Fantasy Emptying the Golden Throne

[StoneWolf18]

"She'll be my sister-in-law once they're married." Valerie stated, rolling her eyes at Abby's scolding. "But there's no blood relation."

"Interesting..." Val would say slowly. "We share a father."

 

[CJWrites]

"What is this?" Ada said, and before anyone could stop her she had scooped it up and put it in her mouth. A burning sensation filled her mouth. She spat it out and used the napkin to wipe her tongue.

"Oh my god!" Abigail shouted. "Water, Water" she tried to hand Ada some who hungrily gulped it down. She whimpered, obviously still feeling the spice.

Abigail got a text.

Mark: You would not believe what just happened. Some dude who looks exactly like me but claims to be from the 19th century just showed up in our living room!

"Guys... check this out" Abby showed them her phone.

"It lights up too!" Ada said astonished.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Win and Valerie would both read the text.

"So Mark's other showed up too." Valerie would comment, Val sighing.

"I really hope Wyn didn't get dropped in the middle of nowhere, if he was sent here too that is."

But, the exact opposite was happening with him being hauled off to the dungeon with an angry Arthur scolding him as the unconscious Ada, Val, and Matt were being taken to their rooms for treatment.

 

[CJWrites]

"Or Al's" Abby pointed out.

"I mean... we all appeared with our counterparts right?" Ada asked. "So... if Wyn were here, then he'd be with you know... Win"

"I'm texting them back," Abby announced, "We should all go to Mark's place then."

 

[StoneWolf18]

"It could be Allen's place, as they are a thing now." Win pointed out.

"At least they aren't as vocal about it as you two." Valerie would grumble.

He would flash a grin. "You're just jealous that she fell for me instead of you."

Blushing she'd look away from him, muttering "I was drunk..."

 

[CJWrites]

Abby blushed while Ada grew increasingly uncomfortable. She mumbled something about them being sisters.

"Could be," Abby commented and texted Mark again. "Yup, it is." Her face lit up. "And I can ask Allen about the advancements of their quantum computer"

--

Allen and Ada shook hands. They'd been best friends in college and still collaborated a lot. Ada's face whitened as they landed on Alfred, who looked confused.

They all sat around the increasingly crowded table.

"Whoa! Why are they so tiny!"

Abby slapped him in the back of the head. "I can't believe I ever dated you," she muttered.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val, having worked as a servant for most of her life, was used to random comments about herself. But as Alfred asked about her height, she had half a mind to actually enchant the man's clothing in spite of the comment.

Naturally, she refrained, but did sigh and instead say "This isn't even my true height..."

 

[CJWrites]

"Wait, you get even tiny- Ow!"

Abby had given Alfred another wack on the head.

This time Ada did let out a stifled laugh. Matt glanced over at her, a bit worried about how she was dealing with the breakup. Granted, his own relationship with either hadn't deteriorated or changed much.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Win would open his mouth, about to make a comment when Valerie cut him off. "I wouldn't talk, as you both don't know when to shut up."

Val would give a small smile at this, it reminding her of how Wyn would talk about anything and everything.

 

[CJWrites]

"So... Matt can stay with me," Alfred said "While Mark stays with Allen. Ada and Val can stay at your place, right?" He asked Abby.

Abby nodded. They'd just finished once again going over what had happened.

"We need to find a way to get back," Ada said.

Abby and Allen nodded. Right now, the three of them were blissfully unaware of their shared work.

"Well, I think for now we should settle everyone in," Mark said, "We can worry about that later."

 

[StoneWolf18]

Soon they said their goodbyes and began to leave, Valerie telling Win and Abby that she'd meet up with them in the morning.

The trip was back wasn't too long, Win holding the door for the ladies after unlocking it, flipping on lights as he entered.

"If you could show them to the spare room, I have a bit of work to do." He'd tell Abby, giving the top of her had a brief kiss before leaving the girls alone.

 

[CJWrites]

Abby giggled as Win left and showed Val and Ada to the spare room.

