For Argilla (and/or Gale)

[scarsolderthanyou]

Option I. Syn AU

Another liminal change, another influx of new people, and Stone was tired today. The last Jaunt had been... well, strange. And uncomfortable. And Stone wasn't feeling like going out and meeting everyone else just yet.

So he and Azure were on the platform in his created space, with the door behind him to the rest of liminal open, while she preened his hair and he considered the fake canopy of leaves overhead and possibly a nap.


Option II. Three Worlds

Stone was napping when the scent hit him, and he sat up sharply, startled. An Arbora who had been tending to one of the plants on the same platform jumped and dropped her basket. "Line-grandfather?"

He waved a hand at her rather than answer, climbed to his feet, and shifted, taking off immediately almost before his winged shape had finished settling in. That was the smell of an asura, and he did not want anyone else to be the one to find him first.


Option III. ELSEWHERE take your pick, her world or another random one

Traveling had broken something, as far as Stone could tell. He hadn't seen the colony tree for more than a couple days at a time, before bouncing off to some other world again. He didn't have anything he needed to fix or change, like actual Traveling, it just... lasted as long as it lasted before he found himself able to open a portal again to get back home.

This time it seemed like one of the modern Earth-ish worlds, as far as Stone could tell. He got a few funny looks for the height, the gray skin, and the bare feet, but no one had stopped him yet. Since he hadn't tried to smile yet, no one could question the teeth. Right now, he was just looking for wherever he could sit down for a while, take in the scents, and listen to people so he could get his bearings.


Option IV. WILD CARD

Got something else you feel like playing out, an AU of some sort or a private walkabout or something? Go ahead and make a starter and I will tag!

Comments

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I'd rather not end up in a can, either." And he can always shift and step on the boy if he tries to mug him, or something. He moves around the bench to join blue-hair in the alley, making his own surreptitious tasting of the air, resisting the urge to flick out his tongue to do it more deeply. Then he says, "All right, I'll come with you."

[ovoretherainbow]

Blue-hair is rather short, barely above five feet but built like a soldier, not like the soft, lay people that seem to populate the majority of the city, nor is he dressed in the crisp, clean white and grey they are. Grey, yes, but mostly black and with odd metallic places on the corset he's wearing, not to mention the jarringly bright streak of orange across his midsection.

It's hard to miss with skin so pale, a brand blackened into the skin on his thigh, arches over a cloud. He also smells very much like asura.

"Dere's a save house not far, ya? Should be able ta call me comrades from dere."

[scarsolderthanyou]

That's interesting. Another asura here-- does that mean the others are here, too? Or are his "comrades" newly made upon being dumped in this world? Questions he's not going to ask right now. Maybe later. "Let's go, then. I'm Stone," he adds, because if he's going to a safe house, the boy ought to know his name. Also, he'd like to know if this asura-- Embryon, from the orange, he's guessing-- is one Gale ever mentioned to him.

[ovoretherainbow]

"Cielo!" He practically chirps as he ducks further down the alley. "From de Embryon." Then he pauses for a moment, cocking his head in momentary thought. "And de Lokapala now too!" He figures if this weird smelling guy is trying to infiltrate, he'd already know the name. Most people around here do he thinks.

He may not be the most tactically minded of his comrades, but he knows bringing a stranger right to their hideout is dumb as hell, so a 'safe house' it is. Not that there's anywhere remotely safe, but if this guy is actually a threat it's unlikely he'll make it far. He has the same sort of confidence Gale does when it comes to things like that. They all do.

"If dey like you, we get you all tucked away safe and sound, ya?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

The former Stone knew, and half-expected to hear ever since he saw that orange and smelled the asura, the latter not so much. Thankfully, he's only gotten better at being unreadable since he started Traveling without the Arcana to punt him around, so while he's somewhere between confused at finding it here and hopeful that maybe Gale might be here after all, he doesn't do more than cock his head as he follows briskly in the boy's (?) wake. "I'll take your word for it. New to town, remember."

Good thing he's not got any intentions of being a threat. He's not really interested in fighting any of Gale's friends, and while he has no doubts he could take one of them (being a confident old consort, himself), he's not going to lay good odds on fighting off more than two.

[ovoretherainbow]

"Yeah, about dat." He suddenly stops and spins around once they're around a corner, so quickly that Stone may bump right up against him if he's not careful. Cielo looks up at him, the way those big blue eyes scrutinize the taller man bordering on comical in how overblown it is.

"Hows dat even supposed ta work?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone stops abruptly, blinking, and tilting his head. He hasn't really been on a world yet that doesn't have the means to accept strangers. "Do you not get new people around here?" he asks. "I thought getting inside was a priority, can we talk about this at whatever this safe house of yours is?"

[ovoretherainbow]

"But dere ain't nowhere to be comin from!" At least he doesn't think there is. Asura can wander around out there just fine even in the sun, but this guy doesn't smell right for that.

"Unless you come from suuuper far away?" He says, still looking skeptical as he turns back to keep heading down the alley. "Ain't nuthin left alive out dere, ya?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I'm not sure how much of what I tell you you'll believe," Stone admits, keeping close as he follows. "Let's start with: I'm not human. And I can tell neither are you, so you might understand that some."