The Multiverse Inn

[lurker]

The door to the Inn opened and Sarah entered with a stranger. He was tall and slim. He was dressed in clothes that were a little bit normal and a little bit elegant. He looked deadly serious, but when he noticed the non-humans, a flash of fear and surprise appeared on his face, but he quickly regained control and looked like a real professional again.

"Hello, I'm Telli Mente, an experienced specialist in the supernatural." The stranger introduced himself. He looked around the room. "Lots of intelligent species here. What's your problem?"
"The interior of my house has turned into this room," Sarah said. "Will you help me get into my house?"
"Hmm... It seems that the space-time continuum collapsed here, creating radiation rays that gradually emanated the interior of the house into a hyperspace tesseract, causing a umbrasonic dislocation between the two spheres..." Telli mumbled. He was gradually falling into a panic, because he was slowly running out of professional-sounding names. "No problem! Just pay me 4,000 Darra to reverse the process! I will perform a mesmeric disintegration that will return both places to the right dimensions!"

Blessed Guts approaches Telli Mente. "Oh, another yoomie! Howdy! Name's Blessed Guts!" He attempts the traditional greeting, but his outer thumb appears to fall off while patting his abdomen.

"Ah, Don'tcha worry 'bout that. It's made outta wood. He re-attaches it. "This'un's made outta wood, too." He removes his right rear inner thumb, holding it up to the two humans. Most of the prosthetic is made of wood stained to match his earth-toned fur. There's an iron socket at one end that attaches to the paw. The distal end is tipped by a sharp iron claw, and the spot on the underside where the digital pad would be is coated with some sort of tree gum. "I can't move 'em much, but sure beats not havin' 'em. The monks made 'em fer me. They keep tellin' me not ta play with blastin' powder. They says I only got twenty two digits left and they can't replace 'em all."

He puts his thumb back and looks up at Telli Mente's Adam's apple. "Ya got a funny bump on yer neck. How come Sarah don't got one?"

Doug looks over at his fellow monkey fox. "That's an Adam's apple. Male humans have them but females don't."

"So yer a feller, then," Blessed Guts says.

Doug walks up. He notices the mismatch between Telli Mente's nervous odor and his tone of voice, but given all the weird stuff Shimmering Water has seen at this inn he's hesitant to call him out. "Hello," Doug says. "I see you've come here with our friend Sarah. You seem to know a lot about this place."

Blessed Guts pipes up. "Maybe ya can tell me how I can get back home, too? I got me some important business ta tend to."

[Egerius]

“Here we go again,” Argenzu sighs. Both he and Cynewulf had been listening in on Doug's characterisation of humans, though they didn't want to disturb him. Rather, they kept a record of it, in silence, on their own computers.
While Cynewulf is an excellent typist, Argenzu prefers his transcription in hand-written form, for which he had bent the screen of his laptop further out, until he could write in the screen comfortably.

“I guess you'll just have to wait your turn”, Cynewulf announced. “I can't drive you home. At least time flows much more slowly here, so you won't miss out on anything at home”, he explained. Argenzu nodded.
“Anyway, Sarah, Telli: What's the literature like where you come from?”

[TBPO]

Blessed Guts approaches Telli Mente. "Oh, another yoomie! Howdy! Name's Blessed Guts!" He attempts the traditional greeting, but his outer thumb appears to fall off while patting his abdomen.

[...]

Blessed Guts pipes up. "Maybe ya can tell me how I can get back home, too? I got me some important business ta tend to."

"Oh, perfect Aliens, I see you have the same problem," Telli says, shaking Blessed Guts' hand. "Your homes have been transformed into this filthy room by the Devourer!" He put as much hatred as he could into the last word. "Fortunately, I am equipped with the wisdom of the supreme Absolute, the benevolent God, the inscrutable Light, thanks to which I am able to fight the filthy spells of the Devourer!" He prayed that he would find the right religion. "Unfortunately, nothing is free..." He said with mock regret; in reality, he was relieved that he had gotten away with his nonsense. "The ingredients needed for this are terribly expensive, so if you want to return to your homes, you will have to pay. Do you have any money?" He said casually; in reality, he was hoping for some easy money...

