P
Porg
Guest
Original poster
The Grey Space was a lonely place, but there was always someone Obskeree could go to when she found herself there. It was there she headed, that fixed point in the endless nothingness, only to find something she had never expected. The temple wall was whole - but that was all there was of it. No shuffling god, no altar, just the wall and the grand entrance doors. Curiously, Obskeree opened one door to reveal a bathroom, and part of a kitchen.
"What is going on…?" she uttered, pulling Slesh up into a hug for moral support. Slesh remained motionless and didn't answer - not that she had expected him to. She flew hesitantly into the kitchen space, the corner of which was piled high with the random objects usually found in the Neake's storage bays. "I'm worried," she whispered to the puppet.
In the slice of a Kitchen a small black-purple circle appeared on the floor a large oblong door shape grew from it, and Jack walked out, stumbling slightly as he realised the floor was sloped, and finding his footing by grabbing a cupboard and a part of the worktop. He took a second to breathe as the corridor of darkness dissipated and then worked himself upright, taking stock of the situation.
In front of him was a huge wooden door and what appeared to be the missing end of the temple. "Hrrrm, that's pretty strange…" He mused to himself, before turning to open the cupboard door and grabbing a few missmatched mugs "Phew, none of them are damaged, fantastic, now.. where's Gary's bedroom here, I'd better get his pillow, I guess" He began pushing at the huge wooden door as he monologued to himself.
Obskeree panicked as the door beside her began to open, and - without anything obvious to hide behind, her usual confrontation solution - held Slesh up to her face to protect herself, getting ready to sever the strings in case it wasn't the Neake. "What did you do to the temple?!" she said loudly, assuming the body opening the door was responsible.
Jack paused, the door open enough so that he could see the small girl, he was holding it open until his strength gave out and the door slammed heavily sending Jack back into the kitchen, hitting the cupboards and making a small dent in the wall. A muffled string of swear words came from behind the door before it was kicked fully open. The young man standing with an unimpressed look on his face as he straightened himself up and addressed the other figure. "This was not my doing, in fact I'm not sure why it happened really.. probably the big stone spiders.." He started mumbling to himself a little before remembering that he had a point "I believe you may be Obskeree? If so The.. uh.. Neake? yeah Neake asked me to come and get you" He gave a friendly smile.
Obskeree slowly peeked out from behind Slesh, frowning. "Where is he? Where's Mr Neake? And where's the temple? Who are you?" she squeaked, unable to decide which question was more important.
Jack panted a little, wiggling his foot a little, it hurt a little, the reality did not seem as thin as in Iwaku here, against all logic, but then maybe that was the point. Jack gave a somewhat nervous smile, before giving a small salute of a wave "I'm Jack, a lot of people call me Porg, pick whichever ya want." He rubbed the back of his head, aware of how ludicrous the whole situation was "As for where The Neake is.. Well he's in Iwaku, which is kinda where I come from, though not really, but kinda. The rest of his temple is there too, and uh.. the rest of my house too."
She bit her lip. "That's, um… okay." She dropped Slesh and he bounced on the strings by her feet as she glided smoothly over to Jack. "In that case it's nice to meet you," she greeted, still quite nervous. And then she realised - "So he's not in the Grey Space anymore?" A small, wicked smile appeared on her little blue face. "Oh boy, Baujanaz and Annjia are going to be pissed. That's fantastic!"
Jack smiled a little bit "Yeah, he's having tea in what's left of my kitchen currently I believe.." He looked around slightly distractedly, realising where Gary's room was and holding a finger up to her "Just a second, got to get something" He began to scrabble upwards and over the half ceiling, finding himself in a messy slice of room, several skeletons on coat hangers sitting limply in the valley of the floor and wall. Clambering over the skeletons and reaching down he pulled out a pillow "Ah ha! excellent!" he exclaimed, holding it up in triumph before slipping on the unstable floor of skeletons and dropping back down into the kitchen with a loud bang.
She raised an eyebrow with an intrigued smile as she watched. "Would you like any help looting your house, Mr Jack?"
