Summertime RP

[finch]

The thing about the City is that it's incredibly easy to get there by accident, much more than most people think. A turn through a place where reality is a little squishy, an office building with an extra hallway, an underground walkway you discover by accident, sometimes even a door that just, for some reason, has decided it doesn't feel like depositing you where it ought. Lots of times people wander through the City and out the other side and never even notice aside from a little discomfort in the back of their mind.

Sometimes reality is a little more of a soft cheese than usual, however, and there's a sudden influx in one or another part of the City. Usually when this happens it's one of the busier parts of town but...

Well, today you happen to take a wrong turn, or a door that doesn't go quite like it should, and you find yourself in a building that almost looks abandoned. There's no telling whether that rug has been untouched for a hundred years or a thousand, the tapestries on the walls are faded and the silks are not so much moth-eaten as simply falling victim to entropy. As you continue on, though, you come to a knot of rooms that feel lived in. A kitchen still smells of spices, a small library has books unfolded on a desk with no sign of dust, an empty room has a polished floor and smells of sweat.

What must be the main room is clearly maintained, with clean, if cracked, stone floors and polished mahogany furniture. The floor is covered with scattered glass pieces and the occasional sparking light. A redheaded young man is bent over, trying to gather them up and not having the best luck at it.

Well. Now what?

(Hello and welcome to the summer roleplay! Please keep hands and feet inside at all times. You get Robin because I don't have a Jian icon right now. Oops. I'll try to fix that later.)

Comments

Robin

[justice_turtle]

((Hi Robin, meet Robin! I thought this was gonna be at a carnival, but eh, I can work with whatever. I'm gonna try to get posts up tonight for all six main characters in my current what-the-fuck-even NaNo-ish project.))

Sometimes Robin takes passageways that look like they should lead to peculiar places just for the hell of it. You know the ones -- a narrow woodland path with that little quirk sideways that takes it out a sight just a little sooner than it should go, a hallway that fades into darkness and has an interesting echo at the other end, a stairway that doesn't quite make sense with the shape of the house around it. If Robin lived a thousand years earlier, zie'd get zirself kidnapped by the fairies for sure.

"Hey," Robin says cheerfully. "You want any help?"

Re: Robin

[finch]

((Sorry for the confusion! XD))

Robin startles and drops the glasslike spheres he was holding. He looks up in surprise and then something like resignation.

"Yes, yes, that would be great. I don't know what I broke but I need to get it fixed." He smiles at the stranger before starting to pick up the pieces again. "I'm Robin, by the way. It's an honor to meet you."

Stella

[justice_turtle]

Stella looks around her, sniffs rather suspiciously, and then takes off her cowboy hat and fluffs a hand through her dark hair, deliberately flattening her hackles back down at the same time, before she moves forward again. She doesn't like places that change their smell and feel without a good damn reason, but she's willing to play it soft... for now.

Around a couple of corners, she hears little clinking glassy noises in the next room, and scents someone who at least seems to be alive and human. She stretches her tensing shoulders out again, puts on a confident air that's not too far from her usual fighting crouch, and saunters into the occupied room like she owns the place.

"Hey, kid," she grunts to the young-looking redhead messing with the glass things. "You live here?"

Re: Stella

[finch]

"I do!" Robin tried not to look as nervous as he felt. This was definitely getting out of hand. "Well, I live here until I get in trouble for breaking the wards again. Hello, I'm Robin, it's an honor to meet you." Best not to forget his manners. If he made his teacher look bad too it definitely wouldn't help. "What can I do for you?"

Deva

[shadowsong26]

Deva walked--walked, didn't run, but quickly and with purpose--acknowledging those she passed as quickly as she could without being obviously rude.

"He's in the ghost-palace, in the walls."

She just had to find Andrell, to extract the boy from the passages somehow, and--

And now the doors were leading places that were not in the palace at all.

She turned in a slow circle, trying to take in as much as she could, just the way Mamma had taught her. "...what?"

Re: Deva

[bookblather]

This again.

Summer tried not to sigh. She didn't particularly mind, since this never lasted terribly long and since no time passed in the real world, but she was on her way to pick up her son and she never liked any delays, even if Thomas wouldn't notice them at all.

Well, she might as well find someone to talk to. Most of the people around looked either occupied or busy, but there was one blonde woman who sort of reminded her of Gina. Maybe she'd be nice.

Summer went up to her and self-consciously adjusted one of her sleeves. "Hello."

Isshiri

[shadowsong26]

It was happening again!

If Isshiri hadn't fallen again to get here, he would have started jumping up and down with glee--a new place, a whole new place, appearing like magic when he broke into somewhere he wasn't supposed to be. And this time it was a really, really old place, the kind that always had cool secret stuff hiding in it. That was totally worth falling down.

He picked himself up, made sure he could stand up straight, and started poking around to see what he could find.

Re: Isshiri

[finch]

Tai had felt the wards ripple and shift, and his first reaction had been almost celebratory. Robin had really done something this time, and maybe their teacher would finally send the poor, useless boy home.

On his way to find either his teacher or his fellow student to gloat, he noticed a stranger poking through the hall. Abandoning his previous plan, Tai snuck up behind the newcomer.

Nolani and Lonura

[shadowsong26]

Nolani and Lonura had been heading for their favorite enclosed garden, the one with the pool where they liked to swim when no one was watching, and of course they were kissing, but then the ground shifted beneath their feet, became too soft, and the air too heavy, and--

Then, suddenly, they were in someone's house, and not exactly...decorous in their entrance.

"Oh!" Lonura said, flushing and hastily trying to pat her hair back into place.

"...well," Nolani said, pulling her sleeve back up onto her shoulder. "This is new."

Re: Nolani and Lonura

[bookblather]

Those women, they were kissing.

It probably said quite a lot about Gina's priorities that she focused on that first rather than on the (pretty musty) house which was definitely not the one she'd grown up in. But there were women, and they were kissing-- well, not anymore, but they had been and they didn't look ashamed to have been caught and.

She stared at them, eyes wide.

((Gina is about fifteen or sixteen here.))

Guardian Sanchez

[shadowsong26]

Rubika and the others had left him alone, at least for the moment. Not that he could escape--they were in transit--or that he wanted to, but...

If he could just get to an unguarded comm unit, he might be able to contact someone, because God only knew how long it would take someone to find his previous message.

Sanchez pushed open the door, checked the hallway, found it deserted, and stepped into...

...not the hallway.

He almost might have said this was the strangest thing he'd ever experienced--above angels, above the first David, above shepherding the fortunes of a Family that spanned galaxies. But being hostage to the Four Horsemen themselves (even if it was probably the wisest place for him to be at the moment) topped even this.

Barely.

He reached for the gun Rubika had taken from him, and swore under his breath.

Re: Guardian Sanchez

[justice_turtle]

Joe noticed the other guy's cautious stance, his half-movement toward a gun that wasn't there, and recognized a fellow veteran. Veteran of what, God only knew -- Joe had enough experience with the weird side of the multiverse not to make too many assumptions -- but a war's pretty much a war, declared or undeclared, and it leaves its mark.

"Hey there," Joe said pleasantly, straightening his shoulders a bit and resettling his cane for balance. He deliberately kept his free hand open, well away from the pocket where he carried his own little revolver; he really hoped the gun was still there, just on principle, but he'd be damned if he was checking it right now. "You got any idea where we are, Mr...?"

Lamiya

[justice_turtle]

Lamiya wasn't really heading anywhere in particular, just rambling along, casually people-watching and enjoying the brisk wind. Ey turned around and walked backwards for a moment, watching some ducks on the river, and when ey turned around again, ey wasn't outdoors anymore.

