Under a Blank White Sky

Rayek fell for what could have been a second or eternity and then landed face down in the dirt. Before he could deal with this indignity he realized he was surrounded. By humans! He leaped straight up into the air to get away. He saw five, all female except one. He didn't really know much about humans and from what little he did know they were to be avoided.

edited 11th Apr '12 3:41:17 PM by tricksterson

Trump delenda est

"I was asleep and having a nightmare at the time," Marle admitted. She never liked replaying that memory of her time spent nonexistent in her head.

"So no one here knows anything more about this 'Tall Man' or this 'First'?" Marle asked the group that was beginning to gather. It was rather weird to see an entire town of albino people. While Marle wouldn't instantly conclude that they were 'half-finished,' Marle did see that these people needed help. And she was going to try to help them.

Wizard Needs Food Badly

"The tall man is really tall, and all black, and, um... I think he said once that he can't hear at all? But there's a certain word that he can always hear it, no matter where you are when you say it! First is the only one who knows it, though." babbled the girl, with general murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

"First is the oldest one of us - he says he can actually remember a little bit before the tall man first woke him up! Oh hey, what's that up there?"

"That up there" was Rayek, making an extremely undignified entrance.

---

As fate would have it, there was one spirit lingering within the temple. A miserable looking spectre sat on the altar, visible only to Ignatius. Broken manacles were locked around his wrists and ankle, and he was slumped over, head held in his hands, rocking back and forth slightly.

He just kept repeating the same phrase over and over again, "I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand..."

---

"Hahahaha! Hiss, hiss, bite, bite, always spoiling for a fight! Watch yourself, little snake, or of thyself a fool you'll make!" rhymed the voice, laughing off Mira's threat. "Spirit, demon, legend, god, all make mortals stare slack-jawed...Haha!"

The voice seemed to move closer to Kestrel now. "I could just tell you, but the lady wanted a chance to prove her intelligence against incredible odds, and what sort of person would I be if I denied her that chance? Besides - it's more entertaining like this! Here's your challenge, little snake: if you can figure out both reasons you're here before He wakes up, I shall reward you with something that will let you bring great joy into the world. Think of it as... a quest! Yes, that's it, a quest! Or..."

The voice started circling around them again. "If you really are so dull as to have no patience for my little quest, I suppose you could try to find a way to wake Him up early. Or if you still want to get to the other side, you could try to find the secret passage that would bypass these guards entirely! Though this end of it isn't in the temple, and the other end of it passes directly through His chambers. Not that you'd be able to fit through it anyway...

edited 11th Apr '12 5:13:46 PM by Sir_Screwloose

Pretend there's something clever written here.

"Why does all that talk suddenly remind me of the Batman's Batcave?"

Red Arrow muttering after hearing the "voice" while standing right next to Kestrel.

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

Jeez, can't get much of a straight answer around here from anyone, Sakuko thought. And now there's more people falling from the sky. I'd say the place is getting weirder, but more like it's just failing to get any less strange. Also - weren't there some statues of hands and eyeballs over by that temple?

"Do you happen to know where First is?" Sakuko said, maybe he'll actually know what's going on.

edited 11th Apr '12 5:57:38 PM by Sonzai

Danger: Intense gravimetric distortions nearby. Please reverse the polarity on your deflectors now.

Small rock pillars erected from the ground and stopped the boulders from getting close to Bubbles. Toph raised an eyebrow:

"Flying? How can someone fly?"

The girl kept staring at where Bubbles was- at least, at where she thought Bubbles was supposed to be.

"I can fly," Bubbles said, landing on the ground in front of Toph. "Because I'm a Powerpuff Girl. Both my sisters can fly too. We were made like that, with a weird thing called Chemical X."

The blonde girl paused and tilted her head a moment. "Why can't you see me when I'm flying, anyway?"

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

Toph put both of her hands on her hips and began to laugh. She stopped laughing until she turned around and actually looked at Bubbles. The Powerpuff Girl could clearly see that Toph had milky white eyes, but before she could ask anything, Toph pointed at her:

"Oh really? A "Powerpuff Girl"? That's what you call yourself? You need a good title, like... like... The Flying Menace! Or maybe... hm... Death from Above!"

Toph then proceeded to give Bubbles a light punch on the shoulder, and added, in a mocking tone, "Those are real titles, ones that will make people fear you! Not "Powerpuff Girl"! When I hear that, I imagine a happy-go-lucky girl who loves stuffed toys and hates seeing people in danger."

It seemed that, for some reason, Toph wanted to avoid answering the question Bubbles had asked.

edited 11th Apr '12 6:37:28 PM by Stratofarius

Mira's face crinkled. A quest. That could be a blessing or a curse. It could mean source of information other then this infuriating spirit... or a dead end. She also didn't like the way it casually mentioned demons. Her trigger finger was itchy, but without a target, there was little she could do.

However, the spirit did give her one bit of information. The presence was not the owner of the temple, nor the master of the guardians outside of it. Mira tucked that information away for later. It could prove useful in a little bit.