Jack got himself back up, dusting himself off and placing the pillow next to the mugs. "Uhm, yeah actually could you uh.. " Jack appeared to notice her small size for the first time "Uhm actually.. I'll be fine, uh.. miss Obskeree, just gotta get me some of my clothes, I'm not.. so presentable right now.." He motioned down to the muddied cargo pants and the burnt leather jacket.
Obskeree shrugged, unworried by scruffy his attire. "Neither am I," she said, gesturing to herself. There was nothing wrong with her clothes by human standards, but fairies were quite strict with their regulations on appearance. "I'd get lynched for this otherwise. Which is a shame 'cause I think it's quite pretty." She twirled, Slesh dancing with her, and then stopped abruptly with a pleased sigh. "So Mr Neake asked you to come get me! I knew he liked me really." Another pause in her speech and she hovered closer to him, looking at the pile in the corner. "Is any of that yours?"
Jack glanced around, looking at the pile of stuff that had fallen out of the temple "That stuff? no, that'd be the Neake's uhm.. my room, or.. part of it anyway, is this way." He said this as he turned and jumped an inhuman jump up tot he slice of his room. My clothes should be somewhere under all these.. unexplained glowy orbs.." He mused, poking around in the pile of soul traps.
"That's some of his souls," she explained, offhandedly, continuing to spin while looking up, enjoying the dizzying feeling. She followed up 'upstairs' and observed his ambling. "He'll be annoyed they aren't in order any more," she realised aloud. "Do you think I should bring them to him, Sleshy?" She tapped the bar attached to her waist and made the puppet nod. " I thought so too. Excuse me, Mr Jack!" she chirped, before closing her eyes for a moment and the orbs around Jack's feet suddenly sprang to life and circled her.
Jack raised an eyebrow, impressed by the show "That's interesting" he voiced aloud, watching the orbs circle through the grey air as he gathered up his clothes absent mindedly "He may be annoyed that they aren't in order but, well I've lost a slice of my bedroom, this is basically every bit of clothing I own!" He held up the big bundle of clothes, with a slight grin on his face "I think it's pretty funny really" He said as he climbed gently down to the kitchen and placed the clothes next to the mugs, pondering how to carry it all.
Obskeree smiled, pleased he could see the funny side. "It is hilarious, " she agreed. "All of it. Also, are you sure you don't want help with that? I'll help." The mugs floated up and gathered around her small figure. "Now. Where are we going, Mr Jack?"
Jack grinned, "To Iwaku, though I warn you, it's kinda.. lasery at this point, but don't worry, I'll look after you. Least I could do, since you're carrying my teacups" He smiled as he held his hand out, the black portal rising from the ground. He gathered up the pillow and clothes and motioned for the girl to enter the portal.
"Hurray!" Obskeree cheered, happily following. "Don't worry about the cups. I'm -" she stopped abruptly, and appeared paralysed with something akin to horror. It took a moment for Jack to notice, but she had actually fully stopped moving.
"The day we find a human here," a small voice piped up from somewhere behind him.
"It's a day we didn't think we'd come to," another, similar voice finished.
Jack turned slowly, feeling a little ridiculous holding all his clothes "Well can't say I expected to be here either. Who's curious?"
Two small children, twins, stood before him, dressed in old-fashioned rags, with dirty skin, eastern faces and black hair tied back in long plaits. They were identical, and it was difficult to determine their gender.
"We are," they uttered unanimously.
Jack observed the two, finding them more than a little creepy and slightly worried by their sudden proximity. "Wait.. I think I was told to ignore you two.." He said with a smile as he crouched down so his face was roughly level with theirs. "I'm curious though.. why would I need to ignore you? Any ideas Obskeree?"
"She can't respond right now," one told him with a cheeky smile. "We wanted a word with you privately."
"How long it takes is up to your answers," the other added, stepped closer. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Stepping back a little bit Jack turned away from the twins to look at the fairy "O-Obskeree?" Jack gently poked the little fairy, who was frozen in place in midair. The touch caused a strange tinkling sound, like you'd expect from fragile glass. "What have you done to her!?" Jack snarled, turning back to the children, anger lacing his words.
