[MisterOlds]

A spoked wheel spun spun serenly in the darkness of the void, illuminated with the embers of an azure flame that revealed the back of a certain someone. A certain someone who had, a year ago, embraced the power within himself and selfessly raged against a world that wished to subjugate the ones close to him with a burning fury. A year ago, he had fought with his all, and won, against the Toli, effectively re-uniting the two peoples into one entity again, but not before Yamiko had cursed him into Nirn, the supposed world of the dead, and sealed him for all time to remain on a barren rock in an endless, empty void with nothing but a distant red star to illuminate "his" world.

He drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly, watching the moisture in his breath crystallize and float into space. It was cold, cold beyond belief. He surely would have died were it not for the flame that resided within him, although, that had been mostly exhausted in the fight, and the year spent in this void. "It's been a while now, hasn't it?" He murmured quietly to himself as he twiddled his thumbs and twisted the braided rope that Avia had won for him in a knife throwing game at a carnival. He smiled sadly and slid back, stretching his legs for the first time in what seemed like an eternity. There was something strange about the world he'd been banished to. Time slowed to a crawl, hunger and exhaustion were a thing of the past, and absolutely nothing had changed. "I wonder if she'll ever find it in her to forgive me." He slowly turned his head to the right, away from where the sun regularly came into view, every 8 hours or so.

The aforementioned red star winked into view and cast a orange light on the surface of the rock, slowly revealing the frame of a door, or a gate, he couldn't decide which, and he didn't care. That wasn't there before. He stared with a look of disbelief on his face as he quickly stood up, stirring up frozen dust with his scorched Chuck Taylor's as he scrambled to do so, and ran towards the gate with an exceedingly slow stride. There wasn't much gravity on this rock and he had to be careful not to fling himself off of it, he wasn't a person who liked leaving the ground, at all. Gravity is something I miss, amazingly. He grumbled to himself after reaching the gateway, as he had decided to aptly name it. He brushed his hand along the side of the frame as he gazed into the grooved lettering that adorned the smooth black frame, and gasped as one of his fingers sank into the groove of a round letter similar to an O with a dot in the middle. It was hot, searingly hot. He drew his hand back quickly and inhaled sharply in pain, then stared in awe as the letters glowed an omnious shade of red. Did I turn it on or something? He stared at the gate in wonder as a red orb formed in the middle of the gate, which, now that he thought about it, was just big enough to accomodate a person his size. No. The more important question is to where it leads. And... Will I ever see her again? He grasped the braided rope firmly between his index and thumb as he reached for the red orb, which promptly swallowed him with a flash of light before disppearing from the rock, along with the frame.

Gasp...Gasp...Gasp...He slammed down onto a patch of thick brush, instantly incinerating it with the heat from the rift that had opened to spit him out, and snapped shut with a deafening bang! that flattened the grass around for hundreds of yards with a shockwave. Sweat was drenching from his face as he gulped down air like there was nothing sweeter in his life, perhaps except maybe, seeing her again. Where was he anyways? The spasms had come to a stop mostly as he sat upright, albeit shivering violently as he did so. He clamped down his teeth with a miserable gaze on his face as he surveyed his surroundings and opened his eyes slightly wider in surprise as he saw the familiar branching outline of a Kodama, or several of them dancing about in the near distance, unfazed by the commotion his entrance into the woods had caused.

