Welcome to Ryslig's test drive meme! If you're considering apping here, this is where you can try your characters out in the game's setting. A few things to note:
Lots of people have asked good questions on the FAQ, so do take a look.
You can only app ONE character per round so choose wisely.
Test drive meme threads can be used for your roleplay sample!
Sample scenarios:
SCENARIO ONE: You've just been released from the hospital in Vandare and no one really seems to know what to do with you. The locals offer polite advice but don't seem to want to spend a lot of time with you. You and the other new arrivals stick out like sore thumbs, so perhaps one will spot you wandering about town.
SCENARIO TWO: You've become hopelessly lost in Lager Woods. Paths don't seem to lead where you remember them leading, and you feel as if you're going around in circles. Childlike giggling can be heard from no direction in particular. Suddenly, you stumble upon another character, who seems to be just as lost as you! Perhaps you can find a way out together.
SCENARIO THREE: The time has come and you've found yourself becoming a monster. Is the change instant, or gradual? Are you familiar enough with monsters to know what's happening, or is it a complete shock? NOTE: Feel free to pick any monster type for this prompt, but note that you may not get the same one in game.
Zelgadis had gone out this far for the sole purpose of avoiding more people. It was as much a need to clear his head of everyone else's advice and opinions on his problems as it was the fear that sticking around much longer? Was going to only accelerate the...process he was undergoing.
It must have been getting worse; he was starting to hear things. Things that had no business being there with him.
Things like, say, Lina Inverse.
He'd imagined it, of course: Running across her, his other friends...trying to imagine what they'd do, what they'd say about all this. About him. Honestly, the first thing that had come to mind once he'd snapped out of his horror-filled stupor of self-mutilation was Lina's voice, the look on her face. Not empathy of course, but exasperation. She'd have no patience for his angst! It's what helped him shake it off...for a little bit.
Maybe, in imagining her calling out in those woods, it was some sign he was too down in the dumps again? Too wrapped up in himself? Did he need to do something? It'd only been a couple days; did he really need to turn back and head to civilization? The thought was extremely unappetizing.
That was the thought he had when he pushed those low-hanging branches away and stepped into the clearing and startled, finding a shape there.
His eyes were much better than hers now, thanks to...whatever was happening. But even if they could see, it didn't guarantee he'd believe.
Once she heard the branches move, she adjusted her view to the sound. Sure, she still couldn't see what was around her (more trees probably), but she could still try to look intimidating.
Still.
Not seeing what was there was unnerving. Not having any kind of light spell made her anxious. Not that she can let it show. Whatever big, bad, horrible monster was staring her down needed to know she wasn't going down a fight. Not! That she would go down at all. Of course.
"Yeah-- You better stop there! If you know what's good for you!"
He could easily explain away someone sounding too familiar for comfort: dehydration, maybe? Exhaustion? Just a bad bout of homesickness?
But it was getting harder and harder to convince himself it was just in his head when the voice was housed by a very petite, familiar kind of frame, bristled and braced in very familiar ways.
"Is– is this supposed to be a joke?" he declared aloud, incredulous...and offended. That can't be her.
Wait, no, that can't be right. She squints her eyes, trying to see past her outstretched hand, stepping a little closer. Slowly and carefully, she doesn't want to trip on any overground roots again. She stops when the palm of her hand butts against Zelgadis' shoulder and she can just make out the outline of his hair.
Something about hearing a familiar voice say his name (and say it accurately) has a profound effect on him. He wants to cry right on the spot, really – it's that exciting and terrible. Because of course he misses his friends, he really does! But after what's begun to happen, what's supposed to happen? He'd almost rather die. Almost.
He's frozen on the spot as she approaches, and the closer he gets, the more certain he is it's her – absolutely her, no mistake. It's overwhelming to the point where he nearly recoils and topples over at being touched, but he manages to keep it together and on his feet.
"Lina," he says, his voice instantly thick. "You can't– be here! You're not safe out here alone–" And in the dark, with no magic, and so many people here so messed up...him, too; he's more convinced of it than ever simply for her being there.
