Reappearance of a Missing Maiden

(W&C) [08:15:02:38] <@Wander>
Some time passes, then the door creaks open, a series of dull thumps signaling the entrance of a figure in battered steel armor.  A western-styled knight, judging by the gauntlets, iron-shod boots, and breastplate.  The figure also wears a face-concealing horned helm that lends the ensemble something of a demonic look.  When the knight turns to beckon someone else along, a battered iron maul is visible strapped to their back.
“Come along, then.  I'll not be led here only for you to refuse to enter, courier.” The helm does little to disguise the knight's voice.  Rough-sounding, female, and probably not beyond her late teens.  Given the locale and the fact that even in the armor, she doesn't quite reach five and a half feet tall, a girl is really to be expected.
At the knight's request, in comes another, somewhat shorter girl, clad in a long yellow coat trimmed with fur at the edges, black tights, and brown leather boots.  She keeps her head bowed within the coat's hood, but there's something unmistakably *familiar* about her, at least to *one* of the waitresses present, today.
The girl doesn't speak, simply glances around beneath her hood, seeming to freeze when her focus settles on Alex.
“If this place is as peaceful as you claimed, you ought not to be so nervous,” the knight advises, letting the door swing shut, then nudging the smaller girl forward a few steps.

<LeftHandofGod>	 The one who recognizes neither throws a wave and the stock standard greeting: "Welcome to the Wand and Circlet!" She's busy bussing tables, though, so the pair might be better served aiming for the girl at the bar.

<Trimangle>	 Alex glances at the incoming knight in shining (?) armor. Her eyes widen, then narrow, posture becoming questioning. "Welcome to the Wand and Circlet," she starts, echoing the younger girl's greeting. "May I help you...?"
Her gaze falls also on the young girl in the coat, and something stirs, a formless recognition.

<@Wander>	 The pair slowly make their way over toward the bar, with the knight having to nudge her smaller companion again every few steps.  Despite this, the smaller girl makes no sound of protest, perhaps because the knight's nudges are more encouraging than forceful.
And yet, when they reach the bar, the first thing that the smaller girl does upon finding a seat is slump facedown on the counter and give a forlorn sigh.
“Always so dramatic,” the knight comments, drawing fourth her maul with an oddly delicate flourish only to gently lean it against the counter and dismiss her armor in a burst of lights.
From beneath that western-styled exterior comes an eastern-looking teen, with dark eyes and black hair, freckled and sun-kissed skin, and an abundance of faded scars upon her face and hands.  Japanese or Korean, maybe?  Well, perhaps half-Western.  Regardless, she gives a cheerful grin when she can look Alex directly in the eyes.  With the armor gone, she's left clad in a white tunic and pants, the left sleeve of the former adorned with a kiteshield-shaped patch displaying a silver honeycomb pattern and two bars above it.  Presumably, an indicator of some sort of military rank.
“Natalia Lin, of the Seven Shields,” she says by way of a greeting, holding a hand out to Alex as she climbs onto a stool. “Technically, I guess I ought not to drink on the job, but... I get the feeling my charge here will order something strong.  I'd hate to be left out when she does, you know?”

<Trimangle>	 Alex scans the smaller girl with an avid expression as she approaches and sits. It's only the lightshow that drags her attention away from the girl. It takes her a second to extend her hand, and it's with a start that she does. "Alexandra Ridgeway. Alex," she says, shaking her head as if to clear a fog. "I understand. What's your pleasure?" she asks, stepping to the side and gesturing to the shelves behind her. "We got anything you can think of." Her gaze flicks back towards the knight's unknown companion.

<LeftHandofGod>	 Curious eyes watch from across the room - but the bar is definitely not Cherish's domain, and she doesn't really belong to this conversation anyway. So she watches curiously, keeping her distance as she wipes down tables and fetches a couple refills for a table in the back.

<@Wander>	 “Eh, I'll have whatever you'd recommend after a long journey,” Natalia replies.  She looks to her companion, grin faltering a bit when the smaller girl doesn't speak up. “Come on, don't leave me hanging, here.  This place is an old haunt of yours, isn't it?” She tugs the girl's hood off, revealing a neck-length mess of chestnut brown hair.
The small girl forces herself to sit up, shaking her head and fixing Alex with weary, yellow-eyed stare. “...Honestly, all I want is a hug from an old friend,” Aysu says, trying and conspicuously failing to muster a smile.

<Trimangle>	 Alex freezes. "Aysu," she breathes, her eyes widening. "Aysu! My God, it's been a dog's age," she says, her voice filling with excitement, already starting to move from behind the bar. "I've got just the thing in mind, Natalia, if I could beg your pardon." She quickly moves to stand next to Aysu, arms open, but not pulling Aysu off her stool.

<@Wander>	 Aysu rises right into Alex's embrace, her hands clenching at the taller girl's back and face pressing to Alex's chest. “I th-thought you were dead, Alex,” the small girl murmurs, squeezing tighter. “Last I saw, y-you and Niva were about to fight that insect girl that ambushed us at the end of the station.  I remember getting kicked in the head and knocked through the ending portal, then... n-neither of you ever showed up on my end, s-so I...”
If Alex tries to think back, she can recall the scenario, the way that the railyard ended in an overgrown garden full of grave markers, seemingly watched over by a feral magical girl clad in armor made from the bronze-shelled insects that once overtook the station.  Aysu had been forced through the portal first, then Niniva had soon tackled the enemy through, leaving Alex as the last to enter.
When she did so, she had found herself alone, somewhere dark and subterranean that had been characterized by the sound of rushing water and chittering insects.  Finding her way out through countless narrow tunnels had proven impossible even after several hours and her comrades were nowhere to be found, so with the chittering growing closer on all sides... well, she could hardly be blamed for resorting to her Interdimensional Home to escape and simply trying to retrace her steps back to the station, in the hope of the portal from there leading her to the others the next time.  In the end, however, the search for her companions was a fruitless one.
What brings her back to the present is the undignified sniffling of the girl she's hugging.  As Aysu looks up, it's all too apparent that she's crying.  That should be impossible, right?  Aysu never shed tears, and even claimed she physically couldn't.  And yet, here she is, crying while Natalia politely looks away.

<Trimangle>	 Horror fills Alex's expression as the year-gone memory crashes over her. "Oh Jesus, Aysu..." Her arms close tighter around the girl. "I...I thought *you two* w-were dead!" She, too, tears up. "You got knocked through the portal...a-and then Niniva tackled the girl through, e-even though...I t-told him we could take her! But...the portal must have been....u-unstable, because when -I- went through....I was somewhere dark. U-Underground." She shakes her head, shoulders trembling. "I spent -hours- down there, trying to f-find you. Th-The insects were closing in...so I had to leave. I-If it weren't for my apartment here...I *would* have died.  B-But!" she insists. "I-I tried to come back! I tried so many times..." She cries harder. "I-I ... oh, god, Aysu, the past *year*...where have you been?" She pulls her face away. "....Aysu....you're crying...? How....?"

<@Wander>	 “I n-never saw Niva again.  We *promised* each other we should be together through *everything*, yet all it took to separate us was one foe and a portal...” Aysu takes a shallow, shuddering breath. “I d-did not know how to go back.  There was no portal back, s-so I... so the only thing I could do was press on in my quest.  At that point, I had nothing else I could do...”
Aysu shakes her head and draws back, wiping at her eyes.  Her coat is clearly of a different make than the one she used to wear.  Perhaps more tellingly, the blue tinge to her sclera that she used to say  signified her status as the chosen inheritor of her mother's bloodline is... *gone*.
Pulling herself back onto her bar stool, she gives Alex an unhealthy, almost *pleading* little smile. “I think that, if I tell you my story, I... shall need a strong drink to get through it. 'Tis not a happy tale, you see...”

<Trimangle>	 "...I never saw Niva again either," Alex says in a very small voice. She sighs, walking back behind the bar at a very measured pace. "Of course," she says quietly. "Aysu, I...I'm sorry I got separated from you. I tried for days, but the portal never took me to the same place twice, and I never saw any signs of you." She spreads her arms and grips the rail of the bar, searching Aysu's gaze. "...I'm guessing you can't have that special decoction anymore." She unhooks herself from the bar, plucking several bottles off the shelves. "...Maker's Mark for you, Natalia--" offering an amber-colored liquid over ice-- "and Six Wise Men for you, Aysu." Another amber-colored liquid is proffered to the yellow-coated girl; this glass had six different bottles poured into it.


<@Wander>	 “If only,” Aysu murmurs, shaking her head.
Natalia, for her part, seems quite satisfied with her drink.  She coughs once, thumping a hand to her chest and grinning. “Ah, damn, this is *way* better than the weak stuff that's so common back home.  Haven't had anything like this since...” she trails off, giving a blink. “...Well, it's been *years*.”
Aysu sighs, then looks down at her drink.  She takes a gentle sip, then nods. “'Six Wise Men', was it?  Would that I could have beheld some wisdom before foolishly seeking to challenge my sisters *alone*...”

<Trimangle>	 Alex winces. "That badly, huh." She sighs, glancing at Natalia and offering a grin. "It's pretty good bourbon. Some of the best I've had, personally." She switches back to Aysu. "So, after you got knocked through the portal...you were where you were supposed to be, obviously. What happened next?"

<@Wander>	 “After that portal, I found myself in a place of thin, crooked streets and tall walls, where the heavens were as eternal twilight.  I was but a solitary traveler, yet not so lonesome as I might have liked,” Aysu states. “I had to make haste onward, lest I be overwhelmed by the deep dwellers that nested there.”
“Translation,” Natalia interjects, “The Narrows, are cramped and dark and full of things that go bump in the night.  My people occasionally train Seekers there, our scouts, though this girl somehow slipped through unseen into the edge of our territory *proper*.”
“Please allow me to tell my story in mine own words,” Aysu grumbles, taking a larger sip of her drink.
Natalia holds her hands up in mock surrender, which Aysu takes as her cue to continue. “I had to fight a fair few times along the way, taking a few wounds in the process, but nothing so severe as to truly debilitate me.  Even so, I had gone a few days without rest when I reached the Bridge over the Deep, beyond which stood a great wall, the last barrier before I might reach my home seas.  Only, the bridge and wall were guarded by a maiden clad in a raiment of fire.”
Natalia gives a snort, choking on her drink in the process.  Evidently, she thinks that Aysu's vocabulary isn't quite up to the task of explaining everything *properly*.  She's probably not wrong, even if that sentiment earns her a glare from the smaller girl.

