Description: Before Rust and Zach set out to wherever Antoine recalls having a sensation of where those of the Cult of Gaia (and others afflicted as he was) were gathering, Rust stops by his apartment to make good use of the thing that helped him truly see the existence of the world's miracles... just in time for Antoine to come by as the two discuss what lies before everyone who intends to go fight.
Howard Rust is not a happy man. That short drive with Zach back to his apartment is laced with mumbles about why the hell he's doing this - why he's willing to walk off the job after all the trouble he went through years ago to get a good paying job in the educational field. All of it, about to be gone in a flash, he knows. All this for, apparently, the sake of the world and to simply /achieve/ the possibility of there being a future at all...
He doesn't really want to talk with Zach right now, no matter how right he is about the big picture of the threat as the skies overhead outside grow darker and darker. One would think it's already the evening out here... perhaps it is the very sunset of mankind that they're all about to face, as the aging (likely ex-)shop teacher stomps into his apartment so hurriedly that he leaves the door inside wide open.
It's an unkempt mess. Very much a bachelor pad in need of the touch of... well, /anyone/! Stomping past the living room to his bedroom, he has himself a look at all the cranes he's folded. All of those misshapen, horrible parodies to the very concept of origami, staring right back at him with empty, soulless, completely imagined eyes that may or may not be begging to be released from their miserable existence as crumpled masses of extremely expensive and fancy paper.
"Where'd I put him," Howard mumbles out loud as he frantically searches the bedroom. Please don't tell me someone came in and took it, he thinks to himself in a hurry. He's formulated a plan - or maybe it is better to say a backup plan - and if he remembers things right from that one late night encounter...
The World Warrior is going to travel the only way he knows how.
Travel.
He had taken the time to look deep within himself. His problems. His aspirations. However, he has been wanting to talk to Quon for some time. However, Antoine needed to take care of his own problems. He had to catch his Zen.
Reflect upon the training.
Establish his purpose.
Prepare to go on the one last ride.
Antoine is starting to make his way towards the house, recalling once where Rust lived at. Here he is, at the house of the old man. As Antoine is entering the edge of the door, Antoine stops and he knocks at the door a few times.
The door to Rust's apartment is wide open - but the polite knocking gets Rust's immediate response as he's shuffling through his bedroom.
"Hey!" He says, without looking up to see who it is who's knocking. "Y-You don't need to worry 'bout, 'bout the rent, all right," he says out loud as he starts opening drawers - and realizes that, no, it wouldn't have fit in a drawer, why's he even looking there? A loud grunt of frustration follows as he tries to think of where he put /him/.
Who is this him?
"'n, 'n I'm kinda in a hurry... gonna, gonna be in 'n out, so--"
"Need a hand, Rust?" Antoine's hand reaches for the door, twisting it open while seeing if it was open. With it being open, Anoine is stepping towards the house. He looks ahead, calling out to Rust.
"It's just me, Antoine." The young man has a faint smile.
He takes the moment to observe Rust's living space. Well, this is the life of a man who has settled down. Antoine hefts the duffelbag over his shoulder and then he turns to face Rust.
"What are you looking for?"
Sift, sift, sift. Things are frantically and noisily moved around as the older man is thinking 'damn it, don't have time to argue over matters of rent' when Antoine finally speaks up to reveal who he is... Antoine.
"Antoine?" As if the older man has to ask as he raises his head, bumping it up underneath a shelf that disturbs a few loose items that fall to his bedroom floor. He doesn't feel any particular ache from the impact, though the sensation is still aggravating to suffer as he steps out from his bedroom.
"Hey... Antoine, uh, look, we're goin' to, to where you're saying they're... uh, they're all gatherin', but, but first I gotta make sure that, that we got a backup plan, so, uh... seen a, seen a birdcage?"
"Hrm..." That is the first response Antoine gives. A smile comes forth, "I am glad.." But then, the young mn becomes a little more confused and curious when Rust mentions about a back-up plan.
"Back-up plan?"
