(july intro log) WELCOME TO THE CONTAINMENT ZONE! (for real this time.)

[vestigemods]

JULY INTRO LOG

► PROMPT 1 ► WAKING UP

Whenever you're from or wherever you were, you awaken now with the mildest of headaches in-... oh, this is new. For some people, you wake in a cabin - in a bed, on the floor, amidst boxes in the basement - and for others, you wake up somewhere else entirely. Off in the woods. Between aisles in a run-down gas station. Lying on a branch ten feet up a local tree. Perhaps even on a leaky boat out on the middle of a lake. It's mid-morning, and across the nine square miles of containment zone, a little under two-dozen people are waking up just as you are. I'm sure you'll run into some of them soon enough.

This might be your first time waking up where you don't expect to be. If it is, consider yourself lucky to have missed what came before. For those have been through a Loop or three (or five or twelve), you'll find that waking this time feels different. It's as though you've woken from a dream - and that's what those memories feel like, trapped in the semi-tangible realm between dream and reality, though if pressed you can probably discern that they were undeniably real. (Or perhaps you can't - or perhaps some of the memories are missing altogether. This is hardly a precise science.)

Somewhere in your vicinity (in your hand, in your pocket, on your chest) is a smartphone, if you're able to recognize it as such. The models tend to vary, but they all share the capacity to connect to what seems to be an overarching network, able to connect to others with similar devices via text, voice calls, or even video messages.

But the phone is likely the least of your concerns, at least for now. More pressing is where exactly it is that you've awoken and whether or not you've woken up alone.

PROMPT 2 ► THE CABINS + LAKE

As many as a dozen cabins sit in the general vicinity of the lake, some along the shore and some a bit farther back in the woods. Perhaps you awoke in one, or perhaps you're stumbling into one after dragging yourself out of the lake or through a couple of miles of woods. Either way, you're in perhaps the best place you might have ended up. The cabin's amenities are sketchy but functional, and the kitchen is stocked with food...

And let's not forget about the pamphlets.

On at least a couple of nearby tables or countertops sit a handful of them, fanned for display. They're vividly colored, depicting what you might recognize as the landscape outside, and the title reads: THE CONTAINMENT ZONE AND YOU! Within these pamphlets, a conversationally cavalier voice explains a bit about the Containment Zone, which (as it turns out) you're stuck in right at this very moment.


"THE CONTAINMENT ZONE AND YOU", summarized


• Where am I?
  Earth. Well - an Earth. Definitely not your Earth. if that creates more questions than it answers, glance to your left and right and ask any follow-up questions to whomsoever seems least confused.


• Why am I here?
  To feed the elder gods with your death and/or suffering in order to prevent any more of an apocalypse than we already had.


• Can I leave?
  Voluntarily? No. Involuntarily? Probably not.


• What do you mean, 'death'??
  Oh, calm down. You'll come back.


• I have very important shit to be doing/people to be saving/weed to be smoking back home!
  Lucky for you: If you go back, we'll put you back right where and when you left off. You won't miss a thing.


• Isn't that how you break time!? I'm pretty sure that's how you break time.
  Only if you remember this place and/or what you've learned here when you get back. Which you won't.


• Supplies?
  Cabins and gas station.


• Cabins?
  Yours. Pick one.


• Lake?
  Safe. (For now.)


• Moon?
  Haunted.


• Who even are you?
  Call us the Technicians. Individual identities don't matter. We may give you sweets and toys but we're not your friends.


• Do you at least negotiate?
  We'll consider it. Depends on what you're asking for. And, of course, on what you have to offer.


• Wait! I'm (insert emotions) and have more questions!
  How unfortunate. Expect your next pamphlet in 4-6 weeks.




Well, that certainly is... something. Lots to discuss, lots to consider. If you're the get-right-to-business sort, that could easily occupy you for a good long while.

Alternatively: It's a hot day, and you've just ever-so-conveniently learned that the lake is 'safe (for now)'. Why not go for a dip to clear your head? The water is actually impressively clear, offering visual reassurance of the lack of abject horrors lurking below.

