InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "stop ripping off dita, kelly!"

Xena: Warrior Princess (xena_wp) wrote in pandemansion,
@ 2008-04-02 21:49:00

Entry tags:

arriving, radagast the brown, xena

April 4th, OTA
Who: Xena and Radagast
What: Her Arrival & Tour
When: Afternoonish
Where: The Mansion
Rating: G
Status: Complete

The Warrior Princess paced. Thick leather fringe slapped against her thighs, mirroring her own violent walk. She wasn't allowed inside the small hut where her friend, her soulmate, lay wounded and bleeding. Gabrielle had been fighting the band of pillaging bastards alongside her and had been cut on her arm and under her ribcage. She had bled profusely and no amount of pressure had been able to staunch the flow.

She had been so frantic to get her some help that she'd gotten more in the healers' way than anything and she had been thrust outside. She didn't appreciate it, but she knew that she could only hinder her recovery. She knew nothing of healing and seeing Gabrielle so waxen was enough to send her over the edge. And so she paced as she waited, because she couldn't bare to stand still. She heard Gabrielle cry out at one point and rushed to the door, only to be barred from entering by a surley looking old woman.

And so she had resumed her pacing. It was her fault. She always let Gabrielle do what she wanted, even if she thought it against her better judgment. She really could deny the girl nothing. It was one of her biggest weaknesses. In the middle of a thought, she felt a giant tug around her belly. Looking back, she could see the earth in a blur.

Moments later, she was dumped on the sandy ground of a beach. She pushed herself to her feet and stood up, dusting off her hands and then her leather armor. She felt around her being and found that her chakram, sword and whip were in their places. The fall hadn’t dislodged anything, at least. She didn’t know where she was, and that was something that she just didn’t deal well with. She heard the sound of a horse’s neigh coming from down the beach and turned toward it.

Argo, her horse, was running at a full gallop toward her. The horse had been transported, too. Transported to where, she didn’t have any idea. She reached for Argo’s bridle and swung nimbly up on to her back. She looked around again from a higher vantage point this time, and saw the mansion sitting high on the hill. It was an interesting building. Not like any she had ever seen, but if there was a building, there were bound to be people.

She urged Argo up the steps and soon found herself in front of the mansion. Argo reared back onto her hind legs and neighed loudly. “Easy, Argo.” She patted the horse’s neck and dismounted then banged hard against the doors. “Hello?”

(Post a new comment)

pandenpc
2008-04-03 02:39 pm UTC (link)

"Coming! Coming!" Radagast cried, dismounting the stairs. He had been watching the skies. The skies told him many things, as well as his fellow feathered friends. He smiled as he heard the horse.

Both doors swung open with a single motion of his hand. He stood there, beard slightly ruffled, his head held high and his shining eyes on the beast. "Ah, I see, such an impatient horse she is. Fine for battle, an she's seen many, much like to Rohirrim horses I'm afraid. Poor beasts, they should not have to dwell on such matters, but be free and play, eating their big heart's content on grass and other weeds of the land."

Sighing Radagast finally looked at the new comer. "Ah, forgive me. I am Radagast the Brown, best known by humans as a wizard if you know the term." He bowed his head toward her. "Come, your horse should be taken care of first I should think, the mansion is large and distracting. She will soon be forgotten within the dark halls of this place if you do not care for her first." He stepped to the side, his staff held in his hand as he dismounted from the mansion.

"There is room in this barn here. I should think that your beast will find a nice warm and well prepared place for her within. I think she'll have a few friends as well, some to come, some already here." He gave a smile that was barely seen from the bush of his beard. "Then we will take care of your weariness. I shall answer the questions you have as best as my knowledge allows. I am fairly new here as well." He waved his free hand as he talked, "But no matter, I think I am learned in what is now as I will ever be without reading too much, if there are such tomes on this place." He paused and canted his head to the side, "I really must look into the library, keep my head out of the clouds for a few moments at least."

It was then that he gave her a small sheepish look. "Ah, we've got plenty of food, your room will be set up as you like it. It will be as if you never left home really. Your horse will be well taken care of even if you forget her." He nodded a few times as he kept making his way to the barn. "And I'm afraid you both will be here for quite some time. Unless of course one of us here can figure out how to find our ways back to our worlds." He lifted a shoulder and sighed before opening the barn doors, motioning them inside before he, "Please I insist."