Meanwhile, Sarah, standing behind Telli, tried to look as incredulous and skeptical as she could.

“Anyway, Sarah, Telli: What's the literature like where you come from?”

"Well, literature is normal... There are poems, there are novels, there are hada... Nothing out of the ordinary." Sarah said, then she went to Cynewulf and whispered in his ear: "I don't know if Telli can be trusted. He sounds like a con artist..."

[lurker]

"Fortunately, I am equipped with the wisdom of the supreme Absolute, the benevolent God, the inscrutable Light, thanks to which I am able to fight the filthy spells of the Devourer!

"Well, gee," says Blessed Guts. "I can't say I ever hearda this 'devourer' before. The hearthkeepers never said nothin' about it. My sires and dams, neither." Despite his misgivings, Blessed Guts seems receptive.

As Telli Mente talks, Doug lifts his lip, exposing his sharp carnivorous teeth. "What blasphemies do you breathe?" he rumbles under his breath, his suspicion growing.

"

"The ingredients needed for this are terribly expensive, so if you want to return to your homes, you will have to pay. Do you have any money?"

"Ha!" Doug barks, unleashing the righteous fury previously held back by his son. "You filthy simoniac, you would sell such counterfeit spiritual goods for your own profit!"

Blessed Guts starts at Doug's fiery outburst. "It's all cloaca butter," Doug growls, intertwining his tail with Blessed Guts' and dragging him away from the human, lest the soul of the future martyr be stained by the man's tainted words.

Doug snaps at Sarah, perhaps more forcefully than is warranted. "If you don't trust him, then why did you drag him here?"

He drags Blessed Guts back into the mass router room. "Come on. I may not know how mass routers work, but I can sure RTFM with the best of 'em." He opens a small drawer near the base of the router and hefts out a thick spiral-bound tome titled "Mass router emergency procedures", then begins skimming through its pages.

[WizardOfWar]

A Man, about 6''6 stumbles into the inn, His skin is a pure egg-shell white, and he has no distinguishable facial features.[ He is wearing a fully green suit with a black tie and brown khaki's/I]

?!
What in the bloody...
He stares at every body with confusion and slight fear





(edited, Forgot to include his clothing in the description)

[lurker]

A Man, about 6''6 stumbles into the inn, His skin is a pure egg-shell white, and he has no distinguishable facial features.[ He is wearing a fully green suit with a black tie and brown khaki's/I]

?!
What in the bloody...
He stares at every body with confusion and slight fear





(edited, Forgot to include his clothing in the description)

((Clarification request: by “no distinguishable facial features “ do you mean his face is otherwise normal but unremarkable, or do you mean he lacks a mouth, nose, and eyes a la Slender Man?))

[WizardOfWar]

A Man, about 6''6 stumbles into the inn, His skin is a pure egg-shell white, and he has no distinguishable facial features.[ He is wearing a fully green suit with a black tie and brown khaki's/I]

?!
What in the bloody...
He stares at every body with confusion and slight fear





(edited, Forgot to include his clothing in the description)

((Clarification request: by “no distinguishable facial features “ do you mean his face is otherwise normal but unremarkable, or do you mean he lacks a mouth, nose, and eyes a la Slender Man?))

((Slender man, here is an image I made ))

[lurker]

A Man, about 6''6 stumbles into the inn, His skin is a pure egg-shell white, and he has no distinguishable facial features.[ He is wearing a fully green suit with a black tie and brown khaki's/I]

?!
What in the bloody...
He stares at every body with confusion and slight fear





(edited, Forgot to include his clothing in the description)

Doug peers out of the Mass Router room at the newcomer. His uncanny height, pale skin, and featureless face cause him to shudder. He knows what humans look like, and that isn't human. Blessed Guts, however, has no benchmark for what a human ought to look like.

