Dark Dimension: The Ancient One
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xp_logsAmanda, Marie-Ange, Doug, and Jubilee meet with the Ancient One. And are less than impressed.
On the outside, the New York Branch looked like... a house. A small, not at-all-impressive house that seemed invisible to anyone who passed it.
Waiting on the inside for the arriving group, however, was a grand entrance hall that easily rivaled that of the mansion. A large staircase was directly in front of them, leading up to a large circular window, and on either side there was comfortable-looking furniture.
Amanda was already disgruntled - besides having two of her 'ducklings' go missing, she'd apparently had a magical hot spot sitting in the middle of New York without anything pinging her radar. Not that she was all-powerful, but it was something of a kick in the teeth. "The bigger on the inside thing's one way to beat the New York housing market," she remarked, taking refuge in humour as she usually did.
"Did I mention? It also travels in time." Doug was always ready to back someone's pop culture reference, after all. And given the magical nature of things, he couldn't entirely discount the possibility that this place might -actually- travel in time. Which made it the best kind of joke.
"Nerds."
Jubilee's own demeanor was somewhat more wary than the others. She'd been on the bad side of magic, and despite the fact she was quite fine with Amanda and her Ducklings, she had no real love of being around the stuff when she could help it.
Despite herself and the circumstances, Amanda gave Doug a grin over her shoulder. "Which one's your favourite?" she asked. "Me, I've always been a Ninth Doctor fan. Ten just didn't look right, at least at first."
"I always rather liked Five. Dapper, odd, quite younger than the previous set." Marie-Ange added. "But I am torn between Ten and Nine for the recent ones." She popped out her phone to take a few quick pictures of the so-called Sanctum. "Those stairs should not even be upright, much less fit into this building. Nothing is holding them up." She grumbled.
"How disappointingly logical of you." It wasn't quite clear from where Daniel Drumm had arrived. It didn't help that he carried himself with the posture of a man who was quite accustomed to just... appearing. "You all certainly give the impression that you'd be used to appearances being deceiving." He surveyed the group in front of him, attempting to maintain a cool air of detachment.
"Anyway," he smiled rather suddenly, "yes. We picked up some inspiration from Apartment Therapy. It's remarkable what difference high ceilings make. Which is not why you're here, I realize, so. I am Daniel." His eyes lingered on Amanda. "Welcome."
"Nice to meet you. Finally." Amanda's words didn't exactly match the sudden wariness in the witch's posture. "Amanda Sefton. These are my co-workers, Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey and Jubilation Lee. We were told we would be meeting someone called the Ancient One." One eyebrow went up. "You don't exactly fit the description."
"Well, Ms. Sefton," Daniel playfully raised an eyebrow in kind, "I have good genetics, a friendly disposition and quite enjoy your flattery. But, if you insist, let's skip past the pleasantries. Follow me please." He turned on his heel and moved down the hall, his stride somehow both light and purposeful at the same time.
"I prefer my architecture more euclidean." Marie-Ange said – lightly grumped, really, as they followed Daniel up the stairs. "Or less inclined to make me wonder how much magical power you are pouring into this building, and how no one has noticed." Which really meant how no one she knew personally had noticed. "I do like the view. Despite it not making geographic or architectural sense."
Doug's head was starting to ache from his powers trying to suss out a pattern in the floor plan of the place. The ambient light in rooms they passed, the dimensions of walls and columns, none of it really added up to a coherent whole "What would you even call this style? Post-Crowley Hyper-dimensionalism? The Yaga-riffic School?"
"I assure you, it is much more than the wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff. However, the architectural style is after my own design. Most is what it wants you to see. It isn't until you use your third eye when you see it for what it truly is." The man standing in the center of the large room Daniel showed them into said with a slightly smile on his lips. He seemed friendly and came off as an inviting man. It wasn't often that they had the pleasure of having outsiders coming into the Sanctum Sanctorum, but this was a special case. "Ms. Sefton." He nodded towards the blonde and then he addressed the rest of the group, "I see you all had the pleasure of meeting Daniel. This to my left is Wong and to my right is Mordo." He gestured to the two beside him.
Mordo didn't even break a smile as he gave a sharp nod. This wasn't the first group that had appeared for guidance, but it was one of the more ...shabbier looking groups.
'Shabby' was perhaps too polite for this group. Wong looked the line up and down without otherwise acknowledging his introduction. His eyes settled for a moment on Amanda before his gaze moved silently off to the left, resting in a more neutral place.
"And you must be the Ancient One," supplied Amanda. "I'm sorry if I sound a bit rude, but one of my students and a one of my friends have been sucked into an alternate dimension and I'm a bit on the tetchy side." She swept a glance over the line of magicians, managing to convey without words that she wasn't particularly impressed by them either. "What was so important that I had to drop everything and turn up here?"
