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To Lana,

I write first in thanks for sharing your knowledge with me, though I find myself very slow to take it up. Perhaps this shall cure me of it - to write to you and see your own words to bolster my own.

Second please have my sincerest apologies for cutting short my conversation with you. I hope I may make it up to you with the following notion:

You mentioned your boredom, and I thought, perhaps, we might undertake an activity together. For my sisters are often flighty spirits and seek amusement in the world, and so, I would accompany them before my duties took up much of my time and so in my rumination, I took the idea that perhaps this would aide you the same to quell your ill-humor in these circumstances.

I am very fond of going on walks to clear my mind, and thought perhaps we could go on one in each other's company? If that would please you, as it pleases me, do allow me to know what time you would prefer to go. I am fond of early in the morning to observe the blooms unfurling first thing.

With fond regards and hopes to ease your spirits,
Gilia St. Loe.

P.S. Please let me know if I have been badly spoken again, this is very new to me.

hey Gilia! it's good to hear from you, I got kind of worried there that I scared you off. glad you're doing ok.

going on a walk could be fun. it's probably a good idea to get to know this place a little better, if we're gonna be trapped here for who knows how long. I'm not usually an early morning person but I could probably make an exception for some good company. :)

it's ok if you want to keep writing the way you're used to, too. I don't think anyone's going to get on your case about it (except me, I guess lol).

OH and I have some good news! if you wait long enough then your phone will let you change your username eventually. looks like the assholes who kidnapped us aren't complete dickwads after all.

lmk when you want to go for that walk!
-Lana

[ Oh! Oh she wants too! Oh that is excellent news. Mayhaps a new friend! ]

To Lana,

I am most glad to hear from you - and please, not at all, think not on it.

Oh, that is excellent news! I am most glad to hear it! If it is not too much of an imposition when it is avaliable for me, may you show me how it is done? I am afraid I am not gifted in understanding these... devices.

How does tomorrow morning sound? I shall have my prayers, and then after we may walk?

Excitedly,
Gilia St. Loe.

Edited 2020-09-05 13:41 (UTC)

ya sure, I'll show you how to use your phone. did you know it has a camera too? I'll teach you all about selfies.

tomorrow morning works! I'll do my best to be up bright and early and look put together enough for a walk. I don't have any makeup here, though, so you're gonna have to deal with Lana-au-naturale. (idek if I spelled that right...)

To Lana,

Forgive my poor knowledge, I must seem so simple to you - what is a selfie?

Oh, of course not, we are not to attend any ceremony, I would not expect you to go through the extra effort on my account. As it stands, I am aware of the way women and men paint themselves but my own home is so far from other places, that outside of permanently marking ourselves, we do not do such things at all.

With eagerness,
Gilia St. Loe.

a selfie is when you take a picture of yourself. did you know these phones could do pictures and video? you probably don't know what a camera is, but like... think of it like a really detailed lifelike drawing. and a video is when the drawing moves.

ok cool, so no pressure to look on fleek or any of that bullshit. I like you already. :)

To Lana,

I am afraid no, I do not know understand quite at all what you refer to. But perhaps when we walk tomorrow, you may explain it to me further.

I shall see you then past dawn,
Gilia St. Loe.

ya I'll show you everything later.

see you then!

[ And the next morning Lana will be waiting by the lake, doing some stretches to try to wake her body up. ]

[ In the morning, there comes the knock of announcement.

And to appearance: Gilia is the sort of woman you'd expect, to write letters like that and woefully misunderstand everything about text messages. Dressed in long blue garment, with her hair wrapped back in a wimple and veil that hide her hair and neck, and - surprisingly tall, as she stands straight back and proper. Her hands clasped in front of her, fingers curled over the top. At an odd sort of ends, the fabric is clearly fine, delicately made and proper, but it falls simple as to pools to her feet. ]

Good morning, are you Madam Lana?

