Fear and Loathing in Paradisa

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

Who: Ashe (dawnqueen ) [OPEN LOG FOR EVERYONE :D]
What: Ashelia arrives. She worries that the Rozarrians have captured her...
When: April 7 onward
Where: At the castle entrance
Rating: G for now. Well. PG for Ashe's miniskirt.

Ashe stood in line, awaiting her chance to speak with the person running the booth ahead. Perhaps they would know where she could catch an airship out of here... Or at least which way Dalmasca was. She didn't have her bearings in the slightest, which was unusual for her. She'd been all over Ivalice, surely something familiar would show up soon... a Bangaa or a Chocobo or Vaan and the rest... 

Then again, she supposed there were worse places to be lost. The gardens were nice, and there was a quaint village beyond the gate. She thought it odd that they would put such a fancy gate around such a slummy looking city-- but that's just what it seemed like to her. Perhaps she was in some other city... Rozarria? No...

She watched some people pass by, and found herself wondering if she would be taken in for questioning. Vayne was hardly gone politically; The Rozarrians weren't exactly her favored country either. She walked politely over to a group of women and asked politely, "My name is Ashelia B'nargin of Dalmasca. Which way is Rabanastre?" She held her arms together, watching them. They looked at Ashe and then laughed pointed at the village. "This is Paradisa. No Rabunasers here!" Ashe frowned. The people here were not very helpful.

She clicked the toe of her right boot on the cobblestone pavement. A few young guys gave her a whistle as they passed.

"Ugh," she said, with a look of disdain, "I think it's time I got a wardrobe change, at least until I'm back in my own country... The people here must be brutes. Many of them seem almost... vacant. Their eyes are so bright but they don't seem happy... This place is lonely. Almost isolating..." She shivered a bit, drew her shirt a little closer together.

"Oh, Rasler... I need you more than you know."

 

Comments

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

Greed walked lazily along the sidewalk, raising an appraising eye at the buildings around him. Not his type of decor, he had to say. He was a man of the city and all this green just didn't appeal to him.

"How the hell am I suppo--" he stopped dead as a pair of legs flashed into his vision. He followed them up to a skirt, then an outfit above it, then a beautiful face framed by short blonde hair.

"Oi, I don't remember you around. You new?"

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

The Lady of Dalmasca spun around, realizing that someone was addressing her. "Oh," she said awkwardly, "Yes... I suppose I am."

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Name's Greed, beautiful. Pleased to meetcha'."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

Ashe gave him a once-over. He had a dangerous, beefy look about him; but his smile was merely cocky, and not threatening. He reminded her immediately of a Balfonheim pirate, overall. And with a name like Greed! He was either a pirate, or some kind of beefy lumberjack.

"I could same the same, Mr Greed, only I haven't the slightest idea what's going on. Someone tod me that a magnificent castle is usually there," she pointed towards the huge empty space, several hundred feet of missing castle whose spot was currently filled by a small quiet village of stone houses.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Usually. Things got kinda' switched around. It probably won't last. Don't worry about it."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

She looked conflicted and glanced up at the towering Greed.

"Am I to understand tat we are all to simply live in this ... village until a Castle sprouts like a new rose, from the ground?"

She didn't like this feeling of being lost... not at all.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"That's the gist of it, darlin'," he nodded quickly, "We get brought here by forces unknown, sent out by forces unknown. That's all there is to it."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

She glowered at the village, as if it would cause Rabanastre to spring up, and not Paradisa.

"This whole concept is rather ludicrous. Pulling people from thin air isn't fair, or even possible! It would require technology that simply doesn't exist! And magic-- magic capable of such cruel and humorless meddling, it should be forbidden and never considered or implemented!" She kicked the dirt, held her face in her hands.

"At least the people here are being friendly. One must account for that."

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Take a look around, Miss. This ain't your world or your technology."

He shrugged and walked closer to her, looking her over.

"Well, I doubt you'll have trouble makin' friends. A gorgeous woman in a skimpy outfit certainly has no trouble getting attention."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

The statement put her on edge; she had only begun to realize how inappropriate her attire was in a high-society street likes the one they were on.

"I don't consider it as you say; It allows freedom of movement during my travels. When you're running from a WIld Saurian, you'll wish you were wearing less too. Anything keeping me a few feet ahead of its maw is reason enough to leave behind."

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Oh believe me, I'd wear less if I had the choice," he said, "I'd go naked if it were my way. Who doesn't wanna' look at perfection?"

He laughed a bit at his jest and knelt before her, taking her hand and raising it to his lips.

"Please, allow this humble homunculus to be your guide."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

She couldn't help a slight blush, despite being at odds with the term "homunculus".

"I... suppose a guide would help me feel less at odds with this place..."

At his expression she took her hand back and said dignifiedly, "But this is certainly not a date, Mr Greed." Still, that had been rather polite, and she offered her hand politely to help him up; he didn't really need it, being bigger than her significantly.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Didn't say it was, darlin', just a way to get to know the city. Shall we go?"

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

Ashe examined his face and decided that he was being honest.

"...Alright." She smiled through her lashes, hands clasped behind her back. For a moment she looked like herself, and hardly a Queen. More like her days as a princess.

But when she stood up straight and began to walk, you noticed her traits as a Queen; her proper posture, how she walked as if surveying a crowd.

It was beautiful, but similarly it would probably have been off-putting, to walk with her and not be royalty yourself.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

Greed had never been one to be in awe, for the most part. Kings, servants, townsfolk. They were all human, to him, and therefore not capable of reaching above his level. Until he got here, that is. He had to wonder why some humans had been given such magnificent power, while those on his world were so fragile.

"So, what's it like bein' a queen?" he asked.

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

She turned to face him, walking backwards a little. She sighed and said simply, "Stressful."

Ashe turned to look at him. "What do you do?"

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Me?" he asked, scratching his head, "I do what I want. I fight, I gamble, I fuck, I eat, I do whatever the hell I want to do. It's as simple as that."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

"...How barbaric. And yet, I can respect your determination to control your own life. Are you very popular, with a philosophy like that?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Popular with some, not so popular with others. I'm certainly no hero, but I'm also not all that bad a guy. I do have some scruples, after all."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

"Mm." She nodded. Ashe knew how it felt to be a neutral party in the big societal debate of good and evil. What was Balthier, but a pirate, a thief, and a gentleman? Too many questions and not enough answers!

"Not many can fare well without morals of a sort. You wind up holding yourself to no standard and become a vagabond, rejected by most."

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Like I said, I have a few scruples. I don't just go around murderin' people. I prefer not to kill if I have a choice. I don't fight girls or lie and cheat, either. See? I'm not so bad."

He pointed around them in a circle.

"This place normally isn't like this. It has a much different design. We're currently under the effects of...well, whatever the hell runs this place. It changes things now and then."

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

"So no one actually knows what controls the... world? For a castle to become a small village... that is very strange magic indeed." She put her hands on her hips, her hips pushed to one side. "It doesn't make sense."

Ashe probably never really noticed how sexy she could be, if she weren't so formal. But looks seemed to be enough for Greed, anyways.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

He struggled to keep his eyes from shifting to her hip. Quite a lovely set of hips they were.

"Well...that's just how this place is. So, you want a tour of it or what?"

[dawnqueen.livejournal.com]

"I'm read anytime you are." She stood like that, hips cocked to one side, awaiting his "tour guiding" voice, perhaps.

[so-many-needs.livejournal.com]

"Right this way, fair princess," he said, sauntering ahead of her with a confident swagger, ready to impart his limited knowledge of the city's workings, "We'll get this done quickly."