They are not Accord and Kid Win! (She also cannot hear the Simurgh. At all.)

She's underground, now, although the ceiling arches high above her. It's lit lowly; there's a giant snake statue barely visible on one end of the arena. Two people are - were - fighting, but they stop as soon as she appears, twisting towards her. A teenager, maybe fifteen or sixteen, and an older man whose age is impossible to pin down. Neither's wearing a mask. The teenager is in grey shorts and a white shirt that splits to show his upper chest, naked blade in his hand, eyes like red shards.

The older man is in shades of purple and cream, with long black hair and striking golden eyes framed by purple, snake-like makeup. His skin is paper white.

He tilts his head at her, and asks a question, halfway between sharp and amused. The language might be Japanese?

....what.

-- she catches herself before she shifts back into the Other Side, her surprise nearly making her lose control of her grip on this reality.

She takes one step back in response, "Um?"

Chuckle, and a gesture to the boy, who snaps something. Again in that language. The question repeats, then he adds something.

"I think that's Japanese? Yeah, I don't speak that. I know English, French and Italian. Mi dispiace. Pick one."

Definitely interested now! He's looking at her rather like she just did an unexpected trick. Slowly, like someone who's barely encountered the language, he says something in what's probably a different East Asian language. Sounds vaguely Korean? Then another, that she can't place.

(The boy looks annoyed).

"Yeah, still not understanding you," she says in French. "Where the fuck are we? Are you hiding? I can't... I can't hear the Simurgh at all. Did you bring me here?"

He says something offhand and dismissive, vanishes, reappears touching her - 

!!

-- she instinctively shifts and -- fuck she can't --

The world shifts, darkens, and the remaining light changes colour -- changes frequency? -- and they are both in the Other Side.

She moves to punch him in the fucking face.

He catches her fist, but looks more than a little concerned. He asks something, sharp.

W̶̛̗͙͌ͮ̄̽̈́h̨̢͕̤̳̜̭̤͐͋a̳͓̭̳̬͆̑̏̒̕t̒ͩ̌͏̨̨̩͕̬̙͕̥̻ ̡̨̖̼͍̯̜ͩ͑͠t̪̗̮̩̮̜̄̄̒͂̔͗̑́͡ͅh̡̠̱̰̖̱̏ͅę͓̖̗̝͆͗̉̀ ̸̧̛̜̝̲̹͍̱̤͕͌͛̒̄ͅfͫ͛̊͗҉͓̩̀ṷ̲̼̦̫̑͗̀͜c̪̦̍͗̓̓̏̇̍ḵ̳̣̙̮̮̜ͮ̈́͢͟͜ͅ

Startle! He understands that. Also: ow, fuck, words shouldn't hurt, but disrupting his chakra network doesn't break any illusions, and he can stand up to anything short of Tsukuyomi.

"What are you doing?" he demands. (She probably still can't understand him.)

She lays off a little on her tone.

"Oh, so you understand me now? Good. Back off... or I'll scream. You really won't like me then."

"You're the one who appeared in my base." But still, he lets go. (She's not fast, he's noticed, her reaction time more like a civilian's than even a barely trained genin's. It'll be easy enough to reclose, and perhaps he should kill her but he doubts she's actually in front of him. And he's curious, still, curious and confident in his backups, even if she does successfully assassinate him.)

She takes a breath, a little relieved.

"I still can't understand what you're saying. But -- right now, the Simurgh. The Endbringer. Are we safe? Just shake or nod your head."

Curious tilt. "What 'Endbringer?' I've never heard of this 'Simurgh.' And my base is safe for me, at least." (He isn't cooperating in shaking or nodding. He sounds annoyed.)

She sighs, frustrated now.

"Why did you bring me here? I didn't come here myself, contrary to popular mythos, I can't teleport. I have work to do, people to save. Just send me back and I'll -- look, I don't even care. Just send me back."

"I didn't bring you here, you appeared." Still annoyed, but now increasingly curious again.

She sighs again. "I don't have any paper on me. Apocalyptic scenarios don't really require it. But, I can read anything you write down." She looks around the room, looking for anything he can use.

"'Apocalyptic?' Interesting." He touches his arm, and a notebook and pen appear in a puff of smoke. In neat handwriting: "Who are you, why do you expect me to know anything about you, and why and how did you appear in my base? It was nothing I caused. Also where are you from, I don't recognize your languages. And what technique is this? What is an 'endbringer,' or the Simurgh? How are you doing that with your voice?" He runs out of space, frowns, hands her the page, and poses his pen to keep scribbling but doesn't write anything else quite yet.

She takes the paper and reads it.

"...I'm Akhlys. And ignoring everything else for now. What sort of rock are you living under that you don't know what an Endbringer is? Where are we?"

Writing: "This is my village, Sound, in the Land of Rice Fields, in the Elemental Nations. We're on the north western border of the Land of Fire, which is on the continent's eastern coast. I don't live under a rock, unless you mean so literally. Endbringer is an unfamiliar term. The closest thing I would describe like that is a particularly powerful tailed beast, and they haven't been a widespread problem for decades. The only one that could threaten the end times is likely mythological and if it isn't, it hasn't been a problem for centuries at the least."

"...none of that. Sounds familiar. I was just in Canberra, Australia"

"Haven't heard of it."

"Right. Please get out of my world now please. I need to think."

She can't think while he's here. Him just existing in her world is wrong.

"I don't know how to do that."

She steps forward and offers her hand.

"If you kill me, you'll be stuck here forever. Never aging, never dying, and unable to interact with your world again. Stuck in a one moment of time. Alone."

...She probably didn't mean to give so much away. But dimensional travel seals are theoretically possible, and with all of eternity...

Orochimaru will be returning here. He won't kill her, not yet, she may be bluffing and she's interesting besides.

He takes her hand.

-- and she shifts them both back.

The strange boy didn't have time to react, but he does snap something as soon as they appear.

Which makes the man perk up in curiosity, and say something amused in return.

(According to Sasuke, they were barely gone long enough for his sharingan to detect, but vanish they did. Orochimaru is extremely curious now.)

She lets him go and immediately shifts back into the Other Side.

She takes off her mask. She needs to breathe and nobody can see her face when she's here alone.

She edges away from the two strangers and finially takes a better look at her surroundings.

It's fairly plain. Large, cavernous underground room. Most of the floor is sandy. There's a slightly raised stone walkway around the edge. The sand has been disturbed fairly thoroughly, and there's burn marks and places where it's melted together. The snake statue on one end is probably three times her height. There's a set of heavy double doors on the end opposite the snake, and no other exits. The lights come from tightly coiled writing on the walls, letters glowing softly - translating themselves as 'light' with less sensible symbols surrounding them.