<Trimangle>	 Alex's gaze switches from Aysu to Natalia; she resolves to get the translated version after Aysu finishes. "So your world and Natalia's world are the same?" she surmises, glancing at the knight. "Must be, if you knew where you were going. But then...a girl wearing fire. Another magical girl?"

<@Wander>	 “Hell no they're not the same!  My people have called Overcity their home for *centuries*,” Natalia answers, shaking her head.  “And Jeanne doesn't wear *fire*.  Her uniform's patterned with *Autumn leaves*, though I can see why it'd give the impression of fire to a girl from somewhere so...” she waves a hand, looking for a word that's reasonably polite.
“...So *tropical*, you mean to say?” Aysu grumbles out.  Evidently, this is something of a sore spot for her.  It's likely enough that Natalia meant to imply Aysu was something of a primitive. “In any case, yes, a magical girl.  One who was initially hostile, but her eyes were kind enough that I was able to swallow my pride and explain my situation, thereby gaining enough trust to be permitted within the outpost she and her tribe guarded, that I might rest and recover for a short time.  In exchange for my service in descending to slay a few monsters found within the Deep that lay beneath the bridge, I was granted passage through the wall, into the City of Drowning.”
At this, Natalia opens her mouth again, but another stare from Aysu quickly cuts off whatever she was going to say.
“...There, I met Keone, who sought to dissuade me from proceeding onward, claiming that I was not fit to battle for our Inheritance and would only lose everything I held dear to try.  I told her I already had, and she found that terribly amusing.  Amusing enough to drown me, even, though I did not truly die as I thought I might.  Rather, she showed me that to drown in the depths was to become more fully a Daughter of them.  By the time I regained consciousness beneath the waves, Keone had departed for our home seas.  I followed after, of course.  She had even left a trail of blade marks to show me the path...”

<Trimangle>	 "Sorry," she says to Natalia. "I figured that since she was identifying areas as if she knew them, then she'd made it to her world. No offense meant." She shakes her head, then refocuses on Aysu. "So you finally met one of your siblings..." She nods. "You say 'blade marks,' what do you mean?"

<@Wander>	 “Ah, 'tis a diver's trick for marking places of import.  Keone etched sigils upon undersea objects for me to trace a path with.  For instance, one upon the side of a sunken building was 'arch' and a marker that led me further downward, so I sought the next marker beneath an archway.  That one was 'blood' and the markers were 'right' and 'in', so I searched to my right, fight through a pack of sea beasts to reach a bloated corpse she'd anchored to the seabed, then had to reach within, earning a fair few bites from the beast's scavengers in the process.”
Aysu sips at her drink some more. “It was clear enough after a few more markers that she had found plenty of time to prepare such a course and was watching me from outside of my perceptions.  In truth, it reminded me of the games we used to play as children.  'Twas only at 'water' 'sound' 'fear' that I realized she had made some of the etchings to present lethal danger if someone misunderstood them and followed their instructions.  That one, I had to ignore the direction of, though it left me wary of the sounds around me until the hunt was finished.”
“Ugh, from what I've heard, Sea Noises were half the reason we cordoned off the Drowned District a few generations back in the first place,” Natalia comments, shuddering to herself as she nurses her own drink. “Heard stories about teams beset by a ringing bloop, then the sea around them turning red as-”
“Lin, I *do not* want to know,” Aysu quickly interjects, shaking her head. “I do not want to know what horrors lurked unseen beyond mine eyes.  *Please* do not tell me.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex shudders as well. "Sounds like she was toying with you," she notes, seeming to immediately grasp the concept of blade marks once explained. "Wanted to see how you'd do." She shakes her head. "Or expected you to foul up, perhaps."

<@Wander>	 “I suspect she was ready to intercede and save me, were I to err and place my life in immediate mortal danger.  'Twas always Keone's nature to waste time on frivolous tasks when the simple way would have sufficed.  Still, mayhap she sought to test me, that she might be assured I could still navigate beneath the waves after spending so much time landbound.” Aysu shrugs. “In truth, I never thought to ask her intentions on that front.  Not even once the markers led me through a Tearstone nest and back at last into my home seas, where she brought me aboard a ship of her own, drawing my tired and bloodied body up from the water, that she might personally tend to my wounds.”
“What a *lovely* sister you have, to indebt you to her by saving your life after she'd led you into a den of monsters,” Natalia mutters, swirling her half-finished glass of bourbon.
“Speak ill of her and regret it,” Aysu grumbles. “Only *I* get to speak ill of her!”
“Alright, alright, sorry.  Don't bite my head off, shark girl.” Natalia sounds sincere, or at the very least least not truly mocking, but Aysu's expression only hardens at being compared to a shark.

<Trimangle>	 Alex's eyes flick to Natalia, and she shakes her head a little. "Best not to," she advises. "That was one of the first things I learned." She offers a wan smile to soften the impact of her words. Then, she refocuses on Aysu. "So she was toying with you, or testing you, or something. Then you ended up back home, on board one of her ships. Was your other sister there, as well?"

<@Wander>	 “No, Yulia and Keone had long since dropped out of contact.  As Keone explained it, after I parted from my family, they drifted apart.  Yulia stayed with mother and Keone sought to carve her own path.  In the end, though, she wound up serving another Dancer.  'Tis rare enough to find a Daughter of Depths who holds no illusions about being the intended Inheritor, but rarer still to find one who would turn her back on her mother and yet live to tell of it.  I suppose Keone's mistress was using her as a tool to hunt down our mother, but Keone didn't care.  She extended an offer of protection to me, though how well she could enforce it, I could not say.”
Aysu shakes her head. “Even so, with the position I found myself in, alone and injured aboard a ship Keone and her mistress held sway over... I had to at least tell her that I would *consider* the offer.  She laughed at my words, knowing that they were a refusal, but not pressing me on it.  Rather, she said that I could decide who I fought for when we reached Yulia and mother.  'Twould take us a matter of weeks to reach the island they had been traced to, but in the mean time, she claimed we had plenty of time to start rebuilding our sisterly bonds.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex listens, then shudders at that last sentence. "Why does that not fill me with happy thoughts?" she asks rhetorically. "So Yulia still served your mother, Keone served this unknown Dancer, and you were at the moment a free agent, so to speak." She rubs at her jaw, glances between the girls, and begins mixing up refreshed drinks. "How'd you pass the time?"

<@Wander>	 “Sharing stories of our adventures and the people we'd met.  Getting to know her crew.  And,of course, knife-fighting to first blood in our human forms 'to stay sharp', as Keone put it.” Aysu rolls up one of her sleeves, displaying a few faint pink scars along her forearm.  If they bother her, it doesn't show on her face. “I was... rather out of practice, though I should have to be twice the fool I am in order to believe my sister failed to realize that going in.”
“Making me hella glad I'm an only child, here,” Natalia mutters under her breath.

<Trimangle>	 Alex blinks, tilting her head. "Okay, that's...less sinister than I thought it would be." She scratches her jaw. "The way you put it to me before we set out, the three of you loathed each other, but...that makes it sound downright polite."

<@Wander>	 “I did attempt to talk about what happened back when we were younger, but that prompted her to say that she got enough reminder of that every time she saw her reflection.  She certainly seemed to *enjoy* my sickly reaction to the sight of her uncovering her old wounds to show me what she meant.  Though 'twas improper, I thought it only fair to display my own in turn.  Merely being *near* her made them hurt again, though... 'twas mutual.”
Aysu sighs. “Of course, Keone's nature is such that merely seeing something is not enough to satisfy her, so she offered me the chance to touch her wounds if she could do the same to mine.  Whether 'twas a sincere gesture or one meant to distress me, the effect was certainly the latter, so... we spoke not of the incident from then on.”
“She the type to want to lick someone's scars?” Natalia blithely asks.
Aysu chokes on her drink, then shoots the knight a glare, plainly tinged red with embarrassment.
“What, I've known the type,” she says, scratching absentmindedly at a scar across her lips. “Fun at parties, but definitely not the type most girls would want to be alone with, let alone be related to.”
“Hunger and violence are part of a Dancer's nature,” Aysu grumbles, clearly a bit resentful of the fact that she's suddenly having to defend her sister from such accusations. “But no, Keone would not lick me in that or *any* way, nor would I let her!  Not even if she offered!  I am a pure maiden!  And also not for eating.”
To be reacting like this, perhaps neither girl has an especially high alcohol tolerance.  Aysu must have lost hers when she lost other things, while Natalia did mention never getting to have strong liquor.

<Trimangle>	 Alex snorts at Natalia's question, and then quickly realizes the kind of mistake she might have made. She pushes the glasses aside...resolving not to resupply the two girls. "Anyway," Alex says, leaning forward. "This *fascinating* sidelight aside...what happened when you reached the island?"

<@Wander>	 Aysu sighs, running her hands through her hair. “Why, we... we fought, of course.  I had still not agreed to siding with Keone and her mistress, so just before we were to confront Yulia in her hidden seaside cove, Keone brandished knife and axe at me, claiming that there could only be *one* inheritor, so If I sought to claim the inheritance, I would have to claim *her* right to it as well, else I would merely obtain a pitiful shadow of mother's full strength.  I asked her to stay her hand until we had bested Yulia, but she would not hear of it, saying that I owed her a proper conclusion to our duel all those years back, one she would never get if Yulia slew one or both of us.”
The look she gives Alex then is one fraught with guilt. “In truth, I... I *wanted* to fight her.  My fell maiden side *especially* did, claiming that either the trauma of the battle that had awakened her or my old wounds were likely the reason she and I had grown to be so at odds.  I could not fight myself and Keone at once, so I had no choice but to accept the latter's challenge...”

