Character Carnival

"Radiation doesn't glow," Frederick said, picking up the Damur's discarded knife. He had said that it might be able to help the native, which meant...

"Dammit, I'm not supposed to plan these kinds of things," Frederick muttered. That was Hector's job.

Helen walked up to him, examining the knife herself. "We should keep that thing, I think," she whispered. "It's most likely important."

"Shouldn't we ask the Damur how it works?"

Glancing over her shoulder, Helen responded, "He's a bit busy with his radioactive soil. Doesn't seem like a good idea."

"Radiation doesn't glow."

But Helen's point still stood. The two of them had barely interacted with anybody in the greenhouse save Cyrus and the Damur. Everybody here had wildly varying backgrounds from them. It was alien territory, and the atmosphere created by his own ignorance of the others only served to suppress any desire he had to ask anybody for help.

"Frederick, if it can help save people from the destruction of their setting, it's important, no matter what," Helen said. "As far as we know our mission is unique among these people. We're keeping that thing. Nothing that happens here matters, but what we can retrieve does."

Slowly, Frederick nodded. Grasping the knife, he said, "Right."

edited 15th May '11 12:55:35 AM by Chubert

Mary stood at the side, appalled at this Damar, "Why is he doing this?" she thought.

The source of the glow wasn't radioactive. It was not a green glow, nor a yellow one, but more of a light blue. It came from about two feet down in the soil and mulch. It gave off a faint humming sound that sounded calming, but had a layer of deception in it.

Whatever it was, it wasn't a spirit.

"Right, I'm not the only one getting bad vibes from this, am I?" Valentine said. But still, if it is something that might be connected... Valentine sighed. She was getting too used to weird things going on. "Just so we're clear, do any of us know what this is?"

She stared at the glow. This day will never end, huh? Well, if this turns out to be some weird monster or ghost or I-don't-really-care-what, I won't be the least bit surprised.

A small sigh could be heard from Elise as she sadly watched the scary man hurt the flowers, something that those mean boys from her kindergarten class would've done. Along with put a spider into her lunchbox and pull her hair and try to show her a handful of icky worms.

Molly continued to watch the Damur from the rafters, her empty yellow eyes transfixed on the faint blue glow that she could see even from up there. To all of the spirits present, a strange, foreboding feel of some kind that wasn't exactly strong permeated through them, like soft music from the other end of the room.

As Cyrus examined the glow from the side, he got that same odd feel from it; he had no idea what exactly it was, either. It disrupted his ghost radar- his halo kept fading in and out irregularly, a dull headache quickly forming.

The koi hurriedly swam outside, scanning the immediate area for anything odd.

Chihuahua, it's your call if you want Molly to find something weird, make something weird happen, or make nothing at all happen.

He was halfway there now. The Damur began to sing a song of triumph in his native language — although given the differences between Western and Mauros music, it sounded like an off-key funeral dirge to everyone else. Loosely translated, his song spoke of the unyielding light of the Nameless One burning all differences away. As he sang, he dug faster; his training had given him physical strength and endurance, and if that failed him, he could endure the pain of any aching muscles. Soon, the time would be right. His smirk grew just a little bit more prominent on his face.

edited 15th May '11 8:42:32 AM by KillerClowns

Frederick backed away slowly. From the strange, otherworldly singing, to the single-minded earnestness with which the Damur kept digging, everything was unnerving him. He was glad that he had kept the knife.

"Do you think that bullets'll work?" Helen asked.

"Let's...not worry about that. For now," Frederick said, slowly. "For all we know this is a natural course of events. All Hector told us to do was observe. Intervention isn't necessary."

Helen rolled her eyes. "Do you mean that it isn't necessary now?"

A strain of the Damur's singing washed over the two. In a small voice, Frederick said, "Yes."

edited 16th May '11 12:37:10 AM by Chubert

The source of the light was finally uncovered. And it was no ordinary object. In fact, it didn't even looked earthly. It was a tesseract. It was a blue geometric object that resembled a cube-within a cube. Its faces were transparent, and the edges were rounded. The inner cube constantly rotated outside of the outer cube, turning the latter into the inner. Just looking at it strained the mind.

But the most unusual quality of it was that Namar couldn't touch it. A one-inch vaccum was formed around the tesseract, where not one spec of dirt touched it. Attempting to touch it would just make it move away.