She turned to the 19th-century visitors. "I also have office hours... I'll be back in two hours. Umm..." her eyes cast around the room, wondering how much of this was new to the Victorian women. "Just... stay here and don't touch anything."

She left, closing the door.

 

[StoneWolf18]

The room was a bit small, there being a bed in the center with a desk across from it and a closed laptop on top. A dresser was up against the far wall with a mirror on top. That was about all the furnishings in the room.

Val didn't know what time it was but she was quick to take a seat on the bed, glancing around the room curiously.

 

[CJWrites]

Ada was hesitant to touch anything in the room. It all looked so foreign and frightening. Instead, she sat down on the bed and stared at Val.

"Now what?" she asked. "And how would we get back?"

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val's expression would twist into a frown, a bit of worry tainting her voice. "I'm... not sure. I was more than certain that, while magic can do many things, time travel isn't one of them..."

After falling silent for a moment, she continued quietly. "Is it possible that we're stuck here?"

 

[CJWrites]

Something strange came over Ada. Would that be such a bad thing? She wouldn't have to go back to the responsibility of being Queen and it wasn't as if there were many people waiting for her. Surely there wasn't that much left to go back to... right? But she thought of Wyn and Arthur, probably fretting over where she had disappeared off to. At the very least, she would want to contact them, let them now she's all right. This new world was filled with wonders, with horseless carriages that seemed to travel as fast as a bullet and telephones which weren't connected to anything.

"I don't know," she admitted honestly. "If whatever brought us here, cannot bring us back..."

--

Alex sat vigilantly at Matt and Ada's bedside while Arthur paced around the hospital room. Over the hours which they had been, he found he was worrying a lot more about Matt than Ada. Was Ada right?

"I swear if that filthy fey did anything irreparable to your girlfriend I will string him up and tie the noose myself," Arthur ranted.

Alex seemed stunned. "We broke up." Alex's voice cracked.

Arthur seemed incensed. His face turned red. "If you broke her heart-"

"She broke up with me," Alex said quickly.

"Oh" Shock turned into relief and then a strange expression washed over Arthur's face.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val was growing increasing concerned with the situation. She didn't want to stay here! This wasn't where she, or Ada for that matter, belonged.

"There would have to be a way back..." she mumbled to herself, clearly wanting to leave almost as soon as possible.

 

[CJWrites]

Ada nodded solemnly.

She looked around the room, noting the plugs and the lamp. She turned it on, then off. How novel. She had one in her old apartment, one of the newer buildings and was fully wired to the electrical grid.

She turned to the rectangular box. She opened it up, jumped and yelled in surprise as it made a noise and started showing a stylized apple on a grey background. "What it this?"

The machine itself was silver in color and it had a stylized version of an apple on the back, which also lit up.

 

[StoneWolf18]

While Ada explored the room, Val had laid back on the bed, it feeling much more firm than what she was used too. But she couldn't make much more of an observation than that when Ada let out a yell of surprise.

Sitting up suddenly, she was about to comment when the door opened slightly, Win peeking his head in with an odd cord handing from one ear, sounds erupting from the other end that hug by his side.

"Everything alright in... oh you found my old MacBook." With a sigh, and wanting to sate her curiosity, he would make his way over, opening a guest account desktop once it was fully operational.

"You're free to fiddle around with it... just don't take it apart."

 

[CJWrites]

"Mac... Book?" Ada asked. She picked it up by its sides and tried to read it as if it were a book. It was too heavy for her to keep up and she let it fall back onto the table. Her face paled but the device didn't seem to be damaged.

"How is it a book?" She asked. "And what is a mac? How does it create light out of nowhere and how does it modify it?" She had a billion questions to ask.

 

[StoneWolf18]

Win would sigh. "It's a computer, not a book. MacBook is just the name, although the newer ones are lighter than this rock."

