[Ritter Clinic]
"Honor to the spirits of this house," Iveya said; her words were ritualistic, but sincere. If he needed it, she would also help Henry across the threshold. "I," she said, "am Iveya ul'Uelshu qo'Oyina. I'm not sure how I got to this place — last I recall, I was in the Southern Sands, preparing for a journey. My memory grows... hazy from there." She studied the alien symbols. None recognizable; perhaps she was in one of the countless minor nation-states of the Mauros Federation? Then, why was she able to read the words? Some other side-effect of the arcane she'd not heard of, or something to do with her being dropped in what seemed to be at least another continent?
One of Friedrich's lights flickered briefly as Iveya's own magic attempted to drain it, but with a apologetic grimace, she yanked it back as one might yank a dog on a leash. She had a few thoughts on her mind, but for now, with the formal greetings out of the way, it seemed better to let the doctor tend to the injured man; his need was far greater than hers. Instead, before heading into the parlor as suggested, she added, "I am not an apothecary or a medic, but if there's anything I can do to help a fellow-traveler, don't hesitate to ask. And if it means getting a bit of blood or such on my clothes, I can live with that."
edited 24th Jan '16 10:54:12 AM by KillerClowns
Professional Recluse
Ulf
The damn forest kept going. He tried veering off in 90 degree angles after each loop but they brought him back to the same tank wrecks. He paced trying to find a way to break the loop. his eyes found the Vickers again and he shrugged, he'd tried everything else.
It was small even as light tanks went and sat three. He hoisted himself into the drivers seat and thankfully found the keys still in the ignition. It was hard and none too comfortable but it was warmer and the adrenaline seemed to die down a bit.
The engine started with a coughing whine and jolted forward as he worked the levers. It rolled off at a leisurely 20 MPH or so, while not quite a roar the engine still made quite a racket. The trees in the direction he chose almost seemed to part on their own accord to let him through. How considerate of them.
Ulf kept in a straight line searching for, well, anything he guessed. And if he didn't find it, the noise would probably bring something to him. Whether for good or bad he didn't know.
edited 24th Jan '16 2:03:22 PM by Slysheen
Stoned hippie without the stoned. Or the hippie. My AO3 Page, grab a chair and relax.
They/Them
[Farm]
Dives kept quiet while the others did whatever they were doing.
A farm with no livestock, they thought, Hopefully there's still some place to warm up, their bare legs shivering in the fog.
"Excuse me," they said to the owner of the farm, Dives didn't catch his name but he looked Yokudan, "Do you have a fire I can warm up with? I'm not exactly in my warmest clothing."
[The Forest]
The Dark Caller temporarily let go of their concentration to stay hidden, a pulse of maloveant energy, that could only be felt by the most sensitive, was released around the cluster of trees that the Dark Caller waited in. A section of the forest now mirrored the cluster of trees, everything coal black, the branches twisting and leaves turning to ash. It focused the concentration again, becoming undetectable once more.
edited 24th Jan '16 5:23:40 PM by DarkbloodCarnagefang
Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.
[farm] For reference, Vince is about 6'/183cm tall.
He glanced at the reptilian-person- must've been using some kind of cloaking spell if he couldn't even hear the scratching on the roof. "Oh, thanks..."
It took three people asking him the same thing before the fact dawned on him.
What... happened to his animals?
Vince stepped outside, now a bit more alert than before, and stared very hard into the fog. He knew what this dream-fog could do, it's entirely possible it engulfed his cows and horses, since many of them preferred to go further out into the pasture than he could see, but that didn't explain the chickens, goats, pigs, wyverns... Well, the wyverns certainly existed in this edition of the farm, the sides of the doorframe were still nicked up from them clinging to it, they just... up and left. Probably because there didn't seem to be any mice here, either.
That still left his penned stock unaccounted for. Three translucent green hands on long, jointless arms extended from his back like tentacles, one for each pen, and stretched effortlessly several meters away to make sure the locks on the pens hadn't been tampered with. They retracted, disappearing into his back without a trace once he determined that the fences and locks were still intact. Like the animals just evaporated, he guessed.
"Curious," he mused, "no signs of forced entry, and they're gone. But I don't remember cleaning the stalls or filling the feed bins, either, so... who knows what the place is trying to tell us?" He shrugged with a too-contented smile, stepping back inside to turn the barn heater on. "Give it a minute or two to kick in," he said to the reptile-person, "the rest of you should come in so I don't have to leave the doors open."
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
The Forest - Or is it a forest?
Meanwhile, another area of the forest, kind of close to the orange tree farm, started to take on a very strange quality. Parts of the mysterious fog started to condense and morph into tiny cube-like shapes, moving around like pixels on old computer screens. The trees started to morph too - some of their trunks and even leaves became more pixelated with a notable Line Boil. It began to look like something out of certain video games, particularly those from the 8-bit era with their primitive graphics.
Even more strangely, the floor was inhabited by cookies. There was every kind of cookie imaginable - chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, ginger snap, red velvet, macaroon... But they all had legs. And eyes. They were just meandering around, the "wild animals" of this "forest". By now the fog had mostly cleared in this bizarre area, though there was still some clouds of it left in places, some of which had become pixelated.
