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

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

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.

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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.

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

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.'

I see. And you use these Personas to fight them...

I would assume if they're attacking humans they would be this... Nyar-lath-o-tep's doing? [He's not sure if he reproduced that right, but honestly, what sort of name is Nyarlathotep?]

That would be the logical assumption, though I don't have any empirical evidence to back up that claim. At any rate, if they're causing trouble and endangering the populace, the appropriate response is to work to neutralize - or at least minimize - the threat they present.

I take it neither he - she, it, whatever - or Philemon are in the habit of putting in regular appearances.

But of course minimizing the threat is necessary. How much threat do they actually manage to pose? You make it sound as though they're only present for an hour.

I've only ever seen Philemon once in my entire time here, and that was during the same dream you had. He seems to be the hands off sort.

As for the demons, an hour can be a long time for something that's mindlessly focused on destruction. There are tame demons as well that reside in various areas of the city, but the ones that appear are the ones to be concerned about.

"Appear"? So they don't just hide somewhere? Because if they did it would seem to me like the most sensible way to dispose of them would be to find where they go outside this 13th Hour.

Which seems like a bit of a ridiculous name when it's just midnight.

That's not entirely accurate. During the 13th Hour, all of the clocks stop and the sky turns blood red. Time passes, but nothing capable of measuring the passage of time registers it. Afterward, everything reverts to normal, picking up at one minute past midnight.

That... what? So something really did insert an extra hour into the day? I'm amazed it didn't shatter the fabric of reality completely!

Fascinating, isn't it?

That's not precisely the word I would have used. More like "terrifying".

[He might be scholarly, but he still does basically nature magic. And that is about the most unnatural thing he's ever heard of. It even tops creating morphs.]

All right, so let me see if I have this right. Two things that look suspiciously like divine beings are using us as pawns in a bet, the city acquires monsters that try to destroy it during an extra hour in the middle of the night, and we can summon something from inside our minds to help fight said monsters.

That's exactly it, yes.

Lovely. I thought I was clear of this sort of thing after that affair with Nergal...

[He sighs and runs a hand through his hair.]

Is there anything else I ought to know about what's going on here?

Those are the most important things you'll need to know. Everything else, they'll take care of inside.

[She gestures to the door to City Hall.]

The government here is very efficient, if nothing else. You've already got an apartment waiting for you in a subsidized housing complex. They'll set you up inside with all of the information you'll need.

Wait, they're waiting for me? They knew I'd be coming?

... And what exactly does "subsidized" mean?

That's correct. The government here has ways of predicting when and where newcomers will arrive based on connections between this world and their own worlds. I don't have any more details than that. Feel free to ask one of them if you'd like.

And the word subsidized refers to financial assistance. Essentially, the government is covering the cost associated with your living here. They do this with the idea in mind that you'll help with the demon problem, but in practice, they don't actually enforce it.

I see. I may just have to, because this sounds like the sort of thing that might be useful to know.

Ah, I see. I'm afraid economic matters aren't my strong point. I've been studying magic for a good portion of my life.

You'll receive a small living stipend too, so you shouldn't have to worry much at all about the economics of your situation. And you should be able to find plenty of people here to discuss magical theory.

I see. Well, perhaps we ought to be able to come to some sort of conclusion, then.

Good luck, then, I suppose.

Thank you. And thank you for explaining what's going on, too.

[He smiles and offers her a hand.]

I'm sorry, I don't believe I ever actually introduced myself. My name is Erk.

Erk.

[It's sort of an odd name, so she's halfway repeating it for the sole purpose of confirming that that's what he actually just said. To Fumi, it sounds more like a sound someone would make in reaction to being suddenly grabbed and dragged along somewhere. All the same, though, she proceeds along with the introduction.]

Fumi Kanno.

[After regarding his hand silently for a moment, she reaches her own out to shake it, firmly and confidently.]

[He's used to that reaction, and nods. He's well aware that it's a weird name, even if quite a lot of perfectly normal Eliban names are weird by Earth standards - not that he knows that part.]

Right, Erk. It's a pleasure to meet you, ah, Miss Kanno.

[He sounds a little uncertain; he's not sure whether he picked the right form of address there or not. Not many people have surnames in Elibe.]

Miss Kanno is fine.

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dontcallmeerky - 2013-08-24 18:27 (UTC) - Expand

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