Hello Nirn [for prototypezeus ]

[conjuredskies]

After the strange non-place of the Nexus, the first taste of Skyrim air is like a cold slap to the face. They've appeared beside a standing stone, no taller than a man, with a large circular hole near the top and carved with a pattern like an ornate eye. The Ritual Stone. It's a small thing, to look at. Yet Felix can feel the pulse and ebb of ancient power from it. He gives the curved surface a respectful pat and steps away, toward the stone arch that marks the path up here.

The stones sit upon a raised circle of rocky ground. To their left, there's a steep drop into the rush of a fast-flowing mountain river; to the right, a road curls about the base of a mountain whose sheer sides rear into a white haze of ice and cloud. Around them rise its lesser sisters, craggy and interlocked, hemming the road and river ahead into a narrow pass; behind them, the mountains fall away on one side and open up to a wide plain.

"Well, here we are." Felix draws a deep breath of the crisp air. He grabs a satchel from the base of one stone and stores his book safely inside, slinging it over his body. Then he turns to Alex and spreads his hands at the landscape around them. "Welcome to the realm of Tamriel."

Comments

[prototypezeus]

Alex has spent his entire conscious life trapped on the island of Manhattan, where the only bit of green is Central Park. From that, and a few people's memories, he thought he knew what the great outdoors were like.

He doesn't do awed staring as a rule, but he's definitely never seen anything like this. "Where does it end?"

[conjuredskies]

Felix can't help grinning. He has no idea what Alex's home is like, and can't imagine how different their ideas of 'city' are. But he's a conjurer by school and an adventurer by inclination. He knows the look of wonder when he sees it, the intoxicating taste of the great unknown.

"End?" he echoes merrily. Out of habit, he scans the area around and below. The road is well-worn, but there's nobody else in view. It's quiet, bar the low rush and splash of water, the tug of the wind on their clothes, and the trill of birdsong in the bushes.

"I hope you don't mind a stroll into town," he adds, "but people can get over-excited if you appear out of thin air."

[prototypezeus]

"Where are the buildings?" he clarifies. Alex is used to being surrounded by skyscrapers, good vantage points and places to hide. Out here in the green, it's so... open. Exposed. It makes him nervous, although he knows it's highly unlikely Blackwatch will follow him here.

It's also noisier than he expected.

[conjuredskies]

"In more civilised parts." Felix, in contrast, is quite at home as he scans the sky. He's used to finding shelter and aid in the wilds of his world - better yet, he's also inured to the risk of ambush. He points past Alex, to where their vantage point allows a view over the golden plains below. "You might be able to see some down there."

By 'some', he means a few of the outlying farms with their thatch-roofed houses and small fields... and towering above them on a hill of its own, the walled town of Whiterun, a self-contained patchwork of grey and yellow.

[prototypezeus]

Alex looks skeptically at the huts, and even Whiterun. Almost pitying. "You call that a city?" It looks almost organically grown from the landscape, made of wood and stone and other bits of nature, instead of concrete and glass and steel. It reminds him of Infected Hives, a little. Except not as gross.

[conjuredskies]

"Well, it's more of a town, I'd say. A little one, too. But don't tell the Nords around here. They're quite proud of it." Felix shrugs. He sets a higher bar himself, although the cities of his home province mightn't rank much higher in Alex's eyes. "You should see the Imperial city. Someday."

Give them a chance to rebuild some more, first.

He heads through the archway, down the tiny path to the road. "Shall we?"

[prototypezeus]

Alex doesn't like open roads, but apparently that's part of the whole experience. "Fine. You lead." He looks suspiciously at the sides of the road, watching for anyone lurking in wait. He knows what wild animals are, but the only ones he's ever met are rats and birds, so the sight of rabbits and deer is a bit bizarre to him.

[conjuredskies]

Felix leads readily enough, though he keeps his hands free as he strolls. He doesn't have to carry weapons. He's keeping his own watch, though of course much of his attention is on Alex. Having had a glimpse of what his companion can do, he doesn't feel like they should be concerned.

"I don't think we'll meet any bandits," he remarks. "It seemed clear on my way up here. And of course I looked like easier prey then." Just an unarmed, armourless scholar with a satchel.

[prototypezeus]

"I look out of place." Jeans, a leather jacket and hoodie, and sneakers are not exactly standard issue in Tamriel. Or anywhere else in Nirn, at that. Alex doesn't know how other people dress here, but judging by how Felix looks (and has looked in previous encounters), he doubts that he looks normal.

[conjuredskies]

"Good point." Coming from the Nexus, he'd just about forgotten. He looks around, frowning at Alex's appearance. "Those aren't actually clothes, are they?"

[prototypezeus]

"No." Felix's guess is very correct. Alex's entire body, including his clothes, are made of biomass and nothing else.

[conjuredskies]

"Can you shapeshift it, then, like that armour of yours?" He's curious about that, too. "You won't need anything fancy, just... you know." He gestures at himself. "Boots, tunic, breeches. Especially the breeches."

