Open log

[prunedworlds]

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.

Comments

[fionnuisce]

"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."

[prunedworlds]

"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.

[fionnuisce]

"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."

[prunedworlds]

"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.

[fionnuisce]

"Exactly. The issue is that we're still at an early point of evaluating the wider damage and seeking out a plan to repair it. And repairing 'the damaged fabric of reality' is more than a little beyond me, so we've all got a hell of a lot to learn first."

We can't all be Zelretch or the Aozakis, unfortunately.

[prunedworlds]

"Isn't finding and getting rid of whatever's causing the damage the first thing to do before fixing it, anyway?"

Ritsuka says that completely matter-of-factly. Like this is such an obvious concept even she knows it.

It's almost as if she's spent the last, oh, three plus years doing precisely that sort of thing.

[fionnuisce]

Deadpan:

"...yeah, we sort of did that. There was a whole line to punch him in the face, it was actually pretty funny."

[prunedworlds]

Wait, what?

Just give her a moment to blink and process that.

"... But it sounds like it's still getting worse, huh."

[fionnuisce]

"Sometimes removing the root of the problem doesn't undo the damage, Fujimaru. Just like any injury; you can get rid of whatever fractured a bone, but left untreated it will only get worse before it shatters."

Not that he would know.

"Shipping a megalomaniac off to Florida handles the cause, but there's a hell of a lot of metaphorical first aid necessary before anything gets better."

[prunedworlds]

"Do you know what exactly he did at least? Or how?"

Look, Ritsuka's spent something like the last three years of her life trying to fix things that were breaking reality in some way. She cannot help the urge to try to solve the problem, or at least look for something that would give a clue to where to start solving.

[fionnuisce]

"Exactly, no. But in broad strokes, a professor by the name of Willow chose the least sane way imaginable to cope with regaining memories of a past life. As I understand it he had a whole faction in his organization essentially rebel and try to restore his past life's world--there's some facsimile or fragment of it in the Spirit Realm, though don't ask me how."

In other words, he'd earned the line to throw hands.

"So gallivanting about in the Spirit Realm as he was doing caused all kinds of trouble, on top of the attempt to steal the power of an ancient Egyptian deity and trying to utilize what I can only describe as 'Satan in draconic worm form'."

...he doesn't know what a Giratina is.

[prunedworlds]

It probably says a lot about Ritsuka's experiences that... none of that actually sounds terribly farfetched. Honestly, she can probably think of a few similar experiences if she tried.

"Did he have some kind of research on the Spirit Realm?"

Or was this just a case of sheer idiot doing things at random and finding out what happened.

[fionnuisce]

"Ostensibly, yes. The organization he belonged to before stabbing them in the back is called POKEGO--they generally research the functions of the Spirit Realm and ways to survive within it, as well as the wide range of weird animal species in said fragment of that world."

Beat.

"...Really weird."

[prunedworlds]

"Oh, like monsters or something?"

She has no idea how close to yet how far from the mark she is, there.

[fionnuisce]

"Not...exactly?" Depends on how monstrous a living apple is. "Here, I'll show you-"

Waver reached into a pocket of his jacket for a small red and white sphere, pressing a single button on the front--with a small and brief flash of light, a small creature appeared perched on his shoulder. The cat-fox-rabbit flicked an ear and wagged its tail, chirping at Ritsuka in greeting.

"It's a species called an Eevee, if I remember right. His name's Moralltach."

[prunedworlds]

"Ah! He almost looks like Fou!"

Hello don't mind Ritsuka leaning in to get a closer look, that little guy's adorable okay?

[fionnuisce]

Knowing very well he was cute, Moralltach would hop right down and across the table to Ritsuka. Pets for being very cute and polite please.

"...Sorry, what the hell's a Fou exactly?"

[prunedworlds]

And pets he is indeed getting. Many pets. And a very distracted Ritsuka taking a moment to register Waver's question.

"Oh, we don't really know, actually... He's just some sort of creature, he looks kind of like this, but white, and with a bigger tail. He's Merlin's familiar, too, but he's been staying at Chaldea."

Aaand we're back to petting the eevee, as one does.

1/2

[fionnuisce]

"Yeah, sure, I guess that makes sennnnnn......"

[fionnuisce]

"What do you mean MERLIN'S familiar?!"

[prunedworlds]

"That's what Merlin said when we met him in the Seventh Singularity. He called him Cath Palug, but I think Fou likes everyone calling him Fou instead."

Said oh so very nonchalantly, boy this eevee sure is adorable, isn't he? Isn't he?

[fionnuisce]

"..."

Slowly looking to a very cheerful Moralltach, then back at Ritsuka. Then back again.

"Cath Palug. The Welsh cat monster fought by Sir Kay and supposedly King Arthur. Artoria. Whatever. That Cath Palug."

This had easily become one of the weirdest days spent in Kaisou to date.

"And you're telling me not only that you've met fucking Merlin, but that either he has a sick sense of humor or he implied the manslaying feline of legend is the size of an actual cat."

[prunedworlds]

"Well, Merlin said that since he can't actually leave Avalon, and because he's immortal there's no record of him in the Throne of Heroes, he sort of... summoned himself as a Servant to the singularity? But Fou recognized him. He beat him up a bit the first time we saw him, actually."

It was pretty funny. Grown-ass legendary mage and little furball scratching at each other. Also, she's not mentioning the part where technically Merlin did physically leave Avalon for a short while later on, but that's... well it's complicated, okay? More complicated than is occurring to Ritsuka to get into while distracted by cute.

"I don't know about the rest of it, but I guess if that is the same thing as Fou maybe Merlin made him smaller?"

Merlin is a powerful mage and all that. Though he didn't, turns out Fou is QUITE capable of changing his form on his own, thankyouverymuch.

[fionnuisce]

Again, Waver took a slow breath and pressed a hand to his face as he attempted to contend with this information.

"That makes more sense than I want it to. Can't very well become a Heroic Spirit without the 'spirit' part, and I'd practically expect someone like Merlin to be immortal one way or another. Hell, that's not even the craziest thing I've heard in the past ten minutes, much less in recent memory."

Or, 'fuck it, might as well'.

"Sorry--I've been talking your ear off with questions about Chaldea and trying to explain what the hell is going on here, but is there anything you want to ask otherwise? Just to make sure all the bases are covered one way or another."

[prunedworlds]

"Oh, umm...."

She actually pauses in petting the eevee to give that some thought.

"Well, I can't contact Chaldea at all, so that means I'll have to get my own food and supplies and stuff. Are there places to work that can pay at least something right away, if I need to?"

This is clearly a modern city, foraging and hunting is not going to be an option, and she's none too keen on stealing. Nor does she plan to rely on someone she meets here kindly providing her with meals, shelter, and everything else. Even if that does have an odd tendency to happen anyway with considerable frequency.