asgardmeridiem | [OPEN] Your Friendly Neighbourhood Utgard

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[OPEN] Your Friendly Neighbourhood Utgard

Who: ANYONE going on the trip to Utgard!
What: A supplies run with one bonus a la carte spy.
When: Days 269 - 271 ( May 23 - 28 )
Where: Utgard
Rating: PG-13. Anything that might go higher than that should be taken to a private log, please!

[ Early in the morning on Day 269, several wagons will be geared up and at the ready by the Gate of Fog. The first two are more obviously intended for supplies, while the drivers of the last few will welcome Travellers to find anywhere comfortable to sit. A handful of coloured Natives from various districts will be coming along to assist in the shopping, though they're mostly content to stick to themselves in their own wagon for the duration of the trip. They won't have much to say to anyone that tries for conversation beyond simple pleasantries and a general air of gratitude.

It's a half day's drive to get to the city of Utgard, leaving the Sun just barely on its way back down by the time the caravan comes to a halt. This gives plenty of time to gather the things on the shopping list the drivers have on them. Natives will direct the Travellers to the things that are needed, such as bandages, food rations and the typical things expected for war efforts - though every now and again, very quietly, the Natives will check up on people to casually suggest that they might like to pick up a nice coat or two. Perhaps some sturdy gloves here or there, and a few portable heaters and the likes. Not overtly, not a great number. Just enough to give the general idea that there might be use of some warmer gear before long. If asked about them, the Natives won't say anything, only that it's always good to be prepared.

Day 270 will be left entirely to the Travellers' discretion. As promised, the Natives will hand everyone that helped out the day before a small pouch of seven silver runes and seven copper runes ( approximately $70 USD ) to spend on whatever they like. Remember that Utgard is a metropolitan city with higher technology levels than that of Asgard. You could buy a computer or radio here that would transmit and receive signals, but only within the boundaries of Utgard. Once it is brought back into Asgard, they will no longer function beyond having shiny dials and buttons. Travellers are welcome to keep anything left over from their allowances after they're done with their shopping.

On the morning of Day 271, the Natives will give the Travellers just a little while longer to look around while they make sure everything is packed securely and accounted for in the wagons before the caravan sets off around 10AM. There's another half day's travel ahead, and they want to be out of the woods before dark, so do try to be on time or wait for the next wagon!

Things seem to go off without a hitch, though, and the caravan will be moving right on time. The only thing that might seem a bit strange is that there is one Native that seems more interactive than the others. He might smile directly at you or ask some seemingly harmless questions, like how long you've been in Asgard for and what kinds of things you like to do during your day. He might comment how it's great that you're doing so much for them, and isn't it wonderful that we're in a time of peace? How long do you think it will last?

You can feel free to be suspicious about this "Native"'s behaviour, but as per the RNG, it will be Percival (sleeveless) that catches the spy! When it happens, the caravan will come to a halt and one of Heimdall's Natives will welcome Percival and a few others to come sit and guard the spy in one of the emptier wagons where none of the actual Natives will be at all inclined to give anything away, even by mistake. The mods will try to handle a couple threads for him. He won't have much to say after being caught, though, half because there will likely be several threads for him that we will have to devote time to and have because spies are such sour things when they get caught. :( No harm is to come to the spy or anyone else until Percival has had a chance to put up an open post on the network to discuss what to do with the spy. ]

[ OOC NOTES: This is the mingle log for the Your Friendly Neighbourhood Utgard plot! Please put the day/location in the title of your comment, along with [OPEN/CLOSED]. Also, if you haven't already, please check out the poll regarding how to handle Thiazi's spy over here.

edit: The IC network post regarding the spy is up over here! Let us know if you have any questions! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[They probably see each other a couple times the day before, as briefly as Davesprite can make it without being rude or curt. He tries to keep it casual, but it's pretty clear he's distracted. Still, when he spots her wandering, he slides up next to her without hesitation. He asked her if she wanted to check out Utgard, after all, and abandoning people isn't exactly something that comes easily to him.]

