New Avalon

[yamikuronue]

Good plan.

She doesn't lower the knife one bit, but she relaxes a hair. "I thought you might."

[CalamityJade]

The old man gave a sigh. "Well damn. Figured if someone had grabbed him, he'd been looking for something." The old man moves from the pipes. "Last I heard of him, he was asking if I'd seen you. Figured you'd try to find places that only the two of ya woulda known." He looked T over a couple of times. "...either way, we shouldn't talk about that. Not here."

~...what's wrong with this guy. He's brighter than the people outside.~

[yamikuronue]

...Brighter?

"Is there a safe place to talk?"

[CalamityJade]

"No one's broken into my room, yet." He turned towards the far door in the room. "I've been going in and out through here to keep a lower profile."

[yamikuronue]

She follows, hanging back a bit, nervously.

[CalamityJade]

~Sorry...um...wait, I think I can show you.~

For a brief moment, she sees a faint outline around the old man as he leads her through the room and into the building proper. There were lights in him, somewhat similar to those ghosts, but less pronounced.

~The people outside are a lot fainter, but he's brighter...less than you, but it's still different. I can't figure out why.~

[yamikuronue]

Theta squints at the guy. He's Welcomed.... could that be the difference? No, wait, you said I was brighter, so that can't be it...

[CalamityJade]

~How do you know you're not Welcomed? You live in the city. It's not kicking you out, right?~

They're lead up to a fairly large room in the building. "Come on in. I'll get something to eat from the fridge." The old man, who T would remember was called Garric, lived pretty comfortably. There were some pictures from around the city and...one on the wall past where he went into the kitchen. It was a beach...one that she could swore she'd seen before.

[yamikuronue]

I'm fucking homeless, asswipe.

T's scowl is back in its usual position upon her lips, though the corner of her mouth twitches as she spies the picture. "Where's that?" she asks, gesturing with her knife.

[CalamityJade]

~Sorry, I simply figured the City would kick you out if you weren't welcomed.~

Garric looked back at her. "What, that thing? It's the Raddro Coast...though I guess you wouldn't have seen that." The coast...the water was definitely familiar. "Though I'm sure your dad mentioned it before to you."

[yamikuronue]

"No, I've never been..." she says, slowly.

Kick me out?

"...What happens to people who never get Welcomed?" she blurts, sidetracked by her mental conversation.

[CalamityJade]

That gets an odd look from the man before he answers. "Wouldn't know....well, other than death. Either you wait it out till yer Welcomed, or you die in line...least that's what I've actually seen be true."

~Yeah...the City is all around us. Do you really think it'd let us be here if it didn't want us to?~

"And...you haven't seen your dad in a while, right?" He sounded almost doubting if that was true....so what was it she'd said.

[yamikuronue]

"Yeah, but I mean... do non-Welcomed ever just... go missing? From the entire City?" she asks, slowly, turning the idea over in her mind.

[CalamityJade]

Garric mulls THAT over for a few moments. "...Well, now that you mention it. There ARE some that say people just disappear here. Figured they just never found the bodies." HE comes back out with a bowl of some sort of pasta with a red sauce on it. "Here ya go. It's not very warm, but it's somethin." He had his own bowl and was heading for the small dining area/ living room.

[yamikuronue]

She takes the bowl, trailing after. "But Welcomed don't vanish, do they? They all stay here. Nobody leaves whose Welcomed. And the people who aren't Welcomed... vanish."

Her stomach drops.

"...Vanish like my dad."