[ Meanwhile, Lana heard "walk" and thought "jogging" so she's dressed in a pair of leggings and a t-shirt, feeling woefully underdressed next to Gilia right now. She blinks, then laughs sheepishly to release some of her anxiety. ]

Heh.. Uh. Just Lana is fine, really. You must be Gilia.

[ Gilia curtseys, her head bowing, with her a hand held in front of her and her fingers curled as a centre balance to the gesture. Smoothed by practice. ]

I am. I am Gilia St. Loe, [ the words curve differently, when said, Sinleau, as if to make it all the more confusing. ] Daughter-Sea and Second Child and I am most heartily glad to meet you. Have you broken your fast this morning?

[ It occurs to Lana that the name doesn't sound like it's spelled. It also occurs to Lana that she is way out of her element. ]

Uh... Have I broken my what?

[ She thought they were just going for a walk. Does Gilia expect her to run fast? Gilia's definitely not dressed for running. ]

[ Gilia pauses a moment, wondering if she has said something dreadfully silly again. ]

Your fast? Have you eaten this morning?

[ ....... ]

[ Finally, it registers. ]

Ohhh! Break...fast... I get it. Uh, no, I haven't eaten anything.

[ Gilia nods, just as confused about the confusion, but doing her best to carry along with it as well she can. ]

I thought perhaps not. Here -

[ Do you want to know what really goes on in ridiculous medieval gowns?

Pockets. Pockets is what happens. Gilia reaches inside of her gowns folds and withdraws the small - what appears to be muffin that she has wrapped in a cloth, to pass to her companion. ] A small thing, to help for the walk.

[ Wow, how many fucking pockets does she have hiding in that dress of hers? But hey, free muffin! Lana grins, reaching out to take it. ]

Oh my gosh, sweet! Thank you. [ She pulls off a chunk of muffin and stuffs it in her mouth, only belatedly thinking to ask, ] Do you want to split it?

[ Maybe Gilia hasn't broken her fast either. ]

[ So many pockets. Fear women who make their own clothes, they will not be stopped with a lack of pockets.

Which is to say, Gilia shakes her head. ]

I shall not eat until after second prayers, though I thank you for the thought. But it is all yours, I am glad you like it.

[ She genuinely does seem glad, her expression content that she's happy to just take a bite. But with it sorted, she steps back, smoothing her hand down her dress to flatten it with a gesture outwards. ] Shall we?

[ Thankfully, Lana has a bite of muffin occupying her mouth just then, otherwise she would have asked some dumb question like, "why the fuck do you pray twice?" As it is, she just hesitates in her chewing slightly, then swallows and moves on. ]

Uh, yeah. Sure. Let's go!

[ It's a nice morning by the lake, complete with bird song and the sun reflecting off the rippling waters. Twigs and leaves crunch under Lana's sneakered feet as she walks on, feeling slightly awkward, unable to keep from thinking about just how little she has in common with her walking companion.

Still, Gilia seems nice enough, for someone who doesn't know shit about anything modern. ]

So... Tell me about where you came from? It's probably way different from this place, right?

[ There is of course, nothing exactly sprightly to the walk. That is not how a lady walks about a garden path.

But that said - Gilia is tall. Her stride is longer, as much as she doesn't deliberately walk too fast. Rather she is a woman of - structured position. Her hands are clasped in front of her, her head raised up to walk with a straight back and lowered shoulders. An effort to seem effortless. ]

It is, that, yes. The isle St. Loe is often described as a the edge of all lands. Though the forest has... something of the same kind that you see here. But far more rugged, in landscape. We... have nothing like houses like this, rooms like this, items like this.

Yeah, I bet. You seem pretty good at picking up on all the new stuff, though. You figured out texting by yourself... Sort of.

[ Still got to work on loosening up her vocabulary and grammar, but then Lana thinks that might be an uphill battle, and really, proper texting etiquette is not the hill she wants to die on, so she'll give up on that pipe dream.