"Ya didn't tell me yoomies can look like that," Blessed Guts says to Doug.

"Th-they don't look like that," Doug stammers.

Blessed Guts eagerly prances out to meet yet another starfolk.

Doug gives vent to an anserine hiss. "If that Telli Mente tells you anything, you don't listen!" he says, unwilling to enter the main hall with the new arrival.

Blessed Guts approaches. "Yer sure a tall feller." he coils his tail around a nearby table leg for balance and stands upright on his hind feet, extending his back legs to gain as much height as possible. Even at his tallest the newcomer dwarfs him. His remaining eye flashes as he scrutinizes the newcomer under different light spectra, and his wet nose wiggles as he imbibes the aroma of another starfolk. Blessed Guts does the usual greeting gesture, patting himself on the abdomen twice with the left forepaw. His prosthetic thumb manages to stay attached this time. "Light shine on ya, friend. Name's Blessed Guts. Who'er you?"

[WizardOfWar]

M-my name Is Arrown Krownes (pronounced Arrow-n Crowns), I Am The representative of the galactic democracy... He trails off while observing Blessed guts
Are you a synthetic? He asks in a tone of Genuineness If you are that's A OK to me, As my Mother was a synthetic. She wanted a human son 35 Hundred years ago, And now I'm Here I guess.

[lurker]

M-my name Is Arrown Krownes (pronounced Arrow-n Crowns), I Am The representative of the galactic democracy... He trails off while observing Blessed guts
Are you a synthetic? He asks in a tone of Genuineness If you are that's A OK to me, As my Mother was a synthetic. She wanted a human son 35 Hundred years ago, And now I'm Here I guess.

Blessed Guts tilts his head. "Sin-theh-tick...?"

"I think he's asking if you were created artificially," Doug yips from inside the mass router room, trying to work up the courage to venture out of his hiding spot.

"Ah," says Blessed Guts, "No siree, I came outta a womb nest like a normal pup. I got me two sires and two dams, and six litter mates."

[WizardOfWar]

M-my name Is Arrown Krownes (pronounced Arrow-n Crowns), I Am The representative of the galactic democracy... He trails off while observing Blessed guts
Are you a synthetic? He asks in a tone of Genuineness If you are that's A OK to me, As my Mother was a synthetic. She wanted a human son 35 Hundred years ago, And now I'm Here I guess.

Blessed Guts tilts his head. "Sin-theh-tick...?"

"I think he's asking if you were created artificially," Doug yips from inside the mass router room, trying to work up the courage to venture out of his hiding spot.

"Ah," says Blessed Guts, "No siree, I came outta a womb nest like a normal pup. I got me two sires and two dams, and six litter mates."

S-so Did you do what I Did later in life And Modified yourself to look like...Gestures At Blessed Guts This?

[lurker]

S-so Did you do what I Did later in life And Modified yourself to look like...Gestures At Blessed Guts This?

"huh? Modify? hmmm, let's see here." He detaches his prosthetic thumb again. "I got these here wooden thumbs after some blastin' powder blew up a bit too early, or maybe ya mean my eye?" he taps the spot where is missing eye would be. "I lost my eye fightin' off a bobtail hob after the pro-jectile I was testin' landed in the lava steppe. Those critters got sharp claws, and they'll go for the eyes with big ol' sharp chunks'a lava glass. Er maybe ya mean my ear?" he flicks the ear with the notch in it. "Got this 'cos I forgot ta duck when firin' my gun at some food. Er do ya mean my missin' whiskers--"

"--he means on purpose," Doug chimes in. He walks out of the mass router room up to the pair and jumps up to hang by his tail from the rafters again. This time he's doing it to mask his unease rather than to clown around. As he talks, he fidgets nervously, spinning the gear on a simple steel prayer ring in one of his paws.

"Ya smell scared," Blessed Guts says to Doug.