It looks like a bunch of capes fought here... or this was some weird rogues lair. But -- what he said had a ring of truth. She would have been able to tell if he were lying.

She takes a closer look at their shadows.

Weird. Not capes, or potential capes. But they're not non-capes, either? Their shadows are more somehow, almost glowing, if a shadow could be said to glow. It's nothing she'll have ever seen before.

Another point in the parallel universe theory...

The Elemental Nations. Definitely not in Earth Aleph. How the hell had she gotten here? She's never shifted into another universe before and she's been doing this for nearly ten Earth years. Hundreds of her years.

...had she been around Simurgh too long? Maybe it messed with her, with her ability to shift.

She doesn't know. And standing around here isn't going to help anything.

She heads towards the double doors to take a look around.

There's a hallway that curls up around the arena. The only doors along it are locked, as are the doors at the end of it. There's no other people shadows.

She has her lockpick set, she takes her time and tries to unlock one of the doors.

Does not seem to have a lock. Or a latch. In fact, it's not clear how the doors are locked, or even how they're supposed to be closed or opened.

Annoying. It was times like these she wished she had super strength. She could really make some progress then.

She wonders back into the first room -- with the ridiculously huge snake -- and investigates it thoroughly. Does she find anything that could help her?

No. It's empty except for the two shadows and the ridiculous snake. If the snake has any hidden compartments, they aren't revealing themselves.

...fine. She puts back on her mask and heads back over to the shadows. She purposefully stands on the other side of them from where she shifted before, further out of their reach and then shifts back.

They turn to face her. The man asks another question.

"Still can't understand you. If you give me some reading materiel, enough for me to get the basics of your language, that will help a lot. And I won't have to make your ears bleed every time we need to communicate."

Written: "I can't allow you to roam freely about my base, you understand. And you still haven't answered my earlier questions."

"Like I said, I go by Akhlys. I expected you to know me because most people do. At least in my world. I'm from Earth Bet. Virginia, originally. The United States of America. Earth. Third planet from the sun... would you like me to go on?"

Nod. He starts scribbling questions, but motions for her to continue.

She raises an eyebrow under her mask, but continues.

"I'm don't know how I got here. I suspect it might be a result of my own power and some sort of mind fuck the Simurgh has going on. But. I have no evidence of that."

"Is the Simurgh an Endbringer? What do you mean by 'mindfuck'? How does your communication technique work? Why have you concluded this is another world? Is interworld travel known where you're from? What was that other place?"

"The Simurgh is an Endbringer, yeah. The Endbringers showed up around... nineteen years ago. They're huge, near unstoppable, and go after major population centers killing and causing as much destruction and chaos as they can. They each have different powers and skill sets. The Simurgh is... insidious. If you spend too much time around her she gets into your head and can leave you as a sort of ticking time bomb. She also has psionic abilities and precognition, the latter which probably helps with the mind fucking."

"We don't have those on this continent, no. My other questions?"

"My world has been in contact with a parallel world, Earth Aleph, for a bit over a year now. So it's really not all that far fetched that this is one of them. And... I've never seen anyone else like you. You're alien. Or rather, I'm alien."

"Interesting. Your technique doesn't use chakra, does it."

"No? That's... I know that word -- something about meditation and Buddhism? It's definitely not what I'm using. My power is instinctual. I got it when I was five years old, there was an accident and I triggered it. Everyone that triggers has a different power."

"Interesting. Any technique here can be taught to someone with the right skills, with the exception of bloodlines which are genetic. Is the power reliant on differing mental characteristics? Do identical twins receive identical powers?"

She pauses and looks over at the other teen.

"Is he always like this?"

"Yes. If you're not going to kill him, can you leave so I can get back to training?"

She tilts her head.

"Does he need killing?"

"Depends on who you ask," the man scribbles rather cheerfully, while the teen just shrugs.

Akhlys rocks back on her heels for a moment.

"Are you going to let me leave?"

"Why should I? You're quite interesting, and evidently not capable of leaving on your own. I am the foremost expert in several fields related to our techniques, though, including movement seals. I can work on an intetdimensional transit technique, provide you with food and somewhere safe to stay, in exchange for information on your power and world - and access to that other place, without time passing out here. I assume not aging is the usual course of things, there?"

"Ah. That's... annoying." She ignores his question and looks back to the other teen. "Are you here unwillingly too, or are you endorsing this?"

He crosses his arms and glares at her. (It's an annoying question. Either answer is technically false, and is liable to cut off future opportunities, and he's not in the mood to keep playing her writing game.)

She shakes her head and addresses the snake guy. "Why do you think I want to go back there? Does it sound like a particularly happy and safe place?"

"Some people have irrational attachments to their place of birth. Or wish to be heroic. But my village was built as a place for those without elsewhere to be, and you will be welcome here."

She tilts her head, considering him. "Who are you, exactly. What do you do here in your village of wayward souls?"

"I am Orochimaru. Usually numbered as one of the Legendary Three People, although I have since left that team. I am the village head of Hidden Sound, which for a hidden village is somewhat different from a civilian village. The hidden villages are gathering points for those trained in the use of chakra - a place to live, train, and learn together. I have the authority to offer citizenship in this country to those worthy to join Sound. As for what the village itself does, our main focus is on research - primarily in medical matters, something this nation is behind in. We also supplement the nation's armed forces in times of need, and provide security details for important individuals, along with other assorted tasks."

"....so you're a magical military and research force for your country. Are you at war right now?"

"Not at the moment, no. We try to stay out of the larger nations' petty squabbles."

"I suppose I have no choice but to take your word for this. Since you're not going to let me leave." She sighs. "I'm not willing to give you further information about my world. At least not any time soon. We already have enough on our plate with the Endbringers, I'm not about to throw another factor in on top of that."

"Certainly you can share some things. What do you know about biology? What technological level is your world at? You expected to know the name of the region, and did expect it might simply be an uncontacted continent - which implies effective transportation networks. How do they work? Are they power reliant?"

"If you want what I have, you should sweeten the deal."

"This is a dangerous world. Most would consider safety plenty sweet. I can provideyou with knowledge of this world. The language. Training, if you can learn our techniques at all."

"I'm used to danger, and my power gives me the luxury of some amount of safety. I want to explore. I want to see the world for myself."

"Most village leaders are not as kind as me, and will not react well to someone with your powers. I have seen the inside of the Hidden Leaf's Torture and Interrogation department. They could get around even a power like yours."

