A New Beginning..?
There was a dungeon lockdown; these keep - kept happening, every time she got huffy about something, so we didn't take much notice. But then this morning, she summoned *all* of us into the audience hall. *That's* never happened before. One of the servant critters handed out tiny little vials to each of us. Then she said her piece, which is pretty much as follows:
"If you drink these, you will be relieved of the effects of the blood potion you have been taking every day. There are no side effects; it is a cure, as simple as that. I am letting you all go, and I am going away, myself. I... regret what has been done to you. Now you are free to be yourselves, and to do what you wish. I will not throw you out of the castle. You may stay here, and use it as your home; come and go as freely as you wish, my servants are instructed to serve you now. Or you can go out into my world and try to make a home there. It will be strange to most of you, and has more magic than technology, but you are adaptable, and strong. You will survive. You may even find some way to return to the realities from where I obtained your DNA, although I cannot say how your originals will react. I wish you luck, and happiness. Go with my blessing."
Then she left the room, and a short time later, the castle. Some of us had gone up to the roof, and watched her fly away. We’re a bit confused, and not sure whether she really meant it, and will be coming back... but it sounded pretty final. Not everyone was sure about drinking the new potion, but I did; hell, I don’t want to be under the influence of this drug, or the comedown effects if she’s not going to be here to give us our daily dose. Most of us have taken it now, and it does seem to have worked the way she promised; I’m feeling a lot more myself again, and I expect the others will follow suit tomorrow, when they go cold turkey and see that nothing horrible has happened to the rest of us.
We had a meeting to discuss what we would do. Some of them want to leave this place and explore the world outside, wherever and whatever that actually *is*. Others, particularly the science types, are up for staying and exploring the castle; Rodney is sure we’ll find some kind of technology or magic or something that could help us get out. If we can get back to Atlantis, I’m sure they’ll be surprised, but heck, surely they could use our help. Nobody in their right mind would pass up the chance of having two Rodneys in the lab, and they could take turns going on missions so the research would go faster. And maybe I could head up a second team; I won’t try to take over from my original. But all that’s just speculation. For now, we’re busy looking around, orienting ourselves, getting used to the changes. Nobody is going to be leaving just yet; they’re putting together ideas and supplies, and they’re going to want some way of staying in touch. There is so much to do now, so much to explore, and the general mood is cautiously upbeat.
I’m mystified as to what happened... but I’ve had my suspicions for some time, which I can voice now that there’s no one listening in. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I reckon the dragon wasn’t really the one pulling the strings around here. I think she was being... manipulated... by someone - or something - else, just the way we have been. And now we’ve all been released, the dragon included. It’s a bit worrying to think what could have controlled a dragon like that, and not knowing what it was, or whether it’s still around, but we can’t keep looking over our shoulders every minute. We’ll be cautious, but we’re grasping this new opportunity with both hands. Take tomorrow as it comes; that’s all you can ever do. We have our own castle now, full of all kinds of exciting possibilities, just like Atlantis.
It’ll take some time to find out just what; it’s a strange place, and I’m starting to realize that all the close guarding was less to stop us escaping - we were under her paw with the drugs anyway - and more to stop us being waylaid by... other things. There are more things living here than ourselves and the servants (the bone guards have disappeared) and we’re catching glimpses of some really strange stuff. Nothing has attacked us yet, but... as I said, we’re being careful. There’s some discussion of setting up a base camp outside the castle, and coming back on missions to explore. And we could really do with finding decent weapons; so far, we’re having to rely on hand-to-hand combat skills and mediaeval weapons like swords and staves. Although Willow, the pretty witch I’ve mentioned, got her magic back full-strength when she drank her potion, so that’s some help. And so did the Jedi, although they insist it isn’t magic. And Sarah has this bracelet she calls the Witchblade, which is some kind of high-tech or maybe magical weapon and armour all rolled into one; it was dormant while she had the dragon’s blood inside her system, but now she’s clean, it’s woken up. So we aren’t entirely defenseless. Although a few people are wondering which way the vampires are going to turn, now that they don’t have a regular supply of blood. They seem to be on our side though, for the moment, and I don’t want to antagonize anyone who could be an ally.
