mallow_logs | Do You Believe In. . . [OPEN]

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Current Location: His favorite bench in Astralfield
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Do You Believe In. . . [OPEN]

Who: Victor Van Dort and whoever may be in Astralfield at the time
What: Victor finds himself suddenly in the possession of a most peculiar book. . .
Where: Astralfield -- specifically, near his usual bench
When: June 13th, around 2 in the afternoon
Warnings: Shouldn't be an issue

For the first day, Victor's perfectly happy to follow Tronctor's injunction to stay inside. After all, he lives in Astralfield -- the district where you don't need portals to experience random crap flying in from everywhere. Anything that manages to add to the chaos that already stalks the streets is definitely to be avoided. He has his keyboard and his sketchbook -- who needs to go outside?

When the second day dawns bright and sunny, though, and it becomes clear that, despite Tronctor's warnings, most people are just going about their day as usual, Victor decides to venture out of doors. Strange objects like potted cacti and half a ship's mast litter the ground, and what looks like a wooly mammoth lumbers down a nearby street, but it's impossible to tell if they're from the portals or people's heads. It's just like any other day, Victor realizes, and decides to get some grocery shopping done.

And promptly narrowly avoids getting clobbered by a book falling out of the sky.

His first response is to yelp and fall over with a thud. His second is to glare at the book that nearly took his head off. His third is to gape at it. It's large, rather old book, bound in cracking brown leather, and with the title "A Compendium of Magic" written on the front in gold. But that's not what making him stare.

It's the name of the author.

"Theodor Gutknecht."

He snatches it up and dashes over to the nearest place to sit, which just so happens to be his usual bench. Sitting down, he opens it and starts to read.

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Doll, too, seemed not to be heeding the warnings... or at least, had a compelling enough reason to ignore them. A minute prior to the human-sized plastic doll showing up, a cat ran behind Victor's bench, chasing after... whatever it was it was chasing after, the tag on its collar jingling lightly as it jumped up to the top of the bench... and promptly toppled over, landing with a soft sound onto the bench beside him.

It wasn't the usual soft cat sound, though -- it was far too light for that, and as the cat squirmed to right itself, why quickly became apparent with the embroidered nose and button eyes. The cat was an animate plush toy.

So for an animate plastic doll to be chasing after it... it seemed only fitting, didn't it?

Doll slowed from a run to a stop as it reached the bench, and crouched to collect the kitty, shoulders rising and falling as though breathing heavily, despite a lack of mouth or nostrils. Cat safely in its arms, the toy sat down on the bench to rest a bit, worn out from the chase.

It was certainly an odd sort of doll, missing so many details on its head as it was, eyes merely lens-filled holes in the masklike face, ghostly glowing yellow irises hovering behind them... but there was something childlike in the expression and the thin body's posture. Besides, with it clinging to the plush cat like it was, it would probably be a bit difficult for most people to take it as a very credible threat.

Doll peeked over at the book, curiosity obvious in those big eyes, and looked up to Victor, smiling faintly. Hello, what was this?

"Magical energy is inherent to all life, although it varies between place to place, between species to species, and between individual to individual. It is for this reason that magic simply cannot be allowed to be displayed too openly. People covet the power magic gives them, but once they learn that they themselves do not possess the resources necessary to fuel the spells they desire, they turn on those who do -- or who they think do. True mages know how to escape witch hunts -- others are not so lucky. Thus, I scribe these words to the page knowing that only a lucky few--"

"Oh!"

Victor jumps as he suddenly registers someone sitting down beside him. He'd been so absorbed in the book that he hadn't even heard the cat running around and falling onto the bench, nor Doll's arrival before this moment. He looks over, then starts again as he sees Doll for the first time. What the -- it doesn't seem threatening, not with the way it's hugging that toy cat (which -- seems to be moving a bit?), but it is disconcerting to see those two yellow eyes peering out of an almost-empty face.

However, Victor's had many dealings with those who don't fit the standard definition of "human," and he manages to get his feet back under him after a moment. "H-hello," he says, smiling weakly. "You s-startled me, there. . ." His eyes flick downward. "Um -- I don't suppose you can talk?" He's used to interpreting things from Kurloz, but -- Doll has rather less facial expressions to go on, it appears.

