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Jul 25, 2017 5:32:16 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Jul 25, 2017 5:32:16 GMT -7
Iris's room was in a building just on the other side of the wall from the jungle. People had been moving away from the area recently due to the growing jungle showing signs of spilling over, which meant it was a bit less densely-populated than the rest of the city. That suited Iris's purposes just fine. When Aphaerla hadn't shown any signs of waking up, Iris had suggested that they drop her off here to wait for a doctor to show up and check on her.
The inside of Iris's room hadn't seen any light in a very long time. Iris herself had caught only a short glimpse of it due to the light Aphaerla was emitting. As soon as Aphaerla was laid atop Iris's bed, Iris put her blindfold back in place. She felt guilty for leaving it off as long as she already had.
It would be clear from looking around the place that Iris wasn't much of a housekeeper. A musty smell permeated the room, and everything was covered by a fine layer of dust. The bookshelf was full of both novels and academic books, but cobwebs had begun to grow between them during their years of disuse. There were even some tiny mushrooms resembling some of those found in the jungle hiding in one of the corners of the room.
Iris wasn't aware of just how bad her dwelling had gotten. She simply sat in a chair next to the bed, listening to the sound of Aphaerla's breathing.
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Jul 26, 2017 8:02:26 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Jul 26, 2017 8:02:26 GMT -7
Aphaerla slept peacefully while she was taken back to the city. The truth was that the expedition still took a lot out of her despite how she acted. She was used to ignoring her body's protests because pushing herself was the only way she got stronger. The results were obvious. When it came to Twilight Jungle she could do so much more than the average person. She could actually fight the monsters there even though they should be a lot stronger than her. To an extent, they still were. It was rare for her to come home in tact, and sometimes her injuries were really serious. It didn't matter, she was going to beat them all, and to do that she had to get on their level. She wasn't going to let being a little tired slow her down.
However, it did mean that once her body got the opportunity to rest it was going to take it every time, so she always slept really soundly. Even getting carried out of the jungle wasn't going to wake her up. Even weird smells weren't going to wake her up. Noise wasn't, bright lights did nothing, people touching her did nothing. Most of the time, even someone trying to wake her up wasn't going to wake her up. It was a problem getting her up for school if she went to the jungle the night before. It wasn't that unusual for her to miss her classes entirely because of it. Thus, she slept and slept and slept and slept, occasionally snoring a bit before rolling to make breathing easier.
When she woke up, she sat up quickly and stretched. It didn't look like the sharp movement was out of surprise or fear, it was how she always sat up. Her arms went nearly straight up as she stretched, and her toes fanned out. The fact that she was sleeping in her clothes didn't register, and it took her a moment to even start looking around. Even then, it took her a good minute to make a simple observation.
"Wait, this isn't the jungle."
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Jul 28, 2017 3:26:15 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Jul 28, 2017 3:26:15 GMT -7
Iris immediately noticed the change in Aphaerla's breathing. Her first instinct was to expect the worst. She rushed over to Aphaerla's bedside, leaning over to check on her. Fortunately, the change in breathing was nothing more than Aphaerla waking up.
Unfortunately, that meant that Aphaerla's outstretched hands caught Iris right on the nose. Iris stumbled backward, reflexively guarding her face with a hand, but it was more from surprise than from pain. Certainly no worse than getting dropkicked in the chest. She hurriedly recovered and began to explain the situation.
"This is my room. We brought you back here after you... um... passed out. Are you okay? A doctor should be here soon to look you over..."
Iris trailed off, suddenly unsure whether there was anything else she should be doing in a situation like this. She regretted offering to watch over Aphaerla alone. This wasn't a possibility she had even considered when she decided to join their group.
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Jul 28, 2017 13:40:20 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Jul 28, 2017 13:40:20 GMT -7
Aphaerla didn't even notice that her hand made contact with something while she was stretching. Half because she was normally oblivious, and half because she was still waking up. In fact, she hadn't even realized there was another person in the room at all until Iris spoke up. It startled her, making her kick in that direction to hopefully push the scary thing away. Once she recovered and realized what just happened, her cheeks turned a bit red.
