Ditto Fountain I

[Rising_Star]

Restart

"Oh," Jonathan said suddenly, realizing he had just dug his own grave. He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck ruefully. "We've, uh, kinda been going out and stuff." His brown cheeks flushed a rosy pink.

He opened his mouth to say something else, but then shut it tightly, knowing nothing he said right now would help anything.

----

"Right, so we have to figure out what's what. So do you want me to call Ty Waters and find out where Dotty is or not?" Alyson asked, wondering what exactly the big deal was.

----

Chase grinned slightly and he helped Mary Jane out of the truck, leading her up the driveway.

"You know Mr. Rosenstinbrug, our chemistry teacher? This is his house." He walked up to the doorstep and placed the bowling ball down on the welcome mat. He gestured for Mary Jane to come up and do the same with her ball.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

[sweeetlilgurlie]

A Funny Thing Happened

As Ryan steered me toward the Cup & Platter I caught sight of a man and his daughter near the fountain. For a moment I wondered if they were NarniaWebbers. Part of me thought that the thought was silly, but the other half was curious. I waved at him as we turned.

Soon we were gathered around a large table in the good ol' C&P. I kept looking around to make sure that bits of the pub hadn't disappeared when I wasn't watching them. Everything was almost exactly as I'd envisioned it. Even Hugh was there, waiting the counter. "I thought stuff like this only happened in movies." I muttered to myself, crossing my arms.

[Bookwyrm]

A Funny Thing Happened

I looked around the table at the NarniaWebbers gathering. I didn't recognize all of them, but I had a feeling they were all RPers. I vaguely remembered that something like this had happened in the past, to some of the much-missed former RPers. I had never expected anything like that to happen to me though. After all, hadn't it been some evil Romulan plan or something like that? For some reason, I couldn't remember how everyone had returned to Earth.

"I think we're going to need some help with this. Unless y'all have been hiding secrets from me, like mutant universe-hopping powers, we aren't going to get home on our own. The problem is, who do we go to? I can't think of any of my characters I would feel comfortable asking for help. Most of them have tragic backstories and I doubt they'd be too happy to learn I was the reason for their angst."

My fear was starting to wear off now that I was in what I thought of as a safe place. Now I was just plain excited. This was the Cup & Platter after all! Half the exciting adventures we'd written had started out right here. Hugh Hologram was less than ten feet away from me, Jedi and mutants and fairies and superheroes were wandering in and out. This was probably the coolest thing that ever happened to me.

[humdedum]

A Funny Thing Happened

The boy (not the 11-year-old, the older one) started to speak. He had a good point. The characters with tragic pasts would only have their creators to blame. I thought back to when I read Kari's profile and realized with relief Kari was in Mansion, not Fountain. Good.

"Maybe this is a sick joke by the Lion Party Leaders?" I said, but I wasn't sure if anyone heard me.

[Rising_Star]

A Funny Thing Happened

((Actually Hummy, Kari has been in the Fountain before. Basically it doesn't matter where characters are mostly written. If they've been written, plotted, or planned, they can show up in Ditto Town.))

"Same here, Booky," I said, frowning slightly. I looked over at the other girl and shook my head. "I don't think so," I said. "I mean, I seriously doubt they know how to make portals into fictional worlds." I tapped my fingers on the table agitatedly.

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves first?" I looked around the table. "I'm Ryan; Rising_Star on NarniaWeb. I right for, well, a whole bunch of characters who would be rather upset to learn I was the one who destroyed their respective childhoods."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

[sweeetlilgurlie]

A Funny Thing Happened

I grimaced, thinking about all the dramatic backstories I'd written for my characters.

Charis: Thought she learned that the Jedi had killed her parents and decided to swear revenge on them only to discover that the sith order she'd joined had killed them.

Xerec: The Misplaced Wraithe, no real friends, shunned from childhood, having the strange ability to suck life out of creatures.

