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themiddleway ([info]themiddleway) wrote in [info]thedeadland,
@ 2011-10-28 18:46:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:+ in person, rat, shion

[Settling in: Shion and Rat]
Actually Shion thought sticking with the others in the apartments would be the better idea, after all there wern't many of them and a lot of monsters, and surely helping each other out would be much easier than everyone going alone. But of course this was Rat so Shion really wasn't surprised. Allen had gone and Rat walked off in the opposite direction. Shion looked down at the mouse at his feet and picked it up. "Come on then Horatio," he hurried after Rat.

The sounds of monsters had become almost normal and none sounded too close... as long as they got inside quickly. "Where are we going Rat?"


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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 05:56 pm UTC (link)
"You should stay with Allen," Rat didn't turn back to answer, just kept walking towards the building he'd seen earlier. Call him what you wanted, he was a creature of habit, and he didn't like the idea of staying in a place run by someone as authoritative as that woman and her cronies. And Shion's constant friendliness with so many people was starting to grate on his nerves.

He spotted the shop he'd mentally noted before, and headed towards it. The monsters had faded away with the sunset, and the street was blessedly clear.

"I prefer somewhere quieter."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 06:28 pm UTC (link)
Like Shion was going to let Rat wander around on his own in this strange world with mosters in it. So what if he had managed perfectly fine without Shion for the majority of his life. Shion didn't even bother to answer and merely caught up with Rat, walking beside him.

"There seems to be pleanty of houses and apartments about. Apparantly the place is abandoned apart from those that the child brought here. We could go find one of those. The majority of people seem to be in Mercy apartments so the other buildings should be quiet."

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 06:32 pm UTC (link)
He tried and failed to stifle his irritation at the suggestions. Just because Shion had been here longer...

"I know what I'm looking for." It was right there, in fact. The shutters were down and the door locked, so he edged into the alley alongside the shop and tried the back door. It was unlocked but closed, which was hopefully a sign that the monsters hadn't made this into a nest.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 06:48 pm UTC (link)
"Bookmarks," Shion read off the sign, "A book shop?" Well that was such typically Rat. He followed close behind and peeked from around Rat at the shelves and shelves of books. It was dusty but well ordered, nothing like Rat's home in the West Town. An open book lay on the counter as if the owner had merely lay it down before going out for a moment. But the dust on both the counter and the book showed it had been untouched for a long time.

"Rat, we could live near the bookshop if you want but in it?" It wasn't really a place where someone would live, consisting of shelves of books and the counter, there was a fire place, something that Shion had only heard of before and looked more like ornamentation than a working chimney.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 06:50 pm UTC (link)
"There's no running water or power anyway," he pointed out, brushing dust from the open book on the counter. "There's nothing an apartment has that this place doesn't."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 07:03 pm UTC (link)
That was true at least. Shion shrugged and didn't complain anymore. He moved further into the shop closing the door behind him. They would probably... need to borrow some things from a house anyways, blankets or something...

Stood in the bookshop, which was similar to Rat's room but not it suddenly hit Shion that it was real. They were no longer in West Town, they were here in a totally different world. Any hope in saving Safu... His hopes of bringing down the wall... Of ever seeing his mum again... They were in a different universe and who knew when they would be allowed to go home, how long did it take to save a dying universe?

Shion walked down one of the row of shelves so Rat could not see his face or the tears that were threatening. He stared at the books wondering if there were any he recognised.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 07:18 pm UTC (link)
"There'll be beds on the upper floors," Rat was saying as he paced around the shop front. "The blinds are electronic... Since there's no power, we don't have to worry about things getting in that way. Or people-- Hey." He'd started a circuit of the shelf area, and caught one of Shion's hunched shoulders. "You're thinking too hard."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 07:27 pm UTC (link)
Shion gave a start when Rat grabbed his shoulder he hadn't even heard him approach. He shook his head in denial but spoke anyways.

"How are we here? It's not scientifically possible... How are a handful of people meant to save a whole universe? And what happens back in our world? What happens to Safu? Have we failed her? What happens if we can never go back again?" He was talking too much, he always asked too many questions when he was upset but it was better than crying.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 07:56 pm UTC (link)
"See?" Rat ran a hand over his face, resigned. "Look, we're here now. If we do what they want, we get an unlimited wish in return. That's worth the time we'll have to spend here... If it bothers you so much, wish that they return you to the same time."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 08:02 pm UTC (link)
Shion nodded, but he still wasn't calm, because if wishing for things made them happen... "It's not possible. None of it. It goes against everything we know, every single way the world works. Yet we are here and it's not a dream."

