aterat | 1 Audio Broadcast & 2 Open Logs

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1 Audio Broadcast & 2 Open Logs

Who; Llewellyn & Anyone!
What; 1 Audio broadcast & 2 Open Logs
Where; The logs are at the Historium & the market!
When; Over the first couple weeks in May!
Warnings; Nothing to start, will update if anything happens!

1 - Tellphone

[Clearing his throat a little, Llewellyn tried to think of where to start, he’s been snooping around for a few days and compiling some notes.]

Hello! I’m sure everyone is rather used to these sorts of broadcasts now, but uh— I’ve only just arrived in the last few days. My name is Llewellyn Watts-Maresh, to get introductions out of the way.

I’ve been catching up on the goings on already, seems like there’s a lot going on right now that I’d like to offer my assistance with. So! I’ll skip directly to the main point of my broadcast.

While this world is a significant improvement on my last... I’m finding myself in need of a starting point. I’m accustomed to having an office to work from, but I don’t believe I’ll have the funds to open something myself from the start. Is there possibly a private investigation firm already that would be looking for a detective? I… don’t need much space. I’ve gotten used to taking my work outdoors in the past, but a desk to keep my notes and work at on occasion would be appreciated.

[And he paused, humming a little as he mulled over a secondary thought he’d been playing with since he arrived.]

That aside, I’m also knowledgeable with floriography. Even if this worlds is different from my own, I’m a fast study. I’ve had practice in making arrangements for various meanings and occasions, and before I was pulled here I was dabbling in gardening…? So if anyone is looking for some part-time help there, I wouldn’t mind doing that on the side. I uh— I like to keep busy.

[And if he and his husband ever do figure out how to purchase a home, he knows they’ll need the money for it. Being cooped up in a small apartment is not ideal long term.]

Mm… That should do it, thank you.

2 - Historium

Llewellyn might have been a little slower to get here than he normally would have been, too distracted with this new world and getting his feet under him. But any sort of library was a good starting point to see what kind of references were available when you wanted to investigate and learn more about certain things about a place that might not be readily available through word of mouth. Or things that were just easier to find out on your own, as he was prone to doing.

It was… a lot more disorganized than the last giant library he’d frequented, but that actually wasn’t a big issue for the detective. His thought process already tended towards the chaotic and scattered, so he actually felt rather at home in the place. It wasn’t hard to start at one shelf, scan the titles, and grab something before he continued onward.

Anyone around the Historium would see Llewellyn either with a few books under his arm, or sitting on a table (using the chair as a footrest) and leafing through a selection curiously. Once in a while, he’d stop, jot a few thoughts down in messy scrawl in his notebook, and then continue reading…

He’s not so absorbed in his task that he doesn’t notice anyone else around him. Llewellyn could be quite paranoid and didn’t enjoy being surprised, so unless you’re particularly sneaky, he would be quite aware if someone were to approach…

3 - Market

There were several places that Llewellyn could be guaranteed to be found if you needed him. The first being where ever he worked (he truly was a workaholic at times), with his husband (obvious, perhaps), and the market… The last being because Llewellyn usually found himself in need of a snack every few hours, he tended to think better on a full stomach and his metabolism was rather high given how little he sat around.

It was also his other go to for making contacts and gathering information on a place. People talked, especially shop and food stall employees. They saw or heard about everything going on in the city, after all, and if you were a frequent enough customer, they tended to appreciate your business enough to be on friendly terms.

Given this was another new world… Llewellyn was starting from scratch. So over the course of his first few weeks in this place, through the day, he’d take a stroll through the market whenever he was feeling hungry. Every time he’d stop somewhere, he’d take a few minutes to chat and get to know the person working, he might not remember names right away, but if he stopped there frequently enough he’d start to commit things to memory (and he certainly wrote more important conversations down).

If approached, Llewellyn would actually be quite happy to talk, as long as no one minded his snacking… He’d even offer to share.

