Olivia crouched in the dark, empty alley. Her whole body ached; yet her head seem to be on the verge of exploding. Ugh...Am I dreaming? I just...I was in my room...then I fell into a black hole? She looked around, slowly standing to keep her head from throbbing more from standing. How the hell do you small yourself out of a dream again? You have to die, right? But...what if it isn't Maybe I should just- "Hell-Oo, is anyone there!?" No answer. maybe I should find my way out of this alley.... She kept on walking until she could see light from lamppost, managing to see the seemingly main street in the fading light of sunset. She stopped as soon as she made it to the sidewalk, shocked. "Wh-where the hell am I!? Since when are there so many cars dragged by carriages? And...Model t's?" There weren't many people out on the streets anymore, as it was pretty late. "Have I been unconscious since noon?? Wait, no...did I time travel? Is that even possible?" She pressed her hand against her throbbing head. "Where the hell do I go from here!?"

Noon.
Around this time the shopping mall would be teeming with people, those who could find time to leisurely stroll the shops and spend what they wanted were usually in abundance, peppered with those few individuals who were in a rush to get that specific thing, late birthday present perhaps? None of this really mattered, but Oliver Taggart, a young janitor, would see none today, as the mall was closed on short notice due to concerns about the cleanliness of the building, the cleaning firm Oliver worked for was brought in to do the literal dirty work. Oliver was ready, he had abruptly risen from the sweet embrace of sleep only a few hours ago for the shift he had forgotten about, and was understandably still fairly drowsy. Despite his shortcomings however, Oliver began cleaning, with headphones on and rock and blues music blasting from his music player, he was finished faster than any of the other janitors.

He triumphantly slammed his broom against the floor just as the last song finished, safe in the assumption that he was truly a janitorial master. "Yes!" He boomed, basking in the praise of the nonexistent crowd watching him do the only thing he'd ever committed to mastering. Oliver smiled, despite having no one to see him and let out a final sigh of completion. However, he did not feel like it was time to sleep, like the end of most shifts.

In fact he did not feel good at all.

Oliver clutched the broom hard now, like it was the only thing that he could hold on to, because it felt as if the very ground was no longer stable. Oliver let out an unintelligible grumble and looked around confused, but before he could say anything he was gone. To a bystander it would seem as if he had blinked out of existence, no trace. Where he was next was most certainly not where he had been, not the freshly cleaned grey concrete of the mall floor, nor the artificial light of the mall's lamps. These details appeared to be replaced with bare earth beneath Oliver's shoes and a pleasant sunset in the sky, hovering just above the open fields in front of him.

He put his hand in front of his face to block the steadily dimming sunlight from his vision and squinted both because of the light, and due to his sheer confusion as to what had just occurred. "This..." he mumbled, "This isn't New York". Which was the last thing he said before he felt the sudden build up of vomit in his mouth.

As she began to wake up from her slumber, Naomi realized something was off. Namely, her bed felt rather comfortable; having been living in a rinky-dink apartment complex for the past two years, she had been completely used to (and tolerant of) the fact that her mattress in her bedroom was very unappealing. However, right now, it was almost as if she was sleeping on a cloud.

Either she had fallen asleep at a friend's house--which was completely irrational, considering she had not left her house the night before and had no history of sleepwalking--or something was completely wrong.

Opening her eyes, Naomi looked around to find that, in fact, this was not her room in her apartment. Everything seemed... much older and more ancient than that, like something out of the turn of the century. Frantically, she felt around, hands landing on a familiar black-covered book with hand-scrawled notes. Naomi clutched it to her chest and breathed a sign of relief, knowing that there was at least a small shred of normalcy in this crazy dream--

Where in the world was she, anyway?

Not having anywhere else to go and certainly wanting to figure out what exactly was going on, Naomi quickly got out of bed and looked out the window, noticing that it was suddenly getting darker out and that people were... not using the same technology that she remembered they used. Cars that looked like Model-T's had gone out of fashion over a hundred years ago, she had figured, and she quickly found a fountain pen and scribbled a few notes in a blank page. This was all so fascinating! Naomi really hoped that she remembered these notes for later... although this dream was rather vivid, after all...

