playzooki runs away
Printable View
playzooki runs away
Cleo sat and listened to the history of the psycorps with interest, but she could sense the nervousness coming from the woman and Eudial. Her initial excitement about the psycorps had dwindled. This wasn't simply an opportunity to meet other psychic beings. She understood for the first time that whatever she was going to be asked to do would be serious.
"If you really believe that I can help in some way, I would be happy to take an aptitude test and contribute wherever I am needed."
OOC: Playzooki try to give me something to work with :p, at least tell me what exactly you are running away from and what sort of thing you are looking to run to.
LELAND and EUDIAL
A figure approaches from a lift nearby, he is dressed in a labcoat and actually manages to embody to make the room a little greyer for e tering it. He is not exactly a barrel of laughs...
”I am Doctor Seben and I will be attending to your tests today"
He leads the two to small soundproofed separate rooms in a distant wing of the huge complex and invites them to sit down and read some magazines - which largely seem to be copies of tedious science periodicals, and, for some reason, books of how to knit fuzzy cats.
After half an hour Seben returns....
playzooki runs away from the robotic knights or whatever they were and runs to... anything
There is a brief pause and the faint indecipherable muffled sound of talking outside, and then footsteps towards the rooms.
EUDIAL:
The door to Eudial's room slides open.
"Good news young lady. I am able to inform you that we have detected in you some psychic powers. Not high level ones you understand me, and seemingly tied in to your pyromancy abililities largely. With a bit of training, we suspect we could get your abilities to be able to sophisticated, as well as potentially instantaneously generate it without the use of spells. If you wish we can introduce you to a pyrokinesis tutor for a crash course of your choice?"
If you want to do one we can offer one of fire generation, fire shields, fire weapon, fire flight or fire form. We can only provide one without becoming a full member however."
Your friend Mr Gaunt, he has already left, although he was unfortunately unsuccessful, I think he went off to explore the city"
LELAND
Moving through the corridors until out of earshot of Eudial, Seben arrives at the room of Leland Gaunt and rather than opening the door, he slides open a panel in it.
"Mr Gaunt, your chakra are incorrectly aligned for psionic abilities, however, as a very magical creature you can still be of use to us. You will not be rescued, your friends think you have left already."
With that he slams the small hatch shut, and suddenly Leland feels pain in his chest - small pinpoints of light spring up in the walls of the room and weakness rockets through him, forcing him to lean heavily against the wall. The implication is strongly that he is having his magic leached.
The room contains: 5 Magazines. A basic bed. A chair. A small bathroom unit. A pot plant. A small television showing a soap opera that seems to be showing something vaguely similar to Romeo and Juliet, starring a family of Amoebas and a Family of Talking Musical Instruments.
PLAYZOOKI
After running away for inexplicable reasons from the entirely neutral guards who had just been standing there minding their own business, Playzooki finds himself right dab in the middle of the Infamous Beige Light District. Here people come to pay money to complain to other people about how people these days aren't moral and how things were better in their day. He passes the front door of an elderly woman who is discussing how cheese used to be better in her day and he notes lots of Daily Mail clippings on her noticeboard.
It seems that great evil has worked its way even here....
CLEO
It would seem that the test for known psychics is a lot quicker, as suddenly Cleo feels the presence of the young woman in her mind, although simultaneously becomes aware that the easygoing young woman is not entirely who she appears. The form they see is merely a projection over something else.... A disembodied mind, ascended from a mortal form which lies helplessly in a hideous machine far away, deep in the bowels of the earth, trapped in constant agony for thousands of.....
"Well I think that is quite enough of that" says the woman known as the Brain of Krull bruskly.
"In fact I think you might be just the sort of person I am looking for... please follow me... and don't say anything, I have a job for you of the utmost importance."
She heads off down a small spiral staircase.
Aurelia looks to Twitch and Marisa
"Hmmmm, yes Twitch, yes, you bring up good points... a stealthy flight overhead... you can pull this off! Remain unseen... if at any time your mission risks reaching the point of failure, get out and get back to us!"
Then, to the members Old Worlds Club
"You, beings of times gone by, we, the Macaw, the Witch and the Angel, not to be confused with the similarly named trio that can has been chronicled in the books of Narnia, shall aid you in your quest. Macaw, I trust in you and your suggested attempt to find entrance overhead, but I think I can do something to aid you in your plan. For this I must leave you for now, but do not worry, we, will meet again!"