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Llewellyn offered a small nod, focusing less on the worry and more on what they could do (as little as there was) about the idea. “If they’re agreeable to talking about it, I do?” The detective was confident that at least one or two would, though he couldn’t say the same for the others. Especially those who didn’t already know personally… But it was an avenue of investigation worth going down.

Smiling a little at Jagger’s reaction, he offered a little shrug. Llewellyn was used to it in more than simply being thrown into another unfamiliar world. Unexpected changes to his life had been a reoccurring problem for years. “Besides that, I’m eager to get to work. The sooner I know more about this place, the better I’ll feel about all this.” He had people he cared about again, people he wanted to stay safe, and that tended to be an even stronger drive than his usual need to simply help people.

If Jagger could handle it, then Llewellyn would at least take him at his word. Which was probably for the better… He tended to be scattered when he worked, and even if he’d try to be careful? Chances were he might slip once in a while. “Wait— Have you gotten either of those things from interacting with someone before?” His brows rose almost comically at that notion. That had to be… more than a little awkward upon meeting someone. Especially during an investigation.

"Oh yeah? Didn't you just get here? It wouldn't hurt to get settled in, would it? I get you ended up in a place like this before, but how similar is it?"

He chuckled at Watts' question, nodding. "My partner's a paranormal investigator. I'm not sure how familiar you are with, but it's basically a field of science trying to prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and such. I give him a hand sometimes. Sometimes we find things, not that we've able to document it."

Llewellyn knew Jagger was making very good points, but for all he was happy to be here with his husband in tow, instead of the last place… It was hard to sit still and focus on the settling part until he had a better idea of this world and how it worked. Getting to work would lead to many, if not all, of those answers, and answers would make him feel a little less anxious, and being less anxious meant he’d be able to relax into life here a little more. “If I’m being honest… It’s very unlike the last place I was. Other than the fact that we’ve ended up in a world other than our own, that is… It was an experiment at the bottom of the ocean.” So that was pretty different right there, “At the moment it feels like a stroke of luck to have ended up here, but the odd person has mentioned a few things that I’ve been a bit concerned over since I arrived.” And so work sounded good. “And some of the differences here present challenges we didn’t really have before.”

So he waved a hand vaguely, “So I’ll uh— settle as I go, I expect. It’s more than just myself I’m concerned with this time around, I arrived with someone… And getting to work means comfort in figuring things out that might be important for us to know, as well as making sure we have what we need.”

For all Llewellyn tended to throw himself into things he enjoyed, perhaps indulged too much in wine and food. When it came to watching out for the people he cared about, he got rather serious and practical minded. It’s what happened when you had to grow up and watch out for yourself and others when you were still a child, really.

“Not being able to document one’s findings seem to be the largest challenge when it comes to that particular sort of investigation.” Llewellyn didn’t have personal experience, but he knew of such things through other people. Even in his own world, ghost stories and those who wanted to prove the otherworldly existed were common enough. He was open minded to the idea, though he tended to sit in a bit of a middle ground between belief and skepticism. At least he used to. It was kind of hard to disbelieve a lot of things after ending up in situations like this. “In my world a colleague of mine was often trying to prove they existed, much to someone else’s annoyance.” He hummed a little, “And I’ve known some who had first hand experience with the like in the last world I was in.”

Rubbing the back of his neck before he lowered his hand and slowed his steps to decide which way to turn next as he spoke. “I just can’t imagine that is the most pleasant thing to come across in your dealings with people, with abilities like that.”

“An experiment at the bottom of the ocean?” That sounded like a terrible place to end up. Several questions sprung to mind all at once when he explained, but he withheld his inquiries until the end of the lesson as it were. He did nod at Watts’ admission. “Yeah, the place has its secrets, but I think they’re mysteries to the Aspects as much as they are to us.”