Dig up any sweet loot.

[She's very quick to take note of his presence, and more importantly to take note of his distraction. She has her theories about the 'why' there - there was so much of his most recent post that was open to the public, after all, and when one doesn't want Naminé to know something, that's a very dangerous place to put it.]

[She says not a single word about it, though. She lets him make his escape without complaint or impediment, and waits.]

[About the time she sees him out of the corner of her eye, headed her way without her noticing him beforehand, she figures perhaps the wait is over. Her smile, when she turns it to him, is unhesitating.]

Mm-- I don't know about 'sweet'. I mostly got a lot of medical supplies yesterday, but I'm not sure that counts. [Her shoulders move in a loose approximation of a shrug.] Today... well, I thought it would be rude to start without you. [It's still fairly early in the day, after all, and there is a very specific goal to be met.]

Edited 2013-05-26 00:50 (UTC)

[The smile actually makes him feel worse. Less angry and more hollow, because this was a fucking ridiculous idea and he doesn't want to be here. But he also doesn't want Naminé to think that's her fault. Since, well, it isn't.

He does acknowledge, however, that he never should have messaged her in the first place.]

Well, in that case, I'm ready to get this shit kicking. Can't keep the hippos waiting or someone might get hurt.

[He moves to comb his way through the crowd, making sure Naminé can keep up, and adjusts the messenger bag on one arm.]

[If she senses it, she makes no comment. There is only the smile, subtly weaker though perhaps for other reasons, surely, and the very slight delay between when he finishes speaking and when she begins. Her eyes do not stray, almost like she's watching him for something, but there's no indication anywhere else in her expression that she is.]

Glad to hear it. [Her sincerity is as unfailing as ever.] We can't have the hippos eating anyone or anything they're not supposed to, after all. [Since they're so hungry, and all.]

[She follows along with him, preferably at his side if can be managed but behind him when necessary, given any obstacle presented by the crowd, and though at that point her eyes must focus elsewhere, that doesn't mean she isn't keeping him in her sight. A different sort of waiting game, then.]

Have you been having a good time?

[It's benign, totally devoid of lead save for what would naturally be in such a question.]

Edited 2013-05-27 08:45 (UTC)

[He notes the pause as an incredibly tiny shift. But his focus isn't directly on her and that keeps him from processing more minute, subtle details he might notice otherwise.

It makes it easier to brush off anything that might translate as concern.]

Yeah, sure, as good a time as you can have packed on a caravan for so many hours. They're lucky my ass is so resilient, otherwise I might've had to sue for damages. You?

[He keeps his tone even, casual.]

[It's something, at least, that he can still be absurd, even if it's in a cranky sort of way. More sober now though she is, her tone is pleasant enough as she says,]

I've been fine. I didn't mind the trip so much. I'm used to sitting, I guess.

[Oh boy, is she.]

Or my... bottom is, at least. So I don't think I'll be suing, either.

[Since he brought it up.]

It's kind of nice, getting out of the city. [-- Well,] I mean, out of Asgard. [Utgard is still very much a city - if not more so.] I like it there, but-- a vacation is nice. It's so... lively, here.

[He nods a little, motion slow.]

It's pretty cool. Though anywhere that has more to do than harassing fickle fuckwits on the network is an improvement.

[It's just too bad he's not in the mood to deal with people at all, especially when he probably gets stares for the wings.]

Oh. Yeah. I saw something that looked like a toy store last time I was here, so we could start by checking there if you want. I don't think it's that far.

[There's a brief flicker of something in her expression, but she turns her face away for only a moment and then the look is gone again before she turns back. At first, she's actually not sure what the staring is all about, but she remembers quickly and abruptly that the wings are an abnormality. At least, not for most people. She says nothing about it, but she does find herself staring back, in some cases, at those who do look. It's not a challenge so much as a recognition; it's not as though they could be expected to be used to something like that, but she can't imagine it helps him any, either.]