The room she curretnly found herself in was rather ornate, but there did not seem to be anyone wandering around the halls at this time. Naomi almost felt like some sort of investigative journalist, wanting to snoop around for a bit. She quickly gave into her instinct, and she slowly opened the door leading out into what seemed to be the main hall. A door at the end of the hall to her right seemed to be the entrance to the place, and she quickly made her way out before anyone could see her and stop her for questioning. That was the last thing that she needed, really--being asked questions that she did not know the answer to.

The evening air was cool. Naomi enjoyed that about this evening. The anachronisms of the automobiles and carriages gave it a sort of quaint feeling, to be honest, but she wondered what had happened between when she fell asleep last and when she woke up--certainly nothing, really--

It was now that Naomi spied someone in an alleyway talking to himself--herself? The hair was sort of short, but the figure looked more feminine than masculine. She did not want to be rude at all, but at the same time, there was no way that she could continue on at all in this place without knowing where exactly she was.

Naomi approached quietly, clearing her throat when she was certain the woman could hear her. "Um, excuse me? I think I'm... sort of lost," she explained quietly. "I fell asleep in my bed back in Chicago and, well... woke up in this place, wherever it is. Would you happen to know where this place is, or is it just one of my fever dreams again?" Hopefully, this woman would not think of Naomi as a regular crackpot from that question...

Olivia did not like this at all, especially when she began to consider that maybe, by now, if she were somehow dreaming this, she would have woken up by now, automatically going into brooding mode-even though it hurt her brain a bit- trying to wrap her mind around the fact that maybe this wasnt a dream and that everything in fact was happening in real time. Which didnt really want to click in her mind.

She jumped when she heard Naomi clear her throat, almost not missing what she was saying due to the pure awe of seeing someone wearing modern clothes, mentioning a familiar city and appearing as lost as she was at the moment. Well, not appearing. This girl was lost. She slowly shook her head, "Sorry, 'fraid im as lost as you right now. I wasnt even sleeping-I think I wasnt- before I ended up back there." She motioned towards the alley. "I kinda hope one of us is dreaming, or else I have no idea how the hell this is even possible." She ran her hand through her hair, exhaling loudly in mild frustration trying to figure for a moment more on the logic behind the event before realizing she hadnt even introduced herself. "Im Olivia, by the way. Im from California." She extended her hand in a greeting gesture. "Even though I think and hope and dread that were in the same situation, you have no idea how happy I am to meet you. Is there even a word for it? Ecstatic, maybe?"

A rather aged man whistled merrily as he sat in his horse drawn cart, returning from the bustling markets of Merina with bags of supplies, money, and a few unsold goods that he considered would be good for sale the next day. He idly scanned the fields along the sides of the dirt road, thinking more about the dinner that awaited him, hopefully some nice, delicious stew and his wifes famous golden sannie cobbler- filled with the delicious, apple like fruits that were yellow inside and sweeter than mangoes with so much sweet syrupy juice it simply could not be eaten and enjoyed without milk. His thoughts were briefly interrupted when his eye caught onto the doubled over figure of a young man. He encouraged his horses to go faster, stopping them a few yards away from this stranger, and jumped from his cart, walking towards him. "Ey! You alright there, fellow?" Upon closer examination, he noticed that the strangers clothes was very different, even wearing those strange ear things that passed strange music noises through them somehow. However, that hardly even surprised him, as he was rather used to seeing or hearing about the folks that appeared out of nowhere often in the middle of nowhere, all over the place, but it seemed to happen more often in Cariman. He sighed gruffly. "I hates to pry, but im guessing you came from thatother place called 'earth', right?"

As the woman in front of her began to explain her predicament, Naomi realized that she would not be any help in figuring out where in the world she was. The fact that this Olivia woman--much like herself, actually--had just appeared in this place out of nowhere and been given absolutely nothing in terms of direction and location (and the idea that she was a figment of this person's dreams was also intriguing--that might make for a good story, actually! Naomi would have to write that one down before she forgot it...) was both disturbing and comforting. Solidarity was a pretty funny thing, she figured, and she merely took Olivia's extended hand and shook it, not really knowing what else to do and not wanting to be rude.