<Trimangle>	 Alex's answering look is one of sympathy. "Aysu...shit. I know what that's like. I don't blame you, and you shouldn't blame yourself, either." Alex reaches out and rests her hand on Aysu's shoulder.

<@Wander>	 “Despite my doubts, I managed to fight with joy in my heart.  In the end, though, I lost.  Or rather, I *should* have lost that fight, but Keone, she... she hesitated when I was due a mortal blow and it... it cost her both pairs of arms.”
Aysu's shoulders shake and she gives a small sob, tears dripping onto the counter. “Ah, my great and terrible sister, she *laughed* about that.  Said it meant that I had what it took to be a Dancer, that I was *cold* and *cruel* enough to slay mine own sisters where she was not.  She was *proud* of me as she told me to do her one last kindness by burying her axe in Yulia's face.”
Natalia, for her part, clearly hasn't heard this story, given the sickly expression that's come over her face.
“...And yet,” Aysu continues, “When I took the axe, when I *felt* Keone's might flow out of her and into me, she still didn't... she didn't stop breathing.  She was faint, certainly, but as her crew set to tending her wounds, she told me that she couldn't bear to die until she saw me return triumphant.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex closes her eyes and dips her head slightly. She'd heard some of what it means to be a Dancer, certainly, but theory only -- never the practice. "Oh, Aysu," she breathes, sighing. "I wish I could have stood with you."

<@Wander>	 “'Twould scarcely have helped,” Aysu murmurs. “I went to face Yulia alone, but after what happened with Keone, after her attempt at encouraging me, I... no longer wanted anything that path had in store for me.  My darker-eyed self did, but without our hearts as one... and likely even *with* them as one... 'twas like mother once said.  We might as well have been trying to *climb raindrops*, for all that we accomplished.”
Aysu rubs at her eyes. “Cold words were exchanged, then in an instant, we were in motion toward Yulia.  In the next, a most terrible pain, as though my very being were torn asunder, even more fully than Keone managed so long ago!  The fight was over as soon as it started, but we were fools desperate and fearful, especially my fell maiden side, for whom there could be no retreat!  We fought with Drifter's Departure, our crossbow, until Yulia dissolved it away and we found ourselves unable to reclaim it!  We fought with Keone's axe, until Yulia *broke it in twain*!  The sunblade Keone gave me as a birthday present, my beloved *coat*, my *claws* and *teeth* and *body* and *blood*, ***all*** of them, ***taken***!  N-not even my *other self* was allowed to remain as she b-begged forgiveness for... f-for our transgressions against a *higher being*...”
As Aysu recounts her final battle, the words spill forth faster and faster, until she finally clams up at the end, withdrawing into her coat to shiver and sob and hide.

<Trimangle>	 Alex's expression grows more and more drawn, more mortified as Aysu continues her tale. She stands firm as the girl despairs in her retelling, and then, when Aysu clams up, she steps out from behind the bar again. "Oh, *Aysu*," she breathes, and this time she *does* tug Aysu off her stool and embrace her again, murmuring in her ear and swaying slightly on her feet.

<@Wander>	 Aysu doesn't say anything further, nor does she manage to return the hug.  Instead, she just quietly sobs, barely even managing to stay on her feet without Alex's support.    The weight of the trauma inflicted by the girl's eldest sister has clearly shattered something in her spirit.

<Trimangle>	 This much is clear to the elder girl. And just as clear is her self-perceived duty -- to help mend that shattering as much as she can. It's the lesson that Ashelyn taught her so long ago: you have to heal the spirit to truly make a difference. "Shh, shh. It's okay, Aysu. You're with me, now. You found me."

<@Wander>	 It takes Aysu some time to even start calming down, but even when she does, it's just the sobbing that falls silent.  She keeps shivering, even as she starts desperately clinging to Alex again.
In the background, Natalia is left totally unsure of what to do.  She obviously doesn't know Aysu especially well, so this breakdown seems to have come out of left field to her.

<Trimangle>	 Alex is quite content to play Aysu's rock. She was her fast friend before they were separated, and she has no intention of being any different. Alex raises her gaze over Aysu's shoulder and gives Natalia a steady gaze, starting to stroke Aysu's back. "Thank you," she whispers to the knight.

<@Wander>	 Aysu just gives a soft murmur of something in a foreign tongue.  Alex can catch her name, at least so it's probably an expression of gratitude.
Natalia gives a weak smile, whispering back, “We need to talk later.  If you can arrange a room for her, that'd be good.  I can't stomach the thought of taking her back too soon, after this.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "I'll make it happen. One for you, as well, if you want it." She holds Aysu against her, starting to hum a formless little tune.

<@Wander>	 “That'd be appreciated, yes.  I can pay for them well enough,” Natalia says.
Aysu seems to react better to the humming than most of the attempts at comforting her thus far, her grip and shivering both easing somewhat.

<Trimangle>	 Alex breaks off, shaking her head. "I won't hear of it. I'll take care of it," she replies. "I wouldn't ask anyone to pay in this situation, and certainly not the girl responsible for bringing her back." She returns her head to Aysu's shoulder, starting to hum again-- this time, to the tune of Two Little Boys. ( https://youtu.be/HmL3m2zcoOI )

<@Wander>	 “...Well, if you insist, I suppose that's that for now,” the girl admits with a shrug.
Aysu plainly doesn't recognize the tune, but it's the act of humming itself that's serving to reassure her.  She rests her head against Alex and gives a soft little sigh.

<Trimangle>	 Alex moves to lift the girl, carrying her bridal-style. She's stronger than she looks, and Aysu is light, so it's no problem. She looks back at the Old Man, and he hucks her a key, which she catches deftly. "I'll go get Aysu put to bed and make sure she sleeps. Then we can talk."

<@Wander>	 “Sounds good, yeah,” Natalia agrees, giving Alex a thumbs up.
Aysu is quite possibly the lightest she's ever been.  Perhaps underweight, even.  Her hands are pulled in to her chest as she's lifted up and she fixes Alex with a nervous, tear-streaked gaze.  She says nothing, but the unspoken message is a clear plea not to drop her.

<Trimangle>	 Alex looks down at the girl compassionately. Her gaze is rock-steady, and between her eyes and smile, the closest word is "promise." There's a promise -- several promises -- in her expression. "I won't drop you," "I'm here for you," and more. She takes Aysu up the stairs and into the first open room, then uses her magic to flip down the covers. She lays Aysu down and then lays herself down beside Aysu, on the theory that that closeness, combined with further humming, will help Aysu get to sleep faster.

<@Wander>	 Aysu doesn't complain, though she does attempt to remove her boots when she's set on the bed.  As Alex joins her, the tears and sniffling start up again, and she promptly buries her face against the older girl.

<Trimangle>	 Alex helps Aysu get her boots off first, naturally. Alex wraps her arms around the girl, stroking her back and humming, almost crooning. "It's okay, Aysu. You're back among friends, and I *will* help you. However you need it."

<@Wander>	 “*I miss Niva,*” the small girl abruptly murmurs.

<Trimangle>	 "I know," Alex murmurs back. "He was a good friend to me, and even more to you."

<@Wander>	 “He n-never... my other self wanted to... and I was scared... b-but with how things played out, I d-don't even know if I'd...” Aysu gives a series of little sobs.  She needs a minute to get herself back under a semblance of control again.
“...D-did everything turn out like this b-because of *me*?” she asks.  It's all too terribly apparent what answer she thinks is must be the right one.

<Trimangle>	 Alex shakes her head. "I don't think so. Nobody could have predicted the portal acting up, Aysu. Not you, me, or God." She strokes the girl's back and shoulders. "I know that if we were standing beside you, you would have won, and could have chosen your own path."

<@Wander>	 “I... I *did* choose my own path.  I *maimed Keone for life*.  I fled from my family to escape the shame.  I returned even knowing I would have to fight my sisters.  I crippled and nearly killed Keone.  And th-then, I threw away *everything* she had entrusted me with by challenging Yulia.” Aysu wipes at her face with an overly long sleeve. “All along, I think I've been making my own choices on my path.  I just... always, *always* chose *wrong*!”

<Trimangle>	 "But you chose," Alex murmurs. "Sometimes, that's the important part." She strokes Aysu's back. "You did what you felt you had to do. Did it work out? Well, it doesn't sound like it, that's true." She sighs, long and drawn-out. "I wish I could offer you more than my shoulder to cry on, and I swear I will. I *will* help you through this."

<@Wander>	 “What has h-happened to me.. what has *become of* me, it... it c-cannot be undone,” Aysu mumbles out, rubbing at her eyes some more. “I should have thrown in my lot with Keone. A mother that could encourage her children to war with one another... does not deserve loyalty. Had I seized victory over Yulia, and claimed our fell Inheritance, I would have... seen myself become the same as she was. Even with all I have lost, I yet persist in part because Yulia said that... to live on as a human is the great curse of the failed successors, yet also our... our greatest opportunity to defy our fates.”

<Trimangle>	 "Could you have lived under Keone?" Alex asks. "Have served another Dancer, as she does? From what you've said, I would take Keone over Yulia, true, but." She remains silent a moment, holding the young girl to her. "You might be right, at that. Had you bested Yulia, had you fought that monster and won, you may have become a monster yourself. But, as you say about fates...I can't say whether you might have defied it.
"Yulia's right in at least this much: humanity represents infinite potential." She runs her fingers through Aysu's hair. "Maybe it can't be undone," she admits, "but I can and will help you pick yourself back up. Heal your wounds. Find your path. That's my duty as a magical girl."

