like sands through an hourglass.

“I…” Miu hesitates. The real problem is: Is she actually qualified for any job at all? Especially considering she does not have anything she can be proud of, or any considerable skills that is worth to be paid. “I have seen them… but… I have yet to find the one that suits me…” That is all Miu can respond to the man regarding the job.

“Eh…?” Miu is not sure how she answers his question. Something nice for herself? Miu does not really know as well, because her family’s happiness is also her happiness. And when her family is not present, it feels like she is lost. Though, Miu knows that she has done something. “Um…when I bought candie for myself…I guess?”

She does not know if that counts, but–well, it has been a while since she eats some candies, after all.

yet to find one that suits her...although dune doesn’t know this timid girl very well, he has a feeling she may be self-sabotaging a bit here. “well, what kind of job are you looking for? that may be a good place to start.”

Robert points at his chest with his thumb, huffing in response. “Me. Just a bachelor, who also so happens to be a dad. Pretty much all of the people who live in the cul-de-sac are dachelors. All of them. Except for the religious one, he’s only open to having you on the side like a plaything. Doesn’t care about your feelings, just preserving his holy presence or whatever.”

It leaves a sour taste in Robert’s mouth and he immediately regrets not just saying he lives in Maple Bay. Who needs that kind of information? Though, judging from the answer he’s getting, the other place doesn’t seem all that great. Sure, Robert would commit all the petty crimes for a glimpse of a cryptid, but super powers are a whole other morally-grey area.

“Lucky you, then.” Robert squints at their remaining distance. Aw, fuck, looks like a whole conversation longer. He sighs, defeated, knowing the kid is going to come up with some sort of shitty small-talk topic. What’s his mom’s name? Blood type? What about the home address that won’t matter because they’re not even in the same fucking solar system?

“Hey, do me a favour and don’t fall in love. It only ends with you or the other person getting hurt. Hurt in all sorts of ways.” What has love ever served him? His first relationship ended with Marilyn dead and Val hating him. His second was a wild goose chase of fake love, and his third… his third, he blew his chances.

dadchelor...such an interesting way to phrase it. and the way robert spoke about it seemed the most emotional the other man had gotten yet. dune had had his own experience with “religious” fanatics when it came to baekmorae’s followers, and he wasn’t eager to repeat the experience.

“that sounds nice. it can always be reassuring to be surrounded by those similar to you, i think. the sense of community is nice.” not that dune had ever had the experience, but he could imagine.

She wishes that her work was good–but in reality, she was fired. Her first job in her previous world–at least. Her second work as an idol in 22/7 unit was so-so, but it paid well for her family, in which that made her accept the job. Well, that was before she is suddenly transported to Radial City, without any warnings or consent.

Now, separated from her family with no way to transfer her salary to her mom and her sister at her world, she also has no job to support her life here. She knows that she needs to look for one soon, but she really has no purpose to work other than to keep her family’s well-being.

She could not care less about her own self.

She only shakes her head in response. “Um… I’m unemployed for now…” She replies. “And I don’t know if anyone bothers to help about my mom and my sister…” In which she is sure no one will bother to help her family after she is being taken away to this city. She knows how people are so selfish back in her world, caring for no one but their own life.

“I see...” Dune certainly doesn’t have much experience with this whole being transported to alternate worlds thing, but he tries to offer the best advice he can.

“When it comes to finding a job here, are there places that collect lists of available jobs? You could also try looking at bulletin boards, or things like that.” He has to think a bit more carefully on how to approach the next issue.

“It depends.” Robert is no fan of small talk. Silence should be appreciated than feared for, the comfort of the company is good enough. It’s like compensating for something inadequate; was being around each other not enough? But he knew the walk was a bit longer than average and the kid was probably terrified of him ( which is good but also not very good, according to many sources ). “I’d say normal, but there is no normal here, is there?”

He sounds a bit disheartened by that fact, which is rather unusual for a guy that manages to get by via not giving a shit. But, for whatever reason, he does give a shit. And, unfortunately, that means dealing with the loss of his home, his friends, his last remaining family… and [DADSONA] too. “White picket fences, decent lawn if you cared enough to water it and trim it. Two-floor house with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen… suburban kinda shit. Nice little cul-de-sac full of eligible dadchelors, a wine mom, dog park… it would’ve been nice.”

“It’s waking up every morning and everyone is happy. Everyone except for you.” Maybe things could’ve been better if he and Marilyn just made up. “But it’s better than here. Your turn, kid.”

Well, this man certainly was right about there not being a standard of normal. However, he certainly didn’t seem to be from as unusual a world as some others Dune had met. He did have one question though...

“Ah...what exactly is a ‘dadchelor’? I don’t know if we have those in my world.”

Everyone except for him, huh? This man certainly needed some form of help. Dune wasn’t sure if he was quite qualified to give it, but he was used to working with delinquents, and this man seemed to be essentially the adult version of that.

— ❝ i wouldn’t quite call that average, ❞ veronica began, a bit taken aback by his description. she’d met people from all kinds of different places, and every new thing she learned had rattled her quite a bit. what was average for someone else wasn’t quite “average” for her. for example…

— ❝ what do you mean by hybrids? ❞ the infodump was confusing, but she thought it also incredibly interesting. 

— ❝ well, that explanation can wait! ❞ she exclaimed, after being asked about the world she came from. she mentally rubbed her grubby little hands together. she loved talking up anything relating to herself, and that included her world.

— ❝ i come from a place called erdrea. “bustling cities”, at least on the level that i think you’re getting at are…few and far between. there are more smaller towns. it’s full of magic and monsters and at the center there’s a big old world tree called yggdrasil, and every leaf on it represents the life of someone living in erdrea. ❞ it sounded like a world from a fantasy story. because, like, that’s what it was. 

So this little girl came from a fairy tale? Dune wasn’t completely surprised - her style of dress wasn’t exactly modern, but the idea of a “world tree” and monsters was very intriguing. The monsters he had met tended to be more human than what he thought she was getting at

“That certainly sounds interesting. What kind of monsters?”

Oh, and she had asked him a question as well. Hybrids were a tricky thing to explain while remaining politically correct, but years of government work had prepared Dune well.

“In our world, there are mystical creatures that live among us. They differ from simple animals because they are completely sentient, with human-level intelligence and the ability to communicate. Many of these creatures fell in love with humans, and the - ” Oh shit. Was he about to give a child her first sex education lesson? “ -  the uh. product of their union was hybrids. They’re part mystical creature and part human, which can manifest itself in a number of different ways, from looking almost entirely like animals all the way to essentially looking completely human.”

He wasn’t the smartest- compared to Hugo, at least, who was a fucking teacher- but he at least had a good mental map of the bars in the city. Some were closer to the trolley stops than others, of which he used as points of reference. Cotes was directly opposite to Archimedes, which meant that it would be quite a ways to get there.

“Kinda. Not as long as others but, you know. Long enough.” Long enough to map out the bars, he’d say, but that’s nothing important. He continues to walk in silence, no additional commentary or small talk. And it was quite a ways to go from where he was to the nearest trolley stop.

At this point, Robert had made sure to keep at the same pace as Dune. He was walking a bit faster but that was just on the account that he knew the place better. Hands in his pockets, eyes towards his destination. 

This man seriously did not like to talk. about anything. Dune was much more used to chatterboxes like Hyena, but he’d spent enough time with Sasa to pick up on when someone just wasn’t chatty. He decided to press on with conversation nonetheless - he didn’t know how long the journey would be, and sitting in silence the whole time wouldn’t be ideal.

“So, you come from another world too, right? What’s that like?”

“I’m sorry for making you concerned…” She apologizes again to him, feeling guilty that she has taken a lot of his time now. She wonders whether or not she should tell him about her personal problems.

But then she decides to tell just a little bit about it. “I’m just…not used with this city, yet. And I’m worried about my family and my friends in another world…I wonder if they are okay…”

Telling about everything would be a really long story, she does not want to bother him too much than she already is, so she settles with telling him only a little bit of her problems.

This girl really does seem upset...

“It’s alright, really.” It’s not like he has anywhere better to be, and she seems to be in need of some kind of help.

He was yet to become the connoisseur of Spirale’s map but he could more or less make out which ward this was. It took him a bit of thinking, considering the ward’s name was a bit lengthy a bit too smartsy-fartsy for him to care about but he taps his chin and hopes that he gets it right.

“Should be Archimedes ward. You got keys on you or something?” Robert can vaguely remember the first time he got into his apartment. More spacious than a prison cell, lot more confining with the roommates. He’d prefer to stay with people he knew and cared about, thank-you-very-much. He starts walking in the general direction of said ward, gesturing for Dune to follow. “Come on, we can take the bus or whatever the hell it is this time. This way.”

the Archimedes Ward...Dune wondered if that was specifically designated for people with more academic or scientifically-minded interests, or if it was simply a coincidence that he was assigned there.

“oh, they have public transportation here? that’s useful.”

keys...he honestly wasn’t sure, but after searching his pockets, discovered a pair. 

“i have my keys as well. thank you for helping with this.”

this man did seem to know his way around. Dune wondered if it would be too much to ask how long he had been here, but decided that, since they were all in the same boat, it couldn’t be too rude.