Intro Log: April

[faileas]

Intro Log: April

I. ARRIVAL Out of nowhere, a glint of light catches your eye; your heart thunders in your ears as your body moves on its own, your mind consumed with inspecting the source. Your reflection stares back at you, just as curious from the surface - a mirror, a pool of water, your most trusted sword, something fleeting that your mind can barely remember - then ripples at your touch. A moment later, you feel a tug, and you find yourself stumbling into a dark, musty room. Behind you, a mirror stands ornately decorated with reminders of home wrought in brass and wood: the faces of people you know, and symbols important to you; all things that send a pang through your chest with the desire to return to them. Touching the mirror's surface does nothing but leave the stain of your fingerprints. When you turn to survey the room, you find there are hundreds of other mirrors. None of them are as decorated as yours - they're plain and dusty, speckled with age. Then you realize a second thing: You're not alone. Distantly, the ringing bell of a clocktower can be heard. But no matter its distance, the time is clear to make out: it chimes three times, stark, resonating like a pulse of something in this mirrored hall that you and many others have found yourselves in. For those familiar with magic, they might feel the power of the witching hour upon them, though it will feel different from what they're used to - in fact, everything does. You're certainly not the only ones here, however. On the first floor, with the doors wide open behind them in the foyer, is a small group headed by two individuals. As people begin to arrive, to come from the higher floor, they're waiting - and they're waiting for you, and your questions. Explore the rest of the mirrored halls you've now found yourselves in, or proceed to the foyer? Leaving the Looking-Glass House makes it obvious that the clock striking three was for 3 AM - the night sky is faintly cloudy, but the stars are dim in the face of two moons, even with them only a quarter full. The Looking-Glass House is rather nondescript two-story cottage made of grey brick, sitting at the edge of The Coven's courtyard; stones which glow as you step on them mark the path to and from the two buildings. While fairly small and plain on the outside, the inside has been enchanted to be the size of a large library, with hundreds upon hundreds of mirrors hanging, standing, and resting inside its walls. Some are broken, some are cracked, and some seem completely uninjured - but all of them are just as plain as the cottage itself, showing age in the silver beneath their glass and in the greening of their metals... Well, all except a character's personal mirror; to characters, one mirror - the one they came through - will be decorated lavishly with metal-and-wood-wrought reminders of home, and the surface will be as clear as a brand-new mirror.

II. THE WELCOME PARTY Whether you've decided to find a way out of the building you've arrived in, or decided to explore the rest of the Looking-Glass House - and perhaps finding a few familiar faces among the crowd - you feel a pull towards the foyer of the first floor. It's like a firm suggestion, as if to take you by the hand and draw you to where it begins, and the source of it becomes quite apparent upon finding one's way to the front room: a tall, comfortably-dressed older woman and her even taller wolfish companion, along with those which feel to resemble yourselves in a world-traversing sense: Mirrorbound, they're called. "Not as many of you this month, are there?" The woman sets her hands on her hips, with her Bonded casting a glance at those looking confused - newly arrived - and those who may have followed them in to talk to the newest addition of their mirrorbound bunch. "About time for introductions though- this here's Mhairi Ainsley, ambassador to the Parliament and my Bonded, and I'm Nerissa Bell, Head Witch of the Coven - but you can just call me Miss Nessie, you can," she adds, winking. "The lot of you must be as tired and confused as the last batch - hullo to those who've joined us, too! - so just a moment, dearests, I'll set all you right up—" With nothing more than a wave of her hand, rows of seats are summoned; despite their wooden nature, they're all sturdy and comfortable, filling the foyer and spreading out a ways into the lawn behind them, making room for all of the new arrivals as well as the previous batch. After all, they'll find this just as interesting. The Witches and Monsters that accompanied Nessie and Mhairi move to make room, and some disperse into the building itself to see if there's anyone who needs tending to. Mhairi steps forward as the chairs materialize. "Please, those who are able, join us for a moment. There are many questions that I'm sure you have - we will do our utmost best to answer them, and you may take any that we can't as a promise to find some sort of solution or answer." NOTE: If you wish to handwave an interaction with Nessie and Mhairi, please comment here. You can OOCly ask what questions your character might have for them, for us to summarize an answer for. For those that'd like a more player-based interaction, Aefenglom has its own Welcome Wagon that may answer in their stead! These are players who've volunteered for the role, and those that didn't sign up may assist as well if they'd feel their character would -- have fun, and make friends. Additionally, those with notable injuries or sickness will be attended to ASAP by Coven-based witches, and should anyone be curious about what they are - if they have magic potential, or if they swing a different way - then this can be done during this and the general hour or so the new arrivals are within the Coven's grounds. There are ongoing classes on magic, monsters, and Bonding as well, though they take place more during the day than at night - feel free to have your characters attend them at any time!

