Application for hellpointe
Application
Player Info
Player Name: Hank Morgan, aka Davkas, Matthias
Player LJ: matthias_wave
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: AIM, MatthiasWave (creative, aren't I?)
Player Email: icemaster0206@earthlink.net
Are you 18 years of age or older? Yes
Character Info
Character Name: Erk
Character’s Age: Not given in canon, most likely late teens to early twenties. For convenience's sake, we'll say 20, especially considering his previous game history.
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Timeline: Post-game, two years at econtra_rpg
Appearance: Erk is of average height in Elibe, which under the circumstances means he's a bit on the short side in a modern setting like Bell Pointe - around 5'6". He's generally fairly slender, a fact which his occasional habit of neglecting his own upkeep when engrossed in a task has emphasized, but anyone paying attention will note that that doesn't mean he's out of shape. Going through two wars (or things that are uncomfortably close to wars, at least) will do that; he may not fight with a weapon, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still have to dodge them.
Erk's hair and eyes are a similar and remarkably deep shade of violet (entirely naturally, as varied shades of blue, green, purple, and unnaturally brilliant red seem to be in Elibe), and his skin is fairly pale. He tends to dress in a red cloak of heavy fabric, with a tunic and pants underneath it that tend to be of fairly muted colors. His clothes are actually made of very good-quality fabric - he's the protégé and something approaching the foster-son of an extremely important figure in Etruria, after all - but most of them are rather travel-worn by now. As an additional note, I tend to operate under the assumption that Erk acquired a few scars (probably mostly on his hands or in places covered by his clothes) during the events of his canon, but none that are particularly serious or notable thanks to access to healing magic and the span of time that has since passed.
History: Erk at the Fire Emblem Wikia
Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, also at the Fire Emblem Wikia (plot reference)
Following the end of his canon, Erk spent nearly two years at econtra_rpg, but he kept to himself for the most part there. There were really only a few people he knew well enough to recognize again if he ran into them; among them were Sonic the Hedgehog, Elincia and Ilyana from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, Sailors Mercury and Mars from Sailor Moon (note that he would only recognize them in their transformed states, and not as Mizuno Ami and Hino Rei, both due to the conventions of the genre and because the ones he met were from the live action adaptation and as such actually looked different in their civilian forms), Kadaj and Yazoo from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (I doubt he'd recognize Loz or Sephiroth specifically, but he'd probably peg them as being related) and Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender. He was, briefly, romantically involved with both Ilyana and Azula (at different times). He is also familiar with a female version of Yami no Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, who he would recognize as Atem, and as such would probably assume that any male version he met was an alternate thereof.
One thing to note is that due to the nature of Econtra (which allowed AU fandom characters), he will likely assume that if someone he recognizes does not recognize him in return, they are from "another world" - in other words, an alternate-universe counterpart to the one he knows. By the same token, he will probably assume that Bell Pointe itself is another world, and may or may not decide that the general strange goings-on in the town are by the agency of alien beings known as Entropi, energy beings that feed on life force and any other energy they can get their metaphorical hands on.
Econtra was a military camp, more or less, that conscripted people from other universes in order to fight off the attack of the Entropi on its version of Earth, as a desperate attempt - the Entropi had already drained the Earth of most of its resources and killed off nine-tenths of the human population. It was run by a splinter faction of Entropi known to the conscripts as the Keepers via their human intermediary, the Warden. The original compound was based on the ruins of Chernobyl. Conscripts were brought to Econtra by means of a machine called the Consulo, powered by an Entropi known to the residents as Indigeo after another machine that it also ran. Residents were equipped with cuffs that would deliver a sedative or an electric shock in case of violent action or escape attempts by their wearers.
