cancry | Invidia Arrival Log

1. ARRIVAL

[ the fight with Lucretius didn't go too badly, and Mona herself didn't come out of it with as many bruises as Kingslayer or Ariel — but she also doesn't seem to be as accustomed to taking a beating, and she's fairly rattled by what was, as far as she can tell, her first combat experience in life and in death. she doesn't complain or make a fuss, but as they make their way into Invidia, she's a little unsteady on her feet.

once they've all wandered a bit, and it's been established that they're in no immediate danger, Mona gathers up the skirts of her Executor outfit and just sits down with a huge sigh on the curb where she's standing. she has deflated and she is not moving. ]

Is everyone okay...?

2. ENTERTAINMENT / GET IN LOSER WE'RE GOING SHOPPING

A. BROWSING

[ the city is... a lot. now that Mona has memories of the sort of place she lived in, it makes the dissonance even more jarring. she doesn't know the living world that this stands as an imitation of. her streets are cobbled and filled with steam; this sleek and blinding city reaching towards the sky is utterly alien to her.

but she finds now that she wants — wants, suddenly as natural as breathing — to explore it. it's not just a matter of "should" as it was when they entered Limbo's Underside, her decision guided by a memory of safety. something surges in her chest, a feeling of curiosity, and then familiarity: she remembers. Fran's gentle hands and warm smile, his voice soft when he teaches her, praises her for her interest. she remembers wanting to learn, not for utility but for the simple desire of the thing.

and so, off she goes.

it's very common to find Mona window shopping, though she doesn't have the envious gaze of the Specters that inhabit Invidia. she doesn't want to own these things, she only wants to look at them. most places, she stays outside and peers in, though it's possible to find her in the tech store once her curiosity overcomes her. feel free to run into her anywhere!

the main stores you'll see her inside are fashion boutiques — not because she's any more inclined to make her way in, but because she puts up absolutely no resistance to eager salespeople. she can spend a long time being bullied into this or that without so much as raising a complaint. she'll express an opinion on the fashion, at least— ]

Um, I think that's a little... extravagant for me...

[ but she's very easily steamrolled. you can either save her, or come make the fashion experience a little more friendly, if you like. ]

B. BUYING

[ eventually, she does actually find something she likes enough to "purchase" it. there's nothing she has on hand at the moment, other than the clothes off her back, so the salesperson makes her a bartering offer for something immaterial:

Tell me something about yourself. ]

Ah... [ even after the initial surprise over what he's asking for, Mona seems to be... completely at a loss. she stands there in silence for several moments, her expression vaguely distressed. ] Um...

[ half the time she barely even feels like a person. what can she say to that? she doesn't know herself at all, not even on the intrinsic level that the other Executors do. it's something she tries not to examine too closely, most of the time, and here she is looking right at it. it's frightening. ]

3. HOUSING / [LORDE'S ROYALS PLAYING]

[ they may not be able to get in, but that doesn't stop Mona from looking at the luxurious mansion in the Housing District. the expression on her face isn't envy, or even longing; it's something soft and nostalgic. ]

... I used to live in a house like that. [ she's not boasting, which is obvious from her blank tone of voice, if not the fact that Mona Lisa seems unlikely to ever boast about anything. she's just relating what little information she has. ] It's not quite the same as Saint-Germain's mansion, though...

4. INVESTIGATION: BROADCAST STATION

[ this is not Mona's area of expertise, or even vague experience. this isn't quite the kind of thing Saint-Germain's lessons prepared her for. but she is determined to explore, knowing that she might be able to find something helpful for their group, whether she understands what it means or not. she feels like she was almost useless in the fight against Lucretius; the least she can do to make up for it is a little legwork.

because she doesn't know what she's actually looking at, she may have asked some of the others along to help her. (so if you want to jump in on the investigation, feel free!!) but first things first, she's going to check out the equipment to see if anything is currently powered. ]

[ So! To start with, there's nothing visibly powering any of the equipment, no wires or panels or anything. This is Purgatory though, so that isn't necessarily super suspicious, it's just your run of the mill weird dream logic that seems to be at play here.

Fiddling around with some of the controls will get a few things to activate though – it seems like the whole thing is still functional and powered on, it just hasn't been used in a long time. ]

[ unfortunately the next memory in her Purgatory roadmap was alchemy and not mechanics—

so she's just going to... touch everything. if there are any clearly labelled buttons or switches, she'll read them, but she has absolutely no general knowledge here. she recovered the emotion Compulsive Desire To Mess With Things and is using it to the fullest. ]

[ A couple of LED displays on the console flash on and off as she fiddles with the controls, but nothing major – not until the central monitor suddenly bangs on, displaying a live feed of... oh! It's this very room.