<@Wander>	 “In truth, I... could probably have found the stomach for it, so long as I did not have to submit *directly to Keone*,” Aysu answers. “In the end, I suppose it does not matter. I am here because *both* of my sisters saw fit to spare me. Keone was the one I have at times called *cruel* despite our closeness, but Yulia was never worse than distant and uncaring. Not even as she...”
Aysu takes a deep, shuddering breath. “...Not even *then* did she seem to look upon me with much worse than mere *pity*. 'Twas as if I was merely her final test of resolve, a sister who did not wish to fight, yet fought on merely in desperation. She did not hesitate against me, so... why should she think to spare me? Was it an act of cruelest mercy? A solitary defiance against our mother's expectations for her? Or merely that... a human was not even worth the *effort* of killing?”
It's clear enough that these questions of motive have plagued Aysu for no small amount of time. She surely cannot have been sleeping well. “I might have *liked* if she had ended my suffering, right then, but instead she merely turned away...”
At this, Aysu closes her eyes. “I think I... do not wish to speak of the past anymore. You need not trouble yourself over wounds unhealing. I was faring... w-well enough, until I sought to tell you of what happened. And my path is... not so lost as it once was...”

<Trimangle>	 Alex has her own opinion on why Yulia saw fit to spare her friend. But-- "Very well, Aysu. I won't bring it up again unless you do," she responds. "But whenever you want to talk - about *anything* - I'll be here. You just need to call for me." She smiles fondly. "And I'll help you on your path, no matter what." She closes her limbs about the girl, cradling her.

<@Wander>	 Aysu manages a smile back at that, albeit a terribly weak one. “R-right, I... p-probably ought to be feeling a little better tomorrow. For now, I merely want... rest.”
And with that, Aysu closes her eyes once more. With any luck, it'll be for the remainder of the night.

<Trimangle>	 Alex waits a handful of minutes, to ensure the girl's fast asleep. Then, she gently extricates herself and pulls the blankets up around her. She looks down at the little girl, seeming even smaller now that she's covered up, and kneels, resting her hand on the girl's shoulder. "...Never forget there are people who care about you," she murmurs. Then, she rises, exits the room, and heads back down to face Natalia.

<@Wander>	 Alone in the bed, Aysu looks very small and vulnerable. It's a testament to her trust in Alex that she can fall asleep in the older girl's arms. That, or she's so exhausted that she didn't have much choice in the matter. It didn't take her long to drift off.
Back down at the bar, the odd knight clearly ordered herself another drink, but rather than drinking it as she did the first, she mostly just stares down into it contemplatively. In some ways, it's an image reminiscent of how Aysu used to be whenever she'd ordered a mug of tea.
That contemplative look is quickly replaced with soft smile when Alex approaches. The effect is... odd, when paired with such a prominent assortment of scars. “The kid get to sleep alright?” she asks, lifting her glass to her lips and taking a small sip.

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. She dismisses her maid uniform, garbing herself in her magical raiment in a brief shimmer of silver. She slips onto a stool next to Natalia. "Yeah. I got her to sleep," she replies, sighing and resting her arms on the bar. "She needed it, too." She smiles back, gently, minutely. "Thank you again, Natalia. For caring for her, and bringing her back. So what's your story?"

<@Wander>	 “So she did, yeah. I would've have had an easy enough time carrying her as I followed the directions we'd been given to get to here, but that girl *insisted* upon walking the whole way on her own two feet.” Natalia takes another sip of her drink, then rests an elbow on the counter, propping her cheek up against a fist.
“...As for *my* story, well... I suppose that depends on whether you mean where I hail from, how I met your little friend, or just *me, personally*.”

<Trimangle>	 "All of the above, really. Let's start with where you're from and who the Seven Shields are; I've never heard of that group before. The insignia on your sleeve -- you're a Captain, I take it? A Lieutenant?"

<@Wander>	 “Ah, this?” Natalia lifts her head off her fist, hand going to the patch to rub absentmindedly at it. “Formally, I suppose the title they announce me by when I've been given commendations has been Natalia Lin, Slayer-Ascendant of the Order of Seven Shields. I suppose the closest equivalent in a more...,” she waves a hand, “*...terrestrial* civilization would be... something like a Sergeant, I'd guess? Trainees just get the shield patch, they get our emblem when they graduate to Apprentice, and then the next two promotions are the bars. In effect, I'm experienced enough to be properly vetted, but I'm *far* from being a commanding officer.”
Natalia sighs, shaking her head. “...Honestly, it's no surprise you've not heard of the Shields. The name isn't one that has a lot of pull, these days. Probably *never* did, but nowadays, it's all but unknown outside our walls. Still, who we are is...” She takes a sip of her drink as she tries to sort out how to explain it. “The *short* version is that we're an Overcity-dwelling civilization. Possibly the *largest* Overcity-dwelling civilization, though that I won't claim for certain, given that we've emphasized self-defense and survival over active expansion for *generations*, now.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods along with the explanation of rank. "Certainly a lot of surviving and self-defense to be doing out here," she agrees. "Are you at least based out of a stable zone? Are you at least holding the monsters at a stalemate?"

<@Wander>	 “Well yeah, if it *wasn't* a stable zone, we'd never be able to support a sustainable population. People would lose track of each other or *starve* or so on...” From Natalia's physique, she's surely never had to worry about starving. She seems to be the athletic sort of stocky, and though her uniform is a bit loose-fit for ease of movement, it's plain to see that she has a far more womanly figure than Aysu does... not that that's a difficult feat.
“A *stalemate* isn't quite right,” Natalia says. “Wandering monsters are *virtually unheard of* on our streets in this day and age, though the outer walls of our territory still have to contend with them and a few of our *former* holdings are still too infested to resettle. The garden variety man-eating monsters aren't the worst things out there, anyway.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods again. "Glad to hear you've got the situation under control on the ground. What do you have to deal with that's worse than the man-eaters?" Alex seems both interested in Natalia's story personally and on an academic level; it never hurts to learn more about the "local" monster population.

<@Wander>	 “Well, you've got your giant super-monsters that can level cities. You've got your virulent magical plagues and afflictions for which there are generally no known cure when they first strike. And you've also got the occasional military assault from, as two examples, either some ancient lich's army of darkness or some uppity terrestrial world united by a conqueror that then set his sights on Overcity.” Natalia casually lists these three things off on her fingers. “...And then there's your more *conventional* kinds of civilized hell in the form of politics and logistics and immigration. I do *not* envy the people that have to work immigration services.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods, and it seems like she's trying to make mental notes of what Natalia has to say. "...Magical afflictions. I know a little bit about that...ran into a problem with some sort of body-control ooze a while back. Not the best. Um...fortunately, I haven't heard of many kaiju attacks recently, so, good that you likely haven't had to deal with those." Then, she laughs at the reference to logistics. "Politics is a hell all its own," she agrees. "You get a lot of prospective immigrants?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “Eh, not as many as some of the higher ups would like, but I'd say we do. About two thirds of our people can at least *vaguely* trace their lineage back some four hundred years to the exodus, but the other third are immigrants from within the past few generations that still have too different of cultures to feel like integrating and marrying into our own. Doesn't help that there's something of a stigma against immigrants, especially toward certain kinds of demihumans.”

<Trimangle>	 "An understandable state of affairs...especially if those kinds are seen as responsible for... issues among your people." She pulls a face. "So...Aysu said she fought Yulia and lost. When did you folks re-enter the picture?"

<@Wander>	 “I suppose it's not *entirely* unfair to point fingers at them when a new plague crops up. It might not be their *fault*, exactly, but generations that are still around *today* lived through some truly *horrific* ones, or at least their parents or grandparents did.”
At the mention of Aysu, Natalia sighs, taking another sip of her drink. “Well, we found her again because she *somehow* got back to Reef-Rift Station's barrier inside the Drowned District. And by 'we', I really just mean Jeanne, as Reef-Rift isn't my posting. Regardless, given that the scans the kid's had *since* then have exhibited no abnormal powers to speak of, the leading assumption has been that she and her sister were transported there by a third party.”

<Trimangle>	 "*And* her sister?" Alex asks sharply. "And...wait...n-no abnormal powers, is she....nonmagical now?" Alex swallows.

<@Wander>	 “...Ah, I suppose that the girl's retelling *would* seem to imply that the older sister eventually died of her wounds, and I think I recall hearing she was *still* in the process of dying from them when Aysu started hammering on the access hatch and crying out for help. But if there's one area that my people excel, it's lifesaving medical tech.” For a moment, she grins, though Alex's second question promptly crushes the grin before it can fully settle. “...And yes, by all functional metrics, she's classified as a non-magical human. Not even a demihuman.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex's shoulders slump. "...Shit. Shit ass *fuck*." Her forehead meets the bar with a solid-sounding smack. It's a moment before she pulls her head up again, abstract horror in her gaze. "*Fuck,*" she repeats. "I...I didn't know her Fell Maiden side granted *all* of her power. Aw, hell's bells."

<@Wander>	 “...Among the Shields, the commonly held belief is that magical potential is something that comes from both parents and will *usually* skip a generation, but... *true* power is just *depressingly* rare.” Saying this, Natalia finishes off her drink, then quirks a scar-crossed eyebrow at Alex. “...Honestly though, why would you think her human side would be anything especially notable? It's not like magic *only* dates magic.”

<Trimangle>	 "...I had thought that she had always had power, and her Fell Maiden merely...amplified it, or redirected it." She sighs. "The reading I've done has always suggested that magical power is part of the *soul*, and it would take a great deal of damage *to* a soul to actually...strip a person of their power." She sighs, rubbing the back of her neck. "Maybe I also wanted the world to show her a little kindness."

<@Wander>	 “After seeing her have that breakdown, I can't exactly say she seems like her soul is in the best shape,” Natalia mutters to herself. More openly, however, she replies with, “I dunno. *Physical* wounds are something I can treat, but *anything else*? Shit, I just don't know...”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods slowly, almost unwillingly. "...She's seen a lot. Been through a lot," she admits. "But that's where ... we come in. Or, well, it's where I think I do." She glances at Natalia, a mirthless chuckle escaping her. "I know that sounds aggrandizing. But...it's one of the lessons I took to heart from a.......dear friend of mine from years back." She seemed to hitch there for a second, as if unsure what to say. "The job of a magical girl is to heal the spirit. The spirit of a group, a town, a city...or just one girl. Anyone can heal the body, or put up buildings that were knocked down. But if you can't make the person, the people *feel* safe, *feel* secure...you may as well be fighting the tide." She nods again, somewhat more assured; this is obviously something she took well to heart.

