paixaorpg | [Active/Open] Let the Flames Begin

Entry tags:

[Active/Open] Let the Flames Begin

Characters: Corporal Lance, OPEN
Content: An angsty teenager shows up at Muspelheim. More at 11.
Setting: Muspelheim Gate
Time: Week 28, Middle of the Night
Warnings: None

Choking on the briny water away from the coastline of the new city, Lance rose above the surface of the water and cleared his throat out. After sputtering through, he cleared his stinging eyes and shook out his soaked black hair. Even before he regained his full eyesight, he began shouting out loud, "ILANA! OCTUS! ILANA, WHERE ARE YOU?" When he gathered no reply but the murmur of distant voices from the fuzzy image before him, he simply began swimming toward the coast. He pondered whether he should have called out for Ilana and Octus again, but he wanted to find solid ground before concerning himself with his duty.

When he finally came to a level he could begin walking on, he came up to the edge of the coastline and wrung the water out of his tee shirt. After putting it back on, the salt water finally cleared from his eyes and he noted an entire crowd of people waiting in a line. Although he felt embarrassed for his unintentional strip, he quickly realized that they were more interested in getting through the line. After running his hand through his hair and getting it back to messy perfection, he shrugged and waited in line with the others. "It's kinda like the cafeteria. Is there food at the end of the line?" he asked the person in front of him. When he received no answer again, he decided to simply cross his arms and wait patiently for the lunch-lady or whoever was in charge.

When he encountered the man sitting at the gate's threshold upon a podium, he was about to ask for information. However, the moment he was greeted with a stern hand holding some alien piece of technology, he simply followed suit and accepted it and moved on. He looked over the piece of technology and saw nothing familiar in it. "Octus would know," he said with a huff. He tucked it away in the back pocket of his soaked jeans, hoping it would be more water-resistant than his titan watch. As he walked into the city, he could only feel more alone than ever before, even if it never showed on his face.

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Odette gazed up at the false moon of Paixao's domed city and sighed. She had so hoped that Lamington's magic had cured her of her curse for good, but that was far too much to ask. Now she was simply grateful to be human once more, even temporarily at night. Still, her shock at finding out this harsh reality as well as the disappearance of the man who had given her hope at all had left her shying away from the city in general. Until tonight.

She was done hiding away. Nothing would come from waiting to be rescued, waiting for the rest of the world to take action. So Odette stepped out of the Doctor's TARDIS and into the city. She had no particular goal but anything was better than sitting inside all night. As long as she had legs to stretch and a voice with which to speak, she needed to be doing more.

So it was that she noticed an entirely soaked boy, only a few years younger than her but already taller, trudging through the street. She knew enough by now to tell the difference between Paixao's natives and the people who were visitors like herself, so she moved towards him. In one smooth motion, she swept the dark cloak off her shoulders.

"Excuse me...!" she called, not quite running but walking very briskly.

He had been squeezing the water out of clothes as he made his way across town when Lance came to notice everything around him. He was sure he had gone mad to see so many different types of people coexisting with one another. It was incredible to see all the cooperation that had been nonexistent everywhere else he had been, including Earth. It was only a wonder that fighting hadn't broken out yet.

The voice was almost sickly sweet despite the nervousness that was hidden within it. It struck a chord within him, and his heartbeat quickened when he turned to see the beautiful blonde princess behind him. He failed to entirely recognize the identity of the figure behind him, but he was glad enough to believe the Princess of Galaluna was alive to embrace nearly anyone.

With the unsuspecting princess in his arms, he held her for a moment and quietly said, "I thought for sure I was alone."

She gasped at the sudden embrace, too shocked at the feel of cold clothes against her dress as well as the arms around her to react immediately. She was about to protest when she heard his quiet words, so soft and vulnerable and full of need. Tension slowly easing, Odette brought her hand up to lightly touch his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," she said solemnly. "I...I'm not who you think I am." A case of mistaken identity was the only way to explain the situation she had found herself in. She only wished she didn't have to crush his happiness so soon.

Lance didn't pay too much attention to the protesting gasp, only hugging on to what he thought was his only real friend left from his home planet Galaluna. When he felt the tap on his shoulder, he immediately recognized that he may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Whether it was the glimmer of optimism that had bled its way to the surface or total confusion from the arrival to the eccentric city. Upon looking at Odette's face, though beautiful, he came to the realization that he was not hugging Ilana. Red flushed all the way through his face.

