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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 13, 2009 12:40:05 GMT -5
That afternoon, returning from the bread shop, Yomiko opened the door to her rented flat, and...jumped, as the suitcase on the bed sprang open, filled with even more of the books she'd brought with her. Rather than try to fit them all back in, though, she settled for arranging them on the shelf, and on the floor when that ran out, along with her new purchases.
Finally having gotten things fairly neat, she sighed in a combination of excitement, pleasure and some degree of jet lag, flopping onto the bed but remaining awake.
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 13, 2009 13:14:10 GMT -5
After a few minutes, something appeared on the other side of Yomiko's bed. At first it was just a few red hairs, extending from nowhere, but it quickly grew into something more, forming a scalp, then a forehead, and a bloody one at that. It flowed down the bony, freckled face that appeared just below it, before finally stopping at the chin. A human head had appeared in Yomiko Readman's bed, and bit by bit, line by line, the rest of his body was following it.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 13, 2009 13:18:58 GMT -5
Yomiko stared at the ceiling for a few moments, before casually glancing down, and just as casualljy shrieking and recoiling against the side of the bed. Body parts did...not generally appear before one's eyes, though if she stopped to consider it she might ration that teleportation was possible. This was an extremely odd way of doing it, though.
Nervously eyeing the materializing person, she put her hand on a book, just in case. Wondering if he could hear her, Yomiko called, "Who are you?!"
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 13, 2009 13:34:01 GMT -5
The person appearing on the couch did not respond; he appeared to be asleep or comatose. The rest of his body quickly appeared, starting with his throat, which also had a thick line of blood around the front. Next came the torso, clad in a red t-shirt with a large dark patch in the front. The body was soon revealed to also be wearing sweatpants, black with one white stripe on the outer side of each leg, and gray sneakers. All of his clothes looked shabby and well-worn, in contrast to his body, which looked undamaged despite the blood on his face and throat.
The soles of his shoes scanned themselves into existence, and he slowly opened his eyes. When the unfamiliar ceiling began to settle in his mind, he snapped them wide open, sitting up in bed and looking around the room. Eventually his eyes settled on Yomiko, and he jolted himself out of the bed and onto the floor. "Ow!" He stood up, rubbing his side. "Christ..."
That's when it occurred to him that he should probably say something to this very scared-looking girl. "Did I scare you?" was about the best he could come up with, given his disoriented state of mind.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 13, 2009 13:39:27 GMT -5
It was then that Yomiko did see the blood, and she was worried; not only was someone appearing bodily in her room, but an injured someone. How was she going to deal with this? It was, after all, not like she was a doctor. Well, at least he wasn't too badly injured. He was clearly alive, as well, which was a good thing.
His sudden movement startled her, and she was about to hurl something nasty out of paper at him, but realized in a moment that he was just as startled as she was. Calming down soon, she took a deep breath. "Well, you sure startled me...how did you do that, anyway?"
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 13, 2009 13:50:34 GMT -5
The boy tilted his head. "Do what?" he asked in a cockney accent. "Oh, show up in your room like this? 'ell if I know. Before I got 'ere, I was..."
Images of a control tower and a bloody sword flashed through his mind. He touched his hands to his throat and made a face when he felt the sticky liquid on it. "Ew." Now that he thought about it, he could also feel something wet on his face. "Is there someplace I can wash this off?" he asked.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 13, 2009 15:14:57 GMT -5
"Well, yes," she replied, sitting up on the side of her bed. No way she'd get to sleep now.
Just now, he seemed to notice the blood on himself, and she hastily nodded, pointing him in the direction of the lavatory. "It's over there, and it even has indoor plumbing, for which I'm thankful in this city."
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 13, 2009 16:05:00 GMT -5
The boy nodded and walked over to the lavatory. He realized that the woman had a British accent, too, though she spoke in Queen's English. "Ain't much indoor plumbing in this city, I take it?" he asked as he slipped into the bathroom.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 14, 2009 11:44:23 GMT -5
"Hardly any," called Yomiko, accustomed to British speech, considering her dual contries of origin. "I'm pretty sure this is still the 19th century here, believe it or not."
