A (Slightly) Less Normal Life
Chase tapped his index finger on his lips as he muttered the name "Cei" to himself thoughtfully. Suddenly, he brightened and snapped his fingers in triumph.

"Cei! Yes, of course! I know the name! My my, no one's heard from him since the War of Souls, I imagine. I didn't recognize the name at first because he went by an alias then. His name was Tomas, if I recall correctly." He leaned towards Jakov conspiratorially and spoke in a low voice.

"Most people don't know about that. But me being a historian and all, especially of the Fountain Fellowship, I like to find out those sort of things." He grinned, but was interrupted as a thought occurred to him.

"Are you a friend of theirs by any chance?"

Nessie grinned to herself and looked away. He had looked at her twice! She looked around the room without any conscious thought and almost missed a man sitting in a dark corner looking at her. She noticed him as her gaze slipped by. But as she looked back at him, she frowned in confusion. There was no one at the table. She could have sworn she had seen someone.

--------

Up in space, on the fringe of Dittotopia's gravitational pull, Autobot Space Case oversaw a maintenance crew working on the space bridge.

"Make sure the ion generator is secured to the main power terminal. We've been having trouble with it staying on lately," Space Case said to a young robot.

"Well no wonder!" the 'bot, whose name was Skydive, replied snobbishly as he examined the equipment. "This thing's gotta be decacycles out of date! Why on Cybertron are you using such ancient equipment?"

Space Case sighed. Ever since Skydive had arrived with the last supply shuttle from Cybertron two years ago, he'd had nothing but confrontations over how far behind the Dittotopian Autobots' technology was. Space Case had more than once deactivated his audio receptors while the younger Autobot ranted about the inferiority of their equipment, defenses, even their personal alternate modes.

"Just do what you can," Space Case sighed and continued to run through the diagnostic checklist.

A Funny Thing Happened
Shono spun around on his bar stool, “not so fast; we’ve been expecting you two for a long time now it would be rude to not stop for a while and have a drink” he drew his blasters, instantly the room lit up green and white as two lightsabers were ignited. I was going to just stand aside and let them pass but once I saw that they were being resisted I drew my revolver “Stop right there”
(Slightly)
Shono scrolled "Oh yah Matthew has stuff like this all the time, and he has a really nice padawan and you and her would get along really good" he said while backing into the lady behind him.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Jakov nodded slightly. "I knew Cei . . ." he said, trailing off and looking thoughtful. So his old master was alive. That would explain the voices he had been hearing in his head at night, the ones that whispered to him things of the Light Side of the Force, things that kept him from his main objective.

Speaking of which . . . he turned to the little girl and tried his best to give her a friendly smile. Unfortunately it came out as more of a wince.

"How old are you, Nessie?" He glanced over at Chase. "It is Nessie, right?"

----

A Funny Thing Happened

I swallowed hard, thinking I did not want to get into a confrontation here. Not only did I not know how to fight, I didn't even have mace or pepper spray in my pocket.

The big man not holding me laughed and swatted the kid's revolver to the side. "Seeing as we just now discovered there was an Artifact in this town, I highly doubt you were expecting us," he said to Shono. The big man holding me laughed too. I just stared.

This was all wrong. Something about these men seemed familiar but I couldn't place it. They hauled me up and half-pulled, half-dragged me out of the Cup and Platter. I was sure I would have bruises for months.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A funny thing
Shono went to fire but Matthew stopped him "You'll kill the girl!" he yelled, before running out the door after them. Kale stopped and helped the boy up from where he had fallen "you didn’t need to do that… master had it under control” I was dumb struck by how Kale had matured since he had written for her in slightly, I shook myself out of it; to think that here I was beginning a crush on a girl I had created! It was kinda creepy you know.

A Funny Thing Happened

I found myself in a room filled with wires. It was quite literally filled with wires. I tripped over a bunch of them and rammed into a wall. Ouch. Suddenly the wall gave way- It was a door! And I tumbled out of the room and fell into a street.

The door I'd fallen out of was nowhere the be seen. I got up onto my knees, slipped, and banged my chin on a stone fountain edge. I was confused. What the..? A platypus swam in the waters. Was I dreaming? I pinched myself. No banana.

There was blood coming out of my mouth from where I'd bit my lips when I hit my chin, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I got up.

There was no doubt about it. This was Ditto Town. Weird.

A Funny Thing Happened

Okay. So things do happen to me. Like, the dog runs off in the street and scares me to death, or I get lost in the grocery store and start crying (hey, I was little!). Or... when I drop a glass milk bottle all over the floor, etc. But I digress.

It was a regular day. Wake up... eat breakfast... do Bible study... do math and grammar. I went to the computer, logged in, and opened Safari. Naturally, I head over to my favorite Narnia forum community. Luckily, the cookies for the new site remember me, I think as it loads. Wait... did I get a new forums skin? 'Cause this was all swirly and bright and... uh, totally NOT like NarniaWeb.