"Well," ey remarked aloud, "that's new." Experimentally, ey tried turning around and walking backwards the other way. It didn't work.

All right then. Looking around, Lamiya picked a random direction that looked possibly a little less disused than the rest of the place, and set off. Ey'd presumably get to somewhere eventually, and ey was in no hurry.

Re: Lamiya

[shipwreck_light]

Lamiya managed to walk smack into a small redhead who set about swearing and laughing about the whole /well, we did just kind of slam into each other/ business.

Nene- who had on a black t-shirt, socks, a headband and pretty much nothing else -pulled back from him, rubbing her nose. "Ah man, that'll teach me to go get a damn beer without makin' sure the hallways is still *my goddamn hallway*."

Olivia Marhenke

[bookblather]

Oh, what fresh hell was this.

Olivia looked around the room and hugged herself. Just when she'd gotten out, she'd ended up... here? Wherever here was. Here was not in any way Smith College or the bus on which she'd spent the night, so...

She bit at her thumbnail, worried. What was she supposed to do now?

Re: Olivia Marhenke

[justice_turtle]

Stella spotted the worried-looking young woman not much younger than herself and all her protective instincts kicked into overdrive.

"Hey there, kiddo," she said, trying to look nonthreatening, with her best attempt at a friendly smile. She knew she could be a truculent little bitch at the best of times -- hell, if anyone owned the word "bitch" like nobody else, it was her -- but she didn't want to spook the girl. Kid already looked spooked enough, damn near ready to bolt or cry if they didn't just freeze. "Anything I can do to help? You look kinda lost. I know I sure didn't mean to come here, did you?"

Ayo

[justice_turtle]

Ayo growled softly to themself and rubbed the little carved stone worry-turtle in their pocket for reassurance. They really didn't like things that changed without warning them first. And buildings especially should require construction and time to stop being themselves and go somewhere else, shouldn't just... change when Ayo wasn't looking.

All right. They could do this. It would probably mean talking to people at some point, but they had their worry-turtle and a good sense of direction and they could talk to people if they had to. They could do this.

((Ayo doesn't talk much, but has no objection to being talked to or at; in fact, they rather enjoy people who will keep talking without requiring much input from Ayo to keep the conversation going. They're a skilled mechanic, a fair amateur field medic, and have a bit of a touch-empathy power they prefer not to use much. Don't touch them without asking first. Ayo identifies as agender.))

Joe

[justice_turtle]

Well, at least the floors were flat.

Joe leaned heavily on his cane as he walked along the empty halls. He'd been in the library, back in the stacks, but much as he loved the crooked corner-turning parts of the layout where you could find niches you'd swear you'd never seen before, he was pretty damn sure this wasn't any part of the library at all. For one thing, there weren't nearly enough books. For another, it didn't feel like a library; the silence was a different shape, that was the best he could do at describing it.

He seemed to be getting into more habitable parts of the place, anyway. Maybe there'd be a chair soon and he could sit down. He'd been on his legs entirely too long at a time for one afternoon, and he hadn't even found the book he was looking for before the library had gone and disappeared on him. That was the most annoying part. He'd be a lot happier if he'd had a book with him.

Re: Joe

[shipwreck_light]

Nene had been gone far too long to have /only/ been fetching a beer. Possibly, she was planning some other adventure for him that evening, or the hallway had eaten her.

Honestly, Siebenkas was as in the mood for a hallway-devouring as he ever got, which explained why he bothered to put his t-shirt back on.

In that, the rattiest pair of jeans he continued to own and of course his best leather cuffs, he crept around the corner of Nene's doorway.

And promptly disappeared into... a castle?

The castles were some of his favorites.

He went in search of a window to determine how high up he was and if there might be a garden to stroll through. He'd only gone a room or two into what had seemed a very empty place when he came across another man.

"Ah, bonsoir! ...ah, well, it was evening where I came from. I'm not sure if it is /here/."

(OOC: that wasn't totally random, I swear. Siebenkas is actually French.)

