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

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Honestly, I'd rather it be real that someone I just met has a dark sense of humor than that it actually happened. For multiple reasons. I'm certain you'd rather be joking too, all things considered, yes?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah there's... a lot of stuff I wish I could say I was making up just to screw with people," Lea said with a bit of a sigh. "But I'm not. I've been honest about everything I've said to you so far. This is all real and all really happening, even the parts that sound straight out of a comic book or a video game. You're probly gonna see some absolutely insane stuff, good, bad, and in between before this is all over."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Video game... too much to hope I passed out playing Dark Souls and this whole last year's just been one messed up dream...?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

At that Lea smiled a bit again. "Unfortunately, yeah," he said wryly. "Sorry, buddy."

"Though that does remind me how long it's been since I've had a proper game night. Me and Isa used to do that a lot when we were kids, stay up way too late, eating pizza and playing video games when we were staying over at each other's houses. Don't think either of our moms would've bought us a game called 'Dark Souls' though. Mostly it was things like Super Marietti Brothers or Hyperman- platformers- or Blocktrix- a puzzle game that involved stacking up colored blocks, with the occasional racing or fighting game thrown in. We had some RPGs too, but those were hard to play together unless we took turns."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"Super Mario Brothers? Bomberman? Tetris...? Sounds like you got all the knock off games. Well if I am rally stuck here, at least I can help with that. I was on my way to some in office glamping and I thought gaming might be just the thing... so I might have a lot of my gear packed. No oculus, that's just asking for trouble, but I have pretty much everything else we'd need. And I think I can rig it up so we could MMORPG together if I can connect to the servers. I mean... I could always rig up a private local intranet to lan party it old school style, that's what I was going to have to do anyway for security reasons. So I should have the cables. It's just more fun if we can get a group together for bigger dungeons."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea shrugged. "That might be what they were called in your world," he said. "No way to tell really, unless we got copies of both to compare. All I know is that they and their sequels were pretty popular games back when I was a kid."

"Though that's another thing. Any phones or computers or whatever that you brought with you? They won't connect to the local network. Any offline features will still work fine though, and we'll give you a phone that will connect. We've got a bunch to hand out to new people, since apparently the school's headmistress invested pretty heavily in a tech company and they sent her some spare stock. And if we run out of those, we recently gained access to a little shopping plaza that includes an electronics store."

[ubuntu_programmer]

"You clearly underestimate me," they said with a grin. "A phone that does actually connect and an electronics store? I'll be able to make things work well enough for gaming. That much I can promise." And... hopefully for calling out.

[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."