Dang It All, I Was Just Trying to Follow the Rules

[pameladlloyd]

Interdimensional Police Triage (IPT): "Hello. How may I help you?"

Me: "I’d like to report a missing dimension."

IPT: "When did you first notice the missing dimension?"

Me: "Last night. Around 9 p.m., or so."

IPT: "What was your first clue the dimension was missing?"

Me: "Movies. The movies in this dimension don’t match the movies in the one I grew up in."

IPT: "Please be more specific."

Me: "Well, in my dimension, the movie 'All the King’s Men' is about John F. Kennedy and the events leading up to his assassination. The title is a reference to his death. In this one, it’s about Huey Long."

IPT: "Your case has been filed. When we’ve determined your dimension of origin, you will be returned."

Me: "Wait a minute. I don’t know how long I’ve been away. What about my husband and my kids? I mean, I like it here. I reported the missing dimension because that’s what I’m supposed to do, not because I want to go back!"

IPT: "You know the rules. No unauthorized transdimensional migration. If you want to live in your current dimension, you’ll have to return to your dimension and file an application for temporary residency."

Me: "Wait a minute. I think I was just confused. I was probably thinking of 'All the President’s Men.'"

IPT: "In your current dimension, that movie is about the Watergate scandal during Nixon’s administration. Your attempt to deceive me will be noted in your file." Pauses. "Hmm. This isn’t the first time you’ve been found wandering in a dimension other than your dimension of origin. I see here that you were forcibly ejected from Faerie when you were twelve."

Me: "What? That’s in my file? I thought all the records for acts committed by minor children were destroyed when they obtained their majority."

IPT: "Not when they’re related to interdimensional travel. I’ve located your dimension of origin and transmigration will commence in fifteen seconds."

Me: "Wait! How long will it be once I file, before I can come back?"

IPT: "It varies. Generally, you can expect a ten year wait before your paperwork gets proc…"

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

But everyone mortal was evicted from Faerie that year, on account of the War. Surely they can't hold that against you!

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the eviction, you see, as the fact that I was there in the first place without having a passport or any of the official paperwork. In my favor, I was only seven when I wandered in, following that really cool lady in the shiny dress, who turned out to be one of the top ranking Sidhe. (You don't have clearance, so I can't tell you which one.) However, when I started manifesting powers that mortals aren't supposed to manifest, it caused quite a stir. Some people even want to claim that the uneasy truce that had held for the past several centuries would have continued, if it hadn't been for me.

It's all in my file. Which I really thought had been expunged. *sigh*

[janni.livejournal.com]

Which is pretty funny, seeing as since the War pretty much everyone under about age 10 has magic anyway.

Not that any of the Faerie folk have been seen since the War, anyway, for that matter ...

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

But there are so many dimensions. I think they may have moved Faerie.

[janni.livejournal.com]

You think some of them survived? Huh.

[Personal Message - For Your Eyes Only]

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I know there are survivors, and more than just a few. It'd be worth both our lives if I went into any detail, but . . .

No, really, I can't say any more.

Re: [Personal Message - For Your Eyes Only]

[janni.livejournal.com]

Wait--you were in a different dimension of Faerie, weren't you? Because I know what happened after the War, and--

Never mind. Just--pretend I never said anything, okay?