etraya | un: @wild.flower

Hey, everyone! Welcome to my ✨ new home tour! ✨

This is Muten-Ichi-Ryū Dōjō and I'm happy to show it to you!

[ This following video is filmed in the style of early 2000s influencers, unfortunately for everyone. Rosie holds up her smart phone to cover part of her face in any reflection and goes room to room to talk about the various parts of it and (lack of) amenities.

Most importantly to note though is: ]

-and, as the name implies, it has a dojo attached to it! For all you superhero or spar-happy types, I'm opening it up to the public for anyone to use! No appointments necessary or anything either, just come on down when you feel like it. It's a little out here though the peace and quiet might be nice to some.

But! All the weapons are bamboo or wood and you gotta' wear the padded suits for safety. This place is for training purposes only. I don't want anyone getting too roughed up. Besides, do you know how hard blood is to get out of these floors...?

I am a healer though, at least, so any unexpected injuries I can be on standby for.

[ She winds down the video by propping up her recording against something to film herself while she sits facing the enclosed garden on the property. She isn't looking at the camera now, but instead out towards it. ]

You may recognize this place it as previously belonging to Rin Asano, but... I figured I'd 'move in' to help keep it up and allow other folks to use it in her absence. We were from the same place, actually, even if different times so- This'll be my way of remembering her and making sure she has a place to come back to that's not, like, in disrepair or anything.

I think it's what she would have wanted. I hope it is.

[ Before things can get too somber though, there comes a small cluckcluckcluck from off-screen before a chicken pops into the frame. It peers curiously at the camera before pecking at it and knocking the device down. From somewhere unseen: ] Buck, come on, I swear to the gods...

[ The video ends there after another whoosh of air and dizzying video, but she's still available to talk once she has the device in hand again and away from unexpected chicken interruptions. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So there's..

[ ...

Hold on, he's getting there. It's not like Fabian is really dumb or anything, but this is a new idea to wrap his mind around for a second. He's met a whole lot of people, sure, but never anyone who came from some weird different version of Spyre. He doesn't even know what a different version of Spyre would look like! ]

There is more than one Japan out there? Is that what you're saying? I mean-- [ Okay, Earth to Fabian, he is somewhat realizing he's ignoring half of what she's saying here. ] I am very glad that you two got to share something like that, but this is the first I am hearing of it!

[ It's a lot, she gets it. Until here, she also hadn't really considered the idea of different versions of her country existing, but... Even if it's not called Japan, in some cases, it sounds similar enough that she has to wonder. ]

Yeah, probably! Or, I guess... Earth seems to be a pretty common planet people come from, apparently? Which usually has Japan on it, so- Even if they're not from the same earth as me, theirs probably also has a Japan.

I don't know if Rin and I were from the same original world since she was, like, three hundred years before my time. We could have been, but I don't have a way of knowing so- I thought, well, maybe it's a situation of different earth and time, but coincidentally both from the same country of origin.

I'm guessing you haven't run into anyone else where you're from but the people you know already?

[ Dang, Rosie. That's a pretty weird story. At least Fabian is used to more long-lived people where he comes from, so the fact that Rosie and Rin are that far apart doesn't even seem all that strange to him. If only both Rosie and Rin weren't just human - or so he thinks - then maybe they could even have met back home!

But he cuts off his own thoughts about that for a second so he can focus on her question instead. ]

You would be right about that. I actually assumed that someone else here was from the same world as us, since she seemed to share knowledge that seems foreign to most other worlds out there but ours, but she ended up coming from an entirely different place anyway. [ He does sound a little bummed about that. Not extremely so, but-- well, if Rosie is paying attention to his tone, she'll be able to pick up on the fact it was a disappointment for Fabian. ]

[ Perhaps she's desensitized to 'weird' knowing the people that she has the last few years. For example, Gorgug hadn't seemed odd to her in the slightest despite being so large and green. Neither had Fabian's bike beyond the term 'hellhound' and how for her it was... a lot different. ]

Aw, man, yeah- I can see why that might be hard. It is interesting though that your guys' worlds were so similar! Kind of neat, the common ground even across different universes.

