| Logs |
2001 December 03
| Idlewild |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
 |
| Realms: Idlewild Logs |
Beginnings: Stephen and Lotte meet.
2001-12-03 (Lotte and Steven: Beginnings)
Lotte is a petite 24 year old with eye-catching features. Her abundance of freckles and mop of brilliant red hair more than make up for her pale, blemished skin and short stature. Large hazel eyes sparkle with mischief above an up-turned nose and an open heart-shaped mouth. If Lotte isn't talking, she's singing. She wears a faded Indigo Girls t-shirt under a dark green sherpa hoodie, and a green, maroon, and calico patchwork skirt that pools around her feet- completing her 'folk-rock chic' look.
Lotte has met a little blue person while exploring the unfamiliar place in which she has recently woken alone in a silk tent with no clear memory of her arrival. This person, who has thus far been the only sign of life besides birdcalls and squirrel chatter in this place of woods and meadows, is in varying shades of apparently natural blues for skin and hair, and is about the size of a nine-year-old human child, with about as much obvious gender and much sharper teeth. It tells her, shortly after appearing beside the tents when she had walked full-circle around this strange new place, that it will take her to “meet the others…”
The blue critterchild leads Lotte back to the large, rocky clearing in the forest that she walked through when exploring earlier, but this time it is not deserted-- some of the more distant tables have occupants. The little blue person takes her to an empty stone table, motions that she should sit on a smooth, butt-sized rock beside it, and says, "I'll be back in a moment. Yell if you get into trouble-- call me Frex." Lotte nods.
Frex then walks off into the woods and vanishes from sight. It reappears a few moments later, bare seconds, it seems, with a bedraggled but clean hippie boy in tow-- dreadlocks, quiet demeanor, possibly aloof. He could be straight off a liberal arts campus Bob Marley lovers group, except that he looks a tad older.
[Looking at Steven] You see a young man, of creme de cocoa skin and black, dreadlocked hair. He appears to be in his mid-to-late twenties, but with a quiet, almost distant solemnity or serenity that adds a few years to his appearance. His clothing is simple and well-worn, apparently having seen many miles of travel. He wears a faded, black pullover with the sleeves at some point having been cut from it, and light blue cargo pants rolled up to his knees. Well-worn, pale sandals are on his feet -- in fact they're so well-worn they look about to fall apart if not for the very careful tending that they've received.
Steven is frowning slightly, looking about interestedly and warily and, of course, confusedly. He doesn't quite stop short when he sees the other occupant of the table, but he doesn't seem too forthcoming. He nods pleasantly enough as he approaches, though.
The little blue urchin flashes sharp white teeth in a grin at them both, and gestures Steven toward a seat. "Sit here. Stay together. Do not-- no matter what anyone tells you-- go off alone with anyone. I will be back later; I have business to attend to now. Your tab is paid for tonight."
Lotte looks around. "Our tab?"
Steven blinks, looking at the blue kid -- man? girl? thing? whateverthehellitis? -- and frowning. "And where is 'here?'"
Lotte nods. "Seriously."
Frex just grins, says, "Ask a waitress," and leaves them abruptly alone together at the table... and a swirl of color and noise descend upon them, as if dimmed by his presence and unleashed now as he goes.
Lotte looks faint and blinks a few times as she watches Frex. She says, "What the...?"
Steven opens his mouth... but the guy is gone before he can even ask where a waitress is. He frowns quietly, then shakes his head.
A stunning blonde woman with rather large, neatly folded batwings and very long fingernails strolls up. "Somebody say tab?" She appears to be chewing gum, and looks bored.
Lotte looks to Steven. The blonde glances at Steven appraisingly, then turns back to Lotte. "Hey, red. You talk?"
Lotte says, "I...uh, I... yeah. "
Steven turns to look to Lotte -- and is immediately distracted by the blonde. And is equally immediately fretting at the batwings. He glances to the woman sitting across from him, then looks to her. "Ah," he says, his voice soft and incredibly gentle. "Water, please," he says to the... person, simply.
Lotte looks at Steven. "You're going to drink the water here?"
Steven looks to Lotte for a moment, then nods. "You're right." He looks back to the woman. "Do you have tea?"
The blonde sidles closer to Lotte, grinning slightly with very red lips. "Oh, you can talk. I'm pretty good with my hands, though, if you wanna try sign instead, little red..." She notices Steven, and sighs. "Yeah, we have tea. You want mint, orange, bloodwort, what?"
Lotte sputters.
