The Park Awaits! [Julian]

Alright! It really has been a while since we hanged out like this, ‘m excited already!” Hyde would say as he entered the amusement park with Julian. “Though, we could have fun and talk about things at the same time. It kind of helps with the discreetness because everyone s off having fun, so you wouldn’t have anything to worry about in terms of privacy. Smart right? “ That was something that Hyde made up on the fly, but a moment of seriousness needs to be accompanied with something to quell his short attention span. Getting off track and being a little forgetful is something Hyde is good at doing, though he doesn’t do it on purpose. “Like for instance, I mentioned those shadow fights I been going on right? Jumping into the soul of my friends to help them face their past grievances. Did I mention that?

    Ah, the amusement park. A place Julian had come to know frighteningly well, considering how much time he spent in the area. Normally, he'd be rather glad to spend the day with someone who could possibly enjoy the same rides he did, but right now...well, it was Hyde. Not that he couldn't be fun, but along with the alleviation of boredom usually came a headache that started smack in the center of Julian's brow.

    Yup, there it was. He could feel it starting to form the moment Hyde finished his explanation. Oh boy. Where should he even start?

    Raising a hand to his forehead and rubbing slightly, the teen sighed slightly before speaking lowly. "We can talk about this, but keep your voice down. Y'see the loiterers on the sides? You never know what they could hear, and I'd rather not have people associating us even more with that broadcast." Getting his classmates to shut up about his name being on there had taken a large chunk of time out of his sleuthing schedule. He'd rather not waste time trying to quell similar rumors in a place he spend inordinate amounts of his life.

    "...No, you didn't." he muttered at the next part, slowly lowering his hand. What the hell did that even mean, "jumping into his friends' souls"? That was so vague, he didn't even know where to start. Magic? Persona craziness? Hyde speak? The hypotheses were endless, and he was honestly afraid to consider the explanations Hyde would offer, or if he would even understand them.

    "What did you want to go on?" Julian questioned absently, waving a hand at the expanse of the park. "Take your pick."

“Oh, sorry, was I too loud or something? “Hyde lowered his voice a tad bit, but he understood where Julian was coming from. “I know how you feel Julian, but they can’t associate us with anything . They know our names, but not our faces. There are plenty of people who might have similar names as ours, none of our names are unique or alien in any sense. I understand the reason to be careful, I just decided that I won’t be paranoid about it, you know?” Hyde wasn’t being carefree out of stupidity; he just refused to let anything stress him out.

“ My friends souls thing is something called a prime awakening. When the persona you have becomes pretty strong, there is a chance that you could get even stronger. However, you would have to defeat the darkness that lies within your heart. Sometimes your friends can come with you and help you out, I did it twice so far for others.” Hyde would speak low and brief. “ Though, mine popped up…and…. I have to go alone…. I’m a little scared” Hyde skimmed over his little part and went over to thinking about what ride he wanted to ride.

“Well, its summer time. How about the log ride where we get wet?”

    Hyde had the basis for a good argument going, but Julian just couldn't agree with him. Yes, the broadcast didn't how their faces, but it gave their full names. Full. Names. Now, "Julian" wasn't an uncommon name, and maybe there was someone with the last name of "Remming", but he highly doubted that there was another person with his exact same name running around Azores. And didn't Angel specify that these people were from the community? Yeah, those two facts don't mix well for him. That alone made him want to be careful; add in the outright panic that the broadcast stirred up, and of course he was on high alert that only select people heard what he had to say. The last thing they needed on their hands in addition to the big problem was a riot of mass chaos. No, Julian was content to keep everything just the way it was and stir as little commotion up as possible, thank you very much. But he only gave a half-hearted little shrug and a nod at Hyde. No sense in drawing this out any further; Hyde had his idea, Julian had his, and that was that.

    Julian listened intently to the pinkette's brief description of "journeys into the soul" or whatever. Oh...so it was basically...a challenge? Proving yourself worthy to hold even more power? Huh. He wasn't aware that Jak could get any stronger than he was. Maybe he should look into training a little more...come to think of it, there was that one text from the Velvet room that could help with that...

