avalononline | video; un: alsoagun

Um, hey there. Ah, Ruby Rose, here. I'm new, but you probably figured that.

[Okay, she's definitely a little bit nervous. Ruby's not exactly what one would call a social butterfly - she definitely got comfortable enough with Beacon to make friends there, but that's not really relevant anymore. Once she had any downtime in Atlas, she didn't know what to do with herself. And now, THIS? Is a lot to adjust to.

She fidgets and clears her throat.] So, got a tiny question, here...

I think I kinda get the whole familiars thing, but mine is, well... it puts me in a bit of an odd place.

Basically, has anyone ever gotten anything that should be a soulless killing machine back in their world? That, I don't know, would've been born in power surrounding your world's greatest evil...? [That, back home, she has a power specifically meant to ERADICATE things like the Grimm, AKA the very form her familiar has taken.] Anything like that?

[She realizes she's being very specific here.]

Because I'll be honest, the fact my familiar isn't trying to eat me, or anyone around me, is almost more unnerving than if he was.

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I'm sure she won't be too much trouble.

[Just, you know, suffering from post zombie apocalypse PTSD. It's a doozy]

[Oh, yeah, that one's always a kicker. Ask Ruby about her mother or dead friends sometime-- or on second thought, maybe don't.]

Ahaha-- Well, you'd know better, though I have it on my Dad's authority we can be a bit of a handful at times.

[Still, she talks about monsters pretty casually - even in Ruby's world, the way she describes the monsters attached to her or her daughter isn't something you'd hear out of normal folks.]

But, like... the monsters you were talking about, do you have any experience with stuff like them, out of curiosity? Talking with other people, it's interesting to kinda compare notes on what these familiars comes from.

Not...with my familiar, no.

[Claire's voice stumbles a little bit. She's...still parsing some of her own PTSD.]

Where I'm from, there's no monsters, or magic, or anything like Avalon. Just, you know, science. And as far as I know, the only things like monsters that exists on Earth are all...they're accidents.

Zombies, basically. But some other mutated people, plants, and animals. From a virus created in a lab. I kinda had to live through an outbreak, before I came here.

[Oh, Ruby knows all ABOUT PTSD. At the very least she's wondering if she should've asked that question, but... too late, there.]

Well, for what it's worth, we didn't THINK there was, uh... much magic in my world, at one point.

[That's definitely changed. Still, the description makes her shudder a little. Luckily audio, so that's unseen. Still, a little of that uneasiness transfers to her tone.]

That's... scary to think about, honestly. If you made it through that, well... kinda seems like this place has a knack for picking up pretty hardy folks, honestly.

[Which is something she's definitely noticed, even in only a few days. While there's the occasional "ordinary" person, there do seem to be an awful lot of people who arrive here who have some story or another that's somewhat fantastical.]

Yes. That's the one pattern I've kind of discerned. This place has a knack for picking up survivors. People that don't die easy.

[She is nothing if not hard to kill. She's realized that in her time here.]

There don't seem to be a ton of civilians, either. Sherry and I might be some of the few.

[People that don't die easy, AND people who have already died, at least by Ruby's observations.]

I mean, civilian or not, it's more about ... state of mind, right? A month ago, I was technically still a student.

[She hadn't been at school for over a year, but... Details, details.]

I mean one being trained to kill giant monsters, sure, but...

...A school for monster hunters?

[...What the fuck?]

Uhhh... yeah!

[She says it really casually, honestly. It's SUPER NORMAL to her.]

The monster that's my familiar, things like it... they've been around for centuries. People generally live in more fortified towns and cities [though that sure doesn't help sometimes, as many demolished ones as she's seen] while us Huntresses and Huntsmen defend against them.

That's just... kinda how things are.

That's so wild. Where I'm from, like I said, we've had the one incident.

Is the technology here really different from your own world?

[Are you from, like, a medieval place? That's her mental image now.]

Heh, I wish our stuff was a one-and-done sort of thing.

[Surely, you'll never have to deal with zombies and mutated monsters again, Claire! Be thankful for that at least.]

I'm actually... surprised that there's more technology here than what I'd have expected. I mean, there's no flying airships or floating sky cities that I've seen, but... It's not as bad as I was expecting on my way from that lake.

[A fantasy world, but with modern conveniences and ALSO dystopian science fiction is more along the lines of what Ruby is used to.]

[Except three months later. And then a few months later. And...actually bioterrorism and stuff is a running theme in Claire's existence for the next twenty years or so. Whoops.]

Flying sky cities? That sounds like a lot of work for...what, is your home really crowded?

Well... I guess I shouldn't say that in a plural way. It's really just the one. I don't know that it's so much a crowding problem as...

[Some bitterness definitely creeps up into her voice.]

The rich and powerful are a lot safer, there.

Of course. Some things don't change, across worlds.

[The rich are going to rich, as her brother puts it.]

Yeah. Guess it'd be too much to hope they would.

[She sighs.]

But. I'm here, for now. Might as well make the most of it.

video; un: alsoagun

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