vaeraooc | TDM 001

» arrival.

You were doing--something. Thinking something, walking somewhere, through something, when suddenly you find yourself somewhere else entirely. You've stepped through the Gateway: an empty doorframe in the middle of a large clearing, facing away from the large city known as the Capitol. When you first step out, you're alone. There's the distant sound of a soft tune on the air, like the world itself is humming pleasantly around you. The air smells sweet, pleasant and serene.

A glance around shows a soft, blue barrier surrounding the Gateway, approximately 10 meters away from the Gateway itself, and surrounding it in a wide circle. Attempting to escape from the barrier proves useless, and the moment you step even slightly away from the gateway, it grabs the attention of the Gateway's guardian:

It's difficult to make out her shape, at first. A wispy wind, a few branches swaying in the wind, the sound of breath in one's ear. She phases into existence against the wide of the Gateway, and immediately along with her presence comes a feeling of being safe. Maybe you're more suspicious of it. Maybe it feels comforting. It takes her several moments to fully form, keeping her distance but lips twisted up into a gentle smile.

"Welcome." Her voice is soft, more of a whisper against the wind than sound itself. "I apologize. I can. . I can feel that you do not belong here with us. You are from elsewhere, not quite the Between but not here either." Her head tips to the city, before she continues,

"Please, make yourself comfortable. I will see what we can do regarding your presence."

Her form falls apart, small little leaves gathering at the foot of the Gateway. The blue barrier opens with enough space for you to exit; there's nothing keeping you inside of it, and it will wait for you to exit before closing behind you.

The city's within close enough of a distance to walk to, and it seems to be bustling enough. . or, you could always explore the forest around it. The space between the Gateway and the City. Talk to those who have also walked out of the Gateway around the same time as you had.

» into the city.

The Capitol is bustling. Full of individuals of all shapes, sizes, and colors--beings with four legs, or six legs, or iridescent skin who pay no mind to the newcomers walking straight into their city. It's evident by looking to the buildings within the city that this whole place is new. The buildings show barely any signs of wear and tear, the streets are pristine. The structures are of all shapes and sizes; one may be walking down a block of street and pass by a large skyscraper, and directly next to it, pass by a circular building extremely low to the ground with doors there's absolutely no way someone over two feet tall and with more than twenty pounds of mass would be able to fit through. The signs around the city are in all kinds of languages; some matching those from Earth (English, Arabic, Latin), and several others incomprehensible.

There's some kind of market currently taking place: several stands with miscellaneous items ranging from magical to simple food items line the main street going through the center of the city. Items offered are free of charge; grabbing hold of an apple, or a charmed item will only earn smiles in response from those running the stalls. Stopping a local will get you answers of varying levels of helpfulness: a smile, clicks in a repetitive pattern that sound like it must mean something. The more humanoid members of the crowd may offer a few words, "Ah, you're new! Welcome! Thank you for joining us!" before continuing on their path.

» a particular case. (network)

Several hours after characters are left to wander around the city, they are tracked down by two young, near-identical ( although their appearance keeps shifting, like they can't settle on a hair color, a skin color, a height ) brothers who offer them a sympathetic smile and hold out a YDEX to them, explaining the functionality of it and how to turn on the language interpreter, access the (barebones, new) network they have begun setting up for them and others like them.

They explain how to choose a username, how to access the map functions, point them towards one of the newer apartment buildings on the edge of the Capitol with instructions on how to reach it, and let them know they'll inform the doorman of their situation and that they would be coming to stay in one of the new apartments. They leave with the promise of providing more answers soon, most likely through the network itself.

In the meantime. . it looks fairly empty, there's a few accounts listed as having access to it. Maybe see what's up with the rest of your new pals?

» dreams never hurt so much.

It's one week after the initial batch of arrivals that it happens: something else steps out of the Gateway, something warped. Myra will whisper soft into the ears of newcomers and settles alike: a be careful, she's hurting without offering anything else.

