aterat | Oh, you're just the same as I used to know

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Oh, you're just the same as I used to know

Who; Arkady + OTA
What; Open intro log fun times!
Where; Residence area and into building Blue, harbor, and market!
When; Starting on the 3rd through the 5th
Warnings; Mentions of blood and nothing else I can think of at the moment.

A. What Can You See-Harbor

There was someone Arkady needed to find. Someone important to her that she hoped beyond anything would be here too. She'd wasted absolutely no time exploring this new place. Teleportation made it easy to get around swiftly but there was an easier way to look and see things. The harbor seemed like a good choice for her experiment. The dock with the dilapidated ships seemed especially promising as a location that she might not be disturbed. Who else would choose to come out to a place that only held broken pieces? They were things she had always been drawn to though. Maybe broken things spoke to broken people in ways that only they understood. Or maybe she just liked the promise of not being noticed.

There was a large bottle of vodka next to her as she dangled her feet off the dock and looked down at the water. A part of her had grown truly sick of water. Back home it felt like there was a never ending supply of water that just kept closing in on them as the days went by. It was their fault of course, so could she really complain? No. The only thing she ever complained about was the fact that she couldn't fix it all by herself.

"I have a world of my own to fix," she said to nobody in particular with a slight edge of anger to her voice. "And other people you took me from that need me." There was frustration in her voice that she didn't usually let on, but she thought it was safe here to speak freely to the open waters. She heaved a sigh, took a drink from the bottle, and then her eyes began to glow a bright white and her body went as still as a statue. She stayed that way for longer than she should have looking for people she needed to find and also for a layout of this place. The more she knew, the easier could get around.

Eventually she hit something wrong though, something that caused her to jerk back to herself and nearly fall off the dock.

"Fuck," she shouted as she gasped for air and her eyes returned to purple. "Oh no. No, no, no. Not here too." She was going to need more vodka for this.

B. Find Your Color

After her exploration she'd returned to the residence building that she'd initially been taken to and shifted through the satchel to find the key. There was still a part of her bothered by what she'd seen, but now there were other people around and that meant an act had to be put on. Nobody else needed to be bothered by what was going on. Especially not if they had just arrived like her. Everyone was going to be confused enough without adding more to it.

"A-09, blue building! I like blue!" If it occurred to her that it was odd to be speaking aloud to herself she didn't let it show in the slightest. Instead the bald young woman just pulled her jacket up over her shoulders, making the word FreakAngels on the back much more visible. Unfortunately her readjustment of her jacket also made the blood stains on it much more prominent. In fact, if one were to get close enough they might notice that she's got what looks like dried blood stains on her neck. The way she tugged the jacket around her made it fairly obvious she was aware of the fact that the stains could be seen and really didn't want anyone else to be.

Dangling from the jacket there were a variety of doll parts that jingled as she walked up to the blue building and just looked it over for a few seconds. She swayed back and forth with her hands clasped behind her back as she looked at the building as if she were studying it for reasons only known to her. After a few solid minutes of just staring with bright white eyes at the building she disappeared for just a second. When she reappeared it was directly in front of the blue building. Where precisely she went during her brief disappearance was anyone's guess (the roof of the building) but she acted like it never happened as she opened the door and stepped inside.

"Hello! Is anyone else here?" she said loudly in a bight and cheerful voice as she walked into the common room. She was definitely curious about who her building-mates would be in this place. Though, there was one person in particular she was very focused on finding.

C. Lets Go Shopping

After another day of exploration Arkady made her way to the open-air market with a considerable amount of enthusiasm. Her jacket rested on her elbows revealing her pale and frail looking shoulder. She had on a see-through skirt made of a patchwork of different colors and she walked barefoot without any sort of care. There was a small smile on her face as she moved around the stalls excitedly looking at just how much there was.

"There's so much! This is wonderful!" Much better than the place she'd been before. It had plenty of things to buy but it hadn't been like this. This was like home except so much better. There was the same familiar feel as the market back home but there was so much to be found. For years there had been a shortage of everything. Fresh food was difficult to find and relied greatly on what the FreakAngels could actually grow themselves. Spices were no longer a luxury. In fact, luxuries in general were a thing of the past.

