Act 1

[untrueheart]

[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.]]

Comments

[entreats]

[ Ange is trying to take cover from the rain as well, really. She'd rather not get completely soaked and it started for her in the middle of her walk too, so she ends up running to the same overhang for cover -- except because of her hurry she doesn't notice the girl already standing there and ends up sort of bumping into her. ]

Ah.. sorry. I didn't realise there was already someone here.

[untrueheart]

[Rue looks up, taking a step away as soon as Ange makes contact.]

It's raining. I'd like to stay dry.

[entreats]

That was more or less my intention too. I don't think anyone wants to be out there with this kind of weather.

[ She takes her hair in her hands, wringing it out a little to get the water out. ]

[untrueheart]

[Rue's hair is just dripping. Under the cover of the trees it wasn't so bad, but once in the village proper, it soaked up everything.]

There isn't a choice.

[entreats]

... [ A blink, and she glances sideways in the other girl's direction. ]

Of course there is. You could just stay inside.

[untrueheart]

I had to walk here.

[And it was a long walk. Things jumped out of the river at her.]

[entreats]

Well, I walked here too, that's how I got stuck to begin with.. [ Sigh. Rain in the middle of a walk, really? Sounds like her kind of luck. ]

If your house isn't too far from here though you could probably easily run back.

[untrueheart]

My house? [Does she know this girl after all?] I live at the Academy- and it's not here.

[entreats]

[ .. Academy? She frowns a little, wondering if it's some place in Luceti.. but then it finally seems to click. ]

Ah, wait. You mean you don't know where you are? Or has no one told you you can just get a room in the community buildings if you don't have a place to stay yet?

[untrueheart]

[Rue frowns. No matter how she feels she will not respond well to someone talking as though she doesn't know anything.]

This is obviously not the village I live in.

[entreats]

[ At the tone Ange just shrugs, glancing away a little. ]

I was just asking. You sound like you're lost.

[untrueheart]

[She can't reconcile what she sees and feels with what she knows about the world, is all.]

I...I think I am.

[entreats]

This place is Luceti, if nobody has told you yet. [ She's at least helpful enough - by now, either way - to help out that much. ] You've been kidnapped from your own world, whatever that is, to this place. That's why we all have these wings.

[ She jots a thumb over her shoulder to point at her pink ones. ]

[untrueheart]

[The rest of it appears to pass her right by once Ange indicates the wings.]

You...have them too?

[entreats]

Yeah. [ She says it pretty casually too, as if it's no big deal. ] Everyone here does, as far as I know. I guess it might be sort of freaky at first, but you get used to it.

[untrueheart]

Oh. I see.

[That was better than most of the alternatives, even if it was weird.]

Can we fly?

[entreats]

Not as far as I know. [ And she could know. She fell off the top of a building once, flying would have been handy back there.. ]

Which makes them pretty useless. It's like they're just there for decoration.

[untrueheart]

Yours are a different color.

[Without revealing the color of hers, of course.]

[entreats]

Yeah, obviously pink suits a girl like me so much. [ She sighs. Not that Ange cares that much, but it's been slightly obnoxious at times. ] I don't know if they have anything in mind while they pick the colors, but normally I'd ask for a refund if they gave me this kind of color.

[ At least she doesn't think much of not being able to see Rue's wings like this. ]

[untrueheart]

Do you not like it? I think it suits most girls. [She prefers a darker, more sophisticated red, but pink kind of goes along with a ballet school.]

[entreats]

It makes me look cute.

[ She wrinkles her nose a little as she says it. She's too tsundere to like pink.. ]

[untrueheart]

I don't see anything wrong with that.

[entreats]

That's not really the kind of impression I'm looking to give off. It doesn't suit my personality.

[untrueheart]

Then you should consent to take another look at your personality. [Even the roughest of the Academy students would not scoff at looking cute.] It might surprise you.

[entreats]

[ There's a pause, but then she gives a sidelong glance at the girl. ]

What, are you some sort of therapist?