Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)

Given what Koyhel had previously said about this place being "Between", it wasn't too surprising that he was apparently not from Earth at all - at least, going by the place names and the description of the moon. "Ruby" was a form of corundum - crystaline aluminium oxide. More specifically, it was only that which was coloured red or deep pink - paler pink, blue, green, yellow and so forth was called "sapphire". Apparently, there was a stone somewhere that marked the boundary between "ruby" and "pink sapphire" against which other stones were compared for categorising. But anyway, if the moon was "like a ruby in the sky", it couldn't be Earth unless something was seriously messed up - and Koyhel's description of his home did not mesh with Mort's description of his own.

He had no idea what or where Alos or the Dying World were and didn't see much point asking for clarification as he would undoubtedly not understand any terms of reference anyway - it'd be as much use as "second star to the right and straight on 'til morning."

The laundry list of natural hazards that Koyhel rattled off reminded him so much of Australia, he half expected him to make some humorous comment about "drop bears".

Then Mort addressed Koyhel and Wolf couldn't help but notice that he pronounced the name Koy-el, without the aspiration that Koyhel (Koyel?) used when pronouncing it. He briefly wondered if it was a matter of his accent but got distracted by Mort's comment about knowing something about dangerous fauna and flora.

He turned his head so that his gaze was more on the Mort side of the midpoint between Mort and Koyel. "Eh? Nah, we've got very few dangerous things in New Zealand." The way he pronounced it came out as 'Niu Zeel'nd'. "Only one really poisonous spider but that's mainly coastal 'n' rare 'z rockin'-horse shit, anyway. Maybe a deer or wild boar might stumble inta y'campsite at night but that's not very common - don't camp on obvious game trails is my advice, there. Oh, w've got a carnivorous parrot that'll strip the beading off y'car's windshield or chew the buckles off y'pack straps if y're stupid enough t'leave it lyin' around, but that's nothing. Y'want terrifying fauna, go to Australia. Wouldn't camp there f'r all the tea in China."

This infodump completed, he lapsed into silence and took a puff on his vape. He had no idea what to say or ask next so settled for exhaling a plume of butterscotch and caramel vapour and taking another sip of the beer - as though this were the reason he'd stopped talking.

"Well, they aren't exactly common on Earth, either," Hazel said with a shrug and a sigh. "I'm pretty sure I'm the only one. They're much more common in Therelia, though, and with the Grand Barrier starting to collapse, they might start spreading throughout the Infinities.

I've even heard a rumor that they're going to start an exchange program between planes, once Earth becomes more comfortable with magic. Not sure if I believe it, but it would be nice to go to a different school, get some new experiences."

Foyer

Hilda nodded at Hazel's comment. "Well, most human magicians don't bother travelling down the more rustic roads." She commented. "And there's also the fact that my home country, Saryun, is not exactly... welcoming to people that use the arcane. But I heard that the neighbouring country, Cornelia, it's more lax about the use of magic, where they learn all those arts."

Hilda felt the need to stretch her back and shoulders. She was tired, and was starting to feel the weight of her armor on her. "Shall we continue this conversation inside, more confortable? I already checked in, and wouldn't mind sitting down and having a meal." She made a motion towards the inn's interior.

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)]

Mort looked briefly embarrassed as he realized his mistake. New Zealand, not Australia. Right.

It was thus Koyel who broke the silence, with a sniff. "Huh. That some sorta Dying World pipe you got there?" He studied the vape inquisitively, absentmindedly tapping his own pipe.

Mort though about answering the question, but decided to leave it to Wolf. Aside from a bit of clarification. "He means Earth," Mort said. "Drives my boss crazy when the Qorisayane call it that, but," he shrugged, "they ain't wrong."

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)

Koyel's question and Mort's clarification held a fair bit to unpack. It confirmed that both came from different worlds and yet they not only knew each other, Mort's boss clearly knew more than one of the Qorisayane well enough to have heard Earth referred to as "Dying World" more than once. It also occurred to Wolf that "Dying World" would probably be a reasonably accurate description of his own Earth, the way things were going.

He nodded. "Yeah, 's from Earth. It's called a 'vapouriser', or just a 'vape'. It gives me most-a th' sensations of smoking but without a lotta th' harmful chemicals that're used in th' commercial production of tobacco products."

He pulled a thoughtful face. "So y're both from different planets 'n' y're familiar with liminal places like this. Is that how y'worlds connected or is interstellar travel a thing in your universe?"

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)]

"Chemicals." Koyel said, glancing down at his own pipe. "Yeah, I'd know a bit about that. Them Western Amalgamated fellows sold a bunch of fertilizer to a clan upriver. Did them real good, but the runoff hit our fishing and our rice harvest real hard. Wouldn't blame you for not wanting to smoke anything them folks grow." He motioned towards his own tobacco. "Lucky I know exactly what's been put into that. My mother Etasa's third cousin, Ataluya ul'Thethosith vash'Yathun, grows it a bit downriver... and away from the poison, to be clear."

