A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION.
You wake up on a train.
Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—
WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?
▶ NO
Please take a moment to complete your orientation.
Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.
As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, and 9.
If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.
Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.
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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.
TO THE NORTH
The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.
Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk.
The main feature of the tourist center is the interactive kiosk installed dead in the center, right in the middle of a few rows of uncomfortable chairs that fill the small room. It's noticeably in the way of any would-be foot traffic through the tourist center, and something about the technology seems a little more modern than the computer behind the desk or the landline phone on the wall. The kiosk is a tall silver rectangle, about average adult height, and the upper half is a screen welcoming visitors to touch it to activate the kiosk. If you were to touch it, the screen would come to life with simple dialogue inviting visitors to ask it their questions.
However, residents should note that the kiosk is only programmed to assist with exploration within the available areas of the city. It may not be able to answer every question, and tampering with the kiosk may result in unreliable or inaccurate answers!
TO THE SOUTHWEST
The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.
As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.
Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.
TO THE EAST
The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.
A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.
You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.
The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.
As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.
Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.
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I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM.
Have you ever visited the ice cream parlor located in District 2? It's a pretty quirky little joint!
When you walk in, what you'll likely notice first is the colors. Everything is bright, almost oversaturated—the pink of the leather seats, the teal of the walls, the red of the menu sign hanging over the counter. By all rights it seems like these colors shouldn't go together, but somehow they do, or maybe that's just because being in an ice cream parlor puts you in a good mood. It smells like waffle cones, and overhead, there's music pumping through the speakers at just the right volume, providing some nice background noise to your decision-making process.
Wait, music?
There's a jukebox at the far end of the shop, which seems to be where the music is being chosen. As you head over, the song comes to an end and the jukebox machinery shuffles through its options before landing on a new one. The song sounds sort of familiar, doesn't it? And the longer you listen, the more the lyrics really seem to speak to you. It costs money to pick your own song, so if you happen to have some coins on you—or if you're really, really determined—you can choose the next round of tunes.
When you're done at the jukebox, you can go check out the serving area of the shop. Behind the counter you can see milkshake mixers and waffle cone makers; there are ice cream cakes in the freezers that line the wall; and when you approach the main counter you can see the tubs of ice cream in almost any flavor you can imagine.
Pick a flavor, whichever one's your favorite! Do you want it in a cone or in a bowl? There are regular cones and waffle cones, and all kinds of toppings—sprinkles, syrups, gummy candy, mini marshmallows. Decorate your ice cream however you want, the sky's the limit when it comes to choices! You can even come back for seconds if you want, or thirds. Who's going to say anything about it, after all?
But the more of your ice cream you eat, the more you start to feel… strange. Maybe you're starting to get angry, or sad, or giddy—maybe you feel romantic, or feel like you want to tell a secret to a stranger, and you're not really sure why. You also can't quite seem to stop eating your ice cream, and the more you eat, the less worried you feel about whatever's happening to your emotions. After all, why be concerned about that when you have something so delicious in front of you?
| Flavor |
Effect |
| Strawberry |
You find yourself compelled to seek out strangers and tell them a hidden truth about yourself |
| Rocky Road |
You find yourself compelled to seek out strangers and convince them of some egregious lie |
| Vanilla |
You are overwhelmed by a sense of total calm, and can only speak in aphorisms and platitudes |
| Rainbow Sherbert |
You are overwhelmed by amorous feelings towards whoever is near you and try to cuddle or kiss them |
| Chocolate |
You feel suddenly morose about something in your past and cannot stop crying until someone consoles you |
| Bubblegum |
You become uncontrollably giggly and giddy, and can only speak in rhyme |
| Caramel Ribbon |
You become angry and perhaps even violent, trying to attack anyone who comes near |
| Mint Chocolate Chip |
You suddenly have a common but exaggerated phobia (for example, a fear of heights where the step down off the curb is too much) |
When characters first enter the ice cream parlor, they may notice that there's music playing overhead! That's from the jukebox, and the lyrics of the song may sound like they're particularly apt for a character's circumstances. Players are welcome to choose their own jukebox songs for their characters—it doesn't need to have appeared in canon, but characters from modern times are welcome to recognize the music being played. (Players can also feel free not to pick a real song at all, and instead just describe the overall sound of the song and content of the lyrics!)
This is an ice cream parlor, so of course there's also ice cream to be had. Characters can serve themselves whatever flavor combination they want, but shortly thereafter will find themselves suffering certain emotional effects depending on what flavors they chose. These emotional effects, shown above, will last for roughly an hour before slowly dissipating, and their intensity depends on how much ice cream the character ate and whether they were able to recognize what was happening and stop eating. Not every flavor has an emotional effect, so players can also choose to have their character eat a normal scoop and go about their day.
JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS
WILDCARD.
The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.
If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations.
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citylogs2023-08-02 12:00 am
nill | DOGS: BULLETS & CARNAGE
Nill comes to on a train, which is weird, because she's never been on a train before. It's also weird that she has a phone, because she's never had one of those, either. Two new experiences in such quick succession is a lot for Nill to process and deal with in the moment, but she does what she thinks is the most logical thing: she fills out the orientation survey, and waits for the train to stop.
It's hard not to focus on the way her heart is trying to beat right out of her chest from fear, but she manages.
How did I get here? Where is Heine? She doesn't voice the questions, but they run through her head like a mantra as she slowly and carefully taps out her answers on the phone screen.
The door opens, and she stays seated for a few seconds, heart pounding away, waiting to see if anyone will, well, get on the train. But nothing happens, nobody comes. So she stands, creeps towards the door, and peeks out around the corner. Empty. It's all empty. While this might make another person even more terrified, Nill is actually relieved that she's alone for the moment. It gives her time to think, to take one step, then two out on to the platform, head swiveling from side to side and wings trembling behind her. She looks back to the train, but it hasn't moved. No one else has left a car. Nobody is on the platform. All she can hear is the sound of her own breathing.
It's just her. She's really alone. Now the fear kicks back in, all logical thought set aside for the moment.
Nill bolts up the stairs, and only once she reaches the top does she spot other people. Her small wings flare out behind her, and she freezes where she stands, eyes wide, breaths short. When was the last time she was alone around people she didn't know? She doesn't want to think about it. She presses her wings to her back, and then her back to the closest wall. She stands there, unmoving, as if she can just sink into the brick and disappear from wherever this is. If only she was so lucky.
When she finally feels like she's able to move again, she starts moving towards the closest exit, but since she sticks as close to the wall as she can, her progress is slow. And very noticeably strange to anyone who happens to look her way.
ii. and i don't wanna cry no more [the city park]
Making it out of the station is a trial, but she manages to do it in one piece. Nill is on edge, jumping at every movement in her peripheral and any sound she doesn't immediately recognize. She hurries out one of the doors, too busy trying to fight the panic welling up her throat to stop and think that she should look where she's going first. Her wings are pressed close to her back, shaking, and she wishes she had a big coat to cover them with. People are staring. She doesn't know if they are, she just assumes.
By the time her eyes really focus on what's around her, all she can see is green. If Nill could speak, she'd be speechless. She's never seen so many plants in one place--actually, she doesn't think she's seen this many plants ever in her life. It's hard to make anything grow underground.
It's silent, except for the sound of leaves over her head brushing against one another in a slight breeze. Her heart and breathing slow, her mind clears a little.
She's on a path, and looks down at the grass on the edge of the paved walkway. It looks--soft, and fresh, and a hundred other things she can't even find the words for. She's never seen grass like this, grown in fertile ground and well-watered. An image of grass she'd once seen, brownish and scraggly, flashes through her mind, and that is so incongruous with what she's seeing now that she just separates them completely. They can't be the same thing.
Nill crouches down right there on the walkway, hand outstretched like she wants to touch the grass, but hovering just above it because she somehow can't bring herself to. As if touching it will break it, will ruin the perfectly curated look of it.
iii. so i set my bar real low [wildcard]
[i'm up for anything! nill would probably come from the end of chapter 101. i will match either prose or brackets, i don't have a preference. feel free to pm me at this journal or ping me on plurk at
{ and i don't wanna cry no more
From behind a tall hedge, pale eyes gaze unblinking, with a silence only from breath that's been held fast. For while she wants nothing more than to reach out and run her fingertips along the fringes of those tiny wings, Vanessa is afraid that any movement may startle and shatter the delicate looking thing.
An angel.
The girl moves and breathes as prey do, and Vanessa is a predator to the bones, drawn naturally to something that appears so...pure. But this is no hunt. For what she can see, this girl looks around in such a wonder that it reminds Vanessa of someone else. Naturally, a protective urge draws her closer with silent, calculated steps; to better see if the child feels brave enough to touch the grass.
Such hesitation. For Vanessa, her ruin is her own impatience. ]
It isn't poisonous.
