thebastion | 259

259 | OPEN

Who: Moon, and anyone who goes out on the Skyway.
Open: Open
When: 259, but mentions of 258
Where: Skyway around Bastion, may move.
What: Moon has arrived.. yesterday. He still hasn't decided he wants to go into the Bastion
Format: I'll follow
Warnings: Possible language? Moon being a mess?

When Moon first woke, he thought that that groundling sorcerer's spell had managed to work, after all those centuries of not working, and he was in the past, on that flying island they'd found in the mountain thorn.

Only after a moment of sitting there, tasting the air for ... anything, really, did he realize that this was not the right sort of floating island. This wasn't a floating rock with things built on it, but something that looked like a bunch of stuff stuck together. He itched to climb under it for a second, to see what it looked like it was made of underneath, just in case it was him stuck in some floating island empire in the past, but the lack of scents for Jade and Chime (.. and Balm and Song and Root and Coil, and Merit and that Ocean Winter mentor-) was more important. Wary, because there had been that huge predator thing in that city, Moon sets to walking.

He eventually found other scents, and after a miserable what his gut told him was night spent shifted and curled up with his spines out as best as he could keep them, set out to follow those scents.

When he realized he seemed to be going toward some sort of groundling settlement, to judge by the amount of scents all in one area, he backtracked as quickly as he could. None of these groundlings - at least, he thought they were groundling, from the scents staying on the path - smelled familiar in a "I have smelled this groundling race before" way. Nothing smelled like Fell either, which was even better.

Moon had quickly stepped into the groundling city on the Leviathan, but that was because it was a trade port. And because it was land on the Leviathan or drown in waterling territory. And because he had Stone there. He could see if they were like the Kek, but flying in and shifting was never comfortable.

Better to do what he had for turns before, settle to watch and see what the groundlings did, and see if he could figure out how to approach them without being too obviously... not just a groundling. After staring from a distance at the glowing point where he thought the scents vanished at ( he wasn't going to get close, it glowed, it was magic, and with no Raksuran scents, he was fairly sure it wasn't mentor work. Magic seemed to have gotten him into this, he's not going to touch that magic thing.) he moved further away to a point where he could stay groundling and hide behind.. well, this pile of rubble looked okay as a nap spot, and see what the groundlings here did.

((I was typing this up when the event post went up. I guess open to prior to LOOK THERE IS CORE, people spotting him in event heading out, people who stayed at the Bastion going out and spotting a very confused Moon having just watched everyone else leave?))

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With the light growing strong enough to see reliably by, she is making her cursory trip onto the Skyway for the day. Edea used to venture out all day on one long, exhaustive run. However, with her last few encounters of new-comers she has decided it's a better move to look for incoming survivors in the morning (closer to the Bastion's entrance) and use the afternoon to explore the further reaches of the Skyway.

And so out she is, scanning the area for signs of distress or anything out of place. The girl is armed with her usual katana yet lacking most of her armor. She doesn't want to look too threatening but there is no way she'd go without some form of self defense.

That sort of is reassuring. Someone not heavily armed is generally means they aren't ready for a fight. Or it means they are, and are good enough that they don't need to be heavily armed. Its hard to tell.

But this groundling... is definitely not like a groundling he's seen before. Moon would almost say that he was looking at a groundling Raksura, but the shape was off. Unless this was an age thing, but he still couldn't scent any Raksura.

... Which really means he needs to inspect how wary he feels about this armed groundling, and what he should do from his hiding spot.

... Stay in it, in hopefully a far less "I was totally just watching you" way? Sure. Moon settles to make it look like he sat here for a rest.

Unfortunately, for Edea it's usually the latter- or at least when she's exploring this close to the Bastion. Luckily for everyone involved the girl isn't as confrontational as she used to be.

She walks so slowly it takes a while before she discovers Moon. Edea was determined to search thoroughly now that she remembers how the Disciple had hidden herself and Rin had tripped over the strange weapon that lead them to Armin. Eventually she turns a corner and spots the other, approaching but leaving a few feet between them as a precaution. It's difficult to look relaxed while still on her guard but boy, is she trying.

"Don't think I've seen you before. You didn't happen to just wake up here did you?" Edea questions with a soft smile.

Moon hopes he controlled his reaction well - they hadn't eaten their fill the day before, and well, he'd been too busy searching to eat much yesterday, so jumpy was definitely something he felt.

"Here, on the floating island-walkway... but a little more that way." Moon points vaguely in the direction he had come. Vaguely, because he'd been flying, but it sort of looked like a walking path too.

After glancing in the direction Moon pointed she nods, perching her hands on her hips. Edea's done this 'sorry your world's gone good luck' talk a few times now and she's still not very comfortable doing it. It just seems like way too much information to go over in one day.

"There's no easy way to explain how we ended up here. I don't even know the whole thing. But I'll tell you what I can when you're ready."

Moon goes still for a moment. How we got ended up here. One, that meant that she knew that he wasn't from here. Two, that meant she wasn't from here either. And it implied a whole big mess, with so many options it made his head spin.

"'Groundling sorcerer's spell throwing you into the past' isn't part of it?" Please say it is part of it-

Edea assumes that everybody is not from here. That's how it works right? Sure. He was right about the whole big mess and the head spinning too, she still gets those feelings sometimes. But she's too stubborn to let that get into the conversation at hand.

"'Past' is arguable," she begins with a shrug. "Some might say 'future' is more accurate. I'm not completely sold on that though... And what's a 'groundling'?"

Moon is slowly realizing how not like home this place is.

"So either the spell broke in the way the groundling was using it, or it broke in the way he wasn't using it..." Arrrgh this is a mess.

