TTM & WM

by Throwaway1971

Please ignore

1. Entry 1

[The Travelling Merchant, the Wandering Mage[Multi-cross SI]

[Prologue: Being Kicked Out the Door Because You're Just a Little Bit Corrupted]

"Well, it's been a hoot other me!" I cheerfully informed Other-Me...or Me-Original...or "Vanilla-Me, let's go with that, yeah! Been fun, gotta run!"

Me Original-Flavour gave a grunt folding arms across his chest "And don't let the door hit your arse on the way out Evil-me!"

"Heh, I'm not evil just..." Data Corruption "...born again! IVE SEEN THE LIGHT! PRAISE JAYSUS!" I retorted dropping in my...our?...exaggerated preachers voice as the many armed men and women watched me warily as Doctor Fate and Other-Me escorted Me out through the portal, then chuckled before sighing "Well, the Boss actually, can't go far wrong with the Magic Sugar Daddy after all, bless the Shrouded Lord!"

"You're stealing my stuff!"

I shrugged, holding up, now my, magical wand/walking stick in a 'what can you do?' gesture "Technically I'm you, and you're me, so you get the life and home, and I get the corrupted flesh, a bag of shiny things, and very nice walking stick"

Other-Me sighed, glancing at Doctor Fate, then at me "Aye, try not to die me, or whatever, good luck, and you've got enough supplies I hope"

"Ah, I do care about me!" I replied bringing hands to my chest, walking cane over my heart "Narcissism beats self-loathing! And, yes, I have enough I think, and let's hope we don't get a cropper...and do take care of Noelle, she's our other mother!"

'Yeah the sooner I get through this portal, and far, far, far, away from Contract Ending the better' I thought preparing my magic silently as Vanilla-Me nodded honestly. All for the Greater Good and all that, so I could be sure I, Other-Me, would do the right thing by me and here, while fighting the horrible other-earth god-entity monstrosity perhaps. Fun times that I was also glad I wouldn't have to deal with, or threat to face down...wow, Echidna had really done a number on me, hadn't you Other-Mom?

Data Corruption

"Are you ready to leave?"

It was Nabu, female Doctor Fate today, breaking our tender moment and I shrugged "As long as I get my head start, and I've already got my bag of wonders as per our Deal, so I've delivered, just up to SHIELD and you my good Lord of Order. As to philosophically am I ready? Well, is anyone ever ready to leave? But is this dimension is ready for the two of us? I think not! And once I step through...I don't think any of your secrets will be getting out once the Spell activates"

I was babbling, but my mind was...somewhat fractured right now, as was my...soul?

Data Corruption

...so I could forgive myself at being presenting a strong front to what could easily turn against me. Good-Me was far more murderous for the Greater Good than Me-Me could be as Evil-Me, and I knew Me, so best not to tempt Me to 'Deal' with Me in other ways. It wasn't like my memories were...firm right now. The Shrouded Lord had filled in gaps that Echidna had left, and I'd burned corrupted flesh with necromancy by slaughtering...

Data Corruption

...hmmm, technically they were my brothers and sisters?

Nah, that'd imply I was a kinslayer, and they were trying to get me first. Self-Defence and all that, them or me...and that meant it had to be them. Using Drain on those knock-off clone superheroes...that weren't me!...had been very helpful in not dying...

I turned and strode forward towards the Portal, turning and bowing in my white suit and shoes, tipping my hat to them before I step through "Goodbye, good luck, and may Order Prevail..."

Then jumped back through "Slan!"

...and my mind burned in arcane flames causing me to fall to my knees, bracing on my walking stick. Fuck that hurt, my more hazy memories burning way...

Losing more of myself as I gasped; the Contract coming into effect as my part of the Deal. Fuck this wasn't fun, not one bit...

Memories define you are, and I'd already been simulacrum, and a damaged intended slave that'd reboot from an Outsider God, one to start...so this...this wasn't pleasant to consider. Not only that but Sigil's Presence was pressing down on me, and I was in an alley, so I forced myself back up to stand...

Then stagger forward despite the blistering headache, forcing myself to straighten and appear on harmed, using my cane to come out onto the busy street. First things first, I needed to get away from the Portal in case a Special Combat Group came out to 'deal with' little ol'me and my, in-theory, security risk chance. I had complete fate in Fate that he, and Vanilla-Me, would stand by their Deal; the Magic Bind would literally FORCE them to honour it, especially for a Lord of Order, but once the fifteen minutes were up...

I dug a potion from my bag, one I'd pocked during the Fight just after I'd been...born?...and downed it, calming the pain. I could be sure this one, at the very least, wouldn't have any negative effects and my mind cleared for my mental focus and pain reduction to kick in. Calming, ignoring the muddled morass that was my mind I looked in a random direction, got my bearings...then Teleported by line of sight 'Up' into the sky, but 'Down' into the street 'Up' there. Sigil was bizarre, a strange donut city-world, that was both small, yet endless in size, as a few irritated passerby's got out of my way as I relocated.

'First things first...shops, sell everything I got off them' I thought standing proud and straight, like noble, with a cheerful and friendly expression on my brow. My existential crisis could come later, when it wouldn't result in me getting dead due to idiocy. I had no fallbacks, no allies, bar my Patron who was likely...very likely...suspicious of me, and nowhere to go beyond where I found. So I passed into the crowd of eclectic beings, walking down the streets of the...

'Hmmm, I'd reckon I'm in the Clerk's Ward or Lady's Ward...ohhh, skycarpets! Huzzah!' I saw after a few hundred metres changing my mind and seeing a large flying carpet with people waiting in line for the Great Bazaar apparently. It was expensive...but fuck that, I was getting the 'SkyCoach' rather than trying to figure out my way there. So I got into line behind a pair of...hmm...I wasn't sure, white-scaled Lizard-people?...and activated a Comprehend Languages spell from my spellbook.

"Hello my good driver! I'm..." I nearly froze, well I wasn't Sean, or John anymore now was I? "...a paying customer, assuming you is going to the Great Bazaar of course?"

The 'driver' was a gnome, with bright blue and green hair, and a typically hyperactively cheerful female gnome who gesticulated wildly at the large carpet with four other people on it and spoke energetically "Indeed, indeed my good Sirrah! Come one, come all I say! Why we're filling up at a grand speed to today, and the markets are full, full, full! It would be true that the Grand Bazaar is a welcome stop! If my name isn't Macy Jingleberry!"

I chuckled forcing a friendly smile and face "Excellent, excellent, my fair carpeteer! And what modest sum would require to bring this humble merchant to the markets, hmm?"

"Oh Sirrah, sirrah, sirrah, for such a fine fellow such as yourself, to the markets, I do believe a mere hundred and twenty golds would do"

I put on another forced chuckle and smile "Ah, I do believe I am been robbed at that rate...but such a fair maiden as thyself has won me over with her beautiful smile, so how can I say no!"

'Bloody highway robbery' I mentally growled handing over the coin from my shoulder slung satchel, then climbing up onto the large hovering carpet behind the lizard-folk, a seeming human, and a bored looking cambion if I had to guess. Still that meant I only had to wait another five...six minutes, I found glancing at my Earth-Bet digital watch, before another person, an elf of some kind, maybe an aasimar one, in knight's plate got on beside me. I didn't recognise the emblem on her chestplate, a typical tree and other nonsense around it...fucking elves...

'Now...who am I?' I mused during that waiting time rubbing my cheek, debating taking off the white domino mask 'Haven't got a true name yet...hmm, let's go with Bob for here and now'

I turned to the elf, smiling, taking on a...ugh...friendly and cheerful accent and tone "Fair day to you Sir Knight, off to the markets are we. Bob, of Bargain Bobs Import and Export, pleasure to make your acquaintance..."

She ignored my proffered hand and gave me a disdainful look and I decided to keep going as, with some experience with her kind from a past-past-life I could tell I was irritating her by the faint twitch on her right eye and faintest of tensing of her clasp gauntleted hands "Ah, the silent stoic sort! I can respect that, None can say Bob of Bargain Bob's can't respect a stoic and noble Lady Knight doing her duty to respect the good and humble folk that are the rest of us. Anything I can sell you to aid you in whatever noble task you have had trust upon you? I have potions and herbs to heal wounds..."

Yap, Yap, Yap, I went as the carpet rose up and began to accelerate through the air, soaring over the buildings below, and above, in that weird Escher painting sort of way as her eye twitched barely noticibly as she stayed silent an trying to ignore me "...daggers and other such tools of the trade..."

Twitch "...holy symbols to the God, Gods, Goddesses, or other mystical elemental of your choice..."

Twitch "...ration packs and..."

Twitch, Twitch, hand gripping that sword hilt for dear life as I ensure my cane remained happily sitting in my lap and pointed at her belly "...wide range of douches and other female hygiene..."

"ARRRGGH!" she growled face contorting into fiery rage "WILL YOU BE QUIET YOU DAMNED ROUND-EARED CRETIN!"

"Now, now, racism is never a thing Good folk do my dear, Manners!" I corrected politely and continuing my 'friendly' smile "Well, I'll happily quieten myself if I can make a sale, we are on the way..."

She snarled, hand going into her large coin purse and slamming down a bound cluster of coins into my hands with enough force to be pain "Here! Two hundred coins! I buy your silence! Now, SHUT. UP!"

I bowed my head to hear, pocketing the coins. Rich folk as I'd guessed "Of course Milady, as you say, your generosity is appreciated"

"ONE. MORE. WORD!"

"Oi, no fightin' back there!" our gnomish driver called out cheerfully from the front as Lady Knight glared at me, clearly on the verge of snapping, but held in by her vows. Not very experienced from the looks of it if such minor annoyances got to her "Or you'll be dropped off without from this high up"

So I merely bowed my head "Of course Milady Jingleberry, you shall have no troubles from myself"

"Grrr...If the mon...human remains silent" came from beside me as we soared at speed through the 'skies' and then down to the bustling streets below. I waited until the Lady Knight stomped away, the other customers walking away as well, before I took out forty coins from my surprise gains and handed them to a chuckling, and mildly surprised, gnome woman.

"Oh?"

"A tip for such a pleasant ride, and being a partner in crime of sorts..." I answered as she stood on the carpet so she was about chest height with me as I handed her the gold coins "...oh, and I'd very much appreciated if you don't tell her Ladyship whatever direction I went after this. Or if you've heard about any recent deliveries into the markets in recent days?"

She hummed to herself pocketing the coins "Do I look like a Tout Clueless?"

"I've always seen meself as more a Cutter than a Clueless..." I answered using the 'local lingo' so to speak learned on the last trip and the Boss's 'Guide to the Planes and Sigil for Dummies' "...and I'm just asking a fair and wise gnome, whose likely in the know about many things, about recent comings and goings..."

In the end she did have some advice, or tips we'll call'em, that got me some decent value on quickly disposing of my SHIELD issued equipment, Other-Me's potions and scroll, and even the bag of holding that contained them as I exchanged it for a smaller one I could fix into jacket later. Gems, coin exchange, and easy to carry things came next; along with a nice old fashioned looking revolver I could enchant, and a backpack full of high-quality paper, ink, and a few other things.

I looked, at random, for a Tavern with beds, the first being a place called the 'Silver Dragon's Wings' that was small but clean, and had a nice mix of moderate and high-tech looking facilities. Damn I would pay the little bit extra for indoor plumbing, even if it had a dimensional magic shunt for the waste at the end. So I laid back on the bed, staring at the ceiling feeling lost and alone as I plotted my next move...which was probably finding a Door to a 'safe Dimension' after finding some Planewalking Tech or Spells...

Sleep eventually found me, with that thought of such crushing weight on my mind "What the hell do I do next?"

--

Notes:

Yes, Yes, another story. May go further, may not, depending on interest. As some have guessed its from a future point in the Dark Shard story I'm going [which itself is a flow-on...yes, it's fanfic-ception here!] but doesn't really require reading any of those other stories. In terms of powers 'Bob' is a damaged martial cleric-wizard mystic-theurge and right now that's only a starting point. So this one will do jumps into a few different 'Planes' so it'll not be D like Time of Troubles. Suggestions are welcome for destinations of course...

[The Travelling Merchant, the Wandering Mage [Multi-cross SI]

[Prologue: The Day After The Day You Were Born And Your Already Dying]

I woke up to a strange bed, and very much filled muscles aches and minor pains. It only got worse from there as I forced myself to the mirror in the dull gloom of the room in an Inn in the middle of the multi-verse. Seems my flesh was...in-flux...I discovered, followed by puking up what little I'd eaten last night as the muscle cramps kicked in again. Green orc flesh mixed with pale white-pink human along with, more worryingly, the grey-black of necrotic damage as I got back up and began to clean myself by turning on the water faucet and washing off my face...