Pip

[shipwreck_light]

Pip accepted that the hallway at her school had gotten a little longer than usual. Then a lot longer than usual. And then suddenly become another hallway altogether. These things happened. Her only mental snit about her situation was that she had homework and now when she got back Dad would have to write her a note if she missed it.

But she was /not/ passing up poking around with other people's ancient tchotchke's for mere homework! That would never suit.

So, Pip toed off her shoes and went about tip-toing along the edge of a rug that shone like peacock feathers, grinning all content about it as she did.

Re: Pip

[justice_turtle]

Ayo watched the child quietly for a little while. It looked happy, and that made Ayo happy. Eventually, they approached it. "Hello," they said simply.

Molly

[rootsofthestories]

Molly has a very large cup of hot chocolate in her hands when she turns a corner and finds herself in the building. Oh, all right then.

Lingering here and there for a moment, she just happens to find the library a rather interesting place and is examining the books. She always has enjoyed reading and learning, so it's hardly a surprise when she lingers there.

But sooner or later she's on the move again, sipping at her drink as she enters the main room. She smiles at the people within before starting to poke around, seeing what's going on and if there's anyone she happens to know.

Re: Molly

[justice_turtle]

"Molly!" Robin called out happily, recognizing the little dark-haired woman. He hadn't really expected to run into her again, just on the odds, but he'd kind of cautiously hoped to, and he was delighted to see her.

((Robin has a slight telepathic power where people who've met zem before can know who zie are even when zie look different. Feel free to use or ignore that; it doesn't have to be a 100%-of-the-time thing. Also, as mentioned up-post, Robin is currently morphing slowly between their two forms in an irregular manner.))

Cillian

[rootsofthestories]

There's a brown haired boy looking about sixteen or so wandering the building. He's grinning the entire time, much less nervous than the last time this happened. There's a collar around his neck and he occasionally touches it but that's the only sign that he might be a little nervous.

He's poking and prodding all the rooms, staying in the kitchen for an extra while because all the smells. He likes food and was hoping if he snooped around enough, he might a treat.

The puppy has priorities and some of those happen to be snacks.

Re: Cillian

[shipwreck_light]

Rai would also like some snacks, although she isn't sure if she's entitled to any snacks here exactly. The smell is sooooo tempting though.

Maybe the food won't even turn out to be anything she can eat, but she's willing to try. And say she's sorry when she gets caught. If it comes to that! She's really not sure.

Oh. There's already someone in the kitchen. Rai hands back in the shadows to watch what he's up to.


(OOC: Rai smells of rocket fuel, wet panties and really expensive coffee to the discerning nose.)

Dee

[rootsofthestories]

Dee is confused about what just happened but it only takes her a few minutes to recover. She's wandering around, a kitten at her heels, and looking curious at everything that lays before her.

It's pretty cool, really. A building appearing out of nowhere. She seemed a little disappointed that it looked empty but she can hear voices coming from the main room and she picks up her pace.

The kitten pokes it's head inside first, then Dee follows, grining all the while. Waving at the people who miht be around, she looks to see if any of them seem up for talking.

Re: Dee

[bookblather]

A kitten!

It was the first normal thing Glory had seen in the last fifteen minutes. Not that she saw a lot of normal things, growing up with the family she did, but she liked some things to be normal and nothing had. Like, none of this was her bedroom at home. She was wearing her favorite fluffy slippers and none of this was her bedroom. But there was a kitten!

Glory crouched down and said, "Here, kitty kitty!" and waved at the girl following it a minute later.

Rai > Host~Robin

[shipwreck_light]

(OOC: Other characters are welcome to address Rai, but this will startle her.)

Her first instinct was that Mr. Siebenkas had put something in her coffee. This made Rai angry enough that her muscles didn't quite want to move after and she ended up standing dead still in a very unfamilair but still oddly comfortable corner of the mysterious place she kept thinking she was.

