isleofavalon | (open) help out a newbie

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(open) help out a newbie

🧙 WHO: Minako Aino and you!
⚔️️ WHAT: Minako is new to town, so it's time to explore.
🕒 WHEN: Mid-July
🗺️ WHERE: Camelot
⚠️ WARNINGS: Should be none, will edit if that changes!

(a. at the senshi (and friends!) house)

[ Minako's arrival hadn't exactly been.. pleasant. Somewhere between everything being so chaotic back home right before she showed up here instead, then suddenly being dropped into the water out of nowhere, and then getting covered in gross jelly stuff didn't exactly make it the most fun course of events.

But at least Makoto helped her over to the house, and now Minako has been able to bathe and get all that junk out of her hair, things are starting to look up a little more. Or at least, Minako thinks she looks presentable enough to be seen by others.

Which means she starts wandering the house, peeking her head into all the rooms so she can greet people with a: ]

Hi! [ You know, casual. Just showed up here. No biggie. ]

(b. on the streets of camelot)

[ If you just happen to be calmly walking along the city streets, your moment of relative peace and quiet gets interrupted really, really quickly.

Because you might suddenly feel something jumping on you. It happens so fast that you can't even see what it is, other than that there's a sudden pressure on your head, like something is clinging on for dear life up there. If you try to remove it - which is possible if you put some effort into it - you'll find it's a cat. A kind of.. odd-looking cat, since it's a little too big for your usual cat, but it's still definitely a cat.

Or even if you don't manage to remove it, there's suddenly a blonde girl outright charging at you, yelling out-- ]

Wait!

[ What do you do. Do you run. Do you stay. Do you ponder why your life suddenly turned out like this? ]

(c. outside a bakery)

[ After having managed to recover her familiar, Minako is making sure to tightly hold it to her chest, not wantin to start an entire chase scene all over again.

Which means things are a little bit calmer right now. Instead you might find the blonde girl standing outside a bakery, staring at the delicious goods inside, looking like she's about to drool right over them. ]

Ahh, it looks so good, right? [ She squeezes the cat-like creature a little. ] Maybe you were just hungry too.. Rough is the fate of those who don't have money.. [ Please, Minako. You literally have a house full of friends you're staying with. Cut down on the melodramatics.

Still, her stomach growls. Loudly. That chase must have taken some energy. Do you help out this poor blonde girl. ]

(d. on the streets of camelot, less chaos edition)

[ Or maybe you, very simply, just find the girl walking up to you on the middle of the streets. Do you know her? Probably not! And yet she talks to you so casually, as if you're not total strangers. Welcome to the power of an extreme extrovert. ]

Hey! Sooo.. if someone wanted to practice these new powers everyone's talking about, where do they do that? Won't you help a cute girl out?

[ Look at her batting those doe eyes at you! You're locked into this fate now. It's inescapable. ]

(ooc: as a note for those who have threaded with me on the tdm, i am more than willing to carry those over as in-game canon, so feel free to assume those interactions happened! c: )

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...

[ Minako's eyes widen.

She gasps.

For a moment she looks at Della as if she's ready to accept the duck as her new goddess. Even the whole talking, walking duck thing isn't so weird to her. Sure, she'll accept duck-people as long as they're offering her pastries. ]

F-For me..? You must have realised that beautiful young girls like me aren't supposed to have to survive a day without pastries..!

[ Della gives some muffled chuckles, before chowing down and finishing what's in her mouth with a hearty swallow. ]

Sure, let's go with that... but they also had a buy three, get the fourth free deal going on in there, so I figured you could have my extra, since I only needed to feed three mouths.

[ Minako is indeed just the fourth mouth Della is feeding right now, since she's already taking the pastry offered to her, starting to happily chomp down on it.

She's content. Life is so much better now, despite being dragged off to a different world. The earth is healing. Her crops are being watered. ]

Still, so many people would be greedy enough to not share so easily..! [ At least she's speaking after swallowing. Otherwise no one would be able to understand anything here. ] You absolutely have to be a goddess!

[ A duck goddess. ]

Nah, I turned that offer down. Flattered, but nope, that kind of life isn't for me.

[ That... didn't sound like a joke??? ]

I'm as human... er, mortal, I guess, as you are. We just look different, that's all.

[ It really didn't sound like a joke.

But then again, Minako claims it in a half-joking half-truth-telling way all the time.. So it's kind of easy to shove aside for now. It's always something to bring up later.

Especially since right now she's a little more focused on: ]

Oh..! You mean the whole.. talking duck thing? [ She figures that's what Della means by looking different, anyway, and Minako waves a quick, dismissive hand. ] Don't worry, I don't think it's all that weird!

[ The benefit of living with a talking cat for years. ]

In fact, you've got to be the duck with the best hair I've ever seen! [ Gran.. ted.. that's mostly since she hasn't really seen a duck with a hairstyle before, okay.

But it still counts. ]

[ Della has a fair guess she's probably the only duck with hair this girl's seen, but can also tell she means well. Any time Della doesn't get the 'OMG YOU'RE A DUCK' reaction is a win in her book. ]

Hey, thanks! Yours isn't so bad yourself. Always been a fan of long and flowy.

[ She shifts the bag around to offer a hand to shake. ]

Name's Della Duck.

Minako Aino!

[ She will definitely take that hand to shake it, thanks. With her pastry-free hand, just so Della won't find both of her hands covered in sugary goodness. ]

I'm new here. Really new. [ 'Just arrived today or yesterday' new, basically. ] But I guess I'm realising this place can't be all that bad when it's got people willing to share their snacks!

