One Misstep later.. (Open Thread)

[T.K.]

OOC note:This thread takes place shortly after Terrence was taken into the government office by the 2 agents, they had likely gotten some basic information from him before Rayne had dredged up some clothes from the lost and found for him to wear so he didn't stick out as much as he would in his current wear. So safe bet is to say bout an hour- hour and a half upon entering the building. This is just a fun little thread to give players who want to hop in something to do while the main thread works towards the conclusion of the current night. I decided to run with a comment I read a while back that the reason Terr didn't get proper clothes by the night time is because 'something' happened. Well I'm rolling with that and making this thread that -something-.
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In a room near Rayne and Rillesil's office space...

  Muffled cursing could be heard through the door a couple minutes after Terrence had taken the clothes Rayne had acquired from the lost and found station, he had first taken them with an arched brow accompanied by a sigh as he got the reasoning for them but he remained dubious as to their fit and the way the girls could hear him grumbling through the door indicated his worry was with merit. His voice complained through the door after more rustling was heard "Who's were these? Geh..swear to god I should just pretend I'm a cosplayer for some kinda medieval action movie or something so I could keep wearin my old stuff till I have modern clothes." His grumbling petered out shortly afterwards accompanied by a "Fuck it, close enough.." and the door finally opening up showing him with slightly too snug pants and the office shirt that wasn't buttoned up yet. "Man I can't wait to get a bite to eat then get proper clo---" as he spoke the girls were treated to the concerning sight of him vanishing midstep as he passed through the doorway.

  --At the Park--
 Blinking into existence as he apparently just stepped out of a restroom Terrence belatedly finished his sentence "-thes...well shit." He frowned as he stepped away from the restroom and paused in the park with a sigh scratching his head while he idly fingered the still unbuttoned shirt "I was really hoping this wouldn't be the case." he muttered in quiet exasperation before running his fingers through his hair as he pondered his options "I wonder if there is bus stop nearby with a city map or somethin..of course I don't exactly know where their office is, awkward."

[Elm]

There was in fact, in that moment as Terrence moved from one location to the other, and began to realize where he was... an incredible urge to look at a tea shop nearby. So compelling was this urge that everyone did so, and thus most people missed the sudden appearance through a strange doorway - of another man. Tall, and clothed in shadow-dark clothes he had a commanding bearing. His skin was moon-pale, and his eyes the color of the midnight sky. Almost as black as his clothing but just tinged blue enough that when they shone it was with raven intensity. Two swords hung at his hips, one to either side. Sheathed now, but he moved with a leathal potentiality in his body that suggested that a breath could have them out and at the ready. 

The door closed behind him, and people shook their heads, uncertain why the tea shop had drawn their gaze for a moment but unbothered by it. The man who was surely the cause of this phenomena looked around at the people, clearly looking for something but just as clearly not finding it immediately since he made no move to stride off in any particular direction.

[T.K.]

Having only had enough time to get one...maybe two buttons of his shirt done up Terrence paused with his eyes narrowing in focus as his attention was being drawn towards a nearby Tea shop, he recognized this for what it was and was already fighting it off to look elsewhere to spot the source of the effect if it was within eyeshot. He was confident the person responsible was nearby if they were using the Tea shop as the focus, and his gut was rewarded as he detected a disturbance in the environmental chi as it was cut and displaced off to the side drawing his curious and cautious gaze in the direction of a person, man of sorts stepping out of some magical?! Doorway.

 Inwardly he groaned 'Oh maaan..and here I agreed earlier to let the government girls know if I came across another..special individual..well guess i did make good on my claim I tend to stumble across such things' he groused even as he did a brief gut check threat assessment. 'Nnh he's got those holstered properly for quick drawing, his movements are not wasted and seems like he's combat ready if need be, seems like he knows his way around battle, not to mention being able to teleport maybe? Not enough info but has some means of travel if that doorway was any indication. Going to hazard some kinda battle-mage' he deduced  taking into account the prior compulsion. Unsure however of how extensive the man's spell casting potential is but his physical conditioning and movements were enough to make Terrence weary at least.

[Elm]

The man did nothing however, allowing people to trail off. He drew some curious gazes now that people were no longer feeling compelled to look elsewhere. People who were curious about the swords on his hips and he seemed to slowly realize that they were drawing attention. Touching one of the blades seemed to be a self-comforting gesture, and when his hand fell away he turned his midnight gaze on Terrence. 

