Aspiration

[Lord_Shadow]

((F03 - Tania Chell: START!))

Great minds from all across the globe have asked many questions and made many inquiries into the nature of the human condition. People of all ages have made observations and come to conclusions of varying degrees of accuracy and applicability about the subject. Grand and provocative ideas filled the collective being of humanity.

Tania Chell was one such person. Though she never personally contributed much of anything, preferring to think rather than speak or act. Even so, she couldn't help but feel she was a part of that ever ongoing quest to understand one's self and others.

But the question on her mind at the moment was not one of such grandiose nature. It was rather simple and not quite thought out.

"Where am I?" The words echoed in her head as she surveyed her surroundings. There was nothing familiar, nothing about the place that seemed to indicate where she was.

So naturally, the first thing that she resolved to do was to find out where she was. The area around was old, musty and didn't seem like the kind of place someone would be overjoyed to wake up in. Still, she had woken up there, and that meant someone had to have brought her there.

"Someone... is anyone there..." she asked cautiously.

With any luck she'd find someone, possibly the person who brought her there. Things were a little hazy, all the more given that she had slept most of the ride and hadn't really payed attention to what happened. But Tania was sure that with a little thought, a lot of effort, and someone to figure this out with things would become clear.

[Caporacolo*]

[Tito Simonin continued from I Can Hear the Bells]

So he ran away from the little group formed in the streets, and with a some luck, he could have left behind some possible followers too.
He found himself between some old houses. The stench of rotten stuff was easy to smell, but could be bearable with not so many problems.

When he finally thought he was alone, he open his bag to get some food. Dried beef jerky seemed ok, and he loved that kind of anglosaxon food. Small bites brought some pieces of that jerky into his mouth. Then, he put the rest back into the package and looked around.

He randomly chose a house, which showed up to be the most covered one into the small agglomerate.
Slow and little steps brought him in few time to the door of a decrepit wooden building, which apparently was empty.

With caution, putting his full bag in front of him, just to cover some random melee attack, he approached the door to open it when he heard some words.
A girl voice, coming from the inside. Now, his heart accelerated, the beats echoed in his body, but that wasn't the moment to block.
So he opened the door fast and looked inside.

The girl was there, and actually he knew there were high possibilities to find someone there. Now, he only needed some luck, hoping the girl didn't have a dangerous weapon he should have dealt with, in the most extreme case.

"Hey there...i don't wanna hurt you." He smiled, trying to reassure Tania, and he slowly closed the door. The only problem was that he didn't know her very well, and viceversa was probably the same.

He stopped there, some meters away from the other student, firmly staring her.

Now it was up to her how to behave in that situation, but Tito was ready to react to almost anything she could do

[Lord_Shadow]

Tania all but jumped out of her skin at the sound of the boy's voice. She hadn't expected to find someone so quickly.

He just stood there a few meters away, staring at her. "Uh... hi," she squeaked "n-nice to meet you." She coughed. "Tania. Tania Chell."

She noticed the bag he had with him, and a similar bag lying next to where she had woken up. It took her a moment to realized that belonged to her. Oh, that's nice. Someone had been kind enough to give her a bag of things to help her.

She knelt down to open the bag, keeping for a moment the other person out her focus. In it were some supplies, and a bottle of rather questionable looking liquid labeled 'Miracle Elixir'. She doubted it was the grand panacea of legend that the name suggested. Still, she brought it out.

"Um... do you have any idea where we are? Or what happened? Or what this is?" So many questions filled her head right now. She hoped this very nice if slightly scary person could answer a few of them.

[Caporacolo*]

The girl seemed so nice, and at the same time she was really docile.

Many questions were asked to Tito, and he calmly answered all of them

"I'm Tito and we are in a desert. Right now we're in a Ghost Town to be precise" He said, softly smiling.

"This is a "game", as the "sheriff" said, and the aim of the game is to kill each other and...i suppose that liquid is your designed weapon..." he laughed a bit, just to continue "...Seems you haven't got luckier than me, maybe."

He doesn't know what was inside that little bottle, so did the girl. But now he had to point out the situation, which wasn't so calm as they were trying to make it.

"Now, you got to understand some things: First of all, I'm not gonna hurt you." At least that was his first intention, since he had no reason to kill the girl at that time, and perhaps he would not have been able to do it.
Killing a person...isn't happening everyday but probably he would be forced to do that, somehow, at some moment.

"Also, we gotta leave this house, i believe it's not safe to stay still. We have to constantly be moving."

Anyway he needed a weapon, something he could have handled to fight, or at least to defend himself. Something like a staff, a baton or anything like that would have worked really well.

"Last thing i have to tell you is that outside here, in the streets of the town, there are four people i met, and i'm not planning to meet them again, for now, this is why we need to leave. Oh, and, eat some jerky you got in that bag, you'll need a lot of energy."

He wasn't taking in account that maybe the girl didn't want to go with him, but that would be a stupid choice, considering the "weapon", if we can call the mysterious liquid like that, she got.

"So, are you coming?"

These were his last words before he started approaching the door again, but still keeping an eye on Tania.

[Lord_Shadow]

So much information, so little context to make sense of it all. A Ghost Town, a game, to kill each other, all of it was a lot to take in. But Tania would have to sort that all out later.

"Okay. Nice to meet you Tito." She stuck out her hand, before realizing that she was holding the miracle elixir with it. She nearly dropped it, fumbling for a second, but she recovered before she lost her grip completely. "Eh heh heh." She laughed nervously and smiled.

She took Tito's advice and opened her bag. She stuffed the bottle back in and took out something to eat. It really wasn't that much but it was something. And if they needed to move like he said, then it made sense to get some energy.

"Alright, let's go." She kept in line behind him. She wasn't sure what good she would do if they got into a bad situation, but she would try her best. She took one last look at the area before she was ready to go.

"This is all so strange. And I still have little idea what's going on. Could this all be real? Or is it all an elaborate fantasy? It feels real, but something about it all seems so unreal. But debating its reality isn't helping right now. What matters is that I'm ready to move." She took a deep breath, and put one foot in front of the other.

((Tania Chell continued in Dance-Off on the Prairie.))

[Caporacolo*]

So, the girl seemed so quiet and really friendly. However, Tito didn't know why he had to bring people with him. For sure, there was a tactical meaning behind that, but what could a simple girl with an "elixir" do to help him? It was a hard question to answer, but who knows?

Two minds are better than one, so they can confront ideas and points of views. Did Tito really want to listen to anything said by the girl, if he thought to be right? In another contest, maybe not, but in this "game" he couldn't do anything else.

Rapid looks at the room before leaving and his eyes stopped on an object. A simple daily object, that used in the right way, could be fatal. A wooden broom, dusty but in a good shape. He only needed the pole, which was perfect, even though it was far shorter, to use it as the Wing Chun pole.

Few moments took to separate the pole from the other stuff, but not a hard issue.

"Now, let's see what's expecting us..."

Firmly said just before stepping out the house, followed by Tania.

[Tito Simonin continued elsewhere]