Sana's really looking forward to her bath tonight, Viola is a lovely girl but always makes her sweat a lot.

She opens the door to her bedroom, already anticipating having some time to unwind.

She freezes. On the other side of the door, instead of her room, there is a... vast hall.

It looks like some royal palace, not that Sana has ever seen one, but the shiny surfaces, chairs made of metal, it all speaks of someone incredibly rich.

She's far too curious to not investigate. She takes a few tentative steps inside the massive room, while the door - completely forgotten - closes softly behind her.

The lights are so bright, probably magical, and the whole room is filled with decorations! Red, gold and green ribbons on the walls, and a tree full of trinkets that look incredibly expensive, made of glass and other materials she doesn't even recognize.

There is a person sitting on one of the chairs, and Sana cautiously approaches them.

It's a woman, dressed in a pair of nearly-black leggings worn under a short dress. "Well, fancy seeing you here. Shithead. Once these hallucinations are over, I'm gonna go smash someone's face in at my local dueling gym. How do you like to relieve stress, figment of my imagination?"

"My name is Sana, I don't know anyone called Seeted. And I... don't think this is an illusion, it looks way too detailed and, well, real? Do you know who is the Lord of this castle?"

"I was insulting you. And you're telling me that people can just walk into their homes and randomly arrive at an interdimensional bar that serves drinks appearing from nowhere? We know that people can have some very vivid dreams, trust me. Parallel universe drinking establishments aren't real. I'm sure the lord of this 'castle' is the god of beer and jolly, hah."

"Oh. You better apologize miss, there are consequences to insulting me. I don't know what a bar is, and I may even agree with you that it's downright weird how I got here from my bedroom door, which is still there, behind -"

As she says that, she turns to point to the door, but loses her thread when she realizes that there are at least a dozen identical doors on the wall, none of which look like her bedroom's one.

"Your weird mind trick almost worked! But I'm really not scared of anything that a hallucination might do to me. Honestly, I should calm down, still." The woman walks towards the doors, hoping that opening them to see what's behind them at least adds some fun to this hallucination.

Mind trick? What mind trick?

She's about to voice a rebuttal, when the stranger opens a door to... a world, with impossibly high buildings, made of glass and what looks like unreally flat slabs of rock, painted in a perfect white. They look too fragile to be that tall, and yet they stand, more than the eye can count.

She can see some mechanical contraptions in the distance, running faster than a horse, while making no sound.

Is this... Axis? Did she just insult an Outsider?

Carefully, deferentially, she asks "My lady, is that... your native plane?"

"It's a city, not a plane. If your planes are this huge, where the hell did you come from? Anyway, I wanna stop hallucinating. See ya later once I've asked the guys at the hospital what happened!" She waits a few seconds, deliberately waving at Sana before starting to make her way back to something that isn't an obvious hallucination, at least.

She's so confused. Why does the outsider think she comes from Hell? She's clearly human, not a devil!

"Wait!" and then, hesitantly "Please. I'm confused by what's happening and need to understand what all this is.".

As she says that, she follows the outsider through the door, keeping it open with one hand.

The woman just shrugs. "I don't think it's harmful to have imaginary friends. Sure, you can come with me. I'm looking forward to seeing if you do anything else fun."

Sana doesn't feel imaginary at all, truth be told, but it's probably useless to try more convincing now.

She looks at the door, still showing the palace on the other side, and hesitates.

The outsider was able to get this door to her plane from that weird palace, show if she goes back now she can also probably get a door to her home again.

But. This is (probably) Axis.

Sana knows that, realistically, she's going to be Judged as Neutral Evil, and thus get the choice between Hell and the Abyss. Or maybe just end up in the Abyss, like her Lady. Either way, there is no way she can make Axis and... it looks nice here. There are green fields, buildings that no human hand could make, and the outsider was rude, sure but... not violent. Nor vindictive.

She thinks about Sofia, how worried she would be to find her gone, her bathrobe untouched, all her jewels and gold still there.

Could she bring Sofia here? She has some savings, and gold is gold, they could probably...

Would they even let her stay here? She's still alive, she doesn't really belong, and she's not even of the right alignment. The outsider sounded indifferent, which is surprising for a being of Law.

"I want to follow you, but can we make sure that I'll be able to get home first?"

The woman turns around and looks at Sana, with a stunned expression. "... wow. I think you might somehow be someone real. Yes, yes of course. Try some of the other doors; I'll be holding this one open, ready for you."

Thank you, she doesn't say. She steps into Axis, looking for another door. There!

She opens it, heart beating fast, just to find that it leads to a room with walls covered in tiles. She stares, as if her glare could magically make the room change, then slowly, dejected, closes it back.

As the door closes, she feels... something. The tiniest  spark of energy running from her hand to the door's handle.

She concentrates on the feeling and...

Opens the door. In front of her, now, she can see the palace, with the magic lights and... oh, wow, are those stars in the window? They look so pretty...

She leans against the door, feeling suddenly tired, then closes it and turns towards the outsider.

"I am ready. I will follow you."

As she walks back to the other door, she asks: "May I know your name, mylady?"

"The name's Cynthia. And I guess you might be real, after all. Now, how about following me home so I can start showing you around?"

She's in front of one of the skyscrapers surrounding a courtyard, with bright white paths of sand. There are a few people walking around packed circles full of flowers, colored in red and purple. She walks up towards a greyish square against the wall the skyscrapers, designed so the door is camouflaged against the wall. The door slides away, revealing a lobby with many widely-spaced columns, hiding elevators. She walks up towards the one labelled D7, before looking back at Sana, waiting expectantly for her to follow her.

Cynthia! Such a... normal name. "I will follow you."

Ooooh, the flowers are pretty, she particularly loves the purple ones!

She follows her inside the tower, and just stares confused when Cynthia stops next to a column. Ooooh, is that of marble?

Eventually, the elevator shows up. "Just walk right on in", she says. The elevator is unusually roomy and square, perhaps 3 meters by 3 meters, with white walls. It starts racing up after Cynthia pushes 2 buttons on the elevator panel. Sana feels a fair bit of acceleration, before Cynthia pushes a tiny, cylindrical key into the wall and reveals the huge living room of her apartment. The view of the window only really shows the skyscraper opposite hers, though. "Hope it's big enough."

Why is there an empty room inside the column? Why is it moving? Sana is so confused.

"Hope it's big enough."

She must be making fun of her. This house is almost three times as big as hers, and Sana is rich enough to have a separate room for Sofia. The only weird thing is that there aren't any defined rooms, it's just a single open space. Do people even need a bedroom in Axis?

"It is appropriate for your caliber, my Lady."

Cynthia chuckles slightly at Sana's words. "I sure as hell hope it would be! I work hard to earn my money. Anyway, how are you liking it? Wanna just relax and sprawl out on the couch or something?"

Her mentioning Hell again... this is clearly Axis though, there is no one being tortured, no fire...

"I think it's delightful, tastefully decorated."

She's still feeling a bit dizzy from the effort of opening the door earlier, and would actually appreciate being able to relax.

sprawl out on the couch

Is this... an invitation to lay together?

Cynthia stretches a few times, before walking to the microwave and starting to heat up a cup of green tea. She's really looking forward to it; she hasn't had green tea for a few days now, so it'll be kind of like having it for the first time. The cup, with the blue and green bubble pattern around it, slowly spins in the microwave, and she thinks it's fun to see it moving like that.

Sana lays on the couch, keeping her posture open but not explicit.

She is fascinated by the spinning contraption that Cyntha put her mug in. She wonders what it's doing to it, it's hard to tell. There is no heat coming off it, nor apparent magic.

She is kind of staring at it.