Finding Joy

[Ricia]

Finding Joy
​

Another success. Another curse broken and another one gained. The trick has been set and the world was being changed and morphed in front of her eyes. She couldn't help but feel like she was flying and the lights and sparkles surrounded her. The rush was like nothing she could describe! Almost like driving with the window down in the middle of the stars. Except you could breath.


Landing was a bit of a different story. It consisted of a flash of light, then nothing. Nothing was really visible for a few moments that she was trying to adjust her vision. Just a very bright whiteness. Melody could say that it was the worst part of changing worlds. However it only lasted maybe a few seconds. Most may say that the shift was not that big of a deal. Seemed kind of normal. Walking out of somewhere dark and straight into the light, you'd experience the same thing. Melody wasn't sure why this bothered her... it was a mystery perhaps for another day.


When her vision returned, she was standing in the middle of a town. To the looks of it a large and very busy one. Unsure of how to proceed, she continued to just stand where she landed and get a good feel for her surroundings.


Melody had on her a tan backpack made of sturdy cloth. She also had on a belt that kind of had the same style to it. Pockets lined the belt and only an endless amount of things could be in it. A thin blue crystal hung from her neck on a thick black string. Her hair shinned a pretty black color, almost a bit purple. It was a small pixie cut, except for the long strand of hair on the side of her face, which currently was braided.


The clothing she wore matched that of what the people from her previous worlds often would be seen in. The last world she visited was like a gigantic oasis. The people they wore mostly robes with layers to keep the sun from burning them.


"Ahh..." She moaned almost "... it's so cool here!" Melody let out a happy stretch before taking off her backpack and putting it to the ground. Next she unclipped the belt and started to peel a few of the robbed layers off her. Underneath the layers was just a simple pair of blue shorts made out of sturdy material as well and a pretty frilly light pink blouse.


(Not sure if that was good or not. If I need to change something, let me know haha.)

 

[Tugboats]

Street patrol down Main all week. Because I wasn't bored enough already. Officer Alexander Schultz was being used for publicity. Officers frequently were used mostly in places out of the public eye, or as he liked to call them, THE PLACES WHERE CRIMES ACTUALLY HAPPEN. Things were rather quiet with only a few scattered groups of people, so he stopped to light a cigarette before moving on. Right across the road, there was a flash of light, and a robed figure. It was fairly common knowledge that teleportation was a banned magic. The lighter fell from his hands as he removed his pistol from its holster and moved towards her.


"Take your Focus off and put your hands behind your head."


--------------------------


CJ smiled over to Joy, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his car. She had been the daughter of his stepfather. He was 15 when the little three year old was introduced to his life, and at first he had acted like the snobby little teenager that everyone was at that age. But he quickly realized that Joy was going to be a great sister. He picked her up from school, since his hours at the Academy were his own choice, he took that time out to help out his family and spend time with her.


"If you promise not to tell Mom and Mike, I'll take you out for ice cream." The 11 year-old smiled at that. She never did keep a promise not to tell her parents about the extra ice cream trips they took, but neither of them tried to stop him, so CJ did it every once in awhile.


"But, I left my wallet in my apartment, so you'll have to let me go get it." They drove over, while she talked about her soccer team and how it was okay that they had lost because they would just win next time. He pulled up outside and walked into his apartment building. He got the wallet, and looked out the window to see a flash of light by his car, and a man in robes and a mask trying to pry open the door. He sprinted out of the building, frantic to save his sister. As he got out of the door, he saw her screaming as he pulled her out, his car door laying in the middle of the road, smoking slightly.


"Hey!" CJ formed a ball of lightning in his hands pointing it towards the man. "Take your hands off of her!" The man didn't respond, except with a flick of his wrist. The car door flew into CJ's chest, sprawling him out painfully onto the cement. He got up to see a second flash of light, and his sister was gone. He fired the lightning into the cement where the man was, leaving a burn mark. "Joy? Where are you?" There was no reply.

 

[Ricia]

Melody paused when a man ran up on her. He held in his hand what could be a gun. She wasn't sure, she had seen a lot of things in the years of her travel. Right now, she could proububly safely assume he was holding a weapons. Though what he was screaming at her almost made no sense. What was a Focus? Maybe some magic device? Melody decided that she should drop something to hopefully make the man happy. So... she dropped her robe. Catching in the wind, it blew off a few feet from her.


"I come.. in peace!" Melody said out loud. That usually worked. Usually. Sometimes it did nothing. Then there was the times it just made things worse. But those were kind of rare. "I have no idea what a Focus is... so please don't er.. shoot me?" Well.. she had no idea how he was going to get herself out of this one. She had a bit of time to wait before Jumper was ready to go again. Hopefully he didn't take her things away from her.

