Character Mansion

Theater

"A few centuries sounds reasonable whatever the case might actually be," Anne said, before motioning towards the projector and snack machines. "For one, we have no equivalent to these odd contraptions. And I never heard the word 'movie' until Tamara said something about them up in the library."

She shrugged. "Not that I'm complaining, mind. This place has proved to be rather interesting so far." She covered up her missing cheek again before grabbing another piece of popcorn and eating it. "And this stuff's pretty good."

[Library]

'snort' "Huh, whazzat?"
Leo blinked as he lifted his face off the table, drool streaming from his mouth. -I can't believe you...-
"Huh? What'd I miss?"
-You fell asleep while Tora was talking to you!-
"It's not my fault I'm narcoleptic."
-You're not narcoleptic.-
"Says you. It just didn't kick in till now. Where's Tora?"
-Reading books or something, I don't know. What are you gonna do? We didn't get any info thanks to you.-
"Well, I'm hungry, so I'll leave her alone. Where's the kitchen?"
-There's no need to find it, those little service bots will get you something.-

edited 20th Feb '13 5:21:38 PM by cexadono

[Dining hall]

"Ah," said Mai. "That makes sense, I... guess." She pondered it and shrugged. "It's there, I suppose, even if it isn't much. Publish some papers here, report a new finding there, write about a new theory there..." She looked into the distance for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do change it a bit."

Something stopped her and she frowned. "Although I suppose that's true of any academic discipline. Most of it's always evolving, so you have to change it a bit in order to actually do anything." She looked Linna up and down. "Although you don't seem like the teachi-"

Abruptly, she snorted and grabbed her snout, shaking with ill-restrained laughter. "Oh, Kaln," she giggled, "I just got an image of you wearing heavy armor, a bazooka slung over your back, and showing letters to a bunch of 6-year-olds. You were teaching a kindergarten class."

[Entry hall —> parlor]

"Well, then," said Xavier, "I've got a conversation I need to get back to, so if you don't mind..." He took a step towards the parlor door, then turned back to Nara, Krajn, and Harry. "By the way, if any of you want to come with me, I don't think anyone there will mind." Much.

With that, Xavier re-entered the parlor and took a seat. "Sorry about that," he said to Agustin, "but I felt something a bit fishy just then and decided to investigate. Short-ish story shorter, I think I destroyed the eavesdropping spell. We should be good here."

Still, that didn't stop Xavier from keeping up his examination of the room with arcanoception. It never hurt to check.

[Entry Hall]

Harry sighed, shrugged, and looked around. He didn't really like the looks, and (courier or not) he definitely didn't like the lack of a net, but the place was actually cool once you got past the sadly-standard sense of imminent doom. A mansion between the worlds. Groovy. Bit of a stock setting (or so Cecelia says), but still.

"Actually, I think I could go for a stiff drink," he told NR. Unless it's poisoned. Or drugged. Oh, hell. "Where, exactly...?"

—-

Krajn considered briefly. The mansion seemed safe, and she could tell by now that Harry was exaggerating his behavior to a certain degree. She detached a nanocam to watch him just in case, sent a quick message saying as much, and padded after Xavier into the parlor. Once inside, she gave another quick glance at the people in the room (filing the images away for her backup to analyze) and bowed her head again.

"Hello. I'm Krajn."

Night, what (if any) tells would there be for what Nara is?

[Master Bedroom]

"Classy." Remarked Claire, in regards to Aseyu's outfit. "And... Some interesting reasoning..." She said, as she picked up a grey tank-top off the floor and put it on. "I could have been anyone, yet you chose to trust me with that information... And just to encourage me to open up, no less..." She said, thoughtfully. Then she smiled wryly at Aseyu. "Of course, you could just be making it all up. You probably tell everyone you charm into bed that you're some impressive assassin." She chuckled.

"Anyway, have I mentioned that nothing is beyond the laws of physics?" She said, as she picked up her thin, black sweater. "Nothing truly defies the laws of physics, you see. If something appears to do so, then it is only because the contemporary understanding of physics simply hasn't advanced to the point where the event being witness can be understood properly." She put her sweater on, a faded emblem stitched onto the sleeve displays 525th Batt. Spe. Sup. Uni. Div. beneath a circular symbol with faded colours and washed-out details.

