WELCOME TO THE FREE CITIES!

[abraxasmods]

WELCOME TO THE FREE CITIES!

Welcome to The Free Cities! The portal exits outside the capital city of Cadens. The first impression of the city is its sheer size. It sprawls out across the landscape like a great hulking beast at rest. The wall that encircles it barely contains it, the buildings of Cadens practically bulging against its restraint.

The air here seems thicker somehow, tinged with a scent that’s acrid and smoky. Smog hangs high over the city, belched out by smokestacks that tower over the industrial district. The desert stretches out behind it, dotted with towers and dust clouds that disappear into the horizon. Multiple gates lead inside and each is staffed by soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms that wave a steady stream of people through without appearing to pay much attention. People are coming and going almost all of the time, to and from the outposts and areas of activity around the city proper. It’s difficult to tell just what’s out there beyond the impression of tall metal structures and a great deal of labor. Wagons carrying travelers to Libertas and Aquila roll out from the Travel Post outside the city wall.

Anyone who can sense magic will notice a much lower concentration here. No one will be stopped or questioned at the gate, even if the soldiers seem to take note of the fugitives from Thorne.

The activity and sheer number of citizens can be overwhelming. It’s crowded and loud and feels constantly in motion with everyone talking and yelling over each other. It’s easy to get swept up in the ever-moving throng or find oneself ducking into the mouth of a narrow alley just to breathe.

Anyone who’s willing to make their way to the northern part of the city and Portham Hall will find Prime Minister Marlo Reiner available to receive them.

Comments

[cryptsleeper]

[Mostly, he's just depressed.]

Some feel familiar, even if they aren't precisely what I'm used to. For example, scorpions, but the size of a small child. [This desert is absolutely going to be an adventure to explore. Good.] I've seen a few bookstores as well, perhaps they might have some used copies of books regarding animal life outside of the city walls.

[If there's one thing Alucard's clearly better at than talking about say, monsters, it is talking about how to study the world. They're small comforts. Touchstones. He grew up surrounded by science and magic, and here they place their science behind cases for everyone to see. It's remarkable.]

Is that how you see the world? [He's unhappy having to even ask the question, but there's no particular malice in it. Just an honest annoyance.]

[wiedzminka]

Yes, I have peeked into the library. It's only been a few days, and I've got so many things to read up on.

[ Ciri looks oddly delighted at the concept of enormous scorpions. She sits up more, propping her elbows on her knees. It's annoying that the vampire refuses to sit down and she kind of has to crane her neck up to look at him, but whatever. It'll feel like conceding something, somehow, if she stood up just for that.

Her head cocks to the side quizzically. ]

I don't know what you mean.

[cryptsleeper]

Museum labels might help speed a few things then. The cost to get in wasn't too terrible either.

[Ciri, no one likes an enormous scorpion, what the hell.

Alucard's standing is a thing born out of a general distrust of things these days, as well as taking pleasure in standing and walking wherever he pleases. Three months in a cell will do that, and there's no reason to think that it is anything but a reaction to that. Certainly not something born of paranoia of bodily harm.]

Just...full of monsters to study on, presumably to poor ends on their side of the equation.

[wiedzminka]

[ Hm. Good to know about the museum. She wants to go see that scorpion. Figure out how much it'll fetch as a prize.

Alucard's answer nearly makes her roll her eyes. Is he the advocate of giant scorpions and anonymous desert monsters now? ]

That's how everyone sees the world. The known versus the unknown. The familiar and the other. It is ingrained in all creatures, as inevitably as day turns to night.

You take offense to my word monsters, but they are, as you put it, just as much a part of the natural world as men or vampires. We all want to eat, and live. Sometimes, those desires are at odds with the same desires of other species. Conflict is just as much a part of the natural world as anything.

[ She stops bothering to look up at him and looks toward the horizon again, the wind carrying the sounds of the city and beyond, ruffling her hair around; the scar is starkly visible in the deep shadows of the night, not as a pink groove but a splash of darkness across one side of her face. She affects another shrug, a vague gesture in his direction without looking back up at him. ]

Are you a pacifist vampire?

