How does a person acclimate to being dropped into a completely new universe? You'd get a wide variety of answers depending on who you asked. Most people never have the "multiverse wandering" experience first-hand--but Lorene did. And his answer to that question would be very specific. Military man that the Prince was, he had a List of Standard Operating Procedures.

Step 1: Secure shelter. Check. He'd been given a room in a condo in the Archimedes Ward the moment he arrived.

Step 2: Secure food and water. Check..? Along with the home, he'd been provided with about a month's worth of food. Obviously, that wouldn't last.

Step 3: Secure a means to maintaining acquisitions from Steps 1 and 2. Alternatively, find a way to a new world. Well...that alternative wasn't possible. Lorene had already heard rumors about what happened to people who tried to leave Spirale or any of its outlying areas...what happened to people brave enough to venture into The Mists. There was no leaving this place--unless the gods who brought him here wanted him to.

And that meant he needed to find a way to sustain himself. Usually, Lorene's options were limited in this regard. Most Earth-adjacent worlds were entirely devoid of Elves. Humans would take one look at his long, tapered, mobile ears, and scream. Or they'd make comments like "Nice costume, dude! Little early for Halloween, isn't it?" Thankfully, that didn't seem to be something Lorene needed to worry about in Spirale. He could walk the streets openly and without fear (he told himself, repeatedly, when the inevitable anxiety of being looked at would itch under his skin).

Which meant Step 3 was actually getting a job.

Spirits have mercy. What was Lorene supposed to do? He'd never had a job before. He was a fucking Prince. He was born into his job. In Mongol, the secondborn Prince or Princess had their job designated for them at birth: just like his mother, he was destined to become the High General of Mongol's armies and navy. His uncle, King Androst, had never had children, and being entirely homosexual, never would, so the duties of kingship and generalship passed on to his the children of his twin sister, Princess Atariel, the Blue Rose of Tir Dolmindon, Lorene's fiercesome mother.

Maybe someone needed a sword-for-hire in this city? Not that Lorene had any fucking swords anymore. Whatever god or spirit had brought him to this place had stripped him of his weapons. Bastards. He was so tired of gods jerking him around for their capricious amusement.

But surely, Lorene could learn a new skill, or convince someone to hire him and train him into a new skill. Surely, his entire lifetime of propriety lessons, diplomacy lessons, battle tactics and military strategy lessons, and his experience maneuvering not just the political climate at home but the bullshit in the Multiverse wouldn't fail him. Right? Right?

He had a month to figure it out. So, what did he do? The second he'd acquainted himself with his new roommate (and her kitty!) and gotten some rest, Lorene ventured out into the city to see what he could find. That was all there was to do.

His condo was located in the Archimedes Ward, which was, honestly, a kind of setting Lorene had never seen before. It looked like the photographs he'd seen in his lessons of the Byzantine Empire, with buildings left over from the ancient days when the Hellenic Gods still walked the earth, and left Godling children wherever they passed. The majority of the Ward was built into a cliffside, making for winding, confusing streets--but everything was so beautiful. Architecture sprawled out all in hues of white and blue, scents of foods and spices he'd never heard of before all around him. It was a bit overwhelming, though--especially the view. He'd gotten out of there as soon as he could, vowing to himself to explore more when he was a bit less disoriented.

Lorene had wound up in the Cotes Ward, which was, for lack of a better term, homey. Something about this place reminded him of home in a way that burrowed deep into his chest and left a nostalgic warmth inside. Magitech was everywhere--the first glimpse Lorene had caught of the magic-circle powered train that circumnavigated the Ward had sent a broad grin crashing onto his face. The train was a dead ringer for the trains he'd ridden when visiting Norelas with his father. Such a marvel, machines powered by techno-majyk! It was impossible for Elves to be born as techno-mages, and Norelas, apart from his home Mongol, was the only other Elven-governed nation in the world of Asgard. Norelas would never know such wonders if its king, Zephyr Aragmegil, had not married the human Kensi Kane. Queen Kensi was herself a techno-mage of extraordinary power--but more importantly, she was obscenely well-connected. She'd spent her entire reign--longer than Lorene's entire life--hiring techno-mage contractors to come and build out the infrastructure in Norelas, to drag it into the modern age kicking and screaming. And the results were wonderful.

Lorene had, of course, spotted the massive Eternal Tree, Ophiuchus, from afar, but resolved to take a look at that later. He did have a mission, so he wandered around the Cotes Ward looking for businesses to apply to. Majyk--or maybe they called it magic, here--was in the air, in the ground, in the water, everywhere, palpable to the Elf. His people were soul-bound to the Gaia-soul of their world, after all, and could not survive in environments devoid of majyk.

That was the reason for the amulet around his neck. The teardrop-shaped soul-silver amulet, set on the bottom of the teardrop with a clear blue gem. The amulet was a piece of the soul of a goddess, the North Star and Goddess of Wayfarers, Polaris. When Lorene had happened upon his first inter-dimensional rift, the rift that had sent him careening out of his home world, the journey had almost killed him. He'd landed in a world utterly devoid of majyk; his soul had had nothing to grasp onto. Over the course of three months, he'd grown deathly ill, and probably would have only had weeks to live had Polaris not taken pity on him and appeared to him, giving him a piece of herself to sustain him. His soul was now bound to the amulet, powered by the Star.

Oddly, though, the amulet hadn't been...working. He didn't feel ill, didn't feel as if his soul had been detached or starving, but. Normally, when he applied his focus to the amulet in the same way he focused his majyk, he could use it to Find things. Polaris was the Guiding Star, after all; it made sense that a piece of her would be the Finder. But since arriving in Spirale, Lorene hadn't been able to Find a damn thing. Like his telepathy, the Finding sense just...wasn't there. As if it had never been.

He was trying hard not to dwell on it. He was trying so hard to focus on the positives of this strange journey, and not what he had lost, and especially not why. The anxiety would itch under his skin again if he did. He had to focus on his mission: get a job. Then he could try all the new food he wanted. And then he could figure out where his powers had gone. Then, he could figure out what was wrong with his fucking soul. Because what else could it be, being stripped of his telepathy and the Finding ability, but some kind of soul-sickness?

Lorene shook himself out of his musings and looked around him, and realized he was lost.

"Sprits damn it all."

He'd wandered into the residential district of the city; this was not where he'd wanted to be. Still...it was quiet, here. The streets were open and full of sunshine and greenery, and lined with brownstone townhouses. He couldn't deny that it was beautiful, and possibly worth the detour.

And then...he spied something that made his ears stand up. No--someone. A very familiar someone, with black hair and an aquamarine scarf. He pulled in a gasp, delighted, incredulous--could it really be her? The last time he'd seen her was in Glenhaven Apartments, on the futuristic homeworld of the Infinite Alliance.

"Se--Seluna?!"

Before he knew it, Lorene barrled at his beloved werewolf friend, and crashed into her, clinging on in a warm hug.

"Oh my gods! Oh my gods!! Seluna, I can't believe it's you!!"

Was he crying? Maybe a little. Selu was a gentlewoman, though--he knew she'd never tell.