ic contact;

[echoistic]

❝Yoooo! Ain't here right now, which means I'm probably sleeping, eating, doing something I can't mention out loud, or something really awesome and attention-consuming, but whichever it is, I'm not here right now! Wait, I already said that. So yeah, do what you gotta do, which I guess is—❞

[ video | audio | text* | action ]

[ *Note that Rhys can't read very well, so texting him might, uh, not have the intended effect. ]

Comments

[discard]

Then why are you still here?

[??? ???? why won't you leave him alone

(don't be a baby, Leon)]

[coastal]

[ . . . . . what-]

No, I'm rather sure that you need far, far more than that!

[echoistic]

Why not? Do I have to care about what you think of me to like hangin' around you?

[echoistic]

... Well, I guess you could throw shelter on that list too! But it really depends on how you define shelter—I mean, you don't need a building to live in, but it's definitely handy to have some means of creating a campfire or some kind of roof above your head in the winter...

[       —> what was probably Lili's point

Rhys's head]

[discard]

[..... ????]

If you have no interest in what I think of you, and I have no interest in what you think of me, there is no purpose to remaining here. Like this.

[How do you socialize.]

[coastal]

[ . . . . . and Lili's just amazed at this point.]

Were you a beggar?

[POOR PEOPLE. STILL AMAZING.]

[echoistic]

Yep! For a few years!

[A fact that he sounds maybe a little too cheerful about, despite those having been very bitter years of his life (and then he also spent a couple of years as a bandit, but he won't drop that out of the blue like that).]

[echoistic]

... Do you understand what "small talk" is?

[He says that very seriously, because who knows?? Maybe this dude doesn't know???]

[coastal]

That's absurd.....!

[Lili, stop revealing just how 1% you really are.]

And you're so cheerful about it!!

[echoistic]

Uh, what's absurd about it? Plenty of people are beggars.

And 'course I am—it was like, what, ten years ago? No point in being upset over something that long ago. 'Sides, it taught me a lot.

[None of it good things, but Lili doesn't need to know that.]

[discard]

Of course I understand what it is!

[You're so rude!!]

That doesn't mean I have any interest in something so pointless. Stop wasting my time.

[echoistic]

I dunno, I think we've had a very productive conversation so far!

[coastal]

Did it....?

Such as how to survive in the wild with very little resources?

[is that all she thinks beggars know how to do]

[discard]

[Have an...incredulous stare....]

You must be joking.

[??]

Are you delusional?

[echoistic]

... Well, yeah, that's one of 'em. You learn to be really resourceful when you don't have much! I mean, that's why I taught myself how to sew, so I could fix my clothes instead of having to try and get new ones.

[Things he probably shouldn't mention: being a beggar (and, especially, being a bandit as a child) taught him how to manipulate people's perception of him if need be. He knows that he doesn't struggle as much as Alun does in turning this off, but he still sometimes does it, and he'd rather Lili not be aware in that case.]

[echoistic]

Nope! I just keep reasonable standards. If I'm having fun, then nothing's pointless.

[discard]

[????]

Those are hardly reasonable standards. You must be nothing but a useless layabout with an attitude like that!

[echoistic]

Yeah? What kind of useless layabout works two jobs?

[discard]

You--

[... ???]

--what? If you mean here, I fail to be impressed; working extra as a lackey of this corporation does not make you any less useless.

[echoistic]

[He shrugs; it's hard to actually be offended when this guy knows absolutely nothing about him and Rhys feels no real need to inform him. He's fairly certain that even surviving in the Outside, particularly when it was only him and Alun, disqualifies him as being genuinely lazy and unproductive.

He wouldn't have survived a week as a kid if he were, after all.]

But I'm not a layabout, right? Though technically, if we're talking about back home, I'm always on the job... Anyway, what do you do, oh Sir of Being Highly Useful and Productive?

[discard]

[Yeah, Leon's a close-minded punk who knows basically nothing, Rhys is not wrong.]

I am one of the king's knight of my country, naturally. [he's a special snowflake knight, even!!] I did not have time to slack off or play around uselessly.

[echoistic]

Oooooh, ahhhhhh.

[Rhys says appreciatively, except:]

... So what's a knight?

[A "king", if he recalls correctly, is some kind of ruler—not that they exist in Naga, save for Elial, or so he thinks. Hell if anyone really knows anything about the Shielded City, considering that just about no outsiders are ever allowed in it.]

action - SOMETIME IN THE EVENING??

[meouch]

[ he catches sight of rhys in the corner of his eye. maybe it's the exhaustion, or the speed at which he sees him fly by, but the image of someone swinging on wires through the city is a little too familiar to enjoy. so it's an almost immediate reaction for adrien, as he runs after the figure he can't quite catch in the distance, unable to see if they're wearing that familiar red-and-black: slink into an alleyway, transform, and then chase after very fast.

so rhys might have been having a very enjoyable night... swing... by himself, but soon he'll catch the sound of something like a pole hitting the ground over, and over, and over, as adrien (in his chat noir disguise of course) attempts to catch up with him by vaulting over rooftops and streets. ]

Wait—!!

[ PLEASE GIRLFRIEND LET HIM CATCH UP ]

[echoistic]

[This is one of Rhys's favourite activities for a number of reasons: one being that he's an adrenaline junkie who particularly loves being up high. The other is that Cerealia is more peaceful and civilized during its downtime than what he knows how to handle, having spent more of his life outside of civilization than in. This, at least, is familiar, and helps ease the anxiety that comes with the otherwise jarring setting.

... Things that are not familiar, though: SOMEONE CHASING AFTER HIM??]

Huh?

[Should he be nice (or potentially stupid, depending on why this guy wants him to wait) and stop?

... Nah, he might as well have some fun with this. Grinning, he starts to speed up with his swings, as well as getting a little crazier with his movements—making more turns, some of which are probably dangerously sharp, veering into dark areas, and getting all around more nonsensical with what he's doing such as one close call as he heads towards one sign-covered rooftop, just barely swinging and sliding in between the gaps between the billboards before making it out on the other side.

SORRY, ADRIEN.]

[meouch]

[ WHAT THE HECK. at this point he's realized that maybe this is not the love of his life that he thinks he is chasing, but he's too stubborn and the wire action is too familiar that he can't not go all the way and try to catch this guy. to confirm... though he's about 95% sure he was wrong, so maybe now it's just avoiding running from a challenge?

chat's running on rooftops and keeping slightly behind rhys, who's unfortunately had quite a head start — but he's not a superhero for nothing.

... except oh, billboards. those are billboards. there's quite a yelp of surprise before he barely managed to extend his staff to clear those boards by jumping above them, and then he's right back to chasing. ]

Hey! You're gonna have to do better than that!

[ .....

don't taunt the guy you accidentally started stalking adrien ]