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 14, 2009 12:14:45 GMT -5
The 19th century? Well, that was unusual. Quincy thought he was prepared for anything before, but he didn't think he'd end up traveling back in time. Oh well.
The sink looked like it was made of plaster, with brass handles. He turned both of them, causing lukewarm water to pour out of the faucet. He carefully spread it over the bloody areas of his face and throat and let the blood flow off his body and down the drain, scrubbing his face where it had already clotted onto his skin.
He looked up into the mirror and realized that not only did he look quite thin, but he'd built up a healthy bit of stubble during his time on the island. Other than that, though, he looked perfectly fine. There were no wounds on him from which the blood could have came.
No, that wasn't quite true. Quincy noticed a fine horizontal line crossing the middle of his forehead, and felt another on his throat. Scars?
He looked around the bathroom for, well, he supposed they would only have straight razors in this time period.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 14, 2009 12:53:16 GMT -5
"You're welcome to use anything you need," Yomiko called, a bit absently, returning to her book. Even the sudden appearance of a stranger in her bedroom couldn't shake her in that regard.
It wasn't the nicest flat, but it would do, and anyway she was used to pretty shabby living quarters. At home, she owned an entire skyscraper, but used it just to store her book collection, living in a tiny, cramped hut on the roof.
There was, in fact, a straight razor in a cup on a table next to the sink.
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 14, 2009 13:24:45 GMT -5
The boy nodded, hearing the woman's words, and took the razor out of the cup. He'd never used this sort of razor before, and there didn't appear to be any shaving cream around, which he found odd. He didn't know if 19th century women shaved their legs or not, but he believed that this woman was from the 20th century, judging from how she said it was "still" that other time period. She must not have had time to purchase some cream for herself.
(There was, in fact, a cup of shaving soap and a shaving brush in the cabinet, but Quincy failed to recognize them for what they were.)
He picked up the blade and held it at an angle to his skin, then began shaving. The lack of cream meant that he got razor burn in places, but for the most part, the razor did a decent job. It must've been brand new.
After shaving, he noticed the toilet and bidet next to the sink. Well, as long as he was in here...
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 14, 2009 14:19:27 GMT -5
Well, technically, even in a divergent timeline it was already the 21st century for Yomiko, but she wasn't sure about what time he was from. For the moment, it was kind of more important to find out how he got here...as soon as he was done, and she had finished reading this chapter.
He needn't hurry, either, if he was having trouble, though calling her would only be embarrassing.
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Quincy Archer
- Masterful Virgin -
Let's see what fun we can have today, shall we?
Posts: 30
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Post by Quincy Archer on Feb 14, 2009 15:38:49 GMT -5
Quincy couldn't help but smile as he zipped his pants back up. Here he was, in a real bathroom, using a real toilet! It finally occurred to him that he was safe; he wasn't going to be brutalized and murdered, he wasn't going to have to fight half-mad gunmen with only a sword, and he wasn't going to meet any more hallucinations of fictional characters!
Ha! Suicide was the answer after all. He couldn't help but chuckle at the implications.
He walked out of the lavatory looking very pleased with himself. He noticed that the woman had her nose buried in a book, then that there were many other books adorning a nearby shelf. And the floor below. He moved towards them and looked at their spines, curious as to what sort of books they were.
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Post by Yomiko Readman on Feb 14, 2009 15:44:46 GMT -5
The irony, of course, was that most everyone here in this version of Paris was fictional, at least in certain universes. But, still, for the moment he was probably safe from fighting and murder, at least as long as he stayed with Yomiko, who tended to protect people she thought deserved it and ask questions later.
As for the Paper, she hardly looked up when he walked out, examining her collection. They were old books; very old ones, most of them, quite a few first editions and even more having titles worn off. Then there were more modern ones, at least relatively; they ranged from fantasy to science fiction to romance to histories of ancient warfare.
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