"Oh, I'm Naomi," she introduced herself, shaking her hand in greeting. "From what it looks like, I think we're in the same boat right about now, actually--lost and not really knowing where to go from here." At Olivia's comment about being so very happy to see her, several other words flashed through Naomi's mind--joyous, thrilled, rhapsodic--but she kept her thoughts on this to herself just so she would not come across as weird and overbearing so soon after meeting her...

...although solidarity made people do some pretty weird things, and she was pretty sure Olivia's comment about being so happy to meet her was a spur of the moment sort of thing. Still, she would keep a relatively calm and amiable demeanor, as being rude to someone was just, well... rude, for lack of a better word.

"So... what exactly is our next step, Olivia?" Naomi asked, unsure of what they were going to be doing next.

Wiping his mouth and slowly getting to his feet, Oliver looked up to acknowledge an older man asking him questions. Hunched over with his hands on his knees he turned and nonchalantly waved his hand, as if to ask for a second to catch his breath. When the grogginess passed, Oliver pushed himself up and groaned as faced the sky, and slowly turned to face this old man. The man's clothes were the first things he noticed, as they were most certainly not in style, not for a century at least, even the way he carried and presented himself was just off from the norm.

Realising he still had his headphones on, clumsily grabbed the plastic linking the two speakers and tore them from his head, accidentally catching some hair along with the motion, an action that seemed to perplex and also somewhat embarrass the man still waiting for an answer to his question. After a brief interval of Oliver wearing a blank look on his face, the cogs turning inside his brain, he finally came to grips with the situation.

Suddenly everything hit him like a freight train, the world coming crashing into his senses and the realisation of what had occurred finally came to him. "Earth?" he asked hesitantly like it was some sort of trick question, "We're on earth right?", he decided that he must have misheard and moved to his next question. "What just happened, the last thing I remember was cleaning floors" he asked, "This isn't like I'm high again or anything is it?"

Oliver moaned and clutched his head, like it was holding away valuable secrets that he needed to know. After a sigh he stood up straight and noticed a town a fair distance away, "Aw I don't care, just tell me how to get home" he said defeated, "Would someone in that town know?" gesturing towards it.

