Day 276 :: Log [Open]

[treasureling]

Who: Malak
Open: Open
When: Day 276
Where: the Open Plains/Skyway
What: Intro; Malak arrives, flips out, needs rescuing. Feel free to bring in monsters; he will absolutely not fight.
Format: Log, but if you tag in actionspam, it's cool with me.
Warnings: None atm

He is elsewhere. Elsewhere, the only way he can think of to describe it. There were shifting tiles under his feet and a long drop, and now there are grassy plains and pathways and he is high in the sky and nowhere he has ever been before. He doesn't know where to go or what to do, sporadically prays to nameless gods, finally stops and huddles in on himself, shaking. What's happening? Where is he? What's happening?

~*~

"Wait!" calls Malak, after the retreating form.

But there's no question he can ask that would get a satisfactory answer. Where am I, what should I do now, what place is this. All he can do is go and find out.

He steels himself, trying to school his expression into something resembling calm (and mostly failing), and he goes in towards the center, towards the large monument he sees there.

"Hello?" he says, to the people he sees. "Hello? Can you tell me what town this is?"

Comments

[scary_music]

"Yessssssssss!" Ibuki nods repeatedly in response, "Oooh, Ibuki's just met you and already a culture gap is discovered! That's right! Food! It's beef... with chocolate chips in it! Meaty but sweet! Delicious!"

[treasureling]

"I don't want this." He tries to give it back to her. "I want someone to tell me what's happening." Spoken firmly, as though some implacability could make the truth magically appear.

[scary_music]

She takes it back, looking a bit disappointed. Malak just had to ask the big question.

"Weeeeeellllllllll... something big happened! Magic, maybe! And it brought alllllllll sorts of people from alllllllllll sorts of world here!" after a pause, she added, "Ibuki might not be the best at describing it. Um, um, if you want normal jerky without chocolate, without the sweet, Ibuki has that, too."

She helpfully pulls out a normal piece of jerky, offering it to the new arrival.

[treasureling]

He doesn't reach out to take it, this time. He doesn't want to be placated (even if he's kind of hungry).

"Someone else said all the worlds were destroyed."

[scary_music]

She slowly puts the jerky away and doesn't say anything for a long ten seconds.

"That... miiiiiiiiiiight be what happened? But, well, well, it's a weird thing because, because, even if people you know aren't here now, they couuuuuuuuld show up later, still."

[treasureling]

That catches his attention.

"They could?" Does that mean that they have?

[scary_music]

"Yes!" Ibuki nodded rapidly, "Ippo-chan first showed up without anybody he knew, but one of his friends showed up later!"

[treasureling]

It suddenly feels a little less like Malak can't breathe at all. The terror is less.

"So it's a lie," he says. "That the worlds are gone." That seems like the only explanation.

[scary_music]

She doesn't... really want to confirm or deny it. She honestly wasn't sure either way which was the truth, even though some evidence did suggest mass destruction on a multiversal scale. Especially the whole thing about the ash statues, but, really, any of her own friends could show up at anytime, too.

Right?

"Anyway, anyway, maybe you'd like the tour or something? Ibuki can show you all the craaaaaaaaazy stuff we have around the Bastion!"

[treasureling]

A nod. "Show me." He's not thinking; he won't think. He won't think about lies and destroyed worlds and his girls dying.

He wants to know where he is, even if it is this strange woman to show him. "Are you a warrior?" It feels odd to ask, because all women are on the Spinward Islands, but she doesn't seem like one.

[scary_music]

"W-whoa... a warrior?" the question was unexpected enough that it stops the musician from beginning the tour for the moment, "No way, no wayyyy! Ibuki is deeeeeeeeefinitely not a mighty warrior! Don't challenge Ibuki to a warrior contest, she'll go splat in an instant!"

... She's actually nowhere near that defenseless, but she really didn't want to fight as much as possible. If only there was another way to collect shards besides tagging along with others to the skyway.

"Are you a mighty warrior? Are you?"

[treasureling]

He flinches back at even being asked the question. "Of course not." He's a man.

[scary_music]

"Of course not? Of course not?" Ibuki repeated the answer, as there seemed to be something in there that said it was even strange she even asked that, "Whoah! Do you come from a place where only the women are warriors? A world of mighty warrior amazons? Is that it?" After a pause, she realized, "Ah! Ibuki doesn't even know your name yet!"

[treasureling]

"This place... isn't like that?" he asks, somewhat lamely. He doesn't know the word amazon, but from context it seems like it's accurate.

[scary_music]

"It's not, it's not! There's mighty warriors of both men and women at the Bastion!" Ibuki answers, "But, but hey, hey, if you won't give Ibuki your name, she'll just have to make one up for you... like... Timmy-chan! Nice to meet you, Timmy-chan! Ibuki is Ibuki Mioda!"

[treasureling]

"My name is Malak," he says, a little exasperated. He'd been getting there, okay. "Not Timmachan."

[scary_music]

"Malak-chan, then! Nice to meet you!"

Even though she's already said nice to meet you, no reason not to say it again.

"So, so, are you ready for the grand tour of the amazing and crazy things in the Bastion, Malak-chan? Are you?"

[treasureling]

No. He's not ready.

"Yes," he says, tentatively, not at all sounding like he means it.