pajama fashion

[bright_and_beautiful]

Patrick has been hiding his toys again. (And, annoyingly, his siblings' toys as well.) For Jenny, this means that once her siblings fall asleep, she gets to spend the next hour hunting around for all the places he may have stuck something. Her latest find is Anne's stuffed unicorn, which was for some reason shoved under the bathroom sink. She doesn't need to wake her sister up for it, but she can at least go put it outside her door.

Except that when she leaves the bathroom, she's not in the hallway. She's in what appears to be a large, brightly lit bar. None of these things apply to her hallway. She feels rather out of place; t-shirt, pajama pants and stuffed unicorn are not exactly magic bar attire. (She thinks.)

As far as Jenny knows, there's only one person in her immediate vicinity who associates with magic. This doesn't seem like Soph's style, but it also doesn't seem particularly threatening. From Soph's explanations, evil magic is pretty up front about being evil. "I replaced your hallway with a restaurant" does not scream evil to her, it's just weird.

She ventures inside a few steps. "Soph? Soooooph, is this you?"

Comments

[lexicality]

When the door has closed behind Jenny, it opens again. In wanders a yawning girl in fleecy pajamas.

"Um. What."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"I don't know!" Jenny says. "I thought maybe my friend Soph did it, buuut you are definitely not Soph!"

[lexicality]

"Your friend Soph puts bars in hallways?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Wellll no. But she is the only witch I know! And I don't know why someone I don't know would do magic at me."

[lexicality]

"...Okay, I admit this looks pretty magic, but you know of other magic, also?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"A little? Soph hasn't really shown me much. She turned a seashell into a cool magic knife for her sister? Ooooh! And magic glitter! There was lots of magic glitter."

[lexicality]

"That's a silly thing to do with magic."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"The glitter or the knife? The glitter was silly, yes, but that was sorta the point! Her sister really likes the knife though, it's easy to hide and it works on vampires." She grimaces. "And yeeeeah, vampires are apparently a thing, that was part of Soph's welcome to magic speech dealie."

[lexicality]

"I meant the glitter. Vampires? Like, bloodsucking creatures of the night?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"As far as I know! I have never met one and I am really okay with that. I will happily leave them to Bella and her knife."

[lexicality]

"Yeah, makes sense, I don't know anything about vampires but I wouldn't like to meet one. My sister's named Bella but she probably wouldn't like to meet one either."

[bright_and_beautiful]

"I feel like most people probably agree that we should avoid the evil bloodsucking demons!"

[lexicality]

"Then most people are pretty sensible. Why a knife? Aren't you supposed to use silver bullets? Is that werewolves?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"I don't think silver is a thing?" Jenny says doubtfully. "Holy water is! I found Soph getting some one day, that's why she told me. Crosses, stakes, sunlight, that sorta stuff all works. The knife's to cut off their heads, I think? That's a thing too."

[lexicality]

"And you didn't know about it before because the vampires are... hidey?"

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Pretty much!" She agrees, then looks around. "Okay but really, vampires aside for a sec- what is this place? It doesn't look vampire-y. Is that a word? Whatever, I proclaim it a word."

[lexicality]

"Vampiric," says Lexi absently, looking around. "I do not see any Draculas wandering around. Yeah no idea. Bella's asleep or I'd get her. Maybe I should wake her up. Except when I came in I was leaving the bathroom and she was not in it."

[bright_and_beautiful]

Jenny giggles. "I was leaving the bathroom too! Weird bar likes bathrooms, I guess." She trots over to the bar. "Maybe there's a bartender we could ask? Hellooooo, anyone here?"

[lexicality]

Hello. Can I interest you in a beverage?

"Sudden napkin!" yelps Lexi.

[bright_and_beautiful]

Jenny eeps rather loudly. Once she's recovered, she inspects the napkin. "Er, hi...?" she says questioningly. "Where did you come from, little napkin?"

[lexicality]

I'm the bar. I can't speak, so this is how I communicate, appears a new napkin.

Lexi squints at this.

[bright_and_beautiful]

Jenny joins in the squinting. "The napkins are cute!" she tells thin air. "So, er, do you know where our hallways went?"

[lexicality]

The door to this bar occasionally substitutes for other doors in various worlds. When you leave and let the door close behind you, all will be as you left it, including the time, and the door will lead wherever it normally goes.

"Weird," says Lexi.

[bright_and_beautiful]

"Huh? Various worlds?" Jenny peers at Lexi now. "Is- hey, fellow bathroom person, what's your name? Are you not from Earth? You totally look like you're from Earth!"

[lexicality]

"My name is Lexi and I'm from Earth!" Pause. "Hiiiii Lexi, the first step is to admit that you have a problem?"