The Intrepid [Private]

[Blue Funk - Tsuneo Imahori]

Currently Gate(s)
None
Current State
Base

---

Viktor was far from the only person to have stumbled across the strange mass of creatures; several others had, and unfortunately none of them had the ability to blow up things attacking them. That said, a few had been fortunate enough to have weapons on hand. They had escaped, and passed along the news about their own homes. Most of them came from smaller domed cities outside of Karakura City. A few of those that managed to survive came from a far stranger down; a little city that remained unprotected. There was no protective dome, no squadron of protectors from any of the various organizations, nothing of that sort. Some had questioned why the city remained standing for so long; maybe it was because there were few people with any detectable amount of spiritual pressure to attract monsters, or maybe because it was so out of the way that it wasn’t worth being raided. Others thought that it was because there was a guardian angel watching out for the city; they were the closest to being right.

The news of the strange mass of creatures had made its way to town, and yet that wasn’t what had tipped off a certain individual to their presence. Osora Town housed an old style tavern that offered home cooked food and warm beds to those travelling through the town to more secure or prosperous places. Said tavern was run by a woman who had come from seemingly nowhere and set up almost overnight. Natalia Ashmourne was famous in the town for her astounding ability to cook food that had moved men to tears, or so some people said. On this particular day, however, the tavern had a closed sign on it, which was strange to some of the individuals; it was a rare day that the tavern was closed.

Inside, Natalia was busy not with pot and pan, but with a computer. Specifically, it was a complex series of devices hooked up to a couple computers which she stored in a hidden room adjoining her personal quarters. Natalia was no ordinary tavern keeper or woman, but that’s a story for a different time; the present story demands the attention you see. Using the set-up she had managed to detect the mass of strange creatures about an hour back, and had been busy tracking them since. They had moved closer to the town in bursts and spurts, but it looked as though they may have passed by harmlessly. That was until people started to show up wounded. When that happened, she directed them towards the hospital and closed up for the day. After that, she tracked them for maybe fifteen more minutes before she decided it was time to take action.

The area surrounding Osora town and the domed cities of earth were now mostly barren wasteland or else places that Nature had begun to forcibly reclaim in the absence of mankind to keep it in check. The use of hover veihicles had become mandatory, though you could occasionally find older off-road vehicles from a different time. Within ten minutes Natalia left, much to the disappointment of some who had shown up hoping to grab a late lunch. She drove a simple vehicle that you’d be hard pressed to pick out in a crowd. Of course, when it was the only thing moving across a wasteland it was probably pretty damn easy to detect. That was fine to her; considering she was heading out to stop the creatures attacking and moving towards her home she wanted some attention. There were two ways it could play out and be helpful; she might attract the attention of whatever this shambling horde was and draw it to her, or she would draw the attention of one of the other organizations that was monitoring the area with their advanced tech and satellites and force them to intervene. There were ways this could go bad as well; she preferred to not think about those.

It turned out that neither was what would happen on this day. As she drew closer to the area that the horde was last detected she sensed their spiritual energies, a mass of writhing chaotic energies that somehow managed to feel like something crawling over her skin. Beyond that though she detected a different energy, a familiar one that felt like warmth and arrogance. Believe it or not though, that wasn’t enough to narrow it down yet. She accelerated; someone was running straight into them and there was no telling how it would turn out. Granted, she couldn’t lightly jump into a conflict; she was supposed to remain under cover less people start trying to understand her powers, or the source of her…longevity.

Suddenly the horizon blazed, accompanied by a massive increase in pressure being put out. She pulled to a halt as the fire roared; it died down after a few moments. The spiritual pressure vanished with it, and for a few moments it looked like she was too late. She was about to feel bad and turn around when a strange pulse flowed out. THAT she did recognize. Instinctively, she covered her face with the palm of her hand. Oh, this day was just starting to get tedious. That said, she pushed down on the accelerator; just because the person she expected to find was effectively immortal (both like and unlike her), it didn’t mean that he would be alright.

She pulled to a stop less than a hundred yards from the man’s body and what did she see? An ass. Literally. Viktor was face-down in the dirt, presumably unconscious, in the middle of a scorched wasteland that hadn’t needed his help to become that. Around him were the scorched remains of several of the creatures. She dug into the back seat for a moment before she produced a worn blanket she used to protect the seats of the craft when transporting groceries or other things; she tossed it under her arm and started walking over to him. She paused for a moment near one on of the destroyed husks; it looked vaguely humanoid though that much was hard to tell considering how more or less vaporized that thing was.

She crossed the rest of the distance to the downed man and did him the courtesy of covering him both for his decency and her own. She kneeled down over him a moment, having already decided how she was going to handle this meeting; the same way she dealt with it each time it happened. She and Viktor had crossed paths a handful of times; the first time she had kicked him in half, quite literally. Since that day, she had denied ever having taken that course of action or even having ever met him. It was to protect her and a certain entity that she housed within her body and possibly soul. She already had one person now who knew she was an immortal being. The more she let know, the more complicated things were going to become. So she would continue to pretend she had no idea who this man was.

