Noriko floated gently through a warm darkness. It felt as though she was submerged in deep heated water, so far down that nothing could reach her, no sun, no noise, just peace. She felt so relaxed. It had been weeks since she'd last felt so relaxed. No, longer. Not since the… No… No don't think about it, if you think about it, maybe the dream will change.
Even as these thoughts left her head, she felt her aimless drifting being brought to an abrupt halt and a small crack of light appeared before her. She felt herself being slowly dragged through it and into consciousness once again. Reluctantly, she lifted her head from her shoulder where it had been resting and flinched as a familiar twinge made itself known in her neck.
"Again, serious… Wait what?!",she suddenly exclaimed. Despite her attempt at massaging her aching neck, she suddenly shot her eyes open to see that her arms were strapped to the arms of a wheelchair which she soon realised was being pushed through a dark corridor. On one wall were semi-regularly placed windows which all were… were those bars? Despite her best efforts to sit up and get some clues as to her whereabouts, the high placement of the windows, coupled with the unusually low seat of the chair meant the only view she could get was of a dark, moonless night sky.
All along the other wall were heavy and very secure looking metal doors which all had what appeared to be smaller closed and locked receptacles at around head height. They all looked like the sort of heavy-duty doors she would see in those manga, the sort of environment that the greatest, most terrifying villains and criminals are sent. Thoroughly freaked out by this point, Noriko craned her aching neck to try and catch a glimpse of her captor's identity.
"Hey, you," she said, trying to hide her fear behind some anger and bravado. "I don't who the HELL you are, but if you don't let me go right now, I'm gonna beat the crap out of you!"
The silence was broken solely by the repetitive squeaking of one of the wheels of the chair as it slowly continued down this seemingly infinite hallway.
"Did you hear what I just said assho-"
"If you would please calm yourself, I would be happy to explain."
Once again, Noriko was suddenly taken aback. Despite her clearly unusual and terrifying situation, the voice which replied to her seemed… young. Calm and business-like, with an undertone of routine, as though it was a common occurrence for this boy to have to deal with screaming women strapped to wheelchairs, but unmistakably a kid.
"You are here because my Master called you here. You are to be under our care until… Well, I should leave the full explanation to the Master."
'The Master? This place is getting weirder by the second. Is this all a dream maybe? No, it feels too real, too… I can't really say normal, can I?'
Finally, after an immeasurable amount of time and silence, she spied a junction in the corridor, which they promptly turned into, leading them onto a much shorter corridor lit on both sides by old style oil lamps, each burning with a deep blue flame. The corridor ended in an ornate blue-tinged wooden door flanked by blue curtains. As they approached the doors slowly swung open, releasing a bright blinding light. Noriko tried to keep her eyes open but was eventually forced to shut them.
"Ahhh, the Trickster has arrived," someone said in a high, nasally voice. "It is a pleasure, I'm sure."
"What. The. Fuuu…". When she opened her eyes, the sight that greeted them was, like every other thing that she had been dealing with for the last few minutes, unusual. The room she was in was a fancy office of some kind, each wall swathed in the same blue curtains that had flanked the door. The room was completely empty of furniture barring a single desk and chair, the desk bearing a digital clock of some kind, a Newton balance, the ball bearings of which were clicking and swinging away, some kind of cards and a very thick book on one edge.
The chair contained the strangest looking man she had seen in her life. Long pointed ears, flanking bulbous, bloodshot eyes which lay on either side of the longest nose she had ever seen. His mouth was stretched into a wide smile that looked almost uncomfortable. His hands were covered by white gloves and were steepled underneath his chin. He was wearing a well-fitting suit on limbs that seemed to stretch far too long.
"Welcome, to the Velvet Room. This is a place that exists between dream and reality, mind and matter," said the weird human, goblin, thing. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Please, allow us to introduce ourselves."
The boy standing behind Noriko stepped forward then, stopping beside the desk and hefting the book up into his arms. He turned and revealed that…
'He's actually kinda cute.'
Lively golden eyes, dimple marks on his cheeks presumably from smiling and a mop of curly grey hair poking out from underneath a blue bell boy hat. He was wearing a blue suit jacket, black trousers with a blue line going down the sides, and a white shirt. Noriko was shaken out of her surprise by the… The continuing to speak.
"I am Igor, and this is William. We are both residents of this place."
"I look forward to working with you, miss."
There was a brief silence, as though they were waiting for an answer.
"Umm… ah… he… hello?" was all Noriko could manage. Her neck was aching, she was still strapped to the chair she was in, a chair that was being pushed by a kid who couldn't be older than 14 dressed in a blue bell boy costume and was being told she was in some different dimension by a weird old guy. Reasonably, she was a little tongue-tied.
"I understand if this is a bit much to take in, but I am confident you will come to view this place as indispensable in your coming struggles."
"Wait wait wait," Noriko interjected, her mind finally beginning to slowly catch up with her situation. "What do you mean, 'coming struggles'. In fact, what the hell is going on here. I swear, if I don't get some answers soon I'm going to wring someone's neck".
This seemed to take both the little kid and the old man aback a little. The man, Igor, opened his mouth as though to reply, but suddenly the alarm clock sitting on his desk beeped loudly.
"Ah. It appears we are out of time. William, if you will please return the patient back to her room. We will continue this later," he said, pressing down on the snooze button.
"Wait, what do you mean we're done. You still haven't answered my questions, I want to know… what is that?"
The kid, William was his name, had gone behind Igor and was now approaching her while holding a mask hooked to a gas bottle of some kind.
"Please breathe deeply and calmly," was all that he said in reply.
Desperately, Noriko tried to somehow push herself further into the chair to keep away from the kid.
"Wait a second now… Hold on… Get away from me with that thing… I'm waarnnniiiinn' yooo…" She suddenly found the whole room was slipping and pooling against one of the walls, even as William was just arriving. "Whoooaaa thhaasshh shtroong shhtuf…"
And with that astute observation, she felt her eyes slowly be dragged down under the force of their own weight, and everything faded to black once again.
Finally found the horizontal line button.
Well, here we are, ladies and gentlemen. Submissions are still open for Social Links and a Navigator. A hint to get your Link OC a boost, make them an adult. I've got plenty of teens from the Party and the Nav.