And then, "Bird cage?" He tilts hihead over, looking a little more curious over the area. "I can help you find it." He starts roaming around the mess of an apartment.
He kneels along the surface, looking underneath anything big, "You have a bird, I take it.... What's his name?"
It's the ultimate non-sequitur, really. It's the end of the world as they know it looming overhead and beyond, and this grown man is looking for, of all things... a birdcage. What in the hell does this have to do with anything at all?
"Uhh... yeah, in, in a manner of... manner of speaking," the older man clears his throat, "'scuse me."
Antoine's searches seem to come up empty in the living room, but as he nears the bedroom, he may see quite the sight - a workbench full of hundres and hundreds of... uh... folded... things. Some of them look like paper cranes. Paper cranes made with very expensive paper (or one should say, failed to be made with very expensive paper).
Humorously, the bottom of a brass birdcage can be seen toppled over just by said workdesk. It may be a thing of humor that Mr. Rust somehow missed it. If Antoine looks at the birdcage, well...
Mr. Rust, meanwhile, has gone down the hallway. "Did he, did he squeeze through the bars... shit, don't tell me he already went out the window," his voice trails off into grumbling.
Antoine is observing all of those origami cranes.
Seeing all of the cranes is a tad unsettling. It's like he can see them staring into his soul.
"Uhh..."
It feels like a velvet of darkness is cast over him as those eyes loom before him. The shade of darkness casts over his eyes as his muscles twitch. "Err..."
QUickly looking around, he finally sees the brass brdcage over a work desk. Crawling towards it, Antoine finally pulls the cage out.
"Rust, I've found it." He starts to stand up, looing inside the cage to see a perfectly made crane.
"...Err... may I ask the story behind this one? This one seems to have a birdcage compared to the others."
The older man is on the verge of legitimate panic. Maybe they don't need to do this, maybe this isn't, ultimately, necessary... but no more chances could afford to be taken. This may have been the only means he had to ensure--
"Y-You found it?" The older man looks over his shoulder as he trots back over to Antoine. His knee pops loudly, maybe even legitimately excited for this news. The knee, that is. Howard himself definitely is, breathing a sigh of relief as he sees the birdcage intact. It's closed, the crane is inside it...
"Gave me a, a real scare, Clay." He mutters as he wipes his brow, picking up the bircage to put on the workbench. There's no food or water that suggests a living, breathing pet, and yet... this crane, this crane is somehow being treated like one?
Mr. Rust may have been pegged for having certain, er, issues given how he tries to personify a rusted length of pipe. /This/ might alone be enough to suggest he really needs to a see a therapist or start taking certain medications... but as he lays a hand atop the birdcage, he lowers his head, thinking about where to begin.
"It's, it's... it's a long story, Antoine, but... but remember what you, you told me back at the drug rehab? When... when they couldn't find anything, uh, wrong with you? 'Bout how... how some things you just, you just got to open your mind to?"
There is a frown. One of the reasons was because of the sound of that knee popping again. It earns a wince when he starts approaching Rust, "Hey, Rust, are you alri--...."
And then. 'Clay'. He frowns slightly.
That name. Clayton. It's so close to the name that he abandoned. Nevertheless, the smile slowly returns.
It is a long story. "I understand." Antoine looks a Rust, "We can talk about it once you're able to." Antoine looks at Rust, "...We should be heading off. I wanted to check on you to see how you were holding up."
"Y-Yeah, we, we should," the teacher nods vigorously, but quickly holds up a finger and starts waving it as if to say 'but, hold on' as he bends down to pick up a few things he had previously set down and aside... which is to say, a roll of duct tape and a very small electronic piece.
"First... b-before we do," he continues, "one day while, while I was drivin' by where you were... somethin' got stuck in my windshield... clogged up the, the wipers-- ah, could you, could you close the bedroom door, Antoine, don't need this to--"
Why does this man need the door closed? It's just a paper crane, right?
