[ OPEN ] an informal event.

[falcony]

Who: the summoned of cadens
When: beginning of february
Where: the sarstina inn and tavern
What: sam is hitting two birds with one stone - his February (or whatever February means in abraxas time) family dinner AND a kind of new-summoned-social event. he even had hilda help spread the word!
Warnings: will update if needed!

THE DINNER

As per Hilda's invitation, if any of the Summoned come by Sarstina's that evening, they will find it set up a little differently than it's normal tavern sprawl. There is a large long table set up near the bar that has plenty of food spread out across it - which appears to look very southern-inspired in its intention, limited only by the kinds of ingredients a certain Sam Wilson can get his hands on. Behind the bar is Mag, who will serve whoever it is that comes up to ask for a drink - it appears someone is covering the tab tonight.

There are various tables and chairs set up around the place, as well as a stage on the corner for some live music from one of their very own later in the evening. The vibes is definitely low-key and casual - come get an ale, come eat some food, and if you're a new face there is a very good chance you'll end up (gently and in the most friendly way) cornered by either Sam, Hilda, or one of the other Summoned here to help answer questions and give a bit more background on what the hell is going on and also let you know about Mag's whole deal. Aka, if you're looking for a room until you're a little more on your feet, you are welcome here. Room and board in exchange for work. Not a big gig, right?

And if being social isn't your vibe, Sam's kind of betting on the fact there aren't many here who would turn down free food and drinks. And believe him - the food is pretty damn good.

OOC INFO

- this is a totally open post! I've got a TL below for various scenarios you can find Sam, but otherwise have fun, meet some people, put up a TL of your own! there are various places to run into people in the tavern, and if you find someone who is willing to help you into the Horizon, Sam's been letting people know they can use his room upstairs.

- Sam's only Rule is there will be no fighting. You want to duke it out? Take it somewhere else. There will not be warnings or second chances. Don't be an ass. He has lived in this Inn since he first got here and considers this his home, and if ANYONE is seen giving Mag a hard time, he will not hesitate. He's not afraid of squaring up, but you will not be invited back if you cause too many issues. :)

- this is open to any and all Summoned in Cadens, no matter loyalties or factions. Sam is going to be going overboard to be welcoming, especially to new faces. Even if your character didn't see the big invitation, feel free to have them invited by word of mouth.

- Mag is an NPC who you can read a little more about in the NPC section of the Cadens setting page. Feel free to have her come in and out of your tags as needed!

- any questions? message me at disarmingly

THE INN

Magmara (or Mag) has run the inn for years and has been a familiar face in that neighborhood as a woman who always made ends meet, almost in spite of the way she took care of her friends and neighbors above all else. Most weren't always sure how she managed to run the place on her own, but she made due, though she always seemed a bit overwhelmed and exhausted. When the Summoned arrived in the Cadens through that first portal, Sam managed to stumble in and make quick friends with Mag. In exchange for manual labor, fixing up and cleaning up the inn, as well as whatever other various tasks Mag needed to be done around, Sam would be given free room and board (a deal she now offers to any Summoned that arrives in the city for as long as they need it).

The inn itself is 4 floors tall, with the top three floors making up the 15 or so rooms (around five rooms per floor), and the entire bottom floor reserved for the restaurant area. The tavern makes up the entire first floor and is a large open floorplan, with a small stage in the corner, a walled-off area for the decently sized kitchen, and a large wooden bar where Mag does all her business for both the inn and tavern (where can almost always be found standing behind). It serves drinks of some variety (though not nearly as large a selection as some of the more well-known taverns) and some food (usually a single, large meal that will be served to the tenants and whoever comes in throughout the night for a moderate price). It can be busy some evenings, but in general tends to keep a more 'dive-bar' kind of feel, filled with more locals and regulars than a casual dinner-going crowd.

The rooms themselves vary from fairly simple, single-bed inn-style rooms with a small bathroom and little else, up to a two 'bedroom' suite style with small kitchenettes and spaces for sitting rooms. Each bedroom has its own small bathroom for the tenants, with cleaning, washing, and chores left to those who live there. What used to be more of a working inn now serves as a kind of boarding house for newly arrived Summoned (or simply those who won't leave), and Mag has found herself quite okay with that.

Comments

Courier 6 ☆ OTA

[lonedanger]

☆ arrival/dinner

[ Len was referred to this place by an extremely helpful otherworlder, and its unassuming appearance and general lack of pretension have reminded him considerably of the Goodsprings Saloon: diverse clientele and an assortment of services with a few places to stay in the inn. Definitely the kind of place he'd prefer to relocate to when he figures out a way to do so, because the barracks just aren't going to cut it for something as anti-authority as himself. Nothing worse than getting press-ganged into fighting in somebody else's conflict.

The food feels relatively familiar, at any rate, not in material but in execution. Reminds him a bit of the way folk have prepared things off the coast of Texas, back when he used to wander out that way. ]

Y'all tried this yet? It's damn good.

☆ throughout the night

[ Things could be a great deal worse than all this, and Len makes a concerted effort to make the best of yet another kidnapping situation. It's a good thing he's at least not at the mercy of a bunch of psychotic, two-hundred-plus year old doctors - a bunch of fairly reasonable near-strangers is ideal by comparison.

Between meandering around the abundance of foodstuffs and indulging in the open tab, Len can be found (consistently) with a glass of something or other in hand, making a not insignificant effort toward introducing himself to people. ]

Leonard Darin. Len's fine, just don't call me Lenny. [ And lastly, the most frequent subject of conversation that comes up: ] If y'don't mind my asking, how long you been here?

[ Between the small talk and general chatter he takes his time to people-watch, filing little bits and pieces of information away, regretting his lack of a Pip Boy and wondering if there's some Abraxas equivalent he could get his hands on. If he's not dead-eyeing the assortment of people milling about he's tapping a foot along to the music, interested in the way it differs from everything back home. ]

☆ wildcard

[ If none of these options appeal, please feel free to hmu on discord at uncalendula#5439 and we can figure out something different! ]

throughout the night

[nadine_he_loves]

[It really is helpful, being able to meet so many of the newest Summoned at once. This was a good idea - it's not like the inn is some big secret. It's pretty well known this is The Summoned Area. Even those that have left the inn to live elsewhere haven't gone very far from it.

And plenty of them seem just as eager for answers and networking with those already here.]

Good to meet you, sorry about the circumstances. I'm Nadine, I'm the resident medical aide for the Summoned, and I've been here...uh...almost two years.

[That sounds about right. Winter's at least half over, and it had been late spring when she'd first come here, or thereabouts. Keeping rigid track of the time always slips her mind.]

wheeeee

[lonedanger]

Fuck.

[ Len says without any pretense whatsoever, nearly coughing up his drink. He thought the handful of people who said they'd been around for one year was more than sufficient, but as it turns out there are sad saps who were kidnapped long before that. ]

Two years. I'd ask if you're pullin' my leg but you don't give me the impression you joke around like that.

[nadine_he_loves]

[Nadine lets out a laugh at that response. It doesn't bother her any, she understands.]

It's fine, really, don't feel bad for me or anything like that. I'm good here. This place is much better than my world.

[It's not perfect, but it's not an apocalypse on the brink of war. Lack of TV and fast food cheeseburgers is hardly new, and a small price to pay for all the benefits that this world offers her. But she knows her and Julie's situation isn't everyone's, and hardly begrudges those who'd prefer to go home.

Especially someone just freshly arrived in this place.]

It's still a big adjustment, though. But we're here to help the new arrivals with that.

[lonedanger]

[ Len supposes that's more often the case than not: surely not every person who shows up here has a place they'd rather not leave behind. Surely some folks got plenty of skeletons in their proverbial closets, or oppressive worlds to which they belong.

Regrettably, he is not one of them. All that work to get things settled on the Strip, and he gets pulled away here. ]

Well, I certainly appreciate the effort, ma'am. [ Len tips his head and clears his throat, lifting his glass in a mock toast. ] How bad's your world that you prefer being abducted?

[nadine_he_loves]

Oh, please don't call me 'ma'am', it makes me feel old. 'Miss' is fine if you want to be formal.

[She'd been 'Miss Nadine' to all her students, and while technically she may not be a 'Miss' anymore, she still prefers it to the other options. At least until she can formally put 'Doctor' in front of her name.]

And, uh, it was bad. The world pretty much ended, and wasn't doing so great in the aftermath.

[She's never made it any secret she comes from a nearly-dead world. It's not like she's the only one, she can think of three others from three completely separate apocalypses on Earth alone. Nor is it particularly painful for her to talk about. The world hadn't been doing so great even before the plague.

And he'd asked. She likely wouldn't have just volunteered the information - it can upset people - but he'd asked.]

People don't do so well when all the rules of civilization just go away.

[lonedanger]

[ Ma'am. Force of habit, and from his mother's hand in his upbringing. Len nods in acquiescence and lets her continue, which she does in a way that's disappointing at best and outright godawful at worst. Not every world can have its people kicking around and having a wonderful time while doing so, and Len knew that his wasn't the exception to the rule.

