hadriel | first punt

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first punt | voice

[Chie's been thinking about this since she showed up here - how different this place is from Demeleier, how scattered and disorganized the people here are. She doesn't exactly think of herself as a leadership type, but - well, this isn't her first rodeo, and the system they had in place in Demeleier seemed to work. Maybe it's not a bad idea to make a suggestion ... ]

Hey, um ... I know I'm pretty new here, and I know some other people have been talking about this sort of stuff too, but - is there any kind of organization among us? In the place where I was before I got brought here, we had a village Watch and a welcoming committee. The Watch teams patrolled around the village to keep the faeries out, and the welcoming committee kept an eye out for new people when they'd show up and explain where they were and how to stay safe and stuff like that. It seems like we've got a similar kinda situation here, just with monsters and gods instead of faeries. Not everyone knows how to fight off monsters.

[And even those who do know how to fight are sometimes not strong enough to succeed. Chie knows that all too well.]

I just think we all stand a better chance of surviving this place if we work together, I guess.

[That's usually the truth, right? That's been Chie's experience, at least.]

Oh! I guess I forgot to introduce myself before. I'm Chie Satonaka. It's nice to meet you all.

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Nick Valentine here, and I agree with everything you said. If there isn't already some kind of watch going to keep an eye out for whatever wanders back in from the caves, we ought to start one. Not everyone knows how to defend themselves, and we're all in this boat together. We should watch out for one another.

Nice to meet you! And that's exactly what I was thinking - we all just gotta pull together and make the most of it. I know I've got some experience fighting off things but a lot of people don't.

[She's thinking of Nanako, stuck back in Demeleier. She's just a kid; she doesn't know how to fight off anything, and she shouldn't have to, really.]

So, um ... I guess I can count on you to join the watch, right?

You let me know where and when to patrol, and I'll be there. And if you don't, well, I'll just find some place and get started. Either way, count me in.

Hey, that's great!

[She's actually so cheered she laughs.]

I'm really glad to hear it. I guess ... maybe we should have everyone who's interested in helping out meet up at some point to get a strategy together, right?

That sounds like a solid plan if you ask me.

[Which she did.]

Do you know about how many people we have here? Or how many are interested in this sort of thing?

Just a couple people have said they'll help so far ... but I don't know how many of us there are here. I'm pretty new, and I haven't met everyone yet.

I could say the same about myself. I've only been here about a month now. There don't seem to be many of us, but there should be enough to set up some kind of patrol.

Hmm, I think maybe I got here at the same time you did. But any kind of help is better than nothing, right?

Back home, I'm kind of on a watch. [Kind of. Others monitor the city, but she and the other Rangers respond. Plus, they do patrols, too.]

Count me in for a watch. [It'll be like having a piece of home while she's here.]

Yeah? Hey, that's great! This place seems pretty big ... [Bigger than Demeleier, anyway.] Do you think it's too big an area for one group to cover all at once?

Hard to say. More than one group is probably better, though, in case something happens. [In case Fear. She means Fear. In case Fear happens.]

If we stick to patrolling the residential areas at first, we should be okay. Unless there's a lot of volunteers. Then we can split up and cover more ground.

[Which reminds her--] Would you be on watch or the welcoming committee? [Since it seems Chie could easily have experience in either.]

[YEAH THAT GUY ... 8c]

Hmm ... yeah, I guess it would really just depend on how many people want to help out, huh? Hopefully there'd be a bunch of us so not everyone would have to patrol every day ...

[People had been all too happy to help out in Demeleier; Chie only had three or four shifts a week. Then again, it was a smaller area.]

Um, I've done both, actually! So I could do both here too, I guess.

I hope so too. It'll be hard to keep it up if it's just a few of us.

I could probably help with both too. It might be good to rotate watch and welcoming committee duty, if we don't get enough people.

Yeah ... well, we just gotta do our best!

[She's got good suggestions, too.]

You sound like you're pretty good at organizing. Have you done this kind of thing before?

[Hahaha not really. Z's good at supporting people. Jack is the one who came up with the ideas, back in the day. Even as a Ranger, she's better at carrying out plans rather than coming up with them.]