Gaunt was finishing up one of the science magazines. He planned on asking if he could keep one. At face value it was pretty worthless, but you never knew...
A sliding sound jerked him out of his thoughts. He could see a little bit of Dr. Seben's face. Gaunt's eyes narrowed slightly.
The hatch immediately slammed shut. Get back here you f***ing a**hole! Gaunt was ready to scream, but a sudden pain in his chest robbed him of his breath and voice. He staggered over to the wall and propped himself against it. The pain continued along with a kind of draining sensation. What was going on? He looked at his hands and saw them changing. He was changing back into a demon. Through the pain, he screwed up his concentration as best as he could manage to reverse the transformation. Nothing. What were they doing to him? The draining sensation... Were they...? They were! They were actually draining his powers away from him! Anger surged through him. Anger... and fear. He had never felt anywhere near this kind of helplessness. He had never thought such a thing could be possible.Quote:
"Mr Gaunt, your chakra are incorrectly aligned for psionic abilities, however, as a very magical creature you can still be of use to us. You will not be rescued, your friends think you have left already."
He pulled off the jacket he had acquired and shakily dug through the pockets. He extracted one of the smoke balls and the collapsible harpoon. A vague plan was swirling in his head. Demon-Gaunt sauntered over to the bathroom unit. Was the room watertight? Might as well find out he thought with a snarl. He screwed up all the strength he could manage and attacked the toilet, trying to burst the water line. Success! He tore up pages of some of the periodicals and jabbed them down the sink's drain and turned it's water on as high as it would go.
There... I'm being destructive and insolent, he thought. Perhaps they'll want to come in and reprimand me. Let them. If the wrong f***ing person opens that door they won't live long enough to regret it! He then went about making as much noise and commotion near the door as possible.
keep running, its the daily mail!
Eudial exited the room and stood outside as the doctor moved away, slightly surprised. So there was some power within her? But of course, tied to her fire-based power. Just brilliant. Maybe she would set Mimete's wardrobe on fire when she got back. Heheh... yes...
Then she heard a distant slam. She looked down the hallway... wasn't that Gaunt's room?He was hardly a friend, but from what Eudial knew of him, it wasn't like Gaunt to just suddenly take off like that, not in a place like this. And that slam... hmph. So that meant Gaunt was still in his room... locked in.Quote:
Your friend Mr Gaunt, he has already left, although he was unfortunately unsuccessful, I think he went off to explore the city
So the doctor lied.
And Eudial had no reason to believe the rest of what he had said either.
Rather than fear, a demon's smile crept onto her face. Psychic power, huh... what a joke. It was time to show these doddery old fools what power she really had.
Still wearing Vengeance's hat, she hid the savage grin on her face and approached the other room, with an air of hardly noticing what she was doing. The loci in her pocket was still there. Perfect.
"Hello..." she said nonchalantly to the doctor, "I wanted to ask a few more things... for one, what exactly do your tests, of sorts, involve? Secondly, might I inquire as to whom you were talking to before you opened my door... third, is the city you are referring to the one we were teleported from... and last of all, that man isn't the one who would leave a place like this that fast at all..." Eudial inclined her head. "Where is he really?"
AURELIA
Aurelia leaves to find herself outside in the kind of area that looks like it was incredibly upmarket fifty years ago but has subsequently been surpassed and fallen out of fashion. A being are going about their business, a family of small chocolate monkeys, a monster-truck-centaur and a a gentleman made of glass who appears to be wearing all his suit inside out.
LELAND GAUNT
The plan works and despite the intense pain, the floor quickly begins to flood with water at an alarming rate. Despite the weakness he manages to hold himself together long enough that the water seeps into the ground and the weakening light flickers off. After quickly inspecting himself it would appear it wasn't too long there, although his skin has gone a lot more leathery in accordance with an actual demon, however this isn't bad enough to point him out as a demon. However, despite his new toughness, he is still trapped in the room for now and the water level is rising.
PLAYZOOKI
Playzooki runs away again and this time finds himself in courtyard of the Retirement Home for the Psycorps, where retired psychics insist on telling embarrassing childhood stories of everyone who visits to their friends. Already an old lady on a rocking chair is pointing out Playzooki and chuckling with her friends.
EUDIAL
Suddenly there is a powerful psychic emanation from Dr Seben, and her head screams. But actually that was just a normal headache wasn't it? There was something going on here but she couldn't will the knowledge forward (remember your ability scores :P).