"Where would I find the answers that you seek?" asked the demon hunter. She was more then a little talented at gathering information, and could probably get by with just a general direction. "Or do you merely intend for me to guess?" she continued bitingly.

The punch didn't seem to cause Bubbles any pain. Indeed, she had ignored it completely, and was now looking at Toph with confused eyes, though Toph obviously couldn't see this.

"'Powerpuff Girl' isn't a title, it's the name of me and my sisters' group. We're superheroes." Said Bubbles.

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

Ignatius walked back up to the altar and examined the spirit in front of him, thinking about the best possible solution. It would be wise to gain an ally and doing so generally involved helping potential allies.

He reached out to it specifically and attempted to communicate a message.

Do you require assistance?

Note that the others shouldn't be able to hear it, as it is a direct message through the death magic.

Toph stopped laughing and slowly blinked. Superheroes? What in the world were superheroes? She did remember Sokka talking about something like that, back before they defeated Ozai. But at that time, she simply ignored his babble about "flying men who can burn things with their eyes" as just another one of Sokka's stupid stories. But now there was this girl who not only completely ignored her punch (and Toph was pretty strong) but also could fly? She slapped herself on the forehead, saying three words she thought would never come out of her mouth:

"Sokka was right?!"

She realized that the girl didn't even know who Sokka was, so Toph quickly added, not even giving time for Bubbles to think about what she had just said:

"Well, if you're a superhero- whatever that means- then show me this big hole with stairs you mentioned. Maybe it's something important."

Toph resumed her staring at someone's general direction, and thanks to Bubbles height, it looked like she was staring at something right above the Powerpuff Girl. Heh. Powerpuff Girl. That is a funny name.

Oswald walked into the temple chamber, where there were already a good deal of people, and took a good look around. Noticing the altar and the remains of the statue, Oswald decided that those were probably the most worth looking at. As Oswald neared the statue, he got a good look at it. Whoever the statue had been made for had been human, from the looks of it.

Oswald then looked up at hole in roof above the statue. Whoever had made the hole and had destroyed most of the statue could apparently fly, could shoot fire strong enough to destroy stone, and probably didn't like the person this temple was dedicated to. Not a good combination, Oswald thought to himself. Definately gonna have to watch out for whoever did this.

edited 12th Apr '12 3:59:46 AM by Dezmo

It seemed to be a day for new experiences. Now he was feeling something he'd never felt before, not even when his zwoot had died in the desert, desperation. He sent out a mindcall. (Note: only another telepath would hear this, range is about that of a loud shout.)

"Leetah? Ekuar? Venka?" He wasn't quite desperate enough to call out to the Wolf Riders but if one of them replied he wouldn't spurn them.

edited 12th Apr '12 2:01:17 PM by tricksterson

Trump delenda est

Bubbles paused - this girl was seemingly blind (or at least, could only feel where people were when they were on the ground) and was asking her to show her something on the ceiling. The Powerpuff stopped to think for a minute, before shrugging her shoulders slightly and jumping at Toph. She grabbed the older girl by the shoulders, staying suspended in air, and then took off, flying Toph to the roof and setting her down next to the hole.

"There, see? ...how DO you see things, anyway?" She asked, still confused about that bit.

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

Twilight followed the rabbit, still not quite trusting him yet but he seems smarter than your average Virus. He cast his eyes on everything and anaylzed everything he could about the surrounding area. If he was to figure this out, getting as much data as he can about anything here could only help. "So how exactly is this supposed to work? Paying tribute I mean. Zenny? Material goods?"

edited 12th Apr '12 2:19:30 PM by StephanReiken

Almost as if by precognition, Aldrea trotted into the large antechamber just as Sedd inquired about whether or not Aldrea was a pet. Despite the fact that she had no lips to purse or to scowl at, she neverthless managed to convey the air of barely restrained indignity, enormious bullwhip tail twitching from side to side even as her stalk eyes rotated around to survey the crumbling ruins, hooves clacking loudly on the stone floor. <I am not a pet>, she said haughtily to him, one of her stalk eyes glaring at him, <I am an Andalite. And what kind of creature are you?> Her Andalite sensibilities, even though they had been diluted by six months of dirty guerilla warfare on an alien world, had never truly gone away, and her sense of pride still tended to flare in extenuating circumstances.

The temple itself was... interesting, to her. It reminded her somewhat of the Eulepra back on the home world- it took a moment for her to remember that she was thinking of her home world, and not Dak's planet. But what was left of the statue, incomplete as it was, appeared to be a statue that looked closer to one of the strange pink creatures than any Hork-Bajir, Andalite, Gedd, Yeerk, or worm-thing that she knew.

"That is Aldrea," said Dak calmly, in a marked contrast to Alrea's snippish behaviour. "She is a creature called an Andalite. She and her..." he trailed off for a minute, glancing sidelong at her before continuing, "She descended from Mother Sky four years ago in a silver ship," he gently explained.

"Wah!"

