295 ♫ open ♫ skin up off from the bottom leaves our ankles bare

[blueveins]

Who: Sayaka and you!
Open: Open
When: 295
Where: The Skyway
What: [LMFAO VOICE] ARE YOU READY TO GET FUCKED UP Sayaka finds herself on the Skyway and makes all the wrong assumptions.
Format: I'll match!
Warnings: N/A, will add as they come up

[A moment ago—where had she been?

Tracking the witch. Hardly half an hour ago she'd made her contract, and already a witch had to be dealt with—she can't remember what came between bolting down the streets of Mitakihara and being here. And here is the witch barrier, isn't it? Sayaka can't think of any other reason for the city to be torn apart and scattered across the night sky in floating chunks.

But she can't feel her Soul Gem pulling towards the witch anymore. Although she hadn't quite been able to name the sensation as it was happening, she feels its absence even stronger.

It's because she's inexperienced. That's what it must be. There's no one here to explain what's going on to her; who knows where Kyuubey's gone, and Mami...

It's because she's inexperienced. She's—done something wrong, or isn't recognizing something, or it's just different when she's in the barrier. That's all it is.

She hears cawing and wing beats not far away, but can't find the source. They must be familiars, though, and she remembers, a little faintly—something about all this seems wrong, dizzying, but implacably so—the danger she's in. With a flash of light, Sayaka transforms; a corset and cape replace her school uniform, gloves and stockings stretch over her limbs, and the hilt of a sword fits itself comfortably into her palm.

For a few moments, she stands in place and turns and turns and turns around, looking herself over. The cape, the boots—she looks like a superhero. Her apprehension forgotten, she grins. Wow, does she look cool.

Coolness doesn't excuse the fact that she has a job to do, though. Mouth set into a determined sort of smirk, she grips her sword, takes a running start in the middle of the chunk of floating cement she's found herself on, and bounds off the edge.

Her body glides through the air like a paper plane, and she lands lightly on the next nearest bit of ground. Instead of immediately proceeding, Sayaka allows herself to admire how awesome she probably just looked. Like, with the cape and everything! Sick.

Right, back to business. She briskly continues along in—well, whatever direction her gut tells her (or, she corrects, thinking about the crescent moon gem over her stomach that isn't pulling her after any sense of magic, doesn't tell her).]

Comments

[blueveins]

[There's no way in hell Sayaka's going to so quickly believe he's actually that well-intended; it's too easy to backpedal against her clear discomfort. Her stance doesn't change—except that she tilts her head, confused.

This is a witch barrier. She hasn't let go of that because it's the only explanation that makes sense. He isn't hostile towards her, so he can't be a familiar, but a normal human shouldn't be let off so easily by the witch.] How...how long have you been here? [Witches trap humans in their barriers. Witches manipulate human emotions. A witch might not need to kill her prey to feed off it...]

[bakegarasu]

... About a month, I think.

[He may have lost a few days here and there, but he's pretty sure that's about right.]

[four_quarts]

[Well, he'd only been out to gather a few shards, but it looks like he found people instead. Why, one is even a girl Ghaleon had never seen before. That she's wielding a sword and seems for this distance perhaps a bit agitated is not the best of signs though.

Incoming responsible adult in three, two, one...]

Making friends, I see.

[blueveins]

A month?! [How does a witch even survive a whole month unnoticed?! This man's mental state must be utterly destroyed, and how many other humans could be trapped in that time, maybe longer?

She opens her mouth, meaning to say something else, but someone else speaks up and what the hell is that.

Not a witch; she's never heard a witch speak and his voice is too clear, his appearance too...stable? Not normal, but he looks and moves close enough to humanly; he's not the same collage of otherworldly shapes and patterns—but he's still not human.

She takes another step back, whirling on her heel and holding the sword out in front of her now, hilt gripped in both hands. None of it makes sense, none of the pieces fit together; she is supposed to be taking up Mami's mantle and she can't even figure out where she is.] Wha-what's going on here?!

[bakegarasu]

[He just snorts at Ghaleon's question. Not exactly. But he sighs when Sayaka speaks up again and tries to keep himself calm.]

Like I said. The worlds are gone. We've been finding the people who survived and bringing them to the Bastion.

[He turns to Ghaleon and gestures towards her.]

... She doesn't believe me.

[blueveins]

I've got no idea what he's talking about! [With her sword, she makes a flaily and decidedly unsafe gesture in Otoha's direction, then remembers that she's supposed to look serious and goes back to that.] What's that even supposed to mean?!

[four_quarts]

[...Oh goddess, the girl doesn't seem to actually know how to handle a sword properly and is becoming entirely too emotional. This could be tricky to handle.]

I know this must be a lot to take in, but if you would please lower your sword, perhaps we could talk like reasonable people. I would really rather this not turn into an altercation when I have to heal someone.

[While he's mainly looking at Sayaka, Ghaleon does give Otoha a pointed glance during the last sentence.]

[bakegarasu]

[He glares a little bit at Ghaleon. He can handle a few injuries. Just start talking, Ghaleon.]

I told you. It's a safe place here.

[Maybe he should just leave her... but no. That wouldn't be right.]

[blueveins]

[That he means her when he talks about an "altercation" doesn't occur to her immediately; she's a magical girl protecting the world from witches, a knight and a guardian, and also she's waving a sword around like a pointer, right, that's in her hand still, shoot.]

