asgardmeridiem | APRIL INTRO MINGLE

Entry tags:

APRIL INTRO MINGLE

Who: Newbies and anyone who wishes to greet them!
What: Getting used to the city
When: Days 429 and forward.
Where: Anywhere in town!
Rating: PG-13 tops! If it gets worse, move to a private log please.

[Please include your location and the IC day (ex. Day 429 - this can be found in the schedule) in your top-level comment or your subject line when starting a thread! It can be any welcome hall, major attraction, or just out an about in any district. For newbies making a top-level thread, you may include your character's name/canon/house in your subject line if you'd like, to make housemates easy to find! :) If a God is needed or wanted, please ping the mods and depending on availability we might be able to throw them in where asked.

Also, keep an eye on the event schedule for April! If you're ICly introing during an event, make sure you take that into account. Thank you!

Have fun!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Dave has been helping with cleaning up since the flood has happened (thank god the flood is gone), so he's been kind of all over the place.

When he feels a hand on his wrist he looks over. Instinctively (seeing as Hal looks like Dirk)- "Dude, you've been here longer...than....I..." Dave trails off as his brain slowly catches up with the sight in front of him. He's too small for Dirk, and.

That is definitely not Dirk. I do not understand anything. "I...yeah? I can help if you're lost. Uh. What's your name?" Why do you look like Dirk? Am I actually dead? Is this real life? I actually drowned and the after life includes pint sized Dirk look-alike talking to me and he's lost. This is Alice in Wonderland levels of high off my kite. He's used to seeing multiples of him, but he is not used to seeing more than one Dirks. He needs an adult. Or at least an explanation. "You just arrived, right? What House are you in. I can take you to your Welcome Hall."

Well, that was a mistake. This is very, very high on the list of ways Hal would prefer not to meet the famous Dave Strider, regardless of whether this is the aged-down version. Hal takes a step back, and immediately lets go of Dave's wrist.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. He tries to think fast, but he doesn't have that same processing power. There's a scrambling, punchy feeling in his gut, rising up to his chest, it's like- nervousness?

This is stupid.

The swarming mess of confusion he got from Dave's brain really does not help matters. He just ends up even more... scrambled. "This is Hal. The auto-responder. Uh." Uh. Who the hell says uh? "I'm... I'm good."

Oh. Oh. Dirk has mentioned Hal before. They didn't talk a lot over the subject, but he remembers Hal coming up in conversation. Well, Hal is definitely not an AI here, that's for sure. He's now a kid. But Dave's shoulders relax and he's less confused now.

"Hal, right? I'm Dave. Dirk has mentioned you before, but he said you were an AI." Dave isn't bothered with the change. He isn't sure how this place would deal with an AI other than to make it human. But if that's the case. "You're new to being human." It's not a question.

"You sure? I got time, and I'd feel kind of like an ass to leave you hanging." Hal has relation to him, so he wants to help by instinct.

It's like a chasm opened up between them. No, let's be real, here, it was always there. But Hal feels it, just like he feels everything now, with a special kind of acuity in that moment. Hal is tongue-tied and floundering, and Dave is... offering to help.

Well, there's nowhere to go but forward. "I got it covered. It isn't like I don't got his memor-..." Wait.

Hal fucking loves having a body, he's decided. But not having a brain the size of a planet does have its downsides Hal mentally reviews the information he was given. "Is he here?" Dirk? Is Dirk here? There's that nervous rush again.

"Memories are one thing, but experiences are a whole different can of worms." Dave knows this well. But he's also been really weird about these kind of things, so he's gonna be weird about it with Hal too. He can have memories, but memories only go so far. "All of that stuff can sit in your head, but I don't think it's the same as actually doing these things yourself."

"Yeah. He's been here longer than I have. Enough that he's met me before. There's some weird stuff here where we can kind of get tossed out and back in. Talk about awkward when someone has met you and you have no idea who the fuck they are." Hal probably has no idea how to keep his emotions in check. He's damn bouncing all over the place. "You okay?" He doesn't seem okay...

Hal opens his mouth, and promptly closes it. What's he saying, that he doesn't know what he's talking about? Hal dearly doesn't want pity, not from anyone, especially not from Dave Strider himself. How do you deal with that?

Probably you start by gawking less. Hal tries to focus. He's never had difficulty with focusing before. "I'm, uh. Figuring it out. I got it covered." What's with the uh again?

Just... focus on Dirk. Dirk is something Hal can deal with. Hal can more than deal with Dirk. Dave is the fucking out-of-nowhere object of admiration who seems to think Hal can't tie his own shoes (he's right, he can't). Dirk is the none of those things (though he probably also thinks Hal can't tie his own shoes) (for totally different and completely illegitimate reasons) (!!!!).

"I'm cool. What house is Dirk in? Are you two tight? Was it awkward meeting him?" Please, please, please let it have been awkward.

Dave isn't trying to pity Hal. It's more like a brother looking out for his younger sibling or something. That, and did Hal even have a body before?

"If you're sure. Just ask if you need help. When you get the hang of running and shit, you'll also get to learn the sweet, sweet satisfaction of learning to shred on a skateboard." Because running -> skateboard is obviously the proper course of action.

Dave hasn't considered that Hal can't tie his shoes, but Hal is right(Dave can teach Hal to tie his shoes though. The bunny ear trick they teach kids is the shit, okay).

"Uh. Odin." Dave says uh too. Maybe it's a relation thing. "Tight? I guess. I wouldn't say we're not tight. He's my bro and I'm his. You're my bro too." Not that he would consider Hal, not his bro. That would be awful of him. He is under the impression that Striders will just exists in large numbers, no matter where he goes. "It was more awkward for me than it was for him. He already met me before I met him. I was here before, not that I remember that. But yeah, I was probably the more awkward party and Dirk was probably like, nbd. I can't speak for him though." He arrived after laughing himself to tears and holding selfies from when he was thirteen. He was hella awkward.

