taxonomites | 001: Down the Rabbit Hole [Holo]

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001: Down the Rabbit Hole [Holo]

The woman was standing in front of DG, her face both familiar and unfamiliar. She had warned her daughter about the storm, and now the storm was here.

“Make haste now. South, to the Realm of the Unwanted. There you must find a man named Ahamo.”

DG raised a hand, reaching out to brush the ermine trim of the queen’s cloak. Her fingers slipped through the fabric, the image fracturing for a moment. Unless she defeated Azkadellia, she would never see her mother in the flesh again. She would never recover the rest of her memories and her dreams would stay just that. Just dreams.

She opened her eyes, brushing off the memory and glancing sideways at her three companions, who were still hovering on the edge of the trapdoor. She trusted them more than anyone in any world, and certainly more than she’d trusted anyone during her half life back in Kansas. She’d be safe with them. They could do this.

South it was. South, and down into another strange part of a very strange world.

Stumbling off the platform, DG reached out to steady herself on an arm that wasn’t there. Her friends weren’t there, and this room didn’t look anything like the Realm of the Unwanted she’d been expecting. What had happened to the noise and the laughter? She’d heard it through the trapdoor. The people couldn’t have just disappeared!

In fact, as she made her way down the rest of the steps, DG couldn’t help but note that the room didn’t look like something she’d expect to see anywhere in the O.Z. Sure, the world had advanced technology, but it also had magic, and that combination didn’t lend itself to teleportation devices like the one above her head.

“Oh no, I didn’t get thrown through a storm and trek across half of the O.Z to end up starring as an extra in some ... some bad science fiction movie! Where am I? Where are my friends?”

Helplessly, DG plucked at the bracelet on her wrist. She winced slightly when it didn’t budge. The metal was actually fused to her skin. Definitely not the Realm of the Unwanted, then. Thieves and vagabonds the residents might be, but they weren’t twisted. That sort of thing was Azkadellia’s domain ...

Azkadellia. Her sister, or what remained of her. But how could she have intercepted them? Unless Tutor had been lying. Maybe he’d been sending messages to the witch all along, even after his ‘confession’. The idea made her stomach turn. She couldn’t forgive him for a second time, especially not if it had placed her friends in even more danger and put her quest at risk.

If this was Azkadellia’s doing, then it was no wonder she didn’t receive an answer. The witch wouldn’t speak until she’d got what she’d wanted, or until she’d realised that DG had no answers – and no emerald – to give up.

Crossing the room – and paying no attention to the nearby tablet, which she hadn't noticed – DG ran a hand over the door. When she tried the handle, it remained stuck fast.

“Hello?” She banged on the metal with the flat of her hand, but she wasn’t surprised when it didn’t yield. “Hello? Glitch? Cain? Raw?” A pause. “Anyone?”

She paused, keeping her hand on the door. With her other hand, she traced the unyielding metal on her wrist. What was it supposed to do? There wouldn’t be much point in hampering her powers. She had no real control over them at the moment. Sometimes magic just ... happened. DG had no idea what she was actually capable of.

”This is warped even for you, Azkadellia. Where are my friends?”

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In recent days Glitch had been troubled by the nagging feeling that he should be doing something. Wandering was not it. Eating all the apples and custards and lambchops with mint jelly he could hatch was not it. Sleeping in whatever conveniently empty abode with a comfy bed he could find was not it. It was something bigger, something really really important, and it filled him with dread to think that he might have forgotten it.

Then DG's little hologram popped up , and he heard her voice, and everything from his last days in the O.Z. came back with a clarity that made him gasp.

"DG," he whispered, and in the next instant grabbed his tablet and switched it to visual. "DG! Hey, hello, I'm here!"

DG responded immediately at the sound of such a familiar voice. She turned around quickly, her hand slipping off the door to rest somewhat awkwardly at her side. "Glitch?”

After a moment or two, she noticed the device on the pedestal – which had been ignored during her automatic attempt to attract her captor’s attention and get out - and moved towards it, torn between curiosity and understandable wariness. (You could never be too careful when someone like Azkedillia was involved.)

“Glitch!” Her relief at seeing him, even if it was only via a strange little screen, was palpable. It didn’t actually solve any of the problems at hand – such as where they were, where the others were and how they could leave – but it was a step in the right direction. Sometimes, that had to be enough. "Are you all right?"

“Where are you? Where are we?”

He was grinning, absolutely thrilled to see her, and nodded enthusiastically. "I'm fine, really, better now that you're here."

