destinystrings | A New Life, an Ancient Profession

Who: Misery. Open.
Where: Capricorn District.
Summary: A place of nature should have SOME potential reagents.
Warnings: Misery.
A witch needed ingredients. The stores were well and good, but they obviously only catered to a specific type of shopper -- which is to say the modern types, the ones who wanted nothing but pre-packaged nonsense. Anyway, she hadn't the cash for that sort of thing, and she needed to find a way to start. Money, it seems, makes the world go round even if you want nothing to do with it.

Some quick research had revealed this area, perhaps the closest to nature one could find in a city like this. Perhaps at some point she could venture outside the city walls for a better chance of finding useful things... or creatures. This would have to suffice for now.

Of course, a strange world in strange circumstances meant ANYTHING could be of potential use, which is why she seems to be sampling a bit of everyhing. A touch of bark? A flower? A grass? She collects. It's rather an odd sight for those unused to the old magics. To be fair, of course, Misery is a bit out of touch with them herself. Years of only doing the magics asked of her can make someone a little rusty.

But she can learn. She CAN learn. What a wonderful feeling.

She seems almost happy, actually. This might change if anybody interrupts her, of course. Which, considering what she's doing right now, is almost an inevitability.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A few hundred years of servitude to tyrants and madmen meant you didn't get a lot of opportunity for free baked goods.

For the time being, she's a little too off guard mentally to maintain her usual "arrogant jerk" attitude. "A few things I don't recognize, here and there. A few I do. Differences in the worlds, I suppose. I'll figure out some use for them soon enough." She looks down at her bag. "I will need to locate some texts, however, to better acquaint myself."

He leans over slightly to examine what she's collected so far.

"Ah... Hm. Oh -- That one's poison ivy, right? Leaves of three, leave them be. ...Or I guess, take them home with thee." It was wintergreen. Atsuo would die in less than an hour if he were on his own in the wild.

"So do you have to... cast any sort of magic to make something useful out of this stuff? I feel like herbalists would be a lot more respected back home if they could brews potions from crabgrass."

"It depends on what you're creating. A few simple remedies don't require much more than a few twirls of the stirring stick. Other things might require a bit more, well, tapping." She smirks. "Which is, of course, why things such as this invincibility potion you're fixated on would be so expensive. A girl needs to be compensated for her labor hours, yes?" Oh free market, how much she's missed thee.

"Hey. I only brought it up twice. ...But as long as we're on the topic, no chance of gingerbread going into one of those?" If life was at all fair, an invincibility potion would involve throwing a chocolate cake, a dozen cookies, and a pint of ice cream into a pot and stirring leisurely.

"Raw ingredients only! So sorry. But your tribute will be noted when my first batch of potions is finished. Ho ho."

She looks around. "Honestly, it is rather fortunate a place such as this even exists within these city walls. I shouldn't think I'll ever have to wander outside with all of this around."

"I don't think you could, anyway." Atsuro pauses briefly. "...Apparently, there's not much of anything left out there. I haven't checked for myself yet, but..."

"Is that so..."

She frowns. A dead world was a wasted world. So many of the people she'd been forced to work for hadn't seen that. But then, that's what Uncle Ballos would have wanted in his insanity, wouldn't it?

"A pity. Makes one wonder what they did to wreck things so thoroughly."

"...I was wondering more about what they did here to save this one city. And it's not doing too badly all on its own, either."

The catastrophe that had shut this place off from the rest of the world... All Brainstorm and the others had said was that it had happened. If it were as simple as a demon invasion, he would've expected the ones he'd fought the other day to be much stronger.

Interesting that Misery had jumped right to blaming the former citizens of this world. It was definitely a possibility, but... not an idea that had immediately popped into his mind.

"I don't think there's any single thing back in my world that could have caused a worldwide catastrophe like this. Not all in one day."

"Perhaps they simply hadn't invented it yet," she replies simply. Perhaps he couldn't imagine humanity destroying their own world, but she could. All too easily, as a matter of fact.

"You think so? The technology in this city isn't that far ahead of what I'm familiar with, though."

Not that that was much of an argument with the whole different worlds bit going on.

"...I'm thinking it's gotta have something to do with the Persona."

"Oh? Do tell."

Considering who she pulled out of HER psyche, this is a believable enough theory.

"...Uh. My theory kinda stopped there." He hadn't even thought that much about it before this conversation.

"But the stronger the demon presence, the stronger the Persona you'd need to fight, right? If this is really a place that the demons call their home, I'm guessing there's been some intense clashes in the past."

"Could be. Assuming the chicken came before the egg, of course." Still, she supposes it bears some curiosity. Just not necessarily from her.

"...Are demons supposed to be the chicken or the egg?" Atsuro ponders this highly important question for a few moments. "I think demon chickens wouldn't care so much about laying eggs more than pecking your eyes out, anyway."

She sighs. "You're not as funny as you think you are, you know." She crosses her arms. "Either way, we can't know for certain. And perhaps it doesn't matter."

"I don't think I'm that funny... so I guess it's even worse than that, huh?" Atsuro doesn't seem too fazed about this disparagement of his humor. At least she wasn't retaliating physically.

"Anyway... I guess the important thing for now is just to learn the ropes about Persona. If there's one thing that's for sure, we'll be seeing a lot more fighting in the future."

She blinks. And, somehow, smirks. Okay, that's kind of cute.

A sigh. "Indeed. So much for a peaceful seclusion, I suppose," she replies bitterly.

"...Well. If you're going to be the shopkeeper NPC, maybe you won't have to get in as many fights. ...Except with the people who try and steal from you."

The wisdom of youth.

"More of your strange talk again. Still, I like the idea of not getting into fights. You seem to have a lot of good ideas! Ho ho!"

She's been in far too many fights as is.

"Font of good advice, that's me."

Hey, they'd agreed with his plan in the end to take control of the server, right?

"...Well, I'll let you go look for your herbs now; I need to scope this area out myself."

"Do take care, hmm? Wouldn't want you getting hurt in such a wild place. But let me know if you see anything interesting. We may find the right herbs for your potion yet!"

Inwardly, she worries. She's growing too attached to this young man. That's no good. She'll need to work on this "liking people" issue.

A New Life, an Ancient Profession

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