[cryptsleeper]

[You have fun with that. Alucard had far more fun looking for Bad Taxidermy in the end.]

I am not. [The response to the question is firm enough. But he gives a moment of careful consideration to the rest of what she's said. There's a point or two, but the word still makes him bristle.

He folds his arms over his chest, eyes moving sidelong to Ciri. From where he is now, he can note the scar, but there's nothing made of it. If she is so connected to this kind of study, it only follows.]

Then why not simply delineate the thing by what it is in specifics? Especially if bears a human shape? I'd call that scorpion a scorpion, not a monster, just as I'd ask to be seen as a dhampir rather than a monster, or an associate as a mage and a scholar rather than a witch. [Just as a totally random example.] The term, in my experience, just makes it easier to bring harm on the unknown.

[wiedzminka]

[ This is when Ciri turns again to consider him. She leans back, looping her arms around one knee, kicking her heel at the air with the other dangling off the edge of the roof.

A few moments pass in thoughtful silence, something slightly changing in her expression, the hint of that arrogant dismissiveness that had started to creep in sliding away so that it seems, despite their difference in positions, that she is finally looking at him eye to eye. ]

When I know the names of the creatures in this world, I will call them as such. That is precisely why I wish to learn them.

Will you tell me yours?

[cryptsleeper]

For what I am, or for both sides of my heritage?

[He's offered only one word as his definition, dhampir. There is only one word for what he is, a rarity among even vampires.

The dhampir doesn't sit. But he crouches down at the edge of the roof, aware that if Trevor or Sypha saw him, they'd ask if he was brooding.]

[wiedzminka]

[ Ciri cracks a smile, lets out a huff of air through her nose. ]

No, silly.

Your name. You've got one, haven't you?

[cryptsleeper]

[--shut up.

There's a faint hint of pink in his cheeks at the correction. Moreover, and contrary to form, Alucard doesn't stand up and offer his name in some dramatic fashion. His response is more simple and straight forward, no flair to it.]

Alucard.

[He rarely offers what he once gave Trevor and Sypha, I am Adrian Tepes, known to the Wallachians as Alucard. That identity feels ages away now.]

Yours?

[wiedzminka]

[ That is a cute expression, she can't help but think. It makes her smile. ]

Ciri.

[ She doesn't offer a hand, only a nod. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[There's no offense taken at the lack of a hand. If anything, Alucard appreciates it given how little he's recieptive to touch these days.

Ciri though. Part of him thinks it sounds familiar but geralt never gave him a damn name for his weird phantom daughter in the Horizon so you know, thanks]

Far better met than last time. Do you intend to spend the whole evening up here?

[wiedzminka]

It's kind of nice, don't you think? Quieter than in the streets.

[ He must think so, considering she found him up here too. ]

...but no. I should be heading back soon.

And you? Found yourself somewhere to stay, or do you always spend your evenings a wolf?

[cryptsleeper]

It is, yes. [To both.] Especially seeing how all of civilization drops off once you reach a certain point in the horizon.

[He's thoughtful about that much, about how all the lights fade into a distant blackness and the stars above. It is a remarkable sight, and far more welcome than anything Thorne might have ever offered if they changed their attitude towards their prisoners. (Mistakes. The word still rankles.)]

I have a sewing project I could return to, but I'd like a little bit more time up here first.

[wiedzminka]

A sewing project?

[ Ciri almost says she wouldn't have considered him the type, but she doesn't feel like getting more sour scowls and lectures about not assuming things about monsters. If a vampire wants to make a quilt, that's his business. ]

Well. Good luck with that. I'm not much for sewing myself.

[ She unfolds herself then, standing in one fluid movement, hand automatically falling to check the knife at her hip in the same motion as she straightens her belt and brushes off her trousers. Everything accounted for. ]

[cryptsleeper]

It isn't as if I can afford tailoring at the moment.

[It's a very dramatic and depressed coat, thank you very much!]

Back, or further out into the night?

[The dhampir can't help it. It is the fluidity of the movement that catches his eye, well worn and practiced like other hunters he's met in his lifetime. And the way she spoke so specifically of monsters. That's....ah. Shit. He possibly just gave too much away.]