Her other questions were a bit more difficult to answer, and he sighed as he looked around to try and establish where he was.

"This place is called Taxon, and and it's not in the O.Z., I don't think," Glitch replied. He chose a centerward direction and started walking quickly. "I'm going to try to find you, if you take the tablet gizmo you can get out of that room and...I'm going to try to find you."

She gave him a brief, flickering smile at that, but it couldn't last until she'd worked out what was actually happening.

"It doesn't look much like the O.Z," she acknowledged, though she also had to acknowledge that she wasn't much of an expert. She'd spent more years of her life in Kansas than she had in the world of her birth, after all.

"So I just pick this up and I can leave?" she echoed, picking up the device. (The tablet?) This was getting stranger and stranger by the second. "What kind of prison is this? Where's Azkedillia?"

"It's really weird-looking out here too," he said wryly. "There's all this...different stuff. Oh! And the hedge maze! I think that came with me."

Babbling was important, sometimes it shook his thoughts into order. At the very least it could give whoever he was talking to an idea of what he was getting at. Or maybe Glitch just liked the sound of his own voice, found it reassuring.

Mention of Azkadellia made him stop with a frown. "She's...not here, no one's even heard of her." He shrugged and continued on. "It's not really a prison either, it's a big big city and you can go wherever you want. Only there's no way out." A look of disappointment crossed is face. "Kinda like a prison."

That didn’t surprise her. You didn’t wander out of room that was part mad scientist’s laboratory and part space ship into normality. What did surprise her was the fact that the hedge maze had somehow arrived as well.

“The maze from Finaqua?”

How? Kidnapping people was one thing, but you couldn’t pick up locations and plant them somewhere else so easily.

(She wasn’t phased by the babbling. On the contrary, the fact that Glitch was still Glitch was actually pretty reassuring.)

“As long as I can get out of this room,” she said, dryly. A prison that was a city would feel less like a prison, and whoever was keeping them here couldn’t police every boundary. “And get this bracelet off. I can’t even move it.”

"Yep, that one," he agreed with a nod. There was no explaining it, it was just...there. Like he was there, and like DG was there now and really it seemed beyond physics so maybe it was magic, that would make more-

No, stop, Glitch thought with a shake of his head. He had to focus, get to the Sanctuary, find DG, and then they'd figure out what to do after that.

"You just walk right out," he assured her. "Then you'll be in a hallway and then you can get out of the building. Um. The bracelet doesn't come off, it's kind of an identification thing."

Spoken like a man accustomed to irremovable bits of metal. He'd tell her about the hatches later.

"Identification for what?" Although she probably didn't want to know the answer to that.

With the tablet in her hand and a slight frown on her face, DG made her way out of the room. The building still looked like something out of a science fiction movie, but the stark contrast with the O.Z was less obvious now that she'd stepped away from the transporter. She managed to make her way to the front entrance without incident, just as Glitch had said she would. Which was strange. This place looked as if it should have guards crawling all over it.

"Ok, I'm outside," she said, looking around and then glancing up at the sky. "One sun, just like the world I grew up in." She caught herself, just, before saying 'my world'. It wasn't her world, and neither was Taxon.

Well, if she didn't want an answer..."Nobody knows! That's just how you tell the people who were taken from the ones that weren't. And-"

There was a new dot, and it was her, and he gasped because he was just around the corner. "Yep, just the one sun, that's one of the other weird things. Hang on, I'm almost there."

Once Glitch rounded the corner he grinned, shut off his tablet, and dropped it into the pocket of his old coat. The rest of his outfit was similar to the one DG was familiar with, only clean, not ragged, and with a few more buttons done up.

"DG!" he called and very nearly scampered forward. Hug in three...two...

"Having one sun isn't that weird," said DG, because for most of her life she'd considered that to be the norm and some habits were hard to break. But she didn't have the chance - or the inclination - to add anything else, because Glitch had rounded the corner and the expression of confusion she'd been wearing since her arrival, more or less, was replaced by a smile.

"Glitch!" she exclaimed, with a laugh of delight that was mingled with relief and culminated in her wrapping her arms around her friend as soon as she'd closed the gap between them.

An extensive lecture on the benefits and marvels of a binary star system could wait, for Glitch had his arms full of princess and his troubles were melting like...something made of sugar.

"I missed you," he told her, then pulled away enough to look her over. Suddenly the manic grin vanished from his face. "I think I'd started to forget, about finding thee emerald? I think I'd started to forget."

