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HOME SWEET HOME

Elrond let the gang decide when to leave, providing hospitality and medical care until they're ready. When the quest calls to them and they know it'll tug them along soon, he makes sure each is fully supplied and armed with weapons of their choosing, some custom made. They each have a pack, food supplies, and extra clothing. All of them get offered sturdy boots, even those who have stranger body types like Filbo.

He gives the group four copies of a book transcribed with the prophecies that had been brought to Rivendell, to be studied and interpreted on their journey.

Those who mentioned knowledge of the One Ring are briefly pulled aside away from the guests at Elrond's Council. They're implored to keep it secret, for the knowledge of Frodo's task could lead to people trying to steal the Ring when he's on a journey to destroy it.

Crowley is also released from the dungeon, with Elrond apologizing for the Elves' caution. It's at least clear he's been shown some of the same hospitality. He's healed up, well fed, and clothed in replacement clothes just like they all are.

Elrond's final goodbye to the whole group is warm and genuine.

"Namárië. It is a word we use for greetings and goodbyes. It means 'be well.' Whether you seek to help this world or try to find a way home, it is our hope that whatever paths you tread fly beneath your feet, and whatever obstacles you face are quickly overcome."

A pause.

"It would be easy to try to make you feel that the hopes of those in this new world go with you; but such burdens should only be carried by those who choose it. The Green will not admit it, but they have done you a great wrong. If you try to only find your way home, it's justified, and I hope you do find it."

Yes, there are prophecies, but making people do something by force is wrong, and all weary travelers deserve to find their way home. After a brief time of saying any goodbyes, they get to make their way to the other side of the valley. On the other side of the pass is the castle the Green spoke about.

The castle is a Frankenstein monstrosity that seems cobbled together from many buildings and machines. The second the last of the gang piles inside, it starts moving, massive legs clanking along. But where it's going is unknown. At least that means they have time to explore, rest, and get settled.

There are many mystical objects and mysteries within. One half of the castle seems to be a strange frozen realm of faerie, with strange sights to explore. But even the warmer side of the castle has its oddities. Magic waterfalls that show memories, and a scrying pool that shows frozen images of home, locked to the times each member of the squad left theirs. There are magical doors that lead to sights beyond the imagination, strange collections and even entire small realms, some beautiful, some dangerous.

The three magical creatures, Jonald, Ronald, and Rolkien constantly get underfoot trying to get the group settled, but refuse to talk about their former master, seemingly hurt at his leaving the castle.

The castle also seems to like assigning roommates for some of the group, making it so doors only open to their assigned room anytime they try to go to a place to sleep, even teleporting to them to the room if they fall asleep elsewhere.

It's a strange place, sometimes dangerous, sometimes annoying, but at least they have even more time to rest, train, plan, and prepare. They will have a few weeks to adjust to their new normal.

Then...who knows where the road will take them.
OOC DETAILS
❧ Prompts. The mods aren't doing prompts, but players can check out the page on the Moving castle for inspiration. The castle has many mysteries and oddities and absolutely anything can be behind the magical doors.

❧ Food and water. The castle seems to have an internal pressurized water supply and food is plentiful...for now. The food supply will not last forever but some food was left behind by the castle's previous occupants. There there's enough for a long break without hunting. There is some fresh food that's rotten and needs to be thrown away but whoever lived here clearly knew how to keep food prepared. There are cooking oils, flour, and sugar for bread and baked goods. There is jerky of various types of meats, dried fruit, sun-dried tomatoes, stores of nuts, jars of preserved fruit and jams (and empty jars to make more), and hard cheeses that need only a little mold cut off them to still be edible. Some of the jars have confit, meat cooked and preserved in lard, or garlic preserved in oil. A small root cellar has a few barrels of potatoes, parsnips, and onions.

It also has some barrels of beer and bottles of wine.

