Citizenship

[Riley Oran]

Alright, so now they were no longer sidetracked, which was a relief. The trip to the police station was random, but somewhat necessary as it turned out, as Alexander now was in possession of an Identification Card. The tall, svelt blonde had a grasp of things like these from his world. They were little plastic cards that had a picture of themselves on them, with other information that he didn't really get accompanying it. Numbers and letters, mostly, with vague indications of what they meant. He'd only actually seen a few of them. People didn't carry cards in Aramayt. They were far more old school, relying on a person's word alone.

Alright, so they were ancient. And there were instances that they needed paper work to prove their identity, but they were reserved for important things. You didn't need to keep the papers with you for a chariot, for instance. Or to buy alcohol. Alarmingly enough to some, cigarettes weren't a thing in Aramayt, and so they didn't need ID for that either. Instead people usually burned hemp seeds, which gave everybody in the room a very pleasant buzz. It wasn't nearly as disgusting as tobacco, which he had tried after the sky fell from beneath the city.

In his hands, in a warm blanket, Alexander had two things. In the right hand, the hand wrapped in chain with a sword stuck through the black links he carried Yudi, the baby dragon from Tedranog. He had only recently given her a name. When he picked her up from within the RPD, they needed something for the paperwork. Rather than make up a name he defaulted to a familiar one, He had cared for a child once before, but while this didn't seem totally the same it stirred similar feelings. "Yudi," he had told them. "Her name is Yudi."

He really hadn't even be sure of the gender before they told him. That was an awkward bullet that hit him right in the chest, and he had to spend half an hour convincing them to release her back into his custody. She did arrive with him, and they had no legal basis for holding her. They were simply concerned for her well being, but in the end she came back with Alexander as her guardian once again. According to the doctor, she wasn't ill in the normal sense, like disease or something physical. As it turns out, this is a fairly common problem.

Whenever a person crosses into Radx, or any dimension for that matter, they have to adapt to it. Each dimension is different, and so people have to adjust. Children and the elderly tend to have it hard. The elderly simply don't have the fortitude, but the children are still developing and they synchronization process can interfere with, halt, or even damage growing cells. A simple fix was to lock the growth process with something called a "Tempo". It sounded more like a curse to be honest. Apparently Yudi would not get any larger until she was fully adapted to Radix, which could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

In the other hand, Alexander held a slip of paper with an address. According to the RPD they provided free housing for newcomers for up to two years at a large apartment complex in Latonia. It seemed to always have vacant apartments conveniently enough, and while there was an actual reason behind that Alexander chose not to pursue it further. He was just happy to have a place to rest his head, and as he followed the address on the card he only needed to walk for an hour from the police station before he came upon the building.

It was a large, brick structure, and very out of place for the town. Everything else was shiny and presitine, and while the building wasn't run down it certainly stood out. The architecture instead of the familiar Grecian design he associated with Aramayt, was like the buildings in the American cities he had traveled through (and later seen destroyed). Looking at the front of the card, all it contained was an address and an apartment number. "Three-fifty-one," Alexander said quietly. "Third floor."

He turned the card over in his fingers, glancing at the instructions on the back. When he reached the room, he needed to present the ID they had given him. He actually had two-- one for him, and another for Yudi, though he wasn't sure how she'd use a card. She needed a dog tag or something, but he wasn't going to fight with the people he'd just met over something that was admittedly minor in terms of importance. He placed the address back in his tattered pants pocket, retrieving his ID from the same one. It was a blank card, but if this was anything like the syringe there was more too it than that.

He made his way through the building and to his door, waving the card before it and standing there for a moment. Nothing happened. He waved it again, and still the door didn't open. Yet, every time he waved it a little gray box next to the door would turn green for a few seconds, then blink to red and turn off just afterwards. He scowled, and huffed as a finger tapped him lightly on the shoulder. Alexander jerked, surprised by the interaction and locking his eyes onto the figure that had poked him.

It was a tall, blue thing. Skinny, a body like a scarecrow. Limbs that were thin and spindly beyond sane reason indicated towards the door, and then words came from the creatures mouth that Alexander could understand. Fluently. He never learned to speak English very well, having primarily spoke Greek for most of his life. Landing in America meant he had to learn their language, and to be frank English was a confusing tongue to train. So much unneeded bits that it had absorbed from god-knows-where kept full comprehension an enigma to him.

And yet this creature was speaking Greek, fluently. Alexander didn't have time to consider this, and if he had would have realized that somehow everything in Radix spoke Greek This proved to be a good thing, as it would have nly furthered his confusion. "You have to grab the doorknob and turn it when the light turns green."

Alexander looked back at the door, nodding in understanding. "Thank you," he replied great-fully, repeating the suggested action with success. "Not to complain, but everything in this city is so... advanced. I thought it would be automated. This is sorely out of place." The creature nodded, simply bidding him farewell and departing. Alexander went inside his apartment, setting Yudi down on the couch.

The area was remarkably large given what he had thought. A spacious living room, a nice kitchen, a gorgeous bathroom, and two bedrooms. Perfect, and it was already modestly furnished as well.