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]

"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.

[conjuredskies]

"Oh. That explains a few things." Felix nods to the guard as he passes. "Good evening, friend."

"Well met, Imperial." The guard pauses, though, eyes on Alex beneath his masked helm. A guardsman knows how to handle a weapon, but perhaps more importantly, he has to be good at getting a read on people. "You look like you're new to these parts, stranger."

[prototypezeus]

Alex looks back at the guard, his expression a little guarded, but trying to act natural. "I'm a pilgrim. From out of town."

[conjuredskies]

"Hmm, you don't say." The guardsman sounds amused, though, so the explanation's passed muster. He gives a nod and a word of advice before he moves on. "Stay safe on the roads. And remember to watch the skies out there."

"That's all the more reason we're heading into town," Felix says dryly, pausing to ensure there's no trouble. "It'll be nice to spend the night behind some solid walls."

[prototypezeus]

Alex waits until the guard's out of earshot. "'Watch the skies'?" Felix has mentioned dragons before, but he doesn't know if that's the only worry, or if that's just the custom here.

[conjuredskies]

"Right." Felix keeps walking. There's a long, winding road through the town defences ahead. "Ever since giant flying lizards started swooping out of them. Not that it ever hurt to keep an eye out for storms, especially in the mountains."

[prototypezeus]

Alex doesn't quite shudder at the thought of storms, but it's a near thing. "Good suggestion." He continues to follow, looking at the wall of the city and thinking about how easily it could be bypassed. It looks far more climbable than the skyscrapers in Manhattan, and Alex runs up those like they're his own personal racetrack.

[conjuredskies]

The main difference - though to Alex it mightn't mean much - is that the walls and towers they're climbing up to are designed to be defended. Right now there's the standard complement of guards atop them, keeping watch over the plains, the skies and the people passing under their gaze.

Just outside the start of the walls, though, are a number of tents around a couple of campfires. There's a small group of Khajiit moving around them, feline ears twitching in the cold breeze. Felix grins when he sees them and detours to the camp. "All right, stay close to me."

"Hey, Ri'saad!" he calls to one of the male cat-folk, who has particularly well-tailored clothes and thick brown fur. "How's business?"

[prototypezeus]

Stay close? Alex doesn't see why a bunch of... cat people... would be particularly dangerous. But he's the tourist here, so he does as he's told, watching the caravan warily. Assessing them too. Claws, fangs... both very small, compared to what he's used to dealing with.

And apparently known to Felix by name. Allies? Rivals? Business associates? It's hard to tell just yet.

His fingers twitch absently, readying to form his own claws if he needs to. It's more a habit than any real preparation for combat.