Ze Ditto Town Mansion

[Lady Arwen]

"So, if we're going to be able to reconstruct the original, we'll have to gather the--daobih! What happened?!?!?" a pale redhead looked up from a short white stone pillar, which had various maps and papers spread out on it. She stared at the travelers.

"Treasa!"

"Coming!" Another woman, about the same height, came around what Kari and the others could now see was one of the many bookcases that lined the room, excepting where they were sitting, which happened to be floorspace half in, half out of the ruddy sunlight of a series of skylights.

Rounding the corner of a bookcase, Treasa looked up, gave a short scream, and dropped the books and papers she was holding. It is slightly disconcerting to find a dozen or so people suddenly staring at you in a library. Both Treasa and the redhead looked at each other, then continued to stare at the new arrivals. One of Treasa's papers floated down and settled on the floor by Sylvia's foot.

An uncomfortable silence settled with it.

[Sonny]

With permisison form sweeetlilgurlie

Rapidly Roj traversed the streets to the Mansion a bit late, but work had been more important, his dad said. To his surprise, the front door was gone, leaving a wide opening, and on the threshold was a pile of ashes that appeared to have been kicked around by many feet. He stepped through. The room looked entirely empty, but over in one corner sat a sleepy-looking - uh, vampire?

"Hello?" Roj sort of asked. He looked at his invitation. "Um, where's everyone?"

Suddenly the room vibrated, or did something that Roj was not expecting, he was thrown onto a couch at the side of the room, and everyone from stage 1 appeared in the room. There was some conversation, but Roj was a bit too shaken and numb to hear what was going on. He finally regathered his shaken senses to hear Kari say, "Let's try another door."

Roj read different levels of fright on many of the people's faces. Some sort of machine person was so tall he kept bumping the ceiling. Another vampire who seemed to be the partner of the first one was saying something about being evil to her. The whole thing was just so, unreal.

As Bobby reached out to open the next door, Roj cried out, "Hey! What's goin--" but at that instant the room transformed into a library and his words were cut short.

[Bookwyrm]

Desdemona had hurried to Simon's side, ignoring all others, when the Ditto Towners returned to the Mansion. Snuggling nestled in his arms, she began weeping loud and dramatic tears.

In anguished tones, she said," You left me all alone! It was cold and dark (which I didn't mind), but then the nasty evil furry bunny ninjas came. They had shuriken! Made of toothpicks! And they wanted to gnaw on my fingers because they said my fingers look like carrots! My fingers don't look like carrots, do they darling? I hate carrots, nasty pointy orange things!"

Sylvia didn't even bother to stifle her mocking laughter as Desdemona told her tragic tale.

Sylvia began poking around the library, looking at titles with apparent genuine interest.

"You know, we could make things a lot simpler this time," Sylvia commented idly. "All we have to do is stab people until we find the Ditto. I figure the odds are good we find the Ditto before we kill everyone."

[narnianerd]

"Do you realise that there is only one Ditto, and like twelve of us, I know death may mean nothing to you, Sylvia since as a god you can't die. However the rest of us fail to have the ability to raise from the dead. So unless you can bring people back to life, I say we can just about toss your plan out the window" said Shono.

"by the way, where the heck are we"

[Lady Arwen]

"You are in a library," Treasa finally snapped, recovering from her startle. "I think you could show some common sense and notice that. Or perhaps since you appear out of no where you might never have seen a library. Let me introduce you to one. Isra, the papers, they need to be picked up before these beasts trample them."

Treasa knelt and gathered the books and papers in the sunlight, as Isra worked around the outer edge.

[Captn. Peregrin]

Cosmi looked around the room approvingly. He liked the smell of old books, and the warm sunshine made him want to find a place to stretch out and take a nap. Of course, all the decent sunbathing spots were occupied by books, including a good deal of the floor. He glanced wistfully at a perfect spot currently occupied by a large tome, realizing that he hadn't slept a wink since arriving at the Mansion. He was unsure how long ago that was, but he felt it must have been at least a day.