"You were researching on where Clea and Topaz went correct?" He crossed his arms, "They were taken by an entity calling himself Dormammu and the place they were taken was to the Dark Dimension. I am sure you are aware of beings that can destroy the world. Dormammu is one of those beings. He conquered many dimensions, including the Dark Dimension, Clea's homeworld."
"-More- dimensional shenanigans." Doug's flat tone reflected both his complete lack of surprise and his dislike of the news. Out of the handful of other...planes of existence that he and others had been exposed to, only Asgard had been even somewhat hospitable. And he was guessing someplace called 'the Dark Dimension' wasn't too likely to be full of fluffiness and light either. He flicked his fingers in a gesture to Marie-Ange, a sort of personal shorthand for 'goddamn Xorn and this goddamn universe' when he couldn't exactly talk about the particulars.
"I quit." Marie-Ange muttered. "After we rescue them. I quit. Forever." She dug the palm of her hand into her left eye and huffed in frustration. "This is an obvious question you are probably waiting for one of us to ask, what is the Dark Dimension?" The air quotes were in her voice. And on her face. Everywhere but her hands, one occupied with her headache, the other texting to her team -- "//and who named it such a stupid name//."
"Dark Dimension, is more or less, a center hot spot for access to these other dimension. It was ruled and protected by Olnar. However, he made the mistake of trusting in Dormammu when he first arrived. It was only a matter of time before the world fell into Dormammu hands. Olnar did have a son, Orini. He fell into Dormammu's sister, Umar's, spell and with it a child was born. I allowed this child to come over into this world, so she may be protected from Dormammu. Tea?" He asked, offering a cup to any of the others.
"Wait, you mean... Clea?" For possibly the first time ever in her life, Amanda waved away the offer of tea and instead rounding on the Ancient One. "You 'allowed' Clea to come here from a place called the Dark fucking Dimension, and then what? Left her to figure out the rest? And what about Topaz? She's stuck over there with Clea because we had no fucking idea what we were dealing with! Typical bloody higher up types - you're all hands off until something happens and then you come in all wise and shit telling us stuff we should have known from the start!"
Doug saw the curl of fingers that signaled the beginning of a fist, which tended to end with Amanda's knuckles bloodied by someone else's nose after an unsubtle left jab. He slid up to her side, wrapping his hand around her wrist and pressing at a nerve cluster that forced her fingers to flex back outward. He might privately agree with her assessment of the attitudes on display, but anything more than strong words was likely to escalate things in an unproductive direction. "You're all heart," he volleyed somewhat icily at the Ancient One and the others.
"It is what it is." Mordo turned and looked at Amanda, face impassive. "The Ancient One has done what he can. He provided the protection when no one else would. You should be more grateful for what he was able to do. I guarantee you, there is nobody in this world who has the ability to do more."
"Clea needed protection," Wong added calmly, though his eyes said everything about how he felt toward the raggedy group standing before him. They were below everyone here. They didn't need information. "No one would have taken her in had they known what she really was."
"Then you're a bigger plonker than you look," shot back Amanda, aware of Doug's restraining hand and hauling in her temper... somewhat. "And it obviously didn't occur to you to check on the people she did wind up with, because otherwise you would have found out I don't give a tinker's toss for someone's origin bullshit, only what I see in them."
The Ancient One smile sadly, "The Lakes accepted Clea for who she was without known about her past. Just like her new family in New York did the same. Once Clea was ready, I was going to tell her everything. I wasn't expecting this so soon." He looked at the guest, "I do know a way of getting into the Dark Dimension from this side, however, I cannot risk the lives of billions on this planet to save two. If Dormammu was to enter this world there would be no stopping him, especially if he has the next Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension as his puppet." He set down his tea cup, "I am sorry."
"Dude, if you think any of us believe that load of bull, then I got a bridge to sell you."
Jubilee had been silent up till now, this show was all Amanda as far as she was concerned. She'd learnt her lesson when it came to things dealing with magic. Still, a line like that needed a response and she was just the woman to give it.
"Dumbledore. He is Dumbledore all over again. Here, I will claim to care about you but not tell you anything about who you really are." Marie-Ange said, with a loud snort. "Well, I suppose it is good to know that all old men are stupid. We will be going now. Amanda has students to track down and an evil potions master to convince to throw you off the top of a tower."
Doug was practically leaning into Amanda, shoving the incensed Brit toward the door before she could verbalize any of the things she was almost certainly thinking. He gathered Marie-Ange and Jubilee by eye. As they reached the door, he couldn't resist a parting shot of his own. "We'll get it done, no thanks to you."