"Sorry," she paused trying to make sense of the situation. "I think so, it doesn't seem like I'm bleeding or anything. It's not the first time I hit my head on something," she shrugged.
She took a good look at her surroundings. This was an apartment? It looked like it hadn't been inhabited in a long time with all the dust and what-not. Aphaerla tilted her head. It was also pitch black in here, save for her mutation right? Did this person just hate lights? Was the power out? She didn't understand. She opened her mouth to speak again, but was distracted by something in the corner. There were a bunch of mushrooms growing over there. Aphaerla had seen them several times in the jungle in the darkest places, and they didn't seem to like the light she emitted. That must be why it's so dark. One mystery solved at least.
"You're growing mushrooms? Huh, I didn't peg you as the type to like to eat something like that."
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Jul 30, 2017 5:29:26 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Jul 30, 2017 5:29:26 GMT -7
Iris was already backing off, so the kick to the gut didn't hurt as much as it might have. She supposed that people couldn't be blamed for what they did in the process of waking up, but she still resolved to keep her distance for the remainder of the conversation.
"Hm... It still might be a good idea for you to take it easy until the doctor gets here..."
Her worries were cut off by confusion at the next comment.
"Mushrooms? No, I hate mushrooms, so why...? Oh."
Iris cringed as the realization hit. If mushrooms were growing in Iris's room, then her neglect was causing damage to the room itself as well as to the neighboring rooms. Preventing that sort of thing was cheap, but the cases where that prevention didn't occur were a notable drain on the city's maintenance budget.
"I'll... have to deal with that."
With a sigh and a shake of her head, Iris retreated into brooding over her growing list of failures. An awkward silence descended.
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Jul 31, 2017 18:44:52 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Jul 31, 2017 18:44:52 GMT -7
The mushrooms kept her distracted enough that Iris suggesting she stay in bed for awhile longer didn't register. Aphaerla rubbed her chin and furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of what she just said. She didn't even notice the awkward silence, so nothing about this situation felt awkward to her. After a moment, she just started thinking out loud.
"How do you grow something on accident? It's a plant, so don't you have to plant it and take care of it and do all the weird plant things that people do?"
She was never into gardening - watching plants grow took way too long - but that was her understanding of it. It didn't seem easy or like something that could happen on accident.
After a moment's pause, what Iris said at first finally registered. Aphaerla frowned and slumped her shoulders.
"What why? Staying in bed sounds boring and I'm obviously fine. I'm talking and everything!"
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Aug 2, 2017 7:52:50 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Aug 2, 2017 7:52:50 GMT -7
Technically they were fungi, which were a totally separate kingdom from plants, but Iris supposed that it would be pedantic to bring that up. Not to mention that she wasn't even sure that distinction would apply to whatever strange things were springing up this close to the jungle. In any case, she wasn't going to take her blindfold off just to satisfy her curiosity.
"I don't know. I was never any good at gardening anyway... It'd probably die if I did try to take care of it."
When Aphaerla showed her displeasure at staying in bed, Iris backed up half a step and raised her hands in a placating gesture.
"Ah, do you want me to cancel the doctor's visit?"
She instantly regretted making the offer. After all, what if Aphaerla dropped dead from a brain hemorrhage or something half an hour after walking out the door? It would have been completely preventable if Iris just showed some backbone and refused to let Aphaerla escape her checkup.
The problem was that Iris wasn't exactly used to showing much backbone these days. She wasn't equipped, mentally or physically, to stop Aphaerla from doing whatever she wanted to do. But at the same time, she couldn't just let Aphaerla go off and maybe die. Iris frowned as she considered the dilemma.
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Aug 2, 2017 16:36:55 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Aug 2, 2017 16:36:55 GMT -7
"Yeah. There's no need to make them waste their time," Aphaerla nodded.
