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It was morning before anyone really realized it. Mae and Elvadoer managed to sneak back inside and get to sleep before Dante and Asra ever noticed that they were gone. As Dante woke up however, he nearly fell off his bed as he saw the new face in the room sleeping on the highest bunk across from him. Mae had to climb up there and reassure him face to face that it was just Elvadoer and it wasn't someone trying to hurt them.
"So look who got a fancy upgrade," Elvadoer teased Dante, patting his head in an affectionate, yet grateful way. Dante pulled away and looked embarrassed. She sighed and then looked at Mae. "I can barely recognize you Mae, you look completely different."
Mae smiled. "I'm going to take that in a positive way, so uh, thanks!" She smiled and climbed down from Dante's bunk, watching them make his way down as well. Once he got down, the three all stood together for a moment.
"How long do you think it's going to be before Pidge and Perri get here?" Mae asked, looking at Dante and Elvadoer one after the other.
"With luck, they won't come here. I assume that the chances are low however," Dante looked at Mae as well and then to the ground, swaying on his heels.
"At least Perri will know what to do when she gets here. I have a feeling she knows this place," Mae said confidently and scratched her neck. "I know she'll feel the magic we all did, and probably as much as I did, if not maybe a little less because she hasn't known it as long as I have."
"Perri knows this place?" Dante asked. "I didn't know she was invested in this world like you! You've mentioned it before, but I don't think I ever heard her mention it."
"Yeah she does. Me and her both talk about it a lot with each other. She never mentioned it to you guys?"
"Nope! That's odd. Wait, if she is connected here, does that mean she also was somehow here before?"
She shrugged, "I have no clue. I'm still confused on how I was apparently here. But we will have to get that answer in depth another time, or we will play the oblivious card to ensure our lives are easier," Mae opened the door and stepped out, leaving it open for Elvadoer and Dante to walk out after her. The sun was leaking in through the windows, casting small bits of light on the floor. The floor under their feet was dark wood, and it didn't even seem to make a sound as they stepped and swayed.
"We need to find out what those odd warnings were too. If we suddenly popped in here during a war or something, I want to get out as fast possible."
Elvadoer put her hands behind her head and turned around, facing the group. "War is not on my agenda. Nor is death. However, I will try and get to know this "Asra" character since we are already here. I've been told I'm very persuading."
"No one's told you that before Elvadoer."
"Hey! I like to think so," she responded and put her thumb to her chest and pointed at herself, Dante snickering in the background.
Mae's mind was still ticking. What did the Magician tell her, or what were they trying to tell her? He touched her forehead and then her neck, and then began tracing things in the air. Mae already concluded that, because the Magician is considered a wise Arcana, that touching her forehead meant knowledge or knowing something. Or does it? Maybe it is something connected to the lore of the world that I should know. Or it is symbolizing death! Or a beast! No no, that can't be. That seems a little too convoluted to be the truth. What could it have meant for them to touch her neck though? If they had touched her heart, it would've made much more sense regarding the "whole knowledge of magic" thing, but her neck? It had also outlined the mark on her forehead, which was odd within itself. Maybe that was like, a magic mark or a symbol that is secretly important to this world. Then it outlined a face that looked like a canine or wolf, which was the thing that made the most sense in that whole trance/teleportation dream. It was no coincidence she could've found that mask in the guest room, so she figured that it outlined an African Wild Dog head.
Is....is that what my familiar is in this world? Could it have been giving me a tip on who and what I could be connected to? Mae wondered about this, but considered it the most likely possibility. A familiar was one's spirit animal, one's guide in this strange magical place. Asra's was Faust the python, so it would make sense that hers was an African Wild Dog... right? That also may mean that the python Addi saw was her familiar....and maybe the thing the Hanged Man was holding was Kira's familiar. But what was the Hanged Man holding? I don't have enough information to be sure yet... but hopefully I do soon. The only other thing I hope for is that we get home without having to fight our way out... like with some funky demon nonsense.
Mae didn't stay in there forever contemplating her life, and went out to go see where Elvadoer and Dante had headed off too. When she came out of the room, she nearly bumped face first into Asra (and yes, I mean face first).
"I am- so sorry!" Mae stuttered and stepped backwards, her face completely red. Asra just looked at her and laughed.
"No need to say sorry," Asra patted her shoulder and moved out of the way for her to walk past. "Elva was worried about you. Said that she thought that you guys were all going crazy with everything happening around you."
