epidemiology | [closed] here's the pride before the fall. oh your eyes, they show it all.

[closed] here's the pride before the fall. oh your eyes, they show it all.

CHARACTERS: Urahara and Rey; Urahara and Finn or URAHARA HAS FUN TIMES WITH STAR WARS KIDS
DATE: Between the Fracking Fields event and the Ghost Town event
WARNINGS: none. probably.
SUMMARY: Urahara and Rey have some STUFF to talk about, whether either of them want to or not. Meanwhile, Rey's been avoiding Finn, and Urahara's a gossipy fuck.

After the so-called "incident" in the mines, Urahara falls off the radar entirely, diving headlong into his work, leaving only on the off-chance that he remembers that food is a necessity or to obtain coffee because it definitely hasn't occurred to him that sleep isn't optional. His room- mercifully he isn't sharing because no one would put up with this kind of behavior- looks like a small, isolated tornado hit it.

Most of it is papers cramped with notes written in Japanese, scattered hither and yon, ranging from observations about the locals of Perdition's Rest and their habits ( just in case) to personal theories about ALASTAIR's original purpose here just based on the little snippet of information that he, Evan, and Chihiro almost died to find.

The ones he's currently poring over are about Boneyard Junction- his next project. He's been obsessively compiling information from the locals about it, however little there is, and trying to make absolute certain that when he goes there this time, he has more foolproof plans for any situation that may crop up. He was caught off-guard in the mines- something that never happens to him, and he won't see that repeated.

There's a knock on the door that startles him out of his evaluation about the potential dangers of an abandoned town, and he debates ignoring it, hoping to convince whoever is there that he isn't in. He can't imagine many people would have noticed his absence- he comes and goes as he pleases, after all, but there wasn't really any way of returning to Perdition's Rest subtly when Evan was wearing nothing but his haori and all of them looked a little shellshocked and sickly.

He pushes his chair away from his desk and bridges the gap between it and the door, opening midway through another knock, though not wide enough for the girl standing before him to see the disaster of his room. He would be surprised, but, honestly, he expected her long before now. They've both been occupied, and she probably didn't want to talk about what happened back on Oska when last they spoke.

"Morning, Rey-san." He stifles a yawn that's 100% real, even if his intention was just to sell her on the idea that she woke him up. It could have been convincing, too, were it not currently late afternoon, he's wearing his normal clothes (hat included, though it seems to be perched on his head at a rakish angle), and the clearly visible bags under his eyes imply he has not so much as looked sidelong at his bed in awhile.

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Rey, who had with only vague discontent taken to sleeping out behind one of the buildings in Perdition's Rest upon learning that the inn was full, took exception to the state of Urahara's room the minute the door swung open.

"Morning was twelve hours ago." She scowled, pushing her way into his room and looking around as though expecting to find some lascivious excuse for him to be kicking around under the covers at such an hour—and while normally she wouldn't take issue with that, around here, she had the distinct impression that it could bode ill for his personal health.

However, his restless pursuits seemed largely academic, a fact which surprised her, and though it was not the reason she'd come, she turned to narrow her gaze, readily derailing her purpose for—

"What were you doing in here all day?"

He allows her to duck underneath his arm to get inside with a put-upon expression, and just leans against the door to close it back again. "Research, mostly," he rubs his face with the back of his hand, and proceeds to pick up a few of the scattered notes to see if he wrote something in his exhausted stupor that he can't recall. This one's some notes and theories about Nyuu, thrown out in favor of more recent problems... That one has a rudimentary sketch of some invention or other and he squints at it before deeming it a problem for another day and tossing both pages over his shoulder to rejoin the rest of the paper and assorted junk taking up residence in his living space.

"They're clearing the way to Boneyard Junction, you know. I'm making plans to go there, myself, but I wanted to be prepared."

"I'm heading that way too." She didn't suggest they join one another. A part of her suspected he would decline, as if she knew too much already based on what she had seen in the swamp—or maybe he hoped that in her daze, she didn't remember much from the swamp. She couldn't tell which it was, except that Urahara certainly didn't seem to want to reveal much of himself in general.

She strides to pick up another pile of notes, older, and rifle through them in turn, as though she might find some of it useful.

"How is this going to help you turn bandits away? I thought they were the trouble up that way."

"Hmm. It's not." So flat and matter-of-fact. "Mostly they're strategies to avoid the confrontation entirely or to stay ahead of their movements. Potential scenarios and the best way to resolve them." And that's just one set of problems. Upon arrival, he has a whole new set of variables and a whole new set of solutions.

