A movie theater. A real-life movie theater, or at least as far as they'd explored. The iconic concessions stand with the roped stanchions that marked out the lines, the smell that no one from his world would ever mistake as any other smell… It was all a little too much, everything else seemed too fantastical to be real, but this, this was something so familiar so intimate. A movie theater was the first date for him and his wife, it was one of his first jobs, it was one of the first memories that he could always think of with his family growing up, one of the traditions that they did every year, going to see a movie on the day after Christmas. When he was in the afterlife, none of it felt real, but this, a place that had so many memories linked to it, he broke.

He started to cry, the single tear that broke the dam ran down his cheek, and then they wouldn't stop, sitting in the middle of the lobby, in a form that wasn't entirely the one he knew, with an elf that was frantically taking measurements that he couldn’t even begin to understand. It was all too much…

Hughontheotherhandwasinastateofmindthathedneverbeeninbeforehewasthinkingfasterandhecouldthinkmoreclearlyitwasamazing.

Hugh was moving faster, thinking clearer, and he felt as though he had more energy than there was any right to have. The drink that Davin had handed him was amazing, the flavor grew on him with each sip, and he felt that his favorite part was the tiny bubbles. Beers, ales, and some wines and meads had them, but this was different, each one seemed to be packed full of some unknown energy that was just waiting for him to learn its secrets. His myriad of tools that he'd gotten out were on the other hand, showing nothing, or almost nothing, the amounts of magical energy in this place seemed so negligible that it was almost imperceptible, he had thought Davin was exaggerating when he'd said that his world had no magic, but this place, it was too strange for words. That was when he'd heard the long drawn-out wet sniff, that he was all too familiar with being associated with crying.

Looking over to Davin, curled up on the floor, everything came crashing back to him. "Davin!" He rushed over to the side of his friend. "Are you okay? What happened?" kneeling to be next to him.

Davin let out a cough and another long sniff. "Just memories… a LOT of memories…"

"Memories? From what?" Hugh sounded slightly confused as he asked the question.

Davin gestured around him. "All of this."

Hugh looked around, taking in the strange setting that they were in, he shrugged still seeming to not understand. "Weird place right? And there isn't much magic either."

Davin laughed loudly at that. "HAHA, thanks Hugh, I needed that." Wiping his eyes on his sleeve, he pulled himself to his feet and walked over to the counter, pulled out a few napkins, and blew his nose loudly. "Sorry, I forgot that you're not from here, but this place, while not one that I know specifically, it was a place so normal to me that it all made everything else seem strange, and it all hit me at once." Davin wiped his nose once more and tossed the used napkin into the trashcan that was nearby.

"Oookay? I don’t really get it." Hugh looked around trying to see if there was something he was missing.

"You know how all Inn common rooms are the same? Or just about, usually only slight differences between them?" Davin asked.

"Yeah?" The confusion was thick in his voice.

"Well this place is like one of those for me, they all have similar layouts, and I worked at one almost laid out just like this one when I was younger." Davin waved his arm in the 'all of this gesture.

"Ah, so that is how you knew how to use all of the strange devices and what everything was without any thought." Tapping his chin as he thought.

"Basically, and the fact that this place has no magic of its own doesn’t surprise me, bigger question I have is if the magic we brought in with us still works.

At that new idea, Hugh's eyes went wide, he quickly gathered his magic and brought a semitransparent hand into existence in the space between them, letting out a long sigh. "Oh thank the patrons, I would have been dead in an instant if I didn't have my magic."

"Okay, now that that drama is out of me, we should start looking around, I don’t think we will find the way out till we explore a little more." Tightening the straps on his armor and grabbing a few things from the travel trunk.

"So," Davin pointed to a few of the doors and openings that they could see from where they stood in the lobby. "Over there are the bathrooms, there is the I can only guess is the employee area, and it should lead to the box office." Then he turned and pointed the other way. "Down there should be the auditoriums, I can see the one marked one from here, so I'm not sure how many that there are. And lastly, there should be one last door, and it should be the stairs that lead up to the projection booth."

"Projection booth?" Hugh's question slipped out.

