hugtopia_logs | (no subject)

♥ Who: Gladio and OTA.
♥ Where: Everywhere.
♥ When: January 3rd.
♥ What: Gladio finding his feet and meeting the locals.
♥ Rating: PG-13

Another Strange Place:
[Gladio had been walking toward a small group of children, smiling as disarmingly as a man as large and seemingly intimidating as he could. The adults were nowhere to be seen, aside from some of the elderly. He'd hoped to gain some information. Anything, to help...

But between one step and the next... everything went dark. Not not a bad kind of dark. It felt... strange...

... When Gladio opened his eyes to see sky above him, white clouds, blue, clear sky... He turned his head slightly to see... nothing he expected. Instead of rustic houses, dirt paths, wooden fences and children at play, he saw white. White pillars and columns shaped like trees. Red and white ornaments. Strange looking birds. And he was laying down in the centre of it all.

He rose slowly, turned and dropped his legs over the edge of slab of carved stone he lay upon. When Gladio looked down he still wore the same clothes he'd been wearing (black leather pants, dark brown tunic, black cloak), so at least that hadn't changed. There was a sigh as he lifted a hand to scrub across his face.]

Damn train's done it again...

[Was this a side mission? Why had he been pulled away? And where was everyone else? When Gladio looked at his wrist he frowned, his SCA was gone. That didn't bode well. He was just contemplating calling out when a strange robot approached him... and that's where Gladio found out that he wasn't in Irivar anymore.

He was lead from the stone slab into another area to find more robots... he was handed a tablet, some local currency... and sent him on his way.

Gladio stepped out of the, what was it? He looked back and up. Temple... definitely a temple. He stepped out... and immediately sat himself down on the steps in the snow to try and work his head around what the hell he'd gotten himself into this time.]

A Teeny Tiny Fortune:
[Having noticed the strange booth, Gladio approached curiously. These robots were a strange thing, but so was the box that he was handed. He shook it as directed, a small, amused smile on his lips.

Then he was given a piece of paper.]

"The smallest things can bring the biggest rewards." Huh... good things in small packages, right? Thanks.

[Still looking very amused, Gladio shoved the paper in his pocket and turned to go.]

Stuck On You:
[Apparently he needed to look for a place to live. This was a big step up from a small room with a smaller bed shared between four people.

Gladio had taken his cloak off and had it wrapped over one hand. The laces of his leather tunic had been loosened and he was considering just taking that off as well, but figured near stripping in the middle of the street could be frowned upon.

He was so distracted by his surroundings that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Gladio bumped into someone. Automatically he reached out to stop whoever he ran into from hitting the ground... except that never happened. Wait, why couldn't he let go?]

Sorry! You okay?

Taking Stock:
[He'd found his way to the centre of the city it seemed. He'd found a fountain, an interesting structure that Gladio stood for a while, just looking at. He moved around it slowly, looking at all angles, before he sat himself down on the edge.

He stretched his legs out in front of himself and sighed.

So far this place didn't seem to have anything in common with where he had been before... He was starting to get a sinking feeling.

It was cold, there was snow everywhere, but nothing that was going to bother him so much that he was rushing to get indoors. He'd spent so much time inside over the last few months, even the snow was welcome.]

Home Away From Home:
[Houses... Small houses bunched together... And he was supposed to find one.]

Right... so how the hell does this work?

[Gladio walked up the street, then down it again, before he stopped in front of a house that appeared to be vacant. The tablet thing claimed it was unoccupied, so he walked on in.

After having a look around, he laughed to himself and did what was necessary to become the new owner... and then dropped himself down on sofa. Well and truly done.]

Wildcard:
[If you have another idea for a prompt, have at it, I'll run with anything. Though if you'd like to contact me I can be found on plurk and discord:

JustAnotherUsername | Theo#4816 - poke me as needed![

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Something about the 'sentient robot' piece of information hits him kind of... poorly, but the only real indication to let on to that fact is a moment where his lips draw into a slightly tighter line.

Not that it's a wholly bad thing to hear, though,] Ah, we had someone like that here for a while. He was... pretty big. [Trying to imagine him on a train is. Yeah. Okay, Shinji can see where that would be a problem.] But the bunks weren't even big enough for you?

[Gladio may be Tall, but not, like, unreasonably so? Was this train made for generally smaller people? Hm...!]

Just over five foot in length. I'm just over six. [He flashed a grin.] Cramped doesn't come close.

[And throw in the fact he'd often shared that narrow bunk... Admittedly he wouldn't have changed that for the world, but it hadn't been the best or most comfortable of sleeps.]

That... had to be rough.

[He's never been in a sleeper car before, but he can't imagine the beds on a train would be too comfortable in the first place.]

That's definitely not a problem here, at least. The accommodations are all very generous.

I'm looking forward to it!

[Gladio laughed.]

A bed I can stretch out in is real damn important when you're my size.

I imagine so.

[It'll probably be an even more welcome accommodation if he's been struggling with a smaller bunk for... however long he was on that train. That thought makes him curious about what the answer might be, but perhaps it's best to not ask outright.]

The town is all walled in, but there's still plenty of room to stretch out in general. [It can be easy to get a little restless with the whole... walled-up nature of it all, but it's not particularly cramped either.] Much nicer than staying cooped up on a train for however long.

Four long months. But being cooped up with nowhere to go made it feel like four years. No music. No television. The same handful of books to read.

[Gladio shook his head and laughed at the memory.]

Honestly don't know how I didn't lose my damn mind.

[Oh, jeez, that sounds like a downright painful situation to be cooped up in.]

You'll have plenty of things to keep busy with here. I know there's a library, the robots who live here are fond enough of music, and I've heard they shoot movies but I haven't actually seen any myself. They'll hold festivals sometimes, and with the state of the world outside the walls... there will probably be plenty of opportunities to help cleanup and rebuild things, too.

[That definitely covers a bit of ground as far as 'stuff to do' goes.]

So even if you do end up here for a while, it's never really boring.

Sometimes boring is good. But I like busy work. So all that sounds good to me.

[Especially this library. Gladio felt like that was somewhere he really wanted to check out at some point. The fact there was space made this place infinitely better than the Voidtrecker. He was looking forward to finding out more. Gladio just hoped it stopped being so cold sometime soon.]

[Sometimes boring is good! But having that kind of boredom forced on you by having no access to anything to distract yourself is different than just choosing to have a lazy day once in a while.]

There should be plenty of time for you to figure everything out here, what kinds of things you might want to do. [For now, their destination is in sight, cafe Affurgato!] Mmm, it's just up ahead here.

I look forward to finding out who I am here.

[He was different on Eos and on the Voidtrecker. Who he would be here was going to be interesting to find out.

Gladio smiled when he caught sight of the cafe.]

Looks good. Do they sell green tea there?

[That's a pretty good mindset to have in a place like this, Shinji thinks. Havenwell seems to be a place where people can spend time learning more about themselves, at least in his experience. How nice that someone else might be able to use this time for that sort of purpose, too.]

Mmm, maybe? [He's actually not positive! He's only ever actually been inside once, but,] I'm pretty sure the chefs would be able to accommodate that kind of request even if it isn't on the menu, though.

Guess we'll find out when we get there.

[Gladio grinned and moved ahead as they reached the cafe and stepped up to open the door for Shinji. Even just standing in the doorway told him it was so much warmer inside. The warm smells of coffee and baked goods had his stomach grumbling.]

[Ahh, the warm air is a welcome change of pace from the chilly breeze still sweeping through Havenwell. Not to keep them outside for too long, now that they've arrived, Shinji hurries his way in, offering a soft,] Thank you, [as he does.

It's lucky they showed up when they did - it doesn't seem to be terribly busy at the moment, meaning there's no real wait for a table! How perfect! Time to loosen up his scarf and jacket, there's no real need for those here.]

The food here's really tasty, [he's already said as much, but it's worth reiterating,] one of my roommates will sometimes bring things from here home for a treat.

Roommates? [Gladio looked at Shinji with a slightly worried frown.] Do uh... do we get forced to share rooms with people here?

[He'd had more than enough of that on the Voidtrecker. If he could avoid it here he'd be a very happy Shield.]

Forced? [Oh, goodness, that would be awful...] No, no, I've never heard of anything like that happening before.

It's... a little easier, sometimes, to have someone you trust close at hand, but if you want to be on your own, you can. I moved in with my roommate a little less than a year ago, both of us were by ourselves until then.

Thank The Six. [Gladio laughed, relief clear in his voice. He was done with sharing a cramped room with strangers. It was time to just have a little time on his own. Space to breathe. And maybe when he was done with that he might do as Shinji did and find a roommate.]

Can see how it'd be easier. But this place looks interesting. [He glanced around, warm and comfortable and, was that a cat?] Appreciate you bringin me here.