[Toki]

Matt bounced in place as she scrubbed the last pot with a pad of steel wool. It was week three since her dishwasher downgraded itself forcefully to just a drying rack and she was about done and a half with doing dishes by hand. Then again, they did kinda get cleaner this way so she wasn’t really sure how to feel.
“You can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behin—no. I will not go there again. I will stop singing Safety Dance right now and I will not sing it any more today.” She frowned, pulling the sink plug and draining the soapy water from the basin. She rinsed the final pot and placed it on the top rack of her dishwasher to drip dry, pulling the bright yellow rubber gloves off her hands and tossing them over the edge of the sink where they landed with a savory “pllft” like rubber gloves do. She turned on her heel and decided it was long past time to put on some non-Safety Dance music in hopes of getting the damn song out of her head. Coincidentally, the first song to pop up on her iPod when she hit “shuffle” was Taylor Swift. Why did she have to have such whiny guilty pleasure music? Ugh. At least the songs were catchy.
“Esss, ayy, efff, tee, eee, whyyy, safetyyy… NO. Oh my God, this needs to stop right now. That song isn’t even about dancing.”
Matt’s finger hovered over the play button when she felt the floor tremble. Her dark eyebrows knit and she looked up for a moment, thinking she may have imagined it. The sound of a canon (or something else loud enough to rattle her windows) and the subsequent gusts of wind let her know that she most definitely hadn’t. There was a flash of light out in the woods, too… Adventure time?

Adventure time.

She shut off her iPod and threw on a pair of flip-flops, darting out the back door towards the flash and source of the noise. She never took her eyes off the direction where she saw the flash, and the trails of flattened brush helped to let her know she was going the right way.

Wow, okay. Can’t say she’d ever run into this before.
He looked about Matt’s age, maybe a little bit older, with dark, scruffy hair and severely dirty clothes.

“Wow. Hi. Did something just explode or did you just crash-land here from space and that explosion was the sound of you entering the atmosphere and breaking the sound barrier? Both are pretty acceptable scenarios, but I mean, it’s whatever.”
And the award for the world’s most awkward female goes to...!
“Hey, are you okay? Do you need me to get you, like, some water, or…?”

[MisterOlds]

Thud-thud. Thud-thud. His heart rattling against his ribcage was the only sound in the forest after the Kodama had danced off into the distance. Feels like I'm alive again... He concluded after feeling a year's worth of waking slammed into him like a train. He opened his mouth to call out to something, anyone, if he was really anywhere other than just another of Nirn's worlds, and nothing came out except a dry rasp. His right hand flew to his neck as he groaned, I've never been so thirsty in my fucking life, goddamn. He sighed and winced as the air sailed through his parched throat, and sat up clumsily. His arms hadn't much time to become re-accustomed to gravity, or air even, as a result they were shaking uncontrollably. Yeah, definitely not in Nirn anymore. His eyes danced from tree to tree as his eyes turned from black eyes with fierce golden irises to the normal deep brown. The spoked wheel had lost it's ember and faded into thin air somewhere in the transition from Nirn to wherever this was.

A few minutes had passed as he regained his bearings before the sound of footsteps echoed louder, promptly shocking Brandon into a state of alertness. Well, something in the gist of it, anyways, as he was a wreck. Who was it? Avia? Yamiko? Aqua? His eyes widened as he strained to discern the author of the footsteps approaching his direction. No... His shoulders drooped a little as he exhaled in relief. It's someone else.

He stared at her with a Huh? expression on his face as she bombed him with questions, to which he slowly nodded his head. He stood up clumsily and coughed dryly, then grabbed his throat and extended his pinky outwards and the thumb towards his mouth, indicating a universal sign for drink. His throat had been parched to the point where he'd mostly lost his ability to speak.

[Toki]

Matt stared down at him. Guess he'd lost his voice? Either that or he was just rude, but she was hoping more for the former. He looked like a mess, that was for sure.
"Okay, well, gimme a second. You can come with me if you'd like but I'd rather you not, my roommate's not home and you might be some kinda psycho or whatever." She smirked, placing her hands on her narrow hips.
After a pause and one last once-over, she just said, "I'll be right back," and then took off running back to the house.

Matt pulled open the sliding glass door and rounded to the fridge, gathering up three bottles of water and an entire box of granola bars from the pantry. It was a lot harder to close the door with her hands full, but oh well.
It was an interesting jog back because she kept dropping the bottles-- the condensation gathering on the plastic made them slippery and it became more like trying to hold three short plastic eels rather than water bottles.

