Home Plot 6 - 1, 2, 3 - 2012

[tooprettytodie]

Valkyrie had gotten used to the sounds of the jungle during her time on Tabula Rasa. She had already been accustomed to the sounds of the beach from home, but jungle sounds were a lot different from city sounds. For some reason, the absence of them startled her awake more than any other shift in her environment did.

The room she was in was bigger than her hut, she could sense that right off. Even if it was so dark she could still barely see out, the room felt big. She tried to control her breathing and act like she was still asleep, straining to see if there were any sounds that would give away where she was. There was nothing though, other than the generic sounds of a large building.

Sitting up, she ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it out of her face as she tried to get a gauge on her surroundings. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the dark, she thought someone was playing some sort of trick on her.

She was back in her Uncle Gordon's home (although legally it was her home), back in Ireland. She'd had this dream before, although never quite so realistic as this. Did that pinching thing really work? Valkyrie pinched herself and sure enough it hurt. So, she was not, not asleep? Or something, that really had confirmed nothing.

There was one way to tell if she wasn't on the island though. She was almost afraid to try it, afraid that it wouldn't work and what that would mean. Holding out her hand, Valkyrie clicked her fingers.

And flame leaped to the tips.

"Yes!" Valkyrie shouted, laughing almost hysterically. It worked, her magic worked. She was home.

"I'm home! I'm really home! Skulduggery! Uncle Gordon! Anyone here? I'm home!"

She knew the chances of anyone but her and her uncle's echo, but she didn't care. She didn't care who it was from her world, she just wanted to see someone.

Comments

[swan_diver]

Bella sat up from the...floor? Yeah. It felt like a floor. Or a really, really uncomfortable mattress and her bed in her hut was about the most comfortable thing she'd ever slept on. Unless, somehow, Craig had managed to kick her out of bed in the middle of the night.

She rubbed at her eyes and looked around, frowning when she heard Valkyrie's voice. Okay. Weirder and weirder.

"Do you have to yell so much? Some of us are still waking up."

[percy_jackson]

"Wha?" I was lying on a couch. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, so at the sound of Valkyrie's voice, I rolled over, and landed on the floor with a thump. And it was a hard floor. But as I sat up, rubbing my shoulder, that wasn't top on my mind. "Valkyrie? What are you doing in my hut?" Then I looked around. I blinked. "What's this room doing in my hut?"

[kinesicist]

Her nose wrinkled, tickled by the whispering grass brushing across her face. Hand darting out, Cass jerked away, eyes narrowing at the harsh thin sunlight and the damp feel of grass beneath her bare skin. Exhaling softly, Cass pressed her hands into the dirt pushing up until her nails were caked with it and rolled smoothly to her feet.

"..." She looked around, silent and quiet as she tried to understand where she was. Or where the island had gone... the island with her clothes. "Hn."


Note: Cassandra has scars covering her body, most notably gun shot wounds to her shoulder, abdomen and thigh. She also has scars from knives and other various injuries. Most are faded but still highly noticeable.

[andhaveago]

"Well."

Tanith's never really been a big fan of clothes or, rather, she prefers them for their emphasizing qualities. Right then, she's standing there in skin tight brown leather, blond hair blowing out in the breeze. She arches one eyebrow and sets her hands on the swell of her hips.

"Aren't you a picture?"

[what_tides_do]

"There's really no need to make such a noise about it," he says, looking up from the paperwork that he's rifling through. His hat's pushed back on his head and it gives him an almost quizzical expression. If he were capable of having expressions at all.

"You really don't like to slip out of the spotlight for a moment, do you? It's a very unpleasant quality. And not one that I share, obviously."

[tooprettytodie]

"I can't very well help it if the spotlight follows me around, can I?" she said. Even if the joy of being home, she couldn't let a comment like that slip by. Once she had firmly reminded him of just how amazing she was though, she ran up and hugged him tight.

[kinesicist]

It wasn't her words but the noise of her body that made Cass turn. Her posture tensing, tightening at the words as she placed her feet more securely, defensively as she looked the girl over. The fact that she was naked didn't bother her, the fact that she was somewhere else that she didn't recognise did.

"Hn," Cass murmured, eyes narrowed in quiet hostile contemplation. "Where am I?"

[what_tides_do]

"Spotlight? Is that the new word for 'trouble' now?" he says and then she's embracing him and, if it's possible for a skeleton to look uncomfortable, there it is. He clears his throat.

"Yes," he says, patting her on top of the head with one gloved hand. "Well."

[andhaveago]

Quietly, almost imperceptibly, Tanith alters her stance. She squares her shoulders and stretches out her neck.

"Ireland," she says. "Dublin. And, apparently, your clothes didn't get the memo."

[tooprettytodie]

Once the hugging was done, Valkyrie stepped back and composed herself. She smoothed the front of her outfit (how lovely was it to have her magical clothes again?) and straightened her hair.

Then, she punched Skulduggery in the arm. Hard.

"You were supposed to come get me," she said. "I spent several months in another dimension, and I bet you didn't even know I was gone. I'm very cross."

[kinesicist]

Her head tilts, watching her body and the way she moves. Her nails scratched against dirt and grass as she shifted her weight, defensive as she waited. Cass listened to her before lifting her shoulders in a quiet shrug.

"I don't wear clothes to bed," Cass murmured quiet. "Why am I here? Did you bring me here?"