There are also dried herbs hanging in bundles from the kitchen ceiling, jarred pickled vegetables, and vinegar for pickling more. There are also fresh veggies the group can harvest together. The gardens will not be infinite in supplying the group but luck has it that many vegetables are ripe for harvest right now. The squad can pick juicy tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, radishes, blackberries from a small thicket, squash, and plenty of zucchini. The garden does need tending to stay healthy. Aside from harvesting from it, weeds need to be pulled, beans and tomatoes need to be trellised, spoiled veggies on the ground need to be tossed away.

❧ Bathing. There is no soap other than what the Elves may have given them but there are hot baths. The water has to be heated on a fire down the hall and carried to the tubs.

❧ Weather/Atmosphere: The air outside and inside is on the warmer side. Even though the stone is cool, the cooking fires warm the air to something comfortable. The air outside in the gardens is warm and sunny, with the occasional cool breeze due to the altitude.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Names have been easy to pick up with a group this small, and you definitely don't forget it when someone helps you save some people.]

Hey, Cammie.

[He looks at the little robot.]

Sentient or no? Because Krypto will listen more to 'not a chew toy' if he knows it's the former.

Ehhh... [ she tilts her head, thinking about it ] Depends on your definition. He's got some basic sensory feedback an' is basically autonomous, but he's not like... sapient? Though I've been wonderin', somethin' seems different about him since he came back with me...

[ She shakes her head like she's jarring the thought loose. ]

We're not really all the way to full consciousnesses with AI yet. He's durable though, dirt's honestly more a problem than bein' chewed on.

Krypto. See the robot? The robot is no. Possibly alive. No. You definitely understand no.

[Krypto looks longingly at the robot and lets out a little whine.]

No, Krypto.

[Then the dog chuffs at him in annoyance and occupies himself with digging again.]

Trust me, durable is nothing to that dog. Even without super-strength he'd probably wreck it, he's just too stubborn, and he's smart enough to use tools. He's smarter than some humans and I don't mean that in the usual way where I'm humanizing my dog.

He's an alien dog.

[ Cammie bites back more snickering. ]

Ohhh, yep, that'd do it. [ she nods ] He's definitely not been quality tested against super smart alien dogs.

Nugget, don't you go temptin' poor Krypto over there. Explore the other side of the garden, yeah?

[ Nugget tilts his little head, but he must understand the instruction because he starts his exploration away from Krypto. He's not exactly going far, he's tiny and can only go as fast as his tiny little legs can carry him, but still. ]

Nugget's the only pet I've ever had an' he can hardly misbehave in a way that's more than pesterin'. Like, he likes to take a bath in people's drinks, sometimes? Never been able to figure what I coded that made him do that one.

Bet there's never a dull moment with a dog that smart, though.

[Kon smiles at the story about bathing in people's drinks.]

I was dead for a while which is...really hard to explain. But when I was back, one time I had to run outside between classes at super speed because he beat up and brought a bunch of my rogues gallery to my school to be like "bark bark look you're safe now, I beat all your bad guys, aren't I best dog?"

Which would've been great and all except one of them was reformed and he broke the others out of prison to bring them there.

He was just trying to help, but smart and powerful mixed with...you know, dog, is sometimes a combination that's a handful. He's smart and dumb.

[Hi INT, low WIS.]

Edited 2022-03-27 20:28 (UTC)

Oh no. [ she doesn't bite back her laughing this time, the mental image is too funny ] Exactly the kinda stuff you'd expect a dog given that kinda power to do, huh. Bless him, talk about good intentions gone wrong.

[ She switches from her crouched position to sitting with her legs crossed, leaning back on her hands. ]

Also, for what it's worth, the whole bein' dead for a spell's not all that weird to me. You should hear me try an' explain the weird stuff that's happened to one of my friends, I'm not sure if even he knows if he technically died or not, now.

It happens a weird amount in my world. Some of us have been lucky. Usually because the circles we run in involve time travel, alien tech, magic.

