Testing Boundaries {open}

[Henry Charmant]

Henry cast back in his memory and dimly recalled someone named Robin introducing himself. He'd been very quiet throughout the meeting, but he had seemed like a very reasonable and capable person. One of the quieter types, but definitely not unintelligent. "I think I remember him," Henry said with a nod. "Nice guy." It was an almost-question; he didn't have enough information on Robin to be sure one way or another. But then, Ichiro seemed pretty distracted, so an answer to the not-quite-question was probably a little much to hope for.

He listened to Ichiro's explanation patiently, letting him try to work through everything that needed to be said. He waited a moment extra to make sure that he was done speaking, and when Ichiro turned to go, Henry stepped forward. "All right," he said, trying to be as kind as possible. He could see that the guy was looking a little distressed, and his attention kept straying. Henry had dealt with some of that himself when he tried to think about his home life, especially his family. "I'm not sure I understand it completely, but it's not my business what you choose to do."

Leaving it there made Henry feel bad, like he was trying to lay down a guilt trip or something. But what else could he say? "If, um. If you do need help. With anything. It's not like we only help group members. And if you just want someone to...I don't know. To talk to or something." He sounded like a sales pitcher. He could have kicked himself--what had happened to his diplomatic ability? This was worse than trying to negotiate with the island nation kings and all their eligible daughters. Okay, it wasn't that bad. Bracing himself, Henry tried again. "I'm not talking as a member of C.A.U.S. I'm talking as Henry, and I'm willing to talk as your friend. Nobody should have to be here completely alone."

[Ichiro Yoshi]

Hiro shrugged; Robin was nice enough, from what little interaction Hiro had managed to have with the guy. They kept passing like two ships in the night, and it seemed that most of their interactions landed in awkward territory. Certainly didn't help that neither of them was the chatty type. Days would pass without the two of them saying so much as a word. Which, really, wouldn't be that surprising.

At least Henry didn't seem to be pushing matters. Hiro couldn't help but show relief in his face, nodding his thanks at that. He'd continued walking, but he heard the next bit. Hiro didn't seem to react; he simply kept moving while Henry kept going. Need help, like some sort of social outreach group. Talk. Hiro felt a quick surge of anger. Did he look like the kind of guy who needed help? Did he strike Henry as being talkative? Hiro could almost feel the hairs on the back of his neck bristle. But he calmed himself; that wasn't what you did. You just didn't snap at people, and it was entirely likely, probable, really, that Henry was just being nice. Snapping would get them no where.

"Thanks. Henry," said Hiro, separating the two, much as Henry had done. He nodded, something of a curt expression. "But I'm not exactly the share my feelings---" Hiro stopped, not only talking, but moving, as a memory clobbered him. Flashes, images, people, a redhaired girl... a redhead? That was new. She was cute but... not the girl? Someone else's girl? A friend. And sharing... sharing feelings? Hiro didn't move for some time, standing there, unblinking, as the visions overwhelmed him. When he finished, he blinked, looking over to Henry for a few moments. There was no emotion, no shock, no apology, though his voice was a little shaky when he finally spoke:

"How long?"

[Henry Charmant]

Henry could feel the tension in Hiro's words. Apparently his sales pitch had gone sour. Which was not entirely unexpected; he'd known he sounded awkward and stupid, and he maybe should have left everything where it was. He inwardly cursed his need to fill silence with polite conversation that usually left at least one foot in a place it didn't belong.

He began nodding, resigned that Hiro would probably never feel comfortable sharing his feelings with someone as stupid as himself, when the other boy paused in the middle of a sentence. Looking up with some alarm, Henry saw Hiro's face go blank. It looked like he was watching something that wasn't there. Henry was reminded of his own expression when he had first seen a movie. Something terrifying and overwhelming suddenly forcing everything else to stop in its tracks...

He wasn't sure how to react, so he just stood there, waiting. He glanced around to see if anyone else was around who might know what to do, but they were alone in the woods. Should he shake the guy or something? But he didn't have to wonder for too long, because Hiro was suddenly moving again, looking over and blinking normally.

"Um," Henry said, trying to discern exactly what question was being posed here. He answered the obvious one. "You were only out for a couple minutes, maybe. Maybe less. Are you all right? You looked a little dazed there."

