perfectmatch | week three

Ohh..? That sounds pretty idyllic.

I have to admit, the Jujutsu Tech grounds are pretty nice. I've just gotten so used to the view there since I've been there for so long that I probably took it for granted, but... it's full of old, traditional buildings up in the mountains outside of Tokyo. Can't say I really made a point to go outside to appreciate the landscape, though. Mostly just stepped outside to smoke.

But getting to do that now is nice.

You are supposed to experience things you hadn't before when away from home, even if that is simply enjoying the scenery where you'd neglected to before.

... Truthfully, it sounds quite alike to Ka Bue. I had grown used to the sights myself, so I often wondered what there was to gape so openly at when visitors would come from afar. It was, after all, a country with cities that differed little from one another, save for minor customs.

[ So: boring. ]

I suppose becoming a traveler myself helped to understand them better, though my home country will always just be that. [ A soft huff. ] Are the Tech grounds where you honed your skills?

[ She nods. ]

Come to think of it, I've really given the last decade of my life to it, huh... I was a student there, then I started working as its doctor not very long after that.

So, I've never really gotten to travel, but it sounds like you have, Odile-san. What made you decide to become a traveler?

[ Odile hums softly, staring at the flowers as they walk. It's a pleasant quiet. One she loathes to disturb with such a personal thing, but... ]

... I suppose of all people, you are the one I feel the most comfortable telling outright. [ Helps to have made mentions here and there to others, but Shoko's the first to have it not piecemealed. ] I liked, at first, simply to see different parts of Ka Bue, but it became far more than that once I had met a merchant from across the seas -- from a country called Vaugarde.

My mother, [ though said with some distaste, ] was from there, but had left before I could ever know half the blood she gave to me. So I decided to travel there myself some years ago, to... try and find parts of who I was among the people and their traditions.

[ Three guesses on how that shook out!!! ]

That is when I would have begun calling myself a traveler in earnest, really.

[ She listens intently and duly; sure enough, she'd gotten bits and pieces of Odile's story from their conversations, but she's never offered such a portrait until now.

It's good that they're in a garden like this, though, for how hesitant she seems to be to share it; neither Shoko nor the flowers will tell another soul. ]

...Were you able to find those parts of you there?

[ Given the apparent distaste for her mother, she's guessing not, but, ]

Not a bit. Their way of life is near opposite to my own, and what features I share with them are alien when paired with those from Ka Bue, just the same as the reverse there.

[ So no. That heritage will still never be hers, still remains unclaimed behind a glass door she can't unlock.

Odile smiles slightly though, turning back to Shoko. ]

I did, however, find in that overly welcoming country many who were the same -- a country of those othered in some way, whether as I had been or lost differently. It's been a very enlightening journey, just as the one here has been.

So all in all, not a fruitless journey. You still gained something important for it, even if it wasn't what you came for, originally.

[ She hums thoughtfully. ]

A country of people who have been "othered," though, huh...? What was that like?

[ As is becoming the case here... she may not leave with a companion with whom she can travel, settle, whatever else whether romantic or not, but she is gaining a number of people who won't leave her alone. ]

... Strange, truthfully. The native Vaugardians open their arms to all without question, even those that may be coming into their lands to escape who they once were, so it is a very-- colorful place, in a sense. Those like myself can find a kind of camaraderie in simply being from outside Vaugarde itself, but many have assimilated, so to say, into the culture that now surrounds them.

[ A beat. ]

I don't plan to do so myself, but it's a personal preference. It's truly not so different than living among those we have these past few weeks, really.

It does kind of sound like what we've got going on at the manor in a way, huh... I bet you met all sorts of interesting people there.

[ She can't help but chuckle, though. ]

But probably not as interesting us your fellow contestants here.~

Certainly not. You all are leagues weirder than they.

[ But it is lightly fond. ]

I realize your work does little to afford you any rest, and you may not be able to travel beyond your world in general due to that, but has anyone's caught your eye as a potential vacation spot?

That's easy. I'd go to Poppy, Mame-chan, or Maya's worlds.

[ Basically the ones that sound most like her own, but with possibly less cursed shit going on, ]

week three | dates

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many friendquest spoilers

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wobbles back in here

cradles you

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