TDM 001

[vaeramods]

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» 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.

Comments

adam parrish ( the raven cycle )

[scrlies]

INTO THE CITY

( the ydex rests against his wrist, translator turned on so he can try and gather what the hell is going on around here. something feels off, different, but he can't place his finger on it aside from the obvious:

a whole different planet, a whole different world, different set of rules full of different things he's never experienced before. dead welsh kings are one thing, but aliens on an alien world hit differently.

not that he pays then any mind, nor the stalls. adam instead wanders through the down, murmuring a soft excuse me as he passes by people, looks over buildings then back down to the ydex, brows furrowing and lips pressing tight together. there's a map but he doesn't know what the marked landmarks on it.

so it's time to wander around the city and find them all, figure it out. )

NETWORK

» un: parrish

Hey.
So, brand new here. Figured it might be good to do a roll call? Who's new? Does anyone know what's going on here? Anyone ever been to space before?

into the night—

[hiyakai]

[ man, how many different dimensions does this place make for him?

with the exception of his home world, this patchwork of a city would be... numero cinco — a grand total of five. he was barely getting used to life in new amsterdam and now he's suddenly here. just waltzed his way right through some gateway out into the middle of a gosh darn clearing.

but hey, he isn't mad about it. how could he be? the moment he exited onto this side of the interdimensional plane, he could feel the magic soar through him. he won't go into explicit details, but it was orgasmic. if tears didn't freak him out so much, then he could've cried from joy.

speaking of joy, his humanity switch has been fixed. goodbye to the days of faulty emotional leakage, kai parker is whole again.

sooo, to put it simply—

he's just really fucking happy to be here. consequently, his mood can only lift at the sight of a familiar face because who would've thunk that he would finally meet his magical dream buddy in this world, of all places. is this what people call fate? ]

Hey! [ he joins the brunet's side, easily matching his pace. ] Talk about a small multiverse, am I right? Never thought that I would be meeting you in person here. It's like you just walked straight out of my dream.

[scrlies]

( what.

no, seriously, what? his head tips towards kai when he falls into step, but adam--has no idea who this guy is, as evident by the way his expression pinches together tight for just a moment, before it relaxes into something a little softer. his best friendly college student impression, polite but not friendly.

because he's not trying that hard, but he'll at least try not to be entirely off-putting to someone wo clearly, somehow, recognizes him. the dream comment gets his attention, but for all he knows, this man means it more figuratively than literally. so he doesn't acknowledge it. )

Sorry? I don't think we've met before.

[hiyakai]

Of course we have.

[ it's indisputable — at least the level of certainty in his voice attests to it. ]

I met you in a dream. We spent a good chunk of time together there. [ he doesn't seem to be the slightest bit fazed by the lack of recognition in adam's eyes. there was always the possibility that this could be an alternate version of the one he had encountered; he could even be someone else entirely.

it isn't going to stop him from acting all chummy with him though, not until he assesses the situation more. ] Cabeswater. Lovely place.

[scrlies]

( so he knows. somehow, he knows about ronan and his forest. the one that's dead, now, long gone but never forgotten. this guy has seen it, whoever he is. he knows more about adam than adam would ever willingly share with a stranger, which leads him to believe that this is--this is a trick. an attempt to get a dig at him. to find something out.

or it's the truth, and this guy's just purposefully being an ass about it.

the smile doesn't waver, but it doesn't meet his eyes, either. he raises a hand, offers it out to kai. )

Adam Parrish. ( an offering. ) Who are you?

[hiyakai]

[ he isn't being an ass about it; he's being subtle. don't be so sensitive, adam.

he looks down at the outstretched hand and then back up at him before he reaches out to take it. giving him a firm shake, he takes that moment to get a better feel for adam's magic, musing quietly on whether it will match the one from the dream. ]

Kai Parker. I guess you really don't recognize me. [ he lets go of his hand, lowering his arm back down to his side. ] That's a shame.

[scrlies]

( no, not a name he recognizes either. though it's not surprising, considering he doesn't know this guy's face either. though something about kai does feel--off. he can't place it. doesn't have a name for it. wouldn't know what to call it even if he had a better feel of it.

adam leaves it to deal with later. they've got enough to figure out now, and kai clearly knows something he doesn't. a little too much. about him, about cabeswater--does that mean he knows about ronan, too? but adam, at least for his part, does feel very much the same. )

What did we do, in the dream?

[hiyakai]

[ he did find out quite a bit from dream adam. it was a nice informative conversation between two magic users. good times, really. ]

We hung out. Talked.

( network | un: kavinsky )

[dreamkillers]

🖕

[scrlies]

( aren't you supposed to be dead. )

Very descriptive, thank you.

[dreamkillers]

so did your old man finally kick your face in or what

[ bc this has to be some kind of fucked up afterlife or something. ]

[scrlies]

( that answers his "is this kavinsky kavinsky or just a kavinsky question. )

Last I remember, you were the one who was dead.

network | un: gansey

[beelines]

not an inkling, parrish. [ #helpful #resourceful #salutation ]

[scrlies]

No? Isn't this supposed to be your area of expertise?

( it's not. dead welsh kings and aliens aren't even in the same subcategory. but you know. )

[beelines]

i wouldn't say my expertise is or has ever been in cross-dimensional space travel, but i'm up for the challenge.

[ is he excited? ridiculously so. ]

[scrlies]

I guess you have something else to work on picking up now.

( of course gansey is excited. has gansey ever found a challenge he didn't answer with a smile and excitement? )

[beelines]

an inevitability of the circumstances laid before us.
look around at where we are. we're surrounded by the unknown, no matter which way we turn.
i say it would be amiss of us not to take advantage of our time here.

[scrlies]

Do you feel it?

[beelines]

[ ...... ]

i do

thoughts?

[somniphoria]

[ he doesn't belong here. impossible things are every day to ronan lynch, but this particular brand of impossible isn't compatible with the genre he was born into. ronan was built for mysticism and adventure, not scifi.

so he leaves adam to take the lead. following a few steps behind, hands shoved in his pockets, expression a threat. the people here are so... friendly. delightfully weird and not human but not the non-human brand he's accustomed to. he defaults to threat posture while adam navigates.

but they aren't going to map this shit out in a day. they've been going for ages and if they're going to walk the whole damn planet they ought to pace themselves. they have to walk back as far as they've come, after all. ]

Parrish.

[scrlies]

( or they could just find a space to rest along the way and call it good. no need to return back the way they came, is there? adam's got determination on his side and a need to know burning bright in his gut.

but ronan calls for him, so he tips his head back. looks over towards him with a raise of a brow. )

Yeah?

( he's tired. his legs are starting to hurt, which says something considering how many hikes and endless trails they've walked down back home. but there's still so much more to explore, a lot of things to find and he's certain there are answers out here somewhere. )

[somniphoria]

You done yet?

[ not a real question. he knows adam is far from done. but the vague irritation in his voice is probably enough to convey that he'd like to be done. to find a good, safe spot to hunker down when the need for sleep eventually catches up with him. ]

[scrlies]

No.

( but he knows that tone. and adam does know better. so he takes in a deep breath. lets it out slow. and turns back around to face ronan. nowhere near finished, but finished enough for now. )

Do you want to head back?

[somniphoria]

[ he gets a shrug. ]

Gotta dreamproof a space sometime.

[scrlies]

( an important step to take before they go around galivanting through the city and surrounding areas, which adam should have considered earlier but hadn't. he takes a breath.

lets it out.

and reaches for ronan's hand to grab hold of him. )

You're right. ( obviously. ronan doesn't need to be told that. ) Sorry. Let's go back.