Welcome to the Kingdom!

[thequestgiver]

You've found a book.

Where you've found it depends. The library? At the bottom of an old wooden trunk from an estate sale? Grandma's attic? The seat beside yours on the bus?

It doesn't matter. What does matter is that something about it draws your attention. You pick it up and run a hand over its blue-dyed leather cover, trace the silver thorns embossed along the edges. The spine and cover bear no title, but it hardly matters. You take it home with you because you know it's just the kind of book you want, just what you need. And after all, you can return it later. Right?

When you finally open the book, it falls open on an illustrated page. A detailed ink drawing of a solitary figure standing before a wall of thorns. Who is this person?

A wizard in flowing robes?

A knight in gleaming armor?

A princess in a tattered gown?

Or a wicked person, glorying in the thorns' presence?

Like the book's location, it depends.

As you look closely at the illustration, your sense of balance leaves you. You stagger, look down, and are met with a white void that soon surrounds you. The book snaps shut and disappears in a shower of sparks.

You black out.

When you come around, you're warm and safe, though your surroundings are unfamiliar. The room you're in looks like a guest room in a castle; the walls are stone with a crackling fireplace and an ornately framed glassless window and the bed has an utterly impractical canopy that if you're not careful, you may just wind up getting tangled in as you sit up.

When you look around the room, you see two bells set out on a small table, both with signs in front of them. One says "Ring for attendant" the other had "Ring for King's Introduction" on it, but it was crossed out, with a handwritten "Help me, Hero WanKenobie! I'm just a dope!"

Ringing the first bell will (eventually. Hopefully) bring someone up to the room to answer your questions. The second bell has no clapper, but it covering a small round, red stone.

Comments

[castcure]

That's a lot of thinking. That meant it was something complicated. But if it was complicated, then... they didn't need to be attacked on site, did they? Which she never cared to have to do, honestly... "Is.. that to do with all the different worlds? That it's tricky like that? Are they dangerous, at all?" Surely Garren can understand that much.

[triggerhappytraitor]

Different worlds! Yes! Garren nodded before giving a thumbs up and signing "friend" and "no attack!" before pausing and amending "family of friend" because he didn't really know anything about that one. But he hadn't attacked anyone, so it was fine, right?

[castcure]

"Alright... alright, that's good. Because I don't want to have to fight, you know!" She laughs a little, then. "I might be good at it, but..." It's a thought that she doesn't finish, and her smile grows a little awkward and strained. "...so...now that I'm here, Garren, what should I do? Look for people to help? Is... is that it?" That's how it worked when she was out doing Scion work, after all. Earning the trust of the locals was a fine way to accomplish one's goals! Presuming that there are goals to accomplish, mind.

[triggerhappytraitor]

An enthusiastic nod this time. Helping people! Being a hero! Fighting thornes!

[castcure]

"Then I guess I'll go and do that." With the matter settled, at least in her own estimation, she rises to her feet and brushes out her robes. (Hmm, funny, she hadn't been wearing her robes, last she remembered...)

"Thank you for the explanation, Garren! Er... am I allowed to go anywhere that I'd like, now...?"

[triggerhappytraitor]

The small pog nodded with a pleased sound, signing again. He could show her around, if she wanted! Town wasn't very big, but he could show her where his Slammer and his Slammer's partner lived! And where everyone else was too!

[castcure]

"Ah! I'd love that! I'd especially love to meet your Slammer and his friends!" She has so many questions, still, and not all of them are on the subject of this new world. Helpful as Garren has been, a child is still a child. She would like to know what an adult would think.

"Lead the way, Garren!"

[triggerhappytraitor]

The small pog hopped into the air to make a dramatic, celebratory pose before he started down the hall, small booted feet making deceptively heavy thumps on the cold stone as he ran.

The tour to his Slammer's house was a fairly short one, as home that was in the process of being re-outfitted into a combination garage and clinic wasn't too far from the castle (and there really wasn't too much of interest (to Garren) along the way.

With a cheerful "Weeeei!" and wave of his arms, Garren announced their arrival, beaming happily.

Tachibana blinked up from where he was working on the very steampunk looking engine laid out on his workbench. There was a very energetic mess of sign from Garren that brought a soft, warm smile to his expression before he nodded. "Another version of Dakki, huh?" he interpreted, looking up towards her.

[castcure]

Dakki proceeded after Garren at a somewhat more leisurely pace. Her legs were longer, so purposeful strides were enough to ensure that she wouldn't be separated from the little pog. It's a walk that does her some good, warming up her joints and making her feel a little more at ease. If she's a little quiet and distracted along the way, that's just because she's noting the path taken and any landmarks along the way. And possibly scanning the horizon for the city's Aetheryte...

She decides that she quite likes Garren's Slammer's place, the moment she sets eyes on it. It was different than the rest of the houses, in a way she couldn't put her finger on... and what a machine the man was working on! He'll find her staring at it curiously when he looks her way, and she needs a moment to notice his gaze. "Ah!" She quickly straightens and gives a little nod-bow of polite acknowledgement and greeting. "I believe so! Your friend Garren mistook me for her, at first. I... hope this isn't too unusual?"

She smooths down the front of her white robes and folds her hands before herself. On her back is a wooden staff, topped with leaves and paper ribbons. (It's as though she's gone and swapped classes with Bakura...) At her hip, however, hangs a sheathed katana.