“Um…sir, are you alright?” she asked, the question genuine. She wasn’t entirely clear on how his regeneration and immortality worked. She was careful to make her facial expression one of true concern however. All she could do was wait for a response now.

Current Gate(s)
None
Current State
Base

---

Natalia sat in relative silences while Viktor went about his spiel; most likely she was hearing something rather rare from this man, the truth. In a very real sense both he and her had made a living out of lying their way into each century. Each of them had their own true past though. She didn’t intrude on his recollection or even acknowledge she had heard it. He was a man of no small pride after all. He seemed rather dazed, which considering the fact that he had apparently caught himself in the conflagration that had taken place here only a short time before was understandable. From what she understood he was always in considerable pain when the regeneration took place. Pain was exceptionally good at scrambling the brains of people. Slowly, he seemed to come back to the correct time period, and responded to her actual question.
"N-ngh... I'm fine. Nothing... a little bedrest can't... handle. Few zero'th degree burns, probably ripped the very flesh and muscle off of my bone with that storm too... f-fuck... shouldn't be saying th--" he started, and she had to work hard to not cover her face with her palm at his apparent forgetfulness that being immortal wasn’t normal. She had no idea what a zero’th degree burn was, but she could infer the meaning. He trailed off as he seemed to have come to some kind of realization or conclusion, and as his vision cleared she made a point of looking a tad confused at his comments while maintaining her worry.

He wrapped the supplied blanket a little closer around himself.
“You again.” It wasn’t a question, and she started to open her mouth in a practiced lie to explain how he was mistaken. He cut her off.
“ "Come on. You're going to tell me that we've never met, that I'm just thinking of someone who you look similar to, right? That it's just some 'coincidence'. Huh. It's been five thousand years. And eight times. The way I see it, your lies got boring around the third time... fourth time... we'd met. There's a saying I adopted, from a 1950's novel.

'Once is happenstance,
Twice is coincidence,
Three times is enemy action.'

Though I doubt you're actually any sort of enemy of mine, it would be foolish to believe that you weren't the same person, all eight times we've met." Natalia’s face had gone carefully blank as he spoke as she did something she didn’t do often; she looked back into her memories.

When you live for over five thousand years, you don’t keep all your memories close to the surface to peruse like most people. Natalia had her carefully stored away in her mind, in a mental construct that was like a giant library. Ever book was a different set of memories, and each had significance to her in one way or another. She looked back into her memories of this particular man. Eight times not counting this, plus their initial meeting; had they really crossed paths close to ten times? Granted, the planet wasn’t as large as you would think when you live so long, but still. He was almost right though. She closed the book and focused again on the present. The activity took only a few moments at the speed of thought, and he had begun to speak again.
“ However, in order to keep whatever little secrets that you have hidden away in check, I'll begin anew. I'm alright, thank you. At least, now that I've healed... and now that you're here." he said with a smile and held his hand out by way of greeting as a strange red light healed the rest of his burn scars. She took the hand and shook it as he spoke.
"Viktor. Viktor Kiriyenko Meshcheryakova, though I really don't expect you to remember this one. What was it last time? Roy Mustang, or something? Really, I didn't think it'd fit in World War II Germany..." Laughing quietly, the man shook his head once more.
“Natalia Ashmourne.” she responded simply enough.
"Anyway, since this is quite the... embarrassment... I'd appreciate it if you could assist me in finding some... clothing."

She released his hand.
“Eleven times, actually. she said as she stood up. She walked over to her vehicle.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think I have much in the way of clothing for you. Maybe you’ll be lucky though.
She popped open the back of the vehicle, revealing an odd assortment of material goods. Natalia had a back-stock of materials that she found uses for in the tavern. She climbed up into the back of the vehicle and looked through several boxes that contained assorted clothing; these was spare clothing to be used in case she found herself sheltering the assorted peoples of Osora City. It was a closely kept secret, as in she was the only one who truly knew it, but the tavern had more or less been made into a fortress to deal with incursions that she could not personally turn away without being noticed. As such, she had things like spare clothes, and it was possible that she hadn’t taken all of them out of the vehicle.

Turns out that Viktor was lucky; she had clothes that she guessed would be roughly his size, though the pants may be a tad baggy and the pants a tad tight; considering the shirt was bright pink he wouldn’t be making any fashion statements either. She gathered up the assorted clothes that would keep him until he got somewhere that would better suit his clothing needs, and walked back over to the man.
“Best I’ve got on short notice.” she said as she handed him the clothes. For the sakes of all involved she turned away from him and walked back over to the vehicle, and busied herself with locking up.
“What brings you all the way out into the middle of nowhere?” she casually asked as she worked. She knew what he HAD done since he had arrived; blown up, quite literally.

The ground was still scorched all around where he had released the explosive power of his. While she worked, her eyes occasionally moved to the horizon. A display like that would draw attention from anyone in the area. It was also possible that more of the things she had originally tracked here had been separate of the group he had blown up, and that they may be attracted to the source of bright light, sound, and so forth. She wasn’t particularly worried about them, but she didn’t want ot be taken off guard by a bunch of monsters either. Beyond simply watching with her eyes though, she had extended her senses out to detect multiple things; hostility, gathering power, and so on. If someone was going to try and get the drop on her then she wasn’t willing to be caught so off guard.
“Careful, the dog at your door can be as dangerous as the wolf in the wood.”