Mary looked down on the tesseracrt, memerized by its maquestic appearance. She slowly walked towards the hole.

Kiora stared, her jaw slack, at the extra-dimensional object. Kohana, however, was not so visibly impressed.

"That shouldn't exist," she said matter-of-factly, drawing Kiora out of her daze.

She cocked an eyebrow.

"It's a four-dimensional cube."

Another blank look. Kohana sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"We live in three-dimensional space. A four-dimensional object is going to be inherently unstable here. So I wouldn't touch it," she added in Mary's direction. "Let me put it this way. I can violate the law of thermodynamics with magic. I can overpower gravity and tear the laws of physics to pieces in the process. I can't make a tesseract. That hit home for you?"

Kiora swallowed loudly and returned to staring at the glowing object.

edited 16th May '11 2:50:29 PM by animemetalhead

Cyrus and Elise observed the cube-thing twisting around in stunned silence, wondering in the backs of their minds just what the hell it was supposed to do.

He could only catch a glimpse of it before, his head throbbing all over like never before. He had to step outside. Get away from it... even though Molly was out there, her power would feel like a godsend compared to this... Ah... yes...

Elise remained in the greenhouse, still watching the cube-thingy spin around with wide, bright eyes. The longer she watched it, the more she was drawn into it, to the point that she even reached down through Mister Damur to pick it up, ignoring warnings from Kohana, but to no avail.

The Damur looked at the Tesseract, a smile of triumph now filling his face. He stood, and said, "it is there. I am hoping you are prepared to be running. Very, very soon." It was a pretty thing, certainly. But if the omens were right, it was also incredibly dangerous.

He took a white pouch from a pocket of his robes, and emptied it into his palm. It contained a mount of bone, ground to dust. He spread half of the dust in a circle around the tesseract, and this done, he pulled a slip of paper from his robe and began chanting.

"Oh, you who are about to die. Know that nothing lies beyond but oblivion. Even if you avoid this death, there shall always be another. So do not fight the inevitable. Life is pain, and only death brings solace. Embrace the light of the Nameless One. Embrace the peace of oblivion. Give up your pains. Give up your struggles. Free your soul from its earthly bonds, and submit to annihilation. Accept entropy as the natural state of all things, and let its eternal song be your final lullaby."

He then put the paper back, turned to the rest and said, "I am thinking it is sounding better in native tongue. Still, had it translated, by professional — strange sounding, to me. Practiced, though, to Earth-borns, made sure sounded right. Must be doing things properly. Is a prayer for the doomed. Prayer for this world, and anything that is being left behind. I shall be shepherding this world to final rest, easing death throes... though I fear fate is not to be granting the same mercy. It is not my time, and I am still owing the Nameless One much service. I shall also be guiding those seeking to escape to the path outwards. Dying in fear is wretched thing, preventing soul from truly embracing oblivion."

With that, he released the last of the bone dust onto the tesseract.

The bone dust is purely ceremonial; any magical effects are unintended on the Damur's part.

"Wait," Kiora said, half raising her hand. "This world? This whole place is dying?"

Kohana nodded grimly from beside her. "I sensed it when I arrived. This world is unstable, perhaps moreso than the tesseract."

"So..." Kiora rubbed her temples. "Can we do anything to stabilize it?"

"Some things are... unsaveable."

Kiora turned to the rest of the group. "Anybody else got any bright ideas? I'm all for playing the hero here, but I need something to go on besides an all-out evacuation of this place." If even that would work...

Mary stopped outside of the circle of bone dust, and stepped back. The Damar was probably the most dangerous of all of the visitors, based on him frantical matter. He said his prayer and explained it to them, then turning to the tesseract and holding his hand out. He dropped the last bits of bone dust on it.

"Why am I not running?" Mary thought. The tesseract was slowly raising out of the ground. It must been the glow, the warmth that it gave her. It was a beautiful flow of brightness that perked up the inner parts of her soul. Only something that transcended their dimension could caused the events of the carnival...No, it created the carbon copy that they were in. Why it did it, she didn't know...

As soon as a bit of bone dust brushed the empty space around the tesseract, a loud noise cracked. A bolt of purple energy resembling a rod broke through the glass ceiling, hitting nearby the tesseract. A powerful wave of force rang out, threatening to blow everyone feet away from it. The ceiling started to crack, and a downpour of water flowed down, creating a waterfall.

