Attitude is prohibited
[Kitchen —> Outside —> Various Parallel Universes]
"It has been truly wonderful to meet you both." Said Claire, shaking Ozzy's hand, and then Anne's. "I hope we'll meet again some day." Tamara walked over to her and didn't hesitate in giving Anne a hug. "I think you're a great princess, okay?" She said. "And you're pretty! Even if you're a ghost!" She squeezed for a moment, then let go, and offered Oswald a hug as well. "Bye, mister." She said. "You're a really nice minotaur." Claire took the little girl's hand and nodded to Aseyu, then the three of them left.
They hadn't been walking very long before the fog became so thick it was difficult to see even a foot ahead. "Hey..." Said the little one. "That's... My house! I can see my house!" Claire squinted and looked ahead, but could see nothing. "Are you sure?" She looked down at where the voice had come from, though even her silhouette was obscured. Little arms wrapped around her legs. "Bye, Claire." Said the small girl's youthful voice. "Thanks for everything." A few steps were taken, small feet hitting the mud at a running pace. "Bye, Aseyu! Bye!" She called out, sounding much further away than she should have been after just a few steps... And then she was gone.
Claire managed a small, sad smile, one that only she would ever know about, before she kept on walking, Aseyu's silhouette just barely visible beside her. "Before we go," She said, turning to the silhouette. "There's just one thing I thought you should know... It only seems right that I tell you..." Aseyu's footsteps sounded further away with every passing second. "And that's... After today... You can say you've had at least one positive encounter with an AI." She smiled, though Aseyu was now nearly invisible to her. "And, hopefully, one day we'll meet again, and you can have another." One more step, and she walked alone.
[Rural California, USA. A Parallel Universe]
"Mommy!" Tamara rushed through the chilly night air, right up to her mother, who was waiting outside a fairly modest gate. "Mommy! You'll never guess what happened to me today!" She said, excitedly. Her mother offered a slight smile, but responded only with "You're late for dinner, Tammy." The gate behind her quietly swung open, though no-one had touched it. "Come on. You can tell your father and I all about your day when you get in... Tamara, why are your shoes all muddy?" The little girl smiled as she took her mother hand and walked towards the house. The gate swung closed behind them as a faint wind rustled the vineyard around them. "I'll tell you later." She said. There was a pause, and a burning question reoccurred to her, along with the parting words of a certain someone.
"Mommy? What does 'erotically-inclined' mean?"
edited 24th Sep '13 6:47:10 PM by Blackfire667
Not entirely dead.
[Kitchen —> Outside —> Hosseini House]
"Huh," Aseyu said as she made her way back. "An AI? That's certainly a story."
The portal worked as expected, depositing her at Rachel's house. When she arrived, Samira hurried over to her and said, "Aseyu. Glad to see you alive... and clothed. Have you seen Kokabiel around lately?"
Aseyu shook her head and said, "no. Why?"
Samira grimaced and said, "that's... ominous. I hope it doesn't end up nearly destroying a world... again."
[Kitchen]
Ozzy shook Claire's hand, and patted Tamara's back as she hugged him—smiling in some amusement at being called a minotaur again. He waved at the three as they left the kitchen, with one last, "Goodbye." then let his hand drop back down to his side. He heaved a heavy, nasal breath, and stood where he was for a little while before turning his head to Anne.
"Well, if I'm not mistaken, that just leaves us two and the tin servants. Although, if you really have no clue as to how to leave, you could always start by retracing your steps to how you arrived; or in the very least, where you found yourself when you arrived. That's unless you trudged through miles of dark boggy marsh to get here the same as I." He walked back around to his chair and handed his plate off to a nearby automaton. "But I wouldn't mind if you still would like to stay, and of course it is not my house. That said, I think I'm going to go ahead and make use of not my shower, perhaps finally cleanse myself of the marsh's intimate touch."
He downed the rest of what was in his bottle of rootbeer, handing that off to another automaton with one fizz-squinted his eye and a bubbly shiver. "However-" Ozzy said, sounding at first like he was coming off of a yawn, "in the instance that you do leave, and I'm of course preoccupied elsewhere, I would like you to make a promise to me. Well, a favor really; one you're unlikely to ever end up carrying out, as it involves a great lot of 'ifs' to even be plausible, but," he held his finger up close to his head and shook it, "just in case. If you do return to your own Theoland, and if Grimhilde has taken some sort of action upon your land that might be the result of my own stirrings of trouble here, and if we ever should meet again after such an event, you would tell me, wouldn't you?"
this place needs me here
Kitchen
Anne was happy enough to return the farewells offered to her by Claire and Tamara. She was tempted to repeat to the latter that she wasn't a ghost, but in the end decided to just keep her mouth shut.
