The Age and Country Hotel - Part III; Evolution from the Glitch | Forums

[MystNovice]

Middle of Now Here

Boppy dashed ahead of the others and leapt straight into the middle of Tora's group, turning to announce, "I found 'em!"

"Sure you did," Duke congratulated the little mog, suppressing a horsy snicker, "Great job!"

Marae rushed over to check on Tora while Dorian hastely put the finishing touches on his wardrobe. "Is everyone here okay?" she asked, purposely overlooking the shapeshifter.

"I guess," Tora replied, still blushing slightly, "Thanks for, um... coming to find us."

"And with remarkably good timing," Jo snickered under her breath.

Still wearing her Chesire grin, Neko remarked, "So you're the resue party come to lead us back to the others?"

Marae frowned a bit. "I wish we could," she said awkwardly, "but... well...um..."

Tully chose to spare his love, "We're a bit lost ourselves, you see." There was sort of a universal moan.

"Some rescue..." Neko muttered.

"But we aren't without hope," the Nyrond continued, unfazed and fondly patting the load on Duke's back, "We have provisions."

Marae rolled her eyes. "Yes, dear. That's the important thing," she said with a smirk, "but what do we do now?"

Tully had an answer for that as well, hefting his trusty sextant. "By my calculations, we can either try to find the hotel by going off in that random direction." He pointed to no where in particular. "Or we could set off in that random direction to try to rendezvous with the Vikings. If you prefer, there is a third random direction we could explore to find Toz and his ever increasing group. Failing that, we could wander off in a fourth random direction in the hopes of randomly bumping into TOOO and his group."

Having replaced his pants and some fraction of his dignity, Dorian interjected, "Wait, isn't there an option that doesn't involve the words 'random direction'?"

"How come we don't just go back home?" Boppy asked innocently.

"That would be nice," Marae sighed, "but we aren't sure which way it is."

"Sure we do," the hanyo said brightly, "It's off datta way." He pointed in the one direction that Tully hadn't mentioned.

"How can you be so sure?" Dorian asked skeptically.

"Dat's easy," the puppy-boy explained excitedly, "The hotel's real big and gots lottsa scents I know real well. And it's not a part of this place, so it's easy to pick out from all deudder scents." He looked up at the breezy blue sky. "And when the wind shifts I can kinda tell which way it is."

"Wait a minute," Jo interrupted, a little perturbed, "You mean you've known which way the hotel is this entire time, and you didn't tell anyone?"

Boppy suddenly looked very sheepish, or sheepdogish, and said in a small voice, "But nobody asked..."

Deciding to cheer him back up, Duke said, "I have to admit, Boppy, I'm fairly impressed that you can track the hotel from such a great distance."

The little hanyo perked back up. "Oh, it's not dat far. We just been walkin' circles around it." Still being young and innocent, Boppy didn't understand why the whole group groaned and got real quite all of a sudden.

[Tora_Neko]

OT: MN, Neko may be a fluffy orange tabby, but she is definately female. Yes, orange cats are supposed to be male - blame Bast. And faulty memory when I first Wrote her.

BOT: The ground shakes with massive facefaults - except for Tully, who is staring at his sextant with a bretrayed expression.

Meanwhile Boppy races off in the direction of the Hotel, shouting for everyone to, "Follow me, I knows da way!" And after getting themselves sorted out and dusted off, everyone does.

While they walk, the little hanyou darting back and forth to check on their progress, they start bouncing ideas back and forth for getting the Hotel - and everyone as well - back home. Cunning plans of magic lack abilities or objects to get them started. Brilliantly intelligent plans of mad science lack Stellaflora or Holodroid Beta-One. Daring plans of forcing the Storm to come back and reverse itself lack, well, the Storm. Nyrond seat-of-pants-fu remains a scarrily plausible idea, if lacking in logic, planning, focus, and food. Not entirely in that order.

Finally, Jo adds in a worthwhile suggestion. "How about Faerie magic? There's a Gate around here somewhere; I can sense it, I just can't get a lock - it's like trying to use a compass at magnetic North."

"Great," Neko quips, "we'll just find the Gate and drag the Hotel back through. I'm sure the vikings are strong enough for that!"

"We could... try and petition Someone for Divine Intervention?" Jo hesitantly adds.

