#.✝ exec_

[execlinca]

@dcilayton​

She stops to catch her breath. She didn’t think anything was here, but she’d seen enough people running from things she couldn’t see to realise that everyone was seeing different things. From the wounds scattered about, and the inexplicable scaling of empty air -- as incredible as it was, she was inclined to believe whatever they were seeing was real. As real as what was happening to her, as she leans her head back against the cold wall.

Opening her eyes after a moment, Aurica watches the street, not moving from where she sits for now. There hadn’t been a quiet moment for a while, and she would take all the energy she could get. As she watches, though, she notices a man -- shuffling a little cautiously, with a lit candle in his hand, even in the broad daylight.

Must be some weird kind of world. She raises a hand, before thinking -- and raising her voice to a loud whisper, hoping not to scare him. He looked exhausted, something she understood far too well by now. “Hey... over here. It’s safe by this wall.”

[execlinca]

@coldcessor​

It was as if the world was ending. Aurica should know what that looked like -- from the destruction of her home, from the close calls Sol Ciel and the lower world had taken in recent times -- but it still doesn’t prepare her for the sights before her, the smoke that consumed all air she breathed, the crackling of flames wherever she looked. She had thought she were brought here as some form of punishment, but this... even this...

She closes her eyes, before crying out at a sudden noise from behind, quickly getting on the move again. More than the fire, there was something out there -- perhaps more than one, perhaps thousands. Something that was out to get her. Something she couldn’t escape.

She doesn’t want to look behind, afraid of what she might see -- she slips around a corner into a mountain of rubble, taking a deep breath before stumbling down it as fast as she can. A figure, though -- grey? purple? -- makes her stop, crouching behind a rock in the hopes the creature would miss her. I can’t do this... not like I am. Trembling, she watches from the distance -- before realising, while clearly not anything she would ever have registered as a person, whatever was down there wasn’t made of static.

It comes as a relief. Carefully picking herself back up and continuing down the mound, she calls quietly out to them. “Sorry for hiding... I thought you were one of those things...”

[execlinca]

@leonshieldd

“Oh... this cat?” She scratches the feline at the scruff of its neck, listening to it purr happily -- seeming a little more open to talking than she perhaps had been since she’d arrived here. Due, in no small part, to the cat.

She pets it for a moment, before blinking and turning back to the man, a little flustered. “O-oh, sorry, I... forgot you were there.” She points down the road she came down, though without crouching from her position -- not quite ready to surrender her friend yet. “There are lots of cats down in this area of the ward. Someone told me it’s the Red Light District, and I shouldn’t go there, but... well...”

This guy would understand, she thinks. He looked a little scary, but anyone who liked cats had to be a good person at heart. “I just like going to see them, so I go anyway. Ehe...”

[execlinca]

@orangesleipnir

Of all things, learning a new currency was turning out to be a bigger hurdle than Aurica had expected. There was a reasonable supply of groceries already, but if she wasn’t going to burden anyone, she’d better buy her own fast. That was her plan, but...

“Ugh...” Eyes downcast, looking more than a little disgruntled, she looks over her list again, putting her fingers up to count before losing track of where she was. This is so embarrassing. Why am I so stupid...? She knew she was only a D-Class Reyvateil, but it shouldn’t make her utterly empty-headed. Come on! “So with this and this, we just have to add...”

The voice of someone behind her makes her jump, stepping back as she turns to see, list pressed to her chest. “I-I’m sorry...?” A moment longer and she realises the boy -- maybe around her age -- had given her the answer, clearly having noticed how loud she was being. Her cheeks flushing bright red, she shuffles awkwardly. “Ah, I mean, thank you... I really am stupid. Sorry for making you go out of your way with something that simple for me.”

[execlinca]

@ravenpawn

They made her uncomfortable, no matter how she looked at it. It wasn’t to say she didn’t like the blossoms -- their falling was beautiful, coating the world in pink, as if this wasn’t an urban area at all. Yet surely, she should have been the last person to belong here. Surely...

It’s a futile thought, after all. One that she can’t stand having. Holding one of the blossoms in her palm, she thinks perhaps it was a good idea to stop with the daydreaming, the lamenting -- to go back ‘home’ before she got lost, and it got dark. Somehow, though, the trees blend together, a mass of pink with no distinguishing features to mark the way she came, at least to Aurica’s eyes.