"Soon, soon after, Antoine, just... bad things happened, and... and all I thought was, y'know, j-just that... that this, this might've been the, the only thing I could've done... just, just the way that it came into my life, uh, y'know, it, it kinda felt like a sign."
When Rust stops Antoine, the young fighter does as instructed, albeit confused. The request to shut the bedroom door earns obedience, yet he does ask, "What are you doing?" While shutting the door, he listens to Rust.
That is all that he can do.
Listen.
"A sign?" He asks.
"Yeah, a, a sign." It's a bitter thing to remember, realizing he watched Zach lose control of his powers in a way that truly took away something from a number of innocent people that will never get it back. To know he was there, to know the truth... it's a heavy thing.
"That, y'know... I, I felt powerless-- oh, uh, thanks, too," he adds belatedly to the door's closing as he waves his left hand behind him, opening up a shelf to pick out another item... a smallish device. A GPS, maybe? "That... that maybe I just, just had to wish for, for a miracle, y'know, so... so I folded a whole lotta cranes, and... and one night, someone came by, 'n... and... that's, that's when I knew for sure-- look," the last word is said with some urgency as he opens up the cage door, leaning a bit off to the side so Antoine can see for himself.
The paper crane's wings stretch out and flap, as though it were ready to take off.
/A paper crane./
"You lookin', Antoine?"
While Antoine does not get the full scope of the story, he can see the heaviness in Rust's heart. A frown is given towards in sympathy. But, the feeling of that powerlessness. There is the empathetic feeling. Knowing that he was unable to do anything about it, Antoine slowly nods his head.
"...Yeah.."
However, he looks over towards all of the cranes. And then he sees the cage open.
...The crane flaps out, as if ready to fly.
"..."
A smile is given.
"Fascinating." It is a heartfelt comment, his eyes filled with awe of the paper crane flapping.
"...Yeah. I, I named him Clay." Never mind that paper birds assuredly lack any sort of distinction that would give it a gender, but, maybe that's just how he's decided to treat it. For what it is, it is still a paper crane enchanted with something an average person would call a miracle. Only the truly jaded up in the ranks of Kagero would deign to call it anything less than that, for whatever exact sciences Seishirou may profess in the creation of these wondrous constructs.
"It, it took me a while to... to really piece together the, the hows and... and how it was, it was so important to who came by, but... but I'm thinkin', the day it hit my windshield..."
His voice trails off as he waits for the crane to settle down. It typically only acts in spurts. That it has stayed indoors so long may have fully well confused whatever chi matrices or what have you as to whether or not it is able to take flight and leave.
The older man abruptly changes subjects as he starts to take a piece of duct tape to the small piece.
"Eh... m-more importantly... yeah, I know, I know now, there's miracles, Antoine, it's... it's just, when you mentioned, I just... I just, I didn't know if... if, uh, y'know, if there was, there was one big enough... heh, 'n I went and folded a good... a good thousand of 'em, too."
Just like the Japanese legend about crafting a thousand of them granting you a wish.
"Don't think I, uh, I ever made a wish with 'em either, Antoine, but... but with what Zach said earlier, I guess... I guess I can't just, can't just believe half-way now, so..."
"You're starting to believe. I am happy that you're learning."
Antoine had taken note of that origami. Seeing the crane is magnificent. It serves as a rudiment example as far as how the mind has to be kept open. With Rust, a man who thought he was on drugs instead of the chi corruption, now able to believe, Antoine is proud.
The young martial artist looks over to the cranes and then towards Rust.
"Perhaps now would be a good time for you to make a wish, then." A smile is given.
The crane is magnificent, though it does beg the question as to how the rest of them - the ones actually made by Rust's hands - turned out so horrible despite such an amazing base model to check them against.
The thousand cranes (likely a little over that number) all sit there on the workbench, piled together as if awaiting the single point of their continued existence to be made on the spot as Antoine makes the suggestion. Howard contemplates this for a time in quiet. Antoine is back in control of himself. Zach may have finally found what he needed to move past the problem that has plagued him since his powers awakened. Yuri has found it in herself to take her studies more seriously and to truly be a bit more careful with how she pursues her own dreams and hopes. Quon has...
