multiversallogs | How many goodly creatures are there here!

How many goodly creatures are there here! :: GAME OPENER

Welcome to Baedal.

These are the first words newcomers hear when the door opens and they are invited into their new world. Some fuss, some fight, some need time before they have the courage to step outside. Others, shell-shocked or jaded, go quietly along with the proceedings.

They are given brief instructions; a repeat of what's described in the pamphlet and a door key.

Please stay in your room. There will be dinner soon.

It's been almost a day for some. For others, only an hour's wait. The latest newcomer is lead straight from the arrival room to the dining hall where candles and lanterns have been set out to compensate for failing electricity. (Those who have been here longer explain about rolling blackouts.) The food, however, is warm, varied and plentiful. Seating is open, and less conventional chair are available to those who need them.

There are many strange faces around the table, the majority of these recent arrivals. The proprietor of the Valhalla Inn is here, as is some of her staff. The Sheriff of Mog Hill is introduced, his function detailed. The reason for the dinner is explained:

It's a celebration. A new cohort has finally been officiated; CeidaryBlue523. Your cohort. Please. Introduce yourself. Mingle. Get to know your fellows, they will be your brothers and sisters for as long as you live in this city.

((OOC post for discussion and coordination.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Me too." She displays empty hands, a universal gesture for being no immediate threat. You wouldn't distrust a girl with glasses, would you? (In Nazca's case, yes, you probably would.)

"I'm Nazca. This isn't what I was expecting."

"I'm Dean."

He notices the spread of her hands, letting himself relax a few degrees. He glances around and then he just has to ask--

"What were you expecting, if this wasn't it?"

Nazca sighs, just lightly. "Something more organized, at least. I don't even know if this is meant to be a punishment or a reward, really, and that should be clear, I should think."

She tilts her head, then adds, "How did you get here?"

Dean nods grimly. "Can't say I'm any kind of expert, but in my experience? Winding up someplace you didn't expect to be isn't good." It sure wasn't last time--last time.

He raises his eyebrows and then he shrugs. "I was walking up to the house where I live. One minute I'm crossing the lawn, the next I'm in that room and someone's giving me a brochure."

"No, generally not," she says, thoughtfully, to his first observation.

She presses her hands together, clearly in thought, then says, "I suspect there's been some sort of confusion. It doesn't seem like I got here the same way anyone else did, from what people were discussing in the dining hall." Why yes, she was shamelessly eavesdropping; why do you ask?

Dean's serious expression does not improve. He nods, lips pressed together thoughtfully. "Last time I went through something like this, the place where I wound up? It'd been pulling people in randomly from all over the damn universe. I bet something similar's happening here."

He casts another appraising glance over her. "So you just got here today, too? With the rest of the crowd?"

"Yes. I mean, unless I was here before being aware of it, of course, but it seems more likely that it's been a day." Then again, they could have all lost time - there wasn't a real way to be sure, without points of reference.

"You've been through this before, then? Where did you go last time?"

"A day. Yeah. Sounds about right." Unless they've been messed with. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

For at least the millionth time today, Dean wishes his brother was around. These kinds of things made more sense to that giant brainiac.

"Last time was some hell hole." Dean shakes his head. "The less I talk about it, the better."

"Fair enough." She certainly was in no position to press. "Where's home, then?"

The question gives Dean pause for a moment; he's never sure how to answer that. His car? A million motel rooms across the country?

Wherever his brother is.

"Kansas." A faint smile and he adds, "Uh, America. Earth. 2008." If he learned anything in his last stop, it's that sometimes that kind of detail is necessary, what with all of this multiverse or whatever crap.

"That's where I was born, anyway. Moved around a lot since then. What about you?"

She frowns just a little. "Camorr. And I'll guess the name means no more to you than Kansas does to me, so the year won't be much reference either."

As she had begun to suspect, she was much farther from home than she first believed; then again, her early guesses about the place had mostly been wrong so far.

"There's no Elderglass here, which means we're nowhere like anywhere I've heard of."