Whom was staring.

At least enough so that one who was a warrior could not help but notice, and with a flick of his blue eyes over Terrence's form, he strode toward the other man. Every step was a graceful dance of motion. This then was not just a man who knew how to use a weapon, but one that had known for long enough that the knowledge was almost an afterthought. "Pardon." His voice was strangely accented, but it was one that was difficult to place. Something that rounded his words gently and made them sound almost lyrical. "Where are we?"

[T.K.]

'Egh..people are startin to stare at him now that the compulsion has faded..' he thought even as the man unsurprisingly approached him considering he had been staring at the newcomer long before the compulsion faded and wasn't making much effort to hide his weary inspection still he had the decency to offer a slight smile as the dark eye'd warrior approached him . 'Well...goes nothing lets hope he's amicable'

 Scratching the back of his head as he finished the last button of his shirt Terrence sighed sounding a bit uneasy considering his own current situation.. "I'd answer but I'm pretty much the worst person to ask for a location, however it might be in our best interest to talk somewhere without as many watching eyes as you seem to be a bit out of place here." he said ignoring the sheer irony of he being the one to say that. "Currently we're in a park in the middle of Neo Tokyo." ..at least he hoped that was the case and he wasn't actually in another entirely different city with his latest teleport.

[Elm]

The dark-haired man seemed to consider this response carefully, then nodded and motioned for Terrence to lead the way to wherever it was that he wanted to go. "I had noticed that people are staring at the swords. I take it that they are not commonplace around here." Shrewdly he met Terrence's eyes. "And it seems that neither are you. To find them not unusual, and to be so out-of-place yourself. But lead on, let us find some manner of privacy."

[T.K.]

'Well he's willing to listen for the moment so I'll take that, fingers crossed I can mitigate it before much more attention is drawn and we get a big scene happening..once today was already enough' he mused inwardly thinking about his own unwanted flashy entrance. "Its true I have my own reason as to why I don't find your current gear unusual.." he motioned for the stranger to follow him taking care to try and find a few tree's that'll somewhat obscure from plain sight.

 "Can you make a longer lasting compulsion that coaxes people to not pay attention or avoid a certain area? With the technology level of this city there is almost no place outdoors that one could speak in private. On such short notice the best I can come up with is using the tree's as cover for most things outside of people with portable recording devices." Given the man's wear and choice of weaponry he wasn't entirely sure of what technology level he'd be familiar with so Terrence struggled to phrase things in a way that could be fairly easily grasped on a general level.

[T.K.]

(Ok pushing this forward and shaking the cobwebs off)

 As the pair approached the location Terrence had pointed out to speak at he had been formulating together an explanation of where they were, but was having considerable difficulties considering he himself had only arrived a very short while ago. 'At least I had the benefit of the government ladies giving me that quick crash course of this place and have a general grasp of modern society even if it is outdated compared to what this place is.' he mused inwardly. As a fellow ..traveler of sorts he could understand the guys predicament and wanted to genuinely aid him in some manner, unfortunately that decision was not his to make at his time as it seemed like his curse wanted to make him see more of the city. "Alright so--" Once more he vanished mid step simply winking out of Falin's view and in such an abrupt fashion it seemed like it was not something that was done intentionally considering how he had been in the middle of a sentence when it occur.

  Appearing in an alleyway in an entirely different part of the city Terrence reappeared "--so fuck me I guess. I see this is happening..god I hate when this triggers in rapid succession" he cursed to himself as he rapidly checked his surroundings to check for witnesses and at least he was thankful there was none. Glancing up at the towering buildings he repressed his initial urge to start leaping up to get a better vantage point, finding high ground was often his first course of action after a teleport but given the technology level of this world he really didn't want to bring attention like that after he had been dumped off in such a flashy manner earlier. At this point he sincerely hoped being dressed like an office worker would draw less attention and lower the risk of being recognized by civilians.

[T.K.]

