Night 67: Home World - Tethe'alla - Altessa's home and Gaoracchia Forest

[repelling]

[ from kansas ]

Pulling open the door that had shut behind Vantas-kun, Uryuu moved back out and grit his teeth against the jolting, an inexcusable effort needed to keep from swaying on his feet, his vision blurring as bile roiled in his gut and throat. He swallowed, resisting the telling impulse to steady himself with a hand on the wall or door frame, and blinked a few times, eyes clearing on a dark... bedroom?

He stared across at two beds, one made and one with what looked in the dark like white sheets disturbed, half torn from it. The air felt -- not stagnant, but enclosed, and moderately cool, befitting what looked like stone walls. Tall walls, he noted, stepping further in and then to the side, again lifting his hand to press it to a wall, to feel the texture. Stone, of a different sort from that which lay in large tiles underfoot. A lack of windows wasn't necessarily a sign of being underground -- it had been in Hueco Mundo, but wasn't in the institute's rooms, obviously -- but Uryuu suspected they were regardless.

They weren't in the institute. The extreme difference in decor suggested it, but more than that, this made him absolutely certain: the concentration of spirit particles in the air had thickened, and they felt different. The door had opened here, so he could hardly think of them as having escaped.

Mason-san had spoken of something like this, too. Only, this absolutely wasn't Tokyo. It might not even be Earth, with the reishi so odd.

"I don't suppose any of you recognize this place?"

Comments

[redcladidealist]

With the disorientation that had hit him once already, Lloyd was more prepared for it the second time it came. Not that being prepared made him feel any steadier, but at least this time it didn't come as a surprise when he staggered after following Ishida back through the door they'd come through. He shook his head, trying to clear his swimming vision, but while he heard the others' words clearly, they didn't register.

Or they did, but they didn't have a chance to elicit a response before his mind skipped and stalled, recognition sinking in with a mix of numb shock. "This..."

It couldn't be. There was no way this place could be anywhere near Landel's Institute. It shouldn't even be in the same world. How did they even get here? But as Lloyd's eyes skipped around the spartan room, he couldn't ignore what he saw. The sheets that had been pulled from the bed when something - someone - was dragged from their warmth-

-do you want to meet your father?-

-the plate that had been left on the floor nearby, still holding a few half-eaten bites of food, as though someone had been too tired to finish their meal-

-now I feel sleepy all of a sudden. I'm going to bed-

-but the clincher, the thing that made the room feel like it was spinning again, was the gear leaning against the wall right next to the rumpled bed. Lloyd crossed the room numbly, heading straight for it. Twin swords, light weight and slightly curved, rested in their sheaths right next to a small pouch that Lloyd knew, knew contained a few tools, basic things he'd used to repair Key Crests when he'd been the only one that could. A smaller bag had slipped free of the pouch. He picked it up.

The lock picks inside only cemented the conclusion that didn't make any sense. Turning, Lloyd looked at his companions, bewilderment clear in his voice even if they'd have a hard time seeing his face in the night. Scant starlight made its way through a window slit up high.

"This..." He swallowed, tried again. "This is Altessa's house. This is my world - or, well, sort of." In a surreal way, though, it was his world - more his world than the world the institute was part of. "We're in Tethe'alla. But how...?"

[thisisyourgod]

Alright, enough was enough with this whole disorientation thing. Karkat didn't enjoy going through vertigo every time he went through a doorway. That was rather ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous, of course, was where they ended up next. Sure there was nothing particularly strange about the locale - except that it shouldn't have been attached to the room they just came from. It would have been more confusing to the troll had it not been for the place he'd just come from before his arrival in Landel's.

You know what all this is motherfucking like, bro.

"It's like the fucking dream bubbles all over again. I knew they had to be involved somehow." Not that transitions usually caused any sense of unbalance, but the similarity was too great otherwise.

[faeth]

So much for figuring she'd take a shower while they were in the showers.

It was a little bit like walking into a barrier, she realized -- and once she did, it made their trips from room to room that much easier to stomach. When she stepped into this room, however, the complete change in decor was enough to confuse her back into nausea, into clutching her hands nervously in front of her to stave off the sense of not belonging where she stood.

But then Lloyd-kun mentioned his world, and Vantas-kun added in dream bubbles. For a moment, Orihime gawked at the walls, the floors, the table, too caught up in the realistic dreamscape to even think that this otherworld was almost disappointing in how mundane it all was. And then-

... she pinched her arm.

"Ow..." she yelped as silently as she could, rubbing the sore spot over her sleeve. If it was all a dream, then... well, it was a very good one to last as long as it did.