The instant she finished talking, she pushed the blankets off of her and stood up. Unfortunately, she stood up a little bit too fast, making her feel a bit light headed. Aphaerla barely managed to avoid sitting right back down, but did sway for a moment while her blood returned to her head. She shook her head, and immediately made her way towards the door.
As always, Aphaerla made her way there far too quickly, and slammed into the door with a loud thud. It was the kind of thing that looked (or sounded) worse than it was because she was fully prepared for the impact and knew which angle to hit the door at to avoid making it hurt too much. She was unfazed by the whole situation, but once she touched the doorknob she furrowed her brow and frowned.
"You have my spear right? I should probably take that back to the Surveying Association. The police don't really like it when I run around the city with it."
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Aug 6, 2017 10:46:35 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Aug 6, 2017 10:46:35 GMT -7
As Iris had feared, Aphaerla took her up on her offer, all while offering plenty of evidence as to why that offer was such a bad idea. That meant that the pressure was on to come up with a plan to stop Aphaerla from making it two blocks away and then dropping dead from internal bleeding. Iris had to think of a plan quickly.
"Oh, yeah, your spear should be leaning against the corner over there. And, um, if you're going out, then how about I go with you to make sure-"
Iris stopped right there. Aphaerla seemed like the type to get offended at the suggestion she might be frail or vulnerable in the slightest. That meant that she wouldn't want Iris tagging along for her sake. Maybe a different excuse would work better?
"I mean, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out and talk about surveying. That was my first expedition, and I was hoping I'd meet someone who could share some advice, so..."
Although it wasn't strictly a lie, Iris still felt bad for the misdirection. After all, she had some serious doubts about how useful Aphaerla's advice would be in the first place.
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Aug 7, 2017 15:13:11 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Aug 7, 2017 15:13:11 GMT -7
"Cool, thanks."
Aphaerla doubled back to grab it. At this point she was moving more or less normally for her. Her head was pretty hard, so she wasn't that surprised. There wasn't a whole lot to trip on here as long as she avoided the mushroom corner, so she moved at the same probably unsafe speed she took to the door, grabbed her spear, and doubled back. The door was half open by the time she registered Iris' question, so she finished opening it and paused in the doorway.
She looked thoughtful for a moment, trying to figure out what kind of advice would be best to pass on. Iris seemed like the most extreme kind of newbie, so Aphaerla figured she should start with the absolute basics. Nodding to herself, and after giving Iris a moment to catch up with her, she decided she knew exactly what to say.
"First, work out. Seriously, I don't see many people skinnier than you. You're not going to last if your body can't keep up! Second, don't let the appearance of the monsters fool you. All of them have a weak point, and they're all alive so they can be killed. They have something holding them together, they just don't work like people, so you kind of have to guess. Or if they're small enough you can just stab clean through them and wiggle your weapon around and probably hit something." Aphaerla paused for a moment before nodding. "Those are probably good places to start. You gotta learn how to fight!"
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Aug 11, 2017 12:55:14 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Aug 11, 2017 12:55:14 GMT -7
So far, so good. Iris hurried along after Aphaerla.
The first bit of advice was one that Iris was predisposed to take to heart. It was true that she was weak. As testament to that fact, her legs were already aching, even with the more merciful pace Aphaerla was setting. As much as she hated to admit it, Iris was pretty sure she'd be spending the next day or two in bed to give her overworked muscles a rest. Endurance training could come later.
However, Iris was less certain on the second point.
"Is it really smart to plan on fighting monsters? Can't you just... you know, run away? I mean, we had to deal with that boulder-like monster one way or another, but that seemed like less of a fight and more of a... slaughter."
Iris shook her head.
"More to the point, I can't imagine getting good at fighting in the first place. I always figured it'd be best if I stayed out of the way and just used my magic to protect you guys whenever necessary."
She might have said more, but Iris suddenly realized that she wasn't quite sure where Aphaerla was. It was easy enough to follow her voice, but since Iris herself had been talking for the last several seconds...
"Um, Aphaerla? Are you still there?"