Once they and Aseyu had gone, she found that picture Tamara had drawn for her and looked it over again. She fully intended on taking it with her when she finally left, if she could leave. If it stuck around once she had managed to return home, it could possibly say something about whether or not her whole experience here had been nothing but a dream. The problem was finding somewhere to put it, considering that she was likely going to need to hold her dress up while walking through the muck. She was still looking at the picture when Oswald spoke to her.
"That's the problem. Whatever got me here dropped me into the swamp," she responded, frowning, "I suppose I could go back out into the swamp and see if it works in reverse, but I have my doubts." She stood there in silence for a moment or two, before looking back up at Oswald. "But don't worry about me too much. There are worse places to get stranded at."
She then went to work handing off her dishes to the contraptions. "As for Grimhilde, the only thing I might see happen is some assassin coming around for my blood. Like I said, my current home isn't anywhere near a village or any real place with a lot of other people in it, so I doubt I'll see anything more than that. However, if I do see it and if we ever meet again, I'll be sure to let you know." She then removed the napkin and yarn from around her face, both items having served their purpose, before looking back at Oswald and smiling. "Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your shower. It's likely that I'll still be here when you get out, but I offer you my farewells if I'm not."
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[Entry Hall]
The doorframe that had once led out to the swamp shifted and shimmered. Instead of the bog of old, Anne and Ozzy would see the familiar horizons of their respective homelands.
[Kitchen —> Upstairs (End)]
Ozzy smiled and tipped his head forward in a nod. "As it suits you then. And if I do not see you again: farewell to you too. I hope I have not caused you too much trouble." He gathered the rest of his clothes up in his arms from off of the back of his chair, then walked to the door leading out into the hallway. Just before he stepped out, he glanced back at the poor cursed girl and said, "Find strength, Anne."
As he walked back into the hall, and began heading to the stairs, where he knew a shower was located, something caught Ozzy's attention. There was a familiar smell in the air, very unlike the mansion's normal, almost unnoticeable scent. The smell that permeated through the hall was more distant, that of sea salt and the thick ocean air. He turned around and looked at the front door, now flooded with a natural light from the early morning. It must have been six or seven o'clock. More than anything, as he began to move towards the door, Ozzy's attention was seized by the image captured in its frame. The door lead out into the ocean, and in the distance he could see the shores of a place he knew well. Even through the thin mist in the air, he could see the cliff side of his home, where he had spent the past twenty years of his life, so close, despite the distance he had put between it and himself.
He couldn't return, he knew. For his brother's sake, and for his own safety, he couldn't return. And especially not after how far he had traveled in the opposite direction. Even so, the cruel allure of that place brought a wetness to Oswald's eyes that wasn't entirely from the ocean mist. Whatever the door's appearance meant, he could not yet go back. His hand felt restless. Without giving it a second look, he reached for the door handle, and pulled it to a close.
Ozzy glared determinedly at the door for a few seconds, then spun back around and headed for the stairs. He hoped that the mansion had some sort of washing machine. There wasn't much point to cleaning himself off if he was only going to put on dirty clothes.
edited 25th Sep '13 1:54:03 PM by Ryuhza
this place needs me here
Kitchen -> Theoland (Woods)
Anne gave Oswald one last nod of farewell as he left. As soon as he was gone, her attention turned back to the picture.
A lot had happened this night. For one, Anne had learned that most people were a lot more accepting than she initially believed. After the initial shock wore off, she'd made friends with quite a few people and got along with a bunch more. One person had even wanted to sleep with her (granted, Aseyu seemed weird even by the standards of her homeland, so that wasn't something Anne counted on happening again).
Secondly, while she was most definitely worried about the results, she'd actually gotten a little payback against Grimhilde. It wasn't quite enough to avenge her father's death or her own curse, but she had to admit that it felt good. For once, Grimhilde was the one getting all the flack where she was being surprisingly accepted. The queen, by her own admission, had gotten more than she bargained for.