It sure is! There's plenty of people here that are more than happy to help out, and that includes me!

I've been here for a little while, so I could try to answer any questions you have.

[ As long as 'helping out' means 'sharing snacks', Minako is all for this concept.

But she does suppose that snacks aren't the only important thing here. Sure, her friends may already have explained a lot to her at this point, but Minako doesn't doubt there's still way more to find out about this place. Like.. ]

Hmm.. well, how long have you been here then?

[ She guesses that might help give her an idea of how long she should expect to be here. Surely they can't be kept here forever, right? Their world might need them! ]

[ Pauses to do some mental math in her head. ]

... Four or five months now? I try not to think about it too much.

Four or five months..

[ Minako repeats, as if to get it fully through to herself. People have been stuck in this place for months. And with so many of the people from her world there, she can only hope no threat arrives on Earth in the meantime back home. ]

And no one has found a way back home yet during all that time? Or does everyone just want to help out here that badly? [ There's no judgement in that latter statement! Minako gets it. She's also inclined to help out, but still.. she imagines there's more people who have stuff to do back home. ]

Edited 2021-07-16 14:14 (UTC)

They dunno how to send us back yet, but!

[ She holds out a flat palm - a gentle stop sign. ]

Let me guess. You're worried about home? Then chill - it's like they hit a giant pause button on our worlds. No one's missing us, and everyone's fine. Trust me, we'd all be going crazy if that wasn't the case.

[ She shifts.

And pauses. It's only for a moment, but there's so much shooting through Minako's mind right now. She's used to it, after all, with how much responsibility she's always taken on her shoulders. She's the leader - she is the one who has to weigh these decisions. Whether to trust this information.

In the end she isn't quite sure how to feel about the information just yet, but she doesn't want it to sour the mood or the conversation, so Minako quickly smiles again, as ditzy as she always is. ]

Wellll, I would say there are plenty of other things to make you go crazy in this place! Like being dropped into a lake that ruins your hair first thing!

[ Thankfully, this is the right topic to distract Della from Minako's woes - ]

YES, UGH! That was the worst! It was so... cold, and slimy, and had those... gross creatures everywhere!

Wait, the same thing happened to you?!

[ Minako thought this was just an unfortunate thing that happened on the specific day she arrived! But here Della is telling her that it's just always like that.

Minako's jaw drops. ]

We have to do something about that! We can't just let this place treat us that way..! How many beautiful girls must suffer?! [ Congratulations, Della, you are now also included in the 'beautiful girls' category. ]

[ Who is she to deny a compliment? ]

It happened to ALL of us! That's how we all arrive in this world! Why can't they conjure up some fancy magic to have us land on a bed of fluffy pillows?

Exactly! [ Does she know who the 'they' in question are here?

No. But it doesn't matter. Whoever is in charge of that has to change it! ]

The least this place could do in return for dragging us in is being nice about it! Make us land on fluffy pillows! Feed us grapes! Give us all a whole group of handsome, shirtless men to stare at!

[ That last point makes Della think of the Celliwig trials, and the... uh... interesting temptations that had popped up for her.

She clears her throat, cheeks a bit flushed, trying to remove the memory about almost being the meat in a hot lady sandwich. ]

A-hem! If it helps, there are a lot of guys here, mostly with shirts, that are humans. In fact, I'd say 99.99% percent of the people are humans or human-looking people, so the odds are pretty good of you finding some dudes to oogle.

[ She sniffs.

Dramatically. ]

R-Really? [ Judging by the way she's saying it, you'd think she might just die if she doesn't have a few guys to oogle at all times.. ] And are those human men handsome..?

Uhhh... I'm not really the person to ask.

To be honest, to me? You're all... weird flesh beings. We don't have humans in my world. So I don't know what you guys consider handsome.

[ She is trying to be gentle, as usually she calls you guys hideous flesh beings. ]

But, like I said, with so many humans here, at least one of them is bound to be your type right?

W-Wait, hold on!

[ Minako doesn't doubt that last line. No, that isn't the problem here. The problem lies elsewhere entirely. ]

Are you.. Are you saying that you think I'm [ yes, she's putting a dramatic hand on her own chest ] a weird flesh being?

After I complimented your hair?!

[ ... Uh-oh. Quick, loopholes, find the loopholes! ]

... I think your hair is really beautiful! I really like long hair on girls.

[ Penny being the rare exception, although she wouldn't be opposed to Penny growing that out - GETTING OFF TRACK HERE ]

And tall girls are perfect to me! The taller the better!

[ A cheat, since ducks are pretty much considered the smallest of the birds in canon so ALL are tall to her. ]

And if you can kick my tailfeathers with ease, then, shoot, I'm totally helpless in that category too!

[ to quote a famous anime space cowboy, "I love a woman who can kick my ass." ]

...

[ There's a silence moment where it seems like Minako is truly trying to see whether these compliments can weigh up against the idea of Della thinking she's some sort of weird flesh being.

But it doesn't take too long before it seems like these compliments are approved, since Minako goes from looking like she could cry all the way over to flashing a big smile in two seconds flat. ]

Right, right, I am a tall, powerful, attractive girl with beautiful hair..! You've got to be a good person after all if you know how to appreciate that!

[ Phew. This conversation's gone in so many directions that Della feels like she needs a road map. ]

Glad to have helped...? You feel better now?

[ Welcome to conversations with Minako.

It's a wild ride. ]

I think so! [ She nods. ] Thanks for the food, too!

[ That's two good notches on Della's record. ]

I think I now feel ready to face the rest of the day..!

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sos_pilot - 2021-07-19 10:30 (UTC) - Expand

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