This sparks another idea in Marae. ::lightbulbsmilie:: "Jahura!"

[Zander Nyrond]

"Don't panic, darling," Zander says. "It must be somewhere you've been, and we haven't been far. You were wearing it when you linked through?"

"Yes, I--" Jahura stops and thinks. "I'm fairly sure I was," she says, "but it isn't there now. No, wait." Her face falls, but Zander catches it deftly in one hand. "The book was on the table and I just hit the panel without putting it on," she says.

"The table in your lab?"

"No, the table in your Library."

Zander's hand pats his own hip, uselessly. He looks dismayed for a moment, then laughs. "We are really out of practice. I remember now, the belt clip broke and I hadn't got around to fixing it."

"We're here without a Relto book between us?" Jahura says, concerned but unable to avoid smiling along with Zander.

"Yes. Don't fall off anywhere." Zander's chuckles slowly subside. "It's all right, though. We know where at least one book is."

"But we'll need both of them to turn the rain off. It won't work with just one."

"And I don't really want to leave here till we know we've got at least one of the books. Does your KI work?" He indicates the blue device around Jahura's hand.

"I don't know, I haven't used it in years."

"But you're wearing.it," Zander says, "which puts you one up on me. Not that I know whom to call. The Gilchrist team don't have keys to the Library." He frowns, tapping his forehead. "This is a pretty puzzle."

"Hugh," says Jahura suddenly. Zander whirls round to see who has come in, then relaxes. "He's at the A&C, isn't he? And he has a KI."

"He doesn't have a book to this Relto," Zander points out.

"No, but he can at least see if mine's in our room. Speedy should have a spare key."

"We're putting an awful lot on Speedy, " Zander says. "Given that we don't know if she's even there."

"If we tell Hugh what's happening he can find out, can't he?"

"Yes. Good idea. And if he can find your Relto book he can bring one to get us back as well."

"I'll call him," Jahura says.

***************************************

Halfway up the wall of the A&C, his line secured around one of the chimneys, Hugh's KI beeps.

[jahura]

KI to KI jahura to Hugh Sacristan

By any chance, are you at the hotel? If you are, can you possibly see if there's a Relto book left in our room? I would really appreciate your help.

Hugh doesn't answer right away. He bends his knees against the wall once, twice, thrice, and swings himself over easily to the direction of the balcony. He lands deftly and eases his leather-gloved hand at the door handle, preparing for shock. None comes. In fact, Hugh had the good fortune of finding the French doors unlocked. He turns the handle and stares at the wall of boxes, containers, and spillage that blocks the doors up to his waist. Beyond he can see more chaos spread about the floor, and the smell hits him soundly in the face. He covers his mouth with his hand and gags. He turns away, his lungs reaching for fresh, clean air with tenacity.

Once he regains his composure, he reads the message on his KI again.

KI to KI Hugh Sacristan to jahura

A clue as to which box your Relto book may be located would be most welcome. I'm afraid I left my hazmat suit at home and the maid appears to be on holiday so expedience is necessary.

As he sends his message, he hears a FWOOOOAAAAM behind him, indicating someone linking in to the room. He turns about, but only a burnt-out Toast-R-Oven turns solid from transparent in the spot. Hugh frowns in puzzlement.

************************************************** *******************************************

"Hazmat suit?" Jahura mutters as she reads Hugh's response, "what now?"

[Zander Nyrond]

Zander stares in horror at the picture being relayed from Hugh's KI.

"This isn't like me," he says. "I'm usually a very organised person. I like..."

"You forget, Poindexter," Jahura says, "I've seen the homeship. You all live like this. It's me this isn't like." She casts about for words. "I--"

"It's us," Zander says gently. "It's us this isn't like. Because we haven't been us for a while." He takes a deep breath. "Okay. This is what we do..."

KI 2 KI jahura to Hugh Sacristan
Okay. Don't try going in there alone. If you can find Speedy, please grovel extravagantly to her on our behalf and ask her if she would be so kind as to help you look for our Relto book or possibly books. We promise to clean out the room properly as soon as we're done here, but for the moment we're kind of stranded. Thank you so much.

******************************************

"Speedy," Hugh mutters. Come to think of it, he hasn't seen the stork around the hotel for some time either.