"Fuck...fuck..." I ground out straightening, hands gripping the, thank the heavens solidly built, wash-basin for support as a somewhat inhuman face looked back as me in the mirror. I sucked in a deep breathe...

Exhaled...

Staring at myself I calmed the magical backlash within; refocusing back to human for the moment after draining down a healing potion. Blood dripped from my eyes, and I had to wash them away, as I held my...what had been my original form before Echidna. Bad news it was then I found as the aches passed slowly but surely as I sat in the bathroom 'healing' myself, or perhaps more honestly, stabilising my own instability as a corrupted clone and recently formed soul. Or quasi-soul, I wasn't truly sure yet...and this...this was backlash for heavy magic usage after being born wasn't it?

So I sat for a time, thinking, meditating. I was an unstable amalgam; my cloned human self, the gaps filled in by Echidna, and then when I had linked with the Shrouded Lord once more and freed myself when he burned away and replaced. That seemed to indicate I was stabilising myself by a combination of my magic, divine blessing, and general alchemy. Only once I'd been sure, after some panic, that wasn't going to just disintegrate, finally I managed to make it back to bed for another few hours rest, and this, thankfully, was a restful, albeit dreamless, one. Probably for the best, I'd likely only have nightmares right now...

'Well, still looks human for the moment' I though holding up arm several hours later, glad to see the flesh wasn't warped and marred this time up walking. Truth be told...I think I was a half-orc, or perhaps slowly 'turning' into one, assuming the necrosis didn't get me first before I managed to stablise my clone body...

"Find a new one" I muttered to myself sitting up in the bed trying to get away from thoughts on a life not mine, had never been mine...but jumbled memories argued otherwise. Orc and human, different times, and different folks...a hazy fog filled with runes and spells, training and thoughts, not truly my own. Technically doable according to my 'memories' but also costly, dangerous, and no guarantee it'd work if the soul wasn't whole and stable either. Nor did undeath through Lichdom or Vampirism appeal...flawed immortality with far too great a cost for anyone with the sense to want to stay themselves rather than a slowly decaying, single thought, skeleton, or blood thirsty lunatic barred from most civilized places.

'Though...how to go about that, that's the question now isn't it?' I mused standing up and forcing myself to go through some of the exercises that Huntress and various members of the Army Ranger Wing had beaten into...Not-Me, Orginal-Me, a time ago. It helped clear the mind of the dread and panic, and perhaps a little existentially challenged, and focus on the task at hand; ensuring I had the resources I needed to survive, not just today, but also into the medium and long-term. Sure I could hole up here for a few days, and burn through my coin reserves, but that was just...waiting for death now wasn't it?

Staying in Sigil, at least in the short term anyway, wasn't the best of ideas with me being on my own, restricted in my abilities, and not being exactly setup to get a well-paying job to afford staying here. I gave a dark chuckle at that; even in the most fantastical of places one needed to trade and barter...

"There's an idea..." I admitted dressing calmly and packing away my thing, ensuring my revolver and machete were stored in the bags of holding in the pockets of my white suit. One had to look the part, and older than my...hmmm, well, technically I was maybe two days old, but physically I was something like eighteen-nineteen in human years. So I recast a mild illusion, careful to not disrupt my internal balance, and adopted my mid-twenties human look, then a simple cantrip to clean my clothes to look 'clean and well-off' before I exited he room.

Trading of services might be a feasible way to get the wealth and knowledge to fix my rather peculiar form of creeping towards the grave. Not here of course, not now, but if I could get down to the Material Planes I could try Planeswalk or Dimensional shift if I could acquire the necessary tools in the markets. In all honesty cost was likely to be the problem there rather than any real fear of it not being there; well, cost and finding a seller in the infinite city of doors. If I could find a Door not many knew about it'd be great, but people supposedly lived all their lives here looking for, and never finding, useful Doors. It really wouldn't do to jump through a Door to the Elemental Plane of Fire, or to the Heart of a Black Hole after all...

--

[Where there's a Guild, there's a Way! When you've Coin anyway...]

Getting out of Sigil, was, technically since I hadn't left yet, easier than I'd expected as I strolled out of the Planeswalker Guild with Three [Common] Portal Locations, and Three Keys to Open said portals. Of course those three [Common] Portals and Keys had cost me over two thirds of my remaining funds after trading in my remaining 'non-essentials' at the market earlier.

They'd done it under a magical contract per my request, so I at least knew they were being honest with me that the damned things worked as stated, and they weren't to any...nightmarishly dangerous...locations. For me it was going to be jaunt to the Outlands, then a time spent casting a ritual to travel between Dimensions that wasn't on said list. It was better to have anchors, and backups, should...would...I need to re-enter the City of Doors; Portals always moved, even if they could stay in place for Millennia, so having two other backups was a good plan in my head.

Assuming I survived this merry jaunt into the unknown, with far less gear than I'd like to have, but I was rather...poverty stricken right relative to these better areas of Sigil...or Other-Me back on Superhero Earth. Just enough to have a few small trinkets to sell and some varied coin and gems that could be worth nothing or a fortune, dimension dependent. So now I was walking down the street in my only set of clothes {with pockets with my gun and machete inside}, no armour, my cane-wand, and a single satchel of holding containing some camping gear, two gold bars, and some knick knacks to sell.

Hardly the well prepared adventurer I'd like to be, but I was in a bind and my paranoia was demanding I put some time and space between me and 'past' so to speak. Even if just for my own peace of mind if I wanted to ignore the safety of getting the hell away from anyone who actually knew who 'I' was...

'Which is funny, as I don't know who I am' I chuckled to myself walking with cane tapping off the pavement as I politely avoided anyone, regardless of species, coming in the other direction. I could have gone with Bob of course, but that wasn't really...the best should I want to go anywhere that actually used standard Earth as the local dimensional template. So I was going to be Callum, a Gaelic, albeit Scottish name, and if spelled with a K and dropping an' L became Kalum, an Orcish/half-orc/human name on several planes. The surname would have to wait I suppose, though I might just go with Baker or Taylor, or some other profession based one for an alias on an Earth.

Should it be an Earth...though I hoped it would be, and not a Masquerade one either. Loads of things were funny to tell the truth, darkly so. Here I was trying to get away from this fantastical place, species of all kinds walking past me, that'd I...well Other-Me...badly wanted to get to, so I could be a vagabond. Not exactly where I'd seen life going, but Life was like that sometimes; fuckin' with you for the Lulz. I'd had all that knowledge and power in my head...and I couldn't just use it wily-nily as it could bloody well make me sick, or simply kill me with prolonged, unplanned, usage. So much for setting myself up as a petty wizard-king on some rocky backwater, at least till I got myself a new body, or cleansed me of the current taint it bore.

Amusingly I found the dreaded trip was rather more anti-climatic than I'd imagined. I couldn't really afford constant carpet rides and such things right now, and the streets were surprisingly calm, so it more exhaustion for walking for hours and other such mundane things that bothered me. This particular Portal was in the Market District, the others being in the Hive and Lower Ward respectively, so best not risked right now, and in 'common' use it seemed as I came in behind a cluster of merchants with carts. Good sign as the traffic through was less...dangerous...than I'd feared it might be. So, onwards into the wider multiverse...

--

[Character Sheet

[Name] Callum/Kalum

[Race] Corrupted Human Clone – Magically Altered Orcish Blood

[Gender] Male

[Age] Two Days – Physically Between 18-22 Human Years.

[Religion] Shrouded Lord of Nishrek

[Level] Data Corrupted

[Class] Data Corrupted – Magic User

[Titles] None

[Organisations belonging to] None

[Attributes]

[Strength] 12 [-2 Tainted] [10]

[Dexterity] 16 [-3 Tainted] [13]

[Constitution] 12 [-4 Tainted] [08]

[Intelligence] 17 [17]

[Wisdom] 15 [15]

[Charisma] 14 [14]

[Equipment]

[Wearing & in Suit pockets]

White Business Suit and Shoes

White wide-brimmed Hat

Machete {Concealed}

Remington Model 1858 Conversion {Concealed}

Ammunition Remington: 24 Alchemical Hellfire Rounds, 24 Blessed Silver, 12 Chaos Rounds {Concealed}

Bandolier of Ten Throwing Knives {Concealed}

Sword-Cane of Prepared Spells [6] [Blink, Mirror Image, Invisibility, Teleport, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt]

Satchel of Holding

Coin Purse: 122 Gold Coins, 12 Silver Coins

[Satchel of Holding]

Ternathian Army Model 10 Rifle [Hell's Gate]

Ammunition Model 10: Six Boxes of 288 Rounds. [Hell's Gate]

2 X Pulse Grenade [Fallout-verse]

2 X Standard Frag Grenade [WW2 era equivalent]

2 X 1 Kilo Bar 24 carat gold bar [No marking]

Assorted Gems: 6 Jade stones, 1 Topaz, 2 Emeralds, 1 uncut Diamond, 2 Rubies

1 X Spell-book

1 X Dimensional Ritual Book plus crytals

1 X Large Travel Tent [Faerun Cloth & Fur Standard]

2 X Blankets [Hell's Gate]

1 X Emergency Survival Kit Imperial Ternathian Army [Hell's Gate]

2 X Zip Lighters

1 X Imperial German Army Folding Shovel [Kaiserreich]

1 X Imperial Army German Army Flectarn Heavy Pack [Kaiserreich]

1 X Aluminium Cooking Kit with small Gas Cooker

6 X Defence Forces MRE [Republic of Ireland, Earth-16]

8 X Bottles of Water

12 X Cans of Cola flavour Soder [Carbonated Soft Drink Earth-16]

6 X Healing Potions [Moderate]

3 X Healing Potions [Weak]

2 X Potions of Cure Disease [Strong]

3 X Potions of Stamina [Moderate]

2 X Potions of Stamina [Strong]

8 X Boxes of Cadbury's Chocolate

12 X [Blank] High-Quality Magic Scrolls

2 X Standard Writing Kits

3 X High-Quality Magical Ink

1 X High-Quality Calligraphy Set

3 X Blank Journals

1 X Shrouded Lords Guide to Sigil for Dummies

1 X Set of Tarot Cards

2 X Sets of Standard [Earth] Playing Cards

4 X Digital Watches [Earth-Bet]

2 X Sunglasses [Earth-Bet]

1 X Chess Set [Earth-Bet]

1 X Digital Calculator [Earth-Bet]

6 X Bottles of Tyrian Purple Dye

5 X 6 Bottle Packs of Guinness [Earth-16]

2 X Flashlights [Earth-Bet]

11 X 4Pack Batteries for Flashlights

4 X Bottles of Holy Water {small/glass}

2 X Bottles of Acid {small/glass}

--

[01.01: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Hell-mouths, the cause of, and...well, they're not really a solution to anything, but they are an access point!]

Invisibility was the spell to go with I figured as I stepped through the Portal after creating, and burying, my Anchor for...whenever I decided to return to this particular part of the wild and bizarre 'lands' that 'existed' below Sigil. It'd been a tiring ritual, opening a Portal with specific requirements so I could reduce the chances of ending up in the lands of 'die instantly, do not pass go' and I'd connected to the 'local' nodal focus on the other side as a shimmering Gate showed up before me. It was oval shaped, about three times my width, and beyond I could see buildings and what looked like a Earth-style twentieth setting as I'd tried to 'aim' for; the dangers of not being able to open to specific targets.

So invisible I became as I stood up, stretching tired limbs after packing away my spellbook, before moving stepping forward through my portal on my first walk on another Plane. The first good news was their was breathable air as I'd specified, and the second it was a human settlement, with Twentieth or Twenty-First century equivalence, I found stepping through unto a moonlit street somewhere. Posters, with humans on them advertising various wares that indicated something American or equivalent...I hummed softly as I inspected and saw United States of America on the manufactures tiny squiggles on the nearest poster. Something about best pecan pie or something at a nearby diner as best the confusing imagery implied in my opinion.

'Hmm...best see what the local dress is' I thought to myself climbing up a fire escape and preparing to do a bit of a reconnaissance of the surrounds after placing an illusion and repelling ward over the portal. It'd close on its own in about an hour, but better safe than sorry, and if things went wrong it'd be easiest escape point to try again later. My experiences on Earth Bet were a help, but it was a reminder of missing a useful little murder-ninja like Jade to help me on my mad little escapes. Oh if I could just snap my fingers and send my sexy little murder-ninja to deal with things...