This digression over, Mort said, "anyways, now that my friend's done trying to sell you on all-organic Riverland tobacco," he briefly gave Koyel a fond grin, then returned to Wolf, "portals. Between his world and mine. Invisible unless you know how to flip 'em on... and got the tools. Don't ask me why, the Dead Gods who rigged 'em up all went senile millions of years back. And don't ask me about how they work..." he paused, briefly tapping his chin. "Well, I do know my boss has this whole rack of servers that have to do some complex calculations every time she wants to open a portal up. Easier than crypto-mining, apparently, but still nothing you'd run on a phone. Then they somehow use that equation to blast the portal room with a big-ass magnet that'll fry any electronics nearby." Mort's frown deepened as he reflected on his ignorance of the topic. He was just the kneebreaker, as far as he saw it. "You a 'data analyst', you said? Whatever theory you got's probably better than anything I'd come up with. Anyways, that all happens then, boom, portal to his world." He pointed at Koyel and added, "since they ain't got that kinda electric grid on his side, his boss had to get her hands on some kinda Dead God tool that'll do the number crunching like that and doesn't need the magnet."

After finishing his gulp of beer, Koyel added, "Qorisa's the only place on either world you find any serious number of Dead God things, but we still gotta pull 'em out the Graveyard of the Gods. That's a job where coming back empty-handed means you still thanking the gods you came back at all." He put the empty bottle down on the table and said, "probably cost Aseyu^note ah-SEY-hoo more money than my whole village put together will ever see..."

His words were interrupted by a laugh from Mort. "You think Aseyu^note ah-SE-yoo paid full price? You ask her yourself: she haggled." Mort's wry expression and the knowing nudge to Koyel, as well as Koyel's cringe and slight blush, made the intention beneath the euphemism clear: Koyel's "boss", this Aseyu character had slept her way, either in part or entirely, to possession of this described artifact. And this was a frequent enough occurrence that Koyel, despite his embarrassment, did not consider this remotely surprisingly.

Edited by KillerClowns on Oct 22nd 2021 at 7:47:06 AM

Hazel nodded at the idea of having a meal. "Felix and I would love that. There's always room for some lunch, and you certainly seem like a nice woman, Hilda." She led the armored woman inside, with Felix following behind, and found a small cafe just off the main hall. "Could I have the flatbread pizza, please?"

"And I'll have the trout, well done, with a dill sprig." Felix added.

"My, aren't we the picky one?"

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)

Wolf nodded understanding when Koyel mentioned run-off from industrial farming - his own world had had plenty of problems with that over the decades. It hadn't been quite what he meant, however - he had once read a treatise on what commercial tobacco manufacturers subjected the tobacco leaf to, in order to ensure a brandable consistency of product, and quickly came to the conclusion that the tobacco "leaf" in ready-made cigarettes - or in pouches for pipe or rolling - bore as much relationship to actual shredded tobacco leaf as a sheet of peach-scented pink paper bears to a tree... and for precisely the same reasons. It said a lot that a concoction of vegetable glycerine, propylene glycol, nicotine and a few natural and artificial flavours contained thousands fewer chemicals than commercial tobacco "leaf".

What Mort had to say about portals was simultaneously interesting, enlightening and puzzling. Wolf had no idea who or what the "Dead Gods" were, but the fact that they built portals and left artefacts that could be used by humans and Qorisayane reminded him of the "Precursors" beloved by a number of his favourite Science Fiction authors - immensely-powerful highly-technological races now long gone, leaving only the fruits of their work behind for the "younger races" to find and use. Were these "Dead Gods" like Niven's "Pak", Straczynski's "First Ones" or the long-dead makers of the ring gates in The Expanse? He had no idea, but it made it easier to think of them in those terms. The "Graveyard of the Gods", where a lot of these artefacts could be found, sounded like an old Precursor settlement - and from what Koyel said, tampering with it carelessly could have drastic consequences.

So the "Dead Gods" made the portals and tools that could be used to open them and the people of Mort's Earth had also found their own ways to open the portals using their own technology - which enabled them to move between Earth and Qorisa and, presumably, come to places like this.

The puzzling thing was that Wolf had not used anything like what Mort described to get here.

There was also a puzzling exchange between Mort and Koyel around Aseyu haggling for the portal-creating tool. Koyel visibly cringed and blushed and Wolf wondered if his culture had some sort of taboo around, or aversion to, haggling. On Earth, it was a practice embraced enthusiastically by some and considered rude or offensive by others.

