"Hm?"

On the plus side, that's not a no.

On the minus side, that's… not a no.

He picks up the notebook and leaves the room, hunching a little on himself. He feels more anxious than he's been in years.

"So, uh. Up until, like, five or ten minutes ago I was not here. Not in this house, probably not in this country, which I don't even know what it is, and absolutely not in this body. I think that - whoever was in this body before me might have known that someone like me was coming, 'cause they started to leave a note, but I don't - have access to their memories."

- He realizes that he didn't check particularly hard about that last part. Does he, if he tries hard and believes in himself, have access to any of Jordan's memories?

There are a few things, blurry and impressionistic enough that he can't be sure they're not just dreams, his own, or his own dreams.

Rage, well-worn, and helplessness accompanying it through self-restraint - staring at a table of statistics - operating a strange sort of vehicle, going very fast, too fast, on an open country road, then gritting his teeth and choosing to slow way down - embracing someone (possibly the teen here??? it's unclear) and holding them while they cry - bristling at someone whom he doesn't like being in his house but choosing to leave the talking to someone else - petting a very small kitten, filled with melancholy -

And then the teen finally responds.  "I didn't have a good day.  I'm going to hurt you."  It doesn't sound like a threat, despite the words; in fact she sounds distraught.  And maybe even more anxious than he feels.

The memories seem like they should be suggestive, even if he doesn't have enough context to have an idea of what. Although - if the teen is the same as the one from the crying hug he's gonna feel pretty shitty!

"Wh- emotionally?"

He's pretty sure she can't take him physically; her eyes look like she's got no more magic than this body does. (Something to ask about at a less horrible time.) But he's also not sure how she'd hurt him emotionally - they don't know each other enough for that.

"I'm sorry about the bad day. If it helps, I think - if Jordan's in my body, we can find each other and figure out how to undo this?"

". . . Like your corpse?  Are you an - you're claiming to be an angel?"

What.

"Nnnnno, I'm claiming to be a regular guy who is, uh, suddenly in a different body? That is also alive?"

(He puts his hand to his neck, because it would be really awkward if he was technically dead somehow and hadn't noticed! Also he's suddenly very concerned that somehow he had a freak heart attack in his sleep and his old body is just - dead, and his mom is gonna find him in the morning - he should think about something else.)

"Do you need anything from me to be okay until Ian gets back from the grocery store.  Really, really need."

Okay, whatever he said clearly wasn't reassuring. He takes a second to think so that he can go back to the room and this poor kid can have some time to herself.

"If that's gonna be within the next hour, nah, I can leave you alone until then and ask him the questions. But, ah…"

Purposeful breath. This is so fucking awkward and potentially extremely sad!!

"… Is Ian the - the person Jordan shares a room with, and - are they -"

. . . She doesn't say anything.

Yeah, he’s not gonna press.

"I’m sorry about – this."

He wants to say something like please make yourself something nice or I’m gonna fix this or even I have no idea how it happened but feels that more of his input is the last thing she needs. Hopefully Ian will be… more emotionally equipped to deal with the situation?

He slinks back off to the bedroom and flops onto the bed.

The girl re-lumps on the couch and can occasionally be heard sniffling.  The cat sits on her, chirping from time to time, and eventually pads over to come stare at him some more.

After about two minutes of flophood he rolls onto his back and looks back at the cat.

"I really hope nothing else fucked up happens," he says, knowing that something else fucked up is almost certainly going to happen.

The cat meows at him pensively.

Fuck it, he meows back. (Just the once.)

Mrr-ah-aht?

Mew!

"Princess?" calls the teen in a small voice, and the cat looks back and forth between the two of them before returning to her with a parting mrrp.

Yeah that's fair. Bye Princess! At least she… seems to hate him less now?

Okay, now that he's properly alone he has about 30 seconds that he can not do anything before he starts to feel painfully bored. Once those 30 seconds are up, he sits up and huffs to himself. He still needs to get his bearings, but he suddenly feels weird and invasive about trying to do anything like find and read Jordan's diary. Maybe there's… a book he can read? Until Ian gets back?

In addition to the bookcase there's a short stack on Jordan's nightstand comprised of Cerdan Death (apparently a futuristic action-survival piece about a 'Druoary seasonchange' who ends up stranded in a cave when their airship malfunctions, according to the back cover) and Your Grace: A History of Pre-Roman Britannian Governance (which boasts interviews commenting on the previous edition from some people who apparently witnessed one of the events mentioned).

What.

Okay, if he's this confused just from reading the back of the airship book, he'll probably give himself a migraine if he tries to read the actual book. The history one will probably be more helpful, if it's recent enough history that people who were there can comment on it? It might even have a map like what he was looking for earlier. With a grin as he imagines Sylas ribbing him for picking a history book over an adventure book, he starts flipping through Your Grace: A History of Pre-Roman Britannian Governance.