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 Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:13 pm
A flash of light, and then a feeling like being enveloped in wind... and then silence as the world righted itself, reoriented to new directions and new laws of physics, and kept going on its assigned course. The entire process took less than the blink of an eye, but it transported the two girls from a quiet study in Tidewater all the way to Urbanie, a city tucked away in some forgotten corner of the universe. Ophelia cracked an eye open and looked around. The portal back to the study was behind them, almost flat against the wall. From the other side it would disappear entirely, and it would fade as the paint dried on the other end.
The city was silent and immaculately clean, just as she remembered it from her first visit. She noted landmarks and cross-streets - there seemed to be some sort of grid in place, with numbers to keep things logical. If their trip was short enough, they could take the same painting home. The brunette child turned to her friend.
"Let's go check things out," she said.
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Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 9:30 pm
Before they made any progress, Wisp immediately did her superhero check: touched the Rainbow of Light and anxiously drew a thin ribbon of rainbow out of it, content that it still worked. "Check," she said. She touched her pouch of star sprinkles; it was full. "Check," she said. "Okay. I'm all ready. Let's do it to it."
She was pink-cheeked with excitement, looking around and taking everything in, spinning in a slow circle to take in the silent streets of Urbanie before reappearing back at Ophelia's side. "Is it always empty?" she said. "It's so quiet."
Movie logic made her add: "Too quiet."
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Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2008 4:56 am
"I've only been here once," answered Ophelia, beginning to move at a steady pace down the street, "But it was empty then, too. I don't think it's dangerous, though."
No, it wasn't dangerous. There weren't any glimmering ghosts in doorways waiting to swallow them up. It was just...
"It's just lonely," she concluded. "But it doesn't mean us any harm."
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Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:41 pm
Wisp ambled alongside Ophelia: she took in everything as the streets closed in all around them, no sounds you usually associated with a city -- the silence swallowed both she and Phelly up in it, wrapping them up in a blanket. Everything they said echoed off the road. "This is incredible," she said again. "And you made it? It's yours? -- Let's go see everything! I want to see your city!"
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Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 3:42 pm
Despite the silence, this city was cosmopolitan. Despite its cleanliness, it seemed like things had lived here once. But instead of trending towards entropy, it had all evolved towards order in their absence...
"I didn't make it," she corrected bashfully. Her father felt like world painters who said they created worlds gave themselves too much credit. "I found it. It's not mine, it just... exists."
The street they were on opened up onto a plaza. She looked over at Wisp. "Where do you want to go?" she asked.
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:23 am
"Is there anyone inside the houses?" she said, "or is there anything on the mountain?"
Her cheeks glowed with excitement; she seemed to enjoy the concept of doing both. "You know, I know this may sound mentally shallow," she said, "but you could have a really rad party here. So. That is just a thought. Where do you want to go? You're the one leading me around, I'm your loyal sidekick."
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Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:43 pm
"I... I don't think so," stammered Ophelia, deciding that a boulevard on the other side of the plaza looked like the best place to go. They started down it, and suddenly she froze. Was that a person in that shop window?
No. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was only a mannequin. Just a doll. Not a person.
But then... Were those bells in the distance?
"Do you hear that?" she asked.
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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:14 pm
Her partner-in-crime -- well, not that they were doing anything -- listened hard, practically pricked up her ears. "Yes," she said. "It sounds like church. Let's go find out what it is, right? Tubular."
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Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 6:51 pm
"Alright," nodded Ophelia, listening for the bells again. There they were, donging in the distance. They went on for a long time. The buildings blocked her sight-line, so she couldn't see where they were coming from.
At the next intersection, she took a left.
"This way, I think," she said.
A dry wind whipped past them, but there was no debris riding it. This world did not lend itself to messiness.
"Do you think they're automatic?" she asked. "Or do you think... maybe...?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:38 pm
Wisp shielded her eyes with one hand; the light was bright there, gleaming but a little hard to stare directly into. She squinted at the lights, hopping up on one foot en pointe to try to see. "Those bells look pretty heavy," she said, "and they're pulled by ropes, not like, a carillion... calliron? I don't know -- but there's probably a bell ringer."
Her face lit up with excitement. "Let's go see."
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:33 am
Ophelia gave her a somewhat bewildered look. "You can see that far?" she asked. But then she reminded herself that, so far today, Wisp had already given her paints made out of her eyes, and they had walked through a painting, so the normal laws of human logic were probably on vacation. But then, what else could her friend do? Was she a Super-hero or something?
She mulled over the idea of a bell ringer as they continued walking. But wasn't the city empty?
They walked into a shadow. Ophelia looked up and saw that it was cast by a clock tower. There was something indiscernibly strange about the face, but she couldn't place it just yet. As they got closer, she realized that not only did the clock go to thirteen, but it was currently almost exactly thirteen 'o' clock.
"Wisp, look!" she said, pointing up at it.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:33 pm
It took a while for Wisp to notice. Bless her, although she appeared to be definitely quicker than the average bear in terms of sight, speed, and being able to make little rainbows and colour shards, she was a bit blank to catch on to the smaller clues. Her brow furrowed as she looked at the clocktower, thumbs tucked away in her belt, as she gave a quick and hurried glance over at Ophelia's face as though that might help out.
"Hey," she said, eventually hopefully dawning, "lunchtime, right?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:48 pm
"An hour past it," replied Ophelia, still frowning at the clock. She wasn't hungry, anyway, but world hopping could mess with your sense of time if you weren't careful. They continued their approach to the tower and skirted the bottom of it. It was set in a wide plaza - the wind whipped past a dry fountain and around perfectly empty benches before twisting currents around the building.
The bells tolled a final time and fell silent.
"There's a door," observed Ophelia. "And it's open."
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:52 pm
"Well, I know what to do with open doors," said Wisp confidently, and Ophelia already knew the blonde girl too well to think that the answer might be something like, sensibly close them and continue along one's merry way. "I mean, this is your world, right? I don't think you would've connected to a world that has big-toothy monsters or child murderers or evil hot dog people or something."
Her feet sounded loud on the even tiles of the plaza as she approached it, looking up at the tall tower.
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:41 am
"It's not my world," murmured Ophelia, even as she followed Wisp across the plaza and through the door. Inside, the air was cool and moist. Gears shifted on the walls like the inside of some huge machine. Could all of this be for running the clock? Or were other things controlled here as well?
A spiral staircase wound its way up above their heads and into the gloom. She felt suddenly emboldened.
"Let's go," she said, starting up it.
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