Getting to Know house 2.0

"I understand what those things are, I understand many, many things but I've never known what any of it meant." Balisted explained that they had witnessed beings and creatures react to the world around us but as our house, didn't know what things felt like, they had seen through a house's sight what the stars look like but never experienced the sight with its own eyes. I wondered out loud before I managed to stop myself. "Are you still connected to the buildings?" As soon as I said the words Larry nudged me and said through our connection. "Rude much, I mean I lack tact but even I know that was rude." Balisted turned and told Larry that it was fine, that they are just as stunned as we are. "You heard our minds?" Now it was my turn to be stunned and the avatar said back along the connection. "Yes, I did, I think I always could but it didn't mean anything to me before." They told us about feeling a sensation when we used the connection to communicate and that it understood our words when we spoke but it was more a feeling about language than an understanding or knowing what was said. "I am still connected to the house, I feel that I will always be connected to it. Now though we can be one thing or two."

We had all stayed up, the night went by in a flash. As the sun again broke past the buildings of the town and the trees of the forest stretching the shadows out on our land, leaning away from their trunks and toward our home. We had spent most of the night around the fire pit beyond where the greenhouse had stood. The fire from the night died down, ash and embers glowed in the pit. Balisted's face took on a pink hue when the embers glow mixed with the blue of their skin. "I had no idea fire could get that hot!" They said, pleased with their experiences of the night. It became apparent very quickly that there were a whole host of things that our friend was in store for but there were still questions that needed answers. "Balisted, why did you set fire to the inside? Or trap some beings in different rooms?" David and Matt asked them. Balisted had finished their tea a long time ago but was exploring the bottom of the inside of the cup with a finger. "I wasn't sure how drinking worked. I thought that the liquid went away, into the bottom of the cup as you drank. Where does your food go after it enters your mouth?" They asked with a perplexed look. Robbie and Karen took a moment and explained drinking and eating more completely to them. Their hand moved to their stomach as they relized what it meant then with a flash the other hand shot down to its behind and a look of horror came over them as they spoke. "Am I going to, to need the bathroom like you all do?" They were truly mortified by the thought. "We don't know, you drank that tea, we saw it go down your throat so maybe you'll have to pee at the least." Which started another round of talks about the functions of a body and what may or may not happen as Balisted drank and ate things. The look of shock faded and was replaced with understanding and then real curiosity. I could tell there was a flourish of conversation. Balisted was an interesting being, they hadn't decided on a personal voice or language. Through the night every language and every voice we had ever encountered came out of their mouth. I guessed that they may or may not ever settle on one way to communicate but only time would tell. "Are you choosing to change your voice and language or is it just happening?" Robbie asked while the boldly functions, topic was left behind. "I don't know. What a fun word I..I…I've never used that idea before." Balisterd moved their lips as they said I over and over, the idea rolled around their mind as much as the word did in their mouth. It made a lot of sense that they wouldn't understand the concept. We came from a people that had very few words for the individual. Fewer words for personal ownership, I didn't understand the idea of envy until western men and women came to our lands. It's not a concept native to our lives nor would it have been for House's life. I think especially to House, we lived inside of their walls, inside what made them unique. How could the idea of individualism or personal ownership be a part of their identity?

As we all came up on the backdoor it swung open before I reached it and we all walked in except Balisted who just came up to the wall and walked through it. While they entered their body became the same color and same material as the part of the wall they touched. It wasn't passing through the wall, the two bodies wrapped around or into one another as they passed each other. When we were all inside the door closed and Balisted wished us all well as we each headed to our own rooms to rest for the day. "Sleep well my family, it has been nice meeting you again. You'll find your rooms the same as you left them. Please let me know if you need anything." Then as if the body of our home had never been there, they just disappeared. "Well that's going to take time to get used to." David and Mathew said in unison. They were right of course, it would take time to grow accustomed to Balisted's new presents in the halls and rooms of the house. Thankfully our home's ability to respond to us and our needs changed, as soon as I put my foot on the first step I felt that familiar twisting of space and when I opened my eyes again I was in front of my bedroom door. The charm around my room was even intact again, the floor and grass was the same, the hill and pond, the distant trees, and my chair and bed were all the same. We may have only been gone for a night and a day but it felt like the month and a half that passed here on Earth. I fell into bed and fell into dreams. Somewhere in the halls Balisted was exploring its own corridors and rooms for the first time from an individual perspective. When they came to the stairway they noticed something was missing not just on the steps but the entire house. Their glowing head looked down and saw a pixie sweeping outside the door to Pixie Hall. "Where is your music little friend?" Balisted asked the old female pixie holding the broom. A small chirping voice responded in Pixish, "We haven't had the time to rebuild it yet." The face on our house's avatar looked sad for a moment, then it ran an outstretched hand, with its index finger they traced a line through the air. A wire of light worked its way from the tip of the finger to the step below and over to the wall. As the line of light met the floor a set of pipes took shape out of the light. The tiny pixie women jumped and kicked her heels, her tiny wings fluttering while she hung in the air for a moment longer than she should have. She was old and long ago lost her ability to fly, she could only hover a small distance off the floor long enough to reach something on a high shelf. As her wings slowed and she came back down to the ground she was already moving forward toward the door. Soon bright and lively music filled the halls and rooms. The familiar sound brought a smile to my sleeping face and I dreamed of parties from ages ago.

