The Planewalkers' Journies

[Shinigori V2]

As she follows, Shawn will randomly attempt to give herself elemental properties, changing herself vaguely to accomodate them, but not terribly much. "I explore, mostly...Right now, I'm trying to learn to become like you, I guess. Except...Well, not so...Random."

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Oh. So you aren't from here either? Where'd you explore? I've never left here, it's just too nice. I mean, why would someone want to be anywhere else? It's like...this is how things should be, right? Anything is everything."

Shawn shifts her body from element to element as they talk, but she can't seem to do much more than shift her skin tone and add a few affectations to her body and trailing cloud. The various shapes do have different feels to them - she seems to have a bit of closeness to each element as she takes it on, different tinges to her thoughts and outlook, and for a couple even what feels like new abilities - but nothing all that major.

[Shinigori V2]

Shawn will smile, continuing to just rotate around the elemental table. "To see what else there is...But I do like it here. It feels...Good for me. Natural."

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Are you going to stay here? When I've seen other people, they usually just...hey, there's a chaos beast. I wonder if it can melt you too."

Off in the distance, Shawn can see a figure moving around; she can't really get a good feel of either how big it is or how far, and she can barely make out its shape, but it's definitely jumping about in the chaos.

"I saw someone that got bit by one of those before. It didn't really like melting, I think."

[Shinigori V2]

"I'd...Really like to avoid finding out." Shawn says.


She had considered it before, but now seemed like a good time; she'd attempt to slowly make herself smaller and smaller.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"All right, we can stay away. They're not very fun to be around anyway, they don't really like anything. It can be neat to watch them sometimes, though. So what are the other places like that aren't here?"

Shawn pulls herself in, and though she can't get extremely small, she gets a good bit of shrinking done. She can pull herself down to a mere two feet tall, maybe even a little less, before she has to start fighting herself to keep going.

[Shinigori V2]

Shawn will let herself sit at the smallest that she doesn't have to think hard about holding, and follow Jack once again. "They're..Solid. Some are really nice, others not really. You never plan to leave?"

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"I don't think I will, but I might. You can't really know what you'll do until you do it, right? But I can't even really imagine what it'd be like being anywhere else. So what are the ones that aren't nice like?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Not so nice."

She thought maybe she was beginning to connect with Jack. Maybe.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"And everything's solid everywhere, all the time? Ugh. How come people like those places better, then? That sounds so boring."

[Shinigori V2]

"Well, they're like you.

..Us. They're not like us."

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Yeah, but being the same thing all the time, and doing the same things, and just all that sameness. What's it like, anyway, being in places like that? How do you get used to nothing ever changing? Don't you ever just want to yell at something to make it change?"

[Shinigori V2]

"You get used to it.

..It's kind of nice, sometimes...Being the only thing that can change. Makes you kind of special."

...Like being the only girl in a large family.

No, those aren't thoughts for now.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Huh. Does that mean you're less special here?," it asks, without insult in its voice.

[Shinigori V2]

"No, because...Well, nobody really knows I can change."

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Oh. Well, I guess I'm not all that special here. But I'd rather be that than stuck all the time. So is there other stuff you like about other places too?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Well, it's pretty. I mean, it can be here too, but it's...Not a surprising pretty, I guess."

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"But how are things still pretty after you've seen them before? I mean...you've seen them before, so you know what they are. Doesn't that make them less?"

[Shinigori V2]

"No. Just because you took a shape before, does that mean you like it less?"

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Sometimes, but not all the time. But most of the time I don't know what shape I'm going to be before I be it. But if you look at something pretty, you know what it's going to be every time you see it, don't you?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Well, that doesn't make it less pretty." Shawn replies.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"Huh. Okay, if you say so. I guess I just don't understand it."

As they float along, in the distance Shawn can see a small island of matter grow closer. "Oh, that's where the lorraine is. I bet it's still there, it said it was stuck here. I'm going to go see."

