Day 138 // Open (and obviously backdated)

Entry tags:

Day 138 // Open (and obviously backdated)

Who: Zulf and/or Zia PLUS YOU
Open: Open
When: 138
Where: Just entering the Bastion
What: Two Ura strangers arrive... Strangers to the people, at any rate, but the Bastion itself knows them quite well.
Format: Whatever
Warnings: None

Around midday, two new arrivals show up in the Bastion. Well... depending on your definition of "new". There's certainly a kind of look in their eyes as if they recognize the Bastion, but they both seem fairly surprised about something. Anyone who's gotten to know the native NPCs will be able to recognize that both the man and the young woman are Ura- it's the dark eyes, dark hair, and that bright clothing. In his hands, gripped tightly, is a Fang Repeater that looks out of place with him. In her palms, held uncertainly and far away from her, is a bright red War Machete.

They speak together in low voices for a short while, making quite a lot of hand gestures to various parts of the Bastion. The longer she stays and takes things in, the more the young woman seems to recover, eyes getting brighter and stance a little less uncertain. The man is quite clearly a bit more tense and certainly more suspicious. The pair seem to bicker for a short while before coming to an agreement. The young woman starts to set off... before rushing back to hand the machete to her friend. As the girl starts to go about the Bastion, the man sighs and heads immediately in the direction of the shrine without a sliver of indecision of where he's going.

Feel free to run into Zia exploring the Bastion, or Zulf either on his way to or already at the Shrine.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

ZIA!

[This is a familiar position he's found himself in... The pain of failure, the pain of loss, isn't something new to him but it's still heavier than anything in his chest. It's tempting to just give up again. They've failed, the Calamity still happened despite their efforts. Would Zia even still be alive?]

[Zulf gives a shake of his head, jaw clenching and his fingers tightening around the Repeater he held in his hands. He isn't much of a shot, but he thought he could be good enough for now. Taking a deep breath and still wading through the floating shards of land that were once a Caelondian neighborhood, he calls again.]

ZIA! [A brief pause-] RUCKS!

Edited 2013-12-28 04:27 (UTC)

[Crona steps forward, a cautious movement, like the meister's not sure the ground will hold beneath the pressure of heavy boots. Crona is all purple-pink hair and curious dark eyes and mismatched clothes (leather steel-toed workboots underneath bright striped Ura skirt overlaid with white polo shirt underneath long black buckled trench coat. A study in confusion).

Two strangers, lost and arguing, so Crona picks the less threatening one and steps closer.]

H-hello.

[Crona does not like giving introductions.]

[When she wakes up, she decides that she isn't going to move.

Last time, she stayed still, and it was fine. The monsters didn't bother her when she didn't move, and she knows she doesn't stand a chance against them.

She couldn't even run, the way she is—shaking, clutching her harp guitar to her chest like it is a shield, kneeling where she rolled out of her teeny hole in the ground because she can't find the stability to stand.

Everyone's dead, she thinks. Zulf ran off and the Marshals got her father and Rucks must not have even known and the Kid, oh, the Kid—

Her breathing gets so fast that it may as well have stopped and she sputters, tries to get some kind of control, inhale, exhale, inhale...

She shifts her harp guitar in her hands, plucks a few strings. It's just like before. If she treats it just like before, it'll turn out like before. The monsters aren't going to bother her; they don't mind the music. It'll be just like before. The others will be okay.

Zia takes a long, slow breath, and she sings.]

I dig my hole, you build a wall... [It's easy, easy as breathing; this is what she knows.] I dig my hole, you build a wall. One day, that wall is gonna—f...fa...

[She can't. She can't. She hugs her instrument, curls up into a ball, and—

and hears her name.]

Zulf. [It comes out hoarse. She finds a sudden will to stand.] ZULF! ZULF! [And she sprints down the Skyway, stumbling over the forming ground, screaming so loud that her lungs burn.] ZULF!

Ah—

[Sorry, Crona, she needs a moment. It's not the outfit that's got her (even though it's definitely something)—it's just that Crona's there, and they're new and alive and here. There are more survivors this time. Somehow, there are more survivors.

Shock gives way to a gasp and then a grin.] Hello. [She concentrates her efforts into looking more warm and friendly than like an excited puppy.] My name is Zia. What's yours?

[Going to be just like before, finding a shape too still and too dull in the shadows, fooling himself into thinking everything is alright-]

[Another deep breath, and Zulf tries to force himself into calmness even as his fingers tremble. He's clutching the Repeater so hard it's starting to hurt, but he's barely thinking about that. He tries his best to think of the last time he had to travel through the Wilds to get to Caelondia from the Terminals, tries to think of home, tries to think of so many things. But still-]

[Standing there with ashes on his hands just like when he sent his parents away to the Mother, sent his adopted Father to her too, and now his love who doesn't even get the blessings of fire, doesn't disappear in smoke-]

[He keeps thinking of the worst.]