"I'm not scared," Doug lies. He lets out a huff, then forces himself to look at the newcomer. He starts flicking the ring even faster. "M-my name is Shimmering Water. My fellow vulpithecine has already introduced himself. We're yinrih, or cynoids, or monkey foxes. Take your pick." Doug swallows hard. "Look, Mr. Krownes, was it? I'm really sorry, but you look exactly like a monster from Terran pop culture around the time we first met humans. I'm sure it's a coincidence, of course.

"But to answer your earlier question, we're just regular monkey foxes. Wet nose, upright ears, four legs, eight thumbs," he snaps his fingers on all four paws, "and a prehensile tail, as you can see." he points a rear paw up at the end of his tail curled around the rafter. His voice is much calmer now. "We came here by accident, too. Not sure if you're familiar with the Terran calendar, but I'm from the year 2225 AD, and Blessed Guts is from... uh... the late Pleistocene. There are sophonts from all over the timeline and from many different worlds here at this place. How did you end up here?"

[WizardOfWar]

S-so Did you do what I Did later in life And Modified yourself to look like...Gestures At Blessed Guts This?

"huh? Modify? hmmm, let's see here." He detaches his prosthetic thumb again. "I got these here wooden thumbs after some blastin' powder blew up a bit too early, or maybe ya mean my eye?" he taps the spot where is missing eye would be. "I lost my eye fightin' off a bobtail hob after the pro-jectile I was testin' landed in the lava steppe. Those critters got sharp claws, and they'll go for the eyes with big ol' sharp chunks'a lava glass. Er maybe ya mean my ear?" he flicks the ear with the notch in it. "Got this 'cos I forgot ta duck when firin' my gun at some food. Er do ya mean my missin' whiskers--"

"--he means on purpose," Doug chimes in. He walks out of the mass router room up to the pair and jumps up to hang by his tail from the rafters again. This time he's doing it to mask his unease rather than to clown around. As he talks, he fidgets nervously, spinning the gear on a simple steel prayer ring in one of his paws.

"Ya smell scared," Blessed Guts says to Doug.

"I'm not scared," Doug lies. He lets out a huff, then forces himself to look at the newcomer. He starts flicking the ring even faster. "M-my name is Shimmering Water. My fellow vulpithecine has already introduced himself. We're yinrih, or cynoids, or monkey foxes. Take your pick." Doug swallows hard. "Look, Mr. Krownes, was it? I'm really sorry, but you look exactly like a monster from Terran pop culture around the time we first met humans. I'm sure it's a coincidence, of course.

"But to answer your earlier question, we're just regular monkey foxes. Wet nose, upright ears, four legs, eight thumbs," he snaps his fingers on all four paws, "and a prehensile tail, as you can see." he points a rear paw up at the end of his tail curled around the rafter. His voice is much calmer now. "We came here by accident, too. Not sure if you're familiar with the Terran calendar, but I'm from the year 2225 AD, and Blessed Guts is from... uh... the late Pleistocene. There are sophonts from all over the timeline and from many different worlds here at this place. How did you end up here?"

That Cannot be right! the Earth year is 2124! Arrown Grasps his featureless head in Scared Confusion
And the Last Pleistocene!? I am Going insane! He turns around and looks around, scrutinizing the place he is in, Like he is trying to figure out if he is in a simulation made by his friends to prank him. There are 2 holes on the back of his neck. One Directly under his "jawline", and one lower and to the left. The top one is metallic, and the bottom one is covered in blood, Like a bullet wound.

[lurker]

That Cannot be right! the Earth year is 2124! Arrown Grasps his featureless head in Scared Confusion
And the Last Pleistocene!? I am Going insane!

Doug chuckles. "Yeah, a lot of humans have a hard time with how long our history is. In reality we haven't been kindled, sapient, I mean, any longer than humans as near as we can tell. Humans started burying their dead around 100 thousand Earth years ago, which is around the time we started our own funerary rites. The big difference is that we evolved a written language rather than inventing writing to record spoken language." Doug pulls an crumpled up fast food receipt out of his wallet and sloppily signs his name in Commonthroat using his right writing claw and lets the receipt flutter down to the tabletop below. "We have a built-in pen. Two, actually. We used to use our ink to mark territory, but when we became sophonts we turned that marking behavior into a full written language. We have written records going back to the dawn of our species. Our earliest records speak of sapient pups coming from otherwise nonsapient litters with nonsapient sires and dams.

