Intro to the Nexus

[ringed_fate]

Before the beginning of his junior year at Domino High, Ryou had received this strange letter on his doorstep. It didn't contain a message or anything, but it did contain a brochure. He only glanced over it, wondering if this was for some sort of class trip. It was strange. This place didn't look like it was anywhere near this district or even Tokyo. Their school never took them anywhere extravagant. He dismissed it as junkmail.

Then, that afternoon he'd been working on some new gaming pieces for a tabletop role play campaign he was thinking of starting. Ever since he'd been freed from the sennen ring's influence, he felt the need to reconnect with his old hobbies. He hadn't told Yugi and the others yet. It was going to be a surprise. Then he noticed he ran out of paint for the figurines.

He sighed. "Well, there's nothing for it. I'll have to head into town."

But when he stepped out of the apartment gates there was a bright light and he was no longer anywhere he had ever seen before. And somehow, that strange brochure had gotten into his pocket. He was standing in what looked like some kind of gathering place for people. He blinked, holding his half done figurine. Was he dreaming?

Comments

Yay! Welcome!

[notalldead]

Jesse's favourite hobby these days (other than drinking and shooting) is people-watching in the Nexus. He's also the sort who always keeps an eye out for the ones who look especially baffled at their surroundings. Here comes your friendly local zombie cowboy! He grabs another one of those instructional brochures from a table as he moseys over to the kid.

"Hey there, pardner. Might wanna give this a read. Congrats, y'all found yer way to the Nexus!"

*waves* Thanks for inviting me

[ringed_fate]

"Ah!" Ryou nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw...well he wasn't sure what he was looking at. Was this guy cosplaying? His skin wouldn't really be that color. Of course, Ryou was too polite to question any of that. "T-the....I....what?"

To say he was flustered was an understatement. "I was just on my way to the corner store. I've never seen this park."

He had a sinking feeling. Even is there was no shadow magic at work, the situation sure felt similar. This was bizarre.

I'm super glad you took me up on it! :]

[notalldead]

Jesse puts up his hands, placating and harmless, also stopping in his tracks.

"Easy, pardner. Just got a little case of death, that's all. I ain't catchin' or out to bite y'all." There, that should be reassuring, right?

"This place pulls in folks from all over through portals. Found mine in a random, blocked-up hall in the subway. Don't think no one knows if there's any rhyme or reason to who ends up here. Think we're all just slippin' through the cracks, as it were." He holds out the brochure for Ryou to take, should he wish to!

[ringed_fate]

"Dead?" Ryou echoed. "Like a zombie?" He was little less scared now and more intrigued.After all, scary stuff had been his thing. At least until he'd met his darker half and been scarred for life.

He pulled the brochure he already had with him out of his pocket. "That's the same one that showed up on my front door!"

[notalldead]

He winks and clicks his tongue while pointing fingerguns at Ryou. Eyy. "Got it in one. We call 'em zed where I come from, though."

Jesse huffs a laugh when he sees the brochure produced from the kid's pocket. "Well, I'll be darned. Guess you were somehow called here. This is a first. People usually just walk in here, or fall on their faces, and start raisin' a fuss, goin' on about how this ain't the storage closet or somethin'.

"Didja read it?"

[ringed_fate]

"Zed?" he echoed. He really needed to stop repeating people. "I thought the undead attacked people - I'm glad you don't!" He added in the last part hastily. "As for the brochure, I hadn't taken it too seriously at first. I thought I'd thrown it away."

He paused, showing concern for the first time, which was saying something considering he was already talking to a dead person. "Is it some kind of magic that brings people here?"

He was glad he was on break from school, or this might be a real problem.

[notalldead]

"Most zed do. But me 'n my gang, the Rotten, we're unique. We got bitten, got the fever, died and came back, but still had our wits. We're just simple folk who've been dealt a bad hand and are lookin' for a cure."

Regarding the Nexus having magic, Jesse shrugs. "I ain't the sort who knows a whole bunch about magic, I'm afeared. But it's somethin' special but unpredictable, I guess. There's a few folks here who can open portals for you if y'all don't have a way home either, but sometimes they cost ya. Just a word o' warning there."

[ringed_fate]

"And you think there's one here?" Ryou asked. A cure to being undead? It sounded like a quest in one of his games. "Are your friends here with you?"

He tilted his head, seeming to consider his options. "By portals, do you mean that there is actually a way out of here? By costs I hope you mean money."

He tried not to shudder when he thought of what 'costs' could mean in a Shadow Game.

[notalldead]

"Maybe! We're still searchin' high and low back home, but most anything can be found in the Nexus if y'all dig for it. If nothing else, maybe someday I can bring stuff that could make a cure in and have someone here help with that. Hope springs eternal, pardner!"

Jesse opens his coat and pulls out a cigar and a clipper, snipping off the burnt end as he continues to talk. "There's all kinds o' ways outta here if you just went walkin' through doors all willy-nilly. But then you'd never know where you end up and that there's a fool's wager right there. Some places folks come from 'round here are plenty dangerous, like mine. So if y'all don't got a clear way back home, there's folks that'll either open a portal for you or find the right one.

"But y'all gotta be careful makin' deals with them sort. One tall, dark-dressed fella named Schön asks for stuff like a hair or a bit o' blood or a promise and that don't ever mean anything good, I reckon. There's another guy too, some bat monster with a beard an' a cape who'll open portals for you, apparently free of charge? Still, y'all gotta be careful what you offer folks 'round these parts."