[His heart is on the edge of shattering all over again, held together by red string as it is, when he finally hears his name. For a moment, he nearly thinks he's gone delusional. Thinks it's an illusion. Third time's the charm, the time when he jolts into action like a puppet with its strings cut loose. The Repeater nearly gets dropped as he picks up his skirts and runs for it, runs even though his muscles still feel sore from his escape from the Marshals.]

ZIA!

[His lungs are burning, being pushed to their limit, but he doesn't care. He keeps running until he sees another figure, someone who isn't barely held together ash but flesh and blood and cloth and dark dark hair just like his. Almost just like the first time he met her in the Bastion, Zulf feels his heart nearly hurt with joy to see her alive. Maybe because he knows her now, even more than before.]

[The Repeater goes scattering across the ground as he nearly tackles into her, hands going all over her as if they don't know what to do. They go everywhere, checking her face for scratches and her clothes for blood, anything and everything, before he lunges into a hug while his lungs wheeze. He's gasping things in Ura under his breath, hardly even thinking of what he's saying or how he's saying it.]

[She sees him not even a second before he crashes into her. Her legs almost give out underneath her but she grabs him with the hand that's not balled into a tight fist around her harp guitar, keeps trying to go in for a hug like it's the only way to keep him there, but he keeps examining her—I'm fine, I'm fine, she tries to say, but nothing else in her will cooperate and she ends up just gasping like she's about to sob, and finally she's pulled into a hug that she returns with such a tight squeeze that it makes her arms hurt.

Once she can breathe again she starts to laugh, soft and so relieved.] You made it. You made it. [And she laughs, buries her face in his shoulder and sniffs back tears.] I thought I was alone again. [It's a barely discernible mumble. As if she even has to say it; he knows, he must, and it must be the same for him. But they're not alone, because they're both alive. They're alive.

She pulls her her head away enough to speak audibly.] Cut it out. Don't talk Ura at me 'til I can understand it. [But she giggles as she says it, too thrilled to be all that annoyed.]

["Alone again". Yes, they'd both know how that feels, don't they...? And here he'd nearly thought it had been true himself.]

[Zulf looks dazed as she pulls away, still shocked he's managed to find someone, especially one of those he was admittedly worried about the most. He shakes his head when she speaks to snap himself out of it, and tries to smile back. He never could quite smile right again after the first Calamity, even when they came back, and that stays true even now. Still, he tries.]

My apologies. I must have slipped into it without even thinking. You're certain you're alright?

[He can't ask it enough, not right now.]

[Zulf might get to the shrine as quickly as he'd like, mostly because some one that... kind of looks like an Ura but kind of doesn't (she has a tail for one thing) nearly runs in to him with a cart loaded with food.

Whoops. Sorry, Zulf. At least she has the courtesy to stop before she plows in to him and apologize.]

Crap! Sorry! Sorry, I wasn't payin' attention!

Ah-!

[He skips back a bit, startled by the appearance of the cart and the new person. Someone who wasn't him or Zia, or the Kid, or Rucks. The fact that she looks Ura enough is enough to make him miss that she has a tail, at least for the moment.]

It's no problem at all.. [He'll forgive the vulgar language. The Kid was never particularly polite himself sometimes. It's fine.] Is there an emergency happening?

[Or are you just... naturally in a rush...? But he doesn't say that.]

I'm fine. [And she is, kind of; unscathed, at least, and finished panicking. Scared and worried and longing enough to make her sick, but okay enough.] Was barely out there for a minute. I'm so glad you're all right.

[She certainly isn't about to let go of him—she feels like he might disappear if she does, and she can't, won't risk it. But she pulls away just enough to look around and see how empty everything is.]

We've gotta find the others, too. [There's a certain sense of purpose in her voice, even as low as it is. If Zulf's okay, then maybe the others are, too. Maybe there's hope.]

[Night makes her way back from the Memorial with an armful of freshly cut flowers from the garden (that is more like a hodgepodge of overgrown flora and seeds she doesn't remember planting) she's been cultivating since her own arrival here. Most of what she brought with her were already placed by Monaka's name at the Memorial, but the remainder of what she had leftover she felt would be welcome at the Shrine.

Everyone loved flowers. Even Gods, right?

Coming closer to the entrance she stops briefly to watch a boy walk in with two horribly out of place weapons. Curious and curiouser she steps inside a little after him and watches him with piqued interest.]

[Maybe that's a good thing. The tail tends to freak people out.

The question seems a but odd, making her tilt her head to the side curiously.]

What? Oh, no! I'm just tryin' to get back to the distillery. I forgot somethin', that's all.