[Theater]

While she reached, unsuccessfully, for the popcorn, a number of things were talked about, most of which Tamara ignored as she tried to get some popcorn, or at least someone's attention, without being rude or jumping. This was one of many disadvantages that came with being a considerate but rather short eight year old; things held by normal-sized adults were often hard to get at while they were talking to other adults, mostly because it was rude to interrupt them. And she had yet to meet a grown-up that seemed to appreciate the necessity of having to jump at some things. Her patience wore thin, and she decided to speak up when Samira said something interesting. She also hoped someone would notice that she couldn't quite reach the popcorn without a little bit of help...

"You're from the future?" Inquired Tammy. "What's the future like?" She paused for a moment and pointedly looked at the tub of popcorn for a moment, then looked up at Samira somewhat expectantly. She hoped she wouldn't have to actually admit that she couldn't reach the stuff. "Also, can we watch Atomic Betty?" While that was one of her favourite shows, she doubted so many adults would agree to watch it with her.

Agustin kept his look of concern, standing a few steps away from Ozzy. "Good. You're finally awake. Er- If I may ask- what race are you? I can't say that I've seen any of your kind before." Before the creature could answer, Xavier entered the Parlor again, and Agustin got up off his knee and hurried off to meet him.

"Ah, Xavier! You're back. And that is excellent news! Good work. Seems I've another thing to thank you for. Now, I suppose we can resume our discussion-?" The sound of the Parlor door opening and closing cut Agustin off, and he leaned past Xavier 's folded wingspan to see who or what manner of creature had joined them. His eyebrows shot up as his gaze fell upon the short, grey, scaled being that stood at about his belly-height near the door. "Er-" said Agustin for the second time in as many minutes. "Hello?" This place is host to all manner of odd beings, he thought to himself. I've no idea what to make of this one. It's quite unlike anything I've ever seen.

[Master Bedroom]

Aseyu shrugged and said, "I'm not the one to ask about magic and physics, really. If you bump into a creature called Kokabiel, it'll talk your ear off. Just don't trust anything else with a name ending in '-iel'. Trust me on that one." She shrugged, then glanced at Claire's sweater. "Government," she said. "No surprise there. You got any augmentations yet? Seems to be the big thing for governments and big-league NGOs on the Earth I know."

"Now, as for whether or not I'm really an assassin..." she chuckled. "You wanna try me in a sparring room? Or have I given you enough of a workout for the day?"

[Parlor]

Irilemi studied the strange creature, before giving it a polite nod. Then she said, "Krajn? I am Irilemi vashon'Suela. I'd come and greet you, but we have a fellow in poor health to keep an eye on." She waved at Ozzy. "Still, you may join us. I hope you like politics." She glanced between John and Agustin. "You had thoughts to share?"

[Theater]

"The future?" Samira said. "Too hot." She laughed bitterly. "And too many schemes trying to rule Earth. But otherwise, it's mostly left old ladies like me behind." She turned away, then paused before a look of understanding dawned on her. "Oh! Hold on." She found a large bag and filled it with popcorn, then handed it to Tamara without comment.

[Parlor]

Xavier saw Agustin stiffen and followed his gaze to Krajn. Ah. I keep forgetting that he's new here. "Protip," said Xavier to Agustin. "Everyone here's generally sane and coherent until proven otherwise. Roll with it and you'll be fine." I hope.

"So, then, back to our discussion... Um..." He paused and nibbled on a claw. "I'm afraid I can't- oh, wait, we were talking about how there are more differences between chimeras and humans than just physical, right?" Seems right. "And..." Xavier raked his memory. "Something about how chimeras might've just gotten really lucky that everything went so well."

He threw a brief glance at Ozzy. He seemed to be doing decently, but Xavier wasn't sure, because of the different species. Wonder what he calls himself.

[Entry Hall => Art Gallery]

Well that had been a failure. Lance briefly considers going into the parlor, but it looks like it's about to explode from the all the people crammed in.. He heads down the hall and notices the art gallery and ducks inside, taken by both the extremely well distributed lighting and the sheer variety of pieces. He wanders from piece to piece, impressed by the quality. It doesn't take very long before he notices Wylfing licking blood off his arm.

"Well um hello." He pauses, his eyes locked on the blood, "Uh... lovely evening isn't it?"

[Theater]

Sven ceases throwing popcorn into his mouth, "I have no idea what the heck half this stuff is, but how are you comparing dates?" He directs his towards Samira especially, "What system of dating are you going by?" He sighs, "Where I come from restarting the calender is essentially a mandatory part of forming a new rule. There's a diplomatic year system for keeping records but it's not really used in anything but history books."