Wave hi to yourself, Mona! ]

[ alright, steampunk technology is pretty advanced but this is definitely beyond her realm of experience now. she does actually wave, to see if the image moves with her, and she's suitably impressed when it does. it's not difficult to conclude that this is how the mysterious girl is putting herself on all the buildings.

except that this one is showing Mona herself, and the girl's is shown to the whole city. maybe there's a way to do that from here too? it would be a good way to get her attention so they can meet her in person and ask some questions about her being here. Mona is going to poke around with that in mind, but she thinks she might have to pass that idea off to someone else. ]

[ Indeed, no amount of messing with the controls here will have much of an effect on the screens out in the city. It's not that it isn't possible with this setup, but there's something wrong with the broadcast itself. Going by the errors that pop up when she tries, there seems to be some sort of condition that needs to be met that just isn't available to Mona right now. ]

Terribly fancy. Your family [he refrains from saying your father, because it might come out in a decidedly unfriendly way] must have been quite wealthy. Or, ah, your Saint-Germain, is it?

[His Majesty stares up at it, rubbing his head and trying to run a few numbers. Hm.]

Perhaps later on we could see about gaining audience with the owner. If there is one. [Given the one person on every channel, he's got a guess as to who might own it indeed.]

[ her family. she wonders why she didn't live with them? from the vague, theoretical knowledge Mona has of etiquette, she knows that she is a young woman of marriageable age, so it wouldn't be strange to live apart from them... but it would likely be considered improper that she lived, unmarried, with several other men, also unmarried. it doesn't seem bad to her. it's just another reason to wonder why she has no memory of a family at all, beyond Father's reputation.

she's quiet for a few seconds after His Majesty speaks, which isn't unusual for her. then she shakes her head. ]

Mm. Count Saint-Germain was... a friend. [ speaking of him, there is warmth in her voice that comes far more easily than it has before. a little more of her heart seems to have "woken up" again, just as it did following their contract with Rei. ] I remember... I found him a little hard to understand, but he was always very gentle, and kind. He took me and the other friends we shared into his home, even though I was a stranger to him.

[ she pauses, and then adds, puzzled even as she says it aloud: ]

He told me that it was because we amused him.

[ you know. just a totally normal reason to let people live in your mansion. ]

A strange sort. But kindly, in a fashion, if he so allowed veritable strangers to live with him.

A group of strangers in a mansion. I could see that with this group. And should further layers be connected by train, it would be no trouble to come back even on our journeys. Though, perhaps the home up topside is sufficient enough.

If we had a bigger house... then more of us could live together.

[ she seems fairly enamoured with that thought, in her quiet way. ]

But I like our house, too.

Hardly much harm in looking, at any rate, hm? What makes the one we have so special?

We live there...

[ that's what makes it special :( ]

... Do you think anyone would answer if we knocked? Oh, but there's no bell to ring at the gates...

[She will get! A hair ruffle! For that answer!] Somehow I thought that's what you would say. That does make it special. But then, anywhere we might live would be special. It's us that make it that way, is it not?

... Yes. You're right.

[ until now, Mona's occasional smiles have only ever been faint, even though she means them no less sincerely. but whatever changed in her makes this one bright and clear. ]

What kind of place did you used to live in, Your Majesty?

Ah...

[Though her smile keeps one on his face, it turns sad. Wistful, perhaps. Or just...uncertain. Until he looks back at the mansion and leans on the gate. Then the smile drops completely.]

It may be easier to say that I don't know.

[It's true, he doesn't know what kind of place he lived in before. But he knows, now, where he spent a good deal of time 'after'.]

...Mona, my dear. You and the others, Rei in particular, were attempting to come up with a name for me. Was there any consensus?

[ she would have asked why he seemed sad, apologised for perhaps saying the wrong thing, but— ]

—Oh! Your name...! Well, we were trying to think of famous kings... [ last time, he didn't seem very bothered about whether he had a new name or not. the suddenness of the question suggests otherwise. did he change his mind? in that case: ] Um, but I went to the library too! Since I didn't have many ideas, I just read about a lot of different things, and... I couldn't find many doctors, but some stories have healers. I thought, maybe Chiron...? He's supposed to be very wise and kind, and he trained people to fight, but the book said he was most skilled in medicine...

[ it's not like she spoke an absurd amount there, but even so, she seems kind of out of breath after saying all that... she's not used to talking so much. ]

If you want, I can read some more...!

