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

Was he flirting with her? Mina couldn't tell, she was so out of practice (what a dismal failure Doyle had been!). Still, after all that had happened to her, she was feeling a little wild, a little reckless. She smiled back at him. For a Brit, she had fairly decent teeth. She supposed that was part of being a vampire. Often, she thought that she was much prettier now than she had been (not that Doyle had ever bothered to say anything of the sort, of course).

"I love sailing," she answered. "Travel of any sort, really. And I'm from England, of course. You can't be English without a certain respect for the sea." Her chest always swelled with pride thinking of home. Ironically, she had not returned for such a long time. Not since...

Well, no thinking of that tonight. Not when they were a bloody dazzling man occupying her attention.

"I would love to visit Greece," she gushed.

"Consider it a deal," Apollo said. "As soon as we get out of here, I'll take you around Greece. On a boat, if that's how you'd like to see it, but you'd be missing out. The water is lovely, but there's so much to see away from it too."

And the people were inland. People fascinated Apollo. The water was too big and empty.

He leaned against the wall, gesturing absently in response to her comment about her home. "So tell me about England, then. Is it an island?"

"You can't be serious," she said with a laugh. "Everyone knows about England. The sun never sets on our empire. At least until recently. There are grave concerns about the Prince of Wales. But that just shows you how the times are, these days. Knees are rouged, skirts are higher, and princes fall in love with American divorcees." She smiled blithely. "It's a beautiful country, though. If you take me to Greece, I'll have to show you England."

It was an empty promise, she supposed. As empty as his promise to show her Greece. Whether or not they were permanent residents of this place, she could not say, but no relationships lasted forever. And flirting was not about sincerity.

"Nothing quite matches England in the summer." Like a fog, wisps of memory crept into her mind, visions of a warm summer night on a hill. It had been so long ago.

"You seem to be after my time," Apollo commented lightly. "I'm afraid I haven't heard of most of the worlds that other people come from." It had been rather humiliating at first, to not be able to follow along with half of the conversations on the caravan, but he was beginning to adjust to it. He didn't know what Wales or England or American divorcees were, but he was sure he wasn't the only one.

"How is it that the sun never sets?" he asked curiously. That seemed odd.

After his time? That was...baffling. Mina didn't really know how to process that comment, so she decided just to ignore it. That was always best when encountering the unknown. Otherwise, you'd simply go mad, trying to wrap your mind around the intricacies of the universe. Mina was not that much of a philosopher anyway.

"It's just an expression," she answered. "The British Empire spans all the way from India to the Americas." She paused. "But you probably wouldn't know India or the Americas, if I'm so very far advanced of you. I don't suppose you can tell me what year you're from?"

It didn't really matter if he could, or not. Mina was not fantastic with history. She knew the history of her covenant and that had always been more than sufficient. Well, apparently not so anymore, but she still wasn't too keen on considering the whole situation permanent.

"About one hundred years after the Trojan War," Apollo responded, tilting his head to the side. "Why, what year did you come from?"

Must have been pretty far in the future. She was right. He hadn't recognized any of the places he had just mentioned (although what ridiculous names. America? It hardly rolled off the tongue)

"The Trojan War," Mina repeated. This bloke really did think he was some kind of Greek god (which was justified, given how gorgeous he was, but that was another matter). "The Trojan War was rumored to have taken place around 1,000 BC." There were ancient Kindred tales, too, of a second Trojan War, reenacted by vampires, sometime around 500, but those were little more than rumors at this point. "I come from 1932, or rather, one thousand, nine hundred, and thirty two years after the supposed birth of a rather beloved Jew."

Mina really had no use for religion, but she supposed that wasn't something one ought to say to a god.

"Perhaps you're still around in my time," she mused. "I've never encountered a Greek god before, but I have met with many a fae in recent months. Not to mention a mage or two. Why not?"

"Maybe," Apollo agreed. It was something he'd often wondered. From what he'd understood, based on his conversations with other people in the caravan, the gods didn't seem to be interacting with humanity in the future, or at least not so that people were aware of it.

Of course, there could be multiple reasons for that. They could have been in disguise, could have started going by other names, could have decided to separate themselves from mortals for any multitude of reasons.

Then again, they could have all been destroyed somehow.

"So tell me about yourself," he said, changing the subject. "What were you doing before you showed up here?"

