Day Twenty One: Engine Room to All Carriages

[voidtreckermods]

You have many questions.

Each passenger may ask three.

(OOC: Please read this ooc information before posting!)

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[10billionpercent]

[ He was quiet a moment, tilting his head back to look off into the distance.

He brought his hand up and settled it on Gen's head, warm and solid after a moment. ]

I'm not dead. [ He sounds incredibly certain about that. ]

I'm annoyingly hard to kill. [ A small smile pulls at his lips. ]

So. I'm not dead. Don't kill me before my time. I'm sure I didn't send you into the lion's den with nothing, no way to communicate, or at least get communication. They'd have told you.

[fun_thementalist]

[ Despite his profession, Gen wasn't prone to 'magical thinking', or really optimism for that matter. ]

[ But he still wanted to believe Senku. He really did. ]

... I've got that earring you fashioned, of course. I certainly want to believe you're alive, Senku-chan. You know how I am.

[ He leaned into that touch, the solid warmth grounding him. His smile was sad, more bemused. ]

You know, for the first time, I hope that what I was doing was a bit of a wild goose chase. I'm worried, just a little bit sometimes, that I'm not contributing much. Which is silly! But this time if that's true, nobody's in too much danger with me gone.

[10billionpercent]

I don't believe for a minute you're not contributing. But I'm equally sure that our faith in Ukyo, Ryusui and Chrome is not misplaced. They can handle things. I know it.

[ He takes a shuddering breath. ]

All of this was bullshit. It's a lot to process I just...there's way more going on here than I thought.

[fun_thementalist]

Can I put my arm around you, Senku-chan?

[ Considering how unsettled both of them were feeling, he was definitely asking first, and not assuming. ]

[ He rubbed his other hand on his face. ]

Why give us a chance to ask questions now, I wonder? Especially when it's still very unwilling to give much information. ... Unwilling or unable?

[10billionpercent]

[ He flinches instinctively and shakes his head. Senku looks like he's debating but maybe...

He turns towards Gen and curls his fingers in the middle of his shirt, resting his hand on his chest. There. That's some contact at least. ]

I don't know. We just have so much to think about. And we need to hear what other people found out.

[fun_thementalist]

[ That’s why he asked first, after all. The hand curled on his shirt was enough, anyway, to help ground him physically. Gen took a deep breath, calming himself. ]

Yeah.

We need to find out if the answers ... conflict, contradict, or if they’re consistent.

If they’re consistent ...

[10billionpercent]

I'm predicting they will be, but I don't know what people asked. It's a lot, it really is and I just...

[ He breathes. ]

It'll be fine, no matter what. We can deal with this Mentalist. We'll come up with something.

[fun_thementalist]

It's a lot.

[ He took a deep breath in and out as Senku did. ]

[ In the end? Gen isn't an optimist in the same way that Senku was. He didn't believe that people tended toward positive progress. He didn't trust people who'd harmed them when they said they were on their side. It took a lot more for him to get to that point. ]

[ But he trusted Senku. He had to trust Senku. In some ways, it was how he coped with living in the Stone World they'd woken up in, once he tossed his chips in with the mad scientist. ]

... You always come up with something, my darling. And it always ends up working.

I believe in you.