[003. video]

[ceiling_cat]

Hey, Willow! Sorry for takin' so long, I think I've got something workin' most of the time. Bit busy last week.

[Between apple picking, scavenging and crisis management... what he wouldn't give for some nice convenient civilization.] Can send it by if ya wanna take a look.

Second order a business: anybody here keep chickens, and how much you want in trade for a layin' hen or two? I can try scavengin' up some stuff for ya, bang together furniture, your call. Any other kind of bird's fine too, just so long as the eggs're a decent size. Thanks.

[PRIVATE | LOCKED TO JOSHUA]

Look what I found. [He lifts up a dusty, slightly cobwebbed and partly empty bottle with an metal screw cap. The label's too mold-stained to read, but the color is a rich brown.] From the smell it's some kinda liquor. Think you'd be up for helpin' me figure out if it's any good?

Comments

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

I mighta lowered my standards around here just a bit, but given what we've got ta work with it's not bad. [He laughs.]

Sure isn't as bad as it sounds like that girl comes up with... kids and cuisine just don't mix mosta the time, you know?

[video]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

[Willow nods, she knows that feeling]

I always got scared when I woke up and found her in the kitchen by the stove.

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

She here, or still back home?

[video]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, here?

[video]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Yeah in the back-home variety. I hope she's okay, she tends to land herself in trouble of the big kind.

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Ouch. The story I heard is that we wind up back home in the same moment we left, though - keeps our absence from messin' up the normal flow of things too much, I guess.

She probably won't be gettin' into any trouble without ya.

[video]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

That...makes a lot more sense than it should.

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Awful convenient for 'em, too. In all the worlds they're messin' with, there's gotta be some force that could bring the boot down on 'em if it noticed.

[Given that the Animus stole several different angels, for example... Hanekoma might be in disgrace himself, but if he managed to get a report out he suspects that some higher-up would have a thing or two to say about this place.]

[video]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it is a whiplash effect of bringine people here the way it does. We wouldn't know unless we went back, probably.

[video]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Could be, I don't know how they manage the kidnappin' part. There's nothin' about traveling between worlds that forces ya to get back where you came from at the same time ya left, though. Messin' with time is a lot harder than messin' with alternate realities.

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Well...when I got here, I felt some kind of ...

Long story short, Willow. I had to drain my power for a while to hide from someone tracking the magical signature. I got it all back at the moment I was brought here but it felt like something had happened to the time stream. I don't think it was cominghere that did it though.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

[Pausing thoughtfully.]

I wouldn't be surprised if time's workin' funny here. Did ya notice anything funny about the planes in this place?

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

[not sure why she feels she can trust him with this, she just gets a vibe off him.]

I've noticed a lot of weird stuff here. Something feels...off.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Same here. Seems to me like either all the higher planes aren't accessible... or they're all crushed inta this one.

It'd explain why we've got spirits runnin' around, anyway.

[Not that the presence of spirits wasn't normal... but from all the descriptions, this kind wasn't anywhere near your standard Reaper.]

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

I used to be able to travel different planes. If they are all crushed into one that explains why some of my spells don't work anymore.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Did ya really! How'd ya manage that, kiddo? [She certainly didn't strike him as dead.]

Re: [video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Magic.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Very Orpheus of ya.

[Sometimes he really just has to question the judgment of other places' hierarchies.] Sounds like people know a lot about the planes where you're from.

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Some do. I've been to the astral plane a few times and I studied magic in a different realm.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Just gettin' a little cross-world terminology straight here... the astral plane's the one most easily accessed from the plane of the living, inhabited by beings of moderate power and the recently dead, yeah?

[He's giving up the casual slang, just a little -- it's much easier to be precise when you're talking about this kind of thing.]

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. [nods] I most recently went to the realm where Saga Vasuki dwells, though. I can no longer reach her. [she can't help it, but a look crosses her face, a look that tells for a brief moment that this causes her a lot of pain]

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

[She's been bouncing around in the UG, then. He blinks at the name, sorting through his memory, though he doesn't miss her pained look.] Lord of the snakes, Vasuki?

Sorry to hear you've lost the connection. That who taught you?

[video | private]

[babblewitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, the trickster lord of snakes. You know of her?

Taught me? ...yes and no. I was already aware of my power and ability but she showed me how to amplify it and the true nature of magic. [small, brief smile] She showed me the truth through her tricks. She always lies, so I always knew where I stood.

[video | private]

[greatcuppajoe.livejournal.com]

Heard the name, never knew much about her. [Actually, he seems to recall hearing that name attached to a male figure... you never know with trickster deities, though, if the stories are any indication. Way above his own level in any case.]

That's quite the pedigree, kiddo.