IT'S A TWOFER [OPEN]

[soft_focus]

[The Hills of Neloi & Westermiln | The 6th]

[After a few times creeping in and out of a camping group, Reira, a new phone, and her personal headspace companion are off on their own once again. It's better that way, she thinks. As much as making new friends would be nice, she doesn't enjoy causing the stress and worry she's seen from anyone present during one of Zarc's tantrums. What started as avoidance for the sake of caution becomes avoidance for the sake of 'care'. As she wanders along the highway and eventually off the beaten path into more hilled terrain, this becomes 'easier' to accept. It's quieter here.

And even Zarc can't whine forever (though he does his best to try).

It is perhaps mid morning, after sleeping in under some tree cover, that it hits. For the most part, she hasn't been unaware of the changes her limbs are going through-obviously the arm with a glove on it was obvious, but she can see the ever growing scales along her other elbow, as well as her knees. When she wakes in the morning to roll her sleeve back and see not only bulking scales and 'muscle' (or at last what looks like it) gathering around some kind of violet stone, she feels a chill run down her spine.

It looks like Dark Rebellion's stones.

...It frightens her. Despite knowing it'll only encourage Zarc to laugh more in her head, all she can think is if this would have happened if Yuuya had resisted more. A slow, gradual descent into-]

NGHK-

[That is about when she jumps, a shock of pain different from Zarc's typical tantrums, shoots through her rear. Zarc, in fact, makes an enormous deal about it not even being him...for whatever reason, something he'd only vaguely grumbled about once or twice while she considered the 'zarc-like' limb changes. But the girl shouts, and runs, blindly pacing the tree with her hands at her backside as if trying to find some kind of animal biting there.

There's no animal, but when she finally ends up tripping face first on the ground thanks to the aimless running-] Yy-LLFP!

[...Sproof.

That sure is a big fluffy tail seemingly made of nothing but feathers and down.]

[Now I Am Here, Now I Am There- | The 8th]

[She....

Is lost.

Reira holds her middle, stomach growling a bit as she wanders. It's been a few days now-there's been lots of berries at least, so she's managed to at least eat. And she managed to wander near a river too, which helps. But she's lost. She's lost, and all she can think of is finding another campfire, or finding Yuusei, or...

She could probably use the phone but admittedly the thought doesn't actually occur to her since she's not used to using phones anyway. It doesn't help that her tail is an inch or two longer either. It still looks like it's all feathers and fluff, but there's definitely something long in there, somewhere...

It's tucked in her shorts right now though.

Reira wanders. She wanders, and wanders, until finally she just squeezes her eyes shut and stiffens. She's lost, she's hungry, and Zarc is going on and on about it and whining about how she's in over her head, this is all her fault, she was at least better off with the 'duelist' (because at least then he could maybe fight the guy)-]

Just STOP!

[Rather suddenly there's a burst of flower petals, feathers, and some kind of wind-blown dust.

And then suddenly she's elsewhere.] Mnh?

[This happens more than once, actually.] AHH-!

[Too many times.]

KNGH- [Suffice to say she looks pretty frazzled whenever she finally comes to some kind of stop for....however long she has.]

Comments

8th

[planetary_bonds]

[It's not really evident just where Reira ends up by the time she's done hopping about, the path is nondescript and peaceful, the weather is warm and comfortable, and the person before her is very hairy-

Hold up, isn't that Yuusei? He didn't seem like the type of guy to let his hair grow out like that. Like...waaaaay out like that. It's very fuzzy. And, uh. Blue? Yeah, there's definitely some blue starting to grow in there.

Maybe he's just spent a lot of time on the road? It sure looks like he's been hitchhiking for a while - he's got the spare phones and tools and other things from the campfire all tied in a makeshift sack, which is then tied onto a stick for easy carrying. Very much the typical hitchiker's ensemble, other than his general...greasy rider jacket and hair thing that he's got going on.

Anyways he sure does look as surprised as Reira is to see her there.]

Ah-Reira?

[soft_focus]

Oof... [Boy that hurt. Third time is the charm, one would think, but it's a pleasant-if not concerning-surprise when Zarc actually shouts 'about' something rather than 'at' it. It's a less intense headache for certain, and she wonders if it's connected to the slightly less mindnumbing 'pulse' that typically assails her. Could it be that he's getting...better somehow?