He could respect another’s approach to things, though. He himself had just dove in, afraid to look at the feelings of loss and confusion that accosted him when he’d arrived here. If he had, they would have consumed him. It was easier to focus on the world around him, even if he had all ended up being an elaborate dream. It wouldn’t, he knew that now, but in the beginning he’d been hopeful. Now, as much as he missed the modern world, he was starting to find his place in this one. It left him focused, and less adrift, even if it could be overwhelming at times.

“Yeah, that’s the thick of it, really, but Chaz’ll never give up.” And Jagger would be lying if he said there wasn’t a part of him that wanted the man to. Some things, some people, were better left in the shadows, and others preferred it that way. Jagger was one of them. “Not really, but I doubt it’s any more unpleasant than murderers.”

“Yup.” He responded to shaking his head a little, “Like something out of a novel, all futuristic and full of rather strange technology.” and horrifying nightmares… But the topic of the Aspects was something he’d wondered about, “A few people have suggested that they might not know much more than we do at times. And that they um… don’t know how to fix the portal they messed with either.” The way it had been described to him made it almost sound like they’d been left without supervision or the knowledge that they needed to handle a world that had already apparently been destroyed once.

He had to smile a little though, at Jagger’s comment, “Your Chaz sounds a little George in my world. He was always quite certain that eventually one of our cases would have a less natural answer.” Except for a creature in Lake Ontario, apparently that was his line. Which had been rather strange to hear, considering everything else the Constable believed in.

“Mm… I can’t deny, you’re probably right.” He added a moment later, considering some of the murders he’d seen… Perhaps some ordinary people weren’t so different from things like demons. Llewellyn could think of one or two off the top of his head, but he didn’t comment further than that.

Honestly, by the sound of it, it would be something out of a novel for him, too. Of course, so was Aterat, but in a completely different way. He nodded along with the information, confirming what Watts had been told to be true. "They seem sort of...adrift, too, or at least Halcyn does. Athony just seems like a bastard, but he might just be that way." Or Jagger had a tendency to bring that particular trait out in people. He could never be too sure.

"Only Chaz is right and just can't prove it." With the aetherial, it was hard to document. Cameras and microphones recorded the physical, and when ghosts and specters made sounds, it was more in the mind's ear. Jagger could profess to what he'd experienced, but they were only stories. Every once in a while a spirit was powerful enough to affect the physical, but it was so rare it was usually bargained off as a hoax. People were much more willing to believe things were elaborate lies than to accept their worlds were a lot larger than they were comfortable with. It helped them sleep at night.

He nodded as they rounded a corner on the upper level, and he raised the map again to have a look around. "I think the section's right back there." He motioned with his free hand toward an outcropping of shelves toward the back of the upper platform. "Here's hoping we're not finding the roleplaying manuals."

“I haven’t had a chance to speak with either of them yet, but that does line up with what I’ve heard…” It was sad to think that at least one of them was ‘adrift as Jagger had put it. Of course, but it was also a little scary to think that the people in charge were lost in their own way. “I uh— presume no one knows what actually happened here before all of this?” He added, part of him hoping he was wrong while the larger part of him was just double checking on facts and comparing the accounts of various people.

“Which I imagine would be more frustrating…” He responded with a frown, he couldn’t imagine how much more insistent George would be if he had an experience with the otherworldly instead of just guessing on speculating over it. Then again… Given the man’s ideas about some things, Llewellyn felt confident enough to hazard a guess that it wouldn’t go well.

Llewellyn slowed a little and looked to the section Jagger had directed his attention to, nodding a little as he moved to continue… Until he paused and squinted a bit, “The role playing manuals?” Not something he’d heard referenced yet in either this world or the last, which was actually rather surprising in a way.

"If anyone does know what happened here, they aren't talking, that's for sure." He shook his head. It was as though this place had just sprung up out of nothing, which, if the Aspects were to be believed, wasn't far from what had actually happened. "They say this world was destroyed and they're trying to rebuild it. I don't know how well that's going for them."