Out loud, so she won't understand: "Why are you still arguing with her? This is cutting into my training." She also sounds a lot like his old Uzumaki teammate. He doubts this argument is going anywhere.

To Sasuke: "You'll have plenty of time later. And I prefer not having to hunt down my allies every time I need something from them."

Then, adding in writing: "Once you've settled in and learned the language and local climate, I can put you on one of the out of village teams quite easily."

If they let her outside, or at least show her the way out...

"Okay. You've got yourself a deal. I'll tell you about my world, I'll study up on yours and then you let me go out with one of your teams. Anything beyond that we can negotiate when we get there."

"I will need a show of trust on your part before letting you roam about, you understand. We do have state secrets here."

"You want access to the Other Side."

"It's useful. Being able to simply read, without that cutting into my time spent ruling, or on other matters - not to mention if techniques can be experimented with there."

"Having other people in that world isn't good for me. It feels -- it's violating, nearly. And the longer time you spend there... you'll need a way to protect your mind. Otherwise it might break."

"Fascinating. How does the breakage occur? Is it merely isolation, or a fundamental aspect of the space?"

She raises an eyebrow.

"The Other Side is a world between worlds. Between time and space. I think it was once home to something else. Echoes of that being still permeate it. My mind was broken when I triggered, so I'm right at home there."

"What do you know of the other being? How would contact with it damage the mind?"

(Sasuke is looking increasingly frustrated and bored.)

-- she looks over at the boy.

"It's a being beyond human comprehension. I'm interrupting. If you just point me towards the kitchen and a bed, you can find me later...?"

There's a feeling in the air, odd and heavy - and then Orochimaru smiles. "Please do excuse my manners, I got quite caught up. You will find one of the doors on the outer hallway unlocked; there is a small suite through there. It lacks a full stove, but does have some appliances."

"And hopefully your world has some similarities to mine, appliance wise. But otherwise, I'll just send a bit of time figuring it out Elsewhere. And if you could give me some reading materiel, I can get a start on learning your language."

"I'll have to have some brought, you understand."

She shrugs.

"Sure. You didn't expect to have an extradimentional stranger dropped in your lap this morning, you're unprepared." She pauses and --

-- takes off her mask.

"Something I can do, trust wise. My name is Juliet. But you can still call me Akhlys if you want."

Clearly a significant gesture in her culture, but the mask isn't equivalent to ANBU, otherwise she never would have removed it. Implies some fascinating things about the role of powers in their society. "Do you have a preference?"

"Not really. Juliet is the name my father gave me, Ahklys is the name I chose. I have no preference for either."

"I'll use Ahklys, then."

"Should I leave you to it, or would you like me to be escorted? I could show your friend through the Other Side, if he wants it."

"I doubt he cares, but, then again, neither do I. And if you can get through the locks, I hardly deserve to be able to keep my secrets." Also escorting someone who can essentially teleport is the sort of laughable waste of time he prefers to avoid.

He waits a beat, then holds out a hand demonstratively.

She touches him for a brief moment, shifts, and then steps back and out of his space.

"Welcome, I suppose."

"Are you going to try to kill him? He's very unlikely to let you leave."

"I have no idea of the full extent of his abilities. And I'm still stuck in this place, presumably surrounded by his army."

"He's fast. Faster than you can perceive, likely. He can't be killed conventionally - his body is extremely durable, and even if you killed him anyways he has fall-backs that his mind could be restored into. He knows a tremendous number of techniques, from 'breathing fire' to 'summoning giant snakes.' His army is a mixture of fanatically loyal, with him because he's bribing them, and prisoners. He's not above torturing people to get what he wants. He's playing along with you because you're new and he's easily bored."

"I could trap him in here. He can't hurt me in this place and if he tries to get into my head to try and get back -- if that's even possible -- he's going to have a bad time."

"I wouldn't discount most shinobi techniques." She's very likely vulnerable to illusions, for one. And Orochimaru is good enough to give even Sasuke's sharingan pause. "And he's fast enough to kill you before you drag him here, and - you trapping him here might actually not stop him from instantiating one of his backup bodies."

"Could you kill him?"

"I'm ten months out from an ideal opportunity. Your technique pauses time? If you let me train here, I might be able to bump that up, though the fight will be messier."

"Twenty-three days equals one second in real time. Define messy. Also what happens in ten months?"

"The surrounding landscape getting destroyed. At least a few hundred feet, likely several miles at a minimum. In ten months his current body will have decayed enough that he'll be forced to jump bodies; he'll be weak before and during that." Sasuke would like to avoid having to gamble on being able to fight off Orochimaru in the midst of a hostile takeover of his body, which had been his fallback if he can't get to the snake's level in time.

"Are you very attached to this evil lair? But I suppose that might also kill everyone in the blast zone."

"It would. I prefer to avoid unnecessary killing."

"If I give you this time to train, however long you need, would you be able to hold him long enough for me to bring you both here? That way if you destroy everything... it has no bearing on your world."

"If you need contact to bring him here? Probably. Definitely if I spend long enough at it. That might take a while, though, and the best way to do that would be refining my illusions. Are you thinking we do this now? He'll be expecting it, but he'll always be expecting it, and he doesn't know yet how long you can hold this world for. And if I get slowly more powerful over time he'll have more warning."

"First you will need a way to protect your mind, this place will worm it's way in and mess you up."

"I'm resistant to most ways something from here could do that. Does time in the real world reset that?"

"Doubtful. Once it's gotten into your head, there's really no way to reverse it. None that I know. Well. I suppose you could trigger, like I did. But I don't think you have that potential."

"I can spend a short while, until I notice the effects. The integrity of my mind is second to my goals."

"It's your choice. You should come find me once you've figured something out. And you have a free couple of hours, I suppose."

"I will."

"Wanna show me how to unlock these doors? I promise I'll stick around."

"They don't all unlock the same way. I don't know how to unlock all the ones between here and the outside; my usual method for escaping if I absolutely needed to would look like blowing the roof off. And I'm not sure you can without chakra, or being keyed into the seals."

"Annoying." She pauses and hmms. "We should probably get on with it. Me communicating like this is only going to exacerbate the problem."

"Alright. If Orochimaru remains curious enough about you, he'll probably assign someone to help you with the language."

"Any tips on how to keep him interested?"

"Be an interesting, dynamic person who is unlikely to respond amusingly to being tortured?"

She laughs.

"I've been tortured before. I don't really know if my response to it is his genre of amusing."

"I think he counts everything except refusing to respond."