He pulls the French windows closed again and abseils smoothly off the balcony to the ground, making a list in his head. Jade, Grizz, Speedy, PaperDragon, Kestryll...too many people seem to have gone missing since Zander and Jahura took their sabbatical or whatever it was. Hugh's been keeping low, staying off the radar, not interfering...maybe they're doing the same.

Well, that's over. He's been in some holes in his time, but that room smelled worse than a Qumari abattoir five days after an air strike. This is not a little clean-up job. This is going to take a full-scale intervention.

He really is not looking forward to this conversation with Speedy.

***************************************

"Okay," Jahura says, "what do we do now?"

"Carry on here," Zander says, finally freeing a clump of dead vegetation from the ground. He carries it to the edge of the island and holds it out over the gulf.

"A journey of a thousand miles," he says ceremoniously, "begins with the first step." And he lets go. The soggy mass vanishes into the mist.

"Once we've got this cleared, we'll have some space to--"

weeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEESPLUTCH

Through a green haze he sees Jahura simultaneously looking stricken and grinning.

"Watch that first step," she says.

[jahura]

"You forget, Poindexter," Jahura says, "I've seen the homeship. You all live like this. It's me this isn't like." She casts about for words. "I--"

Jahura inspects all the dead, waterlogged flora. The Ahuri of Sabaoth were ultra-minimalist, and this grand show of sloth would have been cause to give up her wings - if she still had them. The goddess-in-training aspect of her pined at the waste and lack of responsibility to care for these lives that depended on her. She pulls up a slimy brown marigold stem and moves to the edge of the Relto to give it a silent goodbye before tossing it over. Her attention is detracted by the pond, which has turned dark green with algae. She steps over and inspects the pond with crossed arms. Behind her, Zander's feet slup, slup, slup through the thick mud until he is once again beside her. He puts his arm around her in a reassuring gesture.

"At least that's an easy fix." Zander says, "all we need to do is pour in some chlorine - "

Jahura gives him a *look*.

"Or not..."

"Absolutely not." Jahura says with rare firmness, "It's not their fault for surviving. One or both of us must have tracked some in a while back and they found a home here. What needs to be done is to scrape them out and return them to their Age of origin so they can thrive in their native ecosystem."

"Which Age would that be?"

Jahura shrugs. "I'll have to run some tests. Could be Eder Kemo. Could be Channelwood. Could be J'nanin. Could be Edanna, Could be Tay,, Haven, Teledahn, Er'Cana..."

Zander sighs. Even with divine intervention, this could take a long time.

"...and until then we can just let it be." Jahura continues, "In the meantime, help me with the fireplace, would you?"

Zander wrings excess water out of his ponytail to no avail. "I hope Hugh locates Speedy soon."

"Even if he doesn't," Jahura says as she picks up a brick from the pile, "any help would be welcome at this point."

[T.O.O.O.]

"Come stand with me on the balcony, old friend."

"What is it, my Emperor?"

"Look out over the city with me. The glorious New Rome! Pah! We're nothing more than one of the city-states of old Greece! We're only tolerated by the local kings as some kind of curiosity. The Games are nothing more than a diversion!"

"One that brings in much gold, my Emperor."

"But not enough gold to attract recruits! Even now, we have just enough soldiers to police the city."

"What of the gladiators?"

"They are little more than slaves - they would escape the first chance they get. To make matters worse, rumor tells me there is a large fish in the aqueduct! People are afraid to use the public baths!"

"We have seen no such fish, my Emperor."

"Hmm. Speaking of gladiators, what of the one they call The Wildcat?"

"Cannax? What of her?"

"She defeats all comers, but only wounds them enough to stop them, but not so they cannot heal. She will not kill - and yet she remains a crowd favorite! What are we to do with her?"

"Shall I have her brought here - in chains, of course?"

"Yes, bring her to me."

[Zander Nyrond]

"We're going to need fire cement," Zander says, arranging the bricks in semicircular rows outward from the ash pit."Or something like it."

"We'll find a way," Jahura says. "So," she goes on, "these Writing experiments of yours. How did they end up here? You weren't fiddling around with the Relto book, were you?"

"No, no no no. Wouldn't know where to start. But I do have a theory." Zander picks up two fragments of brick and fits them together.

"Go on then." Jahura hardly sounds resigned at all.