(Reply to this) (Thread)

xena_wp
2008-04-03 04:40 pm UTC (link)

Xena wasn't as shocked as she had prepared herself to be when she saw the brown robed man rushing toward her as the doors seemed to swing open of their own accord. He looked a lot like people she would have known in her own world. She didn't smile, though. She didn't know where she was, or why she was here, or how she would get back to Gabrielle.

"She isn't impatient so much as unfamiliar with her surroundings. As am I. Where are we?" She listened to the older man's ramblings about Rohirrim horses and letting them graze and eat to their heart's content. She could only smirk at this. She knew in her heart that Argo was devoted to her. She might rather graze all day long and get fat, but she wouldn't want to be without her master.

She patted the horse's neck again, soothing her. She nodded when the man introduced himself as Radagast the Brown. "I'm Xena. Just Xena." She thought she was being funny, but didn't know if her humor would be recognized, so she didn't laugh. She agreed that Argo should be cared for, and didn't want to take her inside the large palace, either.

She followed Radagast toward the barn and halfway listened as he seemed to be talking to himself. She glanced around the island, as it seemed that's what it was. There was a beach, and lots of trees. Of course, it could be some sort of penninsula. She wanted to familiarize herself with the lay of the land as much as possible. She didn't know anyone here, and while Radagast seemed friendly, she couldn't be sure of the others. If there were others.

Her room? What was the wizard on about now? She furrowed her brows as she listened. Then he said something that caused her blood to boil slightly. "Forget Argo? Why should I forget Argo?" She nearly stopped in her tracks, wanting an immediate answer, but the man seemed too distracted to even notice if she had stopped or not. She continued to follow him to the barn, then stepped inside a head of him when he insisted.

She glanced around the inside for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the dimness of the lighting. There were other horses, certainly. But not as many as the barn could hold. She wondered again where she was, and why the wizard thought there would be other horses to come. Did what had happened to her, happen a lot?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

pandenpc
2008-04-03 11:27 pm UTC (link)

Radagast knew he had forgotten something. He then blinked and stared at her. She had questioned him, of course! Humans were full of questions! So young and inexperienced were they in the ways of the world! "Where? Now that, dear Xena of no...title, is a very good question. Very good indeed. No one knows!" He grinned and opened his arms wide. "Not even the stars know! so confused are the stars that one night the Hunter will be in the east and the next he shall rest his head in the west!"

He nodded, a hand coming up to run along his beard. "Yes, I'm afraid that the ones that do know will do no telling. The gods, yes the gods, they are the cause of this. Why? I am not sure." He smiled, "It is about time that they had some fun though, do you not think?" He canted his head to the side, his eyes trailing over her face. "You do not believe in the gods that I do, so you might not think they need fun. Do your gods do this often to people? Toss them out to fend for themselves in such a locked place?"

More questions, many of them. She was full of them now wasn't she, this Xena? Xena of no title to add to that. Must he give her a title? Her title might be on her key and on the maps. Not that it really mattered. She seemed fine just being called Xena. So fine he must be calling her just that. What kind of name was Xena anyways? Short. Really short. "Oh, oh no, I do not mean that you would want to forget her or that you would. The mansion is large, it is it's own beast." Radagast gave her a smile, "It grows and moves. Why even now your room is being set up like yours back from....your planet."

The brown wizard nodded again, moving to an empty stall and looking at Argo. "Argo is it? It is pleasant times indeed!" He opened the stall door, "Please, make yourself at home. All the amenities and some contraptions I do not know are all here. The contraptions I have been told are from some future, or some other world. Perhaps you know them better." He lifted his shoulders.

"Now, we've all been pulled here by our different gods and goddesses or leaders, what have you." He waved his hand around, "And as far as I can tell there is no way of getting out until we please them or until they get bored with this...that they are doing." His bushy brows drew together and he sighed. "So until then, you are given a home away from home, plenty of us strangers to meet and everything that you need. Although, this dreadful music keeps playing today. I fear that it will go for some time." He sighed again, looking up at the ceiling. It wasn't that the music was loud in the barn, just an annoying whisper.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

xena_wp
2008-04-04 03:11 pm UTC (link)

Her dark brows furrowed when he gave her an answer she wasn't expecting or wanting. "No one knows. Great." She spoke sarcastically as she rolled her eyes heavenward. The old wizard was probably off his rocker and didn't know this world from his own. At least he seemed happy in his ignorance. She smirked. How strange old people were.