In this section of the forest, four humans suddenly materialized out of a particularly thick and smooth patch of fog. One of them was a short and chubby Caucasian girl roughly ten years of age, with a very Western appearancenote , as noted by the pink cowgirl hat and matching boots. She also wore a pair of jean shorts that showed off her rather plump legs, and a white shirt with baby blue sleeves and a bluebird design on the front. Her hair was a strawberry blond and was straight and shoulder-length, her hazel eyes big and childlike. She held a clown doll in her arms, and had a pink backpack with lots of patches and pins on it.
Then there was the only male in the group: a teenage boy of Japanese descent, with an unkempt head of black hair covering his ears and back of his neck, and the tapered beginnings of a mustache on his yellowish-tan complexion. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed, as evidenced by his red plaid pajama bottoms and the soft black T-shirt he wore; the latter featured a design of a big yellow star with a smiley face on it. Black sandals covering white socks adorned his feet, and a large black messenger bag bearing the picture of an obviously manga-style blue devil boy and his pals was slung across his shoulder and chest. A very large firefly/dragonfly hybrid insect was perched on his head.
The oldest-looking member of the group was a woman in her twenties. She had the lightest skin of the group, which was a few healthy shades above pale. In stark contrast to the nerdy teen, she had a conservative and old-fashioned look about her, marked by earthy colours like browns and greens. Her current outfit consisted of a brown garment that looked like both a vest and an apron, with dark green frilly trim, that on top of a long-sleeved off-white dress shirt and an olive-green skirt covering the ankles of her brown loafered feet. Her curly ashy blond hair reached down to the middle of her back, and there was a rather stern look in her eyes, which were green like the grass. She was the only one in the group without a creature on her - at least not yet.
The final member of the group was a girl in her late teens, with light yellowish skin that signified some Asian descent. She was the most fancily-dressed of the group, wearing a frilly and puffy purple knee-length dress decorated with black lace and ribbons, thigh-high black stockings with grey bows at the top, a black shawl with frilly grey trim, and long black Fingerless Gloves. She wore a black trilby hat on her head, from which her straight shoulder-length crimson hair was shown. Beneath this hat, her face had a somber look upon it, accentuated by the deep blue shade of her eyes. On her shoulder was a little faery-like creature, consisting of a cat's head with large diamond-shaped eyes, a big red nose, and seafoam green fur; stubby pink arms, four green and pink diamond-shaped wings, and a little green dress with matching white pompom-topped shoes, reminiscent of what a Christmas elf might wear
◊.
"Huh?" the little girl wondered, looking around the place. Her voice was high-pitched and childlike. "This place looks exactly the same as it did before!"
"Aww great, are we going around in circles again?" the Japanese guy moaned, comically tilting his head backward. "We're gonna get lost at this rate."
"Now calm down you two," the older woman remarked in a very calm and almost melodic voice. "Though I have to admit, this place is bizarre."
"Well duh, it's the Forest of Distortion," the teenage girl in the hat mentioned. "And we've been wandering around for what seems like hours. Gon, what time is it?"
The boy peeked at his digital wristwatch, and his eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa what?! The numbers are all wonky! It says 88:88! That's impossible! Hey Phoebe, does your Scanner say anything?"
He looked to the little cowgirl, who put her clown doll down on the floor while she took a strange PDA-like device out of a pocket on her backpack. Strangely, the doll started walking alongside her all on its own. "Mine seems to be working all right, but there's a warning here that says 'Time and location unknown'. Does yours say that too?"
The boy named Gon reached into his messenger bag and took out a similar device. "Yeah, mine says the same... Which is weird, because I could've sworn it said Forest of Distortion when we entered... or maybe I'm just imagining things?"
"You're always imagining things, ya mophead," the large winged insect on Gon's head flatly joked.
"What's going on, Yamiko?" said the pixie-like creature on the teenage girl's shoulder, sounding frightened. "Are we ever gonna get out of here?"
Yamiko picked up the pixie and held it close to her chest. "I don't know." Then she turned to the older woman. "What do you think, Ashleigh?"
"I say we should just keep walking for now," she replied. "At least the Biskies are still here." She knelt down and picked up a walking oatmeal raisin cookie. "Do you know the way out? Can you point us in the direction of Beta Town?"
"Come on," moaned Gon, "we asked those things seven times already, and each time they've led us down another stupid..."
"Ssssshhh," Ashleigh interrupted him. The Biskie leapt out of her hand and alerted a few others nearby. Then several of them jumped up and down and walked in a direction about twenty feet away, down a clear pathway lined by unpixelated trees.
"Oh hey, that looks promising," Yamiko mentioned. "I just hope they lead us the RIGHT way this time, 'cause my ankle's starting to hurt."
"We'll never know till we try!" Phoebe exclaimed, sounding enthusiastic as usual. "Come on Fooly, let's hit it!"
"Always I am to travel by, to an unknown location, oh my!" the animate clown doll chimed, her poofy orange pigtails bouncing along as she went.
edited 24th Jan '16 3:35:42 PM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
[Farm]
It was strange. At first there didn't seem to be any signs of life for miles around, and now this farm was becoming quite heavily populated. Not to mention the odds sight that lay before the armoured woman's eyes. The farmer using some form of magic... a strange lizard like creature... while both seemed harmless, she made note to keep an eye on them for now. Strangest was that the farmer didn't seem too bothered by his missing animals. She stepped into the barn, attempting to make her status known to the man. She had about an inch or two in height over the man, and had no trouble looking him in the eye when she spoke.
