Human Worlds are Strange [Active/Open]

[a_sinful_rose]

Characters: Rozalin and anyone else?
Time: Evening
Location: S. Wabash Ave. Not far from the Blackstone hotel.
Content: Rozalin wandering around.
Format: Prose
Warnings: Haughtiness? lol

Comments

[stylingtie]

Alright, so kissing Rozaline without her permission probably wasn’t the brightest thing Adell had ever done, even if it had saved all their lives, but heck, it had felt right at the time, and Adell had long since learned to trust his gut. Besides, part of him had to admit it had been totally worth it.

All of that, however, did nothing to solve his dilemma of how to deal with the homicidally inclined princess who was doing her level best to increase his body’s lead content to lethal levels. Dodging left and right, he tried to think of some way to convince the outraged demon to calm down, but since doing so would require him to have some tiny iota of knowledge about women, and so he quickly realized that wasn’t happening.

Well then, he’d just have to go with Plan B; keep running towards home and hope that somewhere along the way she ran out of bullets. Smirking to himself as he slid under another hail of gunfire he had to admit to himself he liked Plan B better anyway. It was a lot more fun.

As he was racing through the shattered remnants of the false Zenon's domain, however, something odd had happened. Suddenly a fog had arisen and the world had tilted so that the floor became the wall. Plummeting into the fog for what had felt like an eternity, Adell had finally landed on the hard ground next to a giant mirrored metallic lima bean in a city he had never seen before. Given he'd traveled all over Veldime while preparing his mother's spell, that was a serious problem. Worse, when he crawled out of the crater his impact had left, his brother, sister, Rozaline, Yukimaru, and the others were nowhere to be found.

The next few hours were spent in a near panic as Adell had raced through the weird city, trying to find his missing family. He'd promised, promised that he would look after his siblings and protect Rozalin, and he wasn't going to let whatever weird spell had brought him here prevent him from keeping his word.

The people of the city, seemingly all humans, were no help at all, barely seeming to acknowledge him, much less have information of anyone matching his friend's descriptions. Still, he wasn't going to stop until he found them, or a way to them. They'd come too far, done too much, he would not lose his family now, and he would not have them think he abandoned them. Family did not abandon their own.

Besides, who knew what trouble Hanako was getting into and dragging Taro in after her, or how that infuriating princess was dealing with being stolen away again, or what Etna was teaching his sister.

Last question terrified him most of all.

Racing along, he was about to check another street, having settled on exploring the city in a grid pattern so he could mark off on a map was drawing on a bag he'd found. Well, he was planning on buying a better one as soon as he actually found some of this place's freaky money, but for now this would have to do. Of course, he was so focused on his project he almost managed to just walk right by a certain beautiful young royal demon.

Actually, he technically got about five steps past her before freezing and slowly turning around, his heart pounding in his chest. Was that really her?

...It had to be, he hadn't seen a single person in this city who dressed quite like Rozalin, and...none of them made him feel the way she did.

"Rozy?"

[a_sinful_rose]

She'd finally turned around, deciding heading back the way she came was probably best. She didn't particularly want to get lost, after all. Slowly she made her way back along the sidewalk.

Curiosity got to her, however, and she paused to peek in through the glass of one of the oddly named restaurants. Rozalin was greeted with an interior that was as about as tacky as the name was crude. No, she had no intentions on setting foot in such an establishment. She still had some level of dignity, after all. ...And here she was peeking through a window.

Suddenly feeling self conscious, she straightened promptly, but stopped short as a familiar voice said her name.

Surprised, she turned her head, unsure if she'd really just heard that or if it had been her imagination.

It hadn't been.

"A-Adell!" she gasped, turning fully to face him, utterly shocked. As much as she'd wanted him to turn up and get her out of here, she hadn't expected it to happen like... well, like this.

"W...Where? How...?"

[stylingtie]

Really, one would think both Adell and Rozalin would learn to stop expecting each other to do anything the proper way, but such was the innocence of youth.

"Rozalin!" Yep, that was definitely her, although the fact that she hadn't opened fire on him or gave him a utter verbal tongue lashing, which was sometimes worse, did tell him something very strange was going on.

Shaking himself out of his shock, Adell, took a step forward to place his hands on her shoulders, as if to confirm she was really there. "Just now. We'd beaten Zenon, and we were going home," well, that was technically true, "And suddenly the world tilted and I ended up here. Didn't the same thing happen to you?" After all, he'd just seen her a few hours ago, she must have been dropped in a different part of the city at the same time he was.

[a_sinful_rose]

His hands on her shoulders confirmed that he wasn't just some figment of her imagination.

However confusion formed on her face. How could that be? All that had happened two weeks ago at least. How could it have just happened for him? She'd intended to give him a piece of her mind for keeping her waiting, but this threw her off entirely.

"W-well, yes, that happened, but... I've been here for at least two weeks now, I think," Rozalin replied, uncertain of what exactly it meant.