All the same, there goes his hand, grasping a shoulder to both root her in place and to make it once-and-for-all certain that she's right there, in the flesh.
Feeling something solid beneath her fingers, hearing his voice so close. Hell, feeling him reach for her shoulder armors brings a smile to her face. Thank everything, someone familiar! She keeps the smile up, even as his words hit her.
"Well, if I'm not safe, neither are you. By the way," her tone takes that eerie turn. Her fingers squeeze his shoulders tighter.
"Do you mean to tell me."
She shifts on her heels, moving to stand shoulder to shoulder now, getting that arm around the back of his neck. Still friendly!
"That you've been here."
She wraps the arm around his neck fully now, yanking him to bend down to her height. Okay, maybe not so friendly.
"And didn't say a word until I was lost in the woods alone and couldn't see!"
His brain is quick enough to catch on, but his body was certainly too sluggish to react; he's too out of practice for this punishment.
"GyAACK–!"
Credit's always been due Lina Inverse for being able to inflict damage on a chimera who was one-third unfeeling rock, but that third's been out of the picture for months now: This really hurts!
"Chh! Gh–h–how was I supposed to know?! I was–" Air. AIR. He starts trying to pry his arms off of her, delicately at first, but soon air is very important. Get off, you unrealized harpy!
"I was out here by myself!" he manages, talking fast between gasps for air. "I don't pay attention to the newcomers at port!"
It's the curiosity that gets her to loosen her grip, enough that Zelgadis can pull away, than his need for air. Now that they're close, she can see some distinctions of his face. The shadows aren't playing right against his face like she knows it should. The rise of the chimera rock forms are all wrong and she felt something weird against her arm when she had him in that headlock just then.
Something is very wrong.
"What do you mean."
Her tone is to the point. No room for him to wiggle out of an answer.
Something weird like, perhaps, yielding flesh? Or those quilled gills where ears were. Either way, this is not the exact Zel you're looking for.
So much for emotional reunions: that chokehold sobered Zel the hell up, even made him a bit irritated despite the situation. It's why his tone flattens out in reply while he fixes his cloak and hood, all tousled from getting wrestled a good food and a half closer to the ground.
"I mean what I said, Lina. You can't be here. Because if you are, you're effectively screwed, just like I am." He huffs, straightening. "There's a situation going on here, and it's not good.
"But we can't go on about it out here," he adds, forcing himself to look past her and away. "We need a safer spot."
No doubt between Lina's yelling and the wrestling, keener ears could be piqued and in search of a meal.
She huffs, taking in a breath about to say something scathing but he suggests they move. She bites the comment back down for now and gestures to the big expanse of darkness in front of them.
"Then I hope you have somewhere in mind. I couldn't find anywhere out here."
She hates relying on other people (except to pay for her meals). But in this situation, she's got no choice. Zelgadis seems to know what's going on and where they are, so she has to trust him. A familiar scene from years ago replays in her head for just a moment and she self-consciously crosses her arms over her chest.
"Please tell me you have your magic. Actually, don't tell me that, I'll kill you if you do." Nothing would be more humiliating than Zelgadis having her magic and she didn't.
"I don't have my magic," he confirms, already turning away and pushing through the path he'd already carved before following her voice. "The magic here is incredibly skewed in ways I still haven't figured out; you're not going to be able to sense much of any of it for a while."
If she stays that long. If she survives. Those things stick in his throat and knot there. A flood of possibilities are rushing up past his ankles and liable to drown him before they can get very far; it makes his head swirl. There's just...there's so much she doesn't know yet. Is magic even the right place to start?
"We're not on the same world anymore, for that matter. I don't think this place is even one of the ones on the staff, but I haven't found anything that confirms or denies that yet."
The way he says it, just admits he doesn't have his magic unnerves her. She doesn't let it show, thank the lords for the darkness surrounding them. It doesn't sit right in her gut. But if there is magic and she can figure out a way to use it...
"Wait-- Staff?" She tries to blink the night out of her eyes but no luck. She's still following the faint slightly-lighter-spot of his cape in front of her. "What staff? Are you saying this is outside the barrier?"
