[PRP] The Door Behind the Bookshelf [Alg/Cass]

[iloveyouDIE]

"We can go outside," Alg motioned a bit and began to walk through the store. He didn't step so much as float over piles of books because on this side the shop was a shambles. His feet didn't settled properly on the floor until he was at the door and the rusted bell made a grating sound as he opened it.

"Yes. You're a dreamer. A visitor to this place which means you've got some kind of magic now. You may not even realize it," Alg looked up at the sky, looked around, "It's still Ashdown it's just.. another side of it."

He laughed, "No I wouldn't leave you.. My spell to return just only works on me. We'll find an exit."

He then, curious, asked, "Who've you met?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

So while Alg was majestically gliding over book piles, Cass got to step over things while looking very silly behind him. She kicked over a few by accident. Some crumbled to dust, so by the time she'd made it to the door after him, she was covered in dust.

"OK, I think I'm starting to get the bigger picture.." Marcus, while eager to explain and having told her a lot, also had a small tick in his column as 'unreliable narrator' sometimes. She liked the guy enough, he just....she couldn't trust his word alone. "So I can be here either awake or asleep is what I'm getting from that?" she inquired, attempting to piece this information together.

Outside, she finally dusted herself off as best as she could. It wasn't much of an improvement.

"Well, I appreciate that you're not gonna flee while you can I guess." she eyed the surrounding buildings now that they were on this other side of things. "And umm...lessee, Marcus I guess counts, and I ran into um..." She squinted her eyes, trying to recall a name. Lord she was bad at names. "Shoot. I can't remember his name. Was about..." she held her hand up, "this tall, dressed nicely, had an accent. White hair, cool eyes.." she shrugged. "Don't remember his name." Had he told it to her?

Maybe.

"Was nice."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg looked back and felt a bit bad as she stumbled. He even moved back a bit, offering a hand, but she seemed to have it under control at that point.

"Accent like mine?" Because there weren't any other brits that he knew of who were passing back and forth, though there were other accents floating around town. It certainly sounded like she was talking about Jeremiah with the eye comment.

"Is this him?" His cell phone was held out, the wallpaper being the scruff faced silver haired man with a cat laying on his chest while he slept, "My husband Jeremiah."

It was also worth noting that the time on his cell phone read 00:00, there was no signal, but otherwise it was completely operational. Which meant the camera worked.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cassandra looked at the picture on Algernon’s phone and nodded. “That...that would be him.” she confirmed, suddenly slightly more self conscious about the fact that the person who had caught her barefooted in her PJ'S was a real person and not just a dream figment. Also now she had to remember to apologize for categorizing people as dream figments.

“Now see, Marcus told me Jeremiah was the one to talk to about…” she made a grand gesture with a hand at everything around them, “and then he showed up in my dream and I ...thought it was just my brain planting him in there since Marcus suggested it….” she scratched under one ear nervously. Whoops.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I'm probably biased but he's worth dreaming about.." Alg laughed lightly, "But you can ask me things.. since I'm here. If you have questions. I'm sorry about-" He motioned to the front of the store, implying that he meant his denial of magical knowledge.

"It's not exactly something we all discuss with strangers."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Ok, that quip earned a laugh. "Well, he was nice so I'll unbiasedly agree." There. Now Jeremiah had two votes for the Dreamworthy derby.

Cass shrugged. "I don't see anything to apologize over. I asked if there were books to recimmend, you told me you didn't have any." She could sort of see why it was a secret, but at the same time....

"So are you an interreality changeling like Marcus or is that something else entirely? I mean, you can play the 'you don't have enough friendship points for that question' card if it's a weird one."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Eh- those books are garbage anyway. None of them are right. Some are made up science and biology that the next book will dispute. Some get downright ridiculous in their explanation." Alg scratched over an eyebrow and looked up at the sky.

Overcast and chilly.

"I saw a magazine article the other day that claimed vaccinations were causing magic.." Epic eyeroll which turned into a bark of a laugh.

"A what?" Marcus was familiar to Alg from usual store comings-and-goings, and his more bizarre exploits through Jeremiah. "Is that what he thinks he is?"

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

"Of course vaccinations are causing magic," Cass joined him in his eyeroll and deterioration into laughter.

Shaking her head, Cass explained: "He tried to explain...something to me. Something about supplanting this 'universes' copy of himself but still being a previous self and that I was native to this existence while he wasn't. It..." she narrowed her eyes. "It was a lot and I didn't quite understand it. So I kind of simplified it down to the idea of Fae and Changelings only with...existence?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Wow-" Alg rubbed his brows, "Marcus really went all in for explanations.. didn't he."

