The Best Thing About Not Being Home is Missing You

[preuxchevalier]

There are people back home that your character hates. Or maybe they love them, but they're terrible people/influences. Here's your chance to talk or play out that special someone turning up in the Meadous. Are they so far out of their element that they're now defanged tigers? Do they lead right in with their wicked ways? What is your character's CR even going to think when they meet this person?
 

Post with your own character or the person they most/least want to see again who's a bad thing for them. Feel free to play out encounters in the snow between this character and your regular character's CR, or talk it out with if you're not sure you've got the voice down.
 

Fun for all ages! And by fun, we mean misery!

Comments

[ignes_fatui]

"Really? And you don't recall being anywhere else between then and now?" Well, there goes that hypothesis. And he'd been so sure of it, too. He sighs, mentally going over all the people here for any other commonality. "Prior to you, all of the other people present here had been taken from their native realities once before. I understand from talking to Bertie that your homeworld has no others connected to it, but to explain there are a great many others out there. In particular there are at least a half-dozen Londons that I'm aware of, all recognizably London but subtly different in their own ways."

It's strongly tempting to ask her if she's absolutely certain that the London in which she found herself was the one that belonged in her homeworld, and if she'd noticed any strange travelers while she was there, but he feels like he'd best explain before trying to press the issue.

"But I digress. Bertie and I met in a place called the Incipisphere, having been transported there along with somewhere around a hundred others to participate in the conflict between the two warring nations of Prospit and Derse, essentially acting as soldiers upon their battlefield with the promise of some greater reward at the end. Most of us assumed that this would be returning home after it was all over, but this was not the case, and some of us found ourselves here." He purposefully admits a good number of the details, like how it called itself a game and the frogs and the ultimate reward being a universe. That seems like it wouldn't be terribly helpful right now.

"In short, Bertie and I are comrades in arms, and fought closely together for much of our time there."

[nephewcrusher]

Lord, but this boy does chatter. What's more's it's chatter that's absolute nonsense. Agatha's about to cut him off when he comes to a discussion of his and Bertie's activities. And she simply stares when he finishes. "Bertie was in a war. And he did not die?"

She's beginning to think that she may very well have been mistaken about this being her nephew. "You must be joking, boy. Bertie can't tie his shoelaces without asking for help from that snake of a valet of his. Is Jeeves here, as well?" That might explain a few things, like why the hill house is clean and orderly.

[ignes_fatui]

Ienzo huffs, though he sounds more bemused than annoyed. "Believe me, there are times when I'm just as surprised as you are. But as I said before, he is at least somewhat more able to look after himself now than before."

Admittedly Ienzo feels more than a little bad talking about Bertie behind his back like this, especially to his aunt of all people, but it's true.

"And no, Jeeves was neither here nor was he in the Incipisphere at any point." At least not properly, sprites being constructions of the game and all and he's absolutely not trying to explain that philosophical mess of what constitutes personhood to Agatha on his own.

[nephewcrusher]

Agatha doesn't like how familiar this foreign boy appears to be with Bertie. He's likely had some terrible influence on her nephew that she has yet to gauge. Comrades-at-arms should have gone their separate ways after the war.

"If this war of yours is over now that you're here, then why are you imposing on my nephew still? Don't you have one of your own little hills the kidnappers brought you to?" Clearly, this is going to be a sticking point for her. "Surely you can manage something on your own." She huffs, but it is annoyed. "And if Jeeves isn't here, then who's keeping this house clean? It's certainly not Bertie. He can't have changed that much." Perhaps the boy is Bertie's servant without really noticing. He's foreign. They're foolish enough to assume that kind of arrangement is normal, probably.

[ignes_fatui]

"No," says Ienzo, as innocently as he can manage. "I did, but it disappeared. And as for who does the cleaning, I mostly try to look after myself, but." It occurs to him that he's going to have to explain the Bees to Bertie's aunt. He is filled with a creeping sense of dread, not unlike the one time he was unfortunate enough to encounter Maleficent herself on one of his missions. It's probably for the best to try to get her to understand before calling any of them in, since he's fairly certain an abnormally large Bee would be fairly alarming to someone not adequately prepared to encounter one.

"Bertie's London - your London is populated solely by humans, isn't it? All animals present are simply animals not not Animals." It should be noted that Ienzo uses different words for lower and uppercase "animals" here, the latter implying a much higher capacity for learning. "Because that isn't the case in a great many worlds, which have sapient representatives of a great many other members of the animal kingdom, and some plants as well. There's some debate of course as to why there appear to be no examples of non-sapient humans when there are so many of every other creature, but I digress. The Incipisphere was one such world, and Bertie brought some of its natives here with him and they've been helping to look after the place. Would you like to meet them?"

Nervously, he starts to prepare a spell. For what exactly he isn't sure, but the nice thing about shields and illusions is they're helpful in a great number of situations, especially when it comes to defusing awkward encounters. He has a strong feeling this is going to be an awkward encounter.

[nephewcrusher]

Agatha's still not wholly convinced this isn't some elaborate ruse designed to make her feel like she's going insane. "These hills simply disappear? Are we all meant to cleave together and impose upon one another, then? How perfectly vile." She has absolutely no desire to find herself living in the same space as her nephew, particularly if this boy is here, as well. Bertie is difficult enough to tolerate on his own without his 'friends.' This one seems to have some air of intellect, but he uses it to speak nonsense both literally and in the translation as she understands it.

"And what are you talking about, boy? Animals and animals? There are nothing like that in London. Nor in the world over. I should very much like to keep my interactions to creatures of intelligence." She snorts. "Family not withstanding. Unless you're telling me you have some sort of talking terrier running about and picking up? What nonsense. Parlor tricks for a stage magician and his pet."

[ignes_fatui]

"Under certain circumstances," Ienzo says tersely, very carefully not mentioning that he very intentionally moved in with Bertie. He also starts to say something about how Animals are just as intelligent as their hominid cousins and their resemblance to their animal counterparts does not mean their capacity for thought is any less than ours, but he's not certain that's his argument to have. Then again, there aren't really any Animals in the Meadous anymore, what with Nyanpire gone, and even if he were still around Ienzo's pretty sure making him be the spokesman for Animal rights would just be cruel, especially in the face of this sort of opposition.

He sighs heavily, and addresses what parts he knows he's qualified to manage.

"It's funny that you should mention stage magicians," he says, and rolls up his sleeves with the sort of put-upon weariness of someone who's done this many times before. Once he's certain that Agatha has seen his wrists, clear of any odd devices or even so much of a wristwatch and that any fire hazards are clear of his hands, he raises them to his eye level and lets a thunderbolt arc from the tip of one index finger to another. "Magic is real. I can demonstrate further or I can introduce you to the Bees now, but only if you promise to be polite."

[nephewcrusher]

Agatha's eyes widen at the sight, and she quickly looks the boy up and down, trying to find the source of the electricity he's using. She cares not a jot about these Bees or bees or whatever they are that he's mentioned. "Magic is most certainly not real," she counters, tone darkening from mild annoyance to outright anger. She does not like being made to look a fool. Just because she can't see the trick doesn't mean she's going to fall for it.

She finds stage magic charming after a fashion, but it's something that she knows to be fake. If this Ienzo is going to play at it being real, then she refuses to have anything to do with it. The older woman rose to her feet. She wasn't very tall, but she brought to bear all of the towering disapproval of generations of English blue bloods.

"Have you been filling my nephew's head up with ideas that it is real? How dare you. He's a stupid boy, and I will not have him corrupted by some Oriental charlatan!"