let's demeleier

[eyesforward]

[Sadie's been in this miserable hole for only a couple of days. All things considered, she thinks, it could be a lot worse—she has a croft all to herself, which is certainly better than nothing. Makes things a lot easier. And people are really helpful. A lot of people have already reached out to her a bit, making sure she's got what she needs. She's familiar enough with how to use her mirror, which she's left back in her bed, under her pillow. She even has a ball of iron in her pants pocket.

That's not to say that she isn't carrying around an idle sense of dread in the back of her mind, of course. There's lots of violent attacks by monsters, which, you know, even if Sadie is a pretty capable and independent person, is still a frightening and stressful prospect. That besides, Sadie's learned that the time spent in this place, while it at least isn't forever, is indeterminate; she doesn't know when next she'll see her friends, or her mom.

She knows it's useless to dwell on that too much, though—so she's trying to focus on something more productive. So right now, she's just focusing on splitting logs on top a tree stump—she doesn't need a ton of firewood for herself personally, but extra doesn't hurt. She'd like to have some resources to share in return for the kindness that these fellow captive inhabitants have shown her...

She's been at it a while. Splitting another small log in half cleanly with a well-centered, heavy chop, Sadie deflates with a heavy exhale, wiping sweat off her brow. She was a little chilly earlier, but now she's honestly a little over-warm, and a little winded. Maybe she'd gone a little too hard. She decides it's time for a break. She rests the hatchet atop the splintered stump.]

Comments

[eyesforward]

[Well, Sadie's no farm hand herself (shockingly), and she lives with a bunch of people who are pretty spoiled by modern comforts... So really, Sadie isn't judging her. She observes Eniko's hands, and indeed, Sadie vaguely decides they're quite dainty. They kind of remind her of—ew, no, anyway.]

That's great! I'm pretty inconsistent with like... physical activity, so my hands normally stay pretty soft.

Uh—how do you spin flax into linen?

[Sadie feels like she's gonna learn a lot of stuff, here...]

[life_partners]

[Eniko groans surprisingly loudly and slumps back against the stump, covering her eyes with her hands dramatically.]

Ooh, it's the worst! You've got to comb out the flax to split it up, and then you pick out all the little hard bits you can't spin, and your hands get all cut up—if I ever have to use a spinning wheel again, it'll be too soon. Trust me, you don't want to do it.

[she moves her hands so she can fluff her hair]

Fortunately, you don't have to! We've got a few professional weavers and tailors here now to handle all that stuff.

[eyesforward]

Yikes. Well, that's good. I'm not really that good with crafty sort of stuff, anyway.

[Sadie watches Eniko's hair bounce, stars in her eyes... That hair looks close to something out of Sadie's gene pool, even though Eniko isn't white. Not a lot of curly haired blonds, out there. She has another bite of her apple.]

Probably better to leave me to hunting, beating up evil faeries or whatever, and... chopping logs, I guess.

[life_partners]

Haha, yeah! Sure thing. —Whoa; hey, you can hunt, too? I, uh... I might actually hit you up for that, too! I can't really hunt, either. Or fish. Although my eyesight's only part of the "why not".

[oblivious to Sadie's starry eyes, she scoops her hair over one shoulder and starts separating it into sections to braid it. She pauses to gently work a little tangle out of a couple curls with her fingertips.]

Heh, Ezekiel's been keeping me fed, too—just like he's taking care of you! What a guy, right?

[eyesforward]

—Well, I mean, I'm good at—I can kill stuff, but hunting's probably not accurate. I can fish from rivers, though... if I have a spear?

[Sadie idly watches Eniko braid her hair.]

—Oh, yeah! Yeah, he seems super nice. I was kinda freaked out by his appearance at first... And that... you know, he's apparently a demon? But he's also really sweet. Go figure.

[life_partners]

{Eniko snorts with laughter and gets to work braiding her hair. She leaves some curls free around her face, going for a "sexy, in a tousled and carefree way" look in her heart.]

I know, right? I'd never met a nice demon, before! I'd never met a demon before, period, for that matter. ...Do you have demons just, like... walking around, in your world?

[as she asks that, she realizes that she still doesn't know a single thing about Sadie's world, other than the fact that people chop logs there, have curly yellow hair, and wear blue pants made out of some kind of unfamiliar sturdy-looking fabric.]

