A (Slightly) Less Normal Life

"Jakov." He was too preoccupied with thinking about Cei and Maria that he did not realize he had spoken until it was too late. With a sigh he glanced at the food and then back at Chase.

"I would be interested in hearing more about the Fountain Fellowship," Jakov said truthfully. "Especially the stories surrounding Maria and Cei."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

"Actually," I said, swallowing. "I am. But--" I looked around the Cup and Platter. "Why am I here?" I asked. "I mean... I'm a chatter, I know, but it's not like I'm a big... fountain-person-er-thinggy." []iOoh! Maybe this is like Narnia! I thought momentarily. Key word: momentarily.

Because I saw the boy whom I was pretty sure was narnianerd making out with the Jedi girl with his eyes. And that in itself was pretty disturbing. She looked, like, 20, and he's like, 11, if I read his profile right. And from the look on his face, I knew someone would be getting a hardcover of Breaking Dawn for her birthday. We're talking brand-new, special, hard-cover edition.

Not hey-Kale-found-this-at-a-book-sale-at-my-school-paperback kind. Like hey-Kale-I-knew-so~and~so-got-you-a-Breaking-Dawn-but-I-bought-you-a-hardcover.

But I digress. Because did that really matter? I mean, paperback-versus-hardcover editions of Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer?

I shook my head and took a seat at the large table.

Funny Thing

I couldn't help overhearing the conversation from across the fountain. Fellow Narniawebbers? This just keeps getting wierder...I wonder if I know any of them? Why am I even wondering if I'm just dreaming? I stuck my hand in the fountain and brought it back un-reassuringly cold and wet. I decided to follow the group, just in case, and sat down at the large table.

((hummy... she's around 14 or 15 at this time... not 20!"))
Funny Thing
"Oh how do I know about Scrappy? why wouldn't I know about Scrappy he's this galaxy’s equivalent of R2-D2!" Kale raised her eyebrows "R2-D2?" she asked "Ok I really thought you wern't crazy but now I'm re thinking that, Look I gotta go now" she said and turned to walk away with Matthew. So I just turned and seeing all those narniawebers sitting down at the large table I followed them over.
(Slightly)
Shono turned to Matthew "Look I gotta make an exit... seeyah!" he didn't even turn into his starfighter mode before lifting off; he simply activated his jet pack and zoomed into the sky. Turning into his fighter mode in the air.
Hamelin
"Its a long story" he said then he remmembered the children "Holy cow the kids!" he almost yelled.

Restart

Nickolas raised an eyebrow, curiosity sparking behind his fog of anger. "Oh, you don't, do you?" he inquired mockingly. "Then how would you know that Roxanne doesn't? How would either of you know each other?"

He looked between his friend and sister with such narrow eyes, Roxanne could feel his sense of betral.

~~~~~~

Nate was so out of it that he didn't respond to Alyson's attempt to snap him out of it. His mind was working hard to try to understand it all.

The picture still vivid in his mind's eye, he stopped trying to rub it out and with an aggravated sigh, he scrubbed his face viciously, trying one last time to wipe it away. "This is all wrong," he muttered as he dropped his hands. "All of it."

~~~~~~

Mary Jane looked bewilderedly outside her window as they pulled into residential area. She frowned slightly, not understanding what all this was as Chase came around and handed her a ball.

"But . . ." She looked at the ball and then up at Chase. "What are we going to do with it?" she asked. This wasn't the bowling she was familiar with on TV.

Restart

"Oh," Jonathan said suddenly, realizing he had just dug his own grave. He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck ruefully. "We've, uh, kinda been going out and stuff." His brown cheeks flushed a rosy pink.

He opened his mouth to say something else, but then shut it tightly, knowing nothing he said right now would help anything.

----

"Right, so we have to figure out what's what. So do you want me to call Ty Waters and find out where Dotty is or not?" Alyson asked, wondering what exactly the big deal was.

----

Chase grinned slightly and he helped Mary Jane out of the truck, leading her up the driveway.

"You know Mr. Rosenstinbrug, our chemistry teacher? This is his house." He walked up to the doorstep and placed the bowling ball down on the welcome mat. He gestured for Mary Jane to come up and do the same with her ball.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

As Ryan steered me toward the Cup & Platter I caught sight of a man and his daughter near the fountain. For a moment I wondered if they were NarniaWebbers. Part of me thought that the thought was silly, but the other half was curious. I waved at him as we turned.

Soon we were gathered around a large table in the good ol' C&P. I kept looking around to make sure that bits of the pub hadn't disappeared when I wasn't watching them. Everything was almost exactly as I'd envisioned it. Even Hugh was there, waiting the counter. "I thought stuff like this only happened in movies." I muttered to myself, crossing my arms.

A Funny Thing Happened

I looked around the table at the NarniaWebbers gathering. I didn't recognize all of them, but I had a feeling they were all RPers. I vaguely remembered that something like this had happened in the past, to some of the much-missed former RPers. I had never expected anything like that to happen to me though. After all, hadn't it been some evil Romulan plan or something like that? For some reason, I couldn't remember how everyone had returned to Earth.

"I think we're going to need some help with this. Unless y'all have been hiding secrets from me, like mutant universe-hopping powers, we aren't going to get home on our own. The problem is, who do we go to? I can't think of any of my characters I would feel comfortable asking for help. Most of them have tragic backstories and I doubt they'd be too happy to learn I was the reason for their angst."

My fear was starting to wear off now that I was in what I thought of as a safe place. Now I was just plain excited. This was the Cup & Platter after all! Half the exciting adventures we'd written had started out right here. Hugh Hologram was less than ten feet away from me, Jedi and mutants and fairies and superheroes were wandering in and out. This was probably the coolest thing that ever happened to me.