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine sat by the portal, cross legged, staring at a statue that floated about half a foot over the landscape. It wasn't a great statue by any means; It was rough, and every time one feature would refine a bit and give a good impression of the person it was meant to represent, something else was soon lost. The only really solid feature were a pair of glasses; thin, perfectly round, flat lensed glasses, made out of carved stone and quartz. The eyes behind them were hard to see... It had short hair, a coat... or was it a robe? and a pair of sandles.

Lorraine only looked a little better than her statue; Her hair was mussed and stood up at odd angles. Her clothes were dirty, and she was missing a boot. She held one hand on the hilt of her greatsword, and the other rested a bit slackly on the handle of a bladed whip. She had dark circles under her eyes, as though she hadn't slept much in the past few days. Aaron, her hawk familiar, was more pristine looking, but he looked sullen, sitting by Lorraine's side, doing absolutely nothing. The whole scene was fairly pathetic.

[Idran1701]

Limbo

Floating towards the small outcropping of rock, Shawn and "Jack" rapidly come in sight of Lorraine, although Shawn certainly looks a good deal different than last she saw her - she's perhaps half her old size, wearing a sleeveless, midriff-baring top. Her skin and hair have a bluish-green tint, her hair wavy-patterned and her legs replaced by a trail of seafoam and mist, but it's still identifiably her.

Darting down to the platform, the petitioner pauses in front of Lorraine, currently in the shape of a single, massive bubble, mostly purple but shimmering with opalescence. "Hello again. You're still making things?"

[Kelne]

"About my size?" Asp asks innocently. He's a little hazy on the exact dimensions, but that amount of chaos matter ought to be plenty to start with.

[Seethe]

Rosalyn looked at Asp for a moment.

"I... suppose that would be about right," she said. "We need it to hold enough to work with, but we also need to be able to transport it without too much trouble."

[Idran1701]

Xaos

He nods to the words of the two as they reach his house. "If wood is used, it will have to be a heavy one," he says thoughtfully as he opens the door, letting the two inside. The front seems to be a fairly normal-looking building compared to many around the city, though windowless. Inside, though...well, there's no back half, is the big thing. The building is completely exposed to the air, as if the house was cut across and the rear removed. The foyer itself still has doors on either side leading assumedly to other rooms on this side, however.

Work benches, tables, works-in-progress, and tools are scattered here and there in the open field past the foyer, and stacks of lumber are piled by type to one side. It's here that Haz'kiah heads, sorting through planks thoughtfully. He frowns, speaking again. "No, even my hardest woods would likely be insufficient, I think. But there is the glassblower I mentioned, and I know of a smith. We can speak with them, if you two are willing."

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine looked up when 'Jack' 'spoke' to her. Oh great Atrus, that thing was back. That incessantly jabbering, inquisitive thing that had a loose concept of personal space and was constantly morphing into different sorts of matter. And it had brought an elemental girl, if there was such a thing as an elemental with gender. She didn't now all the planes well enough to say for sure. At any rate, the thing was back. Still, this meant that she and Aaron weren't alone for a little while, so she forced a smile.

"Oh... Hi again. I'm trying to, yes. It's not going so well, though. I haven't slept in a... uhm... I don't know how long, and it's getting hard to think. Whose your friend?"

[Idran1701]

Limbo

"I just met it, I thought it was another lorraine but it's a shawn. It wanted to learn how to change better, so I said it could follow me around."

Floating over towards one of the statues, it seems to be looking it over, maybe? "What is it, anyway? Are you making another of you or something?"

[Shinigori V2]

For now, Shawn just floats there, half embarassed being seen that way, and half in shock at what seems to be going on with the woman.

[Besyanteo]

Lorraine looks back to her statue, which has again lost a fair bit of detail while she had been looking away. Parts of it were turning into water, now.

"No... just trying to keep busy, mostly. There's not much else to do here."

She paused, and let the statue slip back into chaos matter. Then she turned back.