Hers isn't either, apparently. Stands to reason some folk might prefer living on Abraxas, even if it does sound like a familiar industrial cleaning agent. ]

I'd drink to that. But I'd also argue that an abundance of rules - justified or not - don't always make for decent civilization. Too much control is just as bad as no control at all.

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, I mean just the really basic ones. Like don't murder people, or don't make other people your slaves, don't stockpile a bunch of military grade weapons...turns out we really do need those to be rules. Or things turn into a really dark episode of The Twilight Zone pretty quick.

[It had only taken what, a month or two after the fall of civilization before the roads were threatened by highway bandits and freaky cults? And that was just the regular, natural decline of man. Flagg hadn't been responsible for all of it.

She has no idea if Len will understand her reference or not - it's hard to tell with the new ones - but dropping pop culture references is usually a good way to figure out who's from a similar Earth as herself.]

Luckily, it's not too bad here. The government has a habit of poking their nose into everything, which isn't ideal, but it's a lot of red tape paperwork stuff. They keep track of who's working where and who's selling what and all that. If I sound a little bitter it's because I recently got stuck doing a bunch of that paperwork, they also keep track of things like medical research.

[At least she can agree that it's something that should be monitored, even if it meant she had to get a license just to start selling cannabis derived goods.]

throughout the night

[philancer]

[ Sylvain had mingled for a little bit the first part of the night, but he'd gotten antsy and Mags had looked like she had her hands full, so after grabbing a bite to eat, he gives up on being a guest and slides back behind the back behind the bar to lend a hand and keep the alcohol flowing.

Which was pretty necessary when you first arrived, if his own arrival was anything to go by. It had been A Lot to take in.

But he's already filling a glass when one of the unfamiliar faces here tonight wanders up to the bar and introduces himself. Sliding the glass atop the countertop to him with a playful wink, he props his elbows atop the bar with a grin. ]

Sylvain. Nice to meet you, Len. [ Although his question has him thinking, face screwed up as he counts backwards. ] Mmmm, 'bout six moons now, I think. Give or take a week. Not as long as some but still feels a lot longer than it could, you know?

[lonedanger]

[ It takes all of two seconds and a charming little wink for Len to immediately peg the young man across the bar as a flirt, overtly friendly from the get-go with a charming disposition to counter any outright forwardness that the casual layperson might find distasteful. He wouldn't feel so confident in his assessment if he wasn't precisely the same, in a manner of speaking, though he probably has at least a decade on the guy. Time has a way of either tempering or intensifying certain traits.

The drink he accepts with consummate gratefulness, speaking again after a healthy swallow. ]

'Bout half a year then. Ain't nothing to sneeze at. [ Len rolls the base of his glass on the countertop thoughtfully, raising an eyebrow. ] I feel like asking if you've gotten used to things is a loaded question.

[philancer]

[ Sylvain rarely lets something as inconsequential as age deter him. Besides. He usually felt a lot older than his twenty-five years. War tended to do that to a person.

But he just chuckles and wiggles his hand back and forth in an uncomfirming gesture. ]

Honestly? Depends on the day. Some days, yeah, it feels like I'm getting a handle on it. And hen there's the days where there's fish flying in the sky and vampires throwing flower parties and cat-sized scorpions and I'm back to wondering what the goddess I've landed myself in the middle of.

[lonedanger]

[ It's an adaptability he can admire, if only because it's the only way to survive in a wildly inhospitable environment. Len is trying to treat everything with the general acceptance of a man who has no choice but to do so, because fighting the flow rather than going with it will only make him a target. ]

Only cat-sized scorpions?

[ He muses over his glass, taking a sip. ]

Where I come from, they're about as big as a pair of horses.

[philancer]

[ Sylvain just looks at him for a moment, as if trying to gauge if he were joking or not.

And then he just sighs deeply and pinches the bridge of his nose between his fingers. ]

Remind me to keep you away from Claude, that's more bad luck than I can stand in this place.

[lonedanger]

You'll have to introduce me. That much bad luck cancels out.

[ This is a bald-faced lie, but Len doesn't seem to care and grins over his glass. ]

How is it none of y'all have put together a 'beginner's guide to waking up kidnapped' yet?

[philancer]

[ Sylvain just laughs at that and shakes his head. ]

Just you wait, the next thing you know, they'll be roping you into helping them write one. Definitely sounds like something Hilda would try and do. Or maybe that bard that hangs around here sometimes.

