Night's Omen

Danielle had one hell of a headache, that was certain. She rolled around in bed for a moment, waiting for her alarm clock to go off. The earliest sunlight crept through the curtains of her room making a blue cast on everything, and the sound of a rooster broke into the early morning light.

Wait a second... rooster? This was New York, there was no such thing as a rooster. She opened her eyes, but the room was still dark, and it was hard to tell what was going on. She could smell strange scents - wood, water, the strong aroma of cinnamon and bread. Had she died?

The room was completely unfamiliar to her, but voices were starting to creep across the morning streets, and she leaned forward on her knees under the thick down blankets and dared to peek through the curtains at the street down below.

She didn't recognize a damn thing.

"What is... going on here?" she said aloud, not really sure what else to do at the moment.

He didn't understand why he had to go ensure that Danielle was awake, but for whatever reason his mother had given him that task.  He had an inkling that his mother was planning on having him show the girl around the estate and city, which wasn't something he was necessarily looking forward to, but it could be tolerable.  She couldn't be that clueless about life in Paris, could she?

He rapped on her door loudly in the hopes that it would wake her up without him having to find a female servant to go inside and check on her.  He was not going to barge into a lady's bedchamber, even if he was told to make sure she was awake.

"Danielle?" he called out, hoping she heard him.  With his luck, she'd be a deep sleeper.

She heard someone banging on her door and her head snapped back as she gasped, surprised. Ash! she thought to herself, suddenly relieved. He could tell her what was going on here. Had he tranquelized her and taken her somewhere? Were they in some sort of old-timey villaige where people re-enacted stuff? Ugh, she had to find out before she lost her mind.

She bounced to the door in her white linen dressing gown, which she'd yet to nice, but assured that when she would, her reaction would be no doubt priceless. Not that Danielle slept in lingerie or anything, but she definitely didn't own anything quite this school marm-ish.

She flung open the door and lept on Ash. "Thank GOD you're here!" she peeped, squeezing him tightly. "Where ARE we?"

This wasn't exactly the Ash that Danielle had left behind, and his eyes shot wide open as he tried to pry her off of him.  She was still in her DRESSING GOWN!  The instant he had her off of him, he looked down the halls to both sides, hoping there weren't any servants watching.  He didn't want rumors to fly through the estate, especially if they weren't even true.

"What are you doing?!" he hissed, his accent surprisingly strong.  He spoke French, but he'd been taught English from the time he was young.  Having this English girl around meant that his presence was required, since he was closer to her age than anyone else in the family, and he spoke excellent English.  Felicity was around her age as well, but she wasn't very good with other languages.  

"A simple, 'yes, I am awake' would have sufficed!" he told her, obviously scolding.  He was standing there in the hallway with a young lady who was in her underclothes.  "Now...could you please dress yourself properly?"

Danielle stared at him as he shoved her off of him, her jaw thankfully firmly shut. It took a lot to leave Danielle slack-jawed, but that had been dangerously close.

"What?!" she demanded, eyes wide and liquid mercury. "Okay, first off? You don't get to pull the naughty card. It's a nightgown for Christ's sake, it isn't like I'm running around in my skivvies." Of course, she really WAS considering the time period, but that hadn't actually settled in yet.

"Who pissed in your muffins this morning?" she snapped, turning back into her room. She realized suddenly that she had no idea where her clothing actually was, and paused as she reached for an armoir. In here? Danielle didn't have anything fancy enough to stuff into one of these ornate things. Maybe a dresser? But... there was no dresser.

"What the hell is going on here?" she hissed to herself.

He just STARED at her as she spoke, trying to decide if he'd EVER heard that dialect of English before, and then realizing he hadn't.  Where had he been told she was from?  