"We always do."
On the outside, the New York Branch looked like... a house. A small, not at-all-impressive house that seemed invisible to anyone who passed it.
Waiting on the inside for the arriving group, however, was a grand entrance hall that easily rivaled that of the mansion. A large staircase was directly in front of them, leading up to a large circular window, and on either side there was comfortable-looking furniture.
Amanda was already disgruntled - besides having two of her 'ducklings' go missing, she'd apparently had a magical hot spot sitting in the middle of New York without anything pinging her radar. Not that she was all-powerful, but it was something of a kick in the teeth. "The bigger on the inside thing's one way to beat the New York housing market," she remarked, taking refuge in humour as she usually did.
"Did I mention? It also travels in time." Doug was always ready to back someone's pop culture reference, after all. And given the magical nature of things, he couldn't entirely discount the possibility that this place might -actually- travel in time. Which made it the best kind of joke.
"Nerds."
Jubilee's own demeanor was somewhat more wary than the others. She'd been on the bad side of magic, and despite the fact she was quite fine with Amanda and her Ducklings, she had no real love of being around the stuff when she could help it.
Despite herself and the circumstances, Amanda gave Doug a grin over her shoulder. "Which one's your favourite?" she asked. "Me, I've always been a Ninth Doctor fan. Ten just didn't look right, at least at first."
"I always rather liked Five. Dapper, odd, quite younger than the previous set." Marie-Ange added. "But I am torn between Ten and Nine for the recent ones." She popped out her phone to take a few quick pictures of the so-called Sanctum. "Those stairs should not even be upright, much less fit into this building. Nothing is holding them up." She grumbled.
"How disappointingly logical of you." It wasn't quite clear from where Daniel Drumm had arrived. It didn't help that he carried himself with the posture of a man who was quite accustomed to just... appearing. "You all certainly give the impression that you'd be used to appearances being deceiving." He surveyed the group in front of him, attempting to maintain a cool air of detachment.
"Anyway," he smiled rather suddenly, "yes. We picked up some inspiration from Apartment Therapy. It's remarkable what difference high ceilings make. Which is not why you're here, I realize, so. I am Daniel." His eyes lingered on Amanda. "Welcome."
"Nice to meet you. Finally." Amanda's words didn't exactly match the sudden wariness in the witch's posture. "Amanda Sefton. These are my co-workers, Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey and Jubilation Lee. We were told we would be meeting someone called the Ancient One." One eyebrow went up. "You don't exactly fit the description."
"Well, Ms. Sefton," Daniel playfully raised an eyebrow in kind, "I have good genetics, a friendly disposition and quite enjoy your flattery. But, if you insist, let's skip past the pleasantries. Follow me please." He turned on his heel and moved down the hall, his stride somehow both light and purposeful at the same time.
"I prefer my architecture more euclidean." Marie-Ange said – lightly grumped, really, as they followed Daniel up the stairs. "Or less inclined to make me wonder how much magical power you are pouring into this building, and how no one has noticed." Which really meant how no one she knew personally had noticed. "I do like the view. Despite it not making geographic or architectural sense."
Doug's head was starting to ache from his powers trying to suss out a pattern in the floor plan of the place. The ambient light in rooms they passed, the dimensions of walls and columns, none of it really added up to a coherent whole "What would you even call this style? Post-Crowley Hyper-dimensionalism? The Yaga-riffic School?"
"I assure you, it is much more than the wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff. However, the architectural style is after my own design. Most is what it wants you to see. It isn't until you use your third eye when you see it for what it truly is." The man standing in the center of the large room Daniel showed them into said with a slightly smile on his lips. He seemed friendly and came off as an inviting man. It wasn't often that they had the pleasure of having outsiders coming into the Sanctum Sanctorum, but this was a special case. "Ms. Sefton." He nodded towards the blonde and then he addressed the rest of the group, "I see you all had the pleasure of meeting Daniel. This to my left is Wong and to my right is Mordo." He gestured to the two beside him.
Mordo didn't even break a smile as he gave a sharp nod. This wasn't the first group that had appeared for guidance, but it was one of the more ...shabbier looking groups.
'Shabby' was perhaps too polite for this group. Wong looked the line up and down without otherwise acknowledging his introduction. His eyes settled for a moment on Amanda before his gaze moved silently off to the left, resting in a more neutral place.
"And you must be the Ancient One," supplied Amanda. "I'm sorry if I sound a bit rude, but one of my students and a one of my friends have been sucked into an alternate dimension and I'm a bit on the tetchy side." She swept a glance over the line of magicians, managing to convey without words that she wasn't particularly impressed by them either. "What was so important that I had to drop everything and turn up here?"
