Perfect World [IC]

[Aix]

~ OOC ~

~ OP ~
Our story begins with a desperate cry to the heavens, a whispered hope, and an anguished groan for a better place. By divine providence, our story begins, as these wishes are answered by a higher being. Though by the fickleness of Gods, nothing comes without struggle and a great journey lies before us. Our unified story now begins.

Alyna found herself lying in a cold, hard place. One moment, she had been laying on her luxurious sofa, and in the next, her recumbent form met with the chilled marble floor. Lying on her back, she stared up to the ceiling of a small cathedral, and was stared down by the frescos of an unfamiliar religion. With the shock of it all, it took a moment for her mind to register. Then, she sat up for a better grasp of her situation.

Firstly, she shivered. It was terribly cold. Where she came from it was summer, and she had slipped into a thin dress for the evening. But here it seemed like the middle of winter, and the cathedral lacked insulation. It was a very old cathedral with notable signs of disrepair, but someone had still kept this place impressively clean and left two candles burning on the altar. Alyna’s eyes drew down to the man who seemed to have woken at the foot of the steps, seemingly in the same situation as she was. A middle-aged man dressed in what looked like some sort of royal garb. At that moment, she remembered something.

Ah, yes. She had been pondering something. She had felt terribly tired after a long day, and had been pondering that in a perfect world, she would not have to work. What a silly thing to ponder, but what came after was more ridiculous. A voice answered her. Telling her to make her own perfect world, and that two others could help her. Various information had then been forced into her head, disorienting her, but her brain started to process it all now.

Where she was now was most certainly another world. It was nowhere the perfect world she dreamed of, but she had been given the tools to reshape it - the ability to speak and understand any of this world’s languages, and the ability to control the emotions of others. The two others that came with her had also been gifted with the power of language as well as having another power brought into this world. Two... in addition to the man by the altar steps, there was one other... a boy. A boy her age. Or actually a few years younger, as she remembered her own age had been frozen for a few years now. A pretty, dark-haired boy dressed in a robe woke seated at a pew.

“Pyral Howe, and Meikai Soujirou,” she said, and her voice reverberated in this silent chapel. She broke into that beautiful, trained smile of hers. “Pleased to make your acquaintances.”

[Raine]

[Cirrus]

美しき幻想
それもまた渦巻くチリのひとつ

He wakes to the sensation of coolness on his skin, and his eyelids flutter.

He doesn't remember when, or how, he had fallen asleep. He had been outside in the courtyard, broom in hand, sweeping away the fallen leaves; the last few days of autumn had just passed, and the ground was littered with brilliant azures and ceruleans. The tranquility of the scenery and the general simplicity had given him time for idle thought ... perhaps his mind simply decided to recuse itself in the process. He cannot feel the wind from where he is seated, and supposes that he must be indoors; but the impression the outside world gives him is inordinately luminous for that conclusion, and also much too alien. He opens his eyes.

A rush of indescribable vividness assaults his vision. A grand, vaulted building, of an architectural style he doesn't recognize. Despite its state of deterioration, much evidence remained still of its former glory. He finds himself on a row of benches, and glances askance at his accoutrements. They seemed unchanged from what he'd worn outside that morning, so who - or what - had brought him here?

There is a sudden dizziness as he recognizes, indescribably, that the colors in his field of view are called red, and mahogany, and gold, and he marvels, with a fraction of his awareness, at the brilliance in his eyes, and the fact of its existence and possibility.

A torrent of knowledge invades his consciousness, filling it with concepts and imagery and verbiage. Having recollected his wish and its ensuing consequence, he smiles a little in exasperation; cogitation was certainly at fault for bringing him to this foreign world, but he isn't used to yielding to his conditions, and bears the new circumstances in stride.

Forcing his vision to focus despite the slight discomfort, he quickly scans the environs, and spots two other individuals in his immediate vicinity. A middle-aged man near some steps and an altar seemed to be struggling with unpleasances similar to his own, the disorientation of being thrown across planes. A graceful young woman with viridian tresses had been sitting up, and was now smiling charmingly at the two of them.