Mina laughed. "Sleeping," she replied. "Rather anti-climactic, really. And awfully embarrassing. I fell asleep at the hospital and the next thing I knew, I was in an ugly room with green tiles." Mercifully without windows or doors, too. "In a way, it's a bit of a relief to be removed from the situation in Chicago. Things were terribly awful there." Still, it was her duty she was now shirking, but it wasn't as if she had had any choice or say in the matter. Anne and Grace and the others would forgive her, when and if she ever returned.

"And what about you, my golden friend?" she countered. "What were you up to when you were abducted?" Mina smiled, trying to remember her mythology properly. "Seducing young shepherdesses while playing the pipes of pan in some gloriously beautiful, sunlit meadow?"

"I can't quite remember," Apollo answered as honestly as he could. He'd been with Cassandra. They'd had dinner on the lookout and then done other things on the lookout, but after that, it all became a little murky. Had they fallen asleep there? Had he gone back to his room? Had it happened in the middle of their entanglement?

After a brief, puzzled pause, Apollo turned his attention back to Mina and gave her a distracted smile. "But I'm fairly certain that there were no pipes or shepherdesses. I tend to remember those."

Mina shrugged. "Just as well," she supposed. "If you can't remember, then you can't miss it, right?"

How she envied Joseph Brown his amnesia. That would have been delightful, at the moment.

She paused a moment. Please, God, don't let this person be another Joseph Brown. That would just be too, too much for her to handle.

"I hope there's some kind of music around here," she murmured, hoping to distract herself from that thought. "I simply cannot live without any ostentation. Life is so dull without it." She lifted her arms over her head, twirling around. "Music is necessary."

Well, the woman went up a notch in his opinion at that.

"Luckily, I brought my lyre along with me," Apollo offered. Then, a frown. "Strange, though. I didn't think it was on my person at the time I was brought over here. I must be forgetting about something."

Between that and Cassandra's bow, he had a feeling this was something of a trend. Strange. It had happened on Willaknepp too. The worlds must have been connected somehow, even if Cassandra didn't think so. "What about you?" he asked. "Did you bring anything with you?"

"Just my pistols," Mina replied. She supposed that was a bit foolhardy. It wasn't always wise to admit to being armed. Then again, even without the pistols, Mina had weapons at her disposal. And that was a secret she wasn't planning on sharing.

She enjoyed survival too much.

Mina glanced around the courtyard. "I think music is precisely what this party needs. Everything is so dreary." She turned to him. "And I can't say I've ever heard a lyre before."

From what Apollo remembered of that vampire and werewolf battle--and it was all a bit fuzzy, given how that day had ended--pistols were those strange handheld weapons that fired off pieces of metal.

Effective, he was sure, but somehow it all struck him as horribly unpoetic. There was nothing beautiful about them at all.

Of course, Ares would have probably thought otherwise. Then again, there was nothing poetic about him either. He probably would have done well in this sort of world, though. Fought his way home, or at least to some position of authority.

"I'll be sure to play for you sometime," Apollo skirted past the question. He didn't want to seem rude and turn her down, but he didn't want to be forever remembered as that strange man that had started playing music the first uncomfortable day of their arrival. "But only if you promise to dance."

Mina laughed. It wasn't an impolite laugh, but it was decidedly boisterous. "Dance?" she said. "Oh, dear me, I don't dance. I'll sing you a good drinking song, if you get enough rum in me, but dancing? That has never been my particular forte." She did a little, Spanish flourish with her arms, ending with an absent wave of her hand, as if to say, 'well, that's that.'

The truth of the matter was Mina danced just fine. The problem was that she always wanted to lead.

"You seem like a fun sort," Mina continued, the chuckle wearing off. "Do you enjoy other sport?"

"Aside from chasing shepherdesses through a sunny meadow?" he quipped. He raised an eyebrow at her, though his eyes seemed to be smiling.

"My impressive wooing abilities aside, I'm not half bad with a bow and arrow," he said. "And I enjoy outdoor games. Running and swimming and the like."

He swept another glance over her. "And you? You look like you stay active."

"Well, I enjoy shooting," she replied slyly. It wasn't a woman's occupation, but she did enjoy it and seeing as she had already admitted to having a pair of pistols, couldn't see any real harm--or surprise--in the confession. "I've used a bow and arrow before. It has a certain, rustic appeal to it, although I must say I'm better with the pistols."

