Chester’s hand flew sailed through the air like a lure at the end of a fishing line, travelling in an arc that would see it landing right on the center of the floor. Before his appendage could complete this arc, however, it entered the cool blue light of the helix and simply hung there, suspended in mid-air as if by an unseen force. If he was still able to feel sensations through his hand while it was disconnected in this fashion, he would note that the appendage felt as though it had been immersed in a stream of slow-flowing water, one that was cool to the touch.
A few moments later, his wayward hand slowly began to rise higher and higher into the air, spinning gently in time to the spiral’s revolutions, until it reached the end of the wire’s length; unable to rise any higher, it simply hovered near the roof of the chamber like an incredibly bizarre kite or balloon.
Madeline stared up at the floating hand, not quite sure what to make of such an unusual display.
“Maybe it’s our way out?” she said at length, speaking more to herself than to anyone in particular.
The Danse Macabre Codex
The Wordnomnom
Typhoid watched the woman with the alien legs out of the corner of his eye for a few moments before striding over to her.
“Are you gonna be ok there? If it’s hard to walk on those maybe someone can carry you.”
He turned to the room in general.
“Hands-lady is probably right. That looks like a way out and I don’t fancy waiting around until I get put back in the giant veggie cooler.”
edited 18th Jun '12 5:53:23 PM by Stormthorn
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
The Maid
For the first time, Elena snapped out of her daze and acknowledged somebody else in the room. Looking at Typhoid she nodded her head and then tries to stand... closing her eyes as she forced herself to forget what lay from her waist down. She was just standing up as she had always done.
Still... her balance was all wrong. She managed to rise to her feet, but her legs and how they moved felt very unfamiliar to her "I may... be able to walk. But I feel unsteady"
If I'm sure of something it's that I'm not sure of anything.
Chester tugged hard on his arm, yanking his hand back, and hitting himself in the face in the process. He then started the long, bothersome process of reeling in the wire again. Hearing Typhoid's comment, he said "Christ, I better tell you my name - Chester - before you start calling me 'hand man'."
The Wordnomnom
"May I look at those legs? They look to be made of some sort of black polymer. You have the...most striking change of any of us perhaps. Maybe Muscles over there has you beat, not sure."
As he spoke Thomas nervously reached up to touch the metal emerging from his shoulders, reminding himself that he too had changed.
He glanced at Chester. "You can be Hands Version 2 if you like."
edited 18th Jun '12 9:25:25 PM by Stormthorn
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
"Keep making comments like that to the lady, and you'll be the one known for his hands" Chester replied.
The Wordnomnom
Typhoid eyed Chester with slight head tilt.
“She can barely walk right now. What if those legs are glass?”
He grinned lasciviously.
“Besides, this wouldn’t be a good place for a quicky. My name is Thomas but people call me Typhoid. I’m the guy you call if you need a fix for a party or rave.”
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
The Maid
"if... you can find out anything about these... I'll be thankