wilderlogs | [Open] In Philly

Who: Trance and Open
What: A proper introduction! One that doesn’t involve anyone getting attacked, getting healed, or getting in a gigantic unexpected argument! After the chaos of arriving, running for her life, learning to heal, and attempting to stop her best friend from completely burning every possible bridge, Trance looks for a little mental R&R by doing some exploring around the camp.
Where: In and near the library.
When: After the healing log but before the quest moves on.
Warnings/Notes: Only what you bring with you. I’ll update if any are added.

I. Outside The First
[There’s a curious-looking purple girl with a tail exploring the abandoned buildings outside the library the group has holed up in. She stops to pet one of the oversized vines, talking to it under her breath, before she notices one of the many-eyed lizards farther up the building.

Her tail twitches slightly side-to-side before she extends a hand toward it, carefully, slowly. It’s well out of reach, but she doesn’t let that stop her. The lizard doesn’t seem to take note or care either way if it does see her. With that many eyes, how could it not notice? She frowns slightly and wiggles her fingers a bit.]

Come on. I don’t bite. ...I hope you don’t bite, either. You don’t, right?

[The lizard remains unfazed.]

II. Outside The Second
No, not- Not that way!

[Trance has discovered another spell she has access to. She sits cross-legged in a patch of grass breaking through a pile of rubble that may have once been a road, hands stretched in front of her, fingers buried in the grass. The grass, which she is talking to.

The grass… which seems to be responding, after a fashion.

It grows right impossibly fast, twisting and turning around itself to make vine-like ropes that grab for anything passing by. She, perhaps, hasn’t quite learned to control this part of it yet. The grass-vines grab the nearest passerby and Trance snatches her hands away from the ground with a squeak. The grass doesn’t do anything but hold its accidental prisoner in place, but it also doesn’t seem to be receding.

Sorry! I’m sorry! That wasn’t- [She takes a deep breath and presses her hands to the ground again.] I can fix this.

III. Inside
[Trance has found herself a quiet corner to read in, out of the way and unlikely to be stumbled upon by anyone she’s currently annoyed at. A small pile of books sits next to her, a couple larger ones already tucked into a sad-looking messenger bag. They largely seem to be medical books or emergency preparedness manuals, although one has a blank but fancy looking binding that obviously doesn’t match the decaying state of a lot of the library’s books.

At the moment, though, she’s distracted by one particular book that even at first glance is not the serious subject matter of the rest of her finds. Though faded, the cover obviously once sported bright colors and reflective foil in the shape of scales on a fish. She seems entirely engrossed in reading the picture book, not paying much attention to her surroundings except to look up whenever she hears footsteps.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There's a giant owl?!

[The warning doesn't seem to have deterred her. Perhaps the opposite.

Trance is quick to follow along, making extra sure to pay attention to their route so she can find her own way back later.]

Well, everyone has to start someone, don't they? Even the people that were from here and wrote the books? Right? So there has to be something easier than... 'hellishly bizarre.' [She hesitates slightly over the words. They maybe aren't exactly the ones she'd have used.] My world has lots of things I can't explain. None of them are exactly magic like this, but maybe I just haven't seen it yet.

An owl and a...simian creature of some sort. Also fox spirits.

[Not mentioning the corpse because it's freaky. Ange's trying to forget she saw that]

A world is a big place, but I had always thought I was sure I knew everything one should know about mine. Even the biggest mysteries have rational explanations. I would almost think everything here is a trick of some sort...if I hadn't received powers too.

[Trance will probably think the corpse is pretty gross, too. Maybe they could avoid that entirely.]

I guess most mysteries can be pretty rational, but if all of them were rational, then they wouldn't be very mysterious, would they? They'd just... be things no one has figured out yet. The best mysteries are mysterious to everyone. [She thinks so, at least. Most people she knows would probably disagree. She's also used to being one of those non-logical mysteries, so she's a bit... biased.] I don't think you'd be alone in thinking this is all a big trick, though. The voices in the tunnel could probably explain themselves a little better.

The voices in the tunnel should have sent invitations if they wanted anyone to come here. Politeness must be such an alien concept to them.

[Ange will never stop being bitter about being brought here without her authorization, even when she actually grows to want to save this world]

That, too. [It's a simple, quiet agreement, no hint of matching annoyance on Trance's part. Sometimes you just don't have the luxury of asking permission when you're trying to save the world. Doing the necessary things and asking for forgiveness later is faster and as long as the world is saved, if your important people hate you a little bit after, at least they're still alive to do it?

It's even easier when you don't really care what the people you're busy not-asking think about you.]

But, I mean, they do seem to be kind of on a time limit. And people would probably have said no if they asked, so then they'd have to find even more people until enough of them said yes, and it seems like a really good cause, not letting things get destroyed. Right?

...I can't disagree with that. I would have said no if they had asked. [And saving an entire world is a good reason to do stuff, most people would say] The end justifies the means and all that, right?

Well. Yes. [She frowns a little.] It doesn't sound very nice when you say it like that, though. And there are good things, here. It's like an adventure!

[Her enthusiasm is more than a little forced at that.]

An adventure...

[Well she's not wrong, this is an adventure! A...weird one Ange isn't sure she likes, and all she wants is return home so she can continue her personal quest, but right now, well, it's an adventure. Should be somewhat fun. The corners of Ange's mouth twitches upward for a moment]

I could grow to...tolerate it [She doesn't want to say 'enjoy' because she thinks she shouldn't enjoy it] as long as there aren't more of those things that attacked us on those hills. That's all I ask.

Tolerate is good! [Goodish, anyway. It's a start! Ange playing along makes her perk back up, more honestly enthusiastic now.] And really, what are the odds we'll run into something like that again? Probably they were just angry we surprised them and camped on their house or something.

People get really angry when you camp on their house without asking.

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