[open] welcome to the city

[excaliburden]

WHO: Altria Caster (excaliburden) & perhaps you!
WHAT: Help out a gal who just got here and is still getting used to magical city things like powdered sugar
WHERE: Across the city! Namely: a convenience store, park, subway, etc.......
WHEN: Early November
WARNINGS: N/A! Will update if necessary


a. local victorian orphan discovers convenience stores

[You're probably popping into the local convenience store for sensible reasons, like to buy a soda or to grab a few things you're missing for your dinner. Maybe for one of those hot dogs. No judgment.

Either way, you're getting interrupted by a gremlin in young woman form, who comes right up to you as soon as she makes eye contact, holding up... one of those small little packs of powdered sugar donuts.]

Have you ever tried one of these?

[She sounds awed.

There is powdered sugar around her mouth and on her fingers. She seems to have already eaten three of the five in the pack. It's a little bit like a religious experience, honestly.]

b. park break

[There's only so much walking around the city she can do before she gets tired. Even a few days in, it's still a pretty overwhelming place, and despite making many plans with many helpful people upon first arriving, she... has not acted on any of them.

So it is that even though it's either very early in the morning or very late at night, Altria can be found seated on one of the benches in the park, shoulders hunched and hands in her lap. She doesn't seem to be asleep, just... thinking very, very intently.

Of course, if she notices that someone's near, she'll immediately straighten, lifting a hand to wave--but with how deep in thought she is, it isn't hard to sneak up on her, either.]

c. subway

[Using the subway today to get across the city? That's a perfectly normal thing to do.

There's a young woman there as well, nose pressed to the window as she stares out as the train moves, even though it's, you know, underground and there's nothing to see. It's fine--she still seems amazed.



Also, if you hop back on the train a few hours later to go elsewhere, she's... still there. She might be leaning back in the seat, staring at the ceiling, or moving from seat to seat idly, or, in particularly empty times of day, sprawled along two seats at once.


Don't worry about it. Everything's fine here!]

d. wildcard

(Wanna tag in but these prompts don't work? Totally fine, hit me with whatever--or poke me over here to plot something out!)

Comments

[excaliburden]

[Oh dear. Now she's on the spot. She hesitates for a moment longer, squirming a little in her seat, before she just sighs and dips her head a little.]

I know we went through all of that work to find the partaments [she means "apartments"] and I'm sorry for wasting all of your hard work, but... I don't know if I can really stay there.

It's pretty new to me.

[mazios]

[ Mentally just correcting her in his head: apartments. It's apartments. But yes, listening to the rest of what she says.

He's quiet for a moment as he considers her words before asking a little gently — ]

Which part? Having a home or the type of homes themselves?

[ Akihiko himself considers housing in a very utilitarian way. If it has a roof for him and a place to sleep, it works. But he's never thought much of the sentimentality of it. ]

[excaliburden]

[All of the above...? All of the above. Still, doesn't that sound kind of pathetic to say?]

Oh... well, to be honest, I've never seen a city like this. It's so blocky and... grey.

[mazios]

[ He nods his agreement there. ]

It's very... American. Aesthetically not pleasing at all, and frankly quite depressing. I'm not a fan of it either.

[ He misses Japan already. ]

[excaliburden]

[It's very what.]

So your home is really different from this too?

[mazios]

[ You know, American. Like, bad. Duh! ]

Yeah, very different. There's more life to it than this place.

[excaliburden]

[Does Akihiko think American cities are all empty shells...]

So lots more people, you mean? What else makes it different?

[This is a way better topic either way; she's engrossed.]

[mazios]

[ Well if they're not New York or Los Angeles, aren't they??? Right??? ]

Yeah, that and lots more color too. Colorful lights and decorations everywhere, everything looks more lived in. Part of what makes a city a city is its people, right? So that's probably part of what you're feeling.

[excaliburden]

... Right! That's probably true.

I'm happy there are other people here, but it's true that compared to the size of this city, there aren't very many of us. I guess that's part of what makes it feel so eerie.

[mazios]

Yeah, exactly.

[ He considers for a moment and then asks — ]

Tell me about where you live. Maybe that'll help in spotting the differences.

[excaliburden]

[oh no]

Oh, me? Well... I'm from Faerie Britain. I grew up in a little town called Tintagel. I suppose that might be part of what's so surprising to me. The place where I grew up was very small, and this place is very big.

[mazios]

[ . . . ah. ]

I'm sorry, did you say Faerie Britain? [ ??? ] What's... that?

[ That wasn't in his geography books. :( ]

[excaliburden]

[...?]

It's... my home.

[... Oh. Oooohhh.]

Right, you're probably from Proper Human History, so you wouldn't have heard of it. I suppose the easiest way to put it is that it's where faeries like me live.

[mazios]

[ He is learning so much about Caster in such a short amount of time. Ah. ]

... Oh. You're a faerie.

[ . . . ]

Where are your wings?

[excaliburden]

Oh, usually only Wing Clan faeries have wings.

[That's his biggest concern? Wow, this "cross-worlds culture" thing is way easier than expected!]

[mazios]

[ He opens his mouth. He closes his mouth. He looks a bit confused and then just kind of awkwardly, ]

So faeries aren't like... Tinkerbell?

[excaliburden]

[Another completely blank smile.]

Like a what?

[mazios]

[ ... Maybe they don't have Tinkerbells in Faerie Britain. ]

Small [ Making a pinching gesture with his hand 🤏 ] person who flies around with her wings and has magical fairy dust and...

[ . . . ]

I guess it doesn't really matter.

[excaliburden]

[...? She's still smiling confusedly.]

I think you might still be talking about Wing clan faeries. I suppose those are the sorts of faeries humans think of when picturing a faerie?

[at least, that's how it seems from Akihiko.]

Those sorts of faeries definitely exist...! [... sort of. Like. One of them does, still.] But just like humans, faeries come in all shapes and sizes.

[mazios]

[ He can tell she's just sort of. confused. So, he'll give up trying to explain what really doesn't matter or make any sense to her. Instead he just listens to her, since she's the expert here. ]

... Yeah, I think so. That's what's you'll see on TV or something when it comes to this stuff.

[ Don't tell him only one is left, he'll feel terrible. ]

Alright, so if this "Wing clan" exists, what clan do you come from?

[excaliburden]

[................... what a question!

She doesn't want to answer that!]

Oh, I'm just a standard regular old faerie.

[ANYWAY.]

Were you headed somewhere on the train, Akihiko?

[mazios]

[ Wow way to dodge the question, Caster. Akihiko would absolutely call it out if he was capable of noticing social cues like that at all.

So, as it is, he just looks up at the train map to see what their next stop is. ]

Uhh, nowhere in particular. I've been riding the trains all day trying to get an understanding of where they stop and how far out they go. They're pretty convenient to get around the city, no?

[ He is assuming she's familiar with trains. ]

[excaliburden]

[Thank god. This can work out, since Akihiko doesn't pick up on social cues and she doesn't want to talk about a gazillion things!]

They're really convenient! I've never ridden one before now, but I'm enjoying the experience now. And we can get across the whole city so quickly, too.

Has it helped? Riding them a lot, I mean.