01

[loved2many]

Characters: Aoi Tohsaka - OPEN.
Setting: Room 1-07 / Dormitory Floors.
Format: Brackets preferred, but I can match either way.
Summary: Unfamiliar scenery.
Warnings: None, probably.

Room 1-07
[when the paralysis wears off she almost lurches out of bed, utterly confused and alarmed. This isn't her house. This isn't her family's house. Kidnapping-?

Residents of room 1-07 will be met with the loud thunk of Aoi falling off the bedside and scrabbling upright, evidently panicked; help a poor lady out?]

Dormitory Corridors
[having recovered somewhat from the initial... shock... Aoi is mostly wandering; venturing through the dormitory floors, warily avoiding the network terminals and generally trying to stay out of everyone's way whilst she fully comes to terms with all this...]

Comments

[sicharia]

Mm. [It's an affirmative sound, though not a particularly strong one. She knows other people have been here much longer.] It's been a few months now.

[She doesn't realize anything might be off here; it would be normal for Aoi to be confused and disoriented if she has only just arrived. Once she is satisfied that Aoi is, in fact, unharmed, she asks:] Do you—need any help?

[She isn't quite sure how to go about being the welcoming wagon here, so she'll see what Aoi says first.]

[loved2many]

[...well, that was a clear underestimation - and a confusing one. She's not sure what to make of it beyond the knowledge that things are vastly out of place.]

...I'm fine. How about you?

[sicharia]

Oh, I'm—

[Her voice cuts off, and at once she feels embarrassed. Aoi absolutely should not be worried about her health, not after everything she has done.]

[So, she glosses over the topic as quickly as she can.]

I'm fine. Have you had things explained to you? This place is dangerous, so you need to be careful.

[loved2many]

I- dangerous? How?

[sicharia]

There are creatures here that are dangerous, and sometimes the people in charge... They do things to people. [She thinks of the word written in blood above her bed, and standing here talking to Aoi, it knocks the breath from her again. Unthinkingly, she reaches up to touch the cross she wears beneath her dress, fingering it through the cloth.] Change their bodies or their minds. It's— It's just awful.

[loved2many]

... [...you've got to be joking...]

Why...

[sicharia]

I don't know. I don't understand it. They say they want to shelter us, but then they...

[She trails off and sighs, the sound short and tense.]

I'm sorry. I hate to be the one to tell you this, and I hate that I can't do more for you. [She fiddles with the cross beneath her clothes.] If I had my Servant, I could at least...

/2

[loved2many]

I-It's fine I would ask you t-

[loved2many]

[-wait, what?] ...Servant...?

[...Claudia?]

[sicharia]

—Ah.

[It's a very quiet sound. And here she had been talking to Aoi as though she were the one she had spent three years living beside.]

...I'm sorry. Um... Sometimes the people here aren't exactly like the ones you know, even if they look and even act the same. Am I right in guessing that I'm dead, from your point of view?

[loved2many]

[...ouch.]


...Yes. Three years ago.

[sicharia]

I thought so.

[It isn't hard to hear. That's when she should have died, after all.]

Like I said, things are different for me. I'm sorry, I should have...

[Should have realized? She isn't sure what she means to finish that sentence with.]

[loved2many]

...It's fine. It's good to see you again.

[sicharia]

[Claudia very nearly winces when Aoi says that. She probably would have done so if she hadn't learned to hide her emotions over the past three years. Her response is only hidden, though, and she feels it just as keenly as she ever would, an almost physical pain that pulses in time with her heartbeat.]

Mm. If you're ever in need of anything, please tell me. Like I said, I can't do as much without Assassin here, but— [She laughs, the sound not precisely a happy one.] Well, I'll do what I can.

[loved2many]

Thank you. If there's anything I can help with, just ask.

[sicharia]

Of course. [She nods, lying with a straight face.] Would you... Do you need anything in particular now? I could help you get your bearings, or...

[There's a side of her that would like to end this meeting as soon as possible, but the greater part of her feels duty-bound to help Aoi as much as she physically can.]