justacriminal | [Video, morning] First Strike

[The sun is starting to rise when this tall, dark, wiry young man finally makes it to town. He'd been lucky enough to find his own clothes nearby when he woke up about five miles up the western lake's northern shore. Considerably warmer than the random white pants he'd been magically wearing upon waking. Maybe somebody realized he'd be walking a long time. Who knows? At any rate, the sky is finally starting to get light again when he finally finds himself in a civilized area. He's been walking for about a day and a half trying to find a place to rest-- he hasn't stopped for more than half an hour at any time, worried that he'd come across monsters while he's unarmed. He'd looked for a town at the lake, but no dice-- he wound up following the river into the village.]

[Yuri just hopes there are people up already. He's perplexed and bewildered by...well, everything, really, but at least he's had plenty of time to poke around at his journal while he walked. Figure out what it did, and found a few answers to things he wanted to know.]

[When the video starts, he's quite relaxed and laid back, his confusion fairly well hidden behind a very calm poker face. It might be possible to see the fountain behind the tree he's leaning on, if you look closely enough. He's tucked his wings into his shirt--while he doesn't know how they got there ore what they mean, he's pretty sure he doesn't really want to risk messing with them yet.]

Morning. Name's Yuri, Yuri Lowell. Judging by what I've been seeing on this... journal if that's what it is, I guess I'm not the only one who's been dragged here recently without any warning. And it sounds like it's been going on awhile. So who wants to volunteer and tell yet another newcomer about your nice little town here? Or at least tell me where I can sleep for awhile. It's a pretty long walk from that lake to here, you know?

[OOC: Feel free to action it up, if you prefer. Find him making the post or whatever you like! He's not hiding, really.]

[EDIT: Wow I'm a loser, who says 'evening' when the sun is rising. I do apparently, whoops.]

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...Not in the world I know? Hm...

[Yeah no kidding. But Yuri's just as glad to switch to a more practical topic anyway. He's not really the best mannered either.]

[He trails off, then shrugs. He doesn't really need to give a stranger the details of his circumstances, right? Right.]

Guess it wouldn't really shock me. Never heard of a place called Luceti... and it's not like I had wings before.

[Thankfully, those stopped hurting by now. But they're still cause for a lot of bewilderment. They don't seem to do much, except cause a lot of pain if anything so much as scratches them.]

I'd be more inclined to think it's some kind of hell than anyplace I knew.

Hell's perspective based. It may be, by your definition.

( She gives a small shrug of her shoulders. Hell to her is different than this place, but hell is something else to live and know you're headed for most your life, if you believe in it at all. There's no real consolation to be had there. )

The wings are claimed to help us survive and thrive on this world. The Malnosso, the ones who built this enclosure, are the ones making that claim. They're also who draft us to fight, then feed and cloth us at no cost. They don't claim to bring us here. They're happy to benefit from us either way.

( It's the simple way of stating a broad idea of what is generally shared around. There's limitations, and there are things which seem locked down to be safe from prying eyes... but it seems to her the only safety in secrets are in never sharing them at all. It moves on to conspiracies when word is passed, and leads to discovery in time. )

Removal of feathers causes weakness and illness. Lose one wing, and you'll feel half dead. Lose both, and you die.

( His idea with hiding wings might not be a bad one at all. )

Hmm... Can't say I ever really had one.

[He merely assumed that's where he'd wind up if he ever got himself killed. Which he's pretty sure he did really recently. Not that Annie needs to know that.]

...Not sure I buy it. Wings helping to survive. They don't really seem to do anything except get in the way.

[And he snorts at the added information.]

Oh, glad I didn't try anything like that. Hurt enough just getting them scratched on twigs. I think I'll be keeping mine under wraps.

[Sure keeps the risk of getting scratched by a random branch to a minimum.]

When you're aware of blood flow and risks of atrophy to avoid, binding isn't a bad solution.

( Says the one walking around with her wings under a sweatshirt. All it really seems to do is make her seem slightly hunchbacked. C'est la vie. )

Most of these are housing. ( She says, gesturing to the places they pass. ) We'll be seeing one of the taverns... ah, the bar, and someplace else that acts as an eatery when we head into the center of town. People keep the lists at the Welcome Center up to date with who lives where.

( Look it is so much easier just to toss out the factual bits!!! )

Ah, about the dying. It's not final while you're here. The dead aren't dead, either. Whatever does pull people here ignores technalities like living or not.

( Marco. Petra. Yeah, this is not a detail she's so thrilled about. Having someone you've murdered crop up around again is not... really... comfortable. )

Rather not have to mess around with it, but yeah.

[Oh well. The things you do for protection... Yuri pays close attention-- or as much as his exhaustion will allow-- to the information being tossed at him.]

...Huh. Really is starting to sound like some kind of sick afterlife.

[He can imagine. He'd hate to see his own murder victims pop up... for more than one reason, of course.]

Doesn't even let you die properly.

( The conversation they're not having is pretty hideous ~~I say while laughing~~. Then again, the one they are having is hardly reassuring. Annie gives Yuri a sidelong look at his last statement. )

Some would be glad for that.

( Not that she indicates herself as being for or against the idea. It makes her feel more unsettled that dying here is not permanent than even being pulled from elsewhere before or at around the time of one's death. The entrapment here is so total, you're punished for being forced to live again.

It's sickening. )

There'll be another bridge where the pathway curves to the right up ahead.

...Can't say I'm one of them. Kinda disturbing to think a dead enemy might pop up at any time and you'd never be rid of them.

[~~muderers anonymous~~ He hasn't really given much thought to his own situation with his own possible death-- but then, he's been assuming this is just one very interesting version of purgatory he'd never considered before. It's certainly growing sick enough to be exactly that.]

Got it. Gonna split paths here?

Dead friends aren't less disturbing. Harder on the heart, one might say.

( She might say. Only she doesn't, not really, moving forward and pausing to glance back at Yuri. )

Unless you wanted otherwise, yes.

( She'll generally assume most people can figure out what they need to do. )

...Hadn't thought about that.

[He can see that, now that she's mentioned it... Seeing the Don again would be outright disconcerting.]

Nah, I won't keep you from going where you need to. Thanks for the help.

[Video, morning] First Strike

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