As the teacher contemplates, Clay flops down on Howard's lap en route to going back down on the floor, something denied with the scoop of his left hand to put the crane back on the bench.
"M-More importantly, Antoine," he clears his throat, thinking it's time to make sense to him as to what he's doing, "I know you, you got a... got a pretty good idea where to go, but, but I'm thinkin'... the way I met Clay, he probably was... uh, I'm just guessin' based on, based on some things someone... said, way they acted... needed the crane. I think it was... it was supposed to, to find you, and then... go back."
This should be a cause for alarm. Does this mean the crane may be working for, in some fashion or another, the bad guys?
"So... so I'm thinkin', if, if all of 'em are just... gatherin' at one place now, Antoine, in case you can't quite, uh, sense it," he says this as he gently attaches the duct taped small electronic /thing/ onto one side of the crane. He is hoping what he put on there is not too heavy for it... but then again, this crane has survived the rain, being stuck in a windshield, being stepped on a few times...
"That I let Clay go lead us to 'em." It is kind of a sullen thing, considering the sheer amount of joy this thing's existence has brought to his life - the idea that now would be the time to let it truly take flight is a hard one to swallow, but this individual item is a miracle. It could be the miracle that helps bring those of the Mountain Lions willing to fight for the world to where the final stage lies.
"And... and I guess, it's, it's good ya found me, 'cause I was ready to, to have to drive all over to find you."
The mystery of the crane is very interesting. Why is it that the others look so horrid compared to the one that is flapping its wings.
Antoine takes the moment of watching that crane before looking at the thousands.
The explanation of Clay's purpose comes to light. "Eh? It was supposed to find me?!" He looks alarmed, then his eyes narrow at the crane. The young man then looks Rust.
"...Heh. I am glad that I have been saved. ...I want to help Quon. However, time will not allow this..." His eyes fall shut, "It will be best for us to finish this..."
His expression turns serious.
"We will deal with these guys for what they've done and stop them from their plans."
Clay puts up some resistance in general. It is moving, it is flapping, it is visibly very lively. It likely does not now true excitement or much in the way of emotion - but for the time being, it needs to be put back in the birdcage, in which it is dumped somewhat unceremoniously as the older man closes and locks up the door.
As for the mangled and misshapen cranes, it is probably easy enough at this point to just say that papercraft is, by far, not one of Howard Rust's talents..
As Rust picks up the GPS-like device to turn it on and just otherwise make sure everything's in place (which he probably should have done /before/ taping it to the crane, but, details), Antoine talks about how time won't allow him to help him.
Mr. Rust turns around in his seat and lowers his head. "Antoine, it's... it's really kinda hard, but, but I... I can feel what he's gone through, havin'... havin' things you wanted just... just taken away." He knows this well. Back in his 20s, he wanted to be a star fighter. It was harder to get anywhere in fighting without being sponsored, then. In a way, his employers betrayed him deeply by going with someone else.
Something that put him through a spiral of depression and, after intervention from friends, had him trying to make something of his life by becoming an educator. Something that's... all about to be thrown away. No, it has been thrown away. They're going to fire him for sure. The thought makes him exhale loudly.
No, he can't be weak in a moment of uncertainty for Antoine. That happened a few times already during Africa. He can't let that happen now, as he stands from his chair and goes to lay a hand on Antoine's shoulder.
"It ain't too late. Quon... Quon thinks he got, he got nowhere to go, but... he's young. Shadaloo be damned, he'll, he'll find a way to put it together." Though, this is being extremely optimistic considering he has lost everything. All this, from doing what some would call a truly heroic sacrifice, ruining his future to possibly save a whole lot of lives...
Something the man with the bad combover is coming to grips with. Now, he's essentially doing the exact same thing - giving up a job where he can reach out and influence the lives of kids from powerful families to grow up as compassionate, hard-working people, not just spoiled and over-educated elitists.