Doll shook its head, and while it was still quite obviously made of hard plastic -- paler than most humans ought to be, a bit on the shiny side, and smoothly molded -- it didn't seem as though this limited its expression much after all. The odd eyes (eye-holes?) were bigger than a human's, almost cartoonishly exaggerated... and somehow changed shape just fine, narrowing as Doll gave a sheepish sort of smile. Obviously not with any mouth involved, but a real smile was in the eyes anyway, wasn't it? Perhaps it was someone's golem, or plaything?

It shifted a bit, remembering something, and tapped its collar, indicating itself. Then it pushed the plush cat down away from the left side of its chest, where something was written in shiny white, on the gray fabric: Doll. There were lines below it, the katakana for the name's pronunciation, if Victor could even recognize it as that.

And then Doll pointed to Victor, tilting that head of purple-gray hair a bit in query, attention quite obviously on him, waiting for his reply. Introductions were always a good way to make friends, after all, weren't they? And Doll was patient, giving him a soft smile and hugging the toy cat while it waited for him.

Paler than most humans, but is it paler than Victor? Because he's pretty darn pale. It's a bit strange to see someone smile without a mouth, but it gives Victor a little hope in interacting with the strange -- automaton? He thinks that's the right word. . . It's obviously not flesh and bone. (Honestly, part of him wonders if Doll is one of those dreams made -- er, plastic in this case -- around here. He certainly looks a bit like something someone would dream up.) At any rate, some sort of visible expression is very much welcome.

He leans forward a bit as the automaton reveals what Victor guesses is its name. Which -- is not very creative, if he's honest with himself. Fortunately he keeps that thought from slipping off his tongue. And no, he hasn't a clue what those lines are below the English -- he just thinks it's some sort of decoration. His family was never much interested in The East.

He nods as Doll points to him. "I'm Victor. Victor Van Dort." Yes, introductions are a good thing. He glances down at the little toy cat in Doll's arms. "I see you have a friend." A very cute friend, honestly, even if Victor's not accustomed to toys moving about.

It's up for debate; without the translucency of human skin, there were no undertones of pink or blue or yellow, simply a flat, peach-ish white sort of surface. But the failure to pass for anything other than a doll didn't seem to bother the big toy; it was doing nothing to hide its oddness.

Doll nodded, smiling more at what Victor said, and held the kitty up for better inspection. Fake fur, round little legs with no claws, and a pink ribbon tied in a bow around its neck. It curled its tail a bit, but otherwise simply hung there, light and... well, plush... and looking entirely friendly with its little embroidered smile.

Doll set it back down on the bench after a moment, between the two of them, allowing it to stand back up on its own and try to nuzzle at Victor's side, begging him for pets much like a real cat might. The bigger toy pointed to the tome Victor held, looking back to him again, again tilting its head in question. It'd showed him its friendly little play-thing... what was occupying Victor's attention previously, though?

Victor doesn't have much in the way of undertones either, but that's a point. Still, Victor isn't one to reject based on outward oddness. As he's fond of noting, some of the scariest-looking people he ever met also turned out to be some of the nicest.

Victor smiles at the plush kitty. "Awww. He reminds me a bit of one I had as a child." He secretly misses those stuffed toys a bit. He gladly acquiesces to the cat's desires for pets when it starts nuzzling him. Times like this make him wish he had a pet again. He hasn't had any animal companions since Scraps died. . .

It takes him a moment to notice Doll's pointing, what with his scratching the kitty behind the plush ears. "Hmm? Oh!" He adjust the book so it's a little more visible. "This seems to have fallen out of one of the portals Tronctor spoke about the other day. I -- I think it's written by a friend of mine. At least, the last name is familiar. . ." He looks down at the slightly-jittery writing again. "It says it's about magic."

And some of the nicest-looking... well, Doll wasn't as defenseless as it may seem, should it wind up in a very bad sort of situation. Fortunately, this was nothing like a very bad situation.