"Guess I'm out of luck then. But with his attention on me... might be helpful. Keeps him distracted."

"He's got projects. And he has been training me; it's more efficient training with him than on my own. My main thought for your technique would currently be getting into his library undetected, if I go out there he'll know what I've looked at. If there's nothing now, there will be once he's spent some time looking at this world."

"So you want me to allow him access so he will develop techniques that will be useful to you. Aren't you worried he'll use them against you?"

"You can always claim he can only be here a short time, let him develop the technique, shoo him out, then bring me in for a stretch. And I'm intended to be his next host, he's hardly going to kill or maim me."

"Host?"

"When he body-jumps. His current body's failing. My bloodline is also useful to him."

She pauses.

"Let's... avoid that. I'll give him access to this place, in small pieces. I'll give you access after each session."

"I'm confident if he tried I would win the fight for my body, but I would also rather not try. That works. Do we want to find the library now?"

"Sure. Lead the way."

He dramatically points his sword upward at the ceiling - 

Which just as dramatically stops being there. There's lightning involved, and rubble being turned to dust before it hits them. He doesn't quite blast through to the sky, but there's several layers exposed.

"I assume you can't jump that high?" he asks.

"My power-set doesn't lend itself to those sort of skills, no."

"I can carry you up."

She shifts uncomfortably, but nods. Physical contact is -- fine. She's fine.

"Go ahead."

He is terrible at reading people and doesn't really notice her discomfort.

A moment to consider, and - "It'll be easiest with you on my back, but I can hold you in front of me instead."

"I don't actually care which. Just -- pick one and let's get on with it."

"I'd prefer to carry you on my back." He shifts to make it easier for her to climb on if she wants.

And climb on she does.

It's fine. She won't hurt him or -- nothing bad will happen.

He is supremely confident she will have a hell of a time hurting him, even on his back. His arms move to secure her, so she won't fall even if she lets go entirely.

He jumps, high enough to land on the jagged edge of what used to be the ceiling, briefly sticks at a nearly sideways angle, and pushes off, getting higher with each bound until they're three stories up. Then around the edge, setting her down past where it's at risk of crumbling.

She holds on tight and when he lets her down, steps quickly out of his space.

"Should I stop talking now? How does your head feel?"

If he was at all inclined to fancy he'd claim the world is visually yelling at him. He suspects that might go away if he deactivated his sharingan. He is not going to deactivate his sharingan. His head hurts, too, worse than it did when he was first getting used to the new feedback from his eyes. 

"I'm fine," he says.

She nods and resolves to say as little as possible.

"Some of the library's this way."

He leads the way with no other comment. The place is a labyrinth, and there's several other locked doors - which, after unlocking them apparently fails, he just blasts through.

There's a study-like place with biological diagrams and complex seals on the walls, two doors off of it - he opens the one on the left - "I'd suggest avoiding the right door" - and goes through. It's packed with shelves bursting at the seams with books, scrolls, and loose papers.

"There's a lot here. These're the likely key words to skim for - " And he writes down 'heart/mind/spirit,' 'Yamanaka,' 'life force,' and 'will.'

She nods and memorises them all. She is tempted by the other door -- she is immortal here, after all -- but heeds his advice.

Then starts looking through the shelves.

He's reading too, inhumanely fast even for skimming.

The entire library takes maybe an hour between them. There are plenty of mentions of those words - mostly focused on possession techniques, the 'mind body switch technique', speculation about how to keep a body intact with a mismatched soul...

Nothing directly applicable to them.

"Is this everything?"

"There's other places he has books stashed. A lot of other places. Many of them at other hideouts."

"Do you have a way to get to them quickly? Assuming you can just blast your way out of here."

"I can on both, assuming summoning works here. On foot - it would take me four days of constant running to get to the farthest." He goes ahead and tries, attempting to pull through a small snake who's usually prompt - and fails. "Summoning, unfortunately, doesn't seem to work."

"You'd still need to sleep, which... isn't a good idea. Not before you found a way to protect yourself."

"By constant I mean with no sleep. I can go up to two weeks, more if I'm pushing it."

"Two weeks here... might be fine. Without sleeping. But I need physical contact with you to send you back."

"I can carry you to the hideouts. But it might be best to just let him start experimenting, he keeps his mind-affecting techniques close usually."

"This effects you -- your mind and your body -- more than me. What do you want to do?"

"I doubt we'll find anything, and I'd frankly rather let him take the risk than me."

"Wise. So I guess that's the plan. Unless you have any other place you want to visit nearby."

None of his other potential recruits are near, so, "No." Pause, and, "I'm willing to help you with any goal of yours in exchange for help with mine, by the way. Not just escaping."

"My goals right now are; don't die. Escaping would be nice, but I'm immortal, I'm in no rush. I want to help you." She pauses. "Going home, if possible, seems... it seems like something I should want, I suppose," she trails off.

"What's at home?"

"That's the question, isn't it? Aside from... suffering, disaster and apocalyptic monsters? Not much. My uncles. But they slot into the first two catagories nicely."

"Sounds like this world, with lower frequency of apocalyptic monsters. Usually. Killing Orochimaru is only a short-term goal; longer term, there is something else I'd like help with - someone I'm planning to track down and kill for crimes he's committed. How far out does your offer extend? If you have something you want done in your world, I can help you find a way back, and do that."

She blinks.

"My uncle. He needs to die."

"So does my brother. Is he particularly difficult to kill?"

"Particularly. He's... hard to explain. He can link himself to people, and if I kill him, he just pulls on their energy and they die instead."

"How many people? Is there a time limit? If I placed him in an eternal illusion or destroyed his mind, would that get transferred too? Can he release the people, and therefore be forced to do that?"

"I've never been able to identify how many people. He keeps their identities secret. He also acquires their powers, so at any one time he might have an immunity or -- healing or something that protects his mind. He can release people, but he's not been known to."

"Some way of forcing him might be best, if we can manage it. Theoretically, there's a sword that traps its target in an eternal drunken illusion. It's also supposedly lost and of dubious existence."

"We could look for it. It might take us a long time. But we have a lot of that."

"That's one thing I hadn't originally planned to have plenty of, yes."

"So that's why you stay here? To train with Orochimaru and gain enough power to kill your brother? Otherwise... you could just leave. If you wanted to."

"I suppose now I could. I don't actually know how to leave this base without blasting through several walls. And Orochimaru has sensors who could track me across the continent."

"You could go further than that, if you wanted to."

"I'd have to return to kill my brother, anyways."

She nods and accepts it.

"We should head back."

"Alright. Down the same hole, or walk back?"