"She's fine," one, suddenly to his left, assured. "It's just to make sure she doesn't interrupt."
The one closer to him, still in front, folded his - or possibly her - arms. "We asked you questions."
Jack looked to the one in front of him, glancing momentarily at the one to his left, the look was distrusting and hateful, but he wasn't stupid, so he complied to their questions. "My name is Jack, I came here to get my stuff" he raised the collection of clothes to show they were the said 'stuff' "I'm also here to pick her up.. So if you'd unfreeze her I'll just be on my way!" a patronizing smile punctuated the words.
"Will you ever be returning here?" the one to his left quiried, wandering to Obskeree and tapping her leg gently for the sound.
"Don't touch her!" Jack snarled, worried for the girl, concerned by the fragile noise and quite shaken by the apparent power of these children. "I doubt it.. but there's an outside chance I may have forgotten something or have to bring some people back." Jack moved towards the child near Obskeree ready to force them away from her if they wouldn't back off themselves. "There a problem? What are you anyway? I'm a realm hopper and this is the first damned anyone's seemed to care.."
"We are the enforcers of His Will," the one near Obskeree replied simply. "You are in our domain and are therefore our concern."
"Its nothing to worry about," the other added somewhat jovially. "We just want to make sure you aren't meaning to disrupt anything here... beyond, of course, disposing of The Neake - for which we are actually quite grateful, if it was your doing."
Jack cocked an eyebrow, looking to the one which had spoken last, but making sure he was aware of what the other was doing. "The Neake? I haven't disposed of him, I like The Neake in fact, he's my friend!"
With a rather patronising smirk, the twin shrugged with indifference. "Either way... we are willing to stand aside and let you pass if you can prove to us you are not intending on interfering in this world."
"And if you can't prove it, we'll have to alert the true owner of this place, and she will not be happy~" the other teased, tapping Obskeree once more - just to show him that he couldn't stop them.
"I said don't touch her!!" Jack growled, grabbing the child by the arm she'd used to tap the fairy with. "I have no reason to interfere, but I'll damn well come and go as I wish and if I want that part of my house back" He pointed to the slice of house floating in space "Then I'll damn well take it back" he snarled, getting more and more frustrated by their lack of reaction.
A look of terrifying rage entered the eyes of the child and Jack was thrown back, held in mid air by an invisible force.
"You dare!" they shouted together, approaching, their voices merging into one. "You dare touch the avatar of a god! You were warned of the consequences of not cooperating, Jack."
Just as the Grey Space began to darken, the twins paused in their descent upon him. A woman appeared behind them, tall and beautiful, with long flowing hair, vibrant clothing and a deadly looking spear.
"Leave him, Juukilik," she said, her voice echoing. "You've got your own problems. This is my realm - go and deal with your Heralds, that angel is causing a stir down with the mortals." With a huff, the twins vanished, and the power holding Obskeree and Jack faded. The woman regarded him sternly. "Jack," she said, turning away. "I feel I should be angry - your world's unstable nature has cost me my greatest prize. And yet..." She turned back to him, frowning, and spoke in a curt, irritated voice, "I find myself exhausted by the farce of his imprisonment. Never return here. I'll send your house back after you."
"W-wait.. that might not be the best idea.. I dunno what would happen, plus I don't think you could send it back now.." Jack looked to Obskeree, apparently intact and now moving and sighed "Thanks though.. I think you may have just saved me." Jack looked back around to the still open corridor of darkness. "Obskeree I think we uhm.. need to go" he said a little nervously.
Obskeree was distracted by the splendour of the new avatar. "Lady Annjia," she whispered, curtsying faintly. Annjia didn't respond, and kept her eyes on Jack. She reached out with a slender finger and pushed his forehead gently. It rippled, and was still.
"You will never return here, and likewise you will never allow anyone back here through your corridor," she stated firmly. "Now go."
"Wait - that means I can never come home...?" Obskeree wondered.
"Leave forever or stay, it matters not to me," Annjia casually told her. "Either way, make a decision now. I'm tired of dealing with all these discrepancies."
