trainingwings | Now for something completely different

[Action]

[There you are, in the Battle Dome. Trying to mind your own business and do a good day's worth of training. But this guy's too bored to let you do so in peace. As you train, he will sneer and smirk through the observation deck, as if aware of some fatal flaw in your training regimen that is invisible to you. Every time you look up to him, he's answering your latest move with a scoff or a small laugh. Sometimes even an indifferent shrug. And after your big show stopper? A yawn.

Whether you try to approach him or not, Jade Curtiss casually saunters over towards you when you're finally throwing in the towel. He prods his glasses up his nose before assessing you in person, showing every possible visible sign in his face that he is disappointed with your performance.

But he speaks in a casual, almost sing-song manner.]

My, my. Done already? And here I thought this facility was supposed to be used for challenges!

[Voice]

[Jade sits up in bed, impatiently poking at his journal while wearing just his signature bathrobe. It's been a week already since he came here - and since his peers from his world had to endure his tests to prove they were not replicas. Or in some cases, prove they were the same replicas he knew.]

This is Colonel Jade, Third Division, Malkuth Imperial Forces. I've been here a week now, but some matters are still pressing on my mind.

So! Tell me, Luceti. How would you rate the quality of the local hot springs?

Player Name: Gore
Are you new? Nnnope
Character Name: Colonel Jade Curtiss
Character Fandom: Tales of the Abyss

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He turns and blinks as he beholds the oh-so-familiar voice. He'd read some things about this place, how it can bring people from all those different times. But seeing him here, before him now... Jade still can't help but be taken by surprise.

The age discrepancy is duly noted. He's not known any Ion who's lived to this age.]

Ion? [He says with something in the range of genuine surprise for Jade. But then he thinks and lets logic rule his response.] No... Florian?

[Well, if the surprise in his voice hadn't been clue enough, that little correction did plenty to tell Ion just where in time Jade might be from. Though he's not sure whether that makes this easier or not.]

Actually, you were right the first time. Though Florian is here as well. [With a smile.] It's... good to see you again.

Ion.

[He says this time with some sternness, as if cementing that fact for himself. That Ion's here, standing in front him, alive and older. And Florian, too, in the same place? This world truly is bizarre.]

It's - a pleasure to see you again as well.

[His smile can't help but brighten at that.]

[Bizarre, yes, but you got used to it after awhile.]

Have you been here for very long? I hadn't heard from anyone else that you were in the village.

Just a day. I must be falling behind on my homework if I haven't found any trace of yours or Florian's presence here already. [A seemingly indifferent shrug.] The difficulties of being an aging man. And having such unhelpful tour guides. I'll have to reprimand Luke later.

[He's still suspicious in some ways. With everything he knows about replicas... how could be sure that this is the Ion he knew?

He still can't help but give away something like a smile.]

But my, how you've grown.

Edited 2013-01-23 19:54 (UTC)

[Just a day and already perusing the battle dome... knowing Jade, he's probably already got the Malnosso completely figured out or something.]

[In the past, he's always felt an inkling of guilt whenever he felt so happy to see someone else he knew from home show up in this place, but in this case? He just can't help but mirror back that smile.]

I suppose I would look a little different now than you remember. It's been almost three years since I was brought here, after all.

[...Luceti years, of course, but details.]

[Of course, he's just waiting for the right point in the plot to brag about everything he's figured out so far.]

Really? To live so long in a place like this... It sounds like torment to me.

[He slips into a Curtiss shrug.]

But for you, I suppose it must be a vacation.

...perhaps in some respects, yes. [His smile wanes a bit. A vacation wasn't quite the way Ion would phrase things, no.]

[But that didn't change the fact that this was his home now. And really, he wouldn't have it any other way.]

But it's not all that bad once you get used to the way things are here. The people here are all very kind, and for the most part it can be rather peaceful.

You don't say? It's definitely a change of pace from life back home. I can already see it becoming dreadfully boring.

[He smirks and adjusts his glasses.]

But I suppose in this case, it may be less of a prison and more of a retirement home for this aging soldier. Yes, surely this village is the ideal location to spend the approaching winter years of my 40s.