paixaorpg | Stranger in a Strange Land [complete]

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Stranger in a Strange Land [complete]

Character(s): Loz, Marluxia, Macha
Content: Loz arrives, all on his lonesome... but not for long
Setting: Muspelheim Gate and not too far inside
Time: um... it's daylight?
Warnings: non-descriptive daydreams of mass destruction

It was painfully clear to Loz, within a few minutes of waking, that he had no idea of where he was. He had a grasp of the designs of all the Planet's major population centers - there simply weren't that many - and this was not one of them.

There was a gate like flames, and a line of strange people colored like Big Brother slowly filing in, and a lot of... stonework. There were tumbled-down pillars and arches and walls and one big solid wall that seemed to go on as far as he could see, with the fire-gate in it.

He waited a long time, lurking by one of the broken down walls, watching for his brothers. Any of his brothers. He'd have welcomed Cloud at this point, awkward as it might be to stay near him.

It was hard to think; he felt dazed and empty in an unsettling way that he couldn't remember ever experiencing before. He tried to remember what had happened before he'd awoken here, and the last thing he remembered, he'd been with Yazoo and they'd been heading for the end of the tunnel chasing Big Brother and... and after that there was a shockwave, and fire, and it hurt... What if...

He realized that the line was shorter now, and that he was getting hungry, and it occurred to him that maybe if his brothers were here they'd already gone inside looking for him. That sounded reasonable. So he went.

He gave them his name, when they asked. He wasn't even really paying attention - simply accepted the items pushed into his hands and kept walking, staring at the crowd looking for a head that wasn't golden, and staring at the impossible surroundings. It was all constructed. All of it. Walls with windows and doors, arched ceilings, painted scenes and tiles and cobblestones and no sky...

It reminded him of the Church in Midgar, in a way, and he wasn't sure that he liked that. But there was neither sight nor cloying scent of flowers - small things to be thankful for.

He skulked along one wall for a bit, reaching a bright, domed plaza and seeing... more corridors, branching off in several directions, and more people, and... nothing familiar. Feeling more than a little overwhelmed, he backed against the wall, then slid down to sit against it. The corners of his mouth twitched down, giving him a fearsome scowl. He was lost, was what he was, and he'd never been lost before. Not like this. How could his brothers ever find him here? What if they didn't ever? How'd he gotten here in the first place? Where was this...?

It crossed his mind that he'd be a lot easier to find if he reduced the population in the immediate vicinity, and he resolved to do so just as soon as he could rest a moment and get his bearings a little better. There seemed to be a lot of people and killing just one would undoubtedly be the start of a long series of fights. Best to be ready -

He looked down, remembering that his weapons had been lost in the tunnel chase, and that he'd been given things when he'd passed through the gate. Maybe he'd better see if he could get any information out of the paper and electronic-thing first.

[[OOC: Holler if I got anything wrong, I'll fix!]]

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He'd made sure to change clothes before he'd come back and went to a different gate, just to be safe. He had come far too close to being discovered then than he had liked, and knowing now that he was recognized by at least a few members of the city was a little disconcerting as well. Marluxia had the feeling that many people already knew that the Organization wouldn't always be wearing their standard coats, but the people just arriving... well, they probably didn't. Which made it much simpler to do what he did best.

He stayed off to the side, watching the people file in and waiting to see if anyone would catch his eye. It didn't take too long for that to happen. Tall, well-built... and a little agitated. Maybe looking for someone, too. He could work with that.

Walking over to the man, he stopped a fair distance away (he'd rather not be too close in case he ended up pushing just the wrong button). "You seem a little lost," he commented.

Macha had been floating about the gate for most of her time in the city, looking from person to person, all so many different character models that she had to think either an event was going on, or that they were hackers that picked apart their data to make themselves look as they were.

But she couldn't sniff out any remnants of data, and that was unsettling. She weaved around the people curiously, and a bit playfully. They certainly weren't AIs...

Ah, and then there was one man that noticeably stood out - and he contrasted greatly with the one he moved to interact with. Curious! So bright! And so bland! She floated her way a fair amount closer, red eyes blinking in interest, and hovered on their outskirts, a playful air about her.

Loz had been sitting cross-legged (the better to keep any of these weirdos from tripping over him), slouched with elbows on his knees, open journal in his hands. His head snapped up - he'd been so intent on the journal that he hadn't realized that someone had approached.

