Summary:
August 29 2014: After the Nameless attack, Rowan, Kida and Reese get a chance to talk.
Metropolis, Suicide Slums
A now kind of ruined city street after a fight.
Characters
NPCs
- None
Mood Music:
[* None]
It takes the Dragon-Warrior a full two minutes to pull himself back from the rush of battle. Seeing the Nameless on this presumably peaceful planet had him back in old fights. Back where he came from, generally the responsibility of caring for people under his command kept him from slipping too far into past battles. Here, with that all less than a distant memory, it's only force of will that keeps the war-phantoms at bay. Eventually, though, he does start looking a bit less wild and wide eyed. The spear he had been holding compacts itself back down to an unremarkable cylinder the size of a flash light and he begins reverting to a human looking for as his draconic features fade and the pale tint to his body wafts off him in so much white smoke before dissipating with the sound of shattering glass. Mera is recovering, for the moment so it's the two strangers: The formerly burnt one and the one who was wretching in a corner a moment ago who get his attention instead.
"Are you two alright?" It's not loud. In fact it's just barely loud enough to be heard by the furthest one. Old habit for Rowan. There's… something familiar about the one who came through the portal… hrm.
*
The wretching only lasted for a second. Reese never really dealt with pain really well, and that was the reaction when faced with a shit ton of it. Bile expelled, stomach cramp, suicide headache gone. She was fine. Even though she remained crouched, she leans against the wall with a ratty shoulder, her gaze turning and chin lowered to the ground as she listens for just a moment. No clashing of the swords, no explosions, no one screaming or crying…
We're good people!
Though it does look as if Reese were going to say something majorly important, with the way her brows furrowed in thought. Her lips purse and smacked ever so slightly, the subtle movements of someone who was ready to stand up and give someone a good what for could be seen for anyone who could read the subtle language of movement.. but all that came out of her was..
"Yes."
*
It was hard to regain focus for a moment, her eyes are a burnt orange in hue as her hand reformed, bones cracking, sinew popping as the hand returns to a humanoid form and that paw tattoo upon her abdomen slowly fills back in, though not completely until…
Kida stands upright now, the defensive stance shaken off as Reese appears to be fine and the Nameless do not move from their above ground tombs. Now though, she turns that gaze on Rowan, the animalistic green reflection shown in the depth of pupils as she watches him and then slides away from the wall and Reese, sunset hue fading from her eyes as they return to the hazel gray.
"I saw it…. Show me…" Her hand extends and fingers curl and uncurl as she points to where his omni tool rested on his person.
Looking back at Reese for a breath in time she asks. "Where am I?" Strength in posture but the fear and unsurety only show in the tremor of her outstretched hand.
*
Rowan extends his left arm (the one the omni-bracer is on). A brief familiar topographic map appears, though it lacks the ruins and military camps that Kida may used to be seeing. "You're in Metropolis City… sort of." He cants his head slightly, the birdlike motion unusual on a human face, and he does look completely human right now, even though he clearly isn't given that display a few minutes ago.
"Where did you come from? Where did these Nameless come from?"
*
Reese had the chance to say something fantastic, but she didn't. This was a little bit interesting. In her long years of living, the most favorite part of humanity (even though she still considers herself such) is hearing two people meet for the very first time. And for once, questions weren't directed at her about how she did what she did and why she did what she did, where she came from, why she was out here..
It was refreshing.
This was a study however, something for her to learn for this situation was unique in its own right.
*
Reese would not be questioned, her well being known and everything else is normal… At least to her, but she should be hidden eventually, kept a secret lest they come for her.. Kida owed her a life, she will protect her from them, those Rowan called Nameless.
Her fingers trace over the bracer, familiarity as she focuses on it and looks up to him with his inquiry, her brows furrowing as she looks around and then up to narrow them at the heavens like she is silently cursing them - piecing it all together.
"It's clean…" Bull.Shit. But if you're comparing…
Looking to where the gate was and now closed a sorrow seeps in, but only touches her face for a moment before it goes blank.
