welcome, new visitors

[modconcierge]

There isn't much fanfare for the new crop of visitors who have come in this month, but what they encounter is quite wondrous. Is it a cruise ship? Is it a hotel? Is it a tiny planet? No one can give them a straight answer, but all are encouraged to take part in the buffet, where visitors may find an assortment of foods both familiar and unfamiliar to them. There is an open mic night happening in one of the lounges on site, featuring staff and visitor performances. Or there are a handful of shops to browse if you're amenable to trading.

Visitors will find that the Hotel Multiverse at the Edge of the Cosmos between Canons (its official name) is very much alive beyond the bustling crowd. In fact, it might just be listening to you and anticipating your needs.

As for the rest? Well, that's up to you. You may as well socialize, right?

Comments

[gerosilas]

[helaena could walk through a hundred worlds and she would not be rid of her brothers. she is not sure that she entirely wants to be, but it would be nice to have a little time apart.

it is easy for her to talk to aegon, even if it is not always enjoyable.

she gazes at him dispassionately.]

You look well.

[she looks back at the biscuits.]

I do not want to eat them anymore.

[they are the wrong shape to be any part of a cricket, but there is an undeniably....chitinous sheen.]

It's strange. The biscuits haven't changed at all, only what is said about them.

[egged_on]

[ a girl can dream. unfortunately, said dream remains as only that for now. ]

[ aegon looks momentarily confused. why would he not look well? (he does, indeed, seem unburnt, and judging from the amount of whimsy he still appears to possess, he must not know jahaerys is dead, either.) then he laughs a little, somewhere between amused and awkward. ]

[ ohh that's it. helaena's being weird. it's fine, she's always being weird. he'll just roll with it, as he usually does nowadays. ]

[ sometimes he's almost fond of it. ]

Thank you for your observation, sister. This place seems to agree with you as well.

[ he gives the biscuit's a once-over, and picks one up to examine it more closely, raising it up against the light. it... doesn't particularly look like a bug, but he's also not particularly keen to test it. he glances back at helaena, a hint of a grin. ]

A shame. Perhaps it tastes like pheasant.

[ he is very convinced that it absolutely does not. ]

[gerosilas]

[helaena had thought the good health and the good mood were related, but now she's confused in turn.]

I saw game birds at the other table, but I could not say what they were, either.

[she never knows how to respond when he is asinine on purpose.]

I like it here better than home.

[he called her sister and not queen. that alone is something.]

You can have the biscuit.

[egged_on]

[ damn. there goes his best "tastes like chicken pheasant" joke. he laments it for a moment, then decides that he is, naturally, hilarious and helaena is just too helaena to appreciate it. ]

[ he wrinkles his nose slightly and drops the biscuit back onto the plate. it's funny if one of his siblings accidentally eat a bug, but on the off chance that's exactly what it is, he's not risking it. ]

I am doing no such thing.

[ but he is curious about something she said. she likes it better than home? he has mixed feelings about that. ]

Do you think it's safe here?

[ it comes off a bit combative, but he's not in a rush to mock her opinion if so. they don't have the kingsguard, or dragons. but... perhaps there are less people after their heads, too. if rhaenyra is not here -- ]

[ ...he could simply be aegon again. that would be something. ]

[ that would be so much more fun, in fact. ]

[gerosilas]

[helaena lifts an eyebrow. it has not been so long since she was attacked outside the sept. she still does not know why the smallfolk were so angry, when they had been overly familiar before (in truth it makes more sense for them to be angry than friendly, but they had been friendly first). she didn't like the way everyone stared at her once she was made queen, and she can't bear it at all in the aftermath of jaehaerys' death. but nobody stares at her here, even though she is still wearing her dressing gown (perhaps she should look for another one).]

Nobody has bothered me here. The people are happy. We are outside the song. We are free.

[egged_on]

[ the queen is an enduring mystery indeed. he'd like to just sweep it under the rug, but... nobody else is here, nobody is watching them, and helaena seems to be taking all this in stroll. she couldn't possibly know about this place more than he does, could she? and yet, her nonsensical words have come true before. ]

The... song. [ disbelief; not quite a proper question. his mouth twitches, part smile, part grimace, just a little pained. ] I do not know what that means.

[ at least admitting this to her feels less humiliating than trying to respond to aemond in high valyrian. ]

[ the rest of her words do make sense, though. he's not entirely convinced they're true yet, but... freedom is a nice thought. ]

[ nice and terrifying. if he's not a king or a prince, he'll have to abide by commoner rules. he'll be a nobody. surely whoever runs this place can't be expecting him to change his own bedclothes and clean up his messes? ugh. ]

"The people" are fickle. They could still turn on us.

[gerosilas]

[of course he doesn't know what it means. he is not the right aegon. anything helaena could think to tell him would make that abundantly clear. he would be hurt, and she does not wish to hurt him right now. she has never been any good at explanations, anyway.]

You don't know them.

[she can't imagine why any of these strangers would have any opinions of them at all. of course, she is a woman, and she knows there are men who need no pretext to hurt her, but that shouldn't be a problem for aegon.]

This is not King's Landing. That is what I mean.

[it's not the only thing she meant, but it occurs to her he might not have realized they left their world.]

They are not our people. They cannot turn on us.

[now she feels a bit out of her depth...]

Any one of them may find they do not like us, but they would have to speak with us first, I think.