III. THE HAVEN After an hour or two of general chaos, questions that the natives attempt to help with, and injuries tended to for those who arrive in poor condition, it's time to make a trek to where you'll be staying while Nessie and Mhairi continue to search for a solution to the situation. As you're leaving with a few Bonded for guides, peculiar-looking devices - watches, the native Witches explain, compliments of Parliament - are passed around to all the new arrivals; they're given a quick rundown on their functions and bid to test them out when they can. They can even do it as they make their way out of the Coven's courtyard and to the Haven. Formerly part of the Aristocratic District, The Haven is just as well-kept and brightly-lit as the district it hails from. The houses err on the tall and ornamental-side, large enough to fit several families (or, according to the upper class, their one family, several dozen servants, and guests), especially closest to the Aristocratic District. They become a little more modest and smaller as one gets away from the realm of high society and nearer to the Residential District proper. Newcomers are shuffled here and invited to find somewhere to live - the Coven is currently handling expenses for the houses themselves in a program implemented by the Parliament, though if your character wishes to have anything extra - like maids, chefs, and so on - they'll have to pay for them themselves with their own earned money. Much of the landscape and fixtures are the same as in the Aristocratic Districts, though it lacks formal emergency services due to its roots as part of a district that already did. Much of the housing already has furnishing due to the speed at which homeowners were relocated; they were given enough time to collect their valuables, but standard furniture such as kitchenware, couches, beds, etc. were left behind for those moving in. Other houses appear the same, but the dust on the floors suggest these houses were left before the new arrivals even showed up - a reminder that the Cwyld can strike just about anyone, regardless of standing. Another portion of this district has been opened up to the new arrivals: the barracks, the row of buildings pressed against the very edge of the Bright Wall. As the city's military force no longer has the same presence it previously did, the barracks have gone into disuse, and a cleanup effort has been in place since before the new arrivals came through the Looking-Glass House. For those who desire something a little less opulent, the barracks might just be the answer. The barracks can also be used for business, for a welcome center, a communal space, for anything that the residents of the Haven see fit to use it for - so long as the legality isn't questionable, on the surface. To help with filling up the larger houses - and even some of the smaller ones, and the shared rooms in the barracks - the Witches put together a little roommate finding service, on a smaller scale from the grand opening of the Haven. For those who aren't entirely sure who they want to shack up with, they have a small survey for them to fill out and post on the board they've magicked up in the center of The Haven. The board also very helpfully reads aloud each form for everyone to hear in a cheerful, monotone voice. It isn't able to be shut up, nor is it easy to ignore, being imbued with a kind of amplification magic. It reads simply the information you've offered up yourself, or that someone might have written up for you, should that be their idea of fun.

