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Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.
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cumulonimbus
"No, I still have to sleep normally. So I just go up for an hour or two every day from my hammock because one of my teachers put the safety circle around it."
Stormy eventually needs to be put down - one of the annoying things she needs to do for the part of her which is not the sky is eat, and she can't even get a meal from Bar because she doesn't have any spending money on her. She gathers up the napkins she collected from Bar with explanations before the elementals spotted her, and lets herself out, wistful.
Stormy eventually needs to be put down - one of the annoying things she needs to do for the part of her which is not the sky is eat, and she can't even get a meal from Bar because she doesn't have any spending money on her. She gathers up the napkins she collected from Bar with explanations before the elementals spotted her, and lets herself out, wistful.
Well then.
Lightning takes the room key from Earth and goes off to have a nap. Earth stays in the main bar area to see who turns up next.
Lightning takes the room key from Earth and goes off to have a nap. Earth stays in the main bar area to see who turns up next.
After some traffic which includes no mysterious duplicates of Maurabel, the crowd thins out again, and here is another mysterious duplicate. This one is about the same age as the one with the Pokémon, but skinnier and redheaded and paler, and in yet another stylistically unrelated sort of clothing. She seems pretty bewildered.
"Hello," says Earth.
"A very weird magic place called Milliways."
"It's, uh, very weird and magic. Why am I in a weird magic place called Milliways?"
"Apparently it just does that," he says, shrugging. His leaves rustle.
"I'm an Earth. I'm not a plant, but my wings and halo are."
"Okay. I didn't think you were entirely a plant, but it seemed politer to ask than to check any other way I could think of. I'm a plant," she volunteers, "I don't tell people that at home but this is sufficiently bizarre that I don't think it can possibly hurt anything."
"You look more like a human than a plant to me," Earth observes. "But stranger things have happened."
"Yeah, I don't know, like, why I am a plant, since I turned up on Chris's doorstep mysteriously when I was like three and had amnesia, but I perk up in the sunshine and have to avoid salt and if you prick me I do not exactly bleed."
"Well then. I guess you're a plant," he says. "Did you know I've seen two other people here with almost exactly your face? I'm told that's been known to happen, but I am not told why or what it means."
"The bar." He points. "She's very helpful. Communicates through napkins."
"...Okay. The plant approaches the bar. "...Hello."
Hello. Can I interest you in a beverage? First drink is free.
"Not right now, maybe later... there are people who look like me?"
Several.
"Why?"
In the case of the ones Earth met, they're your 'alts', or alternate universe versions of yourself.
"Huh. Are they plants?"
The ones who visited recently were not, no. I cannot guarantee that you are the only plant out of all of your alts anywhere ever.
Hello. Can I interest you in a beverage? First drink is free.
"Not right now, maybe later... there are people who look like me?"
Several.
"Why?"
In the case of the ones Earth met, they're your 'alts', or alternate universe versions of yourself.
"Huh. Are they plants?"
The ones who visited recently were not, no. I cannot guarantee that you are the only plant out of all of your alts anywhere ever.
"And there's another one attending the university at home, but I don't know for sure that she's an alt of yours," says Earth. "I suspect so, though."
Earth considers this question, then settles on, "Unusually nice."
"Huh. I don't really consider niceness my defining feature. My sister's better with people than I am. The other ones you met here, the bar says they're my alts, did you talk to them enough to guess if they're hers?... I'm assuming althood is transitive. Bar?"
Ordinary forms of althood, yes. More exotic forms of parallelism exist but are not at play in what I've observed here.
Ordinary forms of althood, yes. More exotic forms of parallelism exist but are not at play in what I've observed here.
"There seems to be a certain commonality," he says. "I don't think niceness is a defining feature of Maurabel's either; I think it's a product of her environment."
"I don't have a personal name. You can just call me Earth," he says with a slight shrug. "In my world, humans can capture elementals and force us to do magic for them. There are entire industries built on the practice. Maurabel is one of the few humans around who sees something wrong with it. I don't think I'd consider her unusually nice if it weren't for the contrast."
"Most people don't see anything wrong with that? Where I'm from slavery's been illegal for a long time."