The kitty, for its part, simply continued to encourage his petting it, leaning into the scratches and rubs, and all but climbing up into his lap in doing so. For that, it waited until his attention was on the big book, and then did so, stepping up onto the tome and turning around to look back up at him with its shiny black... er... buttons. Clearly, it felt his attention would be better put to use spoiling it. The book wasn't as important.

Oh, cats.

Doll reached forward and tried grabbing the cat to pull it off -- as light as it was, stuffed with pillow-fluff instead of what real cats should be made of, this was hardly a problem. The problem was that somehow, despite not being quite as flexible as a real cat, it managed to quickly twist out of Doll's thin hands and settle right back down on the book as though the attempt hadn't just been made... and then it began bathing its paw with a tongue that wasn't there.

Doll blinked at this, yellow irises disappearing briefly into the darkness, and then simply shook its head. If Victor minded the kitty invasion, he could remove the plush himself, couldn't he? Because the cat didn't seem to want to listen to its owner right now. So rather than focus on it any further, Doll looked to Victor, pointed to the book, and then mimed taking a hat off its own head, putting its other hand into it, and drawing that hand back up in a fist with the first two fingers sticking out, wiggling a bit.

A rabbit out of a hat? That sort of magic?

And Victor has no plans to make it a very bad situation, so all should be just fine.

Victor's a little surprised by the sudden cat on his tome -- Scraps wasn't above trying to put himself in front of anything that he felt was taking Victor's attention away from him, but he never did so that -- well, deliberately. More just running in and barking until Victor shushed him. Nor did he ever refuse to get out of the way, like this kitty does when Doll tries to pick it up. Victor shakes his head. "At least you can't hurt the pages," he comments, trying to pick the cat up himself. "Please, I'm trying to show your owner something."

Speaking of said owner, it takes Victor a moment to puzzle out Doll's mime. Once he does though, he starts shaking his head. "No -- not stage magic. Real magic. The sort that -- that can transport someone to the Land of the Dead and back." That's what he should look for -- the Ukrainian Haunting Spell! Doubtful that he'd be able to get it to work here, but it would make him feel a little more sure about the author's identity.

The Land of the Dead? Doll blinked, hugging the cat into its lap now that it was off the book. The plush beast was sulky, but couldn't twist out of Victor's grip half as well as it could Doll's, and seemed to relent once it figured that much out. Doll, for its part, looked to be about to say something, in its own fashion, but kept hesitating, not sure how to even begin. Finally, after only a moment, it reached into a pants' pocket and pulled out a little pillow-phone.

Right, so the big toy was a fellow resident and not just someone else's dream?

Doll fiddled with it, typing something, and then turned it around to show Victor.

lik trayesto? but sownds dangeris

The spelling might've been atrocious, but at least the worried look Doll gave him was easily readable.

Hooray, he can read again. Victor does feel a bit bad for the cat, though, and gives it a few scratches behind the cloth ears before turning back and flipping through the book. Protection spells (definitely should look into those), Food & Drink, World Manipulation -- Travel? Would it be under that?

He's distracted from his search by Doll showing him the pillow phone -- fortunately, he's familiar enough with Mallowhallow (or, at least, confused newcomers posting from Mallowhallow) to know that's the standard sort of phone they get there. He squints at the screen. "Like -- what?" he mumbles, confused, then shakes his head. "It's -- it's not, really, not if you know what you're doing. . .or are pulled down by someone who knows. . .it's kind of a long story," he adds, cheeks turning slightly pink.

oic lik going in the fog world? ez tog et lost n lots of shados r meen but somtims its ok?

Doll presented the phone again, looking between Victor and the book, still concerned.

Goodness, why has no one taught this poor creature how to spell? (Or, if he is a dream thing, dreamed that he could spell?) Victor sounds out the words under his breath to make sure he's got the proper meaning. "Er -- easy to get lost, yes -- there's a lot of winding paths down there," he admits. "The residents are actually very nice, though. At least, the ones I met were. They welcomed me quite warmly."

Doll nodded a bit, thinking on it for a moment.

vizit somtim?

Doll tried to take another peek at the book, leaning over the lapful of plush cat a bit, to see.

