[A shamelessly casual response. He's at least doing better than some people from her world who don't know how to treat blastia with the respect they deserve, though. She's even nodding approvingly before she inspects the parts.]
Now... Hmm...
[She leans in, staring intently at the blastia, hand on her chin in deep thought. Clearly she's considering some very important problem.]
Aha--I've got it! Wilhelm.
[.....No, she was just coming up with a name for it.]
[Maybe she'd take the time to be surprised at how easily Natsuno goes along with using the blastia's name--if she wasn't already so focused on getting it working. She goes over the core and main body, muttering to herself the whole time.]
Let's see... It looks like his parts are already assembled...so we'll just get those connected, and then...
[Satisfied, she activates the blastia: the dark blue core glows, and a touchscreen-like interface appears. Rita's hands fly across the keys as she reads the output above them.]
Hmm, yeah...so the formula's... Good, he's a regular model...I'll just make some adjustments here...
[And then there's the secondary panel, which is separate from the main body and has a tiny core of its own; Rita activates that one too.]
Alright, now I just need to get these synchronized, and...there! He should be all good to go.
[Natsuno watches in interest as she sets "Wilhelm" up. The floating touch-interface is straight out of science fiction. He knows nothing about blastia, but it's obvious Rita is an expert who's done it countless time before. Did she learn it in school? They're about the same age...]
Do they all come with this? [He gestures at the screen.] The ones you and Yuri wear, I mean.
Yeah. Since people can't control aer without using a blastia in the first place, they need to have these interfaces so we can interact with them and input the correct formulae.
[Yeah just a medieval magic world with sci-fi computer magitech it's fine.]
[They have stories--fairy tales--like that. Estelle loves them...
...Anyway, Rita shakes her head as she picks up the auxiliary panel and starts to walk a distance away.]
Nope. Just stay where you are, and I'll see if he can trap you.
[The panel is set back down once she's several feet from him, and she inputs some commands. The main blastia lifts off its stand, floating up into the air a couple of feet above Natsuno--and when she inputs another command, the barrier forms: a shining blue dome that forms below the blastia and encapsulates both Natsuno and the area surrounding him.]
Hmm, alright--now try to break out!
[Sound, air--all of that passes through the barrier without any issues. Whether or not Natsuno can pass through it might be a different question. (There aren't any monsters on Terca Lumireis that were once human, after all.)]
[Hey, more cool sci-fi stuff! Natsuno taps the dome, knocks on it with a fist and presses him palms against it. The barrier holds - would it be like Jade's holy bottles? Rita doesn't seem to be familiar with human-looking monsters, and yet her world's technology still recognizes him as a monster? For a moment something vague and sullen settles in the pit of his stomach.
He's quick to push it away, though. If that's how things are, it's only natural, and there are more important things to test. Natsuno continues to struggle against the barrier, trying to increase the power behind the blows gradually. First like a human would, then like a jinrou who isn't trying very hard. Finally, he steps back against the back "wall" and swings back and worth to build momentum, dashing at full speed to slam his shoulder against the barrier.
Much to his surprise, the barrier just stops resisting altogether and Natsuno pretty much flies through it, crashing on the deck in a totally dignified way.]
[Admittedly, she's a little surprised to see that the barrier's initially repelling him. He really doesn't seem all that different from a human. A barrier like this couldn't have worked on Estelle, surely...but Rita's reminded of the sphere she'd been trapped in, and how it may not have been so different from a reverse barrier, despite some alterations to the formula--
Oh, wait, there he goes, spilling very elegantly onto the deck and snapping Rita out of her thoughts. She heads over and crouches next to him--not worried, because all he did was fall over, really.]
Hmm...that was pretty weird. Looks like he thinks you're close enough to a human.
[Ow. Natsuno sits up, wincing slightly, rubbing the bruised shoulder.]
You were expecting that, though. [He did use to human, not to mention that jinrou like him were built to blend in. Maybe if the item wasn't holy, it wasn't as effective...] It can be a problem if you try using him on the captain, though.
[...and there it is again, another crack in the wall of vagueness. Maybe he should just walk around with "I'm a vampire" t-shirt and get it over with.]
Used to be humans. [A shrug. His face is impassive as usual.] Then we changed.