I’ll keep you updated with what we find. For now, there seems to be some kind of heated debate going on about the wisdom of relying on the castle servants for certain supplies, such as coffee, and I think I ought to go try calm things down...
"If you drink these, you will be relieved of the effects of the blood potion you have been taking every day. There are no side effects; it is a cure, as simple as that. I am letting you all go, and I am going away, myself. I... regret what has been done to you. Now you are free to be yourselves, and to do what you wish. I will not throw you out of the castle. You may stay here, and use it as your home; come and go as freely as you wish, my servants are instructed to serve you now. Or you can go out into my world and try to make a home there. It will be strange to most of you, and has more magic than technology, but you are adaptable, and strong. You will survive. You may even find some way to return to the realities from where I obtained your DNA, although I cannot say how your originals will react. I wish you luck, and happiness. Go with my blessing."
Then she left the room, and a short time later, the castle. Some of us had gone up to the roof, and watched her fly away. We’re a bit confused, and not sure whether she really meant it, and will be coming back... but it sounded pretty final. Not everyone was sure about drinking the new potion, but I did; hell, I don’t want to be under the influence of this drug, or the comedown effects if she’s not going to be here to give us our daily dose. Most of us have taken it now, and it does seem to have worked the way she promised; I’m feeling a lot more myself again, and I expect the others will follow suit tomorrow, when they go cold turkey and see that nothing horrible has happened to the rest of us.
We had a meeting to discuss what we would do. Some of them want to leave this place and explore the world outside, wherever and whatever that actually *is*. Others, particularly the science types, are up for staying and exploring the castle; Rodney is sure we’ll find some kind of technology or magic or something that could help us get out. If we can get back to Atlantis, I’m sure they’ll be surprised, but heck, surely they could use our help. Nobody in their right mind would pass up the chance of having two Rodneys in the lab, and they could take turns going on missions so the research would go faster. And maybe I could head up a second team; I won’t try to take over from my original. But all that’s just speculation. For now, we’re busy looking around, orienting ourselves, getting used to the changes. Nobody is going to be leaving just yet; they’re putting together ideas and supplies, and they’re going to want some way of staying in touch. There is so much to do now, so much to explore, and the general mood is cautiously upbeat.
I’m mystified as to what happened... but I’ve had my suspicions for some time, which I can voice now that there’s no one listening in. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I reckon the dragon wasn’t really the one pulling the strings around here. I think she was being... manipulated... by someone - or something - else, just the way we have been. And now we’ve all been released, the dragon included. It’s a bit worrying to think what could have controlled a dragon like that, and not knowing what it was, or whether it’s still around, but we can’t keep looking over our shoulders every minute. We’ll be cautious, but we’re grasping this new opportunity with both hands. Take tomorrow as it comes; that’s all you can ever do. We have our own castle now, full of all kinds of exciting possibilities, just like Atlantis.
It’ll take some time to find out just what; it’s a strange place, and I’m starting to realize that all the close guarding was less to stop us escaping - we were under her paw with the drugs anyway - and more to stop us being waylaid by... other things. There are more things living here than ourselves and the servants (the bone guards have disappeared) and we’re catching glimpses of some really strange stuff. Nothing has attacked us yet, but... as I said, we’re being careful. There’s some discussion of setting up a base camp outside the castle, and coming back on missions to explore. And we could really do with finding decent weapons; so far, we’re having to rely on hand-to-hand combat skills and mediaeval weapons like swords and staves. Although Willow, the pretty witch I’ve mentioned, got her magic back full-strength when she drank her potion, so that’s some help. And so did the Jedi, although they insist it isn’t magic. And Sarah has this bracelet she calls the Witchblade, which is some kind of high-tech or maybe magical weapon and armour all rolled into one; it was dormant while she had the dragon’s blood inside her system, but now she’s clean, it’s woken up. So we aren’t entirely defenseless. Although a few people are wondering which way the vampires are going to turn, now that they don’t have a regular supply of blood. They seem to be on our side though, for the moment, and I don’t want to antagonize anyone who could be an ally.
I’ll keep you updated with what we find. For now, there seems to be some kind of heated debate going on about the wisdom of relying on the castle servants for certain supplies, such as coffee, and I think I ought to go try calm things down...