(Untitled)

[lifeisa_test]

Gil didn't dream, because he wasn't asleep. This was just the inert state of a body that had taken all it could possibly take and a mind that could no longer sustain the necessary level of fury to drag it along willing or not. But that sort of thing couldn't last forever, and when Gil opened his eyes the world he saw was... rather more different

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[first_worde]

Rupert passed the man with little to no thought, but something about his clothing made him stop. He stopped, and looked back over at him, then wandered nearer.

"Are you from the Disc?" he asked, because Rupert thought he looked vaguely familiar. This was probably because he was male, of a certain age, and exuded a certain level of Wealth.

[lifeisa_test]

"The what?" Gil couldn't think what the man could possibly be talking about, but at least he didn't seem dangerous. He actually reminded him a little of Paris, almost; he'd known some people there who'd had that casual, slightly dim air of good humor.

[first_worde]

"The Disc," Rupert sighed. Probably from Earth. "Only proper shaped world around, anymore." He said this wholly without irony, because irony was even one step further out of Rupert's grasp than sarcasm was.

"I'm Rupert de Worde."

[lifeisa_test]

Worlds, he thought wonderingly. It was all like something out of a Heterodyne story... or maybe Trelawney Thorpe, since de Worde sounded more British.

"I'm afraid not," he said. "I'm Gilgamesh Wulfenbach."

[first_worde]

A bloody Uberwaldean? Except not, if he wasn't from the Disc.

"Wolfenbach?" Rupert repeated, eyebrows canting upward. "Huh. You just get here?" He sounded like a blood werewolf- could have been one, too, with that hair. But again, not from the Disc. Which mean he was probably a fully human noble, and that was all right.

[lifeisa_test]

"Only a few- you've heard of us?" Gil couldn't quite conceal his surprise at that- it wasn't as if Wulfenbach weren't a name as well-known as Heterodyne in most of the Known World, but... mostly people had a different reaction to it. Less like they were trying to assess the value of merchandise and more like they were trying desperately to figure out if there was any reason you might have decided to destroy them.

[first_worde]

"I've heard similar names, can't really recall if I've heard that one exactly or not," Rupert said with a shrug. "Sounds like a family name of Uberwaldean nobility if I ever heard one, though. Biggest remaining piece of the Unholy Empire," he added. Rupert glanced over the jungle, then offered Gilgamesh an apologetic, rueful sort of look.

"Well, welcome to the island, then. Prepare to be bored."

[lifeisa_test]

"Well, I've never heard of Uberwald. Our family lands were in Transylvania," said Gil. He had heard "Unholy Empire", but never officially. Some of those assassins at the Hospital had just been really vehement. "But I appreciate the welcome."

[first_worde]

"Never heard of it," Rupert said, with a tone that left them on an eve keel. It was par for the course, not having a bloody clue where someone was from.

"Most people here are bloody mad," he added. "Some of them used to robots and gods and all sorts."

[lifeisa_test]

"Ah," said Gil dryly. "Well, I know about madboys, at least. It shouldn't be a problem."

[first_worde]

"Grand," Rupert said. "I take it you've seen the Compound and all that, then?" The man wasn't blundering about confused and irritated, so he'd probably been around long enough for someone to show him what passed for civilization.

[lifeisa_test]

"Only the very basics," he admitted. "Mostly I'd like to know if there's any kind of laboratory around here."

[first_worde]

And with that, he'd successfully lost Rupert.

"Laboratory?" he asked, looking frankly surprised and not presently so. "Only Igors and Alchemists muck about in those. Planned on blowing someone up, had you?"

[lifeisa_test]

"Only if I have to," said Gil irritably. This was the fifth time de Worde had mentioned something he'd never heard of, and from someone who had yet to display any signs of intelligence, that rather grated. "I'd prefer something a little more constructive."

[first_worde]

"So Igore, then," Rupert said, smirking a bit, "not Alchemist. All they do is blow stuff up, bloody fools. Not even proper wizards. Ah, wellSo where's Transylvia, then?" he asked, absently crossing his arms.

"Round world?"

[lifeisa_test]

"No, Gilgamesh," he corrected the man, with strained patience. "And of course it- wait. Of course. Yours isn't... how does that work, exactly?" he demanded, his annoyance quite forgotten in the face of something new and interesting.