THE GOTTALA TREIFYU

[capemods]

WHO: ImPorts.
WHERE: Gottala Treifyu of TíraFórsae.
WHEN: April 21st 2013 noon to April 25th 11:59 PM.
WARNINGS: Possible violence, gore.
SUMMARY: Off-world adventure on EARTH KLADSUO834LKSFDLKJ8718=LAJD
FORMAT: Whatever.



[It looked like a Frigate ballooned out, twenty times its natural size. This Gottala of wood and steel does indeed conjure the idea of a Man-O-War, with its thrusting, skybound mast and intimidating array of long, cold gunlike cannons lining its front and side. There's a warlike air about the bearing of the Gottala, something instinctively offensive, as if the entire concept of this city-ship is to scavenge the flayed flesh of those less fortunate than they are.

Which rather befits a piratical ship, doesn't it?

This mammoth of a ship is remarkable, and seemingly deviant of normal floatation physics -- but it's by no means the largest of the Gottalas. This one houses perhaps 8,000 people, and most of that populace is made of young adults, the equivalent of your hip twentysomethings and almost as rabid on board as in a trendy thrift shop.

Upon its slight concave back, in the very middle of the ship, stood what looked to be a village. Upon closer inspection, however, one might notice that very few buildings were dedicated to personal housing: with the exception of a flurry of hostels, most were taverns and entertainment zones – either theatres or gambling dens or even a rare library. Streets are illuminated with strung lanterns, which exudes a real devious atmosphere.

Those on board, for the most part, seem amused by the idea of imPorts. A few will snicker if you introduce yourself as an imPort -- it almost sounds like an unflattering word, doesn't it?]

Comments

DAY 1

[capemods]

[Congratulations! You've been randomly ported to the Gottala Treifyu, and chances are you've been pulled into one of four locations, of which you get to specify in your own tag:

a) a bathhouse filled with 26 naked individuals!
b) a dungheap! Oh yes, lucky you, you're found yourself in a pile of excrement that was exuded from the butt of a bear-like tortoise, which are kept for transportation pets.
c) an alehouse, because you're not a chump.
d) right in the middle of a deadly blade fight stark in the middle of a street. These are pretty common, and already it looks like one man's jaw has been halfway cut off. Nasty.]

D - Open

[dragonlordbight]

At one moment he had been in the middle of working on one of the many enchantments within City hall he was tasked with constructing and maintaining, the next he was in the middle of a strange street. It was well honed reactions that saved him from the blade that whipped around towards him.

In that brief moment he shook himself of disorientation and immediately took stock of the fight he'd been thrown into the middle of, several fighters to either side. None of them seemed happy about his appearance, nor eager to halt the fight as another struck out at him.

[out_of_time]

Lachesis in her wisdom saw fit to plunk Jack Bauer down in the street right next to Bight. He'd been through enough previous unexpected teleportations to not waste too much time being confused. Jack recognized the sensation as the Porter took him, had an instant to realize what was happening, and like Bight he lost no time shaking off the confusion and acting on instinct.

He saw that he was surrounded by hostile non-humans with blades and one apparent human under attack. Jack's reflexes kicked in and he moved to assist without a word, knocking aside the knife arm swiping at Bight.

c; open

[klutziness]

[She has been in this weird world for less than an hour and she's already fixing to get into trouble.

The switch into the Lady Luck dressphere had been quick and flawless, and the locals have really taken to it. More so when she'd sat down to play dice with them--less so when she'd gone on a fourteen-round winning streak. She had, however, gathered her own little cheerleading squad, who were crowded behind her to whoop and pump their fists whenever she won again. Money (of some sort) was changing hands in front of and behind her, and there's a wide grin on her face. She can't understand what they're saying and she figures they don't know what she's saying either, so she doesn't feel bad slipping between English and Al Bhed as she grabs the dice up again.]

Alright, kioc. You ready for another round? Kuut milg paydehk sa. Lady Luck never loses!

d- open!

[maggotbone]

Oh, Callie was too happy about where she ended up. As her eyes scanned around her, she was tingling with what she would assume was arousal and bloodlust. This blade fight in the middle of the street was brutal. The guy with half his face cut off? Oh... she wanted to find the guy who did that handy work.

