[002] Weight of days lost holding you down

[goldenherd]

WHO: Claude von Riegan, Aysun the wyvern, and you!!
WHERE: Outside the Zodiac apartments, Kami State Park, on the network so I don't have to doublepost
WHEN: July 24th (happy birthday Claude)
WHAT: Claude meets up with an old friend
WARNINGS: Talk about past animal death (she's fine now), property damage done to an NPC's car, more property damage to an IKEA, conversations about Christianity

1. Outside the Zodiac Apartments

At exactly three in the morning, there's a loud roar from the street outside the Zodiac apartment building, accompanied by the sound of crunching metal and a car alarm going off. Anyone who looks to investigate will find a gigantic, white-scaled wyvern sitting on top of a now much flatter SUV - thankfully parked and empty - bellowing forlornly and craning her long neck to and fro, looking up and down the street in search of something or someone but unwilling to leave her new perch. How she got there is a bit of a mystery, despite the night owls surely on watch given the apartment's eccentric residents. All that's really clear is that one moment there were precisely no wyverns wandering the streets, and the next one had destroyed some poor townie's car.

Someone may want to do something about that? Probably.

[ Claude will wait patiently to reunite with his wyvern, but only for a tag or two. After that, he'll turn up in the thread. ]

2. Network [ un: bowfaire | text ]

URGENT HELP NEEDED

Does anyone know where in the city one might find appropriate facilities for housing a wyvern? Even temporary arrangements would be fine at this point, but I'm honestly not too optimistic. I haven't seen any around or any sings of roosts even on the taller buildings here, so I'm assuming they might count as "supernatural" here if they existed in this world at all before now. But I'm getting sidetracked - what I need is a place that's sheltered from the wind, is larger than the space needed to comfortably stable a horse, and that stays very warm at night. Ideally it'd be someplace up high, but I don't think beggars can be choosers in this case. Thanks in advance.

3. Kami State Park

"Stop that! Aysun, you get out of there right now."

Despite his scolding tone, Claude manages to laugh as he wrestles his wyvern away from one of the bear-proof dumpsters at the campgrounds, arms around her neck and leaning hard against her. Aysun, being literally one ton of solid muscle and bone, could probably resist if she wanted to, but relents, snorting and backing away from the dumpster even as she eyes it with an intense curiosity. Once Claude is sure she's not about to lunge for it again, he turns and slams the lid as shut as it will go with a new set of wyvern bite-shaped dents in it. Shaking his head, he sighs.

"Just what am I going to do with you?" he asks, patting her shoulder. "Don't get me wrong. I'm glad to have you here with me. But it's looking like this could be quite a bit of fuss we've gotten ourselves into."

She grumbles, softly, and noses into his hair affectionately, resting her gigantic head against his.

"Yeah. I missed you too."

4. The Owlery (Closed to Eda)

With the question of where exactly he's going to live mostly settled, at least for now, Claude turns his attention to the question of employment. It's... honestly not something he's had to give a lot of thought to in a long time, between being recognized as a legitimate heir to two separate noble families when he was thirteen and seventeen respectively. While he's been far from idle in that time, eyes on the crown as soon as it became a viable option for him and knowing that earning that would take an incredible amount of discipline and skill, it does mean some of his skillsets other than war and politics have fallen by the wayside, and under the circumstances he's... very tired of both those things.

Archival and library work strikes him as an option first, but it seems like most of the entry-level positions in this world are volunteer work, and while under normal circumstances he wouldn't mind trading his time for the opportunity to really sink his teeth into the backlog of reading he wants to do about this place, he does have a literal ton of gigantic flying lizard to keep fed. So what else can he do? He's just considering it, walking around the city and taking note of the kinds of storefronts and merchants he sees, when one in particular catches his eye. It doesn't seem to specialize in anything in particular, boasting various curiosities and antiques, but it's the rack of dried herbs hanging over one of the displays that gets his attention.

A thought occurs to him. He enters the shop, hands in his pockets and idly glancing around the shelves as he waits for an opportunity to speak to the owner.