"Uh...yeah. Roleplaying, it's...sort of shared storytelling? Anyway, someone writes up a fictional world, someone else writes up an adventure there, then people sit around making characters who live there and going on pretend adventures. I've never seen the appeal, but I'm not a people person, either."

“Might be a similarity across most worlds like this… Keeping people who are brought here in the dark and all, I mean.” But whether the aspects did so on purpose or not was hard to say… His lips turned down into a small frown though, “By the sounds of this whole portal business that some have spoken of, I’d be hesitant to say it was going well, myself. Not that ‘rebuilding a world’ would be easy, I imagine. Surely there are bound to be some hiccups here and there.”

Not that anyone wanted to be caught in the middle of them, but here they all were.

His brows knit as he listened to the explanation. So it was for fun, then? He shrugged a little as he moved closer to the shelves they were heading for. “So it’s a game then, perhaps not entirely unlike the sort played in parlours at parties… Though more complicated if several books are needed.”

"Evidently, their leader left them?" He shrugged, still not certain he'd understood correctly. "Whatever the reason, they mucked about with the portal and now it's malfunctioning."

He nodded. "Yeah, a bunch of friends sit around and go on a storybook adventure together. It loses the charm when the adventure's real life, yeah?" He made a vague gesture around.

Llewellyn had to admit that made it all the worse. “Not a good sign when the leader of a group, or in this case world, abandons everyone…” Made him wonder how prepared for the event that they were left in charge they were at the time. Given that they broke the portal? Probably not at all… “Seems they were quite unprepared to suddenly be in charge at any rate. Wonder where the leader went. Did they get bored with all this?” Had this place needed to be rebuilt on more than one occasion? Or was the process of starting anew even once too slow and tedious for this entity.

Chuckling a little at the comment, he began picking at books or reading their spines. “You make a good point. Living something tends to make a game dull by comparison. Mm… or tasteless, depending on the game.” The whole ‘murder mystery’ parlour game had often seemed like an odd choice to him, but people tended to find it amusing.

"You'd have to ask them, though I don't think they know too much about that, either." Not that he could say with any honesty he'd want a world dropped in his lap, either. They were the custodians, that's the impression he'd gotten, but they were never meant to run the place.

And there were those types of games, too. People liked to solve mysteries unless they did it for a living. They should try it sometime. "Or just annoying. Get that enough in real life, and so on."

“Yes, it sounds as though they’re in the dark nearly as much as we are on the subject… Wouldn’t hurt to try though, just to see what they say.” He responded with a little shrug, even some small bit of new information might prove useful.

Nodding, Llewellyn had to agree. “It’s true, though I suppose those who haven’t lived it might fail to see why it might not be game material.” He pulled a book from the shelf and leafed through a couple pages, “They can put the game away at the end of the day, once they’ve had enough, while the rest of us can’t.”

Frowning, Jagger looked over to him, appraising before nodding. "If anybody can get information out of them, it's probably you. You seem...patient." Which Jagger certainly was not.

"Exactly. If I remember this place when I go home, my roommate's going to be insufferable." He frowned. That was a good point, and actually, one he hadn't thought of. "Yeah. Must be nice, yeah?"

“Patient is a nicer word for stubborn, but I do intend to try! Some friends and myself have been trying to compile a list of things to try to find out.” He added with a small shrug of his shoulders, slipping the book back in place before selecting another. “That said, I’m just glad that they seem more approachable than I’m used to those in charge being… Any line of conversation is better than none.”

Chuckling lightly, he glanced at Jagger. "I know what you mean... I'm not sure I'd want to talk about these things much, most people would think I were crazy. It would be fun to tell George though, he would be pretty excited about the very idea of other worlds and magic."

Llewellyn frowned at the pages in front of his face with a small nod. “It must… Not that I can imagine it myself. But uh- I do suppose that just because the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, doesn’t mean that it is.” Did he understand the well off in his world and their parties or parlour games? No, not generally... But he’d been mixed up in enough cases to see that their lives were sometimes just as messy as his own.