Those who do swim find that the lake is, as promised, mostly innocuous. 'Mostly' being the key phrase, as anyone who swims out close to the center will find it getting more and more difficult to stay on the surface. As if you're getting heavier and heavier, or your limbs are getting weaker and weaker. It isn't enough to drown you (probably), but you certainly might find yourself considering how peaceful it might be if you let yourself sink.

These thoughts are simple enough to push away in much the same way you might push through the heaviness of your limbs. One could consider it more a warning than anything: Even that which is 'safe' should be treated with proper caution. (Quick and senseless deaths are junk food to the elder gods - tasty but unsatisfying.)

PROMPT 3 ► THE GAS STATION

At the south end of the containment zone sits an old gas station, run-down and overgrown at first sight. It sits alongside a cracked asphalt road, one which (as you might discover) bisects the containment zone from the east wall to the west without a single other building in sight.

You may have woken up here, or perhaps you found it at the pamphlet's behest. Either way, it's a discovery that you'll thank yourself for many a time as throughout the next few months here, for reasons that become apparent the moment you step inside.

In sharp contrast with the outside, the inside of the gas station looks... well, like a functional gas station should. Floors and surfaces seem recently-wiped, shelves seem stocked and organized... It's enough that if you're familiar with gas stations as a concept, you might find yourself reflexively glancing around for an attendant.

But no attendant seems to be present. Just shelves and shelves of goods - perishables and nonperishables, first aid supplies and whatever else one might expect to find at such an out-of-the-way pit stop, all ready for the taking. You might even find an extra surprise. Oh, and let's not forget a nice array of THE CONTAINMENT ZONE AND YOU! pamphlets on the check-out counter, in case you missed them back at the cabins.

Maybe you encounter someone here - are they friend, or foe? Maybe they're as lost and confused as you are. Maybe they're reaching for that last fucking can of Spaghetti-Os and you're serious about your fucking Spaghetti-Os. At least one person is definitely waking up in a gas station fridge... Maybe you're lucky(?) individual who spots them and has to decide whether or not you've discovered a corpse where the soda should be. The world (or, at least, the gas station) is your oyster.

PROMPT 4 ► THE WOODS + BARRIER

The vast majority of the containment zone is covered in evergreen forest, populated with wildlife that look and act disarmingly normal. It may, in fact, be a nice quiet place to stroll in order to clear your head. While large swathes of the woods are moderately dense, there are a number of paths to make your way along should you choose to. Birds sing overhead, deer occasionally bound across the path ahead... If you didn't know any better, you might be able to forget that this isn't a normal stretch of woods somewhere not far from home.

But nothing in the containment zone is truly harmless. The blackberry bushes that line many a cabin (you remember, the ones that make your mouth and tongue go numb?) are out in force in the woods, and out here they're even more of an infernal menace: While the cabin variety only cause havoc when ingested, so much as a scratch from the woods variety's thorns will induce a tingling numb in the affected area that lasts for the better part of an hour.

And let's not forget the lovely field of "wildflowers" that definitely aren't not infested with poison ivy. It's a shame, really. The flowers themselves are quite pretty, an array of pastel blues and pinks and oranges. It's almost like a painting, if touching that painting happened to make you itch, burn, and blister for one-to-two weeks.

But why are we talking about flowers? What you're truly interested in is the containment zone barrier, aren't you? That's fine, you're bound to encounter it out there somewhere. It's invisible until you touch it, at which point a honeycomb pattern ripples out from the point of contact. As a general rule, the barrier gives back what it gets: Place your palm on it and you'll receive a faint uncomfortable buzz. Run headlong into it, and it will ricochet you multiple yards back into the woods.

The barrier stretches all the way around the containment zone without a single break or point of yielding. No further buildings can be seen beyond the barrier, nor any real sign of civilization at all save for the gas station's road stretching past the barriers and out of sight. The only thing of passable interest is the somewhat concerning tree sitting at the far end of the field across the street from saud gas station, at least two-hundred yards past the barrier. At this distance, it's a bit tricky to make out what flocks in the tree's branches. Those have to be birds... right?

