[ 001 - Intro - Accidental Voice/Action if you really want to stumble across her ]

[smackmywitchup]

[ Hello, residents of Luceti. Do you hear all of those random noises filtering through your journals? Of course you do. Unfortunately, it doesn't just stop. No, it continues; the sounds of someone scrambling to their feet, shuffling about briefly, before a voice rings through. It's somewhat distanced and muffled, however, and most definitely female, and so very, VERY confused. ]

Hector...? What is going on here?

[ There's a few moments of silence, however; but not for long. ]

--Wings. Am I dead? No, certainly not-- [ Whatever she's about to say is cut off by a loud scuffling noise, and a surprised squeak on her behalf. It is at this point, the feed ends. ]

[ Action ]

[ The look on Julia's face says it all: she's a little lost and more than a tiny bit confused. At this point, she's on her knees, inspecting the journal that she finally realizes has been next to her. She's never seen anything like it before.

The next thing she does, is she turns her head to the right to look over her shoulder, shifting the best she can to see the new addition to her body; the wings, naturally. She frowns, not really looking all that pleased, especially so as she finally takes in what she's wearing, a soft noise of disapproval escaping her lips. ] ...

Comments

[Action]

[mountain_sage]

[Still busy during a New Feather cycle, Saleh is once again on his routine patrol of the forest. As he moves through the trees, he comes across the young woman kneeling near her journal. Her current dress gives her away as a new arrival. So he moves around to her side so that she can see him, but keeping a few feet away so as not to startle her.]

Pardon me. Are you in need of assistance?

[Action]

[smackmywitchup]

[ Quickly, Julia glances over at Saleh. Picking the journal up, she quickly rises to her feet once more, holding it close against her chest. The young woman frowns, unsure; while this man doesn't seem to be posing as a threat, she just can't be sure. ]

I am. Can you please tell me what is going on? What is this place...? Surely this has nothing to do with Lord Dracula?

[ Yes, that must be it. It makes sense now, in her head; perhaps that vile demon has been resurrected again... or maybe this is all part of an elaborate scheme to try and gather sacrifices for the attempt? ]

[Action]

[mountain_sage]

Lord Dracula? I am not familiar with that name...

[Saleh maintains his pose. Calm and composed, with one end of his healing staff propped into the ground.]

This place is called Luceti, an entirely different world from your own. We are here as subjects for a variety of experiments conducted by the Malnosso. As of now...there is no known way to return home.

[Action]

[smackmywitchup]

How could you not be--

[ Julia stops herself, taking a breath. Be calm, she tells herself. Her posture straightens as she finally tears her gaze away from Saleh, once again scanning the area as he speaks. She takes in every detail he has to give, storing it away within the depths of her mind.

The very concept of what he was saying... if she had not lived through everything she had, had she not experienced the horrors of Dracula's Curse and what it had done to not only the people and land, but her own brother, she may not have believed him. Knowing what she knows at home, however... not to mention he doesn't at all appear to be lying, she believes him. ]

Oh. Might I ask... why? You seem to know much about this place, good sir; have you been here for quite some time...?

[Action]

[mountain_sage]

[As she tears her gaze away, Saleh tilts his head, a realization dawning on him that something about her seems familiar. Yet he knows he has not met her before...]

[But for the moment, he'll focus on her question.]

It is likely because I come from a different world from your own.

As for why the Malnosso conduct these experiments...it is uncertain. Their claim is that they are also trapped in this world, and are studying something called "Shifting technology," to find a way to return home, for they believe that is what draws us into this world. I'm afraid I do not know much about this particular practice, so I cannot say whether there is any truth to their claim. The effects of these experiments are variable and random.

I am Saleh, from a small village called Caer Pelyn, located in a mountain peak in Magvel. I have been in this world for two years now, but there are few others who have been here as long as four years or longer. There are times when people are sent home, but the departures appear to be just as random as the arrivals.

[Action]

[smackmywitchup]

I... I see. Please, forgive me. I am a bit vexed still about... this. Experiments, you say? I will keep all of this in mind. It seems like very valuable information, thank you.

[ Something tells her that he knows and understands the feeling, but she won't press it. Her heart, which was beating rapidly against her chest, was finally starting to slow down, just as she was visibly beginning to relax.

Finally, she looked back over at Saleh, her eyes widening slightly. Two whole years...? ]

I am Julia Laforeze. 'Tis a pleasure to meet you, Saleh, although I do wish that our meeting could be in different circumstances.