[Kitchen]

"Well..." Friedrich beckons over one of the robots. "I guess I might as well eat something now." His voice drops to a whisper for a moment and he speaks incredibly quickly while placing the order before looking back at Mary, "So... you come with anyone?"

[Hallway =>Library =>Hallway]

Well that was weird. Bianca makes her way to the kitchen and quickly orders up whole plate of pain au chocolat. The treats delivered, she makes her way back to the library happily eating the pastries. She walks through the doors and goes to take a look at some books. As she looks around for somewhere to start she notices Samira's note and picks it up, quickly reading it. Samira... she stops eating, her stomach has turned inward on itself. She's here. She takes out the map she was given, she had to check if she was really there, in the theater, and wasn't just some apparition in some dream.

edited 20th Feb '13 10:50:23 PM by Aqueos

[Art Gallery]

"Is it evening already?" Wylfing shook his head. "Could you briefly describe the state of the moon, if you saw it? Just curiosity. I'm an astronomer."

He notices that the young man is fixated on the mess Wylfing is making with the meat. "My apologies if this disturbs you. I have special dietary needs. This isn't my blood." He holds up the rest of the meat to prove his point. Now, time for a convenient subject change. "Interesting clothing you've got there. Looks expensive. What sort of work do you do to pay for that?"

[Art Gallery]

Lance looks at the meat and blinks a few times. "I... see." He redirects his gaze to Wylfing in general, "I didn't catch the moon sorry... As for the clothes." He rolls his eyes, "I'm finance minister to a king of little power or consequence. The outfit is made to show off the supposed wealth of our kingdom, imported silk and such. It's garish, even from where I come from. Women's dresses with embroidery like this? Maybe. But men's clothing? Not so much." His mouth turns up at the corners, "Still, I didn't pay for it, he did, so that's something."

[Dining Hall]

Linna burst out laughing and took a bit to get it under control. "Oh no. Nothing like that. It is a little heavy, I suppose, about fifty kilograms, but I've never been one for that sort of firepower. I'm a close-quarters specialist by preference." She smirked a little. "Actually, my main weapons look pretty much like large ribbons."

[Entry Hall]

"Downstairs there's a wine cellar, I gather, but if you want to order anything else you might try the Dining Room, or any of the household clockwork robots." Nara's expression suggested amusement and annoyance both at the phrase "household clockwork robots".

It's unlikely there are any external indicators about Nara, unless someone can notice that she's literally not giving off human pheromones at all. In an area with so many humans passing through that is unlikely.

edited 21st Feb '13 1:25:28 AM by Night

[Theater]

"We were actually just discussing the problem with calenders," Samira said. "My world is pretty globalized and interlinked now, so we've mostly settled on one calender everybody uses for anything except calculating religious holidays. It's based on the supposed date of birth of a popular religious prophet. Too many countries, you see, too dependent on one another: if one changed its calender just because they removed their old government, it'd kill their economy." She laughed to herself. There was nothing quite like pragmatism to ruin the self-aggrandizing schemes of dictators. "Some things make me wonder if Aristide is on to something... er, never mind." It occurred to her that explaining globalization to several people from medieval-level cultures would be a very difficult proposition.

edited 21st Feb '13 6:29:29 AM by KillerClowns

[Library -> Stairs]

"OK, I'm done with this book and your have finaly woken up from your nap. That group talked about going to the theater and the cat might be down there too."

Oracle thought it was a odd to say as she already knew this and Tora knew that she knew. But it might have been directed to someone else. Oracle stepped down from the table and headed for the theater, Tora followed in tow.

"I guess we are going down there then."

edited 21st Feb '13 9:03:59 AM by m8e

Theater

"Where I'm from, keeping track of time is usually the Church's job, and as far as I know they're the only ones who really care about it," Anne said, "Sometimes the current ruler wants to know a specific date or something, but the common folk really don't have a reason to care about it outside the span of a few weeks. I know I stopped paying attention once I moved in with the dwarfs, anyway."

She glanced around the theater. "All this talk about timekeeping and whatnot is interesting, but shouldn't we do what we came for? I'm still not entirely sure what a 'movie' is, and maybe seeing one in action would clear a few things up for me. After all, Tamara just suggested something."

Grimhilde politely wiped her mouth upon finishing her meal. A quick look around the area showed that it had emptied out slightly since she started. Given her ego, she automatically assumed that was because the other folk noticed her presence and decided not to risk incurring her wrath. Although she'd since calmed down from her earlier confrontation, she still couldn't help but be slightly amused.

