[ Kuja exists in two potential states right now.. if they figure out the puff of friendly smoke is really Ala, he is preoccupied trying to figure out how to help her be a girl again, and is haggard and tired because of pushing on that ceaselessly like Sisyphus with the rock. He suddenly thinks of Aoi, and has a vague, half-baked idea that if he figures out what's the DEAL with this girl, he might have an idea for helping Ala. He isn't as well reasoned or clear-headed in his approach; he hasn't figured out she's a for-real physical soul with damaged bits, just that there's some something to her that feels like a pertinent mystery. He's grasping at straws, and she looks like a promising one.
If they don't figure out its Ala, he's restless, but paradoxically less exhausted because he recognizes he won't be at his best to figure out how to look for her. He'll follow his usual strategy for tough cases -- work on it, then shift his attention briefly to other pursuits to refresh his brain. Aoi, in this case, is other pursuits. Today, he woke up, made his morning tea using some absolute garbage tea bags he scrounged from around town, and abruptly fumbled his poor teacup when he realized being around Aoi felt like being right beside a disembodied soul???
Anyway, he's hunting her down now. He doesn't know where Aoi lives, but he has heard her talk plenty about her interest in gardening at the last town hall, and because he can see the world from up above, it should be easy to find where her burgeoning greenery ought to be growing, right? ]
( aoi is, at the very least, easy to spot- a splash of blue amongst autumnal tones and slowly dying grass preparing for winter. she received some seeds of some sort from the coffin and while it's much too cold to plant them, it doesn't hurt to plan ahead. so while kuja has his epiphany- or desperation- she's happily oblivious to settle into a new sense of normalcy. )
[ He doesn't find a proper garden, per se, and it occurs to him mid-hunt that he had seen her stumbling her way into this world barely over a week ago. Most plants, uh, don't really much show sky-high signs of progress after single digit days.
But what he does find is Aoi surveying the withering grass, looking very contemplative and overall distracted.
A shadow passes by, and then comes a more obvious sign of Kuja's presence -- crunching leaves, as he touches down nearby. ]
Miss Aoi Akane. There's a puzzle you can help me solve.
( when she hears the crunch of leaves and dry grass, she had expected another to quickly follow- as footsteps tend to do! so when there are none but there is a voice, aoi jumps-
it takes all her effort to not whirl around eyes wide but it's managed! somehow!! she does turn a bit more slowly, still surprised.
oh.
it's kuja. )
I... suppose? I'll do my best, certainly. What is it?
[ on a clear look at him... Kuja's not as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as usual (speaking of which, it's curled at the end around his ankle, a bit of cross-species body language that's difficult to discern). as he starts with the typical amount of running his mouth, it even comes through in his sing-song voice - the wavy little stresses sound sleepy, slow, and sibilant, rather than his previous... twittering. ]
Since our last meeting, I happened to have.. let's call it an epiphany. About you. Those wounds on your limbs... I think I know why they're not healing. Do you?
I... I couldn't say for sure. My only lead is that it has to do with the source- but given that I'm here and not there, I wouldn't be able to find out more than that at the moment.
( the source being that she quite literally brushed against the world collapsing in on itself- something that she made no secret of at the meeting, once she figured out the wording. )
The source... [ he presses a hand to one of his temples for a while, recalling the particulars of what he'd overheard-- or trying to squeeze away a headache. maybe both. ] ...that's right. The world, crumbling before you. It sounds like a terrifying experience.
[ with the nature of what she was.. he accepts right away that wasn't just a metaphor of something being utterly destroyed in any mundane way. she could have been erased, with no body to protect her. ]
I would also venture it has something to do with your... state of being.
[ either she confirms what he expects, tries to lie and confirms what he expects, or he's about to deliver some... Big news. ]
( aoi nods quietly, because it was terrifying. one accident left her in pieces, and even now she jumps at the darkest of shadows because it's so familiar.
and then she freezes, looking up at kuja slowly, eyes wide. )
... What do you mean, exactly...?
( she hadn't really hidden that she was involved in something bad- she outright called the outfit she'd arrived in sacrificial robes- but she hadn't confirmed her death publicly. did he mean something else...? )
Forgive me if I presume, but from how you've spoken I had taken you for a regular human girl. It could just be a quirk of being from.. dramatically different worlds. In which case I'll be quite contrite for making such a fuss.
[ dude, get to the point. ]
Again, you could have simply always lived this way, I have no way of knowing, but... It seems terrifically dangerous. It's no wonder you've gotten so chipped.
A soul walking the world bereft of a body... would be quite vulnerable. I didn't even think it was possible, but there you are, tangible as any of us.
... No, this is... a very new development. There's nothing to forgive, I don't think...
( aoi sighs, shaking her head. she should have known someone would be able to tell, even without her airy hints and lies of omission. )
I was... sacrificed, I'm not sure how long before I was brought here. I had actually been on my way to the core of the Far Shore, where the process would... finalize, I suppose? I didn't understand it completely. But it didn't quite matter, since I was going to find out soon enough.
Kuja making a stellar and wrong conclusion Abt other worlds once again
[ Some planet specific terminology, but it's not too difficult to make inferences. She was stripped of a body because she had died, and for some reason, had persisted in a stable form. It sounded a bit like the unusual circumstances were explicitly because of her being sacrificed. 'Far Shore' is an interesting name -- it could be nothing, a place as any other, but it could be an epithet for the final destination of the dead. 'Core of the Far Shore' where dying would 'finalize?' Yeeeeeeup, that's a crystal absorbing your memories into itself to grow, alright.
Still, there sounds like many differences .. what varied between planet to planet was always fascinating. ]
It sounds like you had quite the close call.