5. The Infinite Ikea (Closed to Mae and Suzi)

IKEAs are a sensory overload for people at the best of times, but for Claude - a man who's previous experience with buildings even approaching the size of a normal IKEA (much less an infinite one) are all monasteries, castles, and libraries - the vast, warehouse-expanse of open space and fluorescent lighting is a little overwhelming. He boldly does not follow the arrows on the floor, not trusting them to do anything but lead him in circles, instead relying on his own sense of direction to try to navigate through the labyrinthine mess of brightly colored furniture.

He's got his bow and a quiver of arrows with him, slung over his shoulder and at his hip respectively, though he doesn't really expect to have to use them. All of this sounds like a pretty standard if oddly organized case of banditry to him, and he doesn't think he's going to need to shoot anyone over that, probably. The intimidation factor will probably help, though, and honestly he just doesn't feel all that comfortable with the notion of leaving Failnaught lying around. So he's here, pacing the display floor and keeping an eye out for anyone who looks like they're trying to steal an entire table or something, he guesses!

6. Near the water tower (closed to Jun)

"So, run this by me again," says Claude, glancing over at the masked man who continues to refuse to give him a name as they walk along the sidewalk. "Turning water into wine has religious connotations here - at least for one specific faith - and we've got some kind of mage out here doing just that for the spiritual clout. Do I have that right?"

He's left his bow behind this time, locked carefully in a safe in his apartment. His figuring is that that his last outing went so middling-to-poorly in part because of over-reliance on the thing, and also that this sounds like a problem he'll have a better chance of talking his way through if he isn't holding a weapon. After all, it doesn't sound like this mage is trying to hurt anyone, so much as just doing some kind of glory-seeking.

"Now, obvious problems with messing with the civic water supply aside, let me play demon's advocate here for a second. What's to say he's not just who he says he is? Is there a concrete way to tell when power comes from a divine source here, as opposed to a magical one?"

Comments

text; un: fern

[laminae]

a wyvern? like a dragon?

dog some of the trees in the park are great to sleep in but i don't know if they count as sheltered from the wind

[goldenherd]

I mean, I guess you could say a wyvern is like a dragon but smaller and with fewer religious connotations, but that's not really where my mind would go first. Especially since I wasn't even sure dragons were real until about five years ago.

[ Honestly, he'd still kind of be doubting his own memory of that day if it weren't for the fact that everyone who was there with him could back him up on the Immaculate One herself swooping in out of nowhere to fight the Imperial Army. ]

Anyway, I'm not sure a tree's going to cut it. There's some bigger ones out there, but my friend here's a little big to be perching in any of them or even sheltering under a lot of them. Hold on, I think I can demonstrate.

[ There's a pause, and then Claude manages to upload a very blurry selfie taken at a low angle, his eyebrows and the top of his head just barely in frame with a very large white wyvern staring into the camera with her bright yellow eyes. It's actually a little hard to get a sense of scale from such a garbage photo, but it is clear that her head alone is nearly as large as his torso. ]

[laminae]

religious connotations
huh

[What the heck? It sounds like Claude has put way more thought into dragons and wyverns and whatever than Fern ever has.]

oh
yeah i dunno if they got trees that are big enough
maybe there's an old barn somewhere or something
good luck?
also i'll make to avoid fighting your friend
i slayed dragons back home but i don't wanna kill someone's friend

unless they're evil
then all bets are off

[goldenherd]

Religious connotations. You know, how they're said to appear to appear to defend believers in times of great need, and attend to the Goddess on her throne? Maybe that's just the Church of Seiros, though, but pretty much the only time I hear any talk of dragons is from them, and even then only in some of their more obscure texts, hence my not thinking they were real. I've honestly never heard of someone managing to slay one actually, so congrats on that?

Anyway, I'm pretty sure Aysun's not evil. She gets cranky when she's hungry, but that's pretty much the worst of her. I'll see what I can't find looking around the farms on the outskirts of the city, though I can't help but wonder what the average, non-knower of the supernatural might see her as. I guess I'll find out!

[laminae]

dog i only got about 25% of what you just said
but pretend i'm nodding along like i understood

also thanks
slaying dragons is pretty sweet

what's she eat? can i feed her?

