I had kept quiet for a long time, the wheels in my head turning all the while. About Zclva's sudden disaperance, about my screw ups earlier in the day and I decided I wouldn't let that happen again.

"So has anybody any ideas?" I asked lamly "Cause I'm cluless"

Interesting how various sci-fi and fantasy icons keep popping-up here. You can definitely tell what the RolePlayers like to watch and read.... I thought with a chuckle as I overheard Ryan mention a Sith artifact.

"Sounds like a good meal to me, then." I replied to Lady A as I continued following the group, humming a Jerry Goldsmith tune.

I was glad for the sudden interuption by the people coming downstairs. The conversation with the tatterdemalion (or whatever it was) wasn't going particularly well. I was interested, of course, but I would much rather have someone else do the talking. I'd never had a conversation with something of another species before. Unless you include my cat.

I looked over at the newcomers. "So?"

"Eat first, and talk later," Limwen said softly, tilting her head toward the decent spread of edibles.

"She means the more you talk, the longer you can chew, thus delaying the need to answer," I quipped. Arin catapulted a berry at me from her spoon. She missed.

The spread of various fruits and baked goods looked very appealing. I quickly got one of the highly decorative plates from a stack on a side table and began getting a small portion of everything.

As I finished filling my plate, a tall elf standing off to the side of the gathering caught my eye. I knew that this was part of the land that other NarniaWebbers had created in their RP and that some of their characters were actually alive and knew their makers. Still, it was strange to see Derran standing there eating a cluster of what appeared to be some sort of grapes. I made my way back to Ryan to ask her a question, all the while being watched by Derran.

"Umm, do the characters we've created know who their creators are?" I quietly asked Ryan once I was standing next to her. I nibbled on some bread as I waited for her to reply.

My day started out as most days do, except my 8:00 class was canceled so I got to sleep in. Yay! I got on the computer after breakfast and checked my email. After making sure there was nothing I had to reply to, out of habit I logged onto Narniaweb. Or at least, I tried to. Boy, I knew our Internet connection was slow sometimes, but this was ridiculous. Finally, it loaded. But the familiar logo vanished as soon as it appeared. Strange, blue swirls filled the screen, and they faded in and out in an almost hypnotic pattern.
"Weird," I thought to myself, but didn't say it out loud because doing so would only inevitably bring all my brothers and sisters bearing down on me and asking what I did to the computer. As if I had control over weird blue swirls fading in and out on the monitor that were moving in an almost hypnotic pattern.
All of a sudden, I felt myself falling. Before I even realized it, I had fallen into the screen!

I landed on top of a mass of wires in almost complete darkness. I immediately jumped up, trying not to scream. I hate snakes, and wires feel too much like snakes when you can't see them properly. I looked around, and saw a light coming through a door. I quickly hurried towards it, and once again felt myself falling.

I stumbled out of the dark room and landed hard, skinning the palm of my hand.
"Ouch," I muttered to myself.
An explosion rocked the ground. I looked up, and gasped at my surroundings. I had lurked around Ditto Town long enough to have a very vague idea of where I was, but why was I here? I didn't do any role-playing. But my thoughts were interrupted as I saw soldiers dressed in black heading right towards me.
"Uh-oh," I thought.

I almost didn't hear Cor's question, so fixed my mind was on figuring out what Le Loup Noir was after. I thought about his question for a moment before shaking my head.

"No . . . no, they shouldn't know anything about us. Except, I think the elves know because Ame has visited here before. And the Fountain Fellowship had something like this happen to them a while ago, only the characters from Ditto Town found their way into our world. But even then they didn't know their own creators, even though they appeared to them in their houses. The creators' houses, not the Dittotopians."

I blinked, wondering if all that was as confusing as it sounded.

"So, um, no, they shouldn't know who we are," I reiterated.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

I heaped my plate full of bread and fruit. Weird as the entire situation was (Falling into the computer, meeting my character, being apparated, etc.), I was actually pretty hungry. The food was delicious--light on the palate, and generally sweet on the tongue.

Balancing my plate in one hand, I walked over to Ryan and Cor. I caught the tail end of Ryan's explanation. "Whew, that sounded confusing." I commented.

"Sith artifact... Well clearly they are planning to do something sith like... Would this evil dude happen to be some sort of dark Jedi or some armature sith? Trying to learn something or gain new power? Those are often what sith artifacts contain" I said.

While I walked over to the food table and grabbed a handful of what looked like grapes and shoved them into my mouth... Turns out they weren't; they were olives "YUCK!" I said spitting them out. I sighed then sat down with my DSI, bored to death.