[ get too close to that 'core,' and it's curtains, he bets. ]
You probably don't need me to say it, but... Take especial care with what you do now, until, perhaps, a day comes when you've another body to shield you. There are things dangerous to a wandering soul that are not, in normal circumstances, and I would wager being able to walk the earth would not make you immune to them.
[ after all, he needs Aoi alive. already there are people in the town falling all over themselves to help this girl.
if they can find a solution to the problem of a damaged soul, then that could mean... ]
( she doesn't speak with any snappy tones, sarcasm or anything of the sort- it's a genuine, soft, dismal question that shows she already has her answer: "no". she lost her chance of escape the moment akane had dragged her into the pit.
lost her life.
she'll blame lord no. 6 forever, but it was akane who had, however unintentionally, finalized it. )
..Forgive me if it's callous to say, but I've seen quite a few dead souls, and none ever in your circumstance. You've been through a terrible misfortune, but.. you remain yourself, yet. There is an important distinction, there, between that and oblivion.
You're as trapped here as the rest of us, but you're not... sealed up. In my experience, preparing a vessel is the only way of preserving the dead, but you're an exception. You can still live a life as you are, even if you're not alive.
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as promised. i'll try to play it vague enough EITHER option remains canon!
If they don't figure out its Ala, he's restless, but paradoxically less exhausted because he recognizes he won't be at his best to figure out how to look for her. He'll follow his usual strategy for tough cases -- work on it, then shift his attention briefly to other pursuits to refresh his brain. Aoi, in this case, is other pursuits. Today, he woke up, made his morning tea using some absolute garbage tea bags he scrounged from around town, and abruptly fumbled his poor teacup when he realized being around Aoi felt like being right beside a disembodied soul???
Anyway, he's hunting her down now. He doesn't know where Aoi lives, but he has heard her talk plenty about her interest in gardening at the last town hall, and because he can see the world from up above, it should be easy to find where her burgeoning greenery ought to be growing, right? ]
\o/
no subject
But what he does find is Aoi surveying the withering grass, looking very contemplative and overall distracted.
A shadow passes by, and then comes a more obvious sign of Kuja's presence -- crunching leaves, as he touches down nearby. ]
Miss Aoi Akane. There's a puzzle you can help me solve.
no subject
it takes all her effort to not whirl around eyes wide but it's managed! somehow!! she does turn a bit more slowly, still surprised.
oh.
it's kuja. )
I... suppose? I'll do my best, certainly. What is it?
no subject
[ on a clear look at him... Kuja's not as bright-eyed and bushy tailed as usual (speaking of which, it's curled at the end around his ankle, a bit of cross-species body language that's difficult to discern). as he starts with the typical amount of running his mouth, it even comes through in his sing-song voice - the wavy little stresses sound sleepy, slow, and sibilant, rather than his previous... twittering. ]
Since our last meeting, I happened to have.. let's call it an epiphany. About you. Those wounds on your limbs... I think I know why they're not healing. Do you?
no subject
( the source being that she quite literally brushed against the world collapsing in on itself- something that she made no secret of at the meeting, once she figured out the wording. )
no subject
[ with the nature of what she was.. he accepts right away that wasn't just a metaphor of something being utterly destroyed in any mundane way. she could have been erased, with no body to protect her. ]
I would also venture it has something to do with your... state of being.
[ either she confirms what he expects, tries to lie and confirms what he expects, or he's about to deliver some... Big news. ]
no subject
and then she freezes, looking up at kuja slowly, eyes wide. )
... What do you mean, exactly...?
( she hadn't really hidden that she was involved in something bad- she outright called the outfit she'd arrived in sacrificial robes- but she hadn't confirmed her death publicly. did he mean something else...? )
no subject
[ dude, get to the point. ]
Again, you could have simply always lived this way, I have no way of knowing, but... It seems terrifically dangerous. It's no wonder you've gotten so chipped.
A soul walking the world bereft of a body... would be quite vulnerable. I didn't even think it was possible, but there you are, tangible as any of us.
no subject
( aoi sighs, shaking her head. she should have known someone would be able to tell, even without her airy hints and lies of omission. )
I was... sacrificed, I'm not sure how long before I was brought here. I had actually been on my way to the core of the Far Shore, where the process would... finalize, I suppose? I didn't understand it completely. But it didn't quite matter, since I was going to find out soon enough.
Kuja making a stellar and wrong conclusion Abt other worlds once again
Still, there sounds like many differences .. what varied between planet to planet was always fascinating. ]
It sounds like you had quite the close call.
[ get too close to that 'core,' and it's curtains, he bets. ]
You probably don't need me to say it, but... Take especial care with what you do now, until, perhaps, a day comes when you've another body to shield you. There are things dangerous to a wandering soul that are not, in normal circumstances, and I would wager being able to walk the earth would not make you immune to them.
[ after all, he needs Aoi alive. already there are people in the town falling all over themselves to help this girl.
if they can find a solution to the problem of a damaged soul, then that could mean... ]
cries i thought i did this already im sorry
( she doesn't speak with any snappy tones, sarcasm or anything of the sort- it's a genuine, soft, dismal question that shows she already has her answer: "no". she lost her chance of escape the moment akane had dragged her into the pit.
lost her life.
she'll blame lord no. 6 forever, but it was akane who had, however unintentionally, finalized it. )
... I know. I will.
<3 NP HAPPENS TO ME ALL THE TIME
You're as trapped here as the rest of us, but you're not... sealed up. In my experience, preparing a vessel is the only way of preserving the dead, but you're an exception. You can still live a life as you are, even if you're not alive.