kaisou | Open log

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Open log

WHO: Ritsuka + anyone
WHERE: just some random street corner
WHEN: 1st of July
WHAT: Ritsuka found herself whisked away to another world? Must be Tuesday...
WARNINGS: Probably none, this time

There's a new face in town! Or at least, there's a redheaded young woman who, while not appearing particularly bewildered or confused, most definitely is spending some time looking over the surrounding buildings and cityscape. As one does when trying to figure out where one is or how to get where one needs to go. In any case, it's definitely true no one here's seen her in town before!

Should you approach, though, she'll promptly swap from that evaluating stare to a friendly grin.

"Oh, hi there! Are you from around here?"

If you're especially observant, though, you might notice a set of red marks on the back of her right hand. But that's probably not important, right? Right.

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That just earns a bit of a confused frown from Ritsuka.

"Huh? But what else could it be?"

It's not a lostbelt, for sure. And some singularities can get pretty darn weird in her experience, too.

But more importantly, if it isn't one, then how and why is she even here?

"It's easiest to think of this as another reality entirely; completely separate from our own respective timelines or any other running parallel to them. Most of the others here come from similarly separate worlds, but it's this one that seems to function as an anchor point of sorts pulling others in."

That sounded like the simplest way to illustrate the point, when the point was nigh incomprehensible.

"It's not predictable who comes or goes and when, or whether they return or not. But there's nothing to panic about, not yet--I've been back home, and no one even noticed I had left in the first place. Whatever you're dealing with, it should hold until you get back."

At least Ritsuka has enough experience with alternate timeline/world nonsense that this... more or less makes sense. Sort of.

Not that that really helps with the feeling of no longer having any idea what she's dealing with.

"But..."

If everyone back at Chaldea is safe, that's a relief, to be sure, but that doesn't really make the feeling of everything suddenly being turned on its head for her any less.

"'But that's impossible', right? Or maybe just 'completely insane'?"

There was something both sympathetic and very tired in Waver's voice; he was perhaps a little less prickly than the one she knew, but only a little.

"It's okay. You're not alone in thinking that, and most of the people that have gotten stuck here are just as out of their depth. They're even a decently supportive group, weird as that seems to say."

But then what am I supposed to do?

She can't bring herself to actually say it, though. At least not right now.

"I see..."

Sorry, Waver, she's dealing with a bit right now.

"...Hey."

Weird that he was suddenly reminded of Irisviel of all people at the moment, but there was something distinctly similar--the air of being caught so far off guard that one's entire purpose was turned on its head. Maybe he was imagining that, but...

"Actually, I'm glad you're here. This world isn't in as much crisis as it could be, but that doesn't mean the situation's entirely safe. And if you've been able to fight with so many Servants on your side, you must be a hell of a lot tougher than you look. Caster's got someone supporting him, but Nagiko doesn't. And I can't forge a contract with her or anyone else."

It should be painfully obvious that he's just trying to reassure her. To try to give her something so that she doesn't have to feel so bad and useless.

The problem is, it kind of works.

"You can't? Even though you're a Master, too?"

"I-...well. If it were a matter of life and death on any side, obviously I would."

At heart, Waver was the personification of a soft spot for upset teenagers. Even the ones that gave him migraines and spiked his blood pressure. He shrugged, adjusting his sunglasses in a vain effort to hide the slight trace of red his face was turning at the question.

"...But I don't have any intention of making a contract with any other Servant except mine. I wouldn't entrust anyone else with my life like that."

That... actually makes sense. And definitely fits in with what she knows of the Waver she met. ~~Have you SEEN his final ascension?~~

"I guess that makes sense."

She means it, though. She might be the type to trust just about everyone she meets, but she knows that some people just share a special bond like that with each other and no one else.

"Guess I'll have to go look for Nagiko, then."

He's still kind of coping with Saber wearing an armored crop top.

"Believe me, she's not hard to find." As was no doubt expected. "She works at the Vogue Theatre last I knew, but I'd wager she'll find you first."

Spoken like someone who definitely knew Sei Shounagon.

"Well... she can be sneaky when she wants to, you know."

But yeah no most of the time she's very obviously there. All the time.

"I'll believe that one when I see it. Maybe."

ritsuka honey she has nintendo switch hair

She also almost never has a reason to even try to sneak. It's really not her style! But look, never underestimate what that one is capable of.

"Do you know how long she's been here, anyway?"

Ritsuka's kind of curious. Sure, she can probably ask the Servants eventually herself, but Waver's here now. That, and talking about stuff like this puts some distance from uncomfortable topics.

"I'm not exactly certain, off the top of my head. I know I came here before both her and Cú Chulainn, but I think the difference is only a handful of months or so."

Sometimes you're just so busy and life is so chaotic that time ceases to have any meaning.

"But they've both been here months at least, too?"

She might feel a little bad about that, except one thing she does already know is that sometimes Servants just get summoned places. It happens, nothing that can be done about it!

"Yeah, they have. He's contracted to a close friend of mine, and she's established herself about as well as you expect."

Extroverts. What a weird species.

"Right."

Okay, she can't help but grin a bit at that description. And just imagining what Sei might have gotten up to here.

But anyway, tangent aside...

"Oh, but is there anything else I should know about this place?"

"Admittedly, there's definitely people far more knowledgeable than me about the finer workings of this city on both the mundane and supernatural sides. And there should be an app on your phone that will get you in touch with most everyone able to perceive the supernatural. You'll be much better off getting information from multiple sources than just relying on me."

"Well, sure, but if I'm going to ask different people, it doesn't hurt to hear from you as one of them too, right?"

Really Waver are you trying to weasel out of explaining things to her now?

"Yes, of course. But I'm not an expert on the crazy shit that goes on around here, and I'm definitely not a local who can go into far more detail."

Multiple sources are academically encouraged!

"Criticall, though: about every month or so, some weird shit goes on in one branch of the Spirit Realm or other without fail. The realm and problems therein take a lot of forms, and shocking no one it's usually our problem to deal with."

Look, just because Ritsuka trusts Waver doesn't mean she's stupid. She's been around this kind of thing a few times before, she knows how important it is not to make assumptions or take things at face value. Or the word of one source, no matter how trustworthy that source may be. Sometimes people simply don't have all the information.

"Because most the people here don't have any way to do something about it?"

You know, the whole kind of needing magic to fight magical threats thing.

"More or less. Left unchecked, any number of myriad things could go wrong. But enough of us here have both the awareness of the supernatural and the means to handle things that so far it's gone well enough."

God forbid there ever be a quiet month.

"For a couple examples, a few months ago we had a minor outbreak of faeries and fucking magic salmon--which, yeah, hated that one." You know, for reasons. "Before that there was the spirit realm gate that led to a world overrun by demons, or the one that went to the literal Egyptian underworld after the sun went out for a month or so."

"But it hasn't always been like this?"

She's assuming not. Otherwise this place surely would have been wiped off the map a long time ago.

"Apparently not. Things haven't been this broken for long, though I can't remember the exact date I was told when it started going wrong--maybe it's been a year and a half in total, I would have to check with someone actually native to the city. But that incident in the underworld severely aggravated the issue by damaging the Spirit Realm barrier further, which is also likely to prove our problem on the larger scale."

"So something probably happened to start it. And maybe if whatever that did can be fixed..."

Well, it's theoretically possible, right? And pretty similar to how one deals with singularities and lostbelts alike. Find the root cause, fix (or destroy) it, problem more or less solved.

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