Micro-managing at its finest- one miscalculation and no other option but a desperate one left him even worse about it than usual.

He pushes his hat down on his head, finally realizing it's crooked. "It would be easy if I could just turn them away by asking. Wouldn't it, Rey-san?"

Because he hasn't forgotten that, and rather than bridge the subject like a normal, pleasant person, he's just going to corner her with it.

She knew enough to know that he was implying something, but not enough to read into it. Suspicion narrowed her eyes. Her memories from the warped, futuristic version of herself were scant, ill-defined. More impressions than specifics.

The only real one she had came from Ren, and he had thrust it upon her by force.

"What are you talking about?" The implication, vague as it was, offended her in a way she could not place—in fact, the obscurity of it seemed to be what offended her most of all. If anyone had a right to be making vague accusations, it was her.

"You don't remember." It's not a question- it's not uncommon for people to forget what occurred during that time, and Urahara wishes he could forget what a hundred years younger version of himself with little to no experience with actual humans got himself into. It's minor inconvenience at best- not quite what Rey experienced- but legitimate in a way hers probably wasn't. The future isn't so clearly defined. If it had been him, he would have brushed what little or otherwise he recalled off as nothing of import.

But she's a bit offended, isn't she? "That's too bad. It actually might be useful if you can remember how to do it." He brushes it off, implying that it's not her future she forgot, but the ability itself. It's a ploy- if she didn't forget the ability, she'd probably own up to it, out of pride. If she didn't, then he's just made a correct observation and isn't out anything.

"Remember how to do what?"

Her irritation grew, sharpening her voice as she took a step closer to him. Not least of all, she disliked anyone else knowing more about her than she knew, but worse was the implication that he had some understanding of her future self, the very specter that hung over everything she did now. She would not allow him to taunt her with it.

He lets her step into his space with no actual fear, expression neutral as the last of his irreverence dies away. "That little trick you tried on me. Implanting a suggestion that you expected the mind would readily accept as its own."

He can't really figure out what to call it or how to refer to it, other than just explaining what he expects it was meant to do. It didn't work, but there's no denying what she was trying to do.

"It didn't work- I only left, because I chose to. I'm afraid I've spent too much time around people who manipulate the mind to allow manipulating mine to be so easy."

The Force.

She'd used it to try and manipulate him as she had the stormtroopers in Starkiller Base. Further explanation, though he strove for it, was unnecessary for she knew instantly what he meant. Rey's heart sank into the pit of her stomach, draining her chest of all warmth and leaving behind a cold void that only further damned her, reminded her of the cold reserve she could feel in the place where her memories of those days should have been.

"That wasn't me." The accusation turned to ash on her tongue. She could not defend it, for although she certainly wasn't that person yet, there didn't seem to be any preventing herself from becoming her. "I would never—"

Not to him. Not to a friend, an ally. Right?

"Manipulate your mind that way."

A tiny, borderline sympathetic smile plays across his lips before he schools his expression. "Well, I'm not angry about it..." He figured he owed her an explanation for why it didn't work, just in case.

"I knew you weren't yourself, so you don't need to worry about that, and I do think it could prove to be a useful ability out here." Which brings them back around to the point. "Bandits are probably more susceptible to suggestions than I am."

The implication was not particularly subtle, exactly, but Rey still blinked twice as though to make sure that she had heard him correctly. It seemed outside of what she understood of Urahara to suggest something like that, but … more and more, it felt like she didn't understand much of him at all.

Rey's gaze narrowed, lines forming across her forehead as she tried to decide how she felt about that suggestion.

"You think that's the way to steer them away from Boneyard Junction." Not a question, but a confirmation. She couldn't say she disagreed, but she also wasn't positive of her ability to replicate what she'd done in the cell with the stormtrooper who'd been assigned to guard her. She hadn't tried since.

"It sounds more efficient than fighting them, doesn't it?" And he'd rather avoid a fight that's an easy win- not just for him, but for most of the Audentes, really. He doesn't fight for any sense of honor, nor does he care about it one way or another, but it's still tasteless to repeatedly engage a fight that you can avoid and know you can win anyway.

"They're simple," he sighs and sits down on the bed with a dramatic flop. "If we keep attacking them, they'll get angry and swear revenge and just keep coming after us, repeating the cycle, even when they know they can't win. I don't have time to dissuade them of the notion that it's pointless and they're utterly outmatched."