"Well outside of the staff. The staff, the one holding the world up."
He didn't want to believe it at first, this idea of an entirely different world, but...well, the stars didn't lie, for one thing. And another? Nothing made proper sense. Even for the lands that lay beyond the broken barrier, there was some semblance of familiarity. Not so here.
He has no idea what Lina's going to do when she sees the automobiles, especially since she can't just blow them up on sight.
"The stars are all wrong. I've checked. And more than that, there's people here that have never had any business being remotely native to our world. Like Overworlders, almost."
He doesn't know what 'Overworlders' he's talking about, or the rest of that. But he knows more about this place than she does. She couldn't even get in an open area enough to even see the stars.
She'll have too pick his brain, then. Zegaldis is easy to talk to about these sorts of topics. But the conversations are always slow, methodical. One has to take your time with Zel, otherwise he'll seize up and get caught up in his own head thinking about boring things, like his past, his gollum and chimera body, things she can't help with. She has to keep him focused in the present and that takes a lot of careful thought and wording.
"No idea how any of us got here, then? What kind of person or force could do this?"
"I'm still working on it," he says, ducking a branch and stepping around the last thicket obstacle that brings him back to...that damn puddle of a lake he's wound up glued to for days. It was simple impulse guiding him there and that, in light of Lina being present, makes him nauseous.
But there's nothing he can do about it now; he wouldn't be able to protect her if they were too far away from a water source anyway. It's...practical, even while being damning.
Here, though, the water reflects the moon and gives them something of a light source. Better for her, he figures...but he makes more of a point at keeping her to his back while he scans his shoddy campsite for signs of life other than his own, all the while trying to explain what he can as easily as he can.
"Locals here worship a fog god. Every couple of weeks, a heavy fog rolls in and it has...odd qualities. People change in it." He kneels down by his bag and rifles through it, tossing a dried pear over his shoulder her way.
"And no doubt it has...some quality, but I can't sense any magic from it."
She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until she saw the fruit flying at her and caught it. Now it was all she could think about, Zelgadis' words being stored away in the back of her mind. She rolled it around between her fingers before taking as big a bite as she could.
But a fog that changes people every few weeks... That's interesting, if nothing else. Definitely different. But was it a god bringing the fog that caused people to worship, or people worshipping an idea of a god that gave it powers, like Martina's patron Monster? She'd only be able to find out if she could meet some of these locals...
Her stomach growled rudely and she took another bite.
"Tho," she started, mouth full and not caring in the least, "Wha yo' thaying ith," annnnd swallow. "That our gods and Monsters aren't here, and that's why we don't have our magic. But there's something else here that we could use if we can get more information."
His tone drops to a very noncommittal waver. Zel's living in a weird flux of extremes here: he's genuinely pleased and relieved to see Lina again for selfish reasons, but at the same time horrified and nauseated by the prospect of her being here. Too much can and probably will go wrong, and she's no longer the powerhouse she was to fight it off. Without her magic, she's...
Well, she's smart as a whip, adaptable, and damn near impossible to depress. Even on the ropes against the baddest of the bad, when even having magic seemed moot, Lina endured and played with her chips all in. It's one of her most admirable traits...and one of her most frustrating. Zel's not so sure that kind of attitude will serve her well in this place.
Gods. Is she going to change, too? Zel's not sure he could stand it, nevermind if she could.
There's a weird comfort in hearing her puzzling it out with her mouth full, the rude black hole that she is. And that makes him feel worse. What is he going to do? His hands are already changing into something weirder than just scales...
"People turn into monsters." He just. Outright blurts it, taking himself by surprise, wincing. There's so much more to it than that, but he barely knows enough to make it sound like more than some weird delusion!
"That is...so far...I've seen a lot of people change...worse in the fog, so..."
She'd been trying to gnaw the last bit of fruit off the pear's core when he blurted something out about people changing into monsters. But she wasn't sure if he meant monsters or Monsters, capital-M. Which wouldn't make any sense, so surely he meant little-m.