The angelic voice didn’t come from any direction in particular; it was inside her, and so it seemed to come from everywhere. And it spoke a relevant piece of advice; she had met the man who was clothing himself nearby several times as either friend or foe, and it had not yet become entirely apparent which it was this time. While she doubted he’d actually take a swing at her, it had never hurt her to be cautious around powerful people.

[Here to Stay - Shiro Sagisu]

Current Gate(s)
None
Current State
Base

---

It seemed to take Viktor a moment to register her most pointed question. When he finally got to answer it he was rewarded with an actual reactions from Natalia; ”Oh, this and that you know. Same reason we met the first time,” she shot him a glance then, since the first time they had met he had been set on destroying a town she had taken under his protection. “Not because I want to conquer the town or anything, but simply so that I could actually find you once more,” she raised an eyebrow at that, a questioning undertone to her look. He kept on talking. It’s hard, not knowing anyone in this world to share your pain…” There was a dry laugh following that.

There were a few moments of silence at that; normal people might have called it an awkward silence, but Natalia barely registered it. She had no words for that comment strangely; she couldn’t speak for him, but she had purposefully remained aloof from society. Sure, she interacted with people and all, but the number of close connections she actually had could be counted on one hand at best. She gave a nod to the comment to show she understood, fore she truly did. Viktor moved, a vaguely uncomfortable motion, which attracted her attention once more. He asked about a better place to talk. She let another silence settle between them for a moment as she contemplated her next course of action.
“Yeah, I know a place. Hop in,” she said, giving a knock on the vehicle as she closed up the back and circled around towards the driver’s side.

Viktor had put on quite the show removing those monsters from this world, and it was wholly possible he had attracted the attention of one or more entities (either individual or organizations) that were interested in the kind of power that he wielded. She knew this, he knew this, and it probably attributed to the general feeling of unease coming off the man as he slid into the vehicle. The fact that he had just effectively rebuilt his body also contributed; she had witnessed his regenerative process once or twice, and she had figured out that it was not a painless process. It was very different from her own regenerative process; that was for sure. That wasn’t incredibly important here though; he had stiff muscles and effectively a new body to break in, so that was adding to his general discomfort.

She turned the hovercraft back on, got her bearings, and took off. The trip out here had taken a little longer than normal; she hadn’t been entirely certain where the monsters had moved too when she got out here, so she had been relying on her own senses and so on. The trip back was much more direct; it didn’t hurt that Natalia was a competent(and fast) driver. It was roughly 40 minutes after they departed that they hit the outskirts of the strange town that was Osora. The buildings were more square-ish than you’d find inside the domed cities, and darker than normal. Yet, oddly, there were lawns and sidewalks; it was a relic from the past that had been updated to the present. The buildings had been constructed with special materials that denied weak spiritual creatures access to those inside; this was an early defensive measure humankind had taken before the domed cities had truly begun to rule the world.

Natalia pulled to a stop behind the one building that seemed even more out of place than the town itself; it looked like an old wooden tavern all right. Where she parked there was a set of large double metal doors that served as the entry point to bring in supplies. Outside, sanctioned off by a large metal fence was a small garden of strange and beautiful orange lilies. Natalia opened one of the doors which had seemed to be unlocked (that was not the case, but that’s not important) and invited him in; while that may not have seemed like much to the ordinary person nowadays both she and her were from a different time when such an action brought with it the promise of hospitality and safety. In the old days the laws of hearth and home protect host and guest alike, and it was said that grave consequences followed those who broke those customs. Those were the days of gods though, but it still meant something to Natalia so she did it. She waved him towards the currently deserted central room. She pressed a few buttons on a console in the kitchen which brought up the lights in the main room and the air to keep it at a nice temperature.

She then set about making a meal; nothing incredibly fancy but delicious all the same. It was a seemingly simple chicken soup which held the honor of being Niem’s personal favorite dish. Some fresh vegetables, chicken, and spices; it was a good meal, and quick to prepare; much quicker than her stew. While the soup cooked she slipped off to her own quarters really quick to double check a readout; no other spiritual signals were exactly present on the system, so it seemed nothing had followed them in…yet. She returned to the kitchen and put the last touches on the soup before she poured out the two bowls. She carried them both out, setting one the counter of the bar just outside the kitchen for Viktor, and held her own as she took a bite.

She gave him time to eat before she aimed to get back on the conversation; she engaged in small talk about the tavern as needed and was generally cordial but for the most part let him lead the conversation or lack there-of while he ate; rebuilding your body was taxing work, and she assumed he was hungry from it. She waited till her was mostly done with his meal.
“Anything to drink?” she asked as she poured herself some kind of cider you’d be hard-pressed to find anymore.
“How’d you find out I might be out this way?” she asked; this was easily one of the most pointed and important questions she had for this man who had managed to find her so many times. Should he decide on the drink, she’d pour it easily enough and give it to him while she waited both for his answer and for whatever it was he wanted to discuss.