Arrival Mingle

[iterumadmin]

Who: Everyone.
What: The Chosen return or arrival in the City.
When: July 1st.
Where: The Districts of the City.
Anything Else? Feel free to make your own arrivals, or throw an arrival starter here! The party is open to all. As a reminder, language barriers are not an issue in the Tower.

The City hadn't changed at all in its time without the chosen. If anything, The City seemed a little dusty. The Chosen would find themselves waking in their assigned homes. Even if they were returning and had other homes. They would wake in their chosen home. For the most part, anyway, a few chosen had special ways of arriving.

The assigned housing varied depending on the district they were assigned according to their sin. However, everyone had a box, a welcome package awaiting them upon waking. Inside the box was an extra invitation inviting them to the tower if they so decided to come visit upon arrival.

The city was once again bustling with life. Cars, demons, and the people of the City moving as if time had never stopped. Business as usual for the returning Chosen.


The Tower

While it was not Aiden's district, he had talked the Duchess into opening up the ballroom, and Skiffell to provide food, that just didn't seem to end. The grand ballroom was filled with many delectable dishes, and a small band of demons playing big band music in the corner.

The doors were propped open with the music drifting out to help lull the chosen who decided to attend. A handwritten poster board outside the open doors displaying 'Welcome Chosen!' with about 10 smiley faces drawn on it. While normally parties at the tower demanded fancy dress, Aiden throwing a party meant that rule would not be abided. He didn't dig out the fancy threads for anyone. This was a different kind of party, put together by the lord of Leisurebrook.

While Aiden didn't plan to reveal himself as a magistrate, he did love to mingle with people and hear their stories. So he was there. He was napping at a round table off in a corner, his messy brown hair spilled over his crossed arms as he napped as if he didn't have a care in the world.

Comments

[royal_venant]

Regulus was immediately affronted, but not for any of the obvious reasons.

Sam's appearance wasn't so much an uncommon sight to him - wizards experimented all the time with their appearance, and while Regulus' mother would have a thing or two to say about that blue hair that seemed... odd? Though Regulus couldn't put a pin on exactly why - but that wasn't the point. He didn't care about that so much (though he had 'thoughts' about her sartorial choices... but again, neither here nor there.)

He also didn't mind her manners.

It was the subject of her question.

He made a disappointing noise and cast a glance over towards his brother.

"You mean my brother," he said, and it was clear that wasn't a positive.

"Yes, I also have a wand."

And he'd remembered from his previous experience in the City that just because she didn't know wands didn't mean she didn't have powers, so he was cautious.

"Is magic not done using wands where you're from?"

[darkforcerising]

"The Force," Anakin said. "It's..." and he paused, figuring diving into the entire explanation of it right now might be overkill and corrected mid-sentence. "A whole thing. You can just think of it as a kind of magic where I'm from." If another Jedi could hear him now, calling the Force 'magic' was a bit of an insult to the members of the Order.

"We-" Well just him, as far as he could tell right now he was the only Force user here at the moment, "I don't need anything to help me focus using it. It's mostly an intent and conviction thing."

And he threw propriety into the wind and asked, wholly innocently, even though he heard the innuendo as he ask it, "How does your wand work?"

[royal_venant]

Regulus hated the way a part of him stung whenever he and his brother interacted, the part that wished things could be different. Like they had been when they were younger, but that was deep in the past.

"Arse," he shot back. And he should have just moved on, but of course he didn't.

"This City was better when you weren't here."

[ssbardock]

Bardock looked at her “Well then, I guess I’ll be trying tacos a lot more then.”

The Saiyan nodded “I got placed in wrath. The Patinuia.” Though it isn’t surprising considering my various sins as a Saiyan.

[thegreatexperiment]

As someone who currently hated her own brother, like a lot, Sam decided not to go down that avenue. If anyone asked her about Avery right now, she was damn likely to explode. She got it.

She left it alone.

"Nope," she said instead, jerking her chin slightly toward the wand. What they had for magic in her world was decidedly messier and...frankly not as cool as what she'd seen so far. "Only people who use wands in my world are cosplayers and Las Vegas magicians." A pause. "Which isn't real magic." In case that needed any clarification. Vocab words were kind of tricky in this hellhole.