It gave her time to work things out.

Mr. Siebenkas had not been anywhere near her coffee. She'd made it herself with her own press. Well, except for that one can of the stuff with the sugar syrup in it, but cans were hard to tamper with. Everything she'd eaten that day had come from her own fridge in her workroom and NO ONE was allowed in there. Perhaps she'd come down with something? Or, she was dreaming.

This would be close to the realest dream she'd ever had and for that (her nose twitched at the delicious smell the air currents swept against her nose) she might as well enjoy it.

She padded towards the /popping/ noise she'd heard earlier. It had reminded her of the tests with her gyrojet ammo. She wondered what her brain had made out of them for... well, whatever the occasion happened to be.

Re: Rai > Host~Robin

[finch]

Robin was holding his mostly-full basket of glass-looking bobbles, fussing over them as he added the last few to the pile. He'd seen a lot more people wander through than he'd spoken to and he was starting to really worry what Jian was going to say. All the more reason to get it fixed ASAP, right?

He heard another set of footsteps behind him. At least he didn't jump this time... just turned to see what was going on now.

Dogbane

[rootsofthestories]

She's humming to herself strolling down one of the halls in the back of the manor when she realizes very abruptly that her surroundings have changed. She blinks, tilting her head a little, then starts walking a little fast, curious as to see where the hallway leads.

When she finds herself int he building, she's not sure what to do. This definitely was not where she started out but at the same time, she's not sure if it's terribly dangerous either. Shrugging, she slows her pace and goes back to a more leisurely pace.

Her hands stuffed in the pockets of her pands, she's looking everything up and down, wondering how and what exactly is going on.

Re: Dogbane

[shipwreck_light]

Well, that is a familiar, well, everything. Dogbane's achingly hard to miss, even in a crowd of courtiers in their Court of the Manor frills.

Siebenkas opens his mouth to call out to her, but stops himself on remembering the cuff still settled on his wrist. His lips go into a tight line instead.

It's been a while since he's run into anyone from Lord Sosa's manor. None of them have seen him with those yes. Besides, from what he knows of Sosa's crews' own predilections...

He swallows his apprehensions and makes his way over. "Dogbane- isn't this a surprise on every possible level."

He smiles, rather nervous about it.

Caracal

[rootsofthestories]

There is a young woman curled up on a couch in the corner of the main room. She's watching everyone like a curious kitten but not approaching just yet. She's waiting to see what other people are doing, how they are interacting with the people around them.

Occasionally she's perking up a little, watching people who seem to be friendly with one another meet ut she never approaches, not yet.

If you look interesting enough, she might just come up though, curiosity winning out over anything els.e

Peace

[greenling]

Peace walked into the room and immediately stumbled back against the wall as a wave of disorientation hit him. Everything was- something. Different? Yeah. Yeah, that one. He had a feeling like he'd just walked into someone else's dream again, except he was sure he was awake.

Pretty sure.

He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and crossed his arms over his bare chest, looking around for some sort of explanation.

(I am sick so I apologize for any slowness/no icon. For the record, Peace is a 6'4" muscly curlyhaired redhead currently wearing pajama bottoms with cartoon dogs on them.)

Re: Peace

[shipwreck_light]

(OOC: you sent someone taller than Seb. I must pester him >). Also, FYI Seb is in ratty jeans, a t-shirt and oh, bondage cuffs.)

Siebenkas padded over to Peace, doing his best to make a comfortable racket of it on his bare feet. Better not to startle someone who was /already startled/ and all. "Ah, hello there. Sorry about all this. Have you... done the interdimensional box social before?"

Jack

[bookblather]

((Because why not.))

Jack clomped into Tia Gabriela's house, enjoying the sound of his boots against the floor. Tia Gabriela ran a dairy farm, which meant you wore boots anywhere outside the house (and sometimes in the first few rooms) and Jack loved the way they sounded, loud and businesslike, a muddy equivalent to Miranda's stilettos.

