Who: William Laurence and OPEN Eloise Bridgerton What: Laurence is out of his depth When: This afternoon Where: The streets of Vallo City Ratings/Warnings: I suspect low, will update if that changes
Thus far, this had been a very strange afternoon, and Laurence wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He was most assuredly no longer in New South Wales and he still wasn't entirely clear on how he'd managed to find himself on Vallo Island instead; he was afraid that he'd been so overwhelmed by the trip to the DOA office, the strange, musical moving images, and everything else that he'd hardly absorbed anything that had been relayed to him.
All he knew now was that he was free to take his leisure in the city, and that he was very notably not presentable. His clothing was still dirt stained from the planting he and Temeraire had done that morning, and his beard, while acceptable while out on his own, relatively isolated farm, was most certainly not appropriate for more civilized society.
He'd been given a stipend of $1000, and while he wasn't wholly familiar with the exchange rate between the dollar and the British pound, he was uncomfortably aware that it was an astronomical sum. Not the kind of money that he would have thought any government would simply hand out to a new arrival, and certainly not the sort of money he wished to be carrying about on him. He should have refused it, except the thought hadn't crossed his mind until after he'd left the building. He wondered now if there had been some sort of monumental mistake.
But his priorities, at least, were clear. He'd first have to find a tailor and a barber to make him fit for society, and once that was taken care of he'd have to find a bank in which to deposit his money. After which, he would begin to make inquiries on whether or not anyone had seen a twenty-ton dragon flying about; he wasn't sure if he could trust that Temeraire wouldn't be in a panic over their unexpected separation, but he did trust Temeraire to cause too much trouble while Laurence tried to figure out what was happening. At the very least, he thought wryly, Temeraire would be easy to find if he did start scouring the city for Laurence.
When he stepped out from the building into the street, any thoughts of priorities quickly fled, however, and he stared, slack-jawed, at the scene around him. He'd never seen building so tall, made - it seemed, though he couldn't imagine how - entirely of glass and steel. There were more of the screens that showed the moving images, perhaps not beyond measure but more than he could count in a glance.
With his neck craned upward, he didn't see the antlered man speeding toward him on some sort of foot-propelled, two-wheeled vehicle until he was nearly on top of him, the sharp, tinny sound of the bell attracting his attention. Laurence quickly stepped out of the way onto the street, his eyes following the contraption and its even stranger rider, directly into the path of a large, horseless carriage - also made if steel, it seemed - which let out a ghastly noise and came screeching to a stop less than a foot from Laurence.
He quickly stepped back onto the sidewalk, making hasty apologies to the irate looking man that was, apparently, the coachman of the vehicle. He made straight for the shade of a nearby building and stood close against it, taking in the measure of the street before venturing out again.