Hello and welcome reader, to the 29th installment of the Character Development Threads! These shared story exercises help budding writers develop their characters alongside the characters of other budding writers. No sign-up is needed; just jump right in with your characters. It is recommended that you read the thread page and the last couple of pages before starting.
Discussion Thread
—Thread Page —
Trope Page —
Town Map — Wilderness Map
This is a "Main Series" thread and, as such, an element of risk is expected. Rules and participation guidelines may be found on this page.
The thread page groups active characters under the areas in which they are active, enabling you to see who is at a given location in which you might be interested or to find out where to go to encounter characters with whom you wish to interact.
Kindly add your own characters to the thread page, with a link to their initial post, under the area in which they are located and update the page if they change location.
Bear in mind that if your characters are arriving at a location, they are likely to know little more than what they see and hear as they arrive - what the location looks like, what other characters are there (both of which can be read on the thread page) and the last few lines uttered and actions taken as they are arriving (which can be found in the last few posts for that location in the story thread itself), so inserting characters need not be a terrifying or arduous process. In most cases, they don't need to know more than what you yourself can glean from reading just a few posts.
If you need help, have any questions, or want a quick recap (if the page count is daunting), head over to the discussion page, and someone is sure to help you out!
To help guide character interaction, having your character come in with at least one short-term and one long-term goal or motivation is strongly recommended. It is not required, but it does make it easier to drive the plot forward. Feel free to come up with rumors about what treasures, adventure, locations, and dangers may be found in the setting - they need not be true or accurate, just some hook on which to hang an adventure.
The setting is specifically designed to be a vast sandbox into which details can be inserted by participants (for example, you are free to decide that there is a particular temple in the midst of the forest in which something may be found or that there is a particular shop/hotel/restaurant in a section of the town), if you come up with a location that you desire/expect other characters to visit, please add it to the thread page as a sub-location of the relevant area.
Things change as the story progresses. If, for example, a massive battle occurs at a location and the area is now strewn with bodies and buildings are damaged, kindly update the thread page to reflect those changes, in order that other participants have an up-to-date description of the location prior to sending their characters there.
Special thanks to all those who helped in getting the original thread launched or provided ideas and feedback. In alphabetic order, they include:
Blackfire 667, Collen, Corvidae, daird, Darkblood Carnagefang, Eterna Memoria, Gault, Kkutwar, Killer Clowns, ladytanuki, Masterofchaos, nrjxll, Pyxo, Slysheen, Tro Partner, Will De Regio and especially Wolf 1066, whose original post I have shamelessly copied with only minor alterations.
Apologies if I missed anyone - just let me know and I'll update the post.
The dawn of another day rises across the land, heralding fresh morning air, clearer heads, opened doors, and new arrivals.
Between dimensions, and linked to the rest of the multiverse, lies a strange post-apocalyptic environment made up of various regions strewn with the remnants of past glory - ruins, lost technologies and magic. Here and there, nature has found its way back amongst the ruined temples and towns.
In the midst of the blighted landscape, a fresh new town has emerged - a synergy of technology, nature and magic; clean and eco-friendly; a beacon of hope for a brighter future - where travelers can rest, recharge their batteries (both literally and metaphorically) and get whatever they may need - technological, magical or otherwise - to aid them on their adventures.
New arrivals can turn up by diverse means in the transportation area in the north-western part of the town or by whatever other means they deem appropriate. Here they may also find for rent, lease or hire, any transport they desire from riding animals to vehicles.
The wilderness areas have not been fully explored since the mysterious apocalyptic events that ravaged the area some time ago and no one is really sure what's out there - but rumors abound.
All that is known for sure is that both magic and technology have existed here for a long time, so anything is possible...
Current Time: 10:00 AM
Current Weather: Sunny
See the thread page for updates.
Edited by Ryuhza on Feb 22nd 2023 at 1:14:28 AM
[Hub Town Notice Board (Sigmund; Toni; Connie; Valten)]
The issue had resolved itself, at least. "Yes," he said. "Eleven." He glanced down at the others. "I'm going to get kitted up... I'll meet you all at the Nattlås Dim then. Red headband, don't be late, I got all that."
With that, Sigmund headed out. This wouldn't take too long, hopefully.
[Hub Town — Outside the Hotel (Qeyari, Shadow; Ultra)]
"He behaves himself at the apothecary," Qeyari said, giving the creature a firm, friendly pat on the flanks. "How invasive will your scans be? I will have to give him warning before you stick anything anywhere... delicate."