Mary was pushed twenty feet back.

Kiora reacted instantly, reflexes honed from hours of training springing to life at the sudden crash. Leaping into the air, she glued herself to the wall with chakra, activating her Byakugan. Holy crap it's been a while since I typed that word. I tried spelling it phonetically...

Kohana took to the air, floating just overhead, scanning the ceiling for the source of the attack. This had to be connected to the tesseract. Something very powerful made that thing, and she wanted to be ready for when that being made its presence known.

Frederick believed that death was ineffable. What peace could there be in death if there was no strife? What strife could there be if there was no thought? How, even, could the very concept of nothingness even express itself when the concept of existence wasn't even present?

Therefore, it made perfect sense to him that his brain simply stopped comprehending portions of the universe. Swaths of land died and entered that indescribable realm of "not-existing."

Helen was holding the Damur up by the neck. "Stop it or I'll replace your esophagus with a garden hose," she hissed.

"Dying like this is something that cannot be stopped. Is natural progression of events. Give up the fight," the Damur said, unconcerned.

"Bullshit! You uncovered that thing and then this place started falling apart. 'Natural progression' my ass."

"Helen, wait," Frederick said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Whatever this guy did can't be reversed."

Another portion of the greenhouse warped and twisted, space folding in on itself like a blade, before exploding outwards, loops turning into loops, a paradox inside an enigma.

"What's more, I don't think he can be threatened with death," Frederick said.

"Frederick, we have to have some control over him. Right now, he's doing whatever the hell he wants to do. I thought you wanted to save that native."

For an instant, Frederick closed his eyes. Hector had told him that sometimes, when being a Paranormal wasn't going to help him at all, Hector had thought like him.

All he had to do was think like Hector. And what would Hector do? Mix truth and lies in order to get his way; in other words, bluff the shit out of everything.

"You want to die, right?" Frederick said, turning towards the Damur. "I won't kill you. But let me tell you something. Where I come from? We can make things live a very, very long time. Billions of years. Trillions of years. We can put you in a box and force you to live. Don't believe me? Helen, warp in the shard."

After a moment of hesitation, a cylinder appeared in Frederick's hand. A glowing fragment was suspended inside. He shook it in front of the Damur's face.

"This is the flesh of gods, preserved in a box. You can feel the divinity of this thing, right? It's still a living bit of flesh, otherwise, we wouldn't be able to do much with it. We might need a bigger box for a fellow like you, or a lot of smaller boxes but, well..."

The cylinder disappeared again.

"So. You are going to explain to me what you did without the riddles and poetry. You are going to give extremely detailed instructions on how to save the natives. You are going to listen to and follow my instructions, and you are not going to further the death of this world."

Frederick raised his gun, while Helen tightened her grip around the Damur's neck. "Maybe replacing your esophagus with a garden hose won't kill you," she muttered.

Closing in on the Damur, Frederick said, "Or, you are going to spend the rest of time very, very uncomfortably."

edited 16th May '11 5:08:47 PM by Chubert

"Fool." With a fluid motion, the Damur snatched his black knife back from Fredrick and slashed him and Helen. The cuts were mere pricks, but the power of the knife worked swiftly, separating them utterly from any form of magic. They were forced to play by the same rules as ordinary mortals now — ordinary mortals such as the Damur himself.

"You are too reliant upon your powers — this is being weakness, and I am teaching you. Now, your games are ending, and I am explaining. This world is dying, and I am performing funeral rites, and saving those whose time has not coming now. I am not hastening. I am not harming. And if you are worrying, the curse will be fading; I am hoping you are using your powers more wisely next time."

With that, the Damur turned away from the two in disgust.

Frederick shot him in the knee.

"Don't worry, that knife is useless against me," he said. "I don't actually have any powers. Helen, exit using the same method you entered. Re-enter in five seconds."

Helen vanished.

Hector had told them the stories—nobody even knew how they had gotten to the carnival. They had just...appeared.

Helen and Frederick had literally just been sipping diet cokes on sofas, thinking that they wanted to go to a carnival, with no other details about the carnival known, when they had...appeared, without any effort, without any impetus, and without any knowledge about the carnival.