IV. APRIL (meteor) SHOWERS At the beginning of Aereuer, exciting news comes out of the Coven. A few Witches devotedly studying the stars have predicted a meteor shower will be visible in the night sky on the night of the 3rd - and even better, the weather is most likely to be clear, allowing for full visibility. These meteor showers are not unheard of in Geardagas, occurring every few years and never causing any damage within Aefenglom proper, so this news is met with excitement from the locals, and within the Coven, it's considered an auspicious sign for those new arrivals - the heavens are welcoming new Mirrorbound, maybe! All throughout the city, up until the night of the 3rd, citizens hastily plan get-togethers to view the meteor shower from rooftops, balconies, or hills just outside Aefenglom. While there won't be one large party to attend, most groups will welcome strays into their gatherings to have snacks and drinks on picnic blankets and watch the show in the sky. A few magitech shops even run a sale on clunky spyglasses and telescopes beforehand, which can be used to get a closer look. A few hours after darkness falls on the big night, the skies light up with more than just the twin moons. The sky takes on an aurora rainbow of soft, muted colors rippling across the inky night and dozens of bright meteors fall far in the distance, trailing streaks of soft white behind them. It only lasts for a handful of hours, but many say it's the most brilliant meteor shower they've seen in a long while. a. Wish Upon A... One tradition locals are happy to tell Mirrorbound about is choosing a particular falling meteor in the sky with someone else, someone dear preferably, and both making a wish upon it (not the same wish, but wishes made together) - the more vague, the more conceptual, the better, they caution, warning that specific wishes just aren't likely to come true. Funny things happen after meteor showers to those who have made a proper wish, but while the younger generation thinks it's all coincidence, the elders believe there is a little bit of magic in the pieces of heaven that fall to the earth. And maybe there is some truth to that. Wishing for wealth might see you finding an abandoned cune note on the street the next day. Wishing for love may put you in the path of a lovely stranger, or a familiar person in your life. Wishing for friendship might see you meeting a new person that will eventually become important to you. Or maybe nothing happens at all, in which case the elders will tell you your wish just wasn't possible for the universe to grant. Maybe it's all just superstition, but what can it hurt to try? b. Cometflies With a meteor shower lighting up the night always comes a swarm of cometflies, small insects named so for the fact that they lay dormant beneath the earth until one, beautiful night, when they can finally sprout wings and take to the sky. Cometflies resemble fireflies, but come in a myriad of rainbow colors, and fill the night with their tiny lights. When a cometfly alights on a person, that part of their body takes on the same colored light glow - a harmless, temporary effect that will fade before dawn. Superstition says that if a cometfly lights up two people with the same color, they're meant to meet, and laughing natives will push such people together to talk. Some cometflies have other effects as well, all temporary and relatively harmless, apparently relating to color. Perhaps a blue one makes you want to seek out the warmth of others, or perhaps a yellow one puts you in a sunny mood despite yourself. Maybe a red one makes you want to flirt with the nearest lovely individual, or green fills you with envy for something another person has. There isn't any guaranteed way to tell which little buggers will make you feel what, so all are advised to avoid the swarms or go with the flow. The only constant is that any effects besides the glow are mild at best. Enjoy them while they last, or wait a handful of hours if you don't; when the meteor shower ends, and dawn breaks, all the cometflies die at once wherever they might be, their lights (and effects) snuffed out until the next meteor shower.

Welcome to the intro log! While mingling on the log itself is highly encouraged, feel free to make your own logs; take the prompts offered and go wild, go crazy, go stupid, have fun. The network system is free to use once characters have their watches as well; information on that can be found at the bottom of the Setting page, while any extra questions about it can be found in the FAQ index. Quests can be picked up now as well! While new characters will have to get settled in, you can go ahead and put your name on some by replying to the April's Quest Pickup thread on the Quest Board. Finally, if your character is getting into any Shenanigans, let the mods know and if you have any questions about the log, ask them here!

Comments

Papyrus - Undertale - Turnskin

[spaghettimonster]

II: THE WELCOME PARTY

Papyrus only remembers bits and pieces of last month's dream, thanks to having not slept much that night... But the unfamiliarity with these new Mirrorbound is no reason for him to skip out on the welcome party. If anything, it's twice the reason to show up!