Ah— [Her grip stays tight and she doesn't lower the sword entirely, but she does bring it down to her side. She waves her free hand by her face.] Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean—it's just dangerous out here, y'know? [Her glance flickers towards Otoha, her eyes narrowed.] With the...familiars all over the place... [Maybe he'll recognize the term instead; if he's closer to the witch—if he's been here longer, somehow, or if he's part of the barrier, a familiar himself—it would explain his appearance...]

[four_quarts]

[Otoha's glare goes unacknowledged. The term the girl uses is a bit unexpected though.]

Famil-? I'm afraid you're a bit mistaken, my dear. While the flora and fauna of this place are dangerous, they do not serve any witch.

That aside, none of the witches I have heard of that bothered to have a familiar used them to attack others, but I suppose in your world that was not an unreasonable assumption.

[Having your pets attack people is generally a bit of a social faux pas, after all.]

[bakegarasu]

There's monsters here, but they all seem native to this place, not to anywhere else. It's kind of weird, but it's how it seems to work here.

[Let's not talk about the dragons and random animals in the Bastion. First they have to get her there. But he falls silent after adding that. Ghaleon's likely to get more out of her than he did.]

[blueveins]

[All right, you've lost her.

At this point, Otoha's words more or less go in one ear and out the other; her determination to make sense of what Ghaleon means—he knows about witches, and she can't quite wrap her head around "her world," "worlds" plural—would take priority even if she did deem anything Otoha said worth listening to at this point.]

...But you know about witches. [That there are other types of witches doesn't occur to her in her fixation.] Is—isn't this a witch barrier? Why...why wouldn't...

[four_quarts]

[The snort of suppressed laughter is a pretty good indication of what he thinks about the witch barrier idea.]

Hardly. The Skyway stretches on for many miles. If magic anywhere remotely of that scale were in place, it would be impossible for anyone with even the barest hint of magic to miss. Furthermore, it would be utterly impractical given that the power requirements would be astronomical.

[Whoops, now he's assumed it's a physical barrier meant to absorb attacks she's talking about.]

[bakegarasu]

And I think we'd notice if people started losing a lot of blood or their souls.

[Even if he's guessing right and she means more of a 'bounded field' sort of thing, the requirements would still be something similar. ... Probably.]

I can't sense that kind of stuff on my own, but other people here can.

[blueveins]

[She hunches a little at the snort, certain she's being mocked.] Witch barriers are supposed to be enormous, that's their whole... Why would people just start losing their blood and souls outta nowhere?! [ALL RIGHT NO SHE'S ACTUALLY GOING TO ACKNOWLEDGE OTOHA BECAUSE OTOHA, WHAT THE HELL]

[four_quarts]

[There's a moment wherein he gives the other two very strange looks before his expression shifts to realization.]

...It seems as if the witches in each of our worlds operated by very different sets of rules. I'm guessing that your witches - [He gestures toward Sayaka.] - are a sort of monster, from the way you speak of them, and that the "barriers" you speak of are not the same as what I described. And you, - [This is directed to Otoha.] - are perhaps referring to a third sort of entity.

Goddess knows that the witches of my world are just reclusive women who happen to use magic.

[Because magic and monsters are totally a normal, everyday thing, and it's the worlds that on whole consider them fiction that are weird. :| ]

[bakegarasu]

... Yeah. Mikura drain blood from people. They're demons that were enhanced with machinery, but I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be any left.

[The souls thing was just him guessing because who the hell knows.]

[blueveins]

[She tries her best to make sense out of that, really, she does, but no. It doesn't work. For a moment she just gapse at them.]

Wha—what are you talking about?! This—this thing about worlds, and "my witches"—!

[four_quarts]

...Perhaps it would help you to understand if you could explain to me what the difficult part of grasping the concept of worlds beyond your own is?

[That might be his School Teacher voice slipping in there.]

[bakegarasu]

[He just watches and sighs. He's clearly not helpful here. Ghaleon can explain.]

[blueveins]

Ah— [And that's as far as she can get for a moment; her mind can't wrap itself around what are these other worlds how are they connected how did she get here what happened what happened—she tenses up and for a moment stands frozen except for her eyes, which slowly scan the area.

She swallows. Ghaleon's question doesn't register; she's finally come up with one of her own that seems like a...good enough start.] ...Where...where am I?

[four_quarts]

This is the Skyway. Wherever it was you call home, this is farther from it you have ever been.

...I'm sorry, but I'm afraid none of us know if we are able to return home.

[He's just going to neglect to mention for now that the general consensus seemed to be that there simply was no more home for any of them. The poor girl is clearly having a difficult time of it as it is, and upsetting her further would be foolish.]

[bakegarasu]

And like I said, there's the Bastion, which is the only really secure place that we have right now. It's not too far off from where we are.

If you mean 'what kind of world am I in', then... it's a weird one. But it sounds like you're used to weird already.

[blueveins]

[She even just barely acknowledges that Otoha is speaking to her, briefly glancing in his direction as he does—but she turns right back to Ghaleon as she processes this. Her next question comes to her more quickly, but she struggles to articulate it. With her friends back home—with Kyosuke back home, with the city she swore to guard so far away—she can't quite grasp, can't quite force herself to accept the implication that there might be no way back.]

H...how...how did this happen? How did I... I don't know how I got here...