The Universe's Mixer

It had been a very strange morning. Raven had stepped out onto the street and found chaos; a huge increase in new couples (she recognized the signs - she'd lived through the early days of Gabe and Poe's courtship) and the occasional winged creature swooping overhead. To be honest, she wasn't sure what to make of it all, but several people had warned her that the City was a downright odd place to live, so she hadn't let the insanity keep her inside.

She'd made it halfway to school when a hoard of giggling children pulled her off the street. "Come on," one little girl said, wrapping both hands around Raven's wrist and tugging her towards the fort that had been haphazardly constructed of leftover liquor boxes. "Come on, they're storming the castle."

Raven turned a perplexed stare on the child. "What?"

"The uruk-hai." A bespectacled older boy announced, as if it should be obvious. "They have archers. We need reinforcements."

That made sense; Raven had never read The Lord of the Rings, but she'd seen the movies. And, well, if the kids needed an elven defender, so be it. Raven had the pointed ears to go with the part.

"Legolas to the rescue," she announced, and gestured towards an open door. "But don't you think we should move to a real castle with walls?"

"We can't go in there." One of the children said, "We tried and the guy at the door kicked us out."

Raven glanced back over her shoulder, and only then spotted the wooden sign hanging over the entrance: 'Hog's Head Pub.' Oh.

Farley Claymore certainly did.

He ran.

He needed to get out of there - it didn't matter where he ended up.

Of course, the sudden appearance of the handily-marked exit was convenient, even though he could have sworn there had been a window overlooking the lobby there a few minutes ago...

You disgust me, he'd said, though a voice in his head now replied And you disgust me when he thought about it.

It didn't matter though. All he wanted now was to get away from that horrible, choking, lying darkness-

WHAM

He came to a minute later, and tried to focus on whatever it was he'd just hit.

Stop sign. Oh...

He glanced around, trying to figure out where he was. A glance to the left revealed the brightly decorated canopy of... what the hell?

...magic... shop? Magic shop?

Well, it was a shop. Shops inevitably meant people, no matter how weird they were. Even if he'd had enough weirdness for quite a while...

After a little struggle, he stumbled to his feet and made his way unsteadily towards the store...