Then he remembered what they had just been talking about and put his hands up. "Sorry, never mind. You don't have to share if you don't want to. I just know...I sometimes have these weird flashbacks from home, you know? And I found that when I talked it out with someone, it made them less...I don't know. Less powerful." He shrugged. "But then I think the answer to everything is talking it out. That's just something my mother taught me, I guess. So sorry if I've been bothering you."

[Ichiro Yoshi]

Hiro looked to Henry as he answered, the ninja keeping his face steady throughout, which took a massive amount of will and effort. At the question, he simply nodded. Hiro was all right, at least, in the general sense of the term. No pain, at least not physical or even really emotional. Just that sensation that he was missing something, something almost essential to him. As Hiro debated it, however, Henry kept talking. The more taciturn ninja made a note that the other guy certainly liked to hear the sound of his own voice, and for the first few words, that's all Hiro could focus on. Yet when Henry mentioned the bit about flashbacks from home... Hiro turned to study him with that unnerving intensity, as though Henry were a problem that Hiro had been assigned.

"Funny, I thought you were rather tight-lipped," teased Hiro. He flashed a quick smile, then sighed, rubbing at the back of his head. "I suppose I owe you at least a little explanation. It's... they're... well, not really flashbacks. Flashbacks make sense. These are more like the images you get when you flip through channels on a television too fast. Or like when you fall asleep with MTV on," Hiro took another deep breath, running his hand over his face. "I don't really remember anything... I think I mentioned that," he looked to Henry for confirmation, pausing only for a moment before continuing, "but I get flashes, especially whenever something familiar shows up. But they're... weird. My life was not... was not normal."

Hiro paused, looking around at the trees. He rocked back and forth on his heels for a moment, then offered Henry another wry smile. "Because things are just boring here."

[Henry Charmant]

Henry caught the quip and saw it as an opportunity to stop talking when they were still in the joking stage. He clamped his mouth shut and listened to Ichiro's explanation, nodding at everything he said even though a fair amount of it wasn't making sense. (What was MTV?) He tried to think of something comforting to say, then decided that his new vow of silence might be the better option. After all, he kept sticking his foot in his mouth every time he tried to talk. So he gave a half-shrug and a small smile and sort of rolled his eyes. He knew people who could communicate in looks, but he was definitely not one of them.

Were things boring here? Henry didn't think so. There was more intrigue here than there had been at home, and there had been whole countries involved there. But he didn't know how to address the state of things here, so he decided to backtrack to an earlier comment, something he could reply to in just a few short sentences.

"One of my friends here used to be a pony," he said, trying to justify the strangeness of some of the other places that people came from. "And one girl used to live in hell." He chose not to throw in the So you're not the only one with a weird home life, trusting Ichiro to catch that on his own. Besides, he had already broken his promise to stop talking. Best to stop before he managed to say something really stupid. Like mention how the technology here was the weirdest part of this world, since this guy already seemed pretty familiar with it.

"Maybe it's this world that is unusual," he said, sort of hoping that it would work as a decent sum-up phrase to what they had been talking about. He wasn't really good at this whole succinct thing.

[Ichiro Yoshi]

Hiro blinked at the mention of being a pony. Somehow, that didn't seem nearly as surprising to him as it should be. As for the hell bit, well, you could argue that something like half the places they'd come from had been hell. Or that this place was hell. Or that nearly any place was hell. All depended on where you came from, really. And as Hiro thought about that, he also noted that Henry had broken that vow of silence, not that the ninja was all that surprised: Henry liked to talk.

As for this place, Hiro chuckled. He rubbed at the back of his head, letting his fingers run through the hair. Why was it that he liked touching it so? Oh well, one little puzzling bit among so very, very many. "You wanna know what some of my memories are? I remember studying ninjetsu under my father, who I'm pretty sure was a six foot tall rat who used to be a Japanese man. I had brothers, at least three, and I think one was mentally retarded while the other was a super-genius. and we fought crime. Either that, or we hopped around from rooftop to rooftop fighting people for kicks. Which probably makes us criminals. Actually," Hiro chuckled, "the rat and the ninja thing kinda supports that, huh?"

Hiro took another deep breath, letting it out slowly. He let his eyes roam the forest for a few seconds, as if looking for the proper followup to his last comment. "So, yeah," he lowered his eyes to Henry. "This place seems a lot more normal to me," a pause, a beat, and Hiro smiled, "plus I like having hair."