About a year after Erk's arrival, there was an attack by a single Entropi, which killed several people with lightning strikes and injured many more before finally being destroyed. In something of a spiteful final strike it drew dormant radiation from beneath the ground, slowly contaminating the compound. The surviving residents were transported to another compound - much less regimented than the first, now a walled-off section of an abandoned city rather than a specially-built camp. They did quite a good job of fixing up the city, a few residents even opening businesses. After some time, another attack by the Entropi led to the residents having hallucinations of their own deaths in the roles of the original inhabitants of the city. When they awoke, the restraining cuffs were gone, and the compound was now under the direct surveillance of the Keepers - who proved themselves willing to destroy any who attempted to escape. Through all this, life proceeded as life tended to; most of the residents, after a while, began to settle into normal routines, webs of social interaction forming more or less normally among people who had no real choice but to wait and see what would happen. Another thing that happened was the residents' gradually-growing awareness of the Indigeo device being sentient, capped off by the Warden's revelation that the Indigeo was itself an Entropi, another of the Keepers.
Finally, a last battle came. The walls around the compound came down at last, revealing the devastated world to the Econtrites, and the Entropi mounted a last assault, overwhelming the Keepers. The residents were drawn into another series of hallucinations - those who failed to spot the flaws and shake them off lapsed into comas and died. The survivors - of which there were many, a certain strength of spirit being necessary to endure in Econtra - awakened to find that the Entropi they knew as Indigeo had destroyed all but one of the Entropi. This last was imprisoned in the Consulo device, powering it for the time needed to send the residents home at last, to the times and places they'd been plucked from. A few opted for other routes; a few who had grown close to others and had nothing to go back to in their own worlds went with their friends or lovers to their worlds instead.
Erk himself was returned home, and stayed there for several more months, his two years away having gone completely unnoticed by any but himself. Sometime shortly after the birth of Pent and Louise's first child, Klein, Erk found that a walk in the woods away from Castle Reglay brought him to an unfamiliar place, and found himself emerging from the woods at the edge of the peninsula, quite near the road that leads into Bell Pointe.
Personality: Erk has certain shades of the teenage iconoclast about him; he's introverted, and occasionally gives the impression that he'd rather be studying than interacting with people. He's quite capable of being charming, but can still be impatient, particularly with people who don't or can't keep up with him intellectually, though under most circumstances he restricts himself to sarcasm and a sardonic sense of humor. He's also a bit uptight, especially where it concerns Pent, his teacher - he's very conscious of the fact that he was taught and, to a great extent, raised by a nobleman and the best mage in the country, and of the difference in their stations. Pent's own dismissiveness of his rank doesn't really do a great deal to alleviate this, and really mostly contributes Erk's very parental sense of embarrassment about his teacher. He really does regard Pent and Louise as his parents to a great extent, and they care for each other deeply even if Erk finds their affection somewhat embarrassing. He has a hard time with affection in general, in fact, finding it hard to let people get close to him; to an extent, he may not consider himself worthy of it, as he seems to have a rather low opinion of himself. He's extremely unforgiving of his own failures and shortcomings, even socially - he has after one misstep lamented, "Why can't I talk to girls?" despite having only just slipped up once.
Above all, Erk values perseverance. This is particularly evident in his approach to his studies; he's an academic of the "I'll sleep when it's done" school. He has a tendency to pursue his work to the detriment of his health, and once (shortly after Pent took him as a student) worked himself fully to the point of collapse through neglecting food and sleep. But this carries through to other things he does, too; even the duties he finds onerous, like his escorting of Serra, he doesn't abandon - even if, like that job, they turn into more than he bargained for and more than he would be reasonably expected to fulfill, which is how he's ended up embroiled in two different wars. His tendency to persevere past his own limits has ended in at least one mid-battle conversation about allowing himself to overuse magic almost to the point of causing his body to shut down. He's very faithful to his friends as well; that's really what kept him in the fight against Nergal, since there's no doubt that if he'd really wanted to Eliwood or Hector would have allowed him to leave and go back to Etruria. Taciturn though he may be, he's dedicated to his friends and to whatever he sees as his duty.
