Mesdames et Messieurs, Voilà, C'est Vous

[lesmodsalouette]

Bievenue

You're wrapped in a soothing, all-encompassing darkness.

Well, perhaps not perfectly all-encompassing -- you can see some slivers of light here and there, just enough to realize that your current space is literally wrapped in something, and that you are a highly customized burrito at the mercy of an entirely too fluffy bed and set of blankets. Moreover: you are definitely not alone.

Depending upon the contents of your bed (two of you, waking up dressed exactly in what you wore last you remember back where each of you came from, in the exact same state as those last moments no matter how illogical or disjointed), it may not be comfortable or feasible to stay cocooned up for much longer. There's a low, muted GONG, GONGG coming from not far away, your bed creaks like a beleaguered ship in an unannounced storm, and it is joined by even more noises of movement beyond the bed canopy as you try to take stock of where you are.

Eventually, you either fall out of bed or drag yourself into this world: your new and strangely crowded personal rooms, the clock insistently sounding out the hour, and the halls and heraldry of the venerable Château Ambregris -- a lavishly decorated and fully furnished version of a more-or-less authentic French castle (assuming you know what France or a castle are).

Left to your own devices for the moment, you may find it helpful to explore the castle for your own purposes, check out the suspicious statues and personalized plaques in the Promenade of Reflexion, or perhaps to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious and frankly alarming amount of bread piled up in front of the place settings in the Banquet Hall. (Were you thinking of escaping? Any attempts to leave the property will be met with no forward progress at all, treadmill style). There's just about every kind of loaf, roll, boule, baguette, croissant or even animal-shaped bread you can think of stacked in baskets. There's absolutely nothing else save for plain bread, but at least you won't starve.

[OOC: Welcome to Château Ambregris, a perfectly normal castle receiving perfectly normal guests. Feel free to ask any questions in discord! The NPC Meet & Greet will be later today, March 8 at 6 PM EST/3 PM PST.]

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[oncefallen]

[Hmm... similar, but not the same. Still, it's intriguing.]

And what becomes of one who is "struck down," so to speak?

[coldseep]

( hehe )

What do you think of this body? Nice, right?

( He preens, tossing back a whole thing of hair over his shoulder for dramatic effect. )

I can't speak for all of us, but most of us are pretty prideful about being what we are and looking how we look. But a wizard came around one day and poofed me into a person, and I thought it was pretty interesting. So I got someone to teach me how to do it myself.

( He bites off what remains of the breadcat's head, swallowing it in one go. )

Like, I'd never be able to bite off just the head of this while I was a dragon. I'd never get to pinch its little ears and tail, either. And my taste buds aren't as delicate. It's fun seeing how different you can experience the world depending on something as arbitrary as form, you know?

[antline]

Many perished. Some like myself were put away...how, I don't know. Then the Deputy Head Researcher found us again many years later. I don't...remember much around that time.

[It's all a blur. He was essentially "asleep" for millenia.]

[caporegrimme]

[The crass offhand comment gets Scarlet taken aback, more baffled than offended]

Why would that be anyone's first choice after waking up in some strange new place? Come on...

[Some needs can wait until after you find a way out of the new and potentially dangerous situation, he's sure!]

Yes, I did all I could. First thing I'll do once I go back is get checked, but at least I won't faint and die around here. That'll have to be enough for the time being.

[He sure would love to have a painkiller, but he couldn't find any. Scarlet is doing an amazing job masking how much he's hurting right now]

LMAO i gotchu

[diel]

... Wait, how much do you charge in the first place?

[ considering he needs to do Extra to support the fam ]

[snakeblood]

Depends on what services they ask for. And also how much they kept from us. [ A lot, generally. ] Oh, sometimes we ask for indirect monetary things too. Like someone's fortune.

[fourtuity]

Their stories were the stuff of children's dreams. Though I guess that's weird to say with how it all ended? ...But I really did like hearing about their journeys.

[ She follows behind him, tone light but warily staring at the door. ]

[allrounder]

[ ........He's going to pretend he didn't hear that question about his body. ]

I do see the merit in it, though I've never had the opportunity to do anything of that sort myself. Do you spend more time in this form, or in your original form?

