Afternoon at the Museum

[ohgoodgrief]

Who: Yang... and you!
What: It's time for a field trip to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, France. The afternoon is in the museum. But Yang took everyone at like 10 AM as an excuse to get out and see Paris.
Where: Paris! And at the Army Museum.
When: February 25
Notes: The following prompts are if you want to interact with Yang directly! Otherwise, please feel free to use this as an excuse to do threads in Paris! Yang's taking basically anyone -- heck, even other teachers, TA's, and RA's -- because he really just wanted an easy field trip after grading all the papers and despairing over the fact he might have made his courses too hard.

A. WE'RE ABOUT TO HAVE PARIS RIGHT NOW

[The helicopters have landed at Charles de Gaulle airport, everyone has bused into the city center, and it's now about 11:00 in the morning. They aren't supposed to be at the museum until two. Thus, standing in front of the crowd, Wen-li Yang...

...is due to give a speech.]

So, Paris! It's a pretty big deal.

[Hm, what else is important...]

Meet at the Army Museum at 2! And try to not get in too much trouble. Have fun!

[He'll hang around for a second in case anyone has questions.]

B. AND NOW: OLD STUFF!

[At about 1:57 PM, Yang comes running up with a sandwich still in his mouth and a paper cup with tea in it in hand. He skids to a stop in front of the museum's steps, looks around, and... peers at the people waiting for him.

Then, sheepishly, he waves.

The museum is much too big to do a guided tour. However, unlike the free roam period in Paris, Yang is actually a good source of information here. He roams between the different groups of students, answering questions, providing historical detail, and showing that he isn't actually terrible at his job all of the time.

He'd be easy to approach during any of this.]

Comments

[yokeye]

[Toki ponders this for a moment. It's a good point.]

Each helmet could have its own design with different types of creatures and people! At that point, though, you can't really be sure they'd line up with the daemon that would be distracted by them. Unless there's some kind of locator spell type thing that would read their minds and we'd know exactly where to place which helmet!

[prisoneroffate]

I bet the seers could tell us.

[yokeye]

If they knew, wouldn't they have already laid out this helmet battle plan?

[He examines the helmet again. Everything would be really hard to see, and perhaps not distracting enough to deter the daemons. It had been an interesting idea, though.]

They must have a better plan in the works!

[prisoneroffate]

That would make sense. These are old battlefield methods after all. I'm sure things have changed a lot.

[yokeye]

Have they really? It's the same principles and the same things people fight over and it will be the same later! None of it matters~!

[prisoneroffate]

I don't know that human history is quite prepared for this kind of war though.

[yokeye]

We're probably not~! Humans haven't really been around that long, though! It may be like the hundredth similar war for the daemons and the Outlands and we're just the next species on their list to conquer and it's just another day to them!

[prisoneroffate]

Humans aren't so easily conquered.

[yokeye]

You really think we'll win, don't you~!?

[That's still a surprise, when he encounters people like Ren. He's never been that optimistic, though he's pretended to be for the majority of his life. But this whole Nightfall thing and the existence of the supernatural and daemons and monsters have mostly put a stop to that.]

I figured you were more of an "I'll make coffee while the world burns" type~!

[Toki is now looking at a sword with a gilded handle. It looks so big and heavy. Humans have obviously found better weapons to arm the masses with, but he wonders if daemons still use things like this. He didn't attend the ball and never saw the lightning swords in action, but he heard them mentioned. He starts to ask Ren a question about said swords, but ends up staring at the one on display for far longer than necessary...

He's running from something, too scared to turn and see what it is. It will kill him, he knows this. It's snowing and dead gnarled trees rise from the icy ground, almost the same color as the snow. In front of him, the path stops. The trees seem to grow taller and whatever is behind him is coming closer, an oppressive feeling getting more and more intense. A woman emerges from a thick copse of trees to the right. She is dressed in white furs, her hands held in front of her, cupping a mass of fireflies. They blink in rainbow colors. Her hands wrinkle and age and the fireflies die. Something drives itself through his torso from behind. Looking down, he sees it's a tree branch, the jagged end covered in his blood and looking oddly like a skeletal hand with too-long fingers.

... He drops to his knees with a shout of pain. He can still feel the branch, his hand reaching for it, but it's not there. It will go away soon, but 'being impaled' is going on his list of things that really hurt and should be avoided at all costs.]

[prisoneroffate]

A burned world would have nobody to enjoy coffee wi-

[Well, that's new. Ren leaps into action, gently kneeling down besides the other boy and putting a supportive hand on his back.]

Hang in there. We'll get you out, when you're ready.

[That is said at a murmur, before he adds more loudly and in French to the startled, staring patrons]

Easy now, let's get you your medicine.

[yokeye]

[He can't feel the branch any longer after about a minute, so that's good. But he's in a museum with a lot of people, and that's not.]

Je suis désolé~!

[That's probably not going to deter the staring right away, but he may as well practice when the opportunity arises. Ren is at least calm, and not demanding to know what he saw, so Toki's ignoring him for a moment to take notes on his phone. This will likely go in Rex's growing pile of "make sense of later" visions. When he's done, he stands and tries to ignore the lingering patrons looking at them oddly. Awkward. He looks at Ren, not really sure why he's hanging out with Ren in the first place, but he's here so...]

I'm sorry about that, bad timing~! So~, what were we doing?

[Toki at least knows he's in Paris, and very likely at the Army Museum as that was the reason they went; though he doesn't remember meeting up with rest of the students there, or actually going inside.]

[prisoneroffate]

Getting you back to the professor for now. Can you walk?

[Ren will offer his arm if needed]

[yokeye]

Yeah, I'm fine, really~! It just hurt for second~!

[But at least getting out of this wing of the museum was a good idea, probably.]

[prisoneroffate]

[Ren leads Toki to a less busy section, finding him a bench to sit on]

I can get you back to the professor or probably to a doctor if you think you need it. Your call.

[yokeye]

[A bench is good. Toki will just... wait here until everyone's ready to leave, he supposes. But there really wasn't much danger of it happening again so soon; not that he could ever be sure. Then Ren mentions a doctor. Oh shit.]

Wait, no! It's not a medical thing! I had a vision, I'm seriously fine! You don't even have to get Professor Yang!

[prisoneroffate]

[Ren nods, suddenly understanding]

I understand. Do you expect another will come soon?

[yokeye]

Probably not!

[He's pretty confident in that. More than one in a day is rare.]

Sorry if I derailed your museum fun~! But it's like old shit and history, so maybe I did you a favor!

[prisoneroffate]

All good.

[Ren casually leans against the wall]

You gonna be out of commission for awhile?

[yokeye]

[Apparently Ren was going to hang around, so they might as well go do something instead of waiting. He didn't know how long that would be anyway.]

No, I'm good~! How long have we been here!? Did we see the tanks yet? There's tanks, right? Maybe we can drive them! Or, well, not drive them, but go inside!

[Tanks have to be better than things in display cases like the hall they'd come from.]

[prisoneroffate]

I don't think you should be driving tanks after that.

[yokeye]

[Okay, no tanks. Toki sprawls across the bench, as Ren has decided to utilize the wall instead. He sends the vision notes text file to Rex while he's thinking about it.]

Do you have a better idea?

[prisoneroffate]

Given the high probability this trip will be on the test, exploring more of the museum and taking notes seems prudent.

[You know, since they're in class right now]

[yokeye]

Right! It will be on the test~!

[He's not taking this class. He just went on the field trip, because Paris.]

Lead on~!

[prisoneroffate]

Apparently they have Napolean's dog and horse stuffed and on display somewhere. Want to go find them?

[yokeye]

Okay~! I know who Napoleon was~!

[Everyone does, really, but it's rare for him not to draw a blank on historical figures.]

But explain one thing to me! Okay, I know he was like really short and he had a weird hat and whatever, but why did they the ice cream after him?