Powers/Abilities: Erk is a sage, extremely skilled in the elemental magic known in his world as anima magic - the magic of fire, thunder, ice, and wind, cast through magical books. With all of his experience, his magical attacks are both powerful and precise, and he's possessed of a stronger resistance to magic than many people. He also has some ability with magical staves; these are most commonly sources of healing magic, but can also have a variety of utility effects, such as unlocking doors, putting enemies to sleep, restricting their magic, or sending them into a berserker rage, teleporting allies, providing light, repairing weapons, or bolstering allies' resistance to magic. The downside is that the tomes used for anima magic tend to be heavy, weighing about as much as any other weapon. It's implied in-game that anima magic is to some extent reliant on nature spirits of some description, but it's hard to be sure of what this might imply outside of spellcasting.
When Erk arrived in Bell Pointe, he was carrying three tomes and two staves:
Thunder and Elfire: These two tomes don't have a great deal to choose between them. Elfire, the fire spell, consistently hits a bit harder than Thunder, the electrical spell, but Thunder can be fired off faster and has a small chance to deal much more damage than normal. Both spells have a maximum range of about twenty feet.
Bolting: A lightning spell like Thunder, Bolting hits a bit harder than Elfire and significantly more than Thunder, and has an extremely long range, being able to strike an enemy anywhere within a hundred feet. As a trade-off, though, it's nearly useless against anything within thirty feet, and is more draining than his other spells, counting as two for the purposes of his limitations (see below).
Heal: Capable of healing mild, mostly surface injuries to targets within ten feet.
Restore: Doesn't heal injuries, but is useful for breaking some mind-affecting enchantments or healing poison. Again, has a relatively short range - the target has to be within ten feet.
Apart from his training with magic, Erk's abilities aren't anything outside the norm for humans; he's fast on his feet, but doesn't have a great deal of resistance to physical harm apart from getting out of the way, as befits the fact that he's relatively slender and spends more time studying than exercising. He has reasonable athletic endurance, capable of traveling a long way in a day, but this doesn't translate over to being able to withstand a lot of damage in battle. He's extremely intelligent, however, good at research and solving riddles.
Limitations: Canonically, overuse of magic without rest can strain a mage's body, sometimes to the point of death. In Bell Pointe, this will be magnified; he can only use three anima spells and two spells from a staff in a day. Reaching the limit of five spells leaves him exhausted the next day. Any attempt at a sixth spell will fail and has the potential to backfire, and a seventh attempt will strain him to the point that he loses consciousness for several hours and will burn out his capacity for magic, though a day of rest will restore it. Bolting, being a powerful and draining spell, counts as two of his uses of anima magic for a day, and if he attempts to use it when he's already used two or more anima spells it has the potential to backfire even if he still has staff spells remaining. Using it after he's already attempted a sixth spell, though, doesn't have an effect beyond that of a seventh attempt.
Writing Samples
Third Person Sample:
Erk sighed, raising his head again and shading his eyes against the glare. It was just his luck he'd arrive... wherever this was on an exceptionally bright and clear day. The sun was bright overhead, and the light reflected from the sea to the west dazzled his eyes, but he thought he was definitely closer to the town now. This was turning into a very long walk.
He'd just intended to take a short walk, really. A quick break from his studies; after all, as Master Pent had been fond of reminding him when he thought Erk had been working too hard, mages needed to keep a connection with nature, too. In point of fact Erk had been getting along quite well with the spirits near Castle Reglay, and had been having quite a nice running discussion with a wind-spirit that lived in the woods nearby; he'd been on his way out there again today when he'd rounded a bend in the path and the woods had suddenly become quite different woods with a much broader road running through them. What was more disturbing was that, after a moment of staring, Erk realized he recognized the surface of this road, though he hadn't seen it in some time. After all, not many roads on Elibe were paved with asphalt.
