Day 50: Courtyard

[hasnomeaning]

Again, there were choices. After leaving the child and the animal, Rei had followed again. When prompted where she wanted to spend time, the pilot had no preference. If they wished her to do something, they would place it before her. If they left her with options, she would take the ones they did not want. So her response was minimal, and so the

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[bodhiandspirit]

Since the weather had cleared up, Rita wanted to take the opportunity to go outside and see the environment for herself. Speaking with the other patients had forced her to give the 'other planet' idea serious consideration, and she'd quickly learned that it was easiest not to argue it at every opportunity... but it was still difficult to believe. She needed to see for herself.

Rita shouldn't have been surprised by what she saw when she stepped outside, but in a way, she couldn't help it. The sky above was clear and blue, save for the clouds. No sign of the Adephagos.

This was really Earth, then? That left many more questions to be answered. Most importantly, how was Rita transported from one planet to another without any recollection of the move? The distance between solar systems had to be so immense that it would take more than a lifetime to move from one to another. Was it some kind of teleportation? But how could that be done

[fangirlfatale]

Morgan guessed she should've been doing something useful with that last shift, but somehow--for once--it just hadn't happened. She was still--well, actually, she wasn't sure what she thought about what Guybrush had told her earlier. So her last words (and they were still fresh in her mind: all the pain, the effort, the slightly embarrassing hacking of blood onto Guybrush's coat, which had smelled suspiciously like bacon) hadn't even been intelligible. Guybrush had avenged her death by killing the wrong guy--and uuuggff, it was even worse that it was DeSinge of all people, that wasp-waisted wuss

[bodhiandspirit]

When a long shadow was cast over her, Rita couldn't quite ignore the presence of the woman who had just approached. It didn't take more than a second to recognize that face.

"...Hmph," came the initial reply, accompanied with a cold look. Did she just come to gloat?

Rather than directly admitting to being wrong, Rita went on to simply state the facts. "There's something called the Adephagos where I'm from. It's an entity so enormous it can be seen in the sky from virtually any place in the world." She sighed, not quite wanting to continue despite having already made her conclusion clear.

"This can't be Terca Lumireis," she said finally, crossing her arms. Rita hated being wrong - hated it - but she knew nothing would come from clinging to a failed hypothesis.

[fangirlfatale]

Morgan helped herself to a seat on the other side of the bench. "Yeah. It's not the Caribbean either," she admitted. "In fact, I don't even think we're anywhere near a coast." If the landscape they'd seen from the window last night wasn't enough to tell her that, the sounds and smells outside now that the rain had stopped clinched it. No telltale scent of salt in the air, no sea birds overhead, temperatures much colder than she'd ever encountered in that part of the world--and most damningly of all to a sailor like her, the winds were all wrong. Not only were they not in the Caribbean, she was fairly sure now that they weren't even anywhere close to anywhere she'd ever sailed.

At least they weren't lost, though--or more like they wouldn't be for long. Morgan didn't know what an Adephagos was, but there was something in the sky that she could see from anywhere in the world too. "If we get a clear night, I can probably use the stars to get a pretty good idea of where we are," Morgan explained to the girl. She shot her a sidelong glance

[bodhiandspirit]

So she wasn't here to rub it in after all. It looked like even though this was her planet, this woman was just as lost as Rita was.

After their debate yesterday, Rita was surprised to see she was trying to be helpful today. An offer of peace, maybe? Well, whatever. Rita didn't exactly need any enemies, and if this person could figure out their location using the stars, that would actually be helpful. She'd take what she could get.

"So you're... what, a ship navigator?" Rita guessed. Usually it was only sailors who were knowledgeable enough about the stars to use them to find their way. That, and Morgan had mentioned sailing before. Whatever she did, it was clear that navigation would be, at the very least, part of her profession.

"If you learn anything, let me know," she added, her demeanor somewhat less cold now, though not quite openly friendly. "You can reach me on the bulletin. The name's Rita Mordio."

[fangirlfatale]

"Morgan LeFlay, Mighty Pirate Hunter™," Morgan said, answering both questions at once. The introduction was made somewhat less impressive by the lack of a sword to pose with, but it still wasn't bad. If the girl had been a pirate, Morgan was sure she would've been shaking in her shoes by now. "I sail my own ship, the Knave of Toro." And she was proud of it too. Sure, it was small--it had to be, with just her as the only crew--but it was the first big thing she'd bought with the bounties she'd earned, and it struck fear into the heart of every swashbuckler on the seven seas who knew what was good for him. Or it would if anyone it hunted lived long enough to tell anyone what it looked like. Morgan's smile grew increasingly self-satisfied.

"So what do you do?" she asked, out of idle curiosity (they had time to kill). Rita Mordio, Mighty Argumentative Kid™?

[bodhiandspirit]

That introduction earned Morgan a surprised look. A pirate hunter? Rita had heard of guilds that focused on bounty hunting, but it sounded like Morgan operated alone, if she did both the sailing and the bounty hunting herself. And considering that pirates and their crews usually weren't total pushovers... that was actually kind of impressive.

Rita wasn't going to say anything of the sort, however. She was a pretty impressive person herself, after all.

"I'm a mage and a scholar," she replied, her arms still crossed and a smug grin now plastered on her face. "Where I'm from, anyone who knows anything about magic knows who I am." At this point, it was probably safe to say that Rita was the most knowledgeable and powerful mage in the world. Rita had completely revolutionized the field of magic study, and she knew it.