Backdated to Domino 4

[so_dark_a_road]

Who: Khardeen and Curufin, and maybe others? Khary will answer if requested.
Where: The Luggage Car.
When: Evening of Day 4 of the month of Domino.
What: Khardeen returns to the VoidTrecker Express.
Warnings: Bad songwriting! Cover your ears! And perhaps the usual humorous or not so humorous annoyance people express at waking up in a suitcase or a trunk.

[ Curufin isn't tired yet, in fact he's feeling very restless, so instead of preparing to sleep, he wanders the train and finally walks all the way back to the rear carriage. He is in the habit of coming here from time to time to fetch or store various items that don't fit in his cabin, but lately also to look for his friend Khardeen, who has been missing for some time. Now he comes into the carriage, waves the cigarette smoke away from his face -- obviously Jessie or someone else had been in here smoking recently! -- and kicks some old rucksacks out of his path. Then he stands there thinking. He grins and invents some silly lyrics and sets them to a sentimental tune. ]

Khardeen, my friend,
where have you been, my friend?
I have not seen
you in a very long time, specifically nineteen
days or more! I am so very keen
to see you again, and until then I lean
on this locker and. . . [ Where the heck is he going to find his next rhyme??]
. . . la la la. . . I'm not lying, I really mean
it!

[ Pardon the terrible music, Curufin is entertaining himself and hopefully Khary. ]

Comments

[sell_tickets]

When Khary had heard someone call for him, he expected it to be a Black Widow he knew. Jaenelle, Karla, Gabrielle, Uncle Saetan, or Daemon. He thought it was his way out. Next thing he knew however....

It was dark, but not a comforting Darkness. Worse, his shields were down. They had been up when he answered the summons. Frankly he'd been in a shield with access at the minimum since arriving here. No one who saw Yasi and Surreal dance after the Spooky House would ever even THINK of not shielding when in an unknown place. And this was about as unknown as they came.

So the first thing he did was to form a skin tight Sapphire shield around himself. Not knowing where he was or what was going on, he didn't trigger the Ebony shield in his ring of honor. Which he was, thankfully wearing. Activating the Ebony would be a call to battle if the boyos were close enough, if he were back home. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. But if anyone NOT wearing a ring of honor of the Dark Court was too close they'd be turned to a fine ash. and he didn't know yet if that was warranted or not yet. But his Sapphire was strong, so he kept to his own shield for now. He could swap to a more sophisticated one once he knew what was going on.

That done, he next took stock physically. Jewels were fine. Mind more or less seemed to be intact, though he couldn't tell if he was still entangled in the Tangled Web or not. No obvious injuries. He was cramped and stiff, but otherwise physically alright. Next he sent a message spear to distaff to his wife. Nothing. To Jaenelle. Nothing. So he was probably still in the web then.

He couldn't see much, thin lines of light, almost non-existant. The smell was musty and a bit stale. The sound.... Was that... singing? If so, it wasn't very good. He couldn't quite make out the lyrics but somehow he could just tell it would be cringeworthy... Alright. So... what now? He could try and burn whatever he was in with witchfire. Which could turn deadly. His shield would protect him from the heat. But not the smoke.

Not knowing what he was in or where he was in... he wasn't sure what to try. He thought a moment, then grinned. He called in a long knife, included it in his shield then wrapped it itself in a sight shield. Then he grinned impishly and did the same for himself. He was in a strange unknown situation, he was going to have fun with it. So, invisible, he lifted his empty hand the small distance to the darkness above him and felt it. Smooth. Smirking.... he knocked.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin broke off singing those cringewworthy lyrics as soon as he heard the knock, and he looked all around. The knocking was coming from inside one of the trunks. He stepped over a few bags and halted by that piece of luggage.

"Come in!" he answered, with a grin. "I mean, come out?"

[sell_tickets]

Okay he knew that voice. So he probably wouldn't need the knife, but still....

Smirking more he knocked again.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin knelt down by the side of the trunk from which the knocking came.

"Who's there?" he said, still smiling. As though he were answering a knock at his cabin door.

He bent down and put his ear to the lid of the trunk, in case the cardboard and leather muffled the answer.

[sell_tickets]

Well, he was going to make it hard to jump scare at him. But the casualness did imply there was no danger. So.... He knocked out the first dozen or so beats of a tune from home....

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin stared at the trunk lid when he heard that beat. It did sound like music, though he didn't know the tune. Experimentally, he tapped on the trunk in counterpoint to Khary's beats.

[sell_tickets]

Well, at least this was interesting, even if it wasn't answers. He dredged the rest of the song from his memory and started tapping it out.

[so_dark_a_road]

Even though Curufn couldn't hear the tune in Khardeen's head, he felt he could almost hear it. He paused and then joined in again, adding to the texture of the song. He was still leaning on the trunk with his ear near to the top.