"Good sir, if you require someone to track down your missing livestock, I can most definitely be of assistance. They call me The Warden, and I have dedicated my life to helping the people of the land."
Mr ship
[Clinic/Henry]
"Thank you I should be able to make it inside on my own" Henry said still in pain.
Henry limbed up the stairs and followed the doctor with another person following them inside. She was very ritualistic he thought as he observed her say a phrase before entering. He also heard her mention not knowing how she got here. Perhaps she got here in a similar manner to him. He'd have to wait though because the pain was beginning to become unbearable and he didn't know how long he could remain conscious.
When Henry and the doctor made it to the actual clinic room the doctor instructed him towards the table. Henry managed to sit on the table despite the pain and did his best to take off his jacket and unbutton his vest. As he did that he heard the doctor ask what happened to him.
"Yeah might be important." Henry painfully chucked out. "You see in my home I was working on an experiment when there was an accident. There was an explosion and the next thing I know I woke up in the forest out here in pain. Probably some broken ribs and internal bleeding now that I think about it."
[Farm/Lauren]
Lauren looked at the situation she was in and mentally cursed Henry for getting her stuck in this. The others were very strange with one being an obvious drunk scottsman causing her wonder what it was with Europeans and drinking, an other was a lizard person who came out of nowhere being the two standouts to her. She silently wondered how she would've reacted to these people four years ago.
Eventually what appeared to be the owner of the farm came down and everyone but her started taking. She watched as the others talked about the missing livestock. They had a good point, where was it? She might've grown up in San Francisco but she did have an idea about how farms should work from her time in Europe and most of the time animals were need.
However the more pressing question on her mind however was where the hell was she.
"Yes the missing livestock is a good question." She began to get the others attention. "But I think I have a better one. Where are we and what's with the mist everywhere."
Attitude is prohibited
[Orange Tree Garden]
"I'm Miyuki." The girl said to Celso. She made no mention of her companion, and indeed, did not so much as glance in her direction. The figure, for her part, did not react. She was expressionless, and motionless, save for the thin wisps of smoke rising off her. "And, now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever heard any of those stories..." She said. "But what kind of danger couldn't be stopped with a sword?" She paused, and thought for a moment, scratching her head. Then she gasped, and backed away from the tree. "Do you think they might be poisonous?" She said, in a low and wary voice.
Just then, someone new appeared. Miyuki turned around and the shadowy figure that travelled with her evaporated out of her line-of-sight, instantly reforming behind her. "That's a neat uniform." Miyuki said to the man, apparently ignoring his question and having not noticed her smokey follower. "Are you in school too?" She said. "Or... Are you a soldier?" She seemed frightened of this second possibility. The smoke rising off her shadow abruptly got thicker.
Not entirely dead.
They/Them
[Farm]
Dives nodded at Vince to signify their appreciation as they walked to the barn.
Dives sat cross legged in front of the barn heater, their tail curled up beneath their legs. It wasn't a roaring fire, but this would have to do.
By this point, the Argonian wondered where this farm was and why everyone else seemed like they weren't from Tamriel. Perhaps Dives wasn't in Tamriel. Somewhere in Oblivion maybe? Possibly, but Dives moved those thoughts to the back of their mind for now.
"Sir," Dives said as they turned to Vince, "Would you happen to have a piece of wood? Either a flat piece or a large curved stick? I also need a sturdy knife if you have one. I'm also going to need some glass bottles for later and a few pieces of leather if you can spare some?"
Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
The Forest of Distortion is now officially connected to the Orange Tree Garden, for no explicable reason.
Forest of Distortion -> Orange Tree Garden
Phoebe, Gon, Yamiko, and Ashleigh followed a line of oatmeal raisin Biskies down a path of decreasingly pixelated trees, the path becoming lighter and less foggy as they went. It wasn't too long before the pixelated clouds vanished altogether, and a white fence with a mail truck parked in front of it appeared before them.
"Who the heck delivers mail all the way out here?" Gon blurted out.
"More importantly, who the heck lives out here?" the firefly/dragonfly hybrid on his head remarked. "Unless this is another glitch or something."
Yamiko walked up to the mail truck and peeked inside, only to discover that it was empty. There was no sight of any mailman either - beyond the fence was a fog too thick to see through.
"Well what are you waiting for?" Phoebe said impatiently. "Let's follow that fence!"
Sure enough, the Biskies were standing near the fence, jumping up and down, and leaning to the leftnote . And so, the four took the energetic cowgirl's advice and walked alongside the fence—or on the fence, in Fooly's case. She had her arms out, walking along it like a tightrope walker.
After a while, the fog cleared out, and there was a gap in the fence. Beyond it lay a beautiful garden with a Mediterranean feel to it. In the center of it was a big and bountiful orange tree, with four people standing underneath it. One of them was an old man in a white suit; another looked like a schoolgirl, with a weird shadowy figure right behind her; and then there was a dark-skinned man in a uniform. The Biskies were no longer leading the way at this point, having returned to the forest.
