This can't be good.

[maybeamonster]

To say that the sheriff wasn't used to strange happenings would be a understatement to say the least. But to say that the sheriff was used to transdimensional travel? Well, maybe 'used to' wouldn't be the exact way he'd frame that statement but he'd certainly experienced a lot of weird happenings at his time as sheriff of a small town named Eureka. But this was an entirely new sensation, even for him.

He'd just been yelling at Osbourne for this sort of plant hybrid that may or may not been planning on eating people he'd been developing in secret. It was a shame too cause he was just about to make a really good Audrey II joke before he ended up... wherever this was. That joke he'd just been about to make felt like a distant memory now as he tried to drink in his surroundings which would have worked easy if it wasn't for a pounding headache that seemed to quickly be making its way from his temples downwards with no end in sight.

The expansive streetway in front of him started to disappear as blackness clawed its way from the outside of his vision and threatened to take over, it was starting to make him feel ill. He reached out blindly and grabbed the first thing that he could welcoming the cold bite of metal against his fingertips, grounding him in a way. Whatever he was looking at was apparently real so at least he was alive the street post gave him just enough support so that the wave of disorientation that had seemed to wash over him a moment ago receded back out enough so that he could get to examine his immediate surroundings. Not that he truly understood them.

"Where the hell am I?" He asked to no one in particular.

Comments

[angelic_asshole]

"You're in the Nexus, darling."

Balthazar watching the newcomer from a nearby seat, just enjoying the scotch he was drinking out of the rocks glass. The bottle nearby next to his right foot, as it was a nice day for a drink outside. The cold wind cutting through the air but not bothering the angel since he didn't feel the cold as a human did. A nice February afternoon with a stranger in town.

"It can be rather daunting to one's self once you step through the magic door."

Was it a magic door? Well, portal---thing. The angel offered the confused man a spare glass if indeed he wished to share a drink. There could be residual shock and it was always a good ice breaker to invite said stranger to a drink. If the man wanted answers, which he probably did, then Balthazar would try to answer them.

[maybeamonster]

"Nexus..." He repeated back in a shaky voice he barely even recognized as his own. That word seemed to ricochet around his brain as he assessed just where that word had come from.

He processed the man in front of him between the pounding in his skull. The law enforcement training kicked in and he eyed the man up and down taking in quick details. Though even that seemed to take an incredible amount of effort and the only real thing he was able to get to stick around was the fact that the man in front of him was offering him a drink.

He stiffly moved over to the other taking the offered glass and playing it back and forth in his hands for a minute before offering for the other to fill at his discretion.

"... Nexus?" He just repeated, a little more footing this time around.

[chiaro_oscuro]

"New here?" Ben doesn't need the Force to tell him that. A grim-looking man in dark clothes looks up at the sheriff curiously. "I can tell. I figure I ought to offer you a welcome." Not that Ben's especially good with talking to strangers, but he's here and he's not busy with anything outside of coffee so he figures that he may as well. He's trying to seem as welcoming as possible, not something he's used to.

The dark stranger seems ordinary enough, but appearances can be deceiving in the Nexus. They certainly are in this case. Ben sizes up the new arrival, then nods. Seems pleasant. He shifts, offering the man a place at his side at the table.

He laughs hoarsely. "When I first came here I asked myself more-or-less the same question."

[maybeamonster]

Tall, dark, and foreboding. Carter should feel threatened by it but after all his years in Eureka it barely registers now. The only thing that seems to register right now is he's in a strange place and even to say that that's registering would be an absolute lie.

He was able to process that he was being offered a place to sit and decided that the offer might be welcomed, considering he hadn't managed to decide if his legs were going to keep supporting him or not. He slid heavily into the seat taking a moment or two to find words which normally wouldn't be so hard all things considered.

"And where exactly is here?" He finally managed to croak out.

[chiaro_oscuro]

Theyoung man has a cup of coffee with him, as well as one of the pamphlets he was looking over before meeting the newcomer. He could tell that the other man seemed disoriented. Definitely a new arrival.

Ben consciously tries not to come off as threatening these days, but it's new to him and he tends to be imposing even at the best of times. He's relieved when the other man joins him and doesn't seem to be scared off. He tries to seem welcoming, if not friendly, as he answers the question. He leans back in his chair - he tends to feel a little big in them.

"It's called the Nexus. Dimensional crossroads, I believe is the term used. I live here."

[maybeamonster]

Dimensional, that was a word he understood in some senses. Crossroads, that one he definitely got. But when those two words came together he had a hard time getting them to stick together in a way he could fully understand.

In order to help himself along he threw his head in his hands and tried his damnest to rub some clarity back into his hazy head. This takes a moment or two before he's back to to being able to be clear enough to speak again.

"So... You've been here a while then? This, Nexus."

[chiaro_oscuro]

"My name's Ben Solo. I live near the industrial area, deeper in - but I come out sometimes when I feel like it. I like a warm cup of coffee after a hard day at work. You caught me on one of those days."

As for Ben, he can understand feeling lost. He'd felt lost as a new arrival, and adapted in part because he didn't have much of a choice. He sympathizes with the newcomer's dilemma, and his expression visibly softens.

Ben nods. "For about a year, yes. It's my home. Time passes differently here than where you're from."

[maybeamonster]

Sitting was helping his head but the conversation wasn't, different pieces bounced around and it took several minutes for him to speak again. "So you've been here for a while then." He literally just said that Jack, but he's having a hard time right now obviously.

The good thing is Carter is good at adapting, the bad thing is he's not so good at accepting change right away. This divide is manifesting itself currently as tapping on the table softly. "Oh yeah? One of those deals huh..."

It wasn't the first time he's heard the concept but it's something you never really get used to hearing. "I'm Sh-uh, Carter, Jack Carter." The sheriff part didn't seem necessary right now as he obviously wasn't sheriff of whatever the heck this place actually was.

[chiaro_oscuro]

Ben nods quickly, not bothered when the other man repeats himself. "More or less. It's a lot to swallow, I know. This might help you." He offers Carter the pamphlet he was holding. "It can explain how this place works and what it is better than I can."

He shrugs. He hasn't counted how long he's been here aside from the passage of seasons. He's been here for a while now, and that's what he thinks of it as.

"Good news is it should be easy to get home. All you need to do is find the door you came in through - so I'd stay a while, if I were you." Since Ben can't go home, he's learned to appreciate the Nexus as a second home for him.

[maybeamonster]

The sheriff takes the offered pamphlet but doesn't look at it just yet. Instead it's just something to have to distract his fidgeting hands. He curls it up in his palms twisting it back and forth.

"Door where I came from? Yeah..." He doesn't really remember where he came from. But maybe once his head de-fogs a little he'll be able to focus on that. For now he's just focusing on the conversation at hand. It was a lot harder than it should have been.

"Stay a while? Yeah, I don't think I have much of a choice in that right now. But that seems like an advertisement of sort. Stay a while, what harm could it do. I feel like I've heard that commercial before."

[chainedtoaskull]

An orange tabby cat is the first thing that comes up, rubbing on the lamp post and meowing furtively for attention. The day is overcast, or perhaps it is just evening. Not long after the cat arrives a man comes up, smartly dressed in a three piece suit, all black with lavish black on black embroidery on the vest.

"From the looks of your expression, not where you expect to be." Bob tells him rather matter of factly before turning a disappointed gaze on the cat. Mister running off had forced him to walk this way and leave where he had been enjoying the scenery.

[maybeamonster]

He's almost taken aback by the huge cat that makes his way across his path. Not a black cat so at least there's that but still there's something even weird about the cat in this strange place. If he hadn't liven in Eureka he'd question how even a cat could even give off strange vibes. He was so focused on the cat importantly making himself known that he didn't even sense the presence of the man. The second he spoke he spun around as fast as he could.

Which was a huge mistake.

His head throbbed violently after the act and he felt his heartbeat in every inch of his core which made his stomach do backflips in response to the throbbing and sudden heat his body seemed to fill with. "I'm gonna be sick." At least there was somewhat of a warning before he managed to just make it to a set of bushes nearby upheaving more liquid than anything. Guess it was a good day to skip breakfast in favor of coffee. Bodily fluids Bob, don't you miss them?

[magnetite_plz]

"I should expect you do not actually believe you are in hell nor its surrounding planes." The most immediate indication that this isn't Kansas Eureka anymore are the sudden myriad of non-humans mingling about. Sure, the majority of the population looks human enough but everywhere the sheriff turns there's a bipedal avian mother ushering her chicks along beside her in their knit jumpers. Or a skeleton man dressed in robes selling morbidly decorated scarfs on a street corner. Best not to ask what kind of Lovecraftian deity has been carved into the stone fixture atop a currently nonfunctional fountain.

It's cold here, the plaza of the Nexus caught in the throes of winter, although perhaps milder than one might expect if they're used to bitterly severe seasons in either extreme. The woman who speaks is clad from head to toe in thick robes. It would look almost fantastical were it not for the combat boots and armor plating clearly visible in their design. The environmental seals keep her warm despite the weather.

"If this is your first time in the Plaza I suggest you not wander far from whatever door you stumbled through." Of course, not everyone is so lucky to have a stable entry and exit to this place...

[maybeamonster]

He's oddly used to strange sights and while one might question if they saw strange corporeal creatures if they were in hell or not, he most certainly not in Hell she was right. His body was very much reminding of the face that he was very much alive as his stomach did cartwheels from the sudden act of being thrown to, whatever this was if it wasn't hell.

"Suppose you're right. Hard to believe I'd be lucky enough to be in a cold day in hell moment." Speaking of moments he took one to take in his surroundings a bit more so he could focus in on exactly who was talking.

"I don't think I could go far if I tried. Oh man... I haven't felt like this in a long time." He groaned out. Despite seeing the obvious signs of the cool weather around him he was burning up.

[magnetite_plz]

"I can clear a seat for you easily enough if you need to take a moment." There's a dusting of snow on much of the plaza though not all of it. It wouldn't take much to go borrow a chair or even a stool from a nearby establishment for a few minutes. Being in the Plaza means getting used to people quite literally dropping in and out fairly often.

"Are you injured...?" He doesn't look to be physically hurt but Nike can never really tell just by looking at someone.