Entry tags:

I'm headed straight for the castle

WHO: Natalia
WHERE: The Bunker, then the Southern Village
WHEN: Sept 22
OPEN TO: Asch, then All
WARNINGS: TBD

The bunker

for Asch

She had escaped Eldrant with the others, she knew. That had been hours ago. So why did she suddenly feel as though she'd been dumped into the ocean under a pile of debris? Natalia forced her eyes open as the liquid began to drain from her containment tube. It didn't sting like sea water, and the vague shapes she could make out nearby didn't make any sense. Finally she felt the water level just past the top of her head. Squeezing her eyes shut again and tilting her head she pushed up with her whole body, gasping for a breath of air.

It wasn't until the water was at her ankles that, back against the glass, she began to wonder about her surroundings again. She was in some kind of cage, and from what little she could see that was inside of another kind of cage. A research facility, maybe? She stood up straight, ran fingers through her hair, wrung out and straightened her odd new clothes as best she could, then stood with her chin raised. Her voice didn't waver.

"Hello? Is there anyone there? Release me at once."

SOUTHERN VILLAGE

OTA

Natalia wandered through the more densely populated southern village, looking for any signs of intelligent life. It didn't matter to her if that life was large, small, oddly shaped or objectively terrifying. She intended to speak to any and everyone who had arrived here the same way that she did.

Of course Asch had explained things to her, even showed her around town a little bit. But she wanted to hear more from the people who lived here. She had questions Asch couldn't answer, questions she wanted multiple responses to. And beyond that, this village was unfamiliar. Everything was unfamiliar, and she wanted to get a handle on it herself. Second-hand explanations could only do so much.

Having changed into the spare set of clothes from her pack Natalia's navy blue scrubs were dry and fresh, but her damp hair might give her away as a newcomer. She carried herself straight and proper as a princess should, hands still at her sides. It was how she had been trained to walk for public appearances, and it had become a daily habit.

"Excuse me," she began, approaching the first person she came upon. "Might I have a moment of your time?"

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Not far off, except the former demon part who doesn't give a shit, but it is a kind of look he cultivates.

"Seriously? What? You one of the kidnappers and plan on seeing how happy the victims are?" Not that he has reason to believe that beyond wondering why anyone would ask questions like that otherwise? "The state of things is that we're all playthings for kidnappy overlords who think putting us back to the early part of the last century is a happy go lucky party we should be thankful for. Which, I for one, am not. Not that it's all bad. At least for me."

She huffs her frustration. She thought she was very clear, thank you.

"I told you I've already heard that part. I mean moving forward. People need to eat, don't they? And I imagine healers are needed from time to time. But what else?"

He snorts, rolling his eyes, showing a considerable lack of manners but Hell does that to a man. "Why do you care? What are you going to do? Go out in the forests and hunt down something? Planning to get down and toil in the fields? People will always find a way to eat, they will always find a way to survive. It's the nature of the beast.

"That said, all you need is nutrients and not to die. Everything else is a desire and a want."

He's not being particularly helpful, and Natalia has to take a moment to let her temper settle down before answering.

"I mean to help in whatever way I can. I'm trying to determine where help is most needed."

Sadly, demonic creatures rarely are helpful. Even if they aren't fully themselves in this world. It's still the nature of the creature, and he is acting in that way.

"Find an answer then to why the inn has electricity, and some houses do, and the rest don't. Winter gets here sooner than later and if this place is where it looks like, not going to be a lot of happy people."

She stares blankly at him for a moment.

“Electricity?”

That gives him pause, having experience with a time when it wasn't normal. Huh. He hadn't expected others here to have that as well. Not without knowledge at all.

"In the Inn, the stove there. You tried it? Or seen some of the houses with more light than candles might give? They run on electricity. Something that will keep everyone warm come winter, if this place gets snow and all."

She doesn't know much about stoves, honestly. What little cooking experience she has involves campfires. Artificial lights, though, that she knows about.

"You mean fonons? Lights run on fonons."