Adjusting his collar of the shirt he was given Terrence came out of the alleyway to finally try to figure out where he was, of course considering how he arrived he didn't have much luck so he glanced around subtly to avoid giving the impression he was lost as he looked for street signs and addresses to commit to memory so if he could come across a map he might get a better clue of what part of the city he was in. The last thing he really wanted was to look like he needed help with directions as that might lead to questions he just couldn't answer at this time. 'If I hadn't been nose deep in that data pad reviewing some of this place's history when getting driven to that office I might have a better idea of how to get back' he mused inwardly.

  As he picked a random direction to start walking the streets he struggled to keep from staring at all the different businesses and cafe's, having been in a lower tech world for so long he was very curious to see how far ahead technology was here compared to even his home dimension which was considerable to say the least but at least he could fake fitting in to an extent. What he came to quickly realize was something he had been worried about..the consistent feeling of being watched from multiple angles. Every time he passed by a security camera for a business or sensors on street lights he could feel when he was within their field of view which kept him on edge as he now realized he had to try and figure out how to mentally filter out passive observation where he wasn't the intentional target.

  "Thanks, I hate it.." he muttered under his breath as one of is greatest strengths was now kinda driving him up the wall, countless times has the ability to sense when something or someone was looking or spying on him saved him. Now due to security cameras being everywhere in this futuristic place..he could feel each one and it was unnerving even if he logically knew it was harmless for the most part.

[T.K.]

--Roughly an Hour later---

  Irritated and feeling on edge Terrence had long removed himself from what was probably one of the business sectors of the city, while he was fairly quickly adjusting to the fact there is almost never a moment where one isn't being observed by a camera or sensor he still didn't like it and needed to find a quieter section with less wall to wall shops. "Sometimes I wish I could just shut off my instincts.." he muttered under his breath as he pressed his back against a wall in an alleyway finally getting a brief moment of peace after what he estimated a good hour or so and walking aimlessly hoping to get away from the city center.

 He wasn't exactly thrilled however that he managed to pick out one of the more run down sections, probably an older residential area. Peering out the alleyway he spied a fenced off area where he could see heavy machinery of some kind down the road a ways, he guessed from what he could see there was a building in the process of being taken down. He idly rubbed his chin as he finally pushed from the wall and stepped out of the alleyway to get a closer look at the fenced off area "Hnn..guess Technology and machinery is still the primary way of getting work like this done" he rumbled thoughtfully under his breath, while this world was familiar with magic given the war that happened some time ago tech seemed to be the default here.

[T.K.]

It hadn't been more than a few minutes after he had stopped looking at the construction area and stared strolling around the rundown residential area trying to further get a grasp on the living quality of residents here vs other places he had seen in the city during his brief stay thus far. Inwardly he frowned pausing his internal musings as he detected hostile intent, while not showing outward actions of suspicion he did change his course to start heading back in a direction he knew there was a couple spots that didn't have any surveillance. As he approached a set of soon to be condemned buildings if his judgment of their condition was any indication he mentally picked out at least 5 sources of hostility  that seemed to be following and gradually closing in.

  "Well I guess no matter the era or dimension some things never change eh?" he muttered softly under his breath as he stopped walking and made a show of patting his jeans pocket as if looking for something then slumping is shoulders with an audible sigh "Well that sucks must have forgot my phone." He was fairly certain whomever was following him wouldn't be able to resist the urge to approach and was not dissapointed as he finally heard footsteps, though in his ears some of them sounded very odd..far to metallic for regular feet. Giving off the appearance of an out of place office worker at least with the clothes Rayne had scrounged up for him Terrence briskly walked away down a nearby alleyway one that had a dead end by a concrete wall. 'Oh my god how cliche is this shit?' he mused internally as he finally slowly turned around at the sound of not so good natured chuckling.

  He wasn't sure what to expect but as he finally saw who had been following the only thing that came out of his mouth was "Did you get into a disagreement with a junkyard and lose?" he asked blithely as he quickly took stock of what he assumed was members from a gang of some sort given how they had certain color coding on their clothing and cybernetics. 'They look like rock band rejects!' he thought even as he realized why  he wasn't getting normal responses when he sensed their chi flows now understanding how robotic replacements and he'd assume other more professional prosthetics would feel if sensed, or lack thereof. Each member had at least one of their limbs replaced by some needlessly large and clunky contraption, like one had an arm replaced with a full on oversized claw..another had a leg replaced with some kinda terminator ripoff leg and the such. Beyond that there was a mishmash of shoddy replacements, but one thing was certain with how they were blocking off the alleyway they certainly had no peaceful intent.