"The other thing is we live a fair bit longer than humans. I was just out of puppyhood when we first met humanity, and that was 200 years ago. I'm creeping up on 300 years, and Blessed Guts here is around 150. We usually see a little over 700 Earth years." He chuckles, remembering his terraboo days. "I wanted to meet William Shakespeare so bad after reading his plays. I was disappointment to discover he died hundreds of years ago."

Doug notices the bloody spot on his neck. "Ah! you've got an open wound on the back of your neck."

[WizardOfWar]

That Cannot be right! the Earth year is 2124! Arrown Grasps his featureless head in Scared Confusion
And the Last Pleistocene!? I am Going insane!

Doug chuckles. "Yeah, a lot of humans have a hard time with how long our history is. In reality we haven't been kindled, sapient, I mean, any longer than humans as near as we can tell. Humans started burying their dead around 100 thousand Earth years ago, which is around the time we started our own funerary rites. The big difference is that we evolved a written language rather than inventing writing to record spoken language." Doug pulls an crumpled up fast food receipt out of his wallet and sloppily signs his name in Commonthroat using his right writing claw and lets the receipt flutter down to the tabletop below. "We have a built-in pen. Two, actually. We used to use our ink to mark territory, but when we became sophonts we turned that marking behavior into a full written language. We have written records going back to the dawn of our species. Our earliest records speak of sapient pups coming from otherwise nonsapient litters with nonsapient sires and dams.

"The other thing is we live a fair bit longer than humans. I was just out of puppyhood when we first met humanity, and that was 200 years ago. I'm creeping up on 300 years, and Blessed Guts here is around 150. We usually see a little over 700 Earth years." He chuckles, remembering his terraboo days. "I wanted to meet William Shakespeare so bad after reading his plays. I was disappointment to discover he died hundreds of years ago."

Doug notices the bloody spot on his neck. "Ah! you've got an open wound on the back of your neck."

He frantically feels the back of his neck
I remember how I got here...
I was Assassinated

[Egerius]

"Well, literature is normal... There are poems, there are novels, there are hada... Nothing out of the ordinary." Sarah said, then she went to Cynewulf and whispered in his ear: "I don't know if Telli can be trusted. He sounds like a con artist..."

Cynewulf breathed in loudly: “What's ‘normal’ for you might not be normal for us.
I don't know what a hada is. Yeah, your companion is full of shit. Argenzu and I can go home at any time in the silver car outside. I don't know what you need to do, but here, this inn, is its own tiny world. That's all we know.”
Argenzu typed away on his laptop's keyboard.
“Hehe, cloaca butter”, he chuckled: “Your mass-router doesn't have a Serial Micro-Bus connector*, Doug? Otherwise I might be able to set the coordinates, relative to Earth in 2193 AD.”
((* = The Serial Micro-Bus is the Rodentèrra analogue to USB, with a circular connector.))

Argenzu was preoccupied with his computer.
Then Cynewulf heard the newcomer enter the inn, but as soon as he saw the featureless face, every cell in his body entered fight and flight mode: “I don't want to alarm you, but that new guy looks like The Trickster.”
“You're fooling me”, Argenzu replied.
Cynewulf's red fur was puffing up and his ears turned backwards, and he had to make a conscious effort to keep himself from snarling as he was observing the being: “Just keep on typing.”
The wolfman concentrates on Doug's/Simmering Waters' speech, but otherwise keeps silent, pretending to be occupied by his own laptop.

He frantically feels the back of his neck
I remember how I got here...
I was Assassinated

Hearing this, the human-sized rodent just has to look into the direction of the faceless figure. “Shit”, he whispers, and hides behind his laptop.

