Inigo burst into a coughing fit the moment he stepped out of the...the portal. This was not what he had been expecting, and clearly, Severa and Owain hadn't been expecting something like this place either. The only way he could describe it was a bit like the home of his childhood when bodies were left rotting in the streets, except this wasn't that smell. It was something else, something he hated less, but that didn't make it bearable to breathe in. With any luck, this place would be better than home. It would certainly be different, and that's why they'd come. For something different. For a change of scenery, for something new that wouldn't remind them so terribly of the war.
Inigo took a deep breath to try and calm himself down, but he just ended up spluttering again. This air really was foul! There didn't seem to be any way that he could breathe without every inch of his mouth and throat and nose burning. He looked over to his companions, and Severa had moved to cover her mouth with her sleeve.
"Anyone have any clue where we are?" He looked around, searching for anything that would give them a clue. There were buildings nearby, an area with more buildings than he'd seen in his life, but nothing that looked familiar. He supposed that was the point, but when they'd decided to go away, they'd sort of presumed that there would be some kind of prominent natural landmark, or even something obvious that they knew, like a castle or a city, or even a town that one of them had grown up in.
"Alas, this plane is not known to me!" Owain said, but his announcement was ruined by a cough.
"Me neither," Severa said, looking around the landscape with nothing but confusion in her eyes.
"Well, that's not helpful." Inigo sighed. "We may as well head for those buildings over there. They seem to be the only big thing in sight…" That was hardly a good description, but it was the best way he could think of to describe the mass of buildings in front of them.
"I know you're but a simple country bumpkin," Severa said, "but Inigo, that's just a big city. Come on." He sighed and bit back a comment on how wonderfully sharp her tongue was. He wouldn't be able to deal with her attempting to stab him now, not when the three of them only had each other, at least from now on.
"Alright, then," he amended. "Let's head for the city. Hopefully someone will at least be able to tell us where we are.." They'd likely get a few weird looks, asking seemingly obvious questions like that, but it was an unavoidable problem, really. "Maybe we're in the future that's going to exist now?"
Severa hissed some air out through her teeth. "That means there could be people who know us here. We'll have to disguise ourselves somehow."
"How do you suggest we do that?" Inigo looked around again, wondering if there were any shops here. Could you buy disguises from shops? It was hardly his area of expertise, after all. Disguises seemed like they'd be Owain's thing, if anything.
"We just need different names, stupid," Severa said, and Inigo couldn't work out how she had managed to work out that he was thinking about disguises. "If we have different names, people will think that resemblance is just a coincidence."
"I'm excellent at names!" Owain jumped forward, beaming. "If you will allow me to rename the three of us, not even the foulest of sorcerers would be able to guess our true identities!"
Inigo pulled a face. He'd really rather not be walking around with a name that was three sentences long. He loved Owain, he really did, but there was no way that he would let anyone call him something that he came up with. "Why don't we name ourselves, and you can judge them? We probably want something inconspicuous, Owain."
"I want something I can recognise as my own name," Severa said. "Or someone will call it and I'll never respond."
"You two are no fun," Owain said with a huff. "I shall name myself…Odin Dark! Truly, an almighty name for a Chosen One such as myself…"
Severa hid a scoff, but she said nothing to contradict Owain's name for himself. Why he needed two, she had no idea, but he could have his fantasies if he wanted them. "I don't know. Any suggestions?" She asked, and Owain's eyes lit up. "Inigo?"
"Um…" Owain looked frankly outraged at not being asked- it was quite funny, really. Inigo gave him a sheepish grin before turning his mind back to thinking of names. "How about…Selena? A lovely name for a lovely lady."
"Now you shut up," she said, "or I'll show you what I think of your lovely lady." She paused, watching him for a response that would give her an excuse to stick a sword in his side. "I do quite like Selena, though."
"You do?" That was a surprise, to say the least. Not an unpleasant one, though. "I don't suppose you have any ideas for me, do you? It's hard to try and name yourself…"
"You need something awkward, like you," she said, and Inigo didn't have to pretend that he was a bit hurt by that. He was awkward and shy, and he said it frequently, but that didn't make it any less hurtful when he heard it from another.
"A true reflection of the soul!" Owain said, and Inigo remembered where the name Odin would have come from. It suited him.