As she smiled, giddy about the display before her she ducked out of the way as two men continued to fight it out. She rolled on the ground... spotting a sword sticking out of a corpse on the ground and grabbed it. Turning it in her hands she determined that this could not have been real. They were pulled somewhere... so she might as well have fun while she was here.

With an evil cackle, she jumped ahead, ready to slice anything in front of her into ribbons.

open;

[soulbondee]

  [ ♠ ]
[ Yuma arrives on TíraFórsae with a splash.

There's no chance for grace in this: on Earth, he was laying back on the high wall around a decentralized park, enjoying lunch and the sunshine, and was absolutely not falling asleep. The tug at his navel was ignored, dismissed as indigestion, but when the wall drops out beneath him, Yuma only has a chance to open his eyes at a sky dissolving into a ceiling before he hits the water. There were no pools or lakes at this park, and even if there were, the water wouldn't be this clear, or hot. It's not until he's sinking that he flails and makes his exclamations of surprise, immediately choking on and swallowing perfumed water.

The commotion of flailing arms and legs, making waves and destroying the relaxing atmosphere is what gets the Tíriseans hauling His Idiocy out of the water. On his hands and knees on solid ground, choking and sputtering and coughing soap bubbles, Yuma can manage one thought: ]

What the hell is this?!



  [ ♣ ]
[ It takes a while before he makes his way out into Treifyu, and his clothing is still dripping wet. Everything is so weird! ]

Maybe it's some kinda carnival...?

[ For all the weirdness that was ever-present in the City, Yuma has not experienced this peculiar brand of mischief, and aside from the weird-looking pirates everywhere, he doesn't have any reason to believe this is a whole different world. Maybe it's some weird prank, or a hallucination. ]

Or a dream?

[ Yeah, he has weird dreams like this a lot, right? Right! So it's easy to shrug off concern, and Yuma crosses his arms behind his head, and strolls wooden pathways without a care. ]

[ ♣ ]

[kaibalite]

[Still fresh from having been imported again, Kaito's five mintes of cityscape certainly didn't prepare him to be dropped in the middle of a knifefight. Having barely made it out without much injury, he's still in the process of trying to regain himself before spotting Yuma.]

Must be some dream we're having then.

DAY 2

[capemods]

[If you originally ARRIVED in Treifyu and are STAYING on Treifyu, then expect no trouble for today. You're free to meander about -- and if you're keen to observe a library or two, it might behoove you. You feel like you've been picking up on some of the slang adequately, and maybe a library will help illuminate the dimensions of this language.

Oh you're going to be so mad when you figure out there's a higher tongue and a lower cant. SO MAD.

But if you do choose to examine a library, this passage from a particularly intimidating leather tome might interest you -- partially because of the diagrammed sketched accompanying it.

Because they look like Skrulls. Five detailed drawings of Skrulls.

Most of the passage has been destroyed, but you can make this much out:

Ftee’baich’feeuh’fwhy~bsea’eaye’bem’feeuh: ftee’baich’feeuh~ggee’barr’feeuh’feeuh’dehn~bem’feeuh’dehn, bdubya’dai’ftee’baich~ftee’baich’feeuh~bem’eaye’ggee’dai’bsea~bem’feeuh’dehn~eeff’barr’foo’bem~eaye’gbey’foo’gvee’feeuh.
Bdubya’dai’ftee’baich~ftee’baich’feeuh’bem, eaye~gbey’barr’dai’ggee’baich’ftee~gell.

The rest is ripped.

IF YOU ARE COMING FROM THE GOTTALA WASWER, then people will try to rob you. Almost everyone you run into will try to rob you. They'll think you're a rube or something.

IF YOU ARE COMING FROM THE GOTTALA XES THER, then people will throw rotten fruit at you, because that's how they treat nerds. Also you will hear people refer to you as "ghuyiq" or "ter" or "poy".

IF YOU ARE COMING FROM THE GOTTALA BURODWHEY, then people will ply you with plenty of orange fermented ale, thinking that you can be coaxed into singing. If they're successful, then incredibly drunk and rowdy individuals may attempt to dress you in their own clothing.]

[liverletdie]

[ Waking up in an alternate universe again, naked again was getting to be really old. Tony Stark had arrived on Treifyu, and he'd arrived naked. Whoever decided kidnapping him in the middle of his libations, or stripping him down, or whatever sort of thing they thought they were doing, it was getting old. What was worse was showing up in a bathhouse surrounded by, well, other naked people, and not a great sight amongst any of them.