"Oh, crap, I have no idea," Olivia answered sheepishly. "Uh...maybe we should go look for an open establishment, like a restaurant or something, and hope they help us. And give us something to eat, because I dont know about you but despite whats going on right now, im pretty hungry." She began walking in a random direction. Lets hurry before it gets all dark and creepy." Olivia didnt know how this place worked, what government it functioned under, and whether or not it kept people from killing eachother over stuff. But...then again, that wouldnt make sense. The streets were fairly empty and calm, save for a few people minding their own business in their cars and carriages. They could always just call out to those people, but...Olivia felt it was probably safer to find an establishment with lights, food and people, and not someone in a cart. Even though she did consider it extreme that someone could kidnap them by shoving them into a horse drawn cart or even the actual cars they currently had- could they even shove a person back there, let alone 2 full grown ladies? She shook her head. "...Do you feel like youre thinking too much due to circumstances, Naomi? Because I do."

~~~~~

"Youre in Cariman, but the planet is called 'Masssas'. I dont know what happened, but no one knows how you folks end up lost around here." He scratched the back of his head. "By the time we make it to town, it'll be late enough for my wife to worry. You'd have to wait until tomorrow, to be able to get to your answer. You try going now you be rushing to your death. Night isnt a good time to be out there. And I already saw you here, I dont plan to leave you here, itll bother my gut all night. You can stay at my place the night, then ill take you to town early tomorrow." He wasnt sure if this stranger would accept his offer the first time- after all, this poor man was stuck somewhere unfamiliar and an old man was offering him a place to stay the night. But he had already made up his mind to make sure the stranger didnt end up getting attacked by a prairie cat or something because he didnt insist in letting him stay somewhere safe.

Naomi listened to Olivia, and she realized that her new acquaintance was freaking out a bit more than she was. Perhaps it was just the fact that the realization had not quite set in yet--that she was no longer home or possibly even in Chicago anymore--and her mind was just trying to process everything, but Naomi seemed rather calm and collected by this whole thing. Still, she put her mind to use, trying to figure out what exactly they might be able to do now that it was so dark and there were few people around.

"...well, seeing as everything here is some sort of turn-of-the-century knockoff," Naomi shrugged, "I think we might be best off looking for some sort of inn or pub. I mean, they had those back then, right? I'm sure they had those back then..." History was never her strong point in school; it had always been English, and that had been the foundation for her career--

Oh, no, her students! If she was here, who was back at home? If this was some sort of fever dream, then she figured it would not matter at all and that she would wake up with some vivid imagery and another idea for her story. Still, if this was a dream, it all felt so real...

"Hey, wait up!" As soon as Olivia began walking in a random direction, Naomi hurried to follow her, not wanting to be left alone in this unfamiliar place by herself. "Don't leave without me!" She then pulled out her book and the fountain pen, jotting down a few notes about the place in general. She also took a little bit of time to make sure her other idea had been written down--the one about two people coming together in a foreign place and wondering whether the other was dreaming it or not.

She had heard Olivia's question despite her current distraction. Sure, her mind was all over the place most of the time, but that did not mean that she was going insane--no, people had told her that she just had an active imagination, is all. "I mean, that's why I carry my book around with me all the time," she shook the black-bound book in her hand to show Olivia. "Whenever I start over-thinking things or get ideas, I just scribble them down in here. It's... almost therapeutic, in a way, plus I get to write down potential new ideas for stories." Sure, there were some that would think her childish, but at the same time, there were an infinite number of ideas to explore, and that was something that Naomi would want to keep in mind as she furthered her career...

...that is, if she could find her way back home, first...

Olivia waited until Naomi was beside her, listening to how she treated everything so far - she just wrote it down. " I used to kinda scrawl my ideas, but they were so sporratic I worried people would find something wrong with me. " Olivia noticed a friendly light eminating from a fairly large window, a restaurant, she supposed, then proven when she walked up to it. She held back her desire to reel in surprise. There weren't many people inside the restaurant, but the few that were were dressed in the way rich white snobby people would, sitting around, speaking with snobby accents and laughing at really bad jokes in an obnoxious manner- only these people seemed to have genuine manners and an indoor voice. It was hard to see what most were eating, since the ones who had their plates in her line of sight had already finished their meals and were just talking. And no one seemed to notice the girl who had her face pressed against the window. She slid towards the door, hoping to get a whiff and idea of what they had inside. It smelled like food from the best buffet in the world, with lots of delicious meat smells and bread and other delicious goodness. " I think its a good idea to go in here."

A place to stay for the night? To Oliver that sounded like a nice offer, a very nice offer actually. Maybe too nice. He scrunched up his face as he stared at the old man, once again falling into the dark pit of confusion he so recently climbed his way out of. Oliver had never encountered such pure charity before in his life, so it was only natural for him to be sceptical of this man's seemingly nice offer.