She barked out a short laugh. The Gods had done this? She ought to have known. Ares was probably the mastermind of this whole charade. "My Gods may not often toss people out to fend for themselves in a locked place, but they often play tricks on their minions. They use them for their entertainment, doing things just to see what the human's reaction will be." She sighed. Who knew when the entertainment value of this little trick would wear off and she'd be allowed to return home.

Xena seemed to favor the four letter words, as was demonstrated in the name of her horse. Short was easy to remember, and it was uncomplicated. Xena hated complicated. This Radagast the Brown was so very strange, and complicated. "I never had a room. I didn't really have a home. I am a warrior. I travel. A lot." She supposed if it was set up in any way, it would probably be a lot like a tavern room she rented while traveling.

She couldn't even remember her room from when she was a child, living with her mother and two brothers. She led Argo to the stall. She went willingly, tired and probably in shock from this time/world traveling that they'd done. She didn't know a lot of the contraptions that were hanging on the walls. But a brush and blanket she did recognize. She removed Argo's bridle and bit and hung them on a hook. Then, taking the brush she started at her neck and worked the dirt and sand out of her coat. When she was done, she threw the blanket over her back and stepped out of the stall.

There was food in there for the horse, to Xena's surprise, and it looked as if Argo would be completely comfortable in this... barn, had he called it? She was used to stables, but it looked sort of similar. Just the barn was bigger than any stables she'd seen. And there was no music piped into the stables back home. What was this music anyway? It was nothing she'd ever heard before, and she wasn't sure if she liked it or not. And where was it coming from? She could see no musicians.

She supposed it was some form of magic. She was not unused to magic, and it didn't seem to bother her. She watched the wizard as she closed the stall door and turned to him. He seemed annoyed with the music, and this brought another smirk to her face. "So what now, Wizard?"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

pandenpc
2008-04-04 06:41 pm UTC (link)

"I see, perhaps then it was the other gods of the other worlds that suggested this? Seeing as how your gods seem content on mischief, I do not see why they would come up with this." Again he rubbed his beard, thinking out loud, and possibly so she could enlighten him a little. "I do not see my gods really doing this to us. They are not ones for mischief. Not really." He lifted a shoulder, "Unless it was my fellow wizards. Could explain why I am the only one here."

He then stared at Xena, "No home? Why I am sorry to hear that. Perhaps then it is the best accommodations that you have had in your life? Or perhaps something of this world. We shall have to see." He smiled at her, bowing his head in kindness.

At her question he nodded, "Right, this way. You have seen the barn, you have eyes to see the rest of the grounds. Now, I must show you the mansion I feel." He strode back outdoors, his long legs eating up the ground swiftly. His robes billowing out a little, "Ah, slow Radagast." He smiled and walked at a more normal pace. "We had war in our world, seems as if I still have the hurry of the age upon my feet." He gave her an apologetic smile.

Radagast reopened the doors with a tap of his staff against the first step, the large doors swinging open without a sound. "The music is louder in here, but still not as loud as it could be." He moved over to the desk, motioning to the fountain as he walked. "That is where some come to us, others come to us from outside or just appear here right in front of these gates."

Gathering her map and key from the desk he walked back to her. "Here you are Xena. The key you will find your room number and your name, do not lose it, I am not sure if there will be a replacement. This map shows everything of the mansion, even the outside grounds. It will label each room, even the quarters. Your name will appear above your room number on this. Magical, like none I've ever seen really."

Radagast was quite impressed with the mansion. So impressed was he that he was willing to let this play it's course. He would enjoy the ride for as long as he was allowed. Yes, he had already come to this conclusion. He had use here, and no one called him a fool, not yet. There was evil here, but it was held well within check. All he had to do was greet people, and help out when he was needed, not that he had been needed.

"Would you like me to give you a tour of the mansion? Or would you rather explore on your own with the map as your guide?" He smiled at her, either way he would not be put out. It was entirely up to her.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

xena_wp
2008-04-05 01:42 am UTC (link)

The old wizard seemed to contradict himself and she wondered where his mind was. It was entirely possible he was losing it. He did look quite old, and it was common for the older generations to go senile. She thought it best just to humor him for now. She just shrugged when he asked her questions that she thought might be rehtorical.

She followed him out of the barn and back toward the mansion. She did indeed, have eyes to see the rest of the grounds. And as soon as she had the opportunity, she would probably go exploring. With her long legs, Xena was able to keep up with the old wizard, and smirked to herself when he commanded himself to slow. She nodded once more to his seemingly endless conversation. Half the time she wasn't sure if he was really talking to her or not.