Shadow, for his part, studied Ultra with those eerily ancient, thoughtful eyes. She could not help but feel she was being judged. Measured. Considered against the weight of aeons.
The that stood one before the being others called Shadow was not a flesh-creature. Not truly. It was not-flesh, like the dead ones. Yet it was not a dead one. What was it? A curiosity. Camel wisdom had no immediate answer for this question. Not yet.
Many things were contained within camel wisdom. The essences of the greatest things: blazing stars and patient void, elegant galactic strands and crying singularities, the irksome dream of time itself. Yet it was the small things where camel wisdom sometimes required enhancement with experience. It was camel wisdom to know where camel wisdom did not suffice, after all. This was why camels were alive, and the dead ones were dead: the dead ones forgot this. As did most humans, come to that. Especially the ones who claimed to understand this truth.
Edited by KillerClowns on Aug 12th 2023 at 10:13:42 AM
< Hub Town - Hotel, Elevator (at the Lobby → Below) >
Just as gently as they had opened, Joseph's eyes shut again, tightening with the rest of his salamandrine face into a slow wince, bitter with the loss of his last out. Nothing but time could spare him now, and what little of it he had left would soon run out. Still, he wasn't one to waste a gift. With a narrow focus, he stepped forth to the elevator panel and dug his clawed fingertip into another button.
The doors slid shut, sealing away the vibrant image of the lobby. With a shift and a start, the elevator began to creep downward, slowly sinking beneath the last traces of outside sound.
Joseph remained slack in the corner, far less animated than his usual self. One hand was pressed flat beside the button panel, the other hung limply at his side, joining the listless drape of his tail and bowed head. "I'll tell you as much as..." He frowned, his teeth sticking out slightly. "You won't want to hear it. So just... if it's too much... if you don't want to hear any more, just say, and I'll stop."
He stepped back, clinging to the edges of his towel for want of a stress ball. The elevator came to a halt. The doors fell apart, opening silently into a dark space, barely illuminated outside of the light cast by the elevator. There was no indication of any life down there. Joseph kept his gaze low, wasting no time in crossing the threshold. As he went, he turned slightly, lifting his head even more slightly, enough to catch a partial glimpse of James and Amandus as he admitted, "I've never really told anybody about this stuff. I don't know if it was just me wanting to forget, pretend it was someone else, like it never happened to me, or..." He sighed, dropping against a stony wall just outside the elevator. It felt cold and rough and good against his shoulder. "...maybe there wasn't anyone to tell. I'm sorry it fell to you guys. It doesn't seem fair."
every little word and every little step
[Elevator]
James and Amandus looked at each other again, then back to Joseph. Well, they got this far, no point backing out now. They promised their "son" they would listen to his tale, and by God, they were going to hear every detail.
"Go ahead, Joseph." Amandus said gently. "We're listening."
Necropolis (Samelin, Rosafa, Devad, Maya, Amy, Issichar, et. al.)
"I would be happy to accept any protection you're offering," Issichar said. "I'm just not certain I have any useful information to provide in trade. I'm also not much good in a fight, unless you need to control a swarm of the undead." A beat. "Do you need to control a swarm of the undead?"
"I think we're good on that front, thanks." Devad deadpanned.
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
< Hub Town - Square, Notice Board >
Connie remained silently alert through the entire exchange, her bug-eyed attention bouncing between Toni and her—to put it politely—standoffish acquaintance— a seeming loose acquaintance at that. Lacking total context, she felt she had a decent picture of their relationship, thin as it was. Toni was somehow responsible for displacing the colorful antelope person, apparently further than intended, and the colorful antelope person had been in the dark. All told, the gruff dismissal seemed hardly the worst possible outcome, unless there was something Connie was misreading. It was certainly possible, she had trouble enough reading the human beings she'd been around her entire life— she could think of three ways minimum to interpret any given expression, and she rarely picked out clues to narrow it down from there. Her track record with cats was even worse. Animal people fell somewhere in between, with only David as someone she felt confident in reading, and only because his quiet and often frustrating machismo reminded her so much of her brothers back home.
Misread or not, nobody had been shot, stabbed, or even explicitly threatened, which in her book was a hallmark of things going pretty well.
"Hey, that went pretty well," she said, her gaze trailing after the antelope person with a faint and waning interest. Refocusing on Toni, she began, "Does that mean you're-" but before she was finished, she had her answer. "That's right," she nodded, followed by a gesture—a cursory insistence—back at the notice board, "...like it says on her notice."