"Oh yeah, places like this use the film-like material that we saw outside, a bright light, and a magnifying lens to make the film cell really big."

"Hmm, that seems neat." Hugh nodded his head as he thought of the applications that he could think to use something like that for. "What is going to be in the 'auditoriums?'"

"Seats, some stairs that lead to more seats, and then the screen," Davin stated matter-of-factly.

"Screen?" Hugh's tone sounded slightly judgmental.

"It's what the projections are aimed at to show the image to everyone in the room. Oh, and the rooms are likely going to be pretty dark in them unless we can find the switch."

"Switch? I do hope that more of this makes more sense as we go." Hugh shook his head not fully grasping what Davin was talking about. "And we will be looking for another tear?"

"Pretty much, part of me thinks it will be either upstairs or in the employee area."

"That sounds weirdly specific, why there of all places?"

"So, this might sound a little weird or grasping at straws, but it's where I would put it, they're the places of 'power' or it would be if they had one, they're the center of what makes places like these what they are." Davin shrugged deeply as he motioned his hands as if he was trying to grab something intangible in front of him.

"Then why don’t we just go in?" Hugh pointed to the employee area. "You should be able to open the lock, yeah?"

Davin chuckled lightly. "So this is the place where I point out that we are in a chunk of my world, and the lockpicks that I have are basically clubs in comparison."

"You need something more precise? I may have something in the trunk?"

"I doubt it sadly, I would need a few pieces of metal that are as thin as parchment and as narrow as the tine of a fork." Dropping his head slightly. "I need to talk to the trap maker about getting something, Jes might have an idea."

"If we are going to be going into places like this more often than not, it would be a worthwhile investment."

"Agreed, but let me take a look anyway, the trap kit Jes made me might have something worthwhile in it."

With that, Davin pulled out the package that he'd only opened to pull out some wires for the traps that he'd set for catching some game. Taking a look at some of the more fine tools and what he had access to. Looking through the collection of odds and ends, pulling out a few pieces here and there that may prove useful, not finding a single screwdriver in the mix, but of what he did pull out there were a few shims of metal and a collection of files, he could potentially make his own picks, but he wasn’t sure how well that they'd hold up in the long run if he ended up needing them often.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"It will take some time, but I could make something, they'd be crude and I can't say how well they'd work, so, I think that I'd want to look around first and see if we can find something that we could use." Setting the toolkit aside. "There should be a few more modern tools in the janitor's closet." He began to wander across the lobby to the bathrooms.

"What's a 'janitor's closet'?" The words sounded strange as they came out of Hugh's mouth.

"Why did that sound so weird?" Davin looked at Hugh, expecting to see his mouth full of cotton.

"I don't know what you said… It just sounded like noise." Hugh shrugged.

"Oh? Weird… How about caretaker or custodian?" Davin asked, hoping that the more broad terms would work.

"Oh! Okay, Why would they need a closet? Wouldn't they just keep their tools in a shed?"

Davin paused in his steps and stared back at Hugh. "But we're inside? And they'd clean the inside, a shed outside would be… weird."

"What?" Hugh stared at Davin. "But if they are the caretaker, why not?"

Davin swung open the door to the small closet, the smell of cleaning supplies hitting him, the smell strong enough to make him start to cough. "Blech, do not miss that smell."

Stepping in he began to rummage, pulling out brooms, trashcans, and numerous other cleaning supplies. Hugh growing curious, walked over, looking over the more modern tools that were all mass-produced.

"What are these?" Kicking a small hard box on a stick.

Davin looked back out seeing the object in question. "Oh! That’s a Hoky, They're kind of like a broom and dustpan rolled into one, I want to take one back with us."

"Hoo key?" Hugh had to sound out the words again.

"Yeah, that’s what they're called, you can also just call them a sweeper."

"Sweeper? Ah, that makes the broom reference makes more sense, how does it work?" He picked up the tool by its thin handle.

"You put the head on the ground, and then push it back and forth by the handle, and it will clean up your messes. Since it doesn't take any power it's easier to have than a vacuum."

