Signs pointing to the nearest exits will not be provided.

[poll_the_stars]

There is a room that's dark and cold. It's made of stone, with a doorway cut into each of the four walls. At the room's center is some type of circle, carved into a raised platform. The only light comes from a slightly sad looking light fixture set into the ceiling.

Then the circle glows, brightening until it could rival the sun, humming and shaking the room around it. There is a buildup of energy of some kind...

And then it stops, returning to as it was before.

Except, now it contains two women.

One of them has pointed ears and red hair. She looks around in quite a lot of alarm.

Comments

[purposeful_glory]

The other is dark-haired, armored, and, abruptly, armed with a glaive taller than she is (and she's six foot two).

"What is this place?" she hisses.

[poll_the_stars]

"I have," says the redhead faintly, "no idea."

[purposeful_glory]

"Not your doing?"

[poll_the_stars]

"No. And not yours, either, I'm guessing."

[purposeful_glory]

"No."

[poll_the_stars]

"Mm."

She inspects the floor, frowning.

"Have you ever seen anything like that before?" she asks, pointing at the circle. "Because I haven't."

The circle's intricate and complex, more like a very elaborate vaguely circular shaped doily than a simple shape. It is somewhat reminiscent of the mark the Bifrost leaves, but the style is very different.

[purposeful_glory]

"It is... similar to the mark left by the Bifrost, but the pattern is wrong. And the transit was dissimilar."

[poll_the_stars]

"Bifrost?"

[purposeful_glory]

"The rainbow bridge that can move people between planets."

[poll_the_stars]

Blink, blink.

"... That's not a thing I've heard of before. I would have expected to have heard of a rainbow bridge that moves people between planets. At least once."

[purposeful_glory]

"It is not common knowledge on all worlds."

[poll_the_stars]

"And, how many worlds do you know of? I have just the one. Uh, it has giant trees thousands of feet tall, comfy ecosystems, magic everywhere, stop me if I'm ringing any bells?"

[purposeful_glory]

"It... does not sound familiar."

[poll_the_stars]

"Ah. Well." Pause. "Could your Bifrost be used to get us out of here?"

[purposeful_glory]

"It would need to be activated from the other end. If it has not been so already, it may be that I have not been missed yet or that there is some difficulty with doing so here."

[poll_the_stars]

"Okay. So. That's better than nothing at all. Uh, hello, by the way."

[purposeful_glory]

"Hello. I am called Loki, Odinsdottir, of Asgard. Your name?"

[poll_the_stars]

"Inavet," she says, after a second of hesitation. "Of Erdenir. Sunrise Empire, to be specific."

[purposeful_glory]

"I would say well met, but the circumstances leave something to be desired."

[poll_the_stars]

"Yeah, I left off 'nice to meet you' for similar reasons," agrees Inavet dryly. "No offense to you."

[purposeful_glory]

"None taken." Loki peers at the pattern of the shape on the ground, produces a small scrap of paper from her pocket and a stub of pencil, and copies it out.

[poll_the_stars]

Copying the circle does nothing in particular.

"Good idea."

She doesn't have paper to do the same, but she can lean on arcany a bit to memorize the pattern. She considers testing to see if the ground around the platform is safe, and how she would even go about testing that in a safe manner. Drop something on it, maybe? There aren't any obvious traps that she can sense, but she just got transported someplace strange, there's no guarantee whatever could hurt her can even be sensed by arcany.

There is a rumbling sound, off in the distance. Like a door of some kind is being opened.

"... That's concerning."

[purposeful_glory]

"Everything about this situation is concerning, but, yes, that sound is too."

[poll_the_stars]

Snort.

After some more consideration, she carefully edges her way off of the platform. Absolutely nothing happens.

[purposeful_glory]

Loki follows, alert, still with her glaive in hand. One hand.