Oddities, Part 25 - Intertwined

Tove explained the weird dream-visions she'd had earlier that day and just now while they made their way back through the city. The Director was astonished by her tale, while Celind seemed to think it was super cool. All the while the Imp, or rather Misceo, stayed perfectly still in her arms, not trying to break free or do anything else. The others glanced at it occasionally, clearly not trusting it'd stay still. And to be fair, they had been trying to catch it for a really long time, Tove thought. Of course they don't trust it.

Once they got back to the Consulate, they went straight downstairs to the R&D lab and to the projector machine so Tove could inform Ronja and Alaia that the mission had been a success and that they could go home. Illien had informed all the other planes, but apparently the connection to plane 7 was still so fresh, that they needed her to forge it properly. "Personal connections always make the line stronger," Illien had said at some point.

Alaia started crying as soon as Tove told them she was coming home.

"Go home, Alaia," she said softly. Seeing Alaia's earnest display of emotion really made a wave of relief wash over her as well. It had really been stressful hadn't it? Tove hadn't really had a chance to process a lot of what had happened, since she'd been actually been unconscious for so much of the time. But for Alaia and Ronja it had been days. "Get some sleep, both of you. I'll see you soon."

"You really had us worried," Ronja said with a shake of her head as she wrapped an arm around the still sobbing Alaia. "That was very mean of you. I expect some kind of compensation for all our emotional damage."

Tove laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I know," she said. "I'll make it up to you somehow. Now get your butts out from the cold and seriously get some sleep."

She stepped off the projector.

"What happens now?" she asked the Director. Misceo tugged at her pant leg and she picked it up again. "I'm guessing some kinds of... tests?" It bristled. It didn't seem to like the idea.

"If we can just find out a way to travel between the planes, that's all we need," the Director said. "So if the Imp--"

"Misceo," Tove corrected.

"Yes, of course. If Misceo can somehow... show us, that would be ideal."

Tove looked at Misceo. It looked back up. It yawned, its mouth opening wide. The inside of its mouth was as pure white as its eyes. It kept looking at her.

"I... don't think they can talk in this form?" Tove said. It nodded. At least it could communicate a little. She asked it, "Would it be possible to teach them how to open portals between planes?"

It was still for a moment, or as still as it could be with its form constantly fluctuating ever so slightly. Then it nodded.

"Would it take long?" she asked. Its eyes narrowed and she clarified, "Would it take longer than a few days?" It nodded again.

"Longer than a month?" the Director asked. It paused again, thinking. It shook its head. "A few weeks then, probably. That is fine. Our people probably have some things they need to finish up before coming home anyway."

"I... would like to go home tonight," Tove said. "Well, this morning," she said after checking her watch.

"Of course, but..." the Director started, glanced at Misceo.

"Don't worry, they'll come back here after," Tove said, smiling down at it. "Won't you?" It nodded enthusiastically. "And here," she reached into her bag and pulled out her lip balm. "You can have this. In case you need to contact me for any reason, you can use this."

The Director accepted it and passed it onto the short man Tove had seen manning the machine the last time she'd been down here too. He took it and produced a plastic bag from somewhere, sealed it, labeled it and placed it in a filing cabinet behind the terminal.

"You can probably also keep Ronja's hair tie," Tove said, motioning over to the tray it lay upon. "She really would love this place, by the way. She's a bit of a machine enthusiast."

"Then perhaps she'd appreciate this," said Illien -- who Tove had almost forgotten was also there, he was so quiet -- stepping up and handing her a small metallic box. It fit into her palm and had a few buttons and a screen that was currently black.

"Oh wow," Tove said. "I wasn't expecting anything, really, but thank you so much." She turned the thing in her hand. "What is it, exactly?"

Illien smiled, and that was probably the first time she'd seen his expression change. "That's for her to find out," he said and then he took a step back again.

"Okay," said Tove. "I'm... gonna get going then?" She turned to Celind, who may or may not have looked like they were about to cry. "It was great meeting you all. And once you figure out that plane jumping thing, come visit me, maybe? I'd love to see what the people in Embärfjell think of an actual dragon walking around." Celind let out a laugh and then sniffled. Then they pulled her into a tight hug. Tove patted their back with a smile.

When they finally let go, they said, "Wait, we gotta take a picture before you leave! And then I'm gonna walk you to a crossing point."

~X~

They took a picture. The camera was a lot smaller than Tove was expecting, and they were able to immediately print out a copy of the picture, so Tove got one as a parting gift. Celind indeed walked with her, which was good because Tove still had no idea of the layout of the city. Some places looked just familiar enough of her own city to confuse her poor brain.

Misceo was the one leading the way though, and it led them to the same spot Tove had crossed to get here. Celind hugged her one last time, and then she waved them goodbye and took Misceo in her arms again. The wall crackled open. She stepped through.

For a moment it was black, with bright, colorful flecks whipping past her and then she was standing in an alley that looked very similar to the one she'd been in a moment ago, except this one was empty.

No, not empty. There was a bucket of cod livers sitting on the ground and it smelled foul. 

"Ew, did you bring me all the way here, so you could bring those back with you?" she asked, waving her hand in front of her face. It didn't do much for the smell. Misceo chittered, which she interpreted as laughter. It had a weird echo in it. Tove sighed and shook her head. "That's fine, I guess, you do eat that stuff. And this one is much closer to home than the others." She glanced around. She wasn't sure where specifically this specific alley was, but as soon as she walked out she was sure she could make her way.

She looked down. Misceo was fidgeting with a piece of liver, which was a bit gross. It seemed hesitant to go back.

"Hey, come on," she said. It looked up. "You don't have to be alone anymore. I know you've been kinda lashing out, but it's all fine now. You'll go back and Celind will be there and then you'll go to the Consulate and I'm sure they'll be nice to you if you're nice to them." She paused. "And if they're not, I'm sure you can always escape again."

Another chitter, shorter this time. Tove squatted down and petted its head.

"Go on then," she said. "Don't keep Celind waiting. I'm always right here, if you want to have another weird dream talk." It nodded. Picked up the bucket.

The wall opened up again and then Misceo was gone. After the wall closed again, against the red brick a round symbol was left behind.

Tove sighed, her breath forming a white puff in front of her face. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets, and started on her walk home.

~X~

The next morning wasn't morning anymore when Tove woke up. It had been closer to five in the morning when she'd gotten home and collapsed onto her bed and it was almost noon when she'd finally woken up again. She contemplated staying in bed -- she was still very tired -- but decided that she needed to go find Alaia and Ronja. She called the office while she downed a large cup of coffee to see if the two had clocked in already, but apparently they hadn't. Which meant they were probably at Alaia's.

The walk was only a few blocks, but it felt like the longest two blocks ever. Why was she so nervous? They'd be happy to see her, and she'd be thrilled to see them, there was no need to be anxious about this. Still her heart was beating loud in her ears when she finally stood at the apartment door and rung the doorbell.

For a moment there was silence. And then muttered Fjellish cursing as someone stomped towards the door.

"We don't want no damn preachers here--!" Ronja started as she swung the door open but she froze when she saw who it was. They stood there, both silent, just staring.

"Hey," Tove said and then Ronja had thrown her arms around her neck and was hugging her so tight she felt like she would suffocate but she hugged her right back. Her hair hair was in her face and it smelled like Alaia's shampoo. Tove didn't know what smell that was, but it's not like it mattered.

Finally Ronja let go and then proceeded to punch Tove in the arm. "Fucking dumdum," she said and she was barely holding back tears. "Disappearing on us like that. How dare you."

"I know, I'm very sorry," Tove said and caught the second fist Ronja threw at her. "Can I come in, or do you wanna stand here in the hall in just your shirt the whole day?"

"I don't care about that," Ronja said, tugging at the large t-shirt she'd clearly been using as a pajama, but she stepped aside to let Tove into the apartment. "Alaia's still sleeping," she said as she pulled the door closed.

"That's fine, we should let her sleep," Tove said, as she began to pull off her coat and scarf. "I have a present for you."

"Ooh, souvenirs!" Ronja said with a little clap. Tove pulled out the metal box Illien had gave her and handed it over. Ronja almost snatched it from her hands and started to fiddle with it immediately. "What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know, I was told that was for you to figure out," Tove said.

"Challenge accepted," Ronja said, nodding a few times and then she was completely engrossed in the machine. Tove took a hold of her by the shoulders and walked her over to the couch, where she sat her down. Then she went over to the kitchen to start preparing a pot of coffee.

About ten minutes later she heard shuffling from the bedroom and then the door opened.

"Ronja?" she heard Alaia's sleep thick voice. "Did you make coffee?"

"I did," Tove said, stepping out of the kitchen. Alaia looked over and squinted a little. Her eyes bleary, hair a mess and she had her duvet wrapped around her as she stood in the middle of her living room.

"Tove," she said. She blinked. "Tove?"

"Hey," Tove said and then Alaia's form collided with her. She hadn't let go of the duvet, so it was now wrapped around the both of them as she hugged her midsection. Tove wrapped her arms around her shoulders. "Hey," she said again.

Alaia just stood there for a long while. Tove let her. Occasional, soft clicking noises were coming from the sofa.

"I'm tired," Alaia told Tove's collarbone.

"You want coffee, or do you want to go back to bed?" Tove asked.

