A couple different places - Pylea - Sunday
And so the Fandom forces set off in two camps, to attempt two separate means of finding a portal home. Why splitting up was still considered a valid plan after so many years of proof in fiction that it wasn't was kind of a mystery, but there it was. So as Wesley, Loki, Alex and Susan began their research on portal construction in the castle library...
Kennedy
So, hitching a ride in the back of a cart being pulled by a donkey? Not really Kennedy's idea of classy transportation. Surprise.
She kept rubbing her hands together and being generally fidgety as they jostled along, and while she wasn't actually saying it, everything about her expression demanded 'Are we there yet?'
Tara
Tara reached over and rested a hand on Kennedy's shoulder. She was wincing a bit with each jolt of the cart, but she'd make it.
Not like there was a choice.
"Are you doing okay?"
Kennedy
Kennedy tensed for a split second at the contact, but at least she didn't jump.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, looking apologetic about the flinching. That was true physically, anyway; whatever minor cuts and bruises she'd sustained were pretty much healed by now. "Just jumpy. I think this place is getting to me."
Lorne
"Yeah, you and me both, sister," Lorne groused as the cart pulled to a stop in front of a... well, for the sake of generosity, let's call it a house. "Boy," he said, taking in the expanse of the lawn before him. "I'd give my left horn to not have to do this."
Happy little demon kids playing in the yard, a barbecue of oh-god-please-don't-ask roasting in the background... yep. Super scary.
Tara
Tara sniffed the air. "It might not be too bad," she said hopefully. "They're ... cooking something!"
Kennedy
"Smells a little funky," Kennedy said dubiously, but her stomach had to go and growl loudly. "And I'm kinda really hungry."
She glanced at Lorne. "Seems kind of kickback, though. It can't be that bad..."
Lorne
"Oh, you'll see," Lorne warned her. Taking a deep breath to psych himself up for this, he strode forward. "Hi-dee-ho!" he called. "Guess who's back?"
A few of the other demons turned, including one tall, burly, bearded one, who boomed, "Krevlornswath?"
Lorne cracked something that might have been described as a smile, but really it was a grimace. Offering one hand in a half-hearted wave, he said, "Hi, Mom."
Angel
Okay, that, Angel hadn't been expecting. Floored, he turned to Kennedy and then to Tara and mouthed, 'Mom!?'
Kennedy
What, like Kennedy had been expecting it? She raised both hands and shrugged, and honestly it was a miracle she'd kept her mouth shut.
Still, in case this went bad...
She was ready for some asskicking, if it came to that. Chomping at the bit a little more than usual at the prospect, actually.
Lorne's Mother
Lorne's mother... did not look especially happy to see her son, shockingly.
"I've often prayed that I might look again upon your face," she intoned.
Lorne
"Well," Lorne said, with about as much fake cheer as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances, "you're in luck, then."
Lorne's Mother
And that would be his mother spitting at his face. So his own luck was kind of in question here. "Each morning before I feed, I go out into the hills where the ground is thorny and parched, beat my breast and curse the loins that gave birth to such a cretinous boy-child!" she declared. "You have shamed our clan and betrayed our kind. Your father was right: we ate the wrong son."
Kennedy
Okay, could Kennedy take back everything she'd said about how this couldn't possibly be that bad? Because that was what her expression suggested.
"Yeah," she said slowly, "'cause that's not a little bit melodramatic at all."
Landok
"And you brought your cows," Lorne's mother continued distastefully. "Quiet, Krevlornswath's--"
But then she was interrupted by another relative of Lorne's hurrying forward. This one, though, might look a tad more familiar, partly on account of having fought a Drokken alongside Angel and Kennedy just the other day. "Those are no cows," Landok declared importantly as he jogged over to them. "Those the brave and noble champions Kennedy and Angel. They are as valiant and courageous a pair of warriors as I have ever known."
Angel
Angel grinned. "Just Angel is really fine," he offered, doing his best to sound humble even though you could tell he was soaking up the praise.
Kennedy
Kennedy would've enjoyed the praise more if she hadn't been bristling at being called a cow again. "Yo, Landok," she said, jerking her chin upward at him in a brief nod. "Where've you been to back us up the last couple of days, anyway?"
Landok
"I was not aware that you and your friend were visiting as well!" Landok boomed. "But now that you are here, come. Let us give you a tour! And a feast!"
A feast. Of the mystery meat. Sounded legit.
