WELCOME TO NOTT!

[abraxasmods]

WELCOME TO NOTT!

Welcome to Nott! A blend of old world Thorne and new world industrialism, densely packed wooden buildings surround a section of ancient stone architecture at the lake’s edge. The city rises up against the horizon and is easily seen from a distance, lacking any farmland or outposts around it to distract the eye.

The city gates are wide open. Whatever may be happening back at the Thornean capitol, there’s no obvious hint of it here. Busy citizens are going about their day, guards in local uniform patrol the streets with little urgency, and no alarm bells or horns are sounding. It appears,at least on the surface, as though no one is concerned about escaped prisoners here.

But it certainly is a bustling place! Sounds and smells assault the senses right from the gate. The streets are filled with vendors and panhandlers and criers shouting out deals and directions and soliciting money, hawking food and services and shops. There seems to be a tavern or a public house on almost every corner. A cool wind comes off the lake and the scent of the fish market carries through the city. People are everywhere and no one seems to notice or care that much about strangers - aside from wanting their coin.

It’s the perfect place to hide out from Thorne while staying within Thorne’s borders.

Within a few hours of arrival a city guard will approach each escapee from Thorne - regardless of what their standing was back at the castle - to politely inform them that Lord of Representatives Lyle Vela would be happy to receive them at the House of the Lords at any time today. Each character will be given a handwritten invitation marked with an official seal that gives directions to the House of the Lords, a sprawling Old Nott building on the lake that overlooks the city. The invitation is of course optional and there are no repercussions for declining.

Comments

[nadine_he_loves]

Nadine's laugh isn't a bitter one, but she does laugh a little bit.

"It's not her fault. She never had anyone. I know what that's like, if my life had gone just a little bit differently, I'd probably be pretty much the same. But you're right, people need people. It's been studied, in my world, they've proven how much it messes someone up to be on their own too long or too often."

Especially when young.

"And we're all just sort of on our own out here."

[jealousbitch]

Well, it's for anybody, but I'm the only one here.

[ He follows her gaze up and up toward the ceiling, his focus landing on the topmost balcony, illuminated a deep red. When he looks back at her, it's with a grin. ]

Want me to show you around? Or we could go find your domain, see where you ended up. This place lets you create whatever you can think of. It's real fuckin' neat.

[nadine_he_loves]

"Touch it. That's when it connected us with the Horizon. But you don't need to touch the Singularity for that, it's something that can be passed on. If you need the connection..."

Nadine's been there, she can do it. And it sounds as if Abigail doesn't have any way to reach out to anyone.

[souille]

"Hasn't it just," she replies dryly. And not just since she was brought to Thorne - the months leading up to her arrival in this world were relentless, and she just wants life to give her a break. "I don't think it's going to get any easier, though."

[souille]

There's a moment's pause while she tries to get her head around this.

"You can take us somewhere else? Somewhere that's not here?"

She doesn't want to hope too much, but her excitement is evident in her tone.

[princessvegas]

I get my own place? Like this?

[ There is a kind of delighted innocence in her voice -- without a lifetime of feeling lost and alone, oppressed by the poverty and isolation of where she's from, there is no need for her to have a constant guard up, no need to use her armada of defense mechanisms. It also helps that she has not immediately deemed Lloyd inferior to herself, at least not in any meaningful way.

Still clutching the rabbit, she takes a few steps away, still looking up at the seemingly endless number of floors. ]

Where would it be?

[girl_at_the_window]

"I'd figure just lookin' around you would prove that." It's not said with any sarcasm or humour; just a simple statement of fact. Susan sighs, and her smile is a little sadder as she looks down at her beer. She knows, after all, how it feels to be alone. Maybe that's why they're all here, in the end - her and Nadine and Eponine, and for all she knows, Lloyd and Julie too. (Flagg, out of respect for Roland's warning, is shunted off the list of possibilities. She does have some loyalty left.) Maybe they've all just been on their own too much. Not that surprising, really, from what she's heard of Nadine's world. Still, it's a shock to the system to find that she, who's always thought of herself as more or less alone, is the one here who's had the most people on her side. At least she had her father for a time, even if he was gone too soon. At least she knows what love's supposed to look like.

She has a sneaking suspicion, the longer she stays with them, that she might be the only one here who does.