"Thanks, guys," Inigo said, folding his arms. "You're being so helpful and supportive." He sighed. "I still don't know what to call myself…I don't want something too similar, it'll just bring back too many memories."
"I can never decide if you're playing up the trauma thing or if you're just cautious," Severa said, putting an arm around his shoulder for a moment, but she removed it once his face turned completely red. "How about Lazward? That's suitably rubbish."
"What?" Inigo pulled a face. "No way. That's terrible…where did you even get that from? How about…um, Laslow? That's similar to what you suggested, but it makes me sound less weird."
"Okay," she said. "Laslow. What do you think, ah, Odin?" It sounded strange, hearing the new names come from Severa. Or Selena, if she was going to insist on using the new names right now and from now on.
"It's not quite right yet…" Owa- Odin looked thoughtful for a moment, and then his eyes lit up. "Laslow of the Indigo Skies! A perfect title for you, my friend!"
"I don't need a title anymore," Laslow laughed lightly, and then slightly harder when Odin's foot went into a rabbit hole. "I think I gave up the title of prince when I left."
"Well, not all men choose greatness. And you, Laslow of the Indigo Skies, are one of those men destined to have greatness thrust upon them." Odin folded his arms, looking very firm about what he'd just said, and Selena let out a snort of laughter from behind them.
"Inig- Laslow isn't getting anything thrust upon him," she said, laughing. "If he wanted anything like that, he should probably stop flirting with girls." The fact that she thought he should stop flirting with girls anyway went unsaid, but Laslow knew she was thinking it.
"Well, you never know." Odin shrugged, cheerfully running ahead as they made their way towards the city. Laslow honestly didn't know how he managed to be so enthusiastic in times like this, but it was sort of admirable.
"He's mad," Selena laughed, and Laslow could only nod. That was Owain, or Odin. Completely stark raving mad, no doubt about it, but he wouldn't have him any other way. There was something distinctly cheering about having him around, he was just so enthusiastic and it made him feel better in the darker times.
"So, Selena...what are cities like?" That was probably an odd question, but Laslow was genuinely curious. He'd never really lived in the capital of Ylisse, only been there a few times when it was completely destroyed or for fighting reasons. He hadn't gone back there after the war even though Father had invited him to the castle. Unlike Lucina, he just couldn't face the past and all its bad memories. He had been told that they understood why he'd refused, but he knew they didn't.
"Cities are…big?" Selena shrugged. "I don't know…there's a lot of people around, more so than at home. You'll see in a little while anyway."
"I can see already," he said. And it looked nothing like anything he'd ever seen before. It was so...the clouds that skirted the tops of the almost impossibly tall buildings were grey and looked bad. The buildings were all of stone, or something that looked more like metal than anything else, but surely metal was too precious to build with.
"This city is majestic," Odin called back to the pair of them. "Such grandeur! Truly, we must have stumbled upon the home of the gods." Personally, Laslow thought it smelled a bit too much to be the home of any gods, but he wouldn't burst Odin's happy bubble. It was usually a good idea to just leave him to it rather than contradict him and end up in an argument that went on so long and got so convoluted that it was very difficult to remember where it had started by the end.
"Have either of you seen any clues of where we are?" Selena asked. Laslow wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for. A monument? A person they could ask for advice? Something that they could read to tell them? He really had no idea.
"Not a sausage," he said, shrugging. "For all I know, Odin's right and we really are in the land of the gods." Laslow rather hoped that that wasn't the case, as he couldn't imagine gods being very happy about some mere mortals encroaching on their territory. "I hope the people here speak our language. I'm sure Morgan told me something about how there are lands across the sea where people speak in different tongues." Selena suddenly looked horrified, probably at the idea that they may be stuck with little money in a place where they understood no one.
"That better not be the case," she said, frowning. "Or else we're really stuffed. Kind of makes me wish we'd given this a little more thought before we came here, but never mind, I suppose…"
"Nothing we can do now except smile and hope for the best," Laslow said, and he was pleased to see just a small smile creep onto Selena's face. She never normally bought into his smiling and cheerful thing, but maybe this was the start of a new era. Maybe, from now, they could get along without endless squabbling, and maybe together they would be able to make this uncertain future into a bright one.