I... think I know what you mean.

[Even if she looks at it differently. At that last part, she turns to look at him properly and offer a nod along with her,]

Sounds like a good plan. Lead the way.

[Somewhere along the line, her hands have clasped more tightly together, and they stay that way as she falls silent a moment. Then,]

The network does seem keep a lot of people busy. ... Not all of them in a good way.

[People stare in Asgard, too, but they stare less—or at least they put more effort into feigning otherwise. And Davesprite ignores them, or pretends to. He looks at the store fronts instead, eyes sliding absently between them in his search for anywhere that might carry board games.]

Should be this way, if my recall's correct.

[He heads down one of the street's quieter branches, where there's more room to avoid the crowd.]

But the network's just there, so it's an easy option. Open 24/7, all year round. However long a year actually lasts.

[How vividly she's reminded of her first days in Asgard surprises her. After a life up until then spent almost entirely indoors and as far away from most other people as possible, it had been so strange to walk the streets. It had felt as though they were watching her, as though one of them would realize that she wasn't supposed to be there, would send her back to her room. No such thing happened, of course, and it's been a long time since she has thought of that, but it comes uncomfortably to mind now, and she wonders what it is that Davesprite's thinking.]

-- Mm.

[Her distraction is audible but brief; she's quick to blink it away, shaking her head subtly in an attempt to clear it, and she does not lose track of following him.]

A really long time. [Seems to be her answer to that particular not-question. Then again, her definition of 'a really long time' may be skewed, all things considered.] But you're right. It is very convenient. Still, I--... sometimes it seems like it would be easier if some people weren't allowed on it. [Except then that'd be one less way to get information from or about said people, but it wasn't actually a suggestion that the policy should change.]

[He tries not to think about it, even if he doesn't like people staring for reasons outside of his control. It's something he never had to worry about in Sburb, at least.]

Yeah, I guess. But that'd probably just give them more reason to fuck things up elsewhere.

[It's a noncommittal response and he slides both hands into his pockets, careful to pace himself so she can easily keep up.]

[Nor something she had ever experienced in her quiet, enclosed existence, but in her more fortunate case there's less reason for them to stare in the first place. He has her sympathies, at least.]

... Yeah. That's a good point.

[She's careful to keep pace with him, as well, and to avoid being distracted. It's not difficult, even with all the hustle and bustle.]

I guess there are people who just cause trouble no matter where they go.

[There's something a little sad about it, something of a prior experience to it. After a moment, she peers up at him, only a little sideways, and considers something that she does not yet give voice to.]

[He only makes an indistinct sound in reply. But he catches her tone and then her catches the look, glancing down at her with the slightest quirk of an eyebrow.]

Something wrong.

[She looks back at him, expression very difficult to read. There's a hesitation in it, though, her smile gone, and there is definitely concern. It's a moment or two before she says, carefully,]

I think... maybe that's what I should be asking you.

[Something in his expression (in his eyes, though she can't see them) flickers slightly before it shutters closed. And his voice is neutral, effortless in its apathy.]

What makes you say that.

[At first, she doesn't respond, lips parting slightly but then stilling. Her eyes avert for a moment, then come back to his - or his shades, anyway - and then,]

... Her Imperious Condescension is not a very nice woman.

[That's not a deflection, that's an answer. There are a lot of reasons she could ask about his well-being at the moment.]

[His edges sharpen ever so slightly, angles going hard and running taut. It's admittedly less because Naminé saw it—though he's far from happy about that—but more because, well, who else did?

Jade apparently didn't. He supposes he should be grateful.]

No shit. I guess it comes with the territory of being a tyrannical, murderous fishwitch.

[There's a distance there, an invisible detachment that runs deeper and wider than his already affected distraction.]

