Character Mansion

[Kitchen]

Ozzy shook his head, "No, that's precisely it; I would never try to eat a—" Hilda cut in before he had the chance to finish. "Oh. Right, of course, I suppose I shouldn't bother with-" he tipped his head in the direction of Sven, "Yes, okay. Well Hilda, I appreciate your generous attention, so I will try to make this brief. Just one moment while I set these here..."

He stepped over to a counter and withdrew the bottle of beer and sandwich—which had become slightly squished in the center—from beneath his arm, setting them on the counter's corner. Then he stepped back once more and cleared his throat, "And now... oh, I- ...wait one moment please." He turned away and reached under his cloak, fiddling with something and muttering, "Damn, I forgot about this." There was a quiet scraping of plastic then an awkwardly long period of silence. "Aha!" he declared when he was finished, patting his chest a bit to check for any other exorbitant layers of clothing that he'd forgotten about.

Seeming to find none, he turned back around and said, "Sorry about that, I was all tied up. Now..." his eyes narrowed, focused on Hilda, for she was probably the only one in the room who was going to get anything out of Ozzy's reveal. He breathed in deeply once more, stepped a few paces to the side where there was more room in front of him, then spoke in a deeper, more commanding tone, "Allow me to introduce myself: I am Oswald Prosper Leonard Orozco."

With that, he reached behind his head, grasping the back of his hood's neck as well as his cumbersome scarf, then swept his scarf, his cloak, the robe beneath that, and the empty tactical vest laying atop that robe, all off in one grandiose bowing motion. He almost pulled it off perfectly too, but getting his hood off of his head and horns took a little extra oomph to manage. Even so, he managed it swiftly, and when he had finished, all that remained was a button-up shirt that was a very dark shade of blue, and what looked like a pair of roughed up black dress pants. His mask was still on too, but Ozzy quickly yanked it down and then off as he stood up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Hilda." he said, possibly just to let his voice come out of his beastish mouth. "This is who and what I am, and this is who and what I have been since the moment that I was born." he said, "Born to two human parents." He smiled, though it was a quiet smile with more than a hint of nervousness surrounding it. Everything he was used to hiding was in plain view, and Ozzy had know way of knowing how Hilda, or even Sven would respond. His skin was light gray with a small hint of blue, almost like someone who had been overexposed to cold, except, something about his skin seemed healthy. His smiling muzzle was in full view, and his horns could be plainly seen as more than ornamental. The separate colors of his eyes were clearly visible—his only natural deformation—one a foggy blue color, the other a similarly shaded green. Both pupils had contracted into more pointed shapes, like those of a cat. The black, cross-like markings on each of his hands could be seen as he pulled his gloves off and tossed them onto the pile of his clothes. He also had a long slender tail with a large devilish point at the end sticking out the back of his pants just below his belt.

"And how do you do?"

[Wine Cellar]

"Curious." Remarked Claire. "Why does this firm need agents in places like this? Surely not for the off-chance they'll come across some agriculture-related information?" She considered. "If I had to guess, I would say that, given what you told me about this 'Alice Winters' and their discovery of your laser, Western Amalgamated Agricultural dabbles in far more than just agriculture..." She paused for a moment before continuing. "I find it strange that the Eyes and Teeth would allow them to try and appropriate your technology while it keeps you and your people under such tight control."

[Wine Cellar]

<Until this dimensions-hopping started,> Kokabiel said, <Western Amalgamated has about as much chance of reverse engineering our technology as ants have of figuring out a modern computer. <And as for their goals? Odd as this may sound, they truly do maintain their agricultural focus. In the same way the West India Company maintained its trading focus: good old fashioned imperialism. On Earth and Alos — Aseyu's homeworld. It's worked out well for them. They've been getting good money on a particularly heat-tolerant strand of maize. Just by, oh, stealing the result of three thousand years' worth of careful breeding and selection by Uelane farmers and tricking some fool into giving them a patent on it.> A shrug of its wings. <That sort of thing. I imagine they plan to continue such wanton looting in the future.>

[Outside]

Koyel nodded at Grimhilde, recognizing her, and said, "no ma'am, ain't seen whoever runs this place since last we talked."

