Day 204 :: any format [OPEN]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Who: Rob and anyone
Open: Open
When: Day 204
Where: The entrance to the Bastion, then everywhere
What: The latest survivor has just arrived and doesn't realize that his world is gone yet.
Format: Any, will match
Warnings: I don't think so?

This had certainly been an unexpected event. One moment Rob had been walking to the game shop to hang out and the next he was lying on the sidewalk, part of the street and the small park he was passing the only recognizable landmarks. It was like someone had picked up a section of the world and deposited it here. Or dropped it; things were looking kind of broken. He had an initial moment of panic and confusion at the sudden change in his situation, but that quickly gave way to calm, and then to a bit of excitement at the prospect of an actual adventure in some fantasy world, since that was obviously what this was. With no people, monsters, or animals in sight, the buildings he could see in the distance were as good a destination as any, so he set off walking towards them.

A few hours later he walked into the Bastion, a bit sweaty from the heat since his backpack was too full to fit his coat in, but otherwise in a good mood, twirling the shard he'd found between his fingers. The new arrival was around 5'9" and broad-shouldered, with long brown hair, a reddish-brown goatee, and his ears and septum pierced, the septum with a fairly thick circular barbell. He wore a shin-length black canvas coat with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows, baggy black BDU pants tucked into red high-top skateboard shoes, and a black T-shirt with a red symbol on it, the front of it tucked up behind a matching belt buckle. For someone who'd just had their world destroyed, he looked to be in a pretty good mood. Maybe he didn't know yet?

A while later he could be found wandering around the Bastion, looking everywhere that didn't look like a private space and awkwardly pausing when he saw people, unsure how to strike up conversations with them. It wasn't like he could just walk up to them and press X to have them infodump, but these were people he was going to be around a lot and he knew it would be a good idea to get to know them all. How did video game protagonists do this?

Comments

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"A universal translator, eh? I should've guessed. It's much more likely than people from other worlds all speaking perfect English."

Rob sighed softly. The situation was rapidly losing what excitement it had originally held.

[freedom_engineer]

"As I said, Babelfish," he says. "Though, I suppose most people wouldn't get that reference... Alas."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob blinked and thought back, remembering that Colin had mentioned Babelfish earlier but he hadn't made the connection then.

"The translation website or the fish that goes in your ear that the website's named after?"

[freedom_engineer]

"The latter," Colin says, smirking. "I see we may have someone with some relevant knowledge after all."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I do know a few things," Rob said without any trace of arrogance in his voice. "But that makes me wonder how you know something from my world."

[freedom_engineer]

"Or maybe how you know something from MY world?" Colin asks, his tone far too innocent and mischievous.

"Relax, grab your towel," he adds after a moment. "My people are dimensional travelers, among other things. I've been to more versions of more planets than you can fathom."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"It's hanging on the hook on the bathroom door," Rob replied with a straight face; he knew exactly where his towel was, for all the good that did.

"How many Earths?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Let's see... Home dimension, Three off the fed timeline, four off of the mutant timeline, six off of the Iowa incident... a couple of assorted ones..." he mumbles to himself, tapping his fingers as he thinks. "I'd say anywhere between eighteen and twenty-two. Earth is a very complex and troubled planet in the time-space sense."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I guess fiction ended up getting that right," he says with a slight smirk that vanishes quickly as he thinks about the implications of something Colin said earlier. "You said 'your people'; are you human?"

[freedom_engineer]

"By race, I'm an elf," Colin says, pushing his hair aside to reveal his ears. "By empire, I'm Corsican. Not a shred of human in me, sadly. My wife, though. She's human. Serves a dragon goddess, but she's human."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob blinked. 'Elf' was not at all what he was expecting.

"I thought elves went for magic, not technology. Though I guess 'sufficiently advanced technology' and all that."

[freedom_engineer]

"I'm about as far from a typical elf as you can get," Colin says, laughing quietly. "And I have to remind people of that frequently, because I make one hell of a first impression. You want magic, look at my mom and my sister. They're the mages in the family."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"So what are 'normal' elves like?"

[freedom_engineer]

"Generally, the opposite of me," Colin says. "Well-spoken, less eager to get their hands dirty, graceful. Many have a leaning towards magic, though not all. And they're a tempermental lot."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Sounds like you might not have the highest opinion of them."

[freedom_engineer]

"No more or no less than any other race," Colin replies, smiling. "Every group is different, and within those groups are individuals who may or may not match the norm. I definitely don't. The only thing I actively dislike about elves as a whole is their isolationist policies."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Why're they isolationists?"