wilderlogs | gently whispers "what the fuuuck" [OPEN]

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gently whispers "what the fuuuck" [OPEN]

Who: Shuichi + OPEN
What: Awkward detective fumbling his way through the sudden arrival and trying to make sense of this bullshit magic temple nonsense
Where: The woods and the temple
When: Couple of days after the squad arrives at the temple
Warnings/Notes: N/A, will update if necessary

A. MAGIC MIRROR OPTION

[(Y'know, if anyone feels like helping this sad city kid find his way to the temple.)

Is he dead? Fuck, maybe he is. This really isn't what he thought death would be like, but after what just happened, being dead would make sense...

But while this would be a seemingly peaceful enough afterlife, just trees and nature in every direction and no one else around, there are details that leave him with doubts. For instance, he hadn't really been alone at the end there, and he can't imagine the others wouldn't also go...wherever he ended up. Unless that's just how death works. Hell if he knows.

The sword and mirror laying in the grass beside him are better evidence that this isn't anything that simple. He's never owned a katana or a hand-mirror in his life, so why would he just wake up here with something like this? And there had been that voice... Whatever was going on, being alive somehow makes more sense. The question is just whether this is more of the same kind of bullshit as what he'd just escaped, or something else entirely.

If anyone happens to have the magic mirrors on hand, they might find the image of an Asian teenage boy there, the picture tilting dizzingly as he turns his own mirror to examine every inch of it.]

A sword and a mirror, huh...?

[His eyebrows knit together as he looks over the mirror, frowning thoughtfully. A mirror could be used as a signal by catching the light, he supposed, but that's not really useful when you're alone. Jeeze, if he was gonna be abandoned in the middle of nowhere with supplies then food or whatever would have been way more helpful.]

B. THE TEMPLE

[He's held onto the sword for some reason. It's not like he knows how to use it, but it seemed significant. Too significant to just leave lying in the middle of the woods.

That doesn't really make him feel any less awkward just carrying it around the temple in front of others. Even if a lot of the "others" here are...kind of bizarre. Given the kind of people his classmates were, "bizarre" means a lot coming from him. Whatever progress he'd made back home in the way of being social, it suddenly seems way more nerve-wracking to just approach any stranger here at random. Some of them are literally aliens, if everything is to be taken at face value.

He's not really sure he believes it all. But he still hasn't worked up the confidence to go around introducing himself at random.

But if they're all going to be here for at least a few days, he can at least find a place to stash the sword for now. Anyone who's claimed a room for themself might suddenly find a new kid wandering in and startling upon finding someone already there, hands lifting defensively in that universal sign of "I am unarmed". Except...he's literally holding a sheathed sword. Goddammit.]

S-sorry! I didn't realize this one was claimed already!

C. INVESTIGATION START

[Once settled, his first instinct is to explore the area and examine everything unusual thoroughly. And...well, there's a whole lot of "unusual" around here.

But for now, he's really curious about that mysterious music. It's nice enough that he feels pretty relaxed, even as strange as all this is. But it's still weird and inexplicable and he's gotta figure this out. So he's crouched in front of one of the statues the music seems to be coming from, inspecting it closely and carefully feeling every nook and cranny of it, trying to find some less ethereal source of the music.]

D. WILDCARD

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[He doesn't apologize for startling Shuichi. If anything he looks a little impatient at waiting until the grass leaves the focus of the screen before Shuichi says anything.]

I guess.

[Dixon's not a fan of it. He tried to throw his in the lake earlier and it returned to his palm. Then he tried to break it and it fixed itself. At the very least he's learning the mechanics of this dumb magic thing.]

Dixon. [He gives his name because he's honestly not sure what else to identify himself as. They're what, a ragtag group of weirdos hunkering down in the middle of the forest together trying not to die and tasked with some dumb quest? What noun is there for that?] I ain't going to hurt you. There's a whole group of us at this old temple. We just got here a week ago, confused as you.

[He pauses, then seems to remember he's got blood splashed on him. He gestures towards it and smudges a little off his collar between his thumb and finger.] Don't worry, that's just dinner.

Edited 2018-04-04 18:40 (UTC)

[That explanation doesn't clear up much, but it certainly sends him on a bit of a facial journey through surprise, relief, unease, and right back to uncertainty and suspicion. That...sounds kind of uncomfortably familiar. Him showing up late is a strange detail, but--

Hold on, train of thought derailed by that pitiful attempt at reassurance.]

D-dinner?

[ oh god what is for dinner dixon ]

[That, oddly enough, perks him up. He gets a bit of a youthful, excited expression on his face that is not unlike a puppy dropping a Kong at someone’s feet.]

Oh, this, let me show you... [Dixon turns the mirror towards the mashed-up was of striped fur and broken bones by his feet. He’s proud to show it off. He caught that fucker with his hands.]

Ugh--

[The disgusted sound escapes him before he can really think about it. That's...really gross. Wow. But the guy looks so proud of himself, Shuichi plasters on an awkward smile.]

That's, uh...impressive.

[Well. This wouldn't even be the scariest-looking person he's tried to get along with. Granted, at least one of those people turned out to be just as creepy as they looked, but. Well.

Besides, this is...oddly comforting, now that he thinks about it. There hadn't been any animals at the school. There hadn't even been any bugs outside of Gonta's lab. Now that he's paying attention, he really is noticing the faint sound of birds and everything you'd expect to hear in the woods. So that's one sign of this not being more of the same shit.

Unless whoever's behind all this just got better with the details this time around. He can't be sure how long he was out before waking up here, after all.

He needs to stop thinking about this in the middle of talking to someone. This was probably an awkwardly long pause.]

So...where's this temple you were talking about?

Edited 2018-04-04 19:44 (UTC)

It's nothing to look at now, and I don't know that it's ever going to be pretty, but meat's meat. [He sounds a little defensive. Getting this raccoon (and figuring out how to get drunk via magic) have been the only things going right for him this week.]

Turn your mirror up around. Let me see where you're at. [They've been here a little while, and Dixon peers behind Shuichi to try and figure out if it's a particularly recognizable grove of trees. There's a big oak-looking thing, and Dixon recalls generally where that is in comparison to the nearby river.]

Okay, you're not far off. You might not want to go wandering for a minute, there might be people washing off in the river. I'll come get you.

[Escort mission: boring forest edition.]

[He was trying!! He tried to be nice!! Give him a break, dude.]

I'll just...wait here, then.

[He's a good, patient kid. Just gotta hope this really is a decent-enough person and waiting doesn't turn out to be a huge mistake. If Dixon does manage to find his way to the right place, he'll eventually come across that same kid sitting at the base of a tree, more closely examining the mirror while he waits.]

[It doesn't take Dixon that long to get there, mostly because he's spent a lot of time getting used to these woods. For whatever reason, the temple itself makes him feel queasy. He's been going there to sleep, but that's only because it's cold and damp out here at night. In a battle between malaise and pneumonia, malaise wins.

He shows up, dead raccoon in hand and golden shield strapped to his back, somehow magically smaller than it is when he carries it by hand.]

You keep looking at that long enough maybe someone else will pop up. I think there's about twenty of us now. [He jerks his chin at the mirror, then his eyebrows rise as he sees the sword.] You bring that here or did you wake up with it?

[The shield looks...way out of place on this guy. He's too polite to say it, but he can't help but make a mental note of the strange disconnect in the styles of the man's clothes and shield. He files that away along with the info on the apparent size of the group.]

Oh, no, it was just...there, when I woke up. I've never even used a sword before.

[It's reminding him uncomfortably of the scene in Angie's lab, just...god, how many days ago was that? Too recently, but it already feels like a lifetime ago after everything that happened since then. But even still, he can't help but feel like he needs to hang on to this one.

Shaking off the thought, he scrambles to his feet. He doesn't want to keep the kinda-scary dude waiting.]

I never used a shield before either, but I woke up with this one, [he says, unintentionally answering one of the unspoken questions in the air.] And knew how to use it too. Bet if you tried to take someone's head off with that thing you could. You should try it out on a tree or something.

[He considers seeing if he could trick Shuichi into trying to hit him with the sword, to activate the magic shield and get some of that sweet mystical buzz, but Dixon's never been successful at tricking anyone into anything and gives up on that idea quickly.]

Come on, it's about two miles that way. [He points towards an indistinct patch of woods; Shuichi will have to take Dixon's navigation skills on faith.]

[Shuichi blanches at the suggestion, grimacing.]

Ah...I'll pass.

[Besides, why would he just suddenly know how to use a sword? Unless...