What happened to your friend?

When you've got a world with all that goin', I'm almost not surprised. For us it's just plain ol' tech, like...

He sort of... [ she taps her fingers against the floor, thinking ] his human body is super dead, but his mind isn't?

He almost died once years ago, when the war at home started, but he's one of six people with this super special brain structure. So they saved him, shoved him in a life support tank, an' 'cause his brain's special he could upload his mind to a robot.

At that point? Totally alive. Flesh body, metal body, mind. He couldn't leave the tank unless he was in the robot, but it was better than nothin'.

But later, uh. He let himself get stuck in the robot? So his actual body is dead, but he's still around?

[ A beat. ]

...also there's a bunch of copies of him that actually are like, also dead. That we killed. It's complicated.

Nah, I get it. My one team's first adult mentor who kept us from dying of our own stupidity was a robot.

I know a lot of sentient robots and computer people. Some AI are pretty hardwired in but some are more transferable. And that means they're probably copy-able.

[A pause and he actually looks excited. It's not easy for him to think something is cooler than, well, himself, but the time he and Tim got to pilot giant robots in Tokyo was up there.]

Were they giant robots? I got to pilot a giant robot once. Second coolest thing that ever happened to me.

Any of 'em start off as normal— or, well, flesh people before becomin' robots or AI?

[ It's a genuine question, she's curious as to if that's a thing that's happened anywhere else. Then Cammie flashes a grin, sitting up straighter, elbows on her knees. She's very easy to get to excitably talk about the Holons, though— maybe it falters a little, this time. Just for a second. Without something to compare it to it probably doesn't mean much. ]

Aye, they sure are. Four-storeys, or, well, mine's about three? Couldnae handle bein' so tall, it threw me off. Had to shorten my legs when I re-designed 'em, plus I made 'em digitigrade. Like a rabbit's.

[ She wiggles her ears for emphasis. ]

Two of us have wings, one of us can go invisible, one of us can— could expand his armour some. I made us all as cool as possible.

An' if that's the second coolest thing you make me immediately curious about what tops it, for the record.

I don't think so.

Reddy's whole thing was complicated, but I don't think he was ever human. He had a wife and an adopted daughter but I think they knew he was a robo-dude all along.

[He snaps his fingers.]

Oh wait, I think the Professor dude in the Metal Men is. Veridium, I think he goes by? Yeah, I think he used to be human. Don't really know the guy personally, though.

[He smiles at the rabbit thing and the ear wiggle.]

And number one coolest thing was coming back to life and seeing the world had been saved and knowing it was partly because of me.

I wasn't sure at the time that what I did would be enough. I only knew I was stopping the biggest part of what was ending it, but it was still going to be down to everyone else to do the rest. So I didn't get to know for sure that it'd be enough, that everyone would be okay. All I knew was I'd given them a shot.

So to find out it was all still there, that most of the people I cared about were alive, that going through something as awful as dying was worth it...

[He looks up from his gardening with a smile.]

Best thing I've ever felt.

Edited 2022-03-27 23:55 (UTC)

So it's not just us. Sure it's a hell of a lot different, but still, havenae found a lot of overlap in that area, with other worlds.

[ Everyone comes from such interesting places, though. It's always cool to hear more about them.

She sits and listens as he talks about that Best Thing, and... wow, yeah, no wonder that's top of the list. Suddenly she's actually almost a little... jealous, which is a stupid thing to feel about a guy that had to die to get that feeling, but with everything that's happened lately, all the pain and loss, she wishes something would happen to her to make it all feel worth it. Ugh, it's such a stupid thing to think.

(Maybe one day she'll stop beating herself up for having what are, really, normal human emotions.)

She doesn't say any of that, though. Her ears twitch as if to flatten, but only for a second before they're upright and cheerful again, and then she's grinning a genuine grin. ]

Daaaamn, talk about hard to top. I'm not sure it's even possible for somethin' to be higher on the cool scale as actually knowin' that.