"So like werewolves." Because that's honestly the worst one she can remember from any text. Stories about vampires were just stories, so those aren't real. And werewolves weren't... the best example either, seeing as they always stay wolves, just walking bipedal and are usually rude as hell--
"Or something like that right? More about that fog, huh..."
The wheels are turning, she's not even seeing Zelgadis' dilemma about his hands. This is a new mystery! She has to get as much information as she can and try to piece it together, because the obvious "the fog makes people change" is too obvious and simple.
"Something like it, yeah." Zel gulps, sitting upright and frowning at the water ahead of him. There's a really weird part of him that thinks he'd feel a lot better if he was in there as opposed to here, but that part of him is quickly pushed aside because it is, in fact, stupid and not helpful at all.
"Except the changes don't go away...they just seem to get worse." He looks over his shoulder, grimacing over at her.
"Lina– I woke up human here. Cured. That's part of what's weird here, too."
His tone is starting to get that sad, closed off tone he gets when he thinks about his cursed body and how he still couldn't find a cure. Changes that don't go away, indeed. Lina hates when he gets like this, this is what she meant by picking her words carefully and was trying to avoid.
But she stares at him at that final proclamation. He woke up cured. Cured. Here. This place, cured Zelgadis.
She almost wishes she could've been here to see that in person, he must have been happy. She's seen smug Zelgadis. She's seen content Zelgadis, but not happy. Honestly, she wasn't sure if such a thing existed but she wishes she could've seen it. But she knows for sure she sees some kind of skin growth on him now and some other weird things...
So whatever changes he's talking about are happening to him. Something tugs at her ...well. Heart, if she had to admit she has one. She keeps her voice quiet, tone even.
"I'm--"
Something chokes in her and she can't say it. That sort of talk just doesn't come easy for her, she's not touchy-feely emotional. Amelia was good for that. Amelia should be here to say I'm sorry to Zel. Lina goes for the next best thing.
Zelgadis makes a haphazard, choking, scoffing sound, unable to really digest that right away. She can easily be talking about fixing it in relation to herself, because that's how she operates, but Zel's been too quickly refocusing on himself to see it that way at first.
Lina just saying sure, I'll fix your problems without an earmark? It literally is like choking on something that doesn't go down right. He shakes his head quickly of it, looking back out at the lake as he hastily regroups.
"Don't you think I've been working on it?" he manages, his tone touchier than need be, if only to compensate for floundering. "Every chance I get, I'm researching whatever I can get my hands on. It's not that simple, you know!"
Whatever sympathy she was feeling gets tempered by her annoyance at his reaction. Here she was, trying to be thoughtful and bare her heart and he just throws it aside. Typical.
"And you've been here by yourself this whole time. Do you really think we wouldn't be able to put our heads together and find some answers or were you going to horde all the information to yourself until I beat it out of you?"
"I wasn't!" he cries, offended by her offense. This wasn't some petty treasure hunt, and they both know it. How selfish does she think he is?! "I was only saying that just tossing out some resolution isn't going to make it certain. It's– It's complicated!"
She got up, moved and plopped herself on the grass next to him, careful enough to still give him space.
"When have I ever not made one of my 'resolution' a certainty in the end? C'mon, you know me."
She looked at the reflection of the moon on the water; if this were home, she'd almost say it's nice. Almost makes her wish Gourry was here so he could make a bad joke about it. Well, if he's here somewhere, he won't be able to hide it for long. They all find each other sooner or later.
"If this place has enough power to cure you on arrival, there's gotta be a way to harness that power and make it permanent."
What the hell is with this girl and her boundless confidence in getting the exact result she says she wants? Nevermind the fact that it tends to happen for her...
Jeez. Is there really hope, then? Compared to all the horrible, bloody, nightmarish evidence pointing him down a very bad path, here storms in miss Lina Inverse, yet again trampling all over the daisies and just doing and saying what she pleases.
He huffs, trying to keep his mouth from twitching, to keep any visual cue that maybe he believes her off his face.
"Right, right," he sighs, his tone flattening out again. "I'm sure I'll be really impressed and humbled."