"Pyral Howe, and Meikai Soujirou; pleased to make your acquaintances." The young woman’s voice rings across the space, translucent in its texture. He is a little tense at the hint of the supernatural in his perception, but says nothing. The older man's - presumably, his name is Pyral - response is not far outside of expectation.

Soujirou stands up, and moves a little closer to the girl, suppressing his desire to reaffirm his understanding of recent events. He inclines his head in acknowledgement of her greeting, his expression evenhanded and his words brief.

"Yes. Your name?"

Pyral was distractedly examining the surroundings and its objects, Soujirou notes; and winces at the triggered flare lighting up the space. He hesitates a moment, then clears his throat, looking a little indecisive.

[Aix]

Alyna had a pause for a second, before coming to the conclusion that the others had not been given the same information as her. "Ah, sorry for not introducing mys--" She was interrupted by the older man throwing a book across the room.

"Speaker Adal owns that book... who is Speaker Adal?"

Alyna furrowed her eyebrows at the question that came out of nowhere. "I'm afraid I am as clueless as you are," she said, with an apologetic smile and a small bow. "Like you, I have only just arrived here... although I seem have the advantage of knowing just a little more."

"My name is Alyna Danesti. Like you, I assume, I come from a different world," she said. "And like you, I wished for a better one." She realized that even after coming to this world, she was putting on that tiresome polite act. Although it irked her, she realized it would be a lot easier on her to continue using it for now. She proceeded to explain their situation to the best of her understanding.

They had been transported into a different world, but nowhere a perfect one. Instead, they were instructed to influence its development and shape it through their own ideals. As they could see, each of them had been bestowed with linguistic abilities, as well as a certain other ability not native to this world. The three of them, it seemed, were in this together, bound by two articles. Firstly, none of them could leave a 100 meter radius of one another, if anyone left that radius, the other two would be teleported over to them. Secondly, if any of them died, the other two would immediately follow.

Alyna's head hurt a bit after retrieving this alien knowledge from her head. "I hope you don't have any questions, because I know nothing more of our situation," she said. "May we get along with each other, as it seems we have no choice otherwise."

She found the two articles binding them rather troublesome, but she realized her chances of succeeding in this world were higher now that she had two other people which she could, to an extent, trust. Trust was a rather strange concept to her, and she mused it for a bit, before realizing that it meant a reciprocal relationship where she would have to invest herself to help her fellows. Ah, a double-edged sword.

Deciding to quickly grab the dominant role in this partnership while the others were still disoriented, she drew towards the door at the end of the hall, presumably the exit. "First off, we should find our bearings here, and hopefully a more comfortable place to stay," she said, shivering again because of the cold. "I feel we are trespassing here, it would appear to be a religious sanctuary we are standing upon."

[divider1]
Speaker Adal stood in a petrified state of shock, with his mouth wide agape at the scene before him. His mind started race as he wondered whether it was some heretic act or divine intervention that had completely flipped the Cathedral of Saint Aurelius upside-down. It was early dawn, and he had climbed the five thousand steps followed by a flock of fifty pilgrims to open up the mountain cathedral for the day when he was met with this... incredible scene. The building was suspended in an impossible fashion, supported by its decrepit roof and spires which were half-buried in the ground.

At that moment, the large double-doors to the cathedral opened, revealing a beautiful, green-haired maiden. And at that moment, that poor, addled man, who had been a secluded virgin all his life due to his profession, could only come to one conclusion.

"It is an angel!" he declared, and the crowd gasped.

[divider1]
She was met by a blast of freezing mountain air as she was exposed to the outside atmosphere. It had the effect of making her otherworldly hair flutter in the wind, adding to her supernatural aspect. Then, she heard a cry from... above. Looking up, she saw a decent crowd of people standing upside-down with their arms raised in adulation.