I hope you get to find out.

[Because it doesn't sound like she's experienced it yet.]

'Cause I bet you're not jumping around in giant robots for no reason.

[She'd helped him save people.]

You ran right into a burning building to save people so I'm gonna hedge my bets here and say whatever you're using them for, you're trying to help people.

Edited 2022-03-28 00:33 (UTC)

[ Her ears shoot slightly more upright, as if surprised—she should really stop being so shocked when people catch onto things like that, it is pretty obvious most of the time. ]

So she holds her hands up like she's surrendering. ]

Guilty as charged. Back home we're fightin' a war. If you can call it fightin' when we keep losing... [ she shakes her head ] It's a big mess. There's like five of us that can use the robots, an' we're the only real edge the good guys have, so...

[ Her brow furrows, her ears flattening as she thinks. ]

...actually, s'kinda not true anymore. There's apparently more people now? Been some extra teams going out, they've helped us sort of start turnin' it around after like, months of losses, but I've never met any of them.

[ Which is super weird, really. She just hadn't had much time to question it, with everything going to shit. She also just didn't feel inclined, her team, her family, are more important. ]

Anyway. Until recently, it was just us and it wasnae going well. So.

[ A too-casual shrug. ]

We've had some losing fights back home. Even a real nasty war. We were lucky most of it was going on up in space, but the guys behind it wiped out a few cities on Earth.

[He doesn't like talking about the war, but he also wants to offer some solidarity.]

It was bad enough that they actually let the teen superheroes fight in it. I was in the Paradocs. We were medics, and transported casualties back to base for medical treatment. Had to get them away from Imperiex's forces, and scavengers.

And that was just the war. In the Crisis, things got...biblical. Couple million people dead.

[He'd died, even if he'd been revived later.]

Our worlds are different, I know, but as long as you're still alive, there's always hope. Maybe you can find something useful in this world to take back. Some kind of magical junk. The people here'd probably help you look for something.

I know I would.

...thanks. [ it's genuine and she does smile, warm if subdued ] I mean, it'd be nice if it could be that simple. Find some magic wand and wave it to make the Union go away.

[ She starts picking at the ground, idly. Watching herself do that instead of looking Kon in the face. ]

We uh. The first day the war started, we lost half the population of New York. Give or take. So... few million? Since then, it's come in waves, dribs and drabs here, big bursts there... Union uses this stuff called nanotech, it devours organic matter. Lets them sweep whole cities leaving only their supporters an' the infrastructure behind, if they want.

[ And often, that is what they want. Not always, or god knows there'd be even more people dead, but it's still... a lot. ]

I'm sure I've heard the official toll, but if I try and think about it, I will cry, so let's just say it's a lot. I dinnae say this to like, one-up you or whatever, 'cause it's all bloody horrific, just... giving a sense of scale, I guess.

They say they wanna save humanity but even more people die in the Union 'cause they have this whole... freaky cult thing going on, and the nano has sped up our climate collapse, and...

[ She groans, covers her face with her hands and dramatically flops so she's laying down on the ground fully. ]

Sorry, sorry, talk about dumpin' a lot of bullshite... yeah. Yeah if we could find somethin' that'd help us maybe at least get rid of the nano forever, that'd be nice.

[ She used to be so good at being the optimistic one. But since losing Kazu, it feels like it's slipping through her fingers. ]

I don't know how all this is going to end but if there's any way we can have contact with each other's worlds after it's over, some of the people back home could probably find some way to wreck that kind of nanotech.

We have a couple guys with tech that lets them shrink and they specialize in tiny tech. Plus nanotech kicked our ass a little in the Crisis. I'm pretty sure I heard somebody'd beat it by working up some kind of virus.

Our tech people are really good.

