Archive World of Darkness: The Academy - Walking [Complete]

[z022]

Lucia walked in silence until they were clear of Lancaster and headed to Juno. When she spoke it was with a quiet intensity, "The Lheskians told me how to operate the Door, and the keys for Earth and the Caramines. I'm going to go pack up my camping pack, swing by the Science Annex to get what I need for the keys, and then go see about getting this treaty extended or made permanent. You're welcome to come with if you want; you seem pretty intelligent and you've definitely got guts. I also understand if you don't want to make that kind of leap of faith just yet. It's up to you."

She kept walking towards Juno, waiting for a response but always moving forward.

[SalmonMax]

Whoa...

"Hey...slow down a second," Renata urged. She even reached out to take hold of Lucia's shoulder and tried to slow her physically as well. "What's the rush here? They're not going to come and take anyone for...how long now? We have some time. Lets use it."

[z022]

The dusky skinned girl sighed and then shrugged. She let herself be stopped, but was only going to stay put for a moment. "I'm trying to. Better to get this treaty extended or whatever before they come back for one of the students than to spend all our time cooped up in a room arguing with each other and getting nothing done."

She looked the other girl squarely in the eye. "Look, I'm going. I'm not asking you to, I just put the offer out since you seemed like someone that would be helpful. If you want to try something else, though, by all means do."

[SalmonMax]

Renata grinned and spread her hands as if to show they were empty...a gesture to show she wasn't on the attack. "Hey, it's cool. I'm not trying to get in your way. And yeah, it's probably a good idea to make a stab at that before the 'harvest' starts. But just think...what are you going to offer them to stop, right? You don't even know what they like. Or how the first treaty was done."

She shrugged. "I'm just saying, taking one more day to get a few focused, practical answers would only make this idea more likely to work, you know?"

[z022]

Lucia smiled at her, "Alright, then do that. Just catch up to me when you're done. I want to do something myself right now, and I'm not going to take the risk that tomorrow morning someone's shut off the Door somehow or blocked off getting into that part of Lancaster. Or that I lose my nerve. So I'm going now."

She shrugged, unrepentant and honestly unjudgemental of Renata wanting to be a little more cautious (and probably a lot more prepared) than her.

[SalmonMax]

Renata hesitated, then jammed her hands in her pockets, shrugging. "Alright...you gotta do what you've gotta do, I guess. At least tell me how to get there too, in case we have to come after you."

[z022]

"There's a little box next to our Door; all of the Doors will have something similar. For the Caramine world put in a raven's feather and three drops of blood." She gave a rough chuckle, "Makes me think 'how very Morrigan of them'. Anyways. To get back home you need a white feather and piece of paper or something similar with some thoughts written down on it."

She hesitated on the steps of Juno, "And Renata? I'm also going to learn as much as I can about the Caramines, so if this doesn't work we've got a better chance of avoiding what happened at the social. So I'll be going slowly at first. It should be easy to catch up with me, if you don't take too many days getting ready. I'll...I'll see you then, okay?"

[SalmonMax]

Renata hesitated, standing at the bottom of the steps and looking up at Lucia.

Bitch! Trying to rope me into this! This stupid-ass war has nothing to do with me!

Yeah, but...look at her. She won't last two seconds if those crazy alien assholes get ahold of her. She's no fighter.

She's trying to manipulate me!

She trusts me.

"Yeah," Renata said thickly, and looked away for a second. She looked back and finished, "Take care of yourself. Don't do anything...bold until the cavalry comes, alright?"

She managed a smile that tried to make light of the situation, but didn't quite make it, and turned to start walking back to Dorn and the Door discussion.

God, what a night this was turning into.

[z022]

"I'll do my best," floated out into the night to Renata; she could hear the slight smile it was said with.

Lucia made her way into Juno. First came the packing of the camping backpack, as quietly as possible to avoid waking up Rosa and having to explain everything to her. Or lie. Lucia didn't like lying to Rosa, but she didn't have the time to convince her that she wasn't delusional. Then came the writing of the letters, the first to Rosa giving only the briefest and most believable accounting of events to keep her from immediately reporting Lucia missing; the second letter was for Lucia's mother and was only to be delivered to her if Lucia wasn't back by the end of the week. They had their differences, but family was family.

After she finished up in Juno, it was time for the Science Annex. Getting into the building was pretty simple, but handling the stuffed birds took longer than strictly necessary. There was just something creepy about stuffed animals that were supposed to look like they were still alive. She wanted enough feathers to make sure she had spares, but she had to force herself to touch the statues for each feather. Eventually she had a handful of each, though, and was ready to go.

Last was making it back into Lancaster and to the door. She watched the windows to see what lights were still on and if the others were still clustered near the Door.