She took a few moments to consider her next plan of action. There was the option of hunting down the owner and making sure he had properly prepared for her arrival, but the fact that he hadn't greeted her when she arrived was something of a concern. For that matter, his conspicuous absence didn't say much about his state as a host. Was he even here? If he wasn't, then why the heck did he just decide to let a bunch of random folk run around his house? Grimhilde never considered just opening up her castle for all the peasants to run around in and do what they please; with such a wonderfully designed place, she felt that the owner would feel the same.

Her next thought was to go find a place to get a drink. The one provided alongside her meal was nice, but Grimhilde desired something from her home land. There had to be some place around here to get something like that. With that line of thought, she got up, leaving her leftovers on the table (under the assumption that the odd contraptions would come around and take care of them) and headed back into the kitchen.

She vaguely remembered the invitation saying something about a wine cellar. By the sounds of things, it was likely on a lower floor. Sure enough, Grimhilde's eyes fell upon some stairs that seemed to lead down. Ignoring the other occupants of the kitchen entirely, she headed on down.

The first thing her eyes fell upon was the odd group sitting at the bar. In particular, the glance she gave the pig was an odd mix between disgust and "what the hell am I looking at," though the werewolf also gave her some concern. She shoved her opinions of the group to the side for the moment, and instead took a look at the shelves. It seemed like this entire place was self-serving, so Grimhilde walked up the shelves, examined them until she found a wine that was to her liking (surprisingly quickly, in fact). She then took a seat at the bar some distance away from the group and poured herself a drink.

[Kitchen]

"Yes." Mary said, "My husband, my brother-in-law, and my friend." She smiled. "We were going to have more friends to come over, but they had work."

[Theater]

Nathan had went over to the popcorn and missed most of the conversation, only popping in when Anne asked about what movie to watch.

"To name a few I can think of," he said, "There's OZ, The Jazz Singer-" He stopped when he remembered there was an eight year old in the room. "Well, for the young ones, we could watch Tangled if you like."

[Parlor]

So that was the original discussion? John wondered, glancing at Xaiver. "I'm terribly sorry, but I don't believe I have too much knowledge about chimeras. At least, not ones I've seen outside of books and movies." He didn't want to imply that they were fictional in his world, since that would sound disrespectful.

[Entry Hall]

"Clockwork household robots." Harry's tone was a roughly even mixture of amusement, intrigue, and my-god-that-sounds-ridiculous. He glanced around again. "Hey - where is this place precisely? And perhaps more to the point, when?"

[Parlor]

Krajn sat down a bit stiffly on one of the recliners. She leaned forward, tipped her head slightly, and spoke. "Excuse me, but what are chimeras? Within the context of this discussion?"

edited 21st Feb '13 1:48:46 PM by nrjxll

[Library -> Stairs]

"Huh? Alright then. Gimme a sec."\\ A mechanical servant walked up to his feet.
" I'd like... a bean burrito, no cheese, and a mango smoothie! Please and thank you."
-Can we go now? They'll bring it to you, wherever you are.-
"And how do you know that?"
-Uh... I just do, it's not important.-
"Whatever."


Leo followed Tora and Oracle.

[Dining hall]

"I figured that you wouldn't be carrying a bazooka," said Mai, still chuckling a little, "but that image just came into my head, and... yeah." She coughed, clearing her throat.

"So. Ribbons. Are they like atom-wide ribbons that can slice through anything? Because I'm trying to see how that would work as a weapon, and that's all I'm coming up with." She shrugged. "But I don't have as good an idea of your tech as my own world's, so..."

[Parlor]

Xavier glanced at John and chuckled. "Two options," he said, holding up two fingers. "One: you've been living under a rock for the past fifty years. Rather unlikely. Two: chimeras don't exist in your world. Pretty likely, given that I've yet to meet a chimera from another dimension." He frowned and muttered, half to himself, "Wonder why..."

He pulled himself back to present and said to Krajn, "Chimeras are... Well, basically, I'm one." He swept a hand up and down himself. "Bipedal winged lizards. We live among humans, and while things are fine, they're..." He coughed. "...not exactly perfect."

[Wine Cellar]

Alice glanced over at Grimhilde and decided to introduce herself. If nothing else, it would be amusing. So she hopped down from the bar and walked over, with surprisingly little evidence of intoxication.

"Huh. You ain't a pirate," Alice said to her. "Or a ninja — I was sorta wondering if it'd be ninjas next. Seems like it'd fit the current pattern." Then she decided to cut straight to the chase. "So, what's your story?"