But, he was here, and he'd been doing his best to absorb as much information as possible. Some of it was easy, some words could be figured out quickly enough. Food, for example, seemed difficult at first, but repetition meant it came together eventually. The best place to find information? Yeah, it was the library. He'd started to try and parse things together, but it didn't come quickly.

Hell, linguistics never did for him, but he could at least try and figure out what was happening.

That was Tony Stark's second morning in this place, and his late evening, afternoon, he tried to spend it on the streets, trying to apply what he'd figured out to varying degrees of success.

Mostly repeating words he'd seen in books, to see what reactions he'd get, and most of them weren't exactly pleasant. ]

[aggressiveapathy]

Unlike everyone else in the bathhouse, April was fully clothed. Like everyone there, however, she was now soaking freaking wet. And she had liked this shirt. But rather than slosh immediately out, she was venting her rage though sitting in the middle of the pool area, arms crossed, contemplating whether dedicating the rest of her life to terrorism against the porter would really be that bad a thing. It would be more work, okay, which was bad. But there had to be some great job satisfaction there. There really did.

"Did no one invent bathrooms on the world yet."

open

[xxii_thefool]

So far, Minako's visit to Treifyu has been an interesting - if not exactly comfortable - adventure. Of course, it would probably be a lot more interesting if she could understand what anyone around her is saying, but she's hardly going to let that stop her; she's spent the first day, and a good bit of the second as well, exploring the gottala and observing as much as she can, listening intently to the locals as they talk and trying to pick up what she can of their language. Occasionally when she finds a Tiresean who seems particularly friendly she tries, mostly via energetic pantomime, to get them to say the names of things for her, or to read a nearby sign aloud.

She's made such a project of it that she hasn't even really had time to miss her mp3 player, which normally she'd never be this long without. A lot of the language sounds almost like music itself, and she catches herself repeating snatches of it in her head the way she might repeat the lines of a song, and trying to mimic, if not the sounds, then at least a bit of the cadence, as though that might somehow help her to communicate.

Today she's found a library and she's been picking books more or less at random, studying the pages for anything that she might manage to recognize as a word, looking for pictures of things she's learned the names of. She feels like she's making progress, although without anyone to reliably tell her whether or not she's getting it right, there's no way to be sure.

When she comes across the drawings of Skrulls in that one leather-bound book, though, Minako knows she's found something important, and in an instant not knowing the language has gone from an interesting challenge to a source of intense frustration. One after another she piles open books up around the big old tome, searching for similar lines, resorting to making her best effort at sounding it out aloud: "Tee, bye-- no, that's wrong, more like baychi, feeah, why..."

If all else fails, she thinks, maybe she can at least memorize the lines, and hope to find someone who can translate it for her later.

[dragonlordbight]

Bight's experience with Treifyu thus far was nothing if not eventful, after the fight he had been thrown immediately in the middle of and the discovery that both his magic and his telepathy refused to bend to his will.

Fortunately he had managed to eventually extricate himself from immediate danger and set himself to learning what he could on the language of the people around him during the day, picking up a word or two here and there. Through the night he had worked on the problem of his magic, though he saw little success he sensed that he had made progress in understanding the nature of the problem.

On the second day he decided to devote more time into discovering the language and history of the place at hand perhaps to discover a glimmer of just why they had been sent here. Thus it was that Bight had found his way to the library, conveniently the otherside of the same library that Minako had found herself within. Book after book he'd been reading through, trying to glean some measure of understanding when a distinctly human voice, clearly frustrated.

Closing the book he had been looking through he made his way to the source of the voice, stopping a respectful distance when she comes into view, noting the pile of books open around her, "It is a curious language is it not? It is good to see another had a similar idea, what better way to help learn the language than its written form," He comments by way of greeting, before adding wryly "As much use as that has proven thus far,"

open

[kaibalite]

[The early Treifyu morning finds its library tables being thumped, as Kaito wreaks his frustration upon them. He'd been staring at one passage for hours, having managed to obtain a phonetic reading, but not much else. Sighing, his head almost hitting the table in defeat, before he jumps up and starts pacing. Kaito Tenjo lets few things stand in his way, and language was not one of them.]

[baited]

[Shark hadn't exactly had the most pleasant entrance onto the Gottala, what with headaches and the locals instantly trying to cut him down - after a night of hiding (with surprisingly successful results) honestly, finding Kaito had practically been a blessing.