But this wasn't Econtra - if it was the same world at all, it wasn't anywhere nearby. The roads at Econtra - at New Econtra, at least - had been broken and crumbling after being neglected for so long, never mind that the land around it would never have been able to support the forest he'd arrived in. An alternate, then, if somewhere around the same level of technology. Lacking any better options, he'd headed along the road - the woods were almost impassible and awfully hard to navigate, judging by the fact that he'd come back to the same spot twice before coming to that resolve. The town was surprisingly visible, considering how far away it seemed to be; the distance didn't fool Erk, and he could see that it was, by the standards of Elibe, quite a large town. After a while of walking, the position of the sun told him two things - one, it had been at least an hour since he started out, and two, he'd arrived sometime in mid morning, around the same time it had been back in Etruria. So there didn't seem to be any danger of him not arriving before nightfall.
He passed a couple of apparently-abandoned... things on the road, which he could only assume were some sort of transportation, judging by the wheels. He'd never seen such things before, and had no idea how to use one, so he saw no real point in getting into one; he shrugged his cloak off, since it was becoming uncomfortably hot, and he kept walking. It was a very long walk, but he'd traveled longer and further on days as hot as this before, and at least this time he didn't have Serra chattering in his ear. Besides, what other choice did he have? In town, he'd be able to get some food and water, and rest a while, and find out where in Saint Elimine's name he was.
It was now mid afternoon, and Erk thought a couple hours more of walking would be enough to see him to the outskirts of the town. He sighed, put his head down to try and shade his eyes from the sun, and kept walking.
First Person Sample:
[Video post. Erk's hair is wet, but he appears unsurprised by the fact that the device is recording him. In fact, mostly he looks tired.]
Well. I'd hoped this wasn't going to happen again, but fate seems to be against me. What else is new?
Hello, my name is Erk, and the evidence suggests that I am once again trapped in another world. I've just walked for what I'm fairly certain was something like eight solid hours, so I am most likely going to be sampling this fruit basket someone was thoughtful enough to leave me while we talk, but I'll keep this simple for the moment. Where am I, and what do I need to know to survive this place with my body and my sanity intact?
[He gives a slight, sardonic grin.] I'll admit that last part is unlikely, but I can always hope.
Also, I hope this doesn't turn out to be the case, but... is there anyone I know here?
Player Info
Player Name: Hank Morgan, aka Davkas, Matthias
Player LJ: matthias_wave
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: AIM, MatthiasWave (creative, aren't I?)
Player Email: icemaster0206@earthlink.net
Are you 18 years of age or older? Yes
Character Info
Character Name: Erk
Character’s Age: Not given in canon, most likely late teens to early twenties. For convenience's sake, we'll say 20, especially considering his previous game history.
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
Timeline: Post-game, two years at econtra_rpg
Appearance: Erk is of average height in Elibe, which under the circumstances means he's a bit on the short side in a modern setting like Bell Pointe - around 5'6". He's generally fairly slender, a fact which his occasional habit of neglecting his own upkeep when engrossed in a task has emphasized, but anyone paying attention will note that that doesn't mean he's out of shape. Going through two wars (or things that are uncomfortably close to wars, at least) will do that; he may not fight with a weapon, but that doesn't mean he doesn't still have to dodge them.
Erk's hair and eyes are a similar and remarkably deep shade of violet (entirely naturally, as varied shades of blue, green, purple, and unnaturally brilliant red seem to be in Elibe), and his skin is fairly pale. He tends to dress in a red cloak of heavy fabric, with a tunic and pants underneath it that tend to be of fairly muted colors. His clothes are actually made of very good-quality fabric - he's the protégé and something approaching the foster-son of an extremely important figure in Etruria, after all - but most of them are rather travel-worn by now. As an additional note, I tend to operate under the assumption that Erk acquired a few scars (probably mostly on his hands or in places covered by his clothes) during the events of his canon, but none that are particularly serious or notable thanks to access to healing magic and the span of time that has since passed.