[triggerhappytraitor]

"A little, but not anything we haven't dealt with before," Tachibana assured, getting to his feet and dusting his hands off on his slacks before offering one to her for a handshake. "Sakuya Tachibana," he introduced with a small nod.

Garren, for his part, carefully climbed up the chair his Slammer just vacated and hopped onto the table to sit on the edge, his legs swinging over the side.

[castcure]

She reaches out to shake his hand in return. "Dakki Sigal. A pleasure to meet you, Tachibana-san." That handshake is just as bracingly firm as he ought to expect from another world's version of Dakki. "The way Garren tells it, you've dealt with a lot of different things, haven't you? What's there to deal with here?"

[triggerhappytraitor]

"A few, yeah," Tachibana nodded, returning the shake with a similar firmness. "This place..." he trailed off with a faint frown, shaking his head. "Fairy tales and echoes from other places, it seems," he finally answered. "Feels like there should be something more, but none of us have figured out what yet."

[castcure]

As she withdraws her hand, she looks at him a little longer. Had she ever met someone at all like him before? Maybe there was a Sakuya Tachibana running a workshop somewhere in Kugane, and she'd simply never set eyes on him.... the way he trails off thoughtfully is interesting, though. It prompts more questions.

"It's not like the places you've been before, then?" She presses her lips together and lets her head dip, giving a little thoughtful 'hmm'. "Well.... There's nothing to do but to work together and find out what's really happening. Right?"

[triggerhappytraitor]

"Most of them had far more clearer goals, yeah," Tachibana nodded, expression growing briefly distant before he refocused and gave her a faint smile, nodding again. "So it would seem. Though I will admit that figuring out things outside of a lab context isn't at all my strong point." A rueful note slipped into his tone and smile. He was far too aware of that weakness of his...

[castcure]

Though she's curious about what the goals of those other worlds were, the moment to ask about it seems to have passed. And it's not relevant at the moment, anyhow. They're in this world, aren't they? "Figuring out things isn't my strong point, either." She laughs, returning his smile, only a little embarrassed to be admitting something of that sort. "I find that when I don't know what to do, the best thing to do is to look for someone that needs help, and... to help them. And that is what we're supposed to do here... right?" She gives Garren a quick look. That's the impression that the little pog had given her, but....

[triggerhappytraitor]

Garren nodded, hopping up to his feet to make a dramatic, heroic pose.

"That is the best way to start, yeah," Tachibana agreed, unable to help the warm smile Garren's mimery brought out. "I've been helping Sayoko set up a clinic here, and a friend of mine is hoping to get a hydroelectric plant started. A little modernization to help out where we can, really."

Since he... did feel a bit useless, outside of just supporting Sayoko and giving Sento someone to bounce foruma off of. (Thankfully not literally, as neither of them were much the type for sparring in that sort of way.)

[castcure]

Garren's pose gets a bright smile from her as well, along with an acknowledging nod. "Hydro... electric?" Her head gives a curious tilt, and there's cautious uncertainty in her tone. "Water and...? What's that for?" Modernization is a relative thing, and Dakki's own world is even more fantastic than this one.

[triggerhappytraitor]

"It's a method of generating electricity by using the gravitational energy of a moving source of water, like a river or, ideally, a waterfall," Tachibana explained. "The worlds Sento and I come from use electricity for most things, since magic isn't an energy source, like it is here."

[castcure]

She blinks... and blinks again... and then he hits the word 'waterfall' and her face lights up. "Oh! Like a waterwheel! Only... with magitek?" It seems like a safe guess to make, going by the limited knowledge she has. The Scions do the thinking, she does the fighting, and everything generally works out...

[triggerhappytraitor]

"A bit, yeah," Tachibana nodded. "Less magi, more tech," he half joked with a warm smile. "But likely the same function."

[castcure]

"Aah, alright. That's more what my.... friends specialize in." Yes, friends like Cid, and Biggs, and Wedge and... maybe Nero? The thought makes her smile go a little funny, so she's just going to move right on along from it.

"I hope there are still things I can do to help that don't involve those technical things!"

[triggerhappytraitor]

"I'm sure there will be. Really, a lot of this is because Sento's speciality is that sort of thing, and he'd go a bit stir-crazy without something to power his gadgetry based invention," Tachibana half grinned. "Most of this world is far more based in magic and things out of fairy tales, far as I can tell."

[castcure]

"I know the type, I know the type..." She hasn't even met this 'Sento' fellow yet, but in her minds eye he at least has some goggles and a smart Ironworks vest.

"It's... funny that you say that. This place doesn't feel quite right, but it's not..." She raises a hand in an uncertain sort of motion, and it pauses before she can bring it to cover her mouth and think. "...it's not my Hydaelin, but I think I could sort myself out on my own without too much trouble, if I had to. If that makes sense?"

[triggerhappytraitor]

"Doesn't feel right?" Tachibana repeated curiously. "But similar enough to what you're used to?"

[castcure]

She nods, and finally does bring that hand to the side of her face, tapping it there gently as she considers how best to explain this. "The clothes and the buildings look... alright, I suppose. But not quite like any place I've been. The people seem to like adventurers, but..." Her lips press together and her eyes narrow. "...it's too simply. And the aether here... the aether's not right, at all."