[ENTER THE PALACE]

[warpweft]

[You find yourself with a sensation like floating in water.]

[Above, the sky is dark. You can occasionally see things shifting, like gusts of wind, or perhaps waves of water. Is it…even a sky above you? Or is it some kind of giant ocean? Whatever it is, you can’t make it out very well. All around you, you appear to be floating in what appears to be water. It looks like a great, wide ocean of…space in every direction around you, with stars and lights twinkling in the distance. It looks like water and feels like water, but it doesn’t make you wet. You can reach your hand into it and pull some out, the purple and violet water and the tiny points of light inside it will even rest in your hands if you cup them to carry it, but once you’re not trying to hold it anymore, it’ll flow off of you, not a single drop remaining behind. You feel something similar if you go underneath the surface. The “water” doesn’t touch your eyes, mouth or nose when give the chance, it merely drifts around you, allowing you to breathe and see unabated. And you can see for a great distance, the twinkling stars illuminating the ocean of space all around you. Though perhaps less dark and empty, it feels every bit as vast as the sky above. You feel like you could swim forever and never reach the edge.]

[It’s quiet, here, with little noise around you but the starry ocean’s waves crashing back into its surface. It’s peaceful. In another situation, it might even be comfortable.]

Comments

[voidhearts]

[When you reach out for one of the movies on the shelf, you get a brief snippet of Nessa's feelings towards it:
- The Wizard of Oz: The first movie I ever saw and one of my favorites, for all time. I thinks I'm among maybe seven people on the planet who read the book first and got really annoyed at some of the changes. Still love it, though.
- Wicked: When the bloody hell is it coming out?! 2024?! UGGGGHHHH. [There's no actual movie here, just a tangible annoyed, impatient feeling]
- The Hobbit (animated): I'll always have you. No amount of big budget morass can take you away from me. Don't ever leave me.
- The Lord of the Rings: The greatest movies of all time.
- Harry Potter: Every day I think about binning these the way I did the books five years ago. Damn you Alfonso Cuaron for being so good at directing.
- Star Trek Into Darkness: Never watched an episode of the show. Don't care to now. Story's kind of pants. Don't care. Swoon. 💖
- Doctor Strange: SWOON. 💖
- Avengers Infinity War: Needed more Doctor Strange. Still, swoon. 💖
- Sherlock: The Complete Series: Swwooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon 💖💖💖💖💖
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: That...that was fine...that wasn't too bad, right? Ahahahah, oh, I have a very bad feeling about the rest of this.
- The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug: ohhhhh, my stomach hurts....oh I don't even feel like swooning, oh lord, there's still one left....
- The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies: AAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHGGGG UUUUUGGGHHH OOOOOHHHH UUGGGHHHHHHH]

[Your.....your stomach starts to hurt if you hold that last Hobbit DVD for too long.....]

[You can take 1 DVD with you, if you wish.]

[messianic]

[ ... oh this is cute.

He deliberates for a long moment, and finally.... grabs Sherlock: The Complete Series. In honor of Sholmes and because he feels like more hearts in her feelings is probably a good thing...?? ]

[voidhearts]

[You acquired Sherlock: The Complete Series! Somehow, fit onto one DVD rather than a box set. How convenient!]

[messianic]

[ very convenient... and with that in hand, he's now going to poke around the books instead! Anything interesting? ]

[voidhearts]

[There's a lot of novels, some of which are books which those movies were adapted from! The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and several of its sequels by Frank Oz, as well as Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.]

[There's also a number of books, manuals, textbooks etc. on the subject of education. Books on learning, teaching, how to connect with students at various ages.]

[And then, there's the magic stuff. Spellbooks, books on the occult, potions, etc. etc. It seems to vary between stuff written by actual witches and non-witches. There's also a few history books, particularly about the history of witches.]

[messianic]

[ interesting...... he doesn't really have the time to sit and read, he thinks, but he does make a mental note to ask Nessa about this stuff later, when she's better again.



For now, it's time to check out the Hallway! ]

[voidhearts]

[Oh yeah, you can take 1 book too if you want.]

