Players:
Special Guest
Summary: You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!
Date: February 24, 2012
Log Title: Be Our Guest
Rating: G
Romania - Tower - Jill's Suite
A plush velvety carpet with a intricate leafy pattern in red and white lines the entire floor of the room. Dark blue fabric with a similar style patterns line the walls of the of the room where it meets a white curved white ceiling. Golden decor trims the curves of the ceiling in intricate swirls, circles and lines and the ceiling forms a sort of arches across the room. A large chandelier hangs from the high ceiling and lights the room with a bright glow. Two marble pillars come down from the arches to the floor to form a sort of chamber for a large four poster bed.
The bed is sideways against the wall and is surrounded on three sides by dark blue bed curtains that match the walls. Plush pillows lie against the bed's velvet and silk linens and tall decorative headboard. The top frame of the bed is gilded with much detail and design. Across the bed on the other wall sits an elegant dresser in front of a large ornate mirror with perfumes, exquisite hairbrushes, combs and other beauty products necessary for a woman.
In the middle of the room sits a golden table with a black top decorated with reds and with two velvet plush arm chairs on either side. In the middle of the table is a porcelain tea set that seems to always be filled with a rich hot chocolate and a tray with an assortment of pastries that always seems to replenish itself.
The room always seems to be the perfect temperate of comfort from a white details fire place against one of the walls. A large mirror rests behind the mantle which is decorated with two golden candelabras and a golden clock. The candles in the candelabras are always lit, flickering gently, and never seem to neither melt nor get lower. A large white and gold dresser sits along the opposite wall filled with gowns made of silk and the most decadent linens.
Sleep, peaceful and serene, ends for Jill as softly as a fog lifting. She awakens gently in a large ornate bed, stretching her arms and sliding carefully from the bed without throwing the fine soft sheets back. It's only when her bare feet touch the floor that she seems to notice something is wrong. To be more accurate, she notices that *everything* is very subtly wrong, a faint yet profound sense of… difference.
The room she's in is unfamiliar but not frighteningly so. The fine, eggshell-white nightgown is certainly different, but that isn't the sensation that feels so alien. But then more than the strange, decadently aristocratic room, more than the warm glow of candlelight, Jill notices her hands, their warm, soft flesh. Gingerly, the girl touches her face, her hair. Suddenly a flurry of activity, she throws herself from the bed, searching frantically until she finds it. The mirror atop the dressing table.
Staring back at her, looking wide-eyed with a nervous tension, is a blonde haired girl that she hasn't truly seen in almost two years. Not quite the same, perhaps. Is her hair a little darker than it used to be, than she's used to seeing from the holographic projection? A little more golden than before, or is it just the candlelight? It's so hard to tell. And her eyes. The blue looks starker, brighter and more colorful against pale skin. Is this… what she would look like if she'd never mutated? Then, she was only fifteen, but now almost seventeen. Well, seventeen in… What time was it? What day was it? Midnight, she finds on the clock on the mantelpiece, but no indication of the date, or even where she is.
With growing unease, the blonde young woman moves about the room aimlessly.
There's a soft knock on the door followed by an unfamiliar male voice. "Excuth me, if the Mithtreth is awake I haft food for you." He doesn't just walk in because he doesn't want to catch the girl indecent after all.
The knock, even as soft and polite as it is, gives Jill a start. While she had been expecting someone sooner or later, the still silence of the place made even the gentle noise jarring to her. "Uh… Sure," she responds to the voice, hesitantly. While she has no reason to suspect anything fishy- fishier than it already is, anyway- the blonde girl stands behind the back of one of the plush chairs, like it might offer her some kind of protection. "I mean, come on in."
The door seems to open as if on it's own and in walks a short oddly shaped looking man carrying a large tray of food. He's got a lump on his back and his stitched face looks to be made from bits of different faces. "Good Evening Mithtreth. I haf brought you thomthing to eat. If there ith anything I can help you with pleath let me know and I can be of thervice."
Even though Jill tries not to give anything away just yet, the worried expression creeps back all on its own. Her fingers tighten on the chair's velvet upholstered backrest, knuckles pale. Though her mouth is open, she can't seem to say anything, even though she goes as far as drawing a preparatory breath several times. With a flustered but feigned polite voice, she asks tremulously, "And… you are…?"
"I am Igor." Says the hunchbacked man as he places the tray on the table before bowing to her. "I am your manthervent while you are here. If there ith anything that you need, pleath let me know and I'll be happy to do what I can. The candles will lit and exthinquith themthselvth at your command and ath will the fire. If you find it to hot, jutht let the fire know, likewitht if you find it too cold."