Samira studied the woman warily. That was Grimhilde... the queen Anne had been so worried about, the one who'd cursed her. Good thing Anne was indoors. She had no particular desire to speak to her, so returned her attention to Xavier. "Yeah, I tend to take it for granted people know about those internment camps. Sometimes to my disappointment." She bit her lip, not sure if she wanted to get into political details. So instead she said, "but that's the trouble. Y'know that old cliche about those who forget history being doomed to repeat it? Some old cliches get that way because they're true... oversimplified, but true."

[Outside]

"Nope," said Mai to Grimhilde, shaking her head. "Haven't seen him yet. I kind of doubt he's going to show up at all, for some reason." She shrugged. "It just kinda feels that way, you know? Like when it's going to rain soon and that certain smell starts hanging in the air."

"Hoo boy," said Xavier. "Don't I know it. Seen it happen personally a few times myself, in all sorts of areas." He began ticking them off on his fingers. "Technology, politics economics... Of course, it's never quite consistent enough for you to see what's coming, no matter how old you are. Although when we finally got around to revealing ourselves to humans, we carefully looked over previous attempts to see what we had done wrong. The first times we tried it, well..." He rustled his wings nervously and coughed. "Let's just say that, in my world, the original concept of dragons being ravenous beasts isn't entirely groundless."

He glanced over at Grimhilde for a moment, but she seemed pretty well occupied with Mai and Koyel, so he didn't say anything.

Bathroom -> Entry Hall

It took her quite a while, but Anne had finally rinsed most of the vomit down the drain. She still felt rather queasy, but at least she didn't feel anywhere near as bad as she did earlier. Now, it was a simple matter of going down and apologizing to Aseyu for ditching her so abruptly, and then she could make herself a nice meal, and maybe try to find her way back to Theodiscus (or failing that, find a place to sleep here).

Of course, going back down and apologizing to Aseyu was much easier said than done. It wasn't so much the apologizing part that bothered her; it was that Aseyu was doubtless going to bring that up again. Given her initial reaction to it and having just calmed down now, Anne wasn't so sure if she wanted to invoke it once again. At the same time, if she outright avoided the situation, it was likely to annoy Aseyu, not to mention make her feel rather guilty for her remaining time here.

For a few minutes, she just stood there, staring at herself in the mirror and trying to bring herself to do something, before taking a deep breath, curling her hands up into fists, and leaving the bathroom and heading back down to the entry hall.

Grimhilde frowned sharply. Every time she'd asked that question, she had always gotten a negative answer. It seemed that her earlier thought of this building being nothing more than an overly fancy inn was correct, and if that was, then she had been wasting most of her time here, and even worse, the owner had likely made no special preparations for her or for anyone else.

"What sort of person just walks out and leaves their home completely unattended?" she said, after a long silence. "Just leaving the place at the mercy of whatever hooligan decides to drop by? I'm surprised this building is still standing, let alone mostly untouched, after such negligence!" She ended her rant with a drawn-out, rather angry sigh. Another few moments of silence, and she turned to face Mai. "Forgive my rudeness. I am Queen Grimhilde of Theoland," she said, bowing her head in greeting.

[Entry Hall]

"Hey," Aseyu said when she saw Anne, her voice soft and full of concern, "Anne, you okay? Sorry if I hit a nerve. We don't have to talk about it if you don't want." She seemed genuinely apologetic. There was more she'd like to say, but best to see if Anne was willing to listen first.

[Outside]

Koyel looked back at the mansion. "Someone built a big old pile of brick in the middle of a swamp. I don't think sanity's their big specialty." He turned back to Grimhilde and Mai and said, "besides, might be like how Xayushu don't have gates or guards. If there's too much ruckus, Amu will drop a lightning bolt on it, and that's that." An inspired look came to him. "Or maybe all them drones floating about are the owner, y'know?"