A million possibilities could occur if Oliver were to take this offer, to trust the first person you meet after blacking out and waking up in a mysterious and unfamiliar land only vaguely resembling ours. What could this man want? Could he have some sort of nefarious agenda in leading away confused travellers? Who would even know that Oliver was here, he barely knew anyone back home and as far as he was aware he'd never set foot in this Cariman land. Before he knew it Oliver could be dead and buried by a stranger he just met and no one would ever know. Surely some of this should be taken into consideration when making a decision, surely some degree of caution should be thought about.

Unfortunately none of this went through Oliver's mind. "A place to stay?" his face lit up as he smiled, "that would be great, thanks!" he said with surprise at this unfamiliar kindness. "Lead the way old guy!" he instructed, a smile still plastered over his face and a single thought occupying his mind. Man, I hope they have some leftovers they can share, I would love to see what the food is like around here!

"Just hop into the back of the cart, its just a little ways from here," he said, walking towards the aforementioned cart, getting back onto it himself. "Try not to kick at the bags, some of them have fragile goods and stuff that spoils." He waited until Oliver got on, and as comfortable as he could get back there, before getting the horse to move again.
~
About half an hour later, a small, lit up cottage came into view, surrounded by a short and neat stone wall fencing off the perimiter, with a large enough space in it to allow the cart through. "Ill introduce you to Rebecca, my wife, so she knows we have a guest, before I put everything in the back," he said, pushing open the door to his home, which lead straight to the fairly large living room. The floor was neatly tiled with smooth, soft green, marble like stone, and despite the fact that the house was obviously constructed with wood and stone, it was obvious he used different woods for aesthetics- the walls were white, and the ceiling and siding were a light, caramel color. All the furniture in the room consisted of these wooden color schemes, even the ceiling and other lamps, in their best metal and ceramic counterparts, the flame appearing to float atop clear liquid in a bowl supplied with the necessary fuel and air through the pipes that seemingly served only to hold the bulbs of light up. There were different colored doors that lead to the different rooms of the house- To the kitchen, the dining room, and to the basement, as well as the door leading to the attic, which served as his bedroom. It was quite clear that he was the man who possessed decent wealth.

He opened the door leading to the kitchen. "Reby, Im home!" He said, putting some of the bags he had brought in on the white marble counter. A woman tending deliciously scented pots on a large stove with racks at different heights turned, smiling. "Well, welcome you, Gale." The now named old man turned to Oliver. "Found another one of them on my way back, right after he got here, it seems."

"Is he alright? He seems ill!"

"What? Oh, it seems that the trip didnt settle with his stomach."

"Ohsies, well, good thing we still have lovington liquor," She said, going over to a cupboard, taking out a shot glass and filling it with a clear blue colored liquid. "This helps with upset stomachs, dear. The food wont be ready for a few more minutes, so itll give you a moment to settle." The liquid was fairly tastless, except for the faint taste of the alcohol and the fainter taste of sweetened peppermint.

Naomi followed Olivia down the street toward a restaurant area, not really having anywhere else to go and not wanting to get lost in this unfamiliar place on her own. The last thing she needed to do was get even more utterly lost; she had a somewhat nasty habit of doing that at times. Still, as much as she felt she was a bad conversationalist, the fact that she had met someone that seemed rather interested in her was good, to say the very least. It was nice, exploring when someone else was going to be just as lost as her.

"I think it's a good idea to go in here," Olivia finally said. She had a good point, to be fair; the place was filled with all sorts of food and drinks, which was something that she was hoping to get rather soon. Besides, if there were people inside--which it completely seemed as if there were--then they might be able to answer questions about where they were, what this place was, and why the technology was so... antiquated, to put it kindly.

"Wait, what if they don't take our money?" Naomi asked. "I mean, what if they've never heard of the dollar before?" Still, it was something that they should keep in mind, but charity in any form was always appreciated. Regardless of their plan, the redhead would still feel somewhat inclined to follow Olivia around, more for fear of becoming utterly lost in this new place than anything else.

She hadn't thought of that. "Um...Maybe they're charitable people who wont mind sparing a free meal? I mean...well, its worth a shot then." She walked in, immediately noticing something odd. The people turned to see who entered and then...resumed eating and chatting. As if it was normal to see someone dressed like her. "Naomi? It..doesn't seem like this is something unusual..." She felt herself shrinking slightly, suddenly self conscious despite not attracting attention. Normally, in movies, when people ended up in some other dimension, the natives came at the protagonists with pitchforks and torches or guns, or at least stared at them long enough to make them uncomfortable. Maybe they weren't in another dimension, and they were, in fact, on an enormous movie set? That would explain the peoples disinterest in them. Either that or two people who stuck out like a sore thumb was something they saw everyday.

Would she dare interrupt someone from their conversations to figure this out? Nope. She was too scared to find out if this was either the movie set or the real thing. She looked at Naomi. "Can you...ask...them...stuff about this place, and the food?"