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graveyardsmash2014-11-19 04:36 pm
s2
It must have been getting worse; he was starting to hear things. Things that had no business being there with him.
Things like, say, Lina Inverse.
He'd imagined it, of course: Running across her, his other friends...trying to imagine what they'd do, what they'd say about all this. About him. Honestly, the first thing that had come to mind once he'd snapped out of his horror-filled stupor of self-mutilation was Lina's voice, the look on her face. Not empathy of course, but exasperation. She'd have no patience for his angst! It's what helped him shake it off...for a little bit.
Maybe, in imagining her calling out in those woods, it was some sign he was too down in the dumps again? Too wrapped up in himself? Did he need to do something? It'd only been a couple days; did he really need to turn back and head to civilization? The thought was extremely unappetizing.
That was the thought he had when he pushed those low-hanging branches away and stepped into the clearing and startled, finding a shape there.
His eyes were much better than hers now, thanks to...whatever was happening. But even if they could see, it didn't guarantee he'd believe.
Because really.
No way.
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Still.
Not seeing what was there was unnerving. Not having any kind of light spell made her anxious. Not that she can let it show. Whatever big, bad, horrible monster was staring her down needed to know she wasn't going down a fight. Not! That she would go down at all. Of course.
"Yeah-- You better stop there! If you know what's good for you!"
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But it was getting harder and harder to convince himself it was just in his head when the voice was housed by a very petite, familiar kind of frame, bristled and braced in very familiar ways.
"Is– is this supposed to be a joke?" he declared aloud, incredulous...and offended. That can't be her.
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"Zelgadis?"
Wait, no, that can't be right. She squints her eyes, trying to see past her outstretched hand, stepping a little closer. Slowly and carefully, she doesn't want to trip on any overground roots again. She stops when the palm of her hand butts against Zelgadis' shoulder and she can just make out the outline of his hair.
"...Is that you, Zel?"
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He's frozen on the spot as she approaches, and the closer he gets, the more certain he is it's her – absolutely her, no mistake. It's overwhelming to the point where he nearly recoils and topples over at being touched, but he manages to keep it together and on his feet.
"Lina," he says, his voice instantly thick. "You can't– be here! You're not safe out here alone–" And in the dark, with no magic, and so many people here so messed up...him, too; he's more convinced of it than ever simply for her being there.
All the same, there goes his hand, grasping a shoulder to both root her in place and to make it once-and-for-all certain that she's right there, in the flesh.
This is such a problem.
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"Well, if I'm not safe, neither are you. By the way," her tone takes that eerie turn. Her fingers squeeze his shoulders tighter.
"Do you mean to tell me."
She shifts on her heels, moving to stand shoulder to shoulder now, getting that arm around the back of his neck. Still friendly!
"That you've been here."
She wraps the arm around his neck fully now, yanking him to bend down to her height. Okay, maybe not so friendly.
"And didn't say a word until I was lost in the woods alone and couldn't see!"
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...Oh, no.
His brain is quick enough to catch on, but his body was certainly too sluggish to react; he's too out of practice for this punishment.
"GyAACK–!"
Credit's always been due Lina Inverse for being able to inflict damage on a chimera who was one-third unfeeling rock, but that third's been out of the picture for months now: This really hurts!
"Chh! Gh–h–how was I supposed to know?! I was–" Air. AIR. He starts trying to pry his arms off of her, delicately at first, but soon air is very important. Get off, you unrealized harpy!
"I was out here by myself!" he manages, talking fast between gasps for air. "I don't pay attention to the newcomers at port!"
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It's the curiosity that gets her to loosen her grip, enough that Zelgadis can pull away, than his need for air. Now that they're close, she can see some distinctions of his face. The shadows aren't playing right against his face like she knows it should. The rise of the chimera rock forms are all wrong and she felt something weird against her arm when she had him in that headlock just then.
Something is very wrong.
"What do you mean."
Her tone is to the point. No room for him to wiggle out of an answer.
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So much for emotional reunions: that chokehold sobered Zel the hell up, even made him a bit irritated despite the situation. It's why his tone flattens out in reply while he fixes his cloak and hood, all tousled from getting wrestled a good food and a half closer to the ground.