He then would explain, or try, how the screen worked. But coming up short, he'd open up a web browser on the laptop and quickly google a few things, opening up the Wikipedia pages for the evolution of technology, how backlighting worked, what a Mac was and general information on Apple, and so on.

"Read from those. Abby's going to kill me for not letting me lecture you, but I feel this'll be a much less time consuming and confusing alternative..."

Trailing off he would think for a moment and open up two more pages. "There. That's in what the hell the 'internet' is and what a web browser does and this is explaining search engines. If you manage to read all of that..." He opened a new tab. "Type in that box underneath the logo, it'll give you a list of results. But that isn't like picking a book off of a shelf at a library or whatever you guys have. Anyone can put something on the web so it might not always be true."

He would turn and wish them a goodnight, pausing after he would close the door with a groan, running a hand down his face. "Is this what its like having kids...?" He'd grumble to to no one in particular, putting his earbuds back into his ears and wanting to return to his work.

 

[CJWrites]

Ada watched in fascination as different things started popping up. The more Win tried to explain the more questions she had.

"It's reacting." She noted. "Reacting to your input. How? I don't see any buttons. How... how is it computing anything? A personal computer... is there a little man or woman inside receiving your orders? What a pitiful existence!"

But Win had already left.

"Type?" she asked slowly. Now that she thought of it, the lower part of the machine did look like a typewriter. She did type, and as she hit the space button, the page jumped. She shrieked and jumped back.

"Amazing!" she said with wonder. And began to read the article on the Macintosh. Eventually, she reached the end. Was that it? She was amazed the so-called "computer" What vast knowledge the person inside must have! But Win had been able to do many more things right? Either way, she could not figure out how to operate the machine.

Eventually, Abby came back. "Oh, you found Win's old Mac," she said. "What do you think?"

"It's wonderful!" Ada exclaimed. "You must show me a way to thank the little computer inside."

Abby looked confused, then laughed. "There's no little person inside. Umm.... how do I explain this. A computer today is seen as a machine which is able to perform a series of operations automatically. It started as computing math problems but since then has evolved into doing all sorts of neat things, like, serving the internet."

A look of recognition dawned on Ada "It's an Analytical Engine!" This was crazy. Alan had speculated that one day, Analytical Engines would be able to think and act like humans, but this was beyond even his wildest dreams.

"Yes!" Abby exclaimed, delighted, "Wait! How do you know about the Analytical Engine?"

 

[StoneWolf18]

Val had fallen asleep.

Had.

Once Abby returned, however, that was nearly impossible.

So she instead opted to listen to their conversation, and when she asked about the Analytical engine, she pipped in.

"It's what she takes pride and joy in over running a kingdom." Val sighed, sitting up on the bed. "The machine is actually what got us here."

 

[CJWrites]

Ada and Abby talked a lot about the history of computing. At first, Abby was amazed that she was talking to the Ada Lovelace but realized that she, in a way, was Ada Lovelace and Allen was Alan Turing.

"See... in our world, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace lived closer to the start of the century and Alan Turing a lot more into the next century."

Ada nodded

"Babbage never even started his Analytical Engine" Abby explained. "The first computers weren't built until a century after his work. I suppose technology advanced faster in your time. That's amazing!"

Then she heard what Val said.

"Running a kingdom?" Abby asked.

Ada blushed and looked pointedly at her feet

 

[StoneWolf18]

Valoire was lost for most of the conversation as it was way over her head, but did manage to slip in once technology was mentioned.

"It is kind of backwards... we have airships but you have horseless carriages..."

Yet as she brought up the topic of running a kingdom, she answered for her.

"Ada was the king's long lost daughter and after experimenting on fey, myself and my brother included, to try and find a solution to immortality, he died. Since she is a legitimate heir and the king didn't know I existed, she inherited the throne... even though the coronation still hasn't happened yet. All this means she is the current reigning Queen of Loscana."

As she finished, she almost could imagine Wyn giving a mock bow, which caused her to frown slightly, although not mentioning any concerns she had.