"Well, looks like that's our mailman," Ashleigh guessed as she stepped into the garden, the other three following behind her.
"Blech, I hate oranges," the winged insect on Gon's head remarked. "Why can't that be an apple tree instead?"
"This is great! I am kind of hungry actually," Phoebe exclaimed, Fooly skipping along behind her.
As they approached the group, Ashleigh waved to them. "Hello there," she greeted. "Are you four from around here? We got lost on our travels."
"Yeah, do you happen to know how to get to Beta Town from here?" asked Gon. "Because this doesn't look like it. We just came out of the Forest of Distortion."
"This could be the fabled secret garden hidden within it, though," Yamiko remarked, rather quietly, her deep blue eyes staring off into space.
"Are you guys Keepers too?" Phoebe asked them. "And is that your mail truck parked outside the fence?"
Meanwhile, the pixie-like creature flew out of Yamiko's arms and up into the orange tree, picking one of the oranges and flying down with it. "Who wants this one?" And then she looked up to the tree, her eyes glowing somewhat. Three more oranges fell off their branches and floated down to the pixie creature, hovering around her. "And these too?"
Cue Oh, Crap! moment in 3... 2... 1...
edited 24th Jan '16 7:30:04 PM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
[Farm]
He sat by the firplace as well, on a chair a bit behind Dives. He currently seemed to be checking the bottom of his shoes for dirt. He had made sure to give it a good shake, but ducking down in order to even get into the doorway might have distracted him a little. His grenade launcher was in his lap, never too far out of hand. His bottle was on a small table nearby.
"So...I 'ave a question a wee bit more pressin' than that, actually." His voice was loud enough outside, but in close quarters the boom actually seemed to shake the liquid inside his bottle. "Oo the blazes are all ya? I got the impression that two of ya don't like me drinkin' and one of ya's a kobold, but other than that fer all I know one of ya might be an escaped serial rapist."
edited 24th Jan '16 8:09:08 PM by gameknight102xx
(Forest-> Orange Tree Garden)
The five girls moved through the woods, constantly checking their surroundings. After all, one of Nightmare's monsters could be lurking here, or worse, the Fallen Princesses. They didn't want a fight here.
"Mind shining a little light on the subject, Amy? This fog is pretty thick."
"Don't want to risk it. If this isn't Earth, there could be stuff that wants to have us for breakfast. In short, no magic unless we either figure what we're dealing with, or we have no other choice."
At that moment, they rounded a bend and Olivia saw something that caught her eye. "See that? A whole bunch of people standing there talking, and I doubt any of them are working for Nightmare."
A quick turn through a hole in the fence, and the girls were inside. Rachel was the one to speak up to the strangers. "Hey there! We're lost. Any of you have any idea where we are?
Forward, boys! For God's sake, forward!
Caleb jumped back as the shadowy woman reformed behind Miuyki, "did she just-!". Then he looked down at the girl and said, "sorry, I was just taken by suprise by what your companion did. But I suppose it's not impossible for her to have such an eidolon." Despite the rationalization, he was not comforted by her smoke thickening. "I'm neither a student or a soldier, though I have some knowledge of chemistry and can handle a gun well enough." Oh right, not the thing to say infront of the shadow lady; "Not that I've ever used one on a person, just animals and slayers."
Caleb was about to explain his situation when he heard "Are you guys Keepers too. And is that your mail truck parked outside the fence?" Turning his he saw four more humans approach accompanied by two strange flying creatures, what he assumed was a kind of automaton, and...walking cookies? Great, it looked like it was going to be one of those days.
"I don't know what you mean by keeper, but that is mine; or lent to me at any rate. I was making my rounds when I ended up here for some reason. Or no reason, that's also possible."
edited 24th Jan '16 10:15:58 PM by Novis
You say I am loved, when I don’t feel a thing. You say I am strong, when I think I am weak. You say I am held, when I am falling short.
Drummer Boy
[Farm]
It struck Seilaan as rather strange that this man was so nonchalant about all his animals disappearing, but her initial confusion soon evaporated, and she didn't really think about why. Somehow, the woman thinking to ask about the mist seemed even odder, though she decided not to press her on this point.
Even as some of the others sat down, she remained standing. She successfully hid her disgust with Dives immediately demanding that their host furnish them with a number of items without giving any reason or explanation, but barely managed to keep a straight face after the drunk man's offhand mention of serial rapists. Besides, why would anyone introduce themselves like that? Yes, hello, I have sexually assaulted multiple people for motives best described as "no fucking reason whatsoever!" So, what do you do in your free time?
"I think it would indeed be helpful for us all to introduce ourselves, as the Warden already has," she said primly. "If anyone didn't hear me earlier, I'm Seilaan Ren. It's a pleasure to meet all of you, but first, we should extend a warm thank you to our host." She inclined her head slightly toward the farmer and almost instinctively reached inside her robe sleeve, knowing she must offer the traditional gift, but not what she could possibly give. The portal, which usually led to a box at home containing essentials that most people would keep inside a purse, spat out a packet of candied fruit that she didn't remember placing in that box. Her usual snack was dried plums, after all. But this didn't worry her much at all. The symbols stamped on the white paper, which proclaimed the brand that had produced the packet and described the contents, looked as if they may have had a common ancestor with traditional Chinese characters. She held this out to the farmer with both hands.
