First EP

[omgplsstop]

The woman who walks in today is taken slightly off guard by the lack of a destroyed conference room. Only slightly. It only takes a few moments for her to realise what this is, and she has to contain a very large smile that threatens to break the illusion that she’s in charge of something.


She’s heard about this place, though she’s never seen any pictures. So the first thing she does is put her phone away and go on a good, old fashioned explore. The window is pretty darn trippy, and that magic bar thing is going to take some getting used to. Sentience from things that aren’t supposed to exhibit sentience usually means bad things are coming. But it gives her a rum and coke, so it might not be all bad. The fireplace is also pretty weird, but for some reason she can’t help but crouch down in front of it and see what happens when she throws bits of a torn-up napkin into the flames.

Comments

[iprotectyou]

""Hey, don't do that. You're messing up the fishes' ecosystem," a giant of a man says, crouching down next to her.

"I'm Baze Malbus. May the Force of others be with you."

[omgplsstop]

Nichola looks up at the man addressing her, and then slowly stands up. She looks around, a little confused.

"What Force of others?"

You can practically hear the capital letter.

[iprotectyou]

Baze stays crouched. In fact, he settles his unarmored bulk on the floor, shifting to the lotus position on the wooden planks.

"The Force is an energy field that binds and surrounds all things. The Force of others means that the good will of other people can run the universe."

[omgplsstop]

"Oh. I've never heard that one before. Is that some kind of Zen thing?"

She stuffs the napkin into her pocket, since she's not sure what else to do with it now, and sits down in one of the chairs.

[iprotectyou]

Baze scoots around to face her, apparently content to sit on the floor. He's just weird like that. He shakes his head.

"Zen thing? No, I don't think so. What is a Zen thing?"

[omgplsstop]

"You know. Yin and Yang and all that stuff."

Nichola has no idea what Zen actually is.

[iprotectyou]

Baze cocks his head to the side, his brow creased.

"Nnnooo, I don't follow, sorry. That must be an Earth thing. You're an Earther, right?"

[thewidewideworld]

"They prefer marshmallows." Says the androgynous blonde curled up in one of the deep couches. "There's some in the tin labelled Fire-fish food on the mantle."

[omgplsstop]

"Marshmallows?"

Nichola looks up and indeed finds a tin labelled "fire-fish food". She stands up to grab it, and tosses one of the little marshmallows into the flames. The fish seem to love them.

"What kind of fish are these?"

Besides, you know. Fire-fish.

[thewidewideworld]

"I only know them as fire-fish. They're not from my world. At least as far as I know."

[omgplsstop]

"Huh."

Nichola can't quite help but reach out and try to touch the flames, but nope. That's some real fire there. And she's not about to get burned over a fish.

"I want to look these things up."

She pulls out her phone and goes to the browser, only to frown when she notices the complete and total lack of signal.

"Oh, come on." She thwaps the phone against the palm of her hand, as if that will help.

[thewidewideworld]

"It may not work here. But there is a library upstairs. I'm sure there will be books about the fire-fish."

He toys with a little device of his own. A music player judging by the headphones wrapped around it.

[omgplsstop]

"There's no cell service here?"

That definitely puts a cramp on things. How's she supposed to get any work done.

"What about wifi?"

[thewidewideworld]

He gives her a helpless gesture. "It is not a thing I use."

[cottoncandypink]

Oh. Oh no. Oh hell no. This is Wilford's secret place. He can't have people like her crowding up the place.

He's feeling slightly less hungover than he was this morning, but he's still in his pyjamas when he walks up to glare at her.

"What in the fuck are you doing here?"

[omgplsstop]

Well. This was bound to happen sooner or later. Nichola sighs and slowly turns to look up at Wilford, not even giving him the courtesy of standing up, or stopping her fish-feeding.

"What does right now have in common with my fifth birthday?" she asks, almost sweetly.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford is not in the mood for this.

"Oh, do tell," he says, rolling his eyes.

[omgplsstop]

"You weren't invited. Go away," Nichola says.

She smiles extra smugly at him, and turns to feed the fish some more.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford grumbles, loudly enough to make sure she can hear it, before he turns away to go somewhere else.

Not because she told him to. Because he doesn't like her either right now.

[ostro_goth]

The napkins will burn up in bright flashes, and the spiny creatures in the other, more conventional fish tank will come to the glass to stare at the puffs of fire out of their expressionless crystal eyes.

[omgplsstop]

It's all kind of cute, in its own weird way. The creatures seem contained for now, and if they're in a public place, they're probably not likely to bite anyone. So Nichola keeps feeding the fish bits of napkin.

[ostro_goth]

A small black cat comes wandering over as well, to help with the staring, it seems.

[omgplsstop]

The cat makes Nichola jump. Just a little bit.

"You stay over there, mister," she says, pointing at it.

[galen_erso]

It sits, and soon, another black cat joins it.

[omgplsstop]

Oh, nope. Nope nope nope.

Nichola slowly gets up, keeping her eye on the cats and trying to figure out the best direction to go.

"You stay right there, okay?" she says as she starts to very quickly walk away.

She won't be having any black cat nonsense today.