paixaorpg | A Lost SeeD [active]

Entry tags:

A Lost SeeD [active]

Character(s): Squall and anyone else in the general vicinity
Content: Squall wanders in.
Setting: Niflheim Gate
Time: Midmorning
Warnings: None

This wasn't the Garden. As a matter of fact it looked like no Garden that he had ever seen. And it wasn't where he was supposed to be either, much less all by himself. Irvine. Rinoa. Selphie. Where were they? Had they arrived safely? ...Rinoa! Was she safe? Was she all right? Would she be all right? Rinoa --

He shook his head, breaking himself out of his thoughts. There would be time to worry about them later. Right now he had better things to worry about. Like where this was and why he was here. And why he was the only one to show up here, for that matter. After all, this might end up being important and the more information he had the better. And it looked like the best source of information was inside the city.

One hand reflexively checking the familiar weight of the gunblade at his back, he stepped quietly into the line waiting outside the gate. It was strange though, a line like this to get into a city. Stranger still was the fact that no one seemed to be coming back out. Either there was another way out somewhere else or no one ever left - and with any luck (but when did he ever get lucky?) it wouldn't turn out to be that last. Not that it really mattered now. There were more important things at hand right now - he'd deal with leaving later; right now he needed information more.

It wasn't until he heard an irritated voice cutting through his thoughts that he realized that he'd managed to reach the front of the line. "Squall Leonhart," he answered almost automatically to the question about his name, taking the assorted handouts with little more than a vague nod as he headed quietly into the city itself - he'd look at them later, once he'd gotten an idea of what the place was like. And maybe he could find someone willing to share some information.

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The prinnies hadn't wandered far from the cafe. The group in there was huge, and they were starting to feel like third, fourth, and fifth wheels. Plus, there was always the chance something was happening out here. It was a huge city, after all - there had to be something going on somewhere, and they intended to find it.

Evidently it wasn't at the gate, though, they decided after several long minutes of watching blond person after blond person enter. Even the zombies back in the Netherworld had more personality than they did. So it was with relief that they spotted someone who was decidedly not blonde coming through the line.

Freidrich was the first to notice it, and he was off before either Keesling or Bellatrix could react, waddling at top speed towards the man. "Hi, dood!" he called, raising a flipper in enthusiastic greeting.

Before Squall could even begin to think of what to do next, he found himself surrounded by small blue ... things. Birds? No. It didn't matter what they were, as he hand reached back for the handle of his gunblade. No different from home after all. Same difficulties, same annoyances.

But all that went flying out the window when one of the ... whatevers spoke. A blink at that, as his hand paused shortly above the hilt of his gunblade as assorted emotions all trued to make themselves be heard at once.

Unfortunately, none of them made it successfully, as his only answer was a resounding "..."

It didn't take more than a few split seconds for Bellatrix and Keesling to catch up with Freidrich, and Bellatrix was immediately on alert when the man went for something at his back. People kept weapons back there, after all!

He didn't seem to be doing anything with it, however. I nfact, he didn't seem to be doing much of anything.

"I think he's dead, dood," Keesling offered after a short silence.

"He's not dead," Bellatrix replied flatly, then turned her attention to the man, "are you, dood."

Strange talking bird-things. And just when he'd thought he'd seen all the strangeness the world had to offer. And given that he'd seen more than a fair few odd things over the last year (and summoned a couple more), that said something in his mind.

Nonetheless, they had asked a question and it wouldn't be entirely polite to not answer even if he had no idea what these things were.

"No," he answered simply, not trusting himself to manage a longer sentence - or at least not without wanting to ask just what the hell the things were.

After having entered the city Adell had been desperately searching for any of his companions. He did so by asking around the locals, which hadn't proved to be very useful until a little girl had pointed out the importance of the journals. Apparently you could find people with it.

After a lot of fiddling and an accidental recording, he somehow found himself conversing with a certain Overlord. Now, he was sitting underneath one of the fake trees near the gate deeply in thought as he skimmed over the replies he had gotten. So far, Adell concluded, this place didn't sound any better than a Netherworld.

