In Which Dimensions Clash [fantasy/intermediate]

[Jade Anna]

Far'eh dragged herself to her feet, brushing dirt from herself in an irritated fashion. "Crap..." she muttered to herself, a realization dawning upon her only as she finished this task. "I completely forgot about getting to a water source..." She cursed her short attention span to the deepest ocean trench, where she sorely wished she was at the moment, as she looked around for a place to get a drink. A distance away, she spotted a mixed-up, helter-skelter cafe-restaurant-type place, and immediately entered, almost tasting the precious liquid already.

The sea demon turned quite a few heads as she entered. After all, how often does one see a beautiful young woman clad in translucent, nearly transparent garb, with silvery hair nearly reaching her ankles, who's decked from head to toe in (stolen) jewelry of all types, from pendants and necklaces to earrings, bracelets, and anklets? It would be wildly insufficent to say that she stood out like a sore thumb.

Far'eh scanned the room, looking for easy prey. After all, she wanted to have someone waiting on her at all times, and, out of sheer mercy and kindness and a lot of other virtues that she egotistically thought of herself as having, she had allowed her last slave to roam free.  

[Otulissa]

Terrianne looked up as someone entered the cafe. The lady was... frightening. In Terrianne's eyes, she saw an insanely dress woman with unrealistically colored hair, and tons of jewelry on. And, of course, odd apparel. Who the hell is that...?! she thought. The person seemed...inhuman. Not really...a human, a homo sapien. But she wasn't an elf either. If she was, she would have looked somewhat like Resia.

Resia seemed surprised to see some strange person enter the cafe, too. She resembles a sea demon... but no, no... it couldn't be. We are quite far away from a water source, and anyhow, sea demons cannot stay on land too long. ...Or can they?  

[The Phantom Magician]

Chris looked up from his bowl of... whatever it was and he shot Resia a rather grateful look. He was happy that someone was giving him a chance to absorb this completely foreign world around him. He had also been grateful that everyone had spoken English as well. He only knew English and a little mess of French and if these other creatures had spoken anything else he would have just gone insane.

Although he had just met them, he had actually become rather attached to this little group of his. They had been helpful, kind and they had not seemed to mind his nearly constant stream of questions. They, of course, had not been able to answer all of them either, since this world was just as odd to them as it was for them. He ended up liking Resia the most. She seemed calm, cool and collected even in the toughest situations. Terrianne just seemed too... rushed. She was just crazy! And he really hadn't spoken to Luke enough to really know anything about him.

Chris again glanced down at his bowl. No. There was no way he was going to be able to eat this. It was just... grotesque. He pushed the bowl away from him. "I don't think I can eat this." He said. "I guess I am done." Well, now at least Terrianne would be happy. He regretted it though. He would probably be starving later on.

Suddenly, he was distracted by the door of the restaurant opening. He glanced over to the front of the restaurant and saw the surprise of his life. The person that had entered looked like a young human woman. She was gorgeous. He quickly glanced away and back out the window at the fighting beasts. Who was she? What was she?

 

[Jade Anna]

Far'eh arrogantly flipped a few loose strands of hair over her shoulder. She only saw one person sitting by himself, and that was some old man who looked as though he'd drop dead any moment now. She had some pride, so she didn't stop to consider him as a possibility. Her gaze stopped on one young man sitting at a table with some other beings from various dimensions. He seemed innocent and trusting enough for her tastes, and she made the decision then and there that he would be her servant, and soon.

Plastering a disarming smile on her features, the demon purposefully walked towards the unlucky table. "May I join you?" she asked, quite politely, looking directly at Chris, practically ignoring the others.  

[The Phantom Magician]

Chris now saw the woman approaching the table. Damn. She must have seen him glance over. Now he felt terribly awkward and guilty as if he had broken some law. Well... He had sort of broken a law. He, as every other human, had learned as a young child that he should not point, he should not gawk, he should not stare, under any circumstance. And now, like a fool, because he had been incapable of following one little rule, he was now being approached by the mysterious woman.

He swallowed hard as he approached. And now, she was speaking to him. What the hell was he supposed to say? He wanted to look at his comrades and ask them what to do, what to say. He was at a loss. He just sat there and stared up at her. In the back of his mind, he wanted to say no. He was afraid of what she was, of what she might do, of what she could do. He was, in a way, afraid of her. While at the same time, he was mesmerized by her. "Sure..." He said in a voice that was almost a whisper.

 

[Jade Anna]

"Thank you," Far'eh replied, offering the obviously nervous human a soft smile of gratitude, attempting to get him to trust her a bit more. She took an empty seat next to him, then looked around at his companions, as though she hadn't noticed them before. ...I can't hypnotize him in front of all these witnesses, she thought to herself. Especially not that elven woman. She looks as though she knows much more than she lets on. I'll have to be patient and wait until I can get him... alone for awhile...

