#palacebound

          curiosity bests all other emotions as a new island makes an appearance above their current islands of residence. the floating island isn’t what catches her attention, though ─ her own birthplace was as such. if it weren’t for the burning desire to learn as much as she can about this universe, perhaps weiss wouldn’t have bothered with the trek to the new island. but she’s not sure how long she’ll be stuck in this world and, thus, knows she must learn everything she can about it. besides, she has to admit, the idea of finding a treasure... is fascinating.  

while she wasn’t sure what to expect overall ─ but hostiles were not something on the list of things she expected. thankfully, she’s had no trouble incapacitating them without resorting to extremes. even without the usage of her gravity glyphs, weiss hasn’t run into trouble while exploring the new land. however, the same couldn’t be said for everyone else. she’s alerted by noise of a scuffle nearby and immediately finds the source ; a soldier, quite reminiscent of those in atlas, cornering a girl who doesn’t appear threatening at all.

weiss immediately takes action. 

she wastes no time in summoning a boarbutusk. the creature manifests in a striking, icy hue. it takes little time to charge up, scuffing the ground with it’s hooves before jumping and coiling into itself, rolling forward, straight for the hostile soldier. the collision happens in seconds, sending the soldier into the nearest wall with a harsh THUNK. unconscious, weiss hopes. as the boar vanishes in a glittery cloud, weiss runs and takes the girl’s hand with a swift ‘excuse me!’, praying she takes no offense to the action.  

well, komaeda’s certainly not one to sit around. the island is similar to what had happened before; except this particular island was full of more unsavory towns people than the last-- there was no talent here, komaeda had quickly determined. this was far from a land of hope; this was a land of despair. everything was over ridden, and komaeda sighed softly. what reason did he have from coming here, other than to find aout about koi’s history?

he was not interested in the history, to be sure. he just wanted to know how everyone would react. there’s no sense of urgency here. just... lots of wilderness. information lost. 

mindlessly walking, though he did figure he should scope out the island. and so scope he does. ah, what was that? some sort of building, it seemed like. he’d been to rome before-- this reminded him of its ruins. 

... historians would know better what happened here. did koi have historians? or only legends?

touching the walls, though he takes his hand off hem fairly quickly. haha, knowing him, he could cause the destruction of this whole place!

but it looks like he’s not alone. what luck! he didn’t have to lament alone, but it wasn’t like he was going to unload all his useless comments on the person standing in front of him.

“What do you think happened here?”

he asks. it’s a pleasant voice, slightly troubled. unassuming and benign. 

This foreign land has done nothing to her to warrant the cold mistrust that radiates through her bones. In the end, her weapons made their way back to her possession, her oldest friends. On the surface they appear untouched. But she, too, appears untouched on the surface. Yet she can feel it in those very same untrusting bones. Her innate powers are weak, as though drained from her body despite the concept’s impossibility.

So here she sits in this all-too-happy apartment, in the all-too-happy kitchen, painstakingly disassembling her pistols to ensure they truly haven’t been tampered with. Complicated devices with enough parts to occupy the entirety of the kitchen table; yet Ebene takes them apart methodically, familiar with them as she is familiar with the thousand paler speckles across her skin. As she works, however, she hears the sound of stirring life behind her, and lifts her head. She doesn’t turn to face the source of the noise, but there’s a clear tension in her shoulders.

He runs his fingers along the spines of the books stacked across the shelf, disappointed to find that all the names don’t ring familiar. Ashe isn’t even certain of what it is he hopes to find here, but books have always been a comfort to him, and if there’s anything he’s in need of so far from his home and his companions, it’s something comforting.

Not that he should have expected this unusual place to have any of his favorites, but he’s persistent in his searching all the same. It’s a library, and what library could simply not include such unforgettable classics? Though he knows them all front to back, to hold a copy of The Moon Knight’s Tale or Loog and the Maiden of Wind in his hands again would really make his day. They seem to be omitted entirely, however, so at this point he’d happily take any knight fables this place could offer up.

As he continues pouring over the shelves in silence, he takes notice of a young woman browsing the same selection. Anticipating her approach, he steps to the side, allowing her unimpeded access to the section of books he’d been lingering in front of.