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

"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...

"I'd like." That... could've been flirtatious but for once it's not. "I came from in there--closets and so on. Why don't we head out toward the common areas?"

"As you like." She'll probably check that area on her own later - trust is going to take some earning - but she doesn't feel any strong preference for what they look at first. "I was in the dining area, I observed it for a bit. Fairly standard - almost like a barracks, more than an inn, in some ways." At least what she thinks of.

Dean's quiet a moment, mulling this over. "Sounds like they're ready for crowds. Lots of people being here at once." He frowns. "Not sure I like the sound of that."

That would mean this happens a lot. That there's a steady stream of arrivals.

She nods. "They seem to have the cohort thing worked out." Nazca doesn't care for the implications of that, either. "It seems like they're used to people arriving in batches, whatever that implies."

"That means this place could be huge. A hell of a lot of people, all pretty damn unhappy about winding up here." Which could be a help, if they want to do something about being here. Or a hindrance, if everyone's just mad and mot interested in much else.

"Maybe we should find someone from an earlier batch. Somehow. Ask them what the hell's really going on here."

Nazca had been thinking something similar.

"Or find out if there are natives - or people claiming to be natives, at the very least. To get away with that, they'd have to know they were the first." When in doubt, assume lying. "Either way, they'll have been around long enough to possibly be useful."

"So when we get there, we start with the old people."

...Dean's not really great at putting things nicely.

"You gotta figure, old people--they've seen a lot, right? Higher chance they've seen a lot here, if we start with the old people."

"Maybe," she said, cautiously, "though just because someone's old, doesn't mean they grew old here. Not a bad place to begin, trying to pull a pattern for the type of person they bring."

"Well, yeah," he allows. "Maybe the place brings in old people too. But if we can find some old-timers who've been around a long time, that'd help. And you're right--it'd be good to see who the place grabs. Does it only want young people? Old? From certain places or times? Or just random?"

He hopes it's not the last. If there's no pattern to this that makes it that much more difficult to stop, he thinks.

Nazca nods, thoughtful. It's going to take time, and note taking, and a lot of getting people already shaken to open up to strangers. But if they can manage that, it might be worthwhile. More than anything she wants to understand.

(After all, she can't go home.)

"It seems like, in what I've seen of our group, mostly young, but not children. Between 20 and 40, maybe, in the main. But it's too small a sample, so far."

Dean is all for understanding. It's how hunters operate--if you know what you're up against, you know what steps you need to take to make things right, save the day, save your own ass.

He nods at her observation. "Breeding age," he points out. It's awful but it's true, it's what he sees in that age group.

"True," she says. "Though I don't know if I can have any - which suggests their research is incomplete or their designs aren't exclusively that, even if it's included. And given the specificity of our welcome gifts, the former strikes me as unlikely."

"But strong, certainly. Young and working age."

Dean stops himself--his first instinct is to say he's sorry but that's presumptuous. Not everyone necessarily wants or feels the need to have children.

(See, Sam? He's been paying attention.)

"Either way, it sounds like they're picking people who can help build the population here. Whether they work or they have kids."

"I agree - it's a decent working theory, at least." She hasn't decided if she should tell anyone, yet, about how she got here precisely, but it doesn't change the observation.

"It seems likely they're picking people with useful skills, who they think can be incorporated."

"Useful skills. Like knifing people."

Deadpan, deadpan, deadpan.

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