[WizardOfWar]

He frantically feels the back of his neck
I remember how I got here...
I was Assassinated

Hearing this, the human-sized rodent just has to look into the direction of the faceless figure. “Shit”, he whispers, and hides behind his laptop.

Panic sets in as Arrown Realizes he has been dead No. No no no. NO! A sudden wave of calm hits him
Oh well, Might as well research this place while i'm here.
Hey you, Rodent fellow, where are we? He asked with curiosity

[TBPO]

M-my name Is Arrown Krownes (pronounced Arrow-n Crowns), I Am The representative of the galactic democracy... He trails off while observing Blessed guts
Are you a synthetic? He asks in a tone of Genuineness If you are that's A OK to me, As my Mother was a synthetic. She wanted a human son 35 Hundred years ago, And now I'm Here I guess.

Blessed Guts tilts his head. "Sin-theh-tick...?"

"I think he's asking if you were created artificially," Doug yips from inside the mass router room, trying to work up the courage to venture out of his hiding spot.

"Ah," says Blessed Guts, "No siree, I came outta a womb nest like a normal pup. I got me two sires and two dams, and six litter mates."

S-so Did you do what I Did later in life And Modified yourself to look like...Gestures At Blessed Guts This?

"Slender man!" Sarah shouts when she sees Arrown Knowes. Sarah is young woman, looking normally, and his companion was an half-elegant, serious gentleman.
"Hello, I'm Telli Monte. I see you've strayed from your dimension too. I can help you for a small sum!"

"Don't believe him!" Sarah says, then she turns to Telli and says: "I thought you would solve my problem, but you turned out to be an extortionist! Get out of here!"

He frantically feels the back of his neck
I remember how I got here...
I was Assassinated

Hearing this, the human-sized rodent just has to look into the direction of the faceless figure. “Shit”, he whispers, and hides behind his laptop.

Panic sets in as Arrown Realizes he has been dead No. No no no. NO! A sudden wave of calm hits him
Oh well, Might as well research this place while i'm here.
Hey you, Rodent fellow, where are we? He asked with curiosity

"We are in a Multiverse Inn, but for me is a irritating room that replaced interior of my house..." Sarah says. "You can try to get out of there by going through that door, but I can't guarantee that it will work, especially that you're probably dead."
"I can now stop your problems by..." Telli says, but Sarah suddenly grabs him and, despite his protests, pushes him out the door.
"It's done," Sarah announced. "No one will cheat on us anymore. I was disappointed in him. I thought he would solve my problem, but he turned out to be a cheater. Now I'll solve my problem myself...! But how...?"

[Egerius]

Panic sets in as Arrown Realizes he has been dead No. No no no. NO! A sudden wave of calm hits him
Oh well, Might as well research this place while i'm here.
Hey you, Rodent fellow, where are we? He asked with curiosity

Cynewulf stands as tall as he possibly can, right in front of the faceless man; but at 6.5 feet tall, he could only hope to intimidate him: “Where do you think you're going?”
The wolf-man, assuming a broad stance to shield Argenzu, is displaying signs of fear: His tail is clinging to his body, his ears face backwards, but he's displaying a snarl.
Argenzu is sitting still, only his ears poking out from his laptop's screen bezel.

[WizardOfWar]

Panic sets in as Arrown Realizes he has been dead No. No no no. NO! A sudden wave of calm hits him
Oh well, Might as well research this place while i'm here.
Hey you, Rodent fellow, where are we? He asked with curiosity

Cynewulf stands as tall as he possibly can, right in front of the faceless man; but at 6.5 feet tall, he could only hope to intimidate him: “Where do you think you're going?”
The wolf-man, assuming a broad stance to shield Argenzu, is displaying signs of fear: His tail is clinging to his body, his ears face backwards, but he's displaying a snarl.
Argenzu is sitting still, only his ears poking out from his laptop's screen bezel.

I need information about this space so I am figure out why I am here. He walks towards the door and pulls the bullet out of his neck, which regenerates and leaves only the bloody area around the healed entry wound