Admitting her lack of training seemed like a good way to lose face, and while Rey had enjoyed a considerable portion of her life without pride as a part of it, now that she had friends and relationships, she found that she rather liked having them think highly of her. The only difference was that she was less concerned with how convinced they were that she'd be hard to kill, and more concerned that they found utility in her skills.

Urahara, it seemed, did. Only she wasn't quite positive that her skills, as it were, functioned in quite that way that it hoped.

"I've never used it on more than one person before. I don't even know if I can; and if not, how is one bandit going to convince all the rest to give it up? They have a lot riding on what they take here."

"I imagine they have a lot riding on not being dead too," he wags a finger at her, tsking at her uncertainty. She might be untrained- honestly, he had a sneaking suspicion she might be- but the beauty of such an ability is that it probably lies in belief. How hard can it be to convince a few bandits that they'll die if they continue to fight if she believes it, herself?

Easy for him to say. He's not the one who has to make the attempt.

"It's not as if we're asking them to give it forever- just lay low until we leave." And, rather bluntly, he adds, "We're not here to make life easier for the Qorral. No one is making them stay here."

It seems callous, and Rey decides a moment later that it seems that way because it is; Urahara simply doesn't care about that sort of thing. But Rey, Rey cannot so easily forget about the lives of all these people. Perhaps they were not obligated to stay, but they had compelling reasons. The Qorral's willingness to remain despite the bandits did not in any way mitigate the harm the bandits did to them, surely.

"I don't know how long it lasts, either. If I tell them to stay gone for a month, whether they will or if they'll just—" She huffs out a breath and notices that she's been pacing a little. She stops and looks back at him. "None of this bothers you, does it?"

He glances down at the floor- it seems like a moment of cowed humility, but it comes too instantaneously for that, a practiced gesture to throw a person off-guard and keep them from seeing what he really feels, because they think he's just playacting.

"The Qorral are damaging this planet beyond repair for their own ends. If anything else lived on it, most of the Audentes would cry out that they're the enemies and need to be stopped for the welfare of the rest, even if they have sound reasoning, even if they need this mineral to continue to live." He glances up at her, the shadows that usually conceal his eyes catching the light. "The one thing ALASTAIR and I agree on is that balance must be maintained by any means necessary. If a new fish is introduced into a pond and disrupts the lives of the fish that were there before it, then it has to be removed. The safety of one or a group of people cannot take precedent over the safety of the majority."

"I haven't seen anything yet that tells me it's impossible to consider the safety of both." Not easily, to be sure—and the Qorral would resist it—but she could not simply write them off, not a whole people. They weren't mere fish, after all. It shouldn't be easy, though, and if it ever became as easy for her as it appeared to be for Urahara to simply eliminate the enemy, she would know she had gone too far. It made her shudder to consider that she had used her friend to draw that line, but there it was.

"We didn't live through Nalawi, Rey-san." And that's the crux of his cynicism here- if ALASTAIR knew how to make everyone happy, then that planet wouldn't have been a disaster and left so many people jaded and conflicted about what had to be done.

"I'd like to believe that I've heard about that mission won't repeat itself here, but I'm not going to bank on it." He looks thoughtful for a moment. "But... Time will tell."

[A bedraggled, exhausted shopkeeper-scientist-shinigami stumbles out of his room and down into the saloon for a cup of coffee so he can get a healthy dose of caffeine before he returns to the grind of his notes and strategies.

he is exhausted, he is worn down, but he is trying ever so much to be chipper and even tips the woman who brings his coffee over, though that might be because he wanted her to go away, lest she start trying to proposition him. the tragedy of his flirtation with Miss Annabelle is now everyone who works in the saloon is curious about the gambler with the silver tongue.

meanwhile, if one were to say ask around after a certain brown-haired desert orphan, who is being avoidant, they might point out the rumpled looking man in the stupid hat turning away saloon girls with a smile and a joke and then going back to his coffee, and mutter something about how she runs with him most days.

seems like a decent enough way for two of the men in Rey's life to meet.]

[If he were smart, Finn would probably just let it be. Give her time and let her come to him without prying or ~~stalking~~ asking around about her. But when it comes to having actual friends, he isn't exactly smart or experienced, and he's kind of at a loss of what to do.

What happened during that whole bug mess hadn't been her fault. He didn't even know exactly what it meant, but he also didn't want her to keep avoiding him like the plague. That said, he didn't think that cornering her would necessarily help matters, so clearly talking to people she knew before he arrived is the right choice.