[stylingtie]

"Two weeks?" Adell's expression was one of utter befuddlement, the same one he usually got when Laharl and Etna started into their antics. This was impossible, he knew for a fact he'd just seen her. Had he been unconscious for two weeks? He knew sometimes demons slept for absurd amounts of time, but demons were just bizarre as a rule.

"Are you sure?"

[a_sinful_rose]

"O-of course I'm sure!" she replied with a huff, annoyed he was questioning her about this. They were standing in a completely different world and had just found each other randomly on the street, and yet this is what he didn't believe?

"I've been waiting all this time for you to show up and get me out of here!" Rozy added. Although, it seemed like he'd arrived the same way she had rather than via a dimensional gate.

[stylingtie]

Well, to be fair to Adell, dimensional travel was part of their daily lives, whereas time travel was something very new. He could buy that some demon had decided to mess with them by throwing them through a dimensional gate, but the thought of Rozalin being in this city for two weeks without him threw him for a loop.

"Alright, alright," he replied, lifting his hands in a defensive gesture. "I guess that's just one more mystery to figure out about this place." He paused, then realized in his single minded determination to find the others, he'd completely forgotten to check where he actually was. "Uh, actually, where is this place? Are any of the others here?"

[a_sinful_rose]

"How should I know?" she retorted. If Adell didn't know where they were, Rozalin most certainly didn't. While she'd seen so much more of the world beyond her mansion since the day she was summoned, there was still a lot she didn't know.

"All I've been able to understand is that it's some human world, and the city is named Chicago, and it's even more backwater than Veldime, it seems. There doesn't appear to be even a dimensional gate," she told him, telling him everything she'd been able to grasp. It wasn't much, unfortunately.

"And no one else is here, but for Etna. It seems she arrived much the same time as you."

[stylingtie]

For all that hotblooded determination was the expression Adell was most known for, the truth was he was equally good at giving a flat look of disbelief and irritation, a talent he was using now. "You've been here two weeks and you don't know where you are?"

Well, that turned out to not be entirely true, as apparently Rozalin had at least bothered to get the name of the place. Perhaps he should have waited to get the whole story before rebuking the princess, but really it was her fault for not giving him that information in the first place. At least, that's what Adell maintained. "Chicago huh? I've never heard of it either. So we're in a human world then?" Well, that was some relief at least. He'd had enough fighting overlords for one day, even if the prospect of facing another challenge like Zenon did seem interesting...but only because they might be a threat to Rozalin of course!

Of course, any relief Adell might have enjoyed died, was brought back as a zombie, then died again with one word from Rozalin's lips. Well, one name really, a name that inspired untold dread, and frustration, with a single utterance.

"Wait...Etna's here?"

It was official, the universe hated him.

[a_sinful_rose]

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Rozalin replied. She hadn't thought Adell would be particularly excited to hear Etna was here, but it was better he found out from her, rather than from when, inevitably, Etna would pop up.

"But, yes, I am fairly certain it is a human world," she said, sure of that much, which wasn't really much at all, but it's all she could offer. "Many have been brought here from other places, but it seems no one is quite sure of for what reason."

[stylingtie]

"Great, it figures of everyone who could have found us, it had to be her." Adell was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he had died in the battle with Zenon, and this whole place was a hell created especially for him.

Though, Rozalin was here, and he could not be in hell as long as he was with her.

"Well, that's a start at least," he sighed, running his hand through his hair. Not much of one, but then again he hadn't had much to go on when he'd started his war against Zenon too. He had dealt with that, and he would deal with this. Giving up just wasn't his style. "Other people have been brought here too? Could this be the plot of some Overlord?"

[a_sinful_rose]

"Yes, many others. The hotel I have been staying in is full of people from different worlds," she explained. She hadn't spoken to many of them, but it was certainly fairly obvious who belonged here and who did not.

"Perhaps, but if so, they haven't made their presence known," Rozalin replied. It had certainly occurred to her that it could be the case, but everyone in Veldime know about Zenon. "No one seems to know who is actually responsible for all this."

[stylingtie]

"Huh, sort of like that tournament Zenon hosted," Adell mused, before assuming a irritated expression, "You don't think this is another tournament do you?" Sure that possibility didn't really make any sense, but then again most of the evil plots Adell had brought down didn't make much sense either. The fact that his suggestion was far from the stupidest idea he'd ever heard come from a villain's mouth was actually sort of depressing.

"Well, if they haven't been broadcasting their presence, then I'm not sure we're dealing with an overlord. About the only thing they've all had in common is they're all raging ego maniacs." Even Zenon, who had certainly done everything in his power to make himself hard to find, hadn't been able to resist letting all his victims know who he was, even if he'd tried to keep word of his location limited to his own domain.

Well, there was also the real Zenon, but as far as Adell was concerned the real Zenon was long dead. Rozalin was her own person, and he would fight anyone who claimed she held any responsibilities for the actions of the ultimate overlord.