[Ritter Clinic]
Fuck.
He shrugged off his gray coat and sent it flying to a hook on the wall by the door, where it neatly hung itself by the collar. He was wearing a gray pinstriped waistcoat and white button-up shirt. But it probably wasn't going to be white for much longer. "An extra pair of hands might come in handy, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, ma'am. Thank you for the offer. Don't be surprised if I end up giving you nothing to do, though. I'm just used to working on my own." So she'd been heading to a desert. Huh. At least that explained her clothes. She was obviously very off course, though.
These scientist types were always getting themselves into trouble, weren't they? He checked the patient's pulse to see if it was stable. "The good news is, broken ribs will usually turn out all right in about six weeks as long as you don't do anything stupid in the meantime. As for internal bleeding..." His mouth went thin. "That's a little more tricky. First, we need to ascertain that there is indeed internal bleeding. Would you object to me using magic to probe you?"
edited 25th Jan '16 5:14:15 PM by SnowyFoxes
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
[farm]
The lizard-person needed... a plank of wood, a good knife, glass bottles, and... some random pieces of leather. He... wasn't exactly sure what would make them think a settled farmer would just happen to have all of that lying around, and Vince especially kept his barn pretty clean and free of clutter. Setting himself aside, he could potentially see the possibility of bottles, lumber, and a knife just laying around a barn, but random leather? Why? This was a farm, not a tannery.
"What for? I'm afraid I don't keep those sorts of things laying around my barn."
The next several questions concerned everyone's identities, finding his animals, and the nature of their surroundings. All fair questions, yes. But first, he closed the door, grabbed a couple saddle blankets from a nearby shelving unit, and used the same green psychic arms as before to toss the blankets over a few straw bales and benches as makeshift seats.
"Vinicio Acquati, Doctor of... Aitherophysics, and some other junk. Vince is fine." As they took their seats, he accepted Seilaan's offering of some kind of Asian candy with a nod, then continued. "This place, this forest, mist, and everything inside it, may be a dream-world. You're probably here because you fell asleep. I've been to a place like this before, with a similar sort of mist that obscured distances and locations, and seems to be capable of things that we aren't meant to understand. Such as dropping my farm in the middle of a forest."
Vince took a seat on a crate. "I know for a fact this isn't my actual farm, although it looks very similar. If it was, none of you would be here, there'd be no forest, and I'd at least have my farmhands and a few wyverns about. Honestly, I think my animals will turn up if we just give it some time." Again, a bit too content given what he had just said, perhaps.
edited 25th Jan '16 8:34:09 PM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
[Park]
What the fuck...?
Last time he checked, he was near a campfire with his friends, and sleeping in a tent.
Now, when he opened his eyes, he was leaning against a tree, and his tent was gone, and so were his friends. In their place was a park. It was eerily vacant and misty, like something in the beginning of a horror film. If there were people, he couldn't see a damn thing.
"Adam?" Nick said, standing up, "Jacky? Marie? Guys?"
Nick was a teenage boy with dark skin, short black hair, and dark brown eyes.He wore a black and white shirt, blue pants, and white shoes. Dusting himself off, he slowly walked away from the tree, looking around his rather unusual surroundings.
"Hello?" he called, "Anyone? Did I somehow get transported to Silent Hill or something? Hey!"
Something about this park seemed familiar the more he looked at it, but he couldn't quite place his finger as to what it was specifically. He didn't like it though; it filled him with some sort of dread he couldn't quite explain.
"So it's going to be one of those adventures, huh?" he said to himself quietly, before sighing, "Fun."
Placing his hands in his pockets, he wandered around the park, hoping to find something or someone around here.
They/Them
[Farm]
"Well," Dives said to Vince, "To be quite honest, being only in my sleepwear and without any of my regular supplies, I am quite exposed and under prepared. I feel as if I am taking a huge risk being in the company of complete strangers and I wish to make a bow and a quiver for some arrows, should I need to defend myself. The bottles are for," Dives hesitated to answer, "Well if you don't have any, the bottles would be for nothing."
"As for my name, I am Dives-Deep-Waters."
Dives turned to the tall man with the accent, who was probably drunker than a depressed Nord, "What's a Kobold?"
Vince mentioning that they could be in a dream world gave Dives chills, Quagmire? Please, anything but Quagmire!
"I really don't want to seem like I'm asking too much," Dives said to Vince, "But if this is a dream world, specifically the one I fear it is, I really would like the supplies I'm looking for."
Note to self: Pick less edgy username next time.
Mr ship
[Clinic/Henry]
Henry sat on the table and watched the doctor give instructions to the other person who joined them before he turned his attention back to Henry.
"The good news is, broken ribs will usually turn out all right in about six weeks as long as you don't do anything stupid in the meantime. As for internal bleeding..." He started. "That's a little more tricky. First, we need to ascertain that there is indeed internal bleeding. Would you object to me using magic to probe you?"