However, after spending a good hour or so stuck in a dusty, salty library full of text he couldn't read, with Kaito's pacing wreaking further havoc on his head, Shark couldn't take it anymore.]

Would you sit down?!

DAY 3

[capemods]

[If you are coming from the Gottala JELEBELLIOS, then people will constantly be touching you without your consent. Not anything traumatizing, mind -- just your hair, or your face. Maybe your feet. "Aedake" might've been whispered -- or was that "aedaka"?

If you're coming from the Gottala DAUMADAAL, then literally no one will talk to you. All day. Not until you take a goddamn bath.

BREAKING NEWS: in the early afternoon, Treifyu has declared a raid on a couple of pasture Gottalas. These are Gottalas smaller than the Treifyu and host more livestock than people, but nevertheless farmers and ranchers do live on these two floating cities.

SO, HERO, DO YOU:

1) Join in the raids! You'll zipline onto the other two pasture Gottalas and kill and maim as much as you want, who cares! And then your pirate friends will think you're real cool.
2) Do nothing! This is just awkward and while you hate destructive violence, you're not about to interfere with a nuanced cultural interface... How is it your place?
3) Try and stop some pirates! All right, who're you kidding? You won't stop the entire raids, hell, those smaller Gottalas are going to sink! Treifyu shot some heavy artillery into them! But at least you can save a few innocent lives, right? While risking your own...]

OPEN

[acrossyourpath]

[ Well, this is annoying. Felicia thought a pirate ship could be fun, but anyone that approaches her for most of the day is probably getting yelled or slapped at in the beginning; after enough times, people petting her hair really gets on her nerves.

Her spirit will be perked, though, by the time the raids begin. There isn't much to take, so she is going to have fun kicking pirates in the face. ]

[foreshadower]

[ It's early enough in the day when they meet. Being touched was normally hardly anything to the Shade, who didn't often mind such things. People were curiosities, and the Shade didn't have any issues with the way people touched, but the past few days had been worse and worse.

He still felt off, and the touching, oh, the touching was beginning to make a normally rather cool under the collar Shade was becoming more and more irritable as time passed, and eventually he snapped, trying very hard to not snap at a person, even while he very violently moved away from the hand reaching toward his face.

Unfortunately, without his shadows to keep him more cool and collected, he was backpeddaling a few steps, sending him into another person. Far too clumsily, he tried to straighten himself, his motions almost drunk, with how slow they were. It was an adjustment. ]

OPEN

[notadartboard]

No matter how much withdrawal gnawed at his mind, it wasn't worse than the hunger gnawing at his insides. Uncomfortable memory. Sanji jumped ship as soon as he could, and didn't need the disdainful looks of the locals to encourage him to find somewhere to get a bath. Food first - but he had no money and didn't know what the local currency was anyway. For the first hour or so after crossing to the Treifyu, he strolled around the streets getting the read of the culture here. It was so much like home - the city-ship looked more familiar, almost like Mocktown on Jaya, and the citizens certainly behaved like it. They were well-off, and no one looked to be starving. His kishido satisfied, Sanji managed to steal a few fruits to see to the hunger.

By the time he had taken care of bathing and eating, and doing his best to gesture his way through not paying for it (at least not right now), the atmosphere around the area was changing. Sanji could tell. No matter how foreign these foreigners were, how little he understood their language, he knew that feeling. They were getting hyped up about something. Something good, judging by the way they acted. In place of cigarettes he ended up in a tavern in an attempt to assuage his withdrawal with booze instead (and wouldn't Zoro laugh at him for that?) and could be found lounging at a table outside under an awning, sampling the local drink and watching the raiders get ready for their raids. Now this could be interesting. And better than ghosts.

[out_of_time]

Jack Bauer entered the tavern with a scowl on his face, looking left, then right, seemingly ignoring the appraising glances he got as one of the only non-Tiriseans in the room. The last couple days in another universe had apparently not been kind to Jack. He sported bruises on his cheek and a rough beard on his face, and didn't look like he'd had a chance to bathe or change his clothes. Being in unfamliar territory surrounded by criminals- especially ones he couldn't even communicate with- had resulted in Jack getting in a lot of fights.

He saw Sanji sitting, made a beeline for him, took a seat at his table without being invited. Jack looked over his shoulder at the raiders arming themselves before he spoke. "You're an ImPort?"