[ The raspy voice that drifts from behind the girl is accompanied by the lurking form of a woman in a fine, dark dress, with black hair tied back away from an expression that may pass to anyone else as neutral, almost distantly friendly. By contrast, Vanessa's gaze carries a hidden intensity, as if the anticipation of what comes next drives her even more than this sweet creature who treats even grass with such care. ]
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She doesn't get the chance to decide, because when a woman's voice comes from behind her, she loses her balance in her crouch and falls almost face-first into the grass. Her wings flare, but they're too small to really stop her from tumbling down. Her palms press into the grass, and the new knowledge of how incredibly soft it is cuts through her initial wave of surprise.
Well yeah, it better not be poisonous.
After a few seconds of marveling at the grass beneath her fingers, Nill remembers that she isn't alone. She scrambles up to her feet, briefly noticing that there are now green stains on her skirt. Her attention returns to the woman, and she almost freezes--almost. Nill has spent her entire life learning how to read people, to note the smallest details about them. It's the only way she knew to anticipate what people were thinking or what they would do. To keep herself safe.
She sees something in this woman's eyes that make the small hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She just doesn't know why.
Nill's face falls into a practiced, neutral expression. But there's caution in her eyes. Not the same kind of caution she reserves for men she doesn't know, but more of a general wariness. She's in a place she doesn't know, and hasn't seen anyone she recognizes. Coming out to this park was probably a bad idea in the first place.
Still, she bobs her head in acknowledgement, in thanks--for letting her know that the grass isn't dangerous. It's just... grass, but that doesn't make it less wondrous to her right now.]
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Any time her gaze casts over the wings peeking from behind the girl, Vanessa can feel a lump in the back of her throat. An angel couldn't truly be here, so then what is she? Whatever it is, she must restrain the desire to weep in the child's presence. One would have trouble understanding that if they saw her from a distance, for the most she offers on the surface is an apologetic, if sheepish smile when the girl nods.
She had been jesting about the poison, but she sees now how suspicious it may have sounded. Vanessa has been told that she can have a certain...presentation toward people, as well as a light step. ]
Your skirt. My apologies. I feel I ought to offer to clean it, now.
[ Though, she understands a girl with an aptitude for wariness (smart) may not wish to follow a stranger home, and Vanessa has yet to discover the dry cleaners. ]
Although there may be some fashion here you would enjoy. It wouldn't be difficult to alter them for—
[ The barest stutter — a lump in her throat, oh she wants to cry. ]
For your wings.
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i.
While Daan doesn't expect to see anyone familiar, he knows a variety of individuals could arrive. Ordinary fellows maybe, unusual people with unique appearances or abilities, and so on. So, he likes to watch and see who might be there.
And in spite of himself, he can't help but notice keenly with his eye a young girl trying to basically merge with the wall. It's a sign of anxiety, nervousness, uncertainty, distrust -- he gets it.
He's never cared for a crowd, either.
Daan doesn't take many steps closer. He's making sure to keep a couple of meters between himself and the winged girl, holding out his hands to show they're empty. He means no harm.]
I can show you the way out.
[No one likes to feel cornered.]
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Home. Sometimes it's still strange to think that she has one of those now.
Her thoughts are so scrambled that she doesn't notice someone approaching her until he's already talking to her. Nill's head snaps in his direction, her wings pressing as tightly as they can to her back. A quick assessment tells her that he's doing what he can to make himself appear non-threatening, and on someone else, it might work.
All Nill wonders is if she can outrun him.
But he stays back, giving her space, and she's thankful for what she thinks of as a small miracle. The line of tension running through her shoulders lessens just slightly. He's offering her a way out, but can she trust him? Everything inside her screams no, no, no, but she doesn't have many options right now.
In this moment, she wishes she was strong like Naoto, or unbreakable like Heine.
But she's neither, she's just Nill, and he's offered to show her the escape that she wants. There's still caution in her eyes as she gives a quick nod. Show her, then.]
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Slowly, he kneels down to one knee. If she wants to run, she'd be ahead of him easily, and he wants to make sure she knows that.]
Down this hallway, you'll come across a map of the area we're in. Near that, if you go up the stairs, it will lead you out.
I'm going to wait five minutes after you leave. If you want to ask me questions, I'll be waiting by the exit, but I will not strictly follow you.
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I
Without hesitation, she approaches with a friendly wave and a smile on her face. At only 5'0", she's hardly intimidating looking.
"Hi! Have you been to the shops yet? A few of them have some cute-ish clothes. I got this purse from there, too. Oh, and there's some other necessary supplies like food, too."
Priorities. Bulla has them.
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Clothes? Food? Nill is still trying to figure out how to get out of this godforsaken station. Anything else is last on her list of priorities right now. So she shakes her head, eyes wide, and confused. No, she hasn't been to any shops or gotten any supplies or anything. She just took a quiz and got off a mysterious train, it's been a rough morning.