"Well, he could be a Sith now, I suppose," I said in response to Joe's question. "Though I think I originally wrote him as a sort of bounty hunter with his own agenda. As Le Loup Noir at least. I don't think he really knows how much Force sensitivity he has. At least, he didn't know the last time I checked."

I absently swiped a piece of bread from the table and nibbled on it. Then I ate it more hungrily as my stomach caught on the to fact that I was finally feeding it and begged for more sustenance.

P.S."Brooklyn!"

After a minute of trying to sort through what Ryan had just said, I nodded. "Oh, O.K. Thanks for clearing that up." I added before popping an olive in my mouth.

Taking a seat at the table, I continued eating while trying my best to stay out of the way and let Ryan figure out a plan of action. I would occasionally glance over at Derran, still somewhat amazed at seeing one of my characters as real as I was... or am or something.

I scrambled to my feet as I scanned the Square. I had watched enough science fiction to know sticking around a bunch of black-clad soldiers was definitely not a good idea. I looked around, but didn't know where to go. I backed up, hoping the soldiers would just march past me. I have very vivid dreams sometimes, I thought maybe this was one of them. But, I looked down at my hand, which was starting to sting. Dreams never hurt before.

Since the others seemed occupied with stuffing their faces (don't suppose I'd blame them), I turned my thoughts elsewhere. I kept glancing back at Evory, but tried not to look like I was looking. I caught snatches of conversation from the others, and started wondering about my Cat character, Cosmi. I'd always thought there weren't enough Animals in Dittotopia, especially considering that it was on a Narnia site. I'd like to see him sometime. Not meet him, perhaps, but just see him. I hadn't finished the Mansion yet, but I wasn't planning on killing him off. Near death experience, perhaps, but nothing too serious.

I started putting together some sort of character arc for him (which would inevitably be foiled by the main plot, and I'd end up writing half a dozen climactic moments), when I remembered where I was. I looked around the room at the elves, and then at Evory. Were tatterdemalions telepathic? Elves were, to some extent...or did it only work on other telepathic people? Telepathy is so convenient, until someone starts probing your own mind.

I filled my plate up with elven delicacies and sat in a corner, idly watching the others. I wondered how Cordelia and Matthias were doing. If it was late enough in the timeline, Sylvia would be there with them, which was great. Matthias' godlike genius powers only worked within the bookstore and if anything were to happen to the building, he would be killed. Sylvia, being an actual nature deity, would have no problem whatsoever with a fight. She'd probably be happy to be in one.

Drake loomed over me with his own plate of food. He settled down beside me and picked at his food.

"I know who you people are."

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"

"I know about Authors. I was here the last time something like this happened. Just because you people write us doesn't make us stupid."

"Drake, I ... . All right, I guess I owe the truth at least. Yeah, we're Authors. All of us, to some extent or other. Some are more active than others. I'm actually your Author."

"So you're the reason why my species is being obliterated across the multiverse. You are the real reason my family is dead," Drake said, his voice turning cold.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it," I said lamely. "It was just a story to me. I never thought it was real."

"I'm going back to Ditto Town. They actually deserve my help there," Drake said, ignoring my attempts to apologize and apparating away.

I jumped slightly as Drake left. I wondered why he had, since we may have need of him teleporting us back to Ditto Town eventually.

I hesitated asking Booky about it though, since Drake had looked rather peeved before he left. I wondered if he'd figured out about us. I tried to remember if he'd been around when the first group of Authors found their characters sitting on their laps and then somehow got back to Ditto Town, but I couldn't.

I did remember however, that Drake was probably our only way out of here.

This wasn't good.

With a sigh, I realized I had to go on with my plan and I turned to those gathered. Clearing my throat, I prayed I wasn't blushing and started speaking.

"Hey, um, everyone. So we've got about two choices here, I think. Well, maybe three. Anyway, we can either try to find our way home, go back to Ditto Town and try to help before Le Loup Noir completely takes over and demolishes it, or . . . we can stay here and do nothing." I bit my lip nervously as I looked over everyone. "I thought we should put it to a vote, since I don't really think I should be bossing anybody around. Um, thank you." I quickly sat down, my cheeks burning.

-----

EDIT:

One of the black-clad soldiers caught sight of daughter of the King and headed toward her resolutely. "Hey Hank," he said to the man behind him, his voice low, deep, and slow. "Lookee what I found. A little girl coming outta da fountain. And look at her clothes. She's gotta come from Earth. Think, you know, the Captain will wanna see her?"

The soldier grabbed daughter of the King's arm in a tight grip.

P.S."Brooklyn!"