"I'd like to see more of this place. And see if I can figure out opening the doors."

"Alright. I think the problem I had with the doors is they need to identify my chakra, which might be interacting weirdly with your time dilation."

"We could shift, open the door, and then shift back. But maybe not now."

"I'd rather not be gone too long."

She shrugs.

"Lead the way," she gestures, then pauses. "What do I call you?"

He starts leading. "I'm Sasuke. Most people here call me Sasuke-sama. It's an honorific. Just names is probably overly familiar; there's a chance everyone will expect you to use -sama for Orochimaru too. I don't care what you use."

"So it is like Japenese, if not actually that. Interesting. I'll call you Sasuke-sama, I suppose. Sells the appearence of us not working together."

"Whatever." And back to the original arena.

"I'll come see you after his first session. Thank you."

Shrug. "It's fine."

She holds out her hand.

"Whenever you're ready."

Hands can be held, then.

-- and she sends him back to his world. Alone.

And heads towards the suite Orochimaru gave directions to.

It's there. Plain, like everything here is, with comprehensible but few appliances - essentially just a hot plate and some old non perishables. The bed is serviceable, though.

Well. She's been running on nothing for nearly two days. She might as well sleep now. She'd slip back into this world if she fell asleep outside it, so there was no point leaving.

She lies down on the bed and -- hears and feels the whispers pressing forward. The darkness and all consuming abyss.

It calms her nerves -- the familiarity of it. And she lets herself be consumed by it.

She sleeps.

The world hasn't changed while she slept at all, at least.

She eats some food, fiddling with the hotplate. It's not so confusing to figure out and she takes her time.

Then puts her mask back on, she doesn't really want to reveal her identity to just anybody, regardless of which dimension she's in, and shifts back.

It isn't straightforward to feel where she is; she's more a hole in the world to his senses than a person. He wonders if that's her power, or a quirk of her world.

He feels when she returns into her assigned room, a fraction of a second after Sasuke reappears in front of him. Without the sharingan, Orochimaru can't tell times that close apart, so doesn't know if she walked immediately over or took time in her world.

It's mildly vexing.

He has his future vessel in front of him, though, the boy scowling - likely at the disruption to his training, or at how Orochimaru's attention has shifted. He did promise a training session, and putting the boy body through its paces is a good occupation while he mulls over this Akhlys. 

(Their training is rather loud, though barely audible through the thick stone. It is still very clearly what Juliet would consider a cape fight.)

She's tempted to go look. Cape fights are always suitably dramatic and interesting to watch, usually. When she's not involved in them.

Instead she stays where she is and listens. Giving them space seems like the... polite thing to do. Even if it itches at her.

Orochimaru comes to find her an hour later. Sasuke leaves through the main door as he arrives.

"I'll have someone being books for you soon enough," is written on a piece of paper. "Are you settling in well?"

"Yup. The bed is comfy and the food was suitably nutritious. Thank you."

"I'm afraid the food doesn't get much better tasting than that, but we do try for nutritious." So, likely long enough to sleep and eat - probably without Sasuke there. The hot plate here hasn't been used, nor the drawers or cabinets opened. "Though if you can eat there without depleting resources here, we might be able to spare access to rarer foods."

She does not bounce. Nope.

"I am a very good cook and a very fast learner -- from your perspective anyway. I have all the time in the world. I'd be happy to cook for people if you gave me the resources."

He seems amused!

"Most shinobi here prefer to cook for themselves or eat rations, but I'll keep that in mind. You can be provided with more basic ingredients for yourself, too, of course."

She deflates a little bit, but nods.

"The offer stands, regardless." She pauses. "Shinobi? Is that what you call yourselves?"

"Yes. It means 'those who endure,' loosely, though most people pay too little attention to etymology. You might also hear 'ninja,' especially from non-shinobi."

"Huh. We had ninja -- shinobi -- in my world. My original world. Maybe five hundred years ago in Japan. I don't think they had magic like you or I, though. I think they were just mercenaries and spies."

"Fascinating. I wonder why that's similar?"

"Causality is a strange and mystical force. Not my area."

"Something to investigate, eventually. There are some who believe fate works in this world. I have found no such evidence, beyond what can be expected from similarities in personality across reincarnation cycles, but it is an interesting topic."

She tilts her head, curious.

"You have actual reincarnation? That's mostly just a concept, or a religious belief, in my world. How does that work?"

...She possibly shouldn't have asked that.

Have a long lecture on the relationship between will, chakra, and chakra transmigration! (The short version is that will generates and holds together yin chakra; when you die, your yang - bodily - chakra returns to the earth, while your yin chakra goes to the Pure Land. Someone of weak will might have their yin fall apart, but most people are purified, lose their memories, and then return to the world as a new person. The cycling yin chakra could be viewed as dragging along the associated soul, which therefore has multiple instantiations - which was quite a headache to work around with a technique like the Impure World Resurrection, which accesses a certain instantiation of the soul, using a piece of the original body, which still retains some yang chakra, creating a resonance...)

Ahklys is a very attentive listener and asks relevant questions -- it's really interesting. She kind of itches to take some notes, but she can do that later. Her memory is good enough to carry her that far, and she can spend some time reading more about it later. Well. If she gets access to his library again.

He really enjoys having an attentive student! Sasuke is amusing, but also a know-it-all brat bored by anything with subtle effects.

Akhlys is defiantly not Sasuke, that's for sure.

"I'd have a mind to take this Elsewhere, but I'm hesitant until you have a way to protect yourself. Hows your head now? Maybe I should stop talking for a while."

"I'm fine. And I'll need a look at it to develop anything."

She holds out her hand.

"No time like the present."

Hand holding can be done.

-- and they're Elsewhere. The shadows press down on them ominously.

He appreciates this place'd commitment to the aesthetic. Sip many shinobi have no sense of style.

He pauses for a moment, almost meditating, and hums. "I can get a sense of what's going on. I'll want to be more comfortable to meditate properly. Follow me." And out into the hallway; the door doesn't open for him either, so he makes it melt into the walls. He eventually winds up in a room nearby the study Sasuke took her to. It is rather well designed for meditation.

She follows, kind of jealous about how easily he -- and Sasuke, really -- are able to get around. She usually has to either pick locks or break things down manually. Or find a key. Which always takes much longer than this. Feels like cheating, a little.

"Cozy."

"I prefer peace for my meditation," he says, lighting a few candles and sticks of incense. It smells faintly sweet and woody, with a sharp undertone like licorice. He sits fairly simply, afterwards, in a cleared circle in the middle, and settles easily into the rhythm of the world around him and his own mind - teasing apart what it's doing.

