Inside 65: A Very Busy Intersection

[Murkus]

[Streets of Ill Repute]

"Holy hell, Wenomir!" Adir takes off in that direction without answering the weirdo. He tries to get a good idea what's going on inside the inn... and will move to sneak around behind the boar-person so he can close the gap, when he gets a shot.

[Morty]

[Streets of Ill Repute]

Wenomir predicted that that show would miss and as such didn't even flinch. He's just standing, motionless, where he was.

"Not too late yet," he says, conversationally. "I get shot at often, so I can forgive it... once. You don't want to find out what I'll do after a second shot."

[Gullara]

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

Laela looks like she might be about to stamp her foot and pitch a fit when the doctor comes out with the sweet. By her logic, she had been subjected to enough suffering for one day! Luckily the soothing balm of candy proves a sufficient distraction for the time being. "Thank you!" She even pipes! And with her hands occupied, she can't pluck at her injury!

Cora appears a moment later. Laela doesn't look as happy to see her as usual. "Still hurts a lil'," Laela says, though she just licks at her lollipop and looks at Cora over it's curly top. Perhaps her subject need to be punished for this pain and indignation she'd caused!

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

Cora looks at the lolly with a bit of jealousy, but she was not the one that got stitches... "She sew it shut? That's so weird." Cora says, looking closely at the stitched up wound. "I can see the strings."

[Claire's Home]

Iknika's ears twitch.

"Yeah... I think a lot of knights aren't all that. My friend who's human says that her dad was technically a knight, but it was just a ceremonial title. And other knights are just brutes in armour. But that won't stop me." She sets her jaw, puts her hands on her hips and flexes her arms in a way that might be more impressive in someone not goblin-sized.

[Claire's Home]

Claire giggles. "Sounds good to me. Really cool, actually. I bet not everyone is cut out to be trained like you." Claire leans forward, smiling.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

A door opens. There wasn't a door before, and it's not really a door. It's more... like a white-tiled corridor suddenly opens out into the alleyway. On the other side of the door, two people dressed like hospital orderlies in green plastic scrubs stand, holding a drugged individual between them. They carry the person out between them and dump them at the bottom of a wall, before turning and walking back into the corridor. The 'door' closes behind them, leaving no evidence it was there, save the person they have left behind.

The drugged individual is very unusual. Human, but not. Their limbs are too long, with gangly arms and legs in comparison to their body length. They have long bright orange hair and dark brown skin, with large eyes. They're clad with a single plain grey shirt and matching trousers, and visible on their lower back is a symbol resembling the Greek letter omega upside down, or possibly an elaborate U or C.

((Interaction Wanted!))

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

Someone else is passing by the alley - a human woman, dressed in a set of armor similar to what might be found on a samurai. She carries what appears to be a walking stick with her, that has one end wrapped in leather. While her armor covers most of her, she wears no helmet, instead letting her long red hair flow freely.

While she doesn't see the actual door, she does see the aftermath - the strange-looking person dumped at a wall, with nobody nearby to help them. She breaks into a jog towards them, before crouching down. "Are you alright,
friend? Can you stand?" she asks, not recognizing the signs that this person has been drugged.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

The sedatives are mostly wearing off, now. This close, it's quite apparent that the shade of both hair and skin is natural, despite the genetic contradiction of dark skin and orange hair. She opens her eyes, revealing black, featureless orbs with no differentiation between sclera, iris and pupil. It's also apparent just how odd her proportions are- she's on the slimmer side of human normal, but her elongated limbs mean that were she standing, she would be about seven feet tall. "Mneh? Don't know. Where'm I?" She does start to stand up, though, hands and feet making slight adhesive sounds as they're pulled from the floor.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

She flinches a little as the stranger opens her eyes, but keeps her calm. She had seen many strange people since she first arrived here, this was no different from the other times. "I'm afraid I can't give you many details;
I am but recently arrived. I believe this city is named Inside?" She offers both her hand and her walking stick, in case the stranger needs help with standing.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

"Don't... Don't remember." The stranger doesn't accept the help, bracing herself on the wall to stand and experimenting a few times with pushing her hand against the wall and pulling it off. Each time she pulls it away, it makes a sticky sound, like she's sticking to the wall. She looks down (unless her helper is also unnaturally tall) and frowns. "Don't... remember being so tall." Though she has only flashes of the ground in her memory, it wasn't so far away.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

