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Patrick has been hiding his toys again. (And, annoyingly, his siblings' toys as well.) For Jenny, this means that once her siblings fall asleep, she gets to spend the next hour hunting around for all the places he may have stuck something. Her latest find is Anne's stuffed unicorn, which was for some reason shoved under the bathroom sink. She doesn't need to wake her sister up for it, but she can at least go put it outside her door.
Except that when she leaves the bathroom, she's not in the hallway. She's in what appears to be a large, brightly lit bar. None of these things apply to her hallway. She feels rather out of place; t-shirt, pajama pants and stuffed unicorn are not exactly magic bar attire. (She thinks.)
As far as Jenny knows, there's only one person in her immediate vicinity who associates with magic. This doesn't seem like Soph's style, but it also doesn't seem particularly threatening. From Soph's explanations, evil magic is pretty up front about being evil. "I replaced your hallway with a restaurant" does not scream evil to her, it's just weird.
She ventures inside a few steps. "Soph? Soooooph, is this you?"
bright_and_beautiful
feyfortune
"If I'm dreaming, that would mean that someone got me with sleep-pollen while I was trying to get Penguin stabled and combed. Which is unlikely for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I don't know what this place is besides 'not a stable.'"
bright_and_beautiful
"And I'm pretty sure my bathroom is supposed to lead to my hallway, not-" Jenny looks around, "a mostly empty fairy unicorn bar." She scowls at the unattended bar. "There isn't even anyone here to ask."
feyfortune
"I know it can't be a gate because there are no gates in the Deep South. So I guess it's just a...thing." Beat. "Okay. I can deal with that."
bright_and_beautiful
Jenny giggles at that. "I know it probably makes no sense to you at all but now I'm picturing the Deep South where I'm from having fairies and unicorns and it's very, very not working."
bright_and_beautiful
"I haven't ever been to ours but it's supposed to be pretty hot! At least within my country, I guess. Swamps? Mosquitos? Palm trees and alligators?" Pet, pet. "Er, these are all stereotypes. See: I have not ever actually been. But not with the icy and snowy." Pet pet pet. "Sometimes it snows, like, an inch, and everything shuts down because OMG SNOW and they can't handle it, aaaaand I'm babbling, I'll stop now." She keeps petting, then pauses consideringly. "...can Penguin walk on ice? Or, wait, you stay enclosed away from the snow. Sooo that's dumb, probably not."
feyfortune
"I didn't think the mortal realm's geography was so different...or...no, there are good reasons that it's so icy down here. Did something extremely magic happen? Are there any penguins left?"
bright_and_beautiful
"Awww," Jenny goes to pat the stranger's shoulder, "don't look so stressed, unicorn lady, it's okay! There's still penguins, I promise! Many extremely magic things have happened, but as far as I know none of them affected the weather? The penguins are just reeeeally far away. Where there is totally ice and snow and stuff."
bright_and_beautiful
"There is lots of south that is not in my country! Deep South is just what we call the south-iest part of the country I live in. There's lots, lots more. If you go north enough or south enough, it's all ice."
She ceases petting Penguin long enough to hold up Fancy. "Fancy, this is Penguin. Penguin, this is Fancy. He belongs to my little sister but he was totally mine first, so his name is sorta my fault, buuut whatever it's fine."
She ceases petting Penguin long enough to hold up Fancy. "Fancy, this is Penguin. Penguin, this is Fancy. He belongs to my little sister but he was totally mine first, so his name is sorta my fault, buuut whatever it's fine."
feyfortune
Penguin blows at the doll. Whether or not this is a coincidence is anybody's guess.
"Well, when I say 'Deep South' I mean the southernmost continent on the planet, so I suppose that's a valid cause for miscommunication."
"Well, when I say 'Deep South' I mean the southernmost continent on the planet, so I suppose that's a valid cause for miscommunication."
bright_and_beautiful
Jenny giggles and makes Fancy solemnly tap horns with Penguin. This is how she pictures unicorn greetings in her head, and now she gets to make it happen for real. (Half real. Three quarters real? Stuffed unicorns count a little.)
"I mean, my world doesn't have unicorns, makes sense that some things are different. Well... I don't think it does? If Soph has been holding out on me, I will be very annoyed, who reveals vampires and demons and not unicorns?" She shrugs. "Sorry for the confusion. My continent's pretty far north, actually. If we had a map I'd show you, but. Nope!"
"I mean, my world doesn't have unicorns, makes sense that some things are different. Well... I don't think it does? If Soph has been holding out on me, I will be very annoyed, who reveals vampires and demons and not unicorns?" She shrugs. "Sorry for the confusion. My continent's pretty far north, actually. If we had a map I'd show you, but. Nope!"
feyfortune
Alcallah holds out her hand, frowns at it for a bit, and--
A globe appears. It's not very good, but it has the oceans and continents in blue and green respectively and the continents are identifiable if not terribly detailed.
"Which one?"
A globe appears. It's not very good, but it has the oceans and continents in blue and green respectively and the continents are identifiable if not terribly detailed.
"Which one?"
bright_and_beautiful
She peers at the globe, impressed. It's a large step above the glitter Soph threw at her. "Neat!" She pokes at it curiously, and ooohs when her fingers goes through. Then she looks somewhat despairingly at the North American blob and sticks her finger into what she thinks might be approximately southern California. "Here? Ish. I'm somewhere in there, anyway!"
feyfortune
"So..." she peers at the globe. "The thing you call the Deep South would be...here?" she pokes at Mexico.
bright_and_beautiful
"Nnnno, that's Mexico." She circles her hand through kind-of-the-US. "This is the country I'm in, aaand this," she circles most of the southeast, "is the Deep South. The rest is sorta just called the southwest."
bright_and_beautiful
"That... sounds like a pretty good way to describe my world, yeah," Jenny laughs. She tucks Fancy back under her arm and goes back to petting Penguin's neck as she looks around the room again. "Seriously, there's no one else here? Do you think someone's spying or something, I'm getting sorta freaked."
feyfortune
"I mean, this seems like a publicish place, I wasn't planning on doing anything I'd be freaked out by someone seeing."
bright_and_beautiful
"I'm not freaked out by empty public places or anything! But empty public places that ate my bathroom are sorta their own category, and oh man things I never thought I'd say."
bright_and_beautiful
Jenny gives Penguin a last pet before flopping into a chair and hugging Fancy. "This place is just. It's so nuts. Why my bathroom? Why me? Why you? I know God works in mysterious ways and all, but if this was Him then He's got a weeeeeeird sense of humor."
bright_and_beautiful
"Most of the magic I know about is evil," Jenny points out. "So far this has been harmless and had unicorns, sooooo I don't have a lot of options left. Unless I'm dreaming or something. Yep, God's the one with the angels," she laughs a bit at that, she guesses it's not well known for fairies but it seems so obvious to her, "why?"