Hector had spent days taking notes, trying to wrap his head around the newfound concept of a "setting." And he had discovered one golden rule—nothing that happened in the carnival mattered. It was only logical, seeing as the carnival was a nexus of settings, and one setting could not influence another; changes taking place in the carnival that mattered would violate this rule. Somebody from setting A could physically influence somebody from setting B inside the carnival—thus, anything that happened in the carnival had to be reversed upon reentering the native setting. Anything, including a loss of powers.

"Didn't you know what Paladin teaches its Paranormals? A Paranormal that relies on powers alone is a dead Paranormal. We think quickly. We think critically. We solve problems. And you are a problem that's about to be solved."

Helen warped back in to the greenhouse and, with an ugly crack of bones, warped table legs inside the Damur's arms and the greenhouse wall, connecting the two together and pinning him there.

"I really hope that doesn't kill him," she said.

edited 16th May '11 5:58:04 PM by Chubert

The Damur merely smiled peacefully.

No, there is nothing anyone can do to make that Damur stop smiling. Not after the training he's gone through. Damuros are crazy motherfuckers.

edited 16th May '11 5:41:25 PM by KillerClowns

Echk. I can see that

and double post to actually contribute, sorry about the bad form.

Frederick yanked the knife from the Damur's hand. "I'll take that. Now tell me, in some detail, exactly how a knife that de-powers Paranormals is supposed to help us save that woman."

At this point he didn't care about the Damur's intentions, no matter how twisted. He cared that he was being an aggravating, obfuscating nuisance, how he demonstrated no respect for the sanctity of life—how could he, when he actively pursued death?—how he didn't care about innocent lives that might actually want to continue living. That was what Paladin stood for. That was what he stood for now.

"Congratulations," Frederick spat. "You have the blood of an entire world on your hands. Instead of trying to save it or stabilize it, you destroyed it. I thought you were an agent of good, or at least, not an agent of insanity. I thought you came here with the intention of trying to save as many people from a dying world as you could. I was wrong."

edited 16th May '11 5:57:09 PM by Chubert

The Damur's smile did not move from his lips. Though he was loathe to enjoy mortal pleasures, this was entertaining him immensely. He wondered what sort of hollow threats these fools would hurl at him next. He knew eternity was a lie — all things gave in to entropy in the end. Besides, even if they had eternity, what could they do? Pain did nothing more than bore him. Psychological torture could not hope to move his unyielding mind. So he decided he'd just wait until this world died, or his adversaries' manners improved. Whichever came first.

Mary gazed glass-eyed at the tesseract, which was now at shoulder-level. It continued rotating, staying as brightly as ever.

"You guys talk in such flowerly speech..." she said, her speech slurring. She was enchanted by the tesseract, "Just do something..." She started to walk slowly back towards the tesseract, reaching out her arm.

Behind her, a whisp of purple energy became visable, rotating like a flat tornado. It followed Mary in an omninous way, brushing the back of her jeans ever so slightly.

Kiora jumped down to intervene between the combatants. "Can we all just tone it down a bit?" she asked. "We have more pressing matters at hand. Namely, what the hell to do about that tesseract."

As she spoke, she turned, seeing Mary reaching for the glowing object.

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Kohana screamed, springing to action. Whatever that purple glow was, it wasn't good, and definitely out of her realm of experience.

"Hey, Frederick," Helen said. "You know, I think we're overlooking a really really obvious solution to this entire thing."

Frederick turned to her, his eyes snapping. "Look, if that was possible, don't you think we would have figured it out by now—"

"See that cube thingy? Why don't we just stab it?"

Frederick's mouth formed a perfect "o" of surprise and embarrassment.

Then he strode up to the tesseract, drawing his arm back in an arc, and stabbed the blackness deep inside.

it's your guys' tesseract. i don't know what happens. i just broke it.

sorry.

edited 16th May '11 6:14:59 PM by Chubert

The Damur burst into laughter when he saw Fredrick stab the cube. He honestly had no idea what effect it would have. But it was just so... ridiculous. He dearly wanted to stay silent, but he couldn't resist.

"You are not being able to make me talk? Use violence! You are not able to be comprehending strange cube thingy? Use violence!" He was now laughing so hard he was gasping for air. "Are you knowing about anything other than violence?!"

You think it would be that easy''?

When Frederick's sword touched the tesseract's invisable force-field, it simply slid off.