Mina clasped her hands behind her back. "I enjoy sailing too, of course. I can't do it nearly as much as I used to, sadly. But every once in awhile, I like to go out onto the lake at midnight and watch the sky." She glanced up at the stars. She hated how strange they were. She missed Orion and the Dippers and most especially Andromeda.

What else? She supposed running for her life from dragons or fire or fae didn't really count as sport. "Really, I like most anything that gets me moving."

"You could consider a life of piracy," Apollo suggested. "From what I understand, it combines sailing and shooting people. And you'd always be on the move."

He shrugged a shoulder. "You'd just have to find out if there's a body of water around here to sail on." Frankly, if there was, it would be encouraging. There would be hope of sailing home from there.

Mina had to cover her mouth, pretending to stifle a yawn, in order to keep from laughing. A life of piracy? Been there. Done that. Became legendary because of it. "Piracy?" she said, when she finally managed to keep from cracking up. "Sounds like fun."

The reality of it, of course, had lacked much of the romance. The life of a pirate was often filled with long stretches of boredom, to be broken up by intense, terrifying engagements. And then there was the food. And the smell. Nothing smelled worse than a lot of men all in close quarters together. Storms at sea. Wicked cold. Lingering, terrible diseases. And yet, Mina would always miss it a little. Mostly because of Anne. Especially because of Anne.

"You can be my first mate," she said. "You'll take the helm. I'll take the crow's nest."

At that, Apollo gave a genuine laugh.

"Who, me?" he questioned incredulously. "No, no, I'm afraid a pirate's life wouldn't be good for me at all. Not nearly comfortable enough. And surrounded by far too many sweaty, unkempt men for my taste."

As a rule, Apollo preferred cleanly young virgins to old men.

And he was flexible on the virgin part.

"You have at it, though. I'll help you build a ship."

"You don't have the build for a ship builder," she told him, her voice gleeful. "And your hands aren't calloused enough. You seem more like the type who would design a ship and draw it out on paper. Maybe sketch the head. Oh, do make it something pretty."

She held out her hand, showing off her favorite ring. It was made of dark, Spanish gold. There were intricate designs carved into the metal, making it look like the ruffled feathers of an owl's face. Two gleaming orange topazes peered out like eyes. "Something like this," she said. "Preferably in burnished bronze. That'll stand up to the sea."

Mina lowered her hand, rings glittering in the moonlight.

"I don't think there's any water," she said with a bit of a lamentable sigh. "Nor do I think there are the resources available to build a ship. Pity."

"You're judging all of that based on this room?" he asked, looking up from the ring. "There could be a whole world of water out there for all we know. We could be on an island, even."

He looked at her very solemnly. "Still, I don't think it's good to build a ship out of metal. It would probably sink."

"Well, it's all hypothetical anyway. I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of whatever they call their currency. Only what they gave me in that miserable green room." She sighed. "So, so ugly." And Mina had never particularly cared for the color green. "I suppose I'll have to find a job before I can start saving up to buy my boat."

Oh well. At least she didn't have to buy food.

"Nice to have goals, though. All my friends are incredibly goal-oriented individuals. Driven. Determined." She smiled. She supposed she was like them too. She hadn't always been though. Mina had once been motivated purely by instinct and emotion. Now, she was just getting old.

"Everyone needs to have goals of some sort," Apollo pointed out. It was the logical thing to do. "If getting a job and saving up means meeting those goals, then it's just what has to be done. A means to the desirable ends, yes?"

Of course, Apollo wasn't about to set up any goals for himself just yet. More logical yet was to observe the new location, see where they were, how long they might stay here for, and try to figure out what the purpose had been in their being transported to this place. From there, he would be able to make more reasonable goals, and learn how to best protect himself and Cassandra.

Which was, in the end, the real goal.

"True enough," Mina replied with a nod. "Still, there's a difference between having goals and living goals. I've known people who were so obsessed with getting what they wanted, they never wanted what they had." She drummed her fingers against the pad of her thumb. "I knew of a man named Ashely Chillwind, for example, who was so obsessed with this magical slab of his, that he fell in love with it, loved the damn thing more than his own fiance. Now that was tragic. I mean, a stone slab is hardly going to keep you warm at night. Quite the opposite."

She laughed. It wasn't very funny, but she laughed. Mina liked laughing.

"Well, if my goal is to build a boat and sail away to half-discovered places, what will your goal be?" She smirked a little bit. "Aside from shepherdesses, of course."

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