Then we were both lucky to be awake when we were. Olak is feeling generous today.

[Not generous enough to help them succeed in their original goal... But the Gods are never always entirely on one side or the other. For now, 'alive' and 'okay' is the best they can ask for. He starts to look around as well, brow furrowing and lips thinning a bit. Her statement has him hesitate just a bit before he nods as well.]

There's a chance... [But then Zulf shakes his head.] We should head to the Bastion first. That would be the wisest course of action.

[~~excuse u he is an adult. so rude.~~]

[While Zulf's posture is quite tense as he enters the Shrine, he seems to slowly relax the further he steps inside. He's never counted himself better than anyone else in the face of the Gods, but they've always been most familiar to him. Them and their shrines. It's where he spent most of his childhood, honestly- attending them with his parents, sending them off to the Lorn Mother, making passing prayers that Olak would see him through another day, then to Jevel for his father's health... it's a familiar setting.]

[The current set up is faintly familiar, but he's still a bit too tired to take it all in yet. He respectfully starts to set his weapons to the side before pausing as he finally realizes there's someone in with him. He glances over his shoulder at the young woman, suspicion and caution clear in his gaze. His body posture is still relaxed, at least. He's just.. unsure.]

[This is different from the Bastion he remembered.]

...May I help you?

[At least he's always polite, and he tries to keep his voice from sounding too cold. She looks a bit Ura...]

The distillery...?

[Have fun making sense of that expression, Rin. If she's listening carefully, she can probably hear him mutter under his breath "Is that always going to be here?" He gives a shake of his head and steps back a little more to give her some more room.]

I wouldn't wish to keep you from your business. Just- a quick question, if I may? How long have you been here?

[Everything seems fairly well established, honestly...]

[What's with that face? And that comment? Rin's face pulls in to a frown, she glances at the stuff on her cart. She has food there, buddy. Not booze. There is a kitchen in the back.]

... a few months. Comin' up on half a year, I think. Why?

[There's still the fact that the distillery is still there. It still involves booze. CAELS...]

[No time to be judgmental, however, because at that little answer, Zulf's eyes go wide and he gets even paler if possible. It takes him a moment to respond.]

Pardon, but did you say half a year?

[How did they fuck up the Calamity THIS badly. RUCKS WHAT DID YOU DO TO THAT THING.]

[JUST LET HER HAVE HER KITCHEN OMG ZULF]

Uhm. Yeah. Close to.

... y'still didn't answer my question.

...I need to sit down.

[Sorry, Rin, your brand new Ura Survivor is experiencing a malfunction. Have you tried turning him off and then turning him on again?]

Uhoh--...

[Rin quickly abandons her cart, rushing over to his side and grabbing his arm. There's no restart button on him! So she's just going to have to settle for tugging him to a bench next to the shrine.]

[Thank you for being a true shonen protag, Rin. Zulf lets himself be lead and kind of just... falls into a seating position on the bench. He still seems a bit, broken, for a few minutes, but he finally moves to press his hands against his mouth.]

The Calamity had just happened, we couldn't have been unconscious for that long...

[He's mostly muttering to himself.]

[It's what she does. She sits down next to him once he's on the bench, watching him carefully.]

Wait, what-- ... what do you know about the Calamity?

[The girl seems happy, for now. And Crona, always skittish, offers a little smile.]

I... I'm Crona.

[Introduction. Easy enough.]

This is the Bastion. Everything else got destroyed, but we're trying to fix it. Since you survived, you live here too.

Um. There are apartments. Do you want to....?

[To go see the apartments. To look around. To find someone better at explaining.]

[Zulf takes in a deep breath, just like he did when he was trying to calm down and find Zia. A part of him wants to tell everything. Those who survived- they deserve to know the truth. But... Maybe it's too soon. He's not in much of a state to be calmly explaining everything. This isn't only his decision, either. Does Zia know? He latches onto that idea.]

[He needs to talk with Zia first before he reveals anything. This won't happen like last time. He won't make a decision for the both of them again.]

It's... the event which happened to Caelondia and the Terminals. [Another deep breath. It's hard to calm himself down, but Zulf is obviously doing his best.] I knew a man who helped construct the Bastion.

[That much at least is true.]

[~~excuse u!!!~~]

[Seeing his uncertainty she smiles softly. She wasn't sure how common it was to bring weapons into a holy place, but many cultural aspects of the old civilization that was once here were still unknown to her. Naturally she had been curious, but maybe now wasn't the best time to approach someone new.]

Sorry! I'm just hear to lay these out, but I can come by later... [She shifts the bundle of flowers in her arms, a few spilling out as a result.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 8

Day 138 // Open (and obviously backdated)

BEFORE Bastion arrival, right after the Calamity

Zia!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Zulf!

no subject

no subject

zulf

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject