Multiversal travel can be disorienting, but there’s no need to worry! All side effects are temporary and lessen with each trip. Your body may experience several sensations at once: being pushed forward as if a hand is resting on your back, momentary and startling blindness, a gentle ringing in your head. You may have difficulty discerning whether it is hot or cold, but where you have been prodded is noticeably warmer than the rest of you. Some may suffer dizziness while others are perfectly fine. You notice that the area you are in is filled with a soft cerulean light and feels slightly humid and dark despite the glow around you. Regardless of your current state, however, the stress of transit forces your body into unconsciousness.
Waking up is another story. Or maybe it isn’t.
You find yourself in a nondescript room; sometimes with others who have found themselves in the same situation, sometimes alone. Welcome to Avagi Station, your new home.
Avagi
That First Step, it is a Doozy:
There are always risks to exploring new environments and Avagi is rich with new nooks and crannies to explore. You’re checking out a new corridor that’s been opened, though there have been signs warning that there are areas where structural stability has been weakened by neglect and the passage of time. But maybe things have been going well, you’ve found a few interesting things of note and you’re ready to head back to your bunk for the day.
Except when you turn to leave, the floor is giving way without a screech of metal. Hopefully you’ve got some good reflexes and can catch yourself before you topple down a shaft that seems to go down at least thirty or forty feet. Do you call for help or struggle to handle it on your own? And more importantly, how are you getting around this giant hole in the floor now that it’s there?
The Buddy System:
In order to help new arrivals find their bearings the more experienced residents on board have decided to try out the buddy system in order until the new arrivals get their space legs. The guide is responsible for answering any questions, showing them all the important facilities and making sure their new friend doesn’t wander anywhere too dangerous. And what better way to get to know your buddy than to try and help them find all the supplies they need to be comfortable in their new home? Hopefully the barter blocks have some clothes in your size or else it could get a little bit awkward come laundry day.
Shining Bright:
The Observation Station is the best place on Avagi to get a look at the storm that rages all around. However today when you stop by there’s something strange and new to look upon. It’s not clear if it’s a change in the environment or perhaps an effect of the living energy that opens the portals but the entire room is filled with softly glowing floating lights. If you venture into the room and dare to touch one of the lights you’ll find that you find a song playing in your mind that fills you with a deep and abiding sense of peace. What you do with that feeling is up to you but it seems that these lights aren’t going to cause any harm then why not let yourself relax in a beautiful space for a little while?
Kaittos
This month there is a portal to the planet Kaittos, a peaceful world containing one large land mass and a scattering of lived-on islands across a clear blue ocean. On the mainland, a large city-state occupies the central region and southern coast and resembles what some travelers from some versions of Earth might know of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Bustling and lively, the city is clean and well provided-for due to the temperate climate and the bountiful natural resources found on its northern side; orchards, farms and forests extend into the distance, butting up against a small mountain range. The technology level is low compared to Avagi, with carriages and candles in place rather than cars and electric lights, but the craftsmen of the world have managed some very impressive mechanical feats.
Kaittans, the local residents of the world appear somewhat humanoid, but the bipedal race has hooves rather than feet, silvery skin and three eyes with vertical pupils. Although there is no sign of any other sentient species in the world, the locals are nonetheless excited to meet their guests, rather than suspicious or afraid; for some reason, they are not surprised that aliens exist, merely that they are here.
Visitors are encouraged to explore the city and partake in an exchange of goods and ideas, to share their culture and stories with the locals. Perhaps there’s a merchant willing to trade a bauble for a story or you want to try something entirely unknown to your palette in the culinary quarter. The possibilities, while not quite limitless, are enough to keep the curious busy for quite a while.
He won't have to look much further than Rose for that, honestly. Soon as she knows he's also a music fan, it's likely that he won't be able to get rid of her anytime soon. Not that he might think that's a bad thing! Rose would though if she were him.
"Oh, psht," she snorts, a dismissive wave of her hand to go with it. "Flattery will get you everywhere, dude, but I'm not all that." Even though her singing quality is one of the few things she tends to be proud of, she's still far more humble about it than she needs to be.
