[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

[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. ]

[laminae]

kinda sounds like it dude, but that's cool, it's always neat learning about new junk like this

ok cool
i'll wrangle up some goat and see what else i can find

[goldenherd]

There's so much to learn about this world that I don't even know where to start half the time, and that's not even getting into the places that some of the rest of us come from. Guess I'll have to add dragons to the list of subjects to look into when I get the chance, too.

Anyway, she'll be your best friend immediately if you bring her a snack she likes. She's easy that way. We're just hanging out in the garden on the roof while I figure out what to do next, if you want to swing by.

[laminae]

they got libraries here you could start there
they aren't super exciting though

sweet! i'll do that
thanks man

[goldenherd]

I'm already on it. Mostly I meant in terms of what subjects to read up on. I've been trying to get my head around electricity and engines, and some basic history, but there's so many other things I want to look into, too. I feel like I could spend lifetimes trying to catch up on everything that's been discovered in this world that mine's only just started exploring, and never even get close to finishing.

But that's getting away from myself a little bit. I'll see you around, sounds like!

[laminae]

dang dude good luck, that science stuff always goes over my head

yeah, definitely!