outer_divide | first scroll [video ; open]

[Upon awaking Mulan took her time warily exploring the ship, after having retrieved her armor and weapons of course. Finding no one to speak to, eventually she turned to the unfamiliar device she located among her belongings.

The video focuses mostly on her face, revealing a young determined looking women wearing red and black armor with a coin pattern. Her dark hair is unbound and hangs carelessly around her face, straight and loose.]

It's my understanding that wherever they are on the other end of this...object, someone can hear me. Whoever you are, I want you to show yourselves. [Tersely, teeth briefly bared.] This is not a request.

I do not know if I came to this strange place by chance encounter or deliberate action. But this is not my land, nor is it any land I am familiar with from my distant travels. And I have no memory of my arrival here, either. The only explanation I'm left with is abduction.

Whoever you are, whatever it is you may want me for, speak. The longer you make me wait, the less the likelihood you'll have of anything like my willing cooperation.

[Posturing? She is, a bit. Normally her course of action upon arriving in unfamiliar territory would be to keep her head down. But given the circumstances, she thinks it's important that she put on a strong front, let anyone out there who might be looking know she means business. That she's no easy pickings.

And that the abrupt manner of her being brought here has made her more than a little angry.]

Or if my unknown captors are too cowardly to explain themselves, then it is my hope that these words will reach someone who can enlighten me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mulan-san.

[Haruka nods amiably to that.]

I mean, we were all brought here together, in that big ship you woke up in, in those pods... and then they died, or vanished, or went back home when it crashed, no one knows. We have been waking up in ones and twos for months, now.

Need somebody to come show you around?

So they kidnapped us and then abandoned us here. Like discarded toys.

[Nope, not getting any less aggravated about this.]

I believe I can find my way down the path easy enough, unless there is some other intended destination than the settlement that I'm missing. Thank you for the offer.

You didn't tell me your name.

[She smirks, not at all unwilling to share her name. It just hadn't come out yet.]

Tenoh Haruka. And you will want to be looking for the center of that ruined city, where there is actually electricity. Anybody down there can point you to the Flop. That is where most of us from that ship live, until we can find someplace that suits us better.

[She has no idea what 'electricity' means, but skips over it for now. She can ask questions from the locals once she actually gets there.]

I see. Thank you. And, out of curiosity: When you say 'suits you better'...what is it that people do here, once they arrive? I mean, what options are available to us?

Anything you can think of, and it probably needs doing. Farming-- or we will, when it warms up a little more. Security. Hunting. Building walls, watching sheep, feeding horses.

[Haruka shrugs.]

There are some amenities of a modern city, but not many. Most of everything is fairly primitive, and there are a lot fewer hands than there were before winter, so there are more jobs left undone. There are people you can talk to for specifics, in town. Edmund-san, or Pottsu-san, or Nem-san.

If this vessel I found myself contained in is anything to go by, there's a chance that 'primitive' to me may not mean the same thing.

One last thing. You mentioned that there were more people here before the winter came. Did something happen?

Oh, that thing is more advanced than I think most of us are used to, even the science fiction ones. But it might be at that, looking at what you have on there.

[She looks almost Chinese, in fact. Haruka is a little intrigued, and wishes she'd studied her Chinese more diligently. English, she's got down; German and French, she gets by. Chinese? Never bothered. There weren't many races in China, after all.]

There was a plague here. You do not have to worry, everyone who comes from those pods is immune now, and the city has been cured. But it killed a lot of people.

In any case, I suppose I'll soon find out, either way.

[It's a little disconcerting, but there's not really anything she can do about it.]

I'm glad to hear it's over, but the fact it happened in the first place is troublesome. That means it could possibly happen again, couldn't it? Maybe with another illness we're not safe from.

It could. We have pretty good doctors here, though. Practically magic. Actually, I think we have some of that, too.

[She offers Mulan a wry sort of grin.]

Do not worry about that when you can be worrying about the Outer Authority from that domed city instead, or the bandits outside the town, or the dinosaurs in the mountains. One day at a time, Mulan-san.

[The 'magic' comment doesn't get a smile. But the rest of what she has to say does. Or, as much of a smile as she's willing to offer, at this point.]

You do have a point. And it sounds like I'll have enough to worry about, finding my way around and getting my bearings, for awhile.

Thank you again for the information you've offered, Haruka. You have been most helpful.

You are welcome. It is the least any of us can do, stuck here confused and mad at the new world.

[She shrugs.]

See you around, Mulan-san. Good luck finding the job that suits best.

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