[sell_tickets]

If Khary knew what he was in, the temptation to simply vanish the thing would have been strong. As it was, he focused on the music, starting the song again from the beginning.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin was too immersed in the effort to play along to think of simply flipping the lid up and letting Khardeen out. He didn't know who was in there anyway, not for sure.

As Khardeen started the song all over again, Curufn grinned and tapped along, adding his own improvisations. "Hey, dude, we ought to form a band," he said, with yet another grin.

[sell_tickets]

Should he tell him about that first summer? About all those summers? Nah. More fun to not. He just picked up the pace.

[so_dark_a_road]

Rata-tat-tat-tat! They tapped out their rhythms and made it a competition. Curufin was really getting into this, playing drums on either side of the trunk lid, as though this were the most normal thing in the world. Speaking of stories, this one was going to be a tale to remember, in the months to come.

[sell_tickets]

Oh well now.... He smirked and sped up a bit more, planning something fun...

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin leaned his elbow on the trunk lid, flipped to the first entry of the imaginary volume, and announced pompously,"Very well, then! By all let this be heard! This is The Encyclopedia of Terrestrial Animals. Hmmm. I wonder if this company also publishes an Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Animals?" He grinned and commenced:

"Aardvark: KIngdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Tubulidentata, Family Orycteropodidae, Genus Orycteropus, Species O. afer. It's scientific name is therefore Orycteropus afer. This animal is related to elephants, manatees, and hyraxes, forming with them the superorder Afrotheria, although it's closest living relatives are elephant shrews, tenrecs, and golden moles. Aardvarks are native to Africa and have their origins in the Paleocene Epoch. It is the only known species in its order to survive into the present day. The word aardvark is Afrikaans, not African. It means "ground pig" or "earth pig." This creature wanders the southern two-thirds of the continent and is a burrowing animal, a nocturnal feeder, and an insectivore. It has a long snout, an acute sense of smell, sharp claws, strong legs, and it subsists on ants and termites."

He stuck his tongue out. "Ew!"

He then went on, in that same pontificating tone of voice: "It digs these insects out of their hills with those sharp claws, and it also digs burrows to dwell in and in which to raise its young. The appearance of this animal is somewhat pig-like. It is covered with sparse hair, has a prominently arched back, and it's hind legs are longer than it's forelegs. It has four toes on its front feet and five toes on its hind feet."

He wrinkled his nose irreverently. "Say, that must make it hard to type on their little Aardvaark laptops! Unless they type with their hind feet. Awkward, right?"

[sell_tickets]

Yeah, he had no clue what some of those words were. But he was getting bored, so he decided to have some fun of his own. He went through his personal storage and found what he was looking for. A bowl of stew he had made before... whatever. Living with Arcenians and Scelties one learned that you could make yourself invulnerable, you can make yourself invisible, you can make yourself inaudible. But nothing could stop scent. So he lit a small tongue of witchflame and started heating up the stew....

[so_dark_a_road]

The only reason Curufin had any idea what these words and concepts meant was because he had had access to a library of sorts in that world called Arda Marred, the first world he had lived in after he left his own. There had been a fair number of residents before him who were from an Earth that had become very modern and supported the modern biological sciences, and they had left their books when they vanished.

He suddenly smelled something unusual and sniffed the air. Soup or stew??? The scent was definitely coming from the trunk.

"Hey, what are you doing in there?" he asked. "I didn't know the train equipped the luggage with kitchens of their own!"

[sell_tickets]

Want to know? Well he'd have to open it up to find out...

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin considered the trunk for a moment. Then he grinned, seized the latch, and jerked the lid up.

[sell_tickets]

And the smell would be stronger, but he'd see nothing.

He dropped the aural shield so he could be heard. "So where exactly am I now?" he asked, and you could just hear the grin in his voice.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin's eyes widened considerably. There was absolutely nothing inside the trunk! Except for the scent of stew heating over a flame.

And then Khardeen spoke, astonishing him still further.

"I don't know where you are, Khardeen, but your voice is in a trunk in the luggage coach of the VoidTrecker Express."

[sell_tickets]

"So I am still here." he dropped the shields and held up the bowl. "Stew?" The witchfire under it vanished.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin burst into laughter. Khardeen had mentioned magic when they first spoke, but somehow Curufin had not grasped the extent of it, and this was wonderful. Besides, it was a delight to see that friendly, mischievous face again.

"Still here, or conversely, welcome back! I don't know which applies. You're going to share your stew with me? Got some spoons?"

[sell_tickets]

"If you can get me out of this thing without me breaking out any bones, we can share it for sure," he said with a grin.

[so_dark_a_road]

"All right, let me set the stew down so it doesn't spill," said Curufin, taking the bowl and setting it carefully on a nearby shelf.

"Now, let's see about getting you out of there." He came back and reached a hand down for Khardeen to grasp. "Hang on tight, shove with your feet, and I'll pull you out."

[sell_tickets]

He nodded in both thanks and acknowledgement and when the other seemed ready, did so.