"I'm sorry. You reminded me of my--the Princess I was looking for. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up so easily," he said with a blushing withdrawal, clearly embarrassed from the mix up. It took another moment for him to actually let go of Odette, hoping it was all just another weird vision in his bad dreams.

She blinked a few times, feeling her own face heat slightly. Odette was not unused to male attention but she had only ever been embraced so fully by her betrothed. She cleared her throat as he withdrew entirely, patting her full, wavy hair in an effort to distill the awkwardness she felt. "It's alright," she responded, finally sneaking a glance his way. He meant no harm, after all.

"You must be a new arrival here as well," Odette continued, holding up the cloak she had only just now remembered she wanted to give to him. "Here, please...I wanted to give you this. You'll get cold like that."

It was hurtful to his heart to know that he truly was alone in this new Paixao place, but Lance managed to eschew his sullenness for at least another few moments in courtesy of Odette's own graciousness.

"Oh yeah, I just got here. Sorry I got water on you," he said, brushing and wringing some moisture off the cloak before handing it back. "I'll be fine without it."

Despite his efforts, it didn't take long for him to retreat back into his standard solitary behavior. It almost seemed as though he abandoned the conversation right then and there.

Odette accepted the cloak, folding it carefully and draping it over her arm. "Oh...alright." She stood awkwardly for a moment, unsure of what she should do. He seemed so disheartened that to simply just leave him would not only be impolite but perhaps cruel. Yet he didn't seem to want her company and she wasn't the type to force herself on anyone. Still, she had been helped out by kind strangers when she first arrived...

"Is there anything I can help you with?" she ventured. "Though I'm new here as well, I have been given some information..."

He watched Odette take the cloak back from him. For some reason unknown to him, he was invested in making sure his new acquaintance would be able to care for herself. He had also taken note to the awkward change in the impromptu conversation, and he began sheepishly standing aside as if to give her the opportunity to leave if she wanted to take it. The additional questions were a surprise to him. It wasn't a pleasant surprise, but it was enough to stop him in his tracks for a moment as his eyes widened for just a little bit.

"Information, testimony, reconnaissance is all helpful. I need to know as much as I can if I'm to move forward with a new protocol," he said with the most serious of tones.

He spoke with the commanding presence of someone twice his age. Odette blinked, momentarily surprised by the clear focus and determination in his expression before nodding, matching him in his seriousness. "I'm afraid I don't know nearly as much as you'd might like," she began quietly, gesturing for him to walk with her down the street. "As I said, I only just arrived myself. But I've learned a few important things -- you're not alone in your confusion, since many of us here have been plucked from our own worlds without any explanation."

She pointed to the journal device he'd been given. "That will allow you to communicate with other people in our situation. I haven't quite gotten the hang of it, but I'm not used to such..." What had the Doctor called it? "Technology." Yes, that was it.

"Within and without the group of visitors like ourselves, there are those who would do us harm. I'm not sure who can be trusted, exactly... but you must beware those who are members of the Organization! You'll know them by their black coats...though I have read they may disguise themselves as well."

He managed to notice that his more militaristic vernacular was getting in the way of assuring her that he wasn't a bad guy. "Yeah, I just get a little too intense and I don't know it. Sorry about that," he said, speaking like the regular teens he saw and interacted with at Sherman High back on Earth.

Lance looked over the communication journal device and bore a guilty look. "I may have accidentally used this. Technology usually isn't a problem for me," he admitted. "I got greeted by a strange woman and an even stranger alien. I may have told him to fight me, so just be aware of that."

He paused to consider the intel on the big bads around Paixao. "Organization, black coat uniform, may disguise themselves? Are they humanoid or at least look like it? I'm more used to dealing with big monsters that look like they were made of..." What was that weird stuff that Ilana kept fawning over in the cafetera? "Jello." Yeah. Weird stuff, especially in those molds.

"It's alright," she reassured him, smiling gently. "This is dangerous world we've found ourselves in. That you take your situation seriously is a point in your favor." Odette stepped closer, taking a better look at his journal device.