[messianic]

[ sure why not, he'll take The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It feels fitting somehow. Just looting things Nessa likes, it's fine.

to the hallway!! ]

[voidhearts]

[You acquired The Wonderful Wizard of Oz! Look at all the neat illustrations.]

[The hallway has three doors. Nell's bedroom is open. Nessa's study and Nessa's bedroom are currently locked.]

[messianic]

[ he does try all of the doors once he realizes at least one of them is locked. Huh... interesting.



To Nell's bedroom then! Going into a girl's room without explicit permission feels very bad and Minato only carefully cracks open the door at first to peek in. ]

[voidhearts]

[You enter Nell's room.]

[Nell’s room has a bed, a desk and a dresser. On the floor there’s a stack of books and a tablet that mostly seems to be for playing audiobooks. In one corner there’s a big stack of music in a bunch of different mediums. There’s neatly compiled stacks of CDs, cassette tapes and there’s even a stack of vinyl records. And there’s a cassette player, a CD player and a record player all kept neatly next to each other as well. There’s even a guitar laying against the wall next to the stack of music. Next to all the books and music on the floor is a large green bean bag. There’s also a nightstand with a lamp and a couple photos on it next to the bed. On the desk, there's a loose stack of a few papers and photos. On the nightstand, there's a framed photo. There also seems to be something on the bed, under the covers.]

[You can explore this room or return to the Living Room.]

[messianic]

[ oh shit music. This is great. Minato's so into it immediately.

Time to go poke into her music because he can and he's curious. ]

[voidhearts]

[There's a variety of music in all of the formats - it looks like the collection of somebody who was just trying to listen to as many different kinds of music as possible. But some stuff has sunk to the bottom of the respective piles, and the stuff at the top - the stuff that's being listened to the most - is bands like Electronic Light Orchestra, Oasis and The Rolling Stones. Apparently Nell likes her classic British rock!]

[messianic]

[ Nell has excellent taste, Minato can't help but think.

Okay.

Time to focus on the actual mission.

Time to... look at the photos! ]

[voidhearts]

[It looks like an itinerary. There's a schedule, a list of places to go and photos of those places. Museums, galleries, parks, boutiques, lots of stuff like that. There's a letter included with them.]

[Dear Agnis,
Here's some places I thought we could go to. If there's anywhere else in Manchester you'd like to visit, please tell me and I'll look up everything about it! We can't wait to see you and I'm so looking forward to meeting you in person for the first time! <3
Love,
Nell]

[You acquired Trip Schedule.]

[messianic]

[ huh... Agnis, huh?

He'll tuck that away into his inventory and move on to the pictures on the nightstand. ]

[voidhearts]

[It's a framed photo of Nell and Nessa, both of them dressed up like witches, complete with the pointy hats and broomsticks, presumably for Halloween. Puck is with them, but he's huge. It's not clear whether this was done by photoshop or if he was actually made that big with magic for the photo.]

[You acquired Halloween Picture.]

[messianic]

[ huh......... this is cute....



OKAY WELL.

He's meandering back to Nell. ]

Nell-san, can I ask you about a few things?

[voidhearts]

[Nell is sat at the coffee table with some notes and what looks to be a map of the palace in front of her. She's holding a small purple crystal (it looks like a shard of the crystal you got the Golden NessaPoint from) in her hand, murmuring to herself every so often until Minato addresses her.]

Oh!

Uh, sure! I'll help if I can! What do you need?

[messianic]

[ wow he would love that map--anyway. ]

Um, first, about this trip schedule...

[ tugging it out! ]

Who's Agnis?

[voidhearts]

Oh!

Agnis is Nessa's older sister! She lives out in the country. We were planning that trip for when she comes to visit us.

[Beat.]

This is Manchester, by the way.

[messianic]

[ itt: a japanese teenager confronted with geography. ]

... Is that... in Europe?

[voidhearts]

Eheheheh....yup! It's a city in Great Britain!

[Beat.]

We're British.

Um.

In case that wasn't clear.

[messianic]

... Oh. Yeah. Of course. I knew that.

[ SURE. ]

... Um, so. She hasn't come to visit yet?

[voidhearts]

Um...not yet, no.

The way I understand it, she lives out in the country and doesn't leave it very much.