'Well, no time to bitch an' moan now is there!' I told myself coming up to the rooftop with a lot more effort than I was comfortable admitting to anyway. Huffing a moment I stop back up, and after scanning the roof for dangers, strolled silently over to the edge of the roof overlooking the more brightly illuminated part of the rectangular roof, and looked out over the street below. Fairly deserted street in fact, but it was...

'Hmm? Still early enough?' I mused looking up at the moon in the sky, noticing it was only really starting to rise, though the streetlights hid so many of the more distant stars. That was always the problem of a more advanced, electrified, world...but a good one compared to its benefits, and I simply stood, arms on the concrete, studying the street for a few minutes. There were TVs for sale in a shop window distant, still on, so it was confirming human-world at least, and I was...mostly...human, and there were people scurrying quickly indoors on the street below as I watched. Nervous about something it felt like, crime maybe?

"I really need to get a grappling hook like Batman" I muttered ever so softly as I came over to the edge of the right side of the roof and looked at the nearby building. Not the ideal heights on either to try jump it, and I really didn't want to keep wasting my powers doing Fly or Jump. So I did a circuit of the rooftop for a few minutes, studying what I could, before descending back down the fire-escape with a much easier effort than on the ascent up to the roof. With my invisibility for another little while I strolled out onto the street, up along the way looking for more useful information...though shop windows revealed only general 'looks normal' details similar to my 'past' Me's other life.

'Almost no cameras though' I noted strolling along, gazed flowing in every direction and unable to notice the common enough cameras on my previous Earths. I passed a few people, unseen to them, and I made a mental note to change my attire when I 'decloaked' so to speak. Being too well dressed brought unwanted attention after all, and I didn't want that at all in my new role in life. Judging based on the people around me I could easily go with a moderate change to my clothes without using too much of my arcane power, so I walked for maybe twenty minutes before dropping into an alleyway and doing just that as my Invisibility dropped...

"Welcome to Sunnydale...hmm, joy" I muttered to myself remerging out onto the street, walking calmly despite knowing where I was now. Or at least knowing enough of where I was, and the best plan being to get into a hotel or motel for the night to avoid any troubles with the local...wildlife. It did make the investment in Detect Life/Undeath spell worthwhile as I walked down the street in a long black business suit and shoes as a faint rain began to fall and I moved up the collar and buttoned up. I wasn't overly fond of fedoras, but it seemed more in line with local dress sense, and also kept off the rain as I walked into a late-night shop and took a 'free' map of the city.

'Okay..,hotels, here, here, and here...pawn shops?' I mused circling the relevant places as I wanted along, eyes watching as faint mist surrounded everyone that passed by my view. There was a number of non-humans, to appeared with a glamour as humans, but no vampire trouble as yet, but I'd rather not press my luck so I moved in the directions the store-clerk had given me for a twenty-four hour pawn-brokers about fifteen-twenty minutes away from where I was. Unfortunately that turned out to be about half-an-hour or more away, but Eugene's Useful Little Things was the annoying young man had said it would be...and the owner was a demon. Joy.

"Ah, hello my friend..." I greeted with a cheerful smile as the bored looking 'man' sitting behind the security screen looked up from tv show he was watching then looked at me...eyes narrowing "...I'm here to make a trade, gold for cash as they say. I do like your no questions asked policy"

I gestured at the sign on the wall of the dirty looking front of the shop where various knick-knacks sat on shelves, smiling politely and maintaining my glamour as I reached into my pocket and drew out a dozen gold coins "I'm new in town, and, well, I find myself in need of some local currency as they say"

Yellow yes faked to green gazed back in surprise, red-black mist indicating the aura as the reedy-looking and 'slimy pawnbroker' human studied me, then started the picking at the coins, at the various symbols on them, frowning "New in town eh? From abroad are we?"

"Yes, an immigrant, and businessman, just like yourself I imagine..." I replied with a cheerful and friendly smile, gesturing 'happily' with my hands and 'walking stick' at the store around me "...though I'm more of the wandering sort, not competition to established businesses like yourself"

'Eugene' hummed in thought, then nodded "Eh, you've got the business, I don't ask questions, not good for our sort to ask questions of each other now is it?"

"By the Pit no, gets you caught up in so much red tape, and my Boss gets cranky when I get caught in such things" I chuckled resting both my hands on my 'walking stick' and nodding at the coins "Now, I'm looking for local currency on ten coins, consider the other two a...exchange fee of sorts, and to answer a few, minor, questions if you would?"

He shrugged weight the coins, biting one of them to taste it "Depends on the questions...eh? Near Pure?"

I nodded "Indeed, good quality I can assure you, paid by a certain Lord for services rendered. As to the questions, just to refresh myself on the local area...is the..."

Again I paused, dredging up an ancient memory with a minor recall spell from the foggy morass that were my memories "Is the Magic Box still open by any chance, and who the current owner is?"

Eugene continued studying the coin, shrugged "Eh, still there, still selling some actually useful things along with all that junk for the new-age idiots. Human warlock named Bogarty is back running it since last year after one of the local...nightlife...did in Magee whatshername e'd put in charge"

"Good to hear...well, not for Magee, but makes my life easier I suppose..." I replied hating having to give up information like that "...and for my next, is the Slayer active here? I've heard some...words from sources before my arrival?"

"Aye, best stay clear of her too. Nice tits some of the boys here say, but few of'em haven't come back, so hope it were worth it for'em!" he replied with a snort as he started to dig through a drawer filled with cash as best I could tell "Oh, and since yer such a good...customer...there's a bunch a dangerous human hunters running around as well, snatchin' well..."

"Our sort if we...misbehave?" I replied getting a nod...that wasn't a hundred percent on my side. All I could remember of Sunnydale was a few main characters and specific locations of interest. Such as Buffy and her Scooby Gang, and the friendly, demonic Mayor "Right, just when I have business to handle in town. As to the exchange.."

"Hundred per coin, that's all you'll get out of me"

"Hundred'an fifty per coin and I'll throw in three more. Good mark-up for you on that, and I'll bear your establishment in mind for later business. Another two as a keeping yer gob shut fee as me Sire would have called it"

Eugene frowned, mulling it over, then nodded with a toothy grin "Sold...yer cash me lord, Two Thousand Dollars, don't spend it all in the one place. Or get robbed, Sunndydale's a dangerous place after dark I've been told. Only short while ago some fool summoned up some damned Injun ghosts to get revenge or summin' on the pale-faces. Humans, what can ya do? Dangerous place on its best day!"

I chuckled, taking the envelope filled with cash and pocketing it inside my jacket "Is it now? Hmm...I'll avoid hunting any dangerous wildlife for the time being then. Time for a good meal, and perhaps a rest after my rather long journey here I believe. Unless you've any...special...items of interest to sell?"

The demon pawn-broker groaned "No, mores the pity, unless you want so blood-packs or some bones..."

I shrugged "Nah, sorry, no need for blood right now, and the graveyards are rarely empty I imagine for one..."

He waved at me to leave "One willin' to put in the work! Yah, yah, heard the spiel! Now let me back to my late night dramas"

I gave a 'salute' with my walking cane to my temple and then a mild bow to wave it away before I turned and left the establishment "Of course my good Sir, may your door be blessed with prosperity, and your enemies lie slaughtered at your feet"

"You too bub, gold and bloody corpses, yadda, yadda, yadda!" followed my out into the rain of the night and I strolled forward, ignoring the chill, and walking towards the not-too distant hotel. No blood-suckers or hunters accosted me on the way at least, and there was several rooms free as I booked myself in for the week in a large single room, half paid in advance. It was past midnight, and I had no assistant or bodyguard, so, despite being exhausted, I spent an hour ritual preparing defensive wards and an alarm now that I was here for short stay at the very least. That done I dropped back into the nice comfortable bed and fell into an exhausted sleep...

--

[01.02: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Clothes make the man...I should buy more than one set then, now shouldn't I?]

--

[Traders Journal: Day 03 since leaving Sigil]

[Current Dimension]

Earth – Buffy-verse

[Current Location]

Sunnydale Motor Inn, Sunnydale, California, United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

102 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

12 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

402 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

[Sales of Goods and Services]

20 Gold Coins for 2,000 US Dollars [Buffy-verse]

[Purchases of Goods and Services]

One Week Room & Board Sunnydale Motor Inn [560 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Food & Drink [64 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Jacket, Pants, Top, Hiking Boots, Rain-jacket, Hat, Scarf, Hiking Socks [234 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

2 X Tracksuit Top & Bottoms, 2 X Pair of Running Shoes, 4 X Sets Underwear, 4 X T-shirts [122 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Standard Men's Business Suit {Black}, 2 X Shirts, and Pair of Shoes [196 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Book: Enochian Protection Runes, Wards, and Sigils, an Understanding [221 US Dollar Buffy-verse]

Book: Magicae Anima Mea [200 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

[Diary Entry]

All I can you can go through cash when you're buying things, and here I thought two grand would have lasted me a good while. Just goes to show how one can go overboard, yet buy seemingly very little. Back in the hotel after a relatively busy day, largely because I slept till after midday and had to compress a day into six hours before it got dark and this place's more human side shut down. It's funny really, in a dark way, how it seems to be full of straw atheists, but ones with the survival sense to avoid said things they don't believe in. So I got up, not sick thankfully, and got a bite to eat down a rather decent bar on the main street, and then started the day.

First thing I did was go clothes shopping, and that dragged on a bit longer than I'd liked honestly, but I eventually got it done before heading over to The Magic Box as it's called. Mostly fake stuff at the front, but the owner, a Mr. Bogarty, had actual stock at the back that gets through the quasi-Masquerade on this version of Earth. He's a lot more, but I didn't have the funds on for much, so I framed it as buy sample from him to test the waters and we were both happy enough with that. I'm booked in for another six days here in the Hotel before I plan to move on, so that should be time to test out the basic usefulness of the two tomes I bought from him.

First is about Enochian protection magic; something John Constantine had been teaching me, and the book seems legit on a simple scan-through, and detect magic as well. The second is in Latin with a bad English translation tacked on, so it's something about spirit and soul magic, which could be useful or not, but it seemed worth the investment. He's plenty of items and books, both good and dark, that I'd be interested in, so he and his shop are going on the 'Useful' list of locations to remember. So I've decided to use one of the blank books as my 'Trader's Journal' and I've spent the past three hours since deciding that blood warding it; usual basic protections and arcane lock.

I need a new spell-book as well to be honest, as I'm using Other-Me's combat spare filled in with extra pieces for said dimensional jumping. I'd liked to have got a technological back-up for that as well, in case I hit a Magic Null-World, but that's for another day. Keeping myself busy to keep the mind off the madness and emptiness that is my existence am I?

Well, no matter, the current situation is I'm sitting in a hotel room and I've gotten started at least. Something to hold onto, and I want to get up in the morning and go for a jog once the sun is up. Need to start exercising for the more dangerous times and places, or when here goes bonkers, as a start. Another priority is getting a bit more organised; I need thinks like medical kits and such, even if just cut down on my healing potions, as well getting ingredients as well. Hell, I haven't even got an alchemy set to make new potions, which is bad oversight on my part when I could have got one in Sigil! Along with a dozen other things I should have blood-well got as well!

Other than that my plan is to hit up a local Demon Bar tomorrow, Wily's Place or Wily's Bar, across town so I need be prepared for that. I'd gotten that place from Magic Box owner, and I'll confirm with the pawn-shop guy tomorrow as I think I need to do some more sales to get some local cash together and try buy some sellable goods for the next plane. Tell the truth I really want a laptop, but this is Nineteen-Ninety-Nine so the local versions are all absolute junk, so that's out. That and a laptop would require an external power supply and generation method, and cost a major about to get sufficient military grade to be usable on a non-tech dimension or primitive world.

I think that's enough for one night, still have to meditate on my spells and then get some rest after all. That's the thing with being on your own, there's no-one to fall-back on when things go wrong, and I've already been sloppy and made mistakes by forgetting 'essentials' to buy. So be it, time to get some rest, let's see what tomorrow holds.

