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.))

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"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."

"Aside from the shepherdesses?" Apollo asked in an incredulous voice. As he looked at Mina, his eyes sparkled mischievously, though his face remained innocently incredulous. "Well, that's practically cutting out half of my regular activities."

He lifted his hand, stroking his finger against his chin thoughtfully. "I suppose if you're cutting that out, my goal will have to be seducing fruit pluckers and dairy farmers."

"Is that your way of saying you have no skills?" she teased. It was something hilarious to see a man in what she normally viewed as a woman's position. "Well, fear not. Perhaps somewhere down the line, I'll open my own medical clinic. You can be my nurse. I promise, I won't make you wear a funny white hat. You'll have to wear the white dress, of course, but I'll spare you the hat."

Mina smiled blithely. That was actually a delightful notion. And not just because Apollo was a man. She imagined he had very shapely legs.

"Won't that be delightful?"

"I'm not really sure what that entails," Apollo admitted. "But sure, I have skills. I was just kidding. I could go hunting, or work as a musician, or maybe a philosopher if they have need for that sort of thing around here."

They probably did. Philosophers were constantly in demand.

"I prefer a job where I don't have to wear a funny hat, though."

"A philosopher?" Mina raised an eyebrow. "You really are ancient, aren't you?"

She couldn't hold that against him, though. Plenty of vampires she knew had been forever stuck in the past. Some of the literally, as in the case of Primogen Brown. And of course, some of them were so old...well...she had only recently learned that Dr. M was sired back in the days of ancient Greece. She had been a priestess of Athena, for crying out loud. Compared to that, Mina felt like a bloody neonate.

"Well, I'll wish you luck with that line of business."

"I hear it's rude to ask someone about their age," he commented lightly. "But for all the questions that you've been asking me, you haven't offered up too much information about yourself."

And that made him wonder what she was hiding.

Apollo swept his arm grandly in an all-encompassing gesture. "So tell me about yourself. Who are you?"

Ah, the one question that all Kindred feared. Mina could not help but smile at it. She had a rote, memorized response, one she had used so many times, in so many different places. Unlike with most other Kindred, at least hers was only half a lie. There was a grain of truth in it. "Well," she began, "aside from being Mina Barrett of Devon County, England? I'm a doctor, specializing in emergency care and hematology. I was last practicing out of Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, but I've traveled all over the place."

Every twenty five years or so, if she could help it.

"What else, what else?" she mused. "One brother. Father died before I was born, et cetra and so forth. Recently single after unloading a nightmare of a boyfriend." She laughed at that. "Christopher Doyle. Complete arse, I must say."

Apollo only half understood what she said, but he knew that doctors were healers of some sort. He imagined hematology was something female-related. Perhaps dealing with childbirth.

The boyfriend part, that he understood. And it made him laugh. "Every woman says that about every man she ever has a falling out with," Apollo exclaimed. "It's really just not fair to us. Tell me, what did he do that was so unforgivable?"

Mina's eyebrows quirked slightly. "He cheated on me," she replied with a surprisingly cool, casual tone of voice, "ran around with all the other women in the town. Got syphilis, which I hope really, really hurts." She shrugged. "To speak plainly, however, it wasn't much of a relationship to begin with. I can sum it up in eight words, well, seven words if you count the hyphenated term as one: He needed arm-candy and I was bored."

Despite her style of dress and masculine tendencies, Mina had no problem considering herself arm-candy. She could be very pretty, when she wanted to be. Beauty wasn't always about being born with a perfect nose or full lips. These days, it was much more about what you did with what God gave you. And Mina, for all of her bravado, knew a thing or two about the proper application of lipstick. Not to mention a corset, although they were somewhat out of style, she supposed.

They would come back.

"Actually," she mused. "I've always had the sinking suspicion he doesn't really like girls anyway. I think I could parade around naked in front of him and he'd still be more interesting in Anthony DiMarco's latest political scheme." She paused. "I've never paraded around naked in front of him, for the record."

