Party Time [Rira]
Posted May 28, 2018 12:59:03 GMT -7
Post by Diana on May 28, 2018 12:59:03 GMT -7
The world was huge. The world of 2018 seemed smaller because of their advances in transportation, but it was still huge. Huge enough that getting from place to place was still difficult and time consuming, huge enough that she was annoyed that the headmaster didn't open up more portals. Seriously, he had the ability to open all these portals and he picked five areas on a planet that was nearly 200 million square miles? Only five? Why not stick them in every major city? Why not put them along every major trade route? Sure, she didn't know how his power worked or if there was a reason for it, but it still annoyed her. Now she was going to have to find a way to get to Italy without using portals, and then was going to have to go back to another portal so she could get to Florence.
Vieri needed more scientists, a lot more scientists. His methods were far too reasonable and relied way too much on people wanting to work for him. It sounded nice in theory, and why she was taking the time to accumulate as much money as she had been, but they were both mages. They didn't have to play by the world's rules, they didn't have to be reasonable. Unsurprisingly, all of these important people with cushy jobs and indoor plumbing didn't see much of a reason to 15th century Florence to help some kid further his goals. Money was nice, but they had money. Some liked the subject, some liked the idea of seeing the early renaissance, but there weren't many of those. That's where Diana came in. Whether they liked it or not didn't matter to her. They needed more people that knew what they were doing and could actually talk to some of the natives, and whether or not they wanted to do it didn't matter to her. It was easy enough to make them do it. But there was no portal in 2018's Italy, so she had to find another way there.
Geography was never her strong point. Until recently she didn't even go outside, and she had only been aware of the world of 2018 for about a year. The maps in her time weren't exactly the most accurate and a lot of the names had changed, but there was one thing she was generally aware of because of her family's business: trade routes. Traveling over land was more inconvenient than traveling over sea, so she went with the big sea-based trade route she knew of and went through the portal to Dubai. Whether or not it was still the best in this time she had no idea, but she at least had an idea of where to go. Head to eastern Africa, unload the cargo and travel over land to the Nile, then head north to the Mediterranean Sea. Easy enough. Given how the world was laid out, she doubted this route would lose its prominence, so anyone driving a ship would probably know what she was talking about. If not she could cross that bridge once she got there.
The boat she decided to board was picked at more or less random. There were a lot of bigger ones, but she didn't need a huge ship. Right now she was just transporting herself, and she doubted she'd be able to use this ship on the way back since she was going to have to cross over land. More importantly, she could smell food on this one, and she hadn't eaten in about two hours. Just the smell made her hungry and she found herself drawn to it. It was big enough and could probably survive the trip at sea, so she wasn't too worried. It was easy enough for her to climb up the side with the help of her magic, and from there she wandered around trying to get a feel for the layout of the ship and where the person driving would be. Diana may not have known how to move one of these things, but she did know how to point pointy objects at people and demand they do it for her, and she knew how to make them more compliant about it thanks to her power. It was close enough really.
What she saw surprised her. She'd never actually been on a ship, so she hadn't confirmed it for herself, but she always heard that sailors were sweaty men with bad attitudes and no fashion sense. That was not what was on this ship at all. It was like walking into one of those overdone parties the nobility liked to throw in her time. Everyone was overdressed and wearing way too many sparkly things, in contrast to the jeans, t-shirt, and black leather jacket she was wearing. Her jeans had a hole and a bloodstain on them from when she was stabbed earlier, and her shirt had several bloodstains from when she stabbed someone else. She figured she'd just clean it up later because she didn't think it'd be that big a deal on a ship. The interior wasn't what she was expecting either. She always heard ships were pretty bare-bones, only putting in what was necessary for the trip ahead, but this place looked more like a fancy concert hall or something. There were even people playing music live in the back, though the stage was rather small. Diana raised an eyebrow as she tried to make sense of this. She did indeed just climb up a ship or she'd be more worried that she somehow went to the wrong place. It looked like this trip might be more comfortable than she thought it was going to be.
Diana stood out and she knew she did. Bloodstains on her clothing aside, she was tall and carrying a spear bigger than she was. She was wet from swimming out here, wet enough to be dripping water everywhere, and her hands were covered in grime from the outside of the ship. But none of that bothered her. If they had security she doubted they'd be able to do anything to her, and a few odd looks didn't mean anything to her. With a shrug, she made a beeline for the closest food, pushing and shoving through everyone that happened to be in her path if they didn't move. She didn't care if she ruined their fancy suits or sparkly dresses or got a little algae in their hair. In this case, the closest food was someone wearing something considerably less fancy, likely a server of some kind, carrying around a plate with a bunch of fancy looking eggs on it. Rather than take one like everyone else, she just forced the tray out of his hands and started eating all of them. Taking over the ship could wait until she had a snack.