Of course, that might also be because the person seemed content to stop just out of easy range, which meant that he was either timid or smart. Or both, maybe. It didn't much matter to Loz - the stance told him that the man was not looking to attack at the moment. ...What did he want, then?

He regarded the stranger suspiciously for another moment, taking in that his hair was a different color than that of... all the others around them. The man was also uncomfortably correct in his assessment. "What d'you want?" Loz demanded, snapping the journal shut.

He'd barely completed the motion when movement off to the side caught the corner of his eye. He glanced over, then did a double-take. Something like the robotic cat that hung around Big Brother was over there, hanging in the air like somebody'd cast a Float spell on it. It was weird and it was facing him, but it wasn't as close as the guy with the pink hair and it hadn't said anything.

So he stood, with the wall at his back, and directed his attention back to the strange man, and only glanced occasionally at the cat.

Marluxia arched an eyebrow as he watched the man hurriedly shut his journal. His amused expression quickly switched to what he thought might be a comforting smile (though he might have retained just a little of the amusement)before he spoke. "You seemed rather alone waiting here. I just thought I might be able to help."

It wasn't long before Marluxia began to feel eyes on him, and his gaze flickered in the direction of where he thought the watcher might be. A cat. A floating, bipedal cat. He should have guessed that something so strange would find its way in. It was definitely something strange, which made him curious. Including it in the conversation (if it were capable of speech) couldn't hurt anything.

"Unless you know that person over there?" Marluxia asked of the man, nodding his head in the feline's direction. It was obvious enough that the man didn't from his reaction to the cat, but that wasn't the point, was it?

((Remember that when Macha speaks, her words appear on the folk around hers' journals with a nice little messaging sound, so either they notice it, or they don't :D In which case if they don't, then you just see her mouthing things.))

Peculiar! The bright one had a different sense about him, that Macha couldn't quite focus on. It was as though he was there in her eyes, but he was nothing! And yet a fragment of something that made her think Morganna, and she quickly recoiled, drifting her way over to the silver-haired man and guarding by his shoulder.

"You cannot know a being who hardly exists! Ah, but a follower such as yourself may just know what that is like! I wonder... what is it that She is planning now?"

Loz wasn't terribly used to non-combat social interaction. In fact, he couldn't ever remember anyone ever approaching and offering help. Not for him, anyway - people tended to find his younger brothers far less intimidating. If any of them were approached, it was always them.

As a result, he wasn't entirely sure how to handle the present situation. The guy didn't seem threatening; he reminded Loz a bit of Yazoo, in fact, though he couldn't quite place how.

"N-no," Loz said, glancing in the cat's direction at the man's suggestion. There was no one over that way that he knew, much less the cat itself. "Anyway," he added, turning back again. "What can you do?"

The question was less demanding than his original response had been, but was still confrontational. Loz had seen, just before he closed the journal, that the meerkat had said that nobody knew how to leave this place, and that idiot Turk had said that his brothers weren't here. So he was alone and stuck here, if they were to be believed... so how could this guy do anything to fix that?

He caught movement again and looked in the cat's direction, only to find that the creature had drifted closer to him, mouth moving silently. He took a step away from it, still keeping the wall at his back. At least these two didn't seem to know each other and weren't actively trying to flank him... though he still felt a bit surrounded.

His hands unconsciously tensed - the journal's shell creaked in his grip, but he didn't really notice.

[[OOC: My apologies for taking so long -_- Turned out to not be a good weekend for getting anything done at all. ...Also, it's going to take Loz forever to figure out Macha's communication... XD ]]

What could he do? Such an interesting question. There were many things he could do. Whether or not he did them was the question the man should be asking. "That all depends on what you want me to do," Marluxia replied. "Find you some place to stay? Help you find someone you know?"

The ping of his journal did not escape Marluxia's notice. He didn't remember putting anything up as of yet. It couldn't hurt to take a look. He opened it up and glanced at the screen. Words without comments... Now that was interesting. Where had it come from? Something for later, though he kept the words in mind. "You cannot know a being who hardly exists..." Interesting words. A message from one who knew too much?

The cat's actions were just as interesting. It had come closer to him and then drawn away. He briefly wondered whether or not its actions and the message were coincidence, but banished the thought from his head. It was too soon to come to that sort of conclusion.