Reality is, it's more that her empathy is growing duller

Reira pulls herself up, and blinks at Yuusei a few times before properly acknowledging the man. Her eyes are sort of on...] ...Woah...

Your hair grew fast..! [She decides not to think about it being possibly related to her tail.]

[planetary_bonds]

...Ah. It did.

[The tone of his voice seems to indicate he's been getting a lot of comments about his hair recently. Mostly from wayward travellers like themselves.

It's still not funny.]

And you...what just happened? [Teleportation...?]

[soft_focus]

...Why though?

[Oh and. Um.

This. Right. She slowly picks herself up, looking over herself.]

...I don't know, it just is.

[planetary_bonds]

[He nods, evidently still confused despite the lack of change in expression.]

It's the same for me.

[Regarding your question about his hair.]

[soft_focus]

....It's just long?

[Oh. Okay then....

...Staring.] ....'s it soft?

[planetary_bonds]

For some reason. I've never had it grow this fast before.

[Never mind the extra blue streaks. Isn't a third color a bit much...? he hasn't realized that his yellow stripes have turned into horns yet, see.]

...Not sure. [He doesn't really take care of his hair. It's probably greasy, though.]

[soft_focus]

...I don't think anyone's hair grows that fast. [Not without reason at least. Uh.] ...Did you check?

[...she seems eager to check for you....it looks soft, like a cloud...]

[planetary_bonds]

...No.

[He wasn't planning on checking until he could get some scissors to cut it, actually. He hasn't been able to see much other than reflections of himself in rivers on occasion but. It looks like too much. If it keeps growing like this, it'll get in his way...!]

Why?

[soft_focus]

...Because it looks soft. [duh]

You didn't even touch your hair?

[planetary_bonds]

[What does being soft have to do with people wanting to touch hair. Y'all are weird. (no, Yuusei. You're weird.)]

No.

[He has other things to worry about. Like getting to civilization. And finding information on how to get home. And obtaining a pair of scissors.]

[soft_focus]

...how are you going to know if it has stuff in it, like dirt then.... [And it has to do with it if it's SOFT, obviously.]

[planetary_bonds]

I'll worry about that when I actually have the means to wash it.

[And when he actually has the means to wash it, he probably won't think to do it. Greasy boy.]

[soft_focus]

...You didn't find the river?

[Well at least she's not questioning how greasy it is now, just trying to give options.]

[planetary_bonds]

My hair wasn't that long then.

[So he wasn't. Too bothered. He just assumed that it'd grown out a little since he'd been wandering around for so long.

But now that people are actively commentating on it, he's starting to wonder how long it actually got.]

[soft_focus]

....You were going to just leave it dirty because it was short...?

[planetary_bonds]

...

[Geez, Reira, when you put it like that...]

...I'm used to being frugal with water, Reira. Washing my hair isn't my highest priority when I see it.

[soft_focus]

...But that's what rivers and oceans and stuff is for... [SHE DIDN'T HAVE NORMAL WATER AT ALL MOSTLY, SO THERE]

[planetary_bonds]

I can assure you, the waters I'm used to are better off where they are than in my hair.

[Yeah. It was that bad.]

[soft_focus]

....how did you have anything to drink then...

[Sadly, Reira wasn't really...aware enough of things to realize that the waters 'pre-akabas' were Also Bad.]

[planetary_bonds]

[Sigh.]

A lot of filtering. Collecting rainwater, too. We were lucky that we had some working plumbing to maintain, but even that could be unsafe. You see why we conserved what we had?

[soft_focus]

...I guess...?

[She does not.] ...I just drank it when I found it...

[planetary_bonds]

Drank...where you found it...?

[What now...?]

How were you living before? Wasn't there others to help you find safe water to drink?

[soft_focus]

[....She's gonna have to shake her head on that.] ....Soldiers didn't care about that, I don't think.

...They just told me what to do. ...Other than that, there were just a lot of...

[...It's harder to think on now that she knows what it means. It's harder to say as well, especially with Zarc in the back of her mind sneering at the evidence of humanity's brutality. It...] ...They weren't alive any more, most of those people.

[planetary_bonds]

[Soldiers? Then, this child came from...]

...Ah.

[He won't inquire further, then.]

...Now, however, you're with others. We can teach you some things, I hope.