spellbinders | [WORLD TWO

Entry tags:

[WORLD TWO | INTRO LOG]

Who: All coven members
Where: In and around the new world’s apartment building where the coven is staying
When: Day (the calendar isn’t syncing for me hELP)
Open/Closed: Open to All

You’re in a room. It’s pretty bright — blindingly so, even. There’s something very stark and very clean about the place, and also the person you’re sitting in front of. You’re sitting? You’re sitting. There’s also a pane of very powerful plexiglass separating you from the uniform-clad person who is now speaking to you.

It’s impossible to transcribe what they say verbatim, but here’s the gist of it:

- You’re being welcomed to a city called Shehui. Depending on who you are, the level of technology may be light years ahead of you or child’s play.
- There’s a very strict policy about magic. While there are measures put in place to prevent magic from happening, this is still something that they reiterate over and over. They don’t want to take chances.
- Crime is also frowned upon. Small infractions will result in credit deductions, while major crimes will get you banned. Antisocial behavior is also looked down upon. You’re locked in the city for your initial eight weeks. You can leave afterwards, but trying to break out of the city or cause social unrest will result in monitoring and a potential ban.
- This city is supposed to be somewhat relaxing. Is it a free pleasure cruise? No. Is it a self-contained society that runs on community and indulgence? Yes.
- You’re being given an allotment of credits in order to stay in the city, which is what the economy there runs on. This goes on for quite some time.
- You’re being moved to a housing location. Despite the slotted speaker in the middle of the plexiglass, the only time you have a chance to ask questions is when a small slit opens in the bottom and a package is slid towards you.
- What’s in the package? There’s a credit card-like apparatus that has apparently taken a picture of you. It contains a place to write your name, an identification number and barcode. It also has a thin strip near the top that has scrolling script floating by. It states “WELCOME TO SHEHUI. YOUR ID WILL UPDATE WITH COMMUNITY NOTICES AND PERSONAL PINGS FOR JOBS AND VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES RELATED TO YOUR INTEREST.” It’s a lot to take in, but that’s the long and short of it.

Have questions? The person will reiterate a few times that there are information desks around the city. That’s all for now…now you’ll be traveling to your next destination: your new home.

The floor slowly lowers as if you’ve been in an elevator the whole time. It connects to several other glass containers, much like your own, all suddenly clanking together in a chain. After a short wait, the chain begins to move — quickly. Faster, maybe, than you’ve ever gone before. It’s hard to even make out the scenery when you’re zipping past everything so quickly.

Where does this trip lead you? The ground floor of your new apartment building. The plexiglass cases open up and you’re in a hotel lobby. There’s a flashing board on the wall — NEW ARRIVALS, COME HERE.

The apartment building is locked up tight for three hours in order to let new arrivals get their bearings. After that, the ground floor lobby doors open into the city of Shehui. There’s a lot to take in, but let’s cover the biggest bases:

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[Given Jay's level of familiarity here, yes, he does consider that trying.]

I was literally only the sentient alive for hundreds of miles since infancy, so yeah. There were some differences.

[He looks out at the bustling city again.]

I didn't realize.

[He'd assumed Dirk wasn't totally alone for those years, yes, but that's not what he means. It genuinely hadn't occurred to him that Dirk might find all these noises and people . . . what is the right word here? Unsettling? Partly because his own reaction was so different, and he still instinctively expects them to be similar.

Talking like this is awkward. If Dirk doesn't mind, then--he clambers into the branches of the tree and settles himself . . . a distance away, but close enough that he doesn't have to crane his neck to look at Dirk. Having done that, however, he's still not sure what to say.]

This place is large even among cities. At least in my experience.

[It's not odd that Dirk would find it odd, is what he means. Maybe.]

{There are no objections to a tree visitation, particularly since it's Jay, and Dirk has invited Jake to hide in a tree branch before.]

I'd have to assume it's a relative question. Someone accustomed to New York would find a small town in Buttfuck, Nowhere unbearably tiny, but for a person from a hamlet that would be reasonably bustling.

