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

[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.

[immamartillo]

Oh, yeah? What happened to him?

[Luck probably told Firo all about it, but he can't retain all that misery.]

[contaeoro]

Well, he grew up an orphan, couldn't make it in school, and lost his wife quite early on too. He's had a tough life in general.

[immamartillo]

I guess that is pretty bad. But I don't see how that all turns into ravens and hearts buried under your floor.

[contaeoro]

Well, I don't claim to know all about poetry, but those are probably symbols.

[immamartillo]

Symbols, eh? Why have they gotta make it so complicated?

[contaeoro]

That's where the beauty of language lies, Firo.

[The glasses help make some of the bs-ing look legit.]

[immamartillo]

[Firo looks skeptical--language is just words, nothing beautiful about it--but only for a moment. If Maiza's saying it, then he'll buy it.

The glasses do help.]

...I'll take your word for it.

[contaeoro]

[he grins at Firo's agreement. (He knew Firo would agree, because it's not a life-changing argument.)]

I'm glad I could get you to agree.

[immamartillo]

[He laughs.]

Well, it's not like I can really argue about somethin' like that.

[Nor would he want to.]

[contaeoro]

We aren't critics. It's best to leave that to the professionals.

[immamartillo]

Yeah, if they're crazy enough to actually wanna do it, then we should let 'em.

[He's kidding! Mostly.]

[contaeoro]

[He laughs at that, although he's completely lost track of where there conversation was before this derail. He just smiles as he finishes his sandwich, thanking Firo for it again.]