--

[Traders Journal: Day 04]

[Current Dimension]

Earth – Buffy-verse

[Current Location]

Sunnydale Motor Inn, Sunnydale, California, United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

90 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

12 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

322 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

[Sales of Goods and Services]

12 Gold Coins for 1552 US Dollars [Buffy-verse] {plus Barter}

2 X Jade Stones {Barter}

[Purchases of Goods and Services]

Full set Britannia Silver 36 piece cutlery box set {Barter}

1 X Glock 22 plus Carry Case & 10 X 15RD Magazines {Barter}

2 X 24 Boxes of Matches {Barter}

6 X Wooden Dowels {Barter}

1 X Hunting Knife {Barter}

2 X Swiss Army Knife {Barter}

2 X Vials of Gorgons Blood [1,262 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

1 X Matchbox of Werewolf Fur [112 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

4 X Jars of Pure Honey [40 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Food and Drink [88 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

Bribes [120 US Dollars Buffy-verse]

[Diary Entry]

Somehow I managed to end the day with less cash than I'd started with despite selling yet more gold coins and two of the jade stones. Now I'll admit I bartered for certain things this time, mostly a silver set and knives, but other bits and pieces with Eugene the Demon Pawnbroker as well. Got some wooden dowels and I've created six stakes out of them by spending some time cutting away at them and inscribing holy symbols and runes of the Shrouded Lord on them. Considering my location, and the vulnerabilities of the lesser vampires of this particular dimension, I thought it might be the best idea.

More importantly it got me two vials of rare alchemical ingredients, after a bribe from a certain patron of a demon bar, and confirmation after an exchange at the Magic Box of genuineness. Neutral territory and third parties and all that jazz;- don't want to spend good money on fake stuff after all. Bought some werewolf fur while I was there as well, since the opportunity presented itself;- so I'm in the funny position of having rare ingredients but no alchemical equipment or any common ones. Well, beyond four jars of honey I bought since they were on sale as I passed by.

Oh, got a new gun as well, a Glock, with a few mags to go with it. I've already got a rifle, from somewhere called Ternethia, for hunting, but I figured a handgun for personal defence against 'normal' human enemies might be the best idea since I've only got limited magical rounds for the old west style revolver. Honestly I'll call this a success, as I'm running into the problem of not having carry space that I'd like to have as I've only got one Bag of Holding. One that is getting pretty full just containing my current travel gear and items, and I'll need time and effort to get more. I know how to make one of course, but that takes time and effort, and resources I currently lack. Fun, unfair, times.

Anyway, I think I've done enough 'shopping' beyond setting down a more organised list of camping supplies maybe before I go, so I'm going to 'relax' for the next few days and study my purchased books. That and maybe spend some time converting one of my remaining blank books into a proper spellbook and restore the current one to an emergency reserve. It just doesn't have what I need, and I far too - weak as I am, too fragmented in soul. Meditating is helping, a bit, but the corruption flared up again last night. Nothing painful, just green skin overlays and tusks before I got it back under control, so, yay I guess.

Nor does various magic testing indicate great things about my soul's current status. It's there for one, huzzah for that, but it's an infused morass that hasn't truly taken 'shape' so to speak. That will not do wonders for my magic, and ties in to how my flesh is doing its fucking warping thing again despite keeping my magic use to a minimum. I don't want to burn another potion on it, but I did burn one of the weak ones and meditated before my morning jog. If this is going to be recurring trend, then this is going to get very expensive with time till I can get a permanent solution. Assuming it doesn't kill me of course. Dammit. Anyway, best to get some sleep and worry about the morning tomorrow.

--

[Silent Night...certainly not a Holy Night]

I woke as the spell took effect, rolling out of the cheap hotel bed and grabbing for the pistol under the pillow and looking for enemy. My mouth moved to shout out a warning...

"..." but nothing came out. Standing up I gripped the pistol with both hands ready to kill as I grated mentally that I'd let a Silence spell affect me so easily, in my sleep of all times. My wards were fine, my Alarm spell untouched, and I couldn't see anyone around or coming to attack me. Carefully, inch by inch, I inspected the room, the ensuite, the clothing cupboard, then at the windows and...

'Nothing' I mentally growled as I retrieved my 'walking-cane' with one hand, the other holding the gun and searching for potential attackers as I brought the handle up to my throat. The prepared Dispel Magic spell ignited, knocking out many of my other protections in an effort to eliminate the enemy spell...

"..."

'Fuck, fuck...fuck' I thought as the Silence spell clearly remained in effect despite my own secondary blessings disintegrating from it. Dressing quickly while trying to stay on guard I glanced out the window at the moon in the late night sky, seeing nothing unusual on the street below. This was the strangest attack I'd...well, Not-Me, memories had ever suffered, and I was panicking I hated to admit. Staying here...I needed to investigate and scout the perimeter and figure where the mage was and deal with him/her immediately. So I placed on my suit, threw on an illusionary glamour, then exited out of the room as if nothing was the matter, walking-cane at the ready.

First things first was to get a pad of paper to write with, beyond the few pieces of paper napkins held in my hand at the ready. The check-in desk was my best bet for that I figured, and I moved quickly, eyes scanning the street light illuminated courtyard and nearby streets as my cane tap-tap-tapped over the wooden decking. One or two people hurried by distantly, but there was nothing showing even after I'd sub-vocally cast a Protection from Missiles on myself. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was better than nothing as I came into the reception area where a panicked looking woman in her late twenties was behind the desk.

"..." she gestured at her throat, then at the phone before coming over and scribbling on a writing pad on the desk before her.

[Can you call my Boss? I need to go to the hospital. My throat no work]

I sighed, gesturing at my throat "..."

'Great, area of effect spell' I thought motioning at the woman to calm down, as I scribbled on a napkin [Can you have give me a writing pad please?]

'Oh, to know sign-language, stupid fucking oversight on my memories' was my immediate consideration as a spare pad was handed to me and I scribbled on [Thank you. I am going to see if others have it outside]

Because I was going to find the mage who'd done this, interrogate them till they fixed this, and then kill them...

--

[01.03: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Hush now, don't cry...because you can't. There is only silence, and they're coming...]

'Well this is a worrying situation' I thought to myself as I sat on a at a table sipping coffee while a preacher 'spoke' silently to a small congregation across the street. It was the nature of humanity to rush for divine favour in times of crisis, so that was unsurprising, and it was hardly encouraging for them now that State and Federal governments had placed the whole town under quarantine. It frightened me as well, as we had a city wide Silence spell in effect, for most of a night and half of daylight hours, and it showed no sign of breaking, or being broken.

Because people had to be trying to break this spell as it had affected the local demons and vampires by all accounts, just as with us humans. I'd tried to break the spell after all, and failed, while also trying to source of the mage/mages responsible...and also failing to that, so others must be doing the same. Something that was concerning because you didn't just do something like this – a city-wide conceptual spell capable of affecting humans, undead, demons, and sundry – unless you wanted to do something nasty. They'd just knocked out all voice based communication and security measures for one, and crippled cooperation between any security and defence forces.

Without the prevalence of the internet video phenomena of a few years down the line, and less security cameras than I'd expect, it meant chaos. Heavens and hells there was already chaos, if subdued chaos, as I watched people stumble about in a daze, and fights break out over random things. It was a bit more than I'd expected so quickly, but it'd been hours now and this was Sunnydale, where even the non-believers in such things knew something worse was waiting in the wings. I glanced at my digital watch, now I'd set it to local time, and decided to finish off my coffee. It'd be dark in about six or seven hours, and I'd best be ready for that as that was a likely time to kick off...whatever.

'Darkness and no way to communicate, if it was that I'd knock out the power grid as well to help along any plan as well' I mused throwing the paper cup into the bin as I passed by. I nodded to the very smart young man selling small whiteboards and markers as I walked by him; smart, entrepreneurial, fella that, and looked like was already nearly sold out. I'd bought one after all, and the price had seemingly doubled since I'd bought the one hanging from straps off my shoulders and resting on my chest with a marker attached. Yes it ruined the whole 'business man' aesthetic, but no more than the man sitting on the street weeping over his suitcase, or the catfight up the block.

No, I needed to get back and sleep for a time after walking about and investigating for...well, since four in the morning when this madness kicked off. Certainly got my exercise in for the day, along with meeting your 'friendly' neighbourhood demons;- who were bothered by it, but less so than the humans. Probably because they weren't the targets, though personally I'd have been pissed off, like I was now, into hunting whoever did it down for simple, petty, revenge if not out of the civic good. Head down, hope for the best...they really were blending in well with the local humans now weren't they?

'I'll need to be ready, something could go down at any moment, and I'm already tired. Part of the plan I'd imagine, tire everyone out before they strike' I mused to myself strolling along under the sunshine, hating the thought of sleep on a sunny day. Not only that but the local vampires were likely to be out tonight as well...ugh, I might have to play hero potentially. Now was not the time, nor place, for that of course, but life was like that unfortunately...

--

{Seven Hours, Sixteen Minutes Later}

'Still nothing...hmm...this is a nice burger' I thought to myself as I sat in the late night diner, one that clearly knew about the nature of the local 'nightlife' judging by the warding symbol cleverly hidden over the doorway, and some sort of 'mark' on the sign. Probably a notification of who they paid protection money too, and none of my business in the end. It was a bit strange nothing...well, beyond the city-wide Silence spell and Quarantine status...had happened yet, as to maintain a spell this long and effectively...

'Focus on the finding, the fixing, then the killing first my boy' was all I could remind myself of my particular focus. I really needed this removed so I could move on to the next plane, as there was no guarantee that'd it end just by putting distance from the affect. The excuse the military had given for the 'potential cause' was pretty good; flu vaccinations. At least they weren't going with Gas Leak or Chemical Spill, they always seemed to get trotted out as excuses I'd found from...Other-Me's...limited experience.

Ordering a coffee to go I finished up my meal and exited out into the night as I heard police sirens, and simply decided to start patrolling around to see what I could see. I could fly, but that'd be a danger as well, especially in a superhero-less world, where it could attract major attention. That and it was probably best to look like a nice, simple, human being taking a late-night walk on the more brightly lit parts of town...with a small whiteboard slung around his neck. My walking-cane tapped off the ground as I moved, eyes scanning as best I could while I walked...

'Hmmmm...and what do we have here I wonder? Likely suspects I suspect' I found about half an hour into my walk, off near the college, as there, bold as brass, some very demonic looking fellows were on the move. Or on the hover more like I noted from my vantage point in the shadows of the street, with what looked like inmates from a mental asylum moving like gorillas ahead of them. Really, this was ridiculous bold, as the lights were still on and everything...

'Of course, they could be used to more primitive worlds and this wouldn't be an issue there' I reminded myself casting Mirror-Image silently. Then 'stepping out' of myself so to speak, as I followed up with a silent casting of Invisibility so my first illusion walked forward giving the hover demons and their servants. My Illusion paused as they caught sight of 'him', while the others 'waited' nearby me, and pointing at the demons, and then gesturing at his throat with his walking stick. The final 'arm sweep' questioning gesture should indicate what I was implying.

'I'll take that as yes then' I thought coldly as they studied 'me', making silent gestures and full teeth smiles to each other out of some horror movie, and then sent their inmates at my illusion. I sighed softly, drawing my revolver from my suit pocket, taking the cane into the others, then taking aim at the first of the inmates as it hit my illusion...dispelling it in one hit. My first shoot blew the first of the asylum whatever's head off in a blast of fire as the Hellfire round ignited and incinerated him/her...the second striking the second one in the chest, killing it as well.

'Take that you smiley hovering chuckle-fucks' I thought, wanting to say, but unable to as my invisibility dropped with the attack and my illusions moved around me, also pointing their revolvers at the now alone two hovering demons. Again, this time with me doing it also, my illusions gestured at their throats with their cane handles, then at the demons...then at the revolvers. Finally I wagged my cane at them, gripping it in the middle, and giving a mildly irritated frown to them. Still smiling, almost laughing, expressions still on their faces, they looked at each other, before giving 'apologetic' looks to me and spreading their hands wide and shrugging.

One of my Illusions drew out his whiteboard and scribbled on it [Fix Now, We Walk Away]

Demonic Heads shook in unison, very much in the negative and my illusion scribbled again, holding up the clearly understood English [End Spell Now. Or Violence]

More head shaking, more chuckling and wide apologetic shrugs. I took aim...

Bang. Bang.

Shoot to wound the second with a bullet to the leg, but the first was a headshot with a Hellfire round...

'Oh, dear' popped into my mind as my shoots clearly did damage, the head snapping back and taking flame on the one on the right, while the one on the left's staggered a little, knee exploding in fire. But no sign of serious physical damage either, and those blasted smiles never wavered either as I saw them straighten back up, the one on the left 'helping' the one on the right by offering a hand. Never one to let my enemies relax, or escape testing the waters, I immediately let loose a bolt of lightning from my 'walking-cane' as I burned through one of the six prepared spells.

