Character Inn

[Front of Inn]

He had no idea where he just ended up (northeastern Shijou was his best guess), but the portal malfunction was probably just a fluke. No one could follow him here. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

The man appeared to be in his early twenties, and his earnest, boyish blue eyes didn't seem to match his face at all, but they had some whimsical charm. He was dressed in a very well-made navy blue overcoat and trousers. He smoothed his cinnamon brown hair and adjusted his cravat as he approached the young boy and the other people trying to help him. And there was a cat.

Damn, he hated cats. He eyed it resentfully before kneeling next to the boy.

"If it is necessary, I have some—medical experience."

Oh no. That little pause would kill him. Everything else sounded natural enough.

He looks kind of like this.

edited 17th May '14 12:14:00 AM by SnowyFoxes

[Entry Hall]

"Good," Mazak said, leaving the others to deal with the boy. He headed over to the raptor, deciding she merited further investigation. The Uelane had such creatures in their lands — vicious, smart enough to make tools, and sometimes even capable of wielding magic or anti-magic. This raptor seemed similarly intelligent, but otherwise non-hostile.

Then he spied Ulrich. "Another warrior," he muttered. "Of Cleanerfish, Whale, or Shark, I do wonder." He gave him a polite nod, but didn't approach immediately.

[Tea House —> Pond]

"Fascinating," the tall woman muttered to herself. "Extremely human-like, with non-human ears, tail, hands. Can't identify what sort." (After all, she'd never seen a cat in her life.) "Capable of speech. Adept in both bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion — practiced alone, or difference in muscle and skeletal systems?" A pause. "Wait. I could possibly... ask. Of course! Or, wait, would that be rude? I'll delay that for the time being."

She headed over to Izumi, cleared her throat, and said, "good day. Moonlit Blossom^note Eastern order, Moonlit is a family name, at your service. So, uh..." Small talk, small talk, small talk, how do people do small talk...? Unfortunately, Blossom couldn't come up with anything.

edited 17th May '14 10:55:18 AM by KillerClowns

[Entry Hall]

Cadance had begun to preen her arm feathers before Mazak approached, lowering her arms as she noticed his inspection.

Darius had finished the paperwork and approached Cadance, "She is of the finest breed of her kind," he said, addressing Mazak, "Intelligent, capable of using advanced technology and very thoughtful."

[[Outside (Front of inn)]]

Daniel Harper took a step away from the torii, his right hand ready to draw the shorter of his swords if the need arose. After a sweeping glance of the area around him, he relaxed his body with a sigh of relief. He was a boy of sixteen, reasonably tall and fair skinned. Cold mountain wind blew through his mud-brown hair, which had been ruffled during his flight to the portal. He studied what he assumed to be the inn with his bright green eyes, noting the departure in architecture from anything he had seen to date.

He wore a black shirt, the sleeves of which were half red from the wrists to the elbows, though his left sleeve was obscured by a steel gauntlet he wore. A red square of fabric also clung tightly to the front of the shirt, sewn at the abdomen and held up by buttons at his breast. The shirt was tucked inside black pants, displaying a gold belt buckle with the sign of his faction – a bleeding hand with a flower growing through the wound – engraved on it. His clothes were a bit loose fitting, which served well to hide his muscular figure. He wore dark brown leather boots, which looked much too clean, owing to how infrequently he walked these days. On his left hip, his two swords lat sheathed - one a broadsword the length of his arm, the other a narrower one which was longer by half.

After he was satisfied that there was nothing else in his field of vision, he put his left hand on his shorter sword and drew it a little, revealing the dark orange on the flat of his blade. Daniel found himself staring into an infinite white void, standing on a flight of red stairs. Below him was a circular fence with a closed gate while the stairs extended endlessly above him. He looked above and said, “Give me a better view.” Suddenly, mist swallowed everything around him and started to form shapes. Two lines ran parallel on the ground that disappeared ahead of him, and only part of the torii appeared behind him.

Daniel frowned as he realized his line of sight was about two yards. “No, I said better.”

“We have crossed into a different world,” a voice replied, deep and inhuman, “My bond with the blade has weakened. As such, my vision can only extend so far.”

“Well, that’s…interesting” Daniel said, considering his situation, “Dispense with the stairs for a few days, at least. We don’t know safe this place is.” With that, he was back on the muddy path. He sheathed his sword, having wasted maybe a tenth of a second. ejected flux from his body, Released it, converting it into kinetic energy. With it, he lifted himself into the air and flew in the direction of the inn. However, as he neared it, he noticed a crowd gathered around the entrance. He landed quickly, a few steps away from the group. He noticed a boy lying unconscious on the ground. He looked up at the group with a strong gaze, one you would expect from a warrior, and asked, “What happened?”