She wanders the city and the construction sites: a young preteen in a massive hoodie and boots, hood pulled down over her face. Get close enough, and you'll hear the sound of her teeth clicking together hard, grinding, before she tips her head back towards whoever gets close and--screeches. The sound is loud enough to hurt, digging painfully at eardrums until all sound around those nearby fades away to nothing, and the girl disappears. Characters will find themselves losing the ability to:

• hear
• speak
• decipher directions / extremely directionally challenged

While they may lose one or more sense, the girl is nowhere to be seen when they turn their attention back to her. Luckily, the effect wears off after an hour and those who were hit with it will regain their senses, as if it had never happened at all.

Trying to touch her proves to be futile, her body phasing through any attempt at physical contact. Trying to chase her down proves similarly pointless: she will walk around corners and disappear behind them, turn around and simply fade into nothing. Her appearances are random, appearing through the Capitol, inside houses, restaurants, only resorting to deafening those who she senses has intentions of moving towards her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Arrival

"Make myself comfortable? That requires a large bath tub and at least three attendants," he mutters.

Revel looks around after the figure dissolves, unable to place himself and certainly unable to place how the hell he got here. He eyes the new opening in the barrier, then sighs and slips through it. It's one thing to find himself in a new place, another entirely to be trapped in a little circle of space. Free movement, at least, will allow some semblance of control, no matter how slight.

The city is is aim, eyes intent as his hands lightly slide over his sides and thighs. All right, at least everything is where it is supposed to be. The tiefling is in black from head to toe; he pulls down the cloth he'd had obscuring the lower half of his face. And it's then that he recalls he wasn't standing in that circle alone. Revel looks back over his shoulder and lifts a brow.

"Well, are you coming?"

Into the City

Revel is used to standing out, but here, he almost feels drab as he takes in the beings going about their business. The feeling is familiar, even if nothing else is. Not the architecture, not the people, not the sounds, not the scents. And it isn't just that they are unfamiliar: they are completely alien. He cannot discern the languages on signs. The most familiar things here are... humans. And that is not a comfort.

He tries to gain some sense of place as he explores and finds himself in a market. Not a bad place to start, though when he realizes that no one is paying - no bartering, no trading, no coin switching hands - he is immediately suspicious. As an experiment, he very deliberately takes a piece of fruit (he thinks it's fruit) while making eye contact with whatever is manning the stand. Nothing. He steps back. Nothing but a weird smile. Revel keeps moving and glances back only once, but the being just waves at him and makes some clicking sounds. He hears more of that as another unfamiliar being talks to a human (or non-human? hard to tell sometimes). Or talks at them, more like. Because that sounds like a language, but it isn't one Revel can even begin to comprehend.

"At least it sounds happy."

Dreams Never Hurt So Much

He doesn't remember how or why he got close to the little urchin with the hidden face, but that sound--that sound rips through his head and the next thing he knows, he's down on his hands and knees, unable to tell which way is up.

The sudden loss of equilibrium makes him nauseous and he tries to take a steadying breath. Getting up doesn't feel like an option, but like hell he's staying down. His hands slide along the ground in front of him. If he could find a wall... a wall would get him up. He finds a wall and leans his weight into it as he gets to his feet. His tail lashes irritably, and, for a moment, he has to stay right where he is as the world settles back into place. But where is he? Which direction had he come from? And where was he going? He tips his head down and shakes it, but that absolutely does not help.

If he leaves the wall, he might go down again and lose any sense of what up and down are. So he feels his way along carefully, fingers crawling along the wall as he picks a direction and starts moving that way, keeping his back against the stonework.

Network

un: jackdaw

Something tells me I'm not in Waterdeep anymore. Who the fuck knows anything about the magic that got us here?

Wildcard

[Hit me! Revel will do plenty of exploring, pop me a PM if you have any questions. Also happy to match prose or brackets.]

What were you doing in your world before you arrived here? That might tell us something about how it happened.

TDM 001

Revel Jackdaw | OC

network; un: izumi