((Remember TITLES please))

A Funny Thing Happened

So I was being dragged out of the Cup and Platter by guys that I thought I recognized but was not sure I recognized. They weren't being particularly rough with me, but it was bad enough. I tried to bend my head down to my hand so I could tuck some of my dark, multi-colored highlighted hair behind my ear and out of my face.

"Can you at least tell me who you work for?" I begged.

"Le Loup Noir," the man holding me said.

This stopped me right in my tracks, which caused me to fall over as they still had a hold of me and were still walking. Of course. That explained why I vaguely recognized them. I had planned for them, yes, but had never gotten around to writing for them.

Suddenly they stopped as well, whipping out their guns and pointing it at a girl who had just tumbled out of thin air. I peered closely from behind my hair and recognized her. Before I could call out though, the man not holding me shouted,

"Stay where you are!" at the girl. Sweeetlilgurlie.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

Next thing I knew, I was in a room. It was dark, and damp, and I heard water flowing somewhere. Like my fish tank. Was I in the basement? I blinked. No, our basement wasn't full of wires. Not full as in floor-is-covered, but like Blocks. Of. WIRE. Everywhere? I got to my feet and looked around. "Hello?" I whispered, half-scared that the scary monster of my six-year-old dreams might come out at any minute.

Nothing happened. I spotted a door and nervously opened it.

Wow! It was.... was...

And empty space with a fountain in the middle.

This, I gulped, did not bode well. At all.

A Funny Thing Happened

I froze and put my hands up in the air as high as I could reach. Kind of dumb and cops movie-esque, but it was the only thing I could think of. They seemed like bad guys. I didn't remember them from any stories- but then, I think I would have been more freaked out than I already was if I had.

They seemed to have taken a girl prisoner. Her hair partially covered her face, and how the heck would she be there? But it seemed to be Rising_Star!

"Ryan?" I asked incredulously.

A Funny Thing Happened

Morning comes entirely too soon for my liking, especially when I've stayed up half the night playing Lord of the Rings Online. My main toon was at level 41 though and I desperately wanted to get her up to 60 before Siege of Mirkwood released. Anyway, I woke up a little after 7:30 and got ready to leave for classes. It was yet another fascinating day of math, math, and more math.

Naturally I couldn't leave the house without checking NarniaWeb, so as I munched on a granola bar substituting for breakfast, I opened my laptop and fired up Firefox. Instead of NarniaWeb loading, there was a weird swirly screensaver type thing. I knew it wasn't my screensaver, because my screensaver is from the Wolverine movie. It almost looked like my screen was moving. Setting aside all common sense, I reached forward and touched the screen. Instead of touching glass or plastic or whatever the heck that stuff is, I was pulled through the screen into a dark room.

When I fell through my laptop screen, I must have hit my head, because I blacked out for a few seconds. By the time I recovered, there was no sign of a way back to my living room. The room was cluttered, but so dark I couldn't see what it was cluttered with. I blundered around, trying to find a light switch or something to light up the room. Instead I managed to escape the room, exiting into an old-fashioned town square, complete with a fountain and a platypus swimming around in it.

I looked around, recognizing landmarks, even though I'd never seen them before. I had spent three years writing about them, after all. Part of me was thrilled that I was in Ditto Town. It's an amazing place, full of amazing people. The other part of me was scared to death. Here I was, an unpowered human, in the middle of a town that gets invaded by dastardly foes pretty much every other day.

And speaking of foes, there were a couple of big guys man-handling a teenaged girl not that far from me. Their attention was focused on another girl and hadn't noticed me yet. I looked around, but typically, there were no heroes around to save the day. No one looked remotely familiar, making me wonder just what time in Ditto Town's history I'd landed in. Then I realized I did recognize someone; the girl that the men were dragging along. It was Ryan. There wasn't any question of me hurrying off and hoping the men wouldn't notice me now. I'd regret it the rest of my life if I left a friend to get hurt.

I didn't have a weapon or superpowers, but there was one deadly weapon in the Town Square. Bob Saget, male platypus and town mascot. Fortunately he was sentient, so I hoped he'd go along with my idea.

"Hey Bob? I need to pick you up and I need you to look ferocious, so I can scare those guys off," I whispered to the platypus, bending over the edge of the Fountain. The little guy nodded his head and I scooped him up out of the water.

"Hey, you two! Losers picking on a girl. Look what I've got! Rare Poison Dart-Throwing Duck Beaver. Let her go or he shoots his deadly poison darts at you. Horrible pain accompanied by random body parts falling off," I yelled, trying to bluff my way through this standoff. Bob Saget played along, menacingly aiming the spurs on his back legs at the men.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

Katie seemed to be waiting for something. Finally she turned to Miss Lucinda and placed her hands on her hips. "Well?" she asked. "Ain'tchoo gonna offa me somefin' to git me to go witcha?"

----

A Funny Thing Happened

I was about to respond to Sweeet, when someone shouted from behind us something about a Poison Dart-Throwing Duck Beaver. It sounded like something from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The big men did not have time to turn around before the one holding me was hit with Bob Saget in the back of his knees.

