metalogs | Open | Obligatory Pretty Woman Montage Reference Here

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Open | Obligatory Pretty Woman Montage Reference Here

Who: Huvrye

effiomsfavorite and whoever would like to join in
What: Huvrye has never experienced civilian life, and now he's in a new world with an unlimited credit card. This is the venn diagram overlap of Fish Out Of Water and Shopping Montage.
When: Late November/Early December - within the first few days after his arrival
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: None so far, will be labeled if they come up

1. The Pretty Woman shopping montage

[Huvrye has never been shopping in his life. It's been all military uniforms for day one, and they only got as personalized as patches with his identification number and, when he received one after surviving basic, his name. So getting clothes to replace his - because his shirt is still stained despite his best attempts to wash it - needs to happen.]

[You might see him in a department store, looking very lost in the men's section. He's not spoiled for choice so much as he is paralyzed by it. How is he supposed to choose?]

[Or you may see him in that same department store, having discovered the Hawaiian shirts. He's holding one that's bright blue and patterned with pink flowers and looking absolutely delighted. Someone please keep him from buying nothing but Hawaiian shirts, because he absolutely will.]

[Or you may find him later, on a street lined by boutiques, being firmly escorted from one of the fancier ones. He doesn't resist - it doesn't look like he's been causing trouble - but he definitely glares at the door as it shuts behind him. He's been treated like a person for a few days now, and it turns out going back to being treated like a lesser being stings after that.]

[(It's possible the boutique doesn't like metas; it's also entirely possible they threw him out for bad taste, because he's definitely wearing a brightly patterned sweater. It's not quite Ugly Christmas Sweater territory, but it's very close.)]

2. Lunchtime

[It's been a while since Huvrye has eaten - he'd been given a hot drink when he was helping with the snowstorm a few days back, and before that he can't really remember. But he's got the time now, and the money, and he can still hear Gozol's warning about aura poisoning rattling around in his head, so he might as well get a meal. He'd found something near the Diadem hotel called a Food Court, and upon arrival...well, it's the same issue as the department store: too many choices, zero context. He's at least found a map of the place, and is looking it over (and trying his hardest not to miss Yin, because even if Yin didn't have context for this world in particular, he might at least know more). He sees you passing, and waves you over.]

Hey, is this-

[He points at a completely random listing without even looking at it.]

-any good?

3. Lobby

[Huvrye has seen places this fancy before, sure, but they were for top brass and rich civs. He still hasn't quite wrapped his mind around the fact that he's staying in the Diadem Hotel himself, if only temporarily, but he's still taking advantage of it. For now, he's sitting in the lobby, in one of the plush chairs, wings splayed out over the sides and draping onto the floor, people watching. He's still not used to the fact that he's the only homunculus here, the only fairy - it's weird to be in a fancy civ place not to see the bright colors of salon-modified wings everywhere he looks. Still, his sweater is cozy, and the coffee he'd picked up on the way here has salted caramel in it (which is a new and fantastic experience for him) - he can be comfortable here for a while. Join him, observe him, judge him for getting his coffee from Starbucks - either way, he's not going anywhere for a bit.]

4. Wildcard

[Got another idea? Write your own prompt or hit me up at

kiaxet or Kiaxet#7085!]

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To their faces. And yes, they hated it. But they couldn't do anything about it. The Golden Guard could definitely part a crowd.

[The smile fades, but not to sadness, just to something a little more thoughtful.]

It gets confusing sometimes? That being gone. The authority. Not knowing what I'm supposed to be.

[He raises his eyebrows.]

But it was still a relief. When I realized that's what I am now.

A civilian.

[The word feels strange on his tongue. Heavy. But filled with promise.]

Because I can't change the past, but with civilians, they get to decide who they want to be in the future.

[Earnestly.]

You can have that too now.

Being one of them makes most crimes legal for you, essentially. There's some good people there, of course, but a lot who use it as a cover for doing whatever they want. Of course, I guess there's something to be said for the people in charge being open about using you for their own ends.

[It's not as though he has any particularly optimistic views on the Alliance, either.]

They don't make you do anything short of stopping an apocalypse, but you're expected to pitch in. I take on Confluence duty a lot. It's something to do that doesn't draw too much attention.

[The grin softens back into a smile again as Hunter goes on. It sounds like he's figured himself out after getting away from Belos, coming here - how long has Hunter been here, anyway? Regardless, he's got a better idea of who he is, now that he doesn't have to be the Golden Guard. Good.]

[The smile stops reaching his eyes, for just a second, when Hunter extends that offer to him.]

[Hunter can be a civilian, can choose what he wants to be, because he's not a homunculus - not the way Huvrye is. He's a Grimwalker, but he was made to be a person - odds are he even has a soul. Huvrye is government property, a soulless weapon made for an unending war, and that's all he'll ever be. Much as he likes people here treating him like a person, he'll never actually be one - it's all just a pretty lie.]