She walks a lot more casually, arms crossed over her chest, sneaker-ed feet scuffing along the ground as they go, head on a swivel to look pretty much everywhere but straight ahead. ]

For what it's worth, this kind of quaint forest area is new to me, too. I come from Queens. Uh, it's part of the biggest city in the country, where I come from. I had never even left the New York greater metropolitan area before until recently. [ Though really, does hitchhiking aboard a stolen helicarrier all the way to the airspace over Latveria even count? It's not like she went through customs or even bought a postcard to commemorate her trip. ]

Yes... I do wonder. It is very slow. I am sure it is only my inexperience talking. But to constantly have to start again when you make a mistake is... very tiresome. I cannot even cross out a wrong letter.

[ She sighs, gentle and exhausted at the thought of writing another missive to someone on the device. ]

Quaint... I have not ever thought of a forest as quaint but... I suppose it could be so? Though you must be very brave. Most I know are rather always concerned with bandits and wolves, hiding away in it.

[ She finds nature as beautiful as any. But there is no wild freedom to the world in between the trees, not in her experience, or those around her. All know you must fear the unaccounted for spaces between villages. ] A very big city? I could hardly imagine it.

I mean... Has anyone showed you the backspace button yet? It's not super hard to delete something you've written. I could show you how.

[ Lana is of the mind that texting is WAY easier than writing out an actual letter. But then, she's been texting for a lot longer than Gilia has/ ]

Oh, yeah. I'm not afraid of robbers or wolves or whatever. I can defend myself pretty well.

[ She knows how to throw a punch, and in a pinch she can just blow them the fuck up. NBD. ]

The biggest. Like... I don't even know how to describe it to you. Queens is only one of the five boroughs. So really, it's like five cities in one.

[ She picks up at that. A way not to suffer painstakingly through writing out every letter? ]

I would like that, if it is at all possible and is no great trouble to you. [ Though her voice softens, a little nervous. Any kind of fighter makes her nervous. ] Are you a soldier? I suppose... with a city so large... it must be necessary to have them?

Yeah, it's NBD, I'll show you later. [ A pause, then she clarifies. ] "NBD" stands for "no big deal."

[ She's really going to have to start from scratch here, huh. Not that it's a problem, she's got fuck all else to do in this shit hole, but it's gonna be a learning curve for the both of them. ]

A soldier? Ah, no. Not anything formal like that. Uh... The world I come from, we have different levels of people who fight crime and help people. Countries have a military— armies, navies, air force, shit like that. Then cities have police and fire departments. But cops are bastards most of the time and can't fucking get shit done on their own, 'cause of all the red tape they have to work through. So then there's another layer: the superheroes. Like me. People with special powers who use their abilities to help stop other people with special powers from hurting people.

To kindly resident of the Lake,

For your winter stores, I have prepared this food for you to keep before the snows come. Whilst we have a glut of food at present, it is best to keep this in the case that should we be trapped inside your house, you can rely on this food to help you see through until the thaw frees any blocked roads back to town.

I hope you find it suitable and that it keeps you well.

In Health and to your Good Will,
Gilia St. Loe, Second Child, Daughter-Sea, Of the Isle St. Loe, She Who Sings the Sea to Prosperity

[ The package includes:

5 x 1kg bags of Salt

5 x 1kg bags of Sugar

30 x 1kg bags of Flour

3 x 280g Yeast

30 x 1ltr jars of Butter

10 x Jar of Pickled Cabbage

10 x Jar of Pickled Tomatoes

10 x Jar of Jam Fruit Preserves ( Assorted: Strawberry, Blueberry, etc )

10 x 1kg sides of salted meat ( pork, lamb, beef )

5 x Jars of Dried Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Coriander, Dill

20 x Pancake Mix

10 x Cake Mix

1 x 2kg Flax Seed ( + recipe how to use it for cakes to replace eggs )

1 x Recipie for How To Make Bread, 1 x Recipie for How To Long Stew Dried Meat

1 x Large Cooking Pot

1 x Baking Tray

]

TWO. DAYS. LATER.

@bombshell

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○ MID OCT