((Haha don't worry, that's expected X3 Oh, and just as a note, comments with more than two charries go differently here than DC [actually in general commenting is different orz], buuut everyone posts as a new comment, so it generally helps to track a thread if you weren't the starter :D))

At the silver hair's step away, Macha floated closer still, body rigid. She didn't like this other man; they may both be strange and different than any PCs she had come across, but one felt better than the other. Corrupted data, perhaps? Morganna, Morganna, Morganna...

"You should stay back from him." Macha said, narrowed eyes looking towards the pink haired man. She flickered her tail and bent forwards a bit. "There's something wrong with you." Or, 'about you', would have been a better choice of words. She didn't bother to correct herself.

[[indeed, I got that part... and still screwed it up when I wasn't thinking. *headdesk* I'm sorry!]]

Loz tilted his head, trying to remain cautious... and finally failing. "Both of those sound good," he said, standing straighter again. "I'm looking for my brothers. Eyes like mine, silver hair - theirs is longer. And shelter's good. And maybe food?" As long as the pink-haired guy wanted to be helpful, he could take advantage of that, right? "There was a guy on the journal-thing here just said my brothers weren't here, but I don't think I should believe him."

The floating cat was right next to him again. Moving away just seemed to make the thing come even closer. Better not move away again, else the cat would be hanging off of him next...

He frowned again at the way the pink guy suddenly checked his own journal. Huh... it seemed odd to Loz, but he left his own journal shut and held tight. He wanted to see about talking to people on it again, but... later.

And then the cat's mouth was moving again, though it seemed to be watching the pink guy intently. Loz tried not to jerk away, fairly bristling at how close the thing was. He was close to maybe making some kind of progress here; bashing every creature in sight wasn't quite the thing to do right now, cat included. He'd just have to deal with it.

...But he couldn't quite shake the feeling that the silent cat was saying something...

The man had let his guard down. Good. Marluxia studied his eyes for a moment. That shouldn't be too hard to find. Aqua with slit pupils wasn't a trait too common in most people. "There are plenty of liars on these journals. As many liars as people who can tell the truth," he said. "There is a cafe nearby if you would like to eat first?"

The cat's mouth started moving around the same time Marluxia heard another sound from his journal. He frowned in annoyance, glancing at the screen and then glancing at it again, looking back and forth between the screen and the cat. So it was more than coincidence. He filed this incident away for later but said nothing about it, pretending he made no connection. The journal was put away. He would ignore the cat's messages for now. The more Marluxia noticed it, the more likely the other man was to, which would only cause more problems.

"Oh, my name is Michael, by the way," he said, the name rolling off of his tongue as easy as any other. "Yours?" He glanced over at the cat, a small frown playing at his lips for half a second before disappearing. "And I think we should be on our way, don't you? You don't seem to be liking your present company much."

Macha's gaze slid back towards the player calling himself 'Michael', a neutral look sliding into place. He was not to be trusted. Unfortunately... only she was seeing this.

With one last attempt to protect over the silver haired man. She had no reason to, but Tsukasa taught her that some people could be worth protecting. And maybe this player wasn't one, but perhaps anyone deserved a chance to be saved from Morganna's clutches.

So she reached out with a paw and placed it on the player's shoulder, not quite clutching his outfit, but still grasping it slightly. "You shouldn't go."

The cafe idea sounded good; everything was more difficult on an empty stomach, after all. "Sure," Loz responded without hesitation. "You're paying."

He straightened, eyes narrowing at Michael's assessment. It wasn't that the guy was wrong - more that he didn't like being read quite so easily. Nevermind that he was rather transparent most of the time. "Name's Loz," he said, though he gave none of the other introductory pleasantries that humans tended to use. That seemed all right; Michael wasn't attempting any himself. Somehow that only reminded Loz of his brothers further and served to make him more comfortable with the pink-haired man. "Let's go -"

He felt a small pressure on his shoulder armor and glanced from the corner of his eye, only to see the cat's paw there. It was touching him. His jaw tightened. Fine. "What?" he asked irritably, vaguely reminded of that little girl of Big Brother's that he'd taken from the Church. Marlene. She hadn't been so bad, really - he kindof liked how hard she fought for all the bigger she was. So far the cat-clown-thing hadn't given evidence of any such ability, though, and didn't seem worth his trouble.

"Lead the way," he directed Michael, turning back to the man. It didn't matter to him if the cat followed them or not.

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Stranger in a Strange Land [complete]

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