Toph immediately screamed once she felt Bubbles raising her. She was suddenly plunged into total, complete darkness. She couldn't sense, she couldn't see, everything was just dark. Where was she? Was she being thrown across the room? She could probably tell where she was going from the wind, but the darkness just... scared her to death. When her bare feet touched something solid again, she immediately crouched down and began to kiss the roof. In a sudden mood change, she turned around, pointing at where Bubbles voice came from, and screamed:

"Don't you ever do that again, you hear me?! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!"

The blonde girl was confused, now. She knew that Toph would be surprised by the sensation of flying, but she didn't think anyone would be that terrified of it.

"B-but you told me to show you the hole in the roof." Said Bubbles, eyes watering slightly. "So I brought you up here."

What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?

Toph placed both of her hands on her hips, getting even more angry. She approached Bubbles, leaning closer to her:

"Oh what, don't tell me you're going to cry! You call yourself a superhero and you cry just because I yelled?! How old are you, 10?!"

She then pointed directly at Bubbles face, screaming at the top of her lungs. It looked like the simple fact that Bubbles removed Toph's feet from the ground made her as mad and angry as... well... a mad and angry army general:

"You never told me that the hole was on the roof! You should have told me that! And if you ever DARE to do this again without asking me, I'll make sure you never fly again in your whole life, you Lily Liver! AND DON'T CRY!"

Red Arrow began to reflect carefully on what the voice had said, especially on the emphasis of waking "him" up.

"Now I'd like to know who this person or being is."

"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"

"Well, paying tribute usually involves giving some sort of gift to someone important or high up to show gratitude or to pay for protection," Oswald said to Twilight. "Though it looks like whoever this temple was built for wasn't all that good at protecting" Oswald said, motioning to the destroyed statue and hole in the roof.

"We should definately keep a look out for whoever did this."

edited 13th Apr '12 3:23:58 AM by Dezmo

Sedd was so surprised at the sudden voice in his head that he actually fell off the bench. He lay on the dusty stone floor between the rows and laughed.

"Ha! Of course you'd be telepathic - no mouth! Wait, then how do you - no, nevermind, I'll work it out on my own. No disrespect meant, Milady, only the curiosity of a fool."

He sat up and grinned at them, sitting crosslegged on the floor. "I take it they don't have humans where you're from? That's what I am - at the moment, at least. Descended from Mother Sky on a silver ship, huh? Was that by magic or technology?"

The spirit looked up at Ignatius, startled. Clearly he had not been expecting anybody to be able to see him.

"Please - I beg of you - do not let the guards know I'm here. I do not want to go back down there. Though I don't know what choice I'll have once He awakens... oh no, oh no..."

His panic only increased as a thought occured to him. "Perhaps the sly one only released me to inflame His rage at me... no no no no... I don't understand why His wrath for me is so great, but if he finds out I've escaped..."

The ghost took a glance at the ruined statue, a look of sheer terror on his spectral face.

---

"Nope!" said the white-haired girl happily.

There was an awkward pause, and a slightly older looking boy offered "He's probably either up in the clocktower or over in his ship."

---

"Guessing games are not fun for anybody, my dear. The best place to search for the first reason you're here would be in the town on the other side of this temple. Do try to be patient with the villagers - they're a bit stupid," explained the voice.

"I expect you'll have a bit more trouble with the second reason, in no small part since only one of you even noticed the single biggest clue to it - you really ought to be more observant.," said the voice in mock admonishment. "Though I did recently dig something up that might help you."

The breeze that accompanied the voice resolved itself into three small whirlwinds which circled around the group at different speeds. "But remember, you must figure it out before He wakes up, no matter what the reason, or else you get no reward at all."

The whirlwinds merged into one larger mini tornado in front of the gate, then started drifting to the right. "If you think you have figured it out, or if you merely wish to hear my soothing voice once again, you need merely call me by name, and I shall hear you. Though I advise you to remember this - just because I have agreed not to lie to you, does not mean I'm obligated to answer all your questions. Oh, how rude of me, I haven't actually introduced myself, have I? Pleased to meet you, my name is -"

The whirlwind came to a halt above the second stone to the right of the temple, the one Sedd had been using as a pillow when he first woke up.

The one with the intricate carving of the eight-legged serpentine creature he had described as a snark.

The one that bore the word -

"Ihdisith."

Ihdisith's voice gave one last echoing laugh as the wind dissipated entirely, leaving the air as still as it had been to start.

edited 13th Apr '12 1:28:19 PM by Sir_Screwloose

Pretend there's something clever written here.

Ignatius looked at the spirit and politely listened, if the odd communication could be described with terms intended for sound, attempting to figure out what he could about the area through their problem, and willing to help them if it would make them any more likely to help him. Who is he? I will help you if I can, but you will have to tell me how. Even in magical necromancer-spirit communication he showed no emotion, but it was as sincere as monotone got.

Marle looked at Rayek as he appeared and looked to be frightened.

"Look, calm down," Marle said to Rayek. "We won't hurt you."

Marle turned towards the townspeople again when they mentioned the clock tower, which she glanced at.

"Where is his ship?" Marle asked them.

Wizard Needs Food Badly