[(He has too much blood on his hands as it is to ever be anything but a weapon.)]

[Hunter is wrong, but Huvrye can't bring himself to dash the kid's hopes.]

Yeah? I'll have to think about that.

[Aaaaaand sidestepped.]

And have you figured out what you want to be yet, Mister Civilian?

[ He doesn't miss the sidestep, but he lets it go. These things take time. He knows that personally. ]

No. That's the hard part.

But I like that I at least get to choose.

[A frown.]

Sort of. This place is making it harder.

[The smile disappears from Huvrye's face as well. Too good to be true, huh.]

Harder how?

[So it's just reputation, and whether you plan on being a criminal. You're being yanked around by the people in charge either way. Great. The sour expression doesn't leave his face.]

[He thinks he can tell from context what Confluence duty is, and he has more important questions to ask.]

Doesn't draw too much attention from other people or from the guild itself?

Back home, Belos forced everyone to join a coven, like the healing coven or the bard coven, and locked away all the rest of their magic so they could only use that coven's magic.

This place has the guilds. You have to choose between one or the other. If you refuse, you lose all the things they give you. You don't even get to keep the weird little ID things everyone has to use in this world. Most of the time, you need those to get a job.

They take everything and you have to survive on your own.

[He looks thoughtful, as he tries to articulate his thoughts about it.]

The rebellion against Belos had to hide and work in secret but at least we were rebelling. We were fighting against him, his secret plans to kill everyone, and the entire coven system. We had enough freedom to at least do that, even if the odds were bad.

But nobody's fighting the control of the guilds here. There's a lot that's good here and I'm still freer because Belos is gone, but there's still that. And this time nobody's trying to overthrow the system.

[Being unaligned is a lot like how the Owl Lady must have felt all those years on the run. Before there were finally others willing to rebel with her.]

Edited 2022-12-17 10:06 (UTC)

Both. [He shrugs slightly.] I don't like getting any more public attention than I already do. And if you do end up getting famous, the Guild's just going to try and use it.

Use it how?

[He tries not to sound too concerned, but it doesn't exactly work - he's had fame (or infamy) for deserved but terrible reasons, and he doesn't exactly want to go back to that.]

[There's the system, and it sounds like they've made it near impossible to live outside of it. Great.]

[He's not surprised that Hunter doesn't want to be in a guild - not after hearing about the coven system under Belos' rule. He wants to know what the guilds are up to - whether there's actual poison in that structure or just an overbearing self-righteousness - but there are more important things right now.]

Do you need anything?

[Survival first, then he can figure out intel.]

Promote themselves by promoting you. It's an effective system, if that's something you want.

[Though he himself plainly doesn't.]

So propaganda, then.

[He doesn't bother trying to keep the disgust off his face. He does not need to be back in the public eye, especially if he's just going to be used again.]

A low profile sounds like a good plan.

[Huvrye you are six and a half feet tall with a glowing wingspan twice that length how are you going to manage that]

I have everything I need. I'm going to leave and find an...alternate living situation.

[It's not a great plan but he's at least prepared for it as much as he can.]

I don't want to go to their school when its purpose is obviously indoctrinating young people into accepting their system. Or live with the fake family they put me with. They're trying to convince me the guilds are a good idea.

But I've prepared for it.

You'll have to decide whether to be part of the guilds, too.

[Otto looks this whole display up and down again.]

You should get in touch with a few of the magic sorts. They can help put together a disguise. I've got one myself, works wonders.

[He's not wearing it right now because....well, it is new arrivals time. Otto tries to keep an eye out for them, and if people see his illusory self interacting with a lot of metas on a regular basis, then that would sort of defeat the purpose of looking like some unremarkable guy!]

I can give you some numbers to call.

[He doesn't miss that appraisal. He knows he stands out, but he can at least try-]

[The offer derails that train of thought entirely and starts a new one. A disguise made of magic? They can do that?]

Could it even disguise...

[He extends a wing and gestures at it. They're what's been getting the most attention.]

I think I already talked to one - a Doctor Strange? He said he was magic. But yeah, numbers would be great.

Be careful.

[He doesn't know enough about this world or this city yet to be able to say more than that. Hopefully Hunter knows what he's doing with it.]

[He sighs and extends a wing just a bit.]

I don't think I'm going to have a choice.

[He's a little recognizable.]

[He winces.]

That would pretty difficult to hide.

[He thinks.]

There are mages here. Maybe someone could give you something to create illusions? To hide them?

[Other things like eye color can be hidden more easily in this world.]

[He might choose the guilds anyway but it should still be a choice.]

No kidding.

[Most of the attention paid to him by strangers has been because of his wings. They're a little hard to miss.]

[Both eyebrows go up as Hunter offers a solution.]

