untrueheart | Act 1

[For two days, Rue has spent her time deep in the forest, surviving on the supplies provided in a small but seemingly abandoned building. On the first day she saw no one, and spent her time as far away from the storybook bearing her name as possible, forcing herself to ignore the black wings on her back. Doing a terrible job of it.

On the second, someone came by, but she hid herself in the surrounding forest until they were gone. It was a stranger and she didn't want anybody to know she was there. Never mind that she was fairly sure this was outside the walls- somewhere she couldn't even imagine going. Not yet.

But on the morning of the third day, self-preservation wins out over uncertainty, and Rue (with her book, so no one else would find it either) walks from the small house until she finds a small lake, following its river upstream and coming within sight of a village with no wall.

There had been spare clothes in the house, so she wears a large jacket despite the heat, to cover her unfortunate wings; it turns away some of the rain that starts up part of the way through her walk. Eventually she stops under the overhang of a shop, staring around at the unfamiliar village, wondering if she ought to stay out of sight.

Too afraid to open a book labeled with her name - a book that might tell her story - she hasn't even come to understand just how different that story is about to become.]

[[ooc: Rue was at New Feather station bb, and she can be under any roof overhang you want but the Item Shop is the most likely one for running-into shenanigans.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There is nowhere she can go that will not end in her being alone. Just because she wasn't everything she once thought, that didn't mean the story was wrong. Only one person could love her. The rest...]

I don't think other people are going to be able to help.

Why not?

[Although if he knew, he would understand how she felt.]

I can't explain. [It's hard enough to deal with the kindness of a stranger like this.] That's just how it has to be.

What do you mean, 'how it has to be'? I don't know what things are supposed to be like in your world, but this isn't your world. Whatever things are supposed to happen there don't matter anymore.

[Another shake of her head, and a glance at the book she left on the steps. It's turned face-down, at least.]

Stories have endings.

That doesn't mean you can't change that ending if you work hard enough.

[He's sure of that. Because he wants to change things in his world, too.]

[Characters can't change endings. Only authors can.

As she'd thought, explaining this to him seems like it will take more energy than it's worth.]

I don't have anywhere to go.

[But Emil just smiles at her again.]

Sure you do! You can pick any empty house or apartment you want here. You don't have to worry about paying for it at all.

I woke up...near a house in the forest. Is that what you mean?

That's right. There are a whole bunch of empty houses and apartments here for us to live in. You can choose whichever one you want as long as no one else is already living there.

[Just...choose and move into a house?]

That doesn't make sense.

I know it sounds strange, but it's just part of how this place works.

Then I...have a lot to learn.

[Rue allows the tiniest amount of something like trust to edge its way into her voice. He didn't seem so bad.]

And you'll have a lot of other people here who will help you with it. We've all been through the same thing when we first arrived.

[See, Rue? This place really isn't so terrible after all.]

[It has yet to seem all that terrible. The unfamiliarity and confusion are difficult, though.]

You're being so kind.

Huh? Why wouldn't I be?

[He seems genuinely confused by this.]

[Rue just shakes her head. It's not worth talking about.]

How sweet. [The confusion is very endearing. She wonders if he does it on purpose.]

[And now he's blushing, because that's one habit he can't quite seem to break no matter how hard he tries.]

Oh, um, thanks, I think. I just don't like seeing anyone upset, that's all.

[He flusters like someone else she knows.]

Weren't you? When you were stolen from your life?

I was. I was really upset and scared, but the people here were kind to me. They helped me get settled in and made sure that I was okay. I don't know what I would've done if they hadn't.

Is that what you intend to do with me?

[It is sweet, and a pure-hearted gesture she does not feel she deserves at all.]

Well, yeah. I can't just leave you out here in the rain all by yourself.

[Sweet is what Emil does, as Rue will undoubtedly learn.]

Then you will escort me? [As she raises a hand, expecting to take his arm.]

H-huh?

[Um. What do? He's never escorted a girl before.]

But I've never... I mean, I don't... o-okay, I guess.

[And he raises his own arm a little bit so that she can take it if she wants.]

[She hooks her hand around his elbow from the inside, smiling.]

Thank you, this is quite courteous.

[Action]

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