He wasn't sure why he expected less, "I could pick that apart for you. Or.. help to explain?"

Out on the street he heard a rumble of thunder and with a brush of a hand a clear barrier raised over their heads. It was no more than a shimmer of air but took the shape of an umbrella just as drops began to fall.

"I've always more equated the idea more with alternate universes.."

demxon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass laughed. "He explains a lot of things and sometimes it's definitely hard to distinguish what is his overarching theory about our space-born overlords and what is actually genuine information," she'd opened more cans of worms than she ever meant to, but hey. Marcus was good enough company she forgave his...eccentricities. "Which may be why I didn't quite trust what he was telling me about uh..." she again gestured with a hand to everything.

The appearance of the small barrier earned an impressed look from Cass. How useful! Especially given how unuseful she felt personally at that moment.

"That's about how I'm understanding it. It was a lot of alternate dimensions and pocket dimensions and 'You're native to this reality but I replaced a Marcus who lived here up until this point and no I don't know what happened to him'....and I'd just woken up too..." Which may have explained another dose of 'I don't understand'.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Marcus was a trip.

"Well, magic is real," Alg motioned to everything around them, "Which you know because everyone knows that." Everyone in this world, "Just rare and mysterious. Hm? Including magitech etc.." They were hopefully on the same page as far as that goes.

"Well here in Ashdown its a bit more concentrated," He shook his head no, "and I can't definitively say why but if you've made it here to this side.. which is a bit like Silent Hill meets Narnia-" Which sounded rough, to be honest, "it means you're coming into magic ability of your own."

They could get to alternate realities later.

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Cass nodded along as Algernon gave a refresher course for her. "But I get the feeling I'm going to get to know that on a better level than the clickbait articles of 'These two easy products give you magic!'" she jazz handed to emphasize the slight sarcasm in her voice as she mocked the title.

"So it's less of a pocket dimension and more of an actual reality that through the right methods and channels you step into that is centralized around Ashdown is what I'm gathering from that comparison," Cassandra understood Silent Hill. "Only instead of being a shitty person being the required key to step through it's magic ability." Cass thought on this for a moment, then squinted. "I don't exactly feel magical. I just kinda feel like...me..." which wasn't an improvement on anything.

"Magic ability plus being in Ashdown equals Other Ashdown."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I would say.. Ashdown equals Other Ashdown. The people being magical is either a byproduct or simple happenstance. I've friends who have lived here their whole lives and aren't magical," Borr of course came to the forefront of his mind, "But yes, having magical ability is a bit of a restrictive passport to get on this side."

And apparently, in this cycle, there were people outside of Ashdown with magic and he highly doubted places like this simply existed everywhere.

"The town is singular and I'm not quite sure why," His book was tucked back into his jacket, apparently of no use at the moment. "It isn't likely you will feel magical unless you start to actively pursue it. For now you probably have a neat little ability, something maybe that seems like uncanny luck? That would be the magic."

demon_pachabel

 

[demon_pachabel]

Perhaps he'd misunderstood her a little bit, but she nodded as he more or less confirmed her intent. "So nobody without magic has ever made it over here?" Was it like a metal detector at the airport? If it beeped because you were non-magical you got searched by the magical TSA as they rifled through your pocket for Magic-pennies or whatever?

She was spending a little too much time pondering the logistics of that.

"So basically I have an ability that I'll never know is magical because it's just...happenstance?" Well now she was curious. "Is there like a litmus test for what types of things or..?"

Probably not. Alas.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Not so far as I've come to understand. I don't think it would bring a normal person. First you get the dreams and then.. then you end up here by accident," It wasn't always such a smooth and easy transition.

"You may figure it out," He chuckled, "I figured mine out when it just became much too of a coincidence... to an extreme degree."

The cat, still around his shoulders, seemed to have gotten restless and finally jumped down to curl around Cass's legs. As she purred a single violet bloomed by each of her ears.

"The fact is that this place can change you. The more you are here," Alg scratched his jaw, "The more magic you do. The more you change. You've seen Jeremiah's eyes. That was because of magic usage in strenuous circumstances.."

Alg held out his hand, "Take it."

demon_pachabel

with ur permission he can give you any feels he wants via touch. DEMONSTRATIONS.