Nope. Not following that train of thought right now. At least, not until he's in a better position to investigate it. It'll just drive him nuts if he overthinks it right now.]

Wait, two miles?

[Do you see these scrawny limbs? The few evenings of doing push-ups and shit with the others recently have not made him suddenly any less noodly. He is not prepared for a hike like that]

You could try hitting me with it. Promise I'll block it. [Totally sneaky. Super slick.

He rolls his eyes at Shuichi.] It's only half an hour if you keep up. Or you could sleep in the woods. I'm not going to carry you.

[He probably would if Shuichi collapsed or something, but only if no one responded to the magic mirror. He's certainly not going to just if Shuichi's feet hurt. It's not as if Dixon is particularly built for stamina either; a combination of two decades of smoking and heavy drinking and a sedentary lifestyle have ensured that he's spent the last week wheezing and sweating while all these skinny teenagers and nimble twenty-somethings frolic around as if they had energy for days.]

Come on, kid, if I can make it you can too. I've been out here all day and ain't died yet. By the way, you got a name?

I'd rather not.

[Two miles just sounds like a long way, alright? He might not have even found this temple if he hadn't accidentally gotten the mirror working, not if he'd started walking in the wrong direction or something.

But "a half an hour walk" sounds managable, at least. The mirror and obviously the sword are too big for his pockets so he'll just have to carry those, he guesses.]

Ah...it's Shuichi Saihara.

[He looks a little uncomfortable being the focus of a stranger's attention like this, ducking his head and half hiding behind his long bangs. God, he wishes he had his hat right now. Ditching that had been easier when his classmates were the only other people around.]

[Dixon makes a kind of disappointed huffing noise, like he was really hoping Shuichi would take a swing at him. He'll have to find someone else to do it later. After those few days of straight-up detox he never wants to go more than ten hours without alcohol or this amazing magical substitute in his system.]

Yeah, I'm not going to be able to say that. [Nor is he going to try. Shuichi has just been slotted into the category of 'hey you', 'hey kid' and 'that one, you know, the Asian one with the hair'. Maybe 'Sushi' if Dixon's feeling particularly ambitious about getting people's names right.

Fortunately for Shuichi, Dixon's not really interested in giving him a staredown. He notices that the kid's shy, but mostly he just turns his attention to the path out of efficiency. He can talk and walk at the same time, after all.]

So the rest of us got here about a week ago and got jumped by some weird pizza cutter monsters. Since then we just been staying at the temple trying not to catch anything from the river water. I bet you had some dream about voices telling you to save the forest too, right?

[He almost protests that it's not a hard name to say, but...yeah. He's not up to even that level of conflict over something so petty right now. Especially when everything else this guy is saying is so much weirder.]

Pizza cutter monsters.

[He sounds kind of disbelieving, a bit bolder now that the guy's attention is on the path. Shuichi follows, frowning. And then frowning more over the rest of that.]

I did, but...that's just a dream.

[It means something that apparently everyone has it. But he's inclined towards some other explanations before "magic heroic shit".]

Yeah, I decapitated one and everyone lost their shit at me about it. It's like they didn't notice that they were pizza-cutter monsters trying to kill us all.

[He's kind of similarly proud of killing that Wheeler as he was of getting this raccoon. Competence is thin on the ground for him. He has to take his wins where he gets them.]

Sure, but we all had it.

[Decapitated...]

What were its insides like?

[That's...probably a weird thing to ask without any context, but he's not thinking about things like that right now. There's a whole mess of mysteries here and he won't be able to rest easy if he ignores clues like this.

He won't even bother addressing the shared dream issue right now. Because if this really is the worst case scenario he's imagining, then that's an easy answer given what he's learned like. Literally just a few hours ago, from his perspective. And if it isn't, then...well, then there's even more shit going on here he doesn't understand.]

Bloody? Why, was it supposed to shoot confetti? [Dixon seems amused by his own comment, as if it were the height of wit.

Weird kid. Weird kid with weird questions and a weird sword.

The two-mile hike isn't the easy amble Dixon made it out to be. They reach a slope and the going gets significantly slower. Dixon's fairly quickly out of breath, pushing on out of pride rather than ability.]

It could have been a robot.

[But "bloody" probably shoots that down, unless Dixon just didn't take a good look and mistook oil for blood or something. That really does raise so many more questions, though. A "monster" that's actual flesh and blood...? He wishes he could have gotten a look at it, as kinda gross as that seems.

