gotosleep_idiot | September & October Test Drive

Running into new faces isn't exactly unheard of in Nautilus, of course, but after being around for several months it does grow rarer. The town's pretty small, or at least it feels that way to Sora, and at this point he's inclined to assume that an unfamiliar face is probably new in town.

True, this guy seems to have some sort of idea where he's going, but... that's not the direction of the medbay, and he looks like he might want to consider paying it a visit. As Sora falls into step alongside him, close enough now to see the full extent of the injuries, he can't quite keep from making a face.

"Geez, you look awful." Though he doesn't really process what he's saying in time to stop it, he does at least realize that it might be considered rude, and a moment later he holds his hands up apologetically.

"I mean, no offense or anything. Did you run into the spiders? Maybe we should put up more warning signs around the West..." but that's not important at the moment, not really. "Do you need a healer?"

Look, a person! Not someone he knows, still, but Ren was beginning to accept the fact that he wouldn't be seeing anyone he knew here, anyway. But it was nice to see someone, even when the person was telling you that you looked pretty messed up.

Ren stopped to fully look at the other boy, and he reached up to scratch the back of his head, wincing as he did so. Reminder to himself: do not make any sudden movements.

"Spiders? No, I didn't run into any spiders, I sort of woke up like this." But if spiders here could do that, they definitely needed to put up some more warning signs. The term of healer threw him for a moment. Did he mean a doctor, or some kind of magical healing? This guy wasn't any Persona user that Ren knew.

"I could probably use a doctor." Ren nodded. "No offense taken. I feel awful, so I probably look it, too." He paused.

"Could you tell me... where we are, too?"

"Oh. Ohhh." He nods to himself, as if everything is perfectly clear now. "I sorta thought you might be new."

At least he wasn't attacked as soon as he woke up- apparently that happened to people who came in through the Western gate. Nautilus wasn't really good at warm welcomes to begin with, but that would've taken the cake.

As it is, he smiles and takes a couple steps back, tilting his head towards the North. "In that case, welcome to Nautilus! I can explain things on the way to the medbay if you want me to show you where it is. There's a bit of a walk, but... well, it's kind of a long story anyway." He pauses and shakes his head slightly. "Or... at least a really complicated story."

There was the thought of what he was new to. New to this situation? New to this place? Because both of those things were absolutely, one hundred percent true. Still, it felt good to have someone smile at him, and he gave a small smile back.

"I'd really appreciate it if you could." Ren smiled at him before sticking both hands into his pockets. His phone was in there, and he could feel like there was something he was supposed to be doing... what it was, he was still foggy on.

"I don't mind it being a long or complicated story." Looking from the young man to where he had been tilting his head, he nodded, before looking back at him. "My name's Ren, by the way."

"Ren," he repeats with a quick nod of his head. "Nice to meet you! I'm Sora."

With that he turns on a heel to lead the way, though he only manages to get a few steps before pausing to pull the journal out of one of his pockets and flip through it. It takes him a couple of seconds to find the city map, but... he figures it's kinda important. He's never actually been to the medbay before, even if he vaguely knows the general location of it, and checking the way there ahead of time is probably a safer plan than ending up lost and wandering in circles for an hour or two.

"I guess I should probably start with asking if you've been to other worlds before," he says absent-mindedly as he makes a mental note of the pathway. "That's really the easiest way to explain what Nautilus is. A different world with different rules than most of the others."

"Nice to meet you, Sora." The name wasn't that strange, which helped give him a little bit more confidence in where he was. Maybe if Sora had told him his name was actually Pink Vargus, there'd be some strangeness going on. But Sora was a normal enough name.

Giving a curious look at the journal, Ren had to wonder where he got that. He also had to wonder if he would get one as well, or did Sora come to this place with it? But the question gives him pause. Did going into Palaces count as going to other worlds? It was more going into someone's heart, really, so maybe it didn't count as a different world.

"No, I haven't been to other worlds before." Ren said cautiously, his mind beginning to clear more and more. So this is another world, and not some weird part of Japan that he'd never been to.

"What do you mean, different rules?" He has to ask, even though he had so many other questions, that was the first one that came out.

It does occur to him as he's closing the journal that he should probably find out what Ren will have to use to connect to the Network, though Sora doubts he'll be much help in getting it to work if it's anything more technologically complicated than a book. He's getting better at working things like phones, or at least he's pretty sure he is, but... well, sometimes he's thankful he only showed up with a book rather than with a computer on him or something. That can wait, though- the Network's good at making itself known sooner rather than later, anyway, given Nautilus has a bad habit of spying.

"Well, that's the really complicated part." He's not even sure how to word it, but, really, none of the explanations he got when he first arrived made much sense either. Maybe it was something you just had to accept in time. Not that that makes up for the fact that he's sure he's going to butcher the explanation.

"So, Nautilus is basically made out of chaos. The idea that anything can happen at any time- that's a real energy, and it's around us all the time here. That means we can learn how to control it to make the things we want to happen real. It's sort of like magic!"

He holds out his free hand, palm-up, and focuses on it for a second or so. In short order, a pencil appears in his grasp, and he twirls it around in his fingers as though to show that it's actually solid.