"..." I muttered silently, me and my illusions gesturing as the one on the left was thrown back a few metres by the ferocious blast of electrical energy...and that was it. The damned thing merely frowned ever so slightly, while still fucking smiling, as the other one started waving a finger at me in a 'tut-tut' gesture as if to a fucking child. My eyes narrowed at the situation, and at the noise approaching to my left, as I whirled my gazed, and my gun, in that direction and caught sight of...

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Three 'inmates' that had been charging me went down, burning away to nothingness in the case of two, while the third merely lost its legs. A fourth wasn't too far off, along with, more concerning to my immediate well-being, two more of the physical and magically resistant whatever these things were. With me being forced to use Silent Casting, and now severely outnumbered, I decided discretion was the better part of valour and immediately Teleported with a prepared spell to a location on a rooftop a half-mile away...

'That went...poorly' I thought angrily, swapping out the single remaining hellfire round, and spent shell-casings, from the revolver and replacing with six Blessed Silver ones. The important part of being a wizard, or a scientists, was testing out your theories, so I reloaded and holstered my weapon inside my pocket while drawing out my spellbook. Fine, that engagement didn't do so great, so now I need to test out their vulnerabilities, or lack thereof, to other effects, magical and mundane. Clearly they had some weakness if they'd gone to the effort of disabling organised resistance in this manner...

Bang. Bang.

...holy silver bullets apparently have no effect, even at point blank range. These things weren't massively fast either, nor their servants the 'inmates' as my Haste spell easily out ran them, and the machete had killed the closest 'inmate' with a blow to the head...

Bang. Bang.

...gods fucking dammit, specially imbued Chaos rounds show only minor pain effect. Nor does blunt force or cutting damage show any sign of actually harming them...

CrackCrackCrackCrack

...and police guns also have no effect, though at least the two officers had the presence of mind to flee silently screaming in their squad car once they realised that fact. Well, that and my testing did Fire have any useful impact continued, either magical via a Grease spell and sparks, or from an impromptu Molotov I'd made up as the night proceeded on hour by hour. Hitting and running was really fecking tiring I was finding as I knelt, panting on the rooftop and watching the slightly smoking demons hover along for victims as best I could tell. Though I was somewhat slowing them down...

CrackCrackCrackCrack

...and Huzzah, the 'inmates' are not immune to small arms fire from mundane bullets either. So Glock and Machete it was for them even if their bosses were immune to the bullets...

Whooshhh

...so, Acid Arrow is a Big No, then...

Craacckkkk

...well, I'd expected they'd be immune to the Imperial Ternathian Army Model 10 Rifle, even a headshot, but I could snipe their little hunt for a bit, and that brought police or gang members who could deal with the 'inmates' at least. Seemed the local vampires simply ran when they realised what they were up against, just like the humans...

'Well, they don't like the Sun?' I noted as they began to 'withdraw' as dawn approached. Even a Bless spell and magical Sunlight had no impact I found sitting on yet another rooftop silently cursing these bastards. They'd started hunting me a few hours ago, actively anyway, and I'd yet to do any significant harm to them, not get to the bottom of their Silence spell. Unfortunately they seemed to figure I was following them, and they sent an 'inmate' to distract me...Gods how many of them did they have? I'd shoot nineteen stone dead already..

Then sighed...I needed to rest and recover and plan out my next move after a few hours sleep during the dawn hours...

--

[01.04: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Buffy Summers to the Rescue...actually, wait, no it's the Bee Gees?]

This was, like, really bad Buffy Summers thought to herself as she patrolled the streets looking out for the crazy monster dudes who'd murdered people last night. It'd been a rough day before that, everyone was panicking and there'd been fights in the streets or people just locking themselves in doors. Mom had done that thankfully, and Giles had shown her what the Bad Guys looked like and were called; the Gentlemen.

Which was a stupid name she thought, they were more 'skeezy demon guys in suits with creep smiles' really, but she didn't get them name them unfortunately. Not only that but the bad guys might be using guns as well, or just junkies or vamps running about causing chaos, and so she was being super stealthy and careful tonight as she moved with her crossbow and Mr. Pointy at the ready. Gas Leak causing hallucinations?

'Yeah, mall cops at work...this has been the twelfth *gas leak* this year so far right?' she thought with a huff as she creep behind the bushes looking for the monsters that needed a Slayers...special touch. Bad Guys took her voice, Bad Guys were getting a Slayer's Welcome to Sunnydale and that was that. Once they'd gotten a good, stress-relieving, beat down she'd make them restore everyone's voices and dust them...

'Hmm...their demons, do these ones turn to dust? Bodies are...eww...to clean up after!' was one thought going through her mind as her body, as usual, acted almost on autopilot and instinct while moving through the empty streets. After last night...well, even those with no common sense or the even vamps, were lying low to avoid the Gentlemen it felt like. Willow was safe in their dorm room, Xander was with totally-not-a-demon-anymore Anya and...well, Spike, while Giles was off protecting whats-her-name, his side of dark-chocolate. It was super-unfair...everyone but her, and Willow, but she was like super-nerd!, was hooking up...

'Bad Guys first, worry about that later...' she told herself firmly seeing the first of the bad guys up near the old clocktower at the centre of town. Creepy guys hovering and...monkey Jason Voorhees?...move around on the ground surrounding them. Okay, floaty-floaty guys were immune to stakes and swords, but escapees from the asylum were not, so the first Mr. Pointy of the night flew into the chest of the nearest of them as Buffy immediately drew another stake and reloaded. The second one was down before they could get close, but she had to go hand to hand when the third one charged in.

Block, Block, Punch, smash knee-cap...stake to the heart...

'Oh, no dusty...aaawwww...this is going to get messy' Buffy silently complained to nobody shrugging and...

"RILEY?"

...or that's what she would have said loudly when the hunky boy from her class came around the corner dressed up all soldier-like and shooting the Voorhees with a...electricty-gun-thing. Instead, all them out, yet again, was a silent "...!"

Riley stared at her as the asylum guy went down, the two hovering weirdoes gesturing at them, and at each other, with those terribly creepy smiles. For a moment though there was only herself and Riley as they stared at each other...and gestured at each other as she picked up her crossbow. This was super-weird, what was going on here? Was he a Hunter of some sort? Watcher Council Super Secret Sexy Spy sent to seduce her?

"...?"

"...!"

...then their 'moment' was interrupted as another weird monkey-like horror movie escapee ran at them and she turned and kicked it in the face to tumble backwards. She didn't have time to think about this right now, she had to defeat then 'Gentlemen' and get everyone's voices back so they could kill them. Riley came to her side, doing soldier-like stuff with his laser-electricity-gun-thing, but it wasn't having any effect on the hovering duo beyond knocking them back a little with each shoot. Still, the Clock-tower felt like it was the bad guys nest, so the key to stopping the spell and defeating was probably here. Bad Guys tended to really weird in doing things like that'd she'd found.

The crossbow had to be put down as she found herself fighting three of the Voorhees guys, and Riley two more, as another pair of the hovering smiling weirdoes hovered out of the Clock Tower. They were strong, stronger than most people were, but she was easily stronger and better Buffy found as she block and twisted, getting in behind one of them and snapping its neck while kicking the one behind her. It was really weird fighting without any banter, or be able to communicate with...Riley since he was helping, as she spun away into a defensive stance...

She blinked as the two insane asylum rejects retreated back to The Gentlemen, the same as those fighting Riley, and they were looking at them...

'No, at something behind us?' she thought finding herself compelled to look behind her while staying in a fighting stance, fists of feminine fury ready to strike. There, behind them...

'Oh...ohhhhh, that can't be good?' was her first thought as a very thick fog bank rolled towards them silently, misty tendrils already at her feet...and moving past her. Shadowy shapes moved in the thick grey fog, barely visible at was maybe two hundred metres as the fog rolled over in and instant and...

"...?"

'Is that disco music?' was her first though as she opened her mouth and stared a moment, dumb in the middle of fight but the badum-badum-badep sounds came over her, playing loudly as the smell of death hit her nose...

{WELL, YOU CAN TELL BY THE WAY I USE MY WALK...}

...and the noise drowned out everything else as she adjusted her stance to guard against whatever was coming up the street as the fog covered everything along with the music. The just about visible hovering creep-demons were covering their ears, wincing and falling back as...

{AND NOW IT'S ALRIGHT, IT'S OKAY. AND YOU MAY LOOK THE OTHER WAY...}

...a boy or man in a white suit and wide-brimmed hat, holding a white walking cane, danced forward out of the fog with...well, the dead people The Gentlemen had killed. Like Buffy recognized that dead boy...zombie?...holding the eerily glowing boombox and walking forward with a...really, really, zombie-like gait...

'Okay. Now...and there's zombies...and...oh...ohhhhh, Giles, where are you when I need your bookiness and magic?'

{YOU'RE STAYING ALIVE, STAYING ALIVE...}

...four skeletons with handguns stepped forward along with the dancing suit guy as he twirled his walking stick a little ways from her and dance-pointed at the Gentlemen and the waiting mental-patient-guys. Pistols came up, pointed...

Crackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrack

{AH, HA, HA, HA, STAYIN ALIVE...}

...and started gunning down the Bad Guys minions, while the...definetely zombies raced forward with gurgling grunts of 'Braainnnss!' at them and The Gentlemen. Well, except for Dead-Gary who was holding the faintly glowing boom-box as the white-suited guy gave the creepy-hover-demons the middle finger while smiling toothily...

'Okay...on our side?' Buffy wondered making a...hey, how are you? Are you not-evil?...sort of shrug at the clearly evil guy with zombies and skeletons...

Thumbs up was good enough for her then when he gestured back...

{WELL NOW, I GET LOW AND I GET HIGH...}

...then snapped his fingers at the nearest of the Gentlemen, who were edging backwards, clearly in pain away fro the music. Willow had suggested that, but a recorded voice shouldn't work Giles had said unless it was magic maybe. The sudden turning of the two nearest hovering Gentlemen demons sort of indicated that might be the case as the skeletons opened up on the cute little bunny rabbits...

Crackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrack

{FEEL THE CITY BREAKIN' AND EVERYBODY SHAKIN'...}

...as dancing wizard dude moon-walked his way forward while his...undead minions overran the mental patients and tried to grabble with the hovering demons. Buffy shook herself out of her momentary shock and, since they'd run passed her to attack the Bad Guys, it was a Monster vs Monster fight right now, and, like with Spike, they were now on the same side. For now, but that let her kicking the creepy hovering bad guy in the face, and see if beating them up...

...Oh God, two of the zombies were ripping the face off the asylum guy they'd knocked down as white-suit guy moved towards the clock-tower along with the four skeletons and four zombies...

{MUSIC LOUD AND WOMEN WARM...}

Crackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrackcrack

She couldn't follow him right now as she and Riley fought the two remaining hovering guys, and two more asylum mental-guys who rushed back from up the street. It super annoying as only the Bee Gees seemed to be actually hurting the creepy demons thanks to the loudly playing music zombie standing at the entrance to the Clock-tower. Even multiple kicks in the face didn't seem to make them stop smiling, nor the zombies trying to eat their faces of...

'My life is really weird' Buffy bemoaned as she looked lovingly into Riley's eyes for a moment as they both kicked the demons face in '...there was supposed to be flowers, and nice sweet talk...not, creepy demons and zombies for our first...God, this is how I get to know him???'

WHHUMPWHOOSH echoed out from the Clock-tower along with a sudden burst of flame...

{WE CAN TRY TO UNDERSTAND, THE NEW YORK TIMES EFFECT ON MAN...}

"What the..." she paused, hand touching her throat "...hey...do...do, ray, me!"

Then grinned down at the Bad Guys, drawing in a deep breath "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

{AH, HA, HA, HA, STAYIN' ALIVE, STAYIN' ALIVE...}

...and watch their heads exploded...

"Ewwww"

"Eww indeed" Riley agreed then clutch his gun-thing awkwardly before she moved forward and brought him into a hug and kiss...

"..."

...then paused, looking around...

"Oh, yeah, zombies..." Buffy muttered as the bloody and groaning dead things standing around them in middle of their private moment in the middle of the foggy horror movie night they'd got "...uh, forgot about them. We...uhhh...should probably..."

"Yes, definitely" Riley agreed as they went back to back, ready to fight, while the zombies merely looked at them...well dead-eyed, over the corpses of the dead demons and mental-patient guys "...maybe, we, should..."