Suddenly, Far'eh thought of something else she'd forgotten. "...Do any of you happen to know what sort of money they accept here?" she asked, keeping up the polite facade. "It's been rather confusing trying to figure that out lately, what with all this insanity going on." In the meanwhile, she waved over a servingman as she waited for an answer.  

[Otulissa]

Resia wondered why Chris didn't want his food and pondered, "Shouldn't you be hungry later on if you don't eat up now?"

"Maybe he's on a diet," Terrianne shrugged. Then, when that mysterious lady approached their table Terri tensed up. Oh God... this isn't good. She gives me the creeps! Terri's stomach clenched for a second.

Resia remained perfectly calm, and simply smiled in greeting to the new lady as she sat down. She sent a little glare in Terri's direction as if saying, 'Don't argue with her.'

Terri bit her lip. She was about to demand that the newcomer get out of her seat at once, since that was Terri's seat... but she held it all inside, and just remained standing, behind Resia. In answer to her question, Terri replied, "Honestly, I am not sure myself... things are really wild everywhere. I think any salesman will accept any sort of authentic currency, since he could probably exchange it somewhere else." What are these words coming out of my mouth...?! she wondered. I guess I know more about this New World than I give myself credit for...  

[Jade Anna]

"I see..." Far'eh looked up at the Orchemian woman, innocently. She could tell that she wasn't welcome here, just as she wasn't welcome in most places. It had been written all over this girl's face the moment the sea demon had entered. She was used to a general dislike from the female population, regardless of dimension, so she ignored it as though she hadn't even noticed.

A waiter chose that moment to arrive at their table. "What would you like to drink?" he asked, grinning at her hopefully. "...Green tea, please," Far'eh answered, thinking that plain water would be suspicious, especially to anyone who knew anything about sea demons. And tea was primarily water, anyways. "Of course, mademoiselle. Right away," the waiter said, a bit too hurriedly, as he bowed deeply and rushed off to do her bidding. Mademoiselle... I like that one, too, she mused to herself. I didn't even have to hypnotize him, either, and he's falling over himself to serve me. "I wonder what mademoiselle means..." she wondered out loud. She only knew a few Laresian dialects, one of which, Mermish, sounded almost exactly like a major language in each of the other dimensions, with a few differences in figures of speech and the like. However, French was far from her linguistic knowledge, and she was completely baffled by it. It sounded nice, though, like a siren's call.  

[The Phantom Magician]

Chris pondered Resia's question for a moment. Of course he would. He would be ravenous later on if he didn't eat anything now. He knew that. Oh, he knew that all too well. He absolutely abhorred being hungry. And yet... He again looked down at the questionable dish in front of him. The idea of having to consume any of whatever that was was far more unappetizing than the thought of being starved out of his mind later on. Right now, he was sure that he would have preferred starving to death rather than ingest the bowl on the table.

"No, really, I'll be okay." He said to Resia with a little smile. That was clearly a lie and deep within him he knew that she could see right through him. A lie like that might of flown with Terrianne who was far more concerned with time than with food anyway, but with Resia it was a whole different story. She knew a lot. she could probably spot a liar from miles away. "And I am not on a diet." He added. "I'm just not really hungry." That was believable, wasn't it? Being thrown into a strange new place and being completely disoriented was a good excuse for not being hungry, wasn't it? Well, it would have to do.

Now he looked over at Resia and Terrianne's reactions to the new woman approaching. Resia was silent. Well, that didn't mean anything. He hadn't known her long enough to interpret that as a sign that something was a miss. Terri, on the other hand, seemed a bit tense. Well, that might mean something. He desperately wanted to know if he had made the right choice in inviting her to sit with them. Of course, he didn't see anything wrong with it, save for the little fear in the back of his head that she was up to no good. But other than that, she seemed perfectly fine. Or maybe he just wanted to think that, for obvious reasons. But his question was, what did his compatriots think?

Now he saw that the new woman had ordered something from a waiter passing by. Chris had a sudden, odd urge to make a good impression on this woman. He really had no idea why, but he really felt the need to. So, for the moment, he gathered up all his nerve and decided to answer her inquiry. He said, "Il dit madmoiselle, eh? Il est un garçon!" He laughed. Those few years of French finally became useful. "Sorry to interject," He added, addressing the woman. "But madmoiselle refers to an unmarried woman. It is a polite term in French." Immediately that remark seemed stupid. She probably didn't care what he had to say. He was just some kid. And besides, none of them probably knew or even cared what French was anyway. His smile faded a bit.