It didn't take a lot of thought on Obskeree's part to nod, decisively, and sit on Jack's shoulder. "Then lets go, Mr Jack."
"Y-yeah.." Jack said, seeming a little distracted by what had happened as he walked through the corridor of darkness.
"What is going on…?" she uttered, pulling Slesh up into a hug for moral support. Slesh remained motionless and didn't answer - not that she had expected him to. She flew hesitantly into the kitchen space, the corner of which was piled high with the random objects usually found in the Neake's storage bays. "I'm worried," she whispered to the puppet.
In the slice of a Kitchen a small black-purple circle appeared on the floor a large oblong door shape grew from it, and Jack walked out, stumbling slightly as he realised the floor was sloped, and finding his footing by grabbing a cupboard and a part of the worktop. He took a second to breathe as the corridor of darkness dissipated and then worked himself upright, taking stock of the situation.
In front of him was a huge wooden door and what appeared to be the missing end of the temple. "Hrrrm, that's pretty strange…" He mused to himself, before turning to open the cupboard door and grabbing a few missmatched mugs "Phew, none of them are damaged, fantastic, now.. where's Gary's bedroom here, I'd better get his pillow, I guess" He began pushing at the huge wooden door as he monologued to himself.
Obskeree panicked as the door beside her began to open, and - without anything obvious to hide behind, her usual confrontation solution - held Slesh up to her face to protect herself, getting ready to sever the strings in case it wasn't the Neake. "What did you do to the temple?!" she said loudly, assuming the body opening the door was responsible.
Jack paused, the door open enough so that he could see the small girl, he was holding it open until his strength gave out and the door slammed heavily sending Jack back into the kitchen, hitting the cupboards and making a small dent in the wall. A muffled string of swear words came from behind the door before it was kicked fully open. The young man standing with an unimpressed look on his face as he straightened himself up and addressed the other figure. "This was not my doing, in fact I'm not sure why it happened really.. probably the big stone spiders.." He started mumbling to himself a little before remembering that he had a point "I believe you may be Obskeree? If so The.. uh.. Neake? yeah Neake asked me to come and get you" He gave a friendly smile.
Obskeree slowly peeked out from behind Slesh, frowning. "Where is he? Where's Mr Neake? And where's the temple? Who are you?" she squeaked, unable to decide which question was more important.
Jack panted a little, wiggling his foot a little, it hurt a little, the reality did not seem as thin as in Iwaku here, against all logic, but then maybe that was the point. Jack gave a somewhat nervous smile, before giving a small salute of a wave "I'm Jack, a lot of people call me Porg, pick whichever ya want." He rubbed the back of his head, aware of how ludicrous the whole situation was "As for where The Neake is.. Well he's in Iwaku, which is kinda where I come from, though not really, but kinda. The rest of his temple is there too, and uh.. the rest of my house too."
She bit her lip. "That's, um… okay." She dropped Slesh and he bounced on the strings by her feet as she glided smoothly over to Jack. "In that case it's nice to meet you," she greeted, still quite nervous. And then she realised - "So he's not in the Grey Space anymore?" A small, wicked smile appeared on her little blue face. "Oh boy, Baujanaz and Annjia are going to be pissed. That's fantastic!"
Jack smiled a little bit "Yeah, he's having tea in what's left of my kitchen currently I believe.." He looked around slightly distractedly, realising where Gary's room was and holding a finger up to her "Just a second, got to get something" He began to scrabble upwards and over the half ceiling, finding himself in a messy slice of room, several skeletons on coat hangers sitting limply in the valley of the floor and wall. Clambering over the skeletons and reaching down he pulled out a pillow "Ah ha! excellent!" he exclaimed, holding it up in triumph before slipping on the unstable floor of skeletons and dropping back down into the kitchen with a loud bang.
She raised an eyebrow with an intrigued smile as she watched. "Would you like any help looting your house, Mr Jack?"
Jack got himself back up, dusting himself off and placing the pillow next to the mugs. "Uhm, yeah actually could you uh.. " Jack appeared to notice her small size for the first time "Uhm actually.. I'll be fine, uh.. miss Obskeree, just gotta get me some of my clothes, I'm not.. so presentable right now.." He motioned down to the muddied cargo pants and the burnt leather jacket.
