The Stumble Inn

Molodi continued to finish up her omelette, and sighed to herself. "Seeing the childrens here... Makes me upset." She didn't know why she was bringing it up, especially since Melanie was talking to the new arrival, but she couldn't help herself. She just blurted it out. Her face didn't show any signs of embarassment, or anything like that. She just kept a blank face as she stared down at the remains of her meal, chewing slowly. Sighing, she set down her plate temporarily, and went upstairs, grabbing a record player from her luggage, and grabbing a few records, heading back downstairs. "Mind if I play this?"

Hal sighed, having headed back to his machines. Maybe one of them could actually do something useful. He had noticed a lot of machines he couldn't recognize, ones he never even brought on his ship. It made him nervous just touching some of them, in fear of another blunder successfully harming someone this time. "Hnnn..."

Kiseki giggled once more.

"I would like a room please. I also suppose you know of an abandoned bakery place, no?"

"Already have you written down." Melanie said, with an attempt at a smile. "Choose any you want that isn't occupied. We have plenty free. The keys are inside the rooms if you feel the need to lock them. . . though really, that is unnecessary. As for a bakery, well, I'm sure there is one somewhere. . . Who knows? Towns are lost sometimes too. I think parts of Atlantis are here. . . " Melanie trailed off, looking distracted as she ran through the story of Atlantis in her mind. Oh, to live in such a world. . .

She snapped out of her reverie when she heard Molodi's voice. "What? What about the children?. . . What is that?"

Molodi blinked. "...It's a music player. You've never seen one?" She cocked her head to the side, before placing a record on it, and setting down the needle. Nothing happened. "...One moment." She tweaked with it, and suddenly, it began to play Perry Como's Hot Diggity. Molodi began to hum along with it, tapping her foot, and gently swaying her hips. "Hehe... But... Um... Actually, it's kind of personal... I'll tell you later, because I trust you... But not in front of the other guests."

Hal perked up when he looked at the calendar on his Display-Device. "...It's the 22nd. I need to get ready for Christmas!"

(Sorry guys. i haven't been able to get on the internet on my own computer since I got back to school. Long story)

Elena froze. When the bue light had flashed, she had squeezed her eyes shut. Upon reopening them, she saw (or, at least thought she saw) Kiya and Hawk, wrapped up in each other' arms. Kiya slowly peered over Hawk's shoulder and looked at Elena, a grin slowly pulling up on her mouth, before she began kissing Hawk's neck.

Elena hurried past them and out the door, she started heading toward her ship, but thought better of it, feeling she shouldn't let the men see her cry, so she headed down the street, until she wound up back at the General Store.

(I changed where she was headed because I got so far behind. If anyone would care to send one of their characters to the General Store so she can have someone to react to, that'd be great.)

Quin stumbled through the fog after having a long run through the cold winters of a world where another version of him had turned evil, now inexplicably lost. He looked around, and pulled out his pipe. He didn't know why he had it; he much preferred cigars. Probably because it was a wizardly thing to have. "Hm... Place which conceals my vision and I arrived here by being lost... Kinda sounds like Misplace. I guess there reallly is a reality for everything... Sure took its liberties with the place, though." He walked quietly to the door of the Stumble Inn. "...The pun is the same, at least." Pushing open the door, he grinned to see Mannie. "MANNIE! IT REALLY IS YOU! I'm... I'm in Misplace! Ahahaha... A world of my friend's creation... This is too awesome to comprehend."

Molodi stared at the man, and turned to Melanie, whispering in her ear "Who is this crazy person?"

Melanie listened to the record with a bit of a sense of wonder. She'd heard recorded music before, of course, but to see someone who actually owned a player was simply amazing to her. She hummed along with the melody for a while, before someone new came bursting in the door, startling her.

"W-what? Who are you? My name isn't Mannie!"

Quin stepped back, and blinked. "But you're Mannie. Miserable Mannie... Oh, alternate universes..." He sighed, and took off his top hat. "Listen... Uh... You guys? Yeah. You're all the creations of my friends and I. I made Miss Petronov over there... Let's hope that is still her name... And Alan Dodge, the Space Hero, along with his partner Casey... And... Um... I also made Milton 911!"

Molodi blinked, and stopped her record player. "Erm... Well, my last name IS Petronov... So that is a LITTLE strange, but... Honestly, who the FUCK ARE YOU?"

Quin smirked at her, and bowed. "Well, I'm Quin D'Ardennes. Put simply, I'm your God, your daddy, your author. So, is Duchess Brooke here? Or maybe Toborn and Waliisa? Come on! Tell me this place isn't TOO different from the world we made!"

Melanie stared at him. ". . . I don't believe in gods." she told him in a dead pan, her hand moving for the old pistol she kept under the counter. Her X15 Meadowlark. . . it had kept her alive during several very bad situations. Good ol' Lark.

"I wouldn't reach for your trusty Ruddy Duck, Mannie. I have been dodging bullets since before you've been born. I've been to more than one Pulp Fiction universe, and have been head to head with Rorscach... He won, but we still went head to head!" He grinned, and snapped his fingers, raising an invisible wall. "So just keep away from the gun... Besides, I can prove it... Do the words... Number stations mean anything to you?"

Molodi looked back and forth between the two, inching away from the stange man.

Melanie froze, staring at him in horror. "N-no. I don't know anything. I DON'T KNOW A GODDAMN THING!" She snatched her gun and ran for the door, firing off a couple bullets, trying to discourage him from following. She had been safe for so long, why did they have to find her now?!

Ducking away from the bullets, Quin growled, and waved his hands. "BY THE POWERS OF HYUNAN, I COMMAND YOU TO FREEZE!" Instantly, Melanie's muscles would contract, holding her in place. He walked over to her slowly, and bent down. "Listen. I'm not a commie. I'm a Conservative, for Chrissakes... Aw, fuck." He turned back, looking at Molodi, who was holding her bleeding shoulder.

Molodi whined. "Ow... Ow... Ow..."

He turned. "You okay back there?"

Molodi looked like she was about to bawl from the pain. "M-mmhm... It d-idn't go in... Just... Just nicked m-me... Ow... It really hurts..."

Sighing, Quin turned back to Melanie. "Listen, whatever your name is... I'm not here to hurt you, or take you back to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or anything like that... I really am friends with the person who created you... Or rather, an alternate universe version of you." He took the gun from her paralyzed hand, and closed the door. "Now, I'm going to undo the spell, now, and you're going to go help Ms. Petronov. Then, I'm going to explain to you who I am. Alright?"

Molodi continued to whimper in pain, tears streaming from her eyes.

Melanie barely registered the man's words, she could barely hear them over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. She was paralyzed. Someone, he had paralyzed her. Oh god, it was like those instruction videos always said. . . Did she still have the cyanide pill? No, no that was long gone. Oh god, he mentioned the Republic. She had to move. MOVE! MOVE! She mentally screamed at her muscles, putting all of her willpower behind breaking free.


(You seem to specialize in freaking my characters out.)

Quin looked at her eyes. "Fuck. She is going into shock... Damnit, damnit... I always fuck things up... Okay... Okay... Brooke's characters usually have a connecting theme... Um... RIGHT! Her scars, her scars... But I can't remove too many of them or her Characterization will be thrown out of whack and she may just get edited out of existance... Damnit, Hyunan... I know what to do." Taking a deep breath, he put a hand on her back. "Alright... I need to be quick. Ms. Petronov is losing a lot of blood... Oh Hyunan, take a mark from this woman, a mark of tortures from long ago... And remove it, remove it fast... Let it not be consequential, for I wish her no harm, but let it show her my power. Melanie would feel a slight pinch as her smallest, least disfiguring scar from her days of torture would heal, and a pleasant feeling would replace it. "There." He undid his spell of paralysis on her, and ran over to Molodi, putting pressure on the wound. He still had the gun, so Mel couldn't do anything risky.

Molodi screeched in pain. "OW! CHTO ZA HUY! YOU'RE MAKING IT HURT MORE! Ow, Christ, it hurts..."

Melanie felt the paralysis lift and the same time, she could have sworn she felt. . . the old pain in the back of her knees go. But there was no pain. There was no scars! How could something go away if it was never there in the first place? Panicked, she pulled back her sleeves. And there they were, a lattice of scars all over her arms, from her wrists to her shoulders. But she had taken care of those, hadn't she? But. . . she never had them in the first place! But. . . but. . . but!

If someone had been listening close enough, they probably could have hear the moment that she snapped.

Melanie slid to the floor, crumpling like a rag doll. "The No. 3825, the No. 3825. Please receive a message. Count 64. Text." She mumbled to herself, absent-mindedly plucking at her sleeve. "One, one, zero, three, three, four. 나는 메시지를 다시 반복할 것이다. One, one, zero, three, three four. 그것은 모두이다, 당신을 감사하십시오. "

Slapping his forehead, Quin decided he would fuck with the space-time continuum just one last time. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Hyunan, hear my plead, I wish to undo my cursed misdeed. Turn back the clock, just for me, so I can avert this catastrophe." The room shifted, and suddenly, he was standing in front of Mel again, who was reaching for her gun. Grinning, he stepped back. "Wooooah there. Now listen... I'm actually a very powerful mage. Came from another world... And happened to have had a hand in creating one kinda similar to this one. Only kinda, though... So please, don't panick... Don't panick." He looked rather distraught, for some reason.