He turned his attention toward the dark-haired woman who appeared to be in charge. "Our sincerest apologies Miss...Treasa, was it? I assure you, we mean no harm to you or your beautiful library, and our trespassing here is completely unintentional."

[narnian_at_heart]

Dayea looked around hesitantly. She wasn't used to this dissapearing and appearing at random. She fingered her knife hilt. Who knew when the next duplicate would show himself.

((I'm leaving on Monday or Tuesday and won't be back until around the 24th of August so I may post once or twice during that time but it's not likely.))

[Bookwyrm]

Sylvia made a rude noise after Shono's comments and waved her hand dismissively at him. She continued to inspect the books, pulling some out and flipping through them.

"These barbarians may not know what a library is, but I do. My sister Floria had a truly lovely one. The bookshelves were built into the trunks of the trees in the heart of our forest. The thickest moss imaginable grew everywhere, it was lovely to lie on and read a book for days and days on end," Sylvia said, sounding almost wistful before her normal mocking tone returned. "Also, I work in a bookshop and we have more books on one shelf than you have in this whole room, so there."

[Sonny]

Roj curiously began to look more about him. He was not very used to magic, and it startled him that he could be actually the object of magic.

After Sylvia's comment, Roj spoke up. "I know what a library is! The question is not What are we in, but Where is this library we are in? I mean - we're not in Ditto Town, are we?"

[sweeetlilgurlie]

"Yes," Kari spoke up. "See, we've kind of been manipulated and stuck in a place that's far away from where we live. Which planet are we on?"

Xerec ran a hand over a nearby shelf and admired its texture. She had never been one for reading; instead she enjoyed experiencing, or acting. "Do you have a monster attacking your village?" Xerec asked nonchalantly.

[Lady Arwen]

Treasa bowed slightly toward Cosmi.

"You are very kind, young sir. Welcome to our library," Treasa said, smiling, before Isra turned her tittering laugh onto Sylvia.

"Our welcome extends to you also, then," Isra smirked, "since you have self-identified as not a barbarian. But be careful about lying on moss, if that is your bent. It may bite you. As for your workplace, I think Treasa should like to see such a bookstore--she would be quite happy at such a shop. I doubt it can have more books than we have here, though. You can get a human into full cardiac arrest just by making them take the stairs from the top floor to the bottom."

Treasa shook her head then paused, considering the next four questions that had been hurled at her, and gently put her papers down. After a sigh, she plopped onto a table and, swinging her feet from the edge, began to answer.

"To begin, no, you are not in Ditto Town. I am surprised that you even know what it is, it was destroyed many generations ago, even before my time. That world is now half ice, half fire. So, either you are from the past, or you are from an alternate timeline, or both. From what you, little miss," Treasa here pointed her chin at Kari for a moment, "are saying, I am inclined to think you are both from the past and from an alternate timeline. If someone wanted to get rid of you, the easiest way would be to send you into an alternate timeline in the future, since, well, that can't really be undone. At least, not without the help of some things that have been destroyed.

"However, that isn't really answering your questions. You are in the library of Annagda, on Sayanna, in the fourth quadrant of what you would probably have known of (in your time) as the Dit- or Ditto-topian Galaxy."

"Honestly, I'm surprised your civilization lasted as long as it did," Isra laughed. "How can any, if no one can even agree on what it is called? Anyway, what Treasa is telling you is, pretty much, you're stuck here. As for looking for monsters, that depends on who you ask. If you ask the right people, I'm a monster, and so is Treasa. Why are you looking for one? Do you need an adventure? If you are, Treasa and I are plotting one out right now."

Isra smirked again, then giggled, beginning to eye each member, trying to determine their race and their ability to handle adventures.

[Captn. Peregrin]

"What sort of adventure?" Tomas asked. He wasn't fond of any kind of "adventure", but he knew that planned adventures were generally less dangerous than the unplanned variety.