<@Wander>	 “...Honestly, I've always been terrible at that. Probably a mixture of lineage and all the scars,” Natalia mutters, peering down into her empty glass and then ordering yet another drink. “I'm not really much of a magical girl, then. Not that that's any surprise, considering.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex recoils, blanching. "A-Ah! N-no, th-that's not what I meant at all," she says, shaking her head and leaning in. "I'm sure you're a fine magical girl. ...Wait, *considering*?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia gets her next drink, promptly starting on it before giving any sort of answer. “By and large, magical girls and equivalents are well-respected and in high demand among the Shields. *Some*, though? Some are elevated above others because they can trace their blood to one of the founding seven. And out of *those*, you could say I wound up with the *worst* one.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex wrinkles her nose. "Sins of the father," she presumes. "What happened?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia swirls her drink, giving a thoughtful hum for a few moments. “...Okay, this is going to go all over the place because I'm not the best storyteller, but well... the first thing you have to understand is that the founders were all more-or-less unaging, and all of them were granted the power to pass down their powers to their descendants. Only, to be *granted* that latter power was far different from being able to effectively *use* it.”
She shakes her head. “Four centuries is a *long* time and our civilization started out *very* xenophobic, superstitious, and paranoid after the exodus. Mind you, *some* of the founders *declined* to procreate right away for various reasons, but Lin the Iron Lion wanted children. She *wanted* them, but she didn't manage to *have* them, even after wanting them for a *very long time*...”

Alex tilts her head. "What was the matter? Couldn't find a husband, or...how did the founders bear their kids?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “They mostly bore them the normal way, as far as I’m aware.  As for the issue for Lin, I never asked the details, but back in the old days, I imagine they lacked the medical tech to properly diagnose the precise cause, so superstition and rumor took hold in place of proper medical study.  Still, I can’t imagine the rigors of combat helped all that much, nor the woman’s increasingly hedonistic nature.”
She sighs, sipping at her bourbon. “In time, she had all too public a falling out with those among her comrades who were vastly more successful in propagating the bloodlines they’d been promised.”
Shaking her head, the knightess mutters to herself, “...To think, the seven of them stood united when their world was at risk, yet afterward, Lin’s envy of others’ descendants was what drove a wedge into their unity.  Sure, maybe not the *only* wedge, but certainly the largest and most prominent one.  I suppose only Grand Sage Dahlia and First Seeker Barros were spared her ire, though no amount of their collective pull was going to dispel the reputation Lin picked up over the centuries.  She was usually the dissenting opinion, too radical and outspoken and violent to be fit for a leadership role.  To the public eye, she gradually became less a lion than an ogre.”

<Trimangle>	 Barros, Dahlia, Lin. Three of seven. Alex files their names away. "Yet necessary, I wager," Alex offers after Natalia finishes. "Every group needs a devil's advocate, someone to challenge them, to make them defend their views." She tilts her head, drumming her fingers on the bar. "So for some reason, she couldn't bear children at first, and that drove her apart from her companions and worsened the divide. What happened then?"

<@Wander>	 “…Really, nothing immediately came of the falling out.  Sure, the majority of the founders *eventually* started vanishing from the public eye or otherwise dying off, but that presumably wasn’t because of Lin or anything.  I know of a few occasions that she’d been charged with killing citizens, but it was never anything subtle or suspicious, just stupidity and drunken recklessness on the part of one or both parties.”
Natalia sets her nearly empty drink down, propping her chin up with her fists.
 “…Ultimately, I think one of Dhalia’s last projects before she vanished was to sort out Lin’s fertility issue by some means or another.  My father has never told me what that entailed, exactly.  Not beyond the fact that Lin was unbelievably restless after Dhalia essentially *ordered* her to change her lifestyle for the duration of the pregnancy.  Bet she friggin’ hated my guts while she was having to stay away from battles and booze.  I think she stuck around for maybe a week after giving birth, then pissed back off until she’d had her fill of fighting for a little while and wanted to see how her kid was doing again.”

<Trimangle>	 "You are Lin's first child, then?" Alex surmises, tilting her head. "Mmm." She ducks her head, her gaze scanning the bartop briefly. "Sounds to me like it was more Dahlia's imposition that she resented...but I couldn't say for sure, of course." She raises her gaze again. "So the people in your city regard you with suspicion due to your lineage?"

<@Wander>	 “I am, though I’d hesitate to call her my mother.  Harsh as that might sound, the better times in my childhood were those where she wasn’t around.”
Natalia gives a quiet hum of thought, her expression darkening for a few moments before she answers with, “I guess strangers and acquaintances in passing tend to regard me with suspicion, yeah.  Fear, if they ever had to deal with her *personally* or I’ve got the hammer and armor on me, recognizable as they are.  Some even look at me with envy or resentment, figuring my bloodline alone has been what’s got me to become probably one of like, the five youngest people in the entire history of the Slayer Corps to reach Ascendant rank.  That’s probably the most *irritating* reaction, since it’s so *damnably hard to dispute*.  Even *I* have to admit that I’ve got as far as I have owing more to the luck of knowing the right people than to my actual *talents*.”
She shakes her head. “…Well, I guess Jeanne never would’ve picked me for her squad when I was still an Apprentice if not for being sure I’d be able to handle it, but… I guess I only got to know her so that I could spite Lin.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "It's a shitty hand," she empathizes, "and I'm sorry you have to play it." She sighs, chewing her cheek. "Don't let it get to you, knowing the right people. All that can do is open the door; you still need the talent to walk through it. ...What do you mean, to spite her?"

<@Wander>	 “Samantha Beaumont was another of the founding Shields.  Her bloodline is definitely the most prolific, seeing as it’s somehow kept going for pretty much the whole of our history.  Jeanne is like the second-youngest living heir, but Lin hated her guts simply for bearing the surname of Beaumont.”
Natalia grins a mischievous little grin. “I wound up spending quite a bit of my youth at her family’s place, from like age eleven onward.  Lin took *forever* to realize I didn’t have her reckless, often *cruelly* honest streak, so she took *ages* to find out it was a *Beaumont* I was friends with.  It was usually pretty easy to get out of dealing with Lin on her drinking nights by using mostly-sincere excuses like getting tutoring help for assignments, obligations to babysit a friend’s little sister, and so on.”

<Trimangle>	 "Seems like you managed to avoid inheriting anything but her name," Alex replies with a grin. "Good for you. I think before too long, people will start to realize you're not a copy of Lin. They'll stop regarding you with suspicion or fear once they realize who you are. Just keep doing what you're doing, yeah?" Alex asks, smiling broadly. "So...what is it that a Slayer does? I'm guessing you sort of do what I do, patrol the outskirts of your area, keeping it clear of monsters?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia grins back, evidently quite pleased with the praise. “Eh, not exactly. The Builder Corps are the ones that do domestic patrols, while the Guardians mind the outskirts, particularly along our borders.  But Slayers?  We’re more like…” she snaps her fingers a few times, trying to come up with the right comparison, “…*marines*, I think some terrestrial nations call them?  Specially trained strike forces for dealing with notably dangerous threats.”
She pats the shoulder patch that displays her rank. “For the most part, the different corps operate individually, sharing information when relevant, but always wary of stepping on each other’s toes. Slayers, though, teams of us are called in whenever a given group has something that they can’t comfortably handle on their own.  Wardens dealing with a Kaiju, Builders stumbling upon of a plot against the state that they’d rather not have to bring to the Nightguard, Seekers wanting us to help resolve a terrestrial conflict, Sages needing some muscle to back them up while they’re investigating a tomb… we do all these things and more.  Most of our tasks end up being some pretty bloody work, but we get the most public recognition and respect for doing what others can’t do on their own.  We’ve got maybe the second most rigorous requirements for recruitment, even.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. The reference to 'marines' is something she appears to understand right off the bat, her eyes lighting in response. "Aah," she agrees, nodding shortly. "I getcha. So...Slayers, Wardens, Builders, Seekers, Sages, the Night Guard..." Alex counts the divisions on her fingers. "I'm guessing there are seven corps, one for each founder? What's the last one?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia scratches her head. “Ah, it’s been just those six for something like two hundred years now, I believe?  Used to be that there was a seventh, though, yeah.  Think they were called the Hunters, a group focused on befriending and breeding powerful beasts, or similar, but… I think the issue was that the Old Hunter, their founder, had grown disillusioned with the way that our people had been developing, and led his supporters on a second exodus?  Something like that.  Honestly, it’s been like ten years since I remember hearing about it in history class.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex's eyes narrow and track away from Natalia slightly. "So he and his people left your city to go practice the Hunters' old ways in the Overcity." She pulls a face. "I don't think they'll have had much luck out here. I haven't seen more than a few monsters with intelligence beyond the primal." She shakes her head slowly.

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “If they abandoned the safety of civilization and went off on their own to live like primitives, then they must’ve been idiots, anyway.”
Going by her expression, she doesn’t seem to even consider that there might be any reason to mourn a potentially significant number of people who once deserted her home. “I think some people have claimed that some of our demihuman immigrants must be their descendants, but… that’s probably just racism, really.  Mostly, it’s werefolk that get that kind of talk around them, but they at least tend to actually value a sense of community.”

<Trimangle>	 "Idiots, maybe," Alex agrees. "Especially out in the Overcity. But...still, your countrymen. And I have to imagine that maybe the Hunter disagreed with the other Founders on *other* issues as well, beyond just keeping monsters?" she suggests. "You mentioned most of them thought the same."