Elvadoer went wide eyed and stepped next to Asra. "I was NOT! I didn't say a word about her!"
Asra looked down at Elvadoer, "where's your proof?"
Elvadoer opened her mouth and closed it again, defeated. She walked away from Asra and gave him a look. Dante just looked amused.
"Elva huh? She is somehow allowing you to call her a nickname in the five seconds of meeting?" Mae crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow towards Asra.
"Oh no, it's been well over five or so minutes. She said that you looked like you were in deep thought when they came downstairs."
I was contemplating everything for that long? That is impossible! Hm... well I guess my one brain cell did work pretty hard. "Hey, look I don't want to make you upset, but we have to get back home soon. To our world, you know? I know that I have been here before, though I don't know how, but if it is alright with you, do you mind grabbing Julian now? We cannot let our other two friends get caught up in this trouble, so the sooner I can say hello and then dip, the better."
Asra was taken a little by surprise, but recovered quickly. He nodded and looked to Elvadoer and Dante. "I'll be back soon. Don't let Mae run off," he teased and opened the door, winking at Elvadoer before closing it. She stomped her foot in anger and frustration and nearly started after Asra before Dante grabbed her shoulder, shaking his head.
"Don't waste your energy. He was like this last night," Dante rolled his eyes, "It's a part of her personality I suppose."
Mae nodded, "Yep. He's just an oddball."
"So..." Elvadoer broke the awkward silence in the room and folded her hands together. "He knows us because of some card-things, and I was visited by Death last night because it was delivering some sort of cryptic message and knowall to me. And you two were visited as well? Was it equally as cryptic?"
"Yep," the two said at the same time, but Mae let Dante go ahead and talk, "Yeah, I got visited by a bird... thing that was trying to hand me some brown animal. At least I'm deducing that it was an animal. I don't know what else it could've been."
"Could've been shit or something."
"Elvadoer!" Mae facepalmed. "I may understand very little of what is going on, but I will say that insulting the powerful deities of this world is the least smart thing I've ever heard you do, and I've seen a lot of stupid things that you've done." Don't make me bring up the time you ran face first into a sign at Target.
Suddenly, Dante was leaning against the counter and looked down at Mae with a curious glance, "sooo Mae... who's this Julian character? Is he your boyfriend?"
"What? No! I've never been here, how would that have even been possible!" She brushed his hand off her shoulder and got a laugh from the two of them, her face flushed a barely noticeable tint of red. "If anything, he's a crush that I had behind a screen."
"Asra was talking about him like you knew him or something."
"I have no clue how I would have been able to know him. Unless this is a simulation, or feeds off of real life," Mae looked at Dante and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath, "I'm just worried now. I can't help but worry about how we are going to live with this knowledge, or what will happen now that we are here and are connected to these people and this place." I want to go home. I don't want to influence this world for bad any longer, yet part of me yearns to stay here. To explore. To find out what is happening. How I can be positive here. No, I must go home. Before I get attached to Julian in reality. He belongs to the me that was here, or whoever was here before me. He is not connected to me.
Is he?
He isn't.
But....
But what?
But I'm not myself.
Too bad. He isn't. He never will be.
Thank you for your input weird strange inner monologue, but if it happens, it happens. The chance is never zero. I just hope that if everything is going well, that the chance goes up.
She backed up from Dante and Elvadoer, who were striking a conversation, and into the reading room to rest her head. With a sigh, she put her head in her arms and closed her eyes.
Hey weird strange monologue in my head. Who are you?
There was no response, but Mae furrowed her brow.
Hey, I'm talking to you! You aren't just going to say cryptic things and then dissipate. I'm already freaked out about this world enough, I don't mind the narrator of the game hopping into my subconscious to soothe my nerves.
Soothing nerves is not my main pro. Rather, protection is.
Ah! There you are! See, it isn't hard to have a simple conversation.
Conversing with an old friend is hard when it has been so long... Everyone here has missed you.
I've never been here before though.
You have.
I have?
But that doesn't matter. You do not belong here. The only thing you will be faced with is disappointment from those you thought you could care about.
Well of course I don't belong here, nor do I belong with any of them. Or you! I shouldn't be able to hear strange voices in my head! I doubt that I will be faced with any kind of disappointment. Being here is enough for me, I just want to take control and meet him.
...
Hello?