[Dawn OOC]

There weren't any lights to indicate that anyone was hovering near the Door, and Lucia slowly crept up the stairs, ready to hide if someone was there. She thought she heard Jason's voice, but if she had, he was gone by the time she got there.

Quickly but taking due care, she walked to the Door, opened the drawer and slipped the black feather inside. A finger-stick from the blood type testing kit gave her the three drops of blood, dripped into the drawer. Drawing a deep breath, she opened the door and stepped through.

The tunnel of darkness stretched on for a while; then she saw the light ahead. It was a square wooden door, simple, without embellishment. Feeling relief, she reached out and peered cautiously into the area beyond.

It was a walled-in area, the floors and walls made of cut stone placed closely together. The blocks were massive, three feet wide by one tall. Open areas in the stone floor held greenery, but it was wild and overgrown. Leaf litter and wild growth indicated that this wasn't a tended area. There was the sound of wildlife; a small feathered creature on four legs and a wide tail blinked at her with bright eyes before skittering up a tree. She didn't see or hear anything that might be intelligent.

[z022]

She walked out from the door cautiously, jumping at just about every sound and movement. After a few moments of absolute terror and the realization that it had worked, she took a deep breath, calmed herself down, and started looking for an exit from the area.

She was taking note of everything she saw, and every couple of minutes she'd jot some of it down in one of the notebooks she'd packed with the rest of her gear. If she was going to go galavanting around whatever it was that the Doors gallivanted around in, she wanted a record of it. And clues to herself on how to find her way back if this little jaunt turned more into a long trek to the Caramines. So she jotted and she explored and she hoped to find some evidence of more recent intelligent life soon or this was going to turn into a guessing game on which way to go.

Click to reveal.. (Perception Roll)

1d10=1, 1d10=8, 1d10=10, 1d10=3

2 successes

[Dawn OOC]

Lucia carefully followed the bending path one way and found it dead-ended in a little alcove. Turning, she went back the other way - and stopped as her instincts said something was wrong with the Door.

The first odd thing she noted was that it was set in a wooden inset in the wall, where the rest of the walls were stone. The second matter, and of much greater concern, was that there was no drawer on the door. There should be, or else she couldn't get home. As the first hints of panic raced through her system, she glanced up.

The wooden inset was no wall; it was a massive door, over twenty feet tall. The drawer for the door was set about fifteen feet in the air. There was no convenient ladder to get up the drawer.

Lucia swallowed hard as she realized that she might be trapped here.

[z022]

"Fe fi fo fum, I am so screwed." Lucia swallowed hard again. No one said the Caramines lived on a giant world. Hell, how do they operate that thing? And why aren't they big on Earth then? Does the Door size them down? Then why didn't it size me up? She leaned up against the stone wall, her forehead warm on the cold surface. Crap.

After a few minutes she pushed back off the wall, took a deep breath, and squared her shoulders. "Well, just standing around isn't going to help, is it?" she asked one of the strange critters flitting by her at the moment. She kept exploring, looking for the way out of this....place or something she could make a ladder or stackable stairs from that would let her at least see if she could even get the drawer open with.

[Dawn OOC]

Taking the path the other way got her somewhere - outside the garden, which wasn't as green as the garden. Just outside the walls, a dirt road ran away in either direction. Crops rose on either side of the double-rutted road, reminiscent of corn but very much not. And there were no ladders or crates in either direction.

With a sigh, Lucia picked a direction and started walking. It took an hour, but the crops stopped and there was a small village, looking like a quaint Irish or English farming community from the eighteenth century.

[z022]

Lucia sighed again in relief that the entire world didn't seem like it was going to make her feel all Alice-In-Wonderland. She headed for the village at a faster pace, keeping a look out for any actual people. About halfway there she was already inventorying what she could afford to take out of her pack - things seemed to double in weight every ten minutes you were walking around with them on your back.

Now, let's just hope they speak English. Or charades.

[Dawn OOC]

The first 'person' she saw drew her up short. Speaking of short, he appeared to be a grown male, but was five inches shorter than her. But what was more offputting was the brown feathers that graced his scalp where she had hair. A second look let her see his eyebrows were fine feathers, too.

He stared at her, and the feathers suddenly rose in what seemed like a fear reflex. He shouted something in a surprisingly deep voice and jumped back from her.

In the village, more of those creatures appeared, looking up in alarm.

[z022]

Lucia resisted the urge to make an sudden jumpy movements. She slowly set her arms out in what she hoped was a universal sign of being nonthreatening. She slowly pointed to herself and said, "Lucia."

She waited, hoping they would at least try to communicate back with her.

[Dawn OOC]

The creatures surrounded her, all eyeing her with distrust. Several of them did repeat both her gesture and her name, but one got the idea. She pointed to herself and said, "Ahvia."