"You just have to have a lot of willpower. Or, uh, that's what everybody calls it, but I think it basically means you have to know for sure what you want and then just be really stubborn about it," he laughs.

Right, chaos. Right, energy. Okay, magic, he can kind of understand, because summoning a Persona was essentially like magic. And actually, what he was saying made sense. You had to have a lot of willpower to summon your Persona, and even though he could summon multiples, it did take a lot to summon each one. He might have made it look easy on the outside, but it did take a lot.

Still, though, he just stared when he made a pencil appear in his hand, just like... well. Just like magic. It was weird, to be sure, but the explanation did make a little bit of sense.

Also, it might hurt a little bit, but he couldn't stop the grin that broke out on his face, because. "That's so cool." Ren had to laugh softly as well, even if it made his ribs hurt, because seriously, that was cool. "I think I understand a little of it? Does that mean everyone can make pencils appear like magic?"

Translation: would he be able to do that, too? Someday, at least?

"Sure. Anybody can learn how to bend up pretty much whatever they want. It takes some practice, but there's lots of teachers."

Not like he really utilized them all that often. He was bad with lessons. Pointers from Clef had been enough to get started on bringing back the essentials, and everything had seemed straightforward after that- it was like second nature to summon things like his magic back to him, after all. He kept his pace a little relaxed as he tossed the journal into the hood of his jacket and started off again, half-turned to face Ren even as he walked.

"It makes it a little easier if you start with bringing back something you're used to. Like... I dunno. There's gotta be some object you're really familiar with, right? Or a spell you use more often than others. Uh, if your world's got magic, anyway. Apparently some don't, which is kinda weird."

Ren easily followed Sora to wherever it was they were going to. He might be the leader back home, but in a situation that he knew he didn't have the knowledge or skills for, he had no problem following. It was easier then he thought it would be, actually. But thank god he kept the pace they walked at relaxed, because some steps sent fire up the leg the officer had stepped on.

"So the world you're from had magic?" That was a trip. It sounded like Sora was from some kind of book or videogame or something. Which was a cool thing to Ren, and he dug his hands a little deeper into his pockets, fingers closing over his phone. He wondered if the Nav was still on it.

"There's a kind of... it's a little complicated, where I'm from. Me and my friends have this ability, but I don't know if it'd be called magic." Ren confessed. "If anyone knew about it, they'd say we were crazy, though." But an object he knew really well? Ren thought about his mask; he knew that really well.

"It does, yeah." Well, sort of. It must've existed on the Islands, at least in some capacity, but he wasn't really familiar with it until after he left his world. He guesses that makes the answer slightly complicated, but that's nothing new. He's found more and more that he isn't sure how to explain half of what's happened to him without sounding like he's just making things up.

"And believe me, I'm used to crazy abilities. Depending on how it works it might be hard to get it to work right in Nautilus and all, though..." he pauses thoughtfully before shrugging. Creating fireballs and lightning was one thing, but he knows full well he wouldn't be able to use his summon magic or anything here. Magic isn't that straightforward all the time.

"I guess go with whatever you think would be easiest to bring back. You'll know right away if it's gonna work out well or not. That's what everybody on the Network told me to do."

At this point, someone could tell him they rode around on giant chickens while fighting two headed dinosaurs, and Ren would fully believe them. One hundred percent. This place looked fairly normal, but the fact that he was there and not where he should be, made it utterly fantastical. There was still something there, tugging at his head, about something he should be remembering...

"Not everything works here? I mean, not all magic can work here?" Asks curiously, because to use any of the abilities he had before, he'd have to get his Personae back, and that seemed like it could take awhile. It used to be easy to do, of course, at least for him, but, well. It was all about willpower though. Who knew?

"The network?" More curiosity. "Is there internet here?" If there was, maybe he could get his phone to work.

"I think some magic is special enough that it's unique to the world it came from. But... I don't know for sure," he admits. The keyblade definitely doesn't have all of the powers it had back home, and even if he were to try to bend them back it wouldn't work the same way. That much he's certain of. Impacting other people tends to end up in a battle of wills when bending is concerned.

He waves a hand vaguely. "But all of that can wait until later, right? Bending's not that important to figure out right away." True, you needed it to get home, but Sora had wanted to wait a while before he tried that anyway. There was a lot to see and learn in Nautilus. He didn't feel like there was any rush.

"Uh, I don't really know how internet works, but the Network's what we use to talk to each other, so... maybe? I guess? Everybody posts stuff on there and sometimes it's videos and other times it's not. But you can reply easy without having to meet them in person. I think you should've arrived with something on you that can connect to it. Everybody does. Even if it's just a book."

"Right." Agreeing with him, he gave a little nod. While certainly interesting, Bending didn't seem too important in the grand scheme of things right this second. Not when it'd be nice to be able to breathe without tendrils of pain running up and down your torso. It'd be nice to return home though, if it was possible.

He was worried about his friends back home. Everyone was in danger, last he could remember, and who wanted to be the one to feel like you left them all behind?

"Sounds kind of like the internet. It'd need to have a lot of cat videos to make it like the real one, though." Jokes a little quietly, but then makes the connection. "Oh, so the notebook you looked at...?"

September & October Test Drive

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