I used to... [how to put this?] ...do some collaborative gathering and patroling with a friend. And now I'm kind of just used to being on a schedule. I'm a police officer. [As if that explains it. She'll tell Chie more if she asks.]

We should probably get started soon. Even if it's just a few of us for now. Maybe patrol the colliseum to make sure we're there if more people and monsters come in.

[That's a good enough answer for Chie.]

Yeah, that's a great idea! I think a lot of people woke up there at first - I know I did.

[And if she's a police officer ...]

My friend's uncle is a police detective, back home. I thought that might be a good career for when I'm done with school.

Me too. [Z doesn't like to think about that day much, though. She remembers too well what it felt like when one of those gooey monsters tried to swallow her replica's head.

Gross.]

You'd probably make a great police detective or officer. I mean, you're already trying to set up stuff here.

Oh, haha ... sheesh, thanks. It's nice of you to say so.

[She has doubts about her abilities to protect people, after what happened in Demeleier. But there's no point in talking about that now.]

I don't know if it matters, if we never get back home.

Sure it'll matter. Even if nobody believes what happened, you'll still remember everything. I mean, I think we will. I don't exactly have experience with this kind of thing.

But I mean, it sounds like we will. You said you've been someplace sort of like this before?

Hey, you're right!

[Let's positive thinking ~~wait wrong game~~!!]

Yeah - I was in a village called Demeleier before this. Some of my friends were there too - [and some not-friends] - and people from all over, all kinds of different worlds. It was under control by faeries.

Faeries?

[Z has heard two entirely different takes on faeries: one where they're sweet and friendly, and another where they're actually terrifying. Chie's story makes her think about the latter.]

Yikes. Glad you got out, though uh, not so glad you're still not home. [But! Glad to have met you!]

But see, that means we can get out, somehow. In the meantime, we'll just have to do our best to keep everyone safe.

[Deeeefinitely the latter. The fae in Demeleier were as awful as any Shadow Chie and her friends encountered in the TV World - worse even than Izanami, in fact, and she's a legitimate goddess of death.]

Yeah ... I guess you're right. I mean - there were people here before, right? You all didn't build all these houses and stuff in just a couple months. So there must be a way out somehow. We just gotta find it - and like you said, keep everyone safe until we do.

[Yeah, Z doesn't like to think about what could've happened to the people who were here before Fear threw open the Door. It doesn't seem like it was pretty, and she's not keen on the thought that it could happen to them, too.]

Yeah. Well, I guess-- until we have a formal watch set up, I can swing by the colisseum every day after I practice sword fighting and make sure nothing's trying to crawl out of there to attack anyone.

[ Honestly, she had Miller's interest at "organization."

With only her voice to judge by, he can only guess, but she sounds young. It's a little embarrassing that a teenage girl is the first one to bring this up in any meaningful way, even if it had been on Kaz's to-do list. He'd wanted to give everyone a moment to catch their breath after being buried alive, but it's been long enough now and it's best to get the ball rolling.

Her Japanese name catches his attention too, but he'll get to that later. ]

Nice to meet you too, Chie. [ Which is an informal way of addressing someone in Japanese, but as far as Kaz is aware, they're speaking English. ] You're speaking my language. I think we stand a real chance against the gods if we pool our efforts, too. There's a lot more of us than there are of them.

Anyway, I think the first step is figuring out who can do what, and who's willing to help. We need to make sure that everyone's skills are being put to use in the best place.

[She is young, just about 18, but age isn't necessarily an indicator of experience. Chie spent a year fighting monsters in an alternate dimension in her hometown, and another several months defending a village against faeries and other unpleasant sorts.]

That sounds like a great plan! You gotta start somewhere, right? Everyone's got strengths and weaknesses - I know I'm pretty good at kicking things, at least. Do you know how many of us are here, altogether?

[ Good at kicking things? That strikes Miller as a particularly specific skill, but he can delve more into that later. If what she's saying is that she has some combat abilities, that can certainly be put to use.

Only once he's certain she's not too young, anyway. He's not going to accept any child soldiers into his plans, thank you very much. ]

I don't know an exact number, but back when people were buried, Hope said that 'half of you will die at this rate.' Given that he gave out a list of twenty-seven coordinates, if we double that, there's probably something like sixty people here.

