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This was a bad idea this was a bad idea this was a bad idea.
Holly runs as fast as she can but the demon's faster. She has no idea where Lightning's gotten to; maybe he found a tree to climb. She on the other hand has been diverted into a treeless hill and she's careening down a slope, trying very hard not to trip.
And the demon's gaining on her.
She's never seen anything like it and neither has Crystal; maybe Book knows what it is but Book's asleep. It's mostly mouth - it looks like a cross between a floorlength mirror of a mouth and a snake to propel the mouth along.
And Holly's not fast enough.
The mouth catches her.
But it doesn't hurt.
Where are we?
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inourhead
honestly_determined
"Well, gee," Alli says. "If only one of us lived in a huge mansion with extra rooms."
inourhead
The stranger has found what she was looking for: it appears to be a map. She flips through it until she comes to a zoomed-out page depicting a place of uncertain scale - a few apparent cities are dotted and labeled in unfamiliar script, there are mountain ranges in stylized flock-of-triangles form, there are bodies of blue water and a big ragged black spot of nothing in the middle. She points at a city-dot towards the bottom edge of the map (at least the way she's holding it; it's anyone's guess what direction the script is supposed to be read in) and shows it to the others, murmuring gibberish and looking hopeful.
when_spoken_to
"Just because we have extra rooms doesn't mean I can just- stick her in one," Emma objects. "And there's other Lalindars here, what if they ran into her? She can't exactly explain herself."
She looks over at the paper she's been presented with. She can just barely guess that it should be a map, but she recognizes nothing on it. No Welce, no Malinqua, no Soche-Tas, no Thiyec. Nothing that even resembles the geography of the borders of any of those places.
"Um. We're not that far from the library," she says uncertainly. "I could show her the map in there, I guess." She points at the map- carefully not at the city-dot that seems to excite her, that would be cruel- and gestures for the girl to follow.
She looks over at the paper she's been presented with. She can just barely guess that it should be a map, but she recognizes nothing on it. No Welce, no Malinqua, no Soche-Tas, no Thiyec. Nothing that even resembles the geography of the borders of any of those places.
"Um. We're not that far from the library," she says uncertainly. "I could show her the map in there, I guess." She points at the map- carefully not at the city-dot that seems to excite her, that would be cruel- and gestures for the girl to follow.
joyful_soul
"If she stays here can there be no mice?" Jenny inquires from her kind-of hiding spot.
honestly_determined
Alli sighs and starts to shove Jenny library-ward. "Okay, seriously. They are small, cute, fuzzy and sleeping. And in a cage. How are you not super excited about this?"
inourhead
The stranger seems willing enough to follow them. She picks up her bag, mice and all, and goes where she is led.
when_spoken_to
The library is in fact only a couple rooms away. Emma leads the others in there, feeling slightly like a mother duck, and goes straight for the map on her father's desk and points.
It's a very nice map. Her father's involved in trade in Soche-Tas and has been branching out into other countries, so it's practically an art piece by itself. There are little wooden markers on a few locations to keep track of her father's caravans and ships and similar concerns; the rivers and oceans are painted to be obviously water, with little decorative fish thrown in; the foreign cities are doubly labeled with both the Welchin name and the local name. Emma's quite familiar with it- no small part of why she knows languages is to help with such things- and she points at Chialto carefully on the map, then to the four of them, then to Chialto again.
It's a very nice map. Her father's involved in trade in Soche-Tas and has been branching out into other countries, so it's practically an art piece by itself. There are little wooden markers on a few locations to keep track of her father's caravans and ships and similar concerns; the rivers and oceans are painted to be obviously water, with little decorative fish thrown in; the foreign cities are doubly labeled with both the Welchin name and the local name. Emma's quite familiar with it- no small part of why she knows languages is to help with such things- and she points at Chialto carefully on the map, then to the four of them, then to Chialto again.
inourhead
The stranger seems nearly as bewildered by this map as Emma is by hers. She puts the maps next to each other to compare.
She points at the big ragged splotch of black in the middle of her map, and gestures at the map which is notably devoid of such a thing.
She points at the big ragged splotch of black in the middle of her map, and gestures at the map which is notably devoid of such a thing.
honestly_determined
Alli is mostly staying out of this, but at that she snorts. "I thought that was an inkblot. What is that, anyway?"
when_spoken_to
"Don't ask me," Emma shrugs. "I've never seen anything like that." She points at the blot and just shakes her head, miming confusion.
inourhead
The girl looks extremely skeptical. She puts her map away, though, and peers at the one provided.
Eventually she sighs, and points at herself, and says something that sounds like, "Sohng." Pause, then, "Roooom, Pyay." Then she gestures at the others in turn, inquisitive.
Eventually she sighs, and points at herself, and says something that sounds like, "Sohng." Pause, then, "Roooom, Pyay." Then she gestures at the others in turn, inquisitive.
when_spoken_to
"Is that... your name is Sohng Room Pyay?" Emma guesses. She points at herself. "Emma Lalindar."
honestly_determined
"You would include Lalindar," Alli laughs, and points at herself. "Alli."
inourhead
Sohng Room Pyay, or whatever her name is, frowns. "Sohng," she says, pointing at herself. Long pause. "Roooom Pyay."
honestly_determined
"So... what, she has two totally different names? That doesn't sound like a last name, when she talks like that."
when_spoken_to
"Maybe it's a title...?" Emma suggests helplessly. "Like, Sohng is like Prime, and Room Pyay is her name?"
inourhead
Whatever-her-name-is struggles with the first syllable of Jenny's name, finally settles on calling her "Ni" with an apologetic look on her face, manages "Alli" with only slight mangling of the first vowel, and has comparable luck with "Emma". Having established that she's connected names to faces, she then says, "Emma roooom...?" expectantly.
when_spoken_to
"Well, I officially declare the word 'room' to be 'and'," Emma sighs. "But I still have no idea what she wants. My last name doesn't make sense here, right?"
honestly_determined
"Seems like," Alli confirms. "Nickname, maybe? You said that was 'and', right? Like she wants another name, wherever we'd get that from.