"Yeah, a data analyst," he said to Mort, "though in fairness, I think it's m'love of speculative science - rather'n anything I do on th' job - that gives me any understanding of what y're talkin' about. Not a lotta call f'r transdimensional theory in my job, " He gave a wry grin, "thankfully. I think I must've come here through some sorta portal - but I didn't do anything like what y've described in order t' open it..."

He glanced back at his motorcycle parked some distance away but visible through the trees. Getting here using nothing more complex than a motor vehicle reminded him of Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks in which there was a road that led through time and people could get on it or off it on foot or in a vehicle if they knew where to turn - or if they blundered onto it by chance... "I was just going for a ride on m'bike, choosing roads at random t'see where they led. Somewhere along th' way, I must've slipped through some sorta portal without even noticing havin' done so."

Edited by Wolf1066 on Oct 25th 2021 at 2:03:10 AM

Foyer

Hilda nodded enthusiastically. "Alright, then! Lead the way."

Hilda had planned to take off the armor before anything else, but Hazel seemed rather eager to eat, so she decided followed the witch and her familiar. They made their way to a nearby hall, and found themselves a table.

Hilda slumped down heavily on her seat. Thankfully, the chair could stand the weight of her armor. "He does have good taste." She commented as Hazel teased Felix for his choice of meal. "I'll have a trout as well, if possible. And some bread." Hilda didn't really know what else was available, but fish sounded rather appetizing right now. "Just a cheap drink for me, please. I don't have much money. And water for the kid." She added, giving Hazel a playful wink.

Hilda rolled her shoulders, trying to make herself comfortable. "So," She started, trying to make small talk while wating for the food. "Are you from these parts, or from further away'"

(Foyer)

"Not sure whether or not I'd say it's far, per se." Hazel shrugged her shoulders. "From what I've read, physical distance doesn't apply between realms. And where I'm from is just as complicated. I was born on Earth, but nowadays I spend a goodly portion of my time on Therelia. It's a beautiful place, where the very air is dripping in raw magic. All you have to do is shape it." Hazel closed her eyes, and the air coalesced into a pink rose in her hand.

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)]

"Could be," Mort said. "Walkin' through a portal don't feel like much of anything, at least as far as I know. Probably different sorta portal than we got, though. I wonder if maybe..."

Mort was interrupted by a ringing from his pocket. "How even...?" Mort muttered as he pulled out the phone. "Big Blue probably figured something out." He checked the caller and nodded, recognizing it. "Scourge here."

If one cared to listen in, they'd hear a distorted woman's voice. Minneapolis here. Alfa-Quebec-Foxtrot.

Mort closed his eyes, doing some mental calculation with that last bit. "Tango-Niner-Oscar."

Stockpile reports missing CorpSec firearm. LPM Libra, Artemis colors. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that?

Mort chuckled nervously and said, "ah, shit. Sorry I didn't fill out req."

A long sigh. Scourge. Have you been drinking and shooting?

Mort said, "shooting first. Locked case. Then drinking. Just a little training for the FNG. Fellow's a good shot, but it's clear he ain't ever handled an automatic before..."

You can take the Libra out. I don't have an issue with that. But at least come down and fill out the requisition form properly! And before you ask, yes I could fill it out myself, but no, I'm not going to. You're a professional, Scourge, and I expect you to act like it.

Mort chuckled, shook his head, and said, "Minneapolis! The hell kinda rebel group are you guys running?"

One that doesn't lose track of military grade equipment.

"Fine," Mort said, "fine. We'll get the req filled out."

Good. Oh, and bring the new guy. We got something to get squared away with him as well. Minneapolis out.

"Scourge out."

Mortimer turned to Wolf and grinned apologetically. "Sorry, I, uh... forgot some paperwork." He tapped the gun case with his foot. "Boss doesn't like guns going missing. And she's got something for Koyel as well." Mort hefted the case, then said, "we'll be back... I dunno. However long it takes my boss to chew me out."

I'll have limited internet soon, so I'm getting Mort and Koyel temporarily out of the way. They'll be done with that paperwork — and Caroline's lectures — when I'm back.

Edited by KillerClowns on Apr 18th 2022 at 8:56:28 AM

Foyer (Dining area)

Hilda's eyes widened at Hazel's demonstration, making a flower appear out of thin air. She didn't try to hide her amazement. "Unbelievable." She said. "And I'm sure you could make even more than that if you wanted. I heard that the strongest wizards could conjure entire storms."

Hilda tapped her fingers on the table. "I am from Saryun. It's a pretty place if you happen to like mountains, so long you don't stray from the roads too much. Although I didn't travel much beyond the borders." She shrugged. "I suppose I never had a reason to. There was enough work watching the roads and making sure smaller towns were safe from most threats." She hesitated on how to go on, before she remembered something. "But I did cross the sea once. Twice, if you mention the trip back home. The southern continent was a really hot and dry place. I was cooking alive inside this thing." The knight gave her armor a knock on the breastplate, chuckling. "But it wasn't such a bad experience. The sights more than made up for it."