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"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Shopping and snacks usually help me feel better when I'm upset about something, so I thought I'd offer to show you where you could find those. I don't know my way around here otherwise."
With a little wave, she continues. "Anyway, hi, I'm Bulla, and I just got here on a train I don't even remember boarding. What's your name?"
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i.
(And maybe some part of him he can't quite acknowledge is hoping that the reason Gregor's gone missing is because he died somehow, and Shinjiro will happen to find him at the station and be able to let Don know. Which is definitely the only reason he'd want to find him, obviously.)
It's largely a disappointment. There's no train in sight, even with the new influx of confused and unsettled individuals who clearly didn't come here intentionally, as is the case with everything that happens in this town. Food that simply appears in the restaurants without any people to serve it, supplies simply available in the various stores. Apartments that are fully furnished but vacant, and nobody ever comes to claim them. Makes sense that they'd never see the trains that bring along new arrivals.
He's about to head back when he happens to spot the girl pressed up against the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible. Shinjiro's seen that kind of thing before plenty of times, back when he lived on the streets. And he tells himself it's not his business, not his problem, and yet he finds himself walking in that direction nonetheless. Before he knows it, he's standing before her, slightly at an angle enough that it doesn't seem like he's just...looming. The bonus side effect to this is his height does block her out from most other people's view, which might let her breathe a little easier.]
...You good, kid?
[Mumbled out gruffly, almost as though reluctant. His hands are still shoved in his pockets, shoulders hunched a little further inward than strictly necessary, like he's uncomfortable even asking.]
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Her eyes dart briefly to the side, then focus back on his face. She can tell that he... doesn't want to be talking to her, which makes her wonder why he would in the first place. She doesn't get the feeling that he means any harm by it, but even that makes her uncomfortable, too. Everything about this place does, so far.
But she can't keep standing there, gawking at him. It isn't getting either of them away from this situation any faster. Is she good? Absolutely not. Nothing about this so far has been good. But she gives a jerky nod anyway, because what else is she supposed to do?]
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After a long, paralyzed moment, he sighs.]
Look, I'll get outta your way. But if you wanna get away from all the people for a bit, there's a bathroom that way. [He points toward a sign up in a nearby corner.] Whole town's empty outside of here, too.
[They can't leave town, either, but that's perhaps a little too jarring to tell someone who already looks like they're desperate to bolt. She'll find out for herself soon enough, he supposes.]
Nearest door out's the one on the east side. [Pointing again, in the opposite direction, this time.]
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slides back in late
no worries!
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i. » just outside the station
...right?
five steps later heine doubles back and stops, looking down the street he'd just passed. he searches all the shadows of awnings and signage until he spots it again: that pale flutter, white feathers against dim brick. his eyes widen. fuck. heine would know those wings anywhere. ]
Nill? [ not even loud enough to be heard, probably. it's just that heine is afraid of hoping. if nill is here that means she's not (he thinks) there, back home. where they're all balancing on the edge of a blade, ready to be hurt no matter how they fall. he would almost rather she be here, where he and badou can look after her, although he also hates himself for thinking it.
heine moves, slowly at first, then more quickly as he becomes more and more sure that he's not imagining things. ] Nill!
[ ooc: hello pls feel free to continue using prose if that's what's easier for you, i'm super flexible! ]
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It isn't going so well, but she can hope.
She hears Heine before she sees him--his footsteps, anyway. And to Nill, someone moving quickly in her general direction has rarely been a good thing. So her shoulders immediately curl inward before she even realizes who it is.
Heine is running towards her.
Heine is here.
Pressure and panic that have been building in her chest since she woke up on that train start to dissipate. Seeing Heine is one thing that could make her feel halfway okay about anything that's happened today, and she can hardly believe that exact thing is occurring. This feels just as unreal to her as it does to him. But she still pushes away from the wall, practically sprinting towards him in a rustle of skirts and feathers; she's pretty quick for a girl her size, so it doesn't take her long at all to reach him. She'll be lucky if she doesn't run right into him.]
[ooc; hi! brackets are just fine with me!]
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Are you okay? Not hurt? [ he can't clock anything on a glance, but that doesn't mean anything, always. heine's too aware of how well one can hide an injury. ] Did you just get here?
[ she looks—just how he remembers. that's a relief. means that he hasn't started forgetting anyone, not yet.
heine shrugs his jacket off and puts it on nill's shoulders instead, mindful of her wings as he does so. ]
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ii
He should be in this body, too, after all.