"People need people." She can't think what else to say, but to agree. "I just wish she'd quit pushing 'em away. Ye ken?"

[girl_at_the_window]

Susan's smile is wry and not a little bitter. "When does it ever?" she mutters, and wrinkles up her nose, pulling a face. "Guess that means I got no excuse." Then, looking up and down the street: "I got a few coins. I was going to find summat to eat, if you want to come with."

[nadine_he_loves]

"Sort of. It's more like...astral projection? But it feels real...like virtual reality, I guess."

Nadine thinks that's probably a comparison Abigail will understand. She sets her bag aside and settles herself more comfortably.

"Here, I can show you."

She holds her hands out to the younger woman.

[nadine_he_loves]

"Sometimes...a person gets to a point where it's easier to push people away than let them in and maybe get hurt." Nadine looks down at her drink, her expression closing in.

"I know what that's like. To try and hope and pray that this time, it'll be different. And then it isn't. And it hurts so badly and that hurt just...stacks on top of the rest until it feels like that's all that's inside you. Just hurt. And if it's other people that are always hurting you, it starts looking like the obvious solution is to just stop giving anyone the chance."

At least until someone pushes their way in and can't be ignored, but she's well aware her circumstances are very unique.

[souille]

Abigail hesitates for a second, wondering what exactly she's signing up for. The closest she can imagine is the time Hannibal fed her magic mushrooms, and she's not sure how she feels about that in hindsight. Still, she'll take anything at this point to make her time here more bearable, to go to any place other than here. She reaches out and takes Nadine's offered hand.

"Do I have to click my heels or something?"

[souille]

Abigail hadn't realised she was hungry until Susan mentioned food, but now her stomach growls in response. "That's not a bad idea, if you're sure you don't mind."

[girl_at_the_window]

"I'd not have offered, else." There's a slight sharpness in her tone - fuelled, perhaps, by the fact that she's not sure she doesn't mind. As soon as it's out, she's painfully aware of how little money she actually has, and how little she knows this girl, and how stupid an offer it was to make. But now she's said it, she can't exactly change her mind - not without being a selfish ass, anyroad - so it'll just have to stand.

She huffs a little, tossing her hair back. "Come on. Let's see what we can find."

[girl_at_the_window]

"Aye." Susan looks down at her own drink for a moment, her brow furrowing. After a beat, she reaches over, cautiously, to touch Nadine's arm. There's something in that look on the older woman's face, something in that closed-off air, that cries out for contact. At the back of her mind is Roland's warning, and her own doubts, and the feeling that she shouldn't be reaching out at all - but fuck that. "Aye, I kennit, too. And I'd not blame anyone for it, is the truth."

Only it's exhausting to deal with. Especially with all she's given up to be here for Eponine, only to be pushed away time and again.

[souille]

Abigail almost feels obliged to refuse, pretty sure that Susan is probably about as broke as she is herself. Then her stomach growls again more insistently and she decides its probably best to take advantage of the offer. She can always pay her back some other time, she hopes.

"Any recommendations? They seem to have a lot of fish here, I've never really had much seafood."

[girl_at_the_window]

"I don't know 'em well enough yet to ken who's worth trustin' with fish." Probably most of them, to be fair, this close to the docks - but at the same time, she's known plenty of fishermen off the Clean Sea who'd sell inedible catch. There's ways of hiding it, too. She's waiting to see who the locals go to. "Bread, though, that's pretty hard to fuck up. I'll get us summat like that."

[jealousbitch]

Maybe not like this, but someplace that's yours, yeah. [ He gestures around the facsimile of The Inferno, devoid of all its people, vaguely. Sure, it could look just like his, but with a gal like her? No way it was.

He shrugs a shoulder and grins easily. ]

Why don't we go lookin'? Betcha it's close.

[princessvegas]

[ There's a moment where she's just silent, looking around, then she begins to walk very confidently toward one exit. She doesn't know why, but something makes her feel extremely sure that she needs to go this way, that what she's looking for is that way.

She does stop to put the bunny down, where it remains docile and quietly hops away from them. ]

Why's your place all empty like that? Don't casinos usually have lots of people in 'em all the time? That... I feel like that sounds right.