She paused, giving Hazel'sFelix a look. A question came up to her mind. "If I may ask, are talking cats common in Therelia? I never heard of that before."

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel; Wolf)

Just as Mort was about to vocalise his musings about the nature of portals, his phone rang. Wolf's initial assumption was that, as frequent portal users, they had special phone systems that could communicate regardless of where they were but Mort seemed quite surprised that it rang.

Mort's call-sign was interesting in and of itself.

Wolf's acute hearing was able to discern a woman on the other end of the line say "Minneapolis, here" and give the phonetic code for A-Q-F. He had no desire to listen in on what could be a private or confidential conversation so he focused his attention on the matter of inter-dimensional communications. Mort had said "Big Blue" must have "figured something out" to make it possible - and it seemed logical that under normal circumstances, leaving your own universe and travelling to another universe or "Between" would play havoc with network connections... if anything could be said to be normal about doing that. In any case, he had already assumed that his own phone and GPS would not be able to pick up their accustomed signals here.

It was possible to not pay attention to whatever the woman was saying but Mort's side of the conversation was harder to "tune out". Wolf caught his answering "Tango-Niner-Oscar" - T-9-O - and snippets of other things: didn't fill out the requisition, clarifying that the drinking didn't start until after the firearm was locked in its case (Wolf respected that). So it wasn't much of a surprise when Mort addressed him and apologetically explained that he and Koyel had to return to base in order to do the requisite paperwork. A pity, since the conversation had been interesting, but not a surprise.

He was glad to hear they'd be returning after getting the inevitable chewing out.

He gave them both what he hoped they would take as a sympathetic grimace. "That's a bugger! I'm stickin' around f'ra while, so I'll no doubt see y'z when y'get back. Best'v luck." He raised the nearly-empty beer in salute. "Cheers f'the beer, by the way. I'll shout y'both a drink when y'get back.... see ya." He gave them both a quick nod and headed back towards his bike so they could get on with whatever preparations they needed to do for their departure.

He had already made his choice of camping site prior to the chat with Mort and Koyel and it seemed as good a time as any to set up camp.

Now he no longer had to exert conscious control over his body, he relaxed and - his mind mulling over the ramifications of what he had learned - his left middle finger resumed its tapping against his thumb.

The beer was finished by the time he got to the bike so he dropped the empty bottle into a nearby recycling bin. Then he started the bike and rode it to the site he had chosen and parked near one of the trees.

It seemed an ideal camping spot: two stout trees about four metres apart in a line perpendicular to the direction of the wind and fairly close to a fire site and one of the toilet/shower "outhouses".

Foyer (Dining Area)

"This? This is nothing, honestly. I'm still barely getting my feet wet. I've seen waterfalls that flow up, stars you can hold in your hand, and other such impossibilities. And I've only been to a very small part of Therelia, let alone other parts of the Infinities." Hazel looked at Hilda. "Though I will say, having magic does make life a little easier."

Felix was next to speak. "It's not that I'm a cat, it's that I'm her familiar. A familiar is, for lack of a better term, a soulmate in animal form for a witch. Imagine someone who instinctively knows what you're feeling, just how to cheer you up. Who has an innate knowledge of the arcane, and helps you with your spellwork. I'm not a pet, and I'm not a BFF." He glanced at Hazel to make sure he was getting the terminology right- earth slang was something of a sticking point for him. "I'm... something more, something you simply can't put into words."

Camping Area - Wolf's Camp Site (Wolf)

The first order of business was to shed restrictive and bulky armour.

After hanging his tactical bag over one end of the handlebars for safe-keeping, Wolf loosened the cinch straps on the arms of his jacket, reached up under the back of his jacket and unfastened the zipper that fastened the back of the jacket to the waist band of his riding trousers, then slipped the jacket off, revealing more of the armoured mesh garment beneath: in addition to the rigid panels on the rib area, there was closed-cell foam and rigid plastic armour on the shoulders, elbows and forearms and a series of overlapping plates down the spine.

He hung the riding jacket on one of the handlebars and struggled out of the tight-fitting armoured mesh jacket, leaving just the thin grey polypropylene T-shirt covering his torso and his arms bare but for his black digital watch and a braided bracelet of black Nylon paracord. He draped the armoured jacket over the seat of the bike and turned his attention to his riding trousers.

He unfastened the column of snap fasteners down the outside of his right leg, which gave access to the full-length zipper running from waist band to cuff - which he unzipped. He repeated the process on his left leg and was then able to pull the trousers off without removing his boots or the usual struggle. Underneath, he was wearing dark-coloured synthetic hiking trousers tucked into the tops of calf-length riding boots that were fastened by straps and buckles. The black-and-grey logo on the boots' shin guards said "FORMA". He zipped and fastened the legs of the riding trousers before draping them on top of the armoured jacket.