[ringed_fate]

"Hair and blood?" If that didn't sound like some occult stuff, he didn't know what did. "Deals, huh? If I didn't know better this whole place sounds like a set up for some kind of game. I'll have to be careful with the choices I make around here."

A misstep in a campaign could spell big trouble for a character. If this place didn't look so peaceful, he'd think he was in some kind of Shadow Game. Though he was interested to know what kind of things could be found in this 'Nexus' now that Jesse had mentioned it. He might be able to make some new friends here too.

[notalldead]

Friends are the best things to find in the Nexus!

"A game? Never thought of it like that. I ain't seen anyone with a rulebook so far, though. Closest to that is Schön again, I'd reckon. Fella seems to know the ins and outs pretty well. But again, be careful when dealin' with the guy." Jesse may or may not already have a debt in place with the man, but that doesn't mean he's not going to still warn teens to be careful.

"For what it's worth, ain't no one able to lay a finger on y'all unless you want it. At least most of the time. There's a thing called the anti-violence field that keeps people from pickin' fights. There was a recent tear in the field, though, so if you see somethin' that looks like big trouble, better safe than sorry, y'hear? You haul it outta there if somethin' like a big portal o' monsters shows up."

My favorite character from YuGiOh Yay!

[sumarusfinest]

By now Officer Suou is more than used to seeing various ages of children wandering in and out of the Nexus. At least this one looks to be in highschool, which is a might bit older than some of the others he's seen.

"Good afternoon." Katsuya nods his way in greeting, checking to make sure this person isn't hurt. He doesn't seem to be, which is a relief. "That's a nice figurine. Did you make it yourself?"

*takes a bow* My first time really testing him out.

[ringed_fate]

"Good afternoon." He bowed. "Ah, yes." Ryou grinned and tucked his free hand behind his head in a gesture of shyness. "It's kind of an old hobby of mine. I make them for tabletop campaigns. Are you a gamer?"

He'd been in weird situations before. He always just coped with it one way or another. As far as the surreal went this was not the worst he'd been through. He'd manage.

[sumarusfinest]

"I must admit that I'm not." The officer shakes his head. "I have an eye for hand made items, is all. You must enjoy your work. It seems as though a lot of time went into it."

He thinks a moment before nodding again.

"Are you alright being here? It can be quite a shock."

[ringed_fate]

"I hope I can do something with it when I get out of school," he admitted, sheepishly. "Maybe a crafting store or a game shop like my friend's grandfather runs would be good for me. People can have me create gaming pieces for them. Maybe I could set up in Harajuku or Akihabara."

Ryou considers the questions. He supposed if he were alone here he'd be more upset, but talking to people has been helping him to stay level headed.

"I've been in stranger circumstances," he replied. It was an understatement.

[sumarusfinest]

"Ah. You are from Tokyo." Officer Suou gives an understanding sort of nod. He seems pleased to see someone from his home country around. Some kind of version of it at least.

"I live and work in Sumaru, personally. Haven't had the opportunity to be in Tokyo for some time." And there's another understanding nod again when the student confesses he's lived through weirder.

"This place is mostly safe. You needn't worry if you stay in the busier areas."

[violinsnbobbles]

Among the residents Ryou will find, is a girl with pigtails simply sitting in front of him, piles of books around her in english, japanese, and a written language that looks as if someone just barfed ink on it that's apparently a treatise on dimensional physics.

She stares for am long time in silence at the figures he had painted.

"Do you play simulationist war games?"

[ringed_fate]

"Some of the games I play have situations where battle was part of story." he replied. "I don't think I ever played in campaign strictly based around that though. Are those the kind of games you like to play?"

Someone was an avid reader from the looks of the books cluttered around her.

[violinsnbobbles]

Kotomi's head lifts up with the mention of story. Variations of interactive storytelling coupled with strategic games come to her mind.

Still sitting in a very uncomfortable position, she shifts her thighs and bare feet to further face him, "I have only played chess with myself and artificial intelligences for their associated strategies, and read books on numerous wargames used by generals as a form of similarities."

She frowns to herself as she looks down.

"Nobody wants to play with me."

[ringed_fate]

Ryou felt a pang of sympathy for the girl before him. He knew what that was like. He had always been a bit of a 'geek' to be honest, favoring board games, horror films and though he'd never been brave enough to try it himself, cosplay, over the more traditionally boyish hobbies. Still, he'd had other friends with the same interests. Until they started falling into comas and people blamed him for it.

Amane might be her age if she had lived. he thought, remembering his little sister.

Smiling, he crouched beside her. "I'll play with you. You might have to explain the rules, but I usually catch on quickly to this kind of thing."

[violinsnbobbles]

Kotomi, being a brilliant person still with the mind locked into that of a little girl, gleamed.

"The rules of Free Kriegsspiel often require gamemasters that have been veterans of war to play according to weather, morale, munitions, and various other conditions, but with this new ruleset if I might help you along the way, I would be delighted to help..."

And she goes along explaining to enormous and actually admirable historical detail, on the ways to play a more flexible and modern variant of the game, allowing for two players, both of them playing their own little armies of musketeers and firing lines, all of them delightfully painted.

She readies the field and units, as she explains, akin to a child being asked about her favorite hobby.

[icebearforpresident]

[Ice Bear spots Bakura a few minutes after he enters the Nexus as well. Hopefully seeing a giant bear emerge from a fridge door won't scare the teenager, especially since the bear seems to be walking towards him without looking. The bear's attention is on a cell phone in his hand, as he accidentally bumps into Bakura's shoulder gently.

Oops.

He stops to turn and face Bakura quickly.]

Sorry. Ice Bear apologizes for running into you.