He stayed deep in thought until a familiar word reached his ears. 'Dood' He blinked and looked around for a moment, not spotting anything in the general vicinity he figured he must have imagined it. That was until he heard it for the second time and this time he actually looked around the tree and at the gate where it seemed to be coming from. That's when his eyes fell on the familiar blue figures.

"Prinnies!" he exclaimed in surprise and he was up on his feet in a heartbeat, striding over to the trio and kneeling down in front of them. "I never thought I'd be happy to see you guys," he said with a sheepish smile. "You're Etna's right?" He looked into each of their faces imploringly until he noticed the other figure that was standing with them.

By the looks of it he definitely wasn't a local. Which meant he was probably another outsider pulled from his world. "New here too, huh?"

"Thank you, dood." Bellatrix crossed her flippers and nodded in satisfaction. See, she knew he wouldn't be dead. Dead men only walked if they were zombies, and this man was no zombie.

None of the prinnies were expecting the new guy to show up, nor for him - or anybody in the city except the Overlord and his vassals, really - to know just what they were. Maybe he had prinnies in his world too?

They definitely weren't expecting this stranger to act like he knew them. "Who're you, dood?" Keesling asked blankly.

Bellatrix had more pressing matters on her mind. "How do you know Master Etna, dood?" she demanded.

Freidrich was once again left in the intellectual dust. "...you're happy to see us, dood?"

More people. Just what he'd always wanted. Bad enough having these strange bird-things - prinnies, the other had called them? - without having a person around as well. He'd never much been one for being social after all, especially around people he'd just met. Of course, it was just his luck that life kept forcing him into situations that he'd wouldn't have chosen to be in if it had been up to him.

Questions, on the other hand... those he could deal with. "Yeah."

Adell's face fell slightly at the revelation that even the prinnies didn't know him. So they were from the past too....And here he was hoping that at least someone would recognize him for a change. With a sigh he rose back to his feet and considered the questions the prinnies barraged him with.

"I'm Adell and I'm from the future where Beauty Queen Etna was traveling with us," he nodded to both Keesling and Bellatrix as he answered their questions. That must have sounded horribly cheesy though, 'I'm from the future'? Who knew he'd ever say that.

"Kind of hard to believe myself," Adell looked rather sheepish as he eventually answered Freidrich's question. He hadn't been here for that long but long enough to get sick of the same blonde-haired people that appeared to be the main population walking by. It was nice to see something familiar even if it were the prinnies.

He crossed his arms and turned to the stranger once again, "and you are?"

The prinnies were all somewhat floored by the newcomer's - Adell's - answers to their questions. One answer in particular, actually.

"Beauty Queen, dood?!" they demanded in shocked unison.

To any outsider, it would have seemed that that line acted as a catalyst for a change in the prinnies. Suddenly, they weren't small penguins anymore - in the blink of an eye, each had inexplicably assumed a human form.

"Hard to believe she'd assume a title that quickly," Bellatrix mused, twirling a strand of brown hair absentmindedly around her finger. The rest was pulled back into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, just above the collar of a very expensive-looking navy blue tailored business suit. The analytical voice often heard coming from the small demonic penguin seemed much more suited to this form, a responsible-looking woman in her late twenties. "I wonder just how long we've been gone..."

Keesling tugged at the collar of his red polo shirt, adjusting it without even thinking about it. "What kind of title is Beauty Queen?" he inquired. Somehow he didn't cut quite as impressive a figure as Bellatrix - compared with a successful businesswoman, a blond high-school sophomore in jeans and sneakers didn't quite seem to measure up.

"Hunh." Freidrich raised an eyebrow, shaking shaggy black hair out his eyes. He and his shirt and jeans looked as though they'd been through the washer, the dryer, and the wringer in short succession. It was the twentysomething-year-old look (and personality) that most parents wanted their children to avoid if possible. "Wonder what that makes us," he thought aloud. Somehow, none of the squad seemed to have noticed their changes.