► MOD NOTES ►

• This log takes place from July 4th onward, arguably through whenever the event goes up - though you're welcome to toss up your own logs in the meantime. I'm gonna troubleshoot the HTML to leave a space for IC dates, but I didn't want to waste any more time on that right now.
  
• Vestige is now open for business! You're welcome to post logs + network posts of your own, post memes on vestigechat, whatever you want.
  
• This log is functionally intended to be a tour of the containment zone for new characters and players, with dashes of mild horror or discomfort along the way. Don't worry: The actual horror is rolling in later this month. (I'm tagging this under 'event' anyway, just to keep track of it.)
  
• You can literally have your character wake up wherever you want within the containment zone, even if I didn't list it. Go nuts.
  
• It's worth noting: None of the cabins are recognizable as the precise one from the TDM loop, nor is the forest fog still present. The forest is recognizably the same flora/fauna, but that's about it.
  
• You're welcome to include a network post with your top-level (or to put it up on vestigenet as per usual) - but don't forget to consult the NETWORK: USERNAMES ARE FUCKY drop-down of July's Infopost before you do!
  
• Direct any and all questions at Trace on plurk/discord or (for slightly slower answers) this top-level.
  
• My deepest most heartfelt apologies for the lateness, I failed to factor in my own godforsaken attention span.
  

Comments

[lethechained]

[ As powerful as her distraction might be, the girl has at least enough presence of mind to take note when the murmur of an unfamiliar voice makes it evident that she's not quite as alone as she was before. Her shoulders rise slightly, weight shifting as she turns to look back over her shoulder toward the door. What she sees is mostly a glimpse of the fellow, but--

Well, the last time she met a tall, dark-clothed stranger with silvery hair, it didn't turn out in her favor. She knows, intellectually, that the Organization is already done for, and even if they weren't she'd surely recognize any of their members even at a glance. This fellow doesn't resemble most of them beyond a few vague similarities, and she doubts they were hiding any extra personnel carefully enough that she wouldn't already be aware of them. Yet there's some of part of her that hesitates all the same, that just in case adding on top of her natural - and justified, probably - caution about new faces in this less than ideal setting.

So by the time Geralt heads over to examine the cold storage, Naminé is already in the process of trying to very conveniently happen not to be there to undergo investigation. (She isn't the type of individual who feels the need to sugarcoat their own actions; most people would call it, you know, hiding from him, and she wouldn't actually claim otherwise.) In any case, the end result is that when he gets there, all he'll see of her is a brief flash of white as she disappears around the opposite end of the aisle.

She'd actually be pretty decent at staying quiet if she weren't wearing such thoroughly unstealthy sandals. That one flaw makes it pretty obvious to anyone with well-trained listening skills that, judging by her light footsteps, she hasn't actually gone much farther than she needed to to be immediately out of sight.

If he waits long enough, he can probably catch her peeking at him past the shelves. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Skittish.

For now, he doesn't visibly pay any attention to her, though he does listen very closely. Since the door to the station doesn't open, he knows she's still in here, and most likely she's right behind the nearest shelves. For now, however, he's more interested in the freezers and it's contents, so he opens them and ...

Looks genuinely surprised at the cold air that hits him, as he leans down a little to get a closer look. Where is that coming from? It's out in the open, not underground or anything. How is it so cold?

He curiously reaches down to take a pack of ghost pepper ice cream before he straightens up. Then, he walks over to the counter with the cash register where he's left his sword, turning the pack over in his hands.

And, yes, he did leave the freezer door open. ]

[lethechained]

[ Naminé holds very still. Poor choice of footwear aside, that's one part of staying hidden that she's got quite a talent for. In the end, however, curiosity (and, more importantly, the need for further observation in the attempt to figure out whether or not he's a, quote unquote, 'Bad Guy') presses her to move. Leaning over to peer past the weird tubes full of potato chips doesn't make much noise, and yet it still feels almost like a mission too easily accomplished. Did he really not see her when he came in?