The skeletal turnskin lingers on the side of the room, waving a welcome to anyone who looks his way - with as reassuring a smile as he can muster for those who look alarmed by him. Last month he learned firsthand how creepy animated skeletons can be, and he's making up for it in his welcome with snacks.

"Are you hungry? Feel free to have a piece," he encourages anyone who dares approach, gesturing at the plate of small pastries he brought along.

VIa: WISH UPON A...

It's been a while since Papyrus really stopped and marveled at the sky. Who would think it would ever be something you could start to take for granted, right??? But the days turned to months, and he stopped and looked up less often.

Until now, as it takes something like a meteor shower to draw his attention again. Part of it is, enthusiasm for space has never been his thing. The stars are too remote, the interest too sciencey. It reminds him who isn't here.

A little into the celestial show, Papyrus sits staring up, the streaks of light reflecting in the streaks of tears on his cheekbones. Don't mind him. It's raining somewhere else, including on his face.

VIb: COMETFLIES - FEELING BLUE

What with everything, when the cometflies take flight, it's no surprise that the one that finds him turns him blue. It's the color he has the most affinity for, despite his reddish fur and proclivity for warm-colored clothing.

It's also no surprise when laughing people of the town greet him and push him towards others glowing the same blue. The locals really love their celebration rituals... And, as a couple of them point out, the people glowing blue tend to need the company the most. He can't deny, he could use somebody to lean against and take warmth from. Especially if they could scratch behind his ears, while they're at it.

VII: PIECE OF CAKE

The name of the shop is misleading, and it took Papyrus two readings to realize... It's a great job for him to take up! All those baking lessons last month prepared him for this task, with the various learning curves and accomplishments in the art of pie-making. Papyrus, such a master of pies that it's in his name.

Of course, it's not so easy. The shop's owner is very particular about her pies, and more than once tuts like she's about to let him go... But you don't need to literally have eyes to make a puppydog expression. And Papyrus' earnest willingness to take her criticism and doubledown on following the book makes the difference.

Just. Maybe help him dispose of one of these not-quite-perfect pies, or offer some advice on getting the decorations just so?

II: THE WELCOME PARTY

[indispensabilis]

Will Henry is hungry, and he is also alarmed. He's seen some gruesome and monstrous things before, but this one is-- Surreal. The kind of surreal that might make you giggle. It's a very odd sensation, he thinks, but not entirely unpleasant. So he inches closer. Nothing else in the tour has really punctured his bubble of self-protection and denial, not like this has. His curiosity is wary but also gleaming with that childish need to know.

"What are you?"

Also the bluntness of a child that knows there is probably some more tactful way to pose this question, but unwilling to shirk and prevaricate enough to figure it out. He takes a piece of pastry with a snatch, just in case the skeleton tries to grab him for a fright, but he does still stick around to hear the answer to his question.

[spaghettimonster]

No, there's no grabbing here. Papyrus makes no move as Will swoops in and out for a pastry, content to let the plate sit on the chair beside him so people don't have to get too close. Content, for a given value of content, anyway. It's still disappointing when people react like this, even if he better understands their reasons now. His eyesockets and cheekbones sink slightly in a frown, before he covers it up with enthusiasm again.

"I'm a skeleton! And a Turnskin."

He gestures to his canid skull to indicate, see the fur? The ears? There's a very distant resemblance to Mhairi, one of the two people giving the introduction, though his fur is differently colored - and he's missing almost everything but fur and bones.

"But, I'm thinking of calling myself... a 'Turnbone'. What do you think? Turnbone, or Turnskin skeleton?"

With that question offered, Papyrus tilts his head and waits for Will's reply. Giving people choices like that to decide between and answer always seems to get them a little more engaged in the conversation, even if he's already decided what he'll be using in the future. There's a lot of not strictly skeleton about him these days, even if he'll always be a skeleton deep down. But like a few people reminded him, there's no sense dwelling on the past, when he can focus on making the best present with what he has.

