The Coordinator and the Natural...Mage

[shieldofjustice]

Who: Athrun, Terra
What: Athrun finds himself in a strange place with no memories and a gun. Good thing there's a kindly female nearby!
Where: In the forest, not far from the Ari Apartments
When: June 7
Warnings: None

Comments

[allnaturalmagic]

Terra had once again been out and about, wondering through the lush forest. Now that she had remembered what had become of her home, she understood why she felt such peace from simply taking a walk and enjoying the sights. She was still trying to digest all of her recent memories, and so she walked wherever her feet carried her, not really having a destination in mind.

She didn't even notice that she was no longer alone until she rounded a large tree and nearly walked right into the other person. "Oh-! I'm sorry, I... didn't see you there."

[shieldofjustice]

Athrun let out a sound in surprise, jumped backwards, and nearly pulled his gun out...until he got a better glimpse of who had run into him. Standing before him was a beautiful young woman, who could not have been much older than he.

Athrun's concentration was visibly shaken, and he was breathing heavily. Athrun forced himself to slow his breathing, and then spoke. "Where... Where am I?"

[allnaturalmagic]

The man's reaction could only mean that he was new here. He was obviously scared and confused, and she was sure that her nearly walking into him hadn't helped.

"Please don't be afraid. This is Memento Eden, and while I know it's hard to accept, the memory loss you're dealing with is actually normal." She smiled at him in a effort to try and help the newcomer relax.

[shieldofjustice]

"Huh?" The guard that Athrun had put up around himself was completely and utterly broken down now. "What do you mean, the memory loss is normal?"

[allnaturalmagic]

Well, he seemed less ready to jump out of his skin now. She took that as a plus.

"Everyone that arrives here has their memories taken from them. All we're left is a name. But the memories do come back over time." She paused to see how well he was taking this information. "I'm Terra, and I'll help you get settled here, if you'd like."

[shieldofjustice]

This all sounded too bizarre to be true. But, well...here Athrun was, without memories. He didn't have much choice in the matter. And hey, he was never one to turn down a pretty face.

"All right." Athrun paused. "Settled... Sounds like I'm gonna be stuck here for a while." After another short pause, he continued. "Well, I've got a lot of questions. If you're going to help, let's start with information."

[allnaturalmagic]

He didn't waste any time, did he? It was understandable, though. This situation wasn't exactly normal.

"Yes, you'll be here for quite a while, most likely. We've been given a place to live and food for free, so it really isn't that bad. The island is a lovely place, really." She smiled as she looked around the forest, as if to prove her point.

[shieldofjustice]

"Free food and shelter?" Athrun repeated. "That sounds too good to be true." He then thought for a moment. "What about this island itself? Does anyone know how or why we're ending up here?"

[allnaturalmagic]

"It does, doesn't it? It's the truth, though."

Terra shook her head slowly. "No, we have no idea why so many people end up here, or why we all lose our memories. There are... many mysteries about this place."

[shieldofjustice]

"I see," Athrun replied, frowning. "And how long does it usually take for a person to get all their memories back?"

[allnaturalmagic]

"All of them? As far as I know, no one has achieved that. Though they do come back in bits and pieces, from time to time."

[shieldofjustice]

"No one..." Athrun repeated, mostly to himself. He closed his eyes for a moment, then looked back into Terra's eyes.

"All right. That's enough questions for now. Can you show me where the town is?"

[allnaturalmagic]

She smiled gently, hoping it would make him feel better. "Please don't worry too much about it. I've only been here for a few months and I've remembered many things. I'm sure it will all come back to us one day."

She nodded. "Yes, of course. We're not very far." She lead him back to the town, walking slowly.

[shieldofjustice]

Sure enough, they were in town fairly quickly. Athrun's head was constantly turning from one direction to the next as he tried to absorb his surroundings.

Above all else, the thing that stuck out to him was that the town was extremely low-tech. Try as he might, he was unable to figure out exactly when he was from, but he knew instinctively that he had never seen technology at such a low level in his life, possibly with the exception of pictures in textbooks. As he walked, he asked, "Do you know what year this is?"

[allnaturalmagic]

"Actually, I'm not really sure. There are lots of things here that seem to be more advanced than what I'm used to, but I've heard others say just the opposite." She paused, wondering what kind of world this newcomer was from. "Why do you ask?"

[shieldofjustice]

"Well, uh..." Athrun was unsure how to phrase his response. He wanted to be honest, but not impolite about it. "The level of technology here seems low to me. I mean, extremely old. That's why I asked."