[Thread] Why Hello Thar

[poppingseeds]

Characters: OU!Maria Robotnik, OU!Shadow the Hedgehog, AU!Persephone
Where: By the greenhouse. So creative. Also later the apartments.
When: After Persephone arrives here.
Summary: Maria goes to help the bratty goddess out because that is just what you do when you don’t want a tantrum on your hands. For serious.
Warnings: None that I can think of.

Comments

[poppingseeds]

Persephone had been curious about the girl that was approaching her, if she had been the one she had spoken to over that strange, talking device. And indeed it was, a small smile touching the corners of her mouth, mostly out of relief. Through all of her tantrums and brattiness thus far, what she really needed most was a friendly looking face and a few kind words, something to at least make her feel at home here, though she hoped it never reached that point.

Maria definitely seemed to have that friendliness about her, though she was a lot scrawnier than what Persephone was expecting. Well. Persephone wasn't really expecting much, to be honest, and almost thought she would get some form of spirit or nothing at all to greet her.

The hand, though... What was up with the hand extending? It had to be another weird type of custom here, like the device. And greeting distraught people with laughter, which was just downright rude. At least she was a lot calmer now than she had been when she first arrived.

"Yes, I am Persephone. Thank you for coming." Persephone extended her own hand as well, but didn't take Maria's, instead letting it sit in the air next to hers with a politely confused expression on her face. It was the thought that counted, right?

[her_dying_wish]

Maria giggled lightly and moved her own hand to meet Persephone's, shaking it, then letting go. "It's called a handshake. It's something people do in a lot of worlds when they meet each other. It's okay, you'll learn! Anyway, you're welcome. I couldn't just leave you alone, after all."

Persephone looked a little... sick, maybe? Not in the usual sort of way, though, which was good. She didn't want to come across as distant to her new friend, but if it was something contagious, it would have been a real problem. No, instead, it almost looked like a person might if they were extremely cold. She had said she was tired, though, Maybe that was it.

"So, follow me? I'll take you to where I'm staying. There's a bed in my room that never gets used, so you can stay there as long as you like and get some rest."

[poppingseeds]

A handshake. Of course. Persephone looked at the other girl dubiously as their hands were waved up and down in the air before they let go, letting her arm return to her side a little more heavily than she would have liked.

While the offer a bed sounded really, really nice about now, the thought was kind of strange to her, really only having spent time in a bed during her stint in the Underworld. Usually, she would just sleep under a tree or the stars. The girl had actually been hoping to go back to that rather being cooped up in a room, but she hardly felt that that was the way things were done around here, as much as she would have liked for it to be the opposite.

Persephone didn't think she would make it very far, however, but she refused to show weakness in front of this child she had just met. Standing shakily to her feet, having to grip the edge of the bench in order to do so, Persephone drew herself up to her full height, using all of her energy to do so. "Thank you for your kindness. Should you ever need anything after I regain my former energy..."

There wasn't a whole lot Persephone could do, other than grow plants; she was still working on the powers thing, but they flowers were pretty most of the time.

[her_dying_wish]

"Oh, do you need help...?" Maria watched worriedly at the amount of effort it took for Persephone simply to stand, and almost rushed over to lend her a hand. She held back, however; if Persephone was a goddess, she might not feel very dignified if seen walking with the aid of someone like her. So instead she simply offered, hoping for a reasonable response.

"And really, you don't have to do anything for me, but thank you, I appreciate the thought."

[poppingseeds]

Your darn tootin' that would have been undignified for a goddess and Persephone shot Maria a look, one that clearly stated that she could take care of herself on her own, thank you very much, tiny human.

Persephone waved a hand dismissively, finally letting go of the bench and collecting herself, drawing her black robes about her. Despite the sick feeling throughout her body and worrying about her stomach dropping out from beneath her, she was actually curious to see more of this queer place. It had a lot of parallels to the Underworld, despite it being differently structured and lacking the rivers of crying souls. That was actually perk; they got annoying after a while with all of their moaning and complaining and woe is me-ing.

"Lead the way, if you will."

[her_dying_wish]

That particular look was one she had seen before from Shadow, although she wasn't used to it being used on her. Still, she didn't flinch back at all, understanding what it meant. Like Shadow, Persephone seemed very proud and independent, and she would gladly respect that.

A warm smile soon found its way back on to her face as the worry dissipated, and Maria nodded. "Of course, follow me!" She turned and started back toward the apartment building, looking around. It was a really beautiful day out, and she was glad the weather was improved, finally, after such a harsh winter.

"So... what's your world like?" she ventured, not wanting to make the journey in complete silence.

[poppingseeds]

Persephone followed a few paces behind the other girl, not able to go much faster. She would have to take this trek slow, unfortunately, and the thought of being so weak annoyed her. What happened to the days of playing under the sun with her nymphs and climbing trees? At least without being underground, she felt that her energy would return soon, but having to be dependent on anyone put her off greatly.

The question caught her by surprise, however. Her world... The other girl spoke of it almost like it was a different place entirely, but wasn't she in it? Wasn't this her world? Persephone supposed it wasn't at all, knew deep down that it hadn't been at all, and could feel her heart break a little. She probably wouldn't see her mother again or watch Cerberus chase his tail or frolic with her nymphs. Those days were gone, surely.

"My world... is very different. There's none of this." She waved a hand at the buildings, a look of disdain clouding her features. "Everything is beautiful and made of towering columns and trees and plants. I lived and slept and played in the fields before I -- I had to leave." Her voice broke at that, but she fought valiantly to keep the tears down. Before she had to leave indeed. She had been abducted, just like she had been to this place.