"They saved me from them, they said they had to hide me. My brothers threw me under our house and I hid, but they burnt it down… The… Nameless? Followed. The Legion, your Nameless I've heard them called that by others in the Resistance before. How do we get back home? They were burning them…"
For a moment her lips quaked at the corners and she looks at Reese.. "You can help many or just few?"
And now time for the denial as the new reality sets in…
*
"I have not yet found a way." Rowan too is missing home, and his people on this world are far from here, save for one he's met who did not know that she was Blue.
"The people here are in some ways less advanced. The technology may still exists but it is in the hands of a few…" The soldier looks about, eyes landing on the as yet unintroduced Reese when Kida addresses her. He looks the woman over and then eyes Kida once more. "I'm called Rowan. I am of the Blue. You were Resistance?" Occupied lands frequently hosted resistance cells. It was dangerous. The Homo Magi who supported them were hunted like animals. The Nameless came calling for them in the dead of night if ever they were detected. This sounds like the case here.
*
"Many more than two." Oh lawd, she spoke more than two words at a time, it was at least time for her to speak and ask questions that were currently burning in her mind. But not yet, she wanted to hear where this was going, and not once did she move from the comfort of the brick wall that she leaned against.
Once the man introduces himself, it was then that she pushes herself away from the wall, her back at a slight hunch as if she were about to pout, but it was just pains from her wretching. "Where are you two from." It wasn't a question, but a remark that demanded an answer and one that she was sure to get. Her gaze remained downward, head turning this way and that to listen to make sure that steps were true and even by the echo the walls create. Her hand even reaches out a little to touch what she just may hit before she actually does it.
*
"Were… I had just started training hidden amongst my people…" But the way Rowan speaks it lets her know she was not in Kansas81 anymore, and it doesn't bode well on her but she manages to be wiped away again as Kida tries to maintain control of her waning emotions, ones that wanted to arise into panic as he states there's no way home.., Yet. Yet…. Yet.
A chant to keep herself hopeful in the pit she is sinking into. "My name is Kida. Shaman of my people." From Rowan to Reese she shifts her gaze to and from, taking a deep breath in and releasing. "Thank you, for saving me at least. Fire does not heal." Though she does not speak too deeply, let too much be known. He may be that one shard of home, but both of them are strangers and even the Legion sends in spies… It's likely how she got here in the first place.
"I am from here, but not here… Exactly.." How to explain it? Where the fuck is she??!?
*
Rowan is, sadly, quite familiar with the look of confusion on her face. "I know. I am also from… well there…" He points to the ocean. "But not there. You have come to a place where the war was never fought. Where sixty years ago the surfacers sorted out their issues and got back to living life rather than ending the world." He's not super familiar with the names of the nation-states involved in that Ur-Conflict they call the Second World War. It wasn't ever that important.
"I wish I could explain more, but I am stranded here myself, a stranger among those who used to be my allies."
Reese… her movements. They remind him of something. Underwater, the blind can use the movements of the water around them to help orient themselves. Surfacer blind aren't so lucky. And sadly the blind and maimed are all too common on Earth 81.
"Do you need help?" He asks. He hadn't seen her healing like Kida had, being too busy fighting at the time. "Is she with you?" To the tattoo'd warrior.
*
Kida. Rowan. People who weren't here but familiar with the people who were? The dead ones. They were dead now. No, she couldn't check just yet. She hadn't eaten in a couple of days and even trying to tax her eyes would take away her natural defense to dodge and raise hands or at least brace herself from a fall. She'd be out cold and would collapse. And she was the type that didn't appreciate being carried or helped up.
"Ah. Another dimension. That's what that was." Reese utters quietly, standing in place once the voices became closer, hands still slightly out and ready to bat away or grapple whatever came close. They were no threat to her, at least for now, but one could never be too sure.
Their words were confusing, much like her attempting to learn broken Spanish, it sounded much the same yet in her not so native tongue. She really didn't want to stick around, but.. with them about, where else could she go? She'd trip up on bodies and feel a bit of guilt. "I'm not with her. And I don't need help. I'm fine." But if they could spare a dollar…
*
Kida listens, her head lowering and that hair falling to shield her face for a moment, oddly reflecting a light of blueblack much like raven's feathers in the dim street light. "Do they not hunt us here? Must we hide some more?" Pausing and looking to Rowan and then the dead bodies Kida frowns. "Do not bring them back, they need to die if they are not already." That war does not need to come here, if there is peace. Peace. Something that is a foreign word and foreign concept to Kida. She is trying not to think about home, there is nothing she can do right now, instead she soothes herself by running fingers over the small collapsed spear that is holstered at the small of her back.
