Speaking of outlooks....

Ragan

"Okay, so it's not Wallants," I say, looking at the ruins. "But that doesn't mean anything given our line of work, right?"

Same but different. That's the business we're in, what with all this reality hopping. This might JUST be Wallants, but in this world it'd been burnt to the grown instead of remaining a bustling (if shadowy) city. This'll be the first time most of my group (the Dark Elves being the exception) been on quest on a Terra mirror world, but....

Heh, not entirely true, that last part. Last Quest had actually started on a parallel Terra. In it's Southern Caverns and ended up flying on a starship (ala Star Trek: TOS). Ship being one of many crossovers from realities mirroring stories I'd grown up on....

....

Wow, all that said about parallel world hopping and stuff like that. The stuff where we keep running into crossovers hadn't been really bad, all in all but I'm sure GLAD to be out of that Stephen King reality!

All sorts of creepy things back there. Low Men had been nasty, but I sure have to agree with Inquirer. Don't want to have any monsters from Salem's Lot show up! Those vampires had been King's stuff, as well.... Inquirer practically had eyes in the back of her head, looking for the shoe to drop and one of those bloodsuckers showing up....

....

She absolutely HATES vampires. Started back early on when she'd started playing roleplaying games for fun. A character she'd rather grown fond of had a LOT of hard earned levels drained by one of the game vampires the DM threw at her group and....

Well, having met the real thing in the flesh back before she'd become a Golem hadn't made her grow any more fond of them (re: 2505). Especially when it came to light that a vampire can satisfy it's needs on non- sentient life....

Nevermind, she'd been kind of anxious on getting along and I can't blame her. Like reading King instead of living it, thanks!

Now, to this!

Artizza 1, pulling out the handy/dandy decto wand takes a reading and....

Artizza 1

"Wallants or not, the wand says our nearest target is in there," I say, pointing to the area beyond the walls guarding what's left of a ruined city.

Way some people are hustling and bustling about, looks like a carnival just broke up and is packing away for travel!

The rest of the group, have opted to drop their disguises, returning to what they really look like.

Us? Well, we drop MOST of it. Now we look like elves, but normal elves. Don't know how the locals here about would react to seeing Dark Elves running about. Harshly, I'm sure unless this IS Wallants (not sure that). Even then, we'd only be tolerated as long as our money was good...

As it is, this IS Wallants. Just . . . it's not like the other, more permanent affairs we'd heard of elsewhere, on other realities. This one is more of a traveling tent city, ready to bug out at the slightest hint of a crack down by the powers that be. Seems that the Blac Market Cult hadn't made inroads into the power structure of the "legit" ruling body here about and making Wallants (more or less) legit, else this cut and run routine wouldn't be taking place.

The gate guard who's going to be packing up and leaving the area before the next security sweep hits isn't much more helpful than what little we'd gotten from him in passing.

Refused to tell us of anyone . . . . like I'm thinking we might run into here. In so many OTHER realities, a Fred and an Astra had this problem about being demifoxes....

"Well, the readings are coming from that direction," I say, pulling out the wand again and pointing at what looks to have been a horse stable off in the distance.

Something about our group seems to make scavengers veer away from us, and for that I'm glad. Don't fancy having to slap (or worse) would be cutpurse's hands, you know....

At a fast clip, we rush over to the stables and find....

A pair of despondent demifoxes....

They look like they'd just been robbed by the looks on their faces. Familiar looking faces, really.

Splitting images of my demifox analog sister, Demifox Astra and her love, Demifox Fred.

The male might NOT be an analog of Fertal, but by the feel of doppleganger in the female, pregnant demifox she's an analog of me! Right now, they're more nervous about the rest of us (the human and human appearing) members of our group. Maybe they think we're going to mug them?

Or perhaps their eyes are drawn towards Chiana, who's back in her old gray skinned form.

Oh, it's exotic looking enough, but given the rather diverse collection of races on your average Terra, a gray skinned woman is only odd....not something to be TOO alarmed about, really. Still, she's exotic looking. Sure she liked the looks she got from the scavengers about.

She does strike me as being the type who likes being the center of attention... "Uh, hello!" Fertal calls out, catching the males attention. "Can we help you? By any chance are you . . . Frederigo D'Honaire and Astra Thessamer?"

That caught their attention, by the way their ears just shot up in surprise!

1. "Frell," Chiana mutters, looking down at Fertal. "Go ahead and jump right on in, why don't you!"

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