As the others murmured, Ahvia made walking motions with her fingers, pointed to Lucia and then looked around the area, her expression inquisitive.

[z022]

Lucia picked up quickly, thankfully. "Ahvia," she said, wondering just how atrocious her accent might sound to these...people? They seemed like people.

She motioned back in the direction she'd come from, then found a good stick and made a rough sketch of the door from what she could remember.

[Dawn OOC]

A collective noise of understanding when up from the crowd. After a moment, Ahvia took the stick and made marks on the door, as if drawing a box across it. It took Lucia a long moment to realize that Ahvia was telling her the way was barred.

"So I'm stuck?" Lucia asked, panic in her eyes.

Ahvia understood what she was asking. Turning, she pointed away from the door and the village alike. Then she bent down and drew a door, one without a second door inset in it.

[z022]

"There's another door?" Relief flooded through her, chasing after the adrenaline of fear. "Thank God. Um, could you show it to me? And.....are you or do you know the Caramines?"

She knew she was getting complicated, but she wasn't a trained mime. These people didn't look like the ones that came to social, but she was trying not to make too many assumptions.

[Dawn OOC]

"Caramine...?" Ahvia's brow furrowed; another one of her people made an irritated noise. Others were looking around and past her, as if expecting to see one of the Caramine materilizing there.

"Door..." Ahvia waved several times, as if pushing the air away from her; Lucia realized she was indicating it was a long distance away. She reached out and took Lucia's hand, then pointed to herself, then to Lucia, then to their hands, then toward the distant door.

[z022]

Lucia nodded, hoping she was still getting this right; she smiled at the girl and nodded. "Well, I guess we should get going. Maybe we'll come across the Caramines along the way."

She motioned towards the distant door. "Lead on, Ahvia."

[Dawn OOC]

Ahvia made a 'stop' motion with her hand, then turned toward the village. After a short time, she came back with a bundle of cloth on a strap. She tied the strap around her shoulder and under an arm, then waved toward the door.

Falling into step together, the two girls began to walk. After a time, Ahvia pointed to a tree and said, "Dau."

[z022]

It took a moment for Lucia to pick up what the girl meant. "Oh! Uh...," she pointed back to the tree. "Tree."

She looked around and found a grayish stone and pointed to it. "Rock."

[Dawn OOC]

Back and forth they went, naming things in their own language. They had nothing else to do, so they focused on learning to communicate. Ahvia was quick to learn new languages; she seemed to have a knack for it, and might already know more than one.

As the day started to turn dark, they came to a village. Ahvia looked at Lucia and made sleeping motions with her hands by steepling them together and then pressing her head to them.

[z022]

Lucia nodded, content for at least now to let her native guide, well, guide her. Besides that, her legs were aching and the camping pack seemed to have gained 20 or 30 lbs. through the course of the day. Sleep would be nice.

She smiled and nodded, motioning Ahvia to lead the way.

[Dawn OOC]

Ahvia led them into the village. Lucia's appearance caused a great deal of chatter, of which she only caught pieces. They seemed fascinated by her hair; given that they seemed to have feathers instead, it was natural for them to fixate on their greatest differences.

After some long conversation, Ahvia waved for her to follow. They went behind a house. There were a row of bushes; without waiting, the girl picked up a basket and started to pick the small yellow berries. "Work get sleep," Lucia friend told her, smiling.

[z022]

She nodded and unloaded her backpack from her back, rummaging through it long enough to locate a pair of work gloves that smelled strongly of horse. It would make picking the berries take a bit longer, but she didn't want to end up with hives or something if she had an allergic reaction to the alien fruit. Just getting the backpack off was a great relief, and picking berries reminded her of a happier time with her mother when she was younger. There'd been a little copse of trees in the woods near one of the houses they'd lived in for a few years that her mother used to take her to when she was very young where they'd pick berries and other fruit. They'd make jelly and jam and her mother would trade the other larger fruits with people she knew for things like blankets and books and toys. They hadn't had much then, but Lucia had been too little to know that they were poor; she'd been happy then.

So she picked the berries with a nostalgic smile on her face and was careful even with the gloves not to bruise or crush them. After a few minutes she held one up to Ahvia, pointing at it with a questioning look.

[Dawn OOC]

Ahvia smiled and popped it in her mouth, chewing happily. "Food," she said in her language, then repeated in English. She went back to picking, nodding for Lucia to do the same.

After a while, they had enough by Ahvia's reckoning, and the young woman led her back to the house. They sat down and pitted them while Ahvia talked with the woman of the house and Lucia in turn.

After a while, they were offered a dinner; the berries they'd picked crushed into a juice over some meat. Ahvia dug right in, showing no fear of the food.