It was a hopefully unnecessary question, but as far as Jack was concerned he couldn't be too careful. He still had no solid intel about the real situation here- for all he knew, people from other universes than the City's had been sent here as well.

open;

[ribbow]

[ After two days of Jelebellios, Madoka's almost relieved to get away. Maybe now she can finally have some time to herself to consider--nope, now she's having her ribbons touched. Just a bit snappy towards that, her hands reach up to hold them tight to her head. They were one of the very few reminders of home she had left and losing them, well the thought was just unbearable. ]

Madoka. [ She repeats again. Why can't they get her name right? ] It's Madoka Kaname and p-please stop touching me.

[themisfit]

[ Kurt's also jumping ship from Jelebellios when he catches sight of another of his world-hopping fellows. Being that she's a child, knowing that none of the places here that he's seen have been suitable for children, that this place didn't look like it was going to be... He might as well try to intervene as best he can.

He brushes a hand away from his own hair and quickens the few paces to the girl. (Madoka Kaname, according to her own words.) ]

They don't quite speak your language, do they? [ That said, he tries to shoo her harassers away with gesturing, one hand up in dismissal while the other is planted at his hip, mostly to illustrate that he's managed to acquire a sword already. Posturing. Just in case. ] Touchy-feely sort, aren't they?

DAY 4

[capemods]

[After a few stressful days, you're ready to relax a bit. Why not head to the market? There are vendors, theatres, street performance -- have you ever seen a fish-human breathe fire? It's neat! And the smell makes you so hungry...

If you happen into a book store, because you're feeling a bit studious and nostalgic (and you realize that yes, this universe does have books bound the same way back home...), you'll come across a curious, torn volume. The color of the paper might remind you of one you've seen before...

Bdubya’dai’ftee’baich~ftee’baich’eaye’ftee~gbey’barr’dai’ggee’baich’ftee~gell’dai’ggee’baich’ftee, ftee’baich’feeuh~bsea’gell’foo’eyew’ddee’dess~dess’dai’ezed’ezed’gell’feeuh’ddee. Gvee’foo’gell’bsea’eaye’dehn’foo’feeuh’dess~feeuh’dex’epee’gell’foo’ddee’feeuh’ddee~eaye’dehn’ddee~ftee’baich’feeuh~dess’feeuh’eaye’dess~eeff’gell’foo’foo’ddee’feeuh’ddee. Ddee’foo’foo’bem~bsea’eaye’bem’feeuh. Gvee’eyew’gell’bsea’eaye’dehn’eyew’dess, ftee’baich’feeuh’fwhy~dess’eaye’dai’ddee, dehn’feeuh’feeuh’ddee’feeuh’ddee~eyew’dess.
Ftee’baich’feeuh’fwhy~ftee’foo’foo’ekay~dess’foo’bem’feeuh~foo’eeff~eyew’dess.

Skrulls and what looks to be glowing... human beings... line the page.]

OPEN

[themisfit]

[ There's something comforting enough about books, both in their familiarity and their knowledge. After a few days of jumping ships, mind twisting and righted once more, social niceties exhausted, battles fought... Yes. There's enough quiet in a book shop, at least, to keep him from clenching his jaw and giving himself headaches over this strange mess.

Plus, the mystery of this place's language is intriguing. The sounds of it are odd, but not, he almost swears, unfamiliar. When he cracks open a book, picked for its uniqueness, he's surprised to find the script readable, that the alphabet wasn't something completely made-from-scratch. It's a jumbled mess of the English alphabet.

And then... Yes. This isn't a bad way to spend a day. Muttering the verse to himself, looking at the illustrations... He's going to need something to write with. This seems fairly informative. ]

DAY 5

[capemods]

[If you're coming from the Gottala CERB, people won't stop following you around.

They treat you like a celebrity.

If you just came here off of WASWER, then the third person you meet will either try to kiss you or cut you open. And if it's the latter?

You've been officially challenged to a raeward gode.]

open;

[seeksherownsalvation]

[ And if you're just wandering the streets, you may come across a redheaded teenage girl dashing madly away from a handful of locals, a small bag of fruit clutched in her arms. ]

You're pirates here! Pirates! I heard you talking about that raid! You don't get to complain when someone steals from you!

[ In her haste to flee, she may even run into someone... ]