She took a deep breath and turned to the large man, Sigmund, trying to summon the authority to present him once more with the same slapdash interview question as she had the others, but before she could take a deep enough breath, he'd already made his own plan. "Well, hang on- like I was saying, I could always just go to her directly and- shit." He was gone.
On the one hand, she had no doubts about his physical prowess and usefulness on the journey ahead, but now she would have to make some kind of appearance at the Diner as the woman with the red headband, something convincing enough to dissuade her three prospective expedition mates from bailing at the signs of funny business. Connie, she almost muttered, jaw clenched, why do you have to complicate things?
every little word and every little step
[Necropolis]
Nick gave a nervous chuckle. "Uh...n-no. We don't need an army of the dead, thanks. Looks like you're good after all."
Turning towards his friends, he crossed his arms. "So, we stickin' around a little longer?"
Jackson nodded. "It's what we came here for, anyway."
Sorry. I got nothin' lol.
< Hub Town - Hotel, B1 (Near elevator) >
Joseph rolled back and forth on his shoulder. Every time he rolled back, he'd turn like he had before, just enough to steal another look at the two men, at their expressions, tender and sympathetic before hearing a word. And every time guilt consumed him, he'd roll the other way, letting his pupils dilate in mirror to the Stygian veil before him. He couldn't decide which filled him with more dread.
"I first met Adam back in this creepy school, like some kind of big college campus. Scary, right? Kinda crappy weather. Felt like early morning, but I don't know when it was. I don't know much about what was going on with that place. It was the first time I'd ever stepped out of..." he rolled back, squaring his shoulders against the wall, searching the low ceiling for an apt descriptor. All the parts were there, dancing on the tip of his tongue, but failing to coalesce into anything better than, "...the world I knew. Or the world I thought I knew. The 'normal' world. Well, maybe not the first time. The first time I literally stepped out, but it was a few weeks after I got the ol' lizard makeover. Strange times."
He paused, brow gently furrowed beneath the dim light. "Adam ever tell you about back then? Or maybe Nathan? The messes we went through together? The..." his voice hitched slightly, like he'd hit a bump in the road. He fought through it, nostrils flaring and face twisting up as if to hold back a sneeze, "...the other people we met?"
Edited by Ryuhza on Aug 26th 2023 at 12:36:27 PM
every little word and every little step
This is my good side.
Hub Town - Square - Notice Board
To Valten's relief, the situation was resolved peacefully. No shouting, no shooting. Thankfully no shooting involved this time. The deer-looking woman, not any more friendly to Toni after the latter's explanation, opted to refuse her offer, citing having things to do.
"I suppose that was the one you were looking for." Valten commented, relaxing his muscles. Only now he realized how tense he had been the last minute or so the two had been talking. Caught unarmed... He didn't expect to end up like that again.
Sigmund curtly announced he would be leaving to get his gear, and left without another word. That man strutted around like he owned the world, not unlike some nobles Valten had had the (mis)fortune of meeting. However, he seemed made of stronger stuff, and could back any bragging he made.
In comparison, the young lady, the organizer, seemed woefully out of her depth. Or, at the very least, authority and presence did not come easy for her. "You've done this before, or it's your first job?" He offered her a reasuring smile, trying not to make her too uncomfortable. "Everyone can get nervous. the trick is not to show it."
"Alright, then. I'm getting my gear as well." He announced to the two ladies. Getting dressed up shouldn't take too long. "I'll meet you at Nattlas Dim at the accorded time, miss... I don't think I got your name, did I?" He admitted sheepishly, before offering his hand. "Valten Gallahad, at your service."
[Elevator]
Amandus nodded his head.
"Yes," he said, "Adam did mention meeting you several times. Well...twice. He thought the creepy abandoned school was a dream until he saw you in a city. Same deal with Nathan, though he mentioned he saw you on some kind of...island? Resort? Either way he saw you with my brother for a while." He looked down. "Worried about Nathan. Haven't had contact with him in weeks."
He then tapped his chin, then widened his eyes in realization. "Oh! He also mentioned a girl named Rachel, and there were other people but I completely forgot the names."
James blinked in confusion. "Is this what you were worried about? You knowing other people before us?"
