paradisa | 051 ♕ [dictated]

[ annnd down to business. lois has a lot of people to contact today... ]

[ Raine Sage ]

Here I heard you were back and I hadn't even gotten to talk to you yet. Pretty sure that's a grievous oversight on my part.

[ Annabeth Chase ]

Your boyfriend told me to look you up. Said you might have some questions I could help with you.

[ Chris Kent ]

Hi sweetie. Are you and Conner getting along now that he's all settled in?

[ Anti-first gen / evil people filter ]

Turn my head and fifty new things are happening around here. Did somebody end up putting an expedition plan? I've heard buzz floating around. You'd better not leaving me hanging, because if I miss a scoop, so help me...

[ and after a moment, she adds one more. ]

[ Clark ]

So I've been thinking lately. As in ever since the whole Mirrorworld revelation came to light. It's one thing to suspect what this castle's getting out of us living here, but hearing it that way... Well, let's just say I've got an oversized case of the heebie jeebies. Not for us, so much as for the fact that we're trying to raise a kid here and-- [deep breath now] Smallville, I want to move.

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[He pauses to consider that.]

Out to the city, you mean?

[He's not sure where the heck else she could mean, but, well. He's not sure why he feels reluctant for a moment when he agrees with it completely, either; does he have any particular attachment to living in the castle? Is it the castle that makes him reluctant to move out?

Maybe that's all the more reason to go.]

Get a nice house, someplace with a yard, room for Conner to have his friends over...

( thanks for the heads up, Percy. )

I guess we should probably start with introductions.

Well, I wasn't thinking of setting up shop in the Dead Zone.

Lois Lane-Kent, resident World Beyond expert.

Nice to meet you.

I guess I should just ask the obvious. What do you know about how the castle works?

A little bit more, as of recently.

It feeds itself through our emotional spikes. Happy, sad, angry, confused, anything. It's one reason it probably screws with us so often.

I know, I know. The suggestion just... caught me by surprise, that's all.

Has anyone managed to work out why it's necessary for us to be taken from our worlds to this place?

Our best guess is that the castle itself brings us here. Since it can't sustain itself without people, and somehow it has some kind of extradimensional reach.

Me too, to be honest.

Are you saying the castle is alive?

... Yes?

Well, that's not completely unheard of.

What about us being here? I noticed someone else's journal a little while ago, something about how they were musing about whether we're just copies of the originals. I'd almost believe it, Percy says he's been here for two years but I've never heard of him being missing. ( she thinks a moment and adds: ) But he also claims to be from my future, which is just as strange but I take it that's a common occurrence?

Sometimes I wonder if we're so comfortable here in the castle because the castle makes us be. This whole soul thing is something a lot of us theorized at one point or another, people as batteries for the place, but...

I don't know. Maybe the confirmation is just the last straw.

It does make it kind of hard to remember why I ever thought it was a good idea.

Thaat part's a little more complicated, and I wish I could give you a solid answer. It seems like this place can snatch people from any point in time, from a number of parallel universes, and then mindwipes them when it sends them home so they don't ever remember being here. And takes them back to the moment it left. It's happened to me and I can tell you it sure as hell feels real.

But the castle can age us up or down or play with our memories, so it has me wondering if everything's already happened, and it's just making us forget until it decides to give us another 'fast forward'.

Parallel universes too? Man. Percy says he went home and came back, too. I have to wonder if it was by some fluke or maybe the castle has some preference to the people it keeps here.

Hmm. Messing around with our ages and things — are you talking about the 'losses' that I've heard about?

[He nods.]

Well, I think it's a good idea to move out of the castle. The sooner the better, maybe. Keep the apartment here for emergencies, but otherwise find a nice house in town.

He said you were sharp.

Losses it is. There's really not much of a definition for them, since they can be so many different things, but it basically amounts to the castle altering your life whenever you get too comfortable.

And there'd be more room for extras, if we plan on taking in more strays.

So there's never been a resident that hasn't gone without a loss, the permanent ones not withstanding?

I am, and I do hope you've been well yourself. It's been something of an adjustment for me, I'm afraid, though I have had a chance to read your latest endeavor [meaning the updated world guide, of course].

In answer to your other question, Aradia Megido is planning an expedition to Lastlook and I'm certain she'd welcome more company. It's rather far out of the way, so we expect to be gone for several weeks.

... That's a good question, actually. I suppose it might have happened, with some of our residents who never stayed long.

Some of us had been talking about trying to take the rivers to travel since they're open in the summer. Would that be convenient for this trip or is it all hoofing it?

Well, I can't say I know the exact route as of yet, but...should you decide to use the rivers, well, I wish you the best of luck.

[Someone doesn't do boats.]

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051 ♕ [dictated]

Lois

filtered;

Clark

filtered;

Lois;

Annabeth;

Lois

Lois;

Annabeth;

Clark

Lois;

Annabeth;

Lois;

Lois

Clark

Annabeth;

Lois;

Lois

Annabeth;

Clark

Lois;

Lois

Annabeth;

Raine;

Lois