"You were researching on where Clea and Topaz went correct?" He crossed his arms, "They were taken by an entity calling himself Dormammu and the place they were taken was to the Dark Dimension. I am sure you are aware of beings that can destroy the world. Dormammu is one of those beings. He conquered many dimensions, including the Dark Dimension, Clea's homeworld."
"-More- dimensional shenanigans." Doug's flat tone reflected both his complete lack of surprise and his dislike of the news. Out of the handful of other...planes of existence that he and others had been exposed to, only Asgard had been even somewhat hospitable. And he was guessing someplace called 'the Dark Dimension' wasn't too likely to be full of fluffiness and light either. He flicked his fingers in a gesture to Marie-Ange, a sort of personal shorthand for 'goddamn Xorn and this goddamn universe' when he couldn't exactly talk about the particulars.
"I quit." Marie-Ange muttered. "After we rescue them. I quit. Forever." She dug the palm of her hand into her left eye and huffed in frustration. "This is an obvious question you are probably waiting for one of us to ask, what is the Dark Dimension?" The air quotes were in her voice. And on her face. Everywhere but her hands, one occupied with her headache, the other texting to her team -- "//and who named it such a stupid name//."
"Dark Dimension, is more or less, a center hot spot for access to these other dimension. It was ruled and protected by Olnar. However, he made the mistake of trusting in Dormammu when he first arrived. It was only a matter of time before the world fell into Dormammu hands. Olnar did have a son, Orini. He fell into Dormammu's sister, Umar's, spell and with it a child was born. I allowed this child to come over into this world, so she may be protected from Dormammu. Tea?" He asked, offering a cup to any of the others.
"Wait, you mean... Clea?" For possibly the first time ever in her life, Amanda waved away the offer of tea and instead rounding on the Ancient One. "You 'allowed' Clea to come here from a place called the Dark fucking Dimension, and then what? Left her to figure out the rest? And what about Topaz? She's stuck over there with Clea because we had no fucking idea what we were dealing with! Typical bloody higher up types - you're all hands off until something happens and then you come in all wise and shit telling us stuff we should have known from the start!"
Doug saw the curl of fingers that signaled the beginning of a fist, which tended to end with Amanda's knuckles bloodied by someone else's nose after an unsubtle left jab. He slid up to her side, wrapping his hand around her wrist and pressing at a nerve cluster that forced her fingers to flex back outward. He might privately agree with her assessment of the attitudes on display, but anything more than strong words was likely to escalate things in an unproductive direction. "You're all heart," he volleyed somewhat icily at the Ancient One and the others.
"It is what it is." Mordo turned and looked at Amanda, face impassive. "The Ancient One has done what he can. He provided the protection when no one else would. You should be more grateful for what he was able to do. I guarantee you, there is nobody in this world who has the ability to do more."
"Clea needed protection," Wong added calmly, though his eyes said everything about how he felt toward the raggedy group standing before him. They were below everyone here. They didn't need information. "No one would have taken her in had they known what she really was."
"Then you're a bigger plonker than you look," shot back Amanda, aware of Doug's restraining hand and hauling in her temper... somewhat. "And it obviously didn't occur to you to check on the people she did wind up with, because otherwise you would have found out I don't give a tinker's toss for someone's origin bullshit, only what I see in them."
The Ancient One smile sadly, "The Lakes accepted Clea for who she was without known about her past. Just like her new family in New York did the same. Once Clea was ready, I was going to tell her everything. I wasn't expecting this so soon." He looked at the guest, "I do know a way of getting into the Dark Dimension from this side, however, I cannot risk the lives of billions on this planet to save two. If Dormammu was to enter this world there would be no stopping him, especially if he has the next Sorcerer Supreme of the Dark Dimension as his puppet." He set down his tea cup, "I am sorry."
"Dude, if you think any of us believe that load of bull, then I got a bridge to sell you."
Jubilee had been silent up till now, this show was all Amanda as far as she was concerned. She'd learnt her lesson when it came to things dealing with magic. Still, a line like that needed a response and she was just the woman to give it.
"Dumbledore. He is Dumbledore all over again. Here, I will claim to care about you but not tell you anything about who you really are." Marie-Ange said, with a loud snort. "Well, I suppose it is good to know that all old men are stupid. We will be going now. Amanda has students to track down and an evil potions master to convince to throw you off the top of a tower."
Doug was practically leaning into Amanda, shoving the incensed Brit toward the door before she could verbalize any of the things she was almost certainly thinking. He gathered Marie-Ange and Jubilee by eye. As they reached the door, he couldn't resist a parting shot of his own. "We'll get it done, no thanks to you."
"We always do."