A Funny Thing Happened

The boy (not the 11-year-old, the older one) started to speak. He had a good point. The characters with tragic pasts would only have their creators to blame. I thought back to when I read Kari's profile and realized with relief Kari was in Mansion, not Fountain. Good.

"Maybe this is a sick joke by the Lion Party Leaders?" I said, but I wasn't sure if anyone heard me.

A Funny Thing Happened

((Actually Hummy, Kari has been in the Fountain before. Basically it doesn't matter where characters are mostly written. If they've been written, plotted, or planned, they can show up in Ditto Town.))

"Same here, Booky," I said, frowning slightly. I looked over at the other girl and shook my head. "I don't think so," I said. "I mean, I seriously doubt they know how to make portals into fictional worlds." I tapped my fingers on the table agitatedly.

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves first?" I looked around the table. "I'm Ryan; Rising_Star on NarniaWeb. I right for, well, a whole bunch of characters who would be rather upset to learn I was the one who destroyed their respective childhoods."

P.S."Brooklyn!"

A Funny Thing Happened

I grimaced, thinking about all the dramatic backstories I'd written for my characters.

Charis: Thought she learned that the Jedi had killed her parents and decided to swear revenge on them only to discover that the sith order she'd joined had killed them.

Xerec: The Misplaced Wraithe, no real friends, shunned from childhood, having the strange ability to suck life out of creatures.

Rel Taric: His padawan died because of some dramatic plotting between Amë and I in the chatroom.

Kari: I put her through years of torture and then wiped her memory. Poor girl.

I shuddered to even think about the bad guys I'd made up. Eyrie Fael seemed to be the only person whose life I hadn't ruined. Thankfully, he was the only character of mine that I'd met so far...

My thoughts were interrupted by a bright, bouncy kind of girl coming over to our table.

"Hey, Welcome to the Cup & Platter! I'm Kari, can I take your order?"

Oh yeah. She worked here.

A funny Thing
I stood up and took off my cowboy hat "Most of you know me; I'm Narnianerd also known as Joe, Little Joe or 'the crazy one' and I have a whole bunch of charries that would love to kill me right now" I sat back down. I then said "sure I'll have a mug of hot cocco and three pancakes"

David Benedict: His family was killed by Gothmotron when he was 15

Matthew Benedict: when his parents died in shuttle crash He found himself a street kid at the age of 4 lived like that till he was 12 then David showed up as a force ghost a taught him the ways of the Jedi.

Kale Martina: A civil war on her home planet Korel killed her family, when Matthew came with Shono and they found her discovered she was force sensitive and raised her in the ways of the force.

A Funny Thing Happened

"I'm Isabelle," I began, and stopped because it's seriously unsettling to sit across from a man. With a lightsaber. That can chop off one's arm. "My username is 'humdedum'," I continued. "Or hummy," I stuck in.

On the bright side, I was a Sunrise of Life-er. So, no people with dangerous weapons and/or angsty pasts. I mean, the worst that happened was Will getting kidnapped and shot, right? So, what's the worse I could write for them here? Plus, I'd get to tell Princess I met Will-- Stop it! I told myself. For all you know, you'll see *them* die the way you planned it!

Which was a scary thought, so I quickly shunned it.

Oh yes. The matters at hand. Like, for one, we were stuck in a crazy sci-fi world with people who had tragic pasts. Or that the 11-year-old boy next to me was looking at the Jedi girl all dove-eyed. Or that the Jedi girl had a Lightsaber. Or that in the table across from us was a mutant, a Jedi, and a house-elf.

Or that Kari was looking at Sweeet expectantly.

Funny Thing

"I'm Captn. Peregrin," I said. "Call me Took. I don't have many characters, and I treat them pretty well. None of them are the revenge type, at any rate...I think." I paused to sip my cappuccino and shake my head at the waitress. "When are we, anyway?"

Time Rift - Epilogue

As always, life goes on in Ditto Town after the adventure ends. But only the handful of people that saw the end of everything, and those they chose to tell, knew what had happened, and how close they had come to defeat.

Upon returning to Delantare, Zacce told Alatariel all that had happened, including meeting Alan, but omitted Alan's status as a Green Lantern. It wasn’t good, he reasoned, that Alatariel should know everything about their son's future beforehand. Alan was born six months later, and Zacce looked forward to watching his son grow up, and determined to do his best to raise him into the hero he had met and the end of time.

Tayra, Charlie and Wolf returned to find the Empire in uproar. They arrived at the time Maria should have been transported to the Alterverse had the time rifts occurred. Instead, Genocron had vanished and Sh’thaura was attempting to seize control. Tayra quickly rallied the Underground and they launched an attack on the palace. It succeeded due to Wolf’s knowledge, and the Underground achieved their greatest victory. Sh’thaura was killed (though whether it was Tayra or Wolf that did the deed was never known for sure), and the Empire was left leaderless, exploiting the flaw in Genocron’s system. He had crafted a regime that depended wholly on a single leader to support it, and without one, it collapsed. Anarchy swept the universe, and world by world, the yoke of the empire was overthrown. Two years after Genocron’s disappearance, the last vestige of the old Empire fell in a small skirmish in the forest outside Ditto Town. Iregi Hondo defeated the last imperial warrior. Freedom had at last returned to that universe, and Tayra was there to see it. But not only were they free physically, Tayra and many others became free spiritually as the tale of the All’s love that Zacce gave her was heard and accepted. With Natanel’s Spirit within her healing her heart, she was finally able to give it to another, as shortly after the final battle she accepted Iregi’s proposal for marriage.

Their first son was named Zacce.

Meanwhile…

“You belong to X’ephure now.”