The wind wasn't strong enough to be a problem and the air, while cool, wasn't too cold, so Wolf decided he would be warm enough in just his shirt and vest. He opened the left pannier case - the "Dry Box" - and took out a black sleeveless hunting vest with numerous pockets on the front, some of which clearly already had things in them. He put on the vest then transferred keys, phone, wallet and vape from the pockets of the riding jacket to the vest's pockets.

Then he remembered the conversation with Mort and Koyel, dug out his phone again and unlocked it. Sure enough, it was indicating it could not find the network - clearly he would need a "Big Blue" to work out how to connect across transdimensional boundaries. "Big Blue"... Wolf had got the impression that it was some sort of computer or AI, rather than a person... blue was the traditional colour for IBM's logo in his own universe... so... IBM? He shrugged to himself and then, since he didn't want the phone to waste battery power looking for a non-existent network, switched the phone to "Airplane Mode" before locking it again and stowing it in his pocket.

Now mostly unencumbered, he went to the other side of the bike and opened the "Wet Box" - the contents of which, despite the pannier's designation, were currently completely dry. He extracted a small but well-stuffed Nylon cram bag from the pannier and headed over to the nearest tree.

It took less than two minutes for Wolf to set up the ridgeline at around head-height between the two trees. The tarpaulin was already attached to it - furled up inside two narrow "snake skins" - but, as it wasn't raining, he elected not to deploy it just yet.

He grabbed a small bag from the Wet Box from which he took two broad Nylon straps with loops sewn at intervals down their lengths - "tree huggers". He looped one around each tree above where the ridgeline was anchored and let the ends hang down.

Then he took another well-stuffed cram bag, containing his hammock and its attached bug net, from the Dry Box. It took less than a couple of minutes to attach the hammock to the tree huggers with whoopie slings but another couple of minutes of adjusting the whoopie slings so that the hammock hung properly and at the right height.

With the hammock and its bug net properly set, Wolf took a couple of telescoping hiking poles and the bag containing pegs and guy lines from the Wet Box and turned his attention to his shelter. He slipped back the snake skins and let the camouflage-patterned tarpaulin unfurl. It was folded in half and secured to prusik loops on the ridgeline. Wolf slid the prusik loops along the ridgeline so that the tarpaulin would cover both ends of the hammock and pulled it taut.

The windward half of the tarpaulin he pegged close to the ground at an angle so that the hammock was shielded from the wind. The leeward half - closest to the lake - he pulled out at a shallower angle and set the hiking poles at the corners to hold up the front edge so that it formed a "porch roof". The hammock was now sheltered from rain and the prevailing wind but still had a spectacular view out under the "porch", through the scattered trees, to the lake beyond. Wolf knew from experience that this set-up would be suitable for all but the heaviest downpours or wind-driven rain - and that it was actually quite pleasant to sit or lie in the hammock looking out under the "porch" at the rain and listening to the patter of drops on the tarpaulin... at such times you could feel a great sense of joy and gratitude and say things like "thank fuck I'm not out in that!"

Wolf neatly folded his riding jacket, trousers and armoured jacket and stowed them in the Wet Box; it took a bit of effort to force the box shut again.

The camp site was as set up as it needed to be at the moment so he unzipped the bug net and sat on the hammock, leaning back as though it were a recliner chair, and dug out his vape. It was a pleasant day, he had his hammock and vape and a nice view. It didn't matter that he had somehow wound up in a strange liminal place between dimensions - in fact, that made it even more fun. He smiled. He had set out for an "adventure" into places hitherto unknown to him - and had achieved it in spades.

Edited by Wolf1066 on Nov 21st 2021 at 11:32:36 PM

Foyer: Dining Area

Hilda leaned back on her chair. "Well, that certainly sounds interesting." She commented with a smile. "Quite the pretty sights, those must have been. I don't think I've ever seen something as outrageous myself." She paused, recalling her own memories. "Although I do remember being witness to my fair share of weird places and events. Graveyards filled with the bones of creatures the size of cathedrals, fairy celebrations, the Nomad City..." The knight's gaze became distant for a moment, in remembrance of all she had mentioned. "Can't say I had an idle life."

She came back to the present as Felix talked, listening intently to the cat's explanation about his own nature. "Hm, I see." She spoke once he finished. "Well, I can't say I heard of familiars before, or at least willing ones. I heard once that some people would keep fairies in bottles, to exchange their freedom for a 'favour'." The knight shook her head. "Absolutely crazy, if you ask me. The last thing you want is to have a fairy holding a grudge against you. The luckiest one that did it found himself on his bed in the middle of a river overnight, and all the food he had was gone or went bad. I pulled him out myself."

