[001]

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

For anyone wandering into this dream they would find simple countryside, dirt roads passing through rice patties and wooded areas, the surroundings hazy and implied but coming into more distinct clarity the closer they came to a small house. The weather was chilly, the wind bringing a bit of a bite when it came through the trees now and then, taking leaves with it on each gust.

Tomoe was cleaning, a simple broom in hand as she swept in front of the small house. Her expression, as always, was markedly blank, at least for anyone who wasn't used to her. In truth there was a faint note of unease in her frame and the way her brows were subtly drawing now and then as she worked--but the list of those who would pick up on that were few and far between. She had misplaced something. Forgotten something. She was well aware of it, but no matter how hard she thought on it or looked she could not find it. She couldn't even remember what she was looking for, only that 'it' was missing.

It was then that she noticed someone approaching and moved carefully to the path leading up to the house, watching the newcomer owlishly. They certainly didn't look like they had traveled from Otsu.

"Are you looking for the medicine seller...?"



[ooc; I'm going to do something a bit weird with Tomoe. She subconsciously remembers dying, but the greater part of her mind is trying to suppress it... so I'm going to try to bring that out in weird subtle things in the background or with her (i.e. snow falling inside a building or in the middle of 80 degree weather, spots of blood appearing on her clothing only to disappear again when attention is called to it, maybe sudden but brief phantom pains in her right side, who knows /o/) SO if I write something weird in a tag, that's what I'm going for. I don't know how long the memories will stay repressed, probably a few weeks at least. 8D; tl;dr intro note is tl;dr...]

Comments

*tries this despite her fandom being full of giant robotz* OMG, she understands dream!Japanese. ._.

[neotitanium]

She's clad in her White Fang uniform, an outfit she hasn't worn since the war. How did she end up in such a rural area. Boots sinking in the mud, she makes her way to the only house for miles. A young woman stands outside and inquires if she's looking for a medicine-seller.

"No. I actually have no idea as to where I am."

XD it works!

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

The wariness doesn't leave her posture. She's never seen clothing like that--nor hair that color. In fact, she was fairly sure she was seeing a Westerner for the first time... except... she could understand her.

She nodded back down the path. "The village of Otsu is that way, less than [insert period appropriate measurement here that is less than two miles]... The capitol is a day's walk if you continue the way you're going now."

YAY!

[neotitanium]

"Capital? Of what nation?"

She gives the girl a thoroughly puzzled look. The way she's dressed...Dorothy has seen it in books of East Asian history.

"Is this the JAP point?"

<3!

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Tomoe frowns a bit more. How could someone not know what country they were in? Unless the woman had been abducted and escaped, or perhaps injured to the point it had affected her memory...

She doesn't answer right away, instead studying the woman for another few seconds. "This is Japan. The capitol is Kyoto, though... I wouldn't recommend going there now, I doubt you would be very safe there..." Not with the shogunate taking the upper hand.

Re: <3!

[neotitanium]

"Japan?"

The look she gives the woman is cold and calculating.

"I see."

How exactly did she end up here? Hm, she has a faint recollection of departing her hotel room for some sightseeing during this business trip. But why was she in her White Fang uniform? Oh right...she wanted to horrify the delegation of diplomats by being a constant reminder of the war throughout the peace talks. Yes, that made sense. She scolds herself for momentarily spacing out.

"Might I ask where I can get a taxi?"

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

She had never heard the word 'taxi' before, and even being vaguely aware of that she somehow understood what the woman was referring to--at least in as far as hired transportation went.

"You may have some luck finding a wagon or cart passing through Otsu toward Kyoto that may offer you room, but aside from that there isn't much to be found out here." Of course she didn't add the part where she didn't expect most people to extend their hand to both a stranger and a foreigner, but there were surprising people in the world now and then.

W00t, first interaction in this game, ftw

[neotitanium]

"My thanks."

Dorothy offers a curt nod. This area was more rural than she was used to but she simply had no choice in the matter. At least the locals seemed helpful.

She turns and disappears into the night.

\o.O/ sorry she wasn't... nicer... pffffffffffffff

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Tomoe gave the woman a nod in response, steadfastly watching her as she disappeared. The strangeness of the encounter was not lost on her, especially added to the general off-balance feeling she had to begin with. It didn't bode well, it didn't seem right.

Her jaw tensed briefly, eyes still watching the now empty path. If only she could remember what she'd misplaced. Almost as if on cue with the thought a dull ache spread from her lower back all the way up to her right shoulder, briefly moving to a sharp pinch like she'd hit a nerve. She shook her head, rolling the shoulder in question only to find the pain gone again.

More oddities...

She cast the pathway one last look, and then went back to her work. Nothing would be gained standing there and dwelling on it...

She was nice enough. :3

[neotitanium]

Dorothy takes one last backward look at the house. That was eerie. She feels a faint chill but ignores it, persisting in her search for a carriage as she moves forward until the house is no longer perceptible.

[sixthed.livejournal.com]

It was Japanese, Yukimura could tell that much— but it was something more like what he remembered reading about in books. Even this was too old fashioned and rural for what he might consider his time. When he tried to think about why he was here, his mind told him it didn't matter, and if it didn't matter, then the thought slipped away as if it never existed in the first place.

He just knew he felt out of place, somehow.

He looked down at himself and his hands, and his clothes feel "the same" as they should be - a school suit uniform, save the shoes, a pair of waraji tied to his feet instead of the shoes that should be there. But again, the why of the situation slipped away as fast as it might have come. The woman drew his attention, and as he looked up at her, he blinked. "I... don't know what I'm looking for. Do most people arrive here to look for the Medicine Seller?"

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Tomoe tilted her head a bit at the young man before her. He seemed odd and out of place, but she couldn't exactly place why, much how she couldn't place what was missing.

"Yes... but my husband is not here at the moment..." she answered simply enough, though in retrospect perhaps announcing that she was alone was not the safest thing to do. She gripped the broom a little harder in turn, but the unease didn't reach her face. "Have you come from Otsu...?"

[sixthed.livejournal.com]

He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, not how her hands tightened around the broom, or how she looked at him. Instead, he shook his head, his slightly concerned frown changing to more of a smile. "I am not from Otsu at all. I'm from—"

And he paused. Where... was he from?

"Ueda." Something about that didn't seem quite right, but he nodded as he said it, almost convincing himself. "I am sorry that your husband is away. It must make it difficult when people come looking for him and his expertise."

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

She had never heard of the place before--but then she had never heard of Otsu either. It must have been another small town nearby. She didn't outwardly react to the mention of her husband's 'expertise', but a grim note chimed inside of her, the same one that always came when strangers arrived, that faint question of whether the visitors had come for medicine... or if their location had been compromised. A greater pang of unease set through her with the thought, a sudden crawling sensation moving under her skin, followed by a dull ache creeping along the right side of her back. Her posture straightened with it, as though that alone would correct the problem.

"It is not an uncommon occurrence," she answered, still watching him like a hawk. "Were you on your way to the capitol? It is still another day's walk from here."

[sixthed.livejournal.com]

"I suppose that I ought to..." It felt as if he was just passing by anyway. Maybe the capitol was where he was going in the first place? Maybe he needed to just call Sasuke and just ask, or at least tell him where he was... Yukimura peered off into the distance, down the path leading the way he hadn't come, the toe of his left foot twisting a bit into the dirt. The capitol was the way to go, he was certain of it.

"But do you have a phone?" Sasuke had always told him to get his own, but he never had.

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

"There isn't much in the way of shelter the rest of the way. If you're going to Kyoto it would be best to start off in the morning," she answered easily enough, though where he would find shelter around there was the question. She certainly wouldn't invite him into their home before discussing it with Kenshin. He didn't appear to be armed, but that didn't necessarily mean anything. After all, she didn't appear to be armed at that moment either.

She frowned a bit more before at his question, however. She shook her head, "I don't know what you mean by 'phone'..."

