Unfliltered

[nicotinized]

[Toshi's mental voice sounds a little anxious - he's trying to hide it, but he has no idea when he is, just that finally there are other people around and some of them look familiar]

Hey, what did I miss? Is Souji still here?

[there's a pause, and then he sounds a little calmer, and a little embarrassed]

I got stuck in some weird patch of liminal space where time was all fucked up - watch didn't work right or anything.

Comments

[inexecution]

Are you sure?

[Because you never knew. Maybe he'd said something rude over that phone in Liminal Space or something.]

Um. It might be easier to show you.

[And there's some livestream of a roadway with cars whipping past, and a little in the distance, a pretty nondescript toll station]

I'm afraid there aren't any signs anywhere.

[nicotinized]

Look, I can't be sure about anything here.

Fuck, you're right, that looks almost the same as the road I'm on.

[inexecution]

[Fair enough, he'll save more teasing for later.]

They all look this way, from what I've seen.

[Which admittedly wasn't much because he'd hit that pavement hard, his lungs were having an argument with him, and he just didn't feel like playing Frogger with the traffic.]

And there seems to be a lot of it.

[nicotinized]

Yeah - it keeps shifting, too. I'll see if I can find some sort of landmark

[inexecution]

I'll keep an eye out, too.

[Although he wasn't really expecting to find anything.]

You're okay?

[And there actually a little bit of real emotion in that inquiry, because he'd spent the last few weeks searching everywhere and now Hijikata was just... back.]

[nicotinized]

Yeah. It was mostly just a pain in the ass, not dangerous.

Are you okay?

[inexecution]

I'm glad.

[There's a bit of a pause, because he should have been expecting that in return, but...]

I was pretty good at staying out of things, this time.

[nicotinized]

[he's sensing a lie by omission there, because it's Souji] That wasn't an answer.

[inexecution]

I'm okay.

[Which probably wasn't going to hold up once Hijikata actually saw him, but for now, he didn't need to worry.]

[nicotinized]

Alright. Let me know if you find a good meeting spot.

[inexecution]

I'm sure something will turn up... eventually.

[nicotinized]

If nothing else, this whole place'll flip upside down and become something new in a day or two, probably.

[inexecution]

Hopefully not literally, this time.

[He'd rather not have another abrupt introduction to the ground, thanks.]

[nicotinized]

Yeah, well, knock on wood. The fact that it hasn't happened yet means it probably will, eventually.