It was quiet once again, and she began to think that she had imagined another voice in her head. Mae held her head as her hair became a tangled mess as she sat there in silence, alone.....or so she thought. At least she was mostly alone at the time. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt something go over her shoulders and around her neck. She opened up both of her eyes in a rush to see a large lump of...Well..something draped across her. A little thin head peaked around her shoulder and flicked in and out its tongue.
"Faust!" Mae said in a rush, relieved it was at least someone she knew.
"Friend! Happy!" Faust responded and closed her eyes as Mae petted her head, flicking in and out her tongue.
"You're a lot bigger than I imagined you!"
"Faust happy!" The large python said and curled around her shoulder, looking at her. Mae sighed, happy that it was at least someone who wouldn't judge her for thinking these thoughts. At least, that is if snakes couldn't judge.
Mae and Faust sat there silently, probably both thinking to themselves if that was possible. Mae's heart continued to race as time dragged on slowly. Would he be mad? Happy? Regretful? Would he pull the same drama queen moves he had done before? Would she be mad? Would she be able to handle it without breaking down into an emotional wreck?
Does he know that I haven't been here before in "this" form, like Asra possibly does. Or at least kinda does?
It wasn't even five minutes before Elvadoer popped in her head and looked at her in worry. "Oh Maaaeeeee, we have a surprise!"
This was it. She was going to get mad and explode into some emotional mess at the first hair she saw.
It was time to cope with the hardest thing ever.
"Send him in."
"Him?"
"Yeah? Isn't Julian here?"
"Oh no it's not Julian! C'mon in."
But it wasn't him. It was Perri, and possibly Ramille. Mae couldn't tell if she was relieved, or just got twice as worried as she was before. She
let out a sigh as all of her emotions pulled a reverse, receding back into the depths of her heart. "H-hey guys," she breathed out in a shaky breath.
Perri looked pretty much the same. She sported a signature purple beanie and a roughed up purple hoodie. She also wore ripped jeans as if she had been in a fight. Ramille looked much different than Pidge, it was difficult to see any resemblance between the two. She looked much more like a warrior instead of the Pidge she had ever known, which was most likely an opinion shared between everyone there. She was taller and thinner, and she sported much different clothing. She wore warrior style clothing like Elvadoer had, except she had armor pads on her shoulders and a shield on her back. Her hair was also short and more of a white than her usual brown.
Perri looked at Mae for a moment and sat down, obviously seeing that she was so shaken about something. "You good dude?"
Mae nodded. "Yeah, you guys just caught me by surprise," she sighed, "didn't Elvadoer tell you to stay behind and get help?"
"Yeah well, it's been almost a whole day since you guys were missing. You guys got lucky that the streets went on lockdown for a huge fire that started in the building. Everyone was ordered to stay in or evacuate. It was taken care of quickly, but still, you guys got lucky," Perri rolled her eyes and looked around, "Never thought that this is where you all ran off to, of all places."
"Me neither. I mean, I don't really know where "here" is as much as you two, but this is definitely an astronomical event that I never would've expected. But it was like I felt a little, small tug to the glowing scary ball of scariness."
"Ramille? You know about this place?" Mae asked curiously, hands beneath her chin with open eyes. The lighting in the room was casting an ominous glare over the secluded area, Mae's purple eyes gleaming slightly.
"The internet lets me learn so many new things, so of course I found a tad bit about this area. But I barely know a lot. And when I need barely I mean barely," Ramille had a curious look on her face and then noticed the large snake around Mae's neck and partially on the table. She reached out a hand and the purple snake tilted her head to Ramille. Gently, she pressed her head to her hand, and Ramille began petting her. "Plus you told me mini details before, and I have the best memory here!"
Ramille had a small smile on her face, and before she was able to ask who this snake was, and if it belonged to Mae, Faust stuck out her tongue and seemed to smile. "More friends!
Perri looked at Ramille, then Mae, then to Faust, "you two heard that too, right? The snake speaks? Because a talking snake is TOTALLY in the realm of possibilities here?"
"Well I mean, we did find a magic glowing orb behind a rickety panel in the girls bathroom, so it is the less surprising thing to find that Faust can speak small sentences in actuality, rather that it just being something that was a play on words in the game that we played Perri. I think a talking snake is the least of our worries."
"Yeah, like getting home."
I didn't think about how we were going to do that. Shit. "I forgot to ask Asra how we are going to get back home."
