[D5 EE] Never Lost Near a River (Open, Expecting)

[Nozomi]

Grrr... not sure if she's just fucking with me. If she is, though, she's a decent liar. Should respect that.

"Ok, I'm starting to get some of where you get all this 'Torn apart by monsters' stuff from. You live with that all the time then?" Feeding the blood addiction of some crazy invisible thing that followed her around. "And you're not worried that that thing's going to get even worse where we're going?"

Fuck, I have never been so glad that my ancestors do not actually listen to me when I pray if this is what it is like.

[Shoji Haka]

"There is not much point in worrying about things beyond one's control," she explains in a casual tone. "If it happens, this one will try to mitigate the damage as best she can, assuming she survives the initial attack."

She uses her free hand to motion to the various fetiches and charms on her dress. "These deflect its attention and keep it confused, but they mostly only work for the one wearing them. Setting up wards around camp, as this one did earlier, is more helpful for others."

[Nozomi]

"Wards? What wa... oh, you mean the stick figures all around the camp I saw?" Fetishes weren't really a Hikaru thing, but she'd seen stuff like that in the marsh rarely, from time to time. There were rumors about the bogs of that land, about people getting lost in them. Wive's tales mostly. "And these fetishes actually work to keep it confused?"

She was also rather glad that she wasn't a shaman right now. "As much as I'm ready to not come out of this alive, I have to admit that you are a lot more ... accepting of it than most I have ever met."

[Shoji Haka]

Haka smirks. "Die in the swamp, die in the forest, die in your sleep. Death is death. Down here, at least, there seems to be less chance this one will return as a hungry ghost. Or maybe she will! It will be interesting to see what happens."

[Nozomi]

"I have already skirted death in my life. I'd prefer not to see that result yet." She grunted and glanced over at the strange little blind but not blind woman. "So when you are not confusing your personal ghost and feeding it your blood, what is it that you do most of the time? Put up wards around the camp and..." She was curious if this woman did anything besides spooky things, because she was starting to think shooing a fish out of her water was the least spooky thing she did today.

[Shoji Haka]

"Wake up, find food, prepare food, walk for too long, sleep..." Hala's voice trails off. "Back home, this one tended to the ghosts and spirits. Rituals, wards, charms... that sort of thing."

[Nozomi]

...

"You need a hobby. All I do most days is hunt, gather, train, scout and kill, and even I have a hobby or two," she said, looking over at her again and frowning behind her mask, shaking her head. "I mean, seriously, don't you ever start to get a little bored? I would think getting too deep into that kind of a routine with no breaks would drive you a little crazy after a while."

[Shoji Haka]

"This one never claimed that she wasn't crazy," Haka laughs. "But perhaps, if this one finds something enjoyable."

[Nozomi]

"Well, blind girl." Yeah, she'd given permission, so congratulations Haka. Until you told her to call you something else... you were officially going to be Blind Girl to Phi. And if anyone looked at her funny, she'd just say 'she told me I could call her that.' Absolutely blameless... "Maybe you are crazy. But, what's this thing that you enjoy? I'm a little afraid to ask, but you have me curious."

[Shoji Haka]

"Oh, this one meant that perhaps she would find something in the future. Assuming she is. It ripped apart by monsters or giant rats or invisible skeletons."

[Nozomi]

"You make me wonder a little if you kinda like the idea of being torn apart by invisible skeletons from a completely intellectual perspective," she mentioned in as matter of factly a tone as she could. "You do mention it a bit. Do you think about how you're going to die that often?"

[Shoji Haka]

Haka shrugs as she walks. "It would be an interesting way to die. Does Phi.m not wish to die in an interesting manner?"

She uses her free.arm to motion back toward the camp. "If someone were to be strangled to death by their own entrails, one would remember that for some time, yes?"

[Nozomi]

If. one. were. to. be. strangled. to. death. by. their. own. entrails?

Phi looked over at the woman with her eyebrows climbing high. "You know... you're probably one of the two strangest people I've met in this dump so far. By far the eeriest, I might add." She considered that for a moment, though, deciding to humor the question. "But yeah. I think if someone left my corpse out in the road, strangled by my own intestines, that'd probably be something folks would remember. Not the most creative idea, but definitely up there."

"And what about you? What's the most interesting way you can think of to die?" She'd already poked the bear. Might as well find out just how far the rabbit hole it was hiding would go.

[Shoji Haka]

"The most interesting?" She thinks for a moment. "Eaten by a turtle as large as a mountain."

[Nozomi]

Blink.
Blink. Blink.
Blink. Blink. Blink.

"There is no such thing as a turtle the size of a mountain." Please don't tell her there is. "But you have a truly incredible, if morbid, imagination, blind girl. Can't see, and so you imagine the most horrible visions. I don't envy anyone who ever upsets you, considering that nobody is ever sneaking up on you."

Well, she had to cast the spell first, but still. It was creepily impressive.

[Shoji Haka]

"How much of the world have you seen?" Haka smirks. "A few years ago, you would have told me there was no such thing as gods falling from the sky, neh?"

[Nozomi]

"When I was eight, there were no gods falling from the sky, or so I hear," she grunted. "But you do have a valid point I suppose. I also wouldn't have expected to see a girl with horns or talking rats. Still, that doesn't actually answer the question of "are there turtles as big as mountains to swallow you whole as a little, haunted, blind lunch?"

[Shoji Haka]

"Who can say?" Haka shrugs. "If there are, being eaten by one would be interesting, though."

[Nozomi]

"It would be something, yes." This girl was going to die a horrible, messy death in the mouth of hell, mark her words. Phi wasn't sure if she wanted her protecting her back, or blowing some ogre up from a distance a half mile away. Probably the latter, but she was at least a little interesting.

She paused. After a moment, she shrugged. "Getting your soul sucked out and left as a husk of your former self, a servant of some nameless horror would probably be interesting too." See, she could be morbid too!

[Shoji Haka]

"Eh, this one isn't interested in becoming a ghost-thing after death. She had always assumed that it was inevitable, so leaving the forest and learning that this was not so was very interesting." A pause. "Besides, that would just mean that the unlife after death would eclipse the actual death and make it less interesting. Like a song that is good at first but has too many verses."