[Her lips press silently together as she watches that change, recognizing it and almost regretting saying what caused it. It's just... after seeing what the Condesce said to him--....]

[... That's not the kind of thing that she can let slide.]

[There's a further downturn to the corners of her mouth, but as he is detached, she is not. The 'witch', though, makes something in her jerk, even if the only outward sign of it is a very subtle tensing that she quickly forces away.]

[It's a common insult and an actual thing to be, after all. He didn't know, and even if her reflex is to think it was meant as the former, she's not certain.]

I guess. I've heard a lot about her being-- that way.

[And she wants to say, 'Are you going to be okay?' Except she suspects she'd be asking for some kind of deflection, there. Instead, after a brief internal struggle,]

She... shouldn't have said those things to you.

[Jade is a witch and proud of it, so the connection between his words and Naminé's glimmer of tension goes unmade.]

What. Saying I'm not the real thing.

[His voice is as bland and unbothered as everything else before it. But there's a delay as he lapses back into silence, thoughts moving almost inescapably to something John said. Not to him, but still a version of him, months ago.

you're dave sprite, not dave.
you aren't the real dave.]

[There's a twist in her gut at those last two words. She knows them too well, knows another voice that spoke them too well, and in the back of her mind she feels a flicker of panic. She reins it in before it really does anything but make her lips flatten together and her eyes widen just a little, but--]

[No. He... didn't act that way when Dave was mentioned before. It was brief, though. Still, she hopes, and desperately so, that his situation is not like the one brought so forcibly to mind.]

Saying... any of it.

[It was all pretty terrible, and she's not even bothered by fish puns.]

... But that especially.

[And she could ask him what was meant, why it was said at all, but she can also put two and two together. She just isn't sure she likes the answer that she comes up with.]

[He just shrugs. While he'd rather not get into anything related to the doomed and their status as real (in whatever amorphous sense of the word), what the Condesce said wasn't inaccurate. He's an NPC meant to aid in the players' great glory and his time's up.]

Doesn't matter.

[He hasn't slowed his pace and side-steps someone who goes hurrying by.]

[It doesn't matter? The response she was originally starting to form dies on her lips as she has to pause to accommodate for that same person, and by them her mouth is pressed firmly shut.]

[There are a lot of ways she could respond, a lot of ways she wants to respond. 'Yes it does', 'it doesn't look like it doesn't matter', and 'it matters to me' are all true, perhaps, but may also, she suspects, be counterproductive. Still, she can't help her,]

I... think it matters to your friends.

[They were kind of impugned there, too, not that that's really the point she's trying to make.]

[He just keeps moving. Not in any way that indicates he's trying to lose her—he isn't—but it's movement. Something that takes no effort and helps him keep his mind blank, gives him some kind of ambiguous purpose.]

It shouldn't. It's not a big deal.

[Besides, the Condesce has threatened all of them before. The kind of hanging, overarching threat that had him intending to stay out of it, honestly, because maybe he could better help keep an eye out if she didn't know he was around. But then she'd shown up on her own, proved she knew way more about him and his role than he'd like for anyone to know.]

[He'd have to try to lose her, even in this crowd. She's nothing if not willful, when she needs to be. That he should keep walking, however, does not bother her in the slightest. The moment of silence, at least from her side of things, is heavy.]

Because she was making it up?

[It's almost absurd, how she manages to make that sound both benign and focused all at the same time. It's not actually a question so much as something in a strange twilight between the least pointed, most gentle and well-meant accusation possible and an expression of sympathy, of all things, because it doesn't contain the rest, the more potent, 'or because you believe it?' anywhere but in the spaces between the words, and then it's only the faintest of whispers even for something unspoken.]

Well, I'm pretty sure she wasn't making up the part about wanting to kill us. But that's something everybody knows.

[It comes out dry, just short of a joke. He doesn't want sympathy or even understanding at this point. And he has no intention of acknowledging anything unspoken without more deflection.]

DAY 270

Re: DAY 270

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