No Title Set

"Hey! Hey! I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!"

The past few days had taken a toll on Riley. The girl was pretty much just trudging along at this point, at least, save for that near miss with a cyclist. She went ahead and sat on the side of the pond with the hood of her hoodie up, not looking or really speaking with anyone and just started to feed them, her eyes blankly watching as the Koi swam this way and that.

Mistral Durand is settled there in the garden, making notes in her journal, a few clippings taped to each page with a description next to them. Whether she's suposed to be doing that, really isn't a concern for her at the moment. She's documenting things. For science! Or personal curiousity.

Her scribbling is interrupted by the exclamation though. There's a look around, trying to figure out what that weird language is. Very weird. That natural curiousity gets the best of her and she stands, book closed, bits and pieces of plants stuffed into her pouch.

Spotting the girl at the bridge and not many others, she takes a guess and makes her way over to stand on the opposite part of the bridge, watching the same pond. She starts to say something, then stops herself. Maybe shouldn't ask about catching and eating a koi.

Riley continued to just, well, feed the fish. Watching them swim about. In truth she didn't really know why she was here. Maybe because it was peaceful, that was probably it, just staring down at the koi that were, well, just doing their thing being koi without a care in the world besides afforementioned koi things was probably a good way to try to forget about things, right?

Right?

The girl mentally kicked herself, that was dumb, this was all dumb, and she'd gotten through the box of fish feed anyhow. She went ahead and dropped it into a nearby bin and leaned heavily on the railing with a heavy sigh.

"Why the hell did that dumbass do that?"

Mistral Durand knows why she enjoys the garden. It's quiet, it's peaceful, normally. It's full of new plants to learn about, maybe take a few samples to experiment. The works! Still, after a few moments, she turns back to Riley, about to say something when the outburst happens again. There's a pause. A confused look on her face. "What language is that?" Sounding earnestly confused.

"Do you speak..." she pauses. Frowns. Snaps her fingers and says, "Japanese. That."

Riley blinked, the girl turning from the fish to Mistral and pulling her hood down. Mistral took her by surprise really, she wasn't expecting someone to just walk up and start talking to her and it took a little bit for her brain to turn it over and churn out a response.

"Yes. Yes I speak Japanese." Came the eventual reply, her voice while rather heavily accented with a telltale southern United States drawl was still clear enough to make out. "Can I uh, can I help you? What's up?"

Mistral Durand has an odd accent herself, one that might be hard to place. Backwater is a good guess though. "What language was that before?" Sounding honestly curious. There's a frown, then she says in a more focused voice, "I heard someone clearly upset. I wanted to see what was wrong. I like to try and help."

She shrugs, leaning back against the railing. "Sometimes talking helps too."

Riley wasn't even really sure of the concept of "survivor's guilt", let alone the right words for explaining it in Japanese. Or if it was even applicable for that weird dreamland, whatever the hell it was. Still she seemed grateful enough to just have someone to chat to, even if she didn't know what to say.

"English. I was speaking English. I'm from America." She finally said, pushing herself from leaning over the raililng and turning around to face the stranger. "Sometimes talking helps, yeah. Truth is, I have no idea how to even begin to explain half this shit, y'know?"

Mistral Durand taps her boot against the ground. "I'll need to remember that." There's a frown, "I.. feel like I'm supposed to know that." there's a shrug, a shake of her head and finally she hops up to take a seat on the railing itself. Elbows on her knees. "Talking helps more than you'd think. You'd be surprised what kind of things happen when you try it."

"Uh.." She continues, "I mean, I don't talk as much as I should I guess. I'm my own worst patient, I'm sure. Start from the beginning?"

The girl thought for a moment, her mind trying to mull over just how to explain things to someone who most likely wasn't another "superhero", let alone had about as much knowledge about the weird mystical magical "dreamworld" that she herself did merely a short few months ago. She took a deep breath, looking back to the koi for a second before letting it out with a sigh.

"I lost someone. I lost a good friend, and I have no idea why what happened had to happen to them and not me. Why they took the bullet to make sure the rest of us didn't. Yeah. Vague. I know. I just don't know how else to explain it. There's like, fifty levels of weird behind the whole thing leading up to it."

Mistral Durand tilts her head, considering how to best describe something. She shakes her head and says, "You shouldn't really let your thoughts get trapped thinking that it should have been you, you know." She watches for the girl's reaction for a moment before continuing, "It's better to talk and to make the most of what you've got, right?"

She doesn't really feel like trying to explain things like another world, let alone the horrible things she's seen, or even done!

Riley Looked away, frowning for a second. It took her a while to seemingly compose herself and figure out a response to that. "Right. Something like that, yeah. You're not telling me anything I haven't tried to tell myself. It doesn't make it sting any less though, or bring them back." She sighed again, shifting her stance slightly. "A whole lot of weird things, y'know? I thought everything was cool then life drops this on my head."