The Last Oddetsey

[alex_holt]

Aurelia requests a layout of the place holding spaceship they are supposed to steal:

There is a large area approximately 2 square kilometers wide surrounded by a 12ft tall fence, the top is capped by electrified razor wire. There is then a 500m border of open space before the central complex watched from each corner by two spotlight-faced robots in a 10m tall tower, who have access to the central alarm AND some high velocity rifles. These are directly outside a second smaller wall which houses two guard-chimeras, and then the third wall holds these in before the inner complex.

The inner complex has a central tower operated by a super-intelligent but vulnerable Paper-golem, and his personal bodyguard, an Metapenguin who is the veteran of the Great Ceefax Wars and deadly in combat with knives. From their central tower they possess the only place to open the 2m thick silo doors to access the ship and escape.

There is a single transpory convoy that comes once a day and the driver is psy-scanned at checkpoints at each of the walls going in, who delivers the food of the base and any post and deliveries.

The ship itself is not locked and once aboard it should be ready to fly off immediatly.

[NWOWWE]

"An aptitude test..." Gaunt said distractedly.

He was still taking in the latest bit of unusual surroundings. He supposed he shouldn't really be all that surprised by anything he came across in this place, but he couldn't help feel a bit off-put by how normal everyone seemed to act.

"I've always felt quite confident I knew precisely what my aptitude was. But before we get too ahead of ourselves, I believe you mentioned something about asking questions. I do have a few if you are able to answer them."

Gaunt gestured to the countdown watch.

"Most pressingly, I would very interested to see if you know what significance this countdown holds. Unless it's our own personal time ticker to New Year's, I haven't seen many countdowns that lead to good things. At best I can guess that whatever it means isn't exactly widespread public knowledge since very few... erm... ordinary citizens seem to be going about in anything other than normal day to day business. Still, the group of us arriving here and this countdown almost have to be related. It simply can't be a coincidence. More to the point," he continued brightly, "I simply don't believe in them."

"My other question should be much easier for you to answer: I would like to know what this establishment is all about. You seem to have some personal knowledge of us and possibly are interested in recruiting for something. knowing more about your purposes and intentions would be quite helpful."

"And of course I leave the floor open for my fellow traveler to add in any questions of her own, if any."

[majinb]

"In response to this I have 2 more questions...

The first would be whether or not the general public will know about the threat of Doomforall at all?

And secondly...

I am intrigued by this psy-scan, and wish our feline friend was here right now. Anyway, I desire to know exactly what is psy-scanned, merely the identity of the driver, or will this psy-scan probe deeper than that? Like, whether he has stowaways..."

[kodster]

The vivid surroundings invaded Eudial's visuals immediately. Everyone besides her, Gaunt, and the cat were so... nonchalant. And yet the place looked anything but that. She tried to comprehend it for a moment, but it made her head hurt.

I understand you are both magical beings, while I'm afraid we cannot allow access to the public to the inner sanctum, we could perhaps test the both of you for latent psionic abilities - they are quite common where magic is already present!

Wait, a test???

Eudial could hear Gaunt speaking, but put it out of her mind at the moment. The other woman's words baffled her. Usually it was Dr. Tomoe who would give her tests, and nothing of the kind like this woman was mentioning. Moreover, she always failed at them. Psionic abilities? She could just as easily detach her limbs...

When Gaunt had finished his bit, it was her turn.

"Psionic abilities... pardon me for saying so, but you sound quite confident about finding them within us," said Eudial. "Have you other recruits that you first tested, with no obvious psionic abilities?" She could not dispel the disbelief from her voice, but another thing slipped through it as well. Desire. If... if it was true, then she would become quite powerful indeed...

All the same, fear crossed her face. Eudial never liked taking tests.

[alex_holt]

GAUNT:

The woman looks a bit anxious, and then seems to possibly consult with them psychically, before hesitantly giving you an answer.