<@Wander>	 “…I don’t even think that it was a monster-keeping issue, considering Jeanne’s little half-sister wound up getting one of the few bond-beasts that were left behind from those times as a friggin’ *birthday present*.  I guess it was supposed to be something of a protector, but of course little Anne wanted a pony, not a *thing* poorly mimicking the shape of one, so it was this whole fiasco.”
Natalia grins a little brighter as she thinks back on that, though she also can’t help but shiver. “…Regardless, if nothing else, I suppose Lin had some interesting things to say about the other founders whenever she spoke of them.  Some of it was probably never supposed to become common knowledge, and I won’t share any of that, but… they were never quite the most united front, regardless of how they might’ve tried to present themselves.  Disagreements great and small, rivalries, even a few romantic tensions… to have heard her tell it, the lot of them were an awkward bunch of children and teenagers endowed with power, who then came into contact by necessity.  They struggled to work together in the early days.  Language barriers can’t have helped on that front, though First Seeker Barros probably always had a workaround.  I imagine that’s why she came to be seen as the group’s leader, at least in terms of public perception.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex frowns, glancing to the side as she works through what Natalia said. "...Language barriers? The seven of them were from different regions? Huh. I dunno why, but I figured you all were from the same nation to begin with."

<@Wander>	 Natalia nods. “…I expect that they were, yes.  Their entire *world* was invaded by massive climate-destroying monstrosities.  There aren’t a lot of intact records from that time period of what exactly the things were, but I know that that even after *winning* and exterminating the invading monsters, they still had to lead what survivors they could on an exodus into the Overcity.  Presumably, they gathered without regard for any singular preexisting nation.”

<Trimangle>	 "Oh," Alex barks, nodding. "So it wasn't language difficulties among the original seven that were the problem so much as between their charges." Alex nods slowly. "Well...geez. That sucks." She frowns, glancing at the girl's glass. "...Want a refill on that?"

<@Wander>	 “Oh, there were probably language differences between the seven of them, too.  Differences resolved in time, of course, but all the same…” Natalia looks down at her glass, frowns a moment, then drains the last of it. “Ah, I should probably cut myself off while I’m still feeling pretty good.  Last thing I need is to develop any of Lin’s habits, particularly the raging alcoholism.  It’s more than enough having such a resemblance as it stands.”
Saying this, she gestures vaguely toward her face and arms.  Perhaps, she means the abundant scars at least as much as her vaguely Asian appearance.

<Trimangle>	 "Good call," she agrees, as one of the other waitresses busses away the empty glass. Alex glances over, back at Natalia's scars. "How did you get those, if you don't mind my asking?"

“Well, I certainly got a few before I even turned ten.  I was an active kid, so there were the usual sorts of accidents involving climbing trees and the like. Plus, there was a time where I was still young and naive enough to take offense at some of my classmates badmouthing my mother.”
Natalia lifts her bangs away from her forehead, displaying a few old puncture scars along her hairline. “Like, for these, an older boy was talking shit about her and I responded by headbutting him.  Took out a few teeth in the process.  Not *permanent* teeth, mind, but all the same, big trouble.  Dad sure wasn’t happy about getting that call, but Lin was proud of me when she found out.”
Next, she indicates her arms, with their assortment of cuts, fang-marks, and burns, then pushes up a short sleeve to display what definitely seem like old bullet scars on one shoulder. “Overall, I’d guess that roughly half of my scars have come from Slayer work?  I was the hardiest one in Jeanne’s squad, so I often got to play the bait or had to be the one to wrestle a target into submission.”
With a grin, she adds, “…A lot of those scars are underneath my clothes, though, so don’t count on me showing them off to you any time soon.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex whistles. "Souvenirs of an interesting youth," she agrees. Then: "Oh, those don't look like any fun at all." Further, when Natalia cracks a grin: "'Course not. That'd be scandalous~" she replies with a grin as well.

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs, her grin not going away. “Eh, I feel like scandalous describes a lot of my life.  How my parents got together, that headbutt incident, Lin being Lin, the old rumor that I was in lesbians with Jeanne even though she’s like six years my senior… which I guess would’ve *still* been more reasonable than my parents, so I guess fair enough on that one.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex snickers. "Yeah, I suppose so," she agrees, but not prying deeper into the matter. She falls silent, her grin fading a little as she glances upward. "So...what're your plans for Aysu? You mentioned taking her back...?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia nods, her own grin fading as well, now. “Her sister is still with our people.  Last I heard, she’s not too far down the waiting list for some cybernetic replacement parts.  I imagine their unique circumstances probably make it impossible to regrow any previously lost portions of their bodies with healing magic.”
She sighs. “I’d like to say that’s great news, but… cybernetics are *expensive*.  Luckily, we’re not one of those societies that’ll deny people necessary medical care just because they can’t pay for it… so long as those people are citizens, or at least in the process of *becoming* citizens.  Even so, the kid’s been having to do courier work to help the two of them stay afloat.  It’s a job without much dignity and the pay is pretty awful, but she’s not exactly been educated in a modern sense, so her opportunities are limited.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods shortly. "How 'expensive' are we talking?" she asks, regarding Natalia with a clear gaze. Then, she blinks and tilts her head. "Am I going to understand the answer? What's the currency of your city?"

<@Wander>	 “It’s probably-” Natalia, too, blinks at the question of whether Alex will understand the answer. “Ah, fair question, that.  We don’t really accept many foreign currencies, for fear of them screwing up our economy, but our own currency is the Sel, which is…”
She pats herself over for a moment, frowning. “…In my armor, which I’d rather not call forth again at the moment just to show you what it looks like.  *Shoot.*”
A sigh follows this realization, then she drums her fingers on the bar, a bit annoyed. “…Basically, it’s shimmery not-exactly-paper currency.  And a good-quality cybernetic arm probably runs like, sixty thousand, maybe?  Dunno, that could even be a *low* estimate, and is still just for the arm, mind you, not the surgery to integrate it, nor the medical bills of a prolonged hospital stay or who even knows what other treatments she’s needed or will need.  By comparison, a courier makes an average of like, a third of that per year, maybe?”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods slowly. "The Sel," she repeats. "Shit. I was going to offer to help pay, but I've never even *heard* of the Sel." She grimaces. "I'd have to check with the moneychanger in the next Zone and hope that they have...or come help out more directly."

<@Wander>	 “…Well, considering that girl talked someone into letting her come here with the promise of trying to recruit some magically gifted outsiders to help our people out, I figure the latter would do more to help,” Natalia replies. “You’d probably be hard-pressed to find a moneychanger who deals in it outside of our territory, anyway.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex raises an eyebrow. "Into 'letting' her come here?" she asks archly. "Interesting word."

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “…Eh, really, it’s more like she needed to talk them into letting her leave without a retraction of her provisional citizenship, since that’d be unfavorable both toward future employment prospects and for her sister.  And, you know, the part where she could’ve potentially been trying to navigate the Overcity *alone*.  I’m essentially here right now because I owe Jeanne about a decade of accumulated favors and she was the one who got the pair their in into our society in the first place.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex's expression smooths out. "Ah, 'course. Skipping town while papers are in flight *would* be bad." She nods, rubbing the back of her neck. "...And yeah. You're right..." She grimaces, glancing away. "...If she's nonmagical, wandering the Overcity's a literal death sentence. Life expectancies ... aren't long. Thank you again."

<@Wander>	 “So I’ve heard,” Natalia mutters, eyes closed. “…And again, no need to thank me.  I’m here because I was doing a favor for a friend.  Jeanne is the generous one.  I half expect she’d be paying for the older sister’s medical expenses if she didn’t have her own to worry about…”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods minutely. "...I'll make sure to thank her, then," she agrees. "What kind of help do your people need most at the moment?"

<@Wander>	 “…Well, Seekers are pretty close to what you might call an endangered species, these days, but Slayers aren’t exactly *common*, either.  We’re pretty much both the highest-risk jobs and have the highest requirements for trainees to meet before they can be accepted as Apprentices, so… I guess that just sort of figures.  Off the top of my head, I don’t know a whole lot of *immediate* and *major* conflicts that need handling, though.”
Natalia scratches her head. “Hmm… there are always old sanctums to reclaim, but that’s hardly a small job.  I guess the communications grid is forever a mess, despite Icarus’ best efforts, but that’s an engineering and logistics issue, I think?  Jeanne might want some backup in place at Reef-Rift Station whenever she needs to report back for medical treatments.  …And I guess Miruna’s still down an arm and struggling with how to properly train little Annette as a Seeker, too.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex dips her head. "...Run me through it again, please? The Builder corps you said handles internal patrols, the Guardians do external...Slayers are specialized forces..." She ticks off the corps on her fingers. "What do the rest do? The Seekers, Sages, Nightguard, and Wardens?"