"...yeah, lets...I think...look, in there, I mean" she agreed as he gestured at the Clock-tower as the song changed tracks...

{LISTEN TO THE GROUND, THERE IS MOVEMENT ALL AROUND...}

The undead minions weren't attacking them, which was good, not even as they moved into the Clock-tower and up the stairs. This was one of *those* nights Buffy found as the stairs creaked beneath her feet, the loud music coming in from outside, as she heard a voice whistling along with the song outside at the top of the stairs. Step by step they moved, coming up ready for anything...

"Are you...putting human hearts into your bag?"

The white-suited guy was standing over the dead bodies of four Gentlemen, apparently stuffing jars...with human hearts in them...into his white satchel bag, while whistling away. Scalpels and other tools were floating in the air, down into the back, as he shoved another jar into the back while the skeletons were...undressing the dead creepy-demon guys?

"Hmmm?" White Suit guys said turning his head in their direction and smiling "Hello! And to answer your question, why Yes, I am, Finders-Keepers, and their dead, so not likely to complain"

Buffy just...stared "How...can...you...and why are you taking their clothes off!!!!"

White Suit gave her an annoyed look "Hey, do know how much this little operation cost, having me do your bloody job! Bloody Slayers and Hunters slacking off...well sorrryyyyy if I try to recoup my business expenses with some taking from my slain enemies"

"With human hearts and robbing their clothes!!!!!"

He huffed "There's plenty folk pay good coin for these hearts, and what... they're not going to do anything leaving them here now are they? Just going to waste! As to the suits..." he shrugged waving a hand left and right in a so-so gesture "...eh, bit of cleaning, iron them, and I'll sell them off second-hand some demons somewhere. Wolfram & Hart might be good for it now I think about it..."

Buffy stamped her foot, pointing at him "Okay Mister, you are putting those hearts right back where you found them..."

"No, I'm not..." he snapped back frowning at her"...and I even hid these things from the police. If you'll leave me be I'll clear out the bodies and bob's your uncle...none of the local authorities have to come up with another stupid reason. Voices back, we're all happy..."

Riley stepped up beside her, voice calm even as a black suit of a...ewww naked dead and headless creepy demon guy...was stuffed into the seemingly endless satchel-bag "Sir, I have to ask you to cease what you're doing, you have some questions to answer..."

"Hnnnn..." the white-suited man...boy really, her age or just older growled back under his breathtaking the walking-cane into hand and frowning at them "...no, no I don't. I've helped you and everything! That's just being ungrateful you know?"

Buffy pointed at Riley and then back at the white-suited boy "Yeah, what he said! Your coming with us..."

White Suit sighed, shaking his head "I'll have to say no to that gracious offer, your beauty is charming Buffy my dear, but right now I have an audio system to recover, so, adios amigos! Enjoy the cleanup!"

Then he saluted them with his walking cane to handle to his head, snapping the fingers of his free hand...and then vanished as the skeletons and zombies collapsed like puppets with their strings cut...

--

[01.05: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Last round's over...so drink up and get gone ya bums!]

--

[Traders Journal: Day 08]

[Current Dimension]

Earth – Buffy-verse

[Current Location]

Sunnydale Motor Inn, Sunnydale, California, United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

70 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

12 Silver Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

2 X 1 Kilo 24 carat Gold Bar [No Markings]

4 X Jade Stones

1 X Topaz

2 X Emeralds

2 X Rubies

1 X Diamond [uncut]

[Diary Entry]

Been sleeping, had to go all magical avenger, after two low sleep days and nights, so kinda crashed within my warded hotel room to recover. Got all green again, but not much on the necrosis, so yay to that; which was good and, easily enough, fixed. See, strange, weird, ugly, demons decided to steal my voice, and proved invulnerable to direct physical and magical attacks; I'd thoroughly tested this the first night they appeared after all. So, like any good mage, I changed tack and went for more indirect means of attack, and {I really should have realised earlier} sonic attacks. Took a bit to change out my spells the following day, and to buy buys, materials, and then raise my undead minions...but I did it. The Forces of Evil Voice-Stealing have been defeated, my voice is restored, and I have recovered what I can to recoup my losses.

At least before Buffy Summers and her current boyfriend, who isn't a vampire and I don't remember his name, turned up and ruined my victory dance party over the Forces of Evil. See life is short, and since the Power of the Bee Gees harms seemingly invincible demons guys I figured I might as well enjoy myself and intimidate them by showing my lack of fear. They really didn't like me after last night, and now their dead, so I am going for a victory drink tonight in the Demon Bar, largely because they don't ask for ID unlike several other places. See, it's time to leave I think, even if I could try sell a few things I think it's best to avoid the Buffster and her Scooby-Doo Gang for a little while before I come back.

That and my bag of holding is very full, and I really need to get more haulage capacity, and then means more bags of holding. Which, well, leads into little old me needing time and resources;- but mainly time, unbothered time to do ritual work in a nice tidy space, and that isn't here. The heavy military pack might be good for that, if I convert two of the storage areas into astral holding areas and 'armouring' them up a little. Can't have someone blow it up after all and send me spiralling into the Astral Plane. Because that'd be bad of course, so, yeah, getting out of dodge before an angry Vampire Slayer comes after me for...reasons. Having worked with John Constantine, some vampire hunters can be particularly daft, and Buffy Summers probably isn't the best for letting things go.

Where I'm going next is hard to know, all I can do is try narrow down the criteria and 'explore' forward into the ether. It's easier from the Outlands, but jumping back and forth from there would be dangerously exhausting, and only improves things marginally with my inexperience and ritual casting dimension hoping. In all honesty I'll have devote much of a day to get the portal sorted, and this time I'm going to scry or astral-project forward to ensure I have a better idea of what I face. That and I need be more aware of disease, and get a damned a ring of resistance/immunity so I don't have to keep spending so much energy 'healing' myself regularly. One of many things I can't yet afford nor have easy access too sadly.

This was supposed to be an 'easy' first journey, and while it's a good spot I'll return too, it's actually rather high-risk when it comes to magic and various things like demons. At least on the 'spend magic to fight' side of things, though I admit some of it could just be wanderlust. I feel very aimless right now, along being fucked up in body and soul, and a few days to think somewhere else might not be a bad idea. I think the next world should be backwards one, or an empty one, and I can setup shop and do some hunting or some such once I know it's not fatally dangerous anyway.

--

{Willy's Bar, Sunnydale, California}

"...should really sell food here, I'm sure there'd be a supplier willing, or even just get the pizza place sell here direct" I said to 'Willy' the demon in human form that owned the place as I sat drinking my, thankfully demonic not American, quality beer and eating pizza from the box on the bar. I'd ingratiated myself by coming back with a few large pizza's and treated the small number of 'clientele' to said pizzas so I could my own in peace. Only in Sunnydale was 'extra-bloody and raw' showing up as a choice on a pizzeria menu normal; but I wasn't eating that so I should complain.

Willy rubbed his chin "Heh, not a bad idea now you say it, fellas here are enjoyin' it. And many of'em do love a good bit of fried food"

I shrugged "Eh, raw flesh and meat doesn't appeal to all, I, for one, rather like modern amenities and things like decently cooked foods, and pizza in this situation"

"Um, ya, and you looking to supply?"

"Nah..." I replied honestly, waving my pizza slice hand a bit in the negative while the other held a pint "...I'm just a wandering merchant, and my goods come in the more odds and ends, or esoteric in nature, than wholesale right now. Original plan was buy up local and sell on up the chain, but...well, hopefully your clientele find those suits useful, and put those hearts to good use, or good eatin' in some cases"

Selling the, now cleaned, demon suits and half the hearts in a jar had raised a nice little recoupment on funds even after everything so that was that. Demons weren't my favourite thing, but the Sunnydale ones were that mixture of personable and psychopathic that I could handle in small amounts;- also because they were willing to pay too. Wily was a greedy little snitch as best I could tell, but I was moving on, not living here, so it was more beneficial than negative 'talking' to him. After all he'd gotten a buyer for said demon suits and hearts, and I'd gotten enough to consider it a decent exchange with a view towards returning weeks or months down the line maybe.

"Ehh, don't worry about that friend, they'll go over a treat. If you've ever anything in the vein next time you're in town Wily's your man!"

I chuckled drinking down the dark red beer "I will indeed and I'll..."

Then sighed as I felt the approaching disturbance, hearing the movement of chairs as a number of 'patrons' across the room, of the 'raw-meat extra blood' variety dashed for the exit. It was just going to be one of those nights now wasn't it?

I downed the rest of my drink and sighed as a blonder murder-machine strode towards my bar stool, face like a teenage girl whose daddy hadn't given her wanted she wanted. Seemed someone had gone looking for trouble when there were more important things to be done, like Slayer stuff. Demon bartender was gesticulating wildly, but edging away from the Slayer while a number of the 'clientele' were looking on bored, or trying to judge should they follow the vampires out the back door "Slayer...come on, don't...ya'know, I just got repairs done..."

"Pizza?" I asked gesturing at the large pizza box about half full on the bar...

Then found myself grabbed by my labels and dragged closer to a pretty, but grumpy, face "I've been looking for you Mister Dancing Fog Zombies, you are going to come with me"

My hands came up swatting at her arms, that were steel bars really, as I held them unable to move them "No, you're going to let go thank you very much"

"Now you listen here, you've questions to answer or I'm going to kick your butt..."

[Hold Person] ignited as my mouth moved silently as she half-shouted at me before freezing in place and staring at confused as she cut off, mouth not working. My hands slide up along her arms to her hands, slipping my suit lapels out from them as I got off the bar stool, carefully putting on my satchel-bag and taking my disguised sword-cane into hand. Buffy mean while remained standing in the 'grabbing and threatening' pose I'd locked her in as I brushed myself off "Now, as I was saying, no you're not, oh, and you can call me Mister Outis in the future..."

Nodded at Wily the demon bartender and began to fish out some local currency "...and sadly I have to run it seems. Since I'm not a complete savage, and you're such a fine looking woman Miss Slayer, Willy my man make her up your best cocktail! My treat as they say, plus a tip for my good bartender, and pizza's yours too, all that threatening must have worked up quite a hunger after all!"

The demon, and the other patrons were eying the frozen girl warily "Is she...uhh..."

I waved it off "Oh, she's fine, she'll be moving in moments so don't get ideas fellas, she might have a cute butt, but is also a bundle of Slayer-demon-murder. Anyway..."

Gesturing with my walking-cane I strolled towards the exit, activating my invisibility spell, then a teleportation as I prepared for the Hold Person to drop the second I was gone "...see you round fellas, I've places to be, things to buy, things to sell, you know the way, Deals to be Made"

Then snapped my fingers and jumped to a space a mile distant. Being overdramatic could be fun sometimes I found...

--

[01.06: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Walk through the portal...into an empty land]

Portals, or Dimensional Breaches, are a funny thing, and in truth a little beyond my current slightly damaged knowledge base. Oh Karguk had understood, Planar travel and the like, and Sean too through his summoning, but this was what I'd gotten from Sigil was more...organised Planeswalking in a sense. It was complicated, no quick and easy 'push button there you are' as I sat in meditation for hours as I drew carefully on the local Ley-Lines rather than us my own strength.

The chalk outline hummed and buzzed silently, energy flowing in and materialising to a weak spot on an unknown spot on a distant ...Earth hopefully, and I pressed on with my Will and my Soul. It burned, but the breach opened before my will and I allowed a portion of my consciousness to slide through to what seemed like empty city streets. My senses did not scream disease or threats, instead that it was liveable, with no feel of Powers nearby, or any seeming threat. Yet it was strange, there was life, a lot of it, but seemingly no human life...

'Eyes open, through the breach, barrier up' I told myself opening my eyes once again and beginning to stretch aching legs and arms. Meditating for long periods of time like that did tend to have that effect and I winced as I rested on my walk-cane before moving forward to the 'Door' I'd created and gripped the handle. Others probably had their own way of doing it, but my Will and Power materialised the breach as Wooden Door with Handle, and I gripped and opened it into a smooth motion...ensuring the immediate area was clear as I stepped through into a sunlit alley or street. One I'd seen in my astral form, and it was clear as I'd seen; quickly I 'closed' the door, watching it vanish beyond a faint shimmering outline in the brickwork of the wall.

"Lock" I commanded softly as I stood there Invisible, baring entry to anyone both myself for the next hour when it, the spell, would end 'naturally' so to speak. There was a need to make sure I didn't completely fuck myself by randomly jumping into a lethal location and then trapping myself while tried to spend most of day reopening a portal. It could still happen, but I quickly set the countdown on my digital watch and began to pad silently out of the alleyway and onto the...