"Although I have a question, if you dont mind." She said, leaning forward on the table and interwining her figers in front of her, her face denoting curiosity. "What are you, then? Just a cat as a familiar, or something more."

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Caroline; Wolf)]

Mort and Koyel returned and found Wolf easily enough, but they had a new figure following behind: a small, light-skinned woman in her early sixties. Graying black hair fell to her shoulders, and she watched the world through oversize glasses with thick plastic frames. Her outfit was cozy and practical: a stylish jacket, a sweater vest, a long pleated skirt, leggings, and simple flats, all in warm pastel tones. Under her left arm, she carried a large tablet computer with a stylus, and in her right hand, she carried a six-pack of orange sodas in glass bottles. The very image of the nerdy Millenial creative, albeit since aged a few decades.

"Hello," the woman said, smiling warmly at Wolf as she put the sodas down. "You must be 'Wolf', then? Caroline Thao. I'm Mort's boss. He said you were a 'good sort', and I trust his judgment." She offered a hand.

"I'll take you up on those drinks, now," Mort said, "but you'll have to excuse the boss. She don't drink."

Underneath the jacket was a small detail, carefully concealed. One that might put a dent in the "cute artist girl" image Thao was projecting, if it every came to light. Her shoulder holster, containing a small, but more than sufficient, 9mm pistol. As well as a few spare magazines, in case she had to empty her current one into someone or something. Just in case.

Edited by KillerClowns on Nov 19th 2022 at 8:43:42 AM

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Caroline; Wolf)

Mort and Koyel's return caught Wolf somewhat off guard; he hadn't expected them back so soon. Can't have been a particularly lengthy chewing-out, he figured.

He barely managed to get out of the hammock and out from under the tarp in time to greet them as they approached. He gave Caroline a quick nod and returned her smile as he took the offered hand firmly. "Cheers. Pleased t'meecha."

He also flashed a nod and smile at Mort and Koyel. It was always pleasant to hear you've been described as a 'good sort'. Or anything with 'good' as the adjective, really.

At the mention of drinks, Wolf headed to the bike and opened the Wet Box. "I'm afraid I don't have much'v a range of drinks, just some Black Russian RTDs if that's suitable." He hauled out the riding garments and draped them over the bike's seat so he could gain access to the small insulated bag at the bottom of the pannier. Due to limited space in the pannier, it was only a four-pack - which would do until he could get something else from the hotel. The icepack was still solid and the bottles were still cold when he pulled the pack from the bag.

"I've also only got one camp chair 'n' the hammock but we could park ourselves at that picnic table over there." He nodded in the direction of the picnic table - a simple wooden table with two bench seats - that was only about 15 metres away.

Edited by Wolf1066 on May 14th 2022 at 11:02:16 PM

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Thao; Wolf)

Mort picked up one of the RTDs. "Like my cousin said: the best beer is free beer." He examined the bottle. "Or liquor, suppose."

The two made their way to the suggested picnic bench. Koyel tried a sip himself, before studying the bottle curiously, slowly reading it over with visible effort. Mort helpfully offered, "it's a sorta... mixed drink. Pre-mixed in the bottle." Then he frowned. "...not that I ever seen that in Qorisa. You even got those?"

"Think I know what you mean," Koyel said. "Like.. whiskey in with spike thunaya and sugar?"

"Yeah," Mort said as Koyel took another long sip. "How come I don't see that at your casinos and teahouses?"

"Bit of an old folk thing," Koyel said. "Like, my mothers will be sipping it every festival. You're 'bout the age for it, no offense. And if Soqaxil don't take me early, I'll likely do it when I'm grey. But a fellow my age has his whiskey neat."

As they continued to sip, Koyel could be seen studying Wolf's hammock setup with a mixture of curiosity and approval. The general idea of a hammock protected from insects and torrential rain was easily recognizable to a Riverlander like Koyel. However, the materials were obviously Dying World, far in advance of anything the humans of Qorisa could produce.

Meanwhile, Gyalsten took a seat and popped open one of her sodas. "Mort mentioned you were asking about the portals?" She put her tablet on the table and opened a graphics program.

When she pulled it up, it was already open to her previous project: a cartoon character who looked as if he'd come from a late 90s or early 2000s Nicktoon. His dark skin contrasted with vibrant blue eyes, and his flowing, unkempt black hair and beard were delicately textured. His features were sharp, with distinct cheekbones and a pointed chin, yet subtler artistic cues gave this character, despite his usually-villainous features, a wearily amiable air. It was also, even through the stylization, instantly recognizable as Koyel.