    "I don't blame you. Sounds tough." Well, at least Hyde admitted he was scared rather than play it tough. that took more courage sometimes than playing it cool. "But y'know, if you run into any problems, you can call me. My number isn't just in your phone to sit there and remind you of me." They weren't the best of friends, but Julian wouldn't be able to live with himself if Hyde got hurt while traveling into...well, wherever he had to go, especially if he could've made a difference.

    As Hyde supplied a ride, Julian immediately headed in that direction, taking the paths that led them there the fastest. "Alright then. Right this way, step lightly, step lightly..." he called back in a mildly joking tone, imitating that of a carnie. It would only be a couple of minutes later that they appeared at the log ride which didn't have that long of a line at all. "If you have anything that is weak to water, I'd suggest leaving it with the attendant. It'll be safer there."

Any kind of problems at all? Are you that willing to help me out?” Hyde paused for a second before he continued. “Well, I mean, I always intended for us to work together Julian, so I would hope that you felt the same about me too. If anything happens, I’ll come running and back you up. I’m pretty strong too you know?” Hyde would flex his muscles and laugh it off. He wasn’t a body builder or anything, but he was pretty athletic. After reaching the attendant, Hyde left a few things that wasn’t necessarily water proof, but he kept his wallet.
Hey Julian, we get the front seats. “ I hope you don’t mind getting soaked because we might take the most of it.’ Hyde would say as he jumped into the front seat of the log ride excitedly. ‘It’s a hot day, I’m sure that were going to dry off in no time. “

    The guy almost seemed surprised that Julian was willing to offer his assistance. They were hardly close, but Julian looked at Hyde like a lifeline for when he went into other worlds. He was the one person he felt he could call if he ran into trouble. Maybe because Hyde had other user friends, he didn't see Julian the same? It was likely. Regardless, at least now Hyde understood that they were on very even ground here. Julian would give the pinkette a grin before hopping into line and offering a light chuckle at his antics.

    The line moved quickly and, as Hyde was quick to point out, they managed to snag the very front of one of logs for themselves. A nice development, actually. Julian quickly undid the ponytail at the back of his neck and slipped the hairband onto his wrist. Then, after throwing off his hodie and leaving it with the attendant, he climbed into the ride after Hyde and leaned back in his seat as it began to move.



    Running a hand through his damp hair, Julian laughed as he trudged off the ride, mentally wincing at the squeaking of his sneakers against the floor. Whew, now that was a quick way to cool off." Taking his hoodie from the attendant with a smile and a quick "thanks," the teen hurried out of the building before turning to Hyde."Well now, how 'bout a coaster?"

Hyde was basically shaking the water from out of his hair the same way that a dog would if it got wet. Afterwards, Hyde would get his phone and give the attendant a small wave before following Julian. “A coaster huh? I’m game, which one are we getting on this time around?” This particular amusement park had a good variety of coasters Hyde could make an empty guess as to which one Julian wanted to ride. The supposed “best roller coaster” from critics doesn’t mean that It was any more fun than what Julian planned

    Good to see Hyde wasn't derailed from the idea based off of the last time they'd done something similar. If he remembered correctly (which he was sure he did), Hyde had gotten sick last time. Hm, might want to choose something a little tamer than normal...

    After a few seconds of deliberation, Julian gestured for the pinkette to follow, walking off in a different direction. "C'mon, let's hit the Poltergeist first." He'd gesture to a large turquoise and yellow ride that held cars full of screaming patrons zooming along the track, zipping through curves and even through a loop at one point. Still definitely a thrill ride, but not as bad as others by far. It should be a good gauge of where to start for now.

The polter what? I think there was a movie about that, a horror flick. Are you into horror flics Julian? Hyde would say questioningly as he followed Julian to the ride and got on the line. Well, this one seems pretty exciting, I’m a little excited to see how this roller-coaster turns out.” Hyde would then put his hands in his pocket and wait a minute. You know I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold or anything; did your socks get wet or anything? Oh, and how are your entrance exams going? Did you put them on hold because of the whole, end of the world stuff?