"I owe you a life for saving me from the fire, you have help whether you like it or not." Kida states to Reese with a firmness that states… The blind woman now has a seeing eye dog…
*
Rowan smiles thinly. "I have not yet had a chance to find out. My contact with surfacers has been limited. They have… empowered champions, though, who seem to operate openly. I do not think you will be hunted for your magic."
Reese's state gets a look. Refugees often looked like her, but here with no war there should be no refugees. Does she not have a home?
"If you are sure. You've saved the life of an ally, though, and you did not have to. Perhaps you'll allow me to find us some dinner?" He's not eaten in some time but he can quite easily catch dinner in the bay. And he even knows how to cook it in the rather spartan conditions that will likely be all that is available to them. Survival training. It's handy sometimes.
*
Well, Rowan was only partly right about being hunted. It was something that Reese was going to keep to herself however. In this world, people are killed for their magic and also a Little Debbie Snack Cake. They're set off way too easily, especially around these parts. But it was, of no consequence now, nothing that the new woman and man need to worry themselves with at this moment.
"No one owes me anything." She states plainly, for a moment she wanted to turn tail and walk away to leave them to their own devices, but the offer of food was prominent and it made her all the more eager. So she had to relent, and put on a smile for the sake of a nice warm meal that would bring on a well deserved sleep after the nights antics. And then she'd move on to bigger and better slums, one that didn't smell like pee nor have portals that dropped burned women into her lap.
"Well. Okay. Food good." Cause, food be real good.
*
"Openly?" Kida's eyes widen, then she blinks, a slow thing that melts the look of shock and awe into a sarcastic lop sided grin. "Yeah, you're fucking with me. There's no way. Not even my great grandfather saw peace." But they're not in the past, they're on a different Earth, one that would be if technology and greed did not combine with science and… Yeah every Earth is just plain screwed.
*
Food, she was not hungry, but the way it made Reese react, she was in by default, and she has more to ask Rowan, more to clarify… "Blue.. So you are the water tribes? I have never met one of you before… Save one…" She says as she closes a light gap between herself and Rowan, scanning over him and narrowing her eyes but saying no more quite yet.
Pausing she steps back and behind Reese, her place there where she can keep an eye out, still glancing back towards the Nameless to make sure none are getting up.
"Yes. I am one of the waterfolk. A bit… unusual for my kind." He turns and starts to walk toward the waterfront. "Come down to the water. I will find and cook us a dinner. It should not take long."
*
There's a few moments silence as Rowan starts down that way then turns to make sure Reese and Kida are following. "Which Blue did you meet?" There are many. Thousands though it's mainly soldiers and waterworkers that interact with the surfacers. It's not likely he'd recognize the name even if he could remember everything. But there's always a chance…
"My people come from the sea." He explains to Reese, having been told that the discovery of his kind is new to this world. "Among others. Mostly we live far away though, near a place surfacers call the Caribbean."
*
Reese was just as content to listen to them speak as she was listening to classical music. Their worlds.. if not war torn, would seem beautiful to her. People that come from the sea, shamans, it was almost mystical and then again not. There were mutants, gods that walked among us and aliens. What would the two that were with her be called? Otherworlders of the same world? No. Portal Jumping Jokers? No. That would just be plain rude.
As Rowan turns to walk, her head tilts to the side as she moves to follow, her steps hesitant, feet shuffling, hands out before her as she tries to listen to the sound of his voice. Her foot grazes a hand, which causes her to trip up and stumble, but she carries on with a slightly hunched back and resolve to find her way through the rubble.
"So you are a fish man. Interesting." Is all she could really say, her conversation fell short due to the fact that she had to walk without losing her teeth once she hits the ground. "I've been to the Cari. Nice place. Smells rotten though."
With Kida behind her, it sets her nerves off, but it was alright, at least she could possibly catch her if she fell.
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