[ That's his educated guess, anyway. ]

Huh ... sixty is a lot. More than there were in Demeleier, anyway - at least I think so.

[She didn't really count, and people appeared and disappeared all the time at random.]

Well, no matter how many of us there are, we still gotta stick together and look out for one another.

Demeleier?

[ It's no surprise that it doesn't ring a bell. Most of the people here come from foreign places with strange names. ]

You said you were good at kicking things. Does that mean you have combat training?

Yeah - that's the village where I was living before, the one with the faeries we had to watch out for. I'm from Japan originally, though - Inaba.

[Which she doesn't expect will be familiar to him. Inaba's about as unremarkable a town as they come, or was, until the murders started.]

Um ... sort of? I spend a lot of time training in kung fu. And ... well, I have fought monsters before.

[ A village with ill-meaning faeries? It sounds even more ridiculous than Hadriel, although Miller expects that anything becomes familiar with enough exposure.

He's more distracted by what Chie has to say about her nationality, though. ] I'm from Japan too, but... Inaba. [ There's a pause as he searches for that name in his memory. ] It doesn't exist anymore, does it? The Inaba province is Tottori prefecture now. [ Someone knows his history.

His questions about her fighting experience are put on hold for the moment, as he's more interested in comparing their common ground. ]

Huh?

[Chie's not sure what's more shocking - that this guy has actually heard of Inaba, or the fact that he claims it's not there anymore. Could something have happened while she was away?]

N-no, I'm pretty sure it's still there - I mean, it was a few months ago when I left.

[Come to think of it ... ]

What year is it for you?

[ Is it really possible that this girl is from that far back in time? It seems impossible, but then again, Hadriel has challenged just about every rule Kaz has about the world. ]

1984... how about you?

[ She wouldn't be speaking English if she was from an earlier time period, he would think, so maybe there's something else going on here. ]

Wh-

[That's like, before she was even born.]

No, it's 2012 - I mean, it was. Sheesh, you really scared me for a minute!

[Obviously he must be from a different world entirely. Right? That's how this sort of thing works ... she thinks.]

So unless your Inaba came to be in the next twenty-eight years...

[ Which Miller is guessing is not the case. ]

Anyway, I'm sorry for the scare.

[ This is the first person Kaz has come across here who's Japanese, so he can't quite stop himself from switching over to his native tongue. ]

« Maybe you would prefer to talk like this? »

[ While Kaz may be using a different language as he speaks, he's unaware that a universal translator exists here. ]

[lloyd's been sort of hovering in chie's periphery while she was making the network post, looking mostly patient about waiting but glancing over his shoulder every now and then with a faintly worried look on his face regardless.

noishe is standing by his hip looking a bit more blatantly anxious about something, whining softly.]

[Once she's finished with her message, she glances back over her shoulder at Lloyd with a questioning expression.]

Yo. What's up, Lloyd?

Edited 2016-02-07 17:01 (UTC)

[lloyd flashes her an almost instinctive smile when she speaks, and then chances another look back towards the kitchen before the smiles turns a little strained, rubbing one hand awkwardly behind his head.]

I was just wondering... what you're doing in the kitchen right now?

Hm? Oh ...

[Right. The kitchen.]

Well, I thought maybe I'd try to cook something again. I mean - I know the last time didn't turn out very good, but I gotta keep practicing, right?

[That's how it works with physical training so obviously that must be true for cooking as well.]

Wanna help?

[oh god, he had really been hoping it was some kind of science experiment or something and that his flashbacks to the professor cooking hadn't been accurate but.

he grimaces before he can really stop himself.]

I can help, but we're going to have to throw away what you have in the kitchen right now.

Hello, Chie-dono! I'm Jinbee Tsukishima and I will help fighting to protect people!

[Wow, she's never been addressed like that before! It brings a bright grin to her face when she replies.]

Hey, nice to meet you! And that's great - we can definitely use all the help we can get!

Of course! There is advantage in numbers!

That's right! There's a lot of them, and if we stick together, we should be able to fight 'em off.

W-was it bad if the faeries ca-came in..?

Yeah ... they weren't very nice to the people there.

B-but if it was their na--nature, it's their nature...

Well ...

[She's never actually thought of it that way before.]

It's still not OK to hurt people.

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