Meanwhile, the team still situated at the castle was having roughly the same amount of luck finding anything out. Though they at least were spared the horror of Lorne's family mystery cookout.
Loki
Loki appeared to be in love with the library already. Wedding bells in the future. "How long may we stay here?"
Susan
"As long as necessary, and then we leave," Susan said simply. She felt the last part, the part about the leaving, was the necessary bit.
Alex
"Yeah, this isn't a pleasure trip," Alex said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. Libraries were not really his natural habitat.
Cordelia
"You said it," muttered Cordelia, who was rather missing her throne, truth be told. But upon catching a Look from Wesley, she held up both hands and left it at that.
"Anyway." She gestured to the few books that were left open on a large table in the middle of the room. "Welcome to the priests' library. Not sure what good the books'll do us when they're not even written in English, but have a blast."
Loki
"English wouldn't even make sense here." And yet they were all speaking it. Seriously.
But that wasn't important now as he flitted from book to book, looking them over until he was satisfied on what he'd found to work on. Three terribly thick tomes that didn't really scream 'bestseller list'.
Wesley
Yeah, don't question the language issue, Loki. Just don't question it.
Wesley's brow furrowed as he looked over Loki's shoulder at one of the books on the end. "The sentence structure..." he said, then trailed off.
It didn't seem to make much sense at all, nope.
"It resembles certain demonic languages with which I'm -- familiar, but... whole passages appear to be missing."
Loki
Because he wasn't a magical god who occasionally tricked the entire world into doing horrible things.
Allegedly.
"It is not complete," Loki filled in helpfully, opening all three books to figure out the proper order of things. Once that was identified, it shouldn't be difficult at all.
LIKE A BOSS GOD.
Susan
In Susan's experience, if a book wasn't complete, that was because it was still being written. She doubted that was the case here, but still, it was a reason to raise an eyebrow over her own book and ask, "How can it be incomplete?"
Loki
And here comes the exposition...
"Because they're being very clever about keeping outsiders from reading them," Loki said, tapping a finger from one book to the next, to the next. "One book, three vessels. They oughtn't have allowed us to look in here if they hadn't wanted their vast secrets learned, though. So they weren't truly clever."
He grinned.
"Or I am better than all of them!"
Alex
"Probably that first thing," Alex told him.
Susan
Susan ignored him.
"Yes, congratulations. Then what does it say?" she asked Loki.
Cordelia
"Yeah," Cordy said, drumming her fingers on the table. "Starting to bore the princess."
Loki
"I won't know for certain until I read all of it," Loki protested. "But, so far... your vapid friend must 'comshuck' a 'groosalugg' for certain. The words do not appear to translate into anything in our languages."
Cordelia
"Comshuck?" Cordelia repeated, making a face. That did not sound very tasteful.
Alex
"Sounds dirty," Alex muttered.
What? It totally did!
Cordelia
"Of course it isn't dirty," Cordelia dismissed with a hair-flip. No way was she doing anything dirty with something that had 'groo' in the name. She had standards, okay? Tiny eyesore of a sequined bikini notwithstanding. "Look. Why don't we just get someone who knows this stuff to translate? Like the priests in charge. I'm sure they'll be very helpful to their princess."
Susan
Ignoring anything about comshucking because she was a lady, Susan went to look at one of the books, and turned the cover just enough to try and see the title. Which was when she noticed the front of it.
"Huh."
Wesley
A picture of a ram.
Symbolically speaking, that made sense, Wesley supposed. Rams had been associated with a number of religions over time, and these were a kind of holy books, after all, so that wasn't so odd. But it did make him curious as to what the others had on their covers, so he leaned over Loki's shoulder to investigate.
The second one had a picture of a wolf on it. And the third had a red deer -- also known as a hart. Rearranging the books, Wesley said aloud, "Wolf... ram... and hart."
Wolfram and Hart -- the decidedly evil lawfirm back in his home dimension, frequented by demons who often sought to end the world.
His eyes flashed with alarm and he quickly stacked up the books. "There's -- some sort of multiversal ties at work here with an organization from home," he explained for the others' benefit. "We'll have to leave as quickly as possible -- I don't think the priests can be trusted."
Loki
Loki glanced up after a moment. "Oh, was that a shocking conclusion to come to? I thought it obvious they weren't to be trusted once they propped a human up as their puppet leader."
He was ever so helpful.
Cordelia
"Hey!"