Edited by Masterofchaos on Aug 27th 2023 at 10:18:57 AM
The forest near Jobe's Farm (Maelys, Mist; Aseyu, Ethani; Lancer)
Mist gave the helmet a look from afar and snorted, "Hmph, looks like something either our resident blacksmith and alchemist would cough up; they're the ones who built my equipment," she said, raising her spear and patting her attire. The valkyrie then gave a slight frown, "Circuits, though? My spear's loaded with those."
While her companion recalled her helhound to give her some head pats and back-scratching, the maid turned her attention towards the direction of Jobe's farm.
Maelys beckoned for the other to follow her as she set off toward the farm.
she/her friend to the hooved
Toni, Hub Town, near the notice board
"Yeah," she answered to Valten, looking apologetically sheepish about the exchange, as if she'd really rather not talk about it. "That was her. Guess you heard most of it."
For the first time in a long while, the giraffid found herself without anything to do in the interim. The thing she'd come here for had (at least for now) resolved itself without conflict, with Ultra evidently having other business to attend to. She'd need to check back in at some point, though, whenever the glowing synthetic felt like going back home. If she ever did.
What did Toni usually do? She wandered, and explored, and every once in while she ended up in trouble. Not that she sought it out, of course, that would just be reckless. It just tended to happen.
Maybe she did seek it out, a little. 'Fun' trouble.
Why else was she going to this 'Kequay Island', in a strange dimensional plane, with a bunch of people she didn't know? Connie's odd hypothetical about giant crabs had only piqued her curiosity, and made her vaguely suspect something was up. Not helping matters was that this girl and the 'woman wearing a red headband' were very clearly one in the same—Toni had deduced that near-immediately, but thought better of openly questioning it, for her sake.
What also struck the okapi was the preponderance of wanted posters on the notice board, as she turned to look it over again. Who were these people? They all seemed to be affiliated, and whoever had posted these really piled on the scary-sounding nouns: Terrorists, rogues, and soul-stealers.
No, wrong kind of trouble. She wasn't interested in rounding up wanted criminals for whoever the presiding authority here was, not when she didn't have the full story, though she did make mental note of them all the same.
"Nattlås Dim Diner," Toni said to herself before looking over at Connie with a shrug. "I, uhm, don't need much gear. Guess I'll be seeing you!"
With that, she set off northward... though not so quickly that she couldn't eavesdrop on the latter half of Connie and Valten's conversation, out of nagging distrust for the latter and an odd protectiveness for the former. Were either of them attentive to body language like Toni's, they might have noticed an ear swivel back.
Edited by Chortleous on Sep 2nd 2023 at 3:56:56 AM
< Hub Town - Hotel, B1 (Near elevator) >
"Nathan is missing?" Joseph asked, his once hung head now risen at attention, the weight on his own heart momentarily forgotten. "Or... or do you just mean you haven't been in touch?"
However, at the mention of Rachel, his expression shifted again, the weight returned. He rolled back onto his opposite shoulder, pushing away from the wall and taking a few restless steps further into the dark passage while one hand lightly clawed at the side of his head. "So you've heard of her then."
The passage before him suddenly reminded him of so many others he'd been in, albeit with more company than he had presently. He could almost see the shapes of those he'd known, half-visible, trailing away or marching ahead, he wasn't sure. In that dimness were hands with stubs for thumbs, claws even longer than his own, and a pallid complexion, all bundled together with the faint flicker of revulsion, and the stronger flame of shame and regret.
He met James's question with a sidelong glance, suffused with his own confusion, before shaking his head. "No, not exactly." He paused for a while, making to focus on the space of the ceiling just above his head, eying a crack in the foundation. "Did Adam give you any sort of impression of who she was?"
< Hub Town - Square, Notice Board >
At Valten's inquiry, Connie put up an indignant front. "Is this my first time putting up a notice? Please, I'm one of the field's leading experts. Though I've gotta say, I've never been mistaken so regularly for someone else. Does nobody around here ever hire for odd jobs? Or does every chef pull double duty as the waiter?" She nodded at the notice, lifting three fingers in a backhanded OK gesture, "there are three identifying features on that notice: woman, diner, and red headband. Now I may be the first, but this isn't the right place, and look," she held her arms out and did an exaggeratedly slow spin, "do you see a scrap of red on me?" The question came with a newfound confidence and certainty, owed to her slipping off David's bright red necktie and stuffing it into her backpack during the earlier confrontation. She only hoped Valten wouldn't recall what she'd been wearing minutes ago. Power of suggestion.
