[Introduction] Anyway the wind blows...

[abadland4gods]

Everywhere he went, Shadow found them.

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[death_dawg]

Out on the porch, if Shadow should venture out, he might spy a fairly familiar face: a smallish black dog, licking its paws and running them behind it's ears, as if washing them (since that's what he's doing: Basenjis do this, it seems. This typist swears they learned it from cats...).

The dog pauses and looks up, it's pricked ears lifting a bit more if that's possible.

[abadland4gods]

Shadow really wishes this was the dog he thinks this is. Really. But what are the odds? Wasn't Jacquel (and just about any of the other gods who were decent people) on his way out himself? What are the odds?

"... er... hi?"

[death_dawg]

"Hello yourself," the dog says, in that same dry but friendly deep voice. "I see you found this place, wherever it is."

[abadland4gods]

Damn. That is who Shadow thinks it is.

"I'd rather say it found me - would be more accurate."

Shadow looks around to make sure he's not, you know, seen having a conversation with a dog.

"I didn't think this was what backstage looks like, to be honest, Mr. Jacquel."

[death_dawg]

Jacquel gets up on all four paws and stretches, front paws braced on the floor, head lowered, rump lifted. "Doesn't appear to be, from what I've seen," he grunts, then sits down on his haunches. "It isn't the underworld, either. Seems to be a world of it's own."

[abadland4gods]

"... that doesn't make any sense," Shadow observes in a rare feat of complete logic.

Pause.

"Does it?"

[death_dawg]

"It's a paradox, whatever it is. Not a bad thing, just a head-scratch-inducing thing," he says, scratching under his chin with a hind foot.

[abadland4gods]

Shadow blinks, and after shaking himself a little, he rubs his face. "Mr. Jacquel, can you do me a favor?"

[death_dawg]

"Name it, I'll do what I can," he says, shifting his front paws a bit.

[abadland4gods]

"Any chance you could take your other form? This is weird enough as it is.."

Shadow trails off, he figures it would be unnecessary to tell Jacquel that talking to a dog on the porch is weird.

[death_dawg]

"No sooner said than done," he says, standing up on all fours....

...And then, just as suddenly, he's standing there in his recognizable human form, in his shirt sleeves, but it's obviously him.

[abadland4gods]

"Thank you," Shadow replies. "It's weird enough as is, I'd rather talk to a face I know, if you get my meaning. So, what's this place?"

[death_dawg]

"They call it simply the Mansion: seems as good a name for it as anything would be," he says, looking around them both.

[abadland4gods]

"You've gotta be kidding me," Shadow says tiredly. "The Mansion? That's all they could come up with?"

Then again, come to think of it... it's not more imaginative than 'House on the Rock'...

[death_dawg]

"That's the name I've heard people use for it," he says, glancing up at the house. "It's as good a name as any. Might have it's own name, but it's stubborn to give it up."

[abadland4gods]

"... is there a carousel in there?"

You know, just in case, it seems like a good thing to ask about to Shadow.