Sorry if there's any mistakes with the post. I didn't manage to skim over all the posts even (bad net connection, on train. I'll fix errors in about 9 hours.

edited 18th May '14 1:38:24 AM by Elfhunter

[Front of Inn -> Entry Hall]

A conspiracy twelve raven strong gathered in the bamboo outside the inn's entrance. One of the ravens flew to the door, slid it open just enough and strutted to the front desk. The raven jumped up on the desk, grabbed a pen with its beak and tapped it repeatedly to the desk.

edited 17th May '14 10:46:45 AM by m8e

[Front of Inn >> Dining Hall]

"He looks to be just hungry and tired," Ryouta said to the new man (Snowy Foxes) and Daniel Harper, "I don't think any medical assistance will be required, but I'm going to bring him into the dining hall to get something to eat."

This kid's really attracting a lot of attention, he thought, I hope he gets better with some food or there's going to be a verifiable mob around him. At least they seem nice enough so far.

He gently picked up Daisuke and brought him into the Dining Hall, setting him down on a comfortable-looking chair.

I wonder if there are any serving staff around here, he thought, looking for any waiter or waitress to flag down for some food.

[Entry Hall]

Noticing the ravens, and the other newcomers, Miyuki crossed her arms and looked annoyed. At this rate, I'll never get up to the desk, she thought.

[Garden]

Hearing the woman approach, Izumi looked a bit disappointed, her tail drooping to the ground, as she was totally blowing her stealth for the fish.

Standing up, she looked at Blossom suspiciously, then said, "I'm Matsumoto Izumi^note also eastern order, given the circumstances. I usually use western order to avoid confusion, as the translation would likely reorder the names as well. :P, nice to meet you." She bowed at her slightly, then dropping the formalities, said, "so, did you lose your shirt, or what?"

[Garden]

Blossom tilted her head, clearly puzzled for a moment. "Didn't bring one," she said. "Too warm." She tapped her foot for a moment, trying to think. It took her a few moments to parse Izumi's expression and body language. "Wait a — I seem to have annoyed you. Or something like that? Or is it something else?" She cleared her throat again. Should I leave her alone? No, too many questions. Okay, let's see if we can get off on a better foot here.

[Entry Hall]

Noting the intelligence in Cadance's eyes, Mazak nodded. "The they have in Uel are, I gather, not nearly so bright. Also don't have feathers." He gave a polite bow to Cadance and added, "a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Hearing Daniel's question, Mazak approached him and said, "the boy and his cat burst forth from the bamboo forest, and after some confusion, requested food before his collapse. As he has been satisfactorily attended to, I have no further concern in the matter and cannot enlighten you further on the matter."

Upstairs (Room 112) -> Entry Hall -> Game Room

Taeko didn't take long at all to find her room. While she hadn't quite seen a lock system like this before, she also figured out quickly how to work it and shortly thereafter was in her room, checking things out. All in all, she very much liked it. It might have been a little too roomy for her given that she was alone and didn't bring anything with her, but she wasn't complaining about that.

She walked up to the window to admire the view. From here, she could see that most of the people she saw on the outside had since gone in, although there were also a few people she hadn't seen yet. Come to think of it, she hadn't met anyone properly yet. She should probably get on that if she wanted this trip to be worthwhile at all.

She turned to leave, but before she did she picked up a folded-up paper she found lying on the table that turned out to be a map of the inn. She never felt the need to eat, so she ignored the dining area. She also glossed over the hot springs. The garden and everything in it looked interesting enough, but it looked to be something of a walk. That left the game room, and that was a good enough destination for her. It'd give her something to do while waiting for someone interesting, and hopefully friendly, to come along.

With her decision made, she left the map on the table and headed out and back down the stairs into the game room.

"Very well," Saburo said with a nod as he finished checking Darius and his companions in, "Just know that, although your stay here is free of charge, you will still be held responsible for any damage you might cause." He glanced at the raptor and zombies warily.

As soon as he was done there, he looked around Mazak and Darius at Miyuki expectantly. He didn't get the chance to actually check her in, however, as shortly thereafter a raven flew in and landed on his desk. It didn't take him long to figure out that it was smarter than the average raven and from there what it wanted to do.

