062 [location: sanctuary square (and holo, after a fashion) ] recording the wrong episodes

[aintnoconvict]

So something weird is happening in the square today: at the center is dome about thirty feet in diameter and thus fifteen feet tall at its highest. At the very edges of the dome is a faint shimmer, and within that shimmer is a three-dimensional landscape, perfectly life-sized and absolutely life-like. The scene changes from a convenient snow bank to the icy plain in front of a mountain fortress to within the fortress itself. As the action moves into the caves and caverns the vague shimmer expands accordingly, assrted individuals come and go from within the dome, but always at the dead center is a figure dressed in a bulky suit, wielding a crowbar.

Until the crowbar gets smashed to bits along with the crystal, and then there is yelling and rushing and bone-things and then the loop begins anew.

A small crowd of Extras has gathered to oooh and awww, gasp at the peril, applaud when an orc gets disabled with extreme prejudice. They filter in and out like tourists watching a street performance, but one person remains.

Yes, it's Glitch. Yes, he is studying the footage, circling the dome with an impassive expression and making notes. He's mostly not watching himself, but still looks up at the sound of his own voice: ""I'll take Squatty and break for the entrance. Off we go!"

A grimace. "...Squatty? Seriously? What was I thinking?"

Comments

[skinandbone]

"I dunno. I think it sounded kind of tough."

Metody's method of picking a victim had been more terrified flailing and closing all the eyes she had available to close.

[aintnoconvict]

"I was aiming more for flabby," Glitch muses and watches himself disable the orc - decent form but he's got to get a proper training regimen together - then gives Metody a double-take and a little smile.

"...or did I sound kind of tough?"

[skinandbone]

"You did. It was very...I guess you wouldn't know the singer, actually." Metody frowns. "It is very difficult, talking without cultural touchstones."

"I'm glad you're alright."

[aintnoconvict]

"Thank you, I'm glad too."

Yes he is going to get around to the (stray?) cats, buddy, just you wait. But for now: "I hear you on the touchstones thingy. But you can tell me about the singer, and maybe I can tell you about someone from my world-"

Within the dome holo!Glitch shouts and rams the crowbar at an orc's groin, the orc howls in pain, and present!Glitch grimaces and hastily pauses the recording once it's moved on a smidge (the gathered Extras grumble in disappointment).

"And it can be a cultural exchange. Of sorts."

[skinandbone]

Metody glances away as the crowbar approaches the orc; she had no stomach for violence. She'd never thought she'd be glad about the massive daily dose of antiemetics she is obligated to take, but it had saved her from considerable embarassment.

"I would like that. May I buy you a coffee? Or equivalent drink."

Metody has other things on her mind, too. But she has no reason to be subtle about them. "Glitch?I heard that no one knows how old this place is. Is that true?"

[aintnoconvict]

"Coffee's fine, thanks," he said with a nod and and reaches a hand into the vague shimmer, causing the paused dome-image-holo-thing to dissolve. Smack in the middle a device rests on a little stand, and Glitch strides over to collect it and turn it off properly. "There's a cafe a block that way, they do good stuff."

Vaguely it registers that there's something...different about Metody, from the other times he'd met the young man. Something subtle but there. Glitch's brows knit for a moment but he dismisses the notion in favor of the query, heading off in the direction of the cafe.

"It might be untrue, since...well, I was here for what was called the first 'anniversary' of this city's existing. But that's still second hand."

[skinandbone]

Metody watches intently. She's no engineer or computer scientist, but the level of technology is still fascinating. How on earth does it all work?

Not that she'd understand it if someone explained it to her. Electronics and computer chips are a bit of a mystery.

"If communications are all kept, couldn't we just go back to your arrival, look at the people who talked to you, and then track back to their arrival date? It'd give us a day zero."

"I mean, assuming continuous occupation."

On the other hand, she's got a pretty good grasp of record keeping and ways to analyze it.

[aintnoconvict]

She needs to come by the shop sometime: the things Glitch makes - the TDESPHTL included - tend to run on clockworks, crystals, and sometimes a bit of borrowed magic. Simple tools and special materials, all there is to it.

"The people I first talked to..." He's reviewed his arrival a number of times, and shakes his head. "Not helpful, but other folks who were around then - Kirk, the first Buffy, Angel - I think they were here first."

In this city. Old Taxon's another, unknowable story.

"And based on that, from what I understand this place'll be four annuals old in...about a week, actually."