"I saw you a few minutes ago. We were on our way to the Realm of the Unwanted, and then I was ... here."

She hadn't actually had the chance to miss him, although she certainly would have if they'd been separated for a prolonged period of time. Glitch had been a constant – and a friend - since her arrival in the O.Z. DG had no idea what she would have done if the resistance fighters had put her in a different cage. (It was probably a good idea not to think about it.)

"Oh, Glitch," she said, squeezing his arm, “It’s ok. You didn’t forget. And I’m here now. We just need to work out how to get out of here and how to find the others.” And they had to do it quickly, because they were running out of time. And because Cain might do something stupid if she and Glitch disappeared from right underneath his nose.

Just having her there was good for his brain, he was sure of it. Things were making perfect, beautiful sense, memories flowing one into the next until there was a very pronounced snag.

"A few minutes? But..." He trailed off, puzzled, and plucked at the pristine collar of his shirt. "I was going into the Realm too, but I've been here for days and days now."

Unless he'd glitched harder than usual, which was a terrifying prospect. Or worse yet- "Maybe it is a trap. Any time you can't leave a place it's a trap, right? And no one can leave here. No one can leave..."

As soon as she'd arrived in Taxon, DG had thought that it was all some sort of trap. Not the sort of trap she'd been expecting - which would have involved long coats and mobats - but a trap nonetheless.

"Maybe they just haven't found the way out yet," said DG. She had no intention of remaining a prisoner, not when she had so much to do back in the O.Z. She didn't appreciate the realities of life in Taxon, not yet. "We've been in stranger places." And escaped from far more dangerous ones. "We got out of Azkedillia's tower, didn't we?"

She flexed her palm - although the symbol wasn't glowing at the moment, she was very much aware of it - unconsciously.

"You've got a new shirt?"

Glitch nodded slowly, then with more conviction. Just because no one else had been able to find a way out didn't mean there wasn't one. Between DG's magic and his...well, he'd think really hard, or really positive, and together they'd figure it out. They'd be back to saving the world before...well, it would be very soon.

"You're right, Deege," he told her, and his sunny smile was back. "Where there's a will there's a way! Maybe- maybe there's something here that I missed, like- oh! The hatches! You put your hand on a panel and think about what you want and-" He smoothed his hands over his shirt and (mostly) buttoned waistcoat. "New shirt, new vest, new pants, out of nothing. It's amazing!"

And really amazingly handy if you were looking for, oh, some powerful magic artifact. But after everything, could it be that easy?

She certainly hoped so. She’d deal with the possibility of being wrong if she had to but, for now, DG intended to take the optimistic route.

It sounded amazing. It also sounded like something that would confirm her theory about starring in a bad science fiction movie.

“It can make food?” DG asked, more interested in a proper meal than clothing at the moment. If she was going to be kidnapped, she might as well make the most of it. Who could tell when they’d next get a decent meal in the O.Z? “This sounds like the nicest prison I’ve ever been in."

"How many prisons have you b- food! Of course!" He looked around for the nearest hatch-thing and wandered over, left hand waving her to follow even as his right aimed inerringly for the panel. A moment later a perfectly red, shiny apple appeared and Glitch picked it up reverantly.

"I've eaten so many of these," he murmured, then dropped the prize into his pocket for later and stepped back. "Go ahead, try it. Anything you like."

"Just Azkedillia's," she assured him, even if Glitch's attention had moved on to the hatch and her explanation probably wasn't necessary. It was a force of habit. "Although Officer Gulch probably wouldn't have minded locking me up back in Kansas..."

With the slight frown of someone who isn't sure something should be possible (but wants to give it a try anyway), DG placed her hand on the panel. She hadn't given much thought to food since arriving in the O.Z - she'd had other things on the mind - and the first thing that came to mind happened to be the famous pies served at the cafe where she'd worked.

One appeared a moment later, looking no different to the dozens - hundreds - of pies she'd served over the years.

"Ok..." That was strange. That was very strange.

Someday, possibly, there would be a discussion about her semi-criminal history. Fortunately Glitch's focus was quite thoroughly elsewhere, as DG had gone and hatched a pie.

"Oh, perfect!" he declared and beamed at her. "Not the most nutritional thing but I'm not complaining. We can hatch a couple forks and we can find a place to sit and eat and and and see if you brought anywhere with you."

It wasn't the most exhaustive plan but he figured it was a start.

"At least it's food," she pointed out. Any sort of food was welcome after the trek along the old road. "And it's apple." (Which didn't improve it's nutritional value but would, perhaps, appeal to Glitch.)

