taxonomites | [Holo] First Performance [001]

"This shouldn't be happening! It can't be happening!" Stefen hadn't intended to speak out loud, but the frustration and the fear obvious in his voice had, it seemed, other plans aside from stunned silence. Maybe not stunned, if the look of resigned terror on his face said anything--like someone watching their worst nightmare come to life, only they had been expecting it. Nothing was ever simple, and the half of him that was still a child wanted to complain about how unfair this all was, while the half that was more what he should have been--the half that was Master Bard Stefen, performer to the King-- knew that it wouldn't have changed anything if he did.

"Well-guarded, indeed. One moment in Haven, the next here..." Not that he hadn't heard of stranger things happening from the Heralds and with his particularly strong ties to both King Randale and Herald-Mage Vanyel, he was a particularly prime target.

Vanyel.

Oh gods. He had been right. If they knew who he was, it was only a matter of time before the worst happened and if they didn't know how important he was to either, it was only a matter of time before they found out and...

"V-Van...?" But he wasn't really expecting an answer. This place looked too alien, even for the kind of "company" that Van tended to keep. And if the Herald wasn't here, then there was only one real option left--Stefen was being used as leverage. Abducted by some invisible force with some phantom goal in mind. Vanyel had enough enemies that there was no telling what any of them wanted.

It wasn't until he reached up to run a hand through his fiery red hair that he realized that he was still clutching an instrument against his slight body. That added a whole other level of confusing to the situation. This looked enough like a strange prison, so...why was he permitted an instrument? And his favorite, no less.

"R-Rosewood? What are you doing here?" He held her a little more gently against his chest, but she was a small comfort in the face of abduction.

Calm down, Stef. You've had training. Nothing is wrong with Vanyel or you'd know. He closed his green eyes and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He was supposed to be attached to the palace, not dealing with magic or prisons or any of...well, this.

Someone has to be looking for me. Let's face it, at this point I'm too important for someone not to have noticed that I've vanished. But that would only make them--whoever "them" were--try even harder to hide him. After a few moments of silent internal struggle, an oath that would not have been very welcome at Court all but exploded from him and the look on his face turned into a mixture of frustration and rage. There wasn't anything that he was capable of doing to get himself out of this--all he could do was wait to be found.

And that was precisely what he set out to do, dropping to sit on the floor and sulk (even if he would never have called it that) very much like the child that he had barely outgrown.

"Havens..."

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He knew all the words, it was just the context that he was missing. "Hatch" was easy enough on its own, but the image of magically getting things out of doorways in the floor was so strange that it couldn't possibly be right.

"Interact with what?"

"The hatches. They're kind of like... vending machines, I guess, but they can make almost anything."

"They're kind of like what? I-I'm sorry, but...all of this is new to me. I haven't seen anything like this until now."

Elisa frowns slightly in thought. "They can dispense food or other small items," she explains.

"Question for you... what year is it?"

That made a lot more sense, but the question threw him off again. Sure, other places may have used different methods of keeping track, but they all managed to be in the right places at the right times. And he couldn't for the life of him think of any other ways to say it. And he would blank at a time like this.

"It's 798 years after the Founding."

"I... sorry," Elisa said. "That date doesn't mean anything to me. I have no idea what the Founding is."

Stefen had a sinking feeling that this would be the first time anyone told him that, either. He couldn't really complain about it considering he hadn't even known what a country was until he was ten or so, but the feeling was still a little shocking.

"The Founding of Valdemar."

Elisa was willing to admit that geography wasn't her best subject (despite having spent the better part of six months traveling around the world in a small boat), but the name did not ring any bells.

"I... don't know what that is."

It shouldn't have been surprising, what with the rest of the whole strange...wherever, but somehow it still managed to be. It took another moment to remind himself of just how long it had taken him to figure out that Valdemar wasn't a person (anymore) before he could answer without some kind of disbelief in his voice.

"It's a country. It's where I'm from."

"Okay," Elisa says, "shot in the dark here. You ever hear of America? New York?"

"Not at all..." Stranger and stranger. America and New York? They weren't anything he had heard of before. Countries? Cities?

"What are they?"

Huh. Very strange indeed.

"America is a country. New York is a state... and a city. It's where I'm from."

"That...has to be confusing." As if it wasn't more than enough of that already. Sure, there was all kinds of continent that he'd never seen, but none of those names lined up with anything that he knew.

Curiouser and curiouser. Elisa knew for sure there were people here from different whens, and after the strangeness in April, possibly beyond that, but someone from a place with no common references...

"A little," she conceded. "But ultimately beside the point. Have you been told how to get out of there?"

It was frightening, not knowing what anyone was talking about. Hearing strange names wasn't exactly new to him, but there were always the common threads. Valdemar. Rethwellan. Karse. Hardorn. There wasn't any room for "New York" and "America." He wasn't even certain if he or she was the one going insane.

"I...yes. I think someone is supposed to be coming."

Elisa nods.

"All right, then. I'll let them get you set up then. But I'm available by tablet if you have questions or anything."

Stefen responded in kind, though his nod was, perhaps, a little more distracted.

"I'll remember that. Thank you."

[Holo] First Performance [001]

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