It didn't matter, though.  What mattered was that she was standing in the hallway in her night clothes, looking distinctly un-ladylike, and arguing with him.  He shouldn't be arguing back, but he got the feeling that she wasn't going to be quite as easy to deal with as most ladies were.  Starting with her language.  Unlike most of the French people she'd be meeting, he knew what she'd said, and it was a bit of a...shock.

"I should hope that nobody will piss in anything I will be eating, if we ever make it down to breakfast!  Will you please dress yourself, mademoiselle?  In case you're confused, your clothing was all put into the armoire, and I will be waiting out here for you.  Do you require assistance?" he asked, prepared to get her a female servant or two if it was necessary.  He was hungry, and he wanted her dressed soon so that they could go to breakfast.  He'd get torn apart if he went down there without her.

"When did you become such a pratt?" she snarled, going to the armoire. Holy shit, dresses. Lots of dresses. "Whoa. This isn't mine," she said, shutting the door. She looked around the room. Where were her blue jeans? What the HELL!

"I must be in some sort of wormhole.." she muttered to herself. This was punishment for all that bad shit she did, that's what. Aloud, she spoke something else. "I'm not wearing those. I can hardly move in that shit, let alone breathe. Where were the clothes I was wearing before?" she demanded, facing Ash again.

No, this wasn't Ash. It looked like him, but it was way, way too prissy to be him. She narrowed her eyes. Mortal Kombat music started playing in her head, and Danielle tried to decide if she was about to have to beat the living crap out of a house full of strangers to try and find the right time-space continuum to send herself home.

"Excuse me?  When did it become appropriate for young ladies to meet men in the corridor in their nightclothes?" he snapped right back, starting to get pissed.  This was completely ridiculous!  And she was asking where her clothing was?  Right in front of her!  Was there something wrong with her that someone had neglected to inform them of?  That was extremely frustrating!

'You have to wear those," he told her, his voice losing any of its heat and dropping down to a cold, obviously irritated tone.  "That is your clothing, and I hope you'll excuse me for not being present the last time you undressed.  If you'll dress yourself now, I'm sure we can find whichever maidservant was responsible for your last gown after breakfast."

"You can go down by yourself. I'm not wearing one of those stupid dresses," she snapped. And with that, she slammed the door in his face. Oh, yeah, this was definitely teenage Danielle's attitude, right there.

She rushed to the window again and flung it open. No cars, just.. horses. And people wearing funny tight velvet clothing. "Oh man, what lamp did I rub?" she moaned, slamming the window shut with a loud bang. She rushed around the room, ripping into things, trying to find a shred of evidence to tell her that she was just dreaming.

She pinched herself. It didn't really hurt. She punched herself. Okay, THAT hurt.

"Crap."

He just STARED at the door when she slammed it in his face, and he honestly didn't know how to press forward with this for a moment.  Okay, so she was insane.  She wouldn't be the first woman who was completely out of her mind that he had to entertain.  He wasn't high enough in the court to really warrant star treatment, so he had a habit of getting escort duty.  It was helping his standing with the royals, though it was occasionally absolutely infuriating.

It was a shame this one was just a favor to family.

He fought back an urge to swear rather loudly, and instead kicked the stone of the wall and glared at the nearest servant.  "Get Celine and Madeleine, immediately," he shot at the boy, in French, of course.  He needed to have female servants go deal with Danielle, since it involved dressing her and he seriously couldn't go down to breakfast without her.  Celine and Madeleine were probably the best equipped to deal with a crazy young noblewoman, both being a bit older and wiser.

They were also damn strong for a bunch of women.

The instant they arrived, he explained the situation to them, including that Danielle was acting INSANE in rapid French, and watched them push the heavy door open to go deal with the girl.  He waited outside.  Fuming.

Danielle couldn't understand what they were saying, which was odd, because she could speak French well, just not whatever version they were using. What, was it Flemmish or something? She didn't, of course, know the differences between like Victorian French and 2007 French, so the reason why she couldn't understand was fairly obvious to everyone onlooking from the normal dimension.