[eyesforward]

[Sadie straightens, blinking. She hadn't really gotten the spiel about different worlds, but it's easy enough to infer—by Ezekiel's existence alone, she supposes. She's still not totally sure she's comprehending, but she answers based on her gut.]

Oh, definitely not. We do have ancient women from space who are protecting our planet, I guess, but it's only a few of them. But... you know, they're definitely not hell sent monsters.

If I saw a demon back home, I'd be pretty sure my life was over. [Sadie laughs heartily. Is that appropriate, Sadie]

[life_partners]

[Eniko laughs heartily as well, just because, even though she's not sure she gets the joke. Maybe it's just foreign humor?]

Yeah—we don't have demons either, really. Or ancient women from space, for that matter. If we did, I would know about it.

[she wrinkles her nose and sighs.] I guess that means you're not from where I come from, after all. I mean, the chance was pretty small anyway, but it was there.

[eyesforward]

...Why, what's it like where you're from?

[Sadie takes another bite of the apple, vaguely feeling bad for Eniko. It sounds like she's used to that happening, which sucks, because...she's been here a couple years?]

[life_partners]

[Eniko takes a bite of apple.]

Well, no ancient space ladies! That's a big thing. Uh... [she chews and thinks for a moment, then looks up at Sadie.] ...I mean, my world's pretty big, and there's a lot of stuff in it—I don't know what'd be really interesting. What's different from your world, I mean. ...Hey! You should tell me about where you live!

[Eniko's eyes shine as she wonders about The World Of Short Buff Blonde People.]

Like... who are the space ladies? Does your world have lots of magic in it? What about Gods?

[eyesforward]

Um—the subject of Gods and stuff is kinda subjective person to person. Lots of different people all over the world have different ideas about faith, how many Gods there are, what's right and wrong...

The alien ladies I mentioned—they call themselves the Crystal Gems—are totally magical though, and so is everything related to them. There's lots of stuff on our planet that's kinda magical, and that stuff only exists because of them. They can shapeshift, materialize cool weapons and stuff...

To be honest, I don't really see a ton of them? But they've been around forever. Otherwise, everyone's like me: just a normal human. [Little shrug.] I'm a cashier and stock-girl, for example.

Pretty dull resume in comparison, for sure.

[life_partners]

[Eniko tilts her head back and gives her a reassuring upside-down smile.]

Aw, don't feel bad! We can't all be magic shapeshfting ladies from space. I think being a cashier is really neat! I've never worked in a store... but I wanted to be a scholar, when I was little; or a librarian!

[she's got lots of thoughts swirling around her head about all the other stuff sadie said, but her first priority is reassuring her that she's Cool and Important.]

[eyesforward]

Haha! I don't feel bad. I'm pretty pleased with my responsibilities being helping people on a scale way lower than like... protecting the Earth. I'd rather just give people small-talk and donuts.

I guess I don't really know what I wanna do, still. I guess I'm technically already "grown up," but...

Hey, so what do you do back home?

[life_partners]

[oh hey here's the million dollar question. Eniko's smile freezes for a sec, but then she snorts with laughter and bites her lip.]

Haha—I'm actually, uh, a pretty big deal, back home. I kind of rule the world; at least, in title. Eniko Maragos, Sovereign of the World, Vanguard of Peace... I've got more titles than just those, of course.

[she says this all AS CASUALLY AS POSSIBLE. Dont worry Sadie it's NO BIG DEAL OR ANYTHING.]

'Course, that doesn't mean much here; the Queen doesn't exactly give special treatment to fellow royalty.

[eyesforward]

[Sadie gasps and reels back so suddenly, her eyes wide, such that she almost loses balance. Sadie is Really Glad she wasn't rude to Eniko. Goes to show you never know who the hell you're talking to, so being nice is, once again, the superior way to be.]

What!? Oh my gosh!

[Sadie presses her hands against her cheeks, and then she goes from looking shocked to looking crushed.]

Oh man, that's horrible. Doesn't that mean that your world's missing someone really important right now? And you're just in this damp hole of a village that's like, full of monsters and famine...

[life_partners]

Hey—hey, it's not so bad! There hasn't been, like, any real famine yet, anyway. I mean, the food's not exactly what I'm used to, but...

[WAIT there's something more important!! She sits up straighter and turns so that she's almost kneeling, looking at Sadie straight on.]

