sixthiterationlogs | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Oh, certainly, yes they would do that. But just because it's good for them doesn't mean it can't be good for us too." Ever the optimist. "Really it's better than us trying to figure it all out in an accident. Powers take time to control." That much she knew well. She watched Bethany over the course of her life try to learn. It required such discipline. "Interesting! So you were intangible. That'll come in handy if you ever need to escape a fight. Or let attacks go right through you." Hawke really hopes her powers are as handy. Her strategic mind will make quick work of it."

Hawke nods in understanding. "The cost is high. It seems like more of an emergency thing. Unless we can break it down into reasonable slices." It's funny, she's coming up with the idea, but has no idea how to do the execution. She's not a scientist or much of a brain honestly. But she knows how to kill and how to survive, so she thinks in those terms often. "There are all manner of interesting beasties and plants around here, aren't there? Are they here for us to use, I wonder, or for us to try and survive?"

Ashley certainly looks less than convinced in all of this, uncertain and not at all happy about any of this going on. "I guess you're right. I just... I'm not sure if I can trigger it again that easily. Not to mention, honestly? It feels off to be able to do. Kind of been a thing my whole life. Surrounded by the different and all, but not part of it."

And if she's abnormal, what does that open her up to? Could she end up like Druitt? It's frightening in ways that Ashley will never admit.

"Maybe, but you have to have volunteers, and accept that after they'll feel like they were hit by a Mack truck without the broken bones." She pauses, considering that. "Well there's that. I had none, though what if I had run into a tree, at that speed?" Her nose wrinkles up at the thought. "That's one way to die."

"Wow, are you me? I feel in complete simpatico with you right now." Hawke smiles and shrugs at her, understanding exactly what she means. "I was surrounded with magic users but didn't have any of my own." Her father, her sister, her lover, her friends. They were all powerful and she usually was keeping up as best as she could as an ordinary person. And rarely did Hawke really covet those abilities, because they were double edged swords. Useful, yes, but with serious responsibilities. "But in our world, if you don't use them, you can get out of control and that leads down very bad pathways." Very damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Hawke makes a face. "Yeah, that's one way to die. It'd probably be fast." She taps a finger against her chin. "People must've died here before. We can't all have survived." She wasn't necessarily talking about the fountains, although there was that. But there were super powers and strange animals and plants. All it took was one wrong choice to end it. "Does it sound weird to ask people who many of us have died so far and how? Bit grim I guess."

Ashley chuckles at that, grinning. "Hey, you never know. Other worlds and all. My mom was different, and all her friends, and everyone that lived at the Sanctuary with us was different in one way or another. Except me. Now here, it's normal not to be, I guess." Though she doesn't sound entirely certain about that belief, but she'll keep going and do what she can while she's there. It's the one constant that Ashley is entirely certain of in this place.

But she still isn't sure she's comfortable with it all.

Ashley chuckles, though the sound isn't strong, nodding. "Fast is good," she says, amused with herself, and with Hawke at the pun. Even if it isn't intended.

"Maybe weird, yeah, but can't help but wondering. They can't all have just mysteriously disappeared, can they?"

"Yeah even the abnormal are now the normal here. It's a great equalizer. Even if we do have new gifts, they're all related in a way, since they're new to us." Hawke frowns and rubs the back of her neck. "My sister would struggle without them, for certain, but I think she could adapt. My ex though, I think he'd have a mental breakdown." She doesn't know why she's bringing it up, she rarely speaks about Anders, although that is partly because so many people had Opinions of him now back home. "So much of his identity is tied up in being a mage, it's what matters most to him." More than her, and yes, she's bitter about that.

Hawke didn't hear it until then and chuckles. "Very fast." She'd just been zipping around! Lesson learned. She nods somewhat somberly at the question. "They could but it does seem very unlikely. And it's possible if someone dies out there, we all assume they did disappear. And there probably wouldn't be any way to know for absolute certain. Only they would know." Very grim. "Best if we all think about that and go out in pairs whenever possible."

She nods at that, offering a bit of a smile. "I know a few like that. God, I can't even imagine Tesla here without it," she admits, trying to think of it. "Might drive him even more mad," she adds, chuckling a bit because even thinking about him and what he might do is like home.

"Makes you wonder though. If they do die here, and we just assume they went back like everyone seems to think... what happens to the bodies?" Which is not the best thought to have, but Ashley knows she's not going to get it out of her head any time soon.

Anders would hate it. And what about Justice? Would he be here too, burning the sanity away from him? Hard to say. Best not to worry about that. "Powers are useful, especially in a battle, but if they become a crutch, you're better off without them I'd say." Spoken like a non-mage, though. It isn't a part of here blood and identity, not the way a mercenary was for example. "I say that now but wait until I figure mine out and I'm lazily using it all the time." She laughs. Honestly if she found out she had intangibility, she already would've been messing around with it.

"Don't know. If they make us appear here, I supposed they can make us disappear just as easily. Or maybe we'll find a skeleton in one of those beast's bodies one of these days." Feeding them to the native animals? Why not, if that's all the people here were to you. Meat and curiosities. "There was some rumor going around where people thought we were...." She tried to remember the word. "Copies. So I suppose if that was the case, they could use our bodies to make another."

"I'd rather stick to things like I know them. Just being without a gun is dragging me down enough here," she admits, making a face. "I would love to just get a pair of knives, or even a handful of smaller throwing knives."

Anything that made her feel she isn't taking from the others here by hoarding any weapons they might have but are meant for living not killing.

"Not to mention we don't know how far the lands here go, or where those tubes feed us into this place," she points out. "It's a guess not anyway we can know. Not until we find the evidence."

"It would be nice to just once see one of the guns people keep talking about!" Seriously every other person talks about these guns.

"Well we'll keep rolling on and hope that we'll get that evidence. I don't know that they'll keep us in the dark forever. They'll want something eventually. We just have to hold on until then."

[ooc: okay to wrap? trying to get through these ones from Oct!]

How come they never call free space?

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