OPEN - feel out your voice

[killsign]

Who: Nic and YOU
Where: in the Matrix
When: shortly after entering the Matrix, maybe a day or two
What: as a mercenary, Nic's mission is to keep tabs on the agents and their relationships to carnival workers, resistance members, etc. And he's starting with that agent behind you, right now.
Warnings: this could go one of two ways: funny or violent. Up to you, really.

It's a too-bright day with too-happy birdsong, but no matter how hard you look, you can't find any of those damn birds. Like they aren't actually there, and it's just a recording. That one angry cabby has probably passed you three times by now, but now, over-saturated happiness is all over the place. Everything is okay! Really! It's like a Sunday morning sitcom from the thirties.

Except everything is obviously not okay, because someone has been following a circus worker for some time. A kid dressed like a vagabond not used to wearing clothes that actually fit him, his eyes dark and dead, staring right through you. He doesn't look all that dangerous -- I mean, he's obviously twelve and homeless and tiny. He's just a little . . . unsettling.

Wait. Now he's not staring at that circus worker anymore -- whether that worker is you or someone else -- No, now he's staring directly at someone behind that worker . . .

And that someone is a pair of douche shades wearing a suit. The agent zeroes in on the worker, then the kid, Nic. Nic's eyes go wide. This might be bad.

Comments

[killsign]

Strange is close when he thinks the voice is due to injury; Nic is deaf, so he doesn't have much to rely on to recreate sounds like words. It's okay though. They'll get by.

Nic brightens at the prospect of someone actually putting effort into communicating with him. Acting normal isn't going to do much around a guy like this, and Nic isn't one for subtlety, anyway. But it's either this or fight, so Nic decides to lead the agent around a little.

Nodding emphatically, Nic extends his hand for Strange to take. He is willing to lead him to a store like he's helping an old man cross the street.

[kingsroads]

Strange takes Nic's hand, not entirely sure what's going to happen...but then he gets yanked into the direction of wherever Nic's going. It's not like he knows where he's going, after all. Strange is perfectly fine being pulled around every which way. After all, what else can he do? He doesn't know anything about this world or the carnival.

So, small steps it is. He lets Nic lead him to wherever they're going as he follows behind like a lost child. Strange can't help get distracted though, looking up at cars, at street lights, at every sort of technology that he has no idea what they are (because again, obviously 1800s).

"I hope you know where a store is, as I haven't a clue. Otherwise, we'll be walking around in circles."

[killsign]

Nic isn't looking up at Strange, so he has no idea he spoke at all. Not that it would make a difference. Nic leads Strange through an imaginary maze of the city, taking U-turns and loops and twists until Nic is hopelessly lost.

They really are just walking around in circles.

Nic stops mid-stride. He looks behind them. Okay. No agent in sight. But . . . where are they?

After a long pause, Nic shrugs and tugs Strange into the closest store to them. Whether or not it will actually help them out . . . that remains to be seen.

[kingsroads]

In between Nic turning them everywhere in order to lose the agent and Strange getting distracted by anything remotely modern, neither of them have any damn clue where they are, a fact which Strange realizes once Nic tugs him into the nearest store.

Thankfully, the store is a Rite Aid. But holy mess is Strange just blown away by everything. He's from the early 1800s. Things like this, the lights, the sheer amount of things packed in this one little store, it's something he never imagined in the first place.

While he didn't really change his appearance in the White Room, Strange was thankfully smart enough to pick up some money. They'll be able to pay for whatever notebook and pen they manage to find...once Strange stops getting distracted, that is. Now it's his turn to tug Nic towards something, as he spots some sort of horrible singing ninja hamster children's toy.

"Over here! Look at this odd little thing!"

And this is how the twelve year old became the actual adult of the duo.

[killsign]

Nic sure has grown up fast. Wide eyes behold the abomination that is kung fu fighting ninja hamster. All he sees is a mouse having a seizure.

It must be a weapon. That's the only explanation. Nic slowly, fearfully reaches out . . . and flicks its little swinging nunchucks. He shoots Strange a look, then presses the still-spazzing hamster to the adult's stomach.

Take this. his eyes seem to say, implied tone dry. It's dangerous out there.

[kingsroads]

Wide eyes also behold the kung fu fighting ninja hamster from Strange's end, though his are equal parts confusion as to how this thing worked and straight up bafflement at what it's purpose was. Obviously to entertain, but then what? Did you just play this tiny little hamster and watch it? Is it the equivalent of a music box?

He can't help but give Nic a wry smile as the hamster gets forced on him. "I suppose if worst comes to worst, I could throw it at someone," said as he lightly tosses the hamster in the air before catching it.

Because he's just been having so much trouble getting the Matrix to work, bending it around him the same way he would normally do magic. He'd give all the kingdoms in this world and Faerie just for the slightest ability to be able to do his damn magic here.

And would you look at that, as Strange tosses the hamster in the air, he gets a glimpse of some school supplies, including notebooks and markers, on a shelf further down. He gestures towards the school supplies with his free hand. Maybe now they'd be able to properly communicate.

[killsign]

Nic makes a beeline for the school supplies, a child on a mission. After nabbing the first notebook he sees, he swipes a magic marker and opens it up, right there in the store.

He flips it open and crudely writes:

NICOLAS BROWN
WATS YOR NAME?

Maybe "properly communicate" was putting it nicely.

[kingsroads]

Taking the notebook, Strange writes:

CONDENSED INTRODUCTION: JONATHAN STRANGE, ASHFAIR, MAGICIAN, PENINSULA.
PLEASURE TO MEET YOU, NICOLAS!

His penmanship is simultaneously flowery and messy. It's a bit illegible at certain points but hey, the overall message can be read. He gives Nicolas a little nod as he hands the notebook back, entirely unaware that parts of his condensed introduction don't entirely make sense.

But look, he's not going to write the whole thing down, that'd take time and use up space.