[wiedzminka]

[ Oh, don't be so paranoid, Alucard. It's just a very little knife.

She blinks, interested despite herself. ]

You're a tailor?

[ He thinks he gave too much away, and she's taking entirely the wrong things from this conversation. ]

[cryptsleeper]

Just good at a few basic techniques. Enough to get by and repair clothes, as well as some embroidery.

[He shrugs. Why this is what she seizes upon is absolutely beyond Alucard.] My other domestic talents include cooking and managing books.

[wiedzminka]

[ Listen. Monster hunting is pretty mundane, but a vampire who sews and does house chores is something else. Sounds like he'll make someone a good wife someday... ]

A man of many talents.

[ She actually looks a bit impressed, standing there looking at him with one hand resting on her hip. ]

Those sound like skills you could get paid for in Cadens.

[cryptsleeper]

[Well maybe if Trevor and Sypha ever come home!]

Likely, although that involves a fair amount of time with other people.

[Which he absolutely doesn't want to do. There's a small shake of his head besides.]

I've also yet to quite figure out the culinary culture here. I can't very well offer to cook until I know common dishes and ingredients. The most I can do is make basic provisions, like jerky and other dried and cured things.

[wiedzminka]

I take it you're not the type to be fond of crowds. City must be a lot for you, then.

[ No wonder he's a wolf on the rooftops.

It's kind of amusing that he took her conjecture so seriously. A little charming, even -- a funny, domestic vampire (half-vampire, improbably enough) who scolds people for perceived prejudice against monsters. Ciri would have laughed if someone told her a story about him. ]

That sounds useful on its own. I imagine folks need provisions that can last crossing the desert. Not sure yet how big it is... I heard that travel time to the nearest city is about a week's ride.

Maybe your jerky will sell just fine.

[cryptsleeper]

It is. Prior to now, I've been into a city only a handful of times in my life, and the size of Targoviste is nothing compared to this place.

[Any medieval city would dwarf in comparison to this one, of course. Alucard's glad that he won't be here for too much longer at any rate.]

The key to making it is having an initial supply of meat to start with though, and a little bit of a work space. I doubt I've saved up quite enough yet for a large cut.

[But she is right, and Alucard has taken the conjecture so seriously because to his ears, it is utterly viable. There's a soft hm that might be thought or could be approval of something. Maybe Ciri not questioning why he has those skills, or just rolling with them. Either way, it is appreciated.]

And do you intend to make one of those crossings in the near future?

[wiedzminka]

[ He's said so many bizarre things during this conversation (not to mention the whole wolf thing) so honestly... if he can make jerky, he can make jerky. Bully for him.

She shrugs. ]

Hope so. Saving up for some gear first. Making sure I know what I'll find out there, or what might find me.

[ She could find a wagon going out to Libertas, but that's clearly not the intent.

The smile she gives him is a tad apologetic. ]

Like those scorpions.

[ Which she is going to ask around about tomorrow, and see if alchemists have any need of venom or parts. Sorry, Alucard. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[That's....fair, quite frankly.]

Have you gotten a sense of the prices for weaponry yet?

[Oh. That smile is actually quite warming. The note of apology does it, Alucard supposes, but he can dwell on it later.]

Well hopefully not those scorpions, if all goes well.

[wiedzminka]

[ She is absolutely going to go scorpion hunting. How hard could it be??

Ciri laughs, but doesn't tell him this. ]

I have. It's going to be some time.

[ She could buy a used sword if she wanted to, and some days, she is sorely tempted. But she and Geralt have discussed it, and it's much safer and smarter to wait, to invest in a good weapon. A proper sword. How her fingers itch to hold it, to practice, to feel herself again.

For now, she has her little knife, her notebook with its sketched maps of the enormous city that could probably fit two or three of Novigrad within its walls, and a plan. It will have to do. ]

[cryptsleeper]

[Fine but if she gets stung he'd like a I Told You So opportunity.

There's a thin frown at that information. Not Ciri's fault, but absolutely disappointed.]

In your opinion, is the craftsmanship worth the cost?

[It is a fairly serious question, all things considered. Alucard does need to arm himself, and probably sooner rather than later.]