Crying out in alarm, he dropped me and went hopping backwards, swatting at his legs. The other big man trained his gun on the playtpus, but at that moment a lavender lightsaber came out of nowhere and severed the gun. Apparently these men knew a Jedi when they saw one. Not wanting to deal with a Jedi, three strangely dressed young people, and a crazed Duck Beaver, they turned and hightailed it out of there, shouting that Le Loup Noir would be hearing about the attack and to beware of DOOM.

I turned to Sweeet and then to the other person, who I recognized now as Booky, before looking over at our rescuer. I recognized her instantly as Maria. She did not look as much like Vanessa Hudgens as I had first thought. (Which was a good thing, don't get me wrong. A very good thing.) For one thing, her dark hair was much, much curlier, her dark eyes were softer, and well, there was only a vague resemblance to the pop-star.

"Uh, thanks," was all I could think of to say to my character, standing before me, living and breathing. If I were a fainting person, I was sure I would have fainted. As it was I had to sit down on the Fountain, watching dumbfounded as Maria picked up Bob Saget and put him back into the water. I looked over at Sweeet and Booky and thought this was the last time and place I would have picked for us all to meet.

"Swirling screensaver thing?" I asked once I got my voice back. Maria watched us curiously.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

I was relieved when Maria stepped in to fight off the goons. Well, I assumed it was Maria. She wasn't blonde, like Sh'thaura, and the only female Jedi I had in mind was Gawain's master and she was quite a bit older than this one. As far as I knew, they were the only female Jedi. The fight, if you could call it that, didn't last long. Most people tend to not stick around when facing Jedi and these guys were no exception.

I sat down on the edge of the Fountain and watched Maria replace Bob.

"Thanks for the backup. When I find out what you platypuses like to eat, I'll make sure to bring you plenty of it," I told the furry little mammal.

"Yep, I got the Screensaver of Doom too," I told Ryan. "So why were those guys kidnapping you? Characters of yours?"

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

"Well dearie, I hate to tell you this, since you and the droid seem to be getting along so well, but he belongs to a cult member. I don't think you want to get involved in a cult, dearie. They're quite dangerous, always getting into wars with members of the cult that split of from their group. Time and time again the galaxy has been plunged into chaos because of their philosophical differences. Now if you come with me, I have plenty of lovely rooms for you to choose from, filled with nice soft beds and toys you could only dream of. And I'll cook you a nice hot breakfast, sausages and eggs and pancakes and bacon, all slathered in nice maple syrup. Would you like that, dearie?" Miss Lucinda told Katie, blatantly bribing the little girl.

A Funny Thing Happened

Some guy started shouting about a Poison Dart-Throwing Duck Beaver amd then everything got crazy. I shielded my head with my arms, not knowing exactly what to do. The guys that I'd labeled as "bad" ran off, shouting something that sounded french. And there was a person with a lavender lightsaber activated standing near us. Had she scared the bad guys off?

I heard Ryan's-if it was Ryan- question. "Yeah. I didn't have school this morning and my computer went crazy. And now I'm here." I did a double take at the lightsaber-wielding person. "Maria?" I whispered, barely believing it. I'd never written for Maria, but I had always read Ryan's writing of her and recognized her quickly.

A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

"Oh yes, please!" Katie exclaimed, clapping her hands together excitedly and grinning. Food was such a wonderful, tasty thing. She couldn't believe she had lived so many years without eating such fine foods!

----

A Funny Thing Happened

I nodded to both Sweeet and Booky's questions as Maria clipped her lightsaber to her belt and smiled at us. "If you no longer need assistance?" I shook my head, wanting to ask her to stay, but not sure how my conversation with Sweeet and Booky would go if she overheard.

"I'll give you a call if we need you," I answered her weakly.

She nodded. "Be careful. I've no doubt we'll be seeing those men again. I'll stay close by." When she had moved off to the Cup and Platter to help with the clean up, I turned to my two friends.

"So you got here through your computers? When you tried to access NarniaWeb?" I asked them, since that was what had happened to me. My mind was still trying to catch up on what had all just happened. "Ugh, headache." I rubbed my temples in an effort to fight it off.

"So yeah, that was Maria. And those men . . . well, I've never actually written for them. I meant to, I wrote their introductory post, along with the . . . man they work for. But I never got to post it." This sounded all so strange.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

"This is all so weird." I commented, shuddering a tiny bit. "How are they moving and acting?" I pointed at the retreating figure of Maria. "You made her up...didn't you?" This was all mind-boggling. I didn't quite know how to process it.

"I wonder if we're here to defeat them. The bad guys, I mean." I wondered aloud, feeling a tiny bit excited. We were in Ditto Town, for goodness' sake! I'd dreamed about going here. Then I wondered if it all wasn't just a dream. I pinched myself again, hard.

"Excuse me," A suave voice said from my right elbow. I looked over and nearly fell over. It was Eyrie Fael! I hadn't written about him in the longest time. Fire elemental and dapper gentleman combined into one.

"Are you new around here?" Eyrie gestured toward the place where the bad guys had made their exit. "Are those your friends?" His lip curled in distaste.