—Wait; you mean nobody's told you yet? Oh, no! You must have been so scared... [she looks heartbroken for a moment, then elaborates:] We're not—I mean, we are stuck here, but time's not moving the same way, back home. It stops, so nobody even knows we're gone, no matter how long we're stuck here!

[eyesforward]

Oh...

[Sadie presses a hand against her chest, her heart indeed racing, and her posture deflates with a sigh. This is like when she heard that people weren't necessarily stuck here forever; it was a huge relief to hear.]

Oh, okay. That's good... I mean, I've gone missing for longer than this, I guess... [Slight wince. Not proud of that.] But I was getting worried about, you know, the future, if I got stuck here for months... Or years. [Oh jeez.]

[life_partners]

Yeah—see? It's not as bad as you thought! [she grins, but it dims again shortly.] ...It's still rough, though. I can't lie; it's been really, really hard, being away from home for so long. I really miss it. My people, my family... I've missed my kids' birthday twice. At least I'll still get to celebrate them with 'em, when I get to go back...

[she goes quiet, then claps her hands, snapping herself out of it.]

But—! We were talking about you! I wanna hear about you. So you, uh... you come from a place where believing in Gods is pretty subjective, huh?

[SMOOTH SUBJECT CHANGE. Eniko leans one elbow against the stump.]

[eyesforward]

[OH GOSH... OH NO... SHE'S A MOM. Sadie lets it drop when Eniko drops the subject, but her heart breaks in the background. Sadie can totally understand if she doesn't want to talk about it, so she earnestly snatches up that subject change.

Also, she looks great for someone who's had multiple children, gee.]

O-oh, yeah! Yeah, it is, um. I mean, I guess it depends on who you talk to, there's just not a lot of hard proof... There's just a lot of ancient text eluding to hard proof of their existence and stuff; they're mostly kept alive through the tradition of worship in certain religions and stuff... I'm probably not the best person to explain something that's so huge, haha.

What's religion like where you're from?

[life_partners]

[Eniko listens in open fascination, oblivious to the heartbreak happening in the background. She subtly works a bit of apple skin out from between her teeth with her tongue as she composes her answer.]

Whoa... that's amazing. That's—I mean, you're not alone here; there's other people from worlds like that, but... it's way different from how things work where I'm from. In my world, Gods are... well, they're a lot more hands-on. Even though most of them don't have hands. Paws-on? Wings... on? You know what I mean.

[she clears her throat.]

You know how I said I came here with my best friend?

[eyesforward]

Oh. Yeah?

[Sadie straightens curiously, seeming to be snapped out of her attentive listening by the question. She leans forward a little.]

[life_partners]

Well... [she stretches out the syllable, bracing herself for the Big Reveal] ...It is my best friend, so I wasn't lying, but... It's also really my God. See, where I'm from, Gods rule countries, too, and mine rules with me, together. I'm It's shaman.

[Eniko presses one hand flat against the side of the stump, and her skin starts to glow with a faint reddish light. A moment later, a little green shoot pushes out from the bark.]

Check it out! That's my God's magic: Life magic.

[eyesforward]

[Sadie jumps a little, then scoots politely to the side a little bit, even if she's not particularly near to the sprout. She flattens her palms on either side of the shoot, leaning in to stare at it in awe.]

Wow!

[She twists her back to look at Eniko again.] So you're able to channel your God—or whatever it is you do—from this place? [Sadie returns to a normal seating position, placing her apple core on the ground by the hatchet.] That's gotta be pretty handy!

[life_partners]

Yep! Of course, it helps that my God came here with me—but I'd still have my magic even if It hadn't! Life magic is in everything alive: people, animals, plants especially... and there's plenty of those around here!

[she grins at Sadie's reaction to the little shoot, and can't resist a bit more showmanship. She glances at Sadie's apple core. Maybe...? Nah—she gets a better idea, and flattens her palms against the ground. Within moments, new little seedlings push up through the soil all around the stump, including a few small flowers. Eniko picks one immediately and offers it to Sadie with a wink.]

[SMOOTH]

[eyesforward]

[Sadie's face pinkens at Eniko's wink, her eyes widening with surprise to the flower. She laughs in a way that's more of a nervous giggle, taking the flower.]

Wow! That's really lucky.

[Sadie sticks the flower in her hair, stuck firm in the tight curls of her hair, braced by a hidden ear.

Shyly,] Thanks. I'm impressed!