(no subject)

[crimsonsphere]

WHO: Paine & Open
WHEN: February, post-mission
WHERE: Around the city
WHAT: Acclimating herself to her new surroundings.
NOTES\WARNINGS: Written in smalltags, but will match prose if desired!


Play ball

[Paine recognizes a sports stadium when she sees it. Spira, right now, has exactly one still working: the blitzball stadium in Luca. She's also seen a second one, the ruins of the stadium in Zanarkand that became the goal of all summoners on pilgrimage... the last stop on their fatal journey, and today, a historic site narrowly saved from having been turned into a tourist trap with the help of some amorous monkeys.

She looks around curiously as she enters this new stadium. The sights and the smells are just like Luca's blitzball stadium, too, only the fine details are different--the hot food smells less fishy, different insignias on the souvenirs for sale. And of course the sound from the playing field itself. When she wanders out with a "hot dog" and a Coke, there's a team of robots playing. a little mechanized, but...]

Huh.

Looks fun, actually.

S.T.A.R. power

[It's hard to miss the profile of S.T.A.R. labs. Now this place looks like it's halfway to becoming a ruin. It makes Paine wonder if this was what the technological wonders of Spira started to look like right after Sin took hold of the world.

She taps at the computer keyboards, trying to figure out how they work. The pens are also a novelty, and she's taken a number of differently-configured ballpoint pens apart before long.]

Ugh. No ink. [It would be nice to have something better than a brush or a charcoal, but nope.] Let's see if we can find out what this place was actually supposed to be.

[She's talking to herself a bit, yeah. That just happens when you're wandering through an abandoned building solo.]

Leafy greens

[When Paine arrived in Etraya, she didn't get the chance to see much beyond the sterile initial accomodations, the unfamiliar city streets, and then an interdimensional train with a horrible societal structure.

She wasn't expecting a lush green valley.

Her hands brush over the leaves of familiar and unfamiliar plants as she wanders the path, thinking that Yuna would probably like this place. When she explores the buildings, it looks--well, it looks like the kind of thing you'd find in your average little Spiran village. Mortars and pestles, teapots, table games...

You might find Paine sitting at a low table trying to work out the rules of mahjong, or inspecting the jars of medicinal herbs on a shelf, or cautiously inspecting some of the living spaces--cautiously in case she finds it already occupied.]

Wildcard!

[Paine is exploring around generally, so if you want to find her poking around a different place (possibly trespassing), go for it!]

Comments

S.T.A.R. power

[hexcope]

[Eventually, she'll come across a room that's not so abandoned. It's a big place after all. Within it is Jayce, feet kicked up on a desk as he sits back in his chair with a book in hand, and immediately turns to look at Paine, fully not expecting anyone else to be scoping the place out.]

Uh- hi?

[crimsonsphere]

...Hi.

[She glances around the room.]

This whole place isn't yours, is it?

['Cause if it is, there's some maintenance he's been neglecting.]

[hexcope]

[Oh good, it's not her place either. That's a relief, now he doesn't have to explain why he's squatting.]

This mess? Ha! No.

[He leans over and wipes a line of finger on the desk, holding up a finger of dust.]

I'm surprised I haven't started coughing from how dusty this place is. But it's not in use, so I figured why not?

[But he's forgetting his manners. Jayce shuts his book and puts his feet back on the floor so he can stand up. Over six feet tall and broad, but he's keeping his distance so he doesn't unintentionally intimidate.]

You're welcome to use this place too, of course.

[crimsonsphere]

Glad to hear it. It is kind of a dump right now.

[Paine sizes him up a little as he stands. Definitely looks like he could throw a punch, but she's not sure what to make of the clothes he's wearing--they look pretty well-made, though, which makes it even more of a question as to why he's set himself in this dilapidated compound.]

Got any plans about what you intend to use it for? It seems like it'd be pretty well-equipped if it was in better repair. Or any repair.

[hexcope]

I've seen worse. It just needs more foot traffic to stop the cobwebs from forming.

[He rolls back onto the heel and ball of his feet, with his hands folded behind his back.]

I do my best thinking in a lab, and of all the ones I've seen, this one seemed the best equipped for what I need to do. There's even a chem lab. And some sort of weird treadmill room? Whatever they were studying in here, at this scale, must have been pretty significant.

[crimsonsphere]

Yeah? What kind of stuff do you do?

[Paine's not one for prying into other people's business, but she's intrigued, and this guy seems willing to talk about it.]

It sure is a big complex. Seems weird that it's not in use by anyone else--but maybe they're just in another part of the building.

[hexcope]

I’m glad you asked!

[He’s not even the smallest amount of shy about this now.]

