OPEN; central and remote (an intro log)

[king-kazma.livejournal.com]

When; July 6th (today), late afternoon
Rating; G (...what is this)
Characters; king_kazma & anybody around, cursed or not
Location; Misery Square
Summary/OOC Notes; Squishy new teenage boy arrives in city via an easily recognized portal. Try not to traumatize him too much, eh? Having spotted him at any point in this log is okay, but responses will be replied to linearly, so feel free to threadjack the person ahead of you. Makes it more interesting & natural that way!
Log;

Kazuma had certainly had dreams about being taken to another world before. What lonely kid hasn't? The most regular ones were where he was King Kazma in OZ and beating up monsters by the dozens in the process of saving the world. Unfortunately that one had come all too close to truth recently, and not in a good way.

This dream was different. Kazuma had followed King Kazma down a rabbit hole under a tree and first he was squished, stuck, claustrophobic, and then all of a sudden he slipped forward and he was falling. Falling through the air! At first it was just blue and clouds, but soon he saw the ground rushing up towards him, a forest and a city and a lake blurring in his vision. A scream tore itself from his lungs, but he barely heard it. Before he knew it he was almost up against the treetops and then an unexpected breeze wafted him up and slowed his landing so he only tumbled against the grass. Worthy of a few bruises and scrapes, but no broken bones. He lay there for a while, breathing hard and holding on to the ground, willing himself to get up. He managed it eventually; if there was one thing he had a lot of, it was willpower.

When he stood himself up and brushed himself off, getting his hair to fall in the right place, wearing the same shorts and t-shirt he had gone to bed in, he looked around and could see some skyscrapers through the trees. With no better options, he trudged towards them with the kind of sullen excitement that only a teenage boy can produce. He emerged eventually in the Square where he just stood and stared in shock for a few moments while attempting a thin facade at coolness. A greater target for the predators of the City could not be imagined.

Comments

[emiltastic.livejournal.com]

Emil, not Ratatosk, had been walking around since morning, curious about the curse that had swept the city in its unawares. Forced them to dance. It wasn't a bad curse though, as far as Emil was concerned, it just looked weird, and funny. Emil thought that maybe dancing wouldn't be a bad idea at all, either. It looked fun, at least.

There were a lot of people dancing in the Square, but Emil eventually spotted someone who was, very clearly, not affected by the curse. He smiled at the boy and went closer.

"It's a fun curse for a change, isn't it?" Emil asked in a friendly tone, not really expecting the oddball to be a newbie to the city.

[king-kazma.livejournal.com]

Considering that Kazuma had been known to be disdainful of n00bs in his day, he was pretty inclined not to appear as one, even in a situation like this. Even to someone who appeared friendly. He suspiciously eyed up the other kid and shrugged nonchalantly in reply, keeping his cool.

"I guess so."

A shot in the dark, a statement that could say anything. Meanwhile his brain was trying to decide what kind of curse they were supposed to be talking about. The strange dream?

[emiltastic.livejournal.com]

The statement was a bit off-putting, like this guy didn't really want him around. But Emil didn't really want to leave the other person just yet, and besides, he really shouldn't be standing there only-

"Um- You probably should watch out. Some people got trampled by other people- the ones who were dancing- earlier. It doesn't look like they're really paying attention to where they're dancing... "

Emil trailed away and then looked away, already feeling awkward from this meeting.

[king-kazma.livejournal.com]

Feeling awkward himself, and a little guilty for not being more friendly, Kazuma shifted his weight on his feet. He didn't smile, but he did downgrade his expression from dismissively bored to merely serious.

"I'm Ikeguchi Kazuma."

And he was keeping a wary eye on the overly enthusiastic pairs. As far as he knew, dancing in the streets was perfectly normal for dream-worlds, even if he hadn't had a dream like this before. Making conversation wasn't something he was big on, but the other kid looked younger and seemed nice enough, and so invoked Kazuma's protective streak.

"How come you're not dancing?"

[emiltastic.livejournal.com]

Emil turned to look at one of the dancing pairs, and then back at Kazuma. "I guess the city decided I wouldn't be a very good dancer-" He trailed away again and then smiled.

"I'm Emil Castagnier. It's nice to meet you, Ikeguchi."

[king-kazma.livejournal.com]

"Are you American?"

Kazuma frowned, though this time not at Emil but to the City in general, finally giving way to one of the questions piling up.

"Did they vote?"

He's not such a big fan of bullying, which is what this sounds like to an outsider. Who are anybody to say that somebody can't dance if they want to?

[emiltastic.livejournal.com]

American? Emil had a look of confusion on his face as he stared at Ikeguchi for a few long moments. And then the boy had another question; vote?

Huh?

Emil tilted his head a bit. "Um... I'm from Luin- I guess I'm Sylvaranti too- and I'm not sure what you mean by voting-"

He paused, thinking.

"...but nobody votes for the curses, if that's what you mean?"

[king-kazma.livejournal.com]

Bafflement on both sides now.

"I've never heard of those places. What are the curses?"

Kazuma had thought he'd gotten things onto a relatively normal front for a moment there, but now they were back to Weird Dreamland stuff.