[her_dying_wish]

Seeing Persephone's difficulties in walking, Maria slowed down subtly to reduce the gap between them as she listened to the description of the other world.

"That sounds so wonderful... I've never seen a place like that. Maybe someday I will be lucky enough to go somewhere like that, though. I haven't seen much of Earth, to be honest." The thought struck her that maybe Persephone wasn't from Earth a moment later. Wherever she was from, though, it sounded truly beautiful. She looked around at the shabby old buildings around them as they walked down the street, and sighed.

[poppingseeds]

"There will never be a place more beautiful than my Olympus," the goddess responded, head held high and moving as regally as possible despite the pain, crying silently. "I have never heard of Earth before." She shot a quick, questioning look at Maria.

The farthest she had been was the field of Enna before she had been taken to the Underworld, and if someone had told her that a place called Earth had existed, she would have thought them insane before today. But it was seeming more plausible that other places, other worlds existed, the longer that she saw this place. Not even the Oneiroi could have woven together a dream as elaborate as the war or this city.

[her_dying_wish]

"Oh... it's the planet's name. This one, but also the one I know, which is slightly different. I assumed that the home you were describing was a small region on Earth, like a city. Is Olympus the name of your planet, then?" Maria was genuinely curious, as well as a bit confused. Earth was one of the common denominators between almost everyone here, she'd thought. Even those who weren't from it seemed to know of it. Of course, she hadn't met everyone in the compound, so there were guaranteed to be exceptions.

The view of the little town was improved slightly as the street met up with the plaza. Maria tried to imagine the entire thing replaced with buildings supported by grand columns and flowers everywhere. It was difficult to reconcile the two images.

[poppingseeds]

Like with most things over the course of the next few oh god who knows how long, Persephone would grow irritated over her lack of knowledge in things. She was a goddess, she should know all things. But Earth definitely wasn't one of them. Or the concept of planets, really.

"Olympus is a mountain." The girl had a clear AH-DUR look on her face, even through the contortion of pain. How dense was this kid? Everyone where she was from knew what Olympus was and everyone here should know, too. Of course. And if they didn't, well, they would just have to go educate themselves like good little peons, wouldn't they?

[her_dying_wish]

"Oh! I'm sorry, I had no idea. Our worlds are very different, I think. That must be so wonderful, then, to look out and see for miles and miles around, from up there... I don't think I've ever seen a real mountain before, much less been on one." She gave Persephone an apologetic smile.

Maria was getting the notion that perhaps Persephone had come from a long time in the past, or perhaps somewhere very primitive. It was fascinating, but the lack of a common understanding was making conversation a bit of a challenge. Explaining her life on the space colony would be interesting if the subject ever came up. Still, she looked forward to what she could learn from her, because her perspective was very different. Hopefully after she'd rested up, she would be less upset about everything.

[poppingseeds]

Oh, if Maria had mentioned anything about space colonies or mortals living in the heavens, Persephone probably would have died right then and there. The concept was far too alien for her to even begin right now and, as it was, she was trying to think of ways to divert their topic of conversation away from their homes. She missed her mother and the fields more than anything and didn't need to be reminded of it, no matter how innocent their banter was.

"It's truly wonderful," Persephone murmured, wiping at her eyes to get rid of stray tears, walking even more slowly now and having trouble getting her numb limbs to function. "Tell me more about this place, though?" Okay, so that wasn't exactly the best way to not be reminded that she probably wasn't going to be going home anytime in the near future, but if she was to survive here, the information was pertinent.

[her_dying_wish]

"Um, alright! I'm not sure what there is to tell." But she figured she'd better find something, because lessening those tears was as much a priority as getting her to a place to rest.

"I think at last count I heard there were over three hundred people here, from all different sorts of places. And we live in this town you see around us. It was abandoned when we got here, because of the war going on, but it's a nice place. There's a library, and some shops, and the greenhouse which you saw... I think my favorite place is the park, though. It's really big, with lots of grass and plants and trees, and there's a river going through it with a lake..." It would be clear in looking at Maria's face that she adored the park. It was the sort of place where she could lay back and look around and see nothing but green and blue and brown, plants and sky and soil. She loved the ARK, she really did, but being in the park was the stuff dreams were made of.

[poppingseeds]

"A park?" Persephone had a vague notion of what that was and would have demanded to be taken to it immediately if it weren't for her being tired. But if there was a place like that... Maybe it was big. Really big. Maybe a good place to run and jump and climb trees and to sleep. Well, okay. She had gone over the not sleeping outside thing for now until she established how weird it would be here. She had a reputation and cool factor to keep up, you know.

Although, it wouldn't hurt to ask. In a subtle way, of course. "Is there much housing or do you use those tents mortals are so fond of when they march to their wars?" Please say tents, please say tents.

[her_dying_wish]

"...Tents?" A blink. Maria, quite honestly, did not know what a tent was. Camping was never something that would have come up in a space colony; nor, apparently, was it something people did in Econtra. As such, she wasn't actually sure what Persephone was talking about.

"There are three apartment buildings with lots of rooms... Most of us tend to stay there, although I know not everybody does. It's good to have a room, though, because it's also sort of your address, so if you ask for supplies then the Indigeo knows where to send it. I can show you how to do that when you have something you want to get, if you like."

They came up to the building Maria stayed in, and she gestured to it. "See, this is one of the apartment buildings. My room is on the bottom floor of this one."