[NFB, NFI, OOC is a yay. Follows this, and preplayed with wesleynotponcy, abitlowkey, brat_inslayage, life_inshadow and thegodofxbox.]
Kennedy
So, hitching a ride in the back of a cart being pulled by a donkey? Not really Kennedy's idea of classy transportation. Surprise.
She kept rubbing her hands together and being generally fidgety as they jostled along, and while she wasn't actually saying it, everything about her expression demanded 'Are we there yet?'
Tara
Tara reached over and rested a hand on Kennedy's shoulder. She was wincing a bit with each jolt of the cart, but she'd make it.
Not like there was a choice.
"Are you doing okay?"
Kennedy
Kennedy tensed for a split second at the contact, but at least she didn't jump.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, looking apologetic about the flinching. That was true physically, anyway; whatever minor cuts and bruises she'd sustained were pretty much healed by now. "Just jumpy. I think this place is getting to me."
Lorne
"Yeah, you and me both, sister," Lorne groused as the cart pulled to a stop in front of a... well, for the sake of generosity, let's call it a house. "Boy," he said, taking in the expanse of the lawn before him. "I'd give my left horn to not have to do this."
Happy little demon kids playing in the yard, a barbecue of oh-god-please-don't-ask roasting in the background... yep. Super scary.
Tara
Tara sniffed the air. "It might not be too bad," she said hopefully. "They're ... cooking something!"
Kennedy
"Smells a little funky," Kennedy said dubiously, but her stomach had to go and growl loudly. "And I'm kinda really hungry."
She glanced at Lorne. "Seems kind of kickback, though. It can't be that bad..."
Lorne
"Oh, you'll see," Lorne warned her. Taking a deep breath to psych himself up for this, he strode forward. "Hi-dee-ho!" he called. "Guess who's back?"
A few of the other demons turned, including one tall, burly, bearded one, who boomed, "Krevlornswath?"
Lorne cracked something that might have been described as a smile, but really it was a grimace. Offering one hand in a half-hearted wave, he said, "Hi, Mom."
Angel
Okay, that, Angel hadn't been expecting. Floored, he turned to Kennedy and then to Tara and mouthed, 'Mom!?'
Kennedy
What, like Kennedy had been expecting it? She raised both hands and shrugged, and honestly it was a miracle she'd kept her mouth shut.
Still, in case this went bad...
She was ready for some asskicking, if it came to that. Chomping at the bit a little more than usual at the prospect, actually.
Lorne's Mother
Lorne's mother... did not look especially happy to see her son, shockingly.
"I've often prayed that I might look again upon your face," she intoned.
Lorne
"Well," Lorne said, with about as much fake cheer as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances, "you're in luck, then."
Lorne's Mother
And that would be his mother spitting at his face. So his own luck was kind of in question here. "Each morning before I feed, I go out into the hills where the ground is thorny and parched, beat my breast and curse the loins that gave birth to such a cretinous boy-child!" she declared. "You have shamed our clan and betrayed our kind. Your father was right: we ate the wrong son."
Kennedy
Okay, could Kennedy take back everything she'd said about how this couldn't possibly be that bad? Because that was what her expression suggested.
"Yeah," she said slowly, "'cause that's not a little bit melodramatic at all."
Landok
"And you brought your cows," Lorne's mother continued distastefully. "Quiet, Krevlornswath's--"
But then she was interrupted by another relative of Lorne's hurrying forward. This one, though, might look a tad more familiar, partly on account of having fought a Drokken alongside Angel and Kennedy just the other day. "Those are no cows," Landok declared importantly as he jogged over to them. "Those the brave and noble champions Kennedy and Angel. They are as valiant and courageous a pair of warriors as I have ever known."
Angel
Angel grinned. "Just Angel is really fine," he offered, doing his best to sound humble even though you could tell he was soaking up the praise.
Kennedy
Kennedy would've enjoyed the praise more if she hadn't been bristling at being called a cow again. "Yo, Landok," she said, jerking her chin upward at him in a brief nod. "Where've you been to back us up the last couple of days, anyway?"
Landok
"I was not aware that you and your friend were visiting as well!" Landok boomed. "But now that you are here, come. Let us give you a tour! And a feast!"
A feast. Of the mystery meat. Sounded legit.
Meanwhile, the team still situated at the castle was having roughly the same amount of luck finding anything out. Though they at least were spared the horror of Lorne's family mystery cookout.