DG followed up her success with the pie by hatching a pair of forks, though she almost dropped in response to his next sentence.

"Sorry, did you just say anywhere? How could I have brought a place with me?"

"Ooh, very nice, then," Glitch said and retrieved the pie, giving it an appreciative sniff.

At her query he shrugged. "Whenever people show up here they bring something from where they're from, usually a place. I dunno how it works, but when I came the hedge maze did too. It'd be a blinky thing on the tablet map. Thing."

Leaving the pie to Glitch, DG raised the tablet and pressed a few buttons at random. She was no technical genius - she'd helped repair farm equipment back in Kansas and she knew her way around a laptop, but that was about it - but, soon enough, she located the map.

"The hedge maze," she said, touching the appropriate flashing dot, "And there's us. And there's ..." - her blue eyes widened in astonishment - "... the Northern Island! There's a dot labeled 'the Northern Island'."

Which has to be the most ridiculous thing she's read in a long time. They - whoever they were - couldn't have picked up a palace and deposited here, even if they'd managed a maze.

Glitch was perfectly content with the pie, he and the pie would have a brief but very happy and fulfilling life together, but then DG went and said Northern Island and headcase and dessert were nearly parted forever. Thankfully his reflexes were cooperating today and he caught the pie before it hit the ground.

"Is there?" he asked, incredulous, and peered over her shoulder. Sure enough, there it was in all its utter improbability. "Shiny slippers, there IS. But...but but it can't possibly-" He looked around, as if he could spot the peak of the palace from were they stood. "Well! There's only one way to find out if it is what we think it is, right?"

"I'm not sure if I should hope that it is or remind myself that it can't be," she said, giving the device a look of mingled curiosity and wariness.

Any moment now, she'd wake up in her bed in Kansas, with Popsicle calling her to help him with a piece of broken machinery before she rushed into the cafe.

No. That wasn't right. Any moment now, she'd wake up and find Cain telling her to get up and get a move on because they needed to reach the Realm of the Unwanted before the sun went down.

Or she wouldn't wake up, and she'd just have to get on with things.

"Right," she agreed with a determined nod, "We're going to have to try and find it."

He was still staring at the map, brow furrowed in concentration as he looked from the dots that were them to the blinking one that was allegedly the Northern Island, then at the green line that came close to connecting them.

"Oh! The tram, of course! See that? There's a rail line that looks like it goes right there. Sure makes our lives easier."

If only they'd had a map and a few trains a couple weeks ago, he'd have had to put up with so much less walking and the others so much less whining.

[Wanna handwave them getting there? :D]

"There's a tram?" DG repeated, bemused. She'd been expecting a teleporter at the very least. Or glass tubes that could take you from one spot to another in no time at all. The science fiction movies she had occasionally watched with Popscile - usually after her robotic mother had been baking, because you needed something, even something monochrome and sort of cheesy, to watch while eating brownies - had a lot to answer for.

"It's about time things were easy for us," she conceded. Whether things would continue to be easy once they arrived at the 'Northern Island' was a different matter.

OOC: Sure! Would you like to do the honours in the next tag? XD

It wasn't long before they were, impossibly, standing before a mountain of ice.

"It's really here," Glitch stated, awed. "It can't be. Well, it can it's just really unlikely, about as unlikely as us being here actually. But-" Helpless, he waved the pie to indicate the two of them. Clearly his eyes were being more reliable than his understanding of logic.

Speaking of: "Is that the door?"

DG frowned slightly, stepping forward. The strange familiarity that had washed over her when she'd set her eyes on the palace for the first time - for the first time since her return to the O.Z, anyway - hit her again, like a particularly cold wave.

"It's the door," she confirmed. Nothing about this made sense. The fact that it was encased in ice despite the weather. The fact that it was here. But it was, and there was no point in standing outside and staring, was there?

The mark on her palm tingled slightly, and she moved forward to open the door.

Glitch felt something as well, a bittersweet sense of nostalgia that for some reason made him want to stand straighter. Stepping into the great hall he was overwhelmed by its eerie silence, then reasoned that it was better quiet than filled with mobats.

"Well," he said at last, softly as to not make an echo. "I...I guess we won't have to worry about finding you a place to live."

That is, if she really wanted to live here.

DG had been so busy working out where she was and what to do that she hadn't given much thought to finding a bed for the night. (And the night after that, and after that, and after that ...) As much as she hated the idea of sleeping in a house full of so many unfamiliar memories, it would be better than spending another night outdoors.