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[ Rei's not really browsing with any of the others, but they're all wandering around at the same time, so they meet up and drift apart as the mood takes them – she'd been sort of trailing after Mona this time, not really thinking about it that hard. But she's glad, quite suddenly, when she sees Mona freeze up like that and she realizes Mona doesn't have an answer. So before she can think about it too hard, Rei hastily speaks up; ]

U–um! If you don't mind me helping... Mona's very kind! And um, she's quite straightforward... she's very honest, so that makes her a trustworthy sort of person. And um...

[ Her mouth kind of ran ahead of her brain and now she's catching up with it, she's going a little red in the face. ]

[ the sudden burst of compliments takes Mona completely by surprise, and by the end, she's blushing just as much as Rei, dazed. the clerk is appropriately envious: sighing about how he wishes someone would speak like that about him, that he wishes he had a friend as wonderful as Rei is, someone who would say such nice things about him. it's that last part that seems to jar Mona out of her shock, and she — smiles. easily, naturally. brighter and warmer than Rei has seen in all Mona's time in Purgatory thus far. ]

... Yes. I have wonderful friends. [ —! an idea! ] Oh, does that count as something about me?

[ not really Mona but it's a nice thought ]

[ Here the two of them are, in the middle of the mall, blushing up a storm. Ridiculous. Rei can't help but think, though – a little bit of embarrassment is absolutely worth getting to see Mona smile like that. It suits her.

Thankfully, this seems to be enough for the clerk to let them go without any further embarrassment and he pushes Mona's shopping across the counter towards her, still sighing enviously about friendship and all that. ]

Ah, sorry about that. I didn't really think that far ahead on what I was going to say...

[ she shakes her head gently as she retrieves her shopping bag from the counter, and turns to head for the door. ] It made me happy.

[ embarrassment does nothing to keep her from speaking as frankly as ever. the colour in her cheeks seems to have receded a little, anyway, and her smile now is quieter; she's simply grateful to Rei, and it shows in the soft way she looks down at her. ]

I don't... really know anything about myself. Not what I like, or dislike. I can't picture myself at all. [ usually that bothers her, but— ] So... I liked hearing that from you.

[ The smile she gives Mona is pleased and bashful all at once. There's still the faint, ticklish feeling that she's said something wrong, but if it's made Mona look so happy then she's sure that can't be true. ]

I... think I know what you mean. I think I might've felt the same way before all of you came here. You can't really get to know yourself if there's nobody else around, can you?

[ He'd been nearby, lost in his own thoughts, but hearing her say that takes him back out of them. He looks quickly over the group. ]

It would appear so.

[ And then turns his attention more directly. ]

But are you all right, my lady?

Mm... [ she nods, breathless from the exhaustion. ] I don't think I've ever fought before. So it was just... a lot...

[ there was no fear — not for herself, in any case, though she had worried about the others. she didn't have adrenaline driving her, nor battlelust like Kingslayer, nor Ariel's bravery. objectively, she has enough awareness to know she should have felt one of those things. but it's like those feelings are too far away for her to reach; occasionally, her fingertips might brush up against one of them, and she experiences a fleeting, fragmented version of what it is.

she hadn't been the same as the others at all. it had been like a doll getting tossed around. she only did as she was told. usually, that doesn't bother her, but... ]

... I don't think I was very useful.

[ He eyes her quietly for a moment... ]

...I am sure you were more useful than myself; all I did was avoid battle and fall for enemy traps whilst failing to figure out my own weapon.

[ He then takes a seat next to her, putting himself on her level so he's not just towering over her like some kind of winged giant. ]

You are certainly not the only one here who has likely not fought before. But the important thing was that you at least tried.

You do not need to be good at it or even "useful" right away. There will be other battles to grow and learn from.

[ she watches him sit beside her, a little bit awed by the gracefulness of the motion, how his wings move in such an easy way, the feathers shifting and settling. Mona would have thought they'd be a cumbersome thing, but Beast makes them look natural. it's a very pretty sight. she wonders if feathers are as soft as they look; and she's struck with a strange certainty that she shouldn't touch something so delicate.

that aside, his words are kind. it doesn't erase her worries, but it eases them, the sentiment more than anything else. they're all new to this, and they're all still fairly strangers to one another. it's a relief to know that she's not the only person struggling to adjust, as much as it is a relief to know that he's kind enough to reassure her. ]

... Thank you. That's very kind of you to say. [not "you're right," but she does seem to mean the words genuinely rather than as empty platitude. ] I just... don't want to be a burden to anyone.

Invidia Arrival Log

INVESTIGATION REQUEST

let's investigating!

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housing

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b b b buying

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Arrival

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