Akitla

"Akitlaaaaaaaa!" I heard my mother's voice call, drawing in out in a coo tone mostly only used on young children. But with her, I didn't mind if she baby talked me. 'You'll ALWAYS be my baby, Kit, so too bad!' She would say, and laugh, whenever I told her to stop when I was younger.

I ignored her.

"AaaaaaaKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITlaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" She yelled again, and getting closer. Again, I ignore her, but not really by choice. Her voice was registering, but I just couldn't get my mind to respond. I was zoning out into some weird fantasy land.

"AKITLA!"

Something smacked my head, and I yelped, concentration breaking, and fell off the side of the bed, banging my head on my side table. I scrambled around ungracefully, attempting to gain my feet, but unfortunately part of one of my blankets had fallen with me, and I slipped again, banging my head in the same exact place on my side table. And then the glass of water on top of the stand fell and splashed all over my face.

My mom doubled over laughing. Through her giggles, she managed to force out a sentence. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were working on your sheet music. Are you alright kitten?"

I glared daggers at her, but I wasn't really mad, and we both knew it. A tiny warm smile graced my features. I finally managed to gain my feet, and she reached up to rub my soaking wet blonde locks, smiling gently, then gave a mocking frown. "You know, your confusing. You tall, blonde and blue, and usually -" She glanced pointedly at my nightstand - "have great hand-eye co-ordination. I swear, where the heck did you get the genetics? I think your father might have been sleeping around. Or that you got switched in the hospital." She said, making a face at me, looking somewhat jealously at my blonde hair.

Due to my mom's odd sense of humor, no one else but me would have been able to understand those jokes. Both my parents were short and couldn't throw a ball for the life of them, with dark hair and eyes, and from family lines that had pretty much nothing but dark hair and eyes for as long as they could remember. There was the odd hazel or dark blue-brown eyes, or light brown hair, and some had been born blonde and had their hair darken to brown by the time they turned ten. I was a throwback. And due to how male and female bodies worked, it wouldn't have mattered if HE was sleeping around (he wasn't), I couldn't have possibly come from some other female. And after I was born, she refused to let me go for several days, holding me and talking to me, singing to me, so I couldn't have been switched.

I smirk at her, casting my gaze skyward. "Why? Just... why?"

She looked at me curiously. I didn't let my gaze leave the ceiling.

"Why did I have to have such a weird mother?" I said in a resigned tone of voice. She laughed again, walking to the dresser and pulling out a towel, throwing it at my head from across the room. And missing by miles. I reached out and picked it up, drying off my hair.

"Anyway, I'm going out to eat tonight, because I don't trust anything in this house." She stated her reason for disturbing me at last, glancing warily at my door as if she could see right through the walls into the kitchen fridge. "Would you like to come?"

"Sure. Grab your wallet, mom. I'll start the car."

My mom looked down in surprise at her purse, which was wide open and had nothing in it. I laughed softly as I closed the door, taking the stairs easily and two at a time, leaned left to pick up the keys from the counter while still moving forward, and opened the door without touching the sides of the handle. I'd seen my dog chewing on it before I went up to my room to work on my music, and just as I thought, it was covered in dog slobber. "Don't touch the door handle, dimwit was chewing on it again!" I call upstairs, and shut the door behind me.

Our neighborhood was a nice one. Not particularly high-class, but not a slum either, though it was right next to the city slums. It had lots of trees and grass, a bit off the main road, which forked two directions - the shopping centers and the nature park at the end of them. All in all, it was the perfect place to be, right next to everything but without the long strings of noisy cars. I place the keys on the hood while I typed in the password to the lock. A nice place, but right next to the slums, so we had to buy one of those nice cars with the password door locks.

I hadn't typed more than three digits before I got a very strange feeling, and paused, looking around. There was nothing there, but the feeling only grew. A strange snarling sound, but not anything like i'd ever heard before, rang in my ears, and then black blanketed my vision. I felt himself falling, but halfway to the ground it was almost as if I'd been bodily yanked skyward a few inches, and then I was falling again, naturally twisting so I faced the ground, catching himself with my arms on a ground I couldn't see, breaking my fall, and then everything thing spun away as I lost consciousness.

(I. Am. So. Sorry.)

"Well, dont just stand there," Olivia jumped, suddenly taking note of the waiter who stood in front of her, dressed in a super fancy tux. In fact, she wouldnt have guessed he was if it werent for the small notebook and pen that had similar restaurant decor. "There are plently of open seats."

"............Um...W-why is everyone...dressed like this?" She said, limiting her motions so no one would be offended by her mild pointing out. The waiter simply raised an eyebrow, and sighed. "Do you know you are currently in the city of Merina?"

Olivia shook her head, wincing slightly.

"How long have you been around?"

"N-not long."

"Hmph. Just sit at an available table, I'll get the boss to talk to you."

Olivia started heading towards a table that was sort of in the back, and seemed like it hadnt seen customers for a while, since the chairs and table looked slightly less worn in comparison. "Naomi... I dont have a real good feeling about this..."