She is decently tall, a hair under six feet, but still shorter compared to the other woman. "You don't remember your own height? Did something happen to you?" She stands up to her full height as well, and looks up to the stranger.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

The tall woman looks up at the sky. "Remember... Remember singing. Mournful, sad singing. Then, it's blank, but there's... Bits. A woman with glasses, a man with no arms or legs, white tile floor. Sometimes I was shorter. Shorter in the singing. Taller later. I... I don't remember who I am." There's no sense of loss, in her words; dull surprise, but no real loss. She can't remember enough to know what she's lost, so maybe there's nothing worth remembering. She'd like a name, though.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

The armored woman looks down at the ground. "That sounds horrid, to not know who you are, what your Path is..." she shakes her head and looks back up. "Is there any way I can help you?" She felt a little foolish for asking, but she asked all the same.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

"If... If it was good, I would feel sadder about missing it. I don't think it's a good past. What is a Path?" The stranger turns and looks back down at the helpful person she's just met. "I do not know where I am, or... What I am... Or my name. You can help me, yes. One newcomer alone is a target, I think. Two, a risky proposition. Especially if one is armoured and the other is... Me." She's human, technically. A Case 53, from the webserial Worm. Probably before most of the story's later developments.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

"The answer to that question would take much more time than we have here, I'm afraid. For now, I shall simply say it is our way to the divine. If you wish, I can teach you more when we're somewhere more quiet." The woman nods and considers a few things. "Then I shall travel with you for the time being, friend. If you do not recall your name, is there something else I can call you? Makuro comes to mind - it's the color of your eyes."

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

"Makuro. I like the sound of it. I'm not familiar with the word, however. Which colour is it?" She'll keep it as a name, probably. Better than what she could have come up with, at least for now. I don't know what colour it is, either. I put it into Google Translate at the given translation was Japanese for 'macro', or Chichewa for 'greetings'.

"Where were you headed? I don't think I know this city, so one destination is as good as another." Makuro looks around, examining the skyline of the city and wondering at its size. She doesn't think she's ever been in such a large settlement before, though as she can't remember her past, she might be mistaken. Even if she is, this is still quite an experience.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

(It's not quite the right spelling - the real romanization has two k's.))

"I think the word is black, in your tongue. Blacker than a sky devoid of stars..." She shakes her thoughts away.

"I have no real destination in mind. I was simply seeking to leave this city, and find a place to rest my mind and spirit."

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

(That'd explain it. I figured it was black, but I was slowly convincing myself it wasn't Japanese.)

"Really? I was not thinking black. I was thinking green, but I don't know why. I shall accompany you, if you do not mind." She knows precisely one person, after all. Makuro doesn't have shoes, but when she adjusts her weight her feet make the same kind of sticking noises as her hands do. There's some other benefits to her altered anatomy than simply her height, though Makuro hasn't discovered them yet.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

"Not at all. The road is always easier when traveled with companions." The woman shifts her staff a little and looks down the road. "And before I forget: my name is Keiko." She bows towards Makuro, to properly introduce herself.

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway

"Keiko. Is that the colour of your eyes?" Which would make sense on some levels, but Makuro doesn't think it is. Makuro hesitantly bows back, her movements smooth and not as awkward as her extreme height and odd proportions would suggest. She's got a good range of movement on her limbs, too, helping the bow.

[Devixer]

Back Alleyway

Keiko shakes her head. "It means..." she tries to piece a translation together for a second or two. "Favored child? Some terms don't translate well into this language, I'm sorry." She starts to head away from the walls of the alley, and into the street proper. "It is the name my mother gave me, and I wear it with pride."

[Earl of Purple]

Back Alleyway --> Street

"All languages are different. Words mean the same things, but the context changes." Makuro walks alongside her new friend, her long legs enabling her to keep up quite easily.

One of my favourite bits of trivia is about language, particularly where it meets names. King Aethelred the Unready, an Anglo-Saxon king who lived about a thousand years ago. Nowadays, people probably think he was a young king, 'not ready' for the throne. He was young, but not unusually so. In fact, his name is a pun which has been lost as language changed; 'Aethelred' means 'Noble Counsel', and 'unready' is derived from the same root as the latter part of his name. His name is basically 'King Noble Counsel the Ill-Advised'. Nothing to do with youth; everything to do with listening to the wrong people.

