OPEN ★ ARRIVAL LOG

[futurologists]

ARRIVALS ( OCT 2 ) The dragons are taken from you, sent off to a safe haven. You're back in Oska for less than a day when you hear the announcement and head to the rendezvous point. You blink, step through the portal, there's a loud crack, and... You're thrown into darkness. You taste copper and, for a moment, your ears won't stop ringing. All common side-effects of portal travel. The entire crew arrives just beyond the city gates, so you might also be feeling a little bit claustrophobic. It takes a second for the eyes to adjust, but one can make out buildings and the cobblestone beneath their feet. To the right is the Trade District, where all the vendors are gathered to sell their wares. Up ahead is the City Square, where the rest of the citizens out and about seem to be gathered. To the left of the square is the Commoners' District, and to the right of it is the Nobles' District, the two main residential areas. Further travel west will come to the outskirts, a makeshift residential area, this one densely populated with goblins. Many of the people are holding candles or lanterns. You might want to try getting your hands on one of those. If you have not already done so, your enchanted jewelry will manifest words in front of your very eyes — or sounds in your ear, if you're illiterate — asking you to identify yourself. A quick look around shows that you seem to be the only one able to see it. All you have to do is think or say how you wish to be identified. After that, you're immediately given a message. Those who participated in the dragon mission at Anwick will first receive this: We appreciate your help at Anwick. The wyrmlings will live to grow up and bring about the world's natural end. Thank you. -- ALASTAIR Afterwards, the crew will be given an abridged version of this, then told to familiarize themselves with the city and natives, report all information gathered back to ALASTAIR, and wait for further instruction. At the end of the night, wherever they may be, everyone will receive a letter with the royal seal thanking them for their efforts to end the goblins' defiance and inviting them to the Festival of Illumination on the 4th. FESTIVAL OF ILLUMINATION ( OCT 4 ) Candles are sitting on windowsills throughout the entire city, but the main event is in the city square. In the fountain float lit lotuses, and people all around are holding lanterns, waiting to light them. There's a minstrel playing songs, and several of the vendors have pulled their carts up to the square in the hopes of making a sale. Many sweets are for sale, including baked apples, gingerbread, cherry tarts, pudding, and more. There's also some drinks for sale. Some children are playing games in the corner, and others are dancing to the music or writing wishes on slips of paper to be sent into the sky with their lanterns. Everyone seems merry for once, but you'd better be careful. This is an ideal place for a pickpocket. About an hour and a half into the festival, the lanterns are sent into the sky. They're sent flying, the sky becoming filled with bright lights, until... A strong gust of wind sends all the lights out. At least, you think it was a gust of wind. What else could have done that? On closer inspection, however, you'll see that even the candles sitting on windowsills inside have gone out. For a minute or so, there's only darkness and chaos. Suddenly, the flames begin to burn again, revealing a message in the cobblestone in the center of the square. It almost looks as if it's been burned into the ground: IT IS COMING, followed by a symbol of a creature with a lion's head, goat's body, and serpent's tail. [MOD NOTE: This is a catch-all log for the first few days. For the sake of organization, all arrival threads should be posted under the subheader ARRIVALS and all festival threads should be posted under FESTIVAL. Threads that don't fall under either of those categories can be top-levels. Also, please remember to add your character's tag to the post! Thank you, and have fun!]

Comments

[counterattacked]

[Stop calling him cute, Fai, it's really weird. There's a certain level of lingering idiot Emotion he has to vent. (He saves a lot of face by having done most of that alone, but there's something (someone) missing in it.) Don't worry, he'll go back to surly and difficult sooner or later. He watches Fai with a new sort of interest when he offers up a little information about his own world.]

I'd heard it was, but I didn't really believe it. Not until I could see it for myself. [It's not that he doubted that the outside world could have such things in it. Armin had been adamant, and getting caught up in that was easy. But the only way to make those dreams real was to accomplish them and find them and fulfill them. Just thinking that it might be out there wasn't ever enough for him.

He exhales, breathing in the sea breeze and looking back up at the endlessly black sky.]

I still need to get back there to do it.

[And he's still figuring that part out. Fai might be used to this world hopping reality bending bullshit, but Eren comes from a place that's a whole lot smaller.]

[evasively]

[ eren's cute tho ? ? ??

Fai analyzes Eren's words carefully. There was a quiet intensity to the way he seemed to regard this topic that spoke of the importance that he placed on it. It could be that quiet intensity was simply a large part of the boy's demeanor, but still, most people took a natural wonder like the ocean completely for granted.

Yet, Eren's worlds are implying that there is, in fact, an ocean in his world. He was just never able to see it. Why? ]

Why haven't you seen it? Is the nearest shoreline very far away from where you live?

[counterattacked]

[Intense? Yeah, almost(?) to the point of being ridiculous. But quiet? Not so much. Though even that is different, in some ways, than how he used to be. The strange tension doesn't leave him when Fai presses the matter. It probably never does. A restless thing that's still humming in his bones. He's seen and heard enough to know that the situation back home is not typical. That there are whole other worlds without walls and titans. And that's good, because he wouldn't want that kind of thing to happen in other placces, but it also means he has to do some exposition if Fai's really that curious about it. His brows knit, but he answers easily enough. Huffing a breath out through his teeth.]

It might as well be.

[It's out of reach, anyway. Along with a thousand other things he can and can't imagine. And that's the worst part. It's a strange thing to need to explain.]

No one really knows what the world outside humanity's territory is like. Until we can leave the walls, we won't find out.

[evasively]

[ 'Humanity's territory'? That was quite an odd way of putting things. In many worlds, humanity reigned over all the other creatures, setting up their territories wherever they pleased. Sure, there were many dangers that they faced along the way, but he's yet to see anything so serious that the bulk of humanity had to be walled off into a certain 'territory'.

Fai is curious, but stays cautious about asking too much. He doesn't want to open up any old wounds. ]

May I ask what kept you inside of those walls?

[counterattacked]

[The perks of not knowing just how uncommonly bleak your upbringing was: he doesn't have a problem talking about most of it. Do you really want this much shounen exposition on a first date, Fai...]

Survival. No one would live in a cage like that if they didn't have to.

[He hasn't told this story to anyone, yet. Not really. Got some blank looks from villagers when he asked after the titans, at the start. Mentioned them to Kurogane, once, in relation to the dragons at Anwick. ("What kind of dragons do you have back home?")]

Everyone outside the walls is dead. The titans wiped them out a hundred years ago. Humanity only survived by retreating when they couldn't find a way to fight back.

[But there's a sharp edge to the way he says it—titans, spit out boldly, more like he's talking about vermin than genocidal monsters—that gives away his opinions on the matter. That was then.]

No one here's even heard of them.

[Because there are no titans, here. And that's still dizzying, sometimes.]