Truthfully, Apollo had always believed that trust was more important than monogamy. Of course, he was also aware that most women did not feel the same way, and he wasn't looking to start any fights right now. Not while they were all still trying to adjust to this new location.

"I'm sorry that you were hurt," he chose to say instead. He gave the women an appreciate once over, eyes lingering in some places a bit longer than others. "His loss."

Apollo turned his eyes back to her face and smiled. "I can assure you, if you paraded around naked in front of me, I would pay attention."

It was difficult to hurt Mina. She protected her skin with Cruac rituals and her heart with a lock and key. She would, in time, forget Doyle's name. At least she had that. Still, she knew that in protecting herself, she sacrificed the possibilities for other things; romance and sex and intimacy (which were, in fact, three very separate institutions). Often, Mina told herself that her life was worth sacrificing those three things, but thinking about it now, she could question her own judgment.

Turning her attention to his horrible, horrible pick-up line, Mina smiled smugly. "That won't be happening my friend."

She was actually a bit surprised. She certainly wasn't trying to flirt. There was really no time for that. She could only chalk it up to the fact that Apollo was remarkably handsome and he wore it with confidence. Confidence was very, very attractive.

"I remember my Greek enough to know that you've had a very, very active sex life," she said. "Bacchic orgies were never to my taste. I much prefer flowers." As long as they weren't roses. Mina hated roses.

"Just as well," Apollo commented lightly. Mina, he had already gathered, was not entirely his type. He didn't feel inclined to make further efforts than casual flirting. Besides, sexual dalliances could wait until after he figured out what was going on in this world.

Still, he had to admit to himself, there had been a time in Apollo's past when the fact that a woman had rejected him would have been enough cause for him to viciously pursue her. Perhaps that was a sign of growth. Perhaps it was because of Cassandra.

Or, most likely, it could be due to the fact that since the time he'd been snatched into Willaknepp, he had been tired. Frequently. And taming women into submission could just be plain exhausting.

Mina sensed a certain measure of resignation in his voice. Is that what it was? It was difficult for her to read men, sometimes, especially since the Kindred were so good at covering up their emotions and their...well...covering up their everything, when you got right down to it. To be among other creatures was still...unsettling. She would have to rely on ancient knowledge of the way people, real people, communicated.

Of course, she wasn't entirely sure if a Greek god counted as a real person.

A minor detail.

"You and I must go out one of these nights," she said. "I can help you find something more to your tastes. Nothing makes a man more attractive to women than when he's accompanied by a woman." Mina, ever one of the lads, prided herself on her ability to find companionship for her male friends. She was good. Very good. And only rarely had to rely on her Dominating abilities.

A brief look of annoyance flickered across Apollo's face at that. Did he look as though he needed help with women? He had half a mind to charm this women until she was weak in the knees, just to prove a point.

But no, not today. Right now, his concentrations needed to be dedicated to figuring out this situation and renewing his efforts to go home. He had become too comfortable, too at ease with their situation on the caravan. He wouldn't let that happen again.

"I prefer to work alone," he stated as politely--and pointedly--as possible. This woman clearly knew nothing about male pride.

Mina shrugged. Really, it was no skin off of her nose. Which was a funny figure of speech. She'd have to look into its origins sometime. Sunny would know, of course. But Sunny wasn't here. "Suit yourself," she replied. She paused. "I wonder if they even have suits here," she murmured, looking down at her dirty clothes. "I could use a new one myself."

She tilted her fedora down, over her eyes a bit. "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you. Doubtlessly, our paths will cross again. Preferably at some of the same parties."

Women and their trousers. He did not care for it one little bit.

"I have no doubt we'll meet again," Apollo said cordially, reaching out to take her hand and press his lips against her knuckles. If nothing else, the women had certainly been interesting.

"Pencil me in for a dance someday," he suggested. A phrase he had learned at that ball on the caravan.

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

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