Samira cringed when she heard Xavier's tale and said, "don't tell me you tried to conquer us. You tried to conquer us, didn't you?" She didn't seem angry, though. If anything, Samira wore an expression of dark, grim amusement.

edited 21st Jun '13 6:31:03 AM by KillerClowns

[Outside]

"Seriously?" Mai asked Grimhilde. "What do you mean, 'just leaving the place at the mercy of whatever hooligan decides to drop by'? We're in a goddamn swamp after dark. Anybody who comes out here without spontaneously jumping from another world is almost certainly gonna die, assuming they don't just turn around. And since a good chunk of the people coming here are rather easygoing, what makes you think he's not overseeing this? Mai Xiang, by the way." She gave Grimhilde a small nod.

She glanced to Koyel and shrugged. "Eh, maybe. Him being the drones seems kind of unlikely to me, though." She frowned. "Maybe they have cameras and he's watching us that way."

"Weeeellllllll..." Xavier rubbed the back of his neck. "Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. Vaguely. Ish." He grinned sheepishly and flared his wings briefly. "The records for those are kinda confused and filled with bias," he said, "but we think we've got a pretty good idea of what happened. It's..." He scratched his head. "...circa 4000 BC or something. The dates are pretty vague. But anyway, chimeric xenophobia has kept the two species apart aside from a few one-off meetings here or there. But humans are expanding a lot, so someone gets the idea that maybe we should try to make contact with you, preemptively heading off any conflict. Not a bad idea... except that the chimera chosen to lead the contact was a massive speciesist."

Xavier snorted and continued, "You can imagine how that turned out. The chimeras were very demanding of the first humans they met — not even an official delegation — so the humans got angry and killed the party. Chimeras freaked out and xenophobia pushed us further into hiding. The humans had the bodies of the chimeras to prove what they did and, well..." He briefly flared his wings. "The story grew until it bore little resemblance to the truth, and a legend was born."

Entry Hall

Anne merely had to step back into the entry hall to find Aseyu. Presumably, she had followed Anne into the building after she'd run off, most likely wondering just what had gotten into her. At least now she wouldn't have to explain her sudden departure in front of everyone else, and hopefully the result was that this would move along quicker.

"I...I'm still a little ill, but I think I'm going to be fine," she said once Aseyu spoke to her, "I'm sorry myself for the sudden exit, but I had to...um....." She paused, still worrying about offending Aseyu, but ultimately she realized there really wasn't a better way to say it. "...I had to vomit, and really didn't want to do it when there was a bunch of other people there." She stared down at the floor. "So...if we could drop the subject here and never speak of it again, that would be much appreciated. I'm not ready for it, and that's that."

Grimhilde looked at the house, and then gazed out at the surrounding marshland. She shook her head before turning back to face Koyel and Mai.

"Regardless of how he's running this, it's still very rude of him to not be present when he has guests," she started, "It is the host's responsibly to ensure the happiness and safety of his guests, and somehow just leaving his home to the guests and servants seems awfully unintelligent. There was a near disaster in the wine cellar earlier, which I think further proves my point." She sighed. "Though, unintelligent as they seem to be, I will admit that the servants, whatever they actually are, seem to be doing their jobs admirably."

[Entry Hall]

Aseyu sighed audibly, and was clearly disappointed. She considered for a moment. Anne had not seemed particularly disturbed by the possibility of bedding another woman, so Aseyu wouldn't have to help her with that. Just... the details. So she said, "very well. We shall speak no more of it." She looked outside. "Ooh," she said, eying Grimhilde, "I see someone new! My age, and quite a fine thing..."

[Outside]

When she had heard Xavier's tale, Samira said, "I suppose we didn't make a good impression. Although sending a speciesist to that sort of thing... how did that even...?" She shook her head in amazement. "Who am I kidding? More foolish appointments have been made. I wonder if somebody wanted it to go that way?"

Koyel, meanwhile, said, "many near disasters, perhaps. But none quite bore fruit." A thoughtful frown as he studied the flames. "I do wonder..."