"You now, I used to know another girl named Shawn... She looked quite different, though. Odd coincidences. ... I don't suppose you asked her along to help me get out of here safely? I'd love to get back to the stairs, and tell the Guild what's happened..."

[Shinigori V2]

"...What's happened?" Shawn asked, slightly worried.

[Besyanteo]

"Oh... A while back, I wandered around on the stairs a bit, looking for something to do. Long story short, I solved a little murder mystery and took care of the person responsible. She was a succubus, and she'd seduced and killed some poor man a few minutes after I arrived. Anyway, before she died, she managed to gasp out one of those classic revenge lines. I didn't take it seriously."

She cleared her throat, and ran a hand through her hair. Talking to another intelligent being seemed to be improving her speech and manor markedly.

"It's been about a month since then. I left somewhere else, on a job, and ran afoul of a demon... who knew my name. He's much more powerful than the succubus was, and seems intent on killing me. I managed to jump through this portal, and ended up here. I'm not sure why he hasn't followed, but I poked a bedroll back out, to see what would happen... When I pulled my hand back, half the bed roll was cut off. So he's waiting for me. Hunting me. I'd just leave, if this was anywhere but limbo. I really, really don't want to fall asleep out there somewhere and..."

She didn't finish, though she did shudder pretty badly.

"... I think the Guild could help me, if I could get back to them. Hunt down the hunter and get rid of him. I don't suppose you know the way? Or can at least help me get away from this portal, without having to worry about turning into the chaos..."

[Shinigori V2]

"...Did the demon give you a name?" Shawn asks.

[Seethe]

So, wood wasn't going to be good enough.

"I suppose that's what we're going to have to do," Rosalyn answered.

[Idran1701]

xaoS

Heading back towards the door, he nods to Rosalyn. "We shall meet with them both, then, and discuss possibilities." Stepping back through, he lets the two leave, careful to lock it up behind them. He leads them along the outskirts of the city, where inside nothing more than ruckuses and blowups are going on. On one street, a pair of artists work painting a mural on the side of a building, while another group slowly pulls the building apart a piece at a time, moving it to the other side of the street in a different order. Further down the road, a pair of thieves can be seen pickpocketing from each other multiple times as they walk down the street in more and more elaborate manners. In a square, a bard gives a one-man, four-person performance to a gathered group of onlookers, and he seems to be doing quite well by their reaction.

Only a few houses down, Haz'kiah stops short, frowning. "Something is..." Cutting himself off, he picks up his pace, heading to a wooden building that's obviously seen better days. A light flickers from inside as a small amount of smoke leaks from the window; certainly not a good sign, whatever it is.

[Seethe]

Taking the cue from Haz'Kiah, Rosalyn quickened her pace as well. Smoke coming from a window was, of course, usually not a comforting sight. Considering the shape the building was in and the fact that it was made of wood, she hoped a fire hadn't broken out inside.

[Besyanteo]

She shook her head breifly.

"No, I didn't get a name. Why?"

[Kelne]

"Well, that can't be good," Asp says, trying the door handle in an effort to get inside, "Now, just so we're clear, the house was already on fire when we got here, right? Only my aunt Windchaser wound up getting into a big misunderstanding about trying to put out a fire once..."

[Idran1701]

Xas

Rushing to the house, Asp is the first to arrive, with Haz'kiah and Rosalyn hot on his heels. Just outside the house, they can see a pair of tongs and a number of glass shards in the dirt by a large water bucket, but no sign of the owner. The door to the building opens freely, unlocked, and indeed there is a small fire burning. A furnace in the middle of the room hangs open, and looks to have caught a nearby chair. A small flame now licks up from the piece of furniture, threatening to spread further in the easily-flammable building. The rest of the building looks to be one big room; a bed sits in the far corner, and all along the walls are shelves of glass pieces, from the size of a gold to a piece easily half Asp's size, from artistic works to purely functional bottles and vials. None are broken, suggesting there was no struggle inside, but the owner is still nowhere to be seen, a fact that seems to have Haz'kiah quite worried as he heads to the flame.