<@Wander>	“Ah, I guess I’ve been a bit unclear about things.  Builders are our main police force, yeah, but also involved in things like construction, making sure buildings are up to code, and disaster relief.  The Guardian Corps are our border guard, and sort of a standing army.  Slayers being the special forces is right, though we’re usually not the subtlest bunch, so… when we’re called in, things get loud, assuming they weren’t *already*.”
Natalia counts the groups off on her fingers as she goes. “Wardens are… actually just higher-ranking Guardians.  If I made them sound like a different group, I blame the booze.  Nightguard are in charge of law and surveillance and rooting out corruption in our society.  The mundane kind, I mean, but I suppose they deal with plenty of the magical sort as well.  On the whole, I’d say theyre the least popular among the other corps.  They do important work, sure, but they often tend to step on other groups’ toes in the process, so it can sometimes be a pain in the ass having to deal with their bureaucratic bullshit.”
She sighs to herself, perhaps reconsidering how she declined another drink. “Sages are, to put it simply, our nerds.  Historians, researchers, scientists, a lot of our medical staff… they’re probably the only group where you can meet two and their jobs won’t necessarily have any overlap.  *Most* of ‘em are noncombatants, though.  That much is pretty common.” Looking down at her fingers for a moment, Natalia frowns, looking unsure on her counting of just how many groups she listed out.  No more drinks was a good call after all.
“…Ah, and the Seekers?  They’re our diplomats and trackers and scouts all- in-one, like something of an early warning system for when things are getting nasty outside our borders and might become a problem for us.  They’re definitely the rarest bunch among us, since they need to be sociable, well-educated, keenly aware of their surroundings, and able to survive in all sorts of hostile environments, usually on their own.  All that, and yet their jobs mostly take them abroad, so they don’t usually get the same sort of personal recognition and gratitude that the rest of us do…. and their careers tend to be short ones.  Generally, they tend to either work alone or else cooperate with a specific group of Slayers.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods, taking it in. "From the sound of it, the Seekers're probably where my talents are mostly aligned. I'm an air mage, and a fast one at that. Scouting comes naturally. That, or Sanctum reclamation alongside the Sages. And what was that about Reef-Rift Station?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia curls her fingers now that she’s done recounting the various corps of her society. “Air magic, eh?  Lotta would-be Seekers struggle with air supplies in some environments, but I can see where air magic would lend you an edge.”
She stretches her arms overhead, giving a small groan, which then transitions into a contented sigh after a small *pop* her shoulders. “Reef-Rift is where Jeanne is stationed these days, and where your little friend had to pass through to get to her homeworld.  For the most part, it’s something of a quiet backwater.”
She pauses for a moment, smirking at her own little wordplay. “…Really, it’s just an outpost along our borders that’s got the misfortune of being sandwiched between Stone Reef, the dam that blocks off access to the Drowned District, and the Delphina Rift, this massive, monster-infested canyon that serves as one of our more *natural* borders.  From what I’ve heard, it used to be that the Drowned District flooded into the rift and made it so that monsters could easily cross, but we used to have a hell of a lot more stone and water mages than we do *now*, so they must’ve got the dam up *somehow*, and then displaced a lot of the water from the rift to make it so the only easy crossing along the ground is a long bridge.  The dam is *thankfully* along one of the shallower parts of the Drowned District and the monsters down in the gorge *usually* can’t climb out, so it’s a pretty quiet posting to have.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods slightly. "I'm not as well-off as some girls - I've heard of girls who are just innately safe from dangerous environments and don't have to worry about an air supply...I wish I could say I have that. But I have been practicing using my magic to carry air with me, so I've that going for me." She crosses her arms, tapping her fingers on her upper arm. "Let me guess, the Drowned District has its own share of monsters?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia nods. “*More* than its own share, apparently!  I’ve never seen it in person, but from what I’ve heard and from the pictures Jeanne has shared, it’s a place like… say someone cleaved the top half off a mountain, scooped out the insides underneath, and then built a settlement in it.  Only, later on, it somehow got used like a bowl, with seawater dumped in to make a city soup!”  The gestures that accompany this colorful description have her acting out what she’s trying to convey.
“The place is *lousy* with portals to ocean worlds, so it’s this mixed hunting ground of who the hell knows how many kinds of aquatic monsters.  We’ve essentially given up on claiming it, since even the experienced Seeker-Slayer teams that got sent in were known to disappear more often than not.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods, following along with Natalia's description. "So it's basically a no-go zone, except for keeping monsters from swarming over the dam."

<@Wander>	 “We’re lucky enough that most of the monsters don’t care to venture out of the water, but yeah, essentially,” Natalia states, giving another nod. “Like I said, though, it’s mostly a quiet backwater.  Jeanne wouldn’t have been assigned a posting there if it was anything all that dangerous.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex ticks points off on her fingers. "So...it looks like the best ways I'd be able to help are with Seeker duty, providing backup to Sages inside sanctums, and relieving Jeanne from time to time." She glances at Natalia. "That about sum it up?"

<@Wander>	 “Ehh, did I mention sanctums in relation to the Sages?” Natalia thinks about it. “I mean, I know that a number of sanctums need reclaiming, but that’s more of a Guardian thing.  If you’re interested in helping the Sages, though, I bet wind magic would be handy to Icarus.  As it stands, she’s a bit… overwhelmed?  Sure, some of that is her personal projects and weirdly scatterbrained nature, but… considering she’s the latest successor to Great Sage Dhalia, I suppose it makes sense  that she’s under a lot of stress, especially trying to keep the mess that is our communications  setup running between the intact sanctums.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex shakes her head. "I must have figured the sanctums would be the domain of the researchers," she chuckles. "Sorry. But...hm. What could air magic do for Icarus?"

<@Wander>	 “Ah, you’re probably thinking that control over electricity or metal would be more suitable, huh?  I think the important thing is for her to have someone who can float around to help her reach some of the more… *awkwardly placed* relays?” Natalia says, scratching her head.
“…Honestly, I don’t know her *personally*, but little Anne somehow made friends with her, so I’ve heard a few things here and there.  Icarus is something of a recluse.  She doesn’t talk to many people and dislikes asking for help with her duties, even if she *needs* it.  Now, *normally*, I’d think she ought to have the Builders available to help, considering the relays are an infrastructure matter, but… I’ve heard they don’t associate with her.  Dunno what the hell the story is, there, but she’s essentially tasked with working on like half the grid *solo*, somehow?  That would be tiresome work even for a *normal* mage, but she’s… apparently not well-suited to physical tasks.”
Natalia shrugs, then shakes her head. “…Personally, I’d call that kind of thing boring, but Anne usually seemed to have positive things to say about her.  She’d probably at least be someone interesting for you to talk to, and might well offer bonus pay in the form of experimental magitech.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex cocks her head. "Huh. She sounds like a singularly interesting person, though...and if she needs help reaching out of the way places, well, I'm her girl. Strange that nobody wants to associate with her, though..." She frowns. "I'm definitely curious about that magitech, though. Color me interested."

<@Wander>	 “Probably wouldn’t be *too* difficult of work, either.  Just time-consuming, I’d think?” Natalia doesn’t look like she knows that for certain. “…Well, whatever it entails, it’s easy enough to arrange it as like, a day or a week or however long of associated work.  Not like you’d be obligated to help overhaul the whole thing or anything like that.  It offers a good excuse to see some different parts of our territory, too.”
Natalia hums in thought. “…Man, it almost feels like I’m trying to sell you a vacation package or something like that.  I bet those people make good money…”

<Trimangle>	 Alex chuckles. "Hey, it practically is a vacation," she laughs. "I've never heard of your city before, so I'd get to see somewhere new and exciting." She pauses as well. "Overcity travel agents, huh. Well, they'd have to make sure monsters don't eat the clientele..."

<@Wander>	 Now, it’s Natalia’s turn to chuckle. “Well, I ought to be able to guide you there well enough, too.  I’m no Seeker, but I at least know the way.”
She scratches her neck. “…Really, I guess there’s also the benefit that my name and my familiarity with Jeanne should help grease the wheels and get you in faster.  Skips a lot of the boring part where you’d be waiting in line to get through customs and gets right to handling things like how long you’d be staying and getting you a work pass and all that.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "Knowing the right people is important," she agrees. "Are customs lines normally that long?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “Eh, they *can* be.  Whenever we get an influx of immigrants, I’ve heard it can take *days* to get them all put into in the system.  Thanks to how the Overcity is a huge nexus, things like background checks on immigrants are essentially an impossibility, too, so people tend to have to go through medical checks and fill out forms to the best of their ability and it’s this whole thing.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods shortly. "Yeah...I can imagine. Who do you have, if anyone, checking the information on the immigration forms for accuracy? Seems like it's all too easy to just make stuff up..."

<@Wander>	 “…Really, that’s a problem for the Nightguard and Sages.  I guess there are *probably* at least a *few* people who can like, look someone in the eyes to see if they’re lying, but I’d  think they tend to have better things to do than work a day job in immigration.  I guess it’s like… medical information is the priority, followed by the kind of world people hail from, then anything else is secondary.  It’s hardly a perfect system, but at least it helps with making sure nobody brings in a super-plague, getting immigrants the right kinds of medical treatment, and lets us prime people for what tech and social differences to expect.”

<Trimangle> Alex nods. "Yeah, technological and social differences seeem like they'd be the most important things to deal with," she agrees, "'cause they directly affect how people might integrate." She leans a little more against the bar.

<@Wander>	 “Yeah, it’s really more focused on getting the practical details right rather than expecting someone to properly enter all their data.  Decide to change your name when you immigrate?  Fine, go right in.  Lie about your age to seem younger… or older, for that matter?  Fine too.  Don’t care to inform us of a past criminal history?  Still fine, but do stay out of trouble or the Builders will crack down on whatever crimes you might be committing.”
Natalia scratches her cheek. “…You know, the *general* 'you', not the *specific* 'you'.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "I understand," she assures the Slayer, raising her hand. "...I can see how that might make record-keeping a bit of a bitch, though, if people can just change all their information like that."

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “Well, at least it’s just for putting them in the system *initially*.  Changing it again once they’re a citizen is a hassle for *them*, too.”
She sighs, leaning her cheek on a  fist again. “…Really, I’d think the ones that lie about their info are generally just looking for a fresh start, rather than being dishonest for any particularly *criminal* reasons, you know?  Maybe I’m biased, but things like a person’s birth name and the like shouldn’t really *matter*, so long as they’re willing to contribute to society.  *Shouldn’t*, but *does*…”

<Trimangle>	 Alex scratches her cheek. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. It means less in a place like this than it would on my homeworld...good luck lying to get a fresh start *there*. I guess if you're not trying to cross-reference old records, it really *doesn't* matter."

<@Wander>	 “…Mind you, there *is* still a cultural stigma against immigrants who won’t try to culturally integrate, obvious demihumans, and those from primitive worlds.  Not always *unjustified*, but I’d sure hate to have to deal with it myself.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex snorts. "Yeah...integration was a major bugbear on my homeworld. I can see why it would be for you guys, too. And from what you've said, prejudice against demihumans is justified, but not excused...why against primitive worlds, though?"

<@Wander>	 “Because they’re especially superstitious, their lower tech level makes it harder to acclimate to our more modern way of life, and they’re often poorly educated.  In short, they’re a pain in the ass.  Or at least the adults are.  Given the opportunity, I think children tend to be a bit better about adapting, so long as they weren’t like, forced to be soldiers or anything nasty.”

<Trimangle>	 "Mmm. Mhm," she agrees after a moment. "Yeah, ingrained superstitions can be a bear to work through." Her head dips in thought. "Mhh...anything else you think I need to know? Anything I need to be particularly wary of?"