[Devixer]

Street

Makuro wouldn't have a problem even if she didn't have her long limbs; Keiko's pace isn't a particularly quick one. "That is very true. And yet, I've not had much trouble adapting to this new tongue. I wonder if it is something about this land."

[Earl of Purple]

Street

"I don't know which land this is. I know some country names. Suriname, West Alaska, Matabeleland, AustroHungary, and Wales." Though Makuro's memories consist mostly of moments and impressions floating in a soup of nothing, so she can't name anything about those countries.

[Devixer]

Street

"I'm afraid these nations you name are unfamiliar to me. I hail from Scaji, myself. Though I doubt the name is familiar to you, nobody else here seems to know of it." Keiko shrugs. "From what I have gathered, this land is supposedly a separate world, where people from all the worlds are gathered. I find that rather hard to believe, myself."

[Earl of Purple]

Street

"They're unfamiliar to me, too. I just remember their names. I didn't know Scaji." She nods with the explanation, though it doesn't make much sense to what she remembers of physics and geography, she doesn't remember much at all and accepts their could be blind spots.

"If you do not believe it, what do you believe?" Makuro turns to look down at her companion, interested in another theory.

[Devixer]

Street

"...I shall have to consider what I believe about this place. It is no land I have ever known, and I have seen machines here that we have not dreamt of in my homeland, but..." Keiko shakes her head. "It is all simply too farfetched. But I fear I am not learned enough to have an easy solution."

[Shadowcaller]

[Streets of Ill Repute]

Completely rejected!
How rude!

The alien stares after the stag-man as he runs in after Wenomir. Well, she guessed she couldn't complain, they had come to her aid...

But behind her the gnoll Adir knocked out is getting back up. She had in fact been waiting for him to get distracted enough to make a break for it. Time to get the hell out of here...

---

"Oh, alright. Stay safe earthling." Then the pair of aliens get up and leaves along with a number of other patrons. Wenomir is really ruining this inn's business right now. Nearly half the patrons just left!

The remaining ones are either trying to just pretending not to notice what just happened or holding on to their weapons. "You... should leave." The golem tells Wenomir hesitantly. "No business for you her-" His artificial eyes appears to catch glance at Adir despite the stag's to be stealthy. "Oh ****." Is the entirety of VIGIL here?!
The boar-man lets go off his gun and just raises his arms. "Yah, n-no more trouble."

"Oh gosh, oh gosh, oh gosh." The goblin Wenomir is holding repeats as a mantra under her breath, her heart beating like crazy as she is held by the warrior.

Run Down Street

The goblin can't run like this forever, but he's a fast little bugger. While Cassidy is starting to catch up with him, he suddenly dashes into a narrow alleyway off the main streets. He seems to have a destination in mind.

If she follows him in there, she can see that he has put another barrier in her path. This one isn't as wide, it doesn't have to be as the alleyway is more narrow, but it is also taller. It will be more difficult to jump or climb over this one.

[Earl of Purple]

Street

"How did you get here? That may shed some light. You know my arrival." Makuro doesn't remember much of vehicles, but she hopes some of the pieces will slot into place if she's confronted with one. She may have some difficulty, however. Her proportions and height may make operating some human-built equipment awkward without some alterations.

[Devixer]

Run Down Street

Cassidy sees the taller barrier and swears under her breath. This alley was narrower, though. In theory, she could jump up the walls to get above the barrier, but she didn't have time for that. Instead, she faces a wall and climbs up it, using her magic to get a strong grip with just her fingertips on rough brickwork. She gets to the roof of the building as quick as she can and runs along it. If she's able to catch up to Teal Hair before he gets to wherever she's going, she tries to jump down and land right in front of him.

Street

"I am unsure, truth be told. I fell asleep in my boat, and when I woke up, I was next to a building here, much like you." Keiko lowers her head in thought. "I only had my clothes and my armor,
and my kahkara.

[Earl of Purple]

Street

"I don't recognise that word, kahkara. Is it your stick, or something else?" Makuro is curious, although not about her past. She's set that aside, and isn't thinking about it. But she's looking around at everyone and everything, interested to see what's what.

Keiko kept her memories, at least.

[Devixer]

Street

"It is my staff, yes." Makuro might note just the slightest hesitation before Keiko said "staff." Why she did that is anyone's guess, though.

"But I must say - waking up to these strange stone roads was quite a shock to me. I have lived in the Scajian swamps all my life."