This post has the following content warnings:
This post's authors also have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
She is, for the moment, alone.
It's relaxing.
She could be set upon at any moment, of course, but as far as she knows there isn't a soul about for miles and miles and, frankly, it's nice not to have to worry about the intentions of every man within a city block. If something happens, it will, and there'll be nothing ambiguous about it.
A man falls out of the sky.
Well, out of the air, admittedly not very far off the ground. Enough of a distance that he seems briefly stunned by the impact.
He lifts his head, looks around, sees Elodea, blinks at her in total bafflement, and then gives up and flops back into the dirt.
Tallish, human, unfamiliar style of clothes, looks exhausted. Not visibly injured. Doesn't seem alarmed by the situation, or even annoyed, just vaguely depressed.
She gets back a confused frown and some indecipherable commentary.
Alright then.
"Comprehend Languages," she casts, then sits down next to him. "Are you okay?"
"That happens," she says reflectively. "What are you confused about in particular?"
"My name is Elodea, this is a random patch of wilderness in the Arethor province of the Kartan Empire, and based on context my best guess is that you ran into some kind of teleporting trap but honestly I don't know."
"Oh."
He contemplates this information.
"I've never heard of the Kartan Empire."
"It's not bad, as Empires go! Excellent law enforcement and quality of life."
Unaccountably, 'excellent law enforcement' makes him flinch slightly.
It is less unaccountable than if he hadn't randomly dropped on her in particular.
"So what's your story?"
"...'Cause there's a pattern, here, and you fit it enough to make the pattern obvious but not well enough to not make it a weird variation."
"...I'm kinda...cursed. And having a guy who would flinch at 'good law enforcement' randomly teleported at me is totally in line with something the curse would cause to happen but so far you're just...kinda sad."
He snorts. "Oh, that's funny," he says, although he doesn't sound at all amused. "That's hilarious. Ugh."
"You seem pretty horribly depressed! Hugging sometimes helps with that."
"I'm—I was—"
Whatever he's trying to say, it's not working. He pauses, then starts over. "I can't hurt people. Or want to, or plan to, or try to, or think of it like it's a thing I could do. And I can't get angry. And—it was a justice curse, from a Stonestrider."
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
