The endless waste

[aestrix]

Once, this planet teemed with life. It doesn't do that, anymore. The ground is dry and cracked and occasionally broken up by charred remains of trees. There are no birds, no bugs, no living plants - nothing but an empty, endless waste.

With one exception.

But the world is so very big, and the exception so very small. If someone showed up away from it, they could be quite forgiven for thinking this world is completely dead.




with Sable (Kappa)

with Aisilian (Link)

with Grendyne (Rockeye)

with Temple (Curiousdiscoverer)

Comments

[greatestgift]

In case the person inside the living patch is as justifiably paranoid as she is, Sable hovers above and outside the walls.

"Hello?" she calls down into the walled enclosure.

[light_another_life]

A person emerges from the building. She stares up at Sable in confusion and not a small amount of alarm.

She says something in another language, after a pause. It sounds like a question of some kind.

[greatestgift]

Great.

"Sorry, I don't speak your language!" says Sable.

[light_another_life]

The person frowns at Sable. She seems to have some kind of debate with herself, then mutters something and makes a beckoning motion.

[greatestgift]

Okay, sure.

Sable miniaturizes her bow, tucks it back into one of her coat's many pockets, and descends to land inside the enclosure.

[light_another_life]

Well, now she can get a good look at the person. She's wearing very nice clothes for a woman who's living in a world that is mostly dead - some kind of silk, with gold trim. Miss very-nice-clothes-for-post-apocalypse tilts her head a bit at the bow miniaturization, and while she looks curious, she doesn't ask. Instead, she motions for Sable to follow her.

[greatestgift]

Sable, on the other hand, is wearing a black coat with an absolutely absurd number of pockets over an intricate white-and-silver outfit. On her head perches an intricate white-and-silver tiara. Between her wings sits a large, full black backpack. When she folds the wings after landing, they are mostly invisible against the coat and backpack, only the lowest ends of the branches and the occasional silver glint of cobweb giving them away.

And she's really short.

She follows the stranger, examining their surroundings with groundsense. Wow that's a lot of life.

[light_another_life]

Yep! It's a lot of life. This part present here is sort of wild - trees and more of those glowing plants and flowers and bushes and reeds and who knows what else.

Miss nice-clothes retrieves a knife from her person, reaches down, and slices the stem of one of the flowers. Knife goes away, flower starts getting eviscerated for its petals. Rip, rip, rip. Walk, walk, walk. She drops the flower parts does doesn't need into a bin of some kind by the door to the building, and then she opens the door and steps inside, expecting Sable to follow.

Inside there is some kind of circle, drawn on the floor. Sparkles of some kind float up from the edges of it, and at the center is some kind of golden rune.

[greatestgift]

She can't quite tell exactly what is going on with the rune and the circle, but she can definitely tell that something is. Even if the glowing wasn't a clue, it all feels very strange.

Okay. Let's see what the mysterious plant woman is up to.

[light_another_life]

The mysterious plant woman walks past the circle without even a glance at it. Whatever it is mysteriously doing or prepared to do, it isn't involved in whatever she's doing now.

Past it is a room that is built for storage. Shelves line the walls, filled with bizarre vaguely magical items, and more ordinary things, like rope. Everything is neatly labelled, though of course Sable can't read any of the labels.

Mysterious plant woman retrieves a pouch of something, some kind of doll, and a needle and thread.

She makes a 'wait' gesture to Sable, and then sits down with all of her bizarre vaguely magical items to get to work.

She carefully opens up the doll with her knife at the seam. She sprinkles glowing dust from the pouch into the doll, followed by the remains of the flower from earlier. Then, with the ease of someone who's done this sort of thing a lot, pricks her thumb with her needle. She drips a drop of blood into the doll, then cleans the needle and sews it back up.

...

Whatever that was, it tied it to the mysterious plant woman, and it changed the doll's nature very fundamentally.

[greatestgift]

Well that's ominous.

[light_another_life]

A little bit, yeah.

Slightly ominous plant woman stands, motions to her hair, and mimes plucking out a strand. She motions to Sable in a, 'I require this from you' sort of way.

[greatestgift]

Sable gives her an extremely dubious look, which seems like the appropriate reaction here.

[light_another_life]

Slightly ominous plant woman frowns. She motions to the doll, and then to herself, then to Sable, and mimes talking with a hand.

[greatestgift]

"Okay, fine," she sighs, and she pulls a strand of her hair and holds it out to the slightly ominous plant woman.

[light_another_life]

Slightly ominous plant woman inclines her head, and wraps the strand around the doll.

"And now we can talk," she says in Sable's language, once that is done. "Hello."

[greatestgift]

"Hello," says Sable. "What new exciting wasteland have I arrived in?"

[light_another_life]

"... The... material world? Were. There other old exciting wastelands?"

[greatestgift]

"There are at least two other material worlds," she says, "and the other two each contain some fairly exciting wastelands."

[light_another_life]

"Charming. Well. I suppose now ours needs to be named. Do you have dream worlds, too?"

[greatestgift]

"I'm reasonably sure we don't."

[light_another_life]

"Ah. So. Your deaths are permanent?"

[greatestgift]

"...As opposed to what?"

[light_another_life]

"I mean, I'm a special case, but if you connect yourself to the dream world and then die, you go there instead of ceasing to exist. And someone can help you come back. Or if you're me, or become like me, you can come back without anyone's help at all."

[greatestgift]

"That sounds... useful. Is there some sort of horrifying catch?"