"Here," She announced, holding out one of the bottles to him. "And I brought some snack bars in case you're hungry. Uh... Hope you like peanut butter? Maybe once you get some food in you, you can explain to me what the hell that explosion was! And also why you look like hell. And what you're doing behind my house." Matt nodded to herself, tossing him the box of granola bars.

[MisterOlds]

He tilted his head to the side as she spoke, placed her hands on the hips and left. Bit on the sassy side, isn't she? He smiled a little, regardless it was more than pleasant to have contact with anything after being banished to Nirn for what seemed an eternity. With the fading sound of her footsteps, Brandon took a cue to remain where he was and sat down with his legs crossed, taking a long draw of breath. Well, it's definitely going to be a hell of a job getting her to believe my story. Jeez. A whole year, and I never took the time to notice my clothes... He cast a forlorn gaze down to his clothes, which had seen better years.

As he took the time to dust off his clothes and matt down his hair, she returned with food and drink, much to his pleasure. WATER! He smiled at her and tore the top of the bottle off, gulping down the water in mere seconds. "Aaaahhhh!" He sighed appreciatively and exhaled. "Much better, much better." His voice was still raspy, but it wasn't to the point of nonrecognition. "Okay." He exhaled yet again as he prepared to divulge the information she had asked for, and nodded, placing his hands on his knees and leaned over. "My name... Is Brandon. I... uhh..." He struggled to consolidate everything into something that would make sense. "Okay, A year ago, there was a conflict between the Toli and the Kyuketsuki which I involved myself in after the Kyuketsuki sent a guardian to help me remain free of the Toli's influence. Her name was Avia." He paused for a second, wondering how she was doing. He could picture her punching his face in for going off and sacrificing himself to save the world, exactly what she told him not to do.

"Ahem. At the climax of this conflict, one of the Toli, before they were defeated, managed to create a rift, and throw me into a dead world of sorts, which I've come to call Nirn. I was banished there for...What year is it? Where are we?" He hadn't bothered to ask how long he'd been gone. Nirn had no indication or concept of time passing. He'd measured the time he'd been in Nirn to be about a year, but time could have gone faster or slower outside of that realm.

[Toki]

Matt blinked, staring down at him with her eyebrows raised.
"O... kay..." Of course she didn't believe a single shred of that bullshit, but she sure gave him props for creativity.
"Well, for one, it's 2013. And you're in the woods out behind my house which is on the outskirts of Tarpon Springs and--this isn't ringing any bells, is it? Doesn't look like it." Her expression went deadpan. "If you can somehow prove to me that you're not a rapist murderer criminal, I suppose I can let you come use my phone. You know what? On second thought, you can't prove that. My housemate's getting home soon so I'll take my chances. Come on, let's see if we can get you talkin' sense." She held out a hand for him, helped him up, and started walking back to her house.

Matt pulled open the sliding glass door again to the smell of a fresh pot of coffee.
"Looks like we're too late," she uttered, "he's already home." She took the phone off the hook and handed it to him.
"If you have to call long distance, try to keep it short; our phone company's a bunch of assholes."

[MisterOlds]

He scratched his head, grinning ruefully, As expected, she didn't believe me. Oh well, it can't be helped. "2013, huh? Guess it's been a year, then." She helped him up, which took a bit of effort as his coordination was still a little off. His footsteps felt so heavy, it was disorienting.

As they reached the house, he wrinkled his nose as the smell of coffee besmirched his nostrils. He really didn't like coffee, or anything of that sort. He blinked in confusion as she handed him a phone. "Um.... Who exactly am I calling? It's not like I have any family or anything. They died, like, 13 years ago. If anything, Avia was the closest I could come to knowing, and she doesn't have a phone number. Well, I don't think she does anyways...."

[Toki]

"Oh." Matt hung the phone back up. "Well, then. Um. Dunno what to tell you, then. Where're you from?"