History: Erk at the Fire Emblem Wikia
Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, also at the Fire Emblem Wikia (plot reference)
Following the end of his canon, Erk spent nearly two years at econtra_rpg, but he kept to himself for the most part there. There were really only a few people he knew well enough to recognize again if he ran into them; among them were Sonic the Hedgehog, Elincia and Ilyana from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, Sailors Mercury and Mars from Sailor Moon (note that he would only recognize them in their transformed states, and not as Mizuno Ami and Hino Rei, both due to the conventions of the genre and because the ones he met were from the live action adaptation and as such actually looked different in their civilian forms), Kadaj and Yazoo from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (I doubt he'd recognize Loz or Sephiroth specifically, but he'd probably peg them as being related) and Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender. He was, briefly, romantically involved with both Ilyana and Azula (at different times). He is also familiar with a female version of Yami no Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh!, who he would recognize as Atem, and as such would probably assume that any male version he met was an alternate thereof.
One thing to note is that due to the nature of Econtra (which allowed AU fandom characters), he will likely assume that if someone he recognizes does not recognize him in return, they are from "another world" - in other words, an alternate-universe counterpart to the one he knows. By the same token, he will probably assume that Bell Pointe itself is another world, and may or may not decide that the general strange goings-on in the town are by the agency of alien beings known as Entropi, energy beings that feed on life force and any other energy they can get their metaphorical hands on.
Econtra was a military camp, more or less, that conscripted people from other universes in order to fight off the attack of the Entropi on its version of Earth, as a desperate attempt - the Entropi had already drained the Earth of most of its resources and killed off nine-tenths of the human population. It was run by a splinter faction of Entropi known to the conscripts as the Keepers via their human intermediary, the Warden. The original compound was based on the ruins of Chernobyl. Conscripts were brought to Econtra by means of a machine called the Consulo, powered by an Entropi known to the residents as Indigeo after another machine that it also ran. Residents were equipped with cuffs that would deliver a sedative or an electric shock in case of violent action or escape attempts by their wearers.
About a year after Erk's arrival, there was an attack by a single Entropi, which killed several people with lightning strikes and injured many more before finally being destroyed. In something of a spiteful final strike it drew dormant radiation from beneath the ground, slowly contaminating the compound. The surviving residents were transported to another compound - much less regimented than the first, now a walled-off section of an abandoned city rather than a specially-built camp. They did quite a good job of fixing up the city, a few residents even opening businesses. After some time, another attack by the Entropi led to the residents having hallucinations of their own deaths in the roles of the original inhabitants of the city. When they awoke, the restraining cuffs were gone, and the compound was now under the direct surveillance of the Keepers - who proved themselves willing to destroy any who attempted to escape. Through all this, life proceeded as life tended to; most of the residents, after a while, began to settle into normal routines, webs of social interaction forming more or less normally among people who had no real choice but to wait and see what would happen. Another thing that happened was the residents' gradually-growing awareness of the Indigeo device being sentient, capped off by the Warden's revelation that the Indigeo was itself an Entropi, another of the Keepers.
Finally, a last battle came. The walls around the compound came down at last, revealing the devastated world to the Econtrites, and the Entropi mounted a last assault, overwhelming the Keepers. The residents were drawn into another series of hallucinations - those who failed to spot the flaws and shake them off lapsed into comas and died. The survivors - of which there were many, a certain strength of spirit being necessary to endure in Econtra - awakened to find that the Entropi they knew as Indigeo had destroyed all but one of the Entropi. This last was imprisoned in the Consulo device, powering it for the time needed to send the residents home at last, to the times and places they'd been plucked from. A few opted for other routes; a few who had grown close to others and had nothing to go back to in their own worlds went with their friends or lovers to their worlds instead.
Erk himself was returned home, and stayed there for several more months, his two years away having gone completely unnoticed by any but himself. Sometime shortly after the birth of Pent and Louise's first child, Klein, Erk found that a walk in the woods away from Castle Reglay brought him to an unfamiliar place, and found himself emerging from the woods at the edge of the peninsula, quite near the road that leads into Bell Pointe.