So of course when he looked up he wasn't in Tia Gabriela's house at all, but some weird dark wood place that wasn't there.

Again.

Jack sighed, and clomped over to a wall to lean on it, grumpily. So much for molletes.

Re: Jack

[shipwreck_light]

He did get something out of his dimension mishap, however.

Say, someone sneaking up behind him in the castle echos and lacing their hands around his waist.

"Hey."

Zephyr also made a kissy noise about that.

(OOC: this is Zephyr soon after "Rush The Skyline", so he's a bit gloomy and comes with a knife wound :D.)

Dave

[balsamandash]

Who wants cookies?

Dave did not actually intend to bring cookies with him, but he also didn't intend to be... wherever this is. And since he was intending to step into the other room to decorate the cookies, the tray was obviously balanced on his arm when he stepped through. At least it isn't too hot to continue carrying.

Also, this means he can trade: sugar cookies for information about where the hell he is. That might be useful in actually figuring things out. Though, he's a soft touch. If you ask or just look like you might want a cookie... you'll probably get one.

((I apologize for lacking icons but guess who can't find an appropriately sickly-looking pb? *raises hand* I will attempt to remedy this when I get home but I didn't want to wait and forget.))

OH NOES DAVE YOU HAVE SUMMONED HIM

[shipwreck_light]

(OOC: might not be to your taste, but have you tried Zerochan for art? Wan goth boys! I'll go look in a sec. More to the present, Zephyr's very touchy-feely and covered with pettable tattoos [of roguchi clematis and bugs], but if you don't want him reading Dave's mind, no pets. And it's OK to smack him to this end.)

It's been a long couple of nights. Sleeping on and off during the days (they've been so rainy and cold it's hard not to) hadn't made that any better. Coffee did nothing. By the fourth night, he was tired of everything on his music player, and biding the time between two and three AM with the static of his quiet earbuds.

He really wasn't looking forward to trying to sleep that night. And, it looked like he might not have to.

Zephyr grinned for the first time in a long time when he found himself in the castle. He also yawned, tried to stretch, remembered his bandages, and, ratty plaid pajama pants and Sister Lily t-shirt and all made his way over to the cookies.

"Sooo," he began, not exactly concealing the /want/ in his voice. "are these free range?"

Charlene

[balsamandash]

Charlene is very, very good at looking like she knows what she's doing, even when she has absolutely no idea. You can witness that by watching her walk down the hall like she knows exactly where she's going, despite never having been here before in her life.

This doesn't give her a miraculous idea of direction, and she takes her turns more or less at random, looking for signs of life. This particular part of the building doesn't look particularly lived in, and she hasn't found her way to anywhere that does yet, but maybe if she keeps walking, she'll get lucky.

She will be happy to see somebody else, though. Anybody. Especially if they can direct her to an exit, or at least somewhere that looks less abandoned.


((Charlene is a witch, on the stronger side of average for her own world, for anyone who can detect those things.))

Re: Charlene

[greenling]

Peace definitely does not look like he knows what he's doing. Mostly, he looks like he just crawled out of bed and is wandering around with unbrushed hair and a mild hangover. He's walking slowly by a wall, running his fingers over the dark wood like he's not sure whether it's even real.

He feels Charlene somewhere behind him before he hears her, and turns to watch with a wary look on his face.

(OOC: Peace is also magic. Specifically he's a part-human, part-something else with weak to moderate innate magic, more a fae or a shapeshifter than anything else.)

[greenling]

Okay. So, realistically, Kara had never been to Las Vegas.

Not Vegas exactly. Somewhere shortly outside of it, involving more desert, but after weeks of desert, it was as close to Vegas as there was without standing in the middle of a casino or something. Which might be what Sophie had planned. At the moment, though, she'd ducked into a random building to find a bathroom and enjoy the AC.

So maybe this was normal, but she was increasingly sure something really not normal had happened.