"Are you alright, you were just about to choose your free training?"
There was something very wrong, Leland had gone back to the city, but she couldn't place her finger on what wasn't right...
"But that's not what I..." Twitch began, before Aurelia swiftly about faced and made her exit. An exasperated sigh passed his lips. "I'm gonna have to fly over the wall, aren't I?" he asked nobody in particular. Him and his big beak. Grabbing his bag of iteming in said beak, he trudged over towards the window, hopping up onto the ledge and peering out to see a highly unusual collection of beings wandering the equally unusual street. "Can someone open the window for me?" he asked, giving his wings a shake. "And which direction is the spaceship place?" he added.
"Do we know anything about the spaceship, exactly? Or just the fact there is a spaceship there?" Marisa questioned, before proping the window up for Twitch. "Good luck with your wall thing! Don't forget, if you get into trouble, wing it back to us."
She quickly converted some of her mushrooms in the damp bag (ewww man I need a new bag for these before I spawn paperbag mushrooms. :p) into the powder she uses for her spells and loads as much of it as she can into her hakkero. Could be helpful if she needs to fire her laz0rz, after all. The situation may call for it.
playzooki looks around the courtyard for no reason maybe because hes dumb or something idk
Gaunt propped himself back up against the wall and took a few moments to catch his breath. The effort taken in destroying the water fixtures coupled with that draining light had nearly caused him to black out, but at least it looked as though he had managed to disable it. That was something at least. He looked down at his leatherly looking skin and felt a mixture of renewed anger and some relief. Anger because they had taken some of his power, but at the very least they hadn't got all of it so he wasn't completely helpless. Helpless! The room was steadily being filled with water! So, watertight after all it would seem. Well friends and neighbors, how about that now? All the same it was better than being sapped of all his power. Psychics or something were they? Well, either they'd have someone monitoring him or he could try and "reach out" to them. So he began screaming thoughts out of his head as loud as he could project them.
(Attention to anyone listening in! I have a few bones to pick with you! I want to know what kind of lazy, slipshod establishment you're running here! Your lights give me a hell of a migrane and some sort of skin irritation! And just look at the state of this place! Water leaks! Is there someone in management I can speak with? What about that Dr. Seben fellow? I should definetly like a word with him! I wouldn't presume to treat a client so coldly as all this! The man could barely spare a few words for me before leaving me with whatever passes for bad television around here!)
Following that he began running a constant stream of old tounge-twisters and occasionally the word "shield" through his mind. He still had his smoke bombs and his harpoon and he wanted to keep them from probing any of his plans from his mind. A handy trick he had picked up from observing the group concousness "alien-invasion" of The Tommyknockers back in Haven shortly before he set up in Castle Rock. And he waited on a response.
[One real-world weekend in Leicester later...]Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Humble Narrator
(Ohhh, my head. My spleen. God, I feel as though I've been drinking bleach for four days straight. On Mercury.)
(What do I remember? OW! OK, don't remember quite that hard. Let me think... I was in the Cathedral - very nice too, if a touch weedy by now. There were things like stone trees and a disco floor for some reason and...)
(Well, a lot of white, for one thing. Not anymore, though. Head's clearing a bit now. Where am I anyway?)
"Heh heh, wing it, yeah..." Twitch replied, acknowledging what could have been a pun on Marisa's part or not, with a nervous squeak creeping into his voice. He leant out of the window a little, and took a moment to inspect his surroundings. The wind seemed calm, it wasn't particularly overcast. Good flying weather. That was a little consolation, he supposed. However, taking a look in either direction, he still couldn't see the compound he was to attempt infiltrating. "Which way's the spaceship?" he asked the Old World members, a little louder this time.
TWITCH, AURELIA AND MARISA:
The Night Pine creaks, and despite there being no words in that the group can hear, they suddenly understand exactly where the Space Ship is hidden, how to get there and a bit about it. It is a small intra-solar system fighter, designed to be a super tough spearhead of skirmishes, and has been developed here secretly on earth with the prospect of selling it to alien empires to help re-establish King Industries. It's name is the Oddestsey.
Aurelia has begun to assemble her first small army, her angelic presence drawing seemingly disparate people together and she has assembled 25 beings and started to instill in them the capella singing she had planned. All except for one drunken dwarf who only seems capable of singing the word "gold" raucously to the same tune as the intended song, but twice as loud as everyone else combined.
PROFESSOR VENGEANCE
Looking around Professor Vengeance finds himself in a woodland glade with the city nowhere in sight, though looking up still reveals the shield humming overhead. There is a single path heading up a hill out of the glade into the deep woods, while a few small obsidian black butterflies flap lazily around the clearing. He looks down to see the key he received on his little trip and assumes that this must the path to the lost Flying Castle of Lord Doomforall that he was tasked with finding, and, apparently where several of his classic canes and top-hats had been stored for a little added incentive...
PLAYZOOKI
As he looks around the courtyard, he finds a few items - a rusty fork, a pot containing a Crystal Rose and a Rook from a chesspiece made of ivory, but all the while hears the whisper of the old people and what feels largely like his brains being turned to scrambled egg from the number of psychic connections established at the same time. "Do you see that time that he wore that costume to that party?" "AHAAAHHAA yes dearie, but have you got that time where he tripped over into that puddle? I've seen funnier trips I have to say.... ooh but what's this....."
Suddenly dozens of old people eyes are staring at him, glowing with a pale blue-white light...
"I see the little gods have taken an interest in you" a greying talking dog says to him... "They have power if they worked together, perhaps enough to prolong the life of this world a little longer.... and certainly whoever freed them would gain some of their powers. But at what cost? It is shrouded to me... my precognition is shrouded in any timeline where this one stands in front of the PantheUrn...."
Then, almost as abruptly as it had stopped, the rummaging through the private thoughts and memories of Playzooki returns and his head gets increasingly painful...
LELAND GAUNT
Though the initial call for attention didn't seem to yield much of a result, through force of will he manages to fend of an attacking mind twice, though its origins remain mysterious, though it doesn't *feel* like it is Dr Seben - perhaps one of his assistants? The water seems to reach a level eventually, and Leland is forced to sit on the bed which begins floating or get his trousers severely wet. It looks like unless he can break his own way out he will have to rely on Eudial.
(THE PAIN! musnt let it show, don't want to look weak. are they psychics? errr that dog is talking wth. better talk to it, i hope i dont get attacked!)
"What is this PantheUrn you speak of?"
"The PantheUrn is an ancient device.... it was built long ago to stop this world overflowing with Gods, it filters out all the little ones of minor things that no one cares for and contains them all in a great urn in a park not far from here."
The dog pauses for a second.
"As I have been a good boy, do you have any food?"
Oh god, I really am in Narnia this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Humble Narrator
Ah well. I could be in bloody Essex for all I care right now if it means I get the key to a flipping flying fortress into the bargain! Hahaha! Oh, Doomy, you silly billy sastard, you!
Right! Time to claim my prize. I'm assuming this is the right way - why else would he dump me here? Still, better safe than sorry. I'll send out my little robot friend a little ahead of me to scan the area and see if I can't get some decent GPS around here. I might as well take a closer look at this "Thoughtsteel" stuff. Lots of fun to be had there and besides, I might get a proper hat again soon...
And you know what, "little robot friend" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue well, does it, my helpful H.E.R.B.I.E-esque handyman? You deserve something more befitting the valet of a gentleman criminal. Something dignified, by George!
By George...
Perfect! Absolutely capital! Come along, George! Let's catch ourselves a castle!
George pootles off up the track ahead of Vengeance for a while as the Professor inspects his thoughtsteel pocketwatch - it seems a remarkable substance, although it sits as a handsome engraved watch when not applying any effort to it, a quick bit of focus reforms it into any medium sized object he can come up with - a high quality sword, a lightweight suit of armour, any number of fine tools, essentially any mechanism that doesn't require electricity applied to it, although thats not to say you couldn't create a mechanism and add a separate motor and power source for instance.
George returns a short while later and a series of apologetic bleeps seem to suggest that they truly are in the middle of the forest, and there are none of the amenities a classy gentleman such as Vengeance requires, and he feels very inadequate as a valet robot. Not even a trouser press!
However, there is an ancient crater the other side of this mountain, and in it there is a small mountain hovering a short enough distance off the ground that none would notice it was flying were they not for detailed scanners. It is however, most definitely flying.
Oh, come, come, George! You're still new. You'll learn. Besides, you're still far better company than the riff-raff back in the Thunderdome.
A hovering mountain, eh? Sounds like the place to be. Take the lead, George, and keep your wits about you. I know I'll keep my cane about me. Lord knows what else this forest has in store for us.