The waitress leans over and taps her long, sharp red nails on the table, displaying impressive cleavage and a few tips stuffed in there.
Lotte quickly looks away and blushes.
Steven is taken aback by the waitress's comments. He hesitates for a moment, wondering what bothers her about tea, then says, "Ginsing, please." He looks over to the woman the waitress called 'Red.' "Are you all right...?" He manages to miss the cleavage, or if he doesn't, he doesn't show it.
Lotte just stares blankly and pales. After a few seconds, she regains her color and seems to collect herself. "I'll have a mint tea, please."
The batwinged blonde smacks her gum and grins. She nods to Steven, "'hokay, Marley man. Ginseng it is. Need a little energy tonight, eh?" The waitress oozes at Lotte. "Sure, honey. I'll be right back... your breath's fine, though.” She turns and saunters off, displaying a very short skirt that seems to have been made from a very large, red snake.
Lotte coughs. "So, what's your name?"
As the waitress oozes past them both, they feel something briefly touch their thighs.
Steven blinks. 'Marley man?' Oh, right... Bob Marley. What *is* this place? "Ah... kind of.…” I'm going to need energy, period.... He catches himself looking with arched eyebrows at the woman's... skirt as she walks away, then turns back, shaking his head, self-rebukingly. "Er, excuse me? Oh... Steven. Steven Kananga. And yours?"
Steven notices that the waitress has a long, slim tail, and she just brushed his thigh with it.
Lotte has no idea what just touched her, but it's gone now. She shivers. "Lotte. Uh, nice to... meet you?"
Steven blinks again, frowning and looking sharply down at the touch. He blinks for a moment, and starts to ask, "Did you see that tail....?" Then he breaks off, and shakes his head. That sounds horrible... I'm gonna get slapped. "Er... It's... good to meet you, too. I, uh, hope we aren't in trouble here...."
Lotte says, "How did you get here, Steven?"
Steven looks at Lotte for a moment, then gives a slight shrug. "I wish I knew. I was in a campground, went for a walk along a lakeside dock, fell in on the deep end... and woke up here." He looks around. "Wherever 'here' is...."
The noise and color of the forest clearing come and go as a mild assault upon the senses. Several languages that are not English are among the murmur, and almost all the other patrons of this place bear a closer look-- the rule seems to be that they are universally much uglier or much prettier than Steven or Lotte.
Steven winces, looking around as if seeing things for the first time. "And it wasn't quite this... confusing when I first came here...." Ah, Pelor, where have I been thrust to?
Lotte looks around. "Well, I was hiking by myself and decided to take a swim... but I got pulled under and woke up in this big tent..."
Steven's attention perks. "I did too, actually." It's clear the cacophony and glamour and other patrons aren't bothering him overmuch; he seems to remain relatively serene, though once in a while that cracks a bit, as something extremely untoward catches his attention. "I have never seen a place like this before," he murmurs quietly.
Lotte says, "Only in my dreams..."
The blonde waitress comes back with a tray balanced on her red-clawed hands. She leans needlessly low over the table again, setting out earthenware cups and two steaming copper pots of tea. A sparkle is visible in the contents of her blouse, as if a gem was one of her tips, nestled amongst the foreign paper money.
Lotte tries to gather all of her courage. "Uh, Miss?"
Steven's eye is caught by the sparkle, but after a glance -- and a second one to confirm that, yes, it is in her cleavage, and a third to confirm that confirmation, followed by a rebuke to himself -- he looks to the tea, and inhales its aroma, wondering if it really will be ginseng tea. He looks up attentively at Lotte's question.
Their waitress busies herself arranging things and producing napkins, wooden utensils, a small loaf of dark bread and a tiny vase from somewhere on her person. She looks up and smiles right into Lotte's eyes. "Yess, sugar?"
Lotte looks at the waitress with a hopful expression. "Uh... um...where are we?"
The aroma from the pot nearest Steven is indeed redolent of ginseng. Further, the dark bread the waitress put down smells rather good.
Lotte gets a bigger smile from the waitress, who twitches her long, folded wings. "You're in the Outside Inn, of course, honey. What'll you have for dinner?"
Lotte says, "Ummmmmmmm... well, what do you serve?"
Steven glances to the waitress, and smiles quietly and in some measure of, I should have known she'd say that. He reaches over and starts to pour the tea into the cups, at the same time listening attentively to the waitress's answers.