He just stares at her for the longest time, head canting slightly.

"They run on what? I mean, I am guessin' that's the same thing as electricity but... Maybe you mean like tiny suns or something. Who knows so do share."

"Fonons are the element that make up all things," she begins, as though reciting a lesson she long since memorized. "They are vibrations of energy that produce sound, usually inaudible to human ears. Depending on the sound they can form light, water, stones, animals, even people."

"Your lights run on sound, and the same thing as makes people? So you weren't... birthed?" Oh man, for someone that went to Hell and came back because of a curse, he's a judgmental bastard.

"Huh, gotta admit, that's new to me. You know though? Given it's only in a few places, maybe that's how it works here." What the hell does he know, after all? "How would you find the source of those here?"

She huffs at him, frustrated by his lack of understanding.

"Of course I was birthed. People don't just suddenly appear out of nowhere." But the last question is a little more interesting.

"In my world the sephiroth trees were responsible for the Planetary Storm that allowed seventh fonons to flow freely across the world. The fonons themselves originate in the planet's core. That's how most Artes work, but I can't seem to use mine."

Bobo himself can just be downright frustrating, and when he doesn't understand things, it only gets worse.

So he stares at her, head canting to one side and then to the other. Listening to what she's saying, but not getting it as one brow arches slightly, almost challenging.

"You did say sound could form people. Had to wonder." And probably want to see a lack of a belly button to prove it. Okay so he's a jerk, and it shows in what he says and how he looks at her, though he lights up a bit at the last part.

"I got an answer for that. Nothing anyone has works. No matter how it started, what trees, or light, or curses it comes from? This place finds a way to stop it. What do these Artes let you do?"

She's starting to really dislike this man. Of course, that only means she needs to be more patient and polite. She discards her frustration to fume over later.

"I use them for healing, primarily." They have some combat abilities too, but it's the healing she really misses.

It's an emotion he's used to receiving, one that he thrives from because he doesn't know any other way to exist.

Though when she says that, his demeanor changes a bit. "So you can heal with this power then? Or could before this place" He takes a breath, giving her a nod. "Sorry about that. I know how fucked up that is though no idea how they do it."

She looks away, still too annoyed with him for even a genuine-sounding apology to soften her temper.

"It only means I'll need to learn other ways to heal."

"Lucky you. There's not much I can learn to do the same thing that I had before," he admits, frustration lacing his own tones at that.

"You got normal hospitals where you're from?"

"Yes, of course. Seventh fonons are difficult and dangerous to control." Of course, if he doesn't know about fonons he probably doesn't know what she's talking about.

"What could you do?"

"Fair enough. So you could learn standard medical, so there's that." He figures if it's that important to her, she can probably figure it out.

He considers that for a moment before he shrugged. "I could control metal. At least that's the most tangible thing I've noticed I can't do anymore."

She nods. That's her plan. It will just take some time. She's never had to learn more than the most basic first aid, and her healing was one of the main reasons Luke allowed her to travel with them. That and the blackmail, of course.

"I've never heard of a power like that," she mused with real interest. "There are so many potential applications... It's a pity you can't show me."

"I know some basics, but I'm betting you know them as well. Had to tend to some of our own, not to mention parts of my life were when modern hospitals and such were just not a thing."

Which is the truth, though glosses over so much of his past.

"I agree. A bit of metal, and I could haul just about anything, move it to better locations. Whatever is needed, but I'm guessing that's why they took it, and yours, and others. They don't want this to be easy on us."

"Yes, about that. Do you know if any progress is being made as to why we were brought here?" Asch didn't know, but he was never the most social child. Maybe he just hadn't asked the right questions.

He shakes his head, looking a bit frustrated at that himself. "I havn't been here that long, but from those I've talked to, most don't seem to have answers. You heard anything?"

She sighs and shakes her head.

"I've heard much the same, but I thought perhaps he hadn't spoken to the right people yet."

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I'm headed straight for the castle

The bunker

SOUTHERN VILLAGE

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