Henry looked up to the doctor. "Yeah I figured you'd say that about the ribs." He then shifted a bit to get more comfortable. "As for the probe I really don't care. I lived through victorian surgery, so I can survive anything at this point. Just please hurry up I don't know how much longer I can stay awake."
[Farm/Lauren]
"I'm Lauren Safon CIA." Lauren said to the others in hopes of bringing down tensions as she walked into the home with the others and sat in a nearby chair a bit away from everyone. She prefered to be the silent observer to all this but more and more it looked like she'd have to be more in the open if she hoped to find Henry and get home.
She watched the lizard ask for a knife, glass, wood and Leather? Meanwhile the robed one offered the owner of the home a gift that looked chinese in origin. Figures I'd be stuck with a commie Lauren thought to herself as the farmer accepted it.
After the farmer introduced himself as Vince he then said something that really got her attention.
This place, this forest, mist, and everything inside it, may be a dream-world. You're probably here because you fell asleep. I've been to a place like this before, with a similar sort of mist that obscured distances and locations, and seems to be capable of things that we aren't meant to understand. Such as dropping my farm in the middle of a forest
"For fucks sake Henry!!" She exclaimed to herself before looking at Vince trying to calm herself down. "What you're telling me is that I'm stuck in my own dream? Then how the hell do I get out? I didn't fall asleep to get here."
[Orange Tree Garden]
Celso was not entirely sure what to make of all these newcomers. The sheer oddity of the mutant postman and the walking cookies and flying thing and automatons, he could have handled. Dreams were supposed to be weird, and he knew this land was a dreamscape of sorts. It was just that these... school trips, as he mentally called them, that had been dropped upon him were far outside his comfort zone. Most of his conversational topics would bore everyone around him to tears. Maybe his knowledge of firearms might interest the more young and fiery, but by and large, his particular topics of interest were primarily the writings of long-dead Europeans, even-longer-dead Europeans, and especially long-dead Europeans attempting to imitate even-longer-dead Europeans, with some amateur Biblical study and Egyptology on the side. He pictured himself as something of a Gentleman and a Scholar, a paragon of the classical wisdom modern society did not properly appreciate — although "dusty, pretentious old fart" was a completely valid alternative interpretation. Either way, Celso Merquior, self-styled 21st-Century aristocrat, was utterly and palpably outside his element. (And he probably deserved it.)
His previous regal bearing melted into overwhelmed resignation. "...I don't know exactly where we are, but..." he finally managed, then recalled a more vital matter. "Er, I also don't think whoever owns this garden will appreciate you plucking their oranges." He had already abandoned any hope of warning them away with a literary reference. Kids these days.
As to the oranges? If eaten, they would be delicious. Impossibly delicious. Dangerously so. If magically examined, they would reek of magical energy — light and dark, given that their creator had aspects of both. Neither nice.
At least there were plenty of the impossibly delectable oranges. For now.
[Ritter Clinic]
Iveya cleared her throat, nervously, when she overheard. Probing someone's body with magic? She stopped herself before saying anything, presuming the doctor knew something she didn't, but the idea sounded... in her experience, magic also tended to react with irritation to too much mundane use. And yet this house was a clear exception: if she, or even a mage as powerful as Master Koyel, were to try and use magic as a permanent lamp (instead of a temporary light, which it begrudgingly accepted), they'd probably get a finger bitten off.
She added magic to the list of topics she was hoping to discuss, given Friedrich's preternatural confidence with the usually-cantankerous stuff, but again, saw no need to disturb him right away; at the very least, she would let him get started on the injured man. Who had not, to the best of her knowledge, mentioned his name; she considered using a little telepathy to grab it from his mind, but decided against it.
edited 25th Jan '16 7:13:46 PM by KillerClowns
[Farm]
The tall man wasn't particularly disturbed by the fact he was in a dream world. He'd been thrown into weirder, and he'd definitely dealt with worse.
"Me name's Demo. My job is ta blow people ta bloody chunks. And if ye could stop screamin' fer no reason we might be able to find out more from our host here."
He took his bottle in his hand and took another hearty swill before he set it back down again.
"'Ere's a question fer ya doc," he said to Vince. "What kinda stuff can we expect to find in this kinda world anyway? Knowin' the exit's all good an' fine, but if the See-Aye-Eyy girl over there meets something nasty on the way there that spitball shooter she's keepin' in her jacket isn't gonna do her much good."
Almost unconsciously, his hand drifted over to his grenade launcher, shifting it a little in his lap. It was clear that he wasn't too afraid of whatever was out there, in any case.
He surreptitiously turned to Dives. "Kobolds are nasty little lizard runts. They like to sneak up behind ya when you aren't lookin' and poke you in the back with a spear."
edited 25th Jan '16 7:21:31 PM by gameknight102xx
Friendly Neighborhood Lich
Note: The cookie creatures are not with my characters; they left them after showing them the way, and are confined to the Forest of Distortion anyway.
Orange Tree Garden
They were stealing oranges? The pixie-like creature who just picked a few felt guilty of that, and dropped all the oranges she had under telekinetic control (she still had the one in her hands) as soon as the old man mentioned the owner getting mad. Phoebe also didn't like that.
"Oh now look what you've done, Anna-see."