[Action]

[mountain_sage]

...I understand. Many people are vexed about all of this, and most still are. We make a stand where we can, but opportunities to do so are few and far between.

[As she turns back to him, he studies her face once more. Where has he seen it before...?]

Julia...and a pleasure to meet you as well. In the meantime, I can lead you to the village. You can reclaim your own clothing and other belongings in the shops. There is no currency here, so you need not worry about paying for anything. Additionally, you can use your journal provided to contact anyone else in the village. Perhaps you may find someone you know here. Do you have anyone close to you that you wish to seek out? As this shifting technology draws people from different points in time as well as different worlds, you may meet someone here, who has died in your world.

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

... Man, did these new people arrive in flocks or something?

"Ma'am, you might want to calm down, you're gonna work yourself into a panic at that rate."

[Voice]

[smackmywitchup]

It took her a few moments to finally realize that the voice of someone else was coming out of the journal. It also took another few seconds for her to figure out just how to speak back.

"Hello? I... please, forgive me. I do not mean to sound so panicked. Whom am I speaking to, might I ask?

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

"Harry Dresden. Nice to meet you. You alright out there?"

[Voice]

[smackmywitchup]

"Y-yes, I am fine, thank you. Oh... it is a pleasure to meet you, Harry. I am Julia Laforeze. Please, forgive me for not introducing myself properly before. This is just all so new, you see."

[Voice]

[quicktoanger]

Hell's Bells. New. That was certainly one word for it.

"It's fine, this place has that effect on people. Have you found your way into the village yet?"

[Voice]

[smackmywitchup]

"Yes, a wonderful gentleman named Saleh showed me the way, thank you."

Yes, she'd been quite lucky to have Saleh stumble upon her. She'd probably still be sitting out at the edge of the forest if it weren't for him.

"If you do not mind me asking, sir... how long have you been here? I have heard people have been trapped here for years."

[ voice ]

[etudes]

[ Even though the feed ends so abruptly, Kotomi talks as if there was nothing wrong with it, her tone blank and calm. ]

You're not dead. Dead people can't talk, after all.

[ voice ]

[smackmywitchup]

[ This damned device... there's the sounds of fumbling again, before Julia finally replies. ]

Do they not? How can you be so sure?

[ voice ]

[etudes]

Because I've read about it in books. And books never lie. [ she seems convinced of it despite her blank tone. ] Dead people can't talk to other people, and you're talking to me right now.

[ voice ]

[smackmywitchup]

The dead can talk, just as the living, my dear... but that is a conversation for later. Whom am I speaking with? I am Julia Laforeze.

[ voice ]

[etudes]

[ ah, at that she seems to shift a little, judging from the sounds, as if she's properly sitting up.. and her introduction sounds almost a little mechanized, like something she's carefully thought up and practiced many times. ]

My name is Kotomi Ichinose. I'm a senior from class A back home. My hobby is reading books. When talking to me, please refer to me as 'Kotomi-chan'.

[ voice ]

[smackmywitchup]

[ ...What. This place just keeps getting more and more confusing... ]

...Yes. Of course, Kotomi...-chan.

written; filtered

[relictusdeus]

[Despite the unpredictability with which people drifted in and out of this world, he'd never long considered the possibility of hearing his sister's voice once more, thinking it was as it should be, living in this Hell of sorts and dying alone. And to hear it now - and to hear a name he hadn't heard from lips other than his own, a name from a lifetime ago - he felt his throat begin to viciously tighten up on him.

For the first time in a long time, he's at loss for what to say, struggling with disgust and self-loathing for what he can't control. He's not used to finding himself on the verge of tears, his heart pounding briskly in his throat.

She had no reason to speak to him kindly if at all, and after all he'd done in a maddened rage. But this was his sister, his only family. And God help the Malnosso or the man who'd lay a harming hand over her.

He's been holding his pen against the page for too long in indecision, leaving a large blot of ink. It's not until much more time passes that he pens a deliberately impersonal message:]

The Malnosso are responsible for your imprisonment, and for mine.

written; filtered

[smackmywitchup]

[ Her reply does not come until much later; once she's figured out what these things do and what they are for. This is a good thing; now, she is much more calm, and with a level head again.

Her own pen -- something else she thinks quite odd -- scratches against the page as she quickly writes up a response. ]

I have recently been informed of this, yes. Thank you. Might I ask, whom is it that I have the liberty of writing to? [ ...Speaking? No. That wouldn't have sounded right, considering that they were writing. ]

Re: written; filtered

[relictusdeus]

[He purses his lips in thought, watching as her words form in response.]