[Outside]

Xavier flared his wings. "Hell if I know," he said. "It could be anything. Nepotism. Politics. Bribes. The average view at the time. Unluck of the draw. Or maybe it just didn't happen like that. I mean, the actual event's almost half as old again as the Epic of Gilgamesh, and older than the oldest written human language. The writings themselves that we got the event from only date back to the 33th century BC or so. So, assuming the usual corruption from oral traditions, language issues, and any possible bias of the scribe..." He traced a line through the air with a finger, taking a twisting path, before going off in a random direction and flaring his wings again. "...anything could've happened, really. This is just the mainstream explanation."

He glanced around himself, as if he was worried about something, then leaned in close to Samira and said in a faux-whisper, "Don't tell anyone, but I think it might be because this explanation is relatively species-neutral." Xavier leaned back and said normally, "Because, well, it can't really be pinned on either side. The humans got pissed in the face of arrogance and went a bit overboard, while the chimeras picked the wrong person for the job and paid the price. Neither side can point to the other and go, 'It's your fault!' without taking some of the blame themselves."

"Maybe he just doesn't care what happens to the house," said Mai. "Like, this is one of twenty-eight that he has, so he couldn't care less if it gets leveled. Stupid rich people can be like that, you know."

Entry Hall

Upon hearing Aseyu express her interest in a newcomer, Anne followed her gaze to see who she was talking about, and gasped when she saw that it was Grimhilde. How long had she'd been out there? How did she get out there without Anne, or anyone who happened to be in her general group, noticing her? It wasn't like there was some convoluted path to the wine cellar to the door. Either way, the queen was standing in direct line of sight, and could probably see her if she bothered to look.

Anne's first instinct was to get out of the entry hall before that happened, but that meant leaving Aseyu behind again, and asking Aseyu to come along would seemed awkward knowing the sort of person she was. Wait a minute....

Anne glanced at Aseyu, then back at Grimhilde, a thoughtful expression on her face. This could be a chance for her to get back at Grimhilde. It wouldn't do much to make Grimhilde pay for everything that she did or restore Anne to the throne, but seeing Aseyu attempt to bed Grimhilde, or even succeed at bedding Grimhilde (for all Anne knew, Grimhilde could be into that sort of thing) would be completely hilarious and perhaps knock the oh-so high-and-mighty Queen Grimhilde down a few pegs. Besides, Aseyu looked rather disappointed that she wasn't going to get anywhere with Anne. Perhaps Grimhilde would be a decent consolation prize.

"I know that woman. That's Queen Grimhilde, the current reigning queen of Theodiscus," she said, before turning to Aseyu and grinning. "I hear that she's quite open-minded. Maybe you'll have more luck with her than you did with me? I think she might actually be more suitable for you."

"Waste of resources, if that's the case," Grimhilde responded to Mai, "Why waste money building excess extravagant houses, when that money could be put to better use in paying servants or guards for keeping better care of the ones that already exist?" She shook her head. "Rich idiot, indeed."

edited 21st Jun '13 7:39:32 PM by Yomegami

[Entry Hall]

Aseyu said, "I've never bedded a queen before. Met a nice princess, but she didn't really appreciate my attention. She apparently likes her women to wear pretty dresses and sing songs to the accompaniment of woodland animals." She was about to step outside, but paused, then turned back to Anne. "Anything else I should know?" she asked, smiling coyly. "I can't help but get the feeling you've got something going on in that head of yours. Do share."

[Outside]

Koyel nodded in agreement. "You underpay guards," he said, "they start taking bribes to feed their kids. You got too few guards, thieves and worse will slip right past." He shrugged and leaned back. "Of course, being a soldier myself, of course I'd be prejudiced in favor of paying my like good money."

Samira nodded and said, "I see why that would be useful." She frowned, considering. "A little white lie in the history books. I do wonder if it's worth it." She bit her lip. "Say you dug up proof one side or the other was wholly to blame. Keeping in mind what that would mean... would you show it to the world?"

edited 21st Jun '13 8:11:25 PM by KillerClowns

[Outside]

"Who says there aren't guards?" asked Mai. "Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it's not there." She glanced back at the house. "Although that seems unlikely. But I don't think this is our place to speculate, anyway."

She turned back to Grimhilde. "Why's it matter so much to you, anyway? I can understand some concern, but you're practically obsessing over this."