[Well, that's one way to explain it. Blunt and effective! Even if Rita's going to take some time to really process this, for now, she's just going to kind of stare in shock at Natsuno.]
A...what? How does...
[Look, biology isn't anywhere near her specialty, but she's pretty sure diseases don't normally work like this?!]
How does getting sick change someone that much? That means you didn't have those regenerative powers before, right? What the hell kind of disease was that?
[At the time, he thought the adults in the village were idiots for not seeing the truth, but now that he has to come up with a convincing excuse - "a blood disease" is pretty accurate, isn't it? And Dr. Ozaki was very thorough in his research, enough for Natsuno to sound convincing with second-hand medical terms.]
It attacks the red blood cells. Usually, it just destroys them... but sometimes they change into something else. [A shrug.] I don't know how it happens, but that's what it is.
The line...? Ugh, I don't know--who cares enough to even think about that?
[Scientifically, there's probably a line, but she's not interested. Estelle is human. The Krityans have long ears and antennae and some odd powers, but they're also humans.
More importantly, she's giving him a considering look, because despite what she just said...it's starting to seem pretty obvious to her who might care.]
Why are you so insistent on calling yourself "something else"? Did that change bother you that much?
Of course. Just because some of it is useful here, doesn't mean I like it.
[Did he want to die repeatedly by a falling sign, magic spears and burning moon boss magic? Of course not. Does it make him feel like a monstrous freak every time he walks off something any other passenger would never recover from? Yes.]
I'll never get old. I won't die of natural causes. You think I want to stay fifteen forever?
[Part of her is getting skeptical. He has no reason to lie, though, so she's trying to roll with it...even as it's sounding really weird as a disease outcome. Other worlds just seem to be getting weird in general...
Would Rita want to be fifteen forever? Maybe--there's always so much to study and learn, a single lifetime could never be enough to discover everything the world has to offer--but she's never thought about it either, since it's always just been a simple fact that people age.]
How long have you been like this? If you don't actually age, does that mean you're really an old man?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
neverleave) wrote2022-03-03 11:35 pm
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[A shamelessly casual response. He's at least doing better than some people from her world who don't know how to treat blastia with the respect they deserve, though. She's even nodding approvingly before she inspects the parts.]
Now... Hmm...
[She leans in, staring intently at the blastia, hand on her chin in deep thought. Clearly she's considering some very important problem.]
Aha--I've got it! Wilhelm.
[.....No, she was just coming up with a name for it.]
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How do you know it's a boy.
[DAMMIT]
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Actually no, Natsuno is spared from some kind of bizarre blastia sex-ed lecture by Rita blinking at him.]
...I don't really think about it... I just know!
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Just tell me when - [The briefest pause, this is so freaking ridiculous] Wilhelm is ready.
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[Maybe she'd take the time to be surprised at how easily Natsuno goes along with using the blastia's name--if she wasn't already so focused on getting it working. She goes over the core and main body, muttering to herself the whole time.]
Let's see... It looks like his parts are already assembled...so we'll just get those connected, and then...
[Satisfied, she activates the blastia: the dark blue core glows, and a touchscreen-like interface appears. Rita's hands fly across the keys as she reads the output above them.]
Hmm, yeah...so the formula's... Good, he's a regular model...I'll just make some adjustments here...
[And then there's the secondary panel, which is separate from the main body and has a tiny core of its own; Rita activates that one too.]
Alright, now I just need to get these synchronized, and...there! He should be all good to go.
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Do they all come with this? [He gestures at the screen.] The ones you and Yuri wear, I mean.
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Yeah. Since people can't control aer without using a blastia in the first place, they need to have these interfaces so we can interact with them and input the correct formulae.
[Yeah just a medieval magic world with sci-fi computer magitech it's fine.]
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Your magic's totally different from the stories back home. Wizards just wave their hands or a magic wand and stuff happens.
Do I need to do anything for "Wilhelm" to work?
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[They have stories--fairy tales--like that. Estelle loves them...
...Anyway, Rita shakes her head as she picks up the auxiliary panel and starts to walk a distance away.]
Nope. Just stay where you are, and I'll see if he can trap you.