"...a fight already? That's unfortunate." She turned away as they continued to walk, frowning. "I had hoped for an alliance among all of us, but maybe that was naive." She cast her blue-violet gaze at him, a mildly reproachful expression on her face. "I do hope more fights aren't in your future. The last thing you need is to make more enemies."

She looked up at the false night sky of the domes. "As for the Organization, I'm afraid I have no other information. Those who have been here longer can surely fill you in more." Odette blinked, glancing at Lance.

"...what is Jello?"

Odette may have been paying him compliments for his typical stoicism in the face of eminent danger in Paixao; still, he could hear the voices of the generals and family friends in Galaluna drowning out her sweet words with challenges to his responsibility. He can't possibly become what we thought, not with what happened to Edward, Odette seemed to say though her lips were in a benevolent smile. He refrained from departing reality and wallowing in his self-loathing. Instead, he politely nodded as he continued staring off in his typical detached character.

While the promise of hostility made her nervous, Lance felt much more secure in his skills than his new found companion. "No sweat. They just don't know who they're dealing with. There are a lot of bad people here, right? So as long as I challenge the right people, I'm only fighting for good," he said as though he were hatching rationalization for his own behavior. "That way, if you ever see me picking a fight with the wrong person, you can tell me and I can quit, unless they have a good reason to be knocked out." Lance smiled at her in a way that showed he was willing to break up some of the tension between them since they were introduced.

Lance realized the err of bringing typical Earth life back to Paixao for all its diversity in people and their experiences. "Oh, it's this stuff people eat on Earth that's like some kind of flavored slime that holds its shape. It's gross, but a lot of people love it." Realizing the original context, he then took his hands and spread them out, explaining, "So imagine that, but with arms and teeth and tentacles. Scary." He quit waving his arms like the gelatin tentacles he was so eloquently describing when he became aware of what his idiotic pose looked like.

Though Lance might not have noticed, Odette was paying close but subtle attention to his expression and mood. His detachment seemed to hide something else altogether, some emotion he must have felt necessary to hold back. But then he smiled and appeared for all the world like a normal boy, so she smiled in return. "I'll do my best," she assured him, not wanting to see him in any fight but knowing such a thing wouldn't be possible.

As he explained Jello, she made a face -- she couldn't help it. Who would eat slime? How strange. But then she burst into giggles at his arm waving, one hand poised by her mouth.

Looking over her face, he had to ask what had been bothering him since he met Odette. "Sorry, but I was wondering-"

Suddenly, his Gallalunian etiquette set in and he decided against it. Failing to come up with something relevant to the conversation, he asked, "Any...burgers?" he asked awkwardly.

He noticed the silliness of his pose and scuffed the front of his boots into the strange sands beneath his feet. He didn't do it often, but for Odette, he did want to express some form of humility in the face of his stern militaristic behavior.

That very silliness, however embarrassing it might or might not have been for the Lance, was just the thing to set Odette more at ease. While she wasn't unused to the serious and somber mannerisms of people in charge -- how many proceedings had she been witness to growing up? -- she always preferred the unguarded fun of simply being around people who didn't care about title or duty. Though she knew his stern sense of honor still had to be lingering under the surface, Odette appreciated his effort.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what that is either," she said with an apologetic smile. "But the more friends you make here, the more knowledge you'll be sure to find."

Lance smiled a little. "A burger is a piece of meat between two pieces of bread. It sounds a little simple, but it's surprisingly good." He considered the landscape around them and pondered the plastic looking foliage. "I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot of things missing around here."

"I see," she replied softly. But what was the difference, then, between a burger and a regular sandwich? Oh, but she'd be asking questions forever at this rate. Best to stay on topic.

"Yes, I admit, I still don't...understand this place. Sometimes it seems like this may be a point in time after my world, but then again, I've heard people claim it's rather old-fashioned." She gazes around them, the buildings both archaic and modern. "It's like a melding of different worlds here. You may be surprised what you can find."

He could see he was losing her in the non-sequiturs of sandwich philosophies, so he abandoned the topic.

"I wonder how people can focus on the fashion of a place when there are Organizations running around. I should find a place and train as soon as I can," he started before halting himself from upsetting Odette with his sense of initiative. "But, it looks like there are good things here, too." He didn't mean to, but he managed to find himself looking at Odette the moment he said "good things."

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[Active/Open] Let the Flames Begin

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