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Things were quickly getting confusing and yet, in this strange confusion, Ruée felt a strange feeling of pure bliss. One hand hand, she was confused as to why she was suddenly falling, as this had never been explained to her, but on the other, she was ecstatic that she actually felt something. The wind pushing against her… what was it called…? The surface of her body? No, that was too long and convoluted. There had to be a simpler, more understandable term that she had either forgotten or had no knowledge of to begin with. In any case, the wind, however powerful and just short of painful it was, was quite enjoyable as it hit her with the strength of many… things. Again, she was at a loss for a term. Spending just over two hundred years not uttering a word did have quite a few consequences. Lucie made a mental note to do some research with the goal of enrichening her vocabulary as soon as the opportunity allowed itself to be attainable.

For the moment, however, Lucie refrained from saying a thing and instead closed her eyes as she fell, fell, fell and fell. It felt like a long time, though in reality, this sensation probably didn’t last nearly as long as she felt it did, at most, only a few passing moments, though she would probably be able to remember this for the rest of her life; as the very moment she could finally feel her own body, as the first time she knew she was alive. She didn’t dare open her eyes and she didn’t need to. Everything was there and she would let the moment go by before worrying herself with things like her own appearance. If you asked anyone else who had experienced this falling phenomenon for the first time, they would probably express a good amount of discomfort in recalling the idea. But for Lucie, who had never once felt her own body in her entire existence, it was pure elation.

Pure elation, right up until the moment when she felt it no longer and instead of hearing the sounds of gales assaulting her eardrums, she heard nothing but silence. An earthy smell wafted through the air and… was that feeling in her legs that of standing on her own two legs? She couldn’t tell. Her eyes were still closed and since she still wanted to hold that feeling of pure bliss close to her, if only for a millisecond more, she kept them firmly closed. Besides, it was more fun to guess where she was simply based on what she couldn’t see, only smell, hear and feel. The air and atmosphere was not unlike that of an evergreen forest, though Ruée didn’t realize this for herself, having never been to a place where thousand year old pine trees rose from the earth, ferns growing underneath their grizzled trunks and the gently humid air leaving a wispy fog that would run through the woods. In all, though, despite the exact feeling being unknown to her, the key felt a surely calm feeling, one that, unlike the complete lack of feeling that existed in the shop, actually had substance to it, making it feel all the more comforting, even though it was an entirely new and unknown feeling to her.

She couldn’t hear much of anything. Sounds of smaller wildlife dominated, even from within what Lucie assumed was a closed area, based on the acoustics and general feeling she could deduct from the lack of any breeze or any other tell-tale factor that would point to her actually being outside. Even though she had never really felt such a thing, it was easy to tell for someone who had spent a long time past the bicentenary of her “birth” in her own thoughts, deducing things based on what she could figure out by herself and those fleeting words she had heard so many years ago. Though, if this is what a closed place had to offer, she could only imagine what feelings and impressions she would feel once she had left this place and ventured “outside”.

However, this chain of thoughts and ideas was quickly broken by a few sounds of what Ruée could only assume was not only slight fatigue, but a bit of confusion too. They certainly weren’t words and she quickly realized just who these noises were coming from; none other than her new companion, River North II; a name which Ruée still couldn’t figure out the meaning of for absolute sure. Speaking of which…

[quote=River North II]
[b]“Ruée! - ouch -”[/b][/quote]

“Hmm?” Lucie let out a small sound before she finally felt what it was to be in pain for the first time in her existence. Her eyes still closed, she couldn’t help but cry out quietly as her body was brought from its former standing position to suddenly being part of a disorganized heap on the ground, most of her body feeling bruised. It had only happened within a moment, but she could easily remember every feeling of it. The warmth of another’s body, the feeling of losing her balance, the all too familiar feeling of falling and, the worst part, hitting the floor and feeling a powerful shock throughout her body. Some of those feelings, though, were obviously meant in affection and Lucie felt a chill roll through her body as she thought of possible reasons for the unfortunately consequential embrace that had her on the floor and in more than a little [i]douleur[/i].

“Aïe…” Ruée uttered as she lay on the ground, finally opening her eyes to look up at the ceiling and its fan, in all their complete and utter averageness. Though, needless to say, it was a new sight to her and she could only wonder just what the strange spinning thing on the ceiling was used for. However, she did take slight satisfaction in the fact that her deduction that she had been in a unopen area had been correct. To be frank, she was quite surprised she had been correct, but it make her happy to find that her skills of deduction would actually come to use in this new world. However, she had no way of predicting just how her mistress’ appearance would change in this place. Gone was the mature and yet immature look of before; an assortment of beautiful colors and tones had taken their place. Though she looked slightly more mature, the rainbow of different shades of varying colors greatly changed the impression Ruée got from her. Now, she couldn’t really tell just what kind of person Julia was. She had a slight of idea of what, based on her recent actions and words, but with this new enigmatic change, Lucie couldn’t grasp just what was the main feeling she should be getting from the woman’s appearance.

Even more mysterious was the appearance of the room they were in. Unlike the especially average aesthetics of the room Lucie had seen through the screen of the Lumia, this room gave reasons to the feelings she had thought of before when she had stood like a statue with her eyes closed, allowing her other senses to tell her about this room. Flora grew throughout the room, in obviously organic, natural ways, as plants tended to do in any world. River North II was just as confused as the key was by the appearance of the room, based on her stilly worded question that Lucie had no way of answering. 

Even more stupefying was when her companion attempted to apologize for tackling her, the rounded and organic plate of wood that stood in the place of a whole in the wall, most likely a door, flew open as a loud woman burst through it. Ruée leapt off the ground in surprise as a avian… thing, burst into the room.

[quote=???]
[b]“Darlings~ Welcome to Alona Hotel~ How are you feeling~? Do you need more towels~?”[/b][/quote]

All Lucie’s ideas of what people would look like in this world suddenly went out the window. Sure, this thing which couldn’t even be described as a human except for the fact that it stood on two legs had a generally humanoid posture, but it had [i]feathers[/i], which humans didn’t tend to have from her own admittedly small amount of experience. Fortunately, since neither of the two newcomers could answer the beast, it spoke up again.

[quote=Mrs. Paunova]
[b]”Oh, excuse me, excuse me. My name is Mrs. Paunova and I am part of the staff here at our lovely Alona Hotel. Ask me anything you wish, darlings~”[/b][/quote]

For once, Lucie actually felt compelled to speak up, though, it wasn’t the most kind set of words.

“What are you, [i]espèce de oiseau[/i]...?” Her voice, though generally unused, definitely had a tone of distrust to it…