Syntax Error 30

[wizard_redfive]

Mom! Daddy! Neeeets!!

[A little girl can be found wandering around the castle halls, calling for her family. In her arms is a journal for "Dairine Callahan." Eventually she reaches the lobby, where she settles on the couch to open the mysterious book. Books have answers, right? Maybe it can help her find her family.]

A book with my name on it? I wonder why. Most books have their author's name on the cover, but I've never written a book. I don't think I've even read this one.

I hope there's a clue on how to get home. Books about magical lands behind closets or rabbit holes are interesting enough, but they never focus on the way back.

((Loss start! Open to action or over journal.))

Comments

[deductiongeek]

[Conan often went to the lobby to watch the goings and comings of the people of the castle. Today he had already been there for several minutes as he watched from his usual chair in the corner.

It doesn't take him long after the arrival of the girl before he has put together the clues to come up with an answer he really did not like. Reluctantly he walks over to confirm his deduction.]

It has your name on it because it belongs to you.

[wizard_redfive]

[Dairine looks up and frowns. A boy. She has never gotten along well with the boys in her class -- or any other kids for that matter.]

Then why haven't I seen it before?

[deductiongeek]

That depends on what you remember. Do you know where you are?

[wizard_redfive]

Uhh, a building?

[Giving him a sour look. How would she know where she was when she just got here? Was that a trick question?]

[deductiongeek]

[So it was that kind of loss.]

Then that explains why you don't know what it. This is a castle named Paradisa. Everyone who arrives here gets one of those journals. We use them instead of things like phones.

[wizard_redfive]

There aren't any castles in New York. [...Or were there? This might require further research.]

[She gives the journal a wary look.]

Like a phone? Why?

[deductiongeek]

This isn't New York.

Communication. Phones don't work here.

[wizard_redfive]

No duh. [Dairine makes an annoyed face at him. Kids...]

Why not?

[deductiongeek]

Because there aren't any cell towers here.

[wizard_redfive]

None at all?!

[Dairine balks at this. How can that be??]

But there is a room full of video games! I saw it! It's not like we've been transported to the Middle Ages!

[deductiongeek]

Video games and movies, yes. But you won't find any way to communicate besides these journals.

[wizard_redfive]

[Folds arms]

Oh really? Then what are we doing now?

[deductiongeek]

[He pinches the bridge of his nose.

Clearly, face to face communication still exists. I am talking about distance communication.

[Being turned into a child hadn't improved her personality at all.]

[wizard_redfive]

[Indeed it hasn't. If anything, her personality is even worse.

With a know-it-all tone:]

Then you should have been more specific.

Dictated

[the_effect_she_has]

Dairine? You there?

[She hasn't seen her friend in a few days -- and honestly it would probably be a wise idea to make sure she still had friends around.[

Dictated

[wizard_redfive]

[Cue little Dairine shoving the journal back in shock. It talks. The book talks!

And also uses her name. Scowling warily, she kicks it with her foot.]

Who are you, and how you do know my name?

dictated!

[psych0p0mps]

[aw another little kid. there are a lot of those lately...]

hello there
are you new you sound kind of familiar

dictated onward!

[wizard_redfive]

[Another voice from the book. Dairine squints at the journal and holds it up.]

"New." Sure, let's go with that.

Your voice changed.

[psych0p0mps]

this has always been my voice!
i am just a different person from katniss
who you were talking to previously

[wizard_redfive]

Oh yeah? And who are you?

[psych0p0mps]

im aradia megido
your turn who are you

[wizard_redfive]

[There's a long pause as the kid tries to figure out if she can trust this person.]

...Dairine. Dairine Callahan.

[psych0p0mps]

[!!!]

oh! dairine!
alright i see what is going on now
you dont seem to remember just at this moment but we are good friends :)

[wizard_redfive]

[Friends? That's a questionable claim as Dari doesn't HAVE friends.]

How can we be good friends if I don't know you?

[psych0p0mps]

[hmm. she's not sure Dairine will understand the concept of "you're on a loss," so it's time for a little creative embellishment of the facts.]

not *yet* that is still in your future
you become friends with me when you are a little older

[wizard_redfive]

[Like that isn't suspicious]

How can you be from my future when we're in the present?

[psych0p0mps]

im a time traveler silly!

[wizard_redfive]

[Pause. Then more frusterated:]

But people can't travel in time. That's stuff out of a science fiction novel!

[psych0p0mps]

so are aliens and interdimensional travel
but i am an alien and we have both crossed dimensional barriers to be here
so time travel is pretty mundane comparatively!
plus arent you some sort of fresh young technomage or have you not become that yet

[wizard_redfive]

Prove it then!

[Unforunately for Aradia, this is way before Dairine became a wizard. She pages through a dictionary that she wished up (figured wishing out all on her own) for some of the more complicated works. But there's nothing on technomages.]

A what?

[psych0p0mps]

[Prove it? Okay, she can do that. Using her amazing powers over time, Aradia does that thing where she flies over to the castle in half a second flat. And what do you know, there's a little red-headed girl resembling Dairine right there in the lobby! So yeah, the next reply will come from RIGHT NEXT TO YOU, where a fairy winged alien is now standing.]

I'll take that as a no you haven't.