Not that he wasn't sure he didn't have it back home but hey, it sounded like a good thing to say.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry blinked at Ichiro's description. It certainly hadn't been what he had expected. Though from talking to other people he had learned that he perhaps had one of the more normal transitions here--apparently it was more like he had jumped forward in time than anything else--it still surprised him to hear stories about how strange other worlds could be. He was silent for a minute, trying to put together everything and make sense of it to himself as well as figuring out what to say that would be encouraging and not sound completely stupid.

"Well, you do look good with hair."

And the foot-in-mouth syndrome struck again. Henry could have kicked himself (and nearly did, in fact), and almost tried to explain his way out of it. Then he figured he would probably just make a bigger mess of it. Maybe it would just be best to pretend he hadn't spoken.

"I don't think you're a criminal. I only know a little about ninjas, but I didn't think they were necessarily bad. And a giant rat...maybe magic? I know there are some places that have magic, even if they don't have it here. But that sounds reasonable to me." All right, so he was partially trying to encourage Ichiro and partially trying to convince himself that everything was normal in its own way. As soon as he realized that he was rambling to explain the things in his head, though, he shut up.

At least for a little while. "What you were before doesn't have to matter here, you know," he said. "Even if you were a criminal. Though if you ask me, if those suits are the police, maybe we need a few more criminals to break their boundaries." And all right, the vow of silence thing was pretty well dead, but Henry at least felt like he had managed to say something worthwhile instead of just being a dunce.

[Ichiro Yoshi]

Hiro chuckled at Henry's comment, reaching a hand up to ruffle his hair. "Yeah, definitely," he said, nodding slowly. He took a deep, slow breath, as though attempting to recover from the sudden outpouring of backstory and feelings. It helped, some. So did Henry's talking, for the most part. Again, that seemed to tug at some memory in the back of Hiro's mind. His brothers must have talked; maybe the one who was mentally retarded had done a lot of talking. Somehow, Hiro got the feeling that Henry and that brother would get along, though, then again, he was pretty sure the one thing that brother succeeded at doing was getting on with people, especially strange people. That and naming things.

"I don't think I was a criminal either," admitted Hiro, looking back ahead, his eyes scanning. "I have... well, I have this sort of moral code. Maybe it's because my memories are gone but, I feel like I should be doing the right thing. Helping people, doing what's necessary to make sure everyone's safe and happy, regardless of the consequences. I don't think it was magic though; I'm not sure any of this is. But yeah, I'm definitely keeping an eye on the suits."

He gave Henry another long, searching look, then nodded slowly. He turned and began walking again, moving slowly back toward town. His swords suddenly felt a little lighter on his back, at least, and his motions were less jerky, as though he'd slid a little back into his past self, and it fit almost too well.

[Henry Charmant]

Thank goodness the hair comment didn't go over too badly. That could have been awkward if it had gone the wrong way. And Ichiro didn't even seem so upset over the whole blabbermouth thing. Maybe the two were actually starting to get along better? That would be nice.

"Sounds like a good job," he said, nodding his head. A hero. He was walking next to a real hero. The very thought made Henry walk a little bit lighter, his grin a little larger. He'd always read stories of grand heroes who saved the world, and now he might even be friends with one. What did that make him? A sidekick of some sort? Not the best gig, but better than just being a boring old prince.

"I'm glad I met you, Ichiro," Henry said, still smiling. "It's good to know there's someone else out there who is trying to help. Honestly, the people from CAUS who are watching the suits seem a little...wild. And besides that, well, it's good to learn there are other good people here. Though you might want to be a little more careful about wandering out to the borders where the suits hang out."

[Ichiro Yoshi]

Hiro shrugged. It wasn't really a job; he was still a student. That much seemed to copy over from his previous life too, though from what bits and pieces Hiro could cobble together, the lessons were very, very different. Which probably made up the difference between having a rat for a teacher versus... whatever most of the staff here was. Actually, now that Hiro thought about it, there were definitely some teachers that probably were ninja rats or something. What was that one, Ms. Bertinelli? Definitely ninja rat potential there.

Another nod, and Hiro tucked away the information about CAUS. The group seemed to have its heart in the right place, have a mission and all, but was... wild? Strange to think that a group Henry would be a part of would be wild. Then again, Hiro was hardly one to talk. "Don't worry about me, ninja remember? And I'm A team material," another flash, a brief one, where Hiro stood and pointed at his brothers, the genius and the retard, and told them they were the B team, no offense. At least that memory was more fleeting; Hiro didn't even lose his step. He just nodded; nodded, and kept walking, which, really, seemed to be how he was getting forward.