Callisto (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
myfavoritemurder) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
wickedchouette2020-12-26 11:14 am
myfavoritemurder) wrote in wickedchouette2020-12-26 11:14 am
Entry tags:
(no subject)
[Callisto wakes up in a little thatch house in a small village, and at first breath, it reminds her so much of Cirra that it sends her head spinning. When she realizes a half-second later that it isn't her old home magically come back to life, fury quickly overtakes confusion, and the end result is that the welcoming do-gooder who swings by to greet her ends up in a headlock with her sword to his throat. In the ensuing scuffle, she learns a few important things. One - she is as alone as she was in Tartarus, with none of her army here to back her up. Two - the man she almost killed is not alone, and indeed has a whole slew of companions willing and able to rush to his defense. And three - she has never seen a small village filled to the brim with this many trained fighters. One woman (clearly favored by some god or another, or perhaps a minor goddess herself) has some sort of ice power, which she uses to immobilize Callisto by freezing her wrists to the wall.
While they have her restrained, they explain. She, like them, has been pulled from her own world and into this one, by persons unknown and for reasons unknown. Everyone wakes up in this village, and with every new arrival, a new little house for them magically appears. They grow and hunt their own food, and everybody works together (this part is stressed) to try to survive and find a way home. They show her something that they call a "network device" that's used for instantaneous communication over long distances, and explain that, just like the house, she's been given one of her own.
Callisto promises not to attack them if they set her free, and they actually do, which is as good evidence as anything that this is another world entirely - no one from her own would trust her promises. Luckily for them, though, she doesn't currently have a lot of interest in laying waste to this place - at the moment, she's more interested in getting out. It's clear to her that the entire village (with its magic people and magic houses and magic communication boxes) is in some sort of thrall to a powerful being, and she's not interested in sticking around until said being shows up to collect on all the gifts it's been giving out.
They all warn her that she's making a mistake. The forest beyond the village is filled with monsters, and no one who's tried to leave for good has ever come back. (Well, of course not, Callisto thinks to herself. What do they think leaving for good means?) She pays their warnings no mind, taking only her sword and, after some thought, the network device. She might not trust it enough to use it, but she wants to examine it further. And then she goes.
The forest, she finds, isn't that much different from the ones she's used to. Maybe it's filled with monsters and maybe it isn't, but it is filled with game animals, and she's able to easily catch a rabbit for dinner, which she cooks over an open fire. It's towards the end of her meal that she notices that she has a visitor, lurking in the trees about twenty yards from where she sits. She squints through the gloom, trying to make out any details or features, but the only conclusion she comes away with is that they're vaguely human-shaped.]
Are you one of the monsters?
[She calls out.]
Or are you somebody else who wasn't interested in being fattened up for slaughter?
While they have her restrained, they explain. She, like them, has been pulled from her own world and into this one, by persons unknown and for reasons unknown. Everyone wakes up in this village, and with every new arrival, a new little house for them magically appears. They grow and hunt their own food, and everybody works together (this part is stressed) to try to survive and find a way home. They show her something that they call a "network device" that's used for instantaneous communication over long distances, and explain that, just like the house, she's been given one of her own.
Callisto promises not to attack them if they set her free, and they actually do, which is as good evidence as anything that this is another world entirely - no one from her own would trust her promises. Luckily for them, though, she doesn't currently have a lot of interest in laying waste to this place - at the moment, she's more interested in getting out. It's clear to her that the entire village (with its magic people and magic houses and magic communication boxes) is in some sort of thrall to a powerful being, and she's not interested in sticking around until said being shows up to collect on all the gifts it's been giving out.
They all warn her that she's making a mistake. The forest beyond the village is filled with monsters, and no one who's tried to leave for good has ever come back. (Well, of course not, Callisto thinks to herself. What do they think leaving for good means?) She pays their warnings no mind, taking only her sword and, after some thought, the network device. She might not trust it enough to use it, but she wants to examine it further. And then she goes.
The forest, she finds, isn't that much different from the ones she's used to. Maybe it's filled with monsters and maybe it isn't, but it is filled with game animals, and she's able to easily catch a rabbit for dinner, which she cooks over an open fire. It's towards the end of her meal that she notices that she has a visitor, lurking in the trees about twenty yards from where she sits. She squints through the gloom, trying to make out any details or features, but the only conclusion she comes away with is that they're vaguely human-shaped.]
Are you one of the monsters?
[She calls out.]
Or are you somebody else who wasn't interested in being fattened up for slaughter?
no subject
[Despite the past tense, she doesn't actually sound broken up about it. Having her armies had suited her at the time, but she'd never thought of them as permanent fixtures in her life. Her first had been dissolved when Xena had captured her, and she neither knows nor particularly cares what happened to the second after she died. Maybe she'll be a warlord again someday, and maybe she won't. Whatever happens, she'll do what needs to be done.]
Fine, then. But if we're not allies, aren't you worried that I might attack you?
[She says this completely conversationally, pulling her skinned, cooked rabbit off the fire and examining it. Satisfied that it's well-done enough, she sinks her teeth into it.]