[The panel is set back down once she's several feet from him, and she inputs some commands. The main blastia lifts off its stand, floating up into the air a couple of feet above Natsuno--and when she inputs another command, the barrier forms: a shining blue dome that forms below the blastia and encapsulates both Natsuno and the area surrounding him.]
Hmm, alright--now try to break out!
[Sound, air--all of that passes through the barrier without any issues. Whether or not Natsuno can pass through it might be a different question. (There aren't any monsters on Terca Lumireis that were once human, after all.)]
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He's quick to push it away, though. If that's how things are, it's only natural, and there are more important things to test. Natsuno continues to struggle against the barrier, trying to increase the power behind the blows gradually. First like a human would, then like a jinrou who isn't trying very hard. Finally, he steps back against the back "wall" and swings back and worth to build momentum, dashing at full speed to slam his shoulder against the barrier.
Much to his surprise, the barrier just stops resisting altogether and Natsuno pretty much flies through it, crashing on the deck in a totally dignified way.]
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Oh, wait, there he goes, spilling very elegantly onto the deck and snapping Rita out of her thoughts. She heads over and crouches next to him--not worried, because all he did was fall over, really.]
Hmm...that was pretty weird. Looks like he thinks you're close enough to a human.
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You were expecting that, though. [He did use to human, not to mention that jinrou like him were built to blend in. Maybe if the item wasn't holy, it wasn't as effective...] It can be a problem if you try using him on the captain, though.
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The captain's something else entirely. I wouldn't even know how to start calibrating the barrier...
[She frowns a moment before focusing back on Natsuno curiously.]
I wasn't expecting the barrier to work on you at all. It's almost like...he couldn't quite decide. Are shiki related to humans?
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Used to be humans. [A shrug. His face is impassive as usual.] Then we changed.
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[Rita's face remains blank for a moment--before she does something like a double-take. She's never heard of anything like this before.]
--Wait, what? You...changed? How?
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There was a plague in the village I lived in. Most of those who got sick died. [And some of the dead rose.] I changed.
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A...what? How does...
[Look, biology isn't anywhere near her specialty, but she's pretty sure diseases don't normally work like this?!]
How does getting sick change someone that much? That means you didn't have those regenerative powers before, right? What the hell kind of disease was that?
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[At the time, he thought the adults in the village were idiots for not seeing the truth, but now that he has to come up with a convincing excuse - "a blood disease" is pretty accurate, isn't it? And Dr. Ozaki was very thorough in his research, enough for Natsuno to sound convincing with second-hand medical terms.]
It attacks the red blood cells. Usually, it just destroys them... but sometimes they change into something else. [A shrug.] I don't know how it happens, but that's what it is.
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[It sounds pretty weird to her, really.]
I mean, the way you've put it just makes it sound like you're a human with some weird blood.
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Something else is something else. Where do you draw the line between "human" and "not human"?
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[Scientifically, there's probably a line, but she's not interested. Estelle is human. The Krityans have long ears and antennae and some odd powers, but they're also humans.
More importantly, she's giving him a considering look, because despite what she just said...it's starting to seem pretty obvious to her who might care.]
Why are you so insistent on calling yourself "something else"? Did that change bother you that much?
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[Did he want to die repeatedly by a falling sign, magic spears and burning moon boss magic? Of course not. Does it make him feel like a monstrous freak every time he walks off something any other passenger would never recover from? Yes.]
I'll never get old. I won't die of natural causes. You think I want to stay fifteen forever?
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[Part of her is getting skeptical. He has no reason to lie, though, so she's trying to roll with it...even as it's sounding really weird as a disease outcome. Other worlds just seem to be getting weird in general...
Would Rita want to be fifteen forever? Maybe--there's always so much to study and learn, a single lifetime could never be enough to discover everything the world has to offer--but she's never thought about it either, since it's always just been a simple fact that people age.]
How long have you been like this? If you don't actually age, does that mean you're really an old man?
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It's been several months, including the time I've been stuck here.
[His second life lasted barely a month. Somehow it feels much longer.]
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...So it hasn't even been a year and you're already brooding over the lonely destiny of an immortal, or whatever? That was awful fast.
[Look...this is all a little strange and she's temporarily forgotten the part where most of the people he knew may have very well died already...]
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