"See ya, and good luck with all that," she said to the departing Toni with a low wave of her hand. "Well probably won't see you, but good luck anyway. Not unless the boss lady gives me some incentive to stick around."
Each time she tried hammering in the ruse, she found herself less enthusiastic to tell it. She wasn't sure who it was for anymore. If all three had assumed it was her notice and none had any apparent problems with her youth or glaring inexperience, what good did it do to defer to an imagined higher authority, complicating things further?
With a sigh, she shook the man's hand, "Connie Zavala, at yours, briefly."
every little word and every little step
[Elevator]
"Oh. I just meant we haven't talked. I'm sure he's fine, but I'm just a worrynut." Amandus chuckled.
At Joseph's second question, he tapped his chin. "He..." He then snapped his fingers, "Oh! Said she was around your age, kind of pale, noticed that you really liked her, something like that."
James nodded. "That's the gist of it."
< Hub Town - Hotel, B1 (Near elevator) >
"Huh. I guess Adam didn't have the full picture." Joseph's gaze did not drift from the low ceiling. "Not that I do either— I only know my part in it. Just a brief part of it." His frown deepened. "I did like her."
For a while he said nothing, focusing only on the rising and falling of his chest, held bare to the chilling air of that basement passage. He thought it ought to feel stuffier, smell mustier, but the air seemed fresh, emerging icy from some unknown corner of its tenebrous depths.
"She wasn't just pale, you know. She was- she had a condition. Infected by some kind of virus. I think she even called herself a zombie when we first met." He shook his long head, "Despite that, she may have been the most level-headed person there. 'Course, I put my foot in my mouth seconds after meeting her. Pulled that one off without even saying a word." He glanced at the two men, then lifted a hand, wiggling his clawed fingers and curling his thumb inward. "Her hands were mutated from the virus: long claws- longer than mine, and pretty much no thumbs at all. Just little stubs. Vestiges. When I first saw, I... I didn't take it well."
He closed his eyes, bracing against the residual embarrassment stowed away in that corner of his memory. He always had some for a rainy day. "She was much kinder about me. Everyone was. I'd been stuck in my house for two weeks, terrified of what the outside world would make of me, but there... there, the worst I got was curiosity. I guess everyone had their own touch of odd. At least their own brush with it." He glanced at Amandus and James, his mouth caught in a bittersweet thing, almost a smile, "I still get nervous around strangers though."
Edited by Ryuhza on Sep 10th 2023 at 11:32:40 AM
every little word and every little step
[Elevator]
"Oh." Amandus said, blinking. By this point, had no idea what to think. So Joseph liked a girl who was kind-of-not-really a zombie? He's still nervous about strangers? Is this really what he was afraid of? All of these were normal. Well, maybe not dating a zombie girl could be considered one hundred percent normal, but from how he described her, she was harmless and didn't desire brains.
"Okay," James finally said, "Joseph, where are we going with this? You said that you were going to share us info that would change our opinion of you and all you've told us so far is that you had a crush on someone and that you're shy. Is this the big reveal? Is there something far more serious that you need to tell? Because I am failing to see why any of this would make us think of you differently."
< Hub Town - Hotel, B1 (Near elevator) >
Joseph's not-quite-a-smile faded as James urged him to get to the point. His eyes fell, and he turned away, facing the opposite wall instead of the elevator, sighing and second guessing himself, wondering if there was really any value in continuing. Friendly as they were, James and Amandus weren't all that closely acquainted with him, and patience was easier professed than demonstrated. Maybe it was only curiosity that had brought them down there, and he wasn't delivering the goods.
But then, sating their curiosity wasn't the point. And closely acquainted or not, they were with him down there. That had to count for something.
He curled his lower lip, his broadly-pointed incisors poking over the edge in his own special brand of salamandrine hesitance. Finally, he muttered, "Bear with me a little, will you? I can't... I can't just say it. You wouldn't see it like I do. Or you'd imagine I had some good reason for doing what I did."
every little word and every little step
[Elevator]
Amandus shot James a glare. "James, honey, you out of all people should know that stuff like this takes time. Remember how long it took for me to come out of the closet? Or to admit that I had feelings for you? Or, hell, to tell you about the moonstones and the powers it gave me and my nephew? Give him a damn minute."
James sighed. "You're right, you're right, I'm sorry." He kissed Amdandus's forehead, then turned back to Joseph. "Like I said before, tell us whenever you're ready."
