Arrival

[maleenpointes]

Who: Sébastien and OPEN
Where: Leo ward
Summary: Sébastien arrives in Hinoto-Ri on a cold evening.
Warnings: None so far?
It was very disorienting. It was not the first time he had woken from a dream into another, and it was never not the strangest feeling.

For a dream, thought, the realism was astonishing. Surveying the destruction around him, he could feel the bite of the cold December day on his skin, feel the uncleared rubble and snow under his feet, smell the disinfectant and cleaner from the hospital he had found himself standing near every time the automatic doors opened with a squeak, watch people with oddly clear and detailed faces looking at him strangely.

More strangely, the dream didn't seem to move on. He was rooted in place and nothing moved, nothing blurred, the scenery did not change. Looking around, he spotted a police station across the street. As his dreamstate visits to the police never ended well, Sébastien decided not to go. He would have to do something sooner than later, however, because his fingers and ears were starting to turn bright red from the cold.

Comments

[unbroken_chain]

Here, have a girl all up in your business.

"Hello!"

[maleenpointes]

WHOA HOLY okay. Maybe a fan?

"Hi. Uh." ... well, dream, right? "You're pretty hot."

[unbroken_chain]

Have a little bow and a grin, then.

"Thank you, thank you - I drink milk. So! The system's marked you as a newbie!"

Her grin broadens as she removes her glasses with a flourish.

"Welcome to Hinoto-Ri!"

[maleenpointes]

Sébastien is so shocked that she didn't respond by jumping his bones or breaking his leg that he almost doesn't catch the next part.

"New... what?"

[unbroken_chain]

"Arrival, of course! Hold on, it's right in here..."

With that, she rummages around in her bag before drawing out a small pamphlet.

"Here you go, all the basics!"

[maleenpointes]

It was the strangest feelings, to look at this pamphlet and know it was Chinese, but to decipher the words anyway. The strangest words he had ever read in his life, for sure. It was so unbelievable that, as he read, he alternated between staring at the girl and at the pamphlet.

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha, for her part, will just stand there and wait for him to finish.

[maleenpointes]

Finally, Sébastien found something to say.

"Not a dream?"

I never said it would be intelligent.

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha grins a little wider.

"Nope! Any questions?"

[maleenpointes]

"How is this not a dream if I can shoot mind lasers? If I can read Chinese?" His arguments were tenuous at best, since he was getting colder by the second and he could even sees his breath forming little clouds as he spoke.

[unbroken_chain]

Pause.

"Well, I could give you an explanation, but..."

Here, she'll just reach over and pinch your shoulder. Not hard, mind, but firmly.

[maleenpointes]

"OW!" Sébastien is delicate. And maybe a bit of a wuss. "What... but... all that stuff in here" he shakes the pamphlet "only exists in cartoons!"

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha smiles.

"Oh, well then. Watch this."

A blue playing card spirals down out of thin air, and Kotoha lightly reaches out and crushes it in her hand. And then, lit by a blue glow, appear countless spectral masks.

"Menreiki, the thousand masks of drama. A Persona I received from the Velvet Room."

[maleenpointes]

Sébastien squeaks at being stared at by a thousand masks suddenly.

"Uh. Okay. I guess it's real..."

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha keeps smiling and unsummons Menreiki.

"You wanna head down to City Hall and finish getting registered?"

[maleenpointes]

"As long as I can get inside soon, yeah. It's pretty cold here..." he says, still a bit stunned.

[unbroken_chain]

"Oh, I can take care of that. Ah, my name is Kotoha, by the way."

And with that, she tosses a small ball up in the air, which splits open and releases a giant moth. Heat shimmers off its six wings like a portable brazier.

"Ta-da! Toasty warm, right?"

[maleenpointes]

Getting more astonished by the minute, here. "... Thanks, whatever you are... I'm Sébastien Petit. ... I'm guessing if I asked about the Opéra de Paris you have no idea what I'm talking about."

[unbroken_chain]

"His name's Solar Logos."

She pauses to think.

"Is it anything like the Opéra de Kalos?"

[maleenpointes]

Solar Logos. A bit of a strange name. Then again, it's a pet moth.

"I don't know. Does it show ballet?"

[unbroken_chain]

"Yeah! It's basically the most prestigious ballet company in all of Europe!"

Jaunty pirouette just to illustrate.

"Someday I want to go there with Mom and Dad and see their performances."

[maleenpointes]

Sébastien would love to perform for such and enthusiastic ballet fan, but... "Uh... the Opéra de Paris is the most prestigious ballet company in Europe. Where is Kalos supposed to be? In Greece?"

[unbroken_chain]

"Don't think there's anywhere called Greece in Europe...oh! I know! I can speak a little Kalosian - I read a tourist phrasebook once - so maybe you'll be able to tell me what it reminds you of?"

A slight pause, one hand placed on her collarbone, one resting lightly on her moth.

"Excusez-moi, où est le centre de Pokemon?"

[maleenpointes]

This was starting to really confuse poor Sébastien. Even more than the new world thing, I mean. "That's... that's French. Kalosian is French. Kalos is France. What the hell???"

[unbroken_chain]

"Oh, really?"

Kotoha is not laughing. Really, she's not.

"I think that's pretty normal, actually - a friend of mine mentioned that one of the regions in my world had the same name as someplace in her world. Not sure what causes it, though."

[maleenpointes]

Sébastien shook his head in disbelief. "This is sounding more and more like weird sci-fi."

[unbroken_chain]

"Yeah, I know. Fun, though!"

Kotoha laughs merrily.

[istotesbatgirl]

[A teenage girl in a mask and cape jumps down from a nearby fire escape, thinking that no one is around she starts performing karate moves on a make believe enemy. In the middle of one of her moves she notices that someone else is there and freezes.]

Um, hi. How long have you been watching?

[maleenpointes]

"Uhm. Since you jumped from up there?" Okay dream, this was suitably weird. A cosplayer doing karate, that was unexpected.

"Who are you dressed as?"

[istotesbatgirl]

I'm Misfit. I'm a superhero. I don't think I've seen you around, are you new here?

[maleenpointes]

"Uh... I... guess?" It was not his first time dreaming but it was certainly his first time in this dream setting.

[istotesbatgirl]

Well, welcome to Hinoto-Ri. Where do you come from originally?

[maleenpointes]

"I'm from Paris." The one in France, of course. He doesn't think he needs to specify. "I study at the École de Ballet of the Opéra de Paris."

[istotesbatgirl]

So you're a ballet dancer then? Or an opera singer? I'm sorry I don't speak French, those were the only two parts of that I got.

[maleenpointes]

Sébastien's chest swelled with pride and he grinned. "I'm a ballet student! Head of my class!" Only in ballet though, not in anything else.