Okay, we don't have magic where I'm from - can it do that here?

Lots of people can do lots of things here. This world has people with so many different powers and forms of magic it's impossible to keep track.

[He rubs his chin.]

I could even maybe do it if I had enough time. I'd have to try new glyph combinations with my glyph magic. It'd be complicated and take a lot of experimentation. But maybe.

[His head pops up as he thinks of something.]

There are also the scientists. They do this thing called science that looks like magic but anyone can learn it if they study long enough. And they make things with it. Like machines they blip you across huge distances in just a second.

You might be able to find one that can help you create something that works like the illusion magic we have back home.

If they can handle these things, I'm sure they can handle those. Mine move around a lot more.

[Indeed, the actuators seem to have been diligently keeping an eye on their surroundings as they walk, even though Otto himself hasn't seemed all that concerned about it. They aren't super active right now, but there's nearly always some level of swaying and turning about. Speaking of which - here's the department store! Otto nods at it, which is slightly unnecessary as an arm is already darting forward to open the door for the both of them.]

Here we are. Big store like this, they sell a bit of everything.

That's fair.

[He has not missed the robot limbs moving, okay, they may be visual aids but it's still weird.]

Do you think they'd just give a disguise to someone who only just got here?

[It sounds like a pretty powerful thing to be handing out to a complete stranger, but also he really wants one. Sure, being able to go outside without catching everyone's attention is definitely going to be important...but also he really wants to see what he'd look like if he could mod his wings. Or his eyes. Or anything.]

[He follows Otto into the store and stops dead. They haven't gone too far from fancy boutique lane, which means that everything in the vicinity still smacks of Upscale Shopping District. This department store is bigger than the one he'd been in previously, with golden-handled glass doors and crimson carpet under the mannequins and displays, and it's a lot to take in all at once.]

[(It's polished metal and stain resistant carpet - this is still a store, after all - but he doesn't know that.)]

[He looks around for a few seconds before turning his gaze back to Otto, trying hard not to look too overwhelmed and only partially succeeding.]

Uh- where should we start?

[Just because he's been in a store something like this before and has successfully bought something doesn't mean he's not still out of his element, and the whiplash of talking about guilds and disguises before walking into retail splendor (at least, as Huvrye sees it) only serves to heighten that awkwardness.]

[Sorry, Otto, he's still learning how to be a civ, and this is part of it.]

Sure. The Guilds do that for people who join up with them - we might as well do it for our own.

[Technically Otto could be using an Alliance device, but...well, seems better to him to be using something independent. He could go on, but he notices Huvrye's apparent alarm at the inside of the place. While he doesn't totally get it, he stops as well, looking back. Maybe this was a little much all at once? But, well, they're here now. They can just try to ease through it.]

Come on. Let's go to the men's section. The signs tell you where everything is. [A tentacle gestures towards one.]

[That the guilds offer disguises is good intel; Huvrye is also of the mind that independent is better, because if things go wrong with the guild, it's better not to be beholden to them.]

[...or that's what he would be thinking, or will be once he gets back around for that train of thought. For now, he's still processing what's essentially an upscale Macy's. He looks around, then looks back to Otto as he speaks up.]

Um- okay.

[And, as they follow the signs:]

Are they all like this?

[Fancy. He means fancy.]

[No, not all. Depends where you go.

It would've been a bit of a walk to get anywhere smaller...that's what you get for hanging around in downtown Central. Ah, well.

Otto hadn't quite realized what he was in for, when he offered to give Huvrye directions. But he's here now, and he's committed. He'll stick around, doing his best to help the guy figure out how to clothes shop. This has never been a particular passion of Otto's either...but since the actuators, he's at least had to put a lot more thought into it. He's pretty neutral about aesthetics overall, but he definitely recommends that Huvrye get anything he likes, and as much as he can manage right now. Put that unlimited Guild credit card to good use! Drain them dry!]

[It takes a little bit for Huvrye to pull back from his awe and get down to the business of clothes shopping - namely, figuring out how to clothes shop. He's done a bit of it before, but this is a slightly larger scale.]

[Otto helps probably more than he knows - with the basics, sure, but it's the encouragement that really does it. Bolstered by Otto's advice, Huvrye tends to gravitate towards brighter colors - blues and pinks and greens, contrasting everything he's ever worn and how utterly dull and boring he's considered himself to look his entire life. There's some sensibility in there - sturdy shoes, jeans and slacks and shirts of different sleeve lengths and weights, some black and white and khaki to offset the brightness of the colors - but the colors are still very much the main thing. By the time they're done - and a very pleased salesperson (who is getting one heck of a commission from all of this) is packing everything securely into bags - Huvrye is smiling easily, in a way he hasn't had reason to in a while.]

Hey, thanks for your help. I don't think this would've been nearly as easy without you.

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Open | Obligatory Pretty Woman Montage Reference Here

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