Archivist note: This post is from an older recovered archive.
==Initial Post==
((Posted by Mr Underby on June 23, 2010))
Underby dreamt one night of a small dirty room beneath the new White Rabbit restaurant. He could recall no aspect of the dream apart from the room itself, and a strong sensation of pulling toward the location.
The next day Underby made his way from the Bakery down to the restaurant, and wandered around the perimeter looking for anything strange which might catch his eye. Anything catching his eye as strange may very well be a clue from the multiverse. After an hour and a half of wandering around seeing nothing of note Underby noticed he was being watched by Elleon from a window in the restaurant. He smiled, and tipped his hat, walking backwards away from the building. He hoped this would indicate that his intentions were innocent, but was surprised and dismayed to notice that his smile seemed to disturb her more than his wandering.
As that thought registered in his mind, he dropped six feet.
Laying in a pained heap, he came back to consciousness. Where was he? Looking around he noted the sun blazing through the mustard fog above. Summer sun. He was laying on cobbles, and just a hint of the White Rabbit peaked at him over a stone wall. In this wall was an open door which emitted a rank odor. This odor attracted Underby.
He stood, and stepped inside the door. A corridor lead into a small wine cellar, the foul odor was stronger still inside the room, and there was a strange sensation… a presence. Underby looked around, squinting his eyes and crossing them just slightly. As he scanned the room in this manner a dark shape seemed to loom in one corner. He blinked, re-focusing his vision. The dark shape was gone, and only a wine rack stood where it had been. Underby approached, and began to shift bottles. An old musty bottle shifted strangely in his grip, and the rack slid open, releasing a wall of fetid death, which was almost too much even for him.
The presence was stronger still.
Underby froze. Swallowing, a part of his mind was suggesting he exit now before events possibly took a wrong turn, when a cold low whispering voice called out from within: “O YoYo, wouldst thou turn from me when we have so much to speak on?”
An intimate portion of Underby’s anatomy receded within the greater portion of his person upon hearing this voice, which had the quality of discarded snake skin burning in a scorched pool of oil.
His mouth was suddenly completely devoid of moisture, and no response could be had.
“Come, YoYo, leave me not waiting. I shall grow cross.”
Underby stepped forward and saw the room exactly as it had been in his dream, save that a figure covered entirely in black was sitting at the table in the centre of the room, his back to the door he stood within.
“Sit thou down.” the figure suggested in a harsh whisper.
Underby crossed to the other side of the table, and sat, looking at the waxen face of the other man. He wore dark glasses, but the red of his eyes was all too visible.
“Er… greetings my lord, how is it you are here?”
The figure smiled. Underby swooned slightly. “I was called. Your familiar. The public house. The sleeping shoemaker. Your destroyer. The one-legged rabbit. The clock winder. Your political ambitions. All. All called me.”
Underby had no response. “Oh.” he said.
“You all called me.”
“Of course.”
“And once here, I thought on thou. You owe me, of course this thou hast not forgotten.”
Underby was quick to respond: “No no, certainly not. I remember our bargain. Very well. I have been lax in recent payments, I admit, but I have been attempting to collect specimens which I believed you-”
He held up one hand. “Your excuses are immaterial to me. I want what I am owed.”
“Of course. I can remit to you this moment.”
“Nay. This place is unclean.”
Underby swallowed.
“You will create a place for me here. A home.”
Underby nodded while his mind began to turn, thinking of how and where he might do this.
“Tax not your weak mind, young YoYo. I have the place already, and how thou may attain it.”
Underby sat forward.
“Near your old forge, the house called Oldbridge, but east and on the rich waters still. A lot, empty now, but soon no longer. The land will become yours through devious actions, and this will be the location.”
Underby nodded. “I believe I know the lot,” he said.
“You lie. The lot is unknown to thee, why must thou test me so?
“I apologize. I wished only to-”
The man stared, his eyes becoming darker. “Stifle thyself.”
Underby’s mouth snapped shut, mid word. His tongue seemed to stick to the roof of his mouth. He nodded.
“On a weekly basis you challenge the clock winder.”
Underby nodded.
“You will do what you do best, and win the land. You will also win his assistance. He must build the room. Build what you like around it, but he must build the room. This is important.”
Underby nodded again.
“You know what I want.”
Another nod.
“Go now, your destroyed face displeases me. She hast made thou a walking corpse.” The figure motioned to Underby to leave. With a jerk, he stood and stumbled out.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7163/6676241517_f5a14708fc.jpg
==Comments==
*Comment by Phaedra Wickentower on June 23, 2010 at 7:14pm
frowns
*Comment by Mr. Tenk on June 23, 2010 at 7:54pm
checks his probability trends for central Babbage Square for Thursday night and notices it is normalizing, nods in satisfaction, looking forward to a game of cards he ((meaning Tenk)) can’t “cheat” at
*Comment by Skyler ‘Artful Dodger’ Gant on June 23, 2010 at 8:45pm
As Tatsuya Well. Seems I’ll be explori…err…avoid that area of the White Rabbit now.
*Comment by Pocket String on June 24, 2010 at 8:43am
Collect specimens? Wot?
You mean that Tenk wasn’t just trying to scare us off to keep the place to hisself?
*Comment by Mr Underby on June 24, 2010 at 9:50am
You flatter yourself.
*Comment by Mr Loosestrife on June 25, 2010 at 2:05pm
My dwelling is pleasing, Mr Underby. Your little friend did very well.
*Comment by Bookworm Hienrichs on June 25, 2010 at 2:11pm
A personage that disturbs Mr. Underby?
I really, really, really don’t want to him.
*Comment by Bookworm Hienrichs on June 25, 2010 at 9:09pm
tries to shove the word “meet” into the correct area of her previous comment