Obskeree shrugged, unworried by scruffy his attire. "Neither am I," she said, gesturing to herself. There was nothing wrong with her clothes by human standards, but fairies were quite strict with their regulations on appearance. "I'd get lynched for this otherwise. Which is a shame 'cause I think it's quite pretty." She twirled, Slesh dancing with her, and then stopped abruptly with a pleased sigh. "So Mr Neake asked you to come get me! I knew he liked me really." Another pause in her speech and she hovered closer to him, looking at the pile in the corner. "Is any of that yours?"
Jack glanced around, looking at the pile of stuff that had fallen out of the temple "That stuff? no, that'd be the Neake's uhm.. my room, or.. part of it anyway, is this way." He said this as he turned and jumped an inhuman jump up tot he slice of his room. My clothes should be somewhere under all these.. unexplained glowy orbs.." He mused, poking around in the pile of soul traps.
"That's some of his souls," she explained, offhandedly, continuing to spin while looking up, enjoying the dizzying feeling. She followed up 'upstairs' and observed his ambling. "He'll be annoyed they aren't in order any more," she realised aloud. "Do you think I should bring them to him, Sleshy?" She tapped the bar attached to her waist and made the puppet nod. " I thought so too. Excuse me, Mr Jack!" she chirped, before closing her eyes for a moment and the orbs around Jack's feet suddenly sprang to life and circled her.
Jack raised an eyebrow, impressed by the show "That's interesting" he voiced aloud, watching the orbs circle through the grey air as he gathered up his clothes absent mindedly "He may be annoyed that they aren't in order but, well I've lost a slice of my bedroom, this is basically every bit of clothing I own!" He held up the big bundle of clothes, with a slight grin on his face "I think it's pretty funny really" He said as he climbed gently down to the kitchen and placed the clothes next to the mugs, pondering how to carry it all.
Obskeree smiled, pleased he could see the funny side. "It is hilarious, " she agreed. "All of it. Also, are you sure you don't want help with that? I'll help." The mugs floated up and gathered around her small figure. "Now. Where are we going, Mr Jack?"
Jack grinned, "To Iwaku, though I warn you, it's kinda.. lasery at this point, but don't worry, I'll look after you. Least I could do, since you're carrying my teacups" He smiled as he held his hand out, the black portal rising from the ground. He gathered up the pillow and clothes and motioned for the girl to enter the portal.
"Hurray!" Obskeree cheered, happily following. "Don't worry about the cups. I'm -" she stopped abruptly, and appeared paralysed with something akin to horror. It took a moment for Jack to notice, but she had actually fully stopped moving.
"The day we find a human here," a small voice piped up from somewhere behind him.
"It's a day we didn't think we'd come to," another, similar voice finished.
Jack turned slowly, feeling a little ridiculous holding all his clothes "Well can't say I expected to be here either. Who's curious?"
Two small children, twins, stood before him, dressed in old-fashioned rags, with dirty skin, eastern faces and black hair tied back in long plaits. They were identical, and it was difficult to determine their gender.
"We are," they uttered unanimously.
Jack observed the two, finding them more than a little creepy and slightly worried by their sudden proximity. "Wait.. I think I was told to ignore you two.." He said with a smile as he crouched down so his face was roughly level with theirs. "I'm curious though.. why would I need to ignore you? Any ideas Obskeree?"
"She can't respond right now," one told him with a cheeky smile. "We wanted a word with you privately."
"How long it takes is up to your answers," the other added, stepped closer. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Stepping back a little bit Jack turned away from the twins to look at the fairy "O-Obskeree?" Jack gently poked the little fairy, who was frozen in place in midair. The touch caused a strange tinkling sound, like you'd expect from fragile glass. "What have you done to her!?" Jack snarled, turning back to the children, anger lacing his words.
"She's fine," one, suddenly to his left, assured. "It's just to make sure she doesn't interrupt."
The one closer to him, still in front, folded his - or possibly her - arms. "We asked you questions."