 

[Tugboats]

Officer Schultz was taken aback. Is she really trying to play dumb with me right now? "Set your necklace down and come with me. Someone is going to ask you a few questions." He was careful not to lower the gun, on the off chance that she did start to cast something. If she did set it down, he wasn't exactly sure what he would do with her, other than let someone up the chain know that some mysterious girl teleported in successfully.

 

[Ricia]

"Ehe? My necklace! No no.. I can't... you see I just came here to get some Yinyins.... er.. no wait.. what do other people call them.. uh.." Melody twisted her head slightly to the side as if to question herself. How did she tell this man what she was here to do. "Well... if I put my necklace down, can I have it back when you are done with it? I kind of need it." She said softly. Though she did pull the black rope over her head and almost reluctantly put the necklace down."Umm for the record.. the necklace doesn't do anything... fancy per say. It just talks to me!"

 

[Tugboats]

And perhaps we should get a psychologist in too. Maybe teleporting messed with her head. "You'll get it back after you explain what happened to you to my boss." He lowered the gun, and scooped up her robe and carefully lifted the necklace up. He walked her to the police station which, conveniently enough, was only a few blocks down. He put her in a low security cell, and put her items into the check under the name Teleporter.


------------------------


CJ couldn't face his mother or Mike. With Joy gone, he couldn't tell them that he let someone kidnap her. He drove his car to the house, crippled though it was, and put it into the garage. Once there, he left them a note, explaining what had happened to Joy. He ended it with four words.


I will get her back.


His next trip would be to the police station to report what had happened. As he walked, hurrying down Main Street, he heard a group of women talking in hushed tones.


"She just appeared from nowhere in those robes! What do you think that was about?" He questioned them on where the girl in the robes had gone and found out that she had been taken to the police station anyways. He began to move there as fast as he could, hoping that she knew where Joy would be.

 

[Ricia]

Melody went without any kind of resistance. Though when they took away her things... it made it extremely difficult to understand people. Extremely... as in now she won't speak the same language as them. She was sure she could find away...


This wasn't the first time something like this happened. She was sure after a few talks and they realized she was just crazy... they will most likely laugh her out of where ever she was. Sitting on the rather uncomfortable bed, Melody started to whistle a soft hymn that her family sung all the time. It was a peppy tune, meant to help keep her spirits high when she felt like things were bad. Soon she started to tap her feet to the beat on the ground, swaying her head from side to side as she waited.


(Hahaha it's late, there is all kinds of... everything. Geez. What a mess.)

 

[Tugboats]

(You have a rather unfortunate typo in the last post, in case you'd like to fix it.)


At the same moment that CJ arrived at the police station, the officer assigned to "Teleporter's" case was sent around. He tried a few times to speak with her before giving up to speak to Officer Schultz to make sure she spoke the same language.


CJ began to report his case, while the officer at the desk told him about an eerily similar person they had in custody. He pleaded and pleaded to see them, but was told that he would have to wait until the officer interviewing her was finished. So he sat, waiting for his time to speak with her.


----------


Officer Schultz returned to the cell, and leaned onto the bars. "Why aren't you speaking anymore?" The issue he had was that she didn't seem crazy. It was as if the moment he started escorting her, she couldn't understand what they were saying. "Your necklace talks to you..." He pointed back towards her. "Don't you make me regret this." He returned to the cell a few minutes later, holding the necklace out.

 

[Ricia]

(LOL. I tots got it!! She is not singing about things that should not be talked about on the site )


Melody smiled before taking the necklace, throwing the rope around her neck again. She then cleared her throat and smiled at him, "Thank you." She said. Her accent was most likely nothing he had ever before, so the words tend to sound a bit off, however she spoke with almost perfect clarity. It was most likely a magical spell. "So, you wanted to ask me some questions? The necklace translates about 20 feet around me." Melody said, making her hands draw circles around her physically as she described the area, "Kind of like a bubble."

 

[Tugboats]

"Originally, I was going to tell you about teleporting, and how it has been banned by all of the governments of the world." He put his hands on the bars, gripping the bars. Schultz had always followed his gut. Right now, it told him that this girl had no reason to be here. "I don't recognize that accent of yours, I have never even heard of magic that can translate languages, and when I first met you, I heard you say that you "come in peace." I think you're a whole different kind of mystery than what the others think you are. But I don't imagine you want to be poked and prodded like you would be as a mystery. So my advice is that you hide that necklace under your shirt and tell the people who talk to you that you don't remember anything from before you teleported. Once they leave, you'll be free to do whatever it is you wanted to do here on Evera." He shrugged. "Just my advice."

 

[Ricia]

"Teleportation is illegal?" Melody asked. It was more like she was mimicking the information. Though honestly, she felt rather flattered being called a mystery. She could see where the mystery part was coming in. However to her... why teleportation was illegal was a true mystery. Granted you could do evil things with a power like that, but not everyone would do evil thing.