[indispensabilis]

Will Henry pockets that pastry, not knowing what kind of food will be available when he gets to the Doctor who refused to cook let alone be bothered getting groceries. He considers the skeletons reply.

"Skeletosmultisformarus," Will Henry supplies helpfully. He had worked in the Monstrumarium for months, there was nothing but specimens with their ridiculous latin designations. "But the Turnbone could be your common designation."

The only two people in all of Aefenglom who would get this joke also wouldn't have humored him in it, so Will Henry himself almost doesn't even bother to see the humor in it. What a serious boy....

[spaghettimonster]

"My uncommon designation, I think you'll find!" Papyrus corrects, though he squints as he tries to parse the scientific-sounding one. Skeleto, he followed, but then it just kept going...?

"As I am the coolest and only skeleton in Aefenglom," he completes, explaining the joke while he's at it. "There aren't natural skeletons in this place... and necromancy is illegal. Thank goodness."

Which, now that he's run into some necromancers and their constructs, he understands why. The whole business was horrifying. Dead peoples' bones and ghosts bound and made to attack people, in one case even their previous bond..!

[indispensabilis]

Starting around the 1930s, cool began appearing in American English as an extremely casual expression to mean something like ‘intensely good.’ William James Henry was born in 1876. So he does not know, at all, what being 'cool' has to do with being a skeleton. Was that some kind of reference to his total lack of body heat? A quizzical look crosses Will Henry's face.

"Common designation means it's what the locals would call you, instead of what the scientists named you," he says, unable to entirely follow what was said to him.

Natural skeletons? Don't they all have natural endoskeletons and its this one without any skin that's aberrant? Well, apparently not to himself.

"Were you always a skeleton? Or did something have to die first." A little blunt, a little dark, but he's trying to understand something that is-- Surreal. Yes, a little silly and dreamlike imagining a world where skeletons walk around without skin as an everyday occurrence.

[spaghettimonster]

"Sigh," Papyrus says slowly, with enough of a huff that it's a sigh in and of itself. "No, I'm not a corpse. That's a common misunderstanding. A frequent one, even."

He doesn't quite realize the scale of the vernacular divide between them, but he's picking up on the slightest edges of it. The emphasis on scientific words, at least. He'll pick up more of it as they talk, or Will Henry will pick up on more of the turns of phrase used so often by so many of the Mirrorbound. Or maybe both.

"I've always been a skeleton, and once, I was a little skeleton. Even smaller than you!"

Of course, that comparison doesn't mean a whole lot with Papyrus staying seated as resolutely as he is, the better not to loom over people. But he's a bit over 6' tall, tall enough.

[indispensabilis]

"Huh," he doesn't mean to let that out, but the image of something with no digestive system and thus no way to metabolize energy with which to grow is a lot. As soon as he realizes he's made the nose, Will Henry's face turns red with embarrassment. The Doctor hated when he did things like that. He would easily have been mocked for what a witless thing 'huh' was to say.

He swallows, and feels the pressure of that. The pressure that he understand and be clever, or else.

"What other common misunderstandings do you hear?" See. Clever. Now he doesn't have to be the one ignorantly asking them.

[spaghettimonster]

"Other misunderstandings...?" he mulls over the question, taking it seriously enough to ponder for a few seconds. It's not one of the sorts of questions he'd really prepared a speech for, this time.

"Mostly, they're the same misunderstanding. 'How can you move, if you don't have any muscles'. 'How can you eat, if you don't have a stomach'. Questions like that."

Papyrus shakes his head slowly and dramatically, intentionally long enough to leave Will a chance to look or feel embarrassed without anyone watching. Really, he gets some of these a lot. Sometimes people even insist on watching him eat something, gathering around and marveling at the sight. Other times, they shriek or close doors before the conversation even starts.