Xavier didn't hesitate. "Yeah," he said. "As it is right now, it's less avoiding significant conflict and more political correctness, you know? That highly sensitive sort of PC. Besides, I bet less than one percent of people even know about that specific event, and just know that chimeras hiding was something that happened." He flared his wings. "Honestly, I think that if the truth got out, not much would change."

Entry Hall

Anne should have guessed Aseyu would have asked for additional details.

Well, how was she going to resolve this one? This was a rare chance to actually do something to Grimhilde, if only indirectly, and telling Aseyu everything she knew about the woman might result in her blowing that chance. On the other hand, not telling her everything might result in Aseyu getting those things straight from Grimhilde herself, and if that happened, Aseyu might get ticked. But if she did tell Aseyu, Aseyu might mention that she'd heard those things to Grimhilde...therefore cluing Grimhilde in to her presence here.

It looked to be a lose-lose situation. She could either deal with an angry Aseyu or a Grimhilde that would be actively looking for her. In the end, she went with telling Aseyu everything. She'd rather deal with Grimhilde, since at least she knew what to expect from that woman. She really didn't want to know what Aseyu was like when she was angry.

She bit her lip before finally saying it. "Okay, you got me. Grimhilde is not only Theodiscus's queen; she's also my stepmother, and the reason I look like this, and the reason I'm out living in the woods with a bunch of dwarfs instead of having a castle to call home." She sighed and stared down at the floor again. "I was hoping to strike at her indirectly by getting you to mess with her, since that ego of hers really needs to be curbed. But after what I just said, you might not find her so appealing anymore."

She hadn't been talking with Aseyu for that long, and already she'd run into two very sticky situations, practically back to back. Just what was it about this woman that lead to stuff like this, anyway?

Upon getting that question, Grimhilde looked mildly surprised and took a while to answer. Mai did make a good point there. Just why were the host's habits so important to her, anyway? Quite honestly, her annoyance stemmed from one simple reason: that he wasn't there to greet her personally and treat her like the queen she was. But was she going to admit that to these people? Ha ha, no.

"By not being here, our host is violating a basic rule of hospitality," she said, firmly, "A grievous social snafu. If he acts like this everywhere, then it would seriously damage his reputation as a host, and who would want to visit a house whose owner can't even be bothered to greet them personally?" She crossed her arms. "What if he were to act like this if a royal just so happened to pay him a visit? Certainly, said royal would be decidedly annoyed. He or she might even want to punish him."

[Entry Hall]

Aseyu laughed at this and said, "well, why didn't you tell me?" A dark, thoughtful expression came to her face. "I've had to do a lot of unpleasant things in my line of work. The monsters and sickos I've had inside me, I've had to say pretty words to when I'd rather snap their damn necks..." she laughed, but there was no joy in it. "Compared to that, what's toying with a queen for a while, and leaving her either confused or high and dry? Although she really is kind of cute... maybe..." she tapped her chin thoughtfully. "This should be interesting."

[Outside]

Samira nodded in obvious approval. "The truth always comes out," she said. "No use hiding it to make people feel better. And besides... even among your people, that was generations ago."

She leaned back. "As for oversensitivity? It happens. I know a few people who get way too uptight about those sorts of things." She sighed. "Been guilty of it myself, from time to time. I've got a thick skin, but it took longer than you'd expect."

Koyel, meanwhile, shrugged in response to Grimhile's comment. "Don't know much about royals," he said. "We killed ours five hundred years back." Then he hurriedly added, "meaning no offense, ma'am, they had it coming. I know you ain't like the old Elasane kings, 'cause they thought women were for making babies and obeying their husbands. Something tells me you ain't of the same opinion, say the least."

edited 22nd Jun '13 8:13:43 AM by KillerClowns

[Kitchen]

Hilda considered what was best to say, true under ordinary cirumstances she might freak, but given that... cherubim thing she'd seen earlier this seemed downright normal.

Luckily Sven always had the most tactful comments, "I knew somethin was weird bout that. Things didn't line up righ.... Yannow?" Hilda tries to interject but he keeps going, "Doesn't change anything. Least, think it doesn't. You're still you or whatever.... Want some beer?"