Necropolis (Samelin, Rosafa, Devad, Maya, Amy, Issichar, et. al.)
"So it seems this lead was a dead end," Devad said. "This poor man apparently has no relevant memories of Mael, so where do we go now?"
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.
Hotel ~ Lobby (Bonnie, Carol; Plethora of People)
Standing by the door, Carol stared at Joseph intently, "Y'know, I read a story in a magazine... about lizard people."
Bonnie turned her head towards Carol, giving her girlfriend an exasperated look, "Don't be absurd. Joseph becoming a salamander isn't the result of some— lizard-man plot or something. That's just a ten-copper piece of fictional nonsense. Throwing more ideas on the pile isn't going to help him— from the looks of it, it's doing the opposite." She shook her head, "Anyway, shouldn't you be bringing the truck around?"
The dark elf sucked her teeth and nodded, "Aye... I'll go do that." Carol left the group, heading towards the garage where their military-grade truck was parked from the previous day.
Bonnie turned around and marched straight over to where Henry and Joseph were, "I... can understand your concerns. Up until recently, I had to deal with written assignments." She reached into her bag, and pulled out a pad of paper and a fountain pen, before passing it to Joseph, "If you're so worried about it, you can work on it here, and... it might help take your mind off of... all of this."
Outside the Hotel (Lulu; Qeyari, Shadow)
At first glance, the camel known as Shadow looked to be a fine specimen of the species Camelus campus, the steppe-land camels of the Orient continent, albeit smaller than usual, despite looking fully grown. Island dwarfism, perhaps? The succubus pondered the thought, and realized, no, this beast came from a different world altogether— different world, different rules, and maybe... different camel.
And then she realized she was being observed and studied herself by her subject of attention. Her body and clothes were being scrutinized by what she initially thought to be a mere beast. Or... at least that's what she felt the camel-from-another-world was doing. She couldn't tell; it was a camel after all.
Lulu took a deep breath, conjured a magic circle over her left eye, and began to observe Shadow in greater detail.
Edited by WillDeRegio on Sep 18th 2023 at 8:31:19 AM
This is my good side.
Hub Town: Notice Board
Valten took a step back, startled by the lady's outburst. He put his hands up. "Alright! Alright. My bad." He defended himself. "Sorry, I just thought you looked nervous. Thought it was your first time with merc work. It's not exactly a place where you would want to look like you don't know what you're doing, you know?"
Valten shrugged. "Again, sorry if I offended you. I'm pleased to meet you, Connie." He said, shaking back her hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna get geared up. I'll see you later." With that said, he around and left, walking westward at a brisk pace.
[Necropolis]
Jackson shook his head. "No. There was someone else who sent a message to us, and they're still here. We need to keep looking."
Adam shuddered, but he had no idea why. He then suddenly felt a strong presense, then, as if his body was moving on his own, pointed to the left of them. "He's over here."
Nick blinked. "How can you be so sure?"
"I...I don't know. I just know he's here. Deep in town. Watching us."
Edited by Masterofchaos on Sep 29th 2023 at 3:22:02 PM
she/her friend to the hooved
Toni, Hub Town, north end of Town Square > outside of town, northward, edge of The Scar
Sensing nothing unseemly from the mercenary (though his startled backpedaling did amuse her a little), Toni picked up the pace a tad until she reached her destination, the front facade helpfully marked by a sign up top: Nattlås Dim Diner.
Like a lot of stuff here, it looked like an odd mishmash of disparate things from disparate places cobbled together. The building itself was what she recognized from her travels as some flavor of 'Vintage Americana', with rounded corners decorated in faded chrome and bands of neon lighting that had long stopped working or been shut off, while the carved wooden sign that had been placed over the original signage bore a stereotypically 'greek' font overtop a crescent moon, hinting toward what kind of food might be served here (though she'd have sworn 'nattlås' was a swedish word).
Curiously, the door and all the windows were obscured by tightly-closed venetian blinds, which at a glance made the place look like it was closed, if there hadn't been a sign on the door indicating otherwise... but that, she figured, suited its intended patrons just fine. Dim, of course.
Despite being able to create portals to and from anyplace she wasn't usually this punctual, and it truthfully made her feel a bit tacky, that Connie the woman in the red headband coming back to find the okapi already here might end up spooking her. Maybe that impulse was overly cautious. No telling.
In any case, it was fortunate she still had some time to explore and scope out where she'd be going.