<@Wander>	 “Hmm… I guess just don’t piss off anyone with a gold emblem or more than two stripes to their rank?” Natalia pats the patches on her shoulder, making it clear that she means anyone of a hinger rank than her. “…And if you’re wanting to help out your friend, I think it’d pay to trust her to help you almost as much as you’re helping her?  She’s obviously a mess of issues, and not even a magical one anymore, but even if magical skills are the ones in high demand, she’s clearly a determined, resourceful kid, one who’s been living in our territory for long enough to at least help guide you *a little*?”
She scratches her head. “Or well, close enough to a kid?  She looks like, what, maybe in the fourteen-to-fifteen range *at most*?  Maybe that doesn’t mean much for whatever she *used* to be, but people tend to assume things based on appearances until you give ‘em cause to think otherwise.”

<Trimangle>	 "...Really, I suppose I shouldn't mouth off to anyone with *any* rank, 'cause they're all higher than me, huh?" She's *trying* to make light of it, at least by the slight smirk on her face. "An' yeah," she continues, smirk fading. "She's a good kid, even without magic powering her. I know she'll do well."

<@Wander>	 “Higher than you *in their fields*, maybe, but it’s generally a safe bet that they’re at least a good two or three ranks lower in their authority when it comes to matters outside their jurisdiction.  Unless they’re Nightguard, in which case they’re more like *one* rank lower.  Or the First Seeker, who basically outranks everyone forever, due to her being the oldest living member of our entire civilization and the *only* founder who’s still around… or at least the only *active* one.”
Natalia sighs. “That girl, though… do be sure to look after her while you’re helping out.  I’ve noticed she keeps at least one knife hidden on her person at pretty much all times and she’s certainly got a temper.  A fistfight is *usually* something that the Builders can overlook, but… pulling a knife on someone could screw her out of her in-progress citizenship.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "Mm. So you'd want me to step in if she were about to get physical with someone else? Make sure that if anyone throws the first punch, it's not her?"

<@Wander>	 “That’d be ideal, yeah.  She can *maybe* get away with most things that stop short of sending someone to the hospital, but… at the very least, make sure she doesn’t stab some poor bastard in the jugular for pissing her off, I guess?  I tell when some people are like that, you know?  Girl’s *definitely* got a body count to her name… which I guess would worry me a lot more if my job didn’t occasionally require the same.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex glances up at the ceiling towards Aysu, then back at Natalia. "Even given what little I know about where she comes from? Yeah, she's got a body count," she agrees. "And she needed it, or she'd have been in someone else's."

<@Wander>	 Natalia’s eyes follow Alex’s gaze upward, then back down to meet it. “…That, and I heard the bit in her story about how she took her sister’s goddamned arms off.  That sounds a bit *too* deliberately murderous for her to *not* be used to mauling people.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex looks away, her expression troubled. "Yeah...though I dunno how much of that was due to *her*, and how much to the Fell aspect *of* her. She was always the vicious one."

<@Wander>	 “You say that, but humans can be *right bastards*, when they want to be.  Growing up, Lin *certainly* taught me that much...” Saying this, Natalia scratches a bit at a scar underscoring one of her eyes.

<Trimangle>	 "Very true," Alex responds. "No shortage of stories about that from *my* world. But… Aysu, the human Aysu, was the sweetest kid. Her driving creed, the thing she always said...was that you have to fight with joy in your heart." Alex meets Natalia's gaze again. "Joy. I don't think you can fight with joy if you're...like that."

<@Wander>	 Natalia shrugs. “Ehh, I dunno.  That sounds like something Lin would’ve bought into.  My dad has always said that… aside from the day I was born, Lin was at her happiest on the battlefield, spinning and laughing and having a grand old time, like a little kid playing in a sprinkler on a hot summer day.”
She reaches down and to the side, tapping the haft of her hammer. “…‘Course, the so-called ‘sprinkler’ was generally the collapsing corpse of whoever or whatever she just punted the head off of with her hammer mid-spin.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex pulls a face. "Mm. Perhaps...and that's a *charming* mental image," she laughs.

<@Wander>	 Natalia laughs as well, shaking her head. “Lin was a friggin’ *lunatic* and I can safely say that she’s the one at fault for *all* of the worst and most traumatic parts of my adolescence, but… I have to admit, even *she* had her moments of unexpected decency and warmth.  ‘Hers was a smile that could light up a room,’ I’ve heard it said.  Seemed true enough… alongside the follow-up statement of ‘…so long as that smile wasn’t focused solely on *you*, like a hungry lioness who’s just found her prey.’”
The shiver that follows makes it clear that Natalia has surely been the focus of that hungry smile.

<Trimangle>	 Alex shivers as well. "Yeah...that sounds rightly terrifying," she agrees. "Glad I've never had to be on the wrong end of that." She chews on her cheek, her gaze drifting off of Natalia's face. Then, something seems to occur to her. "Will I be able to move back and forth between your zone and this one?" she asks, re-fixing her gaze on the Slayer. "I've got business here, is all."

<@Wander>	 “Ah, that… I guess it’s a few days of a trip, but… you’ll probably be able to make better time than that with access to flight?” Natalia answers, before scratching her head in thought. “…Err, two things, though.  Flying into our borders rather than landing to go through the normal way will probably net you *maybe* a ten-second warning until they blast you out of the sky.  And if you happen to be able to teleport or similar by some means… don’t try to warp in or out of our territory.  I’ve heard horror stories about that sort of thing.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex hitches, blinking. "Ah-- that's *very* good to know. I'm not looking to get shot down, so, ah, I'll just head through the city gates." She laughs, a little nervously. "And I *can* teleport...but one-way. I can get back to this Zone in a moment, 'cause my apartment's just down the road. But I'll make sure to do that *outside* the city."

<@Wander>	 For a moment, Natalia fails to suppress a smirk at Alex’s nervousness. “Mmm… I’m sure you at least get *why* we need countermeasures against those sorts of things, yeah?”

<Trimangle>	 "Oh, absolutely," Alex agrees, nodding. "Too many weak points could be exposed to an aerial attack, and, well...with teleportation, literally nowhere is safe."

<@Wander>	 “Yup.  I’m pretty sure I remember some history lessons about wars and attacks happening through those means, so there’s definitely a precedent, there.”
Natalia hums thoughtfully to herself. “I have to wonder, though… how many more Seekers might we have if teleportation was safely possible within our wards?  I figure that the lack of it must prevent some people from ever learning how to use that sort of power.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "It's something to consider...it'd certainly extend the range of scouting operations, since a Seeker wouldn't need to carry provisions for the return leg. Who maintains the barrier against teleportation? I might have an idea they could look into."

<@Wander>	 “It’s mainly the Guardian Corps, but… I can’t imagine they’d ever *want* to go to the trouble of deconstructing and reconstructing all the wards throughout our territory to allow for some unfamiliar teleportation method, even if it was safer.  Still, I imagine that if you know of some workaround, they’d appreciate hearing about it.”

<Trimangle>	 "Now," Alex qualifies, "I don't know if it would *work*, given that I don't know the first thing about how your wards are set up, but I think it's worth at least looking into. Does anyone have the ability to see the flow of magic in people and objects?"

<@Wander>	 Natalia gives a halfhearted nod. “Eh, *some* do, but I’m not exactly one of them.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "Mm. Good, that's vital. I'll be sure to introduce myself to the Guardians, talk it over with them." Alex smiles, inclining her head.

“…Probably seems lazy of me to not ask what the idea is, but trying to study magical theory always gave me such a headache.  Worse than chem homework during my teen years, even.”
Natalia chuckles to herself, though it sounds slightly bitter. “…Suppose I probably ought to get some rest, soon.  I’ve had my drinks and probably even started sobering up a bit, so maybe it’s best that I sleep before the buzz fully goes away and I start worrying about your little friend. I’m probably not getting any sleep *then*…”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "Short version, three words: magical fingerprint scanner. Don't worry, chem was never my strong suit either." She laughs, then raises her hand; the Old Man slings her another key. "Thanks," she calls back; the Old Man just nods and goes back to what he was doing. She makes to offer it to Natalia, then pauses, looking troubled. "You and me both," she says quietly, her hand dropping to the bar. "Her and Keone."

<@Wander>	 Natalia holds one hand out for the key, the other one rubbing at a scar across her lips. “Ah, I haven’t actually *met* the older sister, yet.  Kind of don’t want to, either.  She sounds a bit too much like Lin, so I’d probably hate her guts, even if she wound up liking me in that weirdly affectionate psycho way.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex hands over the key, worrying her cheek between her teeth. "Mmm. That's fair, I suppose. Hopefully you can keep it that way." She smiles softly. "Up the stairs, second door on your left. Right next to Aysu's room."

<@Wander>	 Natalia smiles back almost as softly, though it doesn’t exactly seem to suit her appearance quite so well. “Ah, thanks.  Best of luck to you if you meet her, too.  Wouldn’t want you to have to deal with that, either.”
She hops down from her seat, pausing to pick up her Warhammer and carrying it lazily over one shoulder as she heads toward the stairs.  There, the Slayer pauses, only halfway turning her head as she raises the key-bearing hand in a parting wave. “G’night, Alex.  It was nice talking to you.  Always good to meet a friendly face outside my homeland.”

<Trimangle>	 Alex nods. "It was really good meeting you too," she responds. "I'll make sure to be here tomorrow, to touch base with both of you."

<@Wander>	 “Sounds good,” Natalia agrees, starting on her way up the stairs. “See you tomorrow, then.”
And so, Natalia departs from view, though the footfalls of her boots remain audible for a short time before falling silent.

<Trimangle>	 "Until tomorrow," she returns. Alex turns on her stool, facing back towards the bar again, her gaze slowly drifting across the wood grain of the bartop, listening to Natalia's footsteps fall silent. She glances up at the waitress, the sigh in her voice visible in her eyes as well. "Rum and coke, please," she requests. She rubs the back of her head, then amends: "And a club sandwich." She doesn't want to go home herself yet, and so she begins a lonely vigil.

-End Scene-