Private Finished Crashing Down

Romi

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VITO DI SAVOIA

Vito was going to die.

It was a simple, clearly understandable fact. It was one he knew in the same way that he knew that humans needed oxygen, or that the sun would rise each morning. He'd known it since his ship (or pod, because calling it a ship was being too charitable by half) had missed mars.

Once he'd passed Mars, there was no looking back. There was no alternative. Space was too vast for him to happen to land on any of the other planets in the solar system, and there was no way for him to turn around. The launch that had sent his pod flying towards Mars was one way, a simple enough system. It launched him. The magics imbued in the pod would help it land on Mars. The ship itself would then unfurl into the parts he'd need to make a doorway back home, he'd take samples, protected by his own magic, voila.

No voila. Vito had a long time, sailing through the dark of space, to think about what had happened. To ponder if it was a mistake, or if he'd been sabotaged. He wanted to say that no one would do that to him, but it wasn't nearly that easy: some people absolutely would, and it was the exact sort of murder that would be the easiest on someone's conscience.

They'd never have to see the body. There'd be no mess. He'd still be hailed as a hero, but his soul would simply be lost, and the Savoia would lose their heir.

He thought about that a lot. About what would become of his family. About what the loss of him would mean to them.

All he could do was think, after all. The capsule was small and cramped without much room to move. His magic kept his bodily needs in check, which meant all he could do was sit there and wait. Eventually, his magic would run out. Eventually, he'd have to decide how he wanted to go. Quick but painful? Slow but agonizing? Eventually he'd decided that it would be easiest to just let things go naturally. Without his magic sustaining him, he'd work through the oxygen in his pod and drift off before too long.

But he still had, by his estimates, five days of his own magic remaining. He had time.

Time and a desperate, desperate hope that someone back at home was figuring out a way to summon him.

And for a brief moment, that hope was answered when the ship shuddered. Vito sat up as much as he was able, staring out into the dark of space. Something had happened. An attempt at a summoning? Something?

And then he was through. It was one second to the next, and then suddenly he was surrounded by blue and green, his pod rocketing down towards... towards land, probably. It was hard to tell with the pod spinning wildly out of control.

The impact should have killed him. As it stood, it did leave a crater and a massive furrow through some poor farmer's field. But the magics that had been laced into the pod kept him from feeling any of it beyond a brief wave of nausea, so when the pod finally slid to a halt, all Vito could think is I'm not dead.

Good words to live by.


@PixelatedGlory
EDIT: This thread has been retconned to take place on May 25th.
 
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PixelatedGlory

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Some sort of craft crash landing in the farmlands. Not exactly a typical call to respond to.

Not entirely without president though either. Ah Manta Carlos.

Irene had listened to the calls coming over the radio as they rushed towards the area, which was still in the process of being cordoned off. As soon as they stopped he hopped out with several bags of equipment and instructed his partner to bring an additional severe trauma kit and collapsible backboard. No way were they getting the stretcher over there through the field, and certainly not back.

Naturally the police and firefighters were there already, but Irene's job was always to focus on the patient. Or patients. So after confirming the scene was safe enough for approach he hurried over to join the firefighters and police officers currently inspecting the pod for some way of opening it.

However he wasn't trying to get it open. He calmly approached and looked to see if he could find windscreen or sign of a camera or some other way of seeing and/or being seen. "Hello, I don't know if anyone is in there, if you can hear me or even understand. We are here to help."

Actually, he realized there was a bigger issue at play too. "Everyone hold up. We don't know if it is safe to open that up. For them or for us either." Naturally that meant a level of quarantine requirements, hazmat suits and gear for assembling a non-earth atmospheric breathing mask if they determined the air was not the same thing required by the patient.
 

Romi

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VITO DI SAVOIA

The pod was not really a ship. Not really. It was solid and opaque, without any sort of external window or anything like that. Anything they'd included would have weakened the craft, so instead it had been set up via magic. Vito could see out, but no one else could see in.

After all, there shouldn't have been anyone on the outside anyway.

Vito's head was still swimming from the crash. Even if the ship had insulated him from the worst of the bumping, he'd still flipped a few times, the stabilizers unable to keep things completely organized. Right then he was lying on his side, trying to process what was happening and where. He was in... somewhere. On land. There was sky and trees and... and people.

Had he died? That seemed like the obvious answer. That he'd finally gone unconscious for some reason, slipping away...

Which was wrong. It didn't make sense. He should have been able to remember at least up to the point where he accepted it would happen soon, and instead there was a great big gap that didn't make any sense. There were people around the pod, snatches of English and conversation and... concern.

Maybe he was worse off than he thought. His magic would keep him alive, but it didn't guarantee comfort, and that meant he was hungry and thirsty and tired all at once. But he at least had the presence of mind to recognize that the one man who'd gotten close was talking directly to him. Here to help.

So Vito did what he should have done back when he first crash landed, reaching out and unweaving the magic that held the craft together. Normally unweaving took a great deal of time, but the ship had been tailor made to be taken apart, and it was as easy as pulling the right string and watching it unravel.

So not a half second after Irene announced they were probably going to need to quarantine the area, the pod abruptly unfurled. It wasn't particularly hard, made of very flexible metal, and the angle it was set at basically made it into a long strip as it dumped Vito onto the ground. The air it released no doubt smelled funny, strange and metallic, but it was still perfectly breathable.

Not that it stopped Vito from gasping for fresh clean air.

Atop Vito, a small blue and white creature peeked out of his hood, climbing up onto his side and staring at Irene inquisitively.