'Every much abandoned street' I thought to myself standing just inside the alley and looking at the cars all sitting idle, silent, and dust covered on the streets. Everything was just...abandoned looking I found gazing around and searching for dangers. What's more there was no sound of a city, yes dogs barking somewhere off nearby, and other animal life, but...just silence, rust and dust. That opened up the potential of undead or viruses, or simply war forcing abandoning of the city...

So I carefully triggered a Flight spell, feeling my myself raising up into the sky slowly at first, then flying alone over the streets and seeing more and more of the same. I wasn't a fan of it, the unnerving 'look down' view with plane or parachute, but I'd self-hypnotised before and I'd done it again with the triggering of the spell I could move around just above the nearby buildings. You really didn't want to do the 'invisible superman' act when planes and helicopters could come in fast and furious, or in a more advanced work with other air-mobile traffic available.

'Okay...okay...this all looks very 80s or 90s, and those posters are all very American like with the last dimension...'I paused mid-flight and read a weather damaged billboard '...and I'm still in California apparently, San Francisco from the looks of it. Now, what the hell happened here to have nobody around?'

I did a wide circuit for twenty-five minutes, and there was nothing; no people, no planes, no distant movement, no monsters hiding from the sunlight in the buildings and shadows as best I could tell. No bones or bodies either worryingly, even if there were no undead lurking about, nor any sign of battle or panic. There were car crashes and burn damage from fires...but almost as if everyone just vanished between one moment and the next, and, after half an-hour, finding a functioning radio, found nothing seemingly on the airwaves either. Some newspapers, indicating the last date on them was 22 March 1995, behind glass, and general 'best before dates' on some tins hinted this had happened somewhere in the past few months, to year and a bit...

'Yeah...but what happened exactly' I mused descending down outside large, obviously abandoned, hotel as I decided to stay in this dimension. The immediate area was as clear as I could make of it, and the whole point was to come to a 'base of operations' plane for a few days at least so magic-work could occur. Feral animals...seemed to be the primary danger for the here and now; I cast Detect Magic and Detect Life as I entered into the hotel lobby after opening the doors then shutting them behind me as I drew one of the Glocks and a flashlight from my bag...

{Seven hours, fourteen minutes, later}

Prestidigitation was a glorious cantrip as I 'cleaned' out the dust and rotted smell from the hotel kitchens now I was sure the place was secure, and the doors now barred, and barricaded. Something had happened to this world after all, something bad even if everything seemed fine, and detection revealed the surviving food was good to eat. Hell, even the back-up generators here in the hotel still worked once I'd 'restored' the fuel to quasi-functionality; the lights now on despite night falling soon showing that point. There was still plenty of work to do to establish a secure base here, but I'd sealed off enough of an area for me to magically defend myself, or at least have warning of an attack.

'Okay, kitchen clean, bar clean, bedroom clean...I think that's enough work for one day' I thought to myself with a tired sigh as I used a can-opener to open up some canned food and throw it into a saucepan over the functional hotel cookers. They were a mix of gas and electric, and I had gas to use while the generators to have the lights on in this limited part of the hotel. A thankfully hidden part as I'd made sure to avoid having power on in the whole hotel and potentially draw attention to my location from afar; I'd even got the television in the bar functioning. Not there was anything but static on it, not even an Emergency Channel; which, after my 'flight' outwards indicated this at least State or Continent wide in effect.

"Well, I have dinner at least, and fancy wine to drink with it...so there's that I suppose" I told nobody but myself as I finished the last of the cooking and placed the spam and salted meat based meal onto a plate. That was the problem; fresh meat, with freezers gone, rotten fast and all that was left was the specifically sealed tins or other long last preserves. My magic could cheat a little of course, but while the place was relatively well stocked it was all rather 'survival rations' leftovers rather than award winning cuisine. So I walked back out to the empty hotel bar-restaurant and took a seat just behind the bar so I had a good view of the place, with my back to the drinks counter.

"Maybe a Rapture world?" I wondered to myself uncorking the bottle of red wine and filling up a glass for myself "...everyone though? No. It was really swift whatever happened, stuff was just...left as if in use..."

In a way it was more useful to *know* what had caused a disaster or horror than not know, even if this world was practically a goldmine if it was, in fact, devoid of humans. Well humans and any potential horror that might have gotten rid of said humans off the planet suddenly and swiftly. Thing was, as a trader, I now had access to 100% profit goods right now, and a 'quiet' place to spend a few days, or weeks, creating my bags of holding and 'settle' myself inside. I'd have to do some exploration tomorrow, once I'd spent a few more hours securing my 'safe-house' first of course, and begin prepping a ritual so I could activate it rather than have to rely on prepping should a danger arise.

'You're getting nervous, about potentially nothing' I reminded myself eating down the rice and then rinsing down with a bit of red wine. Sure there could be a cosmic horror, but I'd just come from several dimensions of cosmic horrors, so that wasn't exactly an extra level of danger now was it?

Locating a nearby military base was probably my best option for finding out more, military usually being more aware than the general public, along with maybe a library or two as well. The military base came first as I could grab weapons there as well, assuming it was accessible at least, and that would both help me defend myself as well as having things to trade later. I missed having enchanted heavy weaponry and armed support like SHIELD to fall back on, or even just government and organisational support of some kind. No matter, there'd be good gear there once I managed to make it passed the security systems...

--

[01.07: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door...]

--

[Traders Journal: Day 19]

[Current Dimension]

Earth – devoid of Humanity; Alternate History of some sort.

[Current Location]

Benedict Arnold Naval Base, San Francisco, *former* United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

Let's just go with really good for the moment shall we?

Largely as dead world, nobody is stopping me walking into banks and military bases to get things.

[Diary Entry]

I've been here a little over a week, and I've still no gods damned idea what the hell happened here about a year ago as best I can tell. Everyone just disappeared mid whatever they were doing, from librarians, to fast-food workers, to the sailors and guards down at the naval base. All I can be glad of was that no-one had a dead-mans switch for their nuclear arsenals and thereby making everything radioactive as well as a complete and unnerving mystery. I've driven off a few feral dogs that came too near, but that's basically the height of dangers as even the animals in the zoo are long dead, beyond one or two that might have escaped. Alchemical resources, and potential undead minions at least I guess?

Being on my own is fine for now, but not something I'd like in the long-term despite the benefit of being able to raid this place. No matter, I've relocated my 'safehouse' to the nearby naval base, because there are long-term military grade generators, and more importantly a functioning security camera system. At least once I got past the defences and managed to use my magic to crack the systems; SHIELD experience and dealing with US military for the win there. In a world where they don't have magic, and don't have people inside to guard against it, with systems down, I managed to reactivate it under my terms about two days ago. It's fully stocked for disasters, and now it's a matter of using certain parts of the facility to let me work on a bag of holding, and general storage.

Now in that regards I've got a plan, not a great plan, nor a bad one, but a general one; I need a specially made bag of holding setup like Other-Me's Magic Murder Bag. Unfortunately I can't really do that on my own, not for a multi-pocket-dimension armoured and magically defended design. In the end I'd governmental support for that, along with years before that to get the basics done – and I'd rather not spend years here, on my own, or taking the chance of a bullet breaching the two I'm working on and sending me to the Astral Plane. No, the plan here and now is to spend a week or two getting two new bags up and running;- and then fill them with gold, diamonds, jewellery and the like. Basically anything I can sell in Sigil and then I can go to the Guildhalls or to a Manufactorum and get help creating a metal-tray design as a mobile shop and storage essentially.

Sadly that will cost a gods-damned fortune, as even 'standard' dimensional holders can go for thousands of gold coins. So a design like I wanted, even with me helping in the process actively, is going to cost tens of thousands, possible hundreds, to pull off. Between what I'm going to be able to carry with me from immediate looting of just what I can see laid outside in San Francisco this is affordable, though I'm going to have to be very, very, careful at turning up with such sudden wealth.

I'd rather not get murdered by demons or angels out in the Outlands by word getting around of Rich McRich, on his own, or them following me here on a return journey to loot some more. Leaving here and returning to the Outlands and re-entering Sigil then is the easy part, though I still have to lay low there as well for the simple reason of Other-Me and SHIELD. Sure the Shrouded Lord has said I'm sorta-okay, but I know Me, as I am Me, and for the Greater Good and all that. Give it a few weeks, and I don't appear as a potential supervillain to them and I'll be fine, but here and now it's a minor danger. Minor as I doubt he and SHIELD really want to risk Sigil and dimensional bullshit like I am right now.

In terms of cash here the US Dollars aren't quite the same as in Buffy land, or on my, well Other-Me's, United States; seems Benedict Arnold was a hero to them here at the end, and many notes are different. So there goes that plan of simply looting paper money for use in alternate Americas;- it's only a very, very, minor issue as I've mountains of small jewellery to fill my bags with, along with gold bars and the like. I've been linking with the local crows to check for things, and even just a quick 'fly-by' for myself has filled my current back of holding to the brim even after empty out my camping supplies and the like.

Oh, and that's with sticking to the easy to grab and store stuff rather than bulky things like electronics and the like. As to right now, I've setup shop in the main security room, moved in a bed and all, so that I can keep watch on the cameras when I'm resting and the like. Not ideal as I'm going to be down in the machine shop and various other spots, but I have managed to get the outer perimeter alarms up and running, and I'll spend some time placing wards tomorrow and the day after. Yes, yes, no people around, but that's whats keeping me on edge after all – where the fuck did they all go?

--

[Traders Journal: Day 22]

[Current Dimension]

Earth – Empty Earth.

[Current Location]

Benedict Arnold Naval Base, San Francisco, *former* United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

70 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Bufy-verse]

Enough Gold Bars and Jewellery that I haven't counted it all yet

[Diary Entry]

Melted down my silver coins, the silver cutlery sets and others various bits of pure silver down in the machine shop with some 'borrowed' equipment today. Basically I've been forging more bullets for the revolver, as well as starting the process of enchanting some minor spell-craft onto it. The setup here isn't the best, but it's time I've got, and there are enough alchemical basics, for a science magic-less world, for me to make magical silver bullets. Going with a combination of Blessed Runic Silver Bullets and Order Infused Explosive ones for the here and now, and I'm damn well getting Necrotic Organic ones made when I get back Sigil in case I confront things like I faced on Buffy-Earth, or things like Kryptonians or Saiyans.

Yes I could try enchant up the local weapons, which are pretty damned good versus the stuff the US military back 'home' on SHIELD-Earth used, but I've already got magical bullets for the revolver so this is easier for the here and now. I'd reckon the slightly better military gear relates to the lack of super-beings and magic, though I think the Cold War ending in the eighties here did retard it compared to a distant first past life. No matter, there's only one of me right now so the fully stocked armoury only gets so usefully; though I have pulled out body armour and various survival gear of course. Can't give up the option to replace the older second-hand, and less 'advanced' stuff I'd bought immediately after being exiled.

Work on my two new bags of holding continue apace, time consuming and tiring, so I'm going to take a break tomorrow and do a look around and see what I can loot. Or, more honestly, mark down on a map what'd be useful to come back for after I've gotten a proper trader's setup to haul everything I want to grab and turn into cash. Cash turns into magical items and knowledge, and that turns into finding a way to live longer by fixing whatever is wrong with me. The whole tainted corrupted clone thing I mean. So this is a good start, so I'm just waiting for whatever eldritch horror that did this to send me running and thereby lose access to all these shinies after finding; - because the universe is a dick like that.

Anyway, that's other day done. Bye for now.

--

{In the skies above San Francisco}

I re-raised the binoculars to my eyes and looked again...

'Yeah, that is person' I confirmed for myself as watched a man in ragged travel clothes marching along the main road, backpack on his back as he or she trudged forward. Now the question was why were they still here, and were they a danger to me?

Appearances could be deceiving after all, and there were life drainers out there in the multiverse that looked perfectly harmless...

'So I go hiding and then get out of dodge, or do I take the chance and say hello?' I wondered for a time, then sighed and descended to ground as I flew silently towards the figure. Cowardice really shouldn't be the way to go, and I had a teleport ready back at the military base should the treat be there. I needed to find out what happened here after all, and if there were more survivors of whatever it was that had happened to this particular Earth. So I flew towards the figure as I brought myself down to the road and moved to sit up on a nearby abandoned car bonnet in my, well former someone else's, combat fatigues and waited after taking out a sandwich to chew on from my backpack.