---
Rira
Vieri needed more scientists, a lot more scientists. His methods were far too reasonable and relied way too much on people wanting to work for him. It sounded nice in theory, and why she was taking the time to accumulate as much money as she had been, but they were both mages. They didn't have to play by the world's rules, they didn't have to be reasonable. Unsurprisingly, all of these important people with cushy jobs and indoor plumbing didn't see much of a reason to 15th century Florence to help some kid further his goals. Money was nice, but they had money. Some liked the subject, some liked the idea of seeing the early renaissance, but there weren't many of those. That's where Diana came in. Whether they liked it or not didn't matter to her. They needed more people that knew what they were doing and could actually talk to some of the natives, and whether or not they wanted to do it didn't matter to her. It was easy enough to make them do it. But there was no portal in 2018's Italy, so she had to find another way there.
Geography was never her strong point. Until recently she didn't even go outside, and she had only been aware of the world of 2018 for about a year. The maps in her time weren't exactly the most accurate and a lot of the names had changed, but there was one thing she was generally aware of because of her family's business: trade routes. Traveling over land was more inconvenient than traveling over sea, so she went with the big sea-based trade route she knew of and went through the portal to Dubai. Whether or not it was still the best in this time she had no idea, but she at least had an idea of where to go. Head to eastern Africa, unload the cargo and travel over land to the Nile, then head north to the Mediterranean Sea. Easy enough. Given how the world was laid out, she doubted this route would lose its prominence, so anyone driving a ship would probably know what she was talking about. If not she could cross that bridge once she got there.
The boat she decided to board was picked at more or less random. There were a lot of bigger ones, but she didn't need a huge ship. Right now she was just transporting herself, and she doubted she'd be able to use this ship on the way back since she was going to have to cross over land. More importantly, she could smell food on this one, and she hadn't eaten in about two hours. Just the smell made her hungry and she found herself drawn to it. It was big enough and could probably survive the trip at sea, so she wasn't too worried. It was easy enough for her to climb up the side with the help of her magic, and from there she wandered around trying to get a feel for the layout of the ship and where the person driving would be. Diana may not have known how to move one of these things, but she did know how to point pointy objects at people and demand they do it for her, and she knew how to make them more compliant about it thanks to her power. It was close enough really.
What she saw surprised her. She'd never actually been on a ship, so she hadn't confirmed it for herself, but she always heard that sailors were sweaty men with bad attitudes and no fashion sense. That was not what was on this ship at all. It was like walking into one of those overdone parties the nobility liked to throw in her time. Everyone was overdressed and wearing way too many sparkly things, in contrast to the jeans, t-shirt, and black leather jacket she was wearing. Her jeans had a hole and a bloodstain on them from when she was stabbed earlier, and her shirt had several bloodstains from when she stabbed someone else. She figured she'd just clean it up later because she didn't think it'd be that big a deal on a ship. The interior wasn't what she was expecting either. She always heard ships were pretty bare-bones, only putting in what was necessary for the trip ahead, but this place looked more like a fancy concert hall or something. There were even people playing music live in the back, though the stage was rather small. Diana raised an eyebrow as she tried to make sense of this. She did indeed just climb up a ship or she'd be more worried that she somehow went to the wrong place. It looked like this trip might be more comfortable than she thought it was going to be.
Diana stood out and she knew she did. Bloodstains on her clothing aside, she was tall and carrying a spear bigger than she was. She was wet from swimming out here, wet enough to be dripping water everywhere, and her hands were covered in grime from the outside of the ship. But none of that bothered her. If they had security she doubted they'd be able to do anything to her, and a few odd looks didn't mean anything to her. With a shrug, she made a beeline for the closest food, pushing and shoving through everyone that happened to be in her path if they didn't move. She didn't care if she ruined their fancy suits or sparkly dresses or got a little algae in their hair. In this case, the closest food was someone wearing something considerably less fancy, likely a server of some kind, carrying around a plate with a bunch of fancy looking eggs on it. Rather than take one like everyone else, she just forced the tray out of his hands and started eating all of them. Taking over the ship could wait until she had a snack.
---
Rira