Molodi blinked, and turned to Mel, before sighing. "...This day just keeps g-- Ow... My shoulder hurts for some reason."

The mage's eyes went wide in terror. No... I must have botched the spell... Oh please, Hyunan no... Nonononono... Fuck, fuck, fuckfuckfuckfuck... Why can't I do anything right? Every time I use my powers... Nonono... Fuck...

Melanie reeled backwards, her gun clattering to the floor. She felt cold, very cold. And sick. She felt like she was surrounded by a big dark nothingness that was ready to swallow her whole. No, not dark. White. The fog. . . She nervously bit at the knuckle of her index finger, looking everywhere but the newcomer. Numbers, numbers, numbers. . . So important, what were they? She gave a choked-off noise, somewhere between a laugh and a yelp of pain and wandered slowly upstairs. There was something for her, upstairs in her room. She had to do something, didn't she? The numbers. . .

Quin realized something at that moment. While he could never take away the scars, he could hide them. He could hide them like she did. Raising his voice, he extended his hand to her. "GLAMOUR!" and with that, she wouldn't see the scars. Well, for as long as he could maintain the spell. He could still see them, but that didn't matter. She wouldn't break this time. He felt like he actually did something right. He just hoped to Hyunan that the spell wouldn't end at an inopportune time.

Molodi's eyes went wide as she pulled her hand away from her shoulder, gasping. "...M-mel... I'm... I'm bleeding... My shoulder is bleeding..."

"What? Comrade?" Mel snapped out of her reverie, thoughts of numbers shoved away by the current danger. She hurried over to Molodi and looked at the arm. "This. . . this is a bullet wound!" She remembered the gun in her hands, clattering to the floor. "I shot you? I had my Meadowlark. . . "

"I... I don't remember hearing a bang... It just... Ow, God... It hurts so bad..." She peeled back her shirt, revealing the wound. Something had indeed nicked her. "Ow... Ow... It hurts so bad..." On the same arm was the celery like scar. "Oww... How did this happen?"

Blood. Brooke hated blood. Quin had to turn away, yanking out his pipe. He hastily lit it up, taking some puffs just a little too fast, resulting in him hacking loudly. Silently, something in him felt as though he had actually accomplished something with his powers once. He had actually done it. He had done something good! But... How was he going to keep up the Glamour? It would start to tax him unless he brought it down eventually. I will think of something when the time comes. Dear Hyunan, don't let it be too soon.

"Keep pressure on it! I'll go get the doctor!" Melanie shouted, before dashing out into the fog.

Molodi pressed down on her wound, and shrieked at Quin. "WHY AREN'T YOU HELPING, YOU MOTHERFUCKER?!"

Quin simply turned, a rather stoney look on his face. "Because, m'dear... If I tried, things would be much worse... Just... Trust me." He blinked, and realized he DIDN'T need magic to help. Holy shit, he needed to help! He bit down on his pipe, and ran to look for something to keep continuous pressure on the bullet hole. "Fuck me, why don't I ever think?!"

Molodi looked up as Doc rushed in, huffing and puffing. "Alright, young woman! I'm here! Oh, dear. That's a bad one." He bent down, and examined in. "Melanie! I'm going to need you to help this woman onto somewhere where she can lie down."

Quin kept looking, yanking out drawers and tearing through boxes, not realizing the noise he was making was causing more trouble than any help he was attempting to do could possibly benefit anyone.

Melanie dragged Molodi over to the bar area and lifted her onto the table, keeping quiet and focused.

Molodi grabbed Melanie's hand and squeezed it tightly, whimpering louder now. She arched on the table, wanting to cry as loud as she could, but keeping quiet as she could for the sake of everyone else.

Doc grimaced, and looked at the wound. "Alright, let's see..." He took out a cotton pad, and soaked it with disinfectact, before dabbing around the wound to remove the blood coating the wood.

Molodi shrieked at the sting. "YOU'RE MAKING IT HURT MORE, YOU SVOLOCH'!"

"Melanie, please keep the young lady quiet!" He kept dabbing at it, removing most of the blood, and inspectign the wound. "Hn... There's a bullet in there, and it's not in very deep. I could actually probably remove it at a later date..." He inspected it further, pressing down on the wound so she wouldn't bleed any further. "Melanie, can you pull out those bandages? We're going to need to do this quickly."