"I mean what I said, Lina. You can't be here. Because if you are, you're effectively screwed, just like I am." He huffs, straightening. "There's a situation going on here, and it's not good.
"But we can't go on about it out here," he adds, forcing himself to look past her and away. "We need a safer spot."
No doubt between Lina's yelling and the wrestling, keener ears could be piqued and in search of a meal.
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"Then I hope you have somewhere in mind. I couldn't find anywhere out here."
She hates relying on other people (except to pay for her meals). But in this situation, she's got no choice. Zelgadis seems to know what's going on and where they are, so she has to trust him. A familiar scene from years ago replays in her head for just a moment and she self-consciously crosses her arms over her chest.
"Please tell me you have your magic. Actually, don't tell me that, I'll kill you if you do." Nothing would be more humiliating than Zelgadis having her magic and she didn't.
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If she stays that long. If she survives. Those things stick in his throat and knot there. A flood of possibilities are rushing up past his ankles and liable to drown him before they can get very far; it makes his head swirl. There's just...there's so much she doesn't know yet. Is magic even the right place to start?
"We're not on the same world anymore, for that matter. I don't think this place is even one of the ones on the staff, but I haven't found anything that confirms or denies that yet."
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"Wait-- Staff?" She tries to blink the night out of her eyes but no luck. She's still following the faint slightly-lighter-spot of his cape in front of her. "What staff? Are you saying this is outside the barrier?"
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He didn't want to believe it at first, this idea of an entirely different world, but...well, the stars didn't lie, for one thing. And another? Nothing made proper sense. Even for the lands that lay beyond the broken barrier, there was some semblance of familiarity. Not so here.
He has no idea what Lina's going to do when she sees the automobiles, especially since she can't just blow them up on sight.
"The stars are all wrong. I've checked. And more than that, there's people here that have never had any business being remotely native to our world. Like Overworlders, almost."
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Zelgadis is talking crazy.
He doesn't know what 'Overworlders' he's talking about, or the rest of that. But he knows more about this place than she does. She couldn't even get in an open area enough to even see the stars.
She'll have too pick his brain, then. Zegaldis is easy to talk to about these sorts of topics. But the conversations are always slow, methodical. One has to take your time with Zel, otherwise he'll seize up and get caught up in his own head thinking about boring things, like his past, his gollum and chimera body, things she can't help with. She has to keep him focused in the present and that takes a lot of careful thought and wording.
"No idea how any of us got here, then? What kind of person or force could do this?"
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But there's nothing he can do about it now; he wouldn't be able to protect her if they were too far away from a water source anyway. It's...practical, even while being damning.
Here, though, the water reflects the moon and gives them something of a light source. Better for her, he figures...but he makes more of a point at keeping her to his back while he scans his shoddy campsite for signs of life other than his own, all the while trying to explain what he can as easily as he can.
"Locals here worship a fog god. Every couple of weeks, a heavy fog rolls in and it has...odd qualities. People change in it." He kneels down by his bag and rifles through it, tossing a dried pear over his shoulder her way.
"And no doubt it has...some quality, but I can't sense any magic from it."
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She hadn't realized just how hungry she was until she saw the fruit flying at her and caught it. Now it was all she could think about, Zelgadis' words being stored away in the back of her mind. She rolled it around between her fingers before taking as big a bite as she could.
But a fog that changes people every few weeks... That's interesting, if nothing else. Definitely different. But was it a god bringing the fog that caused people to worship, or people worshipping an idea of a god that gave it powers, like Martina's patron Monster? She'd only be able to find out if she could meet some of these locals...
Her stomach growled rudely and she took another bite.
"Tho," she started, mouth full and not caring in the least, "Wha yo' thaying ith," annnnd swallow. "That our gods and Monsters aren't here, and that's why we don't have our magic. But there's something else here that we could use if we can get more information."
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His tone drops to a very noncommittal waver. Zel's living in a weird flux of extremes here: he's genuinely pleased and relieved to see Lina again for selfish reasons, but at the same time horrified and nauseated by the prospect of her being here. Too much can and probably will go wrong, and she's no longer the powerhouse she was to fight it off. Without her magic, she's...
