Ai Nanasaki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
koiwamizuiro) wrote2013-03-09 08:59 pm
koiwamizuiro) wrote2013-03-09 08:59 pm
Entry tags:
Reflections [Locked to Myself]
This is a thread where I'll post IC reflections of Ai Nanasaki. It'll contain thoughts about what's been happening to her in Luceti lately, how she feels after certain events have transpired, what she'll be up to in the future, how she's influenced by her experiences in the village... Things like that.
[Backdated to the 10th of March]
Everything else that had just happened aside, it sure felt nice to have her own apartment – and on an entirely empty floor too, and get some time just for herself to think. It was not a bad apartment, either – fairly spacious and with a nice view of the village, or most of it anyway. She had studied the map of Luceti beforehand and judged that the second Community Housing Building would be the best place for her to move in, and she had turned out to be correct. It sure was a nice location; it was close to the river that ran through Luceti as well as the teleporter to the hot spring, and the actual center was not too far either. The fact that the floor she was on was virtually empty was a nice bonus for her – and it was indeed pleasantly quiet here, just as she had been told.
Luceti was a very strange place to be, though. On the outside, it looked like a perfectly normal village, like a place one would find deep in the countryside, far away from everything else, tranquil and serene. This one, however, was full of all kinds of people from tons of different worlds, and they all shared the fate of being trapped here, for there was a bubble surrounding the enclosure that prevented anyone from getting out. Not that they would be able to escape from the world itself even if it wasn’t there – but, perhaps, they would have still managed to make contact with some of the other villages that were somewhere out there in the very same world. Their inhabitants were all marked as prisoners with the barcodes on their necks and the pair of wings that she still had trouble with sometimes, especially when she wanted to get comfortable on either her chair or her bed. It would take some time getting used to having them on her back, not to mention that she had to always be careful not to break them, otherwise she would apparently die - a temporary death, yes, but she still didn't want to endure anything like that. At the very least, her feathers were of a nice black color, and they didn’t look so bad on her.
All in all, it was not a pretty situation, especially with the Malnosso potentially abducting any resident of the village for their experiments. Their presence in this world unnerved her, especially when she got to read what kind of things they were capable of from the guide in her journal. Supposedly they were trying to take people back to their worlds and were trapped just like they were, but Ai didn’t trust them or agree with their methods. Reading about what they could do only reaffirmed her belief that they should work together with the residents of the villages to discover a way to go back to their home worlds, not virtually attack them. She could only hope she wouldn’t have to face a member of the Malnosso during a potential abduction but if she did, she certainly won't be inclined to be friendly to them, given what she knew. After all, they would want to perform an experiment on her or some sort of Shift, and she still couldn’t see how that exactly helped their agenda. Ai wasn’t particularly thrilled about the existence of the Third Party organization either – they may have thought that they were doing the right thing, but she did not have any desire to die as part of a ritual sacrifice that was supposedly carried out for her own sake.
Because at the very least, actual life in Luceti didn’t seem so bad to her, if she ignored the problem of the Malnosso looming over everybody in the village. Everything was free and there was a ton of facilities available for use that she had yet to explore and take advantage of. The girl would eventually want to check out the school, for one thing – maybe give those world sharing classes a shot, and ask more questions about the sports that she could take part in there. Even if she couldn’t find any information about Luceti itself from the library, she’d want to make a visit there too, and see what kind of books were available and whether she could continue her studies on her own somehow. Maybe some fictional book about another world would pique her interest, or an informative one - either could work since both would provide unique insight for her. A trip to the Tsukino Shrine also sounded good to her, and apart from the fact that it was maintained by Rei Hino, it was just in front of her apartment building regardless. When it got warmer, Ai would be able to swim in the mountain lakes as well, and that was something she’d look forward to if she found herself staying here for that long.
Apart from all the things she could do here, there were also a lot of interesting people living in Luceti from many different worlds that Ai was put in the same situation in. She had yet to really get to know anybody, but so far she had been able to speak with a talking pony by the name of Twilight Sparkle, an actual orc called Garrosh Hellscream, the Pokémon trainer Diamond, the master of four elements Aang and a shrine maiden named Rei Hino. All of them were wildly different, but still welcoming and helpful to her, and she guessed that most villagers here would have been the same way as well if she had stumbled upon them instead. She couldn’t help but be immensely curious about what other people she could meet and learn more about where they came from. The mere concept of other worlds existing had baffled her before, but with time she had slowly processed it and accepted it, and was eager to find out and discover while she was here.
