Cole had to blink several times to make his eyesight return to normal after the bright light, although even blinded, he still had two children in one arm and was blindly fishing in the diaper bag for a pacifier.
Catching the edge of the binky and pulling it out triumphantly, he carefully but quickly shoved it into Vihaan's mouth as he tried to stifle the infant's yelling. Afraid to set anything down lest he lose them, he carefully shuffled the two bags, two children, and one Tupperware of cookies that he was carrying.
The noise started filtering in as Vihaan's cries transitioned into small sounds of him sucking on his pacifier. That, combined with the vision Cole now had back, was enough to tell him he wasn't in metaphorical Kansas anymore.
Why? Well because there was a lovely lady standing beside him, curvy, long black curls, clearly athletic- also she was green and twice his size. Cole swallowed hard, looking away, as though to convince himself that it was just a trick of the mind.
Unfortunately for Cole, turning just gave him more opportunities to question his sanity. There were people of all shapes and sizes, people with snakes for hair, and people whose lower half was a snake. The average size seemed to be around a human's, but that didn't stop women like the one next to him, or the small winged man sitting on her shoulder nattering away to his companion.
Even the people there who seemed to be more or less the same build as Cole- two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two arms, two legs, etc- seemed to be wildly different from him. Seeing as he stood there in a pair of jeans, a nice sweater with rolled up sleeves and an apron- and they were clad in what he could only assume was armour.
He also seemed to be very out of place, seeing as many others were talking with companions in languages he didn't understand.
Cole could really only look around wildly and rock the children, trying not to draw attention to himself or them. Someone bumped into him on the one side, causing him to fall into the side of the woman beside him, and Cole wanted to start crying along with the children.
It was official, his bad luck with jobs had broken reality. He hadn't thought there was a worse way to lose a job than for the building to burn down, and then go bankrupt due to corruption, but the universe had set out to prove him wrong. This... This was worse.
The lady beside him helped him right himself and then smiled at him as she patted him on the head, asking in a deep and rich voice. "Ça va?" She asked, cocking a head at him before leaning over and cooing at the little ones in his arms.
Cole was saved from trying to figure out what that meant when a bell rung from the front of whatever area they were all in. Seeing the woman sigh slightly, smile at the kids and then straighten up made Cole's shoulders relax just a fraction of a centimeter.
"████████" Came the booming voice, sounding less like real words and more like nails on a chalkboard to Cole. He looked around startled, but everyone else seemed completely fine.
"█████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ███████████████ ██ █████ ███████
████
████ █████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████" The voice continued, a speech that had his ears feel like they were bleeding- Automatically he moved to protect Addy and Vihaan's ears-
But they seemed fine. Addy had even poked her head out from where she buried it in his arms to try and get a glimpse of whatever was speaking to them.
Cole bit his lip, resolutely trying to stand the pain, focusing on Addy and Vihaan instead. Addy even giggled a few moments later, before nodding her head.
Cole's brow furrowed, and when Addy finally stopped craning to see what was in front of them, she noticed that he looked stressed. "Coco?" She asked. "Should I not have said yes?"
Cole was confident then- everyone that he could see had understood those words, everyone except him. Even Vihaan, whose grasp of language was very weak at best, seemed to know what was going on.
.... Of course they did. They were supposed to be here. Cole wasn't.
Afraid that someone would separate him from his charges if he admitted to that, Cole gave a non-commital smile and started waiting for whatever everyone else was.
Trying to keep his frenzied glances to a casual level, he noticed as most people straightened out- and then he noticed some balls of light floating through the rows of people. An orb would stop in front of each person, let out some high pitched feedback noise, and then move on.
He stopped breathing when the orb finally came to him and the kids. It scanned over Vihaan and made the same painful noise as everyone else. Then Addy. Assuming that awful sound was positive, both Addy and Vihaan had passed, no problem.
Finally the orb turned to Cole. (He didn't know how he knew what the front was, but he was fairly certain the front was facing him now.)
He gave it a smile, pretending to be confident, even when his heart was jumping in his chest.
It scanned him. And then scanned him again. And again. And a fourth and fifth time, just in case. Finally it started making a new noise, a softer, deeper, repetitive beep.
All the other orbs stopped in their actions. The painful noises ended. A sort of hum went through the room, before the crowd in front of him parted like a wave.
A human sized robed figure came down the newly opened path before standing in front of him. Then Cole could see it's face- or rather. His own face. Only metallic and colourless.
His face smiled at him. "I hope you don't mind." Cole's own voice spoke to him. "But using your form I can ensure that the sound doesn't hurt."
Whispers started up around them as Cole's ears turned red from the sudden attention.
"As I understand it, you hitchhiked a ride with these two young ones- I expect you're a little startled, but there is nothing to worry about. We can send you right back, all you have to do is tear the ticket we give you." The figure's smile turned slightly condescending when he saw Cole's eyes brighten.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Cole nodded eagerly. "Thank you so much." He said, and he would have shook the figure's hand had his arms not been so full.
Shuffling the kids enough to have his hand free to grasp the ticket he was offered, Cole smiled. Once it was in his hands, he moved to shuffle further and get his other hand free when the figure cleared their throat.
"If you wouldn't mind setting down the children first, we don't want them to fall down when you return home."