Thao did not linger on this, but opened a new canvas. Freehand, she drew two circles: one red, one blue. Then she added a new layer to the image and put three smaller yellow circles on each circle. It was not immediately clear to what end she was doing this, though Wolf might correctly discern that she was sketching out a diagram to help her answer any questions he might have.

Edited by KillerClowns on Apr 18th 2022 at 8:57:01 AM

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Caroline; Wolf)

As they were heading out from under the shade of the trees to a table out in the open, Wolf took a pair of polarised blue-mirror sunglasses from the bag on top of the bike's tank and slipped them on over his prescription glasses. They rested on the bridge of his nose just forward of his glasses and, due to the difference in the size of the lenses, completely obscured them.

The conversation between Mort and Koyel around cocktails was interesting. It sounded like there was some sort of cultural thing around age and cocktails - or at least one specific one - in Koyel's society. Also: Koyel mentioned "mothers" - plural. Nothing particularly unusual about that, but worth noting.

If Mort was "about the age" to drink the Qorisayane cocktail, Wolf figured he probably was as well - and he'd been drinking Black Russians, Quick Fucks and other humorously-named cocktails since his twenties.

He took a seat at the table, twisted the cap off his Black Russian and took a sip, savouring the blend of vodka, coffee liqueur and cola. He had brought the drinks so he could have a drink in the evening, regardless of where he wound up spending the night; he hadn't anticipated the current situation. The four-pack had gone from being "overkill" (for one man for a night or two) to "barely enough". Thankfully there was a licensed inn nearby.

"Mort mentioned you were asking about the portals?"

Wolf nodded even as Caroline was bringing up a program on her tablet. He had a brief view of a well-executed cartoon-like caricature of Koyel before she pulled up a blank workspace and he leaned in for a closer look as she worked. He surmised that the circles she was drawing had something to do with how portals work or interact even though he had no idea what the circles represented at this point - he assumed that would be made clear once she started her explanation.

He gave a curt nod to indicate that she had his attention and he was ready to learn. "Right-o!"

Edited by Wolf1066 on May 14th 2022 at 11:03:07 PM

(Foyer: Dining Area Hazel, Felix, Hilda)

"I am a cat, at heart, but familiars are born, not made." Felix took a split second to lick his paw, then continued on without a care in the world. "You're know you're a familiar, but whose? That you find out when you meet them. It's a case of... destiny's too strong a word, but there's an inevitable pull."

"And it's not a two-way thing," Hazel added. "I didn't even know I was a magician until a few months ago. Now I've been to a whole different world, and it seems that all of Earth will know about the existence of magic in a few weeks. How things change."

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Thao; Wolf)]

There was an odd pause as Thao waited for Wolf to say more, but then she realized he wasn't going to and began her explanation. "We don't know much," she said, "about how they work. Even the old precursor AIs — 'Dead Gods' — are too damaged to actually tell us much. At least, the ones that care enough to talk at all. Anyways. Our rivals over at Western Amalgamated have poked at it at the kind of labs a megacorp budget buys, but our inside source says even they're mostly scratching their heads." She drew lines from the yellow circles on each larger circle. "What we do know is how we can use them."

She drew a pair of yellow ovals above her planet sketch. Below one, blue ground, below the other, red. Then a stick figure: half of him was entering the Earth portal, the other half stepping out of the Alos portal. "What you see when you open one up is a round-ish portal, about six foot high and four foot wide. They're sort of like Stargates, or the farcasters." She rapidly sketched lines, connecting every portal on Alos to every other portal on Earth, in all possible combinations. "Get a portal key. Find a portal on your world, pick a portal on Alos. It's a bit complicated, but I'll get to that." She bit her stylus as she considered how much of the details to clarify. Though Thao did enjoy discussing and explaining things, there was also a practical matter. She was hoping Wolf would ask interesting questions. Her organization of anti-corporate misfits wasn't exactly brimming with scientific minds, so any new perspective had the potential to reveal something not yet considered.

Then, with impressive rapidity, she sketched a cube. "Portal key." She tapped the cube with her stylus. A few more lines, lighter gray, and it became stained glass in an abstract, organic pattern. "They respond to magnetic forces or magic." A few taps of the fill tool and each pane was a different garish shade. "Unfortunately, we can't do anything with the latter. It's less Dungeons and Dragons, more Lovecraft."

Mortimer put in, "once saw security footage of someone we think's a Qorisayane mage. Killed a SWAT team guy, full equipment, one punch. Armor didn't do shit, splattered his whole ribcage..."

Thao cleared her throat, and Mortimer nodded, leaving his description at that.

Thao will continue her description, but Mortimer's interruption seems a good place to stop if Wolf has any comment or reaction to either line of thought.