Balisted walked down the hall from the kitchen and came to the purple door. The library was full of beings walking with arm loads of books and scrolls restoring the stacks to the normal picture of order and all libraries are meant to be. Balisted wondered how long it would take them to settle everything in the right place and if there was anything they could do to help. They addressed a bookworm who was pushing up a pair of cat rim glasses higher up where a nose would normally be. "Can I help in any way?" They said with genuine interest. The bookworm was startled but regained her composure instantly. "Oh no thank you though, are you new to our humble abode?" She asked the blue winged being floating before her. "I know everyone on these grounds and I've never met you before. If you want to borrow something one of the Gnomes can help you but first I need species, languages, and your residence on the property." She stated matter of fact, she hadn't been filled in on the details of the changes and that our house now had a body separate of the main building. "Oh no, sorry I'm Balisted. I'm the individual consciousness of what you once called House. I'm two beings separated by space and form." Balisted said to the bookworm who was lost for words. "I apologize I wasn't aware of your species transformation." She managed to stumble the words out of her mouth as she gaped at the Elvish like person. Balisted stuck out their hand, "I understand this is a greeting now that I have a bipedal body. It is a pleasure to meet you." They said to her, The librarian gave one of her many hands that were also her feet to Balisted's and shook. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm not sure how to check a book out to you, I mean from your own body, or ehhh….your library." She stumbled over how to address the manifestation of a being's consciousness. "Please don't worry, just call me Balisted or them/they/theirs. It won't offend me, I reside everywhere on the property but this form hasn't chosen a place yet. As for language, I speak all languages." Balisted was very polite in explaining everything to their new friend. The bookworm seemed to be intrigued at the thought of a new species that spoke every language from every realm. "So you speak every language, from every being, from every realm." She questioned her new buddy. She spoke all languages, she had to and she's older then we are. "I don't know if I speak or understand every realm's languages. I know everything ever spoken within my walls, or anywhere on the property. A shrill sound broke the silence between them, it came in short bursts with frills of high pitched squeals and pauses. To an outside it sounded like some kind of morse code. Balisted responded in the same manner but the structure of the sound was slightly different. This went on for a while as they chatted back and forth. They were speaking Dellvish, the language of the Djinn. Or it was the language of the Djinn before they evolved and became an aspect of the Goddess Fortuna. The Djinn have always been her children but they rebelled as their power grew. All creatures, no matter how big or how small, everything has desire and can wish. The smallest single cell being wished for more food, or more mobility or more of themselves to accomplish more on their own. Even creatures wish, from a worm to a PinWhaler, everything wants or needs something. Those desires, those unfilled and filled wishes fed the Djinn and they rebelled against their mother, who tried to put constraints on what wishes they fulfilled and which they didn't. After a few hundred millennia of following the commands of the Lady of Fortune, her offspring had enough essence to stick back if she punished them, enough essence that she didn't need to feed them anymore. It was about two thousand years ago that they all evolved and became an aspect of the Goddess. They no longer filled wishes, they weren't at the mercy of beings or creatures who wished on them. The Djinn were now on equal footing with their mother and became a part of her sway over the fortune of all things and joined her as brothers and sister of the fates and Hades. The Djinn joined into one being, from the many they became one master Djinn known as the Cornucopia. As the Dellvish died down the bookworm expressed how impressed she was, only one Djinn had ever visited. The Djinn had been trapped in an oil lamp for so long that it was emaciated and weak. When it escaped its confinement a door opened to it and he fell down into the basement emergency care room. The dwarves and gnomes that work along Karen and Robbie brought bottles of luck potions and jars full of written wishes until it was strong enough to feed off of beings and creatures brought to it. Had the boy that found him not made a wish as soon as the Djinn was released the poor guy wouldn't have made it to us to nurse back to health. A boy named Alu-ud-din found him and released him. A story was later made about the find as the young man wished for adventure and fame. That boy grew up to be a wonderful storyteller and writer and spun fantastic tales about his adventures. "Well let me know if you need help finding anything. The stacks and shelves and jars are a mess still, when, well when you blew up the room was safe but every last scroll,book, and record we have, spilled out of their place." She was explaining what had happened and that she knew where every last word was. She just needed help put it all back and considering the size of the library and the time everything came from she and the other bookworms and helpers would take a great deal of time putting the room back in order. "No I don't need anything but I can help you with those books, let me take them." Balisted said to the librarian as they put out their hands to take them. When the books were shifted to be placed in their hands the books sat in Balisted's open hands for a second then fell to the floor. Apologizing, they tried to pick the group of books up and found that they couldn't hold more than one book at a time. "Well that isn't going to be much help is it." The bookworm smiled and thanked them for trying to help but you really don't need to. We have enough hands around to get it done." Balisted said sorry again and started to walk away looking over the crowd and arms full of books and scrolls and strange items that held or displayed information. "Are you looking for something specific?" She asked them as they were walking away. "Oh, no I'm here to find someone that might know how I am an individual." They said back to her and started walking to the back of the library. A giant loom sat working out a faint tapestry.