Dean offers her a sympathetic nod. "Can't say I've heard of Camorr or Elderglass. I'm not sure if this is the same as last time, but the last time this happened to me I wound up in some city that was a whole separate world. Not part of any other universe or some crap like that. If my brother was here--"

The tiniest falter, a heartbeat's pause between words. It still hurts. He still feels like he only exists by half.

"--he could explain it all to you, he gets this kinda thing a hell of a lot better than I do. Maybe it's the same here. We're not in any universe anymore, we're in a new one or something."

She smiles, closed and indecipherable, but says, "I've two brothers, but I doubt they'd be much help at all. They're better at stabbing things than working out puzzles, generally."

Considering his words, Nazca adds, "It does seem likely, though. A new universe. Or less unlikely than anything else I've heard suggested."

A faint smirk crosses Dean's lips. "I'm the stabby brother. But only with good reason, I promise," he adds, raising both hands in a show of not having a good reason right now.

"I think I'm gonna assume that's what's happening here until I hear otherwise. Basically, it's a pain in the ass. Doesn't seem like we'd be brought here for any good reason."

"Some things need a good stabbing," she says, with a shrug. "But I'm obliged to find I'm not one." That depends on who one asks, Nazca.

"It's certainly no where I expected to find myself. There isn't much water here, either, is there? Just the one river." It was mildly unnerving, that.

"Some things do," Dean replies with a solemnity that doesn't quite match the smile that turns his lips. "But I like to try to give people a chance before I break out the knives."

People. Demons and threatening monsters? Not so much.

"I'm not sure. Not that I saw on the map? But I don't know how detailed it is."

"Hospitable of you," to the knife comment, with a quirk of a smile.

"Camorr's more canals than streets, so less than I'm used to anyway. Do you think the map is trustworthy, then?" She's not sure how far she's willing to take the welcoming materials at their word.

"I try."

He sighs, head shaking almost imperceptibly as he considers the map. "You want to believe that the welcoming committee would do right by you. Give you good information to help you get settled and so on. But I can't help thinking it'd be a real good way to mess you up, too. Make you think you have all the stuff you need to get settled when really you don't. How are you gonna know otherwise, right?"

He presses his lips together, thinking. "I think I'm gonna have a little faith in this map. But I'm also gonna get out at some point and validate that faith."

"I was thinking the same. And it would have to be somewhere farther away from the inn; a clever man would make sure the information that can be easily checked is accurate, to mislead with the rest." Paranoid, but true.

Dean raises his eyebrows, impressed. "That's good thinking. Most people are gonna be too scared and disoriented to try to go wandering too far. They'll run outside and when things seem okay there, they'll take the rest of the map at face value."

He stops for a moment, thinking. "I'd go check out the other side of the river, at least. And further out from there."

There is, perhaps, an unspoken you wanna come with? in that observation.

She nods. "The river's a natural boundary - good place to start." Nazca is a little wary - there's no rule that says Dean has to be what he seems, after all. But she's going to have to start making allies somewhere, and he seems bright enough. (And self-reportedly handy with a blade.)

"It'll take some time; better to start sooner than later." Which is a yes.

Dean nods. This plan sounds good. And Nazca seems all right--good head on her shoulders, not particularly quick to try to kill him (always a plus in his books).

"I think so too. I want to check out this inn first--get myself settled in and make sure nothing's going to cause me trouble here. Make sure it's worth coming back to," he says, wry. "But after that I'm game for striking out and testing this map. I'll call you?"

She smiles a little. "Sounds good. Seems like you'll be handy if I run into anything that needs stabbing."

"The feeling's mutual." He smiles. "I'll call you when I'm ready. You feel like some company checking this place out in the meantime?"

If she does, great; he'll tag along. If not, that's cool. There's a lot to take in already and some people are just up for absorbing things on their own. He's good either way.

"If you'd like, I wouldn't mind." Getting the measure of him in a slightly more controlled environment wouldn't go amiss, she thought, and if they were both exploring anyway...

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