farsickness | (no subject)

(no subject)

WHO: Anyone
WHEN: Shortly after arrival and settling in
WHAT: Meeting people
WHERE: Gazin

She had settled in the room that was offered at the Inn but Caitlin was still getting her bearings. She walked along the road, trying to understand what exactly had happened and how she even ended up here.

The last thing she remembered was...she had left her mother's after--well, after all that had happened. For a moment, she had wished that she could just...go somewhere and not worry about it all anymore.

Next thing she knew, she was facing a sign and being pointed to this town.

Caitlin took a look around at the people that made up for the citizens of the town. Strange how it was so similar to towns she had read about in storybooks in the past. No one really bat an eyelash at her appearance, even if she didn't look like the rest of them.

Maybe if I were the one that talked to everyone. I'm sure I can make it exciting.

"Maybe not, Frost," Caitlin said quietly, "you might...throw people off here."

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The woman did stand out and that caught Wen Qing's attention. She stood out herself, after all, in her ragged red robes which had seen her through months in the dungeons.

"Excuse me?" she said urgently as she approached her. "Did you happen to see a young man in red and black dress like mine, with long black hair? He goes by the name of Wen Ning... and probably won't be able to communicate with anyone here."

Caitlin was surprised when the young woman approached her, especially looking more ragged than most of the denizens she'd seen so far.

"Um, no, not really. I haven't talked to many people around here just yet. Is he a friend...brother...?" she asked.

"My brother." Her tone of voice remained urgent, though she was mindful to remind polite to the stranger, even if she just wanted to grab the closest person and demand answers they wouldn't have.

"We were together but I showed up here by myself. I couldn't find him or any sign of him in the woods where I arrived." Her face tightened. "I don't want to think of him being left behind."

Caitlin reached out and touched the woman on the arm.

"Should we go to the woods to look for him, maybe?" she asked.

She remembered the woods herself but didn't see anyone that was dressed like the woman before her.

"I have been looking!" she insisted, her voice getting louder with her agitation, though she didn't shake off the hand on her arm. It felt good to have run into someone who showed such obvious concern. "I searched for hours before I went into the town and then I kept searching here..."

Her shoulders slumped, followed by a small nod. "It can't hurt to go back and search some more. Maybe he simply took longer to be brought here than I did."

The frustration was clear in her voice and Caitlin almost took her hand off. If she had been looking all over the forest and all around town, then maybe he couldn't be found.

"Maybe just another pair of eyes would be helpful."

And we can take the search up into the air.

Her eyes flash icy blue as Frost's voice sounded off in her head.

Wen Qing notices the flash of blue in her eyes and her own eyes widen, though she has too much self-control to flinch or take a step back. Yet there is a new tension to her body, a new alertness to the way in which she sizes up this seemingly perfectly ordinary woman.

"Another pair of eyes," she echoes, her voice very dry though not hostile. "What was that? What technique did you use?"

Caitlin sees the tension in her body and holds her hands up.

"I should...probably explain. See, she's...just another part of me. Her name is Frost and she kind of--we share the same body," she begins to babble. "She can take some getting used to."

Her eyes widen at the sight of the woman babbling and reassuring her like she is expecting a negative reaction. Sure, she does feel alarmed by displays of unfamiliar powers but...

"It's fine," she says decisively, as much to convince herself as Caitlin that she isn't unsettled. It's been a lot to take in all at once. "You don't need to explain more if you don't want to. If you... if she is willing to help, that is enough for me for the moment."

"We're willing," Caitlin replies. She regains her composure. "We're willing to help if you could point us in the direction in the woods that you last saw him."

"I..." Her shoulders slump all over again. "I didn't see him here at all," she admits quietly, knowing well what this means for her chances of Wen Ning being here.

"We were in a dungeon, back in Yiling. It's in a completely different country, I have never seen a place like this one, or people like the ones here! Then I was suddenly here... in the woods, that is, at a crossroads with a sign pointing towards Gazin. I searched and searched but I couldn't find him." With visible effort, she gathers herself. "I suppose we should start at the crossroads."

Her heart goes out to her.

"A dungeon?"

The woman had to come from either an Earth that didn't have western civilization or came from a time that didn't interact with the west just yet.

"That's how I arrived here too. A place like this only existed in the history books where I came from, years and years into the past."

"It doesn't look like something from the past to me, no, not exactly," Wen Qing muses aloud, her brows getting all scrunched up as she studies the foreign architecture around her as if staring at the buildings long enough would provide her with answers. "Going by what little I have seen so far, it is about as advanced as it should be, just... everything looks different."

She might have a less charitable opinion once she learns they lack medical knowledge she takes for granted and don't know the first thing about immortal cultivation and the magical progress that comes with it. Since cultivators stick to their sect compounds seeing no sign of them in town doesn't strike her as surprising.

"What's the place you come from called?"

Caitlin took note of what the woman said; that it was as advanced as it should be. She had to be from a time that was analogous to this time period. Medieval China, perhaps?

"I'm Caitlin Snow from Central City."

She offers her hand to her with a kind smile.

"I was a doctor--um...a healer back home."

"Oh!" There's a sharp pang of relief at this unexpected familiarity, finding something in common with this woman from a faraway place. She looks at the offered hand dubiously for a moment, that's not how cultivators greet strangers, but she's been observant enough of her new surroundings to mimic.

"Once I have found my brother," or once she will be forced to accept he isn't here, as she secretly fears, "I would like to hear more about the medical techniques you employ. Personally, my passion is acupuncture. I find it most satisfying to work with the body directly." Her brows furrow. "But I've never heard of a place called Central City. Which i what I expected." But it's still frustrating, as none of this is making it appear easier to go home.

"Let's start with what your brother looks like and his name?" she asks. She shakes her hand lets it go, wondering how people greeted each other wherever she was from.

Her eyebrows raise at accupuncture. "We'll need to definitely exchange information on that soon. Maybe talk to the apothecary to hire us as healers."

She nods, brows furrowing as she is reminded of her sizable money problem which does require a job. "That is a good idea, I'll look into that. I arrived with nothing but the clothes on my back, I can't even buy myself a cup of tea without going into debt. And if we find Ah Ning, I'll need to provide for him, too." It's a matter of course to her that if her younger brother is here, she will be the breadwinner for the family. It's kind of daunting in a place where she has no credentials and not even the questionable renown of her family name.

"He is a little younger than I am. He has long black hair, about as long as mine, held back by a silver hairpiece, and he wears black and red robes." She ducks her head. "And he is in bad state. We have been imprisoned and in shackles for... I don't even know how long. Weeks? Months?"

Another brother. Also imprisoned.

"What were the circumstances that you were imprisoned for?" she asks.

Moreover, how much of their family had been imprisoned and stolen away to this place? Did this mean her own team...perhaps even her own family were here as well? She hadn't seen Carla yet and her father...well.

Her face shutters, the distress wiped off and replaced with a carefully neutral expression as her posture shifts, becoming poised and rigid.

"Thank you for your concern, but the circumstances of our confinement are not a matter you need to concern yourself with," she says, her voice clear and curt, not a waver to it. "It is an internal affair of the Qishan Wen sect, which I shouldn't have spoken of at all. I only sought to make you understand the urgency of the matter, and I would appreciate if we could now proceed with urgency..." The cold mask flickers. "...if you still wish to help.

Treason. The crime is treason for hiding and healing the only survivors of an enemy sect, and Wen Qing knows she can expect no compassion for such a crime. Treason is treason, no matter if it is driven by kindness.

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