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Warm Up | 22 - Gate

"Cho," a voice calls out to him. Whoever he is expresses worry but the sentiment is not there for he knew not who did.

His eyes open, gazing upon the clear dawning skies. A dark blue hue that slowly turned to gold, the white dots fading away. In his consciousness he feels himself laying out on a beach. The smell of the sea pervades his nostrils, even though the last thing he recalls is the explosion of a Nautiloid spacecraft.

Which is absent, sitting up and looking around. There are palm trees further inland, and other islands across the horizon. Seagulls fly about in formation above, presumably searching for prey. This has the makings of his world but he is certain that it's not his own.

"Where am I?" He wonders out loud, his tone gruff and groggy. His scaled hands feel the side of his face, warm and kissed by the rising sun. And it occurs to him that moments, or at least what felt like moments ago, a tadpole has gone through his left eye. Yet he does not feel it swim nor even be limp dead behind his socket. "Huh?" The dragonborn pats the back of his head to feel if the specimen still wriggled.

Nothing, other than a soreness for how hard he slapped himself. Tilting his head side to side to ascertain that nothing is inside his head other than his brain. There's none indeed, and he let out a long sigh of relief. He stands up and stretches his muscles. The abduction, the dragon-struck ride, and the fight at the helm has not injured him in any way. Apart from that, he is alone in an unknown land but it could have resembled another beach from the Sword's coast. His body insists that it is not.

The air feels the same. He breathes it and it does not make him cough. The sand is coarse, water is wet. He feels the jolt of magick surge through him, so he is very certain that part of himself is not lost. His attire is that of sleeveless robes, with thin golden pauldrons that converge on his chest piece. Purely decorational. Below his waist that hangs a short tabard is a pair of black pants. Leather boots crunch the sand beneath as he walks about, and his undergarments are right where they need to be, thankfully.

Apart from that, he has nothing else. So he looks upon the trees to find any that bear fruit. There's plenty of them to go about, to his delight. Despite his bulky dragonborn physique, he does not have the strength nor dexterity to make the climb. Instead, however, he has magic missiles that he can use to knock them off the trunk. He'll do it later.

Cho continues venturing down, the sands turn to grass, and the jungle heat slowly swelters down his scales. He mutters a spell under his breath, exhaling a gentle cool breeze that covers his face as he walks through it. Still on his toes, he now hears other wildlife lingering about. Birds, serpents, and even a few feral cats that run at the sight of him. He does not belong in this jungle, that is for sure.

And moments later, nor did this long stretch of ground. It wedges through the forest for no plant grows upon it. Dark like ash, or perhaps magma rock. Its edges are mired with a white line, and a gapped yellow line that drives through the middle. His hands surge with a purple light- it is not an illusion, nor is there a trap whether physical or magical. Leaning in, he could see that both white and yellow are mere paint. This dark stone smells of sun-washed rock and something akin to leather but he knows not what it is.

He takes a nearby blade of grass and drags it across the substance thinking it might do something. It's not poisonous as the thin strip of plant did not die instantaneously. Could be just a road, but it's so well-maintained and clean. Yet it baffles him why it has the scent of leather.

A question he asks loud in his mind receives an even louder answer approaching him from his right. Cho rushes behind a tree and crouches behind it. He is undetectable like this, especially when he sees a metal-like box creature with frames that embed mirrors, speeding by with black wheel-shaped material. He smells it as the origin of that leather-y scent. While the sound it makes is almost like a shriek, with a mix of metal being hammered.

Whatever it is passes at great speed, almost as fast as the dragons that flew alongside the Nautiloid ship it tried to destroy some time before. It's almost like a cart, he thinks. Roads, carts- is he in a distant future? Truly, he does not belong here. What do sentient beings look like nowadays? Do they even wear the same type of clothing he does? Can he even overpower them?

He sighs, being diplomatic is the absolute way of surviving. And even if he has to grovel onto his knees, unbecoming of him, he has to in order to survive. If the principle of these yak-less carts are still the same, perhaps he can wait by the road for someone to entertain him.

Out of his cover and by the road, he looks around and wonders to himself when the next cart will arrive. Walking towards the right, he breathes more cold air against his scales. And not before long, behind him, he hears the similar noise approaching him. It is a different-looking cart save for its wheels, and the occupants inside do take notice of him, stopping on the side of the road.

Cho gulps and keeps his hands behind him, yet his fingers surge with magick should these people have ill-plans for him. The mirror shows his densely scaled face, with a beard of spines around the curvature of his face. His left eye has a blue glow, his right a red one. And his facial muscles contort to that of annoyance but he insists to himself that he is tired and confused.

The mirror of this cart lowers itself, revealing two occupants in a somewhat roomy interior. One is a humanoid canine- a species unheard of from his last world. It nudges in the direction that he is an alien here. Yet the one behind, holding onto an inner wheel, is a thick-scaled lizard- perhaps the evolutionary progress of lizardfolk? A larger figure that somehow fits itself in.

"Finally found you, Cho,"

Cho's eyes widen, it's the voice who called out to him earlier. Many questions and this one may have all the answers. But since his name is somehow known to him, he asks, "Who are you?"

"Ricky Furgo, your rescuer." He opens the door behind him. "From moments ago, and now as well. Get in."

Given he is possibly the reason why he will not become a walking-talking squid, he nods and climbs onto the back seat. It's even stuffier inside with a slight cold air barely combating the heat. The crocodile on his front-left gives him a side-eye, yellow lizard-like eyes studying him.

"Don't forget to close the door."

"Oh, right," he closes it in, and the lock just above the frame pins itself closed. Fascinating mechanisms married with magic, or perhaps it's just the former. His hands lay below his seating knee, trying to scan magic about. The door does not contain any but the person in front of him is a pure concentrate of an unimaginable scale. Almost like a divine- Ricky truly did save him.

Perhaps it is time for him to ask, "Where am I? When am I?"

"You are on Earth in the 28th Century." He says it simply, eyes still forward. The crocodile beside him scoffs at it. "I saved you from becoming a hentai man, and that is how far my kindness extends. For now."

"Hen... tie?" Cho does not know what that is. Nor does he know about the glass structures they are approaching, or the massive metallic cubes further behind. Or a long metallic phallus that protrudes from the ground. It's almost like a tower but it does not contain windows.

"Ricky, cut the crap and speak his tongue."

"Alright," he turns around, smiling. He lifts his opal-tinted glasses and Cho saw dark red irises. "I saved you from becoming a Nautiloid creature but in the process I have also plucked you from Baldur's Gate Three, and you now reside in this reality."

"Does this mean I'm imprisoned in this Hell?"

"Hell? No." He gestures around, showcasing what Cho doesn't know are resorts and a spaceport. "You simply exist here now and will live the rest of your life as you please. Take note that it is not far off from goofing around in Sword's Coast. Run around killing people, you get killed yourself."

"How about mannerisms? Respect? Culture?" Cho retorts. Half of him is eased into this prospect- out of danger but out of his element. It can still be a very intricate facade, which the other half feels extreme caution, and feigning trust for now. Maybe, under these circumstances, he has to outwit this devil or divine.

"I will give you an MD; a mobile device. It's like an electronic journal that has everything you will ever need to know." Ricky offers his hand, and above it manifests crystals out of thin air, that then shape itself as a thin rectangular glass. And moments later is alight with words that he understands under a gentle light blue hue.

Cho reels his hand away, seeming like a cursed object that can electrocute him, or imprison his entire being inside.

Ricky chuckles, they're about to drive into a tunnel. In the darkness he turns on the car's inner light, which Cho mistook for a glowing stone. But he calls his attention back to the MD, tapping around the screen to show several words, paintings, and even an application that has its own mirror. Which seems redundant to the dragonborn since you can already see your own reflection from the device.

Cho reaches out with one hand first, his other holding onto its arms in case he needs to yank it back. One finger taps the screen, and he does not feel a surge, nor his power leaving him. Nothing feels off other than the cool glass, and how the light reacts to his press. He slides it upward thus the text goes downward. "What in the hells?" He leans in more, his guard dropped in fascination with such a tool. The content of this light-book-device-thing speaks about the planet and its history. Dating from millennia upon millennia ago, and it stretches over a long page. The years are highlighted on a side bar, on the edge of the flat screen, and he clicks on it, jumping by a considerable chunk. There is so much to read about this world.

Ricky teaches him about searching- or in the dragonborn's terms, writing down a request in this light-box-bar and asking it a question. Not only does Cho see various answers, but each of them goes in depth. And by now he has the MD in hand, reading down how to behave in this planet called 'Earth'. He learns soon after that it is the third inhanbited world in the solar system, whatever that means. Perhaps another way of saying 'realm'.

Cho comes across a painting, but Ricky corrects him into it being an image. He, however, laments that paintings have taken longer and provided less detail. And his mouth is left wide open when the canine shows him how to zoom on images. Further down the line, even these images move in the screen, almost like a magic display but instead dances around in such a small device. For now, however, what he learns are the rules, the proper attire which his own is not only acceptable, but is revered. It is no different from the Sword's Coast as it turns out, but certain displays like love or vulgarity are common. And then he learns about giants, aliens, demons, and even humans. But here, humans are enslaved.

He looks up about to ask Ricky only for him to see the long stretch of road become a bridge, leading into a large enclosed environment made of nothing but metal and smoke. There are a lot of these towers that are being moved on conveyor belts. Some are laid on the side, and others are being sent to the world above- they are underground. There is signage just above their bridge that reads 'Welcome to Sub-Level 1, Spaceport'.

"Port? These are boats?" Surely these are not meant for the sea. Sky boats perhaps?

"Space boats," Ricky points upward to emphasize his point. "Travel to other diverse worlds far different, or similar, from Earth. It goes past the sky."

Cho looks up to see the metallic ceiling with all its buzzing lights, but he also sees the gates that open, showing a now-blue sky. "Past that?" He points at it.

"Mhm. Past all of that."

Cho tries to look past it- meaning the stars can now be touched. Or perhaps the stars are worlds themselves. Or, in the darkness of the night sky, hides worlds or even beings now that his mind has been open to such strange things. But amidst all the questions about this world there is one he should have asked when boarding the cart, "Where are you taking me?"