[OPEN] a new world hangs outside my window

[bestofthevein]

Characters: Kit + OPEN
Date: Throughout June.
Location: Wherever!!
Situation: A catch-all for this month.
Warnings/Rating: None, will update as needed.



I. A useless gadget (COMMERCE 1; Open)

After his pointless argument with the street vendor reaches its ignominious end, Kit finds himself the proud owner of a dented (and possibly defective) metal detector. At least, that’s what he assumes the thing is, based on the vendor’s description of what the thing is supposed to do. He’s pretty sure he paid more than the piece of junk is worth, too--but given the number of run-ins with the Sentry he’s had since getting dumped here, he doubts he’ll be able to talk his way out of yet another confrontation.

The good news, at least, is that his new job catching live animals pays him more rhinn than his old job spent cleaning up after dead animals. Even if it does require him to delve down into the sewers beneath the city in order to do it. So, with his bibiru tucked into its pouch on the pack strapped to his back, and the metal detector in hand, he gets to work trudging through sludge, blocking off entry points that need blocking off, and setting traps where traps need to be set.

Whomever else happens to be down here, Kit doesn’t appear to notice them at first.



II. A taste of engineering (SCI-TECH 4; Open)

Kit is frankly not sure how he came by an invitation to the opening ceremony of this dubiously named “fermentation factory”; he doesn’t know anyone especially influential, unless Valdis counts, given she’s a member of the Sentry, and this doesn’t seem like it’s probably part of her scene. Still, he makes an effort to clean himself up, don his tidiest clothes, and heads out to investigate it.

It’s an especially muggy afternoon that finds him hanging out near the bar inside this factory, sipping a glass of strangely familiar pink beer and absently playing cards with some other attendees. Are you one of them? Or do you catch him at the snack bar investigating the fermented yogurt on offer?



Wildcard! (Open)
 

Comments

I!

[rutility]

Rutile is quickly making a habit of being in strange places, this time with their coat pockets filled with stones collected from the more repulsive areas of Aifaran. They're blessed with no sense of smell, so though the sewers are unpleasant for more sensory beings, the only truly bad thing about them is the lack of sunlight.

That said, they haven't delved far, and certainly not deep enough to hit pools of water more than ankle-deep. The heels of their shoes hooked on their pockets and their leggings rolled back, they wade barefoot through sludge that's more dirt than water.

No one has been down here with them for several hours now; as they double back to the sewer entrance, they're surprised to find a metal contraption lying in wait. They crouch down to examine it, careful to stay back. "Who could have left such a thing?" they murmur, their voice echoing off the hollow stone.

[bestofthevein]

Kit is doubling back the way he came after devoting more time than he cares to admit to this filthy task when he glimpses someone ahead of him through the dimly lit interior--someone near one of the traps. "Hey, careful," he calls out, "there might be a munga or something caught in there."

He squints; it takes him a moment, but Rutile's silhouette is striking enough that he recognizes them quickly. He straightens up, metal detector slung over his shoulder, and cracks a lopsided smile. "Fancy running into you down here."

(He'd almost said, What's a gem like you doing in a place like this? but figures faux-flirtation would go over with Rutile about as well as it did with Padparadscha, like a lead balloon.)

[rutility]

Rutile twists their head to look in the direction of the voice, the figure back in the tunnels more difficult to see. "A munga?" they enquire, curiosity apparent in their tone.

Eventually Kit emerges from the darkness, and Rutile rises to greet him, rather surprised but still gratified at his presence. His expression is contagious; Rutile smiles back, likely the first time Kit's seen them do so. "I might say the same of you," they say. "I didn't think many people cared for the dark." They indicate the strange device on his back. "Is that also for catching munga?"

(Give Rutile a few years to understand the entire social structure of courtship. They'll flirt with the best of them.)

[bestofthevein]

(It is definitely the first time Kit has seen Rutile smile, and he probably wouldn't object to seeing them smile again under better, cleaner circumstances.)

"What, this?" He lifts the metal detector from where it's resting across his shoulders, giving it a dubious look at best. "Supposedly it's a metal detector. So far it's only been good for detecting the crick in my neck. Probably from carting it all over the place down here."

His bibiru pokes its little whiskered head over his shoulder to sniff in Rutile's direction; Kit absently reaches up to give it a scratch behind the ears. "Uh, yeah--munga. They're about so big--" and here, he approximates roughly the size of a rat, "--and have toxic spines that'll make you hallucinate if they touch you. Trust me, you'd know one if you saw one."