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Aug 12, 2017 21:07:33 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Aug 12, 2017 21:07:33 GMT -7
Aphaerla stopped and stared for a moment, unsure if she heard right at first. She couldn't comprehend anyone not wanting to fight the monsters. It was the best part! She tried to puzzle this out in her mind for a moment before declaring it impossible and shaking her head. Nothing about it made sense. That Iris couldn't see her didn't even register. She assumed the blindfold was something Iris did to hide her mutation or something, some people were weird about that, because what kind of person would walk around with a blindfold they couldn't see through?
"Huh? Yeah I'm here but...Why would you NOT fight the monsters? Is there even any other reason to go out there? They're stopping us from getting what we need, so of course we should get rid of them! If they weren't there then everyone could just walk in and we could get stuff and build stuff and it'd be easy!"
She paused for a second, tapping the tip of her spear against the ground as she walked. It got her a few looks, but given what she looked like that wasn't anything new. It didn't even register anymore.
"Besides, isn't the jungle getting bigger? Unless we can move the buildings we're going to have to deal with it. Might as well be now before the monsters off and go do...I dunno monster things and make more monsters."
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Aug 15, 2017 16:24:28 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Aug 15, 2017 16:24:28 GMT -7
Fortunately, Aphaerla's words (and her spear tapping) were enough to let Iris correct her path and continue to follow. With that taken care of, Iris considered her reply carefully.
"Is it even possible to make a dent in their population? If monsters produce other monsters, we should expect their population to have already been following an exponential growth model up to this point. But there are lots of other possibilities, too. For example, what if two monsters are born from the corpse of each monster killed?"
Iris shook her head. It was frustrating to speculate with so little information. Up until this point, she had always considered the precise nature of the jungle's monsters to be someone else's problem. The worst part was that there were almost certainly other people with greater intelligence, experience, and data who had already been working on this problem for years. This wasn't something she could just solve during idle conversation after her first expedition.
"The point is, we're not even sure if killing monsters is making progress toward a long-term solution. The thing we need above all is information. Sometimes killing monsters helps with that... but I'm not sure if that's actually all that often."
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Aug 17, 2017 9:55:52 GMT -7
Post by Aphaerla Suir on Aug 17, 2017 9:55:52 GMT -7
Aphaerla just looked over her shoulder and raised an eyebrow, assuming Iris could still see her face perfectly. She understood maybe half of what Iris said, but most of it didn't seem important anyway. Iris was just looking for excuses to avoid something that sounded inconvenient anyway.
"But that doesn't make any sense. Monsters don't even leave corpses." Aphaerla furrowed her brow. "I don't know why everyone makes this so complicated. The monsters are there, they hurt us, and they stop us from doing good things, so we should do something about them. If they were smart they'd leave because we're beating them up good, but they're dumb, so we just have to beat them up harder. It's pretty simple."
Aphaerla paused again, her pace slowing considerably while she thought. That should be enough, but simple logic never seemed to work with lazy people, so she had to think about something else to say.
"Besides, no matter what they'll definitely come for you, so you should at least be prepared to defend yourself."
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Aug 26, 2017 23:22:42 GMT -7
Post by Iris Pires on Aug 26, 2017 23:22:42 GMT -7
"If we were beating them up so well, then it seems like we should be making a bigger dent in their numbers..."
Iris shook her head again. They could argue in circles all day about precisely how valuable it was to kill monsters, but there wouldn't be much point to it. There were more useful avenues of discussion to pursue.
"But it is true that it couldn't hurt for me to learn to defend myself, at least. Um... I'm not sure how much I'll really be able to do, though. You said that working out would be a good first step, right? What sort of training regimen do you follow?"
Once the words were out of her mouth, Iris immediately regreted them. It was practically an intivation to train together, and with Aphaerla recovering from a concussive head wound, just about any sort of training would probably be a terrible idea. Iris inwardly berated herself as she hoped against hope that Aphaerla wouldn't suggest something unreasonable.
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