"That's Anaissienote ," Yamiko quietly corrected. "Is the owner of the garden even here?"
"We should probably get out of here then," Gon suggested, picking up the oranges that the pixie-like Anaissie dropped and handing them to the old man. "If you find the owner of the garden, could you tell them it was an accident? Hehheh, sorry 'bout that..." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"It wasn't your fault,"Ashleigh mentioned. "Technically it was Anaissie's - or should I say, Yamiko's." Yamiko took a few steps backward at this remark, and Anaissie retreated behind her. All of a sudden she remembered she was still holding an orange, but rather than fly over to the old man, she telekinetically moved the orange over to him. "Anyway it was very nice to meet you all, but we had better be going soon..."
"We better be going now!" Phoebe begged, tightening the string on her pink cowgirl hat so it wouldn't fly off. "Come on!"
And so she turned around, picked up Fooly, and bolted, the others following along after her (the large insect left Gon's head and flew behind him). They ran all the way to the gap in the fence, made a sharp left turn, and got almost to the mail truck before encountering a group of many different kinds of Biskies. They were jumping up and down and leaning off in the direction of a pixel cloud, which materialized into a flat circle.
"Hey look, it's another portal!" Phoebe exclaimed.
"ANOTHER one?!" Gon moaned. "We haven't exactly... *pant* had good luck with these..."
"But our only way out of here is to keep trying them!" called Ashleigh from behind them. "Let's enter it!"
"Here goes nothing..." the firefly/dragonfly hybrid muttered, rolling his multi-faceted eyes and flying far ahead of the group, zooming into the portal first. He was followed by Phoebe and Fooly, then Gon, then Ashleigh, and Yamiko with Anaissie bundled in her shawl bringing up the rear.
Park
They emerged into an open grassy space. It looked to be a park of some sort, but it was completely empty save for a mist barely lighter than the perpetual fog in the forest. The group emerged right next to a bench sitting on the edge of a trail.
"Is this Bonding Park?" the large winged insect inquired. "It sure looks deserted... And how'd we end up all the way here anyway?"
"You got me, Aki," Gon shrugged. "This doesn't look like Bonding Park though... it looks like yet ANOTHER part of the Forest of Damn Distortion." He was visibly frustrated now, and was even pulling at his hair and groaning to show it.
"I don't think I can go any further..." Yamiko complained, sitting down on the bench and rubbing her right ankle. "My ankle is really starting to bother me."
"Oh hey, who's that?" the giant dragonfly named Aki asked all of a sudden, lighting up his long cylindrical tail like a glowstick. He spotted a person approaching them from the path. It was a rather plainly dressed guy, probably a teen, walking down the path with his hands in his pockets.
Fooly the clown doll leapt out of Phoebe's arms and skipped up to the stranger. "Pleasure to meet you, Fooly's my name. Not knowing who you are would be a real shame!" She extended a cloth mitten for a hand for him to shake, though he would have to bend down to do so as she was just short of two feet tall.
edited 25th Jan '16 9:53:29 PM by ladytanuki
Come, my child of the devil. Your mother is calling you. Hear my call in Hell's grand hall, where all our dreams come true.
[farm]
Dives wanted a weapon? Why? What made them think this was that particular dream world, and not the one he knew?
Before he could give Dives much more than a concerned look, the others chimed in, as well. That seemed to be a recurring theme with this lot. How did he find it so self-evident that this was a dream, but nobody else felt the same?
Amused, he cracked his smile a little wider. "Didn't take you lot very long to put your lives in my hands." He examined his bag of candy for a moment. Ugh, fruit candy was so tasty, but it was gonna get stuck in his teeth.
"I don't know what's making you lot so sure you're not in a dream." He looked at Lauren first, then at the rest of the group. She was American, how odd. "I've no reason to suspect this place is any different from any other dream, to be honest, just like last time. So nobody should be 'stuck' here in any sense of the word. From what I could tell, the mist does not seem to be actively malevolent or intend to physically harm you, if it can think for itself at all. I found it to be a particularly oblique, cryptic mirror that tries to show your subconscious. Overall, not a bad experience, certainly not one I thought I'd get to do again."
He looked back at Lauren. "I understand being frustrated and wishing to leave. I have no doubt you'll be able to will it to happen on your own by doing what I did and thinking very hard about how much you don't want to be here. But you may not have the luck I've had to examine yourself like this again."
As he spoke, the flapping of wings in the roost broke the farm's eerie silence. Silhouetted against the hole cut into the barn's front, tucked directly below the roof to keep the weather out, stood a wyvern. Happy to be out of the mist, the tiny, cat-sized dragon mostly ignored the small crowd below in favor of preening itself of moisture from flying in the fog outside.
"See, I knew my animals would come back. You can't keep a wyvern out of a barn." A wyvern should have barely counted as his farm's equivalent of barn cats, but it was nice to see, regardless. "I'm pretty sure the place is trying to say something, I just can't tell yet."
edited 26th Jan '16 4:53:09 AM by CrystalGlacia
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Oops, wrong thread.
edited 26th Jan '16 3:43:10 AM by nrjxll
[Forest (Mazra)]
Lord-Heir Mazra Ji was having one of her typical dreams. Wielding a field-sword whose humming blade switched periodically between orange and blue glows - both her conscious and subconscious minds had a hard time picking a favorite House color - she cut and slashed her way through a crowd of conveniently-faceless enemies, moving with the usual grace and training of an Imperial Paladin of Corinarch. Or at least, what she was given to understand that grace and training to look like from the entertainments she enjoyed.
