"You will try WHAT?" - Asked Lois.
"We'll try and use an opening in the Cafe to go look for the gods. You don't mind, right? Wanna come with?" - Asked Lucas, in his typical Jack Sparrow tone.
A few minutes earlier
"Okay. So how do we go about this?" - Asked Cass - "I have free time for the rest of the day if you wanna try something."
Lucas nodded. "Well, I don't know. Think your student would be able to...?"
Cass shook her head. "Even assuming she was able to tell us much or take us somewhere the gods are, I doubt she'd be willing, and asking her might be too hurtful right now. I sent the principal a text message so he'll pass the info on to her about Sridar, but I don't think we should involve her." - She looked around - "Hey... The Cafe!"
Lucas looked. "Yes? What about it?"
Cass smiled. "You can go to holy places from here..."
Lucas smiled back. "Interesting. Cass, do me a favor and switch your genre a bit...
"Okay. Assuming this works... Assuming this doesn't get you two killed in very nasty ways by whatever deity thing is out there... Assuming seeing whatever deity it is doesn't drive you mad or kill you or worse... Run this by me again. You will try to open a passageway between here and the holy lands of myths?" - Asked Lois - "Lucas, there is a fine line between gutsy and stupid..."
Lucas smiled. "Relax. I have a plan. And, come on, aren't you curious?"
Lois sighed. "Not enough to let it kill me. Okay. I don't know if this will work or not. I never tried to open a pathway to the real Mount Olympus, let alone the MYTHICAL one.."
"You should. Think of how much ambrosia would fetch. And I mean REAL ambrosia, not the sweet dish from Minas Gerais I taught you to make..." - Smiled Lucas.
Cass piped in. "Uhm, so... Er, would you mind if we tried to make our way to one of these places?"
Lois shrugged. "I don't even know if they exist. No one ever tried to - say - open a pathway to Heaven. I mean... Most people sorta assume some things are not meant to be known. If you want to try, I guess I can't prevent you from doing so... But be careful."
Lucas smiled. "Okay. By the way, Lois, could you get me and Cass some of those tuna sandwiches to go? Separate tabs. We'll pay you back when I'm back here. I give you my word."
Cass nodded. "I also give you my word I'll pay you."
"Why not right now?" - Said Lois. - "And why are you two being so... solemn about two tuna sandwiches?"
"I'll also tell you why when I'm back from the trip." - Smiled Lucas.
"That's a promise we both make." - Cass nodded.
Lois shrugged and handed Lucas and Cass a bag with the sandwiches.
Lucas stepped outside Cass's aura to wait out her Dramatis Personae power for a bit. Lucas then concentrated... Looking for places that gods would tread. A portal opened, and Lucas and Cass passed through.
"A Escadaria Infinita...(1)" - Muttered Lucas, marveling at the sight. She stood on a platform suspended in space. Several portals shaped like doors and platforms could be seen, all connected by stairway upon stairway. A lonely sight in so much empty space, yet one with so much... Potential. A planar pathway of an old game. The Infinite Staircase. The Grand Old Stair that went everywhere. "I can't believe this... This was... A D&D; thing. Maybe the collective unconscious shapes the planes...?"
"Yggdrasil..." - Said Cass. She had not heard one word Lucas said. She was too busy looking at the All-Tree from the mythology books she read when she was little. A tree that spans universes and worlds. It was real. The myths either were true or were becoming true somehow. She wanted nothing more than to know this tree, to go to each and every last branch.
"Sorry, what?" - Said Lucas, smiling.
"Yggdrasil. This tree is the Norse myth..." - Said Cass.
"This... tree?" - Said Lucas - "Huh... One of us is insane, and, given that you're seeing some more respectable myths while I see an RPG planar pathway, I'd say it's me." - She frowned.
Cass frowned. "So we're seeing different things. Tell me more about your pathway..."
Lucas gave her the run-down. A planar pathway that began on the moon, with doorways to wherever produced culture. Aside from fairly minor details, not too different from at least certain versions of the Yggdrasil myth.
Cass nodded. "I think each sees what they expect or want, Lucas..."
Lucas nodded. "Either way, see if you see this." - She made a mark on the platform with her sword - an asterisk.
"An asterisk, yes. Given the size of either place we're seeing, we should mark each turn we make..." - Said Cass - "Unless you think it would be safer to just turn back..."
Lucas smiled widely. "You're scared. So am I. Heck, I'm VERY FUCKING scared. But this is so exciting... I mean... For me, this is the fucking Infinite Staircase! For you, Yggdrasil! The places of our dreams, Cass! I wanna see more..."
Cass nodded. "Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Plus... We do have a promise to keep. I hope we are the right kind of genre savvy..."
"What, promising something to Lois so we'll 'have' to be there and safe later due to power of plot? And adding unspoken plan guarantee to her? I think it's crazy enough to work." - Said Lucas, invoking another trope to better her odds of actually making it back - "You deal with causality. I deal with violence, if the need arises. Anyways... Point to the branches one can walk on..."
Cass did. Lucas nodded. "Yeah, they're pretty much how I see it. I think we'll be safe. It's more of a skin thing than of real differences. Question number one is if a version of the moon is at the base or something else. Question number two is who makes that call and how. But anyways. Shall we?"
Cass and Lucas walked on, each looking at the place of her dreams, hand in hand. Both very excited, both very scared...
(1) "The Infinite Staircase..."
