A Funny Thing Happened

I waved to Lady A once I noticed her in back with some elves. Before I could say anything, I was greeted by young elf girl. "Good Mortereve to you as well, stranger. My names Ben or Cor, it's a pleasure to meet you." I said with a smile when NN mentioned that we needed to get back to NarniaWeb. "I don't think we can get back to NarniaWeb, at least not now."

"I have no clue who you are talking about, but I do agree we should get to someplace safer than a bookstore if there is some sort evil gang around." I said to Ryan after she mentioned the Le Loup Noir. "So, I guess you can count me in on whatever sort of adventure all of you are planning on undertaking." I added with a smile. I had always wondered how I would react to an adventure, I guess now was the time to find out.

((Here I am. ))

A Funny Thing Happened

"Get back here, you little mongrel!"

My day had been going along so nicely, too.

Sure it had been raining, but it had been that nice sorta rain. Quiet, peaceful rain. Un-chaotic rain. Next thing I knew, I was tumbling through a nausea-inducing vortex that had somehow appeared on my computer screen. Landed in a mass of wires. Bruised something. I'm blaming Comcast.

Now I was in some strange town. It seemed familiar, but I was a little too distracted to try and figure out where the heck I had been unceremoniously dumped.

As soon as I had emerged from the dark tunnel of Wires and Doom, doing my best to regain my bearings (or at least some of my sanity), I had felt someone's little fingers tugging on my pants pockets.

I'm a pretty sensitive person- I could beat out the Princess and the Pea in mattress testing any day. So whatever had been trying not to be noticed sneaking through my meager belongings, was dully noticed.

"Hey!" I snapped, slapping at my jeans, but the little thief took off.

Taking my iPod with it.

I was so not in the mood for this. I ran after the little blur, chasing it down the street, almost losing it as it turned a corner, disappearing behind one of the shops, before it brought me right back around to the Square, ducking into another shop.

I barreled in after it. A small bell jingled as I burst through the door, where I saw...

a monkey. It was sitting on the floor, turning my iPod around in its paws.

I'd been robbed by a monkey.

I wondered if Aladdin would pop up next.

It took one look at me, chattered something, then dashed off behind one of the shelves. For the first time I noticed we were in a bookstore. Normally, that would make me really happy, I love bookstores, but as I had just been robbed by a furball a third of my size, I wasn't.

Following after the thing in a hurry, I stopped short when I came upon a group of people. My thief, chattering loudly and close to faking sobs, was hiding behind one of them, a pretty girl with dark hair who looked perplexed... and really familiar.

"Ryan?"

((YAY! Kate's here!!))

A Funny Thing Happened

I was thinking over what PrinceCor, or Ben, had said (and thinking he was probably right), when the door opened and I was suddenly accosted by a small monkey who was holding an iPod. He, or she, crouched behind me, chattering loudly.

I stared down at it for a moment, utterly confused. "Um" was my intelligent response. Then someone said my name and I looked up to see Kate standing the in doorway.

"Hi," I said, not really surprised by anything anymore. "This yours?" I asked, gesturing to the monkey. I was mildly surprised at how calm my voice was. It almost was like I was asking her if a stray cat or dog were hers.

I was getting slightly frustrated though. More and more NWebbers were showing up. This could not be just a coincidence. Someone had planned this. That was the only logical explanation. But who? And why?

P.S."Brooklyn!"

Funny Thing

Looking at the growing crowd of people, in various states of dress, I wondered if all the RPers were being sucked into Ditto Town. I also kind of wondered if all these people crowding into a bookstore that wasn't even supposed to be open talking about vortexes in computers would garner much attention in Ditto Town. But I decided not to speak up yet.

A Funny Thing
"Well the vortex seems to be connected to the url of Narnia web cause it only shows up when you get on it, so logically if nweb was down and people wouldn't be able to get on it and don't you remember what Lady A said?" I questioned Ryan "She said something about being able to get on NW and seeing the other us writing for us? Well we should be able to log on that other us using our passwords and warning Tirian. Of course I could be crazy which I wouldn’t question if some one brought it up, but it seems that this would work, it doesn't matter though cause nobodys listening to me" I continued to ramble on and on till a monkey arived with Kate in tow.