"Matt," a cool, even voice came from the hallway, "Who is this?"
"Not a good time, Djinn!" Matt threw her hands over Brandon's eyes.
"He looks kinda familiar..."
"You know him?"
"Maybe. What's his name?"
"Brandon."
"Mm, yeah, I know a lot of Brandons."
"He says he's from Nirn. Something about Kyukewhatever and Toli or something?"
"Hmm. Never heard of Nirn, but I know about the Toli. They were a bunch of assholes 'til they went extinct. The Kyuketsuki went with 'em last I heard. It's been a while, who knows what happened? It's like this huge mystery in the Otherworld. Matt, stop covering his eyes, that's embarrassing."
Matt hesitated, and finally took her hands away. Djinn stood in the hallway, one set of blue arms with their hands on his hips and the other set holding a massive cup of steaming coffee. He sipped it slowly, not taking his silvery eyes off Brandon.
"You look like hell." Djinn mentioned with a mild grimace.
"Doesn't he, though?"
"You're sure he's not nuts?"
"No."
"Good." Djinn stepped closer to the two and dumped his coffee out in the sink. "This coffee is shit."
"I told you so," Matt uttered.
"Never buying Starbucks beans again, that was awful." Djinn mumbled back.
"That's why I keep telling you to stick with that Otherworld place, their beans are fresh."
"This is why you have blue hair, Matt; you have to stop drinking that Otherworld swill, it fucks with your chemistry."
"I like my blue hair, why do you think I keep drinking it?"
"You're impossible." Djinn turned to Brandon and looked down at him. Literally. He must have been at least 7 feet tall, and that probably didn't even include the stubby white antlers branching out of the top of his wavy mass of cloud-coloured hair.

"So, Brandon, how do you know about the Toli? I had a Toli chick for a manager once, total bitch."
"Aren't you just friendly?" Matt grumbled.

[MisterOlds]

He sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair and chuckled at Djinn's comment on his appearance. "Yeah, I seem to be getting a lot of that lately." He stood by silently, with a slight smile on his face as Djinn and Matt exchanged conversation. Seems like I can relax a little here. His eyes widened as he heard mention of the Toli&Kyuketsuki's extinction, he refused to believe it. No...There's no way. He looked down with a tinge on sadness on his face and sighed, swallowed and looked back up.

He cleared his throat. "My name, I'll state it once again, is Brandon, and I am Azuronni, One of the Seven Eidolons, Ruler of Flames, and I was the one responsible for the extinction of the Toli, a year ago." He looked down again, "And the Kyuketsuki, as it would seem as well." He sat down on a nearby chair and twiddled his thumbs as he began to recall the earliest encounter with the Toli& Avia. "Avia showed up first, and then Yamiko showed up shortly after trying to capture me. That's when I learned about the two races. I also met some other of the kyuketsuki guardians, who Avia called to help her keep me in line. I didn't like the idea of them sacrificing themselves to save someone who hadn't done anything to help them, so I made something out of myself, and learned how to control the power within me. Most of that power has been exhausted in my imprisonment in Nirn. A gateway appeared to me, although I have no idea how it came to be, nor where it lead to, but anything had to be better than that dead world. So, I went over to it, touched it, was pulled through," He threw his hands up in the air with his palms facing towards hims, "and bam, here I am."
He dropped his hands on his lap, pursed his lips and stared expectantly at the two for a response.

[Toki]

Djinn studied him for a moment, then went to the fridge and refilled his mug with orange juice.
"Sounds official, but I've never heard of any of those things. Have you ever heard of any of that, Matt?"
"Nope."
"Me either. If you want, I can take you to the Otherworld and you can see if anyone there knows you. I'm going to do some shopping anyway, so it's no big."
"What? I wanna go!" Matt complained.
"Sorry, babe, but they don't like me bringing humans over anymore. I'll pick you up some of that shitty tainted faerie coffee you like, 'kay?"
"Fine, but make sure you get the vanilla kind, the regular kind tastes like ass."
"Every kind tastes like ass, but I digress. We have a deal." He looked at Brandon again. "Did you want to eat first? Or... wash up, or anything?" he asked. "I mean, you really do look like shit."