"Visit? Well, I'm not sure you can get there from here -- I'm going to have to look through the book some more to see if it's possible. I've only had the spell that lets you cross between the realms cast on me twice--" (once so he could bring Emily to 'visit his parents,' and then again for his failed wedding to her) "-- and I've never tried magic myself. . ."

He shifts the book a little so Doll can see better. The text is handwritten, spidery letters crawling over the page in black ink. There's also strange symbols and little notes in the margins. Obviously not a professional publication. The page Victor is on is a brief introduction to travel-related spells, but who knows if Doll is capable of reading it.

Doll nodded a bit, apparently understanding... though looking at the book's text brought about a vague frown as the big toy puzzled over it. English was something Doll could read, sometimes with some difficulty, what with not understanding spelling very well, but who knew about the handwriting.

This seemed to be something Victor might have to lead the toy on, if he wanted to get to the next page quickly.

Victor notes Doll's mouthless frown as he puzzles over the page. "Heh -- it's not the clearest, is it?" he allows with a faint chuckle. "It's talking about travel spells -- getting from one place to another quickly and suchlike. I'm just curious as to if going to the underworld counts as that." He runs his finger down a list of spells provided as a sort of index. "Travel In Fantasy -- that sounds interesting -- Go Wither You Will, Slip Through the Veil, Tear The Veil Asunder. . .he has a talent for poetic names, hmm?"

Doll nodded, giving him a brief smile before turning back to the page, looking for something now that Victor had drawn its attention to the index. Was Traesto listed? Almost certainly not, what with the book and Doll coming from different realities, but that wouldn't stop the big toy from looking for it.

There's no sign of anything called "Traesto" -- though it's possible there's a spell that might work similarly. Victor watches Doll scan through the list. "Are you looking for what you mentioned before? Tray-esto?" What, he doesn't know how to pronounce it.

Doll nodded, giving Victor a little smile again. He'd gotten the name pretty well exactly right, on the first try... maybe it didn't hurt, sometimes, that Doll could mostly only write in English phonetically?

Suppose not! "I'm not sure that would be in there -- I don't think we've got anyone quite like you back home," Victor says, with an awkward laugh. "Though we might have something like it. . .you implied it took one to another world?" After all, he'd thrown out that name when Victor had told him about going to the Land of the Dead.

A head-shake. No, not quite. Time again to text....

fog world maks it ez to do trayesto n othr things was ther with freinds n uzd it to go bak to the start n not go al ovir to go hom aginn ez to get lost in fog world n fayk house was v v big n it wud be a v v v long wok wak? mabe i can lern to do it to?

....Oh dear. (Fear not, Victor, for Bro Strider has a mind to educate the poor toy and correct these textual atrocities.)

Victor squints at the screen and sounds things out under his breath, but it's still rather hard to figure out what exactly Doll's trying to tell him. "Er. . .so. . .the fog world is like a -- magical place?" he says, absently twisting his fingers together as he thinks. "That can mimic areas in the real world and -- trap travelers?" He thinks that's the jist of Doll's mangled command of the English language. "Sounds frightening."

"I -- I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. I mean. . ." He looks back at his book and starts flipping through it. "I'm still so new to this myself. . ."

Doll seemed a little hesitant to agree with some of it, and after a moment of thought, went back to typing.

not skary al the tim. fog world is where shados r from. most of the shados dont want to play n som r v mean but im a shado too im just difrint. i had a persin n there friends but he wasnt v happy with me yet. mabe if i get home hel be in a betir mood? bin gon a wyul wyil? you only get stuck in the fog world if you get lost n then freinds gota com n find you n hard to se in fog but friends fixt my is ays?

Doll frowned at the phone, but that didn't make the second misspelling of "eyes" look any more correct than the first, so it shook its head and resumed.

they had glasis so they put glasis in ais n now i can se in the fog world ok but its v v ez to do things in fog world n hardir heer. wud that buk say how to do it ezeeir her in this world?

Doll passed the phone over, scrolling it back up to the top of the message with a flick of a thumb.

