paixaorpg | Crashing into Paixao? [Active]

Entry tags:

Crashing into Paixao? [Active]

Character(s): Mouse, open to all
Content: Mouse enters Paixao.
Setting: Muspelheim Gate
Time: Afternoon
Warnings: None

The sudden light after what had been a long while of almost complete darkness forced Mouse to squint and cover her eyes with a hand as she blinked in confusion. This was not Mainframe, of that much she was certain. Had she fallen through a portal or ended up in a game cube or something? She was alone and standing in front of a gate. There were some blond-haired sprites waiting in line to get inside. It didn't look like any system she'd seen, and she'd seen a lot--though not all, of course. But maybe it was a game. She'd never been inside one to see. Might as well check, right?

She tapped her icon twice. "ReBoot!"

Nothing. Either her icon didn't work or this wasn't a game. Or this was a game that didn't require ReBooting, though she'd never heard of such a thing. With nothing else to do, she fell into line behind the rest. The guard, a young-looking woman with long blond hair and pale blue eyes, smiled at her in a way that Mouse assumed was the trained one people in such professions often wore.

"Welcome to Paixao!" the guard chirped. "Your name?"

Mouse cocked an eyebrow--apparently there was nothing unusual about people just showing up here. "Mouse. Care to tell me how I got here, sugar?"

The sprite appeared to have either not heard her question or been ignoring it; she instead wrote down Mouse's name and handed her a bronze-colored machine that she called a journal and shooed the hacker along, immediately attending to the next sprite in line.

Well, not all systems were the most pleasant of places. She turned her attention to the journal. A quick inspection revealed it to be somewhat like a primitive vid-screen, with a map and a few other options built in. Primitive, but not bad. She could work with this if she had to. A quick inquiry for information, and then she decided she'd best explore the city, and try to find a Guardian, or anyone in charge of this place. She needed to get back to Mainframe.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mouse would find a Guardian, but not the kind that she had expected.

Auron had finally managed to wander back to the gate he had first entered through, a stray thought that had become an action. He wasn't sure what he was doing to be honest. There really wasn't much for him to do here. There were people who needed a guardian, but not the kind that he was. They were the only ones who could protect themselves here.

It was as he began to walk back into the city, this time to find somewhere to stay, that he noticed the purple woman near the gate. An eyebrow quirked a bit--that wasn't something you saw every day--but the man said nothing. If she needed something, she would speak with him.

Auron instantly stood out from the sea of pale blond sprites around her, and Mouse decided if she was going to approach anyone else, it might as well be someone who looked as out of place as she must have. He might not be so inclined to ignore her.

She approached casually, and flashed a smile. "'Scuse me, sugar, do you live around here or are you just passing through?"

It would be more helpful if he was the former, but even the latter could prove to have more information that that guard was willing to disclose.

"Both, for the moment," Auron responded. He wasn't exactly sure about being called "sugar," but that wasn't really important at the moment. Despite the woman's purple skin and strange hair, Auron's gaze flickered first to the currently sheathed weapon across her back. A warrior, then? He stuck his own sword into the ground, but kept hold of it, just in case.

Considering she'd just come in, he had the feeling she was looking for information. At least she'd found the right person for it. Not in that he could give her a very detailed account, but it was better than meeting up with the people that would lead her astray. "You have questions, then?"

"A few," Mouse said, and wondered where to begin. The likelihood of this man knowing how she had ended up here after a system crash was slim. Might as well see about getting herself out of here, then. His words made her think he might be used to travelling, and that would mean he might be able to point her in the right direction. "Know how I could get out of here? Is this a system or a Game Cube?"

She had asked on the basic vid-screen and received messages of being trapped. But if she got here, there had to be a port or something, right? Or if it was a game, like AndrAIa said, then it was a matter of winning it. But how would she do that when she had no idea who the User was?

System? Game Cube? He'd never heard this place called either of those before. Auron shook his head, "I don't. Can't say I know what those are, either." He paused a moment before continuing, "But if this is a game, it's one none of us enjoys playing."

He looked around him silently, making certain that no one was either paying attention or would care before he looked at the woman again. "What do you know of this place so far?" he asked, keeping his voice low so as to not be heard by the citizens.

"Nobody enjoys the games, sugar," Mouse said with a wry smile. If he didn't know what a system or a Game Cube were, perhaps he was a game sprite? But she couldn't spot an icon on him. Odd...

Mouse perked up at Auron's sudden hushed tone; she did love to get her hands on information. "Not much so far," she said. "Just stepped in through the door. Enough to know nobody seems to be able to get out."