Ai put down the journal on her bed and stood up from the chair and began walking through the floor of the apartment building with her hands in the pocket of her jeans. One thing was for sure - the Malnosso did their best to make this not feel like a prison, and for that, at least, she was glad. Especially as she took it all in now, checking out the kitchen that was right on the opposite side of her room and the many empty rooms around, all of them furnished. And to think that she could go out there and get more things for free… Well, yes, there were some amenities that she couldn’t quite get without taking on some missions for the Malnosso first which were said to help in that aspect, but even what she got now was still really nice.
The girl leaned on one of the windows on the opposite side with a view towards the seemingly endless forest surrounding the village, with some mountain peaks visible in the horizon. The pleasant view made her smile, but her mind was still full of thoughts, some of which were saddening her a little, her expression at that moment appearing conflicted. The thought of her family and friends was a particularly sensitive one, along with the fact that she was now away from them all.
Thankfully, Ai had found out that time had apparently stopped back in Japan, so whenever she got back there, she’d return in the bed of her room, exactly where she fell asleep the night she was taken. Neither her relatives would have to worry about her now, and she probably wouldn’t remember any of this for that matter either. Still, she missed a lot of people like her swimming team – her classmates who she had been tutoring for a whole year now, if not even more than that. She also wanted to hang out with Mia and Sae again, her two best friends there, and hear what they had to say once more. Mia would always amuse her, and she would often be full of stories about her brother, who sure sounded like an odd person, apparently unpopular in his class, unlike his sister. The two of them would also occasionally help out Sae with her troubles, more often than not getting her to open up to more people than just the two of them. Her family was what she missed most, though – her parents and her little brother, with whom she had talked to every day at home. This night was one of the very few when she found herself unable to do that.
New experiences were ahead of Ai, though, and she had to focus on the positives, and try to get the most out of living here. Even death didn’t seem to be an issue – for even if it happened to her, there’d be a way for her to return here with her memories perfectly intact. It was just a matter of time before she’d go back home – it was just a question of when. She wouldn’t let her mind linger on such thoughts, even if she still realized that it would be difficult to do so, especially at the beginning. She would concentrate on living her life here in Luceti instead and take advantage of the opportunities it offers her.
[Backdated to the 12th of April]
The thought occurred to her during her walk as she wondered whether she would be able to regularly take this trip from 'home' once it was finally summer, or at the very least, when it was warm enough for her to do so. Seeing as she had not been walking for too much and she was already close to the lake, she judged that it wouldn't be any trouble for her to make use of it often if she desired. After all, the girl had gotten used to long walks such as this back home in Kibitou, so this was not a problem for her at all.
But as an emphasis of just how much time had already passed - or rather, how much time it felt like had come and gone, Ai looked and narrowed her eyes towards the depths of the forest she was walking through and immediately recalled her untimely entry into this world. It was a time when she was confused and curious, shivering because of that overly light sundress, having absolutely no idea as to where she had just been taken or what kind of world she was in. Not to mention the journal that she had woken up next to and quickly found after she had regained consciousness - an unearthly and incomprehensible book then, part of her everyday life now. The pair of black wings on her back that she had suddenly sprouted were now just as much a part of her as everything else, and while they still made sleeping a bit more uncomfortable, she had more or less gotten used to them by now too. It was really quite a thing to think about.
And it wasn't solely because there were a lot of actually pleasant things in Luceti that she was now finding it easier to consider it her home. It wasn't just because of the usual quietness in the village that she had taken advantage of, having spent several nights gazing at the stars by the river next to her apartment and the Tsukino Shrine that Rei Hino maintained. Nor was it because she could get herself clothes, food or other items for free, and she had certainly made several trips to the grocery store, the clothing shop and the bakery already. And while her fascination with the many different worlds of the residents of Luceti she had encountered helped - for it was so much that she even wound up buying her first otherworldly book from the library - it was still not the only reason either.
For she had also seen a lot of the dangers and horrors that came with being in Luceti as well. Not long after Ai settled here, she began seeing results of the Malnosso's experiments with her own eyes, and that was different than just reading it on the guide. Belle, for instance, who had seemingly lost her ability to read and was so distraught over it, or Obi-Wan Kenobi, who wasn't even tangible anymore, left to starve and feel endless thirst until his condition wore off. She had seen how it was like for others to either have their friends depart from this world or live with them in it together in the face of Serah and Aang respectively. A part of her was lonely because nobody she knew from home was also here, yes, but she realized that they would be exposed to the same dangers she would, and nobody could tell exactly when they would go back, and whether it would even be at the same time. But most of all, the recent draft had visibly left a lot of people somewhat scarred - she was lucky enough not to be among the ones heading to Terrace, but she knew that her time could someday be up too, and there were places that were far from safe here. And with the Malnosso and the Third Party organization looming over them all as well, there was no telling what could happen in the future.