Then the dream changed. The last of her opponents thinned away completely to mist and was gone, leaving only wisps drifting through a strangely-ethereal looking forest. It did seem appropriately dreamlike, but she was pretty sure she'd never seen anything like it when she was awake, or even in her other dreams. She was not exactly a forest sort of girl.
She deactivated her field-sword, and the blade vanished back into the hilt, a chunky square metallic device that looked a little old-fashioned by the standards of modern Corinarchi technology, though it still had a typical golden sheen and ornate (if pointless) crystalline filigree. Letting it fall carelessly to her side, she looked around her and raised one hand to her eyes.
"Well, this is different."
Mazra was a young human woman of about twenty-two Imperial years, or slightly more than that in the Terran equivalent. She had short dark hair that didn't go down below her ears and features that would have looked East Asian to a Terran human, though Corinarchi didn't really use that particular form of internal division. She wore dark blue trousers and a waistcoat of a similar color with orange trimming and crystal buttons; it was the sort of old-fashioned outfit popular again in the Imperial Capital these days. The buttons were strained a little by slightly excessive weight, but that never really went out of style among the Corinarch nobility at all. (It was, however, hardly practical for an Imperial Paladin - but this was a dream). Over the waistcoat she wore a black jacket with white cuffs. Apart from the crystal buttons, there didn't seem to be any visible fasteners or seams on her clothing.
Since she had no real idea what to make of this latest change to her recurring dream, she decided that she may as well start walking in a random direction. After waving around her free hand for a moment, she pointed it to the left and set out that way.
edited 26th Jan '16 4:16:20 AM by nrjxll
[Ritter Clinic]
Friedrich hurried to his feet and went to the front door. How long had this guy been hobbling around in the snow? "Yes. Come on in and I'll see what I can do for you. Lean on me if you have to." His voice was gruff and had a bit of a drawl to it.
Then someone else appeared. The hell was she thinking, going out dressed like that on the day of the solstice? "You too. You'll freeze to death at this rate."
Two lamps hanging over the porch suddenly came to life. One flame was uniformly gold and the other was pure white, but they both shone almost as steadily as an electric light—magic. Friedrich also used magic to fling the door open, shut it behind him and his guests, and to light the lamps hanging in the hallway and the clinic, which was the first room to their left. These lights were more of a bright yellow than warm gold like the one outside.
Just like the hallway, and the rest of the house, for that matter, the clinic was minimally decorated. The walls were beige and the rugs on the scratched-up hardwood floor were all solid green to match the curtains. A primitive wooden examination table was placed against the wall facing the door. It was upholstered with a threadbare cushion and had a clean pillow on it, but otherwise, it looked extremely uncomfortable. There were several wooden cabinets and drawers lining one of the other walls. All were labelled, in exceedingly neat handwriting, with the kinds of medical supplies and tools they contained. The opposite wall contained a large window and a painting of a poppy field that was probably supposed to calm patients, and the thick curtains were currently closed. The place was extremely tidy, with nary a misplaced tool in sight—Friedrich kept them all wrapped up and in drawers or cabinets to make sure they stayed clean. Once a patient was settled on the table, they could see that the wall with the door was plastered with colorful posters promoting healthy habits, from gentle reminders to wash one's hands to more ominous messages about the perils of excessive alcohol consumption. A fair number of these posters were covered up by a dilapidated wardrobe that seemed to have no business in the room. All had a green seal in the top right corner: a vulture on a branch clutching three stalks of wheat in its beak.
"All right, here we are," he said to the injured man. "I know that table isn't exactly the coziest place in the world, but please bear with it. Damn health department doesn't like giving money to small out-of-the-way places like this, but we make do with what we have. Mind telling me exactly what happened to you?"
The distant bleat of a goat was heard.
"Oh. Right. That's my goat, yeah. I let her stay in the kitchen when it's cold out. As for you—" He nodded at the woman. "While I give this man the medical attention that he needs, you can settle down over in the parlor. That's past the door right across from this one. And if someone rings the bell or pounds on the door, go ahead and open it if I don't come out right away, yeah? Wouldn't want to wake up to a pile of frozen bodies on my doorstep tomorrow morning."
[Farm]
There were so many people now. And a... lizard? What? Ugh. This was going to be a pain. Seilaan quickly assessed the strangers. "Yes, I also thought that this was the work of bandits," she said, turning to the gentleman who claimed to own the farm and tilting her head back, way back, to get a look at his face. Why was he so tall. Why was everyone. So. Tall. "But I'm glad you're safe at least." She looked askance at the drunk man. He was in absolutely no state to pointing weapons at things! What was he thinking! Oh, wait, he was drunk, he obviously wasn't thinking at all. She wrinkled her nose and turned away. And that's why I don't drink.
edited 24th Jan '16 10:39:04 AM by SnowyFoxes
The last battle's curtains will open on stage!