I also wonder if, like, when we do go back home what Etraya will sound like to other folks. I wouldn't be able to tell anyone anyway considering, uh, my unique circumstances but- Still! It'd be one helluva story.

...

[ Wait, hold on. ]

Your unique circumstances?

[ Fabian's brain is moving back so quickly through everything Rosie has ever told him about herself and the place she comes from, but he isn't so sure there's something in all of that information that would consider unique circumstances exactly..

And with Fabian being Fabian, of course he's just going to ask very directly: ]

What do you mean?

Oh, well- I'm dead.

[ It's not a secret, after all. She doesn't usually tell people so bluntly or in so few words, but it isn't something she thinks needs to be kept from Fabian for any reason. ]

I mean, I'm pretty sure. The last thing I remember before ending up here was falling off a skyscraper, which... You know, most people don't live through! [ Not even with her enhanced healing factor would she make it through a drop like that. Not to mention that she was injured beforehand, too, and so was already at a disadvantage. ]

I need to talk to Aurora myself about what that means, whether it being staying here or... what, but I haven't gotten around to it. [ Ignore that it's been months of her saying this. Aurora is scary! The whole thing is scary! It's easier to not worry about it and just coast along. ]

Well, even if you died, you'd just become an angel, right?

[ Sorry, Rosie. He's saying this so casually. And it's not because Fabian doesn't care about her - far from it! - but more because it's just the way things work in his world. There's never a need to get too upset about someone dying, because there's a big chance you'll just see them returning from the afterlife sooner or later.

It's just what happens when you have a dad in hell you still have seen a few times after his death.. ]

Or someone could revive you back in your own world. Was there no cleric with you when it happened? [ He can't imagine why someone wouldn't help Rosie, after all. She's nice! ]

Me, an angel? Oh, no, I... [ How to word this without sounding super self-depreciating? ] My kind automatically go to Hell, basically. There's also no returning.

I mean, there are exceptions in history. But those usually involved a lot of rule-breaking or, like, cheating the system. They've kind of tightened things up because of that so now it's just usually a one-way trip to the afterlife.

But that's alright? Like, I don't want to be dead. Who does? I just also know I'm lucky to be here, at least, and whenever it's over...

[ So will her life be, finally. Borrowed time is nice but she tries to remind herself now and again that's all there is. ]

It's why I am trying to make the most of things here, really.

[ ...

Give him a second. There's a lot to process here. If it wasn't for Fabian's burning curiosity - and slight confusion - he wouldn't know where to start in the sea of this. But with those two things playing up, there's really only one thing he can say first. ]

What do you mean, your kind? [ He thought Rosie seemed human.. Unless she means pirates, which would also make sense to Fabian, but she doesn't seem like a pirate either? Fabian has a lot of experience with those! ]

Oh, right! I told Gorgug and it's not, like, a secret or anything? I'm a yōkai, which- Some people call us 'demons.' [ Not to be confused with the hell kind of demon though! At least, not here. Those kinds of demons didn't actually exist in Rosie's world, but she knew they were popular in media and did exist elsewhere. ]

So, that probably explains better why I assumed I'd just be going super far down under.

Oh.

[ At least Fabian's lack of any real surprise at hearing this probably won't seem all that strange, since it likely would have been a pretty normal thing for Gorgug too, just like it is for Fabian.. It's not really surprising to hear one of your friends here is a demon when one of your closest friends is an archfiend, really. ]

I had no idea! Why didn't you tell me before? Perhaps our worlds are even connected! [ Because Fabian still has no idea what 'Japan' even is, but-- ] You know, through the Nine Hells and all!

[ It was so normal for Gorgug he almost... didn't even notice that she changed.

What she wouldn't give to be from a world like that. ]

W-well, we're different than, like, Hell demons? We're kind of spirits, more like... Our name just translates to 'demon,' but it's. Complicated.

Funny enough, my kind specifically are called hellhounds so. Imagine my surprise about your bike!

un: @wild.flower | video

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