Rel Taric: His padawan died because of some dramatic plotting between Amë and I in the chatroom.

Kari: I put her through years of torture and then wiped her memory. Poor girl.

I shuddered to even think about the bad guys I'd made up. Eyrie Fael seemed to be the only person whose life I hadn't ruined. Thankfully, he was the only character of mine that I'd met so far...

My thoughts were interrupted by a bright, bouncy kind of girl coming over to our table.

"Hey, Welcome to the Cup & Platter! I'm Kari, can I take your order?"

Oh yeah. She worked here.

[narnianerd]

A funny Thing
I stood up and took off my cowboy hat "Most of you know me; I'm Narnianerd also known as Joe, Little Joe or 'the crazy one' and I have a whole bunch of charries that would love to kill me right now" I sat back down. I then said "sure I'll have a mug of hot cocco and three pancakes"

David Benedict: His family was killed by Gothmotron when he was 15

Matthew Benedict: when his parents died in shuttle crash He found himself a street kid at the age of 4 lived like that till he was 12 then David showed up as a force ghost a taught him the ways of the Jedi.

Kale Martina: A civil war on her home planet Korel killed her family, when Matthew came with Shono and they found her discovered she was force sensitive and raised her in the ways of the force.

[humdedum]

A Funny Thing Happened

"I'm Isabelle," I began, and stopped because it's seriously unsettling to sit across from a man. With a lightsaber. That can chop off one's arm. "My username is 'humdedum'," I continued. "Or hummy," I stuck in.

On the bright side, I was a Sunrise of Life-er. So, no people with dangerous weapons and/or angsty pasts. I mean, the worst that happened was Will getting kidnapped and shot, right? So, what's the worse I could write for them here? Plus, I'd get to tell Princess I met Will-- Stop it! I told myself. For all you know, you'll see *them* die the way you planned it!

Which was a scary thought, so I quickly shunned it.

Oh yes. The matters at hand. Like, for one, we were stuck in a crazy sci-fi world with people who had tragic pasts. Or that the 11-year-old boy next to me was looking at the Jedi girl all dove-eyed. Or that the Jedi girl had a Lightsaber. Or that in the table across from us was a mutant, a Jedi, and a house-elf.

Or that Kari was looking at Sweeet expectantly.

[Captn. Peregrin]

Funny Thing

"I'm Captn. Peregrin," I said. "Call me Took. I don't have many characters, and I treat them pretty well. None of them are the revenge type, at any rate...I think." I paused to sip my cappuccino and shake my head at the waitress. "When are we, anyway?"

[zlcva]

Time Rift - Epilogue

As always, life goes on in Ditto Town after the adventure ends. But only the handful of people that saw the end of everything, and those they chose to tell, knew what had happened, and how close they had come to defeat.

Upon returning to Delantare, Zacce told Alatariel all that had happened, including meeting Alan, but omitted Alan's status as a Green Lantern. It wasn’t good, he reasoned, that Alatariel should know everything about their son's future beforehand. Alan was born six months later, and Zacce looked forward to watching his son grow up, and determined to do his best to raise him into the hero he had met and the end of time.

Tayra, Charlie and Wolf returned to find the Empire in uproar. They arrived at the time Maria should have been transported to the Alterverse had the time rifts occurred. Instead, Genocron had vanished and Sh’thaura was attempting to seize control. Tayra quickly rallied the Underground and they launched an attack on the palace. It succeeded due to Wolf’s knowledge, and the Underground achieved their greatest victory. Sh’thaura was killed (though whether it was Tayra or Wolf that did the deed was never known for sure), and the Empire was left leaderless, exploiting the flaw in Genocron’s system. He had crafted a regime that depended wholly on a single leader to support it, and without one, it collapsed. Anarchy swept the universe, and world by world, the yoke of the empire was overthrown. Two years after Genocron’s disappearance, the last vestige of the old Empire fell in a small skirmish in the forest outside Ditto Town. Iregi Hondo defeated the last imperial warrior. Freedom had at last returned to that universe, and Tayra was there to see it. But not only were they free physically, Tayra and many others became free spiritually as the tale of the All’s love that Zacce gave her was heard and accepted. With Natanel’s Spirit within her healing her heart, she was finally able to give it to another, as shortly after the final battle she accepted Iregi’s proposal for marriage.