No matter why the opportunity's been presented to her, however, she chooses to make the most of it. He's easier to see now that he's not quite so far away, and a closer inspection only confirms to her that he's unlikely to be part of any group she's had personal problems with in the past, as it were. His outfit's the wrong style, for one thing.

She spends a few seconds weighing her options as she watches him lean into the freezer, because yes they're trapped in the same weird murderbox and that means they're sort of on the same team, but that doesn't mean he sees it that way. She hasn't actually come to any conclusions before Geralt abandons the frozen section, and the development effectively pulls her off of her train of thought. She shrinks behind the shelves again, only to realize upon glancing to the side that there was another opening she could have been looking through this whole time without being quite as obvious.

It's a moot point anyway, because he's headed toward the front again. And she could just stay where she is, really, and wait for him to leave - she knows that. But the more she thinks about it, the more she considers the long-term. There's only so much space in this place; shouldn't she be sure who she could be dealing with in the future?

So although it might be ill-advised, once she's sure he's back where he started, Naminé begins to trail along after him. She stays on the opposite side of the shelves from where he's standing, and since she hasn't got much height to her name it doesn't even require that she bend down not to be seen over them. All goes well - aside from her realizing the cooler door is standing open, which she is very mildly affronted by but doesn't actually do anything about - until she reaches the sodas. That's about where she sees fit to stop, making use of the cover provided by the bottles pretty effectively... right up to the moment when she tries to put a hand on the shelf and hits one of the glass containers instead, instigating a clink that wouldn't seem so loud if it weren't pretty much the only sound in this place aside from the hum of the electronics.

All her lurking aside, she's more prey than predator. (She'd have starved by now if she were the latter.) ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ While he keeps tabs on where she is, he's mostly focused on the ice cream that he's procured. It takes him a moment to get the pack open in the first place, and when he does, he scoops some of the ice cream up with a finger.

The glass clinking is very loud, but he still doesn't outwardly react to it. Instead, he wonders at the cold on his finger, before sticking it in his mouth. Which is equally as cold, at first, but the next moment it turns into heat, spreading across his tongue and through the rest of his mouth until it reaches the back of his throat, and he scrunches up his face in a grimace as he shakes his head. What the hell is this? Why is it burning like that? Is it poisonous? Doesn't feel poisonous.

Well. He feels none the wiser, so he finally turns to face the direction of the shelf where Naminé is hiding. ]

How long were you planning to watch me?

[lethechained]

[ Lips pressed tightly closed, Naminé listens for any reaction to her misstep, too wary to actually poke her head around the shelf. There's an almost concerning lack of response; surely he must have noticed, provided he isn't hard of hearing. Her brow knits as she considers the possibilities, only--

Her shoulders jump at the sound of his voice, and she does an admirable job holding in most of her tiny gasp of surprise. Eyes round, she resumes her earlier stillness, remaining fully hidden behind the shelving. But the jig is up regardless, and she's not foolish enough to try to bluff her way out by staying silent. (It's not as if she's had any illusions about her own skill with sneaking, anyway. It honestly makes more sense that he was humoring her.)

So although for a handful of seconds there's a rather reluctant pause, presently Naminé steps out from behind the shelf. Her hand hovers by it a moment, as if she might pull herself back again, but eventually she lets go even of that, fingers coming to lace together in front of her instead. She looks even smaller than she already is as she bows her head just a little, visibly contrite. Going by appearances, he was probably right not to think her a threat; she's just a slip of a thing who seems cautious about even meeting his eyes. ]

Until I thought it was safe, [ she confesses in a soft voice that sounds more apologetic than shy, though her demeanor suggests both. Really what she means is that she was trying to make sure he was safe. Not all sword-wielding tough guys are a good bet, that way - although she doesn't make the excuses that she could aloud.