 

PixelatedGlory

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Well it looked like it was going to be just a series of unpredictable events.

Irene didn't even have time to put on a mask before the whole pod had opened up completely and... well so much for any hope of quarantine measures. Fortunately they had an air quality monitor handy but if there had been any dangerous gasses they seemed to have been dispersed to safe levels.

"We've got a live one. Male, possibly Caucasian and roughly in his thirties. Conscious and breathing..." He began calling out the info to his partner as he knelt down to approach the victim and cocked his head to the side in a very birdlike fashion as he peered back at it. "Also got some kind of non humanoid, also conscious and breathing."

Then he tried speaking, in a calm and even tone to avoid startling the man and creature. "My name is Irene, can either of you understand me? We just want to help make sure you're safe. If you can understand me do you breathe oxygen?"

Meanwhile Asku had arrived and landed nearby on the top of the ambulance to watch things. Not allowed to be involved with the actual rescue work but refusing to be too far away. Especially upon spotting this other smaller creature.
 

Romi

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VITO DI SAVOIA

Realistically speaking, Vito didn't have it in him to be surprised anymore. He'd passed the threshold, gone zooming past 'surprised and bewildered' into the great unknown beyond. How could he even process? He was... he was back on Earth? He was back on Earth and someone was talking with him.

The person doing the talking looked perfectly normal, or at least normal enough to raise no red flags. The tiny creature on Vito ran up his sleeve as Vito abruptly braced himself with one hand, pushing himself onto his ass as he blinked furiously, trying to let his body adjust.

"I-- I'm human," were the first words out of Vito's mouth. Better to clarify that. Better they know he was a human and not a shade or a projection or (god forbid) some kind of alien. "I don't know how I got back here. Did someone recall me?"

It was theoretically possible with a large group, but Vito had been sure that they'd be wildly out of range of any possible spellcasting. Who could possibly expect that someone would be able to recall him from long past Mars?

 

PixelatedGlory

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Irene quickly held out his hands, palms towards Vito in the nigh-universal 'stop' motion. "Wait, let's take this slowly. Why don't you stay sitting at least until I can check you for any serious spine or neck injuries- with your permission of course. That must have been a pretty rough landing."

While he prepped to check for serious injuries, swelling and such Irene kept the conversation going. Both to check the man's cognitive state and to make sure he stayed awake in case he had suffered a concussion or something without realizing. "I don't recognize you Mr.... ? I'm not sure what you mean when you ask abut being recalled. I am going to ask a couple questions though. Do you know where you are? Can you tell me your name? What date would you guess it is?"

All fairly standard questions. He skipped the time of day question for being obviously irrelevant.
 

Romi

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VITO DI SAVOIA

Vito wasn't a fan of doctors (or EMTs, which this man seemed to be), but he wasn't stupid either. He sat still and let the man get to his work inspecting him, but once he'd take a look he wasn't going to find much beyond some bruising. The ship had kept Vito plenty safe, although it had left him a bit rattled.

"Vito di Savoia," he clarified, finding nothing amiss with the questions. "I'm on Earth, although where is a bit beyond me." There's not much he can see, and he's not going to guess. The man's accent wasn't one he recognizesd either, which made things a great deal harder. "It's..." He paused, trying to count down. "Sometime in mid-June."

He'd lost track of the days.

"Maybe late June."

 

PixelatedGlory

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Well... it was becoming more and more clear this person was some kind of fall-in. Although whether this was dimensional, time travel, magical or... well the list was endless- regardless that wasn't Irene's job to figure out.

Vito seemed to have not readily apparent serious injuries, though they'd be required to transport him regardless after the way he crash landed. "Well Vito, if you don't mind me calling you by your first name, you're on a set of islands we call Manta Carlos. I know this is going to come as a bit of a shock to you but it's not quite June here yet."

"You don't seem to be too badly banged up, but I'd like to have you transported to the hospital just in case so they can clear you officially. Would you mind taking a ride with me in the ambulance? I'm sure the other officials would like to speak with you but I can keep them at bay while we make sure you really are as unhurt as you seem," He explained as he activated a couple cooling packs to hold against a few of the larger bruises Vito had suffered.
 

Romi

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VITO DI SAVOIA

Had he cut out early? Had he miscounted? It was entirely possible. It wasn't like he could tell how many days had passed when he was soaring through space, no sun or moon to signal the passage of time. His ship hadn't had anything like that because it hadn't been expected to be necessary. Everything on the ship was to keep him alive, and it had all been so calculated...

Vito made a face at the mention of Manta Carlos. At first he thought it was Monte Carlos, but after a moment he realized he was mistaken.

"I suppose, although it's unnecessary," he said matter of factly. "Where did you say I was? Manta Carlos?" Not a place he'd heard of, but that wasn't exactly excluding him having landed somewhere on Earth. He might just not be familiar with the area, or it might be... well, he'd said set of islands, and Vito considered himself a fairly worldly person. Could a whole set of islands exist he hadn't heard of?

 

PixelatedGlory

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Irene nodded with compassion in his eyes. "I know, it's always annoying to go through the hoops but if we don't do that then we don't know for sure. And we don't know what you might have brought with you from," he just pointed upwards. "You obviously were flying a lot higher than I have ever been."

"I wont make you lay on the backboard since you don't have any sign of neck injury but please do come with me to the ambulance. Where did you say you were from again, Vito? And do the words Veil or Disbelief mean anything in particular to you?"
 
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