Hilda looks over at Sven, "Well not the way I would have said it, but at least you won't keel over from all that clothing. Must've been warm. You can join us for dinner I guess, Sven'll probably just fall asleep at this rate."

Well... for being drunk that was pretty good

edited 22nd Jun '13 1:50:49 PM by Aqueos

[Outside]

Oh. So that's how it is. "Or perhaps he doesn't care what people think," said Mai. "And if his control over dimensions is such that he can seamlessly pull people from one into another, then maybe they're so powerful that any royal couldn't touch them."

Another thought struck Mai and she smirked inwardly. "Or maybe this is normal where he's from," she continued. "It's hardly like everybody has the same standards. If such a royal did visit, the royal's obvious extensive experience with dignitaries of other nations would most likely lead him or her to eventually realize the differences between cultures, and they would therefore excuse the host's absence as a quirk with which they are unused to."

"Yeah," said Xavier, nodding. "Anyone who's going to get really worked up about that is probably worked up about something else, anyway, one way or another."

He paused for a moment and bit his lip. "Um..." he said. "If you... don't mind..." He gestured at Samira's face. "...how'd you lose your eye, anyway? You said something about religious extremeists, but not much else, so I'm kinda..." He rubbed the back of his neck, then blurted out, "But if you don't want to, that's fine. You know?"

[Wine Cellar]

"I see." Said Claire, thoughtfully. "They certainly sound like a disreputable group... How did you come to learn about their true, imperialistic nature if they put so much effort into manipulating their publicly perceived image?" Her brow then furrowed with some concern. "And, you said they had no chance of reverse-engineering your technology before this 'dimension-hopping' started... Does that mean, now that their agents appear in these places, that you believe their technology had improved to the point where they stand a chance of comprehending yours?"

Entry Hall

Anne looked mildly shocked when Aseyu mentioned breaking necks. It sounded like Grimhilde would hardly be the most vile person she'd slept with. She would have commented on it, but went with her better judgment and decided not to comment on it. If Aseyu felt it fit to tell her about it later, then so be it.

"Well, you might have more luck if you appeal to her ego," she suggested after a brief pause, "In all honesty, I have no idea what her tastes are since she definitely wouldn't tell me anything like that. Obviously, her status as my stepmother did mean that she married my father, but as far as I can tell that was just for power and status rather than love." She glanced around Aseyu at Grimhilde, and shivered slightly. "If you could make a decision soon, I'd appreciate it. She doesn't know I'm here, and I really don't want to know what would happen should she find out."

"Maybe I wasn't talking about royals from other cultures. Maybe I was talking about royals of this culture, whatever it might be," Grimhilde responded to Mai, "For every difference you offer in his favor, it's just as likely that there's a difference that's acting against him." She scoffed. "All I'm doing here is offering some feedback. Maybe I or other foreign royals can't do anything about it beyond that, but I'd hate to see him get hit by the ones of this realm."

To Koyel, she raised an eyebrow. "...Interesting," she said. She paused for another few moments before saying anything to his latter statement, before giving the one-armed woman yet another death glare and saying, "To summarize what would otherwise become a rant: I very much disagree with that line of thought, yes."

[Kitchen]

Ozzy remained silent for a while after the two had spoken, not moving, or blinking, and perhaps not even breathing. After a long moment, he closed his eyes and let out a huge sigh. "Thank you," he said, opening his eyes again, "Ohohoh, thank you." Ozzy smiled gratefully. "I was afraid for a moment that this would not go as well as I had hoped, but— shame on me— I knew I could trust you two to understand. I am the same person as ever I was beneath that hood, though, you'll forgive me if I seem a bit nervous. It'll wear off, I'm sure."

He relaxed his shoulders, which had been quite rigid moments before, then fixed his eyes on Sven and said, "As for the beer, I'll have to say no thank you. It must be getting pretty early by now— the sun will be out soon, and I want to keep a clear head for the morning. However," he turned his eyes to Hilda and smiled, "I would still love to share a dinner with you two." He glanced over his shoulder, "Andrew as well, if he likes. What do you say Mr. Moore? Two unmasked men are better than one."