"I don't know yet," Alaia said. "I'm just glad you're home."

Tove smiled and stroked her back.

"Me too."

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WHEW!

Sorry this is a bit late, I got a surprise eye infection and had to go to bed early on the 24th and then we did Mutu's new puzzle the entire day the 25th oops! I just love how all these sicknesses keep piling up, like yeah, I totally wanted to spend my entire Christmas break like shit, that was my only wish, hOw Did YOu kNoW??!?

Anyway, this is done now and I'm going to bed TOODLES

Pie out.

Oddities, Part 24 - Home

As they were making their way through the city in the small hours of the night, Tove's thoughts kept drifting back to that dream. No, not a dream, that's not what it had been. A vision? A... a what? She didn't know, but it hadn't been a dream. The Thing had really been there, and talked to her. She knew it had.

Their team consisted of six people; the Director, Celind, three employees Tove hadn't met before, and Tove herself. They set a barricade at the mouth of the alley and then they lay at wait. Nothing else to do, really, than wait. At 2 Alaia and Ronja would leave the bait and after that it was just waiting. They didn't have a way to contact anyone else from here, although Illien had been left in charge of contacting the other planes every now and again to check if anything had happened, and he would report back to them when that happened, but for now...

Tove stood leaning against a wall and stared at the back of the alley. There was a graffiti on the back wall, one that she vaguely remembered noticing when she'd first woken up. It was a very intricate design, a lot of round shapes and circles. Like a really fancy Venn diagram.

"That's the mark of the Imp," said Celind and Tove turned to look at her. They were staring at the graffiti as well. "It shows up at all the locations it passes through often." Tove hummed. There was a short silence, and then, "It's really obnoxious. Like it knows that even if it marks where it crosses, we still won't be able to catch it! And it's true! We've set patrols and barricades here before, and it always manages to somehow slip from our grasp, and even send our people to other planes..."

Celind fell quiet. Tove put a hand on their arm.

"It's okay," she said, quiet, comforting. "We'll get it this time. I know we will."

Celind gave half a smile. "I hope so," they said.

A sensation in her mind, like a soft caress on the back of her neck, fingers just shy of touching her, and Tove was on high alert.

"It's here," she said and then a black rip appeared in the wall, shot out like a spiderweb and out hopped the Imp, small and black and in a hurry. It looked over to them and grinned. Tove leapt. So did it. She felt it's tiny form colliding with hers and she was confused for a moment, why had it jumped at her and not away, but then the world went black.

~X~

She didn't lose consciousness, of that she was sure. The world simply grew black behind her eyes and then she was in the void again. Inside her own head. And the Thing was there with her.

She'd had a feeling it would come to this.

Hello again, Tove, it said and Tove turned around to find the Thing there again. It still looked like Ulriika. She gritted her teeth.

"What do you want?" she asked. She was done playing games. The Thing didn't seem to mind getting right to the point.
 
To talk with you, it said, opening its arms wide. Inviting her in. She stayed still, crossing her own arms.

"Right, just 'talk', huh?" she said with a sneer. "What's your angle?"

We don't have an... "angle", Tove, it said. We just want to talk. We want to ask for your help, to invite you to join us!

Tove paused. She hadn't been expecting that. "Why would I ever want to do that?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. Something was weird... She didn't trust this thing one bit.

We have many powers, it said, like that was supposed to be a selling point for Tove. With us, you'd be uncontainable! Nothing could stop you. We can go wherever, do whatever. We can help give you home.

"Give me?" she asked. That didn't sound right.

We are not so different, you and us, Tove, it said. We told you, we are the ones who have no other place. You wish to go home, but tell us, where is "home"?

"I... back in Embärfjell," Tove said. She felt a bit confused. "Where my apartment is, and all my friends, and..."

This, it interjected, spreading the hem of the sundress, looking pointedly at Tove. This was your home. Your life, your Ulriika. But she's not there anymore. So, where is home now? Is it your lonely apartment, the work you pour all your energy?

"I'm not unhappy with my life!" Tove protested. "And I love my job! And I have a lot... I have a few friends, but they're good friends! I have a lot in Embärfjell."

But is it home?

"I don't-- I don't even know what you mean by that," she huffed. "That's so cryptic, like... of course it's my home! What other home would I have?"

The Thing cocked its head, gave her a smile. She realised what it was getting at.

"No, it's... It is my home," she said, suddenly very unsure about everything. Her head was spinning. She pressed a hand to the side of her face. "I'm-- Stop it," she said. She pointed at the Thing. "You're doing something weird, stop it!"

We aren't doing anything, it said. You are simply beginning to realise.

She looked at it, and from within, Ulriika looked back. And she remembered their life together, the date nights, the lazy Sunday mornings, the occasional fights. Cooking together. Doing chores together. Working together. The domesticity, the happiness.

She remembered when Ulriika had first gotten ill. The several visits to the doctors, the uncertainty. The bad news. The eventual hospitalization. And she remembered how, through all of it, all the hardships and the pain, how Ulriika had always remained bright and lively. How much she'd fought to put up that front, so Tove wouldn't worry even more,

She remembered what it felt like when she was finally gone.

"You're right," she said, a ghost of a laugh escaping her. "She was my home." The Thing began to step closer. She put up a hand to stop it. "But," she said and lifted her face to look at it, "she wasn't my only home. And she wouldn't want me to feel like I don't belong, and while I might have lost her, I haven't lost everything. I still have Ronja. I have my job, and my apartment. I have the memories of our life together. And now I have Alaia, and a whole bunch of weird people on plane 1 I'm only now getting to know."

She paused, looked at the Thing. It was watching her, listening. She smiled. It felt like her heart might burst.

"Yes, my home was about to collapse when I lost her. My life was in shambles. But I put it back together. And it's alright now. It's better. It might never be completely fine, but it's better. And I do have a home."

There was disappointment on the Thing's Ulriika-face, but also... understanding? A shame, it said. It hesitated, looked away. We truly believed... you would fit well with us.

"You're..." The Thing turned its eyes to her again, and this time they didn't seem quite so dead. "You're not going to like... force me or something?"

Why would we do that? It seemed genuinely confused, like the thought hadn't even occurred. If we are not in harmony, we cannot function properly. Joining you by force could disrupt our entire being and we would fall apart.

"That's... oh," Tove said. There was an increasingly awkward pause. "So, uh. What now?"

We suppose we need to bring you home, it said. It smiled, sadly. Since you are lucky enough to have one.

"Wait," Tove said and sweet Noivapii, was she staring to feel sorry for this thing. She cleared her throat. "I just wanted to ask you... why are you doing all those weird things?"

It blushed. The Thing blushed. What the fuck.

We... we were looking for sustenance, it said. But also... sometimes we just wanted attention.

Tove snorted. And slapped a hand on her mouth. And then burst out laughing.

Why do you laugh? it asked, cocking its head again.

"Because--" she tried between giggles. "Because this whole time we've thought you're some kind of dangerous monster that terrorizes people for the fun of it or something. We thought you were malicious."

It didn't say anything. Tove managed to get herself to calm down and then took a few deep breaths.

"What's your name?"

Our name?

"Yeah, you gotta have a name, right? I've been kinda calling you the Thing in my head, and I feel like that's not really... y'know."

Oh, well. We have many names. Most are forgotten already, though we have grown to calling ourselves Misceo.

"Misceo? That sounds nice."

You are the first one to ask us our name, Tove, it said. It makes us... happy.

"That's... nice," she said. This was getting kinda weird, wasn't it? She rubbed the back of her neck. "You think you could get me home now?"

Yes, of course.

"Oh, hey, why did you never take the people from plane 1 back home?"

They never caught me again. Now it's time for you to wake up, Tove.

Tove.

"Tove!"

The black washed back from over her eyes and Tove could see the world again. She was laying on the ground in the alley, being held in a half-leaning position against Celind, and the Director hovering worriedly over her.

"Tove!" Celind cheered and almost doubled over her in an attempt to hug her from their weird position. "Thank gods you're alright!"

"What happened?" Tove asked, rubbing her eyes. They felt very dry.

"The Imp appeared and jumped at you," the Director said. "It jumped planes again, but your eyes went black and you fell down, completely catatonic. You've been out cold for over an hour now."

"An hour??!" Tove screeched, shooting up into a sitting position. It had not felt like an hour. A trickle of magic ran down her spine. The crack appeared in the wall again.

"It's back again, madam!" one of the three guards shouted. They were staking out the back wall with long handled nets, ready to pounce.

"Wait!" Tove shouted. They all turned to her in surprise. The small figure appeared at the end of the alley.

Tove stood up and started walking towards it. It stood there, waiting. The guards were too stunned to take a swipe. When she got to it, she knelt and offered it her hand. It looked at it with its big white eyes, and then it jumped. She caught it, held it in her arms. The guards were even more stunned now.

"What in heaven happened to you just now?" the Director asked. Tove laughed.

"That's a bit of a long story," she said. "I'll tell you as we get back to the Consulate."
__________________________________________________________________________

SO. Hi. I'm cutting the last part into two. Because I didn't want it to be disproportionately longer than the others have been and it's already quite long and I still have two scenes to write and I don't want to like... skim over that stuff. It's important stuff. And I feel like this is a functioning whole as it is, so. I'm making the executive decision to leave the rest until the 25th. I don't like doing this kind of things usually, but I do really think that it can be better this way.

