therewerefifty

[Makie has had the facts of this place explained to her already, by a gentleman in a... fairly awkward situation.

It doesn't prepare her for the reality of a village with occupants like none she's ever seen before. Some of you aren't even human, Luceti. The hell. She wanders the path of the village from Community Building #1 down toward the plaza still in her New Feather dress, just like a gawking tourist, and spends some time staring at the fountain and plaza itself. Uh.

...right. Okay. Time to begin glancing through various shops in her attempts to find the places she was told her things would be. She finds her clothes with a measure of relief, and her shamisen at the item store-- and after she picks it up, she frowns. It's too light. She doesn't need to open it to know she's missing something.

Eventually, she'll find her way into the forge to pick up the last of her things, pays a visit to the Welcome Centre-- and then finally fetches up at the tea shop, which is the most familiar-looking thing here.

...sort of. Never really loses that dazed and confused look.]

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[Different place, maybe, but the tea certainly looks (and smells) the same. Makie smiles gratefully.]

What sort of place is Mizuho?

It's a pretty quiet village, most of the time. We're deep in a monster-filled forest, so it's also kinda cut off from the rest of the world. Most people can't ever find it.

[And they like it that way.]

You have monsters? [Really, after everything she's heard today, she doesn't doubt it. But she's curious.] What kind of monsters?

In the forest where I live? They're pretty strong. Some of them look like plants until you get up close and they go after you.

So they don't even look like animals...

...our monsters only exist in stories. [Or are the human kind. But everyone has those.]

I'm Makie Otono-Tachibana. [And she tries the tea. It's a taste of home, and her eyes close thankfully.]

Some monsters look like animals, yeah. A whole bunch are like really huge bugs. [The human kind are called humans. Most of the time.]

Sheena. Fujibayashi. [The pause is noticeable and Sheena looks surprised that she introduced herself with her full name.]

[Makie's eyes open curiously at that pause, but she's no going to pry. Instead she grimaces.] Gigantic bugs sounds very unpleasant.

[It's a long and cumbersome name to most people.]

You're being way too nice. Those things were nasty.

[They can join each other in the long and cumbersome name club! And Makie smiles. It's nearly a grin.]

I was always raised to be polite. I find smaller bugs nasty enough as it is-- you have my sympathy.

The bugs didn't bother me as much as some other monsters we ended up running into, but a lot of people go into that forest unprepared and don't come back.

Are monsters a common thing in your world, or just in that forest?

Nope, they're pretty much everywhere. They don't always attack, but it'd be pretty stupid to travel without some kinda protection with you in most of the rural areas.

It sounds like a very dangerous place to live.

It can be, and not just because of the monsters. But isn't anywhere gonna be dangerous at least some of the time? Even here, no matter how peaceful it looks.

I suppose so. At home, the worst we deal with on the road are bandits and wild animals, but... there's certainly no short supply of those.

[She'll spare Makie the giant sewer rats.]

I guess that's one thing Luceti has going for it - not much of that stuff walking around waiting to get you.

[We thank you for this.]

What about the drafts and experiments? Does it get more dangerous then?

Yeah. Not all the experiments are dangerous, but the drafts definitely are. It's...well, it's a war out there. Even if it's a weird one and even if we don't like it.

Several people have mentioned this war. Not so much about the people we have to fight, however.

Usually the Malnosso call them the Third Party or "cultists". They're...really, they look like us except they have big wings instead of small ones, and they get kinda crazy about fighting and killing people.

Do they have a reason?

For fighting? I'm really not the best person to explain that. It's something like...like the cultists wanna destroy the place, maybe? They can definitely kill us and stop us from coming back.

But their reason for making us fight just sounds to me like they're cowards about doing it themselves most of the time.

[...if that's true, then it's in their own best interests to fight back anyway. But Makie knows better than to assume that's the plain and simple story. She frowns.]

It seems so... peaceful. For a village at war.

That's because it's totally not our war! And it isn't always peaceful, either. We just all take advantage of it when it is.

[...heh.] I suppose that's the best way of looking at it.

How often is there trouble?

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