Their first son was named Zacce.


Meanwhile…

Darkness… pain… hunger…

So hungry… must feed…

Not enough… must have more… too much light… can’t stay… must keep moving…

They can’t find me… all over if they find me…

“Come to me.”

Who’s there? Must get away!

“You can’t escape. I am always with you.”

Who are you?

“Come to me. I can help you.”

Darkness coming! No! Go away!

“There is no escape. You are mine.”

No! Get out! Leave me alone!

“You are mine. You will serve me.”

Can’t control myself… what’s happening to me? Master, help!

“You are mine.”

I am a Jedi!

“You are MINE!”

…

…

“What are you?”

…

I am Anzat.

“And?”

…

I am yours.

“Yes, Mek Talko...”

“You belong to X’ephure now.”

[Rising_Star]

A Funny Thing Happened

((Guys, no one is at the table except us RPers (and now Kari). If there are others around they are completely on the other side of the building. And Took, where did you get the cappuccino? ))

I couldn't think of all the characters I had whom I had destroyed their childhoods. There were too many. But the most pressing matter on my mind was that Le Loup Noir was here, looking for a Sith Artifact (and a couple other things no doubt), when I had never written for him other than his introductory post. That meant he was unpredictable. I did not know the depth of his character as much as I would like to. I had no idea what he would do if he found out his authoress was in town.

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I looked up at Kari and gave her a slight smile. "Just some water for me, thanks," I said, figuring I would need it. Plus water was free. I was not sure what kind of currency she would accept and I only had a couple paper dollars in my pocket.

"I'm thinking this is after the Time Rift, um, events," I said. "Since Maria is here and all. And seeing that I saw Grump earlier, I'm guessing this is around the same time as A (Slightly) Less Normal Life. Perhaps." This was really all just guesswork on my part. Oy.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

[sweeetlilgurlie]

A Funny Thing Happened

Kari looked at those gathered curiously, wondering if they were some kind of a club that had codenames.

"Water please." I managed to squeak out. I worked hard to keep my cool, reassuring myself that Kari had know way of knowing that I was...well, me.

"Alright." Kari said, snapping back into waitress mode. "I'll be back with your orders ASAP."

[humdedum]

A Funny Thing Happened

The girl scuttled off and I turned my attention back to the group. Kari probably thought we had lost our minds. But then again, maybe we all had.

"You saw Grump?" I sputtered. She nodded. Creepy. No, LUCKY! They got to see their characters, mine were... I dunno. Still in Virginia or something, I guessed.

[Bookwyrm]

A Funny Thing Happened

"I'm Nathanael, aka Bookwyrm, Booky, Robin, etc., etc.," I introduced myself after requesting some water from Kari. "Does anyone have writing materials with them? I was thinking maybe we could create a character, one lacking a tragic backstory or any other reason to dislike us, and give them the ability to get us back to Earth."

The door of the C&P slammed open and Drake stalked in, followed by Cordelia.

"Oh, great. This looks like trouble," I groaned.

"Drake! Don't just walk away from me! We are two weeks behind on orders. The customers are complaining. Some of them are going to the Monstropolis to get the books they need. We're losing money. Either tell me why you aren't doing your job or I quit. I'm not going to continue letting our customers down," Cordelia snapped at Drake, barely holding her voice under a yell.

"You want to know why I'm gone so much, why I'm not spending time hunting down every single obscure book for everybody and their brother in this town? Because I'm fighting a war. And I'm losing. Dragons all across the multiverse are being wiped out. So I'm not really that worried about losing business," Drake snapped back.

