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[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

[throwmoreswords]

Chaldea is another bucket of ice water down Gil's spine, something that raises the hair on the back of his neck and makes him inhale sharply around his far too-complex order of coffee. He brings his eyes down to meet hers--and never one to shy from the battlefield, he pulls up into a proper posture, setting the cup down and caging it between his hands.

"Yes, and no, but I'm beginning to," he says, continuing to study Ritsuka's face as fragments of memory jostle for position and purchase in this moment, none of them significant enough to send him into that blanked out space between now and then again, just awash in flashes of moments where this girl was in his space, her words and thoughts lost to the passage of time and space.

"I was born a normal man in this world," and here, he says the whole of his name--long and elegant, but definitely not English, and then he holds up a hand. "I've always told people to call me Gil, though it seems you're quite acquainted with that already." There's an amusement in his wry little smirk, eyes lidded as he continues to pick through the mess that's been the last few months of his life. "Recently, I came across an artifact in a museum, and upon touching it, I unlocked memories of another time and place. There are quite a few people in this city with the same set of circumstances, if you'd believe it."

... of course she'd believe it. She's--special, some fragmented piece of him that's not fully him supplies, and he finally takes a drink of his coffee in lieu of having things to say, unused to his speeches being so fragmented. He's never been unsure in his life, and yet here he is, plopping a box of broken glass in front of an incomplete stranger.

[prunedworlds]

Ritsuka listens quietly and intently as he explains. There's certainly a little concern, but mostly she just wants to figure out what, exactly, is going on. And while there is admittedly a bit of confusion in her expression as Gilgamesh--Gil--speaks, it's that of someone putting pieces together and coming to a realization, not of being lost or bewildered.

"Reincarnation, huh."

Technically, that wasn't supposed to happen. The Throne claimed the souls of heroes for itself, after all. But she knows well there are ways around that anyway, even if this case is definitely different from the one she's most familiar with.

"You're right, I do know you, or at least who you were before. I just came from that world before I ended up here."

Some people might find the implications for the timeline of events there impossible, or at least odd, but to her it seems entirely reasonable. The concepts of past or present, or even future, mean nothing when there exist forces that sit outside of time entirely.

"I can tell you what I know about all of it, if you want."

But it's his call. She knows even with different summonings of Servants she's met before, some are fascinated and interested in getting to know a Master they had previously contracted with, but others wanted nothing to do with it or her. It might sting a bit, but she'll respect his choice if he's not interested.

[throwmoreswords]

The Throne isn't as all encompassing as it'd like to be--how could it be? Magic was a fickle, malleable beast, and all of its rules were subject to rend and twist under the will, skill, determination, and sheer stupid luck of whatever pressed against it. Gil--Gilgamesh, the man, the king, the myth, the ghost--could hardly claim to be an expert in such things, even if he was drawn to them, fascinated by them.

The idea that a piece of his potentially fractured history was just sitting here, all wide-eyed earnestness was far too tempting to pass by. He cocks his head, considering, weighing out the price of curiosity against the pleasure of possessing knowledge, temporary pain and confusing, potentially upsetting emotions a drop in the bucket versus the temptations of having more of his own story...

When presented with a minefield, what could a king do but walk into it, unafraid?

"I know a few things from memory's misty, fractured offerings--and now that I've looked at you, your face has come into focus, as if the shape of the memory makes more sense now that I know what to call the subject. I would be interested in knowing what you know--" and he starts to call her Master once more, managing to pause his tongue this time because it is still very, very strange for him to call a girl half his age such a thing.

"How is it I should refer to you, child?"

... as if he's thousands of years old, and not edging his way towards forty.

[prunedworlds]

"Oh! Sorry, I'm Ritsuka. Fujimaru Ritsuka."

Here she was calling him by name, even hearing him formally introduce himself, and she hadn't even thought to give her own. At least he didn't seem bothered or impatient over it when he asks; she'll take that as a sign her oversight isn't important right now, and move on to the explanation.

"Where I'm from, sometimes when there's a famous hero of some sort, when that person dies their soul is recorded in the Throne of Heroes as a Heroic Spirit. Those Heroic Spirits are called on to protect humanity--the time doesn't matter, it can be long after or even before they originally lived--and there's ways for people to summon them at times, too. When Heroic Spirits are summoned like that they're called Servants, and people who make contracts with them are called Masters."

An incredibly bare bones explanation, but Ritsuka reasons it's best to get the overview out of the way, and let Gil ask questions to fill in the gaps as needed. She's unsure how much he knows or remembers, too, so giving a quick mention to all the basics seems a good place to start. Or so she hopes. She's never been great at understanding all of the nuances of these things, herself, and this whole situation has thrown her off-balance on top of that.

"The place I was at, Chaldea, summoned a lot of Servants to help fight against something that was trying to destroy humanity. One of them was you--that is, King Gilgamesh."

She does her level best to keep her voice even, her tone and expression neutral, but the fact of the matter is that Gilgamesh had been one of the Servants she was better acquainted with. In one form or another. She couldn't easily just forget the events of the seventh singularity and the impression they'd made.