Ian In The Wrong Place? - OTA

[ubuntu_programmer]

Open/locked?: Open
Who: Ian and whomsoever encounters them
What: Ian arrives in Auradon
Warnings: Some angst, maybe?


There was a figure slumped by the wall, their white and black hair disheveled, their glasses on the grass beside them. Their small suitcase was over their legs, their backpack dangling from one arm. After a moment they groaned and lifted a hand to their head. "Did I get hit by a truck or something...?" They mumbled.

Eyes opening, they looked around. "Well that's not good. I can't afford to be hallucinating now." They picked up their round lensed glasses and checked them before putting them on, then fished a phone out of their pocket. "No bars. Of course. I need to write an algorithm that will allow my phone to find signal from anywhere in the world. Of course, I should still be close enough to get signal anyway, hallucination or no. So... what is actually going on here...?"

Comments

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well you're welcome to try," Lea said with a bit of a shrug. "It'd be really helpful if you could. But if I were you, I wouldn't hold my breath. Vexen tried it before in the last place we were in, but no luck."

"And just in case you were getting any ideas, ask Ben first before you go grabbing stuff from the electronics store, OK? It is still a store, after all, even if its owner's not around. If there's something you actually need though, Ben'll probably cover it."

"Anyway," he said, "now that we've secured coffee and tea, how about I give you a tour? We can stop by the info booth in the lobby and get your your phone and a FAQ sheet; that actually covers a lot of what I've already told you, but there's some other stuff too and it'll probly still be handy to have, especially since this is your first cross-world kidnapping."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"I'm not a thief. I didn't know the shop owner's wasn't around, I planned to pay for my tech, thanks," they said giving Lea a look. "And a tour would be fine, especially if it gets me a phone and a place I can safely lock my stuff up so it won't be stolen while we're wandering around."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"I didn't think you would be normally," Lea assured them. "But basically the entire population pooffing off to who knows where isn't exactly normal." He indicated for Ian to follow him as he led the way out the opposite entrance to the kitchens. "Though you'll find that Auradon's not big on locks. I mean the doors to rooms can be locked, but most of the locals wouldn't think to."

[ubuntu_programmer]

They followed. "So... no one thinks they have anything of value to protect?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"More like the locals are all just way too nice," Lea said. "They wouldn't think to lock their rooms because they don't have to; they know that no one around is likely to take advantage of it to go steal stuff or anything. They're not stupid, mind you; places like museums have locks and alarms and stuff. But for just one person and their stuff? They figure the honor system is enough."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Uh... huh. I think I'll be locking my door, all the same."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Honestly? Me too. But then I'm not a local," he said. "I figure it must work for them when things aren't turned upside down, or they wouldn't keep doing it that way, but..." He trailed off with a shrug. Whether it worked for native Auradonians under normal circumstances was somewhat immaterial at the moment, as they weren't native and things were decidedly not normal.

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Or no one ever wants to admit to being a victim."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Their choice of words caused Lea to quirk an eyebrow. There was a story there, he could tell. Possibly more than one. But he also figured it wasn't really the time to ask about it, given that they'd only just met.

"Yeah, that kind of thing is always complicated to get into," he said instead, keeping it vague. "In some cases more than others." Like his own.

Luckily, arriving in the lobby provided a convenient distraction. "Anyway, welcome to the lobby." He led Ian over to the welcome station. "We set this little info booth up for new arrivals. Ideally, there'd be someone here to talk to and ask questions directly, but in case there wasn't, we made up this map, and left some phones and info sheets. Feel free to grab one of each." On the table next to the poster-sized laminated map of the school and its grounds was a case of a dozen or so Pumpkin brand phones, unopened, and a tray of FAQ sheets, neatly printed on school stationary.

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Pumpkin... phones. Pumpkin.... Yeah okay, my head hurts. I don't suppose this place has advil?" They asked with a groan. "How do I pay for all this?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea chuckled. "I'm sure there's stuff for headaches in the infirmary, though I dunno about that specific brand," he said. "But the phone and room and board are free. Think of it as a combination 'welcome' and 'sorry you got accidentally kidnapped' gift."

