(no subject)
Characters: Krile & Vimes
Date/Time: About a year after game-end
Location: Bal
Rating: PG-13?
Summary: FEY AND EILEEN KEEP THE ES TRAIN GOING FOREVER. FOREVER!!!! (Which is to say, Vimes spends a year home and then takes a day off to see if he can't visit Krile again. Which he does.)
------
The first little while after he got home, Vimes didn't think that he could be happier. Certainly things were a bit odd - he had gained a plethora of new scars that had to be explained, lost weight and gained muscle which Sybil noticed more or less right away and had to report his findings to Vetinari who just described it as interesting and steepled his fingers. Damned man. Somehow, and Vimes didn't know how, things got back to normal, or whatever counted as normal in Ankh Morpork.
No ridiculous costumes. No ice rinks spontaneously forming. No cocoons, no giant squirrels, no houses in trees, nobody with ridiculous powers who could regrow their limbs at will, no cloud hanging over him whispering of slowly encroaching loneliness and dark premonitions that he would never see his family and his home again. But with that came a loss of the decency he had learned to expect from the average citizen of Edensphere, let alone the bystanders that actually appeared to think about things, a loss of those he had counted dear to him.
If you had asked him a year ago whether or not he'd ever go back, he would firmly let them know that they were absolutely mad and that he had no intentions of ever stepping foot out of Ankh-Morpork again. But though he wasn't actively aware of it, he had changed in Edensphere, and this was just one of those changes. His feet began to itch in a way they never had before and he lingered on the idea of heading out for a couple days and visiting... well, Krile for one.
When he told Sybil, she simply raised a brow at him and noted, "I was wondering when you'd tell me this, Sam. She must be a very special girl to make you want to leave home. Are you sure Young Sam and I can't come along?"
"Another time," he reassured her. "Not until I test out those damned porthole things myself. I don't even know if she'll be in that city - er, kingdom I suppose - of hers. I won't be more than a few days at the most."
After informing Vetinari and his men that he was going to take a few days off (which was met with open astonishment in the latter's case and a mere lengthening of his usual sharp eyed stare in the case of the former), he strolled over to the library and was back in Edensphere before he knew it. The sight of his previous home sent a rush of memories back his way, but he curbed the temptation of seeing what the residents had done with the place and continued onto where the porthole to Bal was.
He wasn't transported to a grand city housing a luxurious castle like he was expecting. Instead what he saw was little more than a collection of dirt roads with very few people around, which made him wonder if he was in the right place at all. This didn't look much like a place that needed a monarch - it could probably make do with a mayor. He shrugged off his apprehension and headed into the direction of the castle (though he couldn't manage to shake his suspicion of all the nature here; he had gotten used to Ankh Morpork again and really disliked the sensation of the wildlife eying him).
The guards at the door stared at him, faces blank though he could see them surveying his battle-worn armor and the sword and truncheon he wore at his hip. Their faces said, who are you and why should we acknowledge your presence?
"Er," he said. "Is this Bal?"
The expressions changed to say, Who are you, you lost idiot? Which was fair enough. "Yes," one said, scrutinizing him.
"Oh. Well, good." He scratched his chin. The castle was bigger than any building he had ever seen in his life. "So what exactly is it you have to do to go inside?"
The guards exchanged looks. "First you've got to tell us why you're here and where you're from."
A whole lot of bloody good it would do if he came all the way here and ended up being turned away at the door because he didn't know a damn thing about this place's geography! He valiantly ignored the second question and informed them that he was, in fact, here to see the princess thank you very much, now would you please let him in? After a while of insisting that yes, he damn well had a good reason for being here, that reason being that he was here to see her didn't go over too well, and one of the guards vanished behind the bars, presumably to inform the princess or whoever the hell was in charge that some old ruffian was here to harass royalty.
Well, Vimes figured, that was one way to do it.
Date/Time: About a year after game-end
Location: Bal
Rating: PG-13?
Summary: FEY AND EILEEN KEEP THE ES TRAIN GOING FOREVER. FOREVER!!!! (Which is to say, Vimes spends a year home and then takes a day off to see if he can't visit Krile again. Which he does.)
------
The first little while after he got home, Vimes didn't think that he could be happier. Certainly things were a bit odd - he had gained a plethora of new scars that had to be explained, lost weight and gained muscle which Sybil noticed more or less right away and had to report his findings to Vetinari who just described it as interesting and steepled his fingers. Damned man. Somehow, and Vimes didn't know how, things got back to normal, or whatever counted as normal in Ankh Morpork.
No ridiculous costumes. No ice rinks spontaneously forming. No cocoons, no giant squirrels, no houses in trees, nobody with ridiculous powers who could regrow their limbs at will, no cloud hanging over him whispering of slowly encroaching loneliness and dark premonitions that he would never see his family and his home again. But with that came a loss of the decency he had learned to expect from the average citizen of Edensphere, let alone the bystanders that actually appeared to think about things, a loss of those he had counted dear to him.
If you had asked him a year ago whether or not he'd ever go back, he would firmly let them know that they were absolutely mad and that he had no intentions of ever stepping foot out of Ankh-Morpork again. But though he wasn't actively aware of it, he had changed in Edensphere, and this was just one of those changes. His feet began to itch in a way they never had before and he lingered on the idea of heading out for a couple days and visiting... well, Krile for one.
When he told Sybil, she simply raised a brow at him and noted, "I was wondering when you'd tell me this, Sam. She must be a very special girl to make you want to leave home. Are you sure Young Sam and I can't come along?"
"Another time," he reassured her. "Not until I test out those damned porthole things myself. I don't even know if she'll be in that city - er, kingdom I suppose - of hers. I won't be more than a few days at the most."
After informing Vetinari and his men that he was going to take a few days off (which was met with open astonishment in the latter's case and a mere lengthening of his usual sharp eyed stare in the case of the former), he strolled over to the library and was back in Edensphere before he knew it. The sight of his previous home sent a rush of memories back his way, but he curbed the temptation of seeing what the residents had done with the place and continued onto where the porthole to Bal was.
He wasn't transported to a grand city housing a luxurious castle like he was expecting. Instead what he saw was little more than a collection of dirt roads with very few people around, which made him wonder if he was in the right place at all. This didn't look much like a place that needed a monarch - it could probably make do with a mayor. He shrugged off his apprehension and headed into the direction of the castle (though he couldn't manage to shake his suspicion of all the nature here; he had gotten used to Ankh Morpork again and really disliked the sensation of the wildlife eying him).
The guards at the door stared at him, faces blank though he could see them surveying his battle-worn armor and the sword and truncheon he wore at his hip. Their faces said, who are you and why should we acknowledge your presence?
"Er," he said. "Is this Bal?"
The expressions changed to say, Who are you, you lost idiot? Which was fair enough. "Yes," one said, scrutinizing him.
"Oh. Well, good." He scratched his chin. The castle was bigger than any building he had ever seen in his life. "So what exactly is it you have to do to go inside?"
The guards exchanged looks. "First you've got to tell us why you're here and where you're from."
A whole lot of bloody good it would do if he came all the way here and ended up being turned away at the door because he didn't know a damn thing about this place's geography! He valiantly ignored the second question and informed them that he was, in fact, here to see the princess thank you very much, now would you please let him in? After a while of insisting that yes, he damn well had a good reason for being here, that reason being that he was here to see her didn't go over too well, and one of the guards vanished behind the bars, presumably to inform the princess or whoever the hell was in charge that some old ruffian was here to harass royalty.
Well, Vimes figured, that was one way to do it.