    If memory serves, Hyde was right; they made a movie with the same name as the ride about...what, two years ago? Judging from the ride itself, though, he'd wager it had been in place before the film came out. There was some obvious wear and rust on some of the bolts and hinges, after all. "I am, actually. and it's poltergeist." he enunciated for clarification and the teen's future reference. "You?"

    There he went again. Throwing out questions one after the other without waiting for him to actually answer them. Oh well. He was used to it by now. Nonchalantly and without pause, Julian answered them in quick succession. "A little, but they'll be fine. And I don't have entrance exams. I'm going to school in America; the most you need there is a stellar resume, a good GPA, and have an interview." He looked over at Hyde, tilting his head. "What about you? Thinking about college or are you going to try and repeat this school year?"

They are pretty awesome, especially the classic retro ones. Some would say that those were badly made compared to the new and upcoming horror flicks, but I think that the starting point of every genre is a hidden gem just waiting to be polished. Why else would there be so many remakes of movies that were already made, right? It’s like that saying, the past repeats itself.” Though Hyde made a very puzzling facial expression when Julian mentioned college. Do you want to hear something strange? I kind of already attended a college or something of equivalence. Tiekuru University. , but I can’t use any of the credentials here because….in this world…it kinda….doesn’t exist…so… I don’t know what I’m going to do.

    ...O...kay? Julian mulled this new information over in his mind. If it didn't exist in this world...so...Hyde went to a college in an alternate world? ...Why? What would be the point of attending college in the other Malstu or wherever? That just...didn't make any sense to him. They were trying to close the portals. Why go over there and dedicate time to a place where, in the end, you'd get nothing out of it? "...I see." Was there much more he could say on that matter? Wasn't like he knew how to make other-worldly credits count in a community college or whatever. No sense in dragging it out further. "So you're just not gonna look into colleges here? Just planning on...floating for a while? OR jumping into the workforce?" Not that there was anything wrong with that of course--Julian had been considering that option for himself for a while--but to be this close to graduating without having a plan? Not a swell idea there.

Oh, i forgot one detail. I’m not originally from this world, i only came here about a year or two ago. Doing school all over again seems that it would cost a lot of money, so the track team scholarship is what i'm aiming for to be honest. Starting a business doesn't seem so far-fetched either, i like to cook and bake, but i’m more into pastries nowadays.. “ Hyde was just throwing some ideas out there for the time being as to what he planned to do. None of it seems natural, but he did have dreams and aspirations that he wanted to accomplish. “Cake might not be your thing, but if it's a fruit parfait you want, i’m sure it'll be a healthy choice that i can make for you.

    ...

    ...

    ...



    He didn't even bother to hide the dumbfounded expression on his face. Hyde deserved that. He really did. "I'm from another world" isn't something you just casually mention to someone else. ...Wait...if Hyde had already gone through college...but...a year or two ago...

    "How the fuck old are you?" he muttered loud enough for the pinkette to hear, his gaze narrowing even further in disbelief. Unless there were time traveling shenanigans going on here, Hyde had to be...what, twenty or so? ...Damn. And here Julian thought he was older.

I'm not going to say that i was a genius, but all i really had to do was study for a while. I'm like eighteen, i'm actually not that old at all. However, my sense of time isn't that great either. " Hyde would say as he laughed and rubbed his head. " But don't worry, i'm not an alien or anything julian, i'm just like you, plus, i don't think there is much merit in having a university education when you couldn't even leave the island, how far could i have actually went with it? There were those who were willing to learn, and when you are constantly surrounded by people who use brute force to get what they want instead, you start to seem more rare as you continue to hold onto the hope of having a normal life. Unwanted children in that kind of place wasn't uncommon either, but it only makes those children even more willing to rove their own worth in their own way. " Hyde started to twiddle his thumbs a bit. I don't have a degree or anything yet, i'm just not as dumb as people think i am.