Victor does a little more flipping as Doll types, glancing over some of the spells. "Go Wither You Will" seems like a kind of teleportation spell. . .now that would be handy. . .

He looks up as Doll passes over the phone. "Oh. . ." Oh dear, this one's a long one. He resumes his usual practice of carefully sounding out the words as he reads through. "Hmm -- so you're a former resident of the place," he murmurs as he deciphers that bit. Not a dream then -- but sort of like one, if what it's typed is to be believed. "So -- it's another place, with shadows -- some of which are nasty, some of which are friendly, like yourself -- and people can wander in and be trapped -- by the bad shadows, I presume -- and need to be rescued by their friends. Seems a most curious place," he comments. "I hope your -- person -- is all right, yes."

He frowns at the last bit, though. "That -- depends on the things. I'm guessing shadows like yourself have special powers? The book might have some spells that could mimic them, I suppose, but I wouldn't know unless you give me an example."

Doll looked to be thinking about it for a moment, trying to decide something... and then, after the pause, looked around the area. The kitty was set down on the bench so that Doll could stand up again.

There was some sort of creature in the street, a ways away -- if it could be called that. A large thing made of what seemed to be junk, apparently rather ill-tempered, given how it stomped on a patch of flowers it found on the ground and grinned about it. And that was what Doll was looking at.

Doll focused on it, shoulders and chest moving as though taking a deep breath, and then as its eyes darkened, head down a little, it made a gesture. There was some sort of subtle ripple in the air, and a bit of energy, almost unseen, flew to Doll from the thing, called by whatever odd skill Doll had just used.

As for the monster, it stumbled, landing on its knees, and swayed a bit. It shook what passed for its head, perhaps to try to clear away dizziness, and was clearly going to need a minute before it could stand upright again. It wasn't happy with this; it growled lowly, angrily.

Doll blinked. Huh, so it was mad? But this was funny, wasn't it? Doll glanced back at Victor, very briefly, smiling as though this was all some sort of fun game to it, and repeated whatever had happened before, stealing more of the beast's power... and more to the point, its coordination. Which, of course, angered it further as it landed in an undignified heap on the ground. It roared in sudden frustration, and smashed a few more flowers to emphasize its point as it tried and failed to get up again. Still finding this a fun game, Doll did it again, and again... until the beast, dizzy and weak, collapsed in a pile of dust and rust and junk, finally becoming nothing more than old shoes and scraps of plastic and metal, or whatever those bits were.

Well, it'd been fun while it lasted, but the plaything was gone now, energy sapped entirely, no longer entertaining. Doll's smile faded as it turned and gave Victor a shrug, gesturing back to the pile -- yeah, doing things, see? -- and took its seat again, letting the cat once more climb up onto the little lap.

Those sorts of things were what was easier in the fog world.

Victor watches him curiously a moment -- then hears a rusty sort of clanking coming toward them. Turning his head, his jaw drops as she sees the monster. "Oh -- oh dear," he whispers, edging a little away down the bench. From one of the portals, or from someone's imagination? Does it really matter? Because either way, it doesn't look friendly, and if it gets such enjoyment from merely stomping on flowers --

And then Doll's on its feet, and making odd gestures, and the monster is -- stumbling? Is he -- hurting it somehow? Victor leans forward, squinting, and catches a glimpse of the vague ripple in the air that indicates Doll draining the beast. What. . . His eyes flick back and forth as Doll keeps gesturing, looking for all the world like its having a ball, and the monster keeps getting weaker and weaker -- Is it stealing that thing's -- life?!

Apparently so -- after one last gesture, the monster collapses into a random pile of battered trash. Victor stares as Doll turns back to him and gestures at the heap. "Ah -- I see," he says, one hand automatically reaching up to twist and fiddle with his tie. "So -- things like that. I -- t-there might be a spell--" His eyes drop briefly to the book, then back up to Doll. Part of him wants to ask if Doll can do that to just anybody, and part of him does not want to know. Especially since Doll seemed to consider all of that nothing more than a game.

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Do You Believe In. . . [OPEN]

mind a belated tag? :)

not at all :)

♥!

:)

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now with hovertext due to Doll's horrible texting abilities!

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