While pondering the greater thoughts of what truly was the mystery in this situation, Melody flipped the crystal into her shirt, heeding this man's advice. It was for the best usually. "I'm only here to find some... er... what might they be called her... worms? They are little wiggly things that live in the ground." Melody used her hands to animate what 'wiggly things' may entail by literately wiggling on of her arms. "Then i'll just leave." She told him, her hands tossed themselves to the side as if she was discarding something, reiterating the point of leaving.

 

[Tugboats]

"If that's what you need to do." Schultz tapped the bar and walked away, having given her that advice. He mulled over why she would need worms. If that's what she came here to do, then that's what she needed to do. People would be in to see her, and that would be that, he assumed.


-----------------


Once Schultz reported that he had found that she didn't know about the teleporting or anything else, protocol called for someone who may be "mentally unfit" should be kept until a psychologist was in to see them. CJ walked in with an officer directing him.


"It's this one. She didn't respond to anyone but Officer Schultz. You're free to ask what you'd like." The door swung closed and CJ approached the cell, looking at her. She didn't look like anyone even suspicious. In all honesty, she just looked like a girl his age. A pretty one, but he wasn't about to let that keep him from finding Joy.


"I have some questions for you."

 

[Ricia]

Melody was just relaxing on the ugly bed. It wasn't very soft, but still it was a bed. No reason to keep stressing while in the cell. She was sure she would be let go some time soon. Hopefully. She still hadn't a clue what was going to happen. So... she tried to catch up on some sleep. Thinking happy things... like fluffy things. Mmm... yes some fur to cuddle up into would be very nice. Melody almost mentally purred with the thought of snuggling into some soft fur.


"I have some questions for you."


The voice broke what ever happy day dream she was in. However she did close her eyes for quite a bit of time.. she actually felt a bit rested. Sitting up, Melody gazed on the man in front of her. He looked younger then the people who had been passing by her cell every now and again.In fact, he didn't look like he worked here at all. Then again she could be wrong about that.


Turning on her side, Melody rolled off the bed before standing up and almost skipping up to the bars, "Sure! What do you want to know?" She asked. What ever got her out of this faster!

 

[Tugboats]

CJ put his hands on the bars, the gems grafted into his hands clicking slightly on the metal. Once the door finally closed and it was just the two of them, as well as the man who had been arrested for public intoxication snoring away a few cells over.


"The police tell me you appeared all of a sudden in the middle of the town, wearing a robe. I want you to tell me about the other person who appeared all of a sudden in this same town, also wearing a robe." CJ hoped that confronting her with this information would be enough to get her to talk about the other person. Otherwise, he could have to take other measures.

 

[Ricia]

"Hmm... other person who appeared with robes?" Melody echoed, reflecting the boy's question. She thought long and hard. It was impossible for someone to travel here with her, she'd have to be touching them. It was possible they traveled her. But what about this.. teleportation magic? "Sorry. I travel alone. I don't know anything about another person." Melody said after a soft pause of thought.

 

[Tugboats]

"I don't particularly think this is a coincidence. Now, normally, I wouldn't care about this situation, but your friend appeared, attacked me, and he took my sister." Sparks began to jump between his fingers, mostly an accident from him being upset. "Let me ask a different question. Where did he go with her?"

 

[Ricia]

The sparked alerted Melody to a possible threat. She took a few steps back and put her hands out a bit, "Hey.. now..." She said in a lame effort to calm him. "I don't know... can you describe what it looked like when he left?" She asked him, "It is possible he just teleported... see I world travel, so I go from world to world.... teleportation is just from place to place.." She tried to explain.

 

[Tugboats]

CJ started to realize that she didn't have the information he wanted. But perhaps he could still speak with her about her going from world to world. "Teleportation is far too messy to even handle one person. If he had just teleported away with her they would both be terribly injured or dead. Not to mention that there would be scorch marks where they disappeared from. Perhaps this is similar to whatever it is that you did." An idea popped up in his head. "If I take you to where it happened would you be able to tell if it was the same thing you used?"

 

[Ricia]

"Yes! I can!" Melody said. That mush she was sure of. Heck she could even use one of her gadgets to measure the type of jump. Though the probability of her jumping the same place that guy did was extremely low. She wouldn't tell him that quite yet, as he might have more convenient was to travel.

 

[Tugboats]

CJ smiled. He scribbled down a phone number on a piece of paper, handing it to her. "Once you get released, call this number, no matter what time it is and I will come and get you. You'll help me, right?"

 

[Ricia]

She took the paper and looked at it, "Mhmm... I'll attempt to find phone." Melody told the boy. She bit her bottom lip a bit then nodded, "Anyway... I'm sure I could help. I've traveled around a good portion of my life...I know a wold jumper when I see one."

 

[Tugboats]

"Thank you. Really." He put his hand through the bars, holding it out for a handshake. "I'm CJ"