LOCATION: THE STEPS OF TIR-NA NOG'TH
Ariadne nodded, shrugging with a smile
"I suppose my own upbringing is a bit weird to you guys, even if I take it for granted and ordinary.
I thought I was raised by a smart but rather stodgy scholar and historian named Alvin Arrington, after my mother had died when I was a baby.
Earth is a very advanced world, as far as technology. We have no magic, or monsters, at least that we know about. There are plenty of stories of mysterious creatures and magical people, but those are just dismissed as myth and tall tales.
My father was always busy with his books and artifacts of Earth's history, so I was sent to school at a private academy run by Catholic nuns...basically one of Earth's major religions, one that I was taught as true, but have since dismissed as more myth and nonsense.
I spent a lot of time with friends and a few bad influences, and my father was surprisingly tolerant of how many times I was almost kicked out of school for misbehaving. But I suppose that wild childhood and rebelling against authority helped me become the person I am, pursuing the study of acting and theatre, especially action movies...well, plays, I suppose, though ironically I was always drawn to ones with fantasy and other things that weren't real."
She smirked a bit at the karma involved in that.
"I spent some time acting as various characters, but I was mostly involved in the staged combat and, for lack of a better word, pretend fights in combat scenes in the stories we told. I wasn't world famous, but I was respected in our community."
She looked off at Tir, deep in thought.
"Earth was advanced in technology, with vehicles like stage coaches that move on their own with the touch of a button and a pedal. Guns that can kill a man from hundreds of paces away. And devices that could communicate with people all over the world. A bit like these cards you guys have, but nearly everyone has them. They can contact other people who have similar devices, and they can also access most of the knowledge that we've accumulated over the millennia. Technological wonders, to be honest, though most of us definitely take all this for granted, I have to admit.
And we were convinced that we had no neighboring worlds. It was just us, but there were billions of people on Earth, so that was plenty for us. And it made us a bit arrogant, I have to say. I suppose that's why I'm having a bit of trouble with all of this."
Then she shrugged.
"Then I was coming home for a surprise visit, and found two grey men trying to break in. Then is was one Incredible Revelation after another, finding out that my father was really Lord Alva, a minor noble here, and my mother was Princess Diedre, an Amber princess killed in a war that still has ripples around here. I've been playing catch up ever since."