action/audio later on.

[contaeoro]

[action; the village]
[He managed to get those pesky wings to stay flat against his back at least. It still feels weird, but he is happier now that he's got his clothes on and he made it out of the forest. He's still far, far away from New York though. That much he can tell. The white cotton clothes held in his hand, Maiza looks around in a wonder as he walks into what looks like a small village.

It doesn't look like anywhere he has been before. Narrowing his eyes, he will approach the nearest, friendly looking person.]

Pardon me, ah... could you explain to me where this is?

[audio; later on]
... I think I've got this figured out now. What an interesting contraption.

Hm.

I was told speakin' to this journal will allow me to speak with the other folks in this area. Thought I'd introduce myself, as from what I've heard we're all stuck in the same boat, here. [A pause.] My name is Maiza.

[Longer pause.... what do you even say to introduce yourself when you're talking at a journal?]

Comments

[contaeoro]

[It's an important hat.]

I'd hate to take food from you and your housemates. I'm sure I'll be fine.

[immamartillo]

What? But all the food's free anyway. I'm sure they won't mind.

[contaeoro]

If it's free, I can find some for myself too.

[immamartillo]

But it's more convenient since you're right here anyway.

[He trots over to the kitchen.]

What do you want?

[contaeoro]

Well, if you insist... anything's fine.

[immamartillo]

Anything?

[He starts searching the fridge, finally brandishing a loaf bread.]

How about a sandwich? Do you want anything to drink?

We don't have anything like Alveare does, but I think there is honey around here somewhere...

[He kind of does miss that special touch.]

[contaeoro]

Drink, huh? Just water will be all right. Thanks.

[He chuckles when Firo brandishes that bread.]

Sena would be upset if we thought anything measured up to her honey.

[immamartillo]

[Firo laughs as he sets the bread down on the table.]

She would. I don't think she's gotta worry, though, nothin' can compete with hers.

[contaeoro]

[He nods, slowly.]

When we get back there, we'll have to make sure we eat plenty of it to make up for what we missed.

[immamartillo]

Definitely. Hopefully she won't ask if something's come over us.

[Luceti would be difficult to explain.]

[contaeoro]

I'm sure she wouldn't say anything unless we were eating too much for her to keep up business.

[immamartillo]

[He nods, laughing.]

True. I think everybody'd be on our case then. Sena, Lia...

[He gets Maiza his water and starts looking through the fridge for something to put on the sandwich.]

Is there anything specific you want on it?

[contaeoro]

Whatever you have is just fine. I'm not that picky.

[However, he still steps over to the fridge and peers in, just to see exactly what kind of food is available here.]

[immamartillo]

Hm... Alright.

[There's a nice jumble of items in the fridge from a bottle of wine on the bottom shelf to a few pieces of fruit to various veggies. Firo selects some sliced turkey and cheese.]

Are these good? We went shoppin' not too long ago, so they should still be fresh.

[contaeoro]

Is there a place you get all these things from? [He sounds impressed, reaching over to poke at the wine bottle to read the label.]

[immamartillo]

Yeah, there's a buncha' shops right in the town center. No big places like Gimbels, but you can get what you need.

[Firo moves aside so Maiza can reach the bottle more easily.]

[contaeoro]

Interesting. [He peers at the label, trying to find a date and name, but deciding it might be faster to ask the bottle's owner, he turns to Firo.] Is this anything fancy?

[immamartillo]

[Firo moves to the table to finish making Maiza's sandwich.]

Nah, just what I found lyin' around. Didn't recognize the name, and I couldn't find a year on it.

[The label is pretty bare bones, just noting that it's a merlot.]

[contaeoro]

Interesting. It looks like they have plenty of food that we'd recognize from our world.

[He closes the fridge and joins Firo at the table.]

Maybe here is similar to there.

[immamartillo]

Yeah, there's some weird stuff but a lot of what they got I can recognize.

[He slides Maiza his sandwich.

He's putting the leftover food away, but turns around in surprise when he hears Maiza speaking again. ]

What? It's nothin' like home!

[contaeoro]

Thanks. [He takes the sandwich. He's feeling pretty hungry, so he'll bite into it.]

It's different, but it's got food we recognize and we can understand what the people here are saying.

[immamartillo]

[He sighs quietly; he realizes that Maiza has a point the more he thinks about what he said.]

Yeah, you're right about all that.

[He smiles wryly.]

There isn't even a yellow brick road and the ground's not all messed up to look like a chess board, so maybe it isn't too weird.

[Luceti: less weird than Oz or the world through the looking glass.]

[contaeoro]

[He grins a little at the references. Firo may have whined at them for liking dominos, but even he makes fairy tale references. He won't jump on the opportunity for poking fun this time, though, he's not Czes.]

You're right. It could be much worse; it would be terrible to have things reminiscent of Poe's works, for example.

[immamartillo]

[Much as Firo tries, sometimes it can be hard to keep all of his childishness bottles up.

He laughs and mock shudders.]

Definitely. If anybody could find a way to make it worse, it'd be him. He wasn't a very happy guy, huh?

[A bit of an understatement.]

[contaeoro]

No, I'm afraid he was quite the pessimist, but I think he had a good reason to be.