video | un: w.west

[otherflash]

[ Those viewing the network will be greeted with the sight of a young man with red hair and green eyes wearing a tight-lipped smile on his face. He's really trying to keep it together. He's been taken away from his family and friends again. ]

I'm starting to think I'm the punchline to the worst joke in the universe. Though I have to admit this place is a step up from where I spent my last involuntary vacation.

[ Of course his last vacation consisted of him being stuck in the Speed Force for years with only his own thoughts to keep him company. ]

Since it appears I'm not going anywhere for the foreseeable future, I figured I should introduce myself. My name is Wally. [ Have a wave, people. ] I'm from Earth. Well, an Earth. I would tell you people some more about me, but I'm a pretty boring guy these days.

[ That's not exactly true. But, the purpose behind him addressing the network is to gather any information he can rather than revealing it. ]

So, what's the deal here? I know what the welcoming committee had to say, but you know how they have a habit of making things sound more grandeur than things are. [ Rather, he isn't sure just how truthful they were being. ] There was a lot of weird stuff going on back home and I just want to make sure this isn't connected somehow.

[ He sighs, running a hand through his hair. What is his life. ]

Whatever information I could get would be appreciated. [ He flashes a much more genuine smile. ] Heck, I'd settle for just knowing where the best place to get a drink is.

Comments

[genice]

( Victor hums an agreement, saying something indistinct as he stops at a florist, picking up what he'd ordered earlier in the day. Which comes across as a discombobulated sort of partial conversation — he rejoins with an apology. )

Ah, sorry, had to take care of a little business there... I am! Or had been competitive in men's singles figure skating. Always thought my retirement would be a little more voluntary.

( He chuckles, more amused than lamenting at this point. He still has the ice, in a different way; he has Yuuri, and in a looser sense, he has some contact with others from home, if Yuri Plisetsky decides to start talking with him again, or Otabek decides to spend time on the same ice. Victor takes it all in stride. ) Sure, you could get paid for doing ice shows if you were so inclined and could talk people into being the sponsors behind such events, but you can imagine that's a little more difficult when you're an unknown in a shifting market. Lessons, choreography at the community centers, things like that are simpler to have arranged.

( Or so he suspects, given what he and Yuuri were employed as in different community centers. )

As long as you've some reason to be willing to work, there are things around here that suit. It's not quite the ah... peculiar, whimsical situation I've been in before? I appreciate the thoughtfulness of those who work with integrating new arrivals, however long those arrivals may be around.

[otherflash]

[ Wally smiles to himself when it becomes clear the other man is engaging in a conversation with someone else even if he doesn't really know what is being said. ]

I think retirements rarely happen in a way people would like or expect them to. [ Nobody could have expected this. ] At least you can still skate even if it's not competitively.

[ While he loves being a hero, he doesn't know what he would do if he was never able to run again. ]

They did offer to set me up with something, but I wasn't exactly in a hurry to agree to anything. I've never really taken the time to think about what I wanted to do with my life. [ Between school and superheroing, who had time to think about the future. ]

[genice]

( There's a degree of that Victor understands too well. Who has time to think about what they want to do with their life when they're so busy with what's happening in that life in the moment?

Victor shifts his phone to his other shoulder, adjusting his bag and the flowers as he does. He'd only started thinking about Life in the last year. Twenty seven years of living and he'd never really gotten around to the living part in more meaningful, lasting ways. )

I'm not so sure that's different than situations we can find ourselves in back home. Excepting the whole absconded into another universe unplanned and unasked.

( He laughs a little at that, short lived. His tone ends up thoughtful at the end. )

There's no rush either way. Working toward going home, which I assume is your aim, seems to be a matter of patience and contribution. At most, five years of a life is more like a work or career commitment than a "forever after." You have time enough to figure out anything you want to do, on top of whatever you feel you need to do to get where you want to be. Something like that!

( He waves his hand, which someone he's walking past takes as a greeting. Victor flashes them a smile in return for their wave, glad at the simple sorts of moments like these in this increasingly less foreign place. Maybe one day it will even feel like home. )

Think of it as a sort of... Intergalactic Internship! Gaining skills and making friends you wouldn't have had the opportunity to otherwise.

( He's honestly not even sure how internships worked. Everything he dealt with was in different spheres. Were internships even paid? C'est la vie. )

[otherflash]

[ Wally is very much a person who lives in the present. Five minutes seems like forever for him much less five years. ]

Patience has never really been a strength of mine. I'm used to doing everything fast before immediately going on to the next thing. I know it's something I have to work on, but I don't really feel alive unless I'm moving.

[ But assuming what he has been told is true, he at least has something to run to. His finish line is just a little further away than he'd like. ]

I have had an internship of sorts back home. It's actually how I met the people who became my best friends. Though I'm not sure how much of what I learned and my skills will translate over here. It was a rather unique job.

[genice]

Then keep moving. Maybe see about working outside the walls? There's enough that happens out there that the restless may find helpful for keeping them engaged. More than staying within the walls and dealing with what falls out into the city from the jungles beyond.

( It's as sincere a consideration as he an offer: restlessness is what this also sounds like, and he's seen others both fair better and worse heading out on expeditions. For the distraction and uncertainty if nothing else.)

You could say you're in another rather unique situation. You might end up surprised by what translates over, or you might not. Either way, the knowing is in the doing.

[otherflash]

[ Restlessness is as good a term as any. ]

They did say something about a perimeter guard. Sounded like it would be a good opportunity for me to stretch my legs and that there were plenty of stones left unturned out there.

[ It would allow him to put what skills he does have to good use. ]

[genice]

Mm, both between the walls and presumably beyond them.

( Mysteries of a society pushing itself back out past where nature and quarantine and history has hemmed them all in. )

[otherflash]

[ Wally lets out a playful snort. ]

Maybe I should just look at this like it's a big side-quest in a video game. I just got to run around and do some stuff to level up before I can get back to the main mission.

[ Maybe not the best comparison, but he's essentially been stuck in the state of the art Tower that serves as his team's base of operations with nothing to do but play video games and the like since his return home from the Speed Force. ]

[genice]

( this sounds like an example that Yuuri would pull out to explain something, so Victor nods, making a noise in agreement when he does so. does he personally do much with video games? no, but when you're engaged to someone who does, you pick up on details. )

Yes! Something like that. Tedious and more work than you might want to have to put into something that you didn't choose on your own, but like any other kind of training, necessary for the end results.