farsickness | Down the Rabbit Hole

WHO: Eufemia and OPEN
WHEN: 2/7 - 2/12
WHAT: Arrival and hunting
WHERE: Outskirts of Gazin, Outside Vasari Forest
WARNINGS: Nada

I. Arrival

It happened again it seemed. The sensation of changing worlds was always the same, but the lead up had been different. There wasn't a fire or explosion this time, no folding in on herself, only waking up in a new place and being fully aware that this wasn't the world she knew before. Even the aftermath was different, with clothes actually on her back than burning away along with the ground under her. There were no wounds, no blood and gashes, as though she had just woken from a dream.

It seemed strange to Eufemia that she could actually get to her feet without pain. Her muscles didn't ache and there wasn't any sign of cataclysm around her, which might be a blessing. Whatever happened, it didn't attract attention and gave her a chance to get her bearings. But without the storm that often accompanied this, she could only gather there was something different about this...less her cause and more something else's.

There was a sign at least, something to give her a clue where she might be.

"Gazin," it meant nothing, but that wasn't exactly a surprise by now. "What world is Gazin in?"

II. Vasari Forest

Given how dense and vast the forest was, Eufemia was careful not to venture too far without some sort of life line. She had managed to haggle for some rope along with the makings of snares and traps. She tied the rope to the tree closest to the exit, knotting the other end around her waist. She ventured in, looking for signs of animals and disturbed foliage, remembering the lessons she had learned from the hunters of her tribe. She was still an amateur, but still knowledgeable enough to set a decent trap.

There was no knowing what sort of animals lurking inside, but so long as they had decent meat, it didn't really matter.

She waited outside the woods, not bothering to remove the rope just yet. She had gathered some reeds and started to weave a basket for herself, watching as some others approached, ready to brave the woods for exploration. "I wouldn't go too far in. It's thick in there."

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Sora hasn't spent much time in forests. Before the darkness had come, his entire life had been a stretch of years spent on the same little island. He'd lived in the same house on the same street. He'd gone to school with all the same faces, and afterwards they'd played all the same games. It had been an endless stretch of sand and slowly rolling waves that he'd been eager to get back to; now it feels even further away. And for what?

He'd been so sure when he'd set off that even if he didn't know where he was going, he'd known he couldn't just stay. He needed to be somewhere else, because that's where he'd find Kairi, and that's how they'd all be able to go home together. But... this isn't what he'd been expecting. There really are trees everywhere. Trees and little birds flitting around; one path that starts and ends somewhere he can't see- and this sign.

His mouth opens. There's a girl paused in front of it and Sora's first instinct is to open his mouth and ask, because he's always done that before! But then, wasn't he supposed to keep it a secret? Going to other places? His mouth closes again. But before Sora can torture himself over it any further, she makes the decision for him. What world is Gazin in?

"Right?!" He comes jogging readily, closing the gap between them to end up by her side. "That's what I keep trying to figure out!" His hands come to rest on his knees.

"You don't know this place either huh?"

"No, I've never heard of it." That wasn't exactly a surprise to her. There was no control over where her jumping could take it. There were so many worlds out there that she likely would never see them all, if she even jumped again. Still, it was disconcerting to have no idea about the place she found herself, given that she wasn't responsible for coming here. "I think we were brought here. Almost like being pulled in."

She can't be certain of that, and it feels closer to a guess, but it's a feeling she can't exactly shake. Whatever this place was, it possessed a power she had never seen or imagined before. Apparently she wasn't the only person that was being put through this. The young boy next to her looked just as confused.

"Did you just wake up too?"

Of all the places he's gone, the different worlds and times and people- Sora's never met someone that had been as disoriented as him. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing; if they didn't belong in that world already then they'd made the choices to bring them there. Sora always just sort of... tripped and fell into it. He doesn't know how it happened, or why, it just did.

His head turns to look back the way he'd came, as if there might be some kind of answer waiting- as if he might find a path going back the way they came. But all he finds is more trees. Sora's shoulders fall, two small slopes. When he turns to face her again he doesn't defeated, but it's clear that he's carrying a new kind of weight. He hadn't come here from home. He'd been trying desperately to find a friend who'd be lost. To make sure she wouldn't be alone anymore.

And now he's going to make her wait again.
"Yeah." Sora smiles, it looks less like an expression meant to lift someone else's spirits and more like an attempt to lift his own.

"I guess I didn't really know where I was trying to end up. But I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be here."

There didn't seem to be much difference in response to this world from those experienced and those who weren't. He might be someone who has been to other realms as well, but he hadn't planned this and it was as much a surprise to him as it was to those who had never had this happen before. How could they prepare or plan for something like this? How could this be in their experience?

She can see the weight, recognizing that pressure. She had suffered from it as well, though that time had passed. Jumping realms had rescued her from it, giving her a measure of safety that she wouldn't have otherwise known. Now this world pulled her from the other, perhaps another shield from danger.

Though she couldn't say that definitively.

"Something must want us here. How else could we be pulled so quickly and strongly?"

"Hmm..."

Sora has never been the brains of the group- not when that group had been him and Riku and Kairi, and not when that group had been him and Donald and Goofy. He leans into everything with his heart, following that guidance maybe a little more often than he should. But she poses the question and it's the first time Sora's really considered it- that a world could want. It can't be that weird, right? "I guess so." His brows come together in the middle, and one hand reaches for his chin.

"But you know- I feel like I wanted to be here too. Not here here, but. I'd been trying to go somewhere else." The hand falls from his chin and comes to rest over his heart; it isn't really an anchor, it's more like checking a compass. "I remember wanting that with all my heart."

His head shakes. "What about you? What was it like when you got here?"

It was a thought, at the very least. She never confronted a place that could do that or someone with that sort of strength and magic. It didn't mean that it didn't exist. Until they could find answers though, all they could rely on was speculation, likely from an overactive imagination.

"It was the same for me." Not that she really knew where she wanted to go, it was the simple jump that she wanted. Aside from that, the destination, the people and the world itself could be anything. It had to be a step up from where she had come from. "I don't know if that influenced coming here or not." More likely not, if she had to guess...at least on her end.

"It was quiet and calm. It was almost like I was waking up from sleep."

Edited 2020-02-23 22:17 (UTC)

"Yeah!" There's something profoundly reassuring about hearing it described by someone else- to know that he isn't alone in the way it had felt. "I even woke up right over-" Sora is no stranger to upheaval, he'd like to think that he's gotten pretty good at rolling with the punches, especially when there was a time he'd been an ordinary boy on an ordinary island. But this is how he remembers it too- a strange, all over calm. He'd felt so sure of himself, that this was where he needed, wanted to go, and the worry and doubt that so often welled up in him just melted away.

"Oh right!" Perpetually easy to read, Sora's body straightens- as if he's just been scolded over the dinner table for slouching. He points at his chest instead. "I'm Sora. I guess I should've said that part sooner, huh?"

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