Well, she's smart as a whip, adaptable, and damn near impossible to depress. Even on the ropes against the baddest of the bad, when even having magic seemed moot, Lina endured and played with her chips all in. It's one of her most admirable traits...and one of her most frustrating. Zel's not so sure that kind of attitude will serve her well in this place.
Gods. Is she going to change, too? Zel's not sure he could stand it, nevermind if she could.
There's a weird comfort in hearing her puzzling it out with her mouth full, the rude black hole that she is. And that makes him feel worse. What is he going to do? His hands are already changing into something weirder than just scales...
"People turn into monsters." He just. Outright blurts it, taking himself by surprise, wincing. There's so much more to it than that, but he barely knows enough to make it sound like more than some weird delusion!
"That is...so far...I've seen a lot of people change...worse in the fog, so..."
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She'd been trying to gnaw the last bit of fruit off the pear's core when he blurted something out about people changing into monsters. But she wasn't sure if he meant monsters or Monsters, capital-M. Which wouldn't make any sense, so surely he meant little-m.
"So like werewolves." Because that's honestly the worst one she can remember from any text. Stories about vampires were just stories, so those aren't real. And werewolves weren't... the best example either, seeing as they always stay wolves, just walking bipedal and are usually rude as hell--
"Or something like that right? More about that fog, huh..."
The wheels are turning, she's not even seeing Zelgadis' dilemma about his hands. This is a new mystery! She has to get as much information as she can and try to piece it together, because the obvious "the fog makes people change" is too obvious and simple.
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"Except the changes don't go away...they just seem to get worse." He looks over his shoulder, grimacing over at her.
"Lina– I woke up human here. Cured. That's part of what's weird here, too."
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But she stares at him at that final proclamation. He woke up cured. Cured. Here. This place, cured Zelgadis.
She almost wishes she could've been here to see that in person, he must have been happy. She's seen smug Zelgadis. She's seen content Zelgadis, but not happy. Honestly, she wasn't sure if such a thing existed but she wishes she could've seen it. But she knows for sure she sees some kind of skin growth on him now and some other weird things...
So whatever changes he's talking about are happening to him. Something tugs at her ...well. Heart, if she had to admit she has one. She keeps her voice quiet, tone even.
"I'm--"
Something chokes in her and she can't say it. That sort of talk just doesn't come easy for her, she's not touchy-feely emotional. Amelia was good for that. Amelia should be here to say I'm sorry to Zel. Lina goes for the next best thing.
"I'm going to find a way to fix it."
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Lina just saying sure, I'll fix your problems without an earmark? It literally is like choking on something that doesn't go down right. He shakes his head quickly of it, looking back out at the lake as he hastily regroups.
"Don't you think I've been working on it?" he manages, his tone touchier than need be, if only to compensate for floundering. "Every chance I get, I'm researching whatever I can get my hands on. It's not that simple, you know!"
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"And you've been here by yourself this whole time. Do you really think we wouldn't be able to put our heads together and find some answers or were you going to horde all the information to yourself until I beat it out of you?"
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She got up, moved and plopped herself on the grass next to him, careful enough to still give him space.
"When have I ever not made one of my 'resolution' a certainty in the end? C'mon, you know me."
She looked at the reflection of the moon on the water; if this were home, she'd almost say it's nice. Almost makes her wish Gourry was here so he could make a bad joke about it. Well, if he's here somewhere, he won't be able to hide it for long. They all find each other sooner or later.
"If this place has enough power to cure you on arrival, there's gotta be a way to harness that power and make it permanent."
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Jeez. Is there really hope, then? Compared to all the horrible, bloody, nightmarish evidence pointing him down a very bad path, here storms in miss Lina Inverse, yet again trampling all over the daisies and just doing and saying what she pleases.
He huffs, trying to keep his mouth from twitching, to keep any visual cue that maybe he believes her off his face.
"Right, right," he sighs, his tone flattening out again. "I'm sure I'll be really impressed and humbled."
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