Cosmi refrained from lecturing Isra about the supposed bane of Dittopian society, while his author attempted to reach the 50 word limit.

[Bookwyrm]

"Well, I'm not exactly human," Sylvia said with what could best be described as a tinkling laugh. She made a face at Isra's back and went back to poking through the books.

Desdemona yawned hugely and let her fang face surface.

"Simon, darkling, I'm so huuungry. Bring me something ... juicy to sip, please.

[Lady Arwen]

"Then," Isra tossed her words over her shoulder to Sylvia, "you have nothing to worry about."

Treasa smiled and shook her head, beginning to sift through papers. "Well..." she began, then fell silent. Isra's head snapped suddenly to look at Desdemona and Simon. She smiled a....toothy smile, but then looked hurriedly at Treasa, then sent a very dark look in Desdemona's direction. Isra did not want her host being harmed.

Finally, Treasa began speaking.

"Long ago, right before your world was destroyed, two women, who were from the original races that lived here, before they began reconstructing our world, built a sort of amulet. This amulet was specifically designed to...well, to help people and to sort of 'program' two basic rules into the psyche of every individual born on this world--one, that they would be driven to succeed and two, that they would never kill another without reason. Well, several generations after the mutations began--oh!" Treasa paused. "I suppose you wouldn't know about that. Never mind. Anyway, several generations were born under this, and then the amulet disappeared. We have reason to believe it was deconstructed. After decades of careful research, we think we have discovered where--and how--to find and reconstruct it."

"What she's trying to say is, in short, we gotta retrieve something," Isra said, who had now stopped glaring at Desdemona, but had turned her gaze onto Simon. "And it happens to be in Kiotaie territory."

[sweeetlilgurlie]

"Coyote?" Kari echoed Isra. "What is that? Some kind of tribe or something?" These people seemed very strange. Supposedly they were monsters, but they didn't seem so physically. Except that perhaps they seemed to have a lot of teeth. "Why are you guys considered monsters, anyways?"

"Shall we be given further instruction on how to complete our quest?" Xerec asked.

[Lady Arwen]

((BTW, Kiotaie is pronounced key-oh-tay ))

"Your quest? You mean our hunt, or did you come here on purpose to wreck havoc?" Isra tittered to Xerec then started playing with her nails. Treasa popped up on the table, swirled her feet around, and popped Isra in the arm with her toes.

"daobih! What?" Isra asked, smacking Treasa's foot.

"She asked you a question."

"Oh. The Kiotaie...well, they're the leftovers from the old world. Elemental-ish, most of the time look like fireflies or raindrops, and they're incredibly evil. They even smell evil. And they can disguise themselves to look like humans, and then they kill G'ni," --Isra pointed vaguely in Treasa's direction-- "Which isn't nice. And if we try to kill them instead, they're made of poison."

"Some of the Kiotaie are very nice, and great allies. However, it is hard to tell friendly ones from wild ones. I have a very good friend who is a Kioto*." Treasa added. "Our world is made up of four different races. Part of the problem with the amulet vanishing and being dismantled is the tribes don't balance each other out anymore. My tribe, the G'ni, and Isra's, the Bavre, are the only two that still balance each other. The Devrac and the Kiotaie aren't worth anything anymore. Anyway, if you wish to go with us when we start, we will be leaving shortly. If you need anything before we go, let me know. Actually," Treasa began to muse... "You could help us very much. My Kioto friend would keep you safe, and help you find the pieces. We can't go very far into their territory, Isra will get sick, and I won't be safe traveling alone. But if you get the pieces, we can possibly reassemble the pieces. You must understand, this could get you home safely. Reassembling the amulet would open the top level of the library, where The Honored Ladies kept their most valuable tools. It has a time/space continuum chamber. You go into it, think of where you want to go and be, and when you step out, you are there. That could jump into your timeline and time and get you home...Yes, that would be the best way to get you home. Will you help us?"

*Kioto is the singular masculine version of Kiotaie.