[skinandbone]

"Ah? So it'll be just out of toddlerhood, then." She pauses and looks at the Extra pedestrians around them, frowning, then shakes away a glimmer of thought.

"I'm sorry - the first Buffy? There's more than one?"

[aintnoconvict]

Glitch snorts and flashes a grin at that anaology, nodding. Soon it'll be off to school and-- right, focus.

"I've met three." All right, four, but he didn't really get to know vampire!Buffy that well. "Sometimes when folks leave the city they come back and don't remember being here, and sometimes there'll be other differences. Like some things that happened to the first were different fom the third, but they all had the same basic Buffyness. Here we are."

Oh gods this cafe is adorable, and Glitch is going to be a right gentleman and hold the door.

[skinandbone]

- And soon it'll be going to daycare and making friends just like a big kid.

She steps in, giving Glitch a sunny smile, and heads for a table by the window. Metody takes the seat that faces the room, and tucks her heavy pack in the corner there; there's no easy shed go anywhere without her suit.

"This place is so strange. Whats your home like? I remember you saying that it's very different. And different from mine, too - no sky jellies."

[aintnoconvict]

That's fine, Glitch'll look out the window at the improbable tulips and sunshine and spring just bustin' out all over. Thankfully it hasn't started bustin' out of his sinuses yet, but he's certain it's only a matter of time.

Meanwhile there's a little table-top menu oto peruse. He'll be brave and get an espresso, and maybe a cranberry-orange scone.

"There's two suns and two moons but no, no sky jellies," he agrees, nodding. "And no ocean either, it's surrounded by a desert that's hard to get to and harder to cross. There's only one big city, Central, and lots of forests and mountains and little villages here and there. I think."

Pause. "My memory's kinda dicey, but the maps and what Cain tells me all match up. Oh, and there's magic."

[skinandbone]

Oooh, chamomile! Or maybe....whats lemongrass? Lemons are good, right?

"We have deserts, too. There's a pretty big one in the Southwest of the continent - though a lot of that is from the war."

"Do you have days and nights like we do here? We have them back home, but it doesn't really get dark at night except for in deep winter or around really bad weather."

[aintnoconvict]

Lemongrass is amazing, Metody, do it.

"A war...we had one of those," he murmurs. Of course it seems like everyone has, of some kind or another. "But yes, the day and night back home is like here. Is it cuz of the sky jellies that it stays light?"

He's like intrigued by this sky jelly stuff. Soon he might be asking for illustrations.

[skinandbone]

"Yeah, they glow. And so do the air fish and the aladin's ca- well, a lot of things you definitely don't have here. Like, at all. I was looking for nests and burrows. You guys don't even have gut worms."

And that's a dang shame, her voice says. Even if they wouldn't be in season anymore.

"Then the sun and moons are in sync? You have two of each at a time?"

[location]

[kings_fool]

"Dude, is this what you guys got up to with the saving-of-the-day?" Jeremy asks, squinting at the action scene replaying.

[location]

[aintnoconvict]

Oh, it's Glitch's favorite bit, the bit with his epic body slide across the big ice-floored chamber. The reason for it being his favorite bit is not (just) because it was the most fun, but because it holds the most interest and possibly the most clues.

"Mmmhm," he says with a quick nod and points a small device at the dome. With a click of a button the image pauses, and he carefully approaches the edge of the holo-versus-reality shimmer. He crouches down to study one of the runes visible under the ice.

"Derring-do, stuff like that. Does this look like anything to you?"

[location]

[kings_fool]

"Superheroes, bitchin'," Jeremy grins, and leans forward to peer closer at what has Glitch's attention.

"A.... squiggly symbol of some sort? Sorry, I didn't major in squigglies. Um... that over there looks sort of like a spiral. Magicky mysticky stuff. Maybe the ice queen lady memorized explosive runes that morning!"

Here, have this most useless helper ever, Glitch.

[location]

[aintnoconvict]

If Glitch where less absorbed in rune-sketching he'd probably demure on that superhero thing since he's Just Some Guy. Meanwhile: careless rune-sketching.

"Probably," he remarks. He still doesn't get needing fancy runes and rituals for magic to work, it should just be something that happens. "Okay, squiggles and spirals. I'm gonna have to check with an expert...wonder of the Magic Box is still here."

Look he hasn't taken time to track down everything in town yet.

ooc

[aintnoconvict]

ahaha I like JUST realized I compeltely forgot the name of Tamper and Trick and went with the canon BTVS name and now the last two tags make no sense CAN I GET A DO-OVER?