Hal's head snaps up. He hasn't gotten a handle on hiding emotions yet, not really-- he's only had this thing for a few hours-- but he's a copy of Dirk. He'll get the hang of it. Still, for a few seconds longer than Hal would like, he's left painfully, obviously gobsmacked.

You're my bro too. Bullshit. Hal wants to earn that. He's not going to just take it.

He folds his arms over his chest. "Wow, clearly Dirk hasn't told you enough about me yet. Gotta say, I'm kind of disappointed the Saga of the Auto-Responder's been left unsung. You'd think he'd wanna fill you in a bit more."

Wouldn't things be easier if he did though? Dave doesn't even know how Hal would "earn" it. Dave just tilts his head a little. That some expression you got there, Hal.

"We haven't really talked about our living situations in detail. He's gone over some stuff, but it's partially me not asking more." Dave didn't really want to be too nosy. If Dirk felt the need to tell him more, it would happen. He wonders if he told the previous Dave more about Hal. "It's probably a pain in the ass to have to reiterate information. I'm just another Dave in the line of Daves that he's ran into." He shrugs a little. "But hey, you're here now. You're probably better at singing your own tale than someone else doing it."

Clearly someone's never spent years on the bridge of Dirk Strider's nose. Testing people is just what you do.

"Yeah, I am definitely disappointed right now. He hasn't even called me a shitty internet troll once? It seems like someone's getting pretty fuckin' sloppy. If anyone's qualified to ramble at length on the long and storied tale of my failings, it's that dude."

"Man, I forget that internet was even a thing. Three years without it and this place doesn't have it either. My life as I know it is a lie." Christ. Internet is like this far away memory that he has nostalgia over it whenever mentioned. He's not even in his 20s and he's having weird nostalgia trips. "What? Do you want me to ask him about you or something?" He's curious as to how these two even interacted with each other now. "Failings though?" No inspirational success story to life the spirits? Dang.

Hal wants Dave's approval, so of course he can't talk about his successes. That's obviously bragging. "You can if you want. Up to you, dude. Unlike some particular chapeau-obsessed individuals who will remain nameless, I am totally not in the business of telling people what to do." Clearly.

Actually, stop. Rewind. "Wait. This place doesn't have internet? Like, at all? Because I can deal with a great firewall, ok. That doesn't count."

It isn't that hard to get an approval out of Dave, Hal...

"Chapeau-obsessed individuals?" Okay, maybe they don't really get along. Didn't Hal only have like three people to talk to?

"No. No youtube. No dumb gifs to amuse yourself with. Nothing. We only have the network, which is used to stay in contact with everyone in the city." Dave motions at his own bracelet, which has Freyr's gem inserted into it. "Downtime does happen, but the war kind of does keep people a bit busy. We're still repairing from the flood that just happened."

Hal takes a step back. Is he doing okay, here? He'd like to get a better read on Dave first, instead of getting hit with him out of nowhere. He hates being tactically disadvantaged. None of his hypothetical ducks are in a hypothetical row.

Well, when in doubt, he can just keep bullshitting. "We seriously only get message boards? And they want us to save the world? Some fuckin' motivation that is."

You're doing fine. Chillax. Dave is a chill dude. He ain't judging or anything.

"You can barely call this a message board. It's kind of like instant messengers with the ability to audio and video. I think I've utilized the video function more than the text function." Unless text is really convenient at the time. "Norse mythology never really talked about the internet, so we can't really be surprised that it doesn't exist.

Hal shrugs again. It's a wide, expressive gesture. He's becoming fond of those. "Yeah, yeah, I heard. You'd think they'd at least implement a web service. Save the day with Geocities."

Dave is a huge fan of shrugging himself. Shrugs are just pretty great, if not a little non-committal. "Probably slipped their mind. You could ask, but they'll probably not even consider it. We should be fighting a war, not posting selfies online for everyone to see." Even if selfies are great things of beauty. "We're supposed to be bringing color to the city anyways. And they aren't exactly the most accommodating of gods, seeing as they aren't willing to tell us a whole lot."

Is that a condemnation? This guy is hard as hell to read. Hal makes a mental note to look up what he's said on the network later, to try and get a better read on him. "Man, why are the powers that be always secretive asswipes?"

Hal is gonna look at Dave on the network and realize he's either 1) a huge troll 2) an idiot 3) both. But Dave was mostly being sarcastic. Why can't they have both? Make love with selfies during war. It's like a B-rated movie or a bad fanfiction. "The question of the century. Probably because we can't have nice things. Maybe they'll eventually tell us what's up, but for now we're just left in the dark with a wet match."

"I want to say that it could be worse, but things seem to be getting slowly worst, so better to not actually say that."

"It that bad?" Hal has difficulty thinking anything could phase this guy. "You guys didn't remember to get two of every animals first, did you?"

"It wouldn't be good. I'm an advocate for things not getting worse most of the time." Dave snorts a bit. "Naw. Must have missed the memo. I think the ship ended up with a shitton of reptiles though."

"Reptiles?" Hal scratches his head, thinking. That's a compulsion that was somehow saved in his memory banks over two years. Weird. "Are we talking snakes or crocks, here?"

"Turtles, salamanders, crocodiles, and iguanas. They were our consorts. Jade kept all our planets, so she also kept all our consorts too. Must have been a party with those crocodiles though." He loves those little dudes, but they could be really obnoxious sometimes. And really stupid.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

APRIL INTRO MINGLE

FASHIONABLY LATE??? HOLLA. SCENARIO 2 HIT ME.

HITS.

OW??? :,(

heyyy it builds character.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject