paixaorpg | Starting Out in the World [ACTIVE]

Character(s): Penelope Wilhern and Otogi Ryuuji
Content: Hopefully a new friendship starting /o/
Setting: Muspelheim Gate
Time: Evening-ish
Warnings: ~~. . . I have no idea. Will add if it comes up.~~ Otogi might flirt. Apparently. |D

Well, this was it! Penelope was going out on her own! To live her own life! She'd be free of her mother and her ridiculous that somewhere out there, there was some perfect blue blood man that could stand to look at her long enough to marry her and break the curse. Honestly, the only way that was going to happen was if they found a blind man, which wasn't to say that Jessica Wilhern and Wanda hadn't tried already. Apparently there weren't any blind, blue blooded, single men in the area. Either that, or even they weren't willing to be connected to someone so repulsively monstrous.

No more of that, though. No more being courted by young men through a two-way mirror. No more watching people run away screaming in fear when they saw her nose. Namely because they wouldn't see it anymore, not if Penelope had anything to say about it. She'd spend the rest of her life wearing her scarf around her nose, probably. She actually hadn't really thought too far into the future about it, she just needed to get away, get out there on her own and start her life. She'd go to school and become a horticulturist, whether or not she ever broke the curse, which Penelope wasn't expecting to ever happen.

But the only way she could do any of what she really wanted to was to get out from under her mother's rule. Penelope loved her mother, really, but there was only so much pushing that she could take. This last suitor, Max, had just proven to her that it wouldn't matter how many men she met anyway, they would always run away, and it just hurt too much having to watch it. Knowing that they were running from her. From her nose. But no more. Penelope's life was going to be different. And it would all start as soon as she opened the gate of the Wilhern Estate to the world outside.

Though . . . she'd never realized that the world outside had been built under a bunch of enormous domes. Huh.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Otogi had been wandering along the day after the party Akutare had thrown. It had been fun, despite how quiet it had ended up being, and Otogi had ended up liking Akutare, Aaron, and Tobias fairly well. Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad, after all.

Even wrapped in these positive thoughts, he couldn't help but notice the girl wandering about wearing a scarf over her face for no apparent reason. She looked lost, Otogi had though - and, being in a somewhat chivalrous mood, he walked up to her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, Miss," he began, "are you lost?"

Penelope had been too mesmerized by her newfound surroundings to even look at the strange gizmo that she'd been given on her way in, the city was just so magnificent, she couldn't take her eyes off of it. So many people and places to go and things to do and she just couldn't wait to get started. Though she knew eventually that she'd have to call her parents to tell them that she wasn't going to be coming home. For now, though, she'd enjoy hersel-

"Oh! I'm . . . I mean, hi." She chuckled nervously, caught off-guard by the young man and making sure that her scarf was still in place. "I . . . guess? I don't really know my way around here, you see I'm . . . from . . . out of town." Yeah, out of town, of course! It was technically true, right?

Ryuuji laughed, the sound easy and light, and his eyes flickered over the girl. She looked to be older than him, and from what he could see, she was pretty cute. "Hey," he greeted, flashing the girl a brilliant smile. "I can tell; I just came here yesterday myself." He half-shrugged laughing a little. "No one seems to really be around here, except..." he gestured to the citizens, all of them blond and blank-eyed, "and they all seem pretty boring to me."

And there he was, chatting away as easily and familiarly as if he'd known the girl for a while. "My bad," he laughed, "I shouldn't be going on and on without an introduction. My name is Ryuuji. Ryuuji Otogi. Who are you?"

Penelope wasn't really sure how boring they could be but she was at least relieved to find someone else that had just gotten there. She supposed, if there were so many people from out of town, then the city must have been a popular tourist spot, which also made her feel a little better since it would mean she wouldn't stand out much not knowing her way around.

She smiled at her new friend, though he couldn't really see it through her scarf, "Hello, Ryuuji. My name's Penelope. Penelope Wilhern." Oh, wait, maybe she should have used a fake name . . . Well, it was too late now. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine," Otogi replied, unconsciously flipping his hair out of his eyes. Why was this girl wearing a scarf? Okay, sure, it was raining outside, but it wasn't that bad. Maybe she was cold or something. Well, no big deal. She would remove it when and if she felt like, he was sure, and anyway, he'd seen weirder.

Like his father.

"Interesting name," he said, tilting his head to the side. "So did you get pulled in like most of us, or did you come here on your own?"

Was her name really that strange? Well, at least Otogi hadn't recognized it, which was a plus she supposed of having a city that was so full of tourists, so Penelope supposed that she wouldn't really have to worry about using a fake name. She wasn't really sure what he meant by "pulled in," though, so she just . . . told the truth.

"Oh, I walked here. On my own. I don't really live that far away."

Otogi had indeed heard the name before, but not with anyone he had met. Until now, at least. Still, it was a nice enough name - and somehow, it seemed to suit the girl he was speaking to.

He raised an eyebrow at the girl's answer. "You walked here? Where do you live?" Otogi hadn't, after all, spotted any buildings on his way in - although, to be fair, he hadn't gotten much of a chance to look around before meeting Axel.

Oh no, she'd said something stupid, something that was going to get her caught. Penelope thought quickly and tried to backpedal, "Did I say walked? I meant that I walked . . . from . . . the parking lot! Where I . . . parked my car. After driving it. From where . . . I live. Yup! Sorry," she said, fixing her scarf again, "it's been a long day."

"But..." Otogi tilted his head, finding himself amused at Penelope's (rather cute) reaction. "There's no parking lot here. People just appear in this place, apparently." This girl was hiding something; was she a runaway? A thief? Judging by her facial covering, she might be, but somehow Otogi doubted it. She seemed too open to be a criminal of any sort. It was likely that she had merely snuck out of somewhere and was somehow afraid of being recognized.

He laughed and shook his head. "You don't need to be so nervous, you know," he replied easily. "Let me guess, you ran away from home or something?"

Well, at least Penelop apparently didn't have to worry about being caught anymore. She just had been. "Um . . . yeah, I guess I did," she admitted, again checking her scarf, the action turning into an almost nervous tic. "You won't . . . tell anyone, will you?"

Otogi chuckled. "Thought so. You don't seem like the kind of girl to rob a bank or anything." With that, he indicated the scarf. "And no, I won't tell anyone." Especially on a girl, and from what he could tell, a cute one at that.

Penelope breathed a sigh of relief, though she was surprised to hear that Otogi had apparently thought she'd robbed a bank. She wondered why, but as long as he didn't think it anymore that was what was important, right?

"Thanks," she said, "I mean I just got here! At least give a girl a chance to look around. Right?"

Otogi smiled reassuringly. "Yep. You know, for someone who just came, you're pretty calm. Most people tend to freak out, I've heard." He believed Aaron in that, at least, being that they were apparently in another world.

"There's a map of the city on our journals, I think," Ryuuji continued, taking out his own and looking at it. "See?"

Why would anyone freak out just for coming to a city? That was a little weird, but maybe it wasn't that it was a big tourist spot, just that people tended to get lost and end up here. Or something. Penelope just shrugged it off since she didn't really know a thing about the city anyway and just watched Otogi fiddle with his . . . journal, he'd called it, right?

"Oh, is that was this thing is?" Penelope looked at her own, examining the screen and buttons and keys and . . . not really sure what to do with it.

"Yeah," Otogi replied, showing the other girl how to use it - he had gotten bored that morning and explored it until he had learned all he could about it, though he still hadn't posted from it. "I guess they're really popular here or something."

He turned to look at Penelope again. "So where are you from, anyway?"

Starting Out in the World [ACTIVE]

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