"The answer... is very simple! Where I come from, monsters are magic, and come in all shapes. Stuff like 'biology' is a little optional." Unlike the monsters here, who are so biological that it's even rubbed off on the robot.

[indispensabilis]

"Oh, that is simple," and while he can imagine being soundly mocked by Warthrop for accepting this answer, he also has the skeleton as proof right before his eyes. Maybe magic itself isn't as simple as the skeleton makes it sound though, that much at least seems logical. "If biology doesn't matter, what do people study and learn about?"

He's the apprentice of a full-time, professional scientist. His world is dominated by the rigors of science. All the papers to be read, all the correspondence to be kept, all the specimens to collect, and dissections to conduct. He's trying to imagine a world where that is now optional, a world where the rules could just be thrown out--

It is, definitely, existentially disturbing but maybe Will Henry is still child enough he can imagine some giddy relief in it all.

[spaghettimonster]

"Lots of things! All the sorts of things you might expect in school," Papyrus says, shrugging. "Responsibility, history, puzzle-making, math... Doctor Alphys, I heard, studies human history. And my brother likes space and quantum physics."

He hesitates a little on the word likes, since it's hard to use the present tense for someone he hasn't seen in nearly a year. But he doubts that's changed in the time past.

Partly to buy himself a minute, partly to satisfy any curiosity Will might be secretly holding about how skeletons eat, and partly because there's no sense in making all these pastries and not even having any... Papyrus grabs one of them, and takes a bite. There's very little chewing involved, it mostly just... disappears in the back of his mouth, somehow. Like a magic trick, but with no showmanship to distract the eye at the critical moment.

[indispensabilis]

"Puzzle making?" The others had mostly made sense to him, although Will Henry's timeline is still a decade too early for the merest inklings of quantum physics. "You have to go to school for that?"

He's imagining something much more akin to a wooden box puzzle or something like that. He is immediately distracted from that however because he is very curious how skeletons eat. He watches, his mouth a little bit agape.

It isn't like him to be even this expressive, but it's also been a very long time since he saw anything that caused a sense of wonder in him. Usually he just felt a kind of relentless dread. For a moment, he's really just a boy.

[spaghettimonster]

Papyrus is on to that childish astonishment, even if he has no idea how unusual it is for this boy to express such things. He takes a second or two to feel smug about it, another second to mumble, "needs more cinammon," to himself, then takes a second bite.

Through a pause that's theoretically for whatever passes for chewing or swallowing, he nods.

"I know! Amazing, isn't it?" He gestures at the room around them, at the excess of humans and mostly-human people around them. "Monsters in my home... We have long, loving traditions of making puzzles. 'Ancient diversions', somewhere between culture, and entertainment, and logic twisters... Of course, these days, monsters just don't respect the tedium. I bet there isn't even a class for them specifically. Just a unit in History."

VIa

[stopfen]

[Eren had always been intrsted in life outside the walls(or had seemed that way, now she was wondering about that). Armin had been found of the sea. But Mikasa...

Mikasa had always liked the simple things. The fields of grass. But the night sky as well. When most people went to sleep and things calmed down. Even if that didn't happen here. People here seemed to become more active at night, herself included. So she stood by the lights reflecting off of solid black eyes. Then she notices another glint and turns to look. Oh it's him, uh Papyrus? Crying somehow? But you know what, after all the magic she'd seen here, she wasn't going to question it.]

Are...Are you alright?

[spaghettimonster]

[Papyrus looks up at the question with less a jolt than with mild curiosity. Sure, he hadn't noticed her approach, but people who can suddenly appear or disappear are exactly what's been on his mind. He glances around himself, just to doublecheck that there's no one else around that she's actually talking to, before venturing a confused sound.]

Huh? Why wouldn't I...

[He notices the tears on his cheekbones as if for the first time, and quickly scrubs at them with a gloved hand before shooting Mikasa a fresh smile.]