She hooked her thumbs through the back beltloops of her jeans, rocking a little on the balls of her feet. "What did you do to it? The food, I mean."

[royal_venant]

It was probably for the best that Sam veered away from the subject of siblings, giving Regulus another chance to not mess up and present his ass to a stranger. Because, ranting about how much you hated your brother was not the way to win friends and influence people, even if his audience might be sympathetic.

He almost asked what cosplayers were- he'd never heard that word before.

But was distracted.

"I'm saving food for later," he said.

[thegreatexperiment]

She frowned a little. Hoarding wasn't exactly new to Sam. She'd just come from a fucking Apocalypse, after all. The problem was, she'd died so suddenly and so young that she'd never really thought about things like groceries. They'd been a non-issue, something her foster parents, adoptive parents, or dining hall had to worry about. So it took her a second to even consider the fact that, yeah, people still needed to eat, didn't they?

And then she wanted to kick herself for being so stupid. One hundred and seventy two IQ, and she was still a fucking dumbass.

Okay, be better, Sam. Do better.

She took a slow breath, letting it out through her teeth. "So you're...what? Transporting it somewhere?"

[royal_venant]

"Yes," Regulus said, casting a side-eye glance at Sam, waiting for the judgment and preparing a defense.

"Back to my room."

[thegreatexperiment]

Okay. So teleportation was real.

This was kind of huge. Sam had always been an obsessive science fiction fan. She still wore a necklace shellacked with a picture of Mark Sleepwalker's face for crying out loud. She loved the idea of teleportation. But as a scientist, knew that the power required to do it was...unheard of.

It seemed to be a week of unheard of shit.

Under other circumstances, she would have called this fucking heaven. And she didn't even believe in heaven.

"Can you teleport other things?" she asked.

[royal_venant]

That was better than judgment. Didn't mean it wasn't still coming, could just be delayed. So he kept his guard up.

"Yes... If certain circumstances are met."

[thegreatexperiment]

She leaned in closer. "Like...a person?"

Because that was too fucking much. Beam her up, Scotty. It really was magic, wasn't it? Had to be, because it was beyond even the coolest science she knew.

And Sam knew a lot of science.

[royal_venant]

Regulus leaned an equal amount away without giving up his spot. He had a big personal bubble, as it were.

"Yes."

He placed a petit four on his plate without taking his eyes off his interrogator.

"Why?"

[thegreatexperiment]

"Why? Why? Because that's the fucking coolest thing I've ever heard of!"

He was asking her why. Shit, he reminded her a little of the older vampires back in LA. The ones who were entirely unimpressed with their own power, except when they went on power trips. Sam didn't like being a member of the undead, but she never took for granted the fact that she could do amazing shit.

And she didn't even know the full extent of what she could do. Might never, seeing as there was no one around to teach her.

So she'd never be bored, at least. Unlike this broodball.

[royal_venant]

Let a man relax a bit, feel out a situation, step past knee-jerk prejudicial reactions.

"Oh," he said. Very unsure about all of this.

All his life, he was taught that muggles were the monsters, lower than scum, parasites ready to take everything away from him if he didn't guard himself. The Purist justification that let Lord Voldemort rise to power. He had taken a few steps away from those extremist views, but a step wasn't a mile.

He wasn't prepared for enthusiasm.

"It is... useful... You don't have a kind of teleportation where you're from?"

[thegreatexperiment]

"Fuck no! It's virtually impossible, given our current understanding of science. The closest we can come is theoretically being able to shift molecules to another dimension, but even that is still decades away from being scientific reality. If ever."

The Rain of Fire had kind of brought most science to a screeching halt. Yet one more reason to fucking hate the Predators.

Sam, however, wasn't actually thinking about them at the moment. Her eyes were shining with possibility.

"Does it involve a wholesale movement from one point to another?" she asked. "Or do you have to break something down to atoms, then reassemble it somewhere else?"

[royal_venant]

Regulus did not know a few of what those words meant. And it probably showed on his face.

"It's not science or whatever it is muggles do. It's magic. You start in one place and then you're in another, no matter how it's done."

[thegreatexperiment]

She thought it mattered very much how it was done. Mostly because the idea of reducing herself to atoms, then trusting something to reassemble them was a little...well, it required a certain level of faith that she definitely didn't possess.

However, the real needle scratch in the conversation was the word 'muggles.'