So they were those kind of games then. The kind that people play with other people as their pawns... No, no one enjoyed those games. Auron himself had grown tired of them over the years.

He nodded as she answered him. "They can't," he affirmed, "But it goes deeper than that." Auron took another cautious look around himself. "The ones who lead this place are not what they seem. You'd do well to read the message board. That should give you a little information on the situation. Be careful of who you trust."

"I'll look it over," Mouse said; she had skimmed the message board, but hadn't spent much time looking through what the sprites had to say. She would just have to look more carefully later.

And then, a bit of a smirk. "And how do I know I should trust you, sugar?"

Because really, he was just someone she had come across. He could be telling the truth, but he could just as easily be lying. In a place as corrupted as this one, who knew if he was infected or corrupted or even some sort of virus?

Auron chuckled. Whoever this woman was, she was smart. "Good question," he replied simply. He paused a moment. That probably wasn't the best answer to give. "We've only just met. I could ask the same of you," he clarified.

Although that made him wonder if telling these newcomers this information really was a good idea. This could all be a big mistake. But, on the other hand, it could be their greatest tool in gaining new allies. Word of mouth was often the best way to get information sometimes when little else was available. Dangerous or not, the more allies they had, the greater their strength.

Whether this sprite was corrupted, a virus, or something else entirely, Mouse figured it would be best to learn what she could from him; she could verify the accuracy of the information later, but if she had none at all, there wasn't much she could do.

And as a hacker, Mouse did so like working in the realm of information.

"Guess we'll have to take a chance, then," she said with her typical confident smirk.

Mouse had been in worse scrapes than this: this was hardly an issue. He wasn't brandishing any sort of weapon at her, after all. If she had to, she could go somewhere else, work from there.

"So, whoever's running this place... They're the infection?"

Must have been a virus of some sort.

Auron rose an eyebrow. Infection? An odd term to use. They didn't seem to be sick in any way (though the general consensus was that many sicknesses that occurred in the city often had a root cause in the Organization).

"I wouldn't say that," he replied, "Though they've caused their fair share of problems for this place. As I said, you'd do well to read the message board. It has more information than I could give right now."

"I'll check it out," Mouse said.

But first she needed somewhere to stay. A base of operations. She supposed she could work anywhere if she really had to, but it was better to have a place where she could spread out.

"Know of any places nearby to stay?"

She wondered if this game, system, or whatever, took the same sort of credit as Mainframe and most of the rest of the net.

Auron nodded. "There are some hotels around here--Actua Are," he began, "There are some apartments as well. The residents will take anything that shines as currency." He motioned his head in the direction of one of the trees, illustrating what he meant. He still didn't quite understand why the citizens did this. It really didn't make any sense.

"There's also a map function on this machina if you haven't found it already," he stated, pulling the journal out and bringing up the map. He shut the device off not long after, putting it away. He really hadn't used the thing that much, but, given the situation that he continued to be pulled into, he was beginning to think he should change that.

Machina? Was that what everyone called this device, or was it just him? Either way, she nodded and, taking her own out, got to the map with ease. This was such a simple device to use, she had no problem navigating through the few functions it had.

Of course, she might be able to add to its functioning, given a bit of time and a place to work. And this "Actua Are" seemed like the perfect place for it.

She followed Auron's gaze to a tree. It must have been a game. A weird one. But if they would take that in exchange for a room, who was she to complain?

"Thanks, sugar," she said, and with a wave, moved to the tree to secure some currency for a room before moving on. "I'll keep in touch."

Fran looked around her. She looked above her. She looked at the ground she was standing on. It was definitely not Atlantis or the Replicators’ version thereof. It did not even look Lantian. It did not look like the Dedelus either. Those were the only places she had ever been before, which put her at a loss as to what this place looked like. There was a dome and a large, ornate gateway. There was a line of people, in which she was currently standing, leading up to the gateway.

Fran turned to the person standing in line behind her. ‘Hello,’ she greeted with a blithe smile.

The person just looked at her strangely, as most people did when they met her. She waited patiently in line as it moved ever closer to the gate, until she was at the front of it. There was a blond woman there with a clip board, taking names.

‘Hello,’ Fran greeted her.

The woman smiled back and replied, ‘Welcome to Paixao. Your name?’

‘Fran,’ Fran answered pleasantly.

The woman wrote on her clip board and waved Fran through the gates. Another person handed her a personal electronic device and a third pushed a stack of folded brochures into her hands. She greeted each of them.

After she was ushered through the gate, she found herself in a crowded area with a cobbled floor and small buildings and artificial plants surrounding it. People were walking back and forth past her, all seeming very busy and intent on their destinations. Fran greeted them as they passed, but none paid attention to her.

