sixthiterationlogs | How come they never call free space?

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How come they never call free space?

WHO: Ashley Magnus
WHERE: Around the village
WHEN: Last half of October
OPEN TO: Anyone
WARNINGS: None applicable except the Observer is mean

What's the worse that could happen?

Unarmed. No back up in the form of the Sanctuary. Little tech. Ashley is not in the best of moods about this place, and a few weeks there isn't making it much better for her. Trying to avoid outright stealing from others, such as taking knives and such from the storerooms and not returning them, Ashley has been on a hunt to try and make things easier for her in ways she's familiar with. Sadly there is little in the place that really feels normal, except for the plethora of abnormals that can be found in the forests and waters.

It's while studying those, seeking to find ones that might have natural weapons she can utilize, that Ashley watches some birds picking open the purple seeds she's found throughout the woods. Waiting and watching to see that they don't keel over from it, she picks a moment when one is just opening a seed before darting forward and scaring the bird away. It hasn't killed them, so she's willing to take a chance. Maybe it's a chance she shouldn't take, but listening to that kind of inner logic is never priority with Ashley.

Which is why, moments later, she is rushing through the woods towards town, amazed at her speed, dashing around trees and delighting in the ability that she knew could do her well. Careful not to run into people, though when it looks as if she might, panic grips her, causing her to phase right through people and objects in her path the same as she phased out of the fountain when she arrived.

The aftermath

Sometimes that mental question of, What's the worst that can happen? is answered in a swift and harsh manner. Such as finding herself bent double, puking up what seems to be everything she's eaten for the last few years, and then curling up against the foundation of the Inn, not making it much further than that before her eyes close.

Even the next day she still feels disjointed and not completely okay, following advice she's heard from others and heading down for the springs to try and see if a soak will help with the dizziness and the lethargic state of her body.

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At some point in the day, Ashley will speed around to where Vanille stands outside, grazing her herd. They've been pretty good so far, barely startled by anything, even things she would have expected them to be startled by. So when Ashley breezes by them, Vanille lets out a soft squeal of surprise, lifting her hands in the air as though doing that will keep her from getting knocked over. The llamas seem less interested in whatever is going on.

"Hey!" Vanille squeaks, breaking into a giggle. "What are you doing? How are you going so fast?"

Ashley hears the sound, laughing as she spins around, zooming back towards the woman and the animals. Coming to a stop comes with a bit of a skid, skittering to a stop.

"Hi! Uhmm... Running?" She snickers at that. "I... think it's something I ate," she says, having started to put this all together. "There was this purple seed I ate, like a nut, and then next thing I know I was running like this."

Vanille giggles a little at the explanation. It's not the most helpful, but also not the worst she's ever heard. So much about this entire area is so unusual to her. Everything is a surprise. Including seeds that apparently make people very fast.

And since she's not always the best at impulse control, she tilts her head. "Where did you find it?" She may or may not want to try one herself.

Perhaps it's not the smartest thing she can do to show her, but Ashley grins at that. She can't blame another for wanting to try it out. Not in the least.

"Just over that way. I can try and go slower and show you?"

Vanille giggles again at that, glancing down at the little puppy that's been outside with her. "If you don't, Raine can probably keep up with you. I'll just follow him!" She can't jump as high or survive falls like she used to be able to, before she got here. But if she can't keep up, she'll just follow the energetic puppy. "Lead on!"

Ashley can't help but to smile at that, giving a nod and bouncing on the balls of her feet. "This way." She walks, and she is fast, but not at that beyond a car speed at the way she was before. She's trying to stay slow though, glancing back often and moving in circles from time to time. Both for herself and the energy she feels, as well as for the puppy.

Eventually they approach a grove, and there is a fluttering as some birds take off at her approach. "They like them, from what I can tell. I thought that was why they were safe, since they were eating them and I watched them for a while and they were alive and fine."

Vanille proves to be a good runner, though she's not a sprinter. Using Raine to help guide her turns out to be a good idea. She can't fully keep up, but at least the puppy running along after Ashley keeps her on the right track. By the time they make it to their goal, she's out of breath but very pleased.

"Wow! Look at these!" she chirps excitedly, leaning over to smell the flowers. "They're so pretty." She has to take a minute to appreciate the flora around before she turns to the seeds. It all smells so very naturey. Just like home. Or what home was supposed to smell like.

Pushing that aside before she falls into a pit of sadness, she finally turns to the seeds. Finding the closest one, she picks it up and examines it. "Well, they look pretty safe. And they're not popping up into Piccochus or something."

Running with the puppy is fun, racing around and turning in circles and laughing at him as she runs. It's fun, and exciting, and it's definitely something that Ashley could get used to.

She glances over as Vanille smells the flowers, chuckling. "I grew up in a city. All of this is so clean to me," she admits, thinking of the darkness of the city she spent most of her life in.

"Piccohus?"

Vanille imagines a city like Bodhum and then Nautilus and wonders if Ashley's city is closer to one of those or Eden. She doesn't think she would like permanently living in one of those, even though Bodhum has the beach and Nautilus is a theme park. Eden has a park, but it's still very obviously a city. None of them smell the same. Not like the Waterscape. Not like Gran Pulse.