In the meantime, I'll just keep helping with the vocal version, yeah? And I give great tours of the marketplace, apparently.

☆ throughout the night

[catholica]

No calling you Lenny, got it.

( easy to understand and easy to follow. matt switches his cane from one hand to the other so he can extend it out in len's direction for a handshake. )

Matthew Murdock. And I think I'm going on about six months now. And that's one of the shorter times here, I think. Some people are hitting a year and then some.

[lonedanger]

[ Len meets that shake halfway, gaze flicking swiftly to the cane, then to Matthew's face. The disability assistance isn't unfamiliar to him - a couple of the older folks in Goodsprings started getting cataracts and Doc Mitchell helped them out with a little craftiness and some lightweight, tooled wood - but his hands are those of a working man. Callused, experienced. Not the same distinct roughness of a regular gun handler, but something else. ]

Ran into somebody who's been here for two years, and I gotta say, that ain't exactly great news.

[ Len's grip is firm but warm before releasing Matthew's, giving him a more speculative once-over out of curiosity before adding: ]

Whereabouts are you from? Before this place, I mean.

[catholica]

Yeah, it's — yeah.

( that's about all he has to say about it. he can't even imagine being here for two years but considering he's already been here six months, he knows it's possible. )

New York. Hell's Kitchen, specifically. You know it?

( or was it one of those things that wasn't present in his world? hard to ell with all the diversity here. )

[lonedanger]

Heard of New York. East coast, right?

[ Once, a long while ago, Len got a good look at a map of the United States of America before it was torn asunder. Always wanted to make his way across the middle of the continent to see what it was like on the other side, but now he's fairly certain that isn't even remotely in the cards. ]

'Fraid I don't know much else about it. As I'm startin' to figure out, my version of the world is a whole lot different from most people's.

[catholica]

Well, that's not too uncommon, worlds being different. But yeah, east coast. Northeast coast, really.

( he's curious though, now. )

What's your world like?

[lonedanger]

It was the United States at one point, a little over two-hundred years ago. Old world government got into a nuclear conflict with another country and they pretty much wiped most major cities off the map.

[ Worlds being different seems to be the norm here, certainly. It's definitely not the norm where Len comes from, so this is a learning curve he's just going to have to keep throwing himself into. It's reassuring to hear that New York is at least in approximately the same place. It also means that Matthew should probably (hopefully) recognize any significant locations he rattles off. He continues with a leisurely, explanatory drawl: ]

I'm from around Santa Fe, in what used to be New Mexico. Been doing most of my work around the New Vegas Strip. Desert ain't changed much, from what I can tell, but the fallout's still pretty bad just about everywhere. We still get radiation storms and the like. Wasteland's crawling with raiders and monsters and the local politics are something of a shitshow at the fuck factory.

[ A beat, followed by a huffed laugh. ]

...If I'm bein' honest, the Free Cities are a little akin to home in that regard.

[catholica]

That doesn't — surprise me, the nuclear conflict. People never could get along and they would always find ways to annihilate each other.

( nuclear war is a little extreme but then again, he'd been in new york during an alien invasion that decimated the city. it's not out of the realm of possibility. )

I haven't really seen the monsters and such that people say are out there. I know they are, I believe them but haven't gone on that kind of trip. Might be interesting to explore one day.

dinner-ish

[aquilus]

[Altaïr has in fact been eyeing the spread with a mix of consideration and trepidation. It's hardly the first time he's been confronted with that differs from what he's used to back in Masyaf and the Holy Land; he's adjusted. But it seems he has a ways to go before he can consider himself fully knowledgeable of the native cuisines and those the Summoned bring with them.]

I've been giving it some thought.

[He looks somewhat more trepidatious about this than he did about trading heavy blows back on the training grounds.]

[lonedanger]

Don't hurt yourself thinkin' too long or you'll miss out.

[ Len isn't particular about most of what he eats, but that comes from never having the luxury to be choosy with his food. Resources were already scarce back in the Mojave, and far be it from him to start taking decent grub for granted. It's not a two-hundred year old box of macaroni and it's not a mildly irradiated squirrel on a kebab stick, so it's already an improvement.

He moves to give Altaïr a congenial nudge, nodding toward one of the dishes. ]

You like spice?

[aquilus]

Funny.

[Ha ha. All right, fair point, he's hardly pampered enough to be choosy from day to day, even if the bounty on offer at this gathering means he could be tonight. Altaïr snags a plate and hopes for the best.]

Most people do. [He's thinking spices, not heat.] That's why traders value it so highly.