[rutility]

Rutile puzzles over Kit's description for a moment, skeptical of his assertion - even if they have a creature like a munga back home, it certainly isn't called that. "I appreciate your confidence," they say, with some amusement. "But still, I'll keep the description in mind. If one ends up in your trap, I'll have to examine it more closely."

That said, Rutile wades over closer to Kit, to get a better look at the metal detector - and the bibiru as well. "Do you mind if I take a look?" they ask, reaching out to indicate the device. "I have some marginal experience with metals, although the technology here is rather beyond my grasp."

Some experience is mostly accurate. It's a brand new field for them, but thanks to Antarcticite's meddling, a promising one. No better time than now to focus on their work.

[bestofthevein]

It's as mundane a request as any that Kit has received since dying in his world only to find himself awakening in a parallel dimension where inter-dimensional travel is a thing and continents are turtles. Honestly, he thinks he's adapted pretty quickly, all things considered. As such his reaction is simply to shrug and lift the metal detector from his shoulder, offering it out to Rutile. (His bibiru keeps peering at the newcomer with perked ears and wiggling nose.)

"I have some marginal experience with metals, although the technology here is rather beyond my grasp."


"Yeah, you and me both," he replies, snorting. "This time last year I was still getting used to indoor plumbing."

[rutility]

"Indoor plumbing," Rutile repeats, hearing the words but not truly processing them. "It is a wonder."

The device is heavy in their hands, though not so heavy as a limb. It has an interface that appears to run on similar technology as the yimo - something else Rutile doesn't understand - and though it possesses several buttons, none of them seem to make it do anything. It's not clear whether the device is defective, or whether Rutile simply doesn't know enough to make it work. They frown and hand it back to Kit. "Unfortunately, my best way of detecting metals is to toss them in a flame and see if they melt. Did the maker leave any instruction?"

When Rutile's gaze flicks back to Kit, they see the bibiru in the background strapped to the man's back, its black eyes regarding them with what Rutile construes is curiosity. A smile on their face, they reach out and scritch the bibiru between its ears. "This little one is cute. I don't think we've been introduced."

II

[ilda]

A delighted squeal erupts from somewhere behind him. “Kiiiiiiit!”

It’s Ilda, her blonde hair gleaming like a beacon as she weaves through the crowd. She, too, has a glass of the strange pink beer, and although she’s almost always a ray of sunshine and endless chatter, it looks like it’s not her first. Not with the way she seems to be swaying as she makes her way to him. Whoops.

[bestofthevein]

Wobbling, swaying, and spilling an alarming quantity of pink beverage onto the grass. It's only a matter of time before it ends up on one of the guests.

Kit would probably kick back and relax with a smoke, ready to have himself a good laugh at the expense of some stuffed up sod getting covered in fermented beverage, were it not inevitable that Ilda would face an undue amount of blowback from it. Poor kid can't help that she's in over her heard with what appears to be an abysmally low tolerance for alcohol. He exhales and puts on a wry grin for her.

"Look at you," he says once she's within earshot, ambling over to her and giving a mean look at anyone who gets any ideas about harassing her. He turns his attention to the beer with raised eyebrows. "You, uh, you look like you're having a lot of fun. How much fun have you had, so far?" And by 'how much fun,' he means 'how many?'

[ilda]

"Have you tried this? THIS IS AMAZING!" the blonde exclaims a little too enthusiastically, holding out her glass to him. Fortunately she's spilled enough en route to him that there's hardly anything left to spill, or else it would've been all over Kit by now. "It's pink, would you believe it? Pink! And it tastes so good, too! We should figure out how they make this so we can mix up our own and we can drink it whenever we feel like it and maybe even sell it I mean this is really good stuff and there's the Tourney coming up and people would be up for buying this don't you think?"

She inhales deeply at the end of all that, because believe it or not, she manages to say that awfully long sentence in one breath. And it would seem like she's missed his question, but then she answers (sort of), "There was a contest back there earlier! They made us drink from these tiny little glasses, I think there were ten, and there were different colors like red and orange and yellow and green and blue and violet and pink and brown and white and and I really wanted to win a bibiru so I joined, and I almost won too but then it's not true that they're giving out bibirus after all, which sucks because I almost won--"