"I haven't written that yet," I whispered to the others. "I thought about it, sure, but never actually wrote anything about the Dragon/Dragonslayer war."

I gazed at my characters, amazed at being able to see them, even though their conversation was worrying me. I had originally created Drake as a kind of super-powered version of myself, but had changed that almost as soon as I started writing about him. I was relieved to see he looked nothing like me, despite having similar builds and coloring. It would have been difficult to explain to Drake why I looked exactly like him.

[BuBbLyLu]

Restart

Roxanne could have almost grimaced when Jonathan announced their relationship. But her apprehension for how her brother might take this was stunned when all the sudden Nickolas started laughing.

Roxanne's mouth hung open at this, her preconceptions of how this might be received stunned. "Nick . . ." she started to say, but her own voice seemed to make him laugh harder. It was devoid of any real humor, but the response alone made her angry. "Nick, why are you laughing!"

Nickolas shook his head, stifling his mirth with a tight sneer. "And I thought it was just Gil," he said softly, almost to himself. "That it was just him that was lying to us. But I guess you had me fool too." He looked at Roxanne with such a dark intensity that she diverted her eyes.

~~~~~~

"Why?" Nate asked suddenly. He frowned at Alyson, his anxieties taking stride now with what was happening. "I know where she is, Allie," he snatched the paper back up and jammed the finger at the story's photograph, "She's with him!"

He was starting to connect the dots now that he had a moment to process, and the old phrase you should never believe what the newspaper tells you didn't fly anymore with this one.

"Where is he?" he demanded abruptly. "Where does he live?"

~~~~~~

Mary Jane looked curiously where Chase placed his ball, completely confused how their chemistry teacher had anything to do with bowling. She walked up to the door, though, but held on to her ball. "We're going bowling with Mr. Rosentinbrug?" she questioned, wondering why he didn't just say that. But that didn't explain why he put the bowling ball on the welcome mat.

[zlcva]

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life
Chase brightened way more than was probably reasonable. If there was one thing he loved doing, it was gushing about the exploits of the Fountain Fellowship.

"I'd be delighted to tell you everything I know about them!" he said. "I'm Chase Ramsey, by the way, former history professor at Ditto Monstropolis University, and my specialty is the history of the Fountain Fellowship."

Nessie cleared her throat, though it was a bit muffled due to her mouth being full of a grilled cheese sandwich. She swallowed quickly and gasped out.

"Uh, Uncle Chase, what about the manuscript? I thought we were looking for a translator."

Chase slapped his forehead. "Oh, that's right! I nearly forgot!" He smiled apologetically at Jakov.

"I have some other business to attend to, but I'd still love to meet with you. Here..." he started slapping at his pockets, finally managing to find a wrinkled business card tucked away in his suit jacket. He held it out for Jakov.

"Here's my address. Go ahead and drop on by any time tomorrow, if you're still in town. I should be home. If not, just leave a note on the door with how I can get a hold of you."

****

In Ditto Autobot City, Warpath looked over the shoulder of the radar operator worriedly. They were monitoring the approach of the three stasis pods, and the pursuing Autobots.

"They're not gonna make it in time," Warpath muttered. He activated his comlink.

"This is Warpath. Scramble Air Team to intercept incoming targets. Divert from populated sectors if possible. If ya can't move 'em, vape 'em." After receiving the acknowledgment from the Air Team commander, Warpath barked orders to the communications officer.

"I want emergency crews standing by near their possible landing spots. Clear all air traffic. Only ones allowed near those pods are Air Team and ground crews, understood?"

"Yes sir!" the officer replied. Activating a wide-range frequency, she contacted all the other Autobots in that area.

"All Autobots in Sector 2, clear the skies. Hold your positions and allow Air Team full access to incoming targets. Repeat, only Air Team is permitted in the air in Sector 2."