The waitress makes a mall-chick "I am such a ditz" gesture and taps her forehead. "Menus! I am so sorry, sweetie! Here, I always keep an extra..." She reaches into her cleavage and hesitates. "Oh, gosh. Can you help me out here? I can't hardly see." She leans over and waits. "They're green. Can't miss 'em."
Either Steven or Lotte is in range to help... and the woman is not moving.
Lotte figures Steven wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole, and goes for it.
Steven stops in mid-pour, and remembers to lift the tea kettle up just enough so it won't overflow the cup. "Ah...," he starts, and he glances between the woman -- it's not every day that someone asks you to rummage through their cleavage -- and Lotte. "Lotte, my hands are," fortunately! "full, could you -- ah, thank you...."
The blonde, batwinged bombshell helpfully holds up her shelflike chest with both hands. The green menu does not immediately become obvious. She's definitely not wearing a bra, though.
After what seems like five minutes of searching, however delicately, in the cleavage of a gum-smacking waitress, one menu appears, rolled into a tight little scroll and tied with gold thread. Several other things also fall out onto the table with it.
Lotte looks at the things on the table.
The menu rolls right to Steven's hand. Steven is looking reasonably sheepish through all this, trying very hard not to pay too much attention to where Lotte is searching and at the same time not trying to look oblivious. Obviously, the waitress isn't minding it. He looks down at the scroll, and picks it up. "Is... this one of the menus...?"
The waitress beams happily at Lotte, and appears not to notice that much spilled out besides the menu. She grabs and stuffs the paper currency back into her blouse, but the other small things are left. She nods to Steven, "Well, yeah, it's green, ain't it?"
Steven blinks. "Ah, yes. Yes, it is." He smiles quietly. "Sorry. Thank you." He looks to the scroll again, and slips off the gold thread, opening it such that both Lotte and he can look at it. While doing that, he glances at the objects which fell on the table, politely not inquiring as to how all that managed to be stored where it was.
The blonde flicks a carmine nail in Steven's direction. "Open it up, sugar, and check it out. We got stuff for most tastes round here." She slants a look toward Lotte. "I 'spect we can satisfy y'all tonight."
Of the objects that fell on the table, some are small, dark, faceted gems of a near-black that glint deep red... there is a slender black tube with three golden rings painted around one end, the overall length of Lotte's little finger... a dried wad of some kind of leaf... and a scrap of leather with symbols on it.
In response to the waitress's comment, Lotte pretends to look at the menu and ignores the innuendo.
The menu, amazingly enough, is in English. Steven glances at the items on the table; the scrap of leather in particular catches his attention. But if the waitress isn't going to pay them any heed, he shan't. "Well," he murmurs, "Frex did say our tab was covered for tonight." He blinks. "Should we be able to read this, Lotte?"
Lotte says, "The menu? Everything here is enchanted..." Lotte picks up the black tube and examines it.
The lurking waitress simpers at the 'enchanted' comment and beams at Lotte.
Steven looks at Lotte, frowning a bit. She said that so casually, and yet... well, he has no reason to disbelieve that. Their waitress, after all, is a she-devil, or at least has the appearance of one. He looks back to the menu... then back to the scrap of leather.
Lotte remembers the menu and the waitress and says,"I'm not hungry." The slim black tube appears to have a seam at the end with the gold circles around it, as if it opens somehow.
Steven nods to Lotte, then gives the menu another once-over. He looks up to the waitress. "Right now, I think that bread will do just fine, thank you. But a bit later, maybe?"
The blonde sighs and stalks off, pouting. Over her shoulder, she says, "Fine. I'll be off-shift soon, my partner will cover you if you need anything or change your minds. He knows where to find me if you... want me."
Lotte hides a nervous giggle and returns her interest to the tube. This time, a blind person could not fail to notice the tail that smacks Lotte's thigh before its owner departs. Lotte blushes a red more brilliant than her hair. She fiddles with the tube, trying to open it at the end.
Steven remembers to nod and smile pleasantly to the waitress, and it takes him a moment before he realizes that there may have been innuendo in what the waitress said. Then another moment to realize it was more than likely directed at Lotte, whom the waitress had apparently been flirting with -- and the tail just confirms it. Smiling quietly, he removes a chunk of bread from the loaf, and makes no comment to Lotte about the waitress. No need to embarrass her. "What have you found?" he asks.
After Lotte's attempt to pry it open with a fingernail, the tube develops an obvious seam. In response to Steven's question, Lotte pulls at the tube's end.
Steven looks curiously at Lotte's investigation into the tube, nibbling on the bread.