“Ah...” The reality of the situation dawning on her, she glances around, tentatively walking through the trees until she comes across... a crow. Tilting her head, she follows its path to a dark haired girl -- perhaps somewhat like a crow herself, sitting in the shadow of the trees. Though, she seemed far too gentle, surrounded by petals like that. Someone not to be disturbed.

She’s loathe to do it, but there isn’t much place to hide -- she glances away and back again, before tentatively smiling. “Sorry... for disturbing you. Do you know the way back to the housing here...? I think I’m in... number 251.”

[execlinca]

@coraccipitris

She doesn’t know what happened to her when she arrived here, but she knows her body is different. Strange, uncomfortable -- but not in a dangerous way, only one where she feels her way of existence has been altered.

So when she sees a man -- an angel? a god? -- cradling an injured bird, she isn’t so sure she can help. But she thinks she can try.

“Excuse me... can you... let me see?” EXEC_HYMME_LIFE=W:R:S/. She clasps her hands together, trying to focus, trying to find the point of connection to the servers. EXEC_... HYMME_... it doesn’t get any further than her attempt to execute the extraction, something she should have expected, considering her distance from the Tower. Yet to give up here, after suggesting she might be able to help -- how humiliated, how useless, she would be.

She swallows. “Um... please let me -- try again.” A little winded, she focuses on her centre, steadying her breathing before starting a new chant. A simpler one, a smaller execution, a woven repetition of hymmnos. As she sings gently, a small fairy materialises above her, the strums of its lyre sending white light down below, kissing the bird’s body like snow.

Was it working? She wasn’t about to stop to make sure, while something appeared to be growing close enough. While she had something in her reach, she would sing.

She would keep on singing.

[execlinca]

@pocketdogged

She didn’t want to go too far from ‘home’. Even that definition, though, is dubious -- a ward and building she was thrown into unceremoniously, without any question of her consent. So it’s no surprise that she finds herself wandering, searching for somewhere more suited for her, somewhere that didn’t remind her of all the inadequacies she could never forget.

The cherry blossoms were beautiful, of course, but they didn’t suit her. They suited Misha, someone far more free and bold than she was.

She finds herself wandering through streets of shops, watching the stalls closely -- curiously -- but not quite confident enough to approach yet. As they peter out, though, they give way to a field of neat green grass, spanned with trails and... dogs?

Aurica tilts her head. “What’s wrong with them...?” As she gets closer, it looks like their heads are some kind of screen, but the animals themselves seemed as energetic as usual. It was almost endearing. Though, they were a little fast moving to --

“Agh!!” Catching herself on her hands and knees, she winces, before scrambling back to see what it was she had tripped over. That was... “A-ah!! I was looking at these dogs... I didn’t see you...!” She brushes her dress down, trying to figure out if the boy had been lying there to start with. “I’m sorry... I’m so clumsy...”

[execlinca]

@chanteuser

A deep breath. In, out. In, out. You can do it, Aurica. Rather than a belief in herself, she tells herself so knowing that she has to. No one else is here to tell her that she’ll be fine. No one else is here to protect her. Watching the falling cherry blossoms, her chest tight, she knows that all too well -- that perhaps she had been brought here as a punishment for her selfishness, for her jealousy, for daring to hope for something more.

She closes her eyes, and when she opens them again, she’s greeted with a loud meow. Surprised, but a smile creeping to her lips all the same, she reaches down to pet it, cooing softly -- but the cat turns away, trotting to the left and back as if it has somewhere to be. Watching it silently, more than a little miffed, she pauses.

And then she follows it.

Wherever it’s going, it isn’t alone. The mewling gets louder as the streets get narrower, and that’s almost enough to make Aurica feel safe. As the cat stops to clean its paws in front of a shadowy doorway, she smiles, crouching down to gently scratch its neck.

“Good kitty... is this where you live?” She considers a good name for it, watching earnestly as it looks back at her, its eyes seeming to answer the question. “Maybe I should come live with you. Or you could come with me...”

[execlinca]

.✝ orica extracting  /  ic. .✝ orica extracted  /  ooc. .✝ dive  /  asks & submissions. .✝ install  /  save & reference. .✝ exec_  /  threads. .✝ exec_hymme  /  mini & drabbles. .✝ cosmosphere  /  headcanons. .✝ analyse  /  images.