This Thoughtsteel stuff really is the business, though. I only have to ponder for a split se-ooh! A perfect bust of Hercule Poirot! Oh, we are definitely taking this gunk back to reality, George. So many ideas, so little time.
(damn you Alex! XP
I literally have no idea what to do >.<)
"Sorry, but i dont know what dogs eat. I have this furby if you want it."
Gaunt was feeling highly annoyed. The water level had stopped rising, but he was forced to sit on his now floating bed to keep from having to wade through his little private indoor pool. Under other circumstance it might have even been amusing, but he was getting nowhere with trying to get anyone to respond to him. Oh there had been a couple attempts from someone attempting to crack into his brain but he had kept his mental shield up fairly well, and since he had a very strong feeling that it wasn't Dr. Seben he had sent them off with basically the same message both times:
You aren't Dr. Seben, so go take a flying f*** at a rolling doughnut.
Otherwise he sat there puzzling out his situation. Clearly they had no interest in doing anything else with him at the present so there seemed to be two basic options. Either he could try to break out himself (he glanced over at the near featureless door), or he had to hope Eudial would be able to help him break out. That didn't seem any more likely. After all he had no reason to think they wouldn't be doing the same thing to her that they had tried to do to him. And even if they hadn't, she'd be under the impression Gaunt had already left without any reason to think otherwise (if she even cared at all one way or the other his mind added).
With a sigh, he put his special jacket back on and went to take a closer look at the door. Maybe if nothing else he could find a way to open that tiny hatch and shout out into the hall and grab someones attention.
PROFESSOR VENGEANCE
After clearing the ridge, the huge floating castle comes into view - or what you presume must be it - while most of the hills here are fairly globular and undefined, this is a sheer pillar of stone rising upwards almost vertically. It is almost entirely covered with green, with the only clue to it's true identity being the peaks of a few spires piercing through the vines and creepers that have engulfed this place, however, you do note that the place seems remarkably intact. Unfortunately there is no conventional way up, as the place looks like it was meant to be accessed straight to the top.
PLAYZOOKI
"Ooh that is good!"
The dog grabs the Furby and shakes it around happily, occasionally throwing it into the air psionically so it can catch it in its mouth.
LELAND GAUNT
Has little luck opening the door that way, though through a force of effort managed to get the hatch open a few millimters.
(grr :P)Quote:
Originally Posted by alex_holt
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!?
Eudial fell onto her knees with a sudden tumble. She wasn't used to headaches before... she never got them! Wait... what was she doing again... ?Eudial got up shakily, but another ache made her stumble into the wall. She held her head, eyes watering. What was going on?! No, this definitely wasn't a normal headache... it hurt too much! She knew of them but none were supposed to hurt this bad. This wasn't natural... and yet she had no idea how it was happening... her head was aching... and nobody else was... was... wait a second...Quote:
Originally Posted by alex_holt
Who was the only one in the vicinity?
Eudial's eyes snapped open.
...that's right. Him.
And what kind of people could attack the head directly?
...IT'S HIS FAULT.
"YOU!!!" Without a second thought, Eudial lunged at the doctor, hands blazing with a sudden fury, her face transfigured almost to that of a demon. Niceties were long gone; she was striking to kill.
It appears that Eudial's own natural aptitude in psionics was enough to protect her from the hastily blasted psionic attack levelled against her. Seben was not prepared for the onslaught of the raging pyromancer, whose lunged towards the Doctor and incinerated a hole through his chest in a single punch. As Eudial pulled back her fist she realises that her entire body is sheathed in fire - apparently the Doctor was right about that fire-form ability, although it is doubtful that he'd be particularly pleased with the results in this case.
The body slumps to the floor leaving just a spray of soot against the wall behind him to indicate what had gone on here.
More importantly, the headaches and confusion were gone - Leland was trapped somewhere near.
Twitch looked around at the members of the Old Worlds Society for a moment, before his attention was suddenly caught on a gigantic tree standing near the center of the room. That must have been the Night Pine they were talking about before. He was quite surprised he hadn't spotted it earlier, being a massive outdoors thing now indoors. It then occured to him that he had heard a faint groan emanating from it a second or two ago, and it further occured to him that he now knew exactly where to find the spaceship they were after, what it looked like, and what to expect when he arrived there. A telepathic tree. Par for the course, the parrot felt.