[T.K.]

The lead thug raised his replaced arm to point an oversized metallic claw at the salary man "Lookie here boys looks like we have a foreigner worker drone looking a bit out of his element." He motioned for the rest of the small group of cyberpunks to surround the seemingly calm man. "Putting on a show of being a tough guy when you look like you belong behind a desk than hanging about the slums here." he said with a sneer knowing they had an easy mark. With these new limbs and cybernetic upgrades things were finally starting to look up! "Its your lucky day, we'll be relieving you of your wallet and anything else of value and you'll get to leave with your life after we've roughed you up, you'll get to leave by ambulance!"

  Meanwhile one of the punks that had circled around back was watching through his red glowing eye (Think Kano style red eye replacement from Mortal Kombat) waiting for the expected rise in body temperature of the office worker a sure sign of fear but there hadn't been any change whatsoever "Alright now no funny business funny guy, get out your wallet..." he rested a metal bat on his shoulder observing the surrounded man who to this point wasn't showing any sign of concern. Having not said a word since the initial junkyard comment the thug with the bat pointed it near the man "What's the matter, where's the jokes no--why are you undoing your shirt?"
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 Terrence sighed inwardly as he unbuttoned the shirt having heard the demands and intents of the gang members which confirmed his assumptions beyond any doubt. "I just got this, I'd rather not it get bloodied or damaged" he said calmly as the shirt slowly came off his defined muscular torso, one with a number of almost entirely faded scars with two particularly oddly shaped ones on his left pectoral the size of a large dinner plate and almost as round with a matching one on his back nearly in the same area. "I do not have a wallet or anything of value on me as I'm not here of my own choice so I'll be disappointing you there. Thankfully I do have something I can offer." As he speaks he calmly folds up the shirt and tosses it over one of the goons landing on a discarded box. "I'm not trapped in this alleyway with you.."

 With a casual effort he leapt over the clawed leader twisting in a flip a good dozen feet overhead to land behind him and now being at the entrance to the alleyway cracked his knuckles "Your in here with me! Now allow me to give you a valuable life lesson.Life is pain."

[T.K.]

The bravado quickly dropped from the gangster's face as his clawed hand lowered and spun around to where their formerly easy target had landed and was rewarded with a terribly sinking feeling in his stomach "Your one of those freaks that pop up around the city ain't you? With that magic mumbo jum--" his words were cut off as calloused knuckles introduce themselves to his jaw taking a few teeth with it leaving him to stumble back and fall over "FREAK! We're going to kill you! Get him!" he shouted to the others just in time too as the office worker kicked him with enough force to launch him bodily into the furthest member who was already raising a gun to take a shot, sending both sprawling to the ground with a shout of surprise and pain.

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 'Mumbo jumbo he says...who even says that?' Terrence mused idly as one of the raver gang members with a giant scythe replacement for an arm took a clumsy cleaving swipe at him prompting him to weave to the side "How off balance does this shit make you?" he asked getting a indignant 'shut up asshole!' in return as the gangster avoided retaliation due to another member taking a swing at the shirtless man from behind who ducked without looking and grabbed the arm of the bat holder flipping him over his shoulder and swiftly kicked the side of his head with enough force to knock them out. During this short exchange Terrence kept mental tabs on the recovering member who he had kicked the leader at, another bat wielder but also had the pistol, he wasn't sure if his reinforcement body hardening would stop bullets even if it could deflect magical heavy crossbow bolts and ballista nor was he particularly eager to try his luck in a non test environment. Even if his instincts were not giving particularly strong warning signs he'd rather be safe than sorry.



 'I don't feel like explaining to Rayne or Riselle as to why I ended up with a bullet wound so early in the day, I feel like I should avoid dumb shit like this for at least a week y'know?' he idly thought inwardly, his internal thoughts however didn't stop him from taking a couple steps back to avoid a horizontal swipe by the scythe armed goon, who was in for a rude surprise as Terrence stepped in almost inhumanly quick bringing his knee up and an elbow down to crush the elbow joint of the scythe arm causing it to crumble and dangle uselessly. Feeling something niggling at the back of his mind the shirtless knight grit his teeth 'Fuck..something's observing me and I'm not sure what..don't have time to look' he growled inwardly as he shoulder checked the now disarmed thug causing his body to fly once more into the gun wielding goon sending them sprawling once more.