A swift jog took her toward the north gate and soon past it, and it was here where she occupied herself taking in her new surroundings. All around was greenery, and westward was... what looked at a glance like a large road stretching off as far as she could see, but as she strolled nearer and took a closer look, it seemed more like a sort of trench or canal, set into the ground and lined with sturdy concrete, placed with little regard for the existing landscape by way of who-knows-what method. She was presently standing on a well-worn dirt path that connected it back to town; maybe it was a road of sorts, or at least it was being used that way by the people here.
The okapi could be examining this for a week. Instead, she turned her attention to the southeast, where downhill sat a coastline—the harbor Connie mentioned—and off in the distance she could make out what could only be her prospective destination of Kequay Island. Her eyes could zoom in somewhat, but she still couldn't glean much of anything useful. Certainly too far for her sensors.
She could open a doorway and be there in an instant, just for a brief look, and she raised her hand as if she were about to do just that.
No, that would take the fun out of it, and something else nagged at her besides: was it even safe to do that in this place, dimensional anomaly that it was? She'd made a doorway before, back in the square, but it had been across a distance of no more than 30 meters. Any further, and she might encounter interference of the same sort that had dumped Ultra out here, and who knows where she or anyone unfortunate enough to get swept up in it might end up.
Biting her lip and flipping her brightly-colored hair out of her eyes, she sat down for a rest on the dirt near the edge of the odd concrete trench-canal-road and looked out eastward. Not that she needed to rest, as such, but it helped her gather her thoughts.
Ultra, Hub Town, in front of hotel, examining Shadow
"Nothing will be stuck anywhere." Ultra duly assured Qeyari before again reaching into her jacket and retrieving her scanner. Still cautious about getting any closer to the odd animal than was strictly necessary—not helped by the odd feeling that it was studying her, is that what that felt like?—she stood by its side and unfurled the thing, setting about initiating the same quick, minimally-invasive scanning procedure she'd done to Joseph back in the hotel: a grid of projected lines sweeping across her subject from top to bottom, comparatively far dimmer in the sunlight.
Before either of them knew anything was going on, it was finished.
She then looked down at the display and the graphs and numbers therein. She'd be looking for the same thing as earlier—signals like infrared and radio, and irregularities in the natural bioelectricity that her education told her all complex organic creatures possessed, which would register as spikes on the gently-undulating line graph according to severity. She'd been operating under the (very possibly erroneous) assumption that the inhabitants of her own world were a suitable control baseline. If they weren't, who was in this place?
Maybe the madwoman was right, and she wasn't going to detect anything even if the 'Dead God's' technology really was responsible. Not much she could meaningfully do, then.
Edited by Chortleous on Sep 21st 2023 at 10:57:25 AM
[Outside the Hotel (Lulu; Qeyari, Shadow; Ultra)]
Shadow's gut microbiome contained a mixture of conventional microorganisms, nanites, and a number of organisms that blurred the line between the two. Almost as if nanites had evolved closer to biological lines, or biological entities had begun evolving to imitate the nanites, or some engineer had deliberately hybridized the two... one could only speculate which. Ultra might or not pick that up. (Qeyari's gut microbiome was similar. It was just a consequence of living in Qorisa.)
His brain was far stranger. It contained a symbiote: a cross between a coral, a fungus, and a ternary bio-computer. It had melded so closely with his brain that it was impossible to say where one ended and the other began, and there could be no "separation" without killing both. Bioelectrical signatures allowed Ultra to spot regions that were indubitable one or the other, but most of Shadow's brain was a strange, intricate combination of the two.
And... perhaps it was just something about those great, soulful eyes, and the odd grumble that he emitted, but Ultra might get the odd sense that Shadow understood what she was doing. He seemed... amused.
Shadow then turned towards Lulu and gave another little grumble. He leaned closer, sniffed, and gave a sound of agitation: he seemed to smell something he did not like. A quick little, "vit, vit" from Qeyari settled him, but he still kept a certain distance.
"Camels don't like mages," Qeyari said, apologetically.
Lulu smelled of light. Not light, of course, but light. This would be true even if she considered herself a "creature of darkness" or some such. Camel wisdom was not so easily fooled: it knew the light, no matter how it presented itself. Camels were creatures of shadow, and disdained the light.
Every camel knew what the light had done. They would never forgive it.