Edited by KillerClowns on Apr 18th 2022 at 8:56:47 AM

Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Caroline; Wolf)

Wolf watched and listened intently as Caroline spoke, his drink sitting unheeded on the table top. His knees twitched rapidly - towards each other and back - causing a slight vibration through the bench seat and table.

The illustration of the figure halfway into one portal and halfway out of another made numerous synaptic connections and he could hear Ellen McLain's bright, cheerful - and somewhat-unhinged-sounding - voice saying "Now you're thinking in portals". Almost simultaneously the theme song was in his head.

So much information. 'Dead Gods' were indeed precursor artefacts and it seemed that Mort and Caroline's Earth had Stargate, Dungeons and Dragons and H.P. Lovecraft.

Numerous questions flooded his head and then Mort interjected to tell of a possible Qorisayane mage killing an armoured SWAT officer with one punch - which raised even more questions.

Wolf thought Mort's interjection was an ideal excuse to get in a question or two. But where to start? "Where d'these portal keys come from? Are they buried in old ruins or something? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question but we've never discovered any evidence'v ancient precursor civilisations on my version'v Earth - let alone found any functional artefacts - so this is quite alien to me. Once you have a portal key, how d'you go about finding a portal? Do th'keys detect 'em or react when one is near?"

He grabbed his drink and took a sip then dug his vape out of his pocket.

Edited by Wolf1066 on May 14th 2022 at 11:04:16 PM

[Camping Area (Mort, Koyel, Thao; Wolf)]

"Good question," Thao said with a sigh. "The first one we got was a family heirloom, brought to America from Iran by an associate's grandparents. Though it was our Dead God contact, Thuexatiqome, a.k.a." she glanced briefly at Mort, "'Big Blue', who opened it up. Apparently they left it with one of Elbereth's ancestors as a back-up plan if they didn't like how things turned out when humanity figured out the portals. We've had to buy the rest on the Qorisayane side, where they're much easier to come by. Without the magnets needed to manipulate them, the Qorisayane use them as lamps. Not common lamps, though, they're, ah..."

"Moxoq," Koyel offered helpfully. "Moxoq's a sorta class of Dead God artifacts..."

"Knick-knacks?" Mort suggested.

Koyel shrugged and said, "maybe. Stuff that ain't useful enough for the Imperial government to claim first dibs on, but also ain't common enough to just sell at a Uelshu market stall. Moxoq's mostly a way of sayin' you can waste money. Like," he glanced over at Mort, "you seen that funny floating crystal tree thing Malo vash'Suela's got in her courtyard. Another kinda moxoq. Doesn't do anything. Just sits there, telling the world she's rich enough to throw around money on decoration like that."

Thao nodded, confirming this was her understanding, before turning back to Wolf. "We usually source portal keys from Qorisa. Thuexatiqome tells us that the portals and portal keys were seeded in a particular area, where the Dead Gods assumed the dominant civilizations of the Earth would be based. Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan;" she smiled wryly, "they're still incredulous that Europe ever amounted to anything. The portal technology was meant to be found, albeit deep enough underground only a reasonably advanced civilization could get them. Part of some Dead God scheme Thuexatiqome wasn't privy to — they're a bit of an exile among their kind. The portals and portal keys 'ping' in a way certain scanners can detect. Thuexatiqome doesn't remember how, though luckily they've got the off switch so we don't get a kill squad on us. We're pretty sure that Western Amalgamated has the scanners worked out, though. They've got the money..."

Mort laughed and clarified, "oh, yeah, they got the money. You from 2020 or so, you said? Who's the biggest Silicon Valley motherfucker you got in your time? Elijah Robinson, maybe? Trust me: he's jack shit compared to Sigmund Gunvaldsen."

Edited by KillerClowns on Apr 18th 2022 at 8:55:53 AM

Foyer: Dining Area

Hilda gave a nod. "Indeed, things can change so fast in so little time." She gave a nostalgic smile. "I remember when I was still a kid, play-fighting with the other children when not at school. Then, my family lost the farm, and moved to another realm. We survived and managed to prosper, but I felt alone, cut off from all my childhood friends."

The knight gave another nod. "Around that time, probably at your age, I joined the Holy Knights. I trained, I learned, and made new friends, comrades in arms. We shared a different bond, but just as strong."

"And then, the attack that devastated everything. I lost my home, my Order, and my comrades." Hilda sighed and shook her head. "Of course, this all took a little longer that just mere months." She quickly corrected. "Probaly a few decades. But it felt to me like it still had happened yesterday. Who knos what would happen tomorrow?"

A waiter came in a moment later, carrying everyone's plates, and started setting them up. Hilda, noticing she had been talking about things a little too close to home for comfort, appreciated their food's arrival, and at the same time couldn't help but lick her lips at the sight her own lemon trout. It looked delicious.

"my compliments to the cook." She said to the waiter. "We've had enough talking. Shall we eat?"