"Yeah," she says, pushing those thoughts away. "They're the Neochu seedlings. The Picochus come up to my knees, but they can hit one after the other and they always sprout in groups of three or more. They grow up into massive Neochus the size of..." She pauses, looking around for something to compare it to. "They're as tall as trees, I guess, and the size of a house here. They have huge mouths and rows and rows of tiny sharp teeth. I don't really know if they're a plant-like animal or a sentient plant that moves." She shrugs. Gran Pulse has a lot of monsters that aren't easy to explain. "But since these seeds haven't started sprouting legs and biting, they should be okay."

And where Ashley is from is dark, and crime ridden, and people fight to survive. It's dark and the buildings loom, and she loves every single inch of it from top to bottom.

And more so when she realizes nothing in her world grows like these things that Vanille is speaking of.

"They... they grow from seeds? Dear God," she says, shaking his head. "And they can move? So not like you can just avoid them because they're rooted in the spot? How do you kill them?"

Because that is the very most important question ever when you talk about things like that. Always.

Vanille tilts her head, thinking about the last time she'd been near an Ochu and Neochu. "Well, mostly they stay in one spot," she says, turning the seed over in her hand as she thinks. "The big adult ones have a territory they keep and as long as you don't go near them, they don't bother you. Sometimes you get rogue ones that take up space used by other animals or plants and then you've got a problem." See also: reasons why they were sometimes the point of a Focus given by the fal'Cie. "The Ochu and Neochu are strong enough to take down almost anything. They hit you with things like poison and take down all your protective spells. And their bellow is really loud. Loud enough to daze you for a while. It's like your ears are ringing and you can't tell what way is up. You have to be really strong and good at hitting their weak points. Take out the little ones as soon as they turn up or they'll just start running into you over and over."

The tone she uses for this is more matter of fact and experienced than wary or afraid. This is the world she grew up in and the only thing that might pose a problem is the lack of l'Cie power. Even then, she thinks the villages might stand a chance of surviving with all of their weird scrubs powers to help.

"That is the craziest thing I've ever heard of," she admits, grinning though she's stunned about the reality of others worlds. "Whoa. Man. If my mom was here, she would just trip out over learning all of these things. She loves this kind of research. She would sit you down and talk with you for hours about all of this. She would want every last single detail. Every single one."

Grinning as she admits that, loving the things he mother has done, the woman she is.

"I never appreciated her for that. Not until I came to this place." She grins. "Are you good at it? At taking them off by hitting those weak points?"

Vanille tilts her head at Ashley, turning over her words. Her parents died when she was really young, so she has no memory of them. The closest thing she had to real family for a long time was Fang. The rest of the village, too, of course, but she and Fang had a special bond.

"She sounds like a great person," Vanille says softly, almost wistfully. "You must really care about her." It makes her miss Fang even more and of course the rest of their new family. Funny... When she was living on Gran Pulse, before her Focus and her part in the war, she would never have wanted to befriend anyone from Cocoon. Now she knows... they're just like the people on Gran Pulse. They've just lived different lives.

"Sometimes," she says, latching onto the other side of the topic, "but you're better off working with other people. It's a lot less dangerous that way, if you fight with people who have different strengths than you."

"She is," Ashley says softly, missing her as acutely in that moment as she has every day since she came to this place. "I hadn't ever thought about what life would be like without her there. It was just never an option."

She knew her mother would outlive her, but never in a way like being snatched to this place. Or worse, the future she's soon to find out about.

"Is that how it always is for you? Is it always about fighting?" She fears that though, and worries for her and what kind of life that might be for Vanille.

Kind of like how Vanille never thought about life without Fang until the escape from Euride happened. Then she had been forced to leave Fang behind and they didn't find each other for a long time. She'd been lucky to find other people to cling to, even while she was lying to them all.

"Not always," she says with a small head shake. "No more than here. You aren't fighting everything, just whatever you need to in order to survive." She turns the little seed around again, holding it up like Snow would do with Serah's crystal tear. "But it's okay. If this thing hasn't sprouted by now, it's not going to. Maybe I'll take it home and eat it later."

Oooor maybe she'll eat it now. She hasn't decided yet. Fang's not here to sway her one way or the other.

"I've been lucky in not having to fight for that," Ashley admits, though she supposes that one day the day might come that she will have to. Hers has been to protect others, one way or another. It's why something like this ability to run as she can right now would be amazing in trying to survive the things she's faced.

"I ate a large piece too. I'm wondering what would happen if you just ate a bit of it. Almost like grinding it and just a bit of it. Would also make it curious how much you could save one nut for as long as it might last."

Vanille knows so little about worlds other than Gran Pulse. She's experienced a little of Cocoon and gotten some backstory about it since waking up in the vestige near Bodhum. Still, her experience with everything else is still very small. Maybe one day she'll ask Ashley more about her life and home.

"Let's find out, then!" she chirps. "Let's go back to the Inn and I'll see what happens when I cut it!"

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How come they never call free space?

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