Still trying very hard not to have a complete freakout, Jill looks at the tray rather than Igor. A distantly familiar but unpleasant sensation roils in her stomach and makes her feel cold. Fear? Nausea? Hunger? Whatever it is, she doesn't like it. "Umm…" the girl starts, raising her index finger from its death grip on the chair's back. "Actually… You could start by telling me where I am."
There's a nod to Jill before Igor answers. "You are in the Mathsterth tower. The top floor. The entire top floor is open to you. There ith a window in the thitting room down the hallway where you can look out to the foretht." As for an exact location though, he doesn't give it.
"Okay, but, see…" Jill attempts to interrupt, waving a hand at the hunchback. "That's great and all, but I was in New York, right? And…" A pause before she can adequately summarize, "Some weird stuff happened. I don't remember what happened after that, but now I'm here." She waves both hands, palms down and fingers slightly curled to fully indicate her here-ness. "Which is… where, exactly?"
"Here ith here." Igor says seeming a bit confused. "I wath born here tho all I know here ith here. The Mathster might be able to tell you when you meet." He says, his tone kind enough. "I am not familiar with New York, I'm thorry Mithstreth. I jutht know my Mathster is having guethteth and that they are all to be treated well."
For some reason she couldn't explain if she tried, Jill gives a soft nervous laugh, though it feels cathartic. "But… I have school tomorrow." It's a dumb thing to say and she realizes that almost immediately. "M-my clothes are gone. I need my phone so I can call someone back home. I need to let them know I'm okay. I don't understand what's going on." As she speaks, Jill slowly circles the velvet chair, sitting lightly in it on her third circuit around. Lacing her fingers and squeezing them between her knees, mindful of the nightgown, she just shakes her head. "Who is the Master? Why am I here?"
"There are bookth in the thitting room down the hallway." Igor says trying to accommodating to Jill's concerns, not quite realizing that he isn't. "Ath for your clothing." He says as he walks over to the armoire and opens it. "A thelection of dretheth hath been made available to you here. There is no need for…phoneth here. They don't work thith far into the foretht." He then walks over to the table and pours Jill a cup of tea, adding milk and sugar, then handing it to her on a saucer. "For your nervth. The Mathster will explain when you meet him. I am thorry I can't thay more, it ith forbidden for me to thay."
"Oh, thank you," says the girl automatically and distractedly, accepting the teacup and saucer but not appearing to know what to do once she's got them. She's not getting any answers, at least not the ones she wants, and try as she might she just can't get angry at the ugly, subservient creature. As disturbing as his face may be, it is surprisingly low on her Weird-Shit-O-Meter at the moment. "I… I guess I'll just have to wait, then," she softly utters, lifting the delicate teacup for a sip in a daze. "Maybe I'll wake up."
Igor raises an eyebrow at Jill, making his larger eye seem ever larger than the other one. "I am afraid I do not underthand. You are awake. If you would like me to turn down the bed and warm up the bed warming pan I can do that for you Mithstreth." He offers with a bow.
Setting the teacup down on its saucer with a genteel clink, Jill favors the hunchback with a look that all teenagers seem to know. It simultaneously asks 'Are you stupid?' and answers its own question with 'Yes.' "This…" the girl begins. "Doesn't seem real. But if it is-" Jill raises her free hand and counts off by raising her fingers one at a time. "One: I am gonna to have *so* many more questions than I already do. Two: I can't possibly stay here and you can't keep me. And three: I am going to have the biggest freakout you have ever born witness to." The last is said with the tone of a dire warning… or a threat.
"I am thorry if it doeth not theem real but I can athure you it ith real Mithtreth. The other girl thaid thomething thimilar, about not thaying here." Igor says calmly. "I'm thorry I cannot make you feel better Mithtreth, do you with me to thay for your…freakout or leave you alone to adjutht?"
"Other girl?" Jill repeats, latching onto that with a sudden intensity. She rises from the chair quickly, setting the teacup and saucer on the table with noticeably less delicacy than she handled them before. "There are other people here?"
"Three otherth currently. The other three guetht thould be arriving thoon. They altho have bed chamberth in thith hallway." Igor says to her as he starts to busy himself around the room, straightening things, making the bed and trying to make himself useful. "The Mathter wanted guethtth for thomething. He didn't tell me though, I'm jutht a manthervant." He says sounding casual about it and like he's accepted his role in the tower-hold happily.
Jill goes quiet for a moment. Something in her entire body seems to slacken, her knees growing weak and she sinks back into the plush velvet armchair. With something bordering on an eerie, toneless calm, she states simply while staring at a candle's flame, "I think I'd like to have that freakout now, if you don't mind. You don't have to stay."
Igor bows to Jill politely. "I thall have my leave now Mithtreth." He says. "If there ith anything you require jutht call for me and I thall anthwer." He says as he leaves the room and leaves Jill to her freakout.