She leans against the wall and gives him his peace. If such a thing is possible here.

It's strange. A sort of not-chakra, and the affect of the world manifests currently as whispers at the edge of his hearing. There's tendrils of the not-chakra wrapped about her, the whispers curling around her like smoke, and he can actually almost feel her rather than a hole. She fits, here.

Those same tendrils are slowly trailing along the edge of his chakra system. But Orochimaru is very, very thoroughly himself. He's had to be, to survive inhabiting another's body with his mind intact and solely his, and he can start to see the edges of the technique that will protect him.

He surfaces from his meditation, scribbles down his observations in shorthand - he suspects Sasuke and Kabuto can make some sense of it, but it's mostly reminders to himself, and he doubts anyone else will understand - then says, "I would like you to talk to me for the next phase." The effect intensifies when she talks, after all.

She hums, then begins telling him about the history of her world. Or rather, the history of capes in her world.

This is incredibly fascinating! Luckily he can pay attention to both the narrative and the effects at the same time; he'd be rather put out if he had to skip out on the knowledge in order to protect his mind.

And - there it is, the tendrils entangling with the edges of his yin chakra, separating it out and whispering meaning that reverberates through his bones.

The first test will likely involve seeing if he can break the translation effect.

He waits for her story to reach its conclusion, examining the effect in more depth as he does so, then surfaces and starts writing an enormous table of effects and theories. He twists his chakra, brings it into his body with a shield of yang, then written to her - "Try saying something short, now."

"Something short now," she teases, but then continues and tells him about her mask, and how she designed it, in a few sentences.

He engages the technique and understands none of it! Though he can still feel the edges poking at his mind, this needs more refinement.

Written: "I was able to keep the translation effect from engaging, which seems to have cut off the worst of it. There is likely a way to filter the effects without disallowing translation, though that might take me longer, and the translation by its very nature would carry some small risk of corruption, so a restorative technique will also be needed."

"Learning the language would probably work just as well. But a restorative technique... that. Is promising." Understatement.

"Purifying rituals are well known, although they have fallen out of favor outside of the monks. It would be interesting to see if such rituals could be effective even in someone without chakra."

She shifts and tries not to appear to eager... she is not a very good actor.

"Do... you have any spare monks lying around?"

"No. One can be easily acquired, though."

"Should we go get one now?"

"Sure. Why not. I know a convenient temple nearby." And he even technically has the right to draft citizens of Rice Fields. The daimyo is ambitious enough he's unlikely to object.

"...I'm assuming you don't have cars or anything."

"What's that?"

She explains cars. She doesn't attempt to dumb down her words, she sees no reason to.

It makes sense that without shinobi and with a functioning government they would have better technology in some places. (He doesn't take notes. He doesn't need to. But he will very likely be trying to convince the daimyo to build roads appropriate for cars, because that is a wonderful idea.)

"We don't have anything like that. Shinobi can, however, run at great speeds, and I could carry you."

"What, not even horses and carriages?"

"Only the wealthy use them - horses are expensive, and shinobi to guard you from bandits after your blatantly flaunted wealth are worse."

She nods.

"I suppose that might have been the case in my world centuries ago." She shrugs. "You can carry me. Though you might need to keep up some sort of protection on your mind. Prolonged touching can be... bad."

"I can maintain the meditative state during the run, though you will be unable to communicate with me."

"That's fine. It'll give me a chance to sight-see, maybe."

He opens the doors between them and the outside, then motions for her to move to his back.

-- less hesitation than before, but still some, and she climbs on his back.

It's not a nice feeling, and her nerves start to rise.

He takes off.

He's fast, the landscape quickly turning into a blur, until they reach the mountains on the western edge of the country thirty minutes later. A simple monastery clings to one peak, tucked behind a ridge. The architecture is extremely Japanese, low pagoda-style buildings ringing a courtyard. Orochimaru jumps over the roof, lands in the middle, and sets her down.

"If it wasn't for the alien magic, I really would suspect I was in Japan. Maybe hundreds of years in the past."

"Huh. I'd like to see it sometime, then. Make a comparison. If I understand the many worlds theory correctly, it's possible we have either convergent evolution, or an overarching intelligence controlling the arc of worlds, or parallel earths that diverged - some theorists claim chakra is a recent occurrence, at least on an evolutionary scale."

"Do you know much about evolution? Evolutionary biology is a relatively recent field of study in my world."

"Some! Many technological and scientific advancements have been hampered by secrecy and competition among the Hidden Villages; there's some better universities outside the Elemental Nations, but trade with them is sparse. I've personally contributed several major advancements in genetic theory, including the first known sequencing of the human genome."

"Well, maybe I'll just have to pay them a visit sometime. You have no idea how long I've spent in university libraries. Life gets kind of fast sometimes, having time to just learn is what keeps me from... going further insane. Probably."

"You have a very useful power! And truly, who defines sanity? Many have called me insane."

"Why? Because you're ambitious?"

"I object to the concept of death. The usual spiel here is that it's part of nature, that it's a crime to interfere with the cycle of reincarnation. I was also called insane for turning my experiments onto those under my old teacher's watch, though he was fine funding the same experiments on enemies and then random others."

"Death is bullshit. If you have the resources and the will to subvert it... then I don't see why you shouldn't be able to. I suppose people have a right to be angry if you hurt them. But." She shrugs. "They shound either do something about that, or get over it."

"Exactly! My teacher failed repeatedly to live up to his own ideals." Shrug. "So, he died."

She raises an eyebrow.

"Shame. But I suppose he got a taste of what he was trying to preserve."

...She should probably feel a little bad. But she never knew his teacher. Feeling bad for random people was -- why would she do that? It sounds exhausting.

"Do you think you could pick out a monk from their shadows?"

"This time of day and year everyone here should be a monk. But I have draft rights, I was thinking appearing in the middle and seeing who walks up. Or affirmatively tries to sacrifice someone else."

"Your world, your method." She shifts them back. "I need physical contact to shift them. Make sure nobody stabs me."

Most of the monks seem placid. A few younger monks are very thoroughly terrified, and look like they might contemplate stabbing them if not for the likelyhood of that resulting in death.

One, a woman, seems entirely unbothered, and approaches the two with a smile. "Welcome to our temple, honored visitors," she says. "What may we do for you?"

"I have found that I require someone schooled in purification rituals for my research. Who here is most talented?"

"This one is so schooled, and will be happy to help our lord Orochimaru." 

"Very well." And he gestures for Juliet.