All this, because as Zach said... if things go wrong, /there will be no future for anyone/.
No future for his students.
No future for Quon.
"And... and... I guess you felt... you felt aimless, too, didn't you, with... with your training. I mean, to just... dedicate your, your entire life to it, just for the sake of it, I mean... that's hard, isn't it?"
"Never."
Antoine notes towards Rust. A smile is given, "...To live a life of solitude is a lonely one. To have nothing but a duffelbag is having little to nothing but the necessities of life. My training has afforded me alot. It had given me a chance to see the world around me, meet interesting people, and enjoy the culture for what it was worth.
Pause.
"I grew up in a city. I was probably ten when I almost died. Sifu Lau gave me a second chance of life. Chongquan is the way of life for me. It has allowed me to brave the elements and survive through the harshness... Chongquan's greatest feat is strength. Not just physically, but internally." He lowers his head, "I fell prey to a darkness that nearly destroyed me."
"Nevertheless... the training has afforded me a goal. It may seem aimless, but when you carry very little and keep your mind open, you can gain a lot. My purpose is to honor a tradition, something I never had until I trained here."
Mr. Rust listens to how Antoine describes his life... though there is doubt as to falling prey to the darkness. Something that was able to corrupt and overrun his mind. Was there a weakness in the young man's faith? Something that chipped at him, even at the slightest, to allow such an invasive entry into his very being...?
Perhaps, it's something that is not meant for him to know the full details of, between whatever it was that went on that got him... acting like that.
To carry very little and keep his mind open... of course, Howard Rust at his age has way too much to 'carry very little.' It's no secret his mind is already racing with the what-ifs as to what he'll do after all this. Without a job at Pacific, well...
...it's not going to be a pretty sight, and perhaps Antoine, in the end, is truly blessed for having the sort of lifestyle he does.
"I... I think I get you," Mr. Rust says as he removes the hand from Antoine's shoulder, if mostly to fiddle with the device and see that... yeah, it's life, the transmitter he taped onto Clay works, this thing works, battery looks good... great!
"Never... never woulda thought, Antoine, in... in this many years... it'd all come down to this, huh," he says as he briefly contemplates just all that's happened since he came to Southtown. It's been a lifetime's worth of excitement, perhaps more, just to have lived here and... through everything.
"OK, looks like, looks like it's all gonna work," he says as he pockets the GPS and picks up the cage.
Clay has, for the moment, calmed down. That it's still sitting upright instead of leaning heavily to the side the taped transmitter has been placed may be a good sign about its ability to do what Rust is hoping it will be able to.
"Zach's gonna be waitin' outside," he says as he motions to Antoine to follow him, opening up the bedroom door and starting to walk towards the door that leads out of his apartment. "'s gonna be a long ride, I'm, I'm takin' it... I'm gonna be countin' on you, Antoine, but, just in case... just in case, maybe Clay'll help get us there."
Looking over his shoulder as he rolls the opposite one, he has this much to say.
"Before... before we get Quon back his hope for, for the future 'n all... guess we're gonna have to make one." Even if, on some level, he's old and pragmatic enough to know that nobody around him is a comic book superhero. What they're dealing with is well above and beyond the ken of mortal man...
It's no longer a matter of whether or not one person being there will ultimately make a difference in the fate of the world. Now, it's time for those who have the strength to shape its destiny.
Antoine smiles.
There is a bit of relief as Rust finally understands Antoine. He can understand why Antoine believes in what he does. With that understanding, it feels that things are closer. Now then, with his attention falling to the crane, he looks at Rust.
"...It comes down to it. Even if it costs me my life...
Antoine smiles brightly, "My wish will be to give Quon his life back... for him to have a dream to climb for once more." Antoine is starting to walk outside, following Rust out of the apartment. "We will move."
"Let us fight for the world's future."
Log created on 09:01:12 07/29/2011 by Rust, and last modified on 14:04:37 07/30/2011.