"Sadly, you are going to have to wait your turn," he said to it, "For that young lady over there has been here longer than you have, and I do not wish to keep her waiting. Policies are policies." With that, he faced Miyuki again and waited.

[Entry Hall]

Catching Saburo's glance, Mazak added, "I suspect we are taking up far too much room here. Once the matter of checking in is completed, if none of you have any place here you wish to be, we should at least find some other place so that long-nosed gentleman can conduct his business in peace."

edited 17th May '14 11:36:15 AM by KillerClowns

[Entry Hall]

Darius nodded at Saburo in acknowledgment and Cadance gave a polite bow to Mazak in response.

Darius picked up a mad from the desk, examining the map and considering where to do next, "Food or practice?"

Hoping someone will respond to that

[Entry Hall]

The raven dropped the pen, and let out a loud "KAAW Hh". He then jumped over to the phonograph and started to fiddle with it.

"They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the bea// be// beast //an't kill the beast//ill the beast"

[Torii]

"Fascinating. Not very energy-efficient, but fascinating." The speaker was a relatively petite woman whose ice blue hair gave away the fact she wasn't an Earthborn human, though in all other aspects she seemed human enough save for the fact she appeared to be twirling a loop of red energy around one finger. She wore blue uniform with white trim, and a skirt, in contrast to her companion.

The companion was taller woman with longer pink hair pulled back in a ponytail, dressed in a black longcoat and black pants and shirt, trimmed in silver and looking surprisingly wary, as she carried a long blade on one hip. Despite the wary look, she didn't actually have a hand on the hilt; in far too many cultures that could be taken as a challenge. "You know how much I despise the words 'not energy-efficient', and why."

"It's not repurposable, Se. It'd just dissipate." the shorter woman replied, the energy she had been twirling condensing into a ring. "Lot of nonhumans here, maybe a couple of constructs...you'd know more about these folks than me."

"That fills me with confidence. Stay close, please." The taller woman lead the two up the path to join the growing line at checkin. Which appeared to be evening more fascinating to the shorter woman, and even more disturbing to the taller.

[Garden]

"Well, I was trying to catch some fish, but they're probably protected or something dumb like that," Izumi said, "so it's not really that big of a deal."

"Maybe there will be a bird or something else to catch," she said, "eating food you didn't catch is just boring." I'd ask if she catches her own food, but given that I could hear her approaching a mile away, the answer's pretty obviously no, she thought.

"So, uh, what are all those things for?" she said, motioning to the tools and herbs Blossom was carrying around.

It's kind of funny, Izumi doesn't exactly do normal small talk either. :P

[Entry Hall]

"Thanks," Miyuki said to Saburo as she walked up to check in. She gave Mazak a cold look on the way over, and looked at the raven strangely as well, but didn't say or do anything out of line. Checking in details skipped to save time, just assume the three of them are in the same room.

Once she had finished checking in, she walked over to Ryouta, giving him a key to their room as well.

Reentering the entry hall, but staying off to the side near the wall, she thought, man, this place looks like it's full of warriors or something - just given how many weapons everyone seems to have on them. That being said, it's actually a pretty impressive sight, I wonder what's going to walk in next?

She's available to talk, or otherwise will approach someone else.

edited 17th May '14 1:13:44 PM by Sonzai

[Garden]

Blossom was so excited the topic had changed to one she was comfortable with, she briefly stood on her tip-toes. "Oh, those! I'm an apothecary, you see. These herbs, devices, and such are the tools of the trade. An ordinary apothecary will brew them into tea, or sometimes have the patient ingest them directly, but," she waved dismissively, "I believe my research has demonstrated such crude herbalism will no longer be necessary."

She took a deep breath and, excitement growing, continued, "you understand, I've found with the proper distillation process the active chemicals can be extracted and refined... by and large my studies have relied upon animals, for obvious reasons, but I have nonetheless had great success identifying the causes — and methods of curing — various diseases and ailments. I am quite pleased to say my research has even been sanctioned by the local Imperial Magistrate after I saved him from an unfortunate poisoning attempt."

edited 17th May '14 1:22:48 PM by KillerClowns

Entry Hall

After checking Miyuki in, Saburo turned his attention to the raven. "Next," he said, this time with a bit of a grumble. What was with all these people deciding to check in at one time, anyway? Certainly they couldn't have all been waiting for the grand opening.

