[Open] Well, it's not a castle...

[dontcallmeerky]

Who: Erk, OPEN
Where: Leo District
When: Backdated to August 11th, not that it makes much difference. Midday.
Summary: A new arrival decides the best place to go for answers is straight to the top.
Warnings: None except what you bring with you!

Erk's arrival had, understandably, unbalanced him a little. One moment he was sitting on the castle wall with a book, the next he was in a city full of buildings taller than castles, full of unfamiliar sights, sounds, and even smells. Coming from a world not unlike medieval Europe to a modern Japanese city would be enough to unbalance anyone; thankfully the citizens were at least a bit used to people having a moment of massive culture shock on their pavement.

Once he'd recovered enough of his composure to wonder about what had happened to him, Erk decided that the thing to do was to find some answers. Deciding where to go to do so wasn't easy, not in an unfamiliar city whose buildings were tall enough to make landmarks hard to see from just a street over, but then he'd come to a little lake in the middle of the city and seen on the other side buildings that screamed "government headquartered here". If they weren't government buildings, they were probably monuments, and therefore likely to be near civic buildings anyway.

And so Erk had undertaken a rather long walk to Leo District, unwilling to attempt a ride on the overhead tram. A sidewalk with unfamiliar vehicles racing by at breakneck speed was bad enough. Seeing as there was plenty of shade, he ended up carrying his mantle over his arm rather than wear it all the way there in the August heat. The general idea was that his arrival, while unique in his experience, was unlikely to be so in that of the city, and theoretically therefore the people whose job it was to run the city ought to at least know something about it. From which it may be seen that despite being apprenticed to a count, Erk had a somewhat optimistic view of the competence of governments in general.

In any case, he arrived on the steps of the town hall, looking up at the imposing edifice. It was time to try and find someone who knew what in Saint Elimine's name was going on.

Comments

excuse my lazy action brackets

[terminally_clever]

[Fumi notices Erk standing there as she's emerging from a neighboring building in the Leo District, silently regarding him for a moment before approaching.]

I assume from your expression that you're another new arrival. Strange, there used to be more of them on a much more regular schedule than this. I wonder what changed...

Action brackets are fine!

[dontcallmeerky]

[He blinks and turns toward the woman addressing him, he hadn't expected someone to come right out and do that.]

I suppose I couldn't say. Ah, do you work here? I thought this might be a good place to try and find someone who knows just what's going on.

[terminally_clever]

Not at City Hall. But I have been here long enough to answer any questions you might have.

[dontcallmeerky]

Fair enough.

[The answers are the important part.]

Perhaps we could start with what exactly has actually happened to me. The people I've spoken to don't seem to know a whole lot about it, despite living here.

[terminally_clever]

[Fumi sighs slowly.]

I really should think about making a brochure or something. I've given this speech so many times now.

[dontcallmeerky]

I'm sorry, but I really do need to know. All I have to go on is what the people I'm assuming are locals told me, and they don't seem to know very much about it.

[terminally_clever]

Well, at its most basic level, the explanation is that you've been transported from your world to this one by a being by the name of Philemon and granted a power called Persona in hopes that you'll aid him in saving this world from his counterpart Nyarlathotep. The two represent, respectively, the creative and destructive impulses present in humanity, and it seems they have something of a longstanding bet about which impulse is stronger. As for Persona, think of it as a representation of your inner thoughts and motivations given form and power. Everyone who arrives here from another world has the potential to summon one, but it needs to be awakened, generally in a time of extreme physical, mental, or emotional stress.

[dontcallmeerky]

... Would Philemon be a man wearing a mask with a butterfly painted on it, by any chance?

[Because he'd been dismissing the lingering memory of that dream up until now, but...]

And do you mean more stress than suddenly being transported to another world?

[terminally_clever]

Yes and yes.

[dontcallmeerky]

Lovely. So what exactly would cause that sort of stress? And you've said what they are, but what are Personas for?

[terminally_clever]

A life or death struggle seems to be the most common occurrence, though I suppose if we're talking about mental or emotional stress, the return of a suppressed memory or being forced to relive a painful event in one's life would suffice as well.

As for what Personas are for, they're to help us defeat the demons and other creatures that stalk the streets of this city at night. When the clock strikes midnight, there's a time called the 13th Hour when those sorts of creatures emerge.

[dontcallmeerky]

What do you mean, demons? That word gets used to mean quite a lot of things.

[terminally_clever]

As it turns out, it means quite a lot of things here too. But in general, the common thread seems to be 'hostile' and 'non-human.'

[hello_mgann]

[M'gann noticed the man staring at one of the buildings and figured he must be new. She wasn't sure how much help she could offer but figured that she should try to help anyway. Since the man looked a bit old fashioned she decided to use her human disguise, just in case.]

Hello, you look a little bit lost. Are you new here?

[dontcallmeerky]

I suppose you could say that, yes.

[Sure, he looked old-fashioned. On the other hand, he also had purple hair, but that was normal for Elibe. The young man offered her a sheepish smile.]

I don't suppose you could help me? I thought this might be the best place to go to try and get some answers.

[hello_mgann]

I don't think you want to bother the people in there, it might make a bad impression. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have, if you'd like.

[dontcallmeerky]

Well, I'm trying to figure out what's actually happened to me. All I know for sure is that I've been transported... somewhere. Almost certainly nowhere on Elibe; I should think I would have heard of a place like this.

[hello_mgann]

I'm almost positive this city isn't in ... Elibe was it? Anyway this city is called Hinoto-Ri, and it's cut off from the outside world.

[Remembering a few of her previous conversations, M'gann decides to ask an odd question.]

This may seem weird but what year was it before you arrived here?

[dontcallmeerky]

I see. Cut off... how, exactly?

[He actually looks curious now... but then, he wouldn't be a mage if he wasn't.]

980 after the Scouring. Why?

[hello_mgann]

I don't know exactly how we're cut off but no one has been able to leave so far. And as for my question about time ...

[M'gann sighs.]

Well it's sort of complicated but everyone here is from different times and places. The current year is 2013 but I think that may be on a different scale because I've never heard of a Scourging.

[dontcallmeerky]

Scouring. The Scouring was a war between humans and dragons.

I suppose it makes sense that different worlds would use different calendars. Though you asking makes it sound as though they don't all use different calendars.

[hello_mgann]

My apologies, but I can say for sure that there wasn't a Scouring in my world. It may have happened in this world, but I can't say.

I guess there are a lot of different calendars, I sort of made an assumption because the first few people I met used a similar calendar to mine.

[dontcallmeerky]

Hm. I suppose we'll have to table that for now until we can look into it more. What I'd like to know is what is actually going on here.

[hello_mgann]

The short version is that there's a conflict between two gods one of order and one of chaos, and we're in the middle of it. Has anyone explained your persona yet?

[dontcallmeerky]

Hm? Ah, no, I'm afraid not. What's a Persona, in this context? I've heard the word before but I don't think you mean quite the same thing.