Sam wrinkled her nose. "Muggles? Do I want to know what that means?" She was already prepared to be offended.

[royal_venant]

"Non-magical people- they do the science," Regulus explained. "Wizards and witches use magic."

You can tell he has no idea how 'the science' is done from that sentence alone.

[thegreatexperiment]

Do the science. He almost reminded her of Avery. Except Avery had a better grasp on grammar. He still referred to 'the youth' and 'the rock and roll.' Never 'the science,' though. No self-respecting Dragon would ever say 'the science.'

As for the word 'Muggles.' Well, she didn't exactly love it. But she didn't exactly love 'Kindred' either. Euphemisms were all bullshit.

Could have been worse, though. Fuck, she'd been called worse in high school. And Lake Forest been a fairly liberal place, socially.

"I see," she said evenly. "Maybe we should stick with names. I'm Sam." She thrust her hand forward, the lights of the room shining off of her chipped, black nail polish.

[artistwithasickness]

"Yeah, but the cannolis I get when I get out," she says with a gesture towards the food table before popping another bite into her mouth. Gotta look at the bright side, otherwise shit gets really heavy.

"Oh shit, 2013, nice. Always good to know humanity is goin' strong. Good news is that you won't freeze anything off in the winters out here but we do get snow. It's only been about fifteen years, the difference, that's not bad. And don't worry, the only technology advancements I'm interested in are in the arts and the computers that support it .. and holograms but that's a daydream for fun." She grabs another bite but uses it to gesture vaguely at him as she continues.

"You mentioned fledgling pocket dimension. Star rating, one to five, how's this place doing in comparison."

[bossyboiler]

It's what she does. The getting ready part is part of the fun.

"I give the spread a solid four stars. They're trying really hard but the macarons look a little sloppy. As for me, not much. I'm still getting a feel for it all. A lot of things are the same." The City is mostly the same but there are a lot of new Magistrates. What will that mean for the Chosen? Will they be cruel and capricious or benign? There's no way to know right now.

"What about you?"

[solus_unus]

"I haven't, are they anything like the ones I introduced you to all those fucking years ago?"

The voice is going to be a familiar one to her, for better or for worse. He's still of the mind that she should have ended up with him and not Erik, but that was still (and forever would be) an opinion Caius would keep to himself. Perhaps in another world, during another time, they'd be able to have that. Each other.

When she turns around, Devi will be greeted with a handsome smile. God, she looks as amazing as she did. Maybe even more.

"Hey, gorgeous. Got a smile for me?"

[abeautifulgame]

"Damien Brenks," he answers easily, taking the hand in a shake.

A pause follows as he pulls back, taking a moment look Caleb over. He'd noticed how out of place he looked, watching him wander around the room, but now that his attention's been drawn to it, it's even more stark a contrast. Poor bastard.

"First time in a modern city? Or first time dimension-hopping, period?"

[abeautifulgame]

"I won't miss the Lake Effect, that's for sure."

He wasn't a fan of winters with two feet of snow even before his disability. Now, it's a joke trying to get out of the house in the winter -- or was. The Void may have figured out snowfall on the mountaintops, but it hadn't hit them with a blizzard by the time he'd left. Either way, a little snow is fine. He's a lot less interested in feet, though.

Making a face, that in mind, he glances back to the table when she gestures. He knows that not-quite-point was meant for him, but he uses it as an excuse to finally help himself to some of the food as he thinks about how to answer that. The Void was many things, but he already feels Akechi's absence -- and the loss of the opportunity to fix his leg.

"Jury's out," he decides, at length, that in mind. "I can tell you I appreciate being able to fuck around on my phone again, if nothing else."

The Void hadn't really figured out what a cell phone was used for, and when his phone was his bread and butter back home, that had been immensely frustrating.

[brandingproblem]

Me? God no, I just work with really smart people around me is all.

[He has no real powers, nothing supernatural or superhuman, but aside from his aim? It's the power of underestimation. Sometimes it's not letting people know how smart you are. Sometimes it's just plain not thinking you're all that smart. He knows he comes at problems from an angle, sees things that others might not or phrases them in surprising ways.]

But bridges are kinda less theoretical. Where I'm from. Just not sure how one goes about punching a hole in spacetime, or folding space, or making a wormhole, or whatever.