"To hell with this," she said, understanding words 'break' and 'hold' and 'crazy'. She couldn't find any of her normal clothes, and literally -lept- into a dark green gown that was acceptable enough for her at the moment. It was something a peasant would wear, simple, bodice, regular shoes, no frills. Just the way she liked it. She'd pushed a dresser in front of the door, too, so that was something.

She grabbed the bedsheets from her bed and tied them around a post, than went straight out the window. She ignored the small group of children who -stared- at her as she did so, for a female performing such rash actions was unheard of (even still in present Danielle got random bad looks for doing things like that).

Annnd she went off through the streets, as fast as she could. She needed to get home. To HER home.

Ash had NO idea what was going on for a full five minutes after Dani started her stunt, mostly because he was staring in disbelief while those two ladies tried to get the door to the bedroom open, then tried himself.  There was obviously something in front of it, and it really didn't take long for someone to yell about a woman jumping out a window and running.  He cursed violently, had to apologize to the two women present, and took off for the front of the house, yelling for someone to get a horse ready, and fast.

He was going to chase her down and tie a rope around her wrist so she couldn't leave his general vicinity once he got back to the house with her.

He was on that horse the second he was down the stairs, and after her.  Letting her get away would be SERIOUS trouble for him.  "Danielle!  Danielle, get back here!  What are you doing?" he yelled after her the instant he caught a glance of her through the crowd, and unfortunately for her, people moved for a horse.  She'd have more trouble getting through than he would.

Danielle looked over her shoulder in utter disbelief. Ash was chasing her ON HORSEBACK. She turned back and ran, literally shoving her way through the crowd. Her Vida strength was gone, but Danielle was still not slack in the department of moving objects OUT of her way. As she ran, she knew that Papa Aristide had to be responsible for this. There was nobody else at the moment she could blame even capable for such madness. Instead of overreacting, she just dipped into a dodgy looking tavern, and made for the back door.

There was on the outside a few moments of silence before a large barkeep dragged Danielle out by her arm, and directly to Ash's waiting steed, where he sat. He spoke to the man in French, "I believe this belongs to you?" which elicited a rude noise from Danielle and a claw in his general direction. The man was big enough, however, that he held her comfortably an arm's length away, and out to Ash. Her little feet kicked at the good four inches of ground she was missing.

What was wrong with this woman?  Why was she running?  It made NO SENSE.

Once she ducked into the tavern, he considered dismounting and following her, but just a glance at the sign above the door and the knowledge of who worked there was enough to change his mind.  He stopped in there often enough, and paid well, that he'd better have gained some loyalty.  He was generally well-liked here, so he wasn't too worried.  If Danielle tried anything like this in Paris, they might have some problems.  The nobility wasn't exactly popular over there at the moment.

"Merci, monsieur," he said smoothly and gratefully, offering the man the equivalent of a short bow from the horse's back in thanks before he hefted Danielle onto the animal in front of him.  He'd have put her behind him, except he was worried she'd jump off.  He was waiting until they were a few feet from the barkeep to even ask his questions, as well.

"Danielle, what is wrong?  You have done nothing but act like an insane woman since you woke up!" he told her, obviously irritated, but almost concerned.  Was she afraid of something that nobody thought he needed to know about?  That'd be just his luck, someone would be trying to kill her and he'd have to deal with it. 

She uttered something atrociously foul in French under her breath, and snapped her neck back so hard that her hair might have hit Ash in the face. She wasn't saying anything to him, not yet. She needed to talk to Pandora, that was what. The Triste might know what was going on, here, because Ash obviously did NOT.

When they arrived back, Ash would find just how difficult it was going to be to get her off of the horse. She was plotting as they rode, plotting for a way to steal the horse and take off. She needed to talk to... someone who knew what the HELL was going on. She wondered if Papa Aristide had anything to do with this again, and she made a mental note to throttle the Voodoo man as soon as she found out the truth.