"OH LOOK A MONKEY, with an iPod?" I rolled my eyes "Oh look another person" I muttered "If this is your monkey then that must be your iPod so I'll do it before people start calling out 'not me' and get the musical playing device thingy" So I dove for the monkey and wrestled the iPod from it.

A Funny Thing Happened
I stood where I was as more and more NarniaWebbers started coming in...PrinceCor004 and Kate if I heard correctly. This is getting crazier by the minute I thought. Or second I added as Joe wrestled Kate's iPod from the monkey. "Too bad there's probably no wifi in Ditto Town." I said, mostly to myself, as I took my iPod out of my pocket and tried to turn it on.

Restart

Ty was doing his best not to break down in public. He could still here the paparazzi outside, clamoring to get in and interview him. Fighting a headache, he gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the reporter beside him. She was partly to blame for this, he told himself angrily. She was the one who wrote that story and got me all upset at Dotty.

----

"I think they'd just be happy I have a friend to bring over," Chase said with a slight grin. "Seriously, they won't mind. Well, Layla might if she finds out she has to cook for all of us and you. But I'll see if I can convince her to order out. I'd offer to pay of course, since we can't really afford to splurge on anything." He shrugged lightly.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

Getting over my shock of seeing Ryan in person, I returned my attention to the monkey (who was peering out from behind Ryan now). Or I would have, but then I noticed the rest of the group. Nathanael, Ame, Zack, Tina... some other kids I didn't recognize. All Ditto Town authors.

So that's why everything looked so familiar! I was in Ditto Town.

I blinked in disbelief, shaking my head briefly, trying to determine if this was wicked cool or downright creepy. So that must mean- I took another look at the furry little thief. It was! I hadn't seen her in five years but it was her. Right down to the little satchel that she hauled around.

"Mintoo!" was my exclamation of surprise.

Right up until one of the boys in the group, whom I didn't know, dove at her.

Terrified, she let out a shriek. Even though Mintoo did "borrow" things, I had created her to be a relatively gentle animal so the kid was lucky that she was too scared to bite him. Hanging on to the iPod for dear life, she screeched several things that shouldn't be repeated before letting go.

As her author, I was the only person who could understand her... which was probably a good thing. I winced, then frowned. "Hey! Don't be so rude," I said to the boy, smacking him upside the head for scaring my critter character, who was currently cowering behind Nathanael.

I snatched my iPod from the kid, tucking it in my back pocket. "Thanks. Oh FYI, I was checking my email before I ended up here, so the URL theory has a hole in it," I offered with a shrug.

Turning, I knelt down to see if Mintoo was de-traumatized enough to come see me (without stealing my things this time). Now that I knew where I was and who she was, I was more curious. As it was, she was concentrating on breathing deeply with her eyes closed, trying not to hyperventilate.

I rolled my eyes then looked up at Nathanael, "What page are you on now?" I innocently asked.

A Funny Thing Happened

Drake shrugged and produced his wizard's staff from thin air.

"I can do a lot of difficult things with this," Drake said.

I edged backwards away from the others as more and more people entered the room. Just how many NarniaWebbers were going to end uo here anyway? It was starting to be a little intimidating. And then a furry little creature was running and hiding behind me, followed by one of the new arrivals. I wasn't sure who she was until she looked up at me and asked her question.

"Typical. In the middle of a crazy adventure and you're taking the time to nag me, Kate?" I laughed.

A Funny Thing Happened

When Joe dived for the monkey, who was behind me, I gave a cry of "ack!" and toppled over, since, as the monkey was behind me, Joe had to go through me to get to her.

I fell hard on my back on the ground. Thankfully by that time Joe had pulled the monkey out from behind me so I didn't squish the little animal. I lay stunned for a moment, staring up at the ceiling.

Slowly I sat up, rubbing the back of my head. "Ow," I said, glaring over at Joe. "Besides," I said, standing and brushing off my jeans. "If it were NarniaWeb's URL that was the problem, then everyone on NarniaWeb would be here, not just us." I grinned ruefully at Kate's nagging of Booky and then turned to Drake.

"I think you'd better get us over there soon," I said a bit weakly. "Before more people show up."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened
Before I could respond to Ryan, more people arrived and, fortunately, distracted Zacce long enough for me to dart to his side and whisper into his ear.