[MisterOlds]

He shrugged and stood up, wiping his hands off on his brown canvas pants. "I figured as much, the Eidolons weren't very high profile for millenia(sp?), I only learned about the power I had because it told me, during my imprisonment. Yeah, actually, going to this Otherworld sounds like a good idea for me at this point... Not like I have anywhere to go anyways." His stomach lurched at the mention of the word "eat."

He grinned sheepishly and nodded. "Some food sounds great actually. Do you think I could take a shower, rinse out my clothes afterwards? I don't mean to intrude."

[Toki]

"Yeah, no problem; Matt, can you show Brandon to the bathroom?" Djinn waved one of his hands dismissively.
"Yeah, whatever, you elitist prick. Come on, bathroom's this way." Matt started towards the hall, and opened the linen closet for a towel and washcloth. "It's the only door on the right. I guess just leave your clothes in the hall and I'll wash 'em. Just rinsing 'em out isn't gonna do shit." she mentioned, handing him the linen-based supplies. "Sorry all the soaps smell girly; Djinn isn't the most masculine guy. The Pink Chiffon from B&B is actually his, so..."
"Excuse me, Pink Chiffon smells fabulous; you can't deny that." Djinn interjected from the kitchen.
"Whatever. Point is, you can use any of the soaps in there but you're gonna come out smelling like a pretty princess 'cuz there aren't any men in this house, but it's better than nothing." She shrugged. "I guess, see you in a few minutes?"

[MisterOlds]

He chuckled at the mention of the soap and shook his head. "It's better than what I smell like right now." He wrinkled his nose as he took a whiff of his shirt, it reeked of iron, copper, scorched cloth and sulfur. He followed Matt down the hall and promptly went into the room, stripped and placed the clothes on the floor outside the door. He turned around and blinked as he saw the massive collection of feminine looking soap. Okay...That's a little too girly. Is he gay, or something? He shrugged and jumped into the shower, rinsing off a year's worth of dirt. He sighed appreciatively as the hot water soaked him. Best, fucking, shower, ever... Aaaahhhh...

After showering off for the longest time, he stepped out and dried off with the towel Matt had given him and faced himself in the mirror. He looked quite a bit fresher, albeit he still looked ragged in a way. His eyes were sunken, dark grey bags under his eyes, and his body was adorned with long, knotted, ropy scars, particularly around his neck. His hair had grown quite a bit too, and he had some stubble. Stubble might be understating it, he had a full grown beard from ear to ear, about an inch long. He noticed a bag of disposable razors, plucked one and cleared away the brush. Now I could say I look presentable. And for the hair... He hummed a tune similar to a short version of "Hail to the Chief" as he slicked his hair back and nodded, satisfied with his appearance. Just one more thing... He frowned and turned around to look at his back in the mirror. There was a large tattoo of a 9 spoked wheel on his back, not placed there by needle, as he knew. Two of the spokes on the tattoo had been burned off his skin, replaced with a blotchy scar in the shape of the orignal spoke. Seven left, huh...

After drying off, he grabbed a mouthful of mouthwash and gargled, spit. Roadie manners
He stepped out of the room with the towel wrapped around his chest, and sighed. "All done. I'm pretty sure I lost a pound or two, shedding all that dirt. And I must say, I smell fabulous." He smiled comically and sat down in a nearby chair, his clothes were doing their final rounds in the dryer.
"So, how do we get to this.... Otherworld as you called it? I'm technically a human, or well, I was. It's complicated."

