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.
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