  He didn't give the gangsters time to recover as they followed the original bat wielder into the land of unconciousness with swift kicks to the head with again just enough force to knock them out. "I'd take your weapons but..that would get questions I can't exactly answer so instead..." he muttered with a not so nice smirk as he started rummaging through their clothes to take their money, as far as he was concerned it was only fair considering their intents at the start of this.

[T.K.]

Having acquired his proverbial spoils of battle from the thugs, namely their money, Terrence scratched his head as he looked at the unconscious gang members with a scowl "Y'all are lucky I'm tryin to be a law abidin individuals, where I just came from I'd have probably killed you so you were no longer a threat to others, but different world different rules an all that. So be thankful you'll actually wake up." He was speaking more to himself than the unconscious goons  as if trying to really internalize the fact he's in a more modern world that likely had rules against killin like that, but it was a real difficult mindset to break after several years of survival of the fittest being kinda the way of the world.

  He had just retrieved his discarded shirt and tossed it back on around his shoulders but paused as he was about to button it up with his eyes locking on the weapons strewn on the ground "..I said I wasn't going to take em but sure as hell can't leave these here for you assholes to take off with.." he sighed irritably as he picked up one of the nearby bats folding the metal one into an unusable shape with his hands, snapping another over his knee, breaking the knives before getting to the only firearm this little group had. "Now what do I do with you, I mean I could just break it but maybe I can find a use for this down the line? Fuck I wonder how much shit I'd get in if the workers knew I took this?"

  He pinched the bridge of his nose for several seconds as he pondered this issue before taking the extra magazines of ammo and did a mental check carefully making sure there wasn't anything watching before he lobbed the gun and ammo mags over his shoulder causing them to vanish into the air with hardly a ripple. "Can't access all the magical weapons and objects from the other world for some reason..so guess I'll start a new armory."

[Justyce]

The only part of the conduit she didn’t like was where she landed. The last time she hadn’t confirmed location she ended up on a piece of rock with lava flows on either side. That was a fun area to get out of. It did melt her a bit but it was all cosmetic damage that she regenerated with several hours. Yes she had to stay away from people until then as she would have frightened them. This was no exception. She had stuck the landing and instantly sought higher ground. Father that she stayed up on roofs and away from main thorough fares as she started her main purpose. She was scouting out the area she was in. As she moved across roofs and higher perches she noticed someone else who seemed a little out of place. She noted it and kept moving as she wanted to ensure she knew the area. She was satisfied as she finished her first loop of the city perimeter and came back to her starting point. There he was again and this time he was administering a beating to crowd of locals who seemed to have been the inciting party. She could interrupt it but she was observing. This could be culturally acceptable. She cloaked herself to be sure and enjoyed the show.

Anyone below would feel they were being watched. The problem is when you look you wouldn’t see the watcher.

She had run the statical chances of the locals success at winning the fight against a superiorly trained fighter and while it was just two percent it was still a chance. Well that chance went away with him downing the last combatant and she wanted to laugh. Maybe two percent was to much of a margin. She had scanned the opponents and the weapons they had versus an unarmed opponent and while that had at first given them an eighty-five percent chance of success it wasn’t until he had knocked out the first two the chances of success fell drastically and then finally to two percent. The only other thought was, the show was nice but over very quickly.

She retreated to start her assessment of the city’s power grid and if she could adapt it to help speed up her regeneration if needed at anytime. The most likely answer is that it wouldn’t be adaptable and she would have to ask to be hit with conduit energies to regen in dire circumstances.

[T.K.]

Leaving the alleyway after looting what he wanted from the thugs Terrence stopped for a few moments and looked up in the direction where he had felt something observing him throughout the fight, lamenting that he didn't have the opportunity to look sooner as he was occupied he sighed "Maybe it was some kinda drone? Still whatever it was its gone now.." he rubbed his chin muttering to himself as he strolled away from the goon filled alley "Seemed to only stick around briefly, does this place have police drones or something? Shit..I better get outta here before anyone else comes to investigate this.  I really don't wanna cause those ladies more paperwork than I already have today just by my means of arrival"

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