"Errrr... I'm not sure how you came to have those watches, but that timer seems to be ticking down to the point of catastrophic shield failure....and then the beginning of the end of the universe.... as for the public, that is a large part of our job here - to suppress the public's fear so that all efforts can be made to save us without distraction.

As for our specific purposes....

*she goes into a short spiel about the history of the Psycorps, much of which involves pointing at portraits of distinguished looking people at the far end of the room, but the general gist being that they formed as a community to look out for psychic rights and hire themselves out where there skills are needed, and have over time amassed a great deal of influence after being accepted as one of the seven ruling organisations of the city shortly after the King Industries fiasco (OOC: eg. Oddestsey III).

EUDIAL

"I wouldn't say they are guaranteed by any means, but over 50% have at least some skill, I don't mean to guarantee it, or even that they'll be powerful enough to be of use should they be present at all. I was recently told about one gentleman who did have psychic powers, but they only worked on earwigs. But equally, just yesterday I read a report about a Tooth Fairy who got tested on a whim and was revealed to have latent telekinesis in the 100 ton plus range.

As I can detect your nervousness, let me assure you that at my understanding, all the test involves is spending half an hour in a special room while the scientists take some readings. I think they even provide some magazines to occupy you."

AURELIA

"Not at all, the Psycorp has been blanking the knowledge out of the general populace, and is only vaguely aware something is wrong, the shield is being sold as a temporary measure.

The psy-scan picks up on identities, but would also pick up on a driver being coerced, however if they let you on willingly you would be fine."

[kodster]

As I can detect your nervousness, let me assure you that at my understanding, all the test involves is spending half an hour in a special room while the scientists take some readings. I think they even provide some magazines to occupy you.

Great, just shout it out for everyone to hear why don't you, Eudial moaned silently. Great, now Gaunt and the cat knew for sure that she was scared. It only served to make her visibly afraid, even though the woman's following words were meant to soothe her. Again, this was the sort of thing the other Witches would laugh at her about. What if she had hardly enough power to turn her own hair pink? That was worse than nothing! She'd be a laughing stock!

Eudial went red. "T... thanks," she mumbled.

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt gave a curious glance over at Eudial who seemed be having yet another less than savory bout of emotional distress. Gaunt was becoming more and more intrigued by exactly what were the catalysts for this behavior were. A fear of failure was nothing usual to be sure, but she hadn't shown she put a great deal of stock in what anyone else in the group thought of her. Of course, if one were to take this test and find out they would be of little use... Yes, that could have a profoundly negative effect on a lot of people. It wouldn't exactly bother Gaunt except that if he couldn't be a valuable contributor he might be more or less left behind and thus have very little input or information in what was going on. Gaunt did not like to be left out of the loop.

The bit about present psychic abilities not necessarily guaranteeing the results. Now that was something to give him pause. He knew perfectly well what his own abilities were, but what would their test reveal? Well nothing else for it, he thought and he turned his attention back to their guide.

"Well that was a nice company history, and I think my curiosity is satisfied for the moment. I suppose I might as well go along with this test."

[kodster]

( 14 )

[NWOWWE]

(13)

[NFX]

"Willingly?" Twitch asked. "You mean, if we paid 'em to let us in?" He fidgeted with his bag a little, made more anxious thinking about how stowing away in a transport vehicle would go. There was the psy-scan, the spotlight robots, the big guns, a pair of lion-goat-snake things, and then whatever the hell was inside the centre of the complex. Frankly, he'd rather they didn't have to deal with any of them. "I mean, the wall's only 12 feet, I could fly over that, you could-"

The macaw froze up and his eyes widened, realizing what he had just said. "Oh, no," he began, turning to the others, "No, no, no, no, no, I'm not doing that." True, his small stature and flight may have been enough for him to get past the defenses on his own. But then if he was noticed, the spotlights, robots, guns and lion-goat-snakes would all be aimed squarely at him. And then he would have to contend with dodging bullets and bites as well. Call him nervy, but being shot at or eaten wasn't his cup of tea.