"The telescope and the wahrk skeleton near the Cleft," Zander says. "They obviously came through the fissure, through the interstitial medium, but why did they end up here? Even if Riven turned out to be in this universe and directly above Earth's surface, it's a bit of a reach to think Riven broke up at exactly the right time for the debris to land here." He steps back, eyes his layout critically, and swaps two bricks over. "I think there's a force like gravity operating here. When an unstable Age breaks up, if the Age Book is still in existence, the remnants return to the area where the Age was Written."

Jahura considers. "And the fact that your stuff ended up here..."

"Corroborative detail. This was where I did most of the Writing. But think about it." Jahura points at two more misplaced bricks. "All that structural damage in D'ni," Zander goes on, making the swap, "roughly contemporaneous with the Fall, but not part of it according to Ti'ana's account. Could it have been caused by more chunks of Riven linking in underground?"

"But then," Jahura says, "wouldn't the whole Cavern be full of holes from other people's failed Ages?"

"Not if destroying the Age Book breaks the residual link. The Guilds were fairly strict on disposal of unsuccessful Ages, weren't they?"

"We can check that," Jahura says, "later. Now..." She walks around the array of bricks with a critical eye. "Let's put it together."

"Fire cement?"

"There were fireplaces before there was fire cement, sweetie," Jahura says with a smile.

[MystNovice]

Off Topic: Hmm... It seems the A&C has been restored without us, so...

On Topic:

Back in the middle of Now Here

While the reunited group debated their various plans, Boppy's darting back and forth became more and more frequent, indicating that they were getting closer and closer to the hotel, until they saw the little hanyo sitting put, for once, with his tail wagging in triumph. This would seem to suggest that they had reached the A&C, but there was no hotel to be seen, only waving long grass and and what appeared to be a large crop-circle, or would that be a grass-circle.

"We're here!" Boppy announced.

"Where?" Tora asked, "We're still in the middle of no where."

"Now Here," Neko corrected.

Tora rolled her eyes. "Whatever. There's still nothing here."

"Sure der is," the young mog objected, sniffing around on the ground, "The scent's comming from right here... *sniff, sniff* but... *sniff, sniff* It is kinda weak... *sniff bonanza*"

Finding the crop-circle to be suspicious, and possibly delicious, Duke investigated it more closely, electing to use his sense of taste. Marae followed behind her friend as he crunched away and looked more closely at the shape. It wasn't really a circle but more like a... Marae gasped and started circling the shape, mumbling, "...the entrance was here...and over there, the kitchen...side hallway..."

"Something wrong dear?" Tully inquired.

"It was here," she replied in a small voice, pointing at the shape in the grass, "right here..."

"What was?" asked Jo, "Wait, you don't mean the hotel, do you?"

"Toldya so," Boppy mumbled indignantly.

"It's gone?" Dorian wondered, "But where did it go, and more importantly, how?"

"More imortantly, where do we sleep?" Marae worried, "All we have now is shape of grass."

"Awfully tastly, though," Duke commented.

"Maybe home went back home alone," Boppy speculated.

"But without us?!" Tora exclaimed, "That's means we're stranded. We're even more lost now than ever before!"

"Some rescue," Neko muttered.

"How can we be sure it went back home?" Dorian asked.

"I hope that's where it went," said Jo with an edge of exasperation, "If it went somewhere else, we're in real trouble."

"This does simplifies things a bit, though," Tully said happily.

Marae was increduluous, "'Simplifies'? How is this simpler? Things are worse. Now we don't even have shelter."

The Nyrond nodded. "True, but dragging the whole A&C hotel through a Fairy Gate was going to be quite the problem. Now, we only have to worry about us."

"And Toz and his friends," Neko added.

"True..."

"And TOOO and his friends," Marae added.

"True..."

"And the Vikings," Boppy added.

"Alright..."

"And we still don't even know where the Fairy Gate is," Jo added.

"Point is," Tully cut in forcefully, "We no longer have to worry about the hotel."

Marae sighed, "Neither do we have a place sleep."

The Nyrond nodded. "Yes, there are still problems, but I still have my trusty..." He reached into his pocket for something, but Marae placed her hand over his.

"Put it away, dear."

[jahura]

OT: Sorry about that, MN. I only went back thirty pages and everyone was talking about the hotel it seemed as if it were still standing. If you like, we can hold off until you finish.