On top of all this, there was the fact that the things here were completely unlike that which she was used to. Besides all the odd contraptions, there was the unusual design of the stove and sinks, not to mention her first tastes of tea, popcorn, and soda. She knew it was unlikely she'd ever get to taste or use any of these things back home, but she couldn't help but wonder if Theodiscus, given enough time, would eventually come up with their own takes on them.
All things told, she was going to miss this place a little. At least she still had Tamara's picture to remember it by.
That said, right now she didn't have anyone to talk to but the contraptions, and she didn't think they were really the best conversation partners. Now would be as good a time as any to figure out a way home. With that thought, she folded up the picture and headed out into the entry hall, taking in the surroundings one final time.
The door leading outside immediately caught her attention, and not only because she was planning on heading there anyway. Something about it had changed since she'd last seen it. With a curious expression, she walked up to it and examined it. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't discern just what about it seemed off.
She shrugged. Odd or not, standing her examining the door wasn't going to help her get home. She grasped the handle and opened it up. To her great surprise, the sight that greeted her was not the bog, but rather the Theodiscan woods. In fact, judging by the landmarks, this was the exact spot where she had ran into that fog and got transported.
She looked stunned for a moment or two. She initially thought that this was just an illusion, but the occasional blow of the wind that came into the door told her otherwise. After her pause, she smiled. It turned out she needn't have worried about it after all; her earlier statement that the owner of this building kept portals in the back room seemed positively hilarious right now. She gave the building's interior one final glance, before stepping back into her own world.
She took a step or two into Theodiscus before turning back around to see if the building she just emerged from was still there. To yet another bunch of surprise, she found that it had vanished. Had she been here on a normal walk, nothing would have indicated that it was ever there. If that didn't confirm that she was truly home, nothing did.
At a whim, she checked to see if the picture was still on her. She found that it was, folded up. She unfolded it briefly to find that it had survived the jaunt completely unchanged. She smiled one last time before folding it back up. She could stand here and reminiscence all she wanted, but even if the dwarfs hadn't returned home yet there were still chores to be done.
As she walked home, she debated about whether or not she should tell the dwarfs about this odd adventure....
Mansion ends here.
edited 25th Sep '13 8:05:14 PM by Yomegami
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Mr ship
Outside->Entry hall.
A man appearing in his mid 30's walked though the swamp towards the mansion, noting the surroundings. He was a white male who appeared to be gaining some weight with light brown hair, neatly parted to the left with a equally neatly trimmed beard and dressed in 70's bellbottom black plaid pants, a tan dress shirt with a large collar, a belt and suspenders, with a thick brown leather coat. Also on him was a large 1970s tape recorder on his side with a microphone guided by a wire in his right hand as he begone to record.
"Henry A Safon the second inter dimensional diaries date October 3, 1977 local date unknown. Upon entering the portal to another unknown dimension I've wound up in a swampy area with the only signs of civilization being this large mansion. The architecture is old Georgian, soooo current theory is that this is another dimension with slight differences. I'm going to approach and find out what the inhabitants are like. If this is my last recording then they were likely flesh eating monsters."
He put the microphone away as he approached the front doors and knocked.
"Hello is anyone home?" He asked.
As he continued knocking the doors eventually opened.
"Ok but for the record you invited me! So no getting pissed for coming in!" He yelled trying to get the attention of any inhabitants before stepping inside.
Kitchen
Anne had once again fallen into silence once Oswald had offered a much more satisfactory answer to Tamara's questions. Judging by the direction the conversation had taken, she had come to the conclusion that Aseyu was far from the best topic to discuss over dinner. The thoughts of that woman's tastes, and with them the memory of her earlier meeting with Aseyu, almost made her lost her appetite.
As if to tempt fate, Aseyu herself walked in moments later. In response to her question, Anne just nodded in agreement with Oswald before returning to her meal. She about finished it when it came time to say goodbye to Claire and Aseyu, as they both decided to take off.
"Farewell, and take care," she said to the both of them, "It was nice meeting you as well. Maybe we'll meet again someday." She frowned heavily shortly afterwards. "Considering I have absolutely no idea how I'm supposed to get home from here, I figure I'll be staying for at least a little while longer. For better or worse."
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