Magical research, to start. Development of magical equipment and tools will come after I get a handle on the magic of this world. I can’t use it myself, so it takes much longer than it would for a mage— someone with inherent abilities.

I’ve seen some traces of others working in here at some point, but there’s so few of us here and even fewer who would look into using a place like this, I’m not surprised I haven’t run into anyone else until now.

Play ball

[twin_blade]

[ A stadium of this size is unique to Vax, and he can see this is some kind of sporting event. He's standing among the empty seats, watching the game and trying to figure out the gist of it when he notices someone walking into the section. A familiar face. ]

Oh, hey. Paine, right?

[ It's good to see she got out of that mess on the train. Not that he had doubts after watching her wave that giant sword around. ]

[crimsonsphere]

That's me. And you're Vax. [Her face is a little less grim than it usually is when she greets him. He was pretty good in the train rebellion. There's a few respect points there.] You ever see this game before?

[She's trying to pick it up by observation as best she can, because honestly... it looks fun.]

[twin_blade]

[ The respect is mutual after watching her swing around a bigass sword. ]

Never. They don't have anything like this where I come from.

[ And he means the whole thing, including whatever technology is running the arena. ]

Have you?

[crimsonsphere]

Yeah. Kind of. We play Blitzball--it's all underwater. [Unless you're in Luca, and then you're aboveground in a giant sphere of the stuff.] It gives you a lot more directions to go.

[Down below, there's a tremendous crack of the bat, and one of the robots starts pelting around the bases as the ball soars high into the stands. Paine grins.]

But the ball doesn't go that far.

[twin_blade]

[ Vax watches as the ball goes flying. ]

Benefit of mechanical players, I guess.

[ He shrugs and moves to take a seat in the stands, gesturing for her to join him if she'd like. ]

How do you play the sport underwater? Can you breathe underwater?

[crimsonsphere]

Heh, that'd make it a lot easier, but no. The water is special [she decides not to launch into a whole explanation of pyreflies right now] but it takes a lot of training. Holding your breath for five minutes is no joke.

[Particularly when you're engaged in a really physical activity--hurling the ball through the water, getting checked and tackled by other players, diving to save a goal.]

Especially when you're trying to make a goal and everyone around you's trying to tackle you.

[twin_blade]

Sounds like a rough sport.

[ But Vax doesn't say it like it's such a bad thing. ]

It might be fun, except for the holding your breath part.

[crimsonsphere]

Oh yeah. That's what makes it so exciting.

[She grins. The people of Spira don't agree on a lot but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't like blitzball. Paine never thought she'd be a blitzer, but she can't deny she enjoyed it when the Gullwings got tapped to play.]

This one looks different. Seems like there's not a lot of player-to-player contact in baseball.

[Not that it isn't physical. One of the robots is making a run for second as fast as he can go while the ball soars through the air.]

Looks more like it's "you versus physics."

play ball

[maximumlegend]

[ Fabian looks up from where he's sitting when he watches her speak up - especially since he's kind of glad to have a distraction from the event here. ]

It's fake, though.

[ It doesn't sound too intense - almost more like he's kind of sulking, though he doesn't linger on his initial statement. Instead he adds, after a second: ]

And nowhere near as good as Bloodrush. [ He has sports pride to defend here! ]

[crimsonsphere]

I can see it's fake. But it doesn't look like something the robots came up with on their own.

[Based on something real, maybe something they can learn to play themselves...?]

What the hell is Bloodrush?

[She sounds half-incredulous, half-intrigued. That's one hell of a name for a sport, Fabian.]

[maximumlegend]

What the hell is-- It's Bloodrush! [ He says it with the sort of tone that seems to indicate that he thinks it's evident. Bloodrush is Bloodrush, Paine, he doesn't know what else to tell you! ]

Have you seriously never heard of it?

[ Usually Fabian would sound offended.

But right now he seems much more baffled, especially the look he's throwing her way. ]

It's the most famous sport in all of Spyre!

[crimsonsphere]

[Paine chuckles at Fabian's indignation.]

Close. I'm from Spira, not Spyre.

[She leans back against the wall.]

Okay, tell me what's so great about it.

[maximumlegend]

[ .. wait. Obviously Paine is from another world, he gets what she's saying here. But he has a very conspiracy-minded best friend, and sometimes Riz rubs off on Fabian just enough for Fabian to momentarily question if it really is such a coincidence that their worlds sound so similar--

But it's probably a coincidence. Right? R-Right?

He might as well first answer the thing he knows more about. He's a jock, not a nerd! ]

And the great part about Bloodrush is participating in it, of course! There is absolutely nothing that makes you feel more alive than running around on that field and smashing all of your opponents! [ ... Yes, he does look genuinely excited as he says this. Not even in a malicious way? It's kind of like the way real life jocks talk about American football.. ]