Jack looked to the one in front of him, glancing momentarily at the one to his left, the look was distrusting and hateful, but he wasn't stupid, so he complied to their questions. "My name is Jack, I came here to get my stuff" he raised the collection of clothes to show they were the said 'stuff' "I'm also here to pick her up.. So if you'd unfreeze her I'll just be on my way!" a patronizing smile punctuated the words.
"Will you ever be returning here?" the one to his left quiried, wandering to Obskeree and tapping her leg gently for the sound.
"Don't touch her!" Jack snarled, worried for the girl, concerned by the fragile noise and quite shaken by the apparent power of these children. "I doubt it.. but there's an outside chance I may have forgotten something or have to bring some people back." Jack moved towards the child near Obskeree ready to force them away from her if they wouldn't back off themselves. "There a problem? What are you anyway? I'm a realm hopper and this is the first damned anyone's seemed to care.."
"We are the enforcers of His Will," the one near Obskeree replied simply. "You are in our domain and are therefore our concern."
"Its nothing to worry about," the other added somewhat jovially. "We just want to make sure you aren't meaning to disrupt anything here... beyond, of course, disposing of The Neake - for which we are actually quite grateful, if it was your doing."
Jack cocked an eyebrow, looking to the one which had spoken last, but making sure he was aware of what the other was doing. "The Neake? I haven't disposed of him, I like The Neake in fact, he's my friend!"
With a rather patronising smirk, the twin shrugged with indifference. "Either way... we are willing to stand aside and let you pass if you can prove to us you are not intending on interfering in this world."
"And if you can't prove it, we'll have to alert the true owner of this place, and she will not be happy~" the other teased, tapping Obskeree once more - just to show him that he couldn't stop them.
"I said don't touch her!!" Jack growled, grabbing the child by the arm she'd used to tap the fairy with. "I have no reason to interfere, but I'll damn well come and go as I wish and if I want that part of my house back" He pointed to the slice of house floating in space "Then I'll damn well take it back" he snarled, getting more and more frustrated by their lack of reaction.
A look of terrifying rage entered the eyes of the child and Jack was thrown back, held in mid air by an invisible force.
"You dare!" they shouted together, approaching, their voices merging into one. "You dare touch the avatar of a god! You were warned of the consequences of not cooperating, Jack."
Just as the Grey Space began to darken, the twins paused in their descent upon him. A woman appeared behind them, tall and beautiful, with long flowing hair, vibrant clothing and a deadly looking spear.
"Leave him, Juukilik," she said, her voice echoing. "You've got your own problems. This is my realm - go and deal with your Heralds, that angel is causing a stir down with the mortals." With a huff, the twins vanished, and the power holding Obskeree and Jack faded. The woman regarded him sternly. "Jack," she said, turning away. "I feel I should be angry - your world's unstable nature has cost me my greatest prize. And yet..." She turned back to him, frowning, and spoke in a curt, irritated voice, "I find myself exhausted by the farce of his imprisonment. Never return here. I'll send your house back after you."
"W-wait.. that might not be the best idea.. I dunno what would happen, plus I don't think you could send it back now.." Jack looked to Obskeree, apparently intact and now moving and sighed "Thanks though.. I think you may have just saved me." Jack looked back around to the still open corridor of darkness. "Obskeree I think we uhm.. need to go" he said a little nervously.
Obskeree was distracted by the splendour of the new avatar. "Lady Annjia," she whispered, curtsying faintly. Annjia didn't respond, and kept her eyes on Jack. She reached out with a slender finger and pushed his forehead gently. It rippled, and was still.
"You will never return here, and likewise you will never allow anyone back here through your corridor," she stated firmly. "Now go."
"Wait - that means I can never come home...?" Obskeree wondered.
"Leave forever or stay, it matters not to me," Annjia casually told her. "Either way, make a decision now. I'm tired of dealing with all these discrepancies."
It didn't take a lot of thought on Obskeree's part to nod, decisively, and sit on Jack's shoulder. "Then lets go, Mr Jack."
"Y-yeah.." Jack said, seeming a little distracted by what had happened as he walked through the corridor of darkness.