[OPEN] - a strange new land

[shieldofrohan]

Who: Éowyn and anyone else who happens to be around
What: A princess from Catholic Fantasy Land deals with arriving in a sex world, is confused.
When: May 8-10
Where: The castle (both the barracks and around the place generally), the village, and the forest.
Warnings: TBD

i. the barracks
There's no question that this is where she'd end up. There's plenty that discomfits her about the situation, from the idea of being tattooed to the thought of pledging her service to anyone but her King, but she's too proud to leave and too hot-blooded for the position not to appeal to her. For a long time, she's wanted nothing more than to fight. However much she knows she needs to go home (and she does, her uncle needs her there), the idea of being a soldier is too tempting to turn down.

But it's still a lot to take in, which is why for the first couple of nights in the castle, she can be found sitting cross-legged on her pallet in the clothes she was wearing when she got here, turning over the breastplate she was given in her hands and considering it. Occasionally, she says things under her breath that sound an awful lot like "but why?"


ii. around the castle
Éowyn has always prided herself on her sense of direction. But this place is unlike anywhere she's been before, with its complicated winding passageways and floors upon floors - very different to the open layout of Edoras. It takes some getting used to, is the point. And, as she's far too embarrassed to ask for another tour, she can be seen when off-shift, checking her map against the corridors with a frown.

And it isn't just the size of the place. It seems like every time she rounds a corner, there's something else to wonder at - and by wonder at, she mostly means wonder why. She's sheltered but not naive, and it isn't that she doesn't know what a dick is or even what some of the sex stuff is probably used for. She just doesn't know why you would put it everywhere. Don't they have anything better to use that space for? (Also, shut up, she's not blushing. That's, uh, the shadow of the helmet. Sure.)

She finds herself standing and staring a lot. At the paintings, for example. Her frown's obscured a little by her helmet, but it's still obvious.

"Is this common? In other lands, or only this?"


iii. the village and surroundings
Yes, it's confusing. Yes, it's more than a little disconcerting. But after all this time all but trapped in her uncle's hall, with duty always bearing down on her, it's also incredibly freeing to be here, where there's time off.

Frankly, that's not a concept she's ever really had. She's the Lady of Edoras, responsible for the household and her uncle's care and the reputation of the House of Éorl. Free time doesn't factor heavily into all that. It's actually pretty intoxicating to be able to just walk, breathe the free air, and to know that she could do just about anything and nobody would need to know. So she spends a lot of time wandering, taking in the sights. You can find her in the forest, humming under her breath as she walks without direction, or sitting on hilltops, or meandering through the village.

Or you can find her on the second day after her arrival, walking around the village with little scrapes and cuts on her bare thighs, accosting passers-by to ask where, in all of this, she can find a pair of leggings.

Comments

[ignisvulpes]

Geez. Why are all the chicks here so goddamn hard to get?

"Sorry, sorry!" He throws his hands in the air in a show of apology. "Let's see. Porn is short for pornography, AKA the ancient art of material made for the express purpose of getting someone hot and bothered. Or aroused, I guess, just so you don't think I'm being literal there. A utopia is..."

He pauses.

"... Well, see, it's actually a literary concept, yeah? Like a paradise that no society in the real world could ever hope to achieve..."

It's an accurate enough explanation, but... he somehow sounds pretty cavalier, almost mocking, about it.

[shieldofrohan]

She doesn't like his tone. There's nothing wrong with what he's saying, but his tone rankles her, perhaps more than it ought to. She's never been one to take well to any suggestion of mockery.

"Pornography," she says at last, considering it. "I have never come across such a thing."

[ignisvulpes]

"Wow, really?" His eyebrows rise in mild, but genuine surprise. "Where the hell are you from?"

[shieldofrohan]

"From Rohan." She sounds nonplussed. Honestly, she's sure such things exist where she's from, the more she thinks about it, but that doesn't mean she's seen them. After all, she's a highborn lady.

Also, she's been way too busy.

"North and west of Gondor," she adds, after a moment, since this is a distant land and Rohan a relatively small nation, politically speaking (much as it pains her to admit it). "Among the White Mountains."

[ignisvulpes]

Uh-huh.

Kaph has played enough Western RPGs to know all those names sound like some fantasy nonsense.

Not that he's surprised, exactly; after talking to Angel in his first or second day here, he heard enough to suspect the Mistress was somehow pulling people from all sorts of places. But still?

Well, it's kind of weird.

"So, not Earth."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn's look is blank, but also oddly condescending. "Of course. Middle-Earth." Which she assumes is what he means, because the alternative is that he's talking about soil, and that seems even stranger than what he's said so far. "What does it matter, in any case, where I am from? I am here, for now."

[ignisvulpes]

"... No, nononono." He shakes his fingers, grinning sardonically. "Different Earths. Get that? I mean, hell, this kingdom we're in, it's probably in a whole other Earth! Or a different planet or dimension or whatever."

He shrugs; the gesture is slightly more theatrical than it has any need to be.

"But you're right, it doesn't really matter! We're both here now. Two strangers united by our foreignness. You know? You feel me?"

[shieldofrohan]

Again she looks him up and down, scorn clear in her eyes. "United by naught else," she says, at last, shaking her head. "Do not think us comrades."

Rude, perhaps. But she doesn't like him, and for once in her life, her impoliteness can't reflect poorly on the line of Éorl - not if he does not even know what that line is, or whence it comes. There's something quite freeing about that.

i'm sorry about this terrible man

[ignisvulpes]

"... If that's how you wanna play it." Despite the grin on his face and the apparently casualness of his tone, there's something sharp and icy to his words.

If she's not an easy mark, then she isn't even worth the effort, and that means she might as well be as useless as a scrap doll to him.

never apologise for Art

[shieldofrohan]

That coldness actually comes as something of a relief to Éowyn. Now she's certain in her dislike, and not just being rude. He reminds her a little too much of another man she's known, whose worm-tongue turns cold and sharp just as quickly.

"It is." She draws herself up to her full height, turning away.