[sixthed.livejournal.com]

"You use it to call people?" He held his hand up to his ear and mouth, as one might when pantomiming how to use a phone, but the more Yukimura thought about it, the less sense it made, really. Like it was slipping away, and once the last few notions about it fell away, so did his hand. "I-- I suppose it isn't important." He didn't expect her to offer a place for him to stay, so the idea didn't really cross his mind, and he just turned to look off at the distance. Whether or not he was armed (he wasn't,) he held no belief or care that anyone else might be. "The morning..?"

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Her perplexed look only increased and she shook her head to his pantomime.

"Yes... the morning... unless you would want to travel through the night. I wouldn't recommend it, especially not if you're traveling alone."

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

"No. I'm just taking a walk," Aerith answers, with a mild shake of her head. "I've never seen a house like this before. ... This isn't Wutai, is it?" Tomoe's clothing was vaguely more familiar to the girl, since sometimes Wutaian items were imported to Midgar. She made no effort to hide her curiosity, knowing she probably looked like a fish out of water, city girl like her out in the country. Even if she'd always wanted to be in the country. Someday ... it would be more than just dreams.

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

"Wutai...?" Tomoe repeated carefully. She had never heard of it, and while it didn't wholly sound normal to her it didn't strike her as so odd that it couldn't be a town somewhere--the thought that the newcomer meant a different country never occurred to her... though the woman's appearance could have convinced her of such. She shook her head. "I'm not familiar with it... the village of Otsu is back the way you came."

The comment about the house... seemed baffling to her. It was the most simple of houses, nearly every building out in the country would look similar. Even if she was a foreigner coming from a port, she would have had to seen many such buildings by the time she was this far inland.

"Where... have you come from...?"

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

"Just now? Not Otsu. I was talking with Willow." But, wait, if this woman thought she had come from a village, she must not be aware they were dreaming. Or maybe she was part of the dream. That was the oddest thing about what was going on; just the other day, curiosity had reared its head and she'd asked Elmyra if she remembered a dream Aerith had had with her, only to get an utterly baffled look from her mother. Telling what was supposedly shared and what wasn't was ... hard.

She wipes the mildly puzzled look off her face and starts again. "Sorry. Got a little mixed up there. I'm from a city. Its name is Midgar, and all the houses are very different from this one. A lot of them are made out of steel." And scrap, and rust.

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Midgar sounded foreign to her, much more so than Wutai. The strangeness of the person in front of her only seemed to grow, as did the unsettled feeling that had been hanging about her that day.

She lifted her chin just a bit. Buildings made of steel? That seemed... exceedingly difficult to picture. "Are you... from the West...?" she had to generalize, while she had heard some names of countries in passing she couldn't remember any specifically.

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

The way the question was asked, something about Tomoe's face, made Aerith think she might be making Tomoe uncomfortable. So she nodded. "You could say that." 'The West' was awfully vague, anyway. Maybe Gaia was west of this place, if you started from the right spot ...

... but, that was a silly thought.

"My name's Aerith," she says, inclining her head slightly. Gaia's culture didn't fit strictly into an Eastern-Western divide. "It's nice to meet you, miss." She hoped a show of manners would help smooth things over.

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

She watched silently for several more seconds before continuing, "My name is Tomoe. Himura Tomoe. It is nice to meet you as well, Aerith-san." Tomoe gave a slight bow with the introduction--though in truth her tone seemed detached, following formality first and foremost.

"Are you traveling alone...?" she asked simply. "This isn't a safe time in general... least of all for foreigners..." Especially with the shogunate taking back power. She couldn't help but wonder how the woman had gotten so far inland without incident.

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

"Tomoe? What a pretty name. I'll be all right. I can protect myself." She might seem unarmed, yet suddenly when she tilts her hands behind her back, a plain metal staff peeps out at an angle. Now that she knew there might be danger in this dream, she wouldn't leave herself defenseless. "Will you be okay? It doesn't look like you have neighbors." The slums had shown just how risky living by yourself could be when there were riots or other kinds of chaos.

[willing-sheath.livejournal.com]

Tomoe straightened ever so slightly when the staff became visible--but Aerith seemed anything but threatening so she didn't react beyond the initial surprise.

"My husband will return soon, I am not alone," she answered. "Were you going to the capitol...? It's another day's walk from here--you would do well to wait to continue until morning if that is the case."