Alyna realized that she was the one who was upside-down. Glancing at the scenery outside, the she found the cathedral itself had been upside-down and gravity had been inverted inside of it. She had to get down, but she hesitated, they were a good three meters off the ground.

[Raine]

The revelation unfolding forced Pyral to lower his guard. Whatever the disadvantage in information he was burdened with it was clearly the result of his own situation since the others had a firm understanding. There wasn’t too much to learn on the fly though, and he quickly caught on. The notion that they were bound together in such a magic fashion seemed otherworldly to him, but then again, this itself was in another world. The girl, Alyna, was kind enough to explain but her knowledge seemed foreign. His disregarded his feelings, after all, his head still ached and they had no hostile intentions at the moment. “Very well, Alyna,” Pyral spoke coldly, “We will try to find a more favorable place to recover some bearings and understand where this new ‘world is then, we can plan ahead.”

He agreed that if these principles were true, then they would show themselves as true in time but if it caused less chaos to accept her at her word and work with these two… peculiar people, so be it. "First off, we should find our bearings here, and hopefully a more comfortable place to stay," she said, shivering again because of the cold. "I feel we are trespassing here, it would appear to be a religious sanctuary we are standing upon."

Her words rang true but he felt trampled on that she would assume the power of making decisions. He had no quarrels; his power from this home did not extend here and he would reclaim what he needed in time. No rush, he thought. The girl strutted her way to the gigantic wooden frame to exit the temple without confirmation from her new entourage. He followed without complaint. As the door opened, Howe’s eyes widened.

The sky was beneath them. He horizon stretched out from their altitude and the overcast sky was ethed out beneath them with the land of scattered white and green above. Pyral chuckled, “I’m convinced”, he said softly as the idea that they truly were in another world finally sinking in. Immediately after, that notion shattered as he noticed the people above him. They themselves were wrong ways up. The rules of which way is up was inverted merely for them, and the odd temple.

The people below cried out with mixed reactions but the consensus was that the trio of companions were all angels. Fascinating, he schemed inside his mind. He quietly turned to Alyna and the boy, Meikai, who had followed, “It may be opportune for us to take advantage of this situation before they change their minds to making us into witches. Follow my lead,” he stated.

Pyral positioned himself as close as he could to the edge of the church and gazed up towards the crowd. “Fair people,” flashes of memories zoomed over his mind, “We cometh as the Angels promised by the book of Zerath. We have finally come for you!” he declared loudly to the mob. The flashes he received from the book that informed him of Adal also showed him memories of his speeches when the book was used as his reference. How he knew, no, how he remembered this was impossible but it was happening and it felt as natural as he remembered and recited the information flawlessly. Apparently, it was a more recent preaching from the Speaker, it should have effect.

The crowd roared and grew mesmerized. Pyral could capitalize on their fascination, he knew too well that things foreign could grow xenophobia and irrationality to an isolated people. Pyral took a leap off the temple; it was a drop of about 10 feet so it was survivable but the landing was softer than he thought, something made his decent softer here than his own home. The crowd recoiled and kept their distance so Pyral raised his palms outward to show intent for peace and kept a false smile from his time as ruler. The people lowered their immediate sense of danger and a single man emerged from the crowd, “I am Speaker Adal, Sir Angel. I wo-.”

Pyral interrupted him, “Adal, your work for our god has been pious and true. You speak the names of the exalted with reverence and have done your duty morally and it has not been unnoticed by our greater.” He was just reiterating the words he kept remembered from the same man he was talking to but he just directed them towards him instead in the manner of a speech, it seemed to affect him. Pyral tried to take the opportunity, “As devote and holy as you have served, I must ask for more. My companion angels and I require lodging as to fulfill the greater good we’ve been sent down to accomplish, dear brother.” Pyral scared himself with how much the memories he had received from a book were integrating so effectively into his speech when he tried.