At the back of this journal is a map of your surroundings. Make for the domed structure in the woods and there I shall meet you, outside its doors.

[It's only natural for one to be distrustful of such a cryptic message, but he offers it nonetheless, his penmanship neat, even elegant.]

written; filtered ----> action

[smackmywitchup]

[ Julia's brows knit together. What an ominous message. Still, what has she to lose in such a place? She has yet to speak to someone who has been discourteous in any way, shape, or form, so why not? ]

I see it, thank you. Very well, I will do my best to make haste.

[ Without need for further response, Julia closes her journal and flips it around so that she can see the back. Ah, yes, there it is... the map. At this point, she's already back in the village; the man known as Saleh had taken her there and had explained things for the most part to her, after all.

Standing from the little bench she'd been sitting on, she glances back in the direction she'd originally came from -- that domed structure that was mentioned was in the woods, after all. So, she tucks her journal under her arm and begins to walk back the way she'd come from.

Back at the beginning once more, she glances back down at the map, and then back out into the woods. While she's not getting a bad feeling, she can't help but feel a pang of nervousness within her gut; this whole ordeal was absolutely insane, and now she was going to meet some stranger she hadn't even seen in person yet.

With a brief moment of hesitation, she finally steps into the woods, carefully following the map to the best of her abilities. Her pace is brisk; something nagging at the back of her mind is urging her to hurry.

Finally, she glances up, having been staring at the little map for a good majority of the time she'd been walking, blinking when she realizes that she's right in front of her destination.

Her lips tug into a frown. Was this person not supposed to be meeting her in front of it? Perhaps her judgment had been wrong, perhaps this was a mistake.

She's just about to turn away, when something catches her attention; just out of the corner of her eye. A flash of light, oh so familiar, and she quickly whirls around to face it, to face the person who has just appeared.

Her eyes widen, her posture visibly stiffening up when she sees just who this is; the red hair, the metal studs lining his skin, the markings... her right hand flies to the left side of her chest, just over her heart as it clenches painfully.

She looks as though she's quite literally seen a ghost. ]

This... this cannot be...!

written; filtered ----> action

[relictusdeus]

[He could say the same.

It’s one thing to see her only in memory, and another to glimpse upon her in the flesh, watching the same incredulity he felt widen her eyes.

He lets out a soft, sharp exhale - a weak laugh that sounds more like the beginnings of a sob - and manages a thin, wry smile at best, his Adam's apple bobbling in his throat. Times like these, he desperately tries to find some sort of teasing remark, a joke, anything to better cope with the burden of feelings. To deflect them and put forth the illusion of stability, at the very least, in place of true strength. His lips part, expectantly. But his cruel wit fails him.

In the last three years especially, he’d been so wholly possessed by his obsession to exact revenge upon Hector that she – and all the kindness she had ever shown him - had steadily been pushed away into the recesses of his mind, all other thoughts, his life, his very self consumed by this fierce rage.

While he still exudes a demonic aura on account of Dracula’s magic flowing through him, his mind is his own now. And here is the first time he’d stopped and held her gaze since raiding Cordova Town so long ago.]

...Julia.

[He decides against stepping forward, unsure how she would receive it.]

action

[smackmywitchup]

[ When he speaks, it's almost too much for her. Her eyes have already misted up slightly, and she has to blink a few times to try and keep the burning, stinging sensation of tears refusing to be shed away.

It'd been so long since she'd seen him -- well. It felt like it, at least; the last time that she'd even remotely had a chance to REALLY get a good look at him had been the Cordova Town incident.

She'd seen him, yes, as he'd been fighting Hector, but things had been different. She hadn't had a chance to call out to him again, to gain his attention; he'd been so focused, that even then, his speech had all been directed to Hector. He hadn't really even bothered so much as even truly look at her then.

The hand resting at her chest clenches into a fist, and for the first time in a very long time, a single tear does roll down her cheek as she stares at the oh so familiar form of her brother. Something is off about him this time, though; he seems... different. It suddenly becomes very apparent what that is; the curse was not upon him.

As much as she wants to run over to him, throw her arms around him and embrace him and never really let him go, she doesn't. She remains rooted to the spot; curse or not, she's not sure how he really feels right now. Would he call her a traitor for aiding Hector in his defeat? Would he hate her? ]

Brother, it truly is you...