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[wolfishflame]

[After getting the lowdown from a rather nice lady, a very annoyed-looking young woman is staring balefully at the camera.]

Are you serious.

Are you serious.

Because people keep explaining this Life-Death-Dreaming thing to me and it sounds like bullshit. There are two planes I can be on and I’m apparently not on either of them and that is so much bullshit I have apparently been dropped into the former pasture of a hekatomb of oxen because what the hell.

Look. Look at this. [She holds up her journal with a helpful diagram of a stick figure, a vertical line, and another stick figure, and a double-sided arrow.] My soul can be Waking, or it can be Otherside, or it can occasionally be both at the same time because my life is a dumpster fire. Not this, okay? [She puts the journal down, raises her hand, and taps the labradorite ring she’s wearing.] My soul is not in a rock. Even if it’s a really pretty rock, and I know from pretty rocks.

[Frustratedly:] Like, oh my gods. Every single god I have ever met. All of them. Up to and including Inari-Ōkami. For the love of baby Jesus in his mangery crib. Put me back. I want to speak to the manager. Yeah. The spell manager.

Fix this, Obama.

Comments

[lasergrenades]

...you've met gods? That sounds, uh, intense.

The spell manager's dead, unfortunately. We're all sort of getting yanked around without any control.

[wolfishflame]

[Aly closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and holds up one finger.] Excuse me one minute.

[Then she turns around and screams into her elbow for about five seconds.

When she turns back, she looks considerably calmer.] Well, ain't that a kick in the macarons. Why am I not surprised? This is exactly my life.

Oh, yeah. Uh, it is intense. That is a word for it. But every single one I've met has been a manipulative pain. Even the benevolent ones. They treat humans like toys.

[lasergrenades]

[Well okay then. Pepper's eyebrows go up when the young woman screams into her elbow. At least she looks a little more settled afterwards, so it helped.]

Seems like it's all our lives, here. We're all stuck. One big weird, seriously dysfunctional, magically-enforced social group. Not quite a family, though some of us are.

[Pepper's expression turns a shade more serious.]

Yeah, gods have a way of doing that, huh? [At least her own favorite space god was a little bit more mortal than traditional deities.] How many have you met?

[wolfishflame]

[Sarcastically:] Hooray!

More than enough. [She has to think.] At least three. And they're annoying.

[lasergrenades]

It's not so bad, after a while. And in the meantime, there's gelato and cookies.

At least your survived meeting them. Get a lousy t-shirt for it?

[wolfishflame]

Gelato and cookies? Good deal. Makes up for the lack of Starbucks. How does this place not have a Starbucks? Are we in hell?

Not even a t-shirt. Lots of scars, though.

[lasergrenades]

[Pepper laughs brightly.] Nope, just no coffee plants. I think the Hotel still has an infinite jar of beans, though.

Yikes. That sucks. Maybe being here can sort of be a vacation from all that, then. I'm Pepper, by the way. Welcome to Keeliai.

[wolfishflame]

Infinite beans? The British lady didn't mention that! I want it. Maybe this place isn't so bad.

Ha, vacation. That's funny. You're funny. Nice to meet you, Pepper. I'm Keahi. [Technically! She is "the fire", so.]

[lasergrenades]

It's a pretty small jar, but it's better than nothing.

Keahi. [She repeats it to get used to pronouncing it, since it's not a name Pepper has heard before.] That's pretty. Why's a vacation funny? Seems like it could be a bit of a break from the dumpster fire. I mean, yeah, getting pulled here isn't exactly on anyone's schedule, and more than a few of us are going back to the middle of some kind of battle, but it's usually not too crazy. [Usually.]

[wolfishflame]

Because vacations are an illusion for me. Every freakin' time I think I've caught a break from this stuff, it reels me right back in. Exhibit A. [She gestures to everything.] Everyone else has to try to get here - er, there - except for me and one other person who's a special case. We don't get vacations.

[lasergrenades]

I don't think anyone tries to get here; most people are trying to find ways to leave. [And remember they were here, too.] Here's not wherever 'there' is, though. I mean, this whole situations seriously wacky, yeah, but last time I checked we don't have any gods wandering around messing with us. Just a spell, and the Dreaming.

[A beat, and a short laugh.]

That's not really a consolation, is it?

[wolfishflame]

[Beat.]

Gross.

No, it isn't really, but it's better than nothing. I mean, there's a whole other plane messing about, but, you know, totally normal, right?

[She's fallen into the sarchasm and she can't get up.]

[lasergrenades]

It's what goes for normal around here, anyway. Raine's a good person to talk to if you want to know more about the Dreaming; she's been studying it a lot.

She's just good to talk to, actually.

[wolfishflame]

[She nods.] Where could I find her? I think I ought to learn more about this whole dimensional mess.

[lasergrenades]

She helps run the Healers Guild in Water. I know some people at the College are studying it, too, but Raine's probably a good place to start, if she's not too busy.

[Raine would probably get a kick out of her, as well.]

If you've got any healing magic, though, you might get pressed into first aid duty.

[wolfishflame]

[Aly tenses, just a little, just for a moment.]

Water. Okay. Great. That's not underwater, is it?

[She would enjoy that on the same level as she enjoyed the Water Temple in Ocarina of Time. That is to say, not at all.]

I'm no healer. I know someone who is, though. I kinda wish they were here.

[lasergrenades]

Uh, no, it's just the name of the sector. There's a bunch of fountains and canals - a few places where the water comes up high enough to walk through sometimes, but the Guild is on totally dry land.

[Apparently water is a sore subject. Fear of drowning, maybe?]

Yeah, I know what you mean. Friend of yours?

[wolfishflame]

[Yes, actually. Among other things. She visibly relaxes.] Okay, good. I'll just dance over the puddles, then.

Yeah...an online friend, sort of.

[She's only met them in person once, if you only count the Waking. But on the Otherside, they're a fixture. So it's weird and unnerving to have them gone.]