[goldenherd]

Fair enough! I'm starting to think "dragon" might mean something different where I come from as opposed to what most other people here think when they hear it. Anyway, her favorite meal is mountain goat, but she's not that picky when it comes to meat. If you want to bring her something I definitely won't say no. I can already tell trying to keep her fed is going to take up a lot of my time going forward.

[ Thankfully Claude knows how to take care of his mount just fine when left to his own devices, but he can already tell there's going to be times when he misses having a dedicated stablemaster to help out with the everyday tasks. ]

Text; un: ShootingStar

[blurrier]

How do you have a wyvern?? Was it with the dragons that showed up in the park??? Is it friendly??

Um you might check with the zoo or something? Not that I think you should put your wyvern in the zoo!! but maybe just for a place to sleep at night they might have something?

[goldenherd]

I have no idea! She just sort of showed up in the dark hours of the morning, outside the Zodiac apartment building.

[ On top of someone's car. Which is fine. That's probably fine. ]

She's a little fussy, but if you know how to handle her she's a sweetheart. I had no idea there were dragons in the park, though. That's certainly something. I don't imagine they'd be all that willing to open their homes to a mere mortal like my friend here, though.

The zoo's that place that's sort of a cross between a public park and a menagerie, right? I guess they would have the resources to look after an animal as large as a wyvern, at least temporarily while I figure out what we're doing here. It's just a question of whether they have the space to loan out and the willingness to do so, I imagine.

[blurrier]

Are dragons immortal?? I didn't know that. But then I also didn't know dragons were real until just a while ago so I can't exactly call myself an expert ehehe...

Yeah, that's the zoo! Mm, yeah, I guess all you can do is ask. Otherwise maybe somewhere in the Kanto Region? They have these things called Pokemon there and from what I hear some of them are pretty big, though some people keep them in balls instead of a place like you're looking for...

[goldenherd]

You know, I'm not actually sure. I sort of assumed they were, what with the whole association with divinity thing and the fact that the one dragon I've ever seen was supposedly the same one that appeared to fight for the Goddess some thousand years ago, but for all I know it might've been a descendant or even completely unrelated.

Anyway, Kanto's through one of the stable gates, right? I'm not sure what I follow what you're saying about keeping Pokemon in balls, but that does sound fairly promising. I'll see about taking a look if the zoo doesn't pan out.

[blurrier]

The Goddess...? I've never heard of a religion with a goddess who had a dragon to fight for her...

Oh!! Oh are you an Isekai?

[Maybe he shouldn't assume that. This person could be from this world, it's not like Yoosung knows every religion on Earth, after all. Maybe there is one with a Goddess and a Divine Dragon!

But... That does sound a little more like his favorite fantasy anime series rather than a religion...]

Yeah, the Kanto Region is through a gate in Blue Fish Park! That's the park with the zoo in it, too.

[goldenherd]

[ Somehow he keeps forgetting that the Church of Seiros doesn't really exist here. Weird that dragons do though, absent apparently all their connections to scripture, but sure, he can handle that. ]

I'm not sure what that means exactly, but one of the message boards I can see on this thing is called the Isekai Group Chat, so it might be safe to assume I am. Is that the word for people who wound up here from other worlds?

[ Seems like a safe bet, from context. ]

Water Tower

[whiteshroud]

Jun's quiet as he walks, his mind already focusing on the mission. He wasn't that interested in doing errands for Zodiac, but well when it's about some idiotic charlatan trying to pose as the second coming of Christ... yeah, this probably is something he should intervene with.

"Yes, that's right." he speaks up at Claude's questions in that modulated voice. It's hot undeath this hood in the summer heat, and yet he still feels more comfortable speaking about such matters with it on. "It's a famous story about Christ. He was a guest at a wedding and the host ran out of wine. To help them out, he turned barrels of water into wine."

"But it was hardly his biggest miracle, more a party trick. Humans can use alchemy to recreate a similar effect, which is what I suspect is going on here." In other words, no. He wasn't considering the idea that this was a divine messenger. He seemed very confident on that end. "If he didn't think to clean them up, the telltale signs will be evidences of used spell ingredients."