Loki
Loki appeared to be in love with the library already. Wedding bells in the future. "How long may we stay here?"
Susan
"As long as necessary, and then we leave," Susan said simply. She felt the last part, the part about the leaving, was the necessary bit.
Alex
"Yeah, this isn't a pleasure trip," Alex said, looking vaguely uncomfortable. Libraries were not really his natural habitat.
Cordelia
"You said it," muttered Cordelia, who was rather missing her throne, truth be told. But upon catching a Look from Wesley, she held up both hands and left it at that.
"Anyway." She gestured to the few books that were left open on a large table in the middle of the room. "Welcome to the priests' library. Not sure what good the books'll do us when they're not even written in English, but have a blast."
Loki
"English wouldn't even make sense here." And yet they were all speaking it. Seriously.
But that wasn't important now as he flitted from book to book, looking them over until he was satisfied on what he'd found to work on. Three terribly thick tomes that didn't really scream 'bestseller list'.
Wesley
Yeah, don't question the language issue, Loki. Just don't question it.
Wesley's brow furrowed as he looked over Loki's shoulder at one of the books on the end. "The sentence structure..." he said, then trailed off.
It didn't seem to make much sense at all, nope.
"It resembles certain demonic languages with which I'm -- familiar, but... whole passages appear to be missing."
Loki
Because he wasn't a magical god who occasionally tricked the entire world into doing horrible things.
Allegedly.
"It is not complete," Loki filled in helpfully, opening all three books to figure out the proper order of things. Once that was identified, it shouldn't be difficult at all.
LIKE A BOSS GOD.
Susan
In Susan's experience, if a book wasn't complete, that was because it was still being written. She doubted that was the case here, but still, it was a reason to raise an eyebrow over her own book and ask, "How can it be incomplete?"
Loki
And here comes the exposition...
"Because they're being very clever about keeping outsiders from reading them," Loki said, tapping a finger from one book to the next, to the next. "One book, three vessels. They oughtn't have allowed us to look in here if they hadn't wanted their vast secrets learned, though. So they weren't truly clever."
He grinned.
"Or I am better than all of them!"
Alex
"Probably that first thing," Alex told him.
Susan
Susan ignored him.
"Yes, congratulations. Then what does it say?" she asked Loki.
Cordelia
"Yeah," Cordy said, drumming her fingers on the table. "Starting to bore the princess."
Loki
"I won't know for certain until I read all of it," Loki protested. "But, so far... your vapid friend must 'comshuck' a 'groosalugg' for certain. The words do not appear to translate into anything in our languages."
Cordelia
"Comshuck?" Cordelia repeated, making a face. That did not sound very tasteful.
Alex
"Sounds dirty," Alex muttered.
What? It totally did!
Cordelia
"Of course it isn't dirty," Cordelia dismissed with a hair-flip. No way was she doing anything dirty with something that had 'groo' in the name. She had standards, okay? Tiny eyesore of a sequined bikini notwithstanding. "Look. Why don't we just get someone who knows this stuff to translate? Like the priests in charge. I'm sure they'll be very helpful to their princess."
Susan
Ignoring anything about comshucking because she was a lady, Susan went to look at one of the books, and turned the cover just enough to try and see the title. Which was when she noticed the front of it.
"Huh."
Wesley
A picture of a ram.
Symbolically speaking, that made sense, Wesley supposed. Rams had been associated with a number of religions over time, and these were a kind of holy books, after all, so that wasn't so odd. But it did make him curious as to what the others had on their covers, so he leaned over Loki's shoulder to investigate.
The second one had a picture of a wolf on it. And the third had a red deer -- also known as a hart. Rearranging the books, Wesley said aloud, "Wolf... ram... and hart."
Wolfram and Hart -- the decidedly evil lawfirm back in his home dimension, frequented by demons who often sought to end the world.
His eyes flashed with alarm and he quickly stacked up the books. "There's -- some sort of multiversal ties at work here with an organization from home," he explained for the others' benefit. "We'll have to leave as quickly as possible -- I don't think the priests can be trusted."
Loki
Loki glanced up after a moment. "Oh, was that a shocking conclusion to come to? I thought it obvious they weren't to be trusted once they propped a human up as their puppet leader."
He was ever so helpful.
Cordelia
"Hey!"
[NFB, NFI, OOC is a yay. Follows this, and preplayed with wesleynotponcy, abitlowkey, brat_inslayage, life_inshadow and thegodofxbox.]