[holo | Sanctuary] Wonderful muggle things

[apackofone]

One moment he is running through the forest of Serbia.

There are howls and screams following him, inhuman despite the lack of moon in the sky. His muscles burn from running but he forces himself on, needing to get outside the edges of their territory. If he can just make it to the edge of their territory, he will be fine.

Screeching phantasms rush up from behind, shrieking his position to his hunters. He blasts them as fast as he can to silence them, to buy himself those few extra strides that get him ever closer to safety.

One moment he is running, bursting through the shimmering wards that mark the territory. The next he is letting himself fall, whispering for the magic to rip him away and back to his hotel in the middle of the Muggle townstead.

That isn't where he lands.

There is a distinct lack of smoke, dust and noise in the next moment. And far too much light to be his hotel. Or, indeed, the townstead, which is still mostly relying on gas and goodwill to stay lit at night.

But there is a lack of angry, murderous werewolves, so all in all, it isn't worst place he could be.

He sits down, deciding to get his breath back first. A pat down reveals his situation. "Bugger." He's lost his compass (which he didn't need anyway), his map (which probably wasn't going to help right now, all things considered) and his last bar of chocolate (which is a pity, because he really could have used that). But he still has his wallet and his wand, so the important things were taken care of.

"Right. Well. There's no door," he murmurs. "And a big... pointy... thing on the ceiling. Muggle thing. And another muggle thing! Wonderful. I wish I had been to school in the last ten years or so and I might know what that was." He rubbed his stubble thoughtfully. "No one's trying to eat me. And there's nothing hosing me down, tying me up or screaming in my ear, so it could be worse. However I have no food, no water and no idea where I am. That's less wonderful. But I have a wand. So they don't want me harmless. But they can interrupt my apparation, which means they probably consider me with a wand a negligible threat anyway. Merlin's beard, I have spent far too long on my own if I'm thinking out loud without knowing if I'm being listened in on. Hello out there? Could you let me out, only I've got some rather important business to get back to, thanks awfully."

Comments

[apackofone]

"Yes, yes, I have, thank you." It's a brief moment where she reminds him of someone else and then he gives a gentle smile. "It's all very modern, isn't it?"

[genequeen]

"It is, actually, yes. It is a little more advanced than where I'm from but everyone has differences here, or so I'm learning. What's your name?"

[apackofone]

"Remus. Remus Lupin, yes, like the flower. I'm from England, originally, though I was in Albania until about fifteen minutes ago..." He looks about again. "Which this most certainly isn't."

[genequeen]

"Hi Remus. I'm Madelyne."

There is another more genuine smile as she introduces herself, "And, no, this isn't Albania. This is Taxon and I regret to tell you that you've been kidnapped."

[apackofone]

"It's lovely to meet you, Madelyn."

He nods slowly at her revelation. "That's, rather inconvenient, actually. I mean, I'm grateful to not be set upon by ravening cannibals, don't get me wrong, but I sort of need to get home and that, isn't happening, is it?" His voice almost deflates as he trails off.

[genequeen]

"It is good to meet you as well, Remus and I am very sorry but, no, I'm not aware of a way to get back home." Madelyne does look apologetic, and perhaps even a little sad about the whole situation.

"I'm relatively new here myself but I'll answer whatever questions I can."

[apackofone]

He nods again, looking down and away. No way back... it would be like being dead. "What, I mean, they haven't disarmed me, or, well, I have a new bracelet, but there's no chains or cells that I can see. Not that I have a lot of experience with being kidnapped, but I gather that's usually the sort of thing that happens. Cells and threats and making sure your prisoner isn't armed."

[genequeen]

"That is usually the way of it in my experience, yes." For a few moments, Madelyne is silent, though her image doesn't vanish from sight. She seems briefly caught up in a memory of something unpleasant and it takes a little time for her to shake free of it.

"From what I understand, they're just watching us, really. Nothing more nefarious than that but, well, that's bad enough, isn't it?"

[apackofone]

Remus slowly waves a hand through her image, shivering at the lack of sensation.

"Watching us do what?"

[genequeen]

"Exist. Interact. Deal with the strange things that happen here from time to time."

A small furrow appeared between her brows as she continues to think about that answer and finds it lacking - not that she has a better one to hand.

[apackofone]

"And who exactly is they?" Next important step of the whole thing.

[genequeen]

"Ah. Well, I've been told they're aliens, though I have not seen our captors yet for myself."

Again, she looks apologetic for the lack of knowledge and explanation about the situation. Also, perhaps, for how strange and absurd what she does have sounds out loud.

[apackofone]

"Aliens." He repeats the word, but he isn't really sure what it means, what the context is. "Like in star ships?"

[genequeen]

"As in star ships. You could probably think of them as beings from another dimension or world if that would help." Madelyne pushes her hair back from her face, tucking some of it behind one of her ears as she does so.

"Other than the captivity and the weird just watching us part of it all, I think that might be the hardest part."

[apackofone]

"Other worlds, right." He understands the idea; he's read and listened to the Muggle world. "Do I get to meet them, or do they prefer to remain mysteriously distant?"

[genequeen]

"I haven't met them yet but I'm assured by those who have been here longer that they're here." Madelyne shrugs a little bit, though this expression is a little more frustrated than uncaring.

[apackofone]

Remus nods again, but he still looks a little confused. "I see. And, pardon my confusion, but we've all been taken from Earth to be imprisoned by 'aliens'."

[genequeen]

"That is the situation as I understand it. I can confirm that the 'people' here that have not been kidnapped aren't really people. They're like constructs or something put together as if this was what someone who didn't understand at all what people's thoughts are actually like."

Madelyne shakes her head with a small sigh.

[apackofone]

"I, I don't understand," he admits. Constructs, people aren't people, it doesn't make sense.

[genequeen]

"I'm sorry. I'm happy to try to explain better but I'm not sure how much better I /can/ explain it."

[apackofone]

"You said everyone is a construct? Like a golem or shade?" It seems to be the only way of translating it in his mind.

[genequeen]

"That.... That seems close to what I've gathered. Or at least close enough to what I'm experiencing." Madelyne pauses for a few moments but doesn't push forward with what she's thinking quite yet.

"Most of the people here aren't actually people."

[apackofone]

Some kind of knot undoes in his stomach. He's not surrounded by helpless, harmless people. "That actually reassures me a bit, that there aren't thousands of prisoners surrounding me."

[genequeen]

"No, I think there are thirty or so actual people here. We're all very different people mostly from different places."

Well, this is going better. It seems like he's relaxing a bit at least.

[apackofone]

"What sort of different places," he asks tentatively. "Continents? Countries?"