ioduanlogs | [EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

Characters: ALL
Date: January 15
Location: At the Dreaming Bridge and all over Aifaran!
Situation: A large influx of Dreamfolk arrive in time for one of the Lunar Festivals, and they're all invited!
Warnings/Rating: N/A

A surprising amount of Dreamfolk have arrived within a short time frame - a peculiarity remarked upon by a number of Aifaran's residents. It is unusual in that it coincides with a lunar festival, one which only happens every fifty or so years.

Newcomers will find the streets packed with all sorts of people, stalls of fried and sugared foods, carnivalesque games and rides, and all other manner of things to do. Merchants are very keen to get their wares out there, and the stipend given may just burn a hole in your pocket when you see what's for sale.

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Pepper raised her head from her arms at Eve's approach. "Hm?" Well, she is curled up on the bed trying not to cry. She takes a moment to study the woman, who is probably one of her roommates, and wipes at the corner of her eyes.

"No, that's-- you can stay." It's not like this is a problem that's going to go away quickly unless a certain thief decides to pop in the door. "I'm..." Pepper takes a shivery breath, shakes her head. Not alright. "Someone I care about isn't here. He's supposed to be."

Oof. "I know the feeling." It's a casual sympathy, given before Eve can really think about what would or wouldn't be most helpful for the girl. She hesitates briefly, then sits on the bed next to her, companionable.

Eve knows Flynn can definitely take care of himself. Her younger Librarians can take care of themselves. But she doesn't have eyes on them, so she worries.

Somehow, Pepper doubts this woman does, exactly, since her and Bakura's situation was so utterly unique-- but she does appreciate the attempt at sympathy. She relaxes minutely when Eve sits, mostly out of gratitude that there's someone around and who isn't incapable of handling a crying girl.

"It's complicated," Pepper begins again, fiddling with her shoes. "We're from different worlds-- Did they tell you about Keeliai downstairs? A bunch of us got stuck in the Dreaming for like 500 years." She sighs. "Sorry, I don't have to dump all this on you, we don't even know each other."

"Okay, maybe I don't exactly know the feeling." Admitted wryly, with a quirk of a smile intended to be on the gently humorous side. "I heard a little. Still kind of processing it all, to be honest."

All the same, she does seem remarkably calm for someone newly in another world.

"We're roommates now," Eve says, by way of brushing-off the redhead's concern. "I figure that comes with at least one offer of help."

Pepper musters a sad smile, but its there. At least her roommate is alright with listening.

"I'm Pepper, by the way." She takes a breath and hopes she can get through this without sobbing. "So, when we were here before, we had a choice about staying or going. And-- and I wanted to stay so I could still be with him, and he-- well, here was the best option. He's-- he's worse than dead in his home world," she explains softly, voice trembling.

And he isn't here now.

"Eve Baird." Rank can be temporarily forgotten; it's a friendly relationship, not a professional one.

She can imagine more than a few things worse than dead. And... now somehow doesn't seem like the time to inquire about if this is worse and dead, or living in suffering. She puts a hand on Pepper's shoulder instead. "Have you had a chance to look around for him yet? Kind of seems like a lot of people showed up at once. It's easy to lose track of people in a crowd."

"Yeah, I've been looking," Pepper confirms, shoulders slumping. "Bakura's hair is white. He's hard to miss, even in a place like this. And I can fly." Beat. "Well, not by myself. I have power armor and it flies and has facial recognition and stuff."

'And stuff' covered a lot of technological ground, but for now Pepper just points to the deactivated Rescue armor standing against the wall.

"Besides, he'd be looking for me, too. I'm not giving up yet, I'm just-- scared," she admits. This was something she had dreaded in Keeliai, too, even knowing that it would probably happen someday. Being here, staying, was supposed to be about having a future, however fleeting.

White hair? Huh. She's going to go ahead and do Pepper the courtesy of assuming it's bleached or something, and not because Pepper has a marked preference for older men.

One never knows.

"It's perfectly understandable to be scared," Eve says, aiming at empathy, and to her chagrin distracted by the phrase power armor.

Jones would have a field day. "I'm sorry, power armor? Are we talking advanced robotics or magic forging, here?"

Well, Bakura is several millennia older by some accountings, but that had nothing to do with his hair color.

Even as worried as she is, the corners of Pepper's mouth turn up. "Advanced robotics. About as advanced as exists, where I come from." With a few notable and diabolical exceptions. "I can, um, show you, if you'd like?"

The distraction from her Bakura predicament could be welcome, honestly.

Eve upgrades her mental note to 'never let Jones get his hands on the power armor,' with a conceivable caveat in the case of world-ending badness pending.

"I'm impressed," she says, turning an appreciative eye on the sleek lines of the armor. "Give me a good old-fashioned weapon any day, but that looks like a beautiful piece of work. Please, by all means."

Show her the armor, Pepper. She promises not to drool.

Although she's less enthusiastic than she might be on a better day, Pepper unfolds herself from the bed and goes over to the armor. "My friend Tony built it. He's got one, too," she says, pulling the helmet up and placing it on her own head. The computer boots up, and the rest of the armor starts to unfold so she can step into it. A few seconds of mechanical whirring and the suit is complete around her, chest plate and repulsors alight.

"Tada," she announces, the edge of unhappiness still audible through the voice distortion. And then, mostly because it'll be funny, she turns on stealth mode and disappears.

Note to self: never let Jones meet this Tony, either.

Eve considers that, then amends that it might be fun to watch if they were prevented from stealing anything.

She watches Pepper's armor fold up with wide, appropriately appreciative eyes, and there's a low whistle. Beyond the function, it's nice looking armor. Practical, not like some fantasy armor designs.

--And then Pepper vanishes. Eve startles, and narrows her eyes as though focusing will make the armor visible. Nope. Going to have to focus on other senses. "That's impressive." She didn't think technology was at quite that level yet.

Tony and Ezekiel would certainly be a problematic if entertaining pair.

While the armor is not totally silent in stealth mode, it's pretty darn close. Pepper still has to move carefully in it, and obviously when faced with an enemy there's a need to not bump into anything. Here, though, she can relocate to the other side of the room pretty noiselessly, and that's where she reappears a few moments later.

"Yeah, it's awesome," she agrees, more solemn than is her wont. The faceplate slides open again. "Stealth drains the batteries pretty hard, though, so we try not to use it nonstop. It's got some other tricks, too, like a holographic projector and..." Pepper activates the boot jets at low power, hovering a foot or so off the ground. "Like I said, it flies. I can outrace jets in this thing."

Eve jerks around to see it, and wide eyes narrow to something more thoughtful after just a moment or two. Definitely impressive. "Makes sense. The more you want to do, the higher the cost."

Magic and technology hold to the same rules, more often than Eve likes to think about.

She whistles lowly, impressed. "Jets? You don't say. How many have you raced?"

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[EVENT] Moon and Mirrors (Welcome Mingle Log)

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