lostcarnival | OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

Who: Dr. Helen Magnus and [You]
When: Day 92
Where: Roaming around, a little lost
What: Arrival, getting her bearings, etc. etc.

Adventure was something Helen Magnus never shied from and exploring the vastness of the underground Sanctuary, far beyond those walls was something she couldn't deny herself. So it was that she found herself here, under contract to the Ringmaster with her eyes wide with wonder at it all. The lights and colours, the excitement, the darker elements shining through here and there. It was as familiar as it was alien and she drank it in with an eagerness she had long felt lacking. It stirred her as she moved through tents, passed people much like her who had joined perhaps years before her. A bright flash of a tail there, wings, glowing skin, all of these people becoming Abnormals or were in the beginning. The sheer fascination would have been enough, really.

"Excuse me?" she asked, reaching out to catch the attention of one of the people she had fallen into step with, "I seem to have found myself a bit lost. I was looking for the medical tent and I seem to have completely gotten myself turned around. If you could point me in the right direction, I'd be most grateful."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Great! If you go out there and it turns out that gives you computer powers - don't ask me how these things work, there's a lot of weirdness here - let some of us know. There's a local power play between a force for order and protection and one for randomized destruction, and the former's still laid up after a battle."

"Well, we'll see!" Scout's not sure if Thranta is compatible with any of the other pokemon in the Carnival. "It was a tropical island chain called Alola. A bunch of us ended up taking animals back with us." She scratches the top of Thranta's head with a bronze fingernail and the pokemon leans into it, eyes closed. "These guys also love fighting and tend to have weird powers. And if I present my little girl here with this one stone she'll become a much bigger bird. I'm not sure I want that yet."

"If that's the case, I'll definitely let people know."

Helen nods about the breeding and listens with interest to the to the rest. A larger bird via presenting a particular stone? That was incredibly unique, almost as if forcing some sort of evolutionary development in reaction to that presentation.

"That sounds pretty amazing, really."

"It was a nice place. Kind of a giant tourist trap, but nice anyway. We don't go to just plain nice worlds like that very often. They're usually weird or annoying in some way." Scout shrugs. "Someone was saying it was like the Ringmaster wanted to compensate for having taken everyone to some really unpleasant worlds before that, but I wasn't there for most of those, actually."

"I hope that one day I'll have the good fortune of seeing it myself," Helen says with a very soft laugh. "Even if that might be a long while from now. Honestly, as someone who is familiar with what those in my world call 'monsters' I think it would be quite a wonderful world to visit. I suppose that there will be quite a few less desirable worlds to go before any compensation like that will come my way."

Helen looks over Thranta again with quiet amazement.

"I suppose it's a good thing I am fluent in both weird and annoying. I have had my share of both, sometimes at the same time." She talks to the bird again, mostly about her pretty wings, and what a good companion she's being and offers to give her nice head scritches if she wants. Helen can't seem to help herself. Ever since she signed that contract, it honestly seems like she's had birds on her mind more often than not.

If Nikola was around, she could blame him, but alas, birds it is.

"That's usually how it goes - weird and annoying at once, I mean. You get used to it. Even in the worst places, we don't stay too long."

The togetic responds to all this attention by becoming a big puffball, positively radiating happiness. Amused, Scout says, "You really like avians, huh?"

"I guess I do," she said, laughing. "I liked them well enough before but since arriving, well, I suppose I find myself liking them even more."

"It's a sudden thing, then? You were less interested before?" Scout looks Helen over curiously.

"I liked them well enough before, I suppose," Helen said thoughtfully, "but I can see I like them a great deal more now, yes. Now, my friend Nikola, he really likes birds."

"It could be a change? Seems early, and I've never heard of one like that." Scout shrugs. "Or it could just be a fancy and it'll pass. I guess if it doesn't bother you it's no big deal. But you should track down Joker, he has feathered wings."

"I suppose it could be a fancy," Helen said with a soft laugh, "and I also suppose I could just be missing home, really."

Or a particular person at home. One she's definitely not thinking about for all the complexities that arise from it.

"I run a Sanctuary back in my universe that aids in the protection of creatures we call Abnormals. I suppose one might say your bird would be one such creature. They are all sizes, compositions, the strange, unusual, or deceptively ordinary. I help keep the peace between the Human and abnormal worlds, along with the help of many other Sanctuaries across my world," Helen murmurs.

"It would stand to say that even with this fascinating vacation, I miss the aspect of discovery, though it is essentially being substituted, here, with another kind of discovery."

She laughed quietly and shook her head ruefully.

"I'll definitely see about finding Joker," she said, nodding. "I do imagine that must be fascinating."

Homesickness does tend to come in stages. Scout shrugs.

"Where she's from, she's pretty normal. You're going to see a lot of that kind of thing here. Normal's all subjective and relative. It's good you're flexible, though! Weird things happen here."

"You mean discovering what things are like at home?"

Helen nodded pensively.

"Here, actually. I suppose each day is rife with the opportunity to discover something new. Magic especially intrigues me."

OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

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