"Okay, so I know you know me, but you can't say anything! The only ones who know who we are are the Elves. No one else knows, and we can't let them! So please don't say anything that'll blow it for us!"

Zacce looked me in the eye, and I was surprised just how much older he had gotten since the last time I had seen him. I could see he wasn't really angry, just very surprised and very suspicious.

"Just tell me why and how you're here," he said softly. I couldn't help but get geek chills at the sound of his Delantrim accent. I was like a softened Scottish accent (which is no wonder since the Delantrim language was based on Scottish Gaelic).

"I don't know... and I don't know," I said with a sigh. "That's what we're hopefully gonna find out and try to get home before we get killed by some random villain." I stopped as I heard Narnianerd start blabbing about vortexes and NarniaWeb and rushed over to the boy, placing a firm hand on his shoulder once he was done wrestling the monkey.

"Joe! Step into my office a sec!" I said as I forcefully steered him behind a shelf and out of sight for a moment.

"Seriously, kid," I said urgently as I bent down a bit to put my eyes level with his. "Shut up! Take it from someone who's been here a lot longer than you. They don't take too kindly to knowing that we're who we are. For all our sakes, you need to stop talking about where we come from!"

I released Narnianerd and stepped back out.

"Right then! All set and ready to go, cap'n!" I said cheerfully and tossed a mock salute to Ryan, since she seemed to be the one in charge.

"Going somewhere?" Zacce asked, an eyebrow raised skeptically.

"Esteë," I replied, hoping I had pronounced it correctly. "Coming?"

Zacce glanced at the girl, then looked around at the group of us authors. Finally, he heaved a resigned sigh.

"Sure, we'll come if there's room," he said. I grinned and made a sweeping gesture towards Zacce while I spoke to my fellow writers.

"Guys, I'd like to introduce you to Zacce Nalum, and his daughter Rianna!"

A Funny Thing Happened

Watching the short lived chaos of Joe going after the monkey, the new girl (who appeared to be Kate) entering the store and Ryan toppling to the ground while Joe continued to blabber on about vortex's and whatnot. The kids seen or read way too many Sci-fi movies or books I thought with a sigh.

After everything calmed down, I stepped out of the corner I was standing in. "That's probably the best idea yet, Ryan." I said with a friendly smile. "Greetings, Mr. Nalum." I said with a short bow. I could not remember how you were suppose to greet a Jedi (did they ever mention that in the films?), but a bow seemed to be fit the situation.

A Funny Thing Happened

"NN, you seriously need to keep it down," I said, hoping that was something along the lines of what Zack had told him. "Mintoo wasn't going to do anything to you, or even to Kate. She's very sweet, just a bit mischievous, if I remember correctly."

Inside, I was mentally flipping through all the stories I had written. I remembered Mintoo from...YEY? YEY II? Reading the story that preceded YEY? I couldn't remember, which wasn't good. Normally I remembered such things. And why shouldn't I? I had kept the NWeb records for long enough. Sighing, and not remembering, I walked over to Kate and gave her a side hug.

"Hi, Twinliness," I said softly, smiling at her.

~~

"Hi," Silvren cooed at Ben as her mother picked her up.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, as well," Arin said. "Welcome to Dittotopia."

A Funny Thing Happened

Ben came, then Kate. Who I assumed was Qwertykate. 88. Sorry, couldn't help myself. It rhymes! Roleplayers were popping up like mushrooms. I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if someone appeared next to me while we were being apparated to the Elf lands.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and stood for awhile. I glanced down, just randomly, and nearly jumped out of my skin. Evory was standing right (right) next to me. "Whoa!" I said, almost shouting. What the heck, it was already chaotic. Why not add to the noise? "You scared me."

Evory blinked at me. "Beg pardon."

Funny Thing

I crept out from behind the bookcase once things were (slightly) settled down. Actually, Zacce seemed kind of cool. Not only was he a Jedi, but a Jedi with a Scottish accent! I'd never met anyone with a Scottish accent before, and there weren't even any Scottish Jedi in the movies. Then I abruptly tried to go on a rabbit trail, remembering the whole telepathy thing. I'm so glad there's no such thing in real life, I thought. Although I suppose this is real, too...isn't it?