[goldenherd]

"Right. Christ being the son of one of this world's gods, who the calendar is based around." Claude's done some research in the intervening time between their last conversation, at least. "Sounds like a neat trick, but probably not what I would choose if I were trying to prove I was chosen by the gods, you're right. Why not aim higher, assuming you could?"

The possibility is there that this mage is starting small and working up to bigger things, but Claude can't think of a compelling reason to do so. He guesses they'll just have to investigate and see just how quickly the story falls apart once they start poking at it.

"Anyway, think that's him?"

They're drawing close to a small crowd of onlookers now, gathered around a man with long brown hair and a short beard, wearing a simple white robe with a red sash. He's holding up an ornate chalice of some kind and shouting something that's just barely inaudible from where the two of them are standing. The crowd's reaction is mixed, some looking on with rapt attention and others texting distractedly, seemingly there more because it's something to do rather than out of any real interest in what the man has to say.

[whiteshroud]

There's a distorted noise from the voice modulator that sounds something close to someone making the sound of agreement. Both to his rhetorical question and the knowledge he said about Christ. Seems Claude has been looking into things after all, or at least recalling what he's said before.

He pauses to look up towards where Claude is indicating. Sure enough, Jun spots the guy all dressed up in what essentially looks like a Jesus costume you'd buy from a halloween shop. He makes a face at it, not that it's visible under his hood.

"It must be." He speaks with a dry tone. It's then that he notices the crowd. "I didn't think there'd be a crowd here."

That could make things difficult, at least from Jun's perspective. Working in front of an audience is not something he was fond of in the least.

[goldenherd]

"Hmm, yeah, that might make things a little difficult," Claude says, frowning. "But, if we're willing to take a gamble, we could challenge what he's saying in front of his little congregation here. Take away whatever credibility he's built up with them in one go."

Could be a neater solution than just making him stop doing it, since it'd dispel any rumors of his legitimacy. It's a little risky, especially with Claude not really knowing what he's refuting here, but he thinks he has an idea.

"How familiar are you with the kind of alchemy it'd take to turn water into wine? Any idea of what kind of reagents to look for? Powders, liquids, aether?"

[whiteshroud]

Jun considers that. In other words, they'd be busting the myth and removing his power of these people. That seems like a good enough idea for him, so he gives a nod. "It's worth the risk. But let's try to avoid doing anything that would make them worship us instead."

It's an odd request, but a vital one for Jun. He really was deadset on keeping a low profile.

As for the question, he pauses, thinking it over. It's not a spell he's ever done himself personally. He's underage after all, and while he's partaken in underage drinking once or twice at parties - it's not like he was so set on drinking that he'd resort to making his own liquor.

But just admitting he's too young to drink would be a clue to his identity. Something he doesn't want to give up so readily. So he pauses to think, trying really hard to remember what he knew of the spell.

"I...remember one of the ingredients is some kind of plant. Grape leaves maybe? I'd have to doublecheck my sources."

....His sources being Tiktok.

[goldenherd]

Claude raises an eyebrow at the request, looking intrigued. "I don't think I could manage that even if I wanted to," he says. "But I'll try to keep that in mind. Anyway, grape leaves would make sense. If the alchemy here is anything like how it works where I come from, one of the big parts of it is about providing a map to the end result."

He thinks on that for a moment, watching the man gesticulate wildly with the cup.

"Of course, I'm guessing alchemy counts as one of those supernatural things that the general public doesn't and can't know about, right? So exposing his trick isn't going to be as simple as emptying his pockets and explaining the process."

How inconvenient. Claude frowns, still uncomfortable and uneasy about the whole natural/supernatural divide this place has going on.

"We'll just have to convince them it's some kind of sleight of hand or something. I think I've got an idea, though. Do you trust me?"

Ikea time

[begaydocrimes]

Usually it's Mae doing the thieving, but not this hecking time!! She's equipped with a baseball bat, which she's been swinging around recklessly. She's bored. Nothing exciting is happening at the moment, and she's bored.

