does not anymore work

[campanas]

Here, in a place where she is quite an unexpected sight, is:

an eight year old girl with brown-flecked white wings, looking dismayed and lost.

with Prime (Aestrix)

with Edie and Emily (Maggie)

with Gloria (Maggie)

with Gren (Rockeye)

Comments

[campanas]

Okay then. Pen reads the words, and continues following the person.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

When the stranger opens the door, someone immediately inside says, "You can't bring kids in here."
"Take a look at her," the first person says. "I'm not going to try to feed her alcohol, I want to introduce her to the Countess, because he--heck if I know what to do with a kid with wings."
"...I'll see if I can fetch her," the door person says.
He disappears, and after a few minutes comes back with a woman dressed in black and red and lace.
"I ran across a random kid with wings. You're the person weird shi--stuff happens to, I figured you could deal with it."
"You could stand to be a little more sensitive about it," the apparent Countess chides. "Hi, kiddo, do you know where your parents are?"

[campanas]

"Yes."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Where are they?"

[campanas]

"The Eyrie. Samaria."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Samaria like in the Middle East, or...?"

[campanas]

"No, is world."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...World like a planet or world like a universe?"

[campanas]

"Both. Also continent. And country."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Okay. How did you get here?"

[campanas]

"Door. Is breaking! Supposed going home but here."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Some kind of transdimensional portal...? We shouldn't be clogging up the doorway. Do you want to come back to my office so we can discuss this without being in anyone's way?"

[campanas]

"Okay."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

The Countess leads Pen across what appears to be a dance floor, past a bar, and through a door on the other side of the room. This door opens out to a fairly normal hallway, and a few doors down there is a door with the name Gloria Scott written on it, and "The Countess" surrounded by doodles of bats written on a piece of paper and taped underneath.

[campanas]

"Bats!" observes Pen.

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Oh, yes, that was some of my employees trying to be funny," Gloria says, smiling fondly.

[campanas]

"Why is funny?"

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Ah...well, I'm a vampire, and there's a popular misconception that vampires turn into bats," Gloria says. "That's where the 'Countess' bit comes from, too--there's a tie in popular culture between the idea of vampires and the rank of Count."

[campanas]

"I don't thinking either kind vampires do turn bats."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"...My kind of vampire does not turn into bats either. What kinds of vampire are you familiar with?"

[campanas]

"Is Sunshine kind and Aurum kind."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"We have thirteen kinds of vampire here, but they're arranged in classes--it's not an arbitrary system, it's objectively better to be a higher class than a lower one."

[campanas]

"That a lot kinds."

[maggie_of_the_owls]

"Most of them aren't very easy to distinguish--a seven is a little bit stronger and faster and so on than an eight, but not by a huge amount."

[campanas]

Nod nod. "Think only one kind vampires each Sunshine and Aurum, but, Aurum have half vampires and more hybrid kinds."