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In a village in the middle of an eerie forest, you need shelter. There are many empty houses speckled across a central village, each with its own customizable features. The houses are always made of wood and field stone. They lack all modern commodities, however there is crude indoor plumbing. There are thick glass windows, misty and difficult to see through, and thick wooden doors that are heavy and difficult to move--however all of them have barricades on the inside to keep intruders out. Most houses have several rooms and some even have multiple floors, but there is something aged and almost crumbling about each of them. They are safer than nothing, but they are cold and uninviting. You need to claim one of these homes for yourself, but with so many unknowns, it's probably best to find a group to stick with and have your back. Do you try to take on this oddity in a house, alone? Or do you manage to find people to get along with and share a house with?
The bar for ‘places I would like to be isekai’d into’ was pretty low for Safiya, but this was an entirely new low.
If, perchance, she were to ever be hit by the infamous isekai transporter truck, and sent to another world, Safiya had essentially just one request- that she be transported to the world of gbf, as a crewmate on the Grandcypher as part of danchou’s ever growing collection. It was a simple enough request- no being reborn as a villainess in an otome game, no zombie idols, just a recruitable unit in a gacha game. Gotta meet your heroes after all, right?
Unfortunately Safiya’s isekai experience didn’t involve the eponymous truck-kun that jumpstarted so many isekai protagonists’ journeys, but rather, a strange fog that rolled into Destiny City in the middle of the night. While she had been passed out in bed, having been grinding the Extra Drops event going on currently. The scenery she awoke to wasn’t the Grandcypher, or anything close to it, but rather, an aged village surrounded by trees, with none of its inhabitants in sight. If she squinted and pretended she had been transported into gbf anyway, maybe she could make an argument that this was simply the Mist-Shrouded Isle, the zombie village lost to time thanks to the primal beast Celeste, where crewmate Ferry came from.
At least, she’d make the argument if it weren’t for the conspicuous lack of zombies, or the fact that it didn’t really… match up with the way it was depicted ingame.
… Or, perhaps even, the fact that her very detested cousin was here?? What the hell, man. No sooner had she started to gain her bearings did Safiya notice that Kalani, too, had apparently been spirited away to this mystery town. It was no secret that the two of them despised each other very much, and in a very open manner, too. Certainly, if either of them were to end up another of Destiny City’s ongoing missing persons problem, the other wouldn’t even shed a tear.
So why was she even here????
Kalani had been in the middle of putting together a rather lengthy online wishlist of (expensive) things she wanted as a birthday gift when the fog had rolled in. She hadn’t been powered up, because well, caring about one’s senshi duties and the like were for suckers who weren’t her, and had found herself also arriving in this empty village with no way of powering up, not that she had made any effort to attempt such. Just as Safiya had been displeased to see her, so too had Kalani reacted in a rather unpleasant manner in return. Ultimately, a temporary (albeit shaky) truce was made for the time being, because the two girls needed to find shelter, but predictably, that alliance didn’t last long; in fact, it fell apart pretty quickly.
Neither girl was fond of heavy labor, or putting in too much work, if they could help it. The first house they found that didn’t feel like it would crumble apart was where they set up base, and that was where the problems started. Then again, given the already existing rift between the two, it wasn’t likely to last long to begin with. While Safiya searched the rooms for anything of use, such as, say, a working power outlet, Kalani laid claim to a bedroom that she had deemed to be the ‘least dirtiest’, and flopped right onto the bed, though not without some mild dramatics about she was getting her clothes dirty.
“Well! I’m simply exhausted, so I think it’s high time for a little cat nap,” Kalani declared, much to Safiya’s ire, “Wake me up if anything interesting happens, or if someone comes to rescue us. Either or.”
It was clear that Kalani had no intention of moving from her spot now that she had settled, and why should she? They were in some kind of abandoned village surrounded by trees with who-knows-what out there. She might not have come from a wealthy background, but Kalani was a true Crystal girl in the sense that she was not about to go out there and get herself dirty, or be involved in fighting whatever nasties were out there.
Besides, Kalani couldn’t power up, anyway, not that Safiya was privy to any of this info, so best to leave it for some other unfortunate loser to get themselves involved with. Rune wasn’t around to try to guilt trip her into action, either, which was even better. Sure, there was still the question of things like food, or even more importantly, electricity (because how else would she entertain herself when or if her phone died, aside from ordering her cousin around?), but Safiya could take care of all that stuff. Kalani had faith in her… or something like that. Maybe. Kind of.
(Well, not really, but better Safiya than Kalani herself, in her opinion. If she happened to have an unfortunate ‘accident’ while out there? Even better.)
Safiya, meanwhile, was seeing red. The nerve of this chick, to boss her around like she was her personal maidservant, while never lifting a finger herself? She didn’t sign up to babysit her cousin, who was only two years younger than her- she’d rather take her chances with whatever was out there.
“Excuse me?" Safiya stared at her cousin's back, becoming more enraged by the second, "You can’t be serious.”
“Um, yeah?” Kalani didn’t bother to turn back to face Safi, “In case you forgot, we’re kinda stuck here, at least until someone figures out how we’re supposed to get out, sooooo…”
Saf made a small noise of disgust, but it was clear that Kalani was far beyond reasoning with, not that she ever was, really. So she was just gonna camp out here and do nothing else, huh?? Well, okay, then, two could play at that game. Kalani could stay here, as long as she liked, and deal with the consequences on her own; Safiya would go her own separate way. Essentially, she was ditching her cousin, leaving her at the mercy of whatever other hapless soul happened to take shelter in that house as well, but to be honest, Saf really didn't care anymore. It was as good as she was going to get when it came to exacting revenge on her lazy cousin, but better than nothing, really. She'd just have to hope to find someone more competent to team up with.