Edited 2021-06-12 16:46 (UTC)

"Not really, mate. I'm stubborn and impatient, or, as a lot of blokes like to say, 'a pain in the ass'." He narrowed his eyes slightly, though, frowning. "More approachable? Damn, I'd hate to think what these other people were like, then."

"I think that's the whole point of that analogy, mate."

If anything, Llewellyn took that to mean that he’d at least be in good company at the office. Pains in the ass tended to get results ~~and annoyed your boss to varying degrees~~. If he were being honest, patience was a practiced skill, and one that could easily go out the window with the right stress triggers…

He shook his head a little at the comment, “It didn’t have a form of its own, so it communicated through uh- neural implants? Which it insisted would do us harm if it was in contact too often. I was never sure how true it was... but it definitely could do harm.” He grimaced a bit, “So this is all a nice change of pace, uh- at least so far.”

He offered a slight rise of his brow to Jagger’s response, it was why he’d said it. But he returned his attention to the books. “So… Do you have an idea on where you want to start in all this? Or are you going to do what I tend to do and just start with one book and work your way through them all till something strikes you.”

"Well, that sounds like a science fiction horror ready to happen. Fuck, mate, I'm glad you ended up here, weird as it can be." He shook his head and he turned his own attention to the books.

"None at all. I know...I heard someone talk about enchantment? I don't know. There is a tower to the north, I've heard of, so maybe we should check there..."

Yeah, Llewellyn was definitely glad to be here himself. Gladder still to have some of the people here with him, instead of having left them behind and constantly wondering if they were okay. “I certainly feel rather lucky to be here, even if it’s still a bit strange and has its own complications.”

At least these complications seemed... Somehow less daunting in a way. There were people in charge who at least might speak to them. And nothing was stuck in his head that could kill him. Definitely a plus. Still hard to not wonder sometimes about how it had gotten there and how it had also just as seamlessly been removed before he arrived here. Not something he was willing to dwell on for too long, though.

“Mm... I think someone mentioned that to me when I arrived. This was just a little, uh- more convenient.” Closer to the apartments, easy to check out first while he was still trying to get a feel for how to find his way around the city. His sense of direction wasn’t the greatest. “Might be worth a look though once you’ve got a better idea of where you want to start.” He plucked another book from its place. “What sort of enchantment?”

"Embuing items with magical properties...at least I think that's what they meant." He laughed, slightly, shaking his head. "I'm thoroughly balls at this, mate." He'd heard a lot about magic from his friends here before they'd disappeared, but when researching it himself, he didn't have the faintest idea where to start.

"I might be better served just checking in at the tower. I wonder if there are any mages around to ask about it."

“Likewise, I’m afraid…” Being people who lacked experience and a solid knowledge of things like that in a world like this? Probably not great, but at least Jagger had a point. “There might be some, but I can’t say I’ve met any actually from this world who would know how it all works here…” And it all seemed so different from one world to another, unfortunately.

“Does anyone work at the tower? Someone there might actually know, unless it’s got something like the directory… Or no one.” He hummed a little. He hadn’t made it that far yet, so it was anyone’s guess. Clearly Jagger wasn’t getting what he needed here. Not that either of them knew how to recognize what was needed specifically.

He shook his head at the question, eyes still moving over the shelves they'd found. "No. There's a lot of books there, but no order to them. I not sure what happened to the place."

It left a lot of things questionable at best.

Taking a deep breath, he let out a sigh. “Another thing for the list of what needs to be figured out then.” Was that anything new? No…

But for today, it seemed like Jagger was unfortunately stuck on the matter of which book he needed. “If I locate someone that might consult on the matter, I’ll let you know.” He added, even if it might take a little time considering how much there already was on the pile in such a short time.

(ooc: We should probably wrap this soon, huh?)

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1 Audio Broadcast & 2 Open Logs

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