 

[Jade Anna]

"Really?" Far'eh said, genuinely interested in this. How... fascinating. My future servant is a linguist, she thought, offhandedly. She voiced said thought out loud, leaving out the 'future servant' bit, as that would be more than a little suspicious. "How fascinating. You're a linguist, then, Mister...?" She paused, realizing she hadn't bothered to introduce herself yet, and didn't know any of their names. "I'm sorry, I haven't caught your name," she pointed out.

Lying like a professional, Far'eh told them, "I'm Aria. Pleased to meet you all." Telling them her real name was practically like telling an informed person, 'I'm from Laresia, and I'm a sea demon here to force you all to do my bidding~! Tee-hee!' Aria was a name that could easily be used in several of the dimensions, including in Morrintis, which was where she was going to pretend to be from. She knew a fair amount about that dimension, since the last stretch of land she'd been through had been primarily Morrintian, and she'd had a few of her servants tell her all about it. And, she could easily pretend to be half-fish or dolphin or something with the help of her sea magic, given the proper time to prepare.

The waiter came back with a small, ornate kettle of tea, and poured a cup for her. "Here you go. Green tea, brewed to perfection," he said, simperingly. "Thank you," Far'eh said, taking a delicate sip of the piping hot drink. The water refreshed her, while the taste of tea leaves added a nice tang. "Would you like anything else? A slice of cake, perhaps?" The man was trying too hard for Far'eh's taste. "No, thank you," she said, somewhat irritated now. "Of course. If there is anything I can do for you, please don't hesitate to call." Finally, the man left, taking the hint. Some things don't change, no matter which dimension you're in... she thought, sipping at her tea once more.  

[Otulissa]

Terrianne resisted the urge to roll her eyes when the waiter called the lady a "mademoiselle." She herself knew a bit of French. Il est très bête! she thought en français, referring to the waiter.

Resia offered a friendly smile to "Aria" and said, "Oh, I do not speak this language of...what was it? French, aye? So, you are not alone in this." Resia was being cautious, but acting as an open and friendly elf. She added, "Aria... 'tis a pretty name! I knew another elf named Aria once."

Terri glared at the waiter as he came to offer other orders to "Aria." She muttered incomprehensively under her breath, "Yeah, yeah...go away, please..." I doubt Aria's even her real name... she thought huffily.  

[Jade Anna]

"Thank you," Far'eh said, smiling back at the elf. "It was my late grandmother's name." And, that was the truth, or so she'd been told. Aria was a rather unusual name in Laresia, so the sea demon doubted that such a nonchalant comment would reveal her home dimension. It also was a slight detail that might make her seem more trustworthy. After all, the still-standing human was making no secret of the fact that she was unhappy with the demonic presence, through her body language and almost audible murmurings.

Far'eh gulped down a bit more of her rapidly cooling tea. She hadn't had nearly enough to last the day, and she had already reached the bottom of the cup. And, she had to limit her urge to drink, in case someone there truly knew something about her kind. "And, might I ask for your name as well?" she asked, politely, to divert attention while she poured herself another cup from the kettle. "In fact, could I ask for all of your names? It's somewhat awkward not knowing how to address you."  

[Otulissa]

Terrianne smiled back at "Aria" mockingly, unlike Resia's earlier, genuine smile. She didn't want to give out her personal info, but she decided just to introduce herself anyways. "I am Terri," she said gruffly. Then, Terri went off to the other side of the cafe to pour a glass of water to drink.

She gulped it down and then threw the paper cup away into the trash can. She tried to stall a bit before going back to the table. She didn't like "Aria," not one bit.

Resia glared a little bit at Terrianne, then said to "Aria," "You may call me Resia."  

[Jade Anna]

Far'eh glanced curiously towards the water, under the pretense of watching the surly human. She quickly looked back at Resia, to avoid further antagonizing Terri or arousing suspicion. "Resia, did... did I do something impolite to offend Miss Terri?" she asked, purposefully sounding a bit nervous and unsure. That sort of thing usually won over the unaware. "I don't know much about the customs of other dimensions, you see, so..." Her voice trailed off, as though she wasn't sure how to continue.  

[Otulissa]

Resia smiled apologetically at "Aria," and said, "Oh, no, no... You did nothing of the sort, dear."

She patted Far'eh on the shoulder benevolently, with soft eyes. "Please do not ponder over that matter. Terri is simply thirsty, that is all." Resia thought to herself, Either this person is a great actress, or maybe she really is innocent...but I don't trust her. If she wants to act, I will too. I am, after all, a great actress. ...But so is she.