Hesitantly, she angles her gaze up at him. The big, sad blue eyes would make for a really pitiful hangdog look, if that were what she was going for. It isn't; for all her skittishness, she doesn't seem to be making any attempt to hide from the facts of her impoliteness. Quieter, she admits, ]

But... I guess I wasn't going to figure that out by staying out of sight.

[ Unless he decided to conveniently trash the place or otherwise be a jerk for no reason in a very obvious, this-guy-is-bad-news kind of way. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Just because she's small doesn't mean she can't be dangerous. She's smaller than he first realised, though, especially with the way she holds herself. Like she wants little else but to disappear.

Puppy eyes have never really worked on him, and hers don't, even if they're unintentional. ]

Probably not.

[ He steps away from the counter, but not towards her. No, he goes to examine another shelf that's stocked with non-food items, and grabs a flashlight. ]

Don't happen to remember how you got here?

[lethechained]

[ Strictly speaking, Naminé is dangerous, and tremendously so. Or powers like hers are, in any case - except that the very nature of her personality renders that largely irrelevant. The fact that she can crush someone's heart to bits with a thought doesn't mean she wants to; looking at her now, it's not hard to see she'd have much preferred not to be noticed at all.

Case in point, the way she tenses just a little when he takes a step. It's subtle but not invisible, and when she realizes his intent is to move toward something other than her, it seems to soothe her back into her careful observation. ]

No, [ she responds thoughtfully, only a beat late. ] When I woke up, I was in a boat on the lake. And before that, a cabin.

[ After a few times in the loop, she's pretty confident he won't remember much more, either. No one else did. After a brief hesitation and a subtle, uncertain tightening of her hands around each other, ]

It-- is pretty strange - how clean this store is. [ If she's owning up to hiding from him, she might as well admit to the eavesdropping, too. She at least has the decency to look a smidgeon bashful about it. ] This place doesn't seem like any of the other buildings I've seen here.

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ No, he remembers very little. In fact, he only has a feeling of deja vu, a sense of being here before that he'd largely brushed aside. At Naminé words, however, he considers the idea that maybe he actually was here.

He definitely doesn't like the idea that someone might have tampered with his memories.

All of this is ... intentional, that much is very obvious. The only place that is clean is the one that will provide them with food and tools, and he imagines there's a risk that it'll run out if they don't ration. The cabins they're actually supposed to stay in, meanwhile, are run down. This is definitely not meant to be a pleasant vacation. Not that that wasn't clear from the little information letter they were given. ]

Got to wonder who cleaned it.

[ And he still wonders why even bother. Unless they wanted to drive the point home that the cabins are shit.

He turns the flashlight over in his hand, trying to understand how it works. It has the word 'light' in it, so it has to be like a torch or something. Right? But where does the light come from? Is it magic somehow? ]

[lethechained]

[ Naminé's not any happier about the possibility of memories being altered than he might be. To her, the prospect could even be worse; she's a memory witch, for crying out loud. Pride doesn't factor into it for a girl like her, but her keen awareness of how much damage can be done with that sort of control over another's mind does. And if someone has the capacity to steal memories from her, goodness only knows what else they can do.

Bemused though she is, her eyes follow Geralt's movements as he examines the flashlight. Her thoughts, however, are turned inward, and it doesn't even occur to her immediately that he might not be aware how to use the object he's fiddling with. ]

I don't think it was one of us. No one seems to have been here long enough.

[ Not in this part of the containment zone, anyway. The cabin hardly counts. ]

So... it was probably them, wasn't it? [ Eyes shifting back up, she looks rather grim about the whole matter. ] The ones who brought us to this place, and told us we should look here. If they were powerful enough to do that, and to keep us locked in, then I don't think that this would happen without them knowing about it.

[ Or that anything would, really - but perhaps that's just past experience talking, what with Castle Oblivion's crystal ball setup. Cameras work just as well, anyway. ]

I think, maybe... [ She's sounded pretty sure about the rest of it (surprisingly so, even, considering her overall cautious behavior) yet here she hesitates. It's all speculation at this point, isn't it? ] Maybe they want us to feel... like this place isn't dangerous.