This however, it was something magical and exciting. Not only that but there people here. Real people. Not fake people like there had been in the other city. Every now and then her eyes would glow bright white and then she'd smile brightly as she touched the minds of actual people. Real people with real thoughts that didn't give her a headache.

Eventually, she stopped in front of a fishmonger and just took in the smells. "There's so much here! I don't even know what to get..."

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In Vincent's experience, districts like this one, dedicated to trade and commerce (of one kind or another) were verdant sources of information. What's more, with the type of people that frequented this place, he was bound to pick up something useful. At least that was his hope. He wandered the streets, and people gave him a wide berth, likely because of his appearance. Vincent never did quite pull off friendly, and eventually he found himself at the harbor, overlooking the remains of a once-proud shipping empire by the look of it.

He wondered, idly, what could have happened. The ones responsible for their arrival here claimed the world had ended, but they'd been vague as to how it had come about. His gaze unfocused and he allowed his mind to drift back over the years, and he would have stayed lost, perched at the end of a jetty but so many miles from there, had she not cried out. He jumped, pulled back to the present by a voice he'd never thought he'd hear here, but it was familiar and welcome nonetheless.

He looked around for the source and found her quickly, it was hard to lose Arkady in a crowd, let alone when she stood apart. He moved to her side with haste but pulled up short for a thought crossed his mind that brought a slight chill of dread to his chest. What if she didn't know him?

"Arkady?"

"How could I ever not know you, sweets?" There was an attempt at a very forced smile offered to him as she met his eyes for just a second before looking away. Her voice lacked it's usual colorfulness and instead held a haunted quality. Whatever it was she'd seen had clearly left her more than a bit shaken. Still, seeing Vincent made her more calm down some and she tried to wipe away the tears that were forming in her eyes.

"Everything's broken. It just ends," she said to him a very weak voice. "They want us to fix it. I couldn't fix home, how can I fix this?" There weren't many people Arkady would allow herself to sound vulnerable around. Vincent was one of those people. After all they'd gone through in the other place, how could he not? He'd been there for her quite a few times and there was no denying the confusing fondness she'd developed for him. There was also no denying how confusing it was for her. He reminded her so much of Connor and yet there was still so much they hadn't said to each other. It always felt like they both kept the majority of things they wanted to say locked away.

After a few seconds she blinked and then a more genuine smile came to her face as she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck. "I felt you. I'm glad you're here. I was afraid I was alone again."

"You aren't alone." Even as the words left his lips, they sounded hollow to his ears. He moved closer to her, a quiet but comforting presence at her side. It warmed him to know she was happy he was there with her, and the idea that they were trapped here together at all had a calming effect on him, as well. He'd grown accustomed to her presence, and her smile, even when it was forced, brought the ghost of one to his own lips.

"We can overcome this, too."

If one were to look up a man of few words in the dictionary Arkady was fairly certain they'd find a picture of Vincent there. He was the perfect example of someone who had a lot of thoughts but never seemed to know how to express them. One of the benefits of her being psychic was that she didn't always need him to actually say anything.

She squeezed him tighter in her hug before pulling away and looking up at him. "It was like falling off a waterfall. I tried to look out there past the mist but..." she shook her head. "I couldn't see anything. Maybe there is nothing? It's like home. Everything kept getting worse and the flooding was spreading and it was so bad." And it was all their fault.

"Who caused it?" Back home it had fully been their fault. So didn't that mean it had to be someone who actually did it here?

"Arkady, this isn't your home." It wasn't her fault it was broken, and thus far, they hadn't been given any specific task through which to save it. "You didn't break it."

It was troubling, thinking there was nothing out there, but comforting her, however terribly, was easier to focus on than the implications of what she'd just said. If there was nothing, then it was possible the Aspects were telling the truth, that they needed them to rebuild it, but how did you even go about starting something like that? Wouldn't it be easier to have them prevent the destruction?

