mallowhallow | Level 0001: [Video | Action in Crystalden]

[Video]

Well, looks like I finally got this damn thing turned on. Fancy as hell and all, but it could stand to have a better interface... and be made of something sturdier than see-through plastic. [He mumbles the next phrase:] Feels like I'm gonna break this thing.

Anyway, at first I thought this was some kind of dream or sick joke. Guess it's not, and I really shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, figured I'd introduce myself. Name's Adell, and I'm... [He hesitates, as though he was going to say something else, and then realizing that's irrelevant here.] ...new around here, I guess.

I'm currently in this Crystalden place... it's like something out of a cheesy sci-fi manga or something. Is this really where I'm supposed to live? I can't even find my apartment... [He sighs. At least it looked like there was a hell of a lot more freedom to move around here than in Luceti... He turns slightly away from the phone to look at the digital street sign he just passed, and the more diligent will notice something unusual on his back.] ...Pretty sure I'm going in circles.

Last thing, I guess. If the word "Luceti" means anything to anyone out there, I'd be interested in hearing from you.

[A risk to ask about it, perhaps, but worth a shot.]

[Action]

[Still wandering around Crystalden, the young demon is actually taken in by a number of sights, and even stops to linger in a highly advanced video arcade. That looked like fun, and he made a note to remember where it was. Afterward, he set out once more to find his new home. He can be encountered in person at any time along the way.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, maybe. The problem is, this universe's reason for pulling us all here might be completely different. But... I'll help how I can, if people need it.

The wings were someone everyone who arrived in that world got, and even people who already had wings got them replaced with these things. Best as we knew, the wings tied us to that universe somehow. But now that I'm not there anymore, I don't even know why I still have them.

[And he... doesn't even know if he even wants to go back.]

Hm . . . how curious. Do the wings bear special properties? They may be a link to this "Luceti," if you still have them. Though they look rather small—surely they can't be strong enough to take you skyward.

They are a link to Luceti, but... I had left there before I came here. And I lost them, so I don't know why I got them back when I got here. Unless it's some kind of mark to show I was there.

[He's... just not gonna mention the part where losing wings might kill him.]

...They're not, sadly. All they really do is get in the way.

You . . . lost them.

But then what is the point? From your explanation thus far, it merely sounds as though they're protruding brands than actual feathered wings. Quite poor as decoration, really, much less as a sign of ownership. [A pause.] At least the Queen of this nation thought better than to do undertake such a crude tactic!

Well, when I left Luceti... somehow. I remember getting back to my own universe and not having them at all.

...And well, they are feathered wings. [He spreads them, and opens them to their maximum span for sake of proof.] But they do kind of feel like a mark more than anything, even if no one owns me.

...the Queen and King of this land are kinder hosts than the ones I had in Luceti, even if I don't trust them.

Kinder, perhaps, but no more just than the next tyrant.

In any case, what was the purpose of your stay in Luceti? Though you said the reasons were ambiguous, there must have been an inkling of something that we may be able to apply here.

I hear you. I'm pretty sick of dealing with tyrants between Luceti and home. Seems like I can't land somewhere with a ruler that's not a real pain in the neck. Couldn't have landed on a tropical resort world or something.

[He sighed and shook his head.]

The only things I knew for sure were that the people in our village weren't the only ones being teleported to that universe. But apparently our stays were shorter than most others.

If you want to call three and a half years a short time.

[ . . . now, assuming that place functions rather like this one—]

I will not be imprisoned here for a year, much less three and a half. It is unbecoming and a waste of precious time while a war is being had.

[The disdain is positively oozing from her words.]

Well, see. This was the damnedest thing. While I was in Luceti, it was said time stopped in my own world.

And it was true, actually. When I got out of there and ended up back home, it was like I had never left at all. I don't really understand how that worked.

Yes, well, that's there and this is here. Are you sure that the same principles can be applied to this country, outrageous though they are?

Well, no, I can't be positive, but I wouldn't rule it out as a possibility either.

. . . Good enough, I suppose. Very well, I shall accept what solace there is to be found in this conjecture. You've given me no reason to doubt you thus far.