[Toki]

Djinn and Matt chatted idly at the kitchen bar, and as soon as Djinn caught sight of Brandon, he used a pair of his hands to cover Matt's eyes.
"Ooh, baby," he uttered.
"Did he come out here naked?" Matt asked in a hushed voice.
"No, honey, he's covered. By a towel."
"Ah, might as well be, then."
"Do you want me to keep shielding your eyes, dear?"
"Djinn, I'm twenty-three." Matt scowled.
"Is... that a... yes?"
"Oh my God." She pushed his hands away and went out to the laundry room to check the dryer.

Djinn shrugged with both sets of shoulders and poured a glass of orange juice into a clean mug, then came over to Brandon.
"Sorry, dunno what her problem is today. Nice tat, by the way. Juice?" He smiled a little. "Oh, yeah, you were asking about the Otherworld. Yeah. It's where a lot of fae like to hang out, like kind of a neighbor universe to this one? My family's there, and I work there. I mean, can't really work in the human world with, y'know, four arms and blue skin; I might get mistaken for some Indian deity. Wouldn't be the first time." He sighed and took a sip off his own cup. "It's not really complicated to get there, just a trans-dimensional portal." He paused, "But a stable one. Matt told me about the explosion noise earlier, whoever opened that one is clearly a trainee at space-time travel. Or was really in a hurry to make it."

Matt re-entered the room and threw Brandon's clothes at him. "Clothes're dry. Now negative-strip."
"Aww." Djinn complained.
"I don't want to hear it from you."
"Jeez, what's got your panties in a bunch?"
"Nothing! Just, go put some clothes on." Matt folded her arms across her chest with a scowl.

[MisterOlds]

Oooops, think I pissed her off. Might have been better to call from the bathroom. Oh well. He grabbed the clothes out of the air and smiled appreciatively. They smelled nice, for once, and they looked somewhat presentable. "Thanks, Matt, be right back." He ducked into the restroom to change, and jumped back out. "Much better." He pocketed the braided rope Avia had given him and nodded, taking the cup of juice from Djinn. "Really? I've never really seen any of these portals before, but the one I saw. Well." He gazed off into the distance as he searched for a sufficient description. "Umm, it was a dark, metal gate way just big enough to house me, and there wasn't any light from it until I put my thumb in this thing that looked like..." He noticed a stack of blank paper and a marker, which he proceeded to draw the pattern on. It was a black circle, with a large dot in the center. "I put my finger in the dot, and it burned me. Before I knew what happened, it just pulled me through and chucked me out here."

"I just noticed the gateway, but trust me, it wasn't there for very long. I've been on a rock for a year, and I knew every pebble on it. It was just kinda... there." He chugged down the mug of juice and sighed. "Thanks. That's some fresh juice."

He put down the mug on the table and began tapping his fingers on the table, in a nervous, irritated manner. "I don't mean to rush you, or anything, but when do you think we could go? I want... to see what I've wrought."

[Toki]

Djinn thought for a moment.
"Sounds like a portal specifically for you." Matt spoke up. "It probably used blood recognition so only you could pass through. I've heard of them being used when someone isn't quite sure how to find a person, so they scatter portals across various destinations, but only the person they're looking for can pass through."
Djinn raised his eyebrows at her. She shrugged. "I know a thing or two about scrying, okay?"
"All right, well, you seem pretty eager to get going, so might as well jet." Djinn got to his feet, slipped on a pair of sandals by the door, and waited for Brandon. "I'll see you later, okay, babe?"
"Right. And don't forget my coffee." Matt insisted.
"Of course."
Djinn took two medium-sized crystals, announced something in a language Matt didn't recognize and clacked the crystals together like he was sparking flint stones, and sparks flew from them, igniting a bright purple fire in front of the glass doorway. Matt seemed unfazed.
"You can go first, since it'll close when I go through. This leads to my shop. And I'm just saying, but, if you're human, or used to be human, they can tell. Most fae are really respect-oriented, and you're an idiot until proven otherwise to them, especially if you're human."
"Later, I guess." Matt waved lazily, then crossed her arms.