"I asked Elvadoer and she said that she already asked him, but he said that it might not be until later today that we have the opportunity to even know how to get back home since he will have to go ask the Magician and others about how. They were the ones that apparently visited you, Dante, and Elvadoer, so he will need to contact them," Perri put a hand under her chin and then a finger in the air, "but it also depends on what happens, how busy he is, and anything else that could happen to us."
"Like supernatural stuff that could happen?"
"I mean, anything really. What if one of us gets sick from a disease here that we cannot bring back home? Or we need to collect some artifacts to get home. Maybe there is a secret labyrinth we have to pass through, or even a hidden cave! Or we get trapped somewhere and separated."
"You do make a good point," Mae nodded and then looked to her left, jumping and scooting back as she stared at the mask beside her. I didn't bring it in here, did I? I thought I left it in the guest room. "What on Earth..."
Faust turned her head and looked at the mask in Mae's hands, moving back from it. "Crimes," she hissed out and then went back to normal with a content, happy face. "Crimes!"
"Crimes?" Ramille looked at Faust and the snake nodded back to her, "did someone commit crimes in this mask?"
"Yes!"
Mae looked at it, "Well I don't recall any time I committed a crime with this in the story line. Then again, it's been more than two months of playing the game, so I guess my memory could be faltering."
"Where did you get it?" Ramille questioned Mae as Faust slithered up onto the thick, wooden pole that held the rings for the curtain that was blocking them off from the others. Mae heard the dim voices of Dante and Elvadoer, but also could hear birds chirping. They must be outside talking.
"I found it in the guest room. It was in a drawer next to a very fashionable dress and other accessories, like it was meant for the masquerade. I don't know if this means that my familiar, or more commonly called spirit-animal, is an african wild dog, but it is the only good lead I have. Besides, it's not like it matters much anyways, we won't have to worry about..."
Mae stared at the eye's of the mask and the voices came back, stronger.
"You will not hurt them; they are in control of their own lives, and if you lay a hand on them, I will kill you."
"You have yet to kill me in all actuality! I am just trying to set them on the correct path to lead right here... and that one won't escape again."
"They are much stronger than you! When I get out of here I'll rip your tongue from your throat! I will gouge your eyes out of their sockets and roast them on a kebab! I will not let you kill the chosen ones that I have been tasked in protecting."
"And by protecting them, you lead them away from home? Somewhere obsolete? Where they will never be able to get home again unless they comply with my wishes and you give up your power that is your name? You are foolish. More foolish than I was when I was created for my purpose."
"You won't... ever get away with this."
"I will, and I already have. I'll turn everyone they ever loved against them by force if they don't do it themselves. You know she is too trusting, so why not get rid of the people who can change her mind?"
"About...." Mae felt lightheaded and put the mask down on the table, feeling ill. "I... about um..."
"About your boyfriend?"
With a pale face she looked at Ramille, "Boyfriend?!"
"Yeah! That 'Julian' fellow you are so set on looking for. What's the scoop? You two a thing?"
Mae. You must get out of there. You have to go see him now. There's a timer somewhere, and I am only able to look at it. If you are going to be disappointed, better do it now.
Why now?!
Do you trust me Mae?
I mean- kinda?
Then act like it! You said you wanted to return home today, so either you go now and get my help later, or you don't and I won't help you or your friends.
"Guys I have to go," she said hurriedly, the voice ringing in her ears as she stood up and pushed her way out of the curtained room, Perri and Ramille standing up to follow her.
Perri stuck an arm out infront of her, "Now you wait a minute. You aren't going anywhere, remember! We have to stick together."
"No you don't understand.. This voice... It's telling me something. I have to go now Perri!" She pushed her way through and Ramille shouted a loud "wait a minute!" as Mae ran out the door. Elvadoer and Dante watched her go before turning back to Ramille and Perri with alarmed faces.
Hurry! They will catch you! Don't look back!
Mae was running away from her friends.
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The voice speaks wishes of those around, yet it speaks the lies in which chains have now be bound. Follow a set path of bread crumbs like others have before that have been inside a console's screen, but escape the grabby hands of those before you become obsolete.
YOU ARE READING
Portals & Realms
Avventura"Save the world, and join the fight, or else the entire world will die tonight. Take up arms, protect your neck, or else it'll be you who is another body in the wreck." - - All that the five friends wanted to do was explore their old school in the d...