"You wanna hit the infirmary first before staking out a room? Or get settled first then worry about headache meds?"

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Sorry you got kidnapped gift... Going to have to remember that." They sighed. "Room first so I don't have to lug everything around."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Alright, room it is," he said. "Which dorm do you want? Personally I'd go with the boys' side unless you're super into pink and frills. Seriously, I peeked into an unoccupied girl's dorm room when I first got here; they look like a cotton candy machine exploded or something. But I don't think anybody'll care which you pick, and all kidding aside, they're all exactly as comfortable as you'd expect from a super posh boarding school."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"What do the other ones look like?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Lots of blue and green flannel, and merch for the school sports teams on the walls," he said. "But that's easy enough to take down if you want to. I stuck the flags from my room under my bed."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"That's.... not much for options. Haven't these people ever heard of black?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Honestly I don't think most of the locals would be caught dead in black, unless it was like... a tux or something," Lea said. "And maybe not even then. From what I've seen and and been told, image seems pretty important here. They want to project the image of being all nice and squeaky-clean and black has too much of an association with evil for it to be a popular choice. White, gray, or tan, on the other hand, would probably be doable if you want something neutral, though I doubt there's any other colors available right on hand. I could try digging around in the linen closet though, see if I could find anything."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"You know, I am getting more than a little fed up of people deciding perfectly innocent things are associated with evil just to other people and give themselves an excuse to hate."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"To be fair, from what I've seen the local bad guys tend to lean into their image pretty hard too," he said. "Lots of black and dark colors, leather, spikes and metal bits, all kinds of goth or punk looking stuff. So it's not quite as much of a stretch to make the association here as it might be in some other worlds. Though even here it's probably kind of one big feedback loop as much as anything else; you wanna look 'good' or 'bad', this is how you do it. That kinda thing."

"But for the most part I'm with you on that one. Sometime there's a legit reason behind it, but most of the time it's just stupid."

[ubuntu_programmer]

They shook their head. "Wonder how much is coded differently as well..." they mused. "After all, I can see how some people could turn to breaking the law when the law says you're breaking it just by existing..."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Honestly it's kind of hard to tell how the locals as a whole view stuff like that with so few of them around," he said. "Though the ones I've met don't seem like the type who'd have any issues with that. Really this kingdom's got its own issues to worry about anyway. To be totally fair, they were in the process of working on them, but most of the population vanishing kinda threw a monkey wrench into that plan."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Do I want to even know what their own issues are?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well aside from what's mentioned in the FAQ sheet," he said- because he went to the trouble of writing them for a reason-, "there was basically a blanket ban on magic put in place back when the kingdom was brought together about 20 years ago. It's dumb for a lot of reasons, but mostly because there are some species here for whom magic is just a part of what they are, like faeries and genies. That basically means that their existence is borderline illegal just in itself, and they're not allowed to explore that aspect of themselves at all. And on top of that, there's actual historical evidence that a person actively suppressing magic is harmful and causes problems, so it's just a whole mess."

"Then there's all kinds of labor issues that also seem centered mostly around non-humans. Those seem a good bit more varied and complicated though, and I haven't been able to find quite as much information about them. That I could understand, anyway; I'm not exactly a lawyer or anything." And he'd all but fallen asleep in Law class at Diatu.

[ubuntu_programmer]

"That... sounds disturbingly familiar..." Ian muttered, uncomfortable.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah...", Lea said. "Unfortunately, this kinda thing seems to crop up on a lot of worlds; it's just a matter of what the thing it's centered around is. But as I've been firmly reminded by no one less than Queen Mal herself, as much as it grinds my gears sometimes, we can't just butt in and try to change things here to how we think they should be. We can offer our help or advice, but it's ultimately their world and they have to be the ones to fix things if they're gonna get fixed."