[what_tides_do]

"Ow!" he said and made a great show of rubbing his arm. "I don't have any natural padding, you know. What was that for, anyway?" He straightened his hat with great aplomb. "You do know that the kitchen can't actually be referred to as 'another dimension', yes? I should know - only one of us was actually stranded. And nobody came for me, either. In case you need to be reminded."

[andhaveago]

Abruptly, Tanith drops down into a crouch, head tilted as she studies the other woman. She take a deep breath and feels leather pull across her chest. There's something very centering about it.

"I didn't bring you here," she says. "I just found you."

[swan_diver]

Bella looked at the other boy...he looked familiar but she didn't know his name. She had a sick feeling in her stomach, like she'd been in this position before. "I was going to ask what Valkyrie was doing in my hut, and why I was on the floor. It's not Valentines day again, is it?"

[kinesicist]

Her brows furrowed, wrinkled in confusion as the other woman dropped down into a crouch. Leather tightening and stretching across her. Cass frowned at the words.

Her silence was absolute as she shifted, taking stock of where she was with quick glances. Cass let her hands drop, to her side fists uncurling as she looked at the woman.

"This isn't the island? This isn't home? I need to go back," Cass murmured. "I need to find the others."

[tooprettytodie]

"I cam for you," she reminded him. She knew that his exile had been infinitely more difficult than her own, but that didn't change the fact that she was in another dimension.

"And I wasn't in the kitchen. I was in a place called Tabula Rasa. But like I said, you wouldn't have noticed I was gone. Also, you technically don't have any nerve endings either."

[notaparker]

Sometimes a girl would just like to know that where she goes to sleep is going to be where she wakes up. That the world isn't going to completely change around her overnight. And not in a sort of weird philosophical way, I'd like for it to actually not completely switch-up.

Or failing that, be real New York.

As it is, what I've got is... I have no idea. It's pretty swank.

"Hell-oo?" I venture, sitting up. "Ghosts and/or kidnappers?"

Weird coma voyage? It could be a weird coma voyage. I cross to a wall and press my fingertips against it, pulling just enough to see if they hook on, if I stick to things again.

They just kind of slide down the wall.

"Well, that's disappointing."

[notaparker]

"Kidnapper ghost mad scientists?" I say, as I try to find my way around. I've been adding to the list of possible residents of large impressive houses that are kind of creepily empty.

And the winner is, as I open what turns out to be front door...

"Cass?" I jerk my glance skywards. "Lots of Cass." Boy, am I glad I sleep in a t-shirt and boyshirts, rather than, y'know, naked.

[percy_jackson]

"Hey," I said. I recognized the girl. A friend of Valkyries. Bella, wasn't it? She was obviously in the same boat as I was, but she was already ahead of the game. It was a good theory. "I don't know." I touched my head. "I think everybody who woke up, woke up with a hangover, and I haven't got one." I also had all my clothes, which was a relief. "Besides, do you recognize where we are? I've never seen any place like this on the Island."

I sat up and extended a hand. "I'm Percy, by the way. Percy Jackson."

[swan_diver]

When he mentioned clothes, Bella had an immediate flashback and immediately looked down to check her own appearance. Small favors, but this time she was dressed. Not much but she'd take it. Assured she wasn't leaning over with her boobs flashing, she took his hand and gave it a shake. "Pleasure's mine, Percy. I'm Bella Swan. And no, outside of movies, I've never seen anything like this place."

[andhaveago]

Just because she's crouched doesn't mean Tanith's off her guard - she's fought monsters from here to London and back again. She knows what she's about. She doesn't have anything to offer the woman to cover herself, but it doesn't look too much like she's bothered. Tanith's got to respect a kindred spirit.

"Well, it is an island, but probably not the one you're looking for, mate," she says, almost mustering a note of sympathy. "I can take you into the house, but if you do anything out of line..." She grins nastily. "I assure you, you don't want to know what me and mine are capable of."

[what_tides_do]

"After a very, very long time," he said, sniffily, because, honestly, it had felt like a very, very, very long time and it never really left him.

"You do have a fanciful imagination," he said. "Which is admirable, I suppose, but it does waste time. Are you done? Or do you want to tell me about the wardrobe that leads to Narnia. Life lesson - do not drink tea given to you by fauns. Fauns cannot be trusted. It's the hooves."

[andhaveago]

"That's life, I find," says Tanith, studying the strange girl from her perch on the stairs, head tilted on one side. "It's just one bloody thing after another."

She might look relaxed. It's deceptive.
She smiles. That's deceptive, too.

[tooprettytodie]

She winced a bit at that. It had been essentially an eternity for him there trapped in hell and she wished she could have rescued him sooner.

"Yes, it's quite an impressive imagination. But listen to me. I did not imagine it. Okay, yes, Edmund Pevensie was there but it wasn't Narnia and... look. It was real, Skulduggery."

[percy_jackson]

"Nice to meet you," I said, looking down at myself. I'd fallen asleep in front of the video game console again and my clothes -- jeans and a shirt -- looked quite rumpled. But that was better than many alternatives. I pulled myself up and looked around. "It's a house," I said. "Definitely not one of our huts. I don't think we're on the Island anymore."

Then a little voice at the back of my mind, which had been holding up its hand a while, started waving it and going 'Ooo! Ooo!'

"Wait... I said 'Valkyrie'. And you said it too." I looked at Bella. "We heard her voice, didn't we?"