"I guess not," she replied, keeping her own voice low. "You'll stay here too, though, right?"

"I'm staying with you," Glitch said immediately, and a bit too loudly. He cringed when the pronoucnement echoed back. "I mean," he tried again, quieter. "If you don't mind staying here, I'm all right with it."

It was home, after all, his as much as hers no matter what their memories might tell them. Or not.

"Ok," said DG. She couldn't - and didn't attempt to - hide that Glitch's announcement was as relieving as it was amusing. Staying in a strange place was one thing, but staying in a strange place that should have been familiar was something else.

Besides, they'd stuck together in the O.Z. Why should that change just because they'd been taken prisoner by ... someone? Something? She wasn't wholly convinced that Azkedillia wasn't involved somehow. Her sister had induced a hallucination before, making her see the farm in Kansas when she was actually in the witch's tower.

"I guess we should find some rooms."

"That is a terrible name."

Chiana couldn't help herself. For all the strange ones she had heard in her years of traveling across the Uncharted Territories, Azkedillia had to be the most frelled. She was sitting, feet curled under her, somewhere in the middle of this huge city. Just sitting - and watching.

"No clue where your friends. No clue who your friends are, actually." She tilted her head hard to one side and laughed.

DG frowned at the new face on the tablet. She didn't react, either positively or negatively, to the fact that the woman was apparently grey, which was a testimony to the sort of week she'd been having. (Had she actually been serving pies in the Hilltop Cafe less than a week ago?) She did, however, bristle a little at the comment about Azkedillia. For better or worse - and, at the moment, it was definitely for the worse - they were sisters and their parents had picked out that name.

"She's my sister," said DG, sharply. It felt a bit strange, leaping to the defense of a family she barely remembered. It wasn't as if Azkedillia ... Azkedillia now ... would appreciate it.

"Why don't you tell me your name before I tell you theirs?" she suggested.

Ooops. Chiana laughed, embarrassed. It was her default, it seemed. "Hey, no offense. It's just a -" She stopped, deciding to quit now before she buried herself deeper. She waved a hand in front of the tablet, as if that would wipe the whole thing clean. "Mine? Chiana." She beamed again. "And if it's all the same to you, I don't think knowing your friends name's will help. I don't know anyone around here. Just sort of showed up a few solar days back."

"You're a prisoner as well?" DG was more concerned about her current state of incarceration than an accidental insult, so she let the matter drop with a slight shrug of the shoulder. The name was a bit of a mouthful, after all, especially when compared to the Phoebes and Tracys of Kansas. She'd been quite lucky with DG, apparently.

"I'm DG," she added. As far as she could tell, offering up her name couldn't do any harm. If Azkedillia was behind this, then it was already well known. "Where is this place?"

"Prisoner? Maybe. Haven't really figured that out yet. I'll let you know if I figure that one out, though." She was honest enough. Chiana felt bad for those who came after her, because she knew that confusion.

"Where? Eh, again no answer, Princess. It's called Taxon from what the others tell me. Afraid that's all I know so far."

"Thanks for that." At least it wasn't the strangest thing to have happened to DG recently. If she'd been kidnapped during a shift at the cafe or a quiet evening on the farm, she'd have been more inclined to panic. Here and now, DG was merely resigned and quietly determined to get back to her friends and her quest before anything else could go wrong. Azkedillia's prison hadn't managed to hold her - thanks to Toto, anyway - and a weird silver bracelet certainly wasn't going to manage it.

"Princess?" Since she'd discovered only recently that she actually was a princess, DG reacted to the word with a wide eyed stare. She regained control of herself a moment later. "So, really, all anyone knows is that we're trapped here?"

Chiana was much more used to being trapped in an uncomfortable situation than most people. Apparently, this girl didn't understand it as well as she did. "Well, we're stuck for now." She grinned over the tablet. "It's not so bad. Frell, it's even a little fun around here. Get out, get around. Tell me if you find somewhere with a frelling strong drink, alright?"

"I will do," said DG, unable to stop herself from laughing a little at that. Although she was largely laughing at how ridiculous the situation was, it was still good to know that there was apparently one friendly face - grey and a little bit strange, but friendly - out there.

All in all, this wasn't the worst way to be welcomed into a new world. She hadn't been caught in a net or thrown in a cage yet. That was definitely a bonus.

"Are there any sites you'd recommend?"

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001: Down the Rabbit Hole [Holo]

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