"A vacuum? Those would be dangerous." Hugh pushed the small cleaning tool over to the popcorn that he'd spilled.

"It's a tool that cleans up messes." With a heavy thunk, Davin found what he was looking for, the iconic red metal box was dented and rusted, pulling it from the closet, he walked back over to the counter, pulling out a few odds and ends. "Well most of this is rusted… but I should be able to make use of some of these. I still think our best plan would be to see what else is here, the best I'll be able to do with any of these is break the door." Setting a heavy hammer on the counter with a large screwdriver.

"Agreed, so we will save that plan for once we know we have no other choices." Hugh kept moving the sweeper a childlike smile on his face.

"They have two, we can get you one too." Davin chuckled as he watched Hugh.

"Okay!" Hugh ran the sweeper over to the pile that they'd started to accumulate.

Davin pulled the second Hoky from the closet walking it over to the other one that Hugh was still playing with near a pile of popcorn crumbs that he'd not swept up yet. With that, Davin walked into the bathroom, the caffeine and sugar starting to work its way through him.

Never had he been so thankful for toilet paper, even the thin single-ply mass rolls that exist in every single public restroom, but it was more of a relief than he could ever imagine, and the plumbing, the flush of water that came as he pulled the iconic metal handle… Washing his hands with the tepid water and stinky soap… the paper towels were another thing he seemed to weirdly miss, while cloth towels were effective, they didn’t have that finality that tossing a damp bunched-up paper towel ball into the trash. As Davin walked out to the lobby, Hugh was working on his devices, testing the magical energies that should be present.

Hugh mumbled as he tapped a glass tube full of colored glass. "Why does it change as soon as I step away?"

"Huh?" Davin asked as he stepped up.

"What? Oh, every time I step away the color changes, and as soon as I get close enough to read anything it changes." Hugh looked over the notes he'd been taking.

"Do you think it could be you?" Davin moved in closer to see if he could make heads or tails of it at all.

The look Hugh gave Davin was potent. "And why do you think it's me? This thing could be on the fritz."

"Well, we come from a magical land commonly called the Afterlife and are in a world that for as far as I know has so little magic that I only ended up there due to a huge pile of flukes and a breakdown of the world's belief system."

Hugh's face went slack. "You weren't kidding?"

"Nope, no magic, so you getting close to the machine is likely giving false positives. This is a good chance to get a baseline, then you'll know when anything new comes in?" Davin shrugged since he knew all of this was outside his depths.

"You make a good point, you don't seem to influence it though, you're just as magical as I am?" Tapping the glass tube again.

"You're the wizard telling the rogue that we are equally as magical?"

"Okay, you make a good point."

"That's what I'm here for, bringing that good old human touch to all of the weirdness of the universe."

"What do you mean by weirdness? This place has no magic whatsoever and that isn't weird?"

"Not for me, just wait, I can show you some real magic once I get to the second floor, some movie magic up there." Davin let out a chuckle, walking over to the usher's booth, opening the drawer, and pulling out a folded piece of paper. "Do you think the times match up? What time is it now?"

Hugh made the motions of someone opening their status. "We've been in here about two hours, but what time it is here, I have no idea, we'd have to find some kind of chronomarker."

"Chornomarker? Do you mean a clock?"

"If that is what you all-time pieces here, then yes."

"We likely won't find one anywhere but the box office." Davin pointed to the locked door.

"Well isn't that helpful? So looking around to see if we can find a key to get in there. That seems a little too simple."

"Yup, but that makes sense to me." Davin shrugged once again. "So let's see what we got." Davin raised both of his arms and pointed down either of the halls." Which way?"

"Why not that door there?" Hugh pointed at the large set of double doors behind Davin.

"That’s the big one, should save that one for last." Davin pointed at the big doors with a big number one painted on the doors.

"Okay? But why?" Hugh walked away from his devices to stand next to Davin.

"To build suspense?" Davin shrugged yet again, the grin he held was the kind that would make you want to hit a person.

"That makes no sense, let's just start here." Hugh walked over and pushed open the door, the small lights that ran along the floor were the only light that could be seen.