"So if it turns out to be just some dude who's really good at sneaking around cameras, we're gonna beat their ass orrrr....?"

[goldenherd]

"I mean, I don't think we should beat anyone too badly just for stealing some furniture and kitchen supplies," says Claude, though he's a little more thoughtful and less resolute about it than one maybe should be. "I don't think they've actually hurt anyone in the course of all this. But it probably wouldn't hurt just to scare them a little."

He winks, twirling an arrow around his fingertips like a baton. Thankfully the Ikea being as infinite as it is, most of the shoppers have spread out throughout its wide expanse, meaning there's no one else really nearby to question why at least two of these people are armed.

Apartments

[droptheious]

Varian used to burn the midnight oil all the time. He'd regularly work into the wee small hours of the morning when he just couldn't face putting a project down. He does it less often, these days. His newfound connection to the earth and plants have made him more active in the sunlight and less so at night. He tends to flake out fast after sundown. But sometimes, if something is important enough, he drags himself through the exhaustion to get it done.

Like his portal, for example.

That's why Varian is coming towards the building at 3am, almost asleep on his feet, and how he comes across the wyvern sitting on the car- dully realising the vehicle is crushed and the alarm is going off and also there's a giant lizard thing on it. He stops, blinking bleary-eyed at it, trying to decide if this was actually happening or if he'd just collapsed on the way home and he was just dreaming it.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh?"

[goldenherd]

The wyvern's head jerks up to look at Varian, alert and strangely birdlike in the abruptness of its movements. Eyes narrowed, it flicks its tongue out towards him, testing the air, before roaring again - a harsh, croaking sound. Its stands, unfolding its strong, stocky legs, and unfurls its wings partway, shaking them threateningly as it steps off the car and towards Varian.

(Depending on Varian's familiarity with or instinct for reptilian body language, he may notice that the wyvern seems more afraid than anything else. But it is also reacting to that fear by attempting to menace him, so it's understandable if he misses or is just not reassured by that.)

[droptheious]

Dragons exist in Varian's world. He's never seen one, they're exceptionally rare and he missed out on seeing the one that bonded to Pascal briefly. This is...well, it's not a dragon, but it's close enough, and he is used to Pascal and how he moves about. This creature doesn't seem to be on the attack. Varian makes the smart move not to advance, instead stepping back a little and quietening his tone.

Even if the not-dragon (wyvern??? he vaguely remembers reading about wyverns in a book once) isn't on the attack now, he doesn't want to set it off so it does. He doesn't relish his chances against the thing it if it decides to go for him.

"Heeeeey...little buddy. You okay there? Where did you come from?"

[goldenherd]

The wyvern makes a harsh, grumbling croak, snapping its jaws in Varian's general direction and crouching slightly, eyes narrowed. Its tail lashes back and forth, pummeling the door of the poor unfortunate car even further, and it looks like it's considering whether or not to lunge when a piercing whistle comes from behind it. It snaps to attention immediately, straightening up and pivoting to watch as Claude comes running out of the building.

"Aysun! Down! He's not a threat!"

Shooting once last wary glance at Varian, the wyvern - Aysun - closes the distance between herself and Claude in two long strides, leaning down to headbutt him in the chest so hard it nearly knocks him over. He rubs along her jaw, making soothing noises before looking back up.

"Hey! Are you all right? She didn't rattle you too badly, did she?"

(The car alarm is, at this time, still going off.)

[droptheious]

Varian would really like not to be eaten today. Or, well, any day, really. But he's kinda tired and can do without the whole being devoured thing today. Luckily, before there's a chance of that, Claude shows up. Varian would like it if Claude wasn't eaten, too and lets out a panicked noise.

"Claude be careful of the-"

Oh...welp, never mind then. The wyvern is clearly very happy to see Claude. He blinks for a moment, trying to process this. They should probably do something about the car, but Varian's vehicle knowledge is still pretty limited in the practical department (people won't let him just take apart their cars, rude?!!), so for now he'll let it keep going.

"N-no, I'm okay. It's- is she yours?"