[Front of Inn—Entry Hall]

Seeing that the boy was getting tended to, John gave a sigh of relief, then walked inside. So far, this seemed to be a normal inn...until he saw Saburo. Oh. I'm in one of 'those' places, aren't I?

He removed his ponytail holder and sat it in his pockets. He hoped that, while he was here, he could find some new—and less ugly—clothes. First things first, he had to check in. But it seemed that others wanted a room too, so he stood out of the way until he was next.

[Dining Hall]

"Ah! That's relatively easy to fix. Relatively." The man hung his coat on a nearby chair. He was wearing a blue waistcoat and white shirt underneath. As he adjusted his cravat again, he smiled and nodded at no one in particular. "I can give him a little energy boost."

Without bothering to ask permission, he cautiously reached for the boy's forehead with an open palm, preparing to channel healing magic.

[Garden]

"So, you're um... a homeopathic doctor?" Izumi said, looking a bit surprised. "How's that working out for you?"

"And don't you get a lot of competition, from, you know, standard medicine?" she said.

Let the misunderstandings commence. :P

[Dining Hall]

Having found a waitress, Ryouta ordered some okayu (japanese rice porridge), and tonkatsu curry, both to have something easy to eat, and something more filling as well. See here for some examples.

"If you think you can help," Ryouta said to the man, sounding suspicious, but not refusing the help.

[Garden]

Blossom tilted her head in utter confusion. "Er, what's 'homeopathic'?" Then she shrugged. "As for traditional medicine, well, a lot of people think a woman shouldn't be an apothecary, outside of midwifery and maybe dealing with their children's little nicks and sicknesses." She snorted at this. "But, frankly, I'm the best there is." She said it with the cool confidence of somebody who had proven it so many times that it wasn't braggadaccio, but an objective fact.

Then, remembering one other, she added, in "or at laest, the best in all Yoth. My only competition was maybe, maybe the Red King of the Elasane, before Amu killed him. And that's not really fair — he could use slaves as his lab rats." She scowled in disgust. "Something I'd never do."

Up ahead, the slow trickle of guests into the inn allowed Theign to observe and gather what information he needed. In fact, one sight in particular occupied more of his attention than he'd have liked. His mouth suddenly dry, he stared ahead.

A stocky, tattooed man made way for a few teenagers to attend to a small boy, who had apparently collapsed. His face was flushed with exertion, and already, Theign spent an awful moment wondering just what might be lurking out there, soulless and ravenous enough to hunt a child. And if it was what he thought it was, and its crossing the portal hadn't been an accident...well, not everyone would be going home.

Theign took a moment to breathe deeply and clear his head. Hell, it may have just been a wild animal. It would not do to give in to paranoia so soon. Besides, due to the time dilation, he'd have a week or so to kill before continuing his trace. He smirked behind his collar, imagining the looks of sad exasperation sure to appear on Tigris and Harrow's faces if they found out he passed up a week's vacation.

Still, the whole incident with the kid bothered him. He made sure to watch closely as he approached, to determine where the boy was bring taken. After things had died down a bit, he'd be sure to ask the kid directly.

A few minutes later, Theign slid through the door into a warm, minimalist, and very obviously traditional lobby. A phonograph played a song he'd heard many times on Earth, though he still could not remember the name. A man led what appeared to be a large velociraptor down a corridor, away from a desk operated by an elderly winged man, who looked none too happy at present. Hoping the old man would refrain from complaining and just do his damn job, Theign approached the counter. He drew his credit card, silently hoping the staff spoke a language he did.

"A room, please. Anything you have open."

edited 17th May '14 6:01:55 PM by BrainSewage

[Torii —-> Entry Hall]

She ran, at first, but quickly slowed down. Just a few steps out of the gate and she came to stop, not at all out of breath. She took a moment to observe the gate she'd just come from, and the rest of area around her. Upon noticing that there were other people around, and that none of them appeared to be hostile towards her, she carefully brushed some dirt off her slightly tattered blank dress pants and strightened out her formal white shirt. Casually walking towards the inn, she brushed a lock of slightly messy, shoulder-length brown hair out of her face, uncovering her bright blue eyes and the way that they contrasted with the ever-so-slightly too pale, Caucasian skin tone of her mid-twenties body. All the while, in the back of her mind, hundreds of observations were made and logged every second.