[The offer of help is extremely casual and very genuine. Even if it's another world's war, nanotech just eating innocent civilians up is no go regardless of who's behind it.]

I'm real good, Weller was real good, the Union just keeps bloody patchin' the damn stuff an' it feels so fuckin' hopeless sometimes I swear to—

[ She catches herself, then, cutting off abruptly with a groan directed at herself. ]

God, I sound like Val. Which, for the record, is a bad sign. [ she sighs and sits back up ] Sorry, I'm bein' a right Debbie Downer. Thank you, seriously. If at the end of this we actually get home an' we can stay in contact... any help'd be real appreciated. We've been runnin' on fumes.

An' I'm sure dealin' with the kind of stuff that goes on in a world with bloody superheroes and more gives tech people an extra edge.

[ She's half a mind to joke, but not really joke, that they could also do with some of that assortment of stuff that leads to people coming back to life, but. No. It's actually still too raw to joke about and on the serious side... Kazu's death was almost more akin to someone destroying a hard drive full of data, his actual body was still breathing when she left. There's technically nothing to revive, his brain's just... empty. ]

"No prob. I mean...we don't have a prime directive not to interfere with other worlds or whatever. Some stuff is so complicated all you'll do is mess it up, but mass murder of total civilians sure as hell ain't it."

He goes on, "And yeah, we do have to be up on our tech junk. We fight aliens with really good tech all the time. Plus some of the bad guys are smart enough the tech they make is a nightmare."

Edited 2022-04-01 08:13 (UTC)

“One bit of that I can kinda relate to,” she flashes a jokey smile, “but, yeah, my world’s just got a very mundane, down-to-earth kinda evil goin’ on. Gotta say I’m glad we’re not dealin’ with anything more exotic on top of it. Unless— don’t suppose you know if we’re temptin’ fate tryna get some people offworld to Mars?”

She’s joking. They are trying to get people to Mars, that’s a thing (that she has no idea is all a big lie), but it’s still a joke.

“Though, okay, does that mean you guys… do deal with other worlds sometimes already? Or when you say some stuff’s too complicated are you bein’ totally hypothetical?”

"We deal with many, many other planets sometimes. A lot of fights spill up into space or people somewhere else need our help. Or stuff involves other dimensions. Or the future. I was in the future for a little over six months at one point. Fought side by side with the heroes from then, then traveled back in time to a minute after I originally left."

That's time travel for you.

"Sometimes the conflict is too complicated because it's not an instance of one side being right and the other being wrong. Sometimes both sides are just being horrible to each other, both kinda started it, and the problem needs to be fixed by both parties because anything someone external does won't make a lasting peace."

He nods his head to the side.

"Other times, people try to take over the world and eat up millions of innocent people with nanites. That one sounds pretty black and white to me."

Cammie nods along with genuine interest as he explains because, again, other worlds are often insane and interesting and personally the superhero worlds she’s heard about all seem to rank real high on both scales.

“Man. It’s wild to think some of you already kinda knew other dimensions and time fuckery were possible. Before bein’ yanked around like this it was still pure theory for us. In every form.”

Nugget runs back over, and she offers her arm for him to run up so he can get onto her shoulder.

“Y’know, one of my team, he had this whole— crisis, recently. ‘Cause, apparently, our side technically struck first. Tried to destroy their nano production plants, ‘cause they were suddenly makin’ more, an’… I dunno. His family died in New York, so it’s not like I dinnae get why he’d freak if he thought the war didnae have to happen like it did, but…”

She shakes her head.

“They were killin’ thousands even before the war went ‘hot’. One of my other teammates was from one of the first places they occupied. They had people killin’ themselves with nano, tellin’ ‘em it’d take them to an afterlife. They used it as a threat for others if they didnae conform.”

She sighs.

“I’m gettin’ heavy again, sorry. Just— god. It’s black an’ white, you’re right.”

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HOME SWEET HOME

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cw: reference to suicide and cult stuff