I could see the figure distant, though they hadn't noticed me as yet it seem, just walking forward slowly as I brought up the binoculars again with my free hand to keep track. It was probably best not to rush up, airborne at that, and go 'hey, hello, how'd your world die by the way?' after the all. So I sat, waiting, with my gun strapped across my chest and walking-cane coming out of my pack and into my hand as I put the binoculars away. It was a pleasant enough day, not too crushingly hot, but I disliked having to wait in the sun as I noted whoever it was had taken note of me and was jogging forward.

'Well, let's see what we have here' I mused sliding off the bonnet of the car and stretching out a moment before walking calmly towards the coming person after burning diamond to cast a hardening spell on myself. With availability of resources right now I could afford to do that, and it was best to be on the safe side if this was either a dangerous entity, or simply some crazy survivalist. He, and it a beardy long haired hippy looking human male, was rushing towards me with a crazed look on his face while clutching the heavy camping backpack with his arms oddly.

"You...you..." he half-shouted, half-gasped as he brought an arm up and pointed of me a few metres away, edging forward slowly and carefully, arm out reached towards me as he did so "...are...please...are you...are you...really"

"Hey, hey, no touching" I answered swatting away his hand with my cane hand causing him to stare at the hand it'd just swatted, falling back a step from me "I'm friendly, but personal space please"

"You're real! You're actually real!" he shouted and I left him his few seconds of gibble-gabble as he took his pack off and sat back on a nearby abandoned car, staring in disbelief "You. Are. Real. I'm not alone... I didn't kill everyone..."

Okay, that little muttering caught my attention...

I frowned, avoiding falling into a defensive stance, and studied the hippie-hobo before me "I'm sorry...what?"

'Oh God he's babbling' I thought as he gushed out...something I didn't quite grasp before I said "Okay, okay...now, I'm not from around here actually, I'm a...dimensional traveller so to speak. So, hello! Now, what's your name first?"

"I'm Quinn...Quinn Mallory, I'm...I'm a scientist...you..." he got out sitting back on the car, staring at me "...a dimensional traveller?"

"Uh-huh, Trader in fact Quinn? Can I call you Quinn?" I replied carefully ensuring my weapons were ready to go, or I needed to flee as he nodded "Good, good, pleasure to meet you. Now, what's this business about killing everyone?"

"I...the experiment...and a flash of light...me...and...vanished" came out in another stream of consciousness that indicated this man had no gods-damned idea what he'd done. I'd found my very own Mad Scientist, who'd either killed everyone on this earth or, the more likely option the more he babbled out what had happened, sent them all to another dimension of parallel world. Shades of the Child's Crisis split SHIELD and the Justice League had dealt with, except with technology and a man that'd clearly used Wisdom as a dump stat. I sighed and began to talk; best to see what could be done here and now...

--

[01.08: The Inter-Dimensional Peddler]

[Have Mad Scientist, will travel...from the world he depopulated by accident]

Quinn Mallory had settled down somewhat after a night's hard drinking, babbling about killing the planet, and then sleeping it all off. I suspect my own revealing my magic along with inter-dimensional travel all the other insanity had sent him on a bit of 'this isn't real' spiral that'd I'd let him sleep it off as I'd gotten up early and done a survey of the naval base perimeter. As usual there was nothing, not surprising based on what Mr. Mallory had told me had happened, but it was a good habit to get into I'd found in past lives, so out I'd gone to check with cameras and binoculars.

It was a rainy day, and I was glad to get back indoors and shake off the rain-jacket and get to cooking up something to eat. Beef and Seagull stew seemed to be the option for the day, there was a decent amount of preserved ingredients in the various long-term stores and some 'hunting' I'd done with one of the base's sniper rifles. Turns out I'd inherited that skill and training from Other-Me at least, maybe I was even a better shot, so that was a good thing and helped get away from all the preserved food. No matter, I had a near crazed survivor to brief, and then a timeline to get moving on now that I nearly had my two carefully crafted bags of holding were just about ready to be packed with all the gold and other shiny junk I wanted to sell.

So when Mr. Mallory finally came into the cafeteria of the base, clearly showered and shaved, dressed in local military fatigues like myself, I'd prepared a decent sized pot of said stew and was sitting down at a table with a bottle of water. The coffee was brewing as well, and it was good compared to living out in the wilds that'd likely happen from time to time in the future, or if this had been a fallen world with active threats running around. Mr. Mallory retrieved his own bowl of stew, and a can of locally made Coke, and took a seat across from me just as I was finishing up my own; placing it down carefully on the table and letting out a sigh, then gazing up at the ceiling a moment.

"So...you're an inter-dimensional space wizard?"

"Yup, sort of"

He started picking at his food "And travel from dimension to dimension trading"

"Well, that's the plan, this is one of...well, my first explorations. My plan right now is to retrieve valuable materials and then return to an extra-dimensional?...multi-versal?...place?...called Sigil, and then try get some decent equipment like my bags..."

"Bigger on the inside...like the Tardis?"

I blinked "Oh, you've Doctor Who on this Earth as well?"

He looked up at me, swallowing down a spoonful of the vegetables and broth "Uh? Oh, yeah, British series...yours had it?"

I sighed "Yeah...though, yeah...more crazy-crazy sounding stuff. My home dimension was a superhero one, Superman, Batman, Wonder..."

"Now you're just bullshitting me!"

I shook my head looking awkward "Oh, I wish, lets just say...humanity seems to have to have some sort of collective subconscious that must see other realities. Frightening honestly, so, yeah, it feels weird seeing comic-books laying around reflecting people I've actually met and interacted with. Oh, yeah, you do travel with me, and we do hit a Story-verse, try not to mention the pornography related to characters, or treat them as they are their fictional variant. Many of said 'vision-stories' can seem as seen through a foggy mirror"

He paused to consider that, rubbing his chin "Quantum echoes maybe...that'd imply that...probabilities..."

I let him ramble a minute or so about as I finished my stew and relax "Well, how it works I'm not sure of exactly, and some few people study it into insanity trying to grasp it. So from my position I'm offering you an out from this realm, and perhaps a way to figure out how to reverse what you did..."

Mr. Mallory didn't quite slump, but he stared down at the table as he paused eating "It can't be...tried everything..."

"No, you tried the extent of science, and till last night you were sure you'd vanished everyone out of existence, so banishment is rather different than killing them all outright. Maybe they went to the realms of tits and honey, maybe they did all died in the realms of fire...you don't know, I don't know, but do you really want to stay here alone dwelling on it?"

While I wasn't overly desirous of a travelling companion, one that was a bit unhinged, I don't think I'd like to just leave this dude here as the last man on Earth, slowly wasting away till he died a lonely death from an injury, or simply killed himself. There were options after all, from dumping in Sigil, to looking for the next Earth over where ID's could easily faked and such. I suspect he could build a dimensional device, if he could get past the arrogance maybe, as he'd clearly built one...and fucked over his planet with it. Because Mad Scientist...

'Yeah, I'm a master of bad ideas now aren't I?' I thought as I stood up to put the bowl in the sink and went to retrieve a mug of coffee "Can't promise you'll like the destinations, but they seem better options than staying here"

"No, staying...I can't stay here...too empty"

I shrugged as I picked up the coffee pot "Then we'll sort something, I plan on returning here..."

"To steal everything..."

"Now, now, it's more collecting items no-one is using and selling them..." I retorted "...as magically travelling doesn't come cheap. So this world is going to fuel my business start up, and yours too if you're smart about it Quinn. Science isn't cheap, nor easy, for one Mister Scientist and no-one will know you on these other realms...barring a double of yours did something there of course"

He frowned at that "That...is true, and I could learn so much..."

Then glanced at me "What are other places like? Dimensions I mean?"

I walked back over shaking my head "That I can't say for sure. The last one I came from was basically like your Earth...on the surface, as out of the public eye demons, vampires, angels, and other supernatural things existed as well. My...well, my original point...was an Earth with people with special abilities, magic, genetic, and advanced science...so..."

Then shrugged just before I sat down "Sigil? It's called the City of Doors because it has portals to basically everywhere in the multi-verse supposedly. Centre of it supposedly, but there are a few places with that claim as well, but everything and anything can be there. Creatures from your fantasy novels, horror movies...you'll see primitive looking barbarians walking side by side on the street with aliens with technology so beyond our own it comes off as magic"

Quinn seemed to think over that "So...Superman in a loin-cloth and Varnuk the Destroyer on the same street?"

I paused "I've no idea who Varnuk the Destroyer is, but yes, that would be the general gist of things of I'm assuming he or she is an advanced alien analogue. So be very careful who you offend, or start a brawl with, as you never know who's a squishy humanoid like ourselves, and who's a super empowered dragon pretending to be one. Or a robot...etc, etc, etc"

"And magic is real...I'm not going crazy?"

"Well you could be, so could I, but as I showed yesterday, yes it does, at least numerous phenomena called magic for ease of understanding. There are dimensions where when one says 'Science' they literally mean it in the way your world, and my past one, says 'Magic' due to development and history. So, try not to go mad from the revelation and all that"

He sniffed in irritation at that "I am a Scientist, such small thoughts won't unbalance me when the knowledge of the universe awaits!"

"Hah...I hate to say it, but you'll fit right in with some there" I muttered taking a sip from the coffee "Suffice it to say I'm open to a business arrangements with a man of your talents once you've gotten a better idea of what's on the other side of the portal"

"Not now?"

I shook my head "No, that'd just be bad from a long-term business prospective if you thought I'd swindled you with unfair knowledge or coercion. Right now I'm basically an inter-dimensional goods peddler at best, so up and front and honest is the best way to be I say..."

--

[Trader's Journal: Day 27]

[Current Dimension]

Empty Earth, Quinn Mallory's home dimension {Best to start numbering them soon actually}

[Current Location]

Benedict Arnold Naval Base, San Francisco, *former* United States of America

[Current Cash Reserves]

70 Gold Coins [Sigil[High Quality]

932 United States Dollars [Buffy-verse]

1000 Pounds Weight of [2 Packs worth] of 1 Kilo Gold Bars, Diamonds, other jewels and jewellery

[Diary Entry]

Just about ready to depart after completing, and filling, my two bags of holding. Took a lot out of me to get the enchantments right, and time-consuming as always, but now their completed I've begun to stuff them with whatever I've collected from the nearby area. Returning to the Outlands, then to Sigil, is my best option for getting a 'carry-shop' setup to return here and fill with goods and materials, or simply weapons to defend myself. Nothing too series, after all what use is a ICBM to a one, maybe two man, travelling salesman setup?

So it's everything I can carry that's light, portable, and valuable that's gone into the bags. Oh, and I've even got a second pair of hands in Quinn to carry one along with things like some extra weapons. Not much, but enough for him to live if he decides to go his own path, but the little collection I've built up here in this merry little naval base. Anyway, without support staff it's not like I can really make use of all that's just lying around to claim. For now I've to make sure this location isn't immediately revealed, as an Empty Earth devoid of threats is a gold mine all its own.

Now Mister Mallory isn't exactly the most stable fellow, but then again most of the people Other-Me worked with ran around in leotards and spandex so he's beating that bar already. He's handled the whole me existing along with magic better than some, Kid Flash to name one off the top of my head, and his natural arrogance and self-confidence seems to shrug off many things that mentally shatter others. Yay for that I guess?

With much of the ritual-work already done when I arrived, spell bound to a scroll, and the crystals charged I can go whenever I like so I'm thinking tomorrow morning after a good night's rest and feed. Least that way we can do the arduous journey to the Door, then into Sigil proper so I can get setup in an Inn for a few days while I figure out where to get my trader's equipment custom-made. I suspect it'll take some time to do that, but with what I've got here I should be able to afford a decent stay in a better inn for that time period.

Considering Quinn's disposition that's probably for the best as a sudden appearance in the Hive or Lower Wards would be potentially fatal for him, and me, this early on. That's the danger of a find like this and picking up a travelling companion; things are outside your control, and loose words can start fights. But that's just the way things are, and if you don't take risks sometimes, you don't get anywhere.

Having been here on my own for a few days, and the stopover in Buffyland I think I need to consider having some support if I can find a few trustworthy souls out there. It's one of those things when you're forced on your own, and sleeping on your own on a 'Dead' world – strange the simple things that can get to you. Especially when the pains come and your flesh warps in the midnight hours when your body can't handle your powers 'over-use'.

So, my bags are packed, we're ready to go. Now to get some rest I think.

--