[ Going by her tone of voice, she's not the type of optimistic, happy-go-lucky teenager who thinks that's a good sign. If anything, it seems to her more like evidence of the contrary. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ He snorts, but it's not derisive so much as it's ... tired. ]

Think they want to make us uneasy.

[ With the message they left, then this? They couldn't possibly expect people to be lulled into any false sense of security. ]

[lethechained]

Uneasy...

[ She tries out the word. It only takes a beat and a brief glance at the clean, well-stocked, and echoingly empty store to agree, ]

It could be that, I suppose. The paper did say that they...

[ Wanted everyone to suffer. And to die, too, but that's a whole suitcase and a half to unpack and Naminé's not ready to start on that at the moment. She shakes her head, then adds, ]

It might be too early to know what they're planning with all of this.

[ Perhaps they'll find out sooner or later, with enough experience. (She's not looking forward to gaining it.) ]

But they don't seem to be trying as hard as they could be to hurt us. [ Which, you know, she's glad about, even if she looks approximately as non-thrilled about all of this as before. ] At least, not yet.

[coolmotivestillevil]

Why rush it? They locked us in here.

[ His frown has been steadily deepening in thought at the flashlight, trying to work it out. The shape of it looks vaguely like a torch. It's very … sleek, but it has something sticking out.

Tilting his head slightly, he runs his thumb over the on switch once before he tries pressing it. And while he might have expected something to happen, he still starts - if only barely - when the light turns on. ]

[lethechained]

Mm. [ The girl gives her soft noise of assent, brow knitted as she turns the situation over in her mind. ] I guess if they want us to live long enough for whatever they intend to do with us, they have to let us have some things that aren't harmful.

[ Such as a nice clean convenience store. As bemused as she is by the possibilities, she's nevertheless beginning to pick up on the way he's examining the device. Her eyes linger on his face a moment, then flick down toward his hands and back again. The gears start turning in her head, her brow relaxing in something akin to surprise as her keen attention catches his jump. Her mouth rounds slightly, like a flattened 'o'. Considering how varied the levels of technological advancement are just in the worlds she's familiar with, she has her suspicions. ]

Like a flashlight, [ she observes belatedly, studying him with a different tone than before. ] Those are usually pretty good to have around, if you can't use Fire.

[coolmotivestillevil]

I can see why.

[ It was pretty obvious without her explaining it, but telling her so just seems ... rude, when she's being nice. And it's not that he necessarily cares about being rude, just. In this case, the words won't come out.

He turns it off again, and puts it back on the shelf. He'll be fine without it for now, but maybe he'll grab one later, if no one else seems to need it. ]

[lethechained]

[ Her head tilts as he returns the flashlight whence it came. Perhaps he doesn't have issues making illumination of his own, she supposes - and for a moment her eyes are drawn to his sword. They've been there before, but they linger this time. He seems to have come into this situation more prepared than some of the others, like herself. ]

… What's your name?

[ It's a little bemused, out of the blue and softly curious. Naminé is so accustomed to already knowing everyone long before they meet her that it occurs to her late and abruptly that she doesn't have anything to call him, even in her own head. (Titling him anything that involves a comparison to Ansem or Xemnas doesn't seem right for a variety of reasons, not least because it would be rather unflattering.)

She only seems to realize how sudden the question was a beat later, when her head lifts and her eyes snap back up toward his face, searching for any displeased reaction. He may not be fussed over rudeness, but she seems to be. With sheepishness creeping into her expression, she curls her hands a little more tightly together. ]

If you don't mind me asking you that, [ she tacks on, in the tone of an apology. ] I know we've only just met.

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ It hadn't even hit him that they hadn't introduced themselves. He does introduce himself to people, usually when it's about a job, because he expects people will want to know. This is a different kind of situation. He hadn't considered it. ]

Geralt. What's yours?

[lethechained]

[ Her head lifts slightly, a subtle hint of relief in her expression after the unfussed answer. ]

Naminé.