He reached out to touch a book, "It shouldn't be real." And that was really what bothered him the most, because dying universes, unlimited wishes. It sounded even more far fetched then the books Rat had given him to read.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 08:28 pm UTC (link)
"You're here," he repeated. "What more proof do you need? I wouldn't believe something as convenient as a wish like that, but the kid wasn't lying."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 08:34 pm UTC (link)
Shion shook his head, he felt so lost, nothing he knew could help him here. Nothing made sense and he felt much more out of his depth than he even had in West Town. But as usual behind Rat's gruffness there was truth.

"We should..." He trailed off because he wasn't too sure what they should do. He stared back at the books again, so far he hadn't recognised any titles.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 09:01 pm UTC (link)
Rat's hand landed heavily on the top of Shion's head, as though the touch could knock him out of his overthinking mire. Then Rat was off, to investigate the rooms at the back of the shop.

"You should go upstairs and see if there's anything we can use."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 09:20 pm UTC (link)
The contact brought him back to himself a little bit and he nodded before grinning. "Right!" He moved through the shop and found the stairs. It was getting darker so he went quickly. It was a store room though there was a small kitchen area to the side. It had some plates, mugs, a kettle and a microwave neither of which worked. Mainly just more books but Shion did find a torch though and picked it up using the dim light to search through the rest of the room.

There were three coats hung up on pegs, dusty like everything else. Shion headed back to the stairs and noticed a small cupboard that he hadn't seen before. He opened it and smiled.

Whoever had owned this shop was obviously someone who like to be prepared for the worst. There was couple of tins of food, a pile of blankets, another two torches and spare batteries and a small first aid kit. Nothing like the ones used in No. 6, this just had basic plasters and bandages. There was also a bottle of water, which wouldn't last them long but it was a start.

Of course it hadn't helped them, whoever they where and whatever had happened. He gathered the things up and went back downstairs.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 10:03 pm UTC (link)
In the meantime, Rat's expression had darkened the moment Shion was up the stairs. Whilst he'd been telling the truth, a part of him still despised that he was trusting this mysterious child so easily. Trust wasn't something he gave, and for a stranger to attract it so unnaturally left him feeling slightly sick.

On the other hand, he didn't have any real attachments to West Town, and if he got a wish out of this bizarre world deal, he'd be satisfied.

"What a low-tech town," was his first comment upon seeing Shion's illgotten loot. When he plucked the first-aid kit out of his arms to look through, he huffed a laugh. "You think you'll be able to handle this, with no needles or syringes?" He nodded through to the other part of the shop he'd just looked through.

"Come on, check out backstage."

It was only two rooms, a small, bare bathroom and what was probably a communal lounge area for employees, but the latter had a pair of raggedy sofas that Rat had taken the liberty of pushing together into an impromptu bed.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 10:28 pm UTC (link)
"There was a hospital on the map, they should have more medical supplies," he grinned at the joke though, "Just don't get too injured." He followed him to the other room. He put the blankets on the makeshift bed, they might need more, depending on how cold it got.

"There's a kitchen upstairs as well but without power it's only real use is it has plates and cutlery." Shion seemed much calmer now that they were doing something, it stopped him from thinking too much.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 10:35 pm UTC (link)
"There's a girl on the radio offering a clinic service," Rat added, a trifle tartly. "If you're going to be making lifetime friends with everyone you meet, try and run into her."

He dropped his bag onto the table to take out the bread and cake he'd scavenged earlier in the day, then went over to the bin to shake out the crumbs. Normally he'd have offered them to the mice, but the only animals in the room were made of circuits and chips. They needed a charger more than bread.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 10:41 pm UTC (link)
"Oh Ouka," the white haired girl he had spoken to in Mercy apartments had mentioned she had a clinic, "I already met her, before you arrived." He smiled and picked up Horatio again, "How many of these guys came with you?" He stroked the mouse's head even though it was a robot.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 10:45 pm UTC (link)
"I should've known." It was an odd but signature mixture of exasperation and affection, really, said as Rat turned out his pockets to check for mice and came up with two more. One black, one brown. Both offline to save power, they were curled up in his hand as though they were sleeping. He looked at them idly, then placed them on the table next to the bread.

"There, all our worldly possessions."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 10:53 pm UTC (link)
Shion checked his pockets as well but there all there was was a handfull of bronze pieces, his latest pay from the Dogkeeper, completely useless here. He put them on the table anyways as well as Horatio.

A room full of books, some mice and not much else, really a universe apart and not much had changed. Shion grinned. "It's enough for now," his optimism was back it seemed.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-28 11:23 pm UTC (link)
"We've moved up in the world."

Rat didn't keep his money on him, so he didn't add any pieces of metal to the small pile. Shion was right, they didn't exactly need money here. It made him wonder if they even needed to get jobs - the others seemed pretty keen to stay active and organised, but as far as he could see, their only job requirement was to stay alive so their energy could feed the world. They didn't need governance or groups for that.