[ Imagine if he'd been in his original form when transported here... how many fancy objects would he have broken? ]

[coldseep]

( get ur mind out of the gutter catboy he's a work of art )

Hmmm... 70:30, I'd say? I'm usually out in the ocean or in the sky, and it's much more fun to slither about, if you know what I mean. But if you approach someone like that, they get kinda spooked and run away, try to kill you . . . So I'll take up this look and bring along some mermaids when I'm playing on the shore.

[diel]

Mm... I feel like... that shouldn't work? Or, I dunno, it shouldn't be as clean of a trade because... fortunes are tied to the person, aren't they? Severing them sounds dangerous.

[allrounder]

[ wow he's a pure innocent maiden that has never even conceived of gutters!! ]

It sounds as if you spend most of your time splashing in the waves.

[ Which is kind of cute, honestly??? He wishes he could see the sight of the dragons back home doing that. ]

[oncefallen]

I must admit I'm curious what sort of being would be capable of sealing us like this without leaving any sort of trace behind. Even a high-ranking angel can't simply hide the use of a spell.

[Spells require mana, and that mana can be detected.]

[simulacres]

I guess it’s not that big of a deal when you think about it.

[ or so she says, but the idea of finding out that it says something about the red riding hood does have her stomach doing some acrobatics, but…

well, she can try to be strong. saber deserves that much, at least, even if it isn’t much at all. ]

Let’s go see how boring it is. And maybe let’s avoid property damage while we don’t know exactly what’s happening.

[coldseep]

Uh-huh! I swim from one end of the sea to the other . . . from top to bottom . . . I play with the fish and the serpents and the mermaids and the kelpies . . .

( guy who can live forever uses it to just chill )

The landscape is always changing underwater, ( or maybe it just feels that way because he can lose track of decades easy, ) so there's always something new to see. The seas off the shores of different countries are all a little different, too - the spirits within each lend the waters a striking character. I'd love to take you on a tour, if I could... or maybe visit your seas and wyrms? That's a nice thought.

( He seems to mean it, too! Alas... )

[diel]

[ a tomo... ]

No - it's just... I didn't know it was that... easy. I don't have any friends.

[coldseep]

( wraps them and their tender hearts up in bubblewrap

He laughs gently. )

Me, too. I'm happy to be together in this with you.

( dw... his dislike is listed as "being alone"... No matter how selfish a sentiment may or may not be, Hwylryn is hardly inclined to reject anything that connects him to another person. He's too lonely not to. )

I can't say I don't have questions, myself. But I think I'm okay with letting myself find out. And I think I'm okay right now saying that I'm Hwylryn, and I'm talking to Yoru, and I've found that I'm a little less alone through talking to him than I was before, and I'm happy our hearts align, even if only a little bit. Maybe that makes me simple, though.

[allrounder]

And the whole lot of us, too. It would require a significant amount of power regardless of the way it manifests.

[ Aether, mana, even putting it through some kind of conduit... ]

[snakeblood]

They want to endanger someone else to begin with? [ He's not moralizing though. He doesn't care. ]

[simulacres]

I… don’t really know. I only realized it a bit before waking up here.

[ she sounds a little pained, saying this. ]

Probably nothing worth much, honestly. Giving energy is all I was doing before, so…

[oncefallen]

Yes. To seal a group this large and leave no evidence... it's unlike anything I've seen before.

[And he really doesn't like it, actually!]

... well, it isn't as though we can do anything until we uncover the source. But we should be on our guard until then.

[diel]

Oh. [ his wafer-thin smile, sweet and true. it’ll easily dissolve in a moment or two, but it’s here now. ] Okay.

[ simple. he likes that, too. ]

Hwylryn and Yoru. [ he’ll ask. he’ll ask. ] Then… we’ll talk more later?

[allrounder]

I'd quite like that.

[ It's fun to think about, an adventure where he gets to see the different characteristics of the water and Hwylyrn gets to learn of the dragons on another star. ]

The dragons on my star live in a different environment than what you seem to be accustomed to. They've taken up residence in the cold, nestled amongst icy ruins.

[diel]

I don’t mean them. I mean… you. If you take their fortune, isn’t it dangerous for you? Fortunes are… linked.

[snakeblood]

Oh. Monetary fortune, not like, fate... I mean, we tried to take Sora's young master's fortune since he's not going to live very long anyway, but... Sora forced us to give it back.

[divineth]

If we were surveilled as thoroughly as it doth appear, I cannot fathom why he would not have been chosen. Mayhap our host seeketh particular knowledge from us...?

[This is only going to get more confusing when Witch shows up, honestly.]