"If you want to communicate with me, you'll need to write things down. I don't understand your language -- yet." She pauses and holds out her hand. "I can shift us into another dimension. It's... unpleasant for all involved. Are you sure?"

He'll kidnap someone else if she doesn't, and despite her appearance she's old, by far the oldest here. The answer is easy.

A nod, and "Yes."

Well then, she shifts all three of them back Elsewhere.

"Welcome to my world of horrors," she jokes, half heartedly.

"It's very committed to being itself," she says absently, looking around. Then remembers to write that, and then: "An inversion of the world proper, shadows where the Pure Land is light, and the Impure World of our existence in between. Do you need a purifying ritual for here?"

"No. I like it just as it is. We need the purification for him, so he can exist here and not go insane."

She fidgets slightly, having them here in this world -- both of them -- it feels violating. They don't belong. She feels the whispers pressing down on her, and she moves slightly to stand in a cluster of darkness to try and calm herself.

Out loud and in writing: "Understandable. There are supplies I will need for full purification; if you don't wish this place touched, I will need to perform the ritual in our world, which for certain aspects might be better. I would also recommend immersion in a sacred river at some point; even if this place doesn't need it, you shinobi are around death far too much." A pause, then, addressed to the girl, "Is there anything I can do to make this more comfortable for you? And what may I call you? My name nowadays is Tetsuri."

"You can call me Akhlys and... I don't think so? Having people in this world is -- unpleasant." She pauses and shrugs. "Where do we find a sacred river?"

"Akhlys. A lovely name. As for sacred waters, I know the location of a few, though ones that are strong enough to fully withstand the pollution of this world are rare. A sacred waterfall sits behind this very temple; it's part of why I founded it here. There's a small sacred river in the Land of Rivers, and a larger one to the far west, which I once made pilgrimage to. Though for most issues, any source of moving water will suffice; I simply doubt my lord has ever purified himself of the death that hangs around him."

She looks over to Orochimaru. "Does that sound appealing to you? So long as you are purified, we can go wherever."

"I doubt the issue requires full purification just yet, but whichever ritual is fine. It would be fascinating if a death-purification ritual could slow the decay of my bodies; the main driving factor behind that appears to be a dissonance between the inhabiting soul and the expectations of the body."

"Setting things on fire is often an effective way to truly purify them. I doubt anything short of a volcano could disperse the impurity from such a technique, though." Although, a sufficient purification fire would certainly solve the Orochimaru problem.

She raises an eyebrow, and shifts slightly.

"Would you like to gather your ingredients back in your world, or is it fine if you gather them here?"

"Ones from my world will likely be best. I can work with any varieties, although I would not object to a chance to speak to one person here and gather supplies I am familiar with."

"I don't know how much things vary. But everything you have there has a double in this dimension. Except people." She points to a strange standing shadow a little ways away, "You can really only get an impression of people."

"Interesting. I don't know the effects of something taken from this world on its purity for our current purposes, though, and would rather err on the side of caution."

"I'm cool with it. It's really up to your lord and my captor, though," she looks up at Orochimaru cheerfully.

"If you don't object to my continued presence in the temple, I am fine with acquiring whichever supplies you feel appropriate."

"Appreciated, my lord." Ass. "I would prefer to walk there in our usual world. I feel it will be less alarming to the initiates than suddenly appearing elsewhere, and will give me time to delegate what needs to be delegated for the temple's running."

Akhlys shrugs and shifts her back over to the other world alone and then looks to Orochimaru.

"Does she seem alright to you? She was very friendly. I got the impression you were some sort of ominous figure."

"I am! Most people are terrified of me, I wonder if she's planning to try an assassination. Likely wouldn't be her style, though, she's successfully stayed out of politics since the Warring States Era. I suspect the main reasons she has agreed to come are to spare one of her underlings, and that her own advanced age limits how long she could be captive - she must be at least eighty, given when the temple was founded."

"Warring States Era? How old is she?"

"The Warring States Era officially ended a little over sixty years ago, when the Elemental Nations began to consolidate into more-or-less their current forms, the shinobi clans settled into villages rather than constantly competing with each other, and the constant warfare among petty warlords ended. This temple complex existed by the founding of the Leaf, the first shinobi village. It would have been noted if she was a child at the founding, though she might have been a teen. I don't know how old she is, exactly, or precisely when this temple came into existence, or if she had been at this site for longer."

"Interesting. Well, I'm sure you can handle yourself if worst comes to worst. I'll probably... go find someplace else to be while that happens. No offense."

"I would prefer you stay close. Never know who might choose to strike at a clear associate of mine."

She considers that. "Define close. As in, right next to you? That seems hazardous."

"Same room, preferably. And I can defend a target easily enough; no one here is on my level."

"I suppose we'll have to figure out what to do when we find someone that is on your level."

"Few people are. My old teammates are the only ones likely to bother with me, and they'd allow you to leave most likely."

"They have issues with the whole death thing too? Or are they just mad you murdered your mentor?"

"Murdered our teacher, invaded their village, something about betraying them, Tsunade has an odd grudge related to me offering to return her tragically lost brother and boyfriend..."

"...I suppose all that other stuff kind of taints an offer like that." She sighs. "Is there anything else, or should we get to it?"

"I can't think of anything else, no."

So she shifts them back, and feels immediate relief.

The amount of extra time that passed isn't noticeable, and indeed none of the monks will have so much as seen the flicker of their disappearance.

Tetsuri leads the way into a plain room, begins gathering blocks and sticks of various types of incense, after sending one of the braver teenagers off to find a certain person.

-- yeah, it doesn't take him long to get there at all. He pauses, stares at the Lord Orochimaru and then looks to Tetsuri.

"What do you need?"

"It seems I'll be relocating; Lord Orochimaru needs perhaps ongoing assistance with purification rituals. I am leaving my duties to you for the foreseeable future. Also, if you could send someone to fetch - " And she lists a few minor items kept elsewhere. Nothing the temple can't easily replace, of course.

He writes everything down -- and then hesitates. He continues to avoid addressing Orochimaru.

"Are you sure?" He knows the rituals too. He's not as good as them, but the temple needs Tetsuri more than it needs him. They're important.

"I'm sure. You're as ready to take over as anyone could be. This temple can survive without me. All things must, in the end."

-- yeah that's not going to happen.

"I'll do as you say."

And if they're not back soon he will go looking for them. Whatever the consequence.

"That's all anyone can ask."

And she'll pray to the wolf-god of the shrine to keep him from doing anything too stupid. Hopefully the wolf actually will, instead of encouraging him. (It's hard to predict, with her.)