[Aix]

Seeing Pyral simply jump down,Alyna sighed,and steeled herself. She dived forward,flipping upside-down,and as she began to fall under the different gravity,she quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of the top of the door frame,halting her descent. From there,she had a considerably shorter way to fall,and she managed to land half-decently on the rocky ground. The coarse rocks stabbed into her bare feet,but she grimaced and bore with it. They were “angels”,after all. She could scarcely imagine angels would complain about some minor pain like this. But,ow,it really did hurt!

It was rather impressive how the man managed to hold the crowd’s sway and adapt to the situation so quickly. She questioned whether it was really a good idea to attempt to deceive the crowd like so,but there was really no better plan at hand,and it seemed to be working. Coming from a purely secular state,she had little grasp of religious matters,and decided to allow Pyral to do the talking while she simply smiled and waved like the figurehead she was. Life was easier when all you had to do was smile and wave.

[divider1]
Speaker Adal was elated by Pyral’s words. Affected by the man’s kingly aura and convincing recitation of religious values,there was no doubt left in his mind that these people were indeed angels. “Ah,yes,yes,lodging. I suppose now that you have descended to grace us in the mortal realm you will need that,” said Speaker Adal,he fretted with his hands excited as he thought about what to do before he turned to the crowd behind him. “I’m afraid there will be no worship at the Cathedral today due to the state it is in. Instead,the Gods have graced us with three of their Angels! The first task they have given us is to provide them with lodging. We shall return to town and accommodate to their needs even if we must forfeit our lives and families to do so!”

At these words,Alyna wondered just how much she could push the limits of their hospitality. Certain things would probably betray her status as an angel,but otherwise,it looked like she had already acquired a host of fifty or so devoted slaves. Ah,perhaps it was a perfect world after all.

[divider1]
As it turned out,things were not so perfect. They proceeded down a long mountain path,dutifully swept,but still hard on Alyna’s feet. She was unused to walking,although her vampiric constitution,even when weakened in the sunlight,let her keep up without showing excessive fatigue. The sights would impress any other,a sweeping view of august mountains and vast plains,but they reminded Alyna excessively of her own home. Tall,imposing mountains had served as impenetrable walls to her narrow world. Even as a vampire,she was not allowed outside of the State. The few times where she stepped out,on diplomatic trips,she caught wonderful glimpses of the colorful world outside,and would not stop thinking of it for weeks that would follow. Alyna decided she could not stay in a place with mountains,even if she had a household of servants at her behest. The walk was accompanied by solemn silence,not altogether uncomfortable to Alyna,but she could not bring herself to like such a stiff silence either. She stole furtive glances at the other two who had accompanied her to this world,but realized it wouldn’t work to strike up casual conversation in such a setting. The natives of this world,on the other hand,she thought beneath her interest and paid them little heed.

Things only got worse when they reached the village below. The priest evacuated his own home to give shelter to the “angels”. His house was the least rundown of all,but even still,it was small and constrained,with very spartan furnishing. Alyna was once more reminded of her old world,and only felt disgust. Spoiled by the luxury of vampires,it seemed she had now returned to a standard of living similar to her world’s human livestock. Worse,it made her think of her childhood,and her parents. Undoubtedly,she would not have risen to the ranks of vampires without their conditioning. She owed her success to them,to have tempered her into the “perfect girl”,but deep down she had begun to hate and revile them. Childishly,she cut off all contact with them once she became a bloodsucker and fiercely suppressed any feelings of regret when she heard reports of them desperately trying to contact her. She would not,and could not,face them,and now that she had escaped to this world,she would never have to face them again. Ah,a wonderful escape. With that she allowed herself a bit of optimism and hope.

[divider1]
Alyna was the first to sit herself down in the small dining table,on the only cushioned chair in the village. Two other chairs had been graciously provided by villagers before Alyna quickly dismissed them. They were filthy and stupid in Alyna’s eyes. Finally,tThe three of them who were not of this world were alone now in the priest’s homee. Looking at the others,Alyna took the initiative to start the conversation. “We need to form a plan of action.”