She walked into the mansion behind the old wizard. Again, merely taking the slightest notice of the magic that opened the doors. With all the Gods running around in her time, she was quite used to it. She looked all around the inside of the mansion as she stepped inside. She saw the great gates and the enormous fountain. It was very interesting. The one thing she did notice was the music. As the wizard said, the music was louder. But, she still didn't think it annoying. She was rather beginning to like it.

She plucked the key from his hand as he held it out to her, along with the map. She looked at the key and found that it did have her name on it, along with a room number. 215. She would have to find a chain to keep the key on. She didn't exactly have pockets on her armor, and if she lost it, who knew what would happen. "Interesting." Xena wasn't really one for many words. She opened the map and skimmed it with her eyes. It was like none she had ever seen, either.

"I'll take your tour if you don't mind. Better to take it from someone who has seen it before, than get lost on my own, I think." She was interested to see how her room would turn out. And now she wished she had a room to compare it to from her own world.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

pandenpc
2008-04-05 10:47 pm UTC (link)

This woman was strange indeed. Half of the women that Radagast knew would talk one's ear off as much as him. If not worse. He had met many women that were worse. Others were quiet and demure, until you showed interest in their thoughts. Then it was a never ending battle to get out of their thoughts and back into your own.

Hence why he never completely liked conferring with those that formed actual words. Animals were much more to his liking. Quick and to the point and only needing the basics of life. Radagast thought himself much like them, but with far more words. His life was so full, his mind so full, that he could not just bring himself to hush about such.

Finally she talked! One word. That one word could encompass just so much, it left little light on the dark mystery that was this human. He sighed, "That it is, Xena!" He smiled at her.

When she took up his offer on guiding her through the castle he bowed his head. "I will be happy to lead you to places you need and those that interest you." He glanced around, "Do you wish to go to your room first? Or would you like to tour this level before going up?" He gave her a smile. He was flexible, and quite liked having company of her sort.

Quiet like a beast, and not much need for pampering. After she answered he motioned to the gates, "The depiction from what I have been told is of Purgatory. It is a place, place for sinner to repent. But I have no idea why there are children in such a place, for they are innocent. Unless the children are supposed to be hobbits." Lifting his shoulders he sighed, "I have none such as those reaching for the children, just the Wraiths, nasty creatures they are. Used to be human." He sighed again and shook his head. "Such sad times in the midst of great."

He paused for a moment, getting lost in his own thoughts briefly. He then perked up, gave her a grand smile and opened his arms wide. "We shall begin! You will find this a grand place, full of many adventures!"

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

xena_wp
2008-04-07 02:54 pm UTC (link)

There were countless numbers of people who thought Xena was strange. So she wouldn't be surprised to discover that Radagast felt the same way. She was a woman warrior in a time when women warriors were uncommon, if non-existant. Women were supposed to be wives and mothers. Xena was a mother, but not in the way she should have been. And even she knew that.

She returned his smile, even if it ended up looking like a smirk. Xena didn't really smile unless it was with Gabrielle, or Argo. And when she did in other situations, it was a rather scary smile, portending one of her swift attacks. It was a crazy smile. And those who misunderstood it, soon swiftly recalled their thinking.

"I have no reason to see my room first. I shall follow your lead, wherever that takes us." She ended her sentence by looking around the foyer of the mansion. She didn't know if she would be able to get used to a place like this, but Radagast seemed to be adapting fairly well, and he seemed to come from a time much like hers, even if it was a different world.

Xena needed less pampering than most males she knew. Especially of the God variety. They were so needy. Always needing to be worshiped and fawned over. It was vomit inducing, really. She turned toward the gates as he motioned to them. She nodded as he spoke, but she really didn't see the symbolism in the fountain. She wasn't Christian, and therefore didn't believe in Purgatory. She was a Pagan, and while she maybe didn't worship Pagan Gods, she appeased them somewhat.

The fountain was nice, a lulling sound of water falling and gurgling as it rotated through the pumps. Xena had seen a few of these in her time, but nothing so ornate. Except perhaps in Rome when she'd seen Cesar. He was such a pompous ass. Had fountains created in his likeness. It was ridiculous.

When Radagast spread his arms, Xena smirked and followed after him on the whirlwind tour she knew was ahead.

(Reply to this) (Parent)