"Tomorrow we'll work on monster-proofing the shop," he decided, before crossing the room to sit and slouch on the mess of sofas. There were already several piles of books stacked next to it.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-28 11:47 pm UTC (link)
Shion smiled and nodded, even though they wern't in their own world they got to help this world and maybe if the child was telling the truth they could use their wishes to help their own. Unlike Rat Shion was interested in getting to know the others and helping them.

He nodded and sat more upright perching at the end of the couch turned bed. "You think it will be alright for tonight?" He couldn't hear any monsters but they might come back.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-29 10:02 am UTC (link)
"We can put something heavy in front of the door."

It wasn't that Rat was complacent, but he was tired, and surprisingly well-fed from their foraging, and the city was warmer than he was used to. With the monsters quiet in the nighttime, he was being unusually indulgent towards his feelings. "The bigger ones won't even fit down that alley, anyway."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-29 10:20 am UTC (link)
Shion nodded and looked around, there was a wardrobe and when Shion went to look in it there was a coat in it, and some hooks for more coats. "This could work," he tried to push it to the door, it was way too heavy for him to move alone though.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-29 10:41 am UTC (link)
After a minute of watching Shion struggle, Rat deigned to get back up and help. Not that he would have been able to push it on his own either, but the more difficulty he had pushing it on his own, the more reassured Shion's analytical brain would be about the effectiveness of the wardrobe as a barricade.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-29 11:19 am UTC (link)
It was working as well, Shion was pretty sure that at the very least the amount of noise the monsters would get trying to get through the door baricaded with the wardrobe would be enough to wake them. It took a lot of effort for the two of them to push it up against the door and Shion breathed heavily, exhausted.

"They... can't get in upstairs all the shutters are down," he said mainly to reasure himself.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-29 12:08 pm UTC (link)
And there was no way Shion could leave the building without getting Rat to help him move the blockade. All in all, a satisfactory solution. He made his way back through the store to the counter, and picked up his radio again from where he'd left it.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-29 12:26 pm UTC (link)
Shion followed him back into the shop and sat down. He had his radio as wellit seemed strange that they had all just been given one but they were definitly useful.

He took a small piece of bread and ate it looking around the store again. "So do you recognise any of the books?" Because if they were in a different universe, then surely the books would be different.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-29 09:46 pm UTC (link)
"Nope," he leafed through the open book, raising an eyebrow at some of the sentences. It was a romance novel, no question about it, and one written in what Rat would have called the recent past. The dialogue read like Shion had written it, too. He closed it and a puff of dust rose from the counter. "Compared to the number of books that exist in the world, the ones I'd recognise are a drop in the ocean."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-29 10:02 pm UTC (link)
For a boy who had seen maybe two or three books in his life before he had went to the West Town, Rat's house full of books had seemed so much, and yet there were so many more...

"Well at least you have new reading material."

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-29 10:10 pm UTC (link)
Shion received a quirked eyebrow for the comment, but Rat scooped up several books from the section marked Theater on his return to the back room.

"You've got no excuse to shirk off your education, either," he called, once he'd reached the sofas, clambered over the arm and settled across them.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-29 10:21 pm UTC (link)
Shion smiled but didn't say anything, he hadn't thought for a moment that an entire new universe would make Rat go easy on him when it came to learning none scientific things.

Even so his eye was drawn to the section of atlases, it would not hurt to learn more about this world.

He grabbed a few and returned to the other room. He sat upright at the end of the bed and opened the first one, a map of an island. "Asper," he read, he turned the page and frowned.

He turned another, and another and picked up another atlas. "Rat look at this..."

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-31 05:33 pm UTC (link)
Rat had rolled his eyes when he'd seen what Shion had picked out of the entire stock on offer, but at his shift in expression, he sat up and took one of the discarded atlases off the pile. His reaction was basically the same.

"Huh," he leafed through the pages again, and then went back to one of the identical maps.

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-31 06:44 pm UTC (link)
Even atlases in Number 6, as censored as they had been had shown the other cities. "Do you think this is the only place left in the world?" Though if that were true, why make atlases with repeated identical picture. It made no sense.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-31 06:48 pm UTC (link)
"Use your head, Shion. Why bother printing out so many books, all with the same page? You might as well just use one sheet of paper." He flicked through another of the books, frown deepening. "This isn't right."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-31 06:59 pm UTC (link)
"I don't know... It makes no sense." He leafed through another, exactly the same.

"Something strange is going on..." Stranger even than being transported to a dying universe by a small child and hunted by monsters.

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[info]smokefall
2011-10-31 11:27 pm UTC (link)
"There's nothing about this that isn't strange," he pointed out, "I say we just accept that until we're in a position to actually do something about it."

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[info]themiddleway
2011-10-31 11:53 pm UTC (link)
Shion nodded, for once they agreed. They had to learn as much as possible, and then find a way to help the world and get home. "Perhaps we can get back in contact with the child, and ask him."

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