That being said, wowza all of that just happened, huh?? When I started writing, I had the beginning and a few lines and stuff and then it didn't go anywhere near where I thought it would! I was not expecting to turn the Thing into a sympathetic creature. Although, given my track record, I'm not really that surprised lmao

But yeah, there's one more part (sorry about that), that's coming out tomorrow at 8, see you then and happy holidays!! Bye!

Pie out.

Oddties, Part 23 - Hush

Before I start: yesterday's part changed dramatically during the day, so if you read it already in the morning, go back and reread it, or this one won't make any sense.
Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's get to today's part.
_____________________________________________

"Hi," Ronja said to the fish saleswoman. "Any chance you have some cod livers?"

Alaia was letting her do the talking. Ronja wasn't a huge fan of the idea, but Alaia reasonably pointed out that Ronja's Fjellish was infinitely better than hers. It would be weird enough that they were trying to find cod livers, but if a foreigner did that, it might be seen as even weirder. Or maybe not. Maybe the weirdness would be explained away by her being a foreigner. Either way, it would be a lot easier and faster if Ronja did the talking.

Alaia had lost count of how many times today she had thought she had gone crazy. The Imp, Tove talking to them from another plane of existence, having to gather cod livers, because apparently that was what had the most vitamin A in the fish. If anyone had told her a story of something like this happening, she would have thought that the person had gone completely insane, or just coming up with fiction. Because there was no way this was happening. None of it made any sense. Cod livers. Seriously. Cod livers. That had almost been the final nail in the coffin to convince her she had lost it. Because there was no way. The only thing keeping her believing was that Ronja could see Tove too. Then again, she supposed it was possible she was just imagining being in this with her, just like she was imagining talking to Tove. But she had decided to go along with it. Because why not. If there was no way to distinguish between reality and imagination, she might just as well act as if it was all real. So she had settled into not thinking about it too much.

While Ronja negotiated with the saleswoman, Alaia looked around the marketplace. It wasn't the same market place as with the winter market. There were multiple market places in the city. This one was near one of the harbors, and was mostly used to sell whatever the fishers brought back with them.

"We got some more," Ronja said and drew Alaia's attention back to the present. She handed Alaia a package. Alaia put it in her bag, along with the rest of them.

"I think we might have enough," she said, showing Ronja how full her bag was. She nodded in agreement.

So they left the marketplace, heading to Alaia's place. It was the closest place they had where they could stay and wait until it was time. And then, all they could do was wait.

~X~

"I miss Tove," Alaia said. They were sitting side to side on the floor of Alaia's living room, staring into the dying fire. They had been quiet for a long time. At first they had been talking, just to keep each other awake, but the conversation had eventually dwindled. Not that Alaia needed being kept awake. She was nervous, and full of longing, and there was zero chance she would be able to sleep even if she tried.

Ronja let out a sympathetic grunt. She checked the time.

"It's time," she said. "Let's go."

They got up from the floor, got dressed, and started on their way to the dead-end that was actually some sort of soft spot between planes, where Tove had a few days ago followed the Planar Imp and been dragged to the other plane. It wasn't a very long walk. The whole way Alaia felt like she should say something. Restart the conversation from back at her place, but she couldn't quite find the words. She was too nervous. And soon they were there anyway.

In silence, they emptied the packages full of cod livers into a bucket they had bought with them, and placed it in the dead-end. Tove had said it would work as a bait. Alaia mentally shook her head again as they left the bucket there. There was no way... No, she wouldn't spend the energy to go down that road of thoughts again.

Then they hid. There was really no other way. They needed a place where they could see the dead-end, but where they wouldn't alert the Imp to their presence. Yet. They had agreed they shouldn't be the ones to try to catch it, they were the only ones with no experience with it, but they should corner it off enough that it would jump planes.

And they waited, quiet.

"Ronja?" Alaia said after a while.

"Mmh?" was the answer.

"Do you know any heat spells?"

"A couple. Why?"

"It's getting kinda cold. So I was wondering if you could weave another spell into my coat."

"Ah, I don't really know how to do that. Not off the top of my..." she trailed away.

"Ronja?" Alaia turned to look at her.

"Hush," Ronja whispered and pointed to the dead-end.

There was a black, dog-sized thing slowly creeping towards the bucket, as if it was wary. As it should be. It clearly wasn't stupid, or it would have been caught years ago. And yet, somehow, the people on the other plane thought this would work as a bait. The point was to put the bucket in a corner, to seem like it was trash, though there wasn't trash lying in the corners of dead-ends elsewhere in the city, but again, Alaia had decided to not think about it too hard and just go along with the plans the people more knowledgeable on the issue had come up with.

"Come on," Ronja said, and pulled her out of their hideout, directly where the Imp would see them.

It turned, and for a moment it looked directly at Alaia. A cold feeling rushed through her. There was something in its eyes. A twinkle, but one that made her extremely uncomfortable instead of happy, as a twinkle in the someone's eye usually does. And in that moment that Alaia saw its face, she could have sworn the very non-human face had a knowing smile on it.

And then it was gone.

Alaia tried to tell herself there had not been a smile on the Imp's face, but the uneasy feeling wouldn't leave her alone.

"And now we wait. Again," Ronja said.

They couldn't leave now. They had to stay here, and make sure the Imp didn't come back. And if it did, stop it from leaving the corner they had gotten it into. But that might mean they had to stay here for a long time, and stay alert so as to not let it slip away. They had to wait.

"How long do you think we need to stay here?" Alaia asked Ronja after a moment of silently staring at the point where the Imp had been just moments earlier.

"I have no idea. I hope not too long," she replied.

Fifteen minutes went past. Ronja figured out how to add a weak heat spell to their coats to keep them warmer. An hour. They glimpsed the Imp once during that time. They barely had time to react to its presence, and then it was gone again. It seemed to simply have been checking whether there was still someone there. And there was. Two hours. Despite all the excitement and worry and nervousness, it was almost four in the morning and Alaia found herself growing tired. She simply wished she was in her bed, warm and safe and soft. Not out here in the middle of the night, in the cold and the dark, simply waiting in case a plane-jumping Imp showed up.

But then finally, finally, Tove appeared as a misty figure in front of them.

"It's done. You can go home," Tove told them. "And I can come home soon too."

Alaia broke down crying in her relief.
___________________________________________________

Ooooookay. One more part to go.

The last topic for this year is Home.

~matu

Oddities, Part 22 - Co-operation

"But like I said, we have some arranging to do here, to coordinate time and place over multiple planes of existence, and all that," Tove said, and that sentence made so much more sense than it had any right to. Multiple planes of existence, wow. "I'm able to contact Ronja when I need to, so you'll have to tell Alaia what's going on. Or you two have to stick together. Either way, I gotta go now. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."


She thought she heard a faint "bye," from the other side, but she'd already hopped off the projector. That was a bit rude of me, she thought, but she couldn't help it. She was actually excited about this now. She would be going home!


"So," she said, clasping her hands together and looking at the Director with anticipation. "What do we do now?"

"Now, we need to contact the other planes," the Director said. "We've been planning this for a long time, and now that we finally have all the people we need, it's time to get everyone together."

~X~

When the Director had said "get everyone together", Tove hadn't expected she meant it quite like this.

They'd gathered in a large meeting room on the 5th floor, one that could easily contain a few dozen people. Which it why it confused Tove so much when it was only the Director, Celind, Illien and her, plus a couple more employees. But the Director had instructed someone to "send the invites", so clearly more were coming. They waited for a while, and then something very strange happened.

One of the chairs around the table flickered, lighting up, and then a man was sitting on it.

Tove jumped a bit when it happened the first time, but then it happened again. And again. And again. Soon there were roughly 15 figures seated around the table. They looked similar to the way Ronja and Alaia had looked in the projector machine downstairs; they looked almost like they were made of light and clearly they weren't physically there, just an image of them. Tove looked up at Celind.

"Pretty cool, huh?" they whispered with a grin. "This meeting room was built specifically for communicating with all our colleagues stuck on other planes. It took a looooong time to calibrate everything properly."

"So it's like that machine downstairs?" Tove asked.

"Sorta, but much more impressive."

"Well, it certainly is that..."

"Thank you all," the Director addressed the gathered images and Tove fell quiet, "for being able to gather with such short notice. We have some good news." She was standing at the end of the long table, as was only appropriate of someone of her status, and Tove had been seated on her left side. Now she gestured at her to stand up as well, and Tove did, feeling just a tad awkward as she gave the visions a little wave.

"Hi, I'm Tove," she said, and then the Director continued.

"Tove is from the 7th plane." An excited murmur passed through the gathered group. "Yes, I'm sure you all know what that means. It means we finally have a way to contact all 12 planes, and organize a raid that the Imp cannot escape.

"Here is a map of Ariolas," the Director continued, as Illien spread a large paper on the table. On it was drawn one of the most detailed maps Tove had ever seen. It had several spots marked on it with different colors. "The red ones," she said, clearly talking to Tove more than anyone at this point, "are the conformed crossing locations of the Imp that we can guard on all planes. Is any of them one, that you think your people could barricade or otherwise close off."