A long cap slides off the tube, revealing it to be hollow and filled with a bright red substance that just matches the waitress' lips and looks soft. Lotte smells the substance very carefully.
Steven's bite of bread proves to be chewy and sweet, tasting of honey, wheat, ginger, and something else slightly musky. He feels no ill effects. The ginseng tea is also quite normal.
The red substance smells slightly perfumed.
Steven looks at the bread, appreciatively, as he chews it. I don't think I've ever had bread quite this good. "You should try some of this bread," he comments quietly, reaching for the tea cup. He lets Lotte answer his question in her own time. In fact, everything here should be taken at its own time, he decides.
Lotte shows Steven the tube. "Lipstick," she says in a disappointed voice. She replaces the cap, puts it down, and cuts herself a piece of bread.
Steven arches an eyebrow as he takes a sip of the tea. "Well," he comments, "that seems almost anticlimactic."
Lotte nods and moves on to examining the piece of leather.
When Steven moves his teacup to drink, a smooth, dark ring made of woven strands of what appear to be black hair floats to the table, having apparently been stuck to the side of his cup.
The piece of scrap leather is brown and stained. One end seems to have part of a water-ring from a cup across it. The other bears symbols... Lotte can almost make them out, but after a few moments, they still remain teasingly on the other edge of making sense.
Steven pauses in lifting up his tea to drink, noticing the ring. He slowly sets the cup down, and gingerly -- Lotte did say the place was enchanted, after all, and he has no reason to doubt her from what he's seen; after all, a she-devil who uses lipstick? -- and peers at the ring…
Steven tilts his head to the side, and for some reason picking up and putting on the ring seems like a really, really good idea. So he does so, blithely and calmly and with no hesitation or undue hurry, reaching down and slipping it onto his ring finger.
Lotte watches Steven with wide eyes. Lotte says, "What are you doing??? Haven't you ever read Lord of the Rings?"
Steven looks at the odd ring for a moment, before Lotte's words register. "Hmm?" he asks, looking up. "Oh... Tolkein, The Hobbit, all that?" he frowns slightly, but only a little bit. "I have, yes. It seemed like a good idea to put this ring on, though, oddly enough." He looks at it again. "It's a little odd, but I don't feel anything wrong." He looks around. "Well. It is a rather nice night, as well, actually...."
Lotte tries to forcefully remove the ring from Steven's finger. Steven blinks to Lotte, frowning and almost pulling back. "What are you doing...?"
Steven pulls his hand back, away from the table. "Lotte, don't worry. Everything's fine. Just enjoy the evening."
Lotte raises an eyebrow. "People here have wings and tails, if you hadn't noticed. I will not enjoy anything until I know where I am."
Steven smiles quietly, shaking his head a little. "I won't argue with you about that. It's certainly strange here. But should we starve and thirst, and work ourselves up over this? If there is a way back home, we'll find it, but it has to come in its own time. As things are right now, we have no idea what to do. We will need all our strength and wits about us. And I tell you from experience, that without care for the body, the mind fails to be sharp.” His smile is unexpectedly charming, given his usual scruffy appearance.
Lotte looks like she is about to speak some harsh words, but then sits back and visibly relaxes. "You're right. You're right." She sighs and take a sip of tea.
A willowy young man with long, light-brown hair, no shirt, beautiful big brown eyes and fur pants glides gently over to the table and smiles at both occupants. "Have the gentle lady and man decided on dinner? Anything I may do for you?" He is as quietly unintrusive on their personal space as the waitress was… not.
Lotte visibly drools, but says nothing.
Steven seems to relax himself, as well, a little. "Besides, I imagine we could be here for a reason. It isn't every day that one falls into a lake and appears in a world where the bizarre is, apparently, common. Of course, saying that we're here for a reason is the same as saying that we exist for a reason...." He looks over to the man, and shakes his head. "No, not--" He glances to Lotte. "Er... not yet, thank you...."
Lotte checks out the waiter, and in the process notices that he is not, in fact, wearing pants. Any at all. He's quite clean, smells good, and... has the lower body of an anthropomorphic goat, slightly shaggy in... spots. But not shaggy enough to hide things entirely. He's far more discreet than a human, however, having a sheath. Cloven hooves and a little tail are included on this person, as well as tiny little horns under his hair. The god of irony has not given him a goatee, though his big brown eyes have funny pupils, shaped much like sideways barbells.
Lotte's eyes get very very wide, then she blushes for the millionth time and looks away.
The waiter bows gently, murmurs, "Take your time, sir, madam, and call upon Aylex if you have need," and glides gracefully away.