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."
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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.
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