[Theater]

Samira shrugged non-noncommittally. She'd watch whatever was put on, within reason, and hadn't heard anything blatantly objectionable yet.

[Parlor]

"I've not heard of any other Uelane being here either," Irilemi said, "or members of any similar cultures, aside from ones I know to be from my universe." She'd heard a theory about that from an associate, but decided not to say anything about it right now.

[Parlor]

John gave a slight glare at Xaiver. Was that comment necessary? Of course I don't live under a fucking rock. He wanted to say, but kept it to himself. Making eniemies is not his goal here.

"You're correct." he said instead, "We don't have chimeras in my world. In fact, we don't have any mythical creatures in our world. We'll see them in movies, games, shows, and books and nothing else." He looked back at Ozzy. "Oh! We shouldn't leave you out the conversation Mr...?"

edited 22nd Feb '13 1:05:14 PM by Masterofchaos

[Dining Hall]

"That was the original plan. Problem was, it didn't work very well." Linna frowned, remembering the old cutters and the older models of her suit. "These days, they look like a fired taser when inactive, and red light ribbons when charged. Energy-expensive, though." Linna shrugged. "The cutters are useful. But I think it's hoped I'll grow out of them." She paused a moment. "Out of curiosity, since it's my home, know anything about the history of Japan and chimeras?"

[Entry Hall]

"Though the owner seems determined to go with a steampunk aesthetic design, we are not in fact in Jules Verne's Happy Place. The clockwork is nanotech assembled to look like clockwork. So, that rules out anything before, say, 2035 in my terms. Probably later than that even." Nara replied. "As for anything else, this is a coastal marsh, from the smell outside and the hint of salt water on the breeze."

She smirked faintly at Harry. "But really, your guess is as good as mine. Could be anywhere, any time."

edited 21st Feb '13 6:22:02 PM by Night

[Parlor]

Ozzy went quite rigid as soon as the first words of welcome left John's mouth. His back was angled towards the others, and despite their talk, Ozzy hadn't registered that there was anyone else in the room. Even now, though he heard John's voice, he didn't register what the man was saying— instead he became painfully aware that he had neither his hood nor his mouth wrap on. He didn't bother with his hood, but did pull his mouth wrap back on before slowly turning his head to identify the one who had addressed him.

There was a clear look of surprise on what was visible of Ozzy's face when he discovered that not one, but three people were lingering in the room— and more looked to be coming through the doorway. Ozzy rose to his feet, stumbling a little, but managed to catch himself on a nearby recliner chair. After taking a moment to steady himself, he cleared his throat and was about to speak... when the two who were on their way into the room came all the way inside, and the words that were on the way out of Ozzy's mouth suddenly caught in his throat.

Some of the others shot glances towards him and one of them was almost certainly talking to him directly, but Ozzy was too caught up in the appearance of the dragon man and the space alien—who looked like something out of Close Encounters or on the cover of the occasional sci-fi novel. They were both well-dressed too, the dragon man even wore a suit like any average Joe.

The others seemed to have lost interest in him, resuming their talk as Ozzy remained silently awestruck. The space alien, who sounded rather feminine when she spoke, sat in a nearby recliner, and Ozzy couldn't help but stare. In fact, he hardly realized that he was staring at all— it seemed almost as though he weren't really present, just a meandering set of eyes. This idea fell to pieces a moment later, when Jonathan's voice and eyes were once again directed at Ozzy.

He swiveled his head towards the other man, with little to know idea of what he'd just said. "Pardon me?"

[Entry Hall]

Harry rolled his eyes. Steampunk? Seriously? Even if it is the early twenty-first century - oh, man.

"Since you brought up the topic of 'terms' and comparative times, what year is it in the reality you're from? I'm from the 25th century CE - specifically 2417 - but based on what you said I think it's all right to assume that we're talking different timelines. In my reality they wouldn't have had nanotech that could do that until the Little Singularity in the 2040s."

[Parlor]

Krajn leaned forward again. "This is what I expected, though it is odd that there are no chimeras in my reality." She smiled a little. "No chimeras that I know of, at least."

[Art Gallery]

"Not your own money? Very wise." Wylfing smiled wryly. "Many aristocrats in my homeland and elsewhere have such elaborate embroidery on their clothes. All handmade, usually with real gold or silver thread. I found them to be terribly itchy. So, what brought you to this room? Are you lost, an art lover, or both? I must say, our host has some varied tastes."