There's no good way for him to approach this, so he finally just plops down into the chair next to the guy with the floppy hat, greeting him with a quick:]

Hey.

[well, he's not a saloon girl, and he's dressed more like the Audentes than the locals, so that's something. Urahara looks up from his coffee and transitions seamlessly into that cheerful shopkeeper persona, rather than the quiet, distracted, and sleep deprived nerd he really is.]

Hello! Can I help you with something? [look, it's a habit, and he looks to be a man on a mission.]

Maybe. I hope so.

[He seems to hesitate, pressing his lips together before he exhales.]

You know Rey...right?

[Finn already knows he does, but he has to lead into this somehow. Unfortunately, that doesn't make this any less awkward for him.]

I do. [he lowers his coffee.] She isn't in any sort of trouble, is she?

[he couldn't sound more flippant about that if he tried- it's not discompassionate, rather it's the tone of someone who sort of... expects that she might find trouble and is genuinely surprised it took her this long.]

[He tries not to let the way the guy says it, but he still sounds agitated when he responds.]

I was hoping you could tell me. I can't seem to get her to talk to me.

Oh-ho! And you thought her handsome and charming boss could help you break through her cold exterior~?

[urahara please.. on like numerous levels.] I don't normally get involved in matchmaking with my peers, but I could make an exception...

I - wait, what?

[First of all, he never said this guy was handsome. And he's her boss?

Everything about this conversation took a turn he wasn't expecting.]

That's not what I...she's my friend. I'm worried about her.

[none of what he said is true, finn. one day you will learn this.

having gotten the response he wanted- aka horrific embarrassment, Urahara examines the empty mug of coffee that's now in front of him, getting a bit more serious now that he's thoroughly traumatized poor Finn] If I could venture a guess... This is about that incident back in Oska, isn't it?

Edited 2016-10-29 05:16 (UTC)

[He seems to lose the embarrassed expression as the other man's own face grows more serious, and Finn finds himself nodding in reply.]

Yeah, that happened right after I got here. I take it you saw her during all that too?

I did. I thought I could keep her from hurting herself or someone else, but I miscalculated. Rey-san's powers are still a mystery to me.

[which makes it sound like she... actually caused him real harm, instead of, you know, mildly unsettling him. figuring Finn might interpret it that way, he waves a hand dismissively.] Oh, don't worry. She didn't actually harm me. I just didn't want to chance it turning into a fight.

You and me both.

[He doesn't know much about the Force, honestly. He didn't think Rey knew much about it either, not normally.]

Well, you're still here, so I was pretty sure she hadn't. I think part of the problem is that the whole thing got to me too. When I ran into her, I had no idea who she was.

A lot of people were affected by that incident. I was fortunate to catch her after I'd gotten back to myself, but having one's past on display like that... It can be uncomfortable.

[he leans forward.] But not as uncomfortable as a potential future, though Rey-san should know that there's no guarantee what she became was even close to a potential reality. Those insect bites didn't just operate within the confines of time.

[welcome to science hell finn]

[That seems to alleviate some of the stress from his brow, some hope filtering into his eyes.]

That's a relief. I mean, she has to know that, right? That whatever it was that happened, it doesn't have to.

[He wrings his hands, glancing slightly off into the distance.]

I can't imagine what could make her go that route anyway.

It might not have been as simple as all that. Sakura-san was replaced with someone who was born to a completely different set of circumstances than her actual self. It might be as simple as that version of Rey-san was brought up in a far more hostile environment.

I imagine we'll never know for certain, but Rey-san is a proud young woman. Even if she knows that becoming that person is unlikely at best, she'll carry the weight of it, regardless.

[His head bobs up and down a couple times. He knows that feeling honestly. He almost became something similar himself.]

She doesn't have to do it by herself.

I can't imagine she'll allow anyone to help her bear it, but there's no harm in trying or refusing to take no for an answer.

[he knows her type too well.] In my experience, bearing that kind of guilt alone can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

She's not the only one who's had to worry about what she might do someday.

[He sighs.]

Thanks, though. For looking out for her.

[When she won't let him, and when he wasn't even here.]

[yes, good be grateful for his terrible influence.]

It's no trouble. Rey-san's been a big help to me here.

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[closed] here's the pride before the fall. oh your eyes, they show it all.

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[ron howard narrator voice] one hour earlier...

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