[A pause]

I wouldn't blame you for questioning my response, but at this point I'm decently calm. I'm simply unsure how to best approach the long durations of time that it will be necessary to spend in congested urban traffic. Aimantis was, to return to the question of relativity, a lot easier to adapt to.

Aimintas was quieter. It was close to Werites Beacon's size, actually--the city on the Legacy.

[He considers asking about Dirk's references, but decides to leave it for the moment. If Dirk would rather treat this like a practical problem, then--]

"Gradually, in small doses," is how one usually adapts to the unfamiliar, I think. Presumably there are areas of the city that aren't as densely packed as the major commercial districts.

[They are in a park.]

Is that your home city?

[Dirk doesn't know a lot about how Jay grew up. He knows there's a reason for that.]

Exposure therapy. Right. I guess I should start in the suburbs.

[ h a h ]

No, I lived with the Oresoren in their village, some distance away. I went to Werites Beacon often, though. It was where everything happened, more or less.

[There's a fondness in his voice when he talks about the Legacy, though also a wistfulness--Dirk knows the reason for both by now.]

Suburbs?

Aside from 'Sburb' being the name of the game, the suburbs themselves are low-density areas on the outer edges of a city that are usually residential. In Late 20th and early 21st century American culture, those homes were generally owned by the moderately affluent, known as the middle class. Every house gets a mowed lawn of a yard, a white picket fence, and two-point-five kids.

Did they split custody of the last child?

Divorce is statistically probable but not permitted in the perfect suburban household.

[He turns around in the tree to look at Dirk.]

I'm honestly not sure how seriously I should be taking the things you're saying.

The higher echelons of irony are always tempered by a measure of sincerity. The intermingling of layers then becomes part of the joke.

But yeah, I'm mostly giving true facts about the kind of suburban lifestyle that people were meant to aspire to. No one was ever really like that, but it was the ideal.

So there were no mandates about the design of one's fencing. I see.

[And because he's honestly curious:] Is this place at all like the cities you studied?

Nah, merely the ideal of white pickets.

[With less irony:]

It's a little more technologically enhanced, and the isolation is definitely new. The general basic idea, however, seems the same.

[He makes a thoughtful noise.]

They seem to have conquered scarcity while being entirely self-sufficient. I'm not sure I trust it, but then, this world is probably far in the future compared to my own, so to speak.

Then you'll be glad to hear that a guy from a reasonably advanced if also totally dead society thinks this shit is suspicious as all fuck. Assimilationist policies and exile for failing to meet economic demands is not my idea of a Utopia.

I do wonder what they do with people who honestly can't work . . . .

To their credit, they seem to have a decent amount of flexibility on what it means to contribute to the community.

Against their credit, they banish people to whatever is outside instead of sending them off-planet or something equally reasonable.

To be fair, we don't actually know what's outside. It could be a wasteland, or it could be fairly developed.

The fact that they don't just tell us what's outside is ominous, however.

There are secrets that are kept with a good reason. Generally speaking, I prefer to be the person keeping them.

[AND THEREFORE HE DOESN'T LIKE THIS.]

I don't know if we have anyone in the Coven who could check it out without going out there. The new set that should be coming in a bit under two weeks may not have useful powers for it either.

No, I can't think of anyone either. What kind of power would even be useful for such a thing? Something like scrying?

Far-seeing, some version of x-ray vision, teleportation, the ability to project your consciousness out of your body. Something along those lines.

[That's a very specific list.]

Have you thought about this?

Anyway, Homura can teleport, after a fashion. Rottytops can travel through the ground. I'm not aware of others.

Not really.

[He just knows a lot of bullshit powers. Thanks, Sburb. And also movies?]

It could be worth asking them if they can check the other side.

Edited 2017-12-03 01:55 (UTC)

Yes, although they ought to be cautious about it. It wouldn't do to get in trouble this early, at least not without a good reason.

It also wouldn't do for either of them to get killed by whatever is out there.

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rebells - 2017-12-03 04:13 (UTC) - Expand

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splinten - 2017-12-04 05:46 (UTC) - Expand

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