointment. It's odd and even a little lonely, but increasingly frightening to be the only one from his world or "era". Gil thinks he's over thinking everything, especially after the stadium. He's simply longing for something to help him ease down.

He speaks up finally, though he still seems slightly distracted. ]

It's true that... certain people have made things worse for us. But the Porter is the one who bring us here in the first place.

[foreshadower]

Of course she is. It is true, however, that the advent of the metahuman creates change. It doesn't matter whether it's due to certain people, or not," he explained, in the sort of world-weary explanation that spoke lengths about how many times he had dwelt on the fact, dwelt on what the world would be like.

Well, he had spent some time writing on the subject in his journals. Not all of them had been given to Jack, after all. Only the ones that had been relevant to the history of Opal City. As the protector, he'd known the budding hero would appreciate the look into her history.

Besides, Jack had always been enamored enough with the past.

"Even by existing, I affected those around me. No matter whether it was positive or negative, the powers that metahumans hold, and by extension themselves, tend to make waves."

[invoking]

[ Like Chains, he thinks to himself. ]

But the person who created that machine... why start all this in the first place? The police had supposedly disappeared.

If these metahumans were only going to cause trouble, why bring them here in the first place?

GOD I'm sorry, apparently I fucked the formatting!!

[foreshadower]

Do we even know if they knew? How were they supposed to know that we would be such troublesome creatures? I'm sure they thought it would be for the betterment of all mankind, but then we arrive.

[ He gestures with a hand, an amused sign of "what can you do?" lilting with the fingers. His hands are bare, despite the chill. ]

Well, I think that spoke for ourselves.

IT'S OKAY

[invoking]

[ And who knows what else there is to come. The Porter's always bringing in someone erratic and irresponsible with their abilities-- or just plain dangerous. ]

It's not something you dwell on, huh. [ Maybe it's for the better. Shade seems at ease enogu here. ]

[foreshadower]

Not particularly, no. Dwelling means living and remaining in the past.

[ It was a faint smile, but it was there. Almost nostalgic. ] While I do enjoy thinking about my own past, if we were to remain forever fixated on it, there would be no progress. It's best to move on, and take what we can from it before we see what excitement will come next.

[invoking]

[ He's almost stunned. This person can admit he was some sort of criminal in the past and now live his life free of guilt? Or so it seems to Gil. ]

I suppose it's not difficult to do here with so much happening all the time.

[foreshadower]

Ah yes, how busy we are here.

[ He mentions it, but he only shakes his head. ]

Honestly, it's not that busy, but to some, I am certain it could seem that way. Things tend to blend together for me, after a while.

[invoking]

It's always something... big. [ How else can he put it? ] People turning into children, being ported to other parts of this world, a fight in the middle of downtown...

[foreshadower]

Indeed it is. [ He held a hand to his chin in thought. ]

And yet we keep coming in, and yet things continue to be "big". It doesn't seem that there's much way to stop it, so we may as well ride along with the wave, yes?

[invoking]

You make it sound like it's fun.

[foreshadower]

No, perhaps not fun. However, I do find it exciting, and perhaps a bit different.

[ He lifted his hands, as if to say: 'what can you do?' ]

I'm an immortal, any change of pace is a bit nice.