He isn't a very attentive person, unfortunately for both of them, and he trips over his feet trying not to trip over her when he notices her on the walkway. He at least catches himself before falling, but he chooses not to move on once he sees her wings. They look too real to be the wings the Koriel wore, and definitely more real than the odd metallic ones he still has on his back. He frowns and furrows his brow. ]
Are you a real angel, then?
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As it is, she doesn't notice someone is there until he's almost falling over her. Nill whirls around, falling out of her crouch and on to her backside, scooting herself backwards across the grass until she almost backs into a tree. Her wings shy away from the rough bark, pulling tight against her back as she stares at him, fear already bubbling to the top of her chest.
At the question, she pauses, before giving a hesitant shake of her head. No, she's not an angel. Nill doesn't move further than that, remaining frozen there on the ground.]
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He opts to crouch down to be on her level. Maybe that will calm her down. He can't help his curiosity about her. ]
And you aren't of the Order of Malkuth, either. They are all gone. You're too young. Are those wings your distortion, then?
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iii
but especially now that don quixote isn't in her city, where at least nill would be something of a distortion -- she seems innocent enough though, exploring her surroundings maybe a little calmer than she was in days previous, but nonetheless the presence of a curious watcher would unsettle her still. there's a fairly cute accessory shop up the way, window front dotted with ribbons and charms, sparkling jewelry and all sorts of lovely things,
as well as her sort-of-watcher pressed against the very same glass looking out at her. don's moves aren't sudden, but they might seem a little odd as she step
step step
steps over to the door to open it. ]
Are thee fond of frogs?
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But people here seem few and far between, and none of them are actually from here. So yes, weird. But at least it means she can walk around outside without worrying about being kidnapped. Well, she worries less about it, anyway.
So she spends her time exploring--never too far away from where she's staying, of course. But there are so many things she's never seen, only ever read about or heard about from others. She likes looking at window displays, trying to figure out what some of the things are for, or who might want them. The sunlight glinting off some of the display jewelry is what catches her attention first about this store--and then, the young woman... staring at her.
Nill stares right back, frozen where she is, until she's addressed. Her lips turn down at the corners. Frogs? She's never seen a frog. She doesn't know if she's fond of them or not. So she gives a little shrug, though there's a glint of curiosity in her expression.]
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Then allow this one to introduce thee to the wonders of them! They have many an adorable little creature to pin upon one's breast, or clip into one's hair, plus a multitude of other such interesting things! Like stars, and flowers, and little shapes that have no meaning at all! And ribbons!
[ a lot! of accessories! of all kinds! this young woman is very clearly excited about it. ]
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ii
.. granted, it's not often a young girl with what seems to be angel wings, but he's also slowly growing used to things being.. a little different in this place in that sense, even if it's completely beyond the standards of his own world.
Still, at first Daniel figures he just ought to leave the girl to her business, but when he realises she's practically barely moving, just sitting there with her hand hovering over the grass, he can't help but approach - though calmly, a tiny smile on his face, especially considering how relatively young Nill seems to him. He wouldn't want to startle her, not even accidentally.
"Do you want to touch it?" It looks like that, after all, even if Daniel can't really imagine why anyone would want to touch grass.. But he's not going to question it, not when he doesn't know the girl's circumstances. Those wings mean she could've lived a life beyond anything Daniel would even be able to imagine, after all. "It's okay, no one will scold you for doing so, you know."
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But she doesn't have to make a choice, because suddenly (what seems suddenly, to her), an unfamiliar voice speaks from behind her, and she loses her balance in her crouch. Nill throws her hands out to catch herself, palms landing hard in the grass, and she's struck by the fresh, clean smell of it as it's crushed beneath her weight.
She can't appreciate it, because her heart beats hard in her chest, and panic starts to well up. She scrambles to her feet, nearly tripping over herself, staining the cuffs of her sleeves in her haste. The scent of grass follows her as she turns wide, fearful eyes on the man who spoke, her wings pressed close to her back.
No one will scold her? Well, that's good, since she just nearly face planted on the lawn. She gives a jerky nod, letting him know she understands, but her eyes still hold that scared look, and her body is tense, ready to bolt.
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That's definitely not what Daniel intended to do, and he can't help but wince as he sees the girl falling forward. Thankfully she at least didn't land flat on her face, but it doesn't make it much better when poor Nill still looks so incredibly startled by the time she looks at him, her hands stained with grass.
"It's alright!"
He holds up his hands a little, like a pacifying gesture. Especially when she looks like a rabbit, ready to flee. She definitely has to be new here - or maybe just still too weirded out by this place, even after having been here for a while. Daniel wouldn't blame her.
"I'm sorry for startling you," he offers, his tone seemingly genuine. "Did you just show up here?"
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