As Ozzy waited for Andrews answer, his eyes fell upon the rather large pile of clothes he had left on the floor. "Oh, whoops, I'd better pick these up; put them somewhere more tasteful..." he kneeled down and began to scoop up his heavy robes, laying them over one arm. "To tell you the truth, I feel almost a bit cold without these on. They certainly do get hot, but after a while it begins to feel... cozy." he stood up and stepped over to an empty chair, draping the robes over the backrest. Then stretched for a moment before taking a seat, "Still," he said, "it is a bit of a relief to have them off— I was feeling a little cramped after all that time."

[Entry Hall —> Outisde]

Aseyu nodded with a wicked grin, and said, "wish me luck!" With that, she sashayed outside.

She nodded at the people she'd already officially met, then her eyes drifted to Grimhilde. "Ah, you're new. Anyone care to introduce us?"

Samira wondered if Anne had already told her, but said, "That would be... Queen Grimhilde." She said no more for now.

Aseyu immediately took Grimhilde's hand, placed a gentle kiss on her hand, and said, "a pleasure, your majesty. Aseyu ul'Valmoth of the Uelane and the Pearlescent Order, at your humble service."

Samira glanced incredulously at Xavier. She knew Aseyu was up to something now. But to answer his question, she said, "the scar and the lost eye? Nothing as great a story as yours. Got this while I was still in Iran. Part of the reason I ended up in America, in fact. It was after the Iranian Revolution, late in '79. During the hostage crisis, but no relation." She picked thoughtfully at a nearby twig. "Er... hold on. Is any of this ringing a bell for you? Different histories... not sure how much I have to explain."

[Outside]

"And if the culture of our host is such that he's fine leaving us alone," said Mai, "then any royalty from this culture who come to visit would not only understand, but probably expect this. See-"

Then Aseyu came out. Mai fell silent to let her talk. This ought to be interesting.

"Um, no, sorry," said Xavier, shaking his head. "Can't remember any hostage crises back in 1979. Biggest thing I can remember is an assassination attempt on President Williams. Something to do with how he was handling talks with China or something." He flared his wings. "Probably best to assume I don't know anything about this."

Entry Hall -> Kitchen

Anne couldn't help but be rather amused as Aseyu walk outside to mess with Grimhilde. As much as she wanted to watch Grimhilde get flustered and possibly humiliated, she didn't trust herself to keep quiet, and although Aseyu was likely to keep her occupied, there was still nothing stopping Grimhilde from looking over and noticing her. So instead, now that the situation had been dealt with, she decided that now would probably be the best time to go make herself something. So she turned and made her way to the kitchen.

She noticed the group of people already inside, but her attention was soon caught by all the little contraptions skittering about. She'd seen their kin flying about in the house, but this was the first time she ever got the chance to take a close look at one. She knelt close to one of them in an attempt to get a good look at it, only to have it skitter away. She stood back up before finally catching sight of the note that explained their purpose. After reading it, she glanced over the machines. She had the option of just letting them do all the work, but at the same time she didn't know what to expect out of their cooking. She did know what her own cooking tasted like, and she had plenty of experience being the dwarf's chef. She might as well do it herself, but the assistance could be useful.

She briefly debated on what to make, before finally settling on venison. Deer meat was one of the most common things the dwarfs brought home and was fairly common in supply back at the castle, but that wasn't to say that she was sick of it. So she turned to the contraptions. "Excuse me," she said to them, "Do you think you can get me some spices? And see if this place has some venison, please."

The contraptions complied. While they were doing that, she looked around in an attempt to find the stove, only to realize that she hardly recognized any of the appliances. Yet another instance where it was apparent that she was not in her home time period. With a sigh, she glanced back over at the group that was already present. She recognized Sven, though given what she'd seen of him and what she had just gotten herself out of, he was hardly the most relieving sight. The other people she didn't recognize, and given that there seemed to be a conversation going on she really didn't want to butt in, and there was the fact she risked getting yet another bad reaction to her appearance. Then again, one of them was a minotaur, or something that looked like a minotaur. Maybe they'd be used to odd appearances by now.

