Poi 05 - Voice

[firewalled]

...It's Rich.

[Might as well not bother with preamble, though that's certainly odd for him. Odder still that he has the video off, even if there's still the faint strumming of guitar suggesting that he's nervously plucking at strings as he often does.]

I'm 18 now, according to the roster. Guess I missed my birthday. I knew it was coming up, but I was kinda distracted with stuff.

[Like having a mental crisis for the better part of two months at least.]

Anyways, was just wondering like... what's the longest someone's been stuck here before they got to go back home? Maybe, uh, maybe it was wishful thinking? But I was kinda thinking with the whole Ministry investigation and how fucking useless I am on the missions that the train would boot me off by now.

[He's really trying to laugh, trying to make that sound like a joke.]

Just. Was thinking about it. At this point, my friends back home probably assume my dad stabbed me or shit... maybe they'll believe those messages we got to send at that river, but more likely they'll think I'm nuts.

[Just another certified Rich Goranski Comedy Routine. He'll be here all week, folks.]

Comments

[fivemilesdeep]

Not necessarily. You're a bard, and a good one, and that's definitely something not everyone here can do.

Either way, trying to learn something new takes time. That doesn't make you useless either - just inexperienced.

[firewalled]

A bard can like, usually do spells with their music. All I can do is push people back a little. And I don't even know why I'm able to do that now.

[Sure, maybe it could be useful in the future... but right now, it's just good at annoying Alice.]

You'd still think after six months, I'd have more to show for myself than a pointless spell and the magical ability to punch stuff good once in a while.

[fivemilesdeep]

Not where I'm from - not unless they're already a mage. And that might be your Diagad power, if you kept it?

[He shakes his head. That's a different rabbit hole, and he doesn't want to lose the thread here.]

You play guitar, don't you? I remember your concert. [He hadn't said anything - the concert had been not long after he'd boarded the train, and he'd still been struggling to deal with everything that entailed - but he'd gone, and he'd enjoyed himself.] How long did it take you to learn to do that?

[firewalled]

My Diagad power?

[Now that he thinks about it, it does sort of seem similar to what he could do in that world, just weaker. But then what about that weird charm effect his music seemed to have? Does he still have that?

Now it's somehow more uncomfortable to talk about his playing, but he shakes it off.] I don't know... I mean, I've been playing since I was little. My mom taught me the scales and chords and stuff. I started being able to play songs by ear when I was in middle school. I stopped playing for a bit, but picked it up when I got here again for a couple months before I did that concert...

[fivemilesdeep]

Yeah - most of us who wound up there kept our powers, though some of them have changed.

[Including his, thank the gods.]

So you've been working on it for most of your life, which I'm guessing is longer than six months. [It's not a great joke, but it's there.] It makes sense that you'd be good at it when you've spent that much time on it. Six months, with breaks for missions and other stops and chores and rest and everything else, isn't that much time, especially when it's something you've never done before.

[Plus, he hasn't forgotten that time that someone else reactivated the computer in Rich's brain and used him against his will. It takes time to recover from something like that, though he's not going to bring it up.]

You haven't been training for years to be a warrior. Give yourself some space.

[firewalled]

Huh... I guess I'll have to keep an eye on it.

[Honestly, he's more than a little worried about how his powers will end up, but he feels it isn't the right time to mention it. Ryo really is trying to help, and Rich does appreciate that, even if it's hard for him to really accept it.]

...You have a point. It just feels shitty to be the one needing help all the time with stuff like that. I don't want to have to be rescued a ton.

[Probably why he isn't even talking about the SQUIP's reactivation. That was just another uncomfortable reminder of how powerless he is, in his opinion.]