( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ) ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴛɪᴅɪɴɢs | ( ɴᴘᴄ ᴘᴏsᴛ )

[acatastoria]

[ there is a sudden sparking that emits from your magical watches and a hologram appears, showing a petit woman with dark hair. her eyes seem to hold a certain amount of mischief and light, and when she speaks, you listen. it's something about her; you are captivated by her presence, and you can't help but give her your attention. ]

Hello, hello, hello~! ♥

[ it's a trill of a voice, light and airy. ]

I know you've all just arrived~♥ but I wanted to introduce myself! To those who haven't met me, my name is Astoria! I know many of you are likely unhappy with being found here, and I understand. But the need is urgent, and dire, and I am in desperate need of your help, as is the universe in which we reside. There is much darkness, in this universe . . . plenty of worlds on the brink of collapse, or at the precipice of something great. It is my job -- our job -- to help where needed. Like superheroes, but a little less flashy!

[ she pauses. ]

No offense to the superheroes. -- but anyway! I want to let you know were we're going to go first.

[ she takes in a D E E P breath!! ]

There is a city, by the name of El Minha. It's beautiful, an oasis in the desert. There are many shops and stalls and the entire city is bustling, but El Minha is facing a difficult path. Transitions of power are hard, you know? And they have a new King, who is . . . probably nice, but the people there are suffering. Crime is at an all-time high, and King Kathashun can only do so much . . . if he's doing anything at all.

[ she brushes a loose piece of hair behind her ear, and astoria smiles a little. it is obvious, by now, that she's definitely bubbly and full of spirit, but she is deadly serious about her mission. ]

I truly believe that we have the ability to help those who need it most, and those people are in desperate need. So we're going to go there, explore, and talk to them! And maybe, just maybe, we can affect some good in this world, and change the tide for the better for these poor people.

[ she pauses. ]

So that's where we're going first! But before that, I'm here to greet you, to support you, and welcome you to my beautiful Temple. Please, please, please make yourselves at home! I'll be here if you have any questions. ♥

[ astoria pauses before lifting up a single finger, as if she's forgotten something important. ]

Oh, and please let me know if you find anything interesting or important or otherwise peculiar in the Temple! The Forest of the Fey is a magical place, and I'm keeping a careful eye on all of you explorers to make sure you don't get too lost, but my dear friends within the forest may like playing with you all, so be respectful of the wildlife! It may fight back. ♥

[ is she serious? the world may never know. ]

Comments

[mytearsaremine]

[That's scary, that the all-powerful person who dragged them here doesn't know how her own place works. Jolie decides not to comment further on it.]

Okay. What happens when we get there? Are we going to have money, or do we have to like. Get jobs? Will there be somewhere for us to stay and food and stuff? Can we tell people what we're there for or do we have to pretend to be local, or at least from their own world or whatever?

[acatastoria]

You'll be introduced to the city, but as far as what happens when we get there, you're going to have to be a little innovative. No one is going to let you starve, probably.

[ with a slight wave of her fingers. ]

You can share or hide as much as you like! I'm not in the business of hiding, and if you'd like to tell the natives about me or our mission, feel free! They might think you're crazy, but as far as I know, El Minha is used to magic. The concept of a witch won't be a totally alien one.

[mytearsaremine]

[In other words, no money to keep them fed. GREAT.]

Even a witch who kidnaps people from other worlds and then tosses them at new ones? That's kinda more powerful than most witches I've ever read about.

I mean... witches I read about weren't real, so maybe that's not what witches are like at all, so. What do I know.

[acatastoria]

I normally can do all of this on my own, but I've run into a little bit of difficulty on that front.

[ whomp whomp. ]

But all cultures have varying stories about powerful beings -- I don't think it's all that unusual.

[ she pauses. ]

Tell me a little about the witches in your world, if you don't mind? What are they like?

[mytearsaremine]

[Unexpected. Jolie pauses, too, to put her thoughts in order.]

Well. There's, like, different kinds depending on who wrote the story? Mostly they're not great people, like Baba Yaga who eats people who piss her off, or the Wicked Witch of the West who put curses on people. Or the ones in fairy tales like Rapunzel or Hansel and Gretel, who kidnap kids.

Uh.

[A little on the nose, there, and she didn't even mean to.]

Sometimes there are nice witches, but mostly only in more modern stories, not the ones from the really old stories. I think most of the really complex witches are actually, like, fairies or elves?

[acatastoria]

[ . . . huh. ]

So they're not real, in your world? Witches. They only come around in stories?

[mytearsaremine]

There's no magic in my world. Hard to have witches without magic, right? Like, I'm sure there are people who say they're witches, like goth girls or nature lovers or something? But there's no scientific proof that magic exists.

You kind of have to go to other worlds for that.

[She's accepted magic is a thing, since turning into a shadow monster. But she still doesn't think it exists on her own world.]

[acatastoria]

There are only a tiny handful of worlds where magic doesn't exist in some way, shape, or form, did you know that?

[ she speaks with great experience . . . or at least, that's what her tone indicates. ]

It's a fairly amazing thing, to find something without magic.

[mytearsaremine]

[Yeah, condescending is not a way to make Jolie like you, Astoria. She sounds kind of annoyed when she replies:]

We have aliens, but no magic that I've ever seen or heard of, sorry. And people have researched that stuff cuz there's a lot of people who wish there was magic.

[acatastoria]

[ she's honestly not attempting to be condescending; she's trying to parse through the massive amount of diversity that's shown up in her backyard and ensuring she gets it all right in her head. ]

I imagine a lot of people who wish there was magic ... well. I suppose it's obvious that they don't understand it, because they don't have it. But now you do!

[ a bit brightly. ]

So I suppose you can be your world's very first witch.

[mytearsaremine]

[Touchy teenagers, man.]

... my parents would flip out. I mean. Not that they won't flip out over the tentacles, anyway, but still.

[Which brings up another question, and a surge of homesickness:]

Will you send us home when we're done with this stuff?

[acatastoria]

Do your parents not like magic?

[ unfortunate. ]

And of course! When we're complete, I will send you all home -- I should be able to, once we figure out. The Temple might be a bit more tame by then.

[mytearsaremine]

It's kind of complicated. There's this line in the Bible that basically says witches are evil and you should execute them. I mean, there's some debate on whether it means a specific kind of magic, like a necromancer versus a regular spellcaster or whatever, but my parents can be kind of conservative.

Like I don't think they'd kill me or anything! But they wouldn't be happy about it. Not that they'd be happy about tentacles and shadow-monster, either. It's just kind of a mess.

[She'll just sit on the thing about the Temple for a minute, here.]

[acatastoria]

It sounds as if your parents should love you regardless of what you are.

[ simply enough. ]

Magic is as natural as breathing, to me. I would probably die without it.

[mytearsaremine]

Well, sure, they probably would. But it's still kind of scary to have somebody with magic and tentacles showing up back home after being gone for, like, a couple years or however long it winds up being, you know? If I'm all grown up, they might not even recognize me.

[Ain't that depressing.]

I guess you probably shouldn't go to Earth, then, if you'd die without magic.

[acatastoria]

You likely won't have any magic from here when you return home.

[ mildly enough. ]

You won't need it at home, so -- the magic will stay here, at the Temple.

[mytearsaremine]

[There's a pause.]

... does that mean the stuff from Ryslig, too? The shadow-tentacles and the... rest of it that the Temple is keeping from being useful? Will that be gone, too?

[acatastoria]

I'm not so sure about that.

[ there's a slight shrug. ]

I only know about what magic I granted you.