[prototypezeus]

"...sort of." Alex isn't sure how it works either, but he has to explain. "I can copy anyone I've consumed, down to the clothes. I can't... create."

[conjuredskies]

"Ah! All right, that makes sense. First stop in town, a general goods merchant. A couple of guards already mentioned one, so we ought to have no trouble finding you some clothes. Will that work?"

[prototypezeus]

Alex is skeptical, although hooded robes would probably cover everything well enough. "Worth trying, I guess. If we run into trouble I should be able to deal with it." ...by cutting the clothes apart when he forms his weapons, probably, and thus wasting Felix's gold.

[conjuredskies]

Oh, well. Clothes meet with so many accidents, in his experience.

"I think it'll be better. You don't really want to be dressed like a bandit or a rogue - the guards might hassle you." And that would just end badly for everyone.

He stops for a moment to inspect some mountain flowers, then keeps talking as he strolls. "Maybe we can set you up as some kind of pilgrim. I've seen a few around here."

[prototypezeus]

"What's a pilgrim?" Alex is an incredibly experienced, battle-hardened fighter, but sometimes he just doesn't know what people are talking about.

[conjuredskies]

"Oh, they're sort of... a traveler, on a journey to find understanding. Inner growth, that kind of thing." He glances at Alex. "Seems like a fitting description to me."

[prototypezeus]

"Sounds a bit..." Alex isn't sure quite what word to use, so he just sighs. "Never mind. That could work."

Walking on the road is bizarre for him, someone used to flat asphalt and concrete, not cobblestone with grass growing up between the stones. He's also not really used to walking in general. Usually if he has someplace to go, he runs.

He does a good job hiding it though, and peers at Whiterun from under the edge of his hood.

[conjuredskies]

Felix shoots him a grin, well aware of his un-enthused response. He doesn't expect Alex to see the same connections he does, after all.

Coming off the shoulder of the mountain, the ragged road dips sharply downward to join the river. To their left, another road leads upstream, past a high waterfall. Ahead, the road cuts across a stone bridge to follow a smaller watercourse running down from the city. Just across the bridge stands a pair of buildings, two large stories tall and high-roofed. From the chimneys on top comes a steady stream of smoke and steam, carrying the scent of honey and grain.

Felix gives an appreciative sniff - and then his head snaps round, as the howl of a wolf rises from the mountains to their left. The sun is starting to get low...

"Hmm." It's not a serious threat, even if they were heading out there. He shrugs it off. "How should I introduce you, when we get there?"

Names are often a flexible thing, with less-mortal creatures. Unless you want to use it to control them, best to address them as they wish it.

[prototypezeus]

All the water around makes Alex a bit nervous, and that does show. He stays on the road, but gets as far away from the river as he can while doing so, and hopes that these strange stone bridges don't collapse while they're going over it. Water isn't deadly to him, but it hurts, and he sinks like a rock.

He turns his head a little at the wolf howl, recognizing the sound from some of the memories he's taken, but doesn't think a wolf is much of a threat after fighting Hunters. Wonder what a wolf would do for me. Larger animals mean more biomass, after all.

Alex looks over at Felix with a slight frown. "My name doesn't fit here either?"

[conjuredskies]

((I can't recall if Felix asked, so I'll assume they introduced themselves at some point, if that's all right. :P ))


"It sounds a little odd, that's all. I guess we could say it's short for Alexius if anyone asks: you look like you could be an Imperial under there." Honestly, he's not so much worried about it as he is having fun filling in the story.

He notices Alex's nerves as they come to the bridge, though. "Are you all right?"

[prototypezeus]

((I can't remember either, so I'm good with that!))


Alexius. Well, that sounds... interesting. "You could go with Zeus, if that sounds better." He doesn't know how weirdly people are named here, after all.

He isn't sure how to explain it without wrecking the whole 'blending in' thing. "Don't like water much."

[conjuredskies]

"Zeus, hm?" He tests out the sound of it, shrugs a little. "Sounds good enough to me." It's as important that Alex likes his name as to blend in.

Water strikes him as an odd thing to dislike. Kind of sad, really, to someone who spent so much of his boyhood around the Niben Bay. "Really? You're lucky: we're a long way from the sea up here. I can't imagine you'd be too happy in a port city."

Past the brewery, and they'll start to encounter a few more people as they enter the farmlands. A few workers are out tending the crops in the various small plots of cabbage, wheat, potatoes... and there's the faint clink of well-padded chainmail as a guard comes their way. The cloth sash over his mail is a golden yellow, as is the face of the shield he carries on one arm, marked with the horse-head of Whiterun. His stride is the easy pace of a man on patrol, and he gives one of the farmers a casual greeting ass he passes.

[prototypezeus]

"On my world I'm trapped on an island." At least Manhattan is a decently-sized island. There's plenty of room to run and hunt, but he can't leave.

Alex can't help but eye people as they pass, assessing their threat levels. Most of them are barely worth paying attention to, and while even the guard looks laughably primitive to someone like Alex, he does pay some extra attention to the guard's weaponry and how he moves. This is someone who knows how to fight, at least a bit.