But still, here she was, trying to better her Luceti life while it lasted anyway, accepting these dangers for what they were and mentally preparing herself to potentially face them. The girl wasn't going to achieve this by simply brooding over them, however, and what she could do was contrast all of this with the good in Luceti that made living here even exciting, in a way. One example of that would be the people she met and already started to get to know even better than before, like Rei Hino, whose shrine she already had the pleasure of visiting, and Diamond, the ever-cheerful Pokémon trainer who told her even more about where he came from. And another way to enjoy herself were all the hobbies she could continue doing here - one of them being swimming, of course, and while it wasn't quite warm enough for her to do it outside yet, she still wanted to finally check out the lakes near the village. She had found herself exploring the village a lot, but she hadn't really made trips out of it before, so this was a good place to start doing so. The temperatures finally warming up a little gave her some motivation for it too, and as a proof of the weather change, she was wearing a lighter open black jacket over the long-sleeved purple shirt she had gotten for herself about five days ago, along with her blue denim jeans. It was a somewhat windy day, but not as cold as it had been at the beginning of the week.
And soon enough, her eyes were met with the view of the western lake of Luceti, the trees around her gradually clearing up, the slowly running river emptying into the massive body of water in front of her. It was even larger than she expected it to be, or it looked that way anyway, and it was about half the size of the entire village, if her map was correct. It was surrounded by the forest on all sides, a pleasantly giving it a sense of seclusion and isolation, and the water was clear as well, giving her an idea of how deep it was as well. The only signs of civilization here were ones that made her furrow her brows curiously as she briefly stared at them; what she was looking at was some kind of ropes course between the northern shore and where the river emptied into the lake, joined by several poorly constructed treehouses which were linked together by rope-and-plank bridges. Going there would probably be a dangerous experience for anyone, so for now she was just going to stick to observing the lake for a while.
That was pretty much what Ai could do for now anyway, even though what she wanted most was to swim, especially after feasting her eyes on the lake itself. Walking up to the water and kneeling down, she felt it with her hand to see how it was, still finding it lamentably colder than her desired temperature. Unfortunately, with Luceti's climate being what it was, it would take a bit more time for the weather to really warm up enough, and while she could continue trying to figure out the programming behind the Battle Dome and continuously create her own scenarios, it was the real thing she sought after most. Not to mention that there wasn't any time limit here that she had to adhere to, nor did she have to give it up like she would have to with the simulator chamber if somebody else wished to use it. With how large this lake was, even if the were more people out swimming, there would surely be a place for her to find just for herself and enjoy it peacefully, all of her worries set aside.
So, after pulling back her hand from the water, Ai looked at the crystal clear water of the western lake, seeing her reflection in it, showing the soft smile she had on her face and the excited look in her sharp purplish eyes. Because of the windy day, her black hair was lightly blowing as well, some of her bangs moving in front of her eyes, shifting to either the left or the right. And with her current, lighter attire, she didn't feel cold at all, which was a definitely a good sign of the upcoming summer. It was spring already, after all, and the last snow that had fallen in Luceti took place only a few days after her arrival here, a heat wave soon following, which was definitely a step in the right direction. With that in mind, she reaffirmed that it wouldn't be too long until she'd get to enjoy this, and that thought made her smile widen even more.
The girl proceeded to lie down on the grass by the lake, propping herself up on her elbows as she did, her eyes taking in the scenery in front of her once again. At the very least, she could relish in the tranquility of the place a bit more before she headed back to the village. Thinking on it, this was actually a good spot for a picnic as well, so perhaps next time she should bring some food with her too, and maybe she should also get herself a new bag from the shops to carry it in. Yes, this was definitely a good idea, and she could do that either here or at the Cherry Blossom Tree Hill that she had yet to visit. She had been here for a decent amount of time already, yes, but she sure wasn't running out of things to do.
It was thoughts like these that helped Ai in the situation she was in, and at that precise moment of her enjoying being in the midst of nature, she was taking another step towards truly seeing Luceti as her home. While thoughts of her family and friends would never cease to enter her mind, times like these when she could focus on the good sides of being here were precious, bringing about a strong, positive feeling in her. This was truly nice, and it made her all the more excited for the upcoming season change. The days spent waiting that didn't involve her spending time like this with herself could certainly be filled by building a life there and being in the presence of the people she had already begun to acquaint herself with.