At least he had some idea what to do now. Taking a look to either side of the street, he turned back to the room, gave a quick wave and goodbye to the others, before leaping and flying his way off.........only to return exactly eight seconds later. Perching on the window sill, he silently watched the others for a moment, as they silently watched him. The scarlet bird idly shifted sideways a little, grabbing the small bag on the ledge with his feet.
The bag he had forgotten to take with him.
Another couple of seconds passed between the group, still without a word, and the macaw again flew out into the open, climbing upwards into the sky, magic bag now safely in tow. He began scanning the horizon, trying to spot anything that would signify the presence of a large military compound, and trying to erase what had just happened from his memory.
"You're definitely going to get shot", Twitch muttered to himself.
A burning feeling flowed through Eudial as she watched the prone form of the hated doctor fall. It was savage... it was stimulating... but though similar, it wasn't the fire that had suddenly wreathed about her. It was adrenaline... she felt a wild joy in the death of this buffoon, delight in seeing his lifeless body shrivel, seeing the hole she had carved into him.
And then an epiphany came to her. What was it that she was struggling to remember? Yes... Gaunt was here, that was it. She looked down at the corpse of Seben. Thanks for that... fool.
Eudial stood up and disguised the demonic expression previously worn. The door she approached... no, she had to prepare. What if it wasn't Gaunt? It could be more psychics for all she knew... aha... I know.
Eudial stood to the side of the door. She wouldn't let them get her. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but after this encounter she wouldn't be so surprised. She leaned against the wall, and put a hand onto the door, pouring energy into it and intent on blowing it to smithereens, or at least into some others of the evil place who had come to attack her.
Oh goody. Exercise. Even if I wanted to crawl up that cabbage-covered column, it'd take me till the end of the next universe before I reached the top!Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Humble Narrator
George, stay ahead and clear me a flight-path. It's about time I started putting this new cane through its paces. Chopper mode and away we go!
As Gaunt neared the door he could hear some muffled movement outside the room. Puzzled, he stopped where he was and waited. Next thing there seemed to be a bit of energy pulsing through the door.
Oh what the hell was THIS now?
Whatever it was, it didn't seem like anything good, so Gaunt sloshed his way back from the door, grabbed the mattress from his floating bed and ducked.
TWITCH
With the subsonic suggestions of the Night Pine ringing in his head, Twitch quickly locates the base where the spaceship is being held. Things appear exactly as they had been described, and as a plus note, they don't appear to be paying any attention to some non-sentient wild birds and winged creatures flying around. As King Industries is deemed a criminal organization, the chances are they don't want to draw too much attention to themselves.
LELAND and EUDIAL
Even as Leland jumps back, a hand print begins to glow red hot in the metal near the lock on the door. It soon turns to white hot, and small pieces of near liquid metal begin to fall away until a few moments later a flaming hand clasping the lock mechanism appears through the door, and the whole thing opens to reveal Eudial glowing orange with fire. The water floods out of Lelands rooms sending up plumes of steam around her feet even as she cools down.
VENGEANCE
With a whirring of helicopter blades from within his cane, Vengeance soon finds himself ascending the vertical faces of the rock the castle rests upon. It is utterly cloaked in plants, every nook and cranny is filled with creepers or small shrubs or tufts of grasses. At one point he catches the metallic gleam of what must have been the bay doors for aircraft to land in, but there is no way he could cut through without the use of the very cane he requires to stay aloft.
Eventually, he reaches the top of the rock and comes to the castle itself. He lands gently in the central courtyard, and from here can see the architecture of the building - it appears largely a hard stone with odd veins of some pale metal running through it, formed into something which resembles a fairly practical looking medieval fortress if they went back in and added some flying buttresses for effect. The courtyard itself is paved with the same fractal changing mosaic as the grand cathedral, except here, where weeds have established in the cracks the pattern has begun to flow around them as it alters the tide. There are several doors around the courtyard, although one of them is clearly the main entrance, while others seem to go to guest wings.
There is also a large cylindrical stone square in the middle of it, raised up to nearly height, with flowers growing round its base and 7 curious holes in the top - a central one that seems to have something lodged in it, and 6 at equal points around the outside which are shallower and apparently empty.
The whole place looks like no one has been here in a long time.
As the water drained out of the room, Gaunt took in a deep breath and readied himself to lunge at whoever had broken through the door. The blazing light and subsequent sound of steam halted him in his tracks. It was Eudial. She was slowly returning to normal after blazing with fire. Gaunt stared warily at her. After a few moments he broke the silence.