But hey, if it's any consolation he does only mildly better going uphill. He's certainly not going to be giving anyone else shit when he's panting himself, awkwardly trying to hold both the sword and mirror in one arm so he can strip off his uniform jacket. He probably should have taken that off from the start once he heard what a hike it was gonna be. Ugh.]

...Alright, that's fair. [In a way, Dixon almost wants to believe it was a robot. He's always preferred sci-fi to fantasy, and he's read enough comic books about robots that he envisions himself as being able to make sense of a scenario like that.]

But it weren't a robot. It was flesh and blood. [He grabs the edge of his jacket and pulls it away from him to spread out the fabric, so Shuichi can see the large splatter of dried blood under the fresh raccoon blood.] That's from one of them. I guarantee it's real blood.

[He pauses their ascent for a moment and points at something in the far treeline.] That over there's the temple. You can see it if you squint.

[He really does lean in a little to examine the blood more closely, the hand that isn't currently juggling the sword and mirror pressing against his lips pensively. It sure does look like normal blood.

That's not really comforting, though.

Leaning back to shuffle everything to his other arm so he can get the jacket off the rest of the way, he frowns as he tries to spot the distant temple.]

You said there are something like twenty people there? Where is everyone from?

[At least in the school there had been a common thread between all of them trapped there that made it clear why they were there. Even with only Dixon to judge by so far, Shuichi can't imagine what the point in common might be. The guy looks and sounds like a foreigner, there's an obvious age discrepancy, and...well, the guy doesn't really stand out in the way most of the Ultimates do. Or...did.]

I don't know. Everywhere? We got a few spacemen and one chick from Denver. [He absolutely knows that isn't where Revan is from but by now he's just going with it. Besides, rambling gives him an excuse to catch his breath a moment.] I'm from Missouri. This kid Kon's from Kansas. Got at least one Yankee. I think we got a handful of other Americans too.

[Dixon's categorizations of the people kind of fall into 'American', 'other places on Earth' and 'outer space' with very little nuance between them.]

Far as I can tell we got jack shit in common, if that's what you're wondering. Different places, different jobs. A few of the teenagers know each other so they got a little clique going on. [Which means that Dixon's officially envious of a bunch of teenagers, which is a great feeling.] Maybe you'll know them.

[Yeah, that sort of categorization scheme sure sounds American, from the stereotypes Shuichi knows. "Spacemen", though. What? It'll be cleared up once they get there so he won't pursue it, but...what??

His shoulders sag a little as Dixon pretty much shoots that thought down right away, but he perks back up slightly at that last part. He bites his lip, cautiously optimistic.]

What are they like? The other people around my age, I mean.

[His classmates are pretty, uh...distinct. He'd surely recognize even the barest description. Most of them are gone now, of course, but if he can even find the few that were left...]

What's the word? 'Overachievers'? That's them, they all got ninja skills and magic. And they're all athletes, pretty much. I think they're all Americans too, so you might be out of luck.

[The problem of teenagers, or the younger people in the group in general, keeps nagging at Dixon. He feels responsible for them, if only because he's got a few decades on them. But they're clearly significantly more competent than he is in this situation, and not only don't need his help but are likely to be held back by it.

It's a toxic combination, to feel both inept and unable to abdicate responsibility. It gnaws at him. Each day here he feels like he's drowning. It's only been a week since he was preparing to just opt out of life entirely and the stress and sense of inadequacy here is making bouncing back from that more difficult than it already would be.]

Okay kid, seriously, I need you to hit me with that fucking sword.

[It all sounds pretty accurate, even just between Maki and Himiko -- even the magic part. Y'know, presuming this guy means like...magician stuff. But the "Americans" part immediately smothers that tiny building hope and he visibly deflates.

Cool. they can just be depressed together.

Or not, since Shuichi's depression only lasts as long as it takes for Dixon to ask to be hit, at which point it's quickly replaced by bewilderment.]

What?! N-no! I'm not going to do something like that!

This thing [he takes the shield off his back; it's larger in his hand than it was while holstered, suddenly at waist-height, the Ebbing P.D. ornamentation almost cartoonishly large] only works in combat. And right now I need it to work.

[He peers at Shuichi's weapon, tries to make sense of if there's anything that identifies it beyond just being a big sword.]

Yours is probably magic too. We can probably find out.

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