...Akhlys tilts her head. Something about him seems familiar.

"What's your name?"

Eun flinches slightly, caught off guard by the sound and pain her voice carries. He reigns it under control quickly, and looks to her.

"Takara-rōshi." He's definitely not giving them his other name.

A quick smile at him, then serious, to Orochimaru: "My lord, if I may, a proper transfer of power involves writing up a document. I won't be long."

He waves her along.

"Thank you."

And she very quickly writes the documents giving Eun control of the temple, leaving a small offering at the wolf-god's shrine as she passes to fetch the correct papers with a quick prayer for guidance. Her calligraphy's swift and elegant, nothing like the illegible scrawl it was in her youth. The documents address Eun solely by his chosen-name, too.

Eun takes this stoically, and finishes arranging everything Tetsuri needs. Plus a few of their personal items.

Ahklys continues to watch him.

It's not reserved, not like they're supposed to act especially in front of outsiders - 

But Tetsuri finishes, then pulls Eun into a hug.

"Ookami watch over you," she says, softly.

He hugs them tight.

"I think I can spare her for the moment," he jokes lightly. "I'll see you again soon."

"Not too soon, you little brat."

"Not too soon. Your old age has given you some advantages."

"Wits matter before youth."

He laughs and hugs them again.

"I'll take care of everything here, I promise."

"I know. I trust you."

Akhlys shuffles slightly, growing deeply uncomfortable.

She can't understand what they're saying but... she feels like she knows him. A deeply disturbing déjà vu.

He nods at them, lets them go, and then leaves without another word.

"Alright," she says, softly, then turns to Orochimaru and Juliet and nods, holding out her hand.

She sighs and then takes them all back Elsewhere.

"Onward and upward?"

"I can keep up with most shinobi, so I don't need to be carried. I am good to go, however."

"Let's be going, then." Orochimaru motions for Juliet to climb on his back again.

And so she climbs on her back and stops talking.

-- her life was weird before. But this is a very different flavour of weird.

Orochimaru has no comment on weirdness flavors as he takes off, the landscape blurring around them again, Tetsuri keeping up rather easily. 

They return to the base. "I'm intending to move you to another room," he writes to Juliet when they arrive. "Do you have any preferences?"

"Somewhere with and/or near the kitchen? And -- a view? If that's even possible with the whole... being underground thing."

"There aren't many good views, but... There's places overlooking the greenhouses that could be renovated rather easily. Although I would recommend against eating anything from them. Or even casual strolls. Some of the plants are a bit... Temperamental."

She smiles under her mask

"I had a greenhouse at home. I'll... try to restrain myself," she laughs.

"I wonder if I could create a plant that would interact interestingly with your Other World..."

"...I could bring one over, tend to it here and then bring it back. See how its affected."

"Oooh, we should try planting seeds as well, I can find something fast-growing... And ideal experiment of course would stretch across multiple generations..."

She nods enthusiastically.

"It might like -- turn into a horror plant from the deepest horrors of the universe. But like. Wouldn't that be exciting?"

(Tetsuri has an expression like she's trying to calculate how much incense will be needed for a horror plant from beyond the void, and is not liking her conclusion. Also. How are shinobi worse than the dumbest initiates. How.)

"We should experiment with different fertilizers, too! And watering solutions, and see if you can actively talk it into being even more horrific..."

"We could grow two and then attempt cross-pollinate them."

"See which strains respond better - are mobile or predatory plants more corruptible, does the level of sensory input matter..."

Akhlys points out a few more things they could try, learnt from her childhood of botany, gardening and binging for a few months in her late-grandmothers office and reading all her old papers and journals.

Orochimaru has really only dabbled in botany, so this is all very useful speculation!

That goes on for a while, then; "I'm tempted to also ask for art supplies, on top of reading material."

"They can be provided quite easily. Musical instruments, too." Bribery is more effective than threats, anyways, and he likes her.

"Thank you! I'm not so big on music. But they would be super appreciated. I mean, I also have my expensive tinker music player. But it's not the same."

"Just ask, if you think of anything else. I can't supply everything, of course, but given your world's ability to copy things, rare or delicate items are much less of a concern."

"Mostly just raw ingredients for cooking and cook books. But otherwise, I'll let you know."

Her evil maniacal captor was so nice. Adorable.

He normally doesn't luck out this much with captives, this is great!

Speaking of captives...

"We might want to shift back, soon. I suspect our monk friend would prefer being in the world proper."

Akhlys blinks, looks over to Tetsuri and holds out her hand.

"You all done with unspeakable horror?"

Amused nod.

She shifts them all back then.

Orochimaru will get rooms set up, then, altering Juliet's new room himself with an earth technique. The greenhouses definitely look like the sort of place you'd find proto-horror plants. Books are brought, along with art supplies and a selection of musical instruments, plus a stack of journals and pens (with a note that says "for observation records"), and then seed packets and a few just-sprouted plants. Foods, too, mostly dried staples but a few spices and rarer items are spared. 

(Tetsuri gets whisked away to discuss purification rituals and then the minutiae of mental protection techniques with him.)

-- well she might as well get a start on this now.

She shifts back into the Other Side and... gets to it. Time, to her, doesn't hold any real meaning. She exists, sometimes on the edge of an abyss, and lives. Alone, surrounded by shadows, she reads her books and learns and paints and tends to her new plants. She can't practice the language with anyone, but she makes good progress. She supposes she should have brought somebody with her, but the appeal of just being alone and -- being here in her world without that growing revulsion when other people were here with her. Ideal.

The plants struggle. They're almost wilted; many grow in with stems and leaves twisted and thorny. They look angry, and seem to move when Juliet's not looking.

She tries singing to them in her Other language while she tends them.

Some of them wither. A few grow steadily more ominous; one develops shimmery black leaves like looking into the uncaring void. One tries to bite her.

Adorable.

...she lets it bite her.

Its teeth are more soft spines, so it doesn't particularly hurt. The mouth closes like a vise around her finger, tiny hairs tickling her.

If a plant could look disappointed at the inedibility of its food, this one would.

She laughs and pets it.

Then starts adding a little bit of her blood to the solution when she waters it.

It flourishes, and develops an ominous sheen that shifts whenever she looks at it. The tooth-spines grow sharper and sturdier, the mobility higher, and the whispers seem to congregate around it.

She loves it and calls it Audrey. It seems very appropriate.

Eventually she comes to the end of her books. She also needs to actually speak and interact with the new language to progress. .So she gathers up all the things she brought over with her, plants, journals and paintings, and shifts back.