"That's really cool though, dude. And you have a tail! I hope it isn't like rude or anything to ask what you are, but- We don't have anything like you where I'm from? So you're super cool."
Kurt's cheeks flush indigo, his shoulders rolling in a halfhearted shrug. "Maybe not all that," he teases, lips quirking higher. "But you're voice is certainly better than mine."
Said tail flickers to life behind him, dipping forward lazily over his shoulder. "Not at all. A lot of people have never seen someone like me before, so to be honest, I encourage questions." He shifts closer, reaches to gesture in a vague motion toward the tail, fangs still gleaming.
His face colors another shade, "That's quite the compliment, miss. I'm a mutant and before you think it's an insult, we've sort of. Adopted the word." He shrugs. "It doesn't have the effect you'd imagine it might."
She had wondered, honestly, what it would like when he blushed. If it would just be a deeper blue or if the red of his cheeks would actually turn purple underneath that skin tone. It's fascinating. He reminds her, almost, of ice apparitions and their trademark blue hair and porcelain skin. A bit different, perhaps, but... He's the closest thing to a yokai that she's ever seen since Charlie.
Her eyes dip a little at that thought. Charlie. Hm. Well, she lifts her gaze back up and smiles. "I mean, as long as you're alright with being called that then... I guess I'll use it, too." Mutant. Starts with 'm,' like monster. But she likes their term better, even if it might have some negative connotations behind it. She wonders if someday 'demon' might be adopted by her kind as a good word rather than bad.
"I'm guessing that means there's a lot of you though. Are you all blue, or-?"
"You could also simply call me Kurt," he notes, voice lilting in a tease. "Since that's my name and all." And honestly, it's a lot easier to just go that route instead, so no one has to worry about any hurt feelings or offensive subjects like why 'mutant' is a hateful word.
Kurt shakes his head in response at first, twisting the length of his tail back behind him again. "There are a few, ja," More than that, really, "but I'm the only one that's blue."
He shrugs, sets his hands on his hips, chest somewhat puffed with pride. "And the only one that can teleport."
"Kurt, then," she responds, with a nod. "Alright. My name's Rose, by the way." It is easier than dancing around labels. Rose isn't quite sure she's ready to be called a 'monster' just yet normally. Maybe someday it won't hold the same kind of connotation. It's a nice thought.
"You can teleport? Like the stuff in sci-fi movies? Dude." This blue boy just keeps getting cooler.
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"Oh, psht," she snorts, a dismissive wave of her hand to go with it. "Flattery will get you everywhere, dude, but I'm not all that." Even though her singing quality is one of the few things she tends to be proud of, she's still far more humble about it than she needs to be.
"That's really cool though, dude. And you have a tail! I hope it isn't like rude or anything to ask what you are, but- We don't have anything like you where I'm from? So you're super cool."
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Said tail flickers to life behind him, dipping forward lazily over his shoulder. "Not at all. A lot of people have never seen someone like me before, so to be honest, I encourage questions." He shifts closer, reaches to gesture in a vague motion toward the tail, fangs still gleaming.
His face colors another shade, "That's quite the compliment, miss. I'm a mutant and before you think it's an insult, we've sort of. Adopted the word." He shrugs. "It doesn't have the effect you'd imagine it might."
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Her eyes dip a little at that thought. Charlie. Hm. Well, she lifts her gaze back up and smiles. "I mean, as long as you're alright with being called that then... I guess I'll use it, too." Mutant. Starts with 'm,' like monster. But she likes their term better, even if it might have some negative connotations behind it. She wonders if someday 'demon' might be adopted by her kind as a good word rather than bad.
"I'm guessing that means there's a lot of you though. Are you all blue, or-?"
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Kurt shakes his head in response at first, twisting the length of his tail back behind him again. "There are a few, ja," More than that, really, "but I'm the only one that's blue."
He shrugs, sets his hands on his hips, chest somewhat puffed with pride. "And the only one that can teleport."
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"You can teleport? Like the stuff in sci-fi movies? Dude." This blue boy just keeps getting cooler.