[Thanks to the chemicals in the water, the Prinnies have temporarily resumed the human forms they had before they died. Have fun~]

The strange title - who in their right mind decided to give themselves that sort of title? And Laguna didn't count - was of less interest to Squall than the words that had preceded it. 'I'm from the future' he'd said. Time could possibly be being compressed again, could it? He knew they defeated Ultimecia for good, so it could possibly be her again.

Any further thoughts on that subject were, however, quite effectively derailed by the sudden transformation of the bird-things. Either there was a sorceress around here or this place was stranger than he'd initially expected.

"Squall," he answered to the question about his name, as he tried to not stare at the once-birds.

Adell didn't even have time to respond before the Prinnies suddenly made a drastic change of appearance. He almost fell over in surprise and instead did a double take. For a moment he looked as if he was about to rub his eyes but eventually settled with pointing an accusing finger at the Prinnies.

"Since WHEN can Prinnies do that?" he demanded. Never before had he seen a prinny turn human and this all started to look like some sort of bad dream. He noticed the lack of response from the Prinnies themselves, not even having noticed the change. "Turn human I mean," he added, just to be sure they knew what he was talking about. The discussion about Etna completely forgotten by now.

All three once-prinnies found themselves rather surprised at Adell's reaction. It wasn't like anything had happened. Right?

"What do you mean, turn-" Bellatrix, per usual, caught on fastest. She stopped short and looked down at herself, something between a smile and a smirk growing on her face. "Well." She liked what she saw: another opportunity. "This is certainly an interesting development." She looked over her shoulder at her companions, addressing her next comment to open air, almost thinking aloud. "I wonder what caused it..."

Keesling, for once, was silent. He'd caught sight of the angry red scars on the inside of both his forearms and jammed his hands in his pockets, looking down at the street as though it was the most engrossing thing in the world. He didn't want anybody to see the telltale marks of what he'd done.

Freidrich was the only one left completely unfazed by the whole matter. "Dude," he said simply, looking down at his own hand and grinning detachedly. "Sweet."

So not even they knew what had caused it? That by itself was enough to be mildly disturbing, and the fact that the other guy - who seemed to at least have some familiarity with the things - didn't know what was going on only served to make it more so.

On the other, hand it was certainly a lot easier to deal with people than with strange bird-things. People, he could understand. And it looked like of the lot of them the woman was the one to watch out for - the leader of the bunch, as it were.

None of this made it past his head though, as once again he turned to his old standby; "..."

Adell simply stared for a moment longer, one eye giving a twitch before he snapped himself out of it. So not even the Prinnies themselves knew what caused it? He resisted the urge to slap himself on the forehead. There seemed to be no point in questioning them further then, so he decided to return to the previous subject they were talking about - Etna.

"Anyway - I have no idea what kind of title Beauty Queen is but that's how she introduced herself," he shrugged. Titles always seemed to be important to demons. "In fact, I'm about to meet up with Laharl. Maybe Etna's there too and you can ask her yourself."

He turned back to the other outsider who obviously didn't seem much like a talker. He hadn't even expressed that much shock when the Prinnies turned. Then again Adell had been too busy freaking out himself to notice. "It's nice to meet you Squall," he nodded as he extended a hand for a handshake.

"Wait..." Keesling blinked. "You know where the Overlord is?" They'd all heard that he was in the city, but they'd not met him yet (mostly in order to avoid the wrath of Etna).

Bellatrix knew there was more to that statement that met the eye. "And why exactly are you going to meet him, if you don't mind my asking?"

Freidrich was simply too busy being amused with his human form to pay too much attention.

Not much of a talker would be a decent description of Squall, although possibly a bit lenient. Besides, most of the conversation seemed to be going in directions that he didn't really have answers to - he really didn't have anything to add to a conversation that seemed to be largely about a world he knew nothing about. And wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know anything about if the penguin-not-penguins were any indication of the way things were there.

"Nice to meet you too," he answered, although more due to a vague sense of politeness than anything else.