[ It's probably the most pared down introduction she's either received or given, but she finds she doesn't mind. Her shoulders sink, expression growing placid as she lets out a quiet exhale. She still keeps her distance, but now that he's proven he doesn't have any immediate inclination to cause her trouble, she sets about trying to figure out what she should expect. It only makes sense, if they're going to be stuck in the same place. After a briefly thoughtful look, ]

Are you a mercenary, Geralt? [ She doesn't sound particularly attached to that possibility, nor to, ] Or a knight?

[ Those are just the reasons for having such a weapon that first come to her mind. Truthfully, she's far more interested in hearing it from him than guessing correctly; it's hard to place the vibe he's got going on when she's not familiar with the world he's from. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Hm.

She doesn't know? Usually, people take one look at his eyes and they know just what he is and they've usually already decided what they think of it. Is she not from the Continent? This is only getting more and more strange and confusing. And he doesn't like it. ]

Neither. Witcher.

[ It's a bit of a test. Does she really not know what he is? ]

[lethechained]

[ Her eyelids flutter in a quick pair of blinks. Confusion and surprise vie for space in her expression, both equally sincere, and she straightens - just enough to suggest concern alongside them. She wasn't expecting to hear anything with that kind of word in it, much less, ]

A... witcher?

[ She makes a funny shape with her mouth, the fingers of one hand coming to curl against it thoughtfully. In all the memories she's seen, she's never encountered such a title - although she's certainly been called a witch often enough. In the back of her mind, she can't help thinking the connection there might not be a good one. With a little shake of her head as her hand falls, ]

I'm sorry. I don't think I've ever heard that name before.

[ But now she's really got to wonder about it. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ There's surprise on his face, even if it's very subtle. He raises his eyebrows slightly, and for a few moments, he doesn't say anything. Never heard it? She has to be from very far away. ]

Monster hunters.

[ A gross simplification, really, but it's what they do most of the time. ]

[lethechained]

[ The girl regards him with a small but growing look of uncertainty as he pauses. Whether or not she ought to feel foolish about her ignorance of that career is up in the air, to her; it's not as if she's had much of a chance to learn what normal really is outside of the minds of certain individuals.

She's a mix of relieved and intrigued when she finally gets an answer, and as she perks she urges her shoulders back down from where they were starting to rise in self-consciousness. ]

Oh...! That's lucky.

[ But she seems to rethink the pronouncement almost immediately thereafter, and is quick to amend. ]

Not-- that any of us are lucky to be here. What I mean is, it's good that you know how to fight monsters, since there are bound to be more around.

[ Which... would imply that she's seen one already. ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Interesting. He can't recall seeing or sensing any, but considering that he didn't feel being moved here by the Technicians or recall anything strange, that doesn't mean there aren't any monsters or that he hasn't already encountered them. ]

Mm. Seen monsters around?

[lethechained]

[ Naminé nods almost immediately, lips pulling into a frown. ]

Yes - one.

[ Although there are some who might say that she counts herself, being a Nobody. ]

But it wasn't any kind I'd seen or even heard of before. It was like a bat, but-- angry, and much bigger. If I hadn't had help...

[ Well, she probably wouldn't be around to tell about it. (Respawning aside, of course.) ]

[coolmotivestillevil]

[ Like a bat. A vampire? ]

Assume it attacked you. What did it do?

[lethechained]

Mm-hm.

[ She confirms it with her mouth still firmly pressed into a pout, half from concentration as she focuses on the memory and half because it's obviously not a pleasant one. ]

Well, first it tried to jump on me from the rafters. I noticed it in time and went through a door, but - when I closed it behind me, the creature started to break through. It-- was even able to turn the knob.

[ Which is more that can be said for a lot of Heartless. The kind of monster without basic intelligence is considerably more familiar to her than one that can plan. ]

After that, we ran into the woods... [ The recollection grows gradually more obscure thereafter, which prompts her expression to scrunch even further as she hunts down the details. ] It followed us, but once it got hurt it ran off somewhere. And I don't-- remember what happened after that.

[ Which she doesn't particularly like having to finish with, if her expression is any indication. ]