Personality: Erk has certain shades of the teenage iconoclast about him; he's introverted, and occasionally gives the impression that he'd rather be studying than interacting with people. He's quite capable of being charming, but can still be impatient, particularly with people who don't or can't keep up with him intellectually, though under most circumstances he restricts himself to sarcasm and a sardonic sense of humor. He's also a bit uptight, especially where it concerns Pent, his teacher - he's very conscious of the fact that he was taught and, to a great extent, raised by a nobleman and the best mage in the country, and of the difference in their stations. Pent's own dismissiveness of his rank doesn't really do a great deal to alleviate this, and really mostly contributes Erk's very parental sense of embarrassment about his teacher. He really does regard Pent and Louise as his parents to a great extent, and they care for each other deeply even if Erk finds their affection somewhat embarrassing. He has a hard time with affection in general, in fact, finding it hard to let people get close to him; to an extent, he may not consider himself worthy of it, as he seems to have a rather low opinion of himself. He's extremely unforgiving of his own failures and shortcomings, even socially - he has after one misstep lamented, "Why can't I talk to girls?" despite having only just slipped up once.
Above all, Erk values perseverance. This is particularly evident in his approach to his studies; he's an academic of the "I'll sleep when it's done" school. He has a tendency to pursue his work to the detriment of his health, and once (shortly after Pent took him as a student) worked himself fully to the point of collapse through neglecting food and sleep. But this carries through to other things he does, too; even the duties he finds onerous, like his escorting of Serra, he doesn't abandon - even if, like that job, they turn into more than he bargained for and more than he would be reasonably expected to fulfill, which is how he's ended up embroiled in two different wars. His tendency to persevere past his own limits has ended in at least one mid-battle conversation about allowing himself to overuse magic almost to the point of causing his body to shut down. He's very faithful to his friends as well; that's really what kept him in the fight against Nergal, since there's no doubt that if he'd really wanted to Eliwood or Hector would have allowed him to leave and go back to Etruria. Taciturn though he may be, he's dedicated to his friends and to whatever he sees as his duty.
Powers/Abilities: Erk is a sage, extremely skilled in the elemental magic known in his world as anima magic - the magic of fire, thunder, ice, and wind, cast through magical books. With all of his experience, his magical attacks are both powerful and precise, and he's possessed of a stronger resistance to magic than many people. He also has some ability with magical staves; these are most commonly sources of healing magic, but can also have a variety of utility effects, such as unlocking doors, putting enemies to sleep, restricting their magic, or sending them into a berserker rage, teleporting allies, providing light, repairing weapons, or bolstering allies' resistance to magic. The downside is that the tomes used for anima magic tend to be heavy, weighing about as much as any other weapon. It's implied in-game that anima magic is to some extent reliant on nature spirits of some description, but it's hard to be sure of what this might imply outside of spellcasting.
When Erk arrived in Bell Pointe, he was carrying three tomes and two staves:
Thunder and Elfire: These two tomes don't have a great deal to choose between them. Elfire, the fire spell, consistently hits a bit harder than Thunder, the electrical spell, but Thunder can be fired off faster and has a small chance to deal much more damage than normal. Both spells have a maximum range of about twenty feet.
Bolting: A lightning spell like Thunder, Bolting hits a bit harder than Elfire and significantly more than Thunder, and has an extremely long range, being able to strike an enemy anywhere within a hundred feet. As a trade-off, though, it's nearly useless against anything within thirty feet, and is more draining than his other spells, counting as two for the purposes of his limitations (see below).
Heal: Capable of healing mild, mostly surface injuries to targets within ten feet.
Restore: Doesn't heal injuries, but is useful for breaking some mind-affecting enchantments or healing poison. Again, has a relatively short range - the target has to be within ten feet.
Apart from his training with magic, Erk's abilities aren't anything outside the norm for humans; he's fast on his feet, but doesn't have a great deal of resistance to physical harm apart from getting out of the way, as befits the fact that he's relatively slender and spends more time studying than exercising. He has reasonable athletic endurance, capable of traveling a long way in a day, but this doesn't translate over to being able to withstand a lot of damage in battle. He's extremely intelligent, however, good at research and solving riddles.