Everything from air pressure to temperature, gravity, atmosphere composition and the postures of the humans/humanoids around her, among other things, were entered as integers into a larger equation that, in turn, sought to answer a number of questions. Firstly, was she out of danger? Yes, it seemed. At least, for now. Secondly, was this Earth? She concluded that yes, it probably was, given the environment. But where on Earth? Japan seemed to be the most probable candidate. And finally, if this was Japan, then where in Japan? Unfortunately, there simply wasn't enough information available for an answer to that. She resolved to resume calculations later, unless an explicit answer presented itself before then.

All of this was determined, in her extraordinary mind, in less than a second, and all while observing the traits of those around her. And as she gathered this data, she considered hundreds of hypthetical scenarios in which she would have to kill or incapacitate each and every one of them. The more data she gathered, the more accturate the scenarios would become, and then she could generate more scenarios. She wasn't planning a killing spree, now or ever in the forseeable future, but it was very much in her nature to always be prepared for the worst.

As she approached the front of the inn, the small crowd of intersting beings became more well-defined, though she didn't see what, exactly, everyone was crowding around. Quietly, she slipped inside, but avoided the line for the check-in. She had no intention of renting a room; she didn't need one. Besides, she didn't have any money, either.

After a moment of looking around, she found someone who seemed free and willing to chat (Miyuki), and approached her. "Hi!" She said, amiably and with a smile. "Are you visiting too? The scenery around here is beautiful... Oh, I'm Claire, by the way." She offered to shake Miyuki's hand.

[Torii]

Seeing as the universe(s) still had more people to send through the gate, another group of said people appeared through said gate; all male, and all in their teens. Two had brown hair and glasses, although the shorter of the two's hair was wavier, darker, and not cut as short as the first's. The other two had blonde and black hair, respectively.

The first brown-haired boy, named Issac, immediately turned to stare up at the gate, studying it's structure intently. He wore a simple black-leather jacket, zipped up to his neck, with several visible pockets. Along with that were a pair of cargo-pants that fell onto the tops of his shoes. The rest of his group were simply off to the side, examining their new surroundings with less intensity than Issac. After a while, the blonde haired boy exhaled loudly, and proceeded towards the Inn, accompanied by the second brown-haired lad.

[Garden]

"Uh..." Izumi said, staring at Blossom, "I have no idea what all that is about."

"Where are you even from?" she said, "I mean, since when do...? I got nothing."

[Entry Hall]

Miyuki looked a bit startled when Claire approached her suddenly, and said, "Oh! Hi, yes, I'm just visiting too." She held out her hand uncertainly to shake Claire's, and Claire would probably notice that Miyuki's hand was as cold as ice and had the texture of hard snow. She also did not feel terribly substantial, such that if one were to shake too hard, her hand might simply turn to dust.

"I'm Miyuki Yamauchi^note western order for convenience, nice to meet you," she said, "and yes, it's definitely scenic, although could use a bit more snow to match my taste."

[dining hall]

Ran glared at the man about to touch Daisuke's head. She didn't trust magic- there was no way to know what he was going to do. All these other humans had been fine so far, except for this one. Reaching out with one paw, she gave him a quick warning scratch on the side of his hand- just so he knew how she felt, without taking her eyes off him. She could smell food cooking somewhere, kind of like something that Shinji made one day, but... different. When was it going to appear...? As a matter of fact, she was hungry, too...

Game Room

After arriving in the game room, Taeko briefly looked over her shoulder back at the entry hall. The voices were considerably quieter since she closed the door behind her when she entered, but even from in here she could hear them. She could also hear music of a sort she had never heard before, not even from before she left for youkai society (though it had been so long since then that her memory was foggy).

She turned away from the door to look over the room she was in now. The first thing that stuck out to her was that she was currently the only one in here; there weren't even any staff, unless there was one of the smaller tsukumogami that might escape her notice. Now that she thought about it some more, maybe she should have just hung around the entry hall. So far, she had been really elusive towards the other guests; not exactly the best of ideas if her main goal was to meet new people. She also couldn't be certain if anyone would bother joining her in here.

At the same time though, being alone was still preferable to horrible company, like that short man or the man with the demons from Yomi. Besides, there was a lot to do in here. She could tell just by looking at it. If worst came to worst, she could at least entertain herself for a while; that was certainly something she was good at doing. So she decided that she'd stay in here for now and see if anyone else came in. If she was still alone by the time she got bored, maybe then she'd see about seeking people herself.

Unfortunately, it looked like nearly all of the available games required a second player, or at least all the ones that appeared to be set up. With a small sigh, she headed further in the game room for something that could be played alone.