"Hello," Gaunt said, trying to sound as composed and casual as he could. "Still hanging around this garish place as well I see. You might have noticed I've had some water issues with my room. I've been hoping to have a, shall we say, chat with the esteemed Dr. Seben about that. I'm not very pleased with him at the moment."
Ah, I can see he's being doing the castle up a bit Hm. I don't like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Humble Narrator
Let me guess. That great eyesore of concrete is where he wants me to...urgh, the very idea. So undignified - and more than a little gross. Well, there were always going to be caveats with me becoming housekeeper around here. So long as I have gloves, I suppose I'll be fine. Shudder.
George, pop inside and record me full schematics of the castle, top to bottom. Deathtraps included. I wouldn't put it past old Doomsy to leave me a few housewarming presents. Meet me back here when you're done. I want to take a closer look at what's in this overgrown garden ornament in the meantime.
MARISA AND AURELIA
As the pair assembles her Cappella themed army outside the base, they recieve an odd message via their communicators from the Botanist - he babbles a lot about rhododendrons, whether you can hurry up as his creepers are getting enough light through the shield and whether you can retrieve that Quercus parstemopris seed that Doomforall pinched off it at some point, before asking you to watch out for any interesting weeds in the compound.
With the group assembled, they begin their impromput capella concert, which is about as good as you would expect from a group of random strangers grouped into singing Capella with no notice whatsoever. However, there is no denying they do it with conviction. All the sniper robots have their eyes trained on this, and the disturbingly muscular Metapenguin, who introduces himself as Otto VonAukton waddles out holding one of the Chimeras on a particularly elaborate leash. He seems more confused than anything else, but suspecting a trap of some sort.
PROFESSOR VENGEANCE
George quickly returns, and with him displays full schematics of everywhere he could access - the rest appears to be clad in some super-dense material that his scanners couldn't penetrate. What is currently unlocked is the main living areas, and a small secondary control room. No traps were detected, although there was a scrambling field to make people ignore this place, but apparently Vengeance was programmed in as an exception.
The secondary control room only seems to have limited functionality - no weapons or more advanced forms of movement. Pretty much limited to the generic cruise speed movement, and various shielding systems are on automatic, plus the ability to query the computer for certain information. Vengeance is currently entirely locked out of any of the sublevels, which schematics seem to suggest contain the hangar, various libraries and studies and a teleportation system system.
Most notably, the power source of this place is so off the charts that George cannot measure it, to the point where it seems entirely surplus to requirements. At his best calculations, if you powered every system on every world that George's internal database knows about, the power consumption would for any meaningful reason essentially 0% usage.
TWITCH
Twitch flies worriedly over the crowd, but with the guards playing attention to the capella singing, it goes without a hitch - the remaining Chimera is sleeping, and none of the snipers seem to notice anything. However, when he reaches the innermost tower, there is a slight problem - although he had very clearly seen Otto at the gates, there is a second distinctive MetaPenguin here, slightly bigger than Otto if anything. It appears there was a slight inaccuracy in the information the Old World's Society had - Otto has a Sister...
Not what she had expected, but burning through a door armoured like that had to be worth something. Eudial grinned and yanked the door open. And liquid poured out...
Water?!
The grin vanished almost instantly. Eudial didn't like water. Well, not when she was burning with the intensity of a million stars. For a moment, as the water splashed about her ankles, she wore a panicked expression, and she danced a bit like a retard trying to avoid it. However, it was her mind that cooled off first.
Turn your power off, you fool.
It wasn't what she wanted to do; enemies could be behind the door. But she had no chance fighting those who wielded oceanic powers. Regrettably, Eudial stopped burning, and just like that, the water wasn't an issue anymore. She cautiously peered into the room, ready to attack again in need be...
...and saw Gaunt just standing there, dripping. Eudial stared. What was with his skin??? It was like he had an animal's hide... except... humans didn't usually have that technique.Eudial's face split into a cruel smirk; she couldn't help it. She was proud to have wasted that trashy man completely. She hastily rearranged the smirk into a blank, airy sort of expression.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gaunt
"Yes... I was not very pleased with him, either," said Eudial. "In fact, we had quite the disagreement over your location. At one point I think he had me convinced you had gone for a little stroll. I suppose that was him that locked you in here, yes?
I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you though. Your wish for a chat can't be granted as I got a little... shall we say, vociferous with him... as you can plainly see." Eudial indicated the body of Seben. "I don't suppose it would do for any of his colleagues to find him here, so I suggest we do something about the situation. Then we can find the other member of our escapade.
