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[takeatrip]

WHO: Jayden and others
WHAT: Catch-all for May, with OTA and closed starters
WHERE: Cadens, the Horizon, maybe elsewhere idek
WHEN: All month
WARNINGS: TBD


[ Please feel free to PM, message me on Discord at Ami#8741,
or ping me on plurk at amiasha to plot and/or for closed starters! Wildcards also welcome. ]

Comments

[familysucks]

[From Michael's perspective, the church is easier to explain than the diner. It is Saint Michael's church, after all.

But the man doesn't ask for any justifications—which is just as well, because Michael doesn't answer demands from strangers. Having decided he's facing someone who's out of his depth and possibly new around these parts, he settles back into his seat, expression pulling into neutral.]

You aren't. If I were set on privacy, I'd lock the door.

[Which is how he tends to leave the place when he isn't occupying his usual spot in the booth: door sealed and windows shuttered, lights off.

He waves a hand at the dining room. Despite the lack of staff or patrons, the tables set with cutlery and condiments suggest it'll be bustling with activity at any moment. It's almost inviting—and the gesture is all the invitation Jayden will get to take a seat of his own.]

Here I was thinking my domain relatively unremarkable. Just passing through, then, or are you looking for something?

[takeatrip]

[It's hard to get a read on this person, but he doesn't seem upset, just perhaps reserved, so Jayden hesitates only briefly before stepping further into the diner. He glances around curiously, noting the apparent readiness for customers, but it creates a strange effect when contrasted with the lack of anyone other than Jayden and Michael. It's almost dream-like, not bad, just slightly surreal.

He draws closer but doesn't take a seat, instead setting his hands on the back of a chair and leaning on it just a little.]

Just exploring. I wanted to see what kinds of places people make when they can make anythin'.

[He isn't trying to be nosy--not in a rude way, at least--but he's curious. When people can choose where they want to be, and it can be absolutely anywhere, it says something interesting about their experiences. That would be fascinating enough even without the added layer of people being from entirely different worlds.

But on that thought--]

This place also looks like the sorta' diner I could find in my world, so it's nice to see somethin' sort of familiar.

[familysucks]

[Outside of family and the rare friend, this lukewarm reception is about as friendly as welcomes get from Michael. He knows how to use Adam's borrowed face, how to curve his mouth and show his teeth in a playful smile that actually reaches his eyes, but he finds little use for those expressions himself. Let Adam keep something of his body for him alone, absent from it though he is.

Michael nods, part understanding, part approval. It's one of the few questions he asks when he bumps into someone new in their domain—a place from home, or built from scratch? That his own is familiar to Jayden tells him a little about where he's from: Earth, late 20th or early 21st century, somewhere in North America.]

I admit it's not an original creation, but it serves its purpose well enough.

[Its purpose being 'a place he can retreat to when he tires of the sound and smell of goats'. He has not engaged in any deep analysis of his own decision to replicate the diner he and Adam visited when they first escaped Hell and he will not be changing that fact today.]

What did you make with your piece of the Horizon?

[takeatrip]

[He of course wants to ask what that purpose is, and he likely would have in another situation, but having already intruded it's probably not best to be prying. Not yet, anyway.

So he files the question away for the moment, instead focusing on answering Michael's question for now.]

A few places from my world. My apartment, office, that sorta' thing.

[Boring, basically. But since it's so easy to change things in the Horizon, it's not as though he can't turn one of the existing rooms into another place for awhile, and so that's exactly what he typically does.]

Everything in Abraxas is really different from where I'm from, so it's nice to have somethin' familiar.

[familysucks]

[Michael nods. Apartments and offices are about as familiar to him as anything else from outside of Heaven, but he understands his own perspective is unique. By human standards, they're not very exciting venues. Still, he'll keep an eye out for his domain. It's insight into Jayden in particular and into other humans in general.]

It's—nice, to have something familiar. One wonders if that is at least in part the reason for the Horizon's existence.

[That makes him sound more mundane than he is, based on what he's made. The diner, the church, they're both human structures. Even the clothes he shifts into when he's within the Horizon suggest Michael is plain old human. If it engenders some misunderstand, he'll deal with it when it arises. He's found reactions to what he truly is vary widely. It's interesting, too, to see how attitudes shift.

Deciding that he's spent enough time brooding in his replica diner, Michael rises from his seat in the booth.]

I take it you're from somewhere on Earth, then.

[takeatrip]

[He didn't intend to be misleading, but it might be difficult for Michael to notice Jayden's domain from that description; although true, both locations are within the hotel that Jayden had made as the main building. But the hotel as a location is more practical than meaningful, not really noteworthy in itself, and therefore not a part of what was meant to be an honest answer.

He nods at the comment about familiarity; it does seem to be what people use the Horizon for most, at least from what he's seen, though he hadn't necessarily thought about the idea of it actually being intended for that. It's an interesting thought.

He doesn't, though, have any reason to believe Michael is anything but human so far. People here are from such different places and with such different personalities that although Jayden has met a few people who aren't human, he hasn't found that they act differently enough from the various humans to tell them apart that way. It's doubtlessly human-centric of him to just assume human until otherwise, but a part of him is still very much getting used to the idea.]

I am, yeah. I live in Washington DC, if that means anythin'.

[It might or might not, though the diner style gives him some hope that Michael will know where he's talking about. Though he should add--]

It was 2011 for me, but it seems people are from all over in time, not just place.