Limitations: Canonically, overuse of magic without rest can strain a mage's body, sometimes to the point of death. In Bell Pointe, this will be magnified; he can only use three anima spells and two spells from a staff in a day. Reaching the limit of five spells leaves him exhausted the next day. Any attempt at a sixth spell will fail and has the potential to backfire, and a seventh attempt will strain him to the point that he loses consciousness for several hours and will burn out his capacity for magic, though a day of rest will restore it. Bolting, being a powerful and draining spell, counts as two of his uses of anima magic for a day, and if he attempts to use it when he's already used two or more anima spells it has the potential to backfire even if he still has staff spells remaining. Using it after he's already attempted a sixth spell, though, doesn't have an effect beyond that of a seventh attempt.
Writing Samples
Third Person Sample:
Erk sighed, raising his head again and shading his eyes against the glare. It was just his luck he'd arrive... wherever this was on an exceptionally bright and clear day. The sun was bright overhead, and the light reflected from the sea to the west dazzled his eyes, but he thought he was definitely closer to the town now. This was turning into a very long walk.
He'd just intended to take a short walk, really. A quick break from his studies; after all, as Master Pent had been fond of reminding him when he thought Erk had been working too hard, mages needed to keep a connection with nature, too. In point of fact Erk had been getting along quite well with the spirits near Castle Reglay, and had been having quite a nice running discussion with a wind-spirit that lived in the woods nearby; he'd been on his way out there again today when he'd rounded a bend in the path and the woods had suddenly become quite different woods with a much broader road running through them. What was more disturbing was that, after a moment of staring, Erk realized he recognized the surface of this road, though he hadn't seen it in some time. After all, not many roads on Elibe were paved with asphalt.
But this wasn't Econtra - if it was the same world at all, it wasn't anywhere nearby. The roads at Econtra - at New Econtra, at least - had been broken and crumbling after being neglected for so long, never mind that the land around it would never have been able to support the forest he'd arrived in. An alternate, then, if somewhere around the same level of technology. Lacking any better options, he'd headed along the road - the woods were almost impassible and awfully hard to navigate, judging by the fact that he'd come back to the same spot twice before coming to that resolve. The town was surprisingly visible, considering how far away it seemed to be; the distance didn't fool Erk, and he could see that it was, by the standards of Elibe, quite a large town. After a while of walking, the position of the sun told him two things - one, it had been at least an hour since he started out, and two, he'd arrived sometime in mid morning, around the same time it had been back in Etruria. So there didn't seem to be any danger of him not arriving before nightfall.
He passed a couple of apparently-abandoned... things on the road, which he could only assume were some sort of transportation, judging by the wheels. He'd never seen such things before, and had no idea how to use one, so he saw no real point in getting into one; he shrugged his cloak off, since it was becoming uncomfortably hot, and he kept walking. It was a very long walk, but he'd traveled longer and further on days as hot as this before, and at least this time he didn't have Serra chattering in his ear. Besides, what other choice did he have? In town, he'd be able to get some food and water, and rest a while, and find out where in Saint Elimine's name he was.
It was now mid afternoon, and Erk thought a couple hours more of walking would be enough to see him to the outskirts of the town. He sighed, put his head down to try and shade his eyes from the sun, and kept walking.
First Person Sample:
[Video post. Erk's hair is wet, but he appears unsurprised by the fact that the device is recording him. In fact, mostly he looks tired.]
Well. I'd hoped this wasn't going to happen again, but fate seems to be against me. What else is new?
Hello, my name is Erk, and the evidence suggests that I am once again trapped in another world. I've just walked for what I'm fairly certain was something like eight solid hours, so I am most likely going to be sampling this fruit basket someone was thoughtful enough to leave me while we talk, but I'll keep this simple for the moment. Where am I, and what do I need to know to survive this place with my body and my sanity intact?
[He gives a slight, sardonic grin.] I'll admit that last part is unlikely, but I can always hope.
Also, I hope this doesn't turn out to be the case, but... is there anyone I know here?