"Yeah, I do," he said as he tilted his head at the prinny-turned-human. By the sound of it they had gotten separated from Etna, otherwise they probably would have known where the Overlord was. Which would also mean Etna wouldn't be too happy with them and that didn't look like a very bright future.

Adell looked back at the woman, she was a sharp one and certainly the brightest of the bunch. "One of his vassals - Flonne - got sick and I'm bringing him some items from back home that might help her."

He gave Squall a simple nod before pulling his hand back and folding his arms, watching the formerly-Prinnies with interest. Something strong must be going on for them to just turn human like that.

"Good," Bellatrix nodded. She'd had enough of this strangeness, and reuniting with the Overlord and his vassals would restore some sense of normalcy, at least. She was banking on her human form to prevent or at least deter Etna's wrath. "Can you take us to him?"

Keesling heard something completely different in Adell's response. "Flonne's sick?" he replied incredulously. "But- wha- how?"

Even Friedrich looked up and started paying attention at that. "Flonne got sick?" Man, that sucked! Flonne was the only one he actually liked!

Something was very strange here - and more so than just the strange shapeshifting of the penguins. It was human nature to get sick, wasn't it? So why were these people acting as if it was an unthinkable crime that this 'Flonne' person was sick? It wasn't like it was going to kill her to be a bit sick after all. Just take it in stride and deal with it. Besides, it would over within a few weeks at worst save for in some of the worst cases. Not some crisis like these people were making it out to be.

But hey, if they wanted to, it wasn't like he was going to stop them.

Adell considered the question before eventually nodding. "Sure," he shrugged. There seemed to be no harm in bringing the Prinnies with him, although there was probably going to be some confusion as to why the Prinnies didn't look like Prinnies.

"She got attacked and hurt by this Larxene-person and now she seems to be getting sick too," he replied to both Keesling and Friedrich. The Overlord sure seemed to be in a tough situation here. First getting kidnapped and then his vassals getting hurt. Even though the place looked bright it certainly wasn't.

Squall would have been right if Flonne was a human, but since she was a Fallen Angel the 'human' nature part probably didn't apply.

"ATTACKED?" For once, both Keesling and Freidrich were thinking on the same shocked wavelength. They could see people attacking the Overlord - it happened all the time, really - and maybe somebody might go after Master Etna, if they'd lost their mind. But to hurt Flonne...well, that took a special kind of bottom-feeder.

"I think," Bellatrix turned back to Adell, still very much in control of herself despite the cold fury evident in her voice, "that you had better go to them and quickly. They're depending on those items, after all. We will follow you." So far as she was concerned, discussion on the matter was closed.

Being attacked, at least, Squall could understand - the world wasn't the friendliest place, after all. What he couldn't quite understand why the penguin-people were so upset about it. So this 'Larxene' had attacked one of their ... friends? allies? ... and now she was sick. Okay, fine, whatever, but that wasn't exactly the end of the world and he couldn't figure out just why everyone else seemed to be so worked up over it. Obviously these people were not the kind of person he'd want to stay around - if this was their reaction to something so simple he didn't want to find out what their reaction to something worse would be like.

Fortunately it looked like they were planning to head off to the rescue of their friend soon enough - and it would be easy enough to just ... not bother following them.

Adell raised an eyebrow at their shocked reaction and nodded. Violence was pretty much a common thing in any Netherworld, so he couldn't quite understand the reason for such a reaction just yet. He went along with it though, especially when hearing the tone Bellatrix spoke in. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, was it?

"Sure, let's go," he shrugged, already turning around in the direction they needed to go. He paused as he realized something and looked over his shoulder at Squall. He considered inviting the other to come along but he was a stranger and he doubted Laharl would appreciate it. "See you around," he nodded and figured he could at least give the other a word of advice since he was new here too. "Any information you need, you can find on these," he said as he held up his journal.

With that, he pocketed his journal again and went on his way with the Prinnies in tow.

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A Lost SeeD [active]

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