Yes, I'm fine! Just... admiring the stars.

[Maybe his freshly wiped face is still a little damp, with a little sparkle of the stars reflecting in it, but not as much. See, no fresh tears here! Papyrus is fine.]

[stopfen]

[Uh huh... But Mikasa wasn't the best at reading cues. So she keeps pressing.]

The stars make you cry?

[It was kind of hard to hide that he'd been crying. But she almost buys the excuse, tilting her head back to look. Because some people are just like that, Armin had been smiling so much she thought he was going to cry when they reached the sea. So she just figured it was that as the light from the meteor shower flickers across her eyes.]

[spaghettimonster]

[He opens his mouth to protest and deny the question, but, well. Given that she literally watched him wiping them off his face, he thinks he probably can't get away with claiming he hadn't been crying at all. Instead, he nods a little.]

Who wouldn't?? They're so big... and so far away! It's overwhelming to think about.

[By the end, he's almost sincere. The bits and pieces he's learned about them, giant balls of not-quite-fire as large as a million of the planet, which is at least as large as a million of the mountain...]

[stopfen]

[She can't argue that. His excuse is brought, or not because she didn't realise it was an excuse to buy it. She squats next to him, not wanting to sit with the recent weather even if it was fine at the moment. Not taking her eyes off the sky.]

One of the others I met, said there was more out there. That they'd learned how to travel through them.

[Reassuring... But to Mikasa it was a lot to wonder. Given she'd only seen the ocean a few years ago, that it's existence had been doubted.]

[spaghettimonster]

[It's a relief to bypass that topic of conversation, especially when Mikasa brings up something so unexpected.]

Travel through them...? Oh my god. Humans really have visited aliens...

[Who would have thought any of Undyne's cartoons for children were based in some degree of fact, after all...? Most all the humans he's met here were nothing like she talked about.]

[stopfen]

Uh...What are aliens? [They'd mentioned space and stars and asked her what backwater planet she was from. There was no mention of aliens.]

Are there ones here? [Papyrus, she's seen some things, she just doesn't know now.]

[spaghettimonster]

[He opens his mouth, ready to explain the first question - but the second question bowls him over. It's a great distraction.]

Umm... Hmm. There. Just might be...? [Give him a second, Mikasa, he's reeling.]

Aliens are people from different worlds. Outer space different worlds, not walked through a mirror worlds. People from the stars...

I wonder if anyone here counts.

[stopfen]

[Papyrus, please, you're the expert here. Mikasa just silently watched, waiting for his skeletal knowledge.]

I wonder if the person I met counts. He said he was from earth. But... [Her head dips to look at him, distracted from the stars.] Where I'm from, we'd only just learnt about other countries. [Or as someone put it in the meeting ' Can someone explain a nation again, I don't get it']

[spaghettimonster]

If it's just a different Earth... I don't know. I think outer space has to be involved.

[He's not sure, so this question is a wash for the moment. To be followed up later, maybe, if he thinks of it.]

Nations are strange, aren't they? Each of the cities here, they're their own city-states. Different leaders... Different laws... It's hard to imagine, not having the same king - or empress - as everyone you know.

[Being caged in by a magic barrier isn't the same as being a walled island, but there's similarities.]

[stopfen]

He said he'd been traveling through space. [But she shrugs. Then plops down to sit.]

They are. There's so many different people out there, it'd be nice if they could get along despite it all... They're better about that here.

[Mostly. But she didn't really have the highest bar there.]

Even when we thought we were the only humans, there was still fighting.

[spaghettimonster]

Then, maybe...

[Traveling through space does sound like a good sign of alien-ness, Papyrus considers with a slow nod. But he leaves it to look sidelong at Mikasa, now that she's at a better height for looking at.]

Fighting... with each other?

[The way she says that, the only humans, suggests there was someone not human around. But nothing as varied as monsters, he'd guess.]