((Late Hayley is laaaate. o.o))

Auron nodded to the woman as she left. Keep in touch? He would have to see how that went. He didn't think that he'd made that big of an impression, but he supposed that impressions were often made bigger when they were made first, and even more so when they were on the first person you met.

He watched her leave before turning to do the same, only stopping when another woman caught his eye. He seemed to either be in the right place at the right time or just in the popular place of the moment. Auron wondered whether to speak up, but figured that the woman would notice him eventually. She was already busy greeting everyone else, wasn't she?

((deepest appologies for such a long delay))

'Hello,' Fran said to a man pushing a cart. He gave her a nod and continued on his way. She kept walking after he had moved from her path and found herself in front of a taller man with dark hair like Colonel Shepherd's, although not as messy. The other people in the square all had blond hair, which made this man stand out somewhat. Fran smiled pleasantly at him. 'Hello.'

Just as he had thought. Auron nodded in response to the woman but said little else, though he at least stayed put. "You have just arrived?" he asked. Two arrivals in the same day. Hm. He seemed to find quite a bit of them, didn't he?

Fran brightened as the man spoke to her. Nobody else had asked anything of her since she'd given her name to the woman at the gate. 'Hello, I'm Fran,' she said with a happy smile. 'I did arrive just now. I found myself outside that gate.' She pointed behind her.

Just talking to her seemed to have made her happy. Interesting enough. Auron nodded. "That is how most people enter the city. The trouble is finding a way out," he explained. He paused, "...Auron."

He then glanced in the direction that the other woman had gone off in. She seemed to be long gone by now. Very well. She knew what she would have to do now anyway. Now he had this new woman to deal with. A bit... more open than the other, he noticed. Although... something seemed off in a way, though how he wasn't sure.

'The gate only goes one way?' Fran asked curiously, looking back at the gate again. 'Is the control crystal missing?' It seemed odd that some place so obviously well-maintained would have an inactive DHD, but perhaps that was intentional? 'Is this a prison planet?' She wasn't sure why she'd have been placed on a prison planet, but then, perhaps Doctor McKay had decided that it was the best place to contain her after she was no longer needed?

A prison? An interesting thought. It was entirely possible given the information on past events, but not everyone seemed to have committed any crimes. Auron couldn't claim to understand anything about control crystals, but he supposed "one-way" was the best descriptor.

"Hmph. It might as well be."

The man did not seem inclined to answer in definites, and so Fran thought that he must not know the answers. 'Have many people here committed crimes or are they being contained due to the risk their existence presents to the majority?' she asked curiously, looking at the sea of blond people moving here and there.

'Do they come from many different planets or is this colony used by one civilization in particular?' she asked, looking back up at the man.

Hm. It didn't seem the woman quite understood what Auron meant. Or she was busy focused on the question she really wanted answered. "I wouldn't know. I don't tend to ask others of that," he replied. "But they come from many worlds."

Interesting woman, this. She reminded him somewhat of the blonds.

'That's interesting,' Fran said, tilting her head slightly in thought. 'What planet do you come from? Do you know it's address?' she asked Auron curiously. 'How did you arrive here?'

Weren't addresses normally attributed to specific places? At least, that was how it had been in Zanarkand. Unless this strange woman came from a place with a different system of going about things...

"Spira. To the others, I do not know. Spira is just a world. No one knows exactly how they got here."

'Interesting.' Fran nodded. She looked down at the brochures and pocket-computer in her hands again and then smiled up at Auron. 'Do you know why I was given this?' she asked, holding up the pocket-computer.

"To communicate with others," he replied. "It also includes a map. It's fairly simple to figure out." After a moment, he added, "There is also a train to get around the city easier, as well as various hotels and restaurants. Your currency in this place is whatever plantlife you manage to come across." He waited to see if she had anything else she wanted to ask.

'Oh, thank you!' Fran said, flipping the devise open and looking through it. When prompted, she typed out a message in it and quickly started getting responses.

((D: I didn't think it had been this long. Sorry. For the most part I was trying to find a way to keep him there. >.O))

Auron nodded in return, watching her play with the device before he turned on his heel and started to leave. He was done for now. No longer needed anymore, at least.

He stopped a few steps away, glancing behind himself. "Try the Actua Are hotels." And then he was walking off again.

'All right. Thank you,' Fran replied, watching the man walk away. She checked in her hand-held device and found a map listing a number of 'Actua Are' hotels. The nearest one seemed to be near the center of the city.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Crashing into Paixao? [Active]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject