It is a summer's day, with greying, tattered skies. Warm yet inclement, the weather spits down sulky rain, clears again, clouds over. A smell like ozone flares and fades, flares and fades. Something is strange.

There are few crowds here, trending to none. For some reason, people do not seem to want to be on the street.

There may be a reason for this - two bodies seem to be lying out in the middle of the street. Two women.

Amy is coming down from the inn to her favourite perching rock. The petite blonde meanders her way down, pausing to look at the sky, the people and their somewhat odd behaviour. She makes it to the rock, and then comes to a stop as she spies two people lying out in the middle of the street. "had a bit too much to drink, did you?" she calls out curiously.

Dasha sits up suddenly, as if jolted awake. She stares around with a confused expression.

Filinia rolls over. She looks like the drinking sort - dressed in work clothes, with short hair spiked up by sweat and salt. She still looks dazed despite apparently waking. Staring at the sky does not look like it is helping.

Dasha says, "What the f... Where am I?"

Filinia says, "Fu... if I know?"

Dasha turns to stare at the person next to her. "Who are you?" Her dark eyes glitter with curiosity.

Filinia looks at Dasha in return. "Oh... Um. Fel. Phil. Fil. Call me Fil? Did we get jumped?"

Amy arches a brow, and she does now settle into a seat on the big rock. "Oh, my, it seems we have new arrivals. Welcome to the Switchback, friends."

Filinia glares at Amy. "Huh?" Not quite the full crown, this one.

Dasha scrambles to her feet, wavers, then recovers. She takes a step back, making space between herself and the... person... on the ground. Then she studies the woman on the rock. "Who are you?"

Filinia does not bother getting up. She sits there staring, muttering to herself.

Amy offers a bright smile as she is noted. "I'm Amy," is her reply. "There's a bunch of us here, exploring. We all sort of woke up just like you did. This place is called the Switchback and it's in a city that might be Amber. We're not /quite/ sure about that." She pauses very briefly and adds, "Any of that ring any bells for you two?"

"Erm?" Filinia might know more than she realises, because she looks directly downhill, not around the place. Just maybe, she knows geography.

The overcast sky spits down a little rain. The smell of air being burned by magic is gone now.

Dasha says, "No. None of that makes any sense. But, exploration is good. It's my thing. I think.""

She pauses. Considers and nods. "Yes."

Filinia tries getting up. "Guuuuh. Nah, this ain't Amber. Where's the wyvern cavalry?"

Amy gets to her feet now, moving to offer a hand. "well, either way, welcome to the switchback. There's an inn just up the way that has rooms, and there's a fair bit of city to expl - wyvern cavalry?" Blink. "I didn't catch your names, I don't think?"

Up on her feet, Filinia is tall, skinny, and bony. "Fel. Fil. Filinia." She stares around. "You don't have the eyries or the stains in the road. Can't be Amber."

"Haven't seen a wyvern here, though Dirk did tell me I'm a dragon. Far as I know, I'm not, and I'd really like to know what drugs he had," Amy replies. "I'm not all that familiar with Amber, to be honest, but it seems there has been some sort of - cataclysm. When we first arrived, the whole place was hemmed in by a horrible nasty fog. It's still there - just it's been pushed out." A pause, "That probably won't make sense, but if you do see the fog, stay away from its edges, especially if you're alone."

Now that Filinia is standing, Dasha has to look up at her. "Bit of a beanpole, you are." The dark-haired woman is of average height and average weight and well, just average. She glances over at Amy. "And you're itty-bitty. Feels like someone is starting a collection."

Filinia nods. "Fog. Right. Like a brown-souper? The stuff that comes out of the palace?" The bean-pole looks down at Dasha. "You'd be fed to the wyverns for sure. You're fat."

Dasha glares in outrage. "Child, mind your damned manners."

Filinia says, "You're not my mother, and you're not my captain. Get bent."

Amy looks at Dasha and then says mildly, "I suppose they could try, but I don't take too kindly to being in anyone's collection." She then also steps between the two, just in case. "Now now, there's enough to fight without us fighting each other."

After a moment's breathing and thinking, Filinia knuckles under. "Sure. Whatever." She even steps back. "But it's not safe to look good to eat. Really it ain't."

Dasha continues to glare up at the other woman. "Whatever. I don't think I like you." She glances at Amy. "You on the other hand, look delicious." She gives a the petite blond a flirtatious wink, then laughs and steps back to make more space between herself and everyone else.

Kyrie comes out of the inn, a bounce to her step and a mostly empty sack over one shoulder. She seems headed towards the city and therefore past the others. As usual, her hand rests comfortably on the hilt of her sheathed sword.

Filinia mutters something that has the word 'damfool' in it, along with a few more.

Amy's brow arches again, and she laughs, the sound light and musical. "Alas, my dear, you are entirely not my type. And Gavin would most likely not be impressed. But should we call you MissFlirt or have you a name?" Then over to Filinia, "Filinia, nice to meet you. There are no wyverns or aeries here that we've found. Yet."

Filinia looks mostly relieved, and only a little distrustful.

Dasha says, "You're too young for me anyway, sweetness. Just enjoying the game. I'm called Kasaty Daria Ivanova. But you can call me Dasha."

Filinia mutters, "Sound like a nob name."

Dasha glances at Filinia. "You can call me Ivanova, if you need to say anything to me at all."

Filinia suggests, "Like 'get bent'?"

The older woman makes a rude gesture in Filinia's direction. "Now, I need to look around. Get the lay of the land. There's stuff to be seen here."

Filinia makes a complicated and surprisingly graphic gesture in return. It takes too hands.

Amy shakes her head. "Dasha, it is. Nice to meet you, ma'am." There's a bit of a grin, and she follows that with a snap of her fingers, as she spies Kyrie. "I forgot my backpack. I better go get it. Kyrie, this is Dasha and Filinia, and they've just arrived."

Filinia stares at Kyrie now.

Kerf comes into view from the upper road and descends into the broad turn with his eyes on the cluster. He isn't set on a particular destination and they do stand out. "Good day..?" His greeting tilts at the last second to acknowledge the strangers in the group and the disparate social cues currently muddying the air.

Dasha climbs onto the rock. She is nimble and quick, despite the curves. Standing on the rock, she cuts a dashing figure. Her overcoat is wrapped round the middle with a red silk sash and her boots are polished to a high gleam.

She peers around to get a better look at their location.

Filinia mutters at the sky, the rock, the whole damned place. Her undertone is rebellious, even if her words cannot be made out.

Kyrie reaches the others by the rock, and pauses in her stride. Amy gets a smile, of course, and then Kerf, and then there's a look of great interest towards those she doesn't know. SHe nods to the pair once introduced, and says "Good to meet you both. Welcome to what I'm told is Amber." There's no emotional connection to the name, though.

Filinia says, "Yeaaaah.... Amber's got more wyverns than this."

"nice to meet you both, I hope to chat with you later. Take care," Amy adds before she turns to head towards the inn. She grins at Filinia's comment and waves in passing to Kerf. "Later all. We should meet up at the inn and talk about all the things we've found out!" Then she's gone.

"Tell me what you know of this place?" Dasha demands. "How many people? What is the landscape like? What is this fog that Amy spoke of?"

Filinia does not reply to that, but she does look up into the sky, curiously.

Kyrie watches Amy head back towards the inn, looking a bit curious. Her attention quickly moves back to the others though, and she studies the newcomers. She smiles to Filinia's comment, and says "You're not the only one who thinks it's different than it should be." But then Dasha's tone draws her, and her eyebrows rise. She taps her ear, and says "I'm a little deaf on this side. Try again?" She's clearly not even a little deaf, and has the bearing of someone not inclined towards demands. SHe looks towards Kerf then, and says "You're well? It's been a while. Adjusting?"

Filinia looks to Kyrie, half confused. "It looks a bit like it could be. But there's no palace, no wyverns. And no screaming. Which I gotta say is messing with me a bit."

Dasha rolls her eyes. "That other woman, the little one, she said you have been exploring this place. What have you learned?" As an afterthought, she adds, "please." It doesn't sound like a word she is used to using.

\Nodding faintly to echo Kyrie's welcome of the new two, Kerf glances at the former to check that she's fielding Dasha's queries. He hasn't even really stopped walking along on his way, though eventually he decides it's only proper, and turns to face the cluster. "Enh..I have, Kyrie. As long as there's practical needs to work at fulfilling, it's easier to put aside the overall strangeness of.. well, everything else."