Edited by KillerClowns on Sep 21st 2023 at 10:21:13 AM
< Hub Town - Hotel, B1 (Near elevator) >
Joseph, feeling a reflexive need to correct anyone coming to his defense, put up a hand, "It's okay..." he hesitated, unsure of which name to use. Amandus sounded too familiar, and 'dad' sounded like a joke. In the end, he found himself simply repeating his vacuous mantra, "It's okay."
He turned away, eyes momentarily searching the hall for something to lose focus on as he continued. "So Rachel and I... It wasn't as though I liked her that way at first, or that she liked me. We were just temporary companions, y'know? For whatever reason, she let me stick around, despite first acting grossed out by her hands and then alternating between being a nervous wreck or the biggest dork in the room." He shrugged, slumping back against the wall, hands searching for pockets to shove into— pockets that weren't present on his swim shorts
"I dunno, maybe it was a matter of convenience. Stability in an unstable situation, that type of deal. Any dork in a storm." He winced, immediately regretting the sound of that last phrasing. Shaking his head rapidly, he pressed on, "but we went through a strange ordeal together, and I do mean ordeal. Like, risking life and limb a couple of times. There was this secret passage, and traps straight out of Indiana Jones, only a hell of a lot more nerve-racking, because they were happening to our real selves in this real life, and I've never been very good with a whip. It all had something to do with a cult, but... I never got the full skinny, 'cause I sort of passed out. All I remember for sure is the vague danger of being sacrificed to some great, evil something or other, plus the real danger of the aforementioned traps." He shrugged, one hand squeezing and rubbing the other in lieu of having any pockets to tuck away into. "Point being, you go through something like that with someone, and if you don't hate them by the end of it, you probably feel closer.
"And then I did something good," he lifted his head, blinking as though he was still surprised by the deed. "We had finally made it back out of that dark passage, and I just felt like I had to apologize. Like there was never going to be a better time. It was that one elusive moment I always feel like I'm waiting for, and for once, I didn't let it pass me by. I said everything I felt, and it just..." he held out his hands, cradling between them an arrangement of air and sound so impossibly delicate and complex, "it came out right. And she accepted it."
Thoughtlessly he began to slide bit by bit, down the wall he leaned against, his skin shielded by the slowly bedraggled towel around his shoulders, still dry and getting dryer. "She explained to me about how people usually were around her, the kind of shit she had to deal with back home. She wasn't the only one you know, there was a whole- a whole outbreak where she's from. People all over, going mad, changing into killing machines, and Rachel was caught in the uncomfortable in-between. Not crazy, but not normal. Not a lot of people who cared to tell the difference, I think. It sounded awful."
By then he'd reached the floor, his tail swung out to the side, curving toward his arched knees. It wasn't the most leisurely position, but the discomfort outside was well outmatched by the inside.
"I told her about what I went through, though it wasn't anything nearly as bad. I knew it, and she knew it. I used to think back then that because of this," he bowed his long head, gesturing it towards his body, the strange amalgam of human and something wilder, "that everything was over for me. I guess it was in a way, I just had a really small idea of what 'everything' meant in my life. But I was scared, and that was real, and there was a moment... a... a connection."
His right hand squeezed the left with aching tightness, and he held his eyes shut, locked into a strife-stricken moment that should have been sweet.
"After that, I felt... she and I- ...I don't quite know what to call it. We were friends. At the very least, we were friends."
Seconds passed in silence, broken by a sigh and a release of some immediate tension. His hands came apart and found his knees. His head fell between it all. "We weren't there for much longer. We got out of that place and managed to send ourselves back to where we'd all come from, and I settled back into my home where, y'know, not a lot had changed... there was a time where all I wanted to do was go back. To stick around for a little longer. To talk some more. At the time it seemed like such a weird, singular thing, I never thought I'd see her again." He lifted his head again, bringing slightly above his arms as he spoke. His voice wavered, carrying with it an ominous undercurrent. "But I did."
every little word and every little step
[Necropolis]
Jackson shook his head. "No. Memory loss is a common thing that happens to freed victims of Mael. We don't know why. Maybe it's some method he's using so he won't get incriminated or something."
"Though, honestly, I'd be better off not knowing what fucked up shit I did under that coward's spell." Maya said, "Nothing more horrifying than doing things against your will and knowing the whole time and not a damn thing could be do about it. PTSD fuel."
Everyone else nodded and shuddered.
"So, uh, Varos," Nick said, "You sure you don't want us to protect you, man?"
Edited by Masterofchaos on Aug 9th 2023 at 8:30:55 AM