[jealousbitch]

[ Lloyd follows behind her, interested to know about her own domain, too. What will it even look like? He has a few ideas based on what Julie is like, but whether or not it'll be what he thinks is a different story. His hadn't looked like he expected the first time, either. ]

They do, but y'know it didn't really feel right putting a bunch of fake people in here that say the same stuff over and over. It felt lonelier than just having my rabbits.

[princessvegas]

But ain't there other people around to visit? Like me?

[ She opens the door without much hesitation. There's no specific reason she can point to, but she knows that she belongs on the other side, just as much as she knows her name, or... well, okay, she only knows her name, but she's very certain of it.

As the door swings open, the sound of pounding bass music floods the air. Neon lights scatter over the floor before she can even enter, and glittering confetti fires over them from conveniently timed cannons. They're behind the bar of an apparently very busy club, dozens and dozens of bland, forgettable people filling the dance floor and booths. The bartender does not seem alarmed by their presence, either -- in fact, he hands Julie a champagne flute without any prompting. She takes a sip, and it's not just champagne, it's a cocktail, and it's perfect.

It's loud and crowded and excessive, and she feels so comfortable. ]

Wow.

[jealousbitch]

Yeah. I'd much rather wander into other people's than sit in mine.

[ As soon as she opens the door, it's like stepping into a different world. The bass beats so loud he can feel it echoing in his chest, and the dark club with flashing glitter and neon lights blinking around makes it feel something close to home, yet so surreally different. He looks to Julie who fits so perfectly in this atmosphere with awe, feeling so damn lucky he managed to snag her while also knowing that she can be a bitch. It's the lifestyle, it comes with the territory.

Lloyd grins at her, leaning against the bar as she sips her cocktail. ]

Yeah, I'll say.

[princessvegas]

[ Julie comes out from behind the bar and it's like the crowd suddenly turns on, as if they were only idling before she was there to pay attention to. The feeling, for Lloyd at least, is most likely familiar, not unlike how it used to be when they walked through the real Inferno.

But now, he isn't the star of the show. She is, and it's so obvious. They gather around while never being in her way, they raise glasses to her, raise their voices too. She feels like she's in a bubble as she floats through them, and it's a feeling that she can't really put words to.

She knows she's never felt like this before (because she only remembers feeling at all over the past 45 minutes or so), but she also somehow knows that this is also exactly how she has always wanted to feel.

Before the crowd can swallow her entirely, she looks back over her shoulder at him. ]

You comin'?

[jealousbitch]

[ It absolutely gives him the same vibe as walking through the Inferno. Like the party sleeps until they get there, then it's all for them. She fits so much better into this lifestyle like she was made for it instead of turned onto it. He loved the vibe and the attention he got back home, because who doesn't like feeling as if you're the most important person in the room?

He watches how the crowd of unremarkable people dances and cheers, but never gets in Julie's way, never do anything more than cheer her on and give her praise when she needs it. Lloyd doesn't waste a second, pushing himself off the bar and following her into the throng of people with a wide grin. ]

Right behind ya, gorgeous.

[princessvegas]

[ The clubgoers ferry them both (but mostly Julie) across the club, dissipating a few at a time as they reach the other side. By the end, it's just the two of them again; Julie has long since finished her drink and lost the flute, her cheeks aching from smiling.

She doesn't keep smiling much longer.

Where the club should theoretically end, have a wall to close it, there is only blank space, vast and haunting, suffocating from emptiness. The furthest wall, where the structure actually ends, has a large industrial fan set into it, makes an eerie, repetitive whoosh as it slowly rotates. It seems to suck happiness straight out of the air, the longer they stand there, and Julie is suddenly very frozen, unable to walk out no matter how much she wants to.

Instead, she stares at the spinning fan blades, locked in place with a feeling of existential nothingness that permeates down to her soul. ]

[jealousbitch]

[ The difference in moods is almost jarring, like an unexpected slap to the face. The grin slides off his face as he takes in this vast nothing of space, that industrial fan spinning and reminding him of the sound of an axe swinging through the air. Brown eyes flit about the space before looking to Julie in confusion.

His question about what this place is dying before he can make a sound. Her haunted expression spooks him because he's never seen a look like this on her face. She's always the unflappable one. He wraps his hand around hers, aiming to tug her back into the fray. ]

Hey. Jules, c'mon. You don't gotta be here.