Event Open Breaking The Molds

When Andrasta woke up, it was late in the evening

A few hours ago, she had just made it home from an incredible adventure. There was a mountain-sized dragon, a princess who loved him, and a prince who would kill both of them, and more, to gain power for himself. Andrasta had entered this world without meaning to, without any explanation. She left just as suddenly, but not after a climactic fight with the prince that saw her badly wounded.

She stayed conscious for most of the ambulance ride, sending texts to some of her friends and family. If any of them rushed to meet her at the hospital, they might have caught a glimpse of her out cold, deathly pale. They might have stayed long enough to hear troubling things about the state she was in. Broken bones in her right leg and left hand, along with some kind of strange, crystalline shrapnel. Blood loss. A heart rate which, if she was a human, seemed like it would be too slow to keep her alive. A nurse would remark that it took effort just to stick an IV in her.

Now, almost half a day later, Andrasta seemed like she was back to normal. The color was back in her skin, and her heart rate was where it should be. She was wearing a hospital gown and several casts. Consciousness came slowly, as did awareness of her surroundings.

Her doctor would have mentioned to anyone waiting that she would probably be waking up soon.

Andrasta was still groggy, still regaining consciousness. "Dalia?" She blinked a few times and shifted up in her bed. "Actually, yeah. I think so. I'm just... really hungry. Can't I make this thing sit up?" She looked around for the plastic remote thing attached to her hospital bed and used her free hand to use it. Her bed slowly buzzed its way into sitting her upright.

Then, she held up her cast-covered hand. "Guy threw swords at me. One of them almost went through my hand." Her lips curled up in a weird smile. At least she thought that was cool.

Andrasta's eyes lit up when Orsick brought food in. "Yes! Food! I owe you my life Orsick." She fumbled with the tupperware container and her cast-covered hand, and quickly took her first few bites.

"I can't believe they put a cast on me," she grumbled with her mouth full.

"But right, you want to know what happened. I was ah, practicing parkour moves in my backyard, cause I was bored. So I jump off the roof, right. I tuck and roll, and when I get back to my feet I'm in a totally different world.

"I set off trying to find someone, and I found a big group of people and ran off to them. Turns out a bunch of other people from Manta Carlos ended up there too. Like Zephri."

She seemed to remember something, and sadness washed over her. She slowed down. There was a lot left for her to process. A lot of questions left unanswered for her. She took several more bites of food before saying anything else

"I... didn't know if I'd ever get to come back. But I was probably the second most powerful thing alive over there, other than Aezjtdaenr, so... I thought I could use my power to help the people who lived there. You know?"

"Hey Iesha." Andrasta managed a smile for the least rowdy member of the Monster Squad. The smile widened when she learned there were fudge cookies involved "I'm starving, actually. You guys are life-savers."

Andrasta laughed at Dalia's comment about throwing swords at her. "I hope you have a lot of them, because the guy just magicked a bunch of them at us all at once. I dodged most of them."

"I'm glad to be back," she said with a full mouth. "Oh uh, my hand's probably fine now. I hope they won't get mad at me if I just..."

Andrasta took in another mouthful of food. Then, she started poking at her cast, and each poke was accompanied by a cracking sound. Poke. Crack. Poke. Crack. With her power, it didn't take long for her to split the cast in half and pull her uninjured hand out of it. She set the two halves of the cast next to her on the bed, flexed her hand a few times, and smiled.

"See? It's fine now." She gave a thumbs up with her newly-liberated hand, and went right back to eating.

It was hard to imagine that she was in a coma with a bunch of broken bones a few hours ago.

"Good as new," Andrasta said. She took a break from eating to wiggle her fingers on her recently healed hand. "You'd almost think there was never a sword in it."

She started telling the whole story again between bites of food. Or, at least, the short version.

She started with how she disappeared in the middle of doing some powers practice out in the woods - and she showed up in another world. She and the other Carlosians met witch-paladins, prince Ycroma, a king, Princess Raenac, and all the people who actually made the castle run. She learned that things had been appearing there from Manta Carlos too, including a magic car, which the king thought was a sign from the gods or some dumb shit.

She talked about the giant dragon who the prince kept antagonizing, how he was racist against dragons and was the reason Aezjtdaenr was so big. She talked about how Raenac was the true heir, and was in love with Aezjtdaenr from before he grew.

The last parts, Andrasta really glossed over.

"So while we were talking to Raenac, Ycroma went and got himself hurt. Raenac and Zephri and Sylvi went to go ask him about some things, and then everything went to hell. I walked into Ycroma and his guys trying to kill the others. And... he stabbed Raenac, but I think Zephri and Sylvi saved her. Aezjtdaenr knew it happened somehow, so he came over and broke stuff and demanded justice. Ycroma drank... this magic silver water that gave him superpowers. I forgot to tell you about that stuff. But yeah, I decided Ycroma was the bigger asshole on account of being racist against dragons and wanting to do dragon genocide. So I kicked his ass. The others helped kick his ass too. And we all ended up here somehow. Then some ambulances came and picked some of us up, and here I am."

She looked down at her food, turning it over with her spoon a few times. All of this felt surreal.