She decided that she might as well ask them if they knew which one of these things was the stove. It wasn't like she was trying to insert herself into their conversation. Just asking a simple question, and she would stop bothering them once she was done. It would be over before too long. She took a deep breath and cautiously approached the group.

"Excuse me," she said once she was close enough, as politely as she possibly could, "I'm sorry to bother you, but would any of you happen to know which one of these contraptions here is the stove?"

Grimhilde was about to offer a rebuttal to what Mai just said, but before she could say anything, a dark-skinned woman exited the house, walked right up to her, and started, for lack of a better word, sucking up.

For a few moments, Grimhilde just gave Aseyu a very bemused look. She knew all too well that people who treated her like this usually wanted something. Her general response to them was to dismiss them, or even punish them if they took it too far. This, however, wasn't the court of Theoland, and at the moment she had nothing that would interest this woman besides her status. She was also mildly annoyed that Aseyu felt the need to interrupt the conversation, but as it seemed to be heading into the direction of pointless arguing that wasn't much of a loss.

"And just what are you expecting to get out of this...?" she asked.

edited 22nd Jun '13 7:50:23 PM by Yomegami

[Outside]

Aseyu studied Grimhilde for several moments, carefully considering her expression. First confusion. Then annoyance. Wrong tact, it seemed. She was smarter than Anne had hinted. Aseyu offered a deep bow and said, "why, my dear and beautiful queen, I simply seek only to..." she paused, and then, with a thoughtful expression of dawning comprehension, she said, "wait. Wait. You'd rather me skip past the usual tedious formalities and skip straight to answering your question with the honest truth, yes?"

Samira, leaving Aseyu to her mischief, decided to explain as she could to Xavier. "Honestly, the details of the hostage crisis aren't important right now. I could explain if you like, but first, this scar." She sighed. "This is all a gross oversimplification, but here goes. Short version, back in 1979, Iran's monarchy got replaced with an Islamic theocracy. Secularists like myself thought we could keep Khomeini under control, sideline them, but..." she shook her head. "We were wrong. His government started an absolutely disgusting attack on women's rights. And human rights in general, actually. Me and other secularists protested, but to no avail. And some thugs — officially not part of the government, but certainly doing its will — saw my face in the crowd and decided it needed some battery acid." She felt her scars. "I got very lucky. This," she tugged her headscarf, "covers most of it. My mouth isn't affected."

Koyel turned to Mai, shaking his head in bemusement but so far silent.

[Wine Cellar]

Kokabiel shook its head and said, <on their true intentions: I am one of the few beings that operates on both worlds. It's hard not to notice their weapons turning up on the world of Alos, usually wreaking mischief and havoc. And before you ask how they've kept things secret... to be honest, it's something I assist them with. We have... certain mutual goals, and keeping the populations of Earth and Alos ignorant are among them.>

<As to their current technological status? They stole some... diadem, I think, that lets them use our portal technology to access other dimensions. But beyond that? They're still looking for technology to steal. And do recall it's not merely level of advancement. Most of our technology was designed to be networked, under the control of a Song subroutine literally inhabiting it, not manually operated by a separate entity. Do you follow?>

edited 22nd Jun '13 8:20:18 PM by KillerClowns

[Wine Cellar]

The expression of concern on Claire's face steadfastly remained in place. "You work with this imperialistic firm? Have I misjudged your relationship to them?" She shook her head. "Please clarify something for me; I thought they were more like adversaries than allies to you, yet you help them keep their use of your peoples' technology a secret? And... You help keep the populations of both world ignorant to one another?" She briefly paused. "I've heard that your Earth was still largely ignorant to the existence of Aseyu's people..." Claire added, thoughtfully. She seemed to consider for a moment, and rubbed her chin. "By the way... What's this 'diadem'? The term is not familiar to me... Other than that, though, I believe I do follow, yes. I understand what you mean when you say your technology was meant to be operated by Song subroutines."

[Outside]

Tamara wandered over to Samira at a leisurely pace, having since discarded both her stick and her duel with Bianca. "Hi again." She said, simply, glancing between Xavier and Samira. "What's up?"