In any case, I would not trust a damn thing any of these people say. I trust you feel the same after your experience here, surely?"
Gaunt shook his head.
"No, not in the slightest. He claimed I didn't meet their qualifications. He then decided to drain me completely and flooding the room was a rather desperate attempt to stop them. It seems to have worked... somewhat." Gaunt indicated his skin.
"In any case, I'm glad to see he's been dealt with. Well done. In return let me give you some advice: as long as we're in here or anywhere near these Psychic folks you'll want to keep up a strong mental block. I'm not sure if they have tongue-twisters where you're from, but I find them to be especially effective. It's not absolutely foolproof, but I was able to force someone out of my head at least twice with some great effort."
Gaunt then looked back at the prone carcass of Dr. Seben and smiled.
"Perhaps there's a supply closet or something we can stuff him in for the time being. No doubt they'd find him eventually unless we could vaporize him, but somewhere out of the way. It seems rather cliche, but there doesn't seem much else to do with him."
Cruise control and shielding? That's it? Hmph. Ruddy cheek. According to His Doominess, I can't even be trusted with a water pistol around these parts. Still, at least I know what's what around here now and I can still get the thing moving again. Very good work, George. Very thorough.Quote:
Originally Posted by Our Humble Narrator
I think we'll leave the mystery of the powerhouse power source for now, don't you? Too many mysteries around here as it is. First I want to examine that cylindrical stone wotsit in the garden and see if I can't see what's been lodged in it already.
Then I propose we pop along to the control room and see about taking off. You're a fairly advanced piece of tech, George. With a little help from my tools, you should be able to interface with the computer directly. That might open up some more of the flight controls, as well as some of the more deeply encrypted databases.
I know I wouldn't mind asking it for a little history on this place and why I'm not allowed near all the fun stuff.
EUDIAL AND LELAND
Leland locates what appears to be the supply closet, which has a sizable pile of boxes at the rear that are big enough to contain the late Dr Seben. They appear to contain the remnants of what presumably are vital supplies for the running of a psychic organization such as adult magazines, jars of raspberry jam and dreamcasts. There are plenty of other items round the storeroom in general that might be worth taking: various medicines and mineral infusions, bandages, a tank of leeches and an old MAGNET-TOES brand psyproof helmet.
Eudial also finds a rare candy.
VENGEANCE
After managing to find a patch where it wasn't entirely covered in lichen, Vengeance examines the stone - it is of a type that he has never seen before, seemingly infused with tiny polyhedral metallic crystals of gold, silver and copper coloured minerals, but it does appear to be originally natural. How it is shaped is intriguing though - it is slightly concave on top, and the outer holes appear to channel back to the central one. The item lodged inside it is, apparently, a very peculiar acorn, which seems to switch between some sort of phasing state and some sort of super-hard state. According to Georges readings, nothing that Vengeance has about his person at the minute would do any notable damage to either the stone or the acorn.
Meanwhile, George interfaces with the computer, and manages to get a few of the lesser systems up and running - orbital flight, both internal and external sensors, activating a Golem chef and his ingredient replicator and a temperature controlled pool.
George also locates some files that Doomforall seems to have left for him to read: a thorough document concerning the rift energy that Doomforall used as his powerset; how it works, its origin, it's applications, it's limitations (very few), however, it is the very last section of the document that gets Vengeances attention.
"All my research and study points to one indisputable fact: that taking the power of the Rift from the Marranach was the greatest mistake any being in the history of the multiverse has ever made. My mistake. He was a being who was outside the multiverse, outside any comprehension and I, in my ignorance and in my folly, thought that I had impressed such a creature with my audacity and I had somehow earned the right to that power. I was a child to think that. He rules in the space between Multiverses and longs to expand his domain further into their light - pouring his realms into them like cold water onto a fire to reclaim them. In my stupidity, I am the beach-head - by bringing the rift here in myself I have given him a way in...
I will retire from using the power of the Rift as much as I can, but with this power I cannot shirk responsibility. Worlds may die from both my action and inaction. Eventually, something will happen and he will break in. I have begun to look into ways to escape this cruel fate I have wrought on this universe and the others, but it is a long shot at best.
I have already acquired the item from the Botanist and I returned Vengeance to his home world again, though he will not remember it, he may be the key to all this. If all else fails, at least this Fortress of mine may finally get to live out it's intended function..."