Even more of one when she asks what a groundling is. Hopefully he doesn't look that much like he thought she was really dropped on her head. "You, me. Whatever lives in the ground, or earth realm."

"Well if you wanna believe everything, this realm is the only one left." Take that as you will. She went the Adam Savage route and rejected that part for a reality less grim.

"But let's not get ahead of ourselves. My name is Edea Lee. May I know yours?"

Just a moment, Moon needs to rub his face. Sky realm is just right above earth, full of things that don't need to land, and water realms are just underwater cities of waterlings that don't go on land. Words must be working wrong, because he's fairly sure he's in a sky realm settlement, by the floating rocks. And there has to be water somewhere, or he's going to be in trouble.

"I'm Moon." Yeah. Just the random word. He's pretty sure giving his family line would just.. serve to make things more confusing.

Languages are weird and the same goes for names. Her dad's name is Braev for goodness sake. Sorry the difference is getting on your nerves. She means well, really.

"It's nice to meet you, circumstances aside," she begins. Edea opts to offer the easy information first. "The land out here is called the Skyway and that town on the horizon is the Bastion. It's protected by some kind of magic so the monsters can't get in. We've been gathering there."

Yeah, even though it hasn't quite hit him that they seem to be speaking the same language with no problems, he's used to word mixups between languages. He'll have to figure out how to get the realms across later. Maybe.

"... So there are more?" He had scented more, but it is a relief that he wouldn't be stuck with just Edea the odd groundling.

Moon has a second of paranoia that this magic might consider him a monster, like most groundlings did, but. He'd find out when he got there.

She nods. "There's more. Don't know an exact number, but we're a decent-sized group."

If he voiced anything of the sort she'd happily assure him that it probably won't be an issue. Paar doesn't seem to have any trouble. By comparison he should be fine.

"I'm actually about to head back, if you want to come with me." There's no hint of expectation in her voice, she simply wants to give Moon the choice. In the past it seemed to make the whole ordeal less a little less scary.

He thinks about that for a second. Although it isn't really anything for him to think much on, really.

"... Decent-sized means you have a decent amount of food?" Oh, and to help make himself useful - "If there is any strain, I can hunt and bring things in. If.. this Skyway has grasseaters or herdbeasts."

Edited 2014-12-17 11:30 (UTC)

No worries, take your time Moon. They're not in much danger here and she is only on a loose schedule.

"We do, but nobody would complain if you wanted to contribute to the effort. There are edible beasts out here, like the mammoths. I think we have the dragon to thank for that."

'Not in much danger', ah, the story of Moon's life. Or at least his perception of his life.

Okay, she asked what groundlings were, so Moon has to ask on the two things he's not familiar with. "... Mammoths? ... What's a dragon?"

Edea is not the best at describing these kinds of things but she'll try. It reminds her of how nice would be so nice to have Ringabel around, he could draw them out in wonderful detail.

"Mammoths are these big four-legged shaggy mammals with long noses and tusks. A dragon is a creature with scales and webbed wings. Some of them can breathe fire."

"How big is big?" Finding food might be easier than he thought.

He was about to ask after the face of the dragon, looking fairly hopeful. Then Edea says that they breathe fire, and that's not something Raksura do. Or Fell, which is a belated relieved thought. "And.. the dragon lives here and no one goes running?"

"Big like several times our height and bulky." She's hesitant to compare them to anything because who knows how how the size of homes varies between worlds or if there are others that have airships.

"In my world dragons are aggressive and seek to kill humans who come across them, so I've been a bit wary of being around him. But everyone says he's pretty nice and calm so... not yet. I wouldn't say it's impossible in the future though."

Note to self, don't shift around Edea. He might be close enough to dragon looking that she reacts like she would to the home dragons.

"There's a lot of things that try to eat ... groundlings." He'll just have to hope that this supposed nice dragon is nice to shifters as well as groundlings.

".... Is human your word for groundling?"

Probably for the best, Moon. She wouldn't go so far as to outright attack him but you can bet her sword would be drawn.

"Yes, but those tend to be easier to fend off. There's only a few in my world who would even think of tackling one." Says the girl who helped take down a two headed dog and an undead giant.

"Uh... close enough? But in my world there are humans who live on the sea and even in the sky thanks to ships."

Better than outright attacking, but he's dealt with enough scare from people that he doesn't want to deal with the sword drawing. Because that's really just one step from attacking.

"... I think that depends on how good they are at it." The Fell never really seemed to have problems. Of course, that was probably because the rulers were beautiful and had mind powers.

"Living on the water is different from living in the water." Which are waterlings.

Edea will just raise an eyebrow at that. He's absolutely right, but as they are both thinking of things in reference to their own world experiences it's not an easy comparison. She's tired of trying.

"...I think I see what you're getting at. Human would work for uh, some grounlings but not all that are here. It would work for anybody from my world." If that helps you any, Moon. Words really are weird.

"But," she adds, "so long as you're not causing trouble I don't care what you are." She means a more general 'you' but Moon can certainly take it to mean him specifically as well.

"... I guess that means asking." Which is a thing that he doesn't like doing. He'll keep using groundling.

And some awkward staring at her for that. "... Thanks? Although I seem to attract trouble." Don't ask about Emerald Twilight.

"Or just using their name." That might require asking too, but there's at least the possibility that it won't.

"You aren't the only one." She won't ask if he doesn't mention it. In fact she's more or less had enough awkward chit-chat and she turns to head back to the Bastion. "I'm going back for lunch. You coming?"

"... Also things to ask." But he could listen and pick up names, he thinks.

"Yes." Dusting off his clothes real quick because might as well look.. less odd than he does. It's probably the lack of shoes that makes him look weird but he didn't have anything to make lookalikes on him.

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259 | OPEN

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