\"Oh, there's a palace. It's just... not quite connected yet. I don't think. As for the screaming... I don't even know what screaming there should be, sorry." She waits for the 'please' from Dasha, then nods and briefly tugs at the brim of her hat. "Her name is Amethyst. She is, apparently, my sister." A shrug says she has no idea if that's actually true. "I have done some exploring, in and out of the fog. Something... ruptured this place. A massive 'Boom' of some sort. It's slowly being connected again, but that takes something more metaphysical than I really understand. We push the fog back with our will. Slowly. Or something." She smiles again to Kerf, and nods. "It's easier to just do, instead of trying to understand it all. I mostly leave that for the mystics among us."

Filinia's expression clears. "Oh, yeah. The Fine Company. They exploded a lot of stuff when they arrived. The palace, and stuff. It's unlucky to talk about them, though. By name. But this ain't Amber if they'n't here."

Dasha frowns. "Amber, Amethyst... Coincidence?" Suddenly she gives a wordless exclamation and leaps off the rock. She strides briskly over to a spot by the inn wall and bends down to swoop something up from the ground. She turns back to the others with a grin as she vigourously dusts something large, black, and ... furry?

Satisfied, she drops it onto her head. It is, apparently, a hat.

Filinia yelps at the jumps, and scutters away from Dasha as she moves.

Kyrie hms as Filinia explains. "There's a fair number who have experience with another kind of Amber. There seem to be some pretty big differences. Maybe sometime you can all compare notes. I'd never heard of the place when I showed up here, but the picture I have of my pa apparently looks like like one of the royals here. Never met him." She then watches Dasha fetch the hat. "Seems like this is a new start for everyone. I mean, for everyone appearing here from the fog. For the locals, seems more like an ending. Or a transition. SOmething."

Filinia says, "Riiiiiight." When she speaks slowly, it seems like she is trying to take something in. "It... is this heaven? It doesn't look like hell."

Kerf appears attentive to the conversation, then all of a sudden people are darting in different directions and he doesn't know what's happening. Taking some cautious steps forward, he looks quickly around and narrows in on the hat as the instigator of excitment. He looks it up and down. "Uh, well. I'm Merrisol. I also doubt this is *my* Amber, not to say that the other one was 'mine' either." He shrugs.

Filinia looks disquieted and unconvinced, and probably a few other things as well. "Great. Where can I kip safe?"

Dasha begins to examine the Switchback. She reaches into her greatcoat and withdraws a small note book and writing tool. Ignoring the others for the moment, she flips through the book, then starts to make rapid marks on one of the pages.

"This Amber does have some things to recommend it. No one seems to be in charge, which is interesting." Kyrie says then. "I'm sure that will change as the people start, well, waking up. From whatever's got them, uh, foggy. And it's not a very unsafe place." she says to Filinia. "Some parts, sure. Like any city. But on the while there's not enough energy to the people to bother being a problem. The inn is safe, of course."

Filinia looks around, and settles on the Breeze Inn. "That way? What I gotta do, to be allowed in?"

Muttering to herself, Dasha flips her book closed and turns to look at the inn. She glances at Filinia. "Don't call the innkeeper," she suggests sweetly, before striding off in the direction of the inn.

Filinia watches, puzzled. Maybe she doesn't understand such.

Filinia shrugs, then, and looks back at Kyrie. "Maybe somewhere that don't have her in. I think I like downhill anyhow. Feels right."

Kyrie mms, watching Dasha go. "Yeah, I can see that. There are some other places. Really, though, Martha has just kept the place available to us. Don't know much about her, and if I were a suspicious sort I'd have more questions there, but she's a decent cook and the rooms are clean."

Filinia says, "I can't afford food. Not yet." She shrugs. "I'll find some work, get some grub. I don't like buying without work. Seems it'll be pricy up here."

"You'd think, but not really." She reaches into a pocket of her coat, and then flips a coin towards Filinia. "Eat. I'm sure there will be a time you can do some work for me."

There is a grab, a nod. Filinia does not examine the coin, just holds it tight in her fist. "Yeah, I'll take that." Then she is off at speed towards wherever food might be. Her habits make her look back and even up as she runs, and she has a good turn of speed.