Not so Ordinary World

[Liddo-kun]

"No.  Not that I know of," she tells you with an emphatic shake of her head that makes her ponytail bob back and forth.  Her eyes were wide and it seems like the experience was quite a shock.

Shia takes off her sandals at the step area, before stepping onto the wooden hall floorboard.  "You had me scared a little.  I wasn't sure what was going on."  Pointing to a room on the right, "It's this one here.  Come in," she tells you as she opens the door and enters.

[Kwokinator]

He takes off his shoes as well, and followed Shia into the room.

"Don't worry about it," Maki says, trying to comfort the girl, who seems to be more scared than he is about what happened to him. "It's probably nothing, I'll be good as new after getting something for my hand."

[Liddo-kun]

She looks uncertain at first and doubtful, but nods at your assurance nonetheless.  To the back of the room she goes to a drawer, rooting around for the first-aid kit.

Pretty much what you'd expect from a girl's room.  Clean and carrying with it a cozy feel in a flowery scented kind of way.  There isn't much in the way of a furniture, being a temple and all, but the basics seem to be in place - bed, dresser, desk, and a full length mirror.

The odd little knick knacks give you a bit of an insight into her personality.  The bomber jacket you'd seen her wearing earlier is draped on the back of her desk chair.  Stuffed animals in various stages of repair take up residence on her dresser.  Then there's the rather large lacy bra dangling precariously near your head....

It was almost enough to get you to forget your pain for a moment.

[Kwokinator]

"So you live alone in this room?" he tries to strike up a conversation as Shia hunts for the first-aid kit. "That's pretty cool.  I have to share my room with two other people, that I haven't met yet."

Although the large lacy bra is bringing all sorts of tempting but improper thoughts to poor, injured Maki's mind, he tries to pretend he doesn't notice it, or he may end up with an added injury by way of five red fingers to his face.

[Liddo-kun]

You hear her hum to herself in thought as she closes her drawer, kit well in hand.  "That should be Fuji and Hana-chan then," Shia tells you.  "They're both very nice," she assures.

She takes a seat on her bed then pats the space in front of her as she opens the box and takes out some cotton balls, alcohol, and a roll of bandage.  "Now let's see your hand so we can get it patched up."

[Kwokinator]

Maki makes his way to the space in question and sits down, extending his injured hand out to the temporary nurse in front of him.

As an afterthought, he sticks his tongue out and starts panting in his imitation of a dog.

[Liddo-kun]

Shia chuckles at your antics, as the sting of the alcohol she applies bites into your humor a smidge.  "You better be house broken or you're staying outside," she mock warns.

The cotton is pulled away, now stained red and pink, but the wounds of your hands are now made more visible.  They aren't cuts, but more ragged tears across the soft skin of your hand - you can see the ragged patches of soft flesh exposed.

Shia pulls out a small jar then smears a dollop of strongly scented green paste on your hand.  It's cold, but the pain quickly subsides to only a hint of what it was prior.  She then moves onto the bandage, and wraps it with most efficiency.

"There, all done," she proclaims.

[Kwokinator]

He notices the ragged tears on his hand, and makes a mental note to make sure to ask what caused it.

"Thanks," he smiled as the bandage is applied. "It doesn't hurt nearly as much anymore... but what was that green thing?"

"And looks like you've done this before... and quite a few times at that.  People get injured a lot around here?"

[Liddo-kun]

"That was a combination of different crushed herbs," she tells you.  "Lin makes the stuff.  She says it's good for helping to close wounds, soothe burns, and dull pain.  A magic catch-all, I guess."

"With how things are out there," Shia indicates outside the temple grounds with a wave of her hand.  "We unfortunately get a lot of practice," she tells you glumly.

[Kwokinator]

"It does dull pain really well," he admitted.

"So what's... outside?" he imitated Shia's wave. "All I've seen are the creatures, and they don't exactly give you the luxury of being injured."

[Liddo-kun]

"Out there..." Shia parrots, while gathering her thoughts.  "It's hard to go exploring, you know?  So it's hard to tell exactly what's out there.  There are some running around who've lost themselves to solely surviving," she says distastefully.  "They're like packs of wild dogs doing anything it takes to keep themselves alive."

"I don't blame them for being desperate, but they're just as bad as those Soul Eaters," she tells you angrily in a half-shout.  Shia calms herself down with a few deep breaths.  "Sorry.  I shouldn't be yelling...."

[Kwokinator]

Maki gets up and made the initial motions of going forward to embrace Shia in an effort to comfort or ease her anger, but decides against it.

"I can sort of understand though," he stands back and nods instead. "Nobody wants to die.  They're just going about getting help in the wrong way."

[Liddo-kun]

Shia keeps her head down, but nods at your words.  "Yeah...."  It sounds like she wanted to say more on the topic, but she can't seem to muster up the energy to do so.

"We were just lucky to be here at this temple where we're shielded from the Soul Eaters and can live as normally as this world allows.  Others though?" she wears a contemplative look as she speaks.  "There has to be other people out there, but we only send like four people to go exploring and they can only cover so much ground..." she says dissapointedly.

[Kwokinator]

"Well, if you want," he offered, not wanting to see the sad look on Shia's face. "When I learn enough about harnessing spirit energy and any spells that I'd need, and when I feel confident that I know enough to protect you, we can go together and see if there's anybody we can rescue, okay?"

"Err... I mean, protect us from the Soul Eater creatures and normal people, and what not," he amended, flustered about the slip.

[Liddo-kun]

Your not-so-subtle redirection seems to cut through the brooding gloom that was developing.  Her tone takes on a slightly forced haughty tone, covering up some other emotion probably.  "And how long do you expect me to wait, hmm?" she asks you in reply.