"But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help though, right?" At least she thought that might be the case. "Unless they're lying. They lied there." There meant the other place they had been. They'd been lied to there. Everything had been a huge lie. What was to say this wasn't too?

"What if they caused it?"

It was possible, of course, and it was a point Vincent wouldn't deny. Frowning, he looked off over the water, at the lights dancing across the choppy surface, and the wall of mist in the distance which, evidently, masked the end of the world.

"Maybe they did." But something occurred to him, and he looked back to her. It was strange to think it, but it wasn't beyond the possible. "Maybe they made a mistake and they need our help to fix it."

"Kinda like us," she said mostly to herself. The FreakAngels had just made a mistake and then needed to fix it. They hadn't been able to get other people to help them though. Nobody else had powers like they did. In order to fix what they'd broken, they'd have to do it themselves. But here, maybe it was different here. Maybe the people who had brought them here had messed up and needed others to clean up their mistakes.

"Why wouldn't they be able to fix their own mistakes?"

He shook his head, uncertain. It had been a farfetched idea in the first place, but anything was possible. It had only taken a few of them to stop the destruction of their Planet, but it would take the world to fix it.

"Maybe there weren't enough of them left."

"Like maybe there were more Aspects than these ones and they died?" That was a thought that really hadn't occurred to her and it was slightly depressing to think about. It was also depressing to realize they knew very very little about this place. Which meant that they were basically starting all over again in a brand new place from the beginning. She scrunched her nose up in frustration.

"We're having to start all over again with nothing."

Edited 2020-07-22 03:33 (UTC)

It was surprising that he felt it even before he said it, but he shook his head slightly, looking over to her as the faint ghost of something that might have been a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Not nothing." They had each other, and they had their memories. That was something.

Edited 2020-07-25 17:10 (UTC)

"Ohhhhh," she tried to hide her grin as she took his hand. "What do we have then if not nothing?" Was she going to try to force him to actually say it? Yes, of course she was. After all, there was something kind of cute about how awkward he could get. It felt so strange to think that. Strange and almost wrong, but she pushed those thoughts away for the moment.

He tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing slightly as he watched her tease him. She knew exactly what he'd meant and yet she was going to force him to say it. He shouldn't, he was more dangerous here than he'd ever been in Dualis. He'd never even taken the chance to tell her about the monster that slept within his breast.

He clenched his jaw for a moment, then looked down at her hand in his, curling his fingers around hers. He should tell her, but he didn't know where to start.

"This. We have this."

Arkady couldn't always see the future or perfectly read a situation. This was a rare moment where she actually found herself surprised. She tried to meet his eyes as he took her hand and smiled gently.

"What this are you talking about?" She knew what he meant, but she also found herself unsure of what else to say. "Hands? We do both have hands?" It wasn't the best joke and she also wasn't sure if it was the best time for a joke. Maybe this was a talk they should have. No, not maybe. They should. There were things they both had been keeping inside. But she wasn't sure if now was the time. Or when a good time would be at all.

It wasn't often that Vincent was perceptive of others demeanors, but he'd begun to get a feel for Arkady's moods and mannerisms, at least enough to start to understand what she meant by the things she didn't say. The faint ghost of a smile tugged at his lips when he looked over to her.

"We do. And two of them each." He still had no way of knowing how to begin talking about what they needed to discuss, but maybe that was alright for now.

"For a total of four!" She said with a burst of laughter. "Four hands are better than two, right? We can figure this out too! And maybe I won't have to die to do it here." Was that a bad joke? That was probably a bad joke.

"I would prefer not." His brow furrowed in concern. "Or at least that you tell me first."

"But if I told you, you'd try to stop me," she said with a small smile. "Or at least try to protect me. Even though I don't need protection." Everybody seemed to think she did though. Or at least they seemed to feel a strange desire to protect her and tell her not to get into danger.

"You should worry less. Especially about me."

Of course he would, he thought. He wanted nothing more than to protect her, from whatever this world or any other might want throw at her, from herself, from whatever had happened to her in her past. He was taken aback by how much he wanted to, actually.

"I'll try."

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Oh, you're just the same as I used to know

A. What Can You See?

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