[z022]

Lucia ate, hesitantly at first but then with more confidence...and hunger. So far this little adventure had been tiring and not exactly what she'd hoped for, but pleasant nonetheless. Besides, since it looked like it was going to take a while to make it to the other door, there was a good chance that she was going to be in thirty different kinds of trouble once she made it back to Dalton. So for now she enjoyed the berries and her new friend.

[Dawn OOC]

After they ate, they sat around the fireplace and talked. Lucia talked less, naturally. Instead, she listened carefully, putting Ahvia's teachings to practical use as she figured out what people were saying. It was slowly becoming clearer to her.

Bedtime came after that, which was two pallets set up in the main room of the house. That was also the fireplace room, and Lucia fell asleep to the sight of the warm glow of banked embers in the room.

She woke up alone; it was cold. The house wasn't there; nothing was there save a massive stone door. Lucia stared at it, but she wasn't sure what it was or where it had come from. Standing, she reached out and touched the door-

She woke up for real next to Ahvia, the sounds of the house wife in the kitchen. Sunlight was streaming in the windows of the house, lighting the interior.

[z022]

She stayed still for several long moments, her mind catching up with where she was and where she wasn't and teaching her heart to beat at a normal pace again. There hadn't been that much to the dream, and it hadn't really been that frightening, but there was something to it that would let go in her mind. She pulled her knees up to her chest and sat still for several long moments.

But the day wasn't waiting for her to figure out whatever it was the dream was trying to tell her. The wife in the kitchen called out to their two guests that breakfast was ready and she'd packed them a small lunch to take with them. Lucia smiled just a touch, proud that she'd been able to catch the gist of it without Ahvia's translation, and pulled herself up to begin the day.

[Dawn OOC]

Their days continued much like this; walking for a long time, eating off the land, and working for their chores at night. Lucia's calves became better defined, and the hint of muscle started to appear where she'd had none before.

The dream continued as well, visiting her in the night, leaving her with a vague sense of unease upon waking. She wasn't sure what it meant; surely it was no coincidence that it was a door. She felt that it was related, somehow.

It was five days before she felt comfortable enough with Ahvia’s language to address it at all.

[z022]

She was quiet save for the language lessons for most of the days after the second. Her letter would have been delivered by now and that meant that getting home was going to be the easy part, apparently. Being home was just going to be a headache, especially with her mother. The dreams on top of that was dragging the usually sociable young woman into an uncharistic melancholy.

It was mid-morning on the fifth day and they'd gone past the point-and-say level of daily language instruction, so she haltingly asked, "Ahvia, do you dream? When you sleep at night?"

[Dawn OOC]

"Yes, dream," Ahvia said softly, smiling at little. She said something in her language, something that Lucia didn't catch. When she asked her friend to repeat it, the feathers on her head changed from black to dark blue. As Lucia started at the odd change, Ahvia answered, "I say... boy name."

"Oh," Lucia said, then caught what that meant. "Oh!" The two girls giggled for a moment, and Ahvia's feathers reverted to their normal colors.

"Do you ever dream... about a door?" Lucia asked cautiously.

Ahvia stopped walking and stared at her. Lucia met her gaze, both relieved and upset to have gotten a reaction like this. "Door? What was it?" Ahvia asked her, her expression difficult to read.

[z022]

Lucia bit her lip, now hesitant, but then shrugged and did her best to describe the door in her dream.

"Large, stone....um..." She stepped off the road and picked up a stick, drawing a crude sketch in the ground as close to what she could remember. "Like that."

[Dawn OOC]

Ahvia said a word, then mimed stepping up and pulling a door open. "Door," Lucia repeated, adding another word to her vocabulary.

"You see the Door to Aherinha," Ahvia said, nodding. "That is a good omen for you. Seeing the door in a dream is good... luck?" When Lucia nodded understanding, Ahvia continued. "Many people never see the Door."

"What is Aherinha?" Lucia asked, skirting a broken limb in her path.

"It is... perfect place," Ahvia said. "A place of peace and power."

[z022]

"I thought the doors led to all sorts of different places? Do you know what you need to make it go to this Aherinha?" She started walking again, "Or is it like Heaven? Some of my people, they have a place they believe in, a perfect place, that you go when you die."

The words were too much and too abstract for their basic understanding of each other's languages. Lucia tried to break it down as they walked, taking time to figure out each concept and then add it to what she was trying to get across. I should get credits in xenosociology or something when I get home. At least some for linguistics. I mean, you can get three credits a semester for learning another language, and I'm learning a literal alien language.........My mom is going to kill me when I get home.

[Dawn OOC]

Ahvia parsed through her abstract words, slowly working out the meanings. "Heaven... afterlife? No, that is not Aherinha," Ahvia said. "It is a place, real. It is the center of all, the heart of all the worlds. It is..." She shrugged, words failing her.

"But the stories say it is real, and that those who hold Aherinha, hold the worlds in their hands."