Tove thought about that, as she looked the red dots over. There were only three of them, and they were all reasonably close together. She pointed at the one closes to the harbour. "That's where I woke up, right?" she asked.

"Yes, that's the one we got readings off of when you crossed," Celind said. "And this is where we met!" They pointed at a market square not too far from that location.

The Director hummed. "Do you know what type of area that is on plane 7?"

"Pretty similar, actually," Tove said. "Oh, wait!" She pulled out her notes from her bag and shuffled through them real quick, before pulling out a small map of the city centre. It had all the locations of interest marked on it. "This should be useful."

"Indeed!" the Director said, looking the map over. "It's very fortunate that you have that with you."

After a quick comparison, they found that the geography of the area was identical, but the city layout was vastly different. But they did also find out that the location Tove crossed over would indeed be the best one to corner the Imp in. The other two spots that would work everywhere else were in the middle of a busy market place and inside City Hall in Embärfjell, so that wouldn't really work.

"The Imp spends a lot of time on plane 7 nowadays," the Director said, rubbing her lower lip with a long finger. "We've been pursuing it in the planes we have people in for a while now, so it's been forced to retreat to yours more often."

"You thinking we spook it there, and when it jumps planes, we just catch it wherever it comes out?" Tove asked.

"Something like that I was thinking, yes," the Director said.

"Y'all'll need a bait for sumthin like that," said a short woman with big ears (Alyssa, stuck on plane 3, Celind provided). "Ya know, to lure it out."

"Probably," Tove said. "But what could that be?"

"How about tisyröevä?" suggested a stocky man with a big beard (Penme, stuck on plane 9). "We always find the blasted thing digging them up over here."

"I don't..." Tove started, confused. The filter hadn't translated that word? "What is that, I didn't... understand?" She looked at Celind and then at the Director.

"They are a root that people use for sustenance on plane 9," the Director said.

"Similar to potatoes," Celind added. "The translator didn't catch that one, huh? I guess it's a word that doesn't have a translation, since they don't grow anywhere else."

"Well, uh, we don't have any tisu-- tisyröö-- whatever they were called," Tove said, rubbing a hand over her face. "We do have potatoes, would potatoes work?"

"I do not recall the Imp having any particular preference to potatoes, at least over here," said a tall, buff woman (Chia, stuck on plane 6) and laughed, a hearty laugh straight from the gut. "And we have a lot of potatoes."

"What's the difference between potatoes and the other things, then?" Tove asked. Everyone fell silent for a moment. "I'm just saying, that might be the thing that the Imp likes. If there's some kind of chemical or--"

"Vitamin A," said Illien. Everyone turned to look at him. His face was as passive as ever. "The biggest difference between potatoes and tisyröegir is how much vitamin A they contain."

"Cods have a lot of vitamin A," said Tove, and this time everyone turned to look at her. "Oh, um, one of the weird things this Imp has done in our plane is make a ship disappear. It did reappear later, but the cargo was gone... It was a fishing boat, it had just come back from a fishing trip. Of, of cod. It was filled with cod. And then it wasn't."

"So you're suggesting," the Director started, "that the Imp likes vitamin A?"

~X~

Tove was in the darkness again. It was a peaceful way to sleep, although she did miss dreaming somewhat. But right now being well rested was more important than having interesting dreams. After the meeting was over, she'd called Ronja and Alaia and told them the plan and they'd been a bit confused but agreed to do their part. The Imp moved about almost exclusively during the night, so they'd decided to wait until 2 o'clock to initiate the plan, which meant they had several hours of free time. Free time Tove had decided to spend sleeping, because Gods knew she needed more rest.

So she slept, and just floated there, and let her body relax.

Then there was the presence again. She opened her eyes. Out in the nothing there was something, someone. She was more aware of it this time, and now she knew what it was. She recognized the magic after all.

Hello, Tove, came a voice but not actually a voice and then there was a figure. Clad in a white sundress Tove had brought her, Ulriika was there, floating in front of her, smiling. Tove almost reached a hand towards her, until she caught herself. That was not Ulriika. It was an imposter.

It was the Imp.

We are very happy to see you again, it said-without-saying. We were hoping we'd find you here.

"We?" Tove asked.

You call us an imp, yes, but that is not entirely accurate, it said. We are more than one. We are numerous. We are the ones fallen in between, the ones who are stuck, the ones who are lost and the ones who lose. We are the ones who have no place to go and so we've found a place within ourselves.

"That doesn't... really make sense," Tove said, trying to wrap her head around what the Imp, the thing had just said.

It will, was the only thing it said. She looked at it, and it looked back, Ulriika looked back, smiling and there. She was there, but she wasn't.

It was making Tove very uncomfortable.

"Why do you look like her?" Tove asked, she needed to know. What was the angle, everyone had an angle. And with something this personal, it had to be something big.

The thing looked down at its stolen form, lifting the hem of the sundress to spread it out. It had a light blue floral pattern on it. Then it spun around in place, the skirt twirling around it and wrapping around its legs. Ulriika's legs.

We gained a glimpse into your mind, it said, when you jumped planes with us. We surmised this form would be the best to contact you.

"Well, you surmised wrong," she spat out. She would do anything to see Ulriika again, but not like this. Never like this. This was wrong, it was not her, there was life in her body but not in her eyes.

The Thing looked contemplative for a moment. Very well, it said slowly. Perhaps a different for would be better. And then a swarm of black cocooned around it, like slime molding around it, almost instantly making it a throbbing, wriggling shape, only slightly human in shape and absolutely goddamn terrifying.

Would this be better? it asked, as the face of it peeled back and Tove would have gagged if this was happening in the physical world. Hiya, kiddo, the Thing said, and from under the pulsating black goo emerged the face of her father.

"N-no," was the only thing Tove could mutter. Again it looked just like her father, but behind its eyes were nothing, they were dead and soulless. "No, I don't want it."

What about this? it said and again the face was swallowed by the black only to resurface as the face of Ronja.

"No! No, no no!" said Tove, her pulse speeding up. It morphed again, the blackness dripping onto one face and off a different one and then it was her mom, her grandpa, Alaia, her neighbour, Andersson, Marqués... Face after face stared at her from the black, all of their eyes hollow. Tove screamed, she could not take it any longer and she tore her eyes from the Thing, screwed them shut and pressed her hands on her face. She was breathing hard, trying to anyway, but it felt like there was no air.

A soft giggle. Her giggle.

Something snapped in Tove. How dare it? This thing had the audacity to take her laugh, to steal Tove's favourite sound in the world and taint it, turn it into something alien and wrong. This was unacceptable. Tove set her hands back down, straightened her back. She looked the Thing dead in its empty eyes.

"Have you enjoyed toying with me?" she asked, voice level. She saw this thing, and no longer did she feel empathy for it, even if it did look like Ulriika. Because it was not her, it was an imp, an amalgamation, it was a menace to the societies it plagued, and catching it was her way home.

A little, the Thing admitted. But that was not our intention, we promise.

"Then what was?"

That is not important right now, the Thing said and smiled sweetly. There's no time. We'll see you later!

Tove wake up with a jolt. 
_____________________________________________________

Ahh it's so short and bad but it's late and I'm barely awake and I will definitely make more of an effort on the last part.

Topic is "Hush"?? Sure why not, good night.

Pie out.

EDIT:
Hi! It's me, Pie! I've slept now, so y'know. That really helps with the words and the thinking and all that. Who would have thought that proper rest was a contributing factor to writing good prose lmao

Anyway I got a few complaints (from Mutu) about the shortness of the thing, and I agree, it was really short and bad, but I wasn't going to do anything about it, until! I got an idea!! And now there's more~ Two more parts to go, things are getting exciting!!!!!!!!!

Your topic is still "Hush" bc I said so.

Pie out. (again)

Oddties, Part 21 - Sentry

After a moment Ronja shook her head slowly.

"Fine, so maybe Marqués wasn't lying about everything," she admitted. "That doesn't mean he told us the whole truth."

"You went to talk to Marqués again?" mist-Tove spoke again.

Alaia was sensing a headache coming on. This day was a little much. She decided to just ignore it, and go with the flow, and assume Tove was really there, since Ronja said she saw her too. Then again, she might be imagining Ronja too, so who knows. But for now she would go with it. So she summarised to her everything that had happened that day, and what Marqués and told them.

"You should have seen Alaia," Ronja told Tove as Alaia was ending her explanation. "She was all fire and determination and badassery. Remind me to never get her angry."

Alaia felt herself blushing, but Tove seemed distracted by the other things she had heard.

"Yeah, that's the Planar Imp he saw," Tove said. "It's the thing that's been causing the oddities. Like I said, I was trying to catch it the other day, and somehow ended up jumping planes--"

"What does that even mean?" Alaia interrupted her. It was good to know Tove was mostly okay, but there was okay as in not in immediate danger and okay as in safe and home. She was still worried.

"I honestly don't quite know," Tove admitted. "I think I'm in some other kind of, uh... reality now? I don't have much time to explain, but there are a few of these parallel realities or whatever, I'm told. It's just that the Imp is the only thing the people here know about that can jump between the planes. And yes, the people here are wonderfully helpful, and I'm perfectly fine. I just want to come back home. There's just no way to do that, except hopefully with the Imp."

"So we need to catch it," Ronja said. Alaia was glad Ronja was able to grasp what was happening. She was starting to seriously lose it. None of what Tove was saying made any sense. It didn't fit even a little bit into anything she knew about anything.

"Yeah, that seems to be the only option," Tove agreed. "But it's easier said than done. The people here have been trying to catch it for a long time, but it keeps jumping between the planes when it's chased, and there's no way to follow it, so it always gets away. Sometimes it takes someone with them. They tell me there are consulate members stuck on basically all the planes except ours, because they got dragged there with the Imp and don't have a way to get back. It only started to do its mischief on our plane a few months back, so it hasn't been long enough for someone to accidentally end up there. It's lucky they've been able to figure out how to contact the other planes, though."

"Can we do something to help catch the thing to get you home?" Alaia asked. She was feeling a new wave of determination taking over her.

"We don't know how to catch it," Tove said. There was a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Are the planes identical?" Ronja asked. She had a thoughtful look on her face.

"No," Tove said. "Not even a little. Everyone here..." she glanced at something they couldn't see. "You know what, I'll tell you about it if I ever get back from here. But no, not really."

"Not even geographically? Is there a city there, a seashore the same shape as here?"

"I... I think it might be. I'm not sure. There is a city with a seashore, but it's very different-looking city."

"But maybe the area used to look the same before the cities were built?" Ronja continued.

"Maybe," Tove said, with doubt and curiosity in her voice. "What are you getting at, Ronja, you should know by now your thoughts are hard to follow if you don't explain them."

"I was thinking, maybe it would be possible to follow the Imp through all the planes at the same time? Is the layout of the places is kinda similar. Even if it did jump planes..."

"Someone would always be on the other side waiting for it," Tove's face lit up, with realisation spreading through it. "Maybe? If the layout of the cities is kinda the same, and if we have people on all the planes, it could work..."

Tove turned away from them, clearly listening to something someone they couldn't see.

"Follow it through all the cities at the same time, if the geographies of the planes line up," she said to that someone. "Yeah. U-huh. There are people on all of them? But my people are there, they can do it. Well, that makes it even easier. How many places? Okay. Okay. Sure."

She turned to look at Ronja and Alaia again.

"Right, so we have some arranging to do here. But they think it might work. There are apparently only a few places where the Imp can pass through to the other planes. Or at least only a few places where it does. So if we put a sentry at each, someone should always be waiting for it if it jumps planes, and we should be able to catch it. They say they thought of it some time ago, but it doesn't work if there's an unmanned plane. Apparently ours was the last one, on all the others there are at least a couple people from the Interplanar Consulate. Oh, yeah, there's an Interplanar Consulate here. Anyway, ours has been the only unmanned one that they know of anyway. But now we have you two there. So it should work. But like I said, we have some arranging to do here, to coordinate time and place over multiple planes of existence, and all that. I'm able to contact Ronja when I need to, so you'll have to tell Alaia what's going on. Or you two have to stick together. Either way, I gotta go now. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Bye," Alaia started, but the mist-Tove was already fading from view. Both she and Ronja stood there quietly for a moment after there was nothing more to look at.

"So now what?" Alaia said.

"Now I suppose there's nothing more to do but wait," Ronja answered. "And get some real work done in the meantime."
_________________________________________________________

There's only a few parts left. I hope we can get this neatly together before the end.

The topic for tomorrow is Coordination.

~matu

Oddities, Part 20 - Façade

The first thing Tove became aware of was a steady beeping noise. Then shuffling, muffled speaking. Almost constant footsteps somewhere further away. A sterile smell and coarse bedsheets.

She was in a hospital. She didn't like hospitals.

Her whole body felt heavy and her mind was light and flittery, and she lay still for a moment longer and breathed deeply. She opened her eyes slowly and stared up at the white, featureless ceiling. A hospital, huh? Guess that whole thing with the different plane of existence had been nothing but a fever dream...

"Oh, you're awake!" came a voice from her left side and she slowly turned her head to look. A nurse was standing in the doorway, clearly on her way in. Tove looked at her.

"Ah," she said, her voice hoarse and throat dry. The nurse had cat ears. "Fuck."

She lost consciousness again.

~X~

For the next she doesn't know how long, Tove drifted in and out of consciousness. In the waking world she was more or less aware that there were people going about in the room, mostly nurses checking in on her, but also a doctor and slightly to her surprise Celind. There was bustle, there were things happening around her.

In the sleeping world there was nothing. It was just a void, just endless darkness around her. There was no external stimulation, no obligations, no needs, no nothing. Just her and eternal rest. She could just float in nothingness without having to worry about anything. She didn't think it was happiness she felt, but it was peace.

And then suddenly, there was something. Something disrupted the void of her mind and the peace was gone. A presence, a being. Magic.

Ulriika.

Tove looked and she saw her, she was just floating there in front of her and she looked just the way she did in her memories, like she had before the painful and drawn out end. She was vibrant and full of life, smiling and gentle, soft eyes and flowing hair and she was right there.

But it wasn't her.

No, Tove knew it wasn't, though it looked just like her, every little detail was there, the perfect façade. But that's what it was, a façade. It looked like her, but it wasn't, it didn't feel like her, and besides she was gone, her finality had caught up years ago.

Who are you, Tove asked. It smiled, didn't answer. It reached its hand out to her.

Tove blinked her eyes open and there was the distinct feeling of wetness in her ears, where the tears had rolled down. She sniffled, brought a hand to her face to rub away the tear stains. Someone moved in her peripheral vision.

"You're awake again," Celind said, putting down the book they'd been reading in a chair by the wall. "How are you feeling?"

"Nnnnnggghh," Tove said. She rubbed here eyes a bit more. "Not great," she admitted. "But better than I did before. My migraine is all gone too."

"You had a headache when you first came here, right?" Celind asked, but it felt like a rhetorical question, so Tove just nodded slightly. "Why didn't you say anything when we met?"

"It was no big deal," Tove said, trying to sit up properly. It took a lot of effort. "I didn't think it was important anyway. I'd already taken an aspirin and being in a different world kinda threw me for a loop."

"Well, turns out that was literally what happened," Celind said. "I didn't really understand everything the doctor said, but apparently you coming through to here was making your brain go all crazy. The process of traveling between planes isn't really the best activity for mental stability."

"That explains all the buzzing in my head--" Yesterday, she almost said, and then realised she had no idea how long it had been. "Uh, how long have I been here?"

"Let's see, I found you on my lunch break, so around 1 o'clock and then we were at the Consulate for an hour maybe?" Celind said, tapping a clawed finger on their chin. "And evening now, so I'd say a bit over 30 hours?"

That wasn't... as bad as she'd feared, but it sure wasn't ideal. She was about to ask what would happen next when the cat-eared nurse from earlier came in, on her heel a short woman who looked like she was a doctor. They told Tove that they'd managed to stabilize her -- whatever than meant -- so she was more or less okay now. They did want her to stay in for the following night still, just to make sure. And Tove, only a bit reluctantly, agreed.

~X~

Celind came to the hospital the next morning to help Tove make her way back to the Interplanar Consulate after she was discharged. She asked them why they were sticking out with her for so long, and they told her it was just the way they'd been raised. Always help, if you can. Also they worked for the Consulate, which Tove thought was a hel of a coincidence, until Celind continued that she'd been specifically sent out to look for anything suspicious in the area. Apparently they had some kind of machine that detected when cross-planar events occurred.

When they got to the Consulate building, Tove found to her astonishment that she could read the big sign above the door. It said "the Interplanar Consulate and Research Centre", which wasn't that astonishing. But to think that the "filter", as Celind had called it, would also work on text? What an amazing piece of technology.

This time they didn't have to wait in the lobby for very long. Rather, almost as soon as Celind had told the receptionist their names, the doors to the elevator had opened and out had stepped the Director herself. As her eyes landed on Tove, her expression softened a bit.

"Oh thank gods, you're alright," she said. Then she gestured back at the elevator. Tove noticed Illien behind her, holding the door open. "Please, come with us. We should get straight to work."

And they all took the elevator. But instead of going up, they went down. The Director wiped a card on the elevator panel, which gave a soft ding and then the light next to B3 lit up and she pressed it.

"Uh, where are we going?" Tove asked, staring at the display showing the changing floor level. The tech in this world was so much better than theirs. Ronja would have a field day if she had been the one sent here.

"We're going to the R&D department," the Director said. "To see if you can contact your home."

Tove's heart skipped a beat at the possibility. She now vaguely recalled mention of something like that from last time. "That would be... That would be great," she said.

"If you have something that belongs to a friend or relative, we can use it to contact that person" this time it was Illien spoke, though he didn't look at Tove. "Preferably something personal or with their DNA even, but mostly just something that has a connection to someone."

Tove touched almost subconsciously the woven bracelet on her wrist, but that connection didn't exist anymore. So she pulled out her bag and prayed she'd have something.

"So, I have..." she started as she dug around. It was mostly papers, her notes on the oddities story, her keys, the aspirin, a lip balm, loose change, a tampon, several crumpled receipts. A hair tie. Her own hair was short, but she did keep them with her in case Ronja ever needed one, since she was a pro at losing them. Which meant... "I have this," she said as she pulled out the hair tie. As she looked at it against the light, she could even see some loose hairs stuck on it. Illien glanced over.

"A physical link," he said. "And a strong one with those hairs, no doubt. That should work well."

Tove was expecting him to say something else, but he didn't, and then there was another ding and the elevator's doors opened.

The room was huge. The other rooms in the building had been big, sure, but this one was massive. It was more of a hall, really, than a room. The ceiling was probably around 10 meters high and the floor had been divided into smalled areas with screens and partitions. And everywhere she looked, Tove could only see machines upon machines.

She'd been right: Ronja would absolutely love this place.

"Surprised?" Celind asked with a knowing smile. Tove couldn't say anything. She just walked along as the other three started to make their way through the room.

They stopped in front of one of the machines. There was a part that looked similar to the terminal of Ronja's computer (Ada, she reminded herself) onto which was attached a tray. A bunch of cables came out of the back of it and attached to a big, round pedestal. Big as in two meters in diameter. The top most layer of it was made of thick glass.

Illien had gone straight over to talk to the person who had been at the machine when they'd arrived. He was another one of those childlike folk, like the receptionist had been. Tove didn't pay much attention to him or what the two were talking about, much more engrossed with what was all around her.

"Very well, put the link here, please," she heard Illien addressing her again. She looked over and saw him gesturing at the tray thing.

"Oh, right," Tove said and stepped over, placing the hair tie she'd gripped in her hand onto the tray. A light lit up underneath it and text started to fly past in the terminal screen. Just like Ada, she thought. She was really no good with machines, she had no idea what any of this meant. Illien and the other man clearly did though, since they both looked very pleased.

"Now, please step onto the projector," Illien said, pointing at the pedestal in the middle. Tove glanced at Celind, who was smiling encouragingly and the Director simply nodded. She was feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden. "Hastily, please, we don't have the whole day."

"Sorry! I didn't realise we had a time limit," Tove said as she hastily stepped up on the pedestal. Or rather, the projector.

"The duration of the connections is always a bit inconsistent, so it's best not to dawdle," he said, not looking up from the terminal. Tove would have been annoyed by his lack of enthusiasm in the situation, but then a light lit up under her, and illuminated her fully.

A semi-transparent wall blinked into existence in front of her and she jumped a bit. It looked like a vision that you could make with magic, but this wasn't just magic; it was also machine.

"Wow," she breathed out and then there was a whirring sound and a picture started to appear in front of her. It was hazy at first, but it got clearer by the second, until Tove recognised it as the front steps of the EFAR offices. There was also a figure there, though it was still a big blur. She turned to look back, at Illien and asked, "Can she see me now?"

Illien nodded, and the other worked gave her a big smile and a thumbs up. She turned to look ahead again. The blur had divided into two blurs and now sharpened into two very familiar faces.

"Alaia?" Tove said, surprised to see the Cametonian standing there next to Ronja. That was fine though, great even, now she could speak to them both! She needed to tell them about where she was and how she got there and about the Imp and--

"I think I have officially become mad," Alaia said.

______________________________________________________________

Aaaaaaaaaaa I was gonna write further but I don't have time and this is already quite long I think. Also some interesting stuff happened in the beginning ooooh~ :3c

Anyway next topic is "Sentry" I'm going to bed bye

Pie out.

Oddities, Part 19 - Retake

"Okay, let me see if I got this right," Ronja said as Alaia put the last piece of her cake into her mouth. They had taken the tram back to Old Town and simply stepped into the first café they could find. It had given Alaia some time to cool off. Well, kinda. The anger was gone, replaced by more or less all other feelings in existence.

"There's a thing that had been doing odd magic around the city," Ronja continued.

"Yeah."

"It's not human, but it is bipedal. And small and black. And has a tail."

"Mm-hm."

"And Marqués was onto it, so it started to blackmail him into quitting."

"That's about right."

"I can't believe it," Ronja said simply.

"Yeah, I know, it's crazy..." Alaia started, but Ronja cut her off.

"No, I literally can't believe it," she clarified. "There's no way that's true. Things like that don't exist. Marqués is playing you."

"And why would he do that?" Alaia asked.

"Because he doesn't want to tell whatever the truth is," Ronja told her, as if that was obvious.

"He was genuinely scared when I showed him the paper," Alaia reminded her. "You might not have understood what we were saying, but you did see his body language. Why else would he be scared to see the paper with the incidences?"

"Because of a million possible reasons that don't involve creatures that don't exist. Maybe he really is blackmailed by someone related to the oddities, but that does not mean it was some creature doing it. Or maybe he was completely faking it. Tove has been looking into the exact same cases, and no one has started blackmailing her.  Maybe he looked scared not because someone else was onto him but because we were. He realised he was as good as caught, so he had to come up with something, and that happened to be the first thing that came to his mind."

"You have to admit," Alaia countered, "that it's not a very good lie at all. It sounds too unbelievable. If he was lying he would have come up with something we'd believe more easily."

"Maybe he panicked, and that was literally the only thing that he could come up with," Ronja tried.

"The telescope though," Alaia decided to change tactic. "I've seen it, and I'm telling you, there is something odd about it. And I know something about telescopes."

"And how convenient is it that he happens to have the exact one thing that can reveal the tiny black man with a tail? Not just that, but he happened to get it for himself right around the time this all was beginning." Ronja still wasn't convinced. "A thing, might I add, that only he can see?"

"Coincidence?" Alaia hated that it came out as a question. "And it's not just him. He said he thinks anyone who knows about it can see it."

"He thinks. So that tells us nothing. Besides, why would an object exists whose function would be to reveal things like that, if no one in the world knows they exist?"

"Maybe..." Alaia started, then paused to think for a moment. "Those creatures are actually all around us, and some people knew about them and made an instrument that would reveal them?" She could hear the thinness of her own argument. "Or maybe the telescope is just an odd-looking telescope, and the creature can be seen through any glass that magnifies enough."

That wouldn't convince even herself.

"Seriously?" Ronja asked. "You have to face it. It's way more likely Marqués lied to you."

"Ronja," Alaia said sharply. She stared at the table for a short moment before lifting her eyes to Ronja. "This is the only thing that even vaguely counts as a lead that could help us find Tove."

There was pleading in her voice. She didn't care. She just wanted to find Tove.

~X~

They tried to come up with what to do next, and failed. Ronja still had work to do, and Alaia couldn't come up with anything else that might help, so she headed back to the office too, to see if she could after all find something in Tove's notes that could help, but she wasn't hopeful. Really, they didn't even know if her disappearance had anything to do with this case. It was just a feeling Alaia had.

Just as they entered the building Alaia saw something vague in the air in front of her. She stopped, and looked at it closer. It looked kind of like mist, but then took a human shape. A Tove-like shape. Tove looked to somewhere in the corner.

"Can she see me now?" she asked someone. The voice was misty too, but clearly Tove. The misty figure turned to Alaia. "Alaia?" it asked.

Alaia just stared.

"I think I have officially become mad," Alaia said quietly to Ronja, who had stopped next to her. She didn't take her eyes off the mist-figure. "I'm hallucinating Tove now, here in the hallway."

"I don't think you're hallucinating," Ronja answered. "Unless we're sharing that hallucination."

Alaia glanced at her, and she was staring right at the mist-figure too.

"No, listen, I'm really here," the mist-Tove said. "And I don't have much time. So listen. when I was leaving your place, I sensed the magic, and I saw this dog-sized human-like black thing with a tail sprinting away, and I followed it into what is apparently another plane of existence or something. That thing is what's been causing the weird things happening."

Alaia turned to Ronja.

"You still think Marqués was lying, and we're both going crazy?"

Ronja simply kept staring at the mist-Tove in front of them.
________________________________________________

I have a headache and a sore throat and I'm so tired, so that's all I've got for you today. And besides, Tove's timeline needs time to catch up a bit. Or maybe time is weird and it doesn't.

Either way.

The topic for tomorrow is Facade.

Speaking of which, I am now realising I didn't use todays topic even a little bit here. But because of the aforementioned reasons, I'm not going to go and change something so that it fits. Sorry about that.

~matu

Oddities, Part 18 - Wash

They took a glass elevator to the topmost floor of the building. All the while Tove stared out into the city, gaining a better and better vantage point as they climbed higher. The city was huge, it stretched out in every direction for dozens of kilometers and further still, further than she could see. It took her breath away. There was so much colour and life and magic, the city was simply teeming with it. It was a different magic than back home, just slightly out of tune from the familiar strum that coursed through Embärfjell, through her.

It was also different from the foreign magic she'd chased. She wasn't sure what to think of that.

The elevator stopped with a ding and the slightest of jolts and the doors opened up into another waiting room. This one was smaller than the one downstairs, and a lot cozier, with just a few plush looking couches arranged around a single low table. The walls were a warm brown, there were house plants lining the walls and the ceiling was arched. There were high windows on one wall, and directly opposite the elevator was a large wooden double door.

Tove's head was buzzing with all these new sights and places. And the foreign magic all around her.

"Please, take a seat," said the elf in the labcoat, whose nametag Tove suddenly realised said "Illien". How had she not noticed before? "I shall inform the Director you're here and will call you in once she's ready to see you."

For a second Tove was too stunned to move, but as Celind tugged at her coat sleeve, she stepped out of the elevator and allowed herself to be pulled to sofas. Illien walked briskly to the door, knocked three times, and stepped in.

"I--" Tove started but didn't quite know what to say then. "How can I understand him? He wasn't speaking Esperanto."

"Nope, he wasn't," Celind said with an excited smile. "That little device you got was basically a universal translator. It uses magic to sort of tap into your brain and translates everything you hear automatically." That's when Tove realised that Celind wasn't speaking in Esperanto either. They seemed to notice the shift in her expression and their smile widened even more. "Oh you caught on? I'm speaking my native language right now." A giggle. "This is cool, there aren't many people in Ariolas who can speak it."

"Ariolas is the city?" Tove asked, glancing over to the windows. The city skyline stretched out behind it. Celind nodded and she hummed. "I didn't know this kind of thing was possible."

"Oh, it's still a prototype," Celind said. "We've only recently managed to get it to translate what you're saying too, though it can still only translate the literal meaning of words and it's absolutely brimstone with figures of speech."

Tove let out a short laugh and then the doors opened up. Illien was standing there and motioned for them to come it. She swallowed, a sudden nervous lump in her throat, but Celind was there and cheery as ever, so that made her feel a bit better. She felt like she understood Alaia's whole situation a lot better now.

They walked in through the doors and into a reasonably big office. Again the ceiling was high and arched with another big window opposite the doors. The color scheme of the room was similarly warm as the waiting room outside and this room too was full of plants. At the back of the room was a large desk with an assortment of books and papers scattered on it, behind which was a big black chair and on that chair, sat a woman. Her skin was so dark it was almost like ebony, her pure white hair was curly and chopped short, and her piercing blue eyes told a story of a long life of knowledge and compassion. And she carried herself with such dignity and power that never before had Tove felt the moniker of "Director" to have been a better fit.

Stepping into the room, the urge to bow before the woman was so strong that Tove actually stopped.

"Welcome, stranger," the Director said and smiled. "It is quite unusual for us to have visitors form your plane."

"I... uh. Hi," said Tove, like an intelligent person. The Director didn't seem too judgmental though so she cleared her throat and stepped further into the room. Her head was having trouble keeping up again. "I'm, uh, Tove, nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, Tove," the Director said and she nailed the pronunciation so perfectly Tove would think she was fluent in Fjellish."Now, if you don't mind, could you tell us exactly how you've ended up in our world?"

And Tove told them. She told them about the oddities that had been happening in her world, about how she'd been researching this for months, about how they'd found Marqués and then about Alaia's accident and the fight they'd had. About how she'd been out one night and seen something, chased it down and woken up here. She thought she might've gone a bit too much into detail concerning her personal relationship with Alaia, but the Director's whole presence oozed understanding and she found herself wanting to tell her every detail. She reminded Tove of her late grandmother in that way, though the Director wasn't quite at the grandma age yet.

The Director thought for a bit after Tove ended her story. "I see," she said, shuffling some of the papers on her desk. "I can't say I know anything about a man named Marqués, but this creature you described," she picked up a paper and slid it forward on the desk, "sounds rather familiar."

Tove took a step closer and looked at the paper. Her breath hitched. There it was, black and humanoid, a long tail extending behind it, somehow lacking a distinct, clear form, like it was constantly pulsating. It was hard to clearly see it, even in a photograph. Except for the eyes. The eyes were big and empty, just white voids staring into you.

"That's it," she whispered. "That's the thing I chased."

"I figured as much," the Director said, rubbing the bridge of her nose for a moment. "We discovered the existence of other planes a few decades ago, and since then have been researching them and trying to develop ways to communicate and maybe even commune between them. That's why the Interplanar Consulate exist. And, I fear, why the Planar Imp, as we call it, started wreaking havoc in the first place. It is some kind of entity that can traverse between the planes as it pleases and it first appeared around the time we started digging deeper into the true construction of our worlds."

"Well, I wouldn't say its 'wreaking havoc'," Tove said, thinking back to the incidents back home. Sure there had been quite a bit of property damage, but no serious injuries as of yet. "It's mostly just been... inconvenient?"

"That's how it started here too," the Director said, and there was a graveness in her voice that made Tove not want to ask her more. "And it seems that it has now switched to harassing your plane."

"Can't we just... catch it?" Tove said and she knew it was a dumb suggestion before it left her mouth. As if they hadn't tried that.

"We have tried," the Director confirmed. "Whenever we're close to catching it, it jumps planes. We've, well, lost several good people trying. They're not dead, just scattered on other planes, like what happened to you. We don't have a way to get them back, and we've only recently figured out how to contact them across--"

A thought hit Tove like a sledge hammer to the head. "Wait!!" she said and the Director stopped midsentence. "Sorry, I just-- you have no way to get them back? Does that mean...?"

The Director's face fell, as did Tove's heart. "Unfortunately, yes," she said and she sounded genuinely sorry. "We don't currently have any idea on how to access other planes physically."

"Oh," said Tove. Her thoughts were going on overdrive, her emotions running haywire. Would she never be able to go home? Would she never see her friends again? Or family? What about Ronja, or Alaia, what would she do without her? She still had so many things she'd wanted to do, so many places she'd meant to visit, so many stories she'd planned on writing.

Could she never visit Ulriika again?

"There is still hope," she could distantly hear the Director saying. "If we can catch the imp, if we can study it, I'm sure we can figure out a way to return you home, to return our people home."

"I..." Tove said. Her heartbeat was in her ears, and she was having trouble concentrating. Her vision swam.

"And you can contact your world," the Director said. "If you have something that belongs to someone in your world, we can use that to contact them..." Her voice was agitated now, desperately grasping to get Tove to calm down.

And then Tove was perfectly calm. Serenity washed over her and suddenly she felt perfectly fine. Her vision was clear, the colours of the world bright and crisp. Her head was light and nothing was wrong.

"Sure," she said, and then she collapsed.
___________________________________________________

Yay? It's some answers at least, so that's good, right? :D

I'm a bit mad at myself for not being able to get any buffer going, but I managed to get myself a flu as well (RIP) so I've just been too tired to focus on writing. With any luck we can manage two parts tomorrow? But we are still on schedule (barely) so it's not too bad. And I am finished at 22:45 instead of 2:00 today lmao

Anyway, I'm going to bed, bye. Next topic is "Retake".

Pie out.

Oddities, Part 17 - Sweet

Marqués didn't even glance at the paper. He just stared at Alaia for a moment. There was nothing happening on his face.

"I don't know where Miss Nielsson is," he said. On the surface his voice remained polite, but the irritation and anger were audible underneath. "And I do not know why you would think I do. Now, I would like to ask you to leave..."

"No." Alaia shook the paper, and finally Marqués glanced at it. Some of the color left his face. For a moment he looked like he was afraid. "I know you know something. So stop lying and tell me where Tove is."

"I don't know where she is." He paused. "You're not going to give up."

It was more a statement than a question.

"I'm not," Alaia said, her voice tight but decisive.

Marqués thought for a moment longer, then waved them inside. He closed the door after them and stopped them in the hall.

"I don't know where Miss Nielsson is," he repeated, once again. "And you should get rid of that paper."

Alaia didn't make a move to do anything with the paper. She was still holding it and wasn't about to put it away until she had the truth of it.

"You know something. What is it?"

"A few months ago I bought an old telescope, and I wanted to try it, so I went to the roof one clear night. But it didn't work. The view was completely off, and it didn't enlarge the view much at all."

"The telescope in the living room?" Alaia interrupted. She remembered it catching her attention when they were here the last time. There had been something odd about it.

"Yes," he said coldly. " So I flipped it around to point at the empty street below, to see if I was able to get it to work when I looked at something that I could pinpoint exactly, instead of some part of the mostly empty sky. But as I looked through it, the street wasn't empty. There was... something standing there."

"Something?"

"I don't know what it was. It was mostly human shaped, but it was small and dark and I think it had a tail. And once I had seen it through the telescope, I saw it without it too. And then it did something, and I felt an odd kind of magic from it. And it disappeared. I went to sleep, and the next morning I thought it had been a dream.

"But then a week later I happened to be walking down this street near the office where a tree had mysteriously appeared in the middle of the street overnight, and I felt the faint traces of magic. I recognised it as the same magic. I thought maybe this was something interesting and worth looking into, so that's exactly what I did. I found a few other instances that seemed to be related based on the traces of magic. I occasionally caught glimpses of what I believed was the thing I had seen through the telescope. That thing was doing something and I wanted to know what.

"But I think it found out I was looking into it. I started seeing it more, and then I started getting threats. That's when I decided none of this was worth it. That I was too old for all that. That I should just let it go and retire. So that's what I did. I sent word home that I was done with this job, and I burned all the notes I had gathered on the whole thing. Or at least I thought I had. Must have missed one."

"What was the thing and why could you see it after you'd seen it through the telescope?" Alaia felt like her brain was melting.

"I don't know. As for the telescope, my guess is as good as yours. Maybe it's not actually a telescope, but an instrument that shows it's user what's really there. And maybe the creature can only been seen by those who know it's there, whose minds expect to see it there. So after seeing it once, I could see it again, because I knew it existed. I don't know. I gave it a lot of thought in the early days of my investigations, and that's the best hypothesis I was able to come up with. Whether it's anywhere close to true, I have no idea. But let me ask you. What made you think a paper in my old notes has anything to do with where Miss Nielsson is?"

"She was looking into these same events," Alaia simply said. This wasn't his place to ask questions.

"Well, then. Based on the threats I got I don't think you will ever see her again. A piece of friendly advice you definitely don't deserve after barging in here like that: let it go before you get hurt," he stopped and looked up and down Alaia to take in her condition. "More hurt. Now, I need you to leave and never come back."

He opened the door with an angry look on his face, and Alaia marched out, Ronja trailing after her. Alaia started down the road with fast steps, towards the tram stop. She felt like she was exploding. While a lot of her anger that had fueled her on the way here was gone, she was left with a stubborness she had never felt before. And while she had been worried before, she was now terrified of what could have happened to Tove. She noticed she was clenching her teeth together and tried to relax her jaws.

"Ah, Alaia?" Ronja drew her attention, trying to keep up with her fast pace. "What just happened in there? See, I only really speak Fjellish and Esperanto, so I understood none of what he said. But I assume we got some information from him?"

Alaia hadn't paid any attention to which language she had been speaking with Marqués in. Apparently not Esperanto.

"Sorry," she slowed down as they came to the tram stop. "I need some coffee. And something sweet. Let's find a café and I'll explain it all to you."
___________________________________________________

Oooookay.
The topic for tomorrow is Wash.

~matu

Oddities, Part 16 - Filter

Tove sat on a bench, leaning her face on her clasped hands, her elbows resting on her knees. She was watching the jovial crowd shifting in front of her. People milling about, going from market booth to the next, chatting, smiling. There were a lot of people. But they weren't humans.

She was in another world. Another universe, another reality? She didn't know. She only knew that she wasn't home.

She recalled most of what had happened last night now. Leaving Alaia's, spotting that creature at the harbour, giving it chase. She remembered it turning down and alley, one she knew was a dead end, and triumphantly she'd sped right after it. She'd found it at the end of the alley, its back to her as it tried to desperately smack the wall, as if that would make it open up to it. She had caught it and then... And then. The wall really had opened up to it. At least, that's what Tove figured must have happened. What else could it be?

But she didn't quite know, because she'd passed out and now she was here -- where ever that here was -- and she had no idea where the creature was or how she would get home. And, if interacting with that tailed fellow earlier was any indication, no way of communicating with the locals.

A voice came from somewhere nearby, deep but clear, like a large brass bell. Tove jumped when she realised someone had approached her and tried to talk to her and then she jumped again when she realized that someone was a lizard person. It was humanoid, walking around on two feet, but its neck was longer than a human's, and face was more like that of a dragon's. It was also covered (or what parts Tove could see) in shiny golden scales. It blinked its big amber eyes when it realised it had startled her. It spoke again, but quickly fell silent when it was met with nothing but confusion from Tove.

It paused for a second, then began on a string of single words. Tove didn't recognise any of those words, but it sounded to her like they were in different languages. It was a nice gesture, she figured, though she didn't have much hope they had languages in common--

"Esperanto?" the lizard asked.

"Yes!" Tove shouted, nearly jumping completely up from the bench. "Yes, I speak Esperanto, thank Gods, I speak that!"

The lizard seemed taken slightly aback by the magnitude of her reaction, but it smiled nonetheless.

"Sorry," Tove said, feeling a bit sheepish after her outburst. "I wasn't expecting anyone to... well, be able to talk to me."

"Is alright," it said. It sat down on the bench beside her. "You looks lost, I want to see if needs help." Its sentences were spotty and accent inscrutable, but honestly, Tove was not in a position to be picky about something as trivial as grammar.

"Yes, oh yes, I definitely need help," she said, as the wave of relief washed over her. "I am very, very lost."

"Where you tries to go? I can show you way," it said. She rubbed her face.

"Well, uh, it's not that simple," she said. "I'm not from around here..."

The lizard laughed. "Figured, since not knows Thorass," it said, and she figured that must be the name of the language these people spoke. "You is tourist, yes? Wants a tour?"

"No, no, I don't want a tour," she hurried to say and when it cocked its head to the side, she felt the bundle of nerves lodged in her stomach start stirring again. She suddenly realised that she had no idea how these people, how this creature would react when it realised she was not from their world. If it were to suddenly become hostile... well, its teeth sure were big and sharp.

"You wants... somewhere specific?" it asked and she decided that fuck it, the only chance of maybe getting home lied in asking for help.

"I'm not from here," she said, emphasizing the word by gesturing at the ground. "I'm not from this... world."

"Not this world?" It looked confused. Tove rubbed her face again.

"Yeah, like... I live in a different place, I, I came through a wall I think and--"

The lizard gasped so loudly that a nearby passing elf-looking girl slowed down a bit and turned to look, though she didn't stop. It glanced around and then leaned closer to Tove. She could smell the fire in its breath, feel the heat on her face. Its teeth were very close.

"You is... human," it whispered. "From other place."

"Iiiiiiii guess?" Tove said. It let out another, smaller gasp, pressing its hands on its snout as it pulled away. She let out the breath she'd been holding.

"I know where you must go," it said and shot up from the bench so fast it startled Tove once more. "Come, I show." It held out its hand. It had leather gloves on, but Tove had no doubt it had claws underneath.

She sighed and took the hand.

~X~

The lizard person introduced themself as Celind on the way to the place they called "The Interplanar Consulate", of which Tove was having mixed feelings. It being a consulate made her a bit relieved, but on the other hand "interplanar" seemed somewhat... well. She was suddenly introduced to the idea of having a bunch of different "planes" and she wasn't sure she liked that.

It wasn't a long way, only about a ten minute walk. The building was big, with big windows at the front and a large door, and a name on top of it that was in a script that Tove could not understand. The letters looked nothing like they did back home. Directly after the door was a spacious room with a high ceiling, like a reception area of a really fancy hotel. There was a counter at the far end and a bunch of couches and tables around the place that a few people were sitting at. Behind the counter was a person, feminine and very human looking, except for the fact she was more the size of a ten-year-old and had very big, round ears. Celind glided across the room to the desk and Tove followed suit.

They exchanged words, though Tove had no idea what those words were. She felt like she really understood better how Alaia felt now, in a completely foreign city, surrounded by people who didn't speak the same language.

Celind was doing most of the talking and gestured occasionally back towards Tove, and the receptionist was nodding along and occasionally tapping at something that was behind the counter so Tove couldn't see it. After a while they switched roles and the receptionist was the one doing the talking while Celind just nodded along, only interjecting a few times.

Then they stopped talking and Celind turned back to Tove and said: "We wait in lobby, someone comes to get us soon."

"Okay," said Tove, because what else could she say. They waited. Tove checked her watch every now and then, glad that it at least had survived whatever it was that had happened last night. The minutes rolled by slowly. Tove had taken her scarf and gloves off and opened her coat, though she did keep her beanie on, weirdly self conscious about her ears. Celind had taken all of her outerwear off, put them in a pile on the couch next to them and was now humming and reading a magazine that had been on the table. There were a few more, newspapers and magazines, and though Tove could not understand what she was reading, she couldn't not take the opportunity to study them. She looked over the layouts and tried to piece together the stories based on the pictures. She didn't know how successful she was, but it was fascinating.

Someone's voice nearby drew her attention and she looked up to see a man standing next to them. He had round glasses and was wearing what could only be described as a lab coat. His blond hair had been pulled back into a very neat bun, and Tove noticed that he, too, had long, pointy ears.

He exchanged a few words with Celind and then offered Tove the small, black box she hadn't noticed him holding. She took it, cautiously. And opened it. Inside was a small, metal nub.

"Uh, what is this?" she asked, looking over to Celind, who looked excited.

"Is," they started and then paused, muttered a bit to themself. "Oh, what is word. Is filter," they finally finished.

"A what?" Tove asked.

"Filter! Helps you understands words of different language," Celind explained, waving their hands all around. "Puts it behind ear." They indicated to the place a human would have ears. They didn't have ears.

Tove, a bit reluctantly, pulled off the beanie. She pushed back her hair from behind her ear. "Here?" she asked, looking at the man and pointing at the space behind her ear where her neck and back of her skull met. The man nodded, though she was pretty sure he hadn't understood the word, only the gesture.

She took a deep breath and picked up the nub. It was quite small, no bigger than a pinhead. She would absolutely lose it forever if she dropped it, but she tried not to think about that and slowly and surely brought it to her ear. She placed it on the skin and pressed it down. Nothing really happened. When she pulled back her hand the nub wasn't there. She blinked a few times and turned to Celind, about to ask them what the fuck had that all been about, but the voice of the man drew her attention.

"Now that you are sufficiently prepared," he said and it was not in Esperanto. "Come with me upstairs. The Director will want to meet you."

______________________________________________________________

BOI. I am hella tired. It's like 2AM and this thing will be live in only six hours and we are kinda behind our schedule I'm sorry it's my fault. Well, no, not maybe my fault, because Oona got pneumonia so that's been a whole thing I've been tryna deal with the whole week. And I am tuckered tf out.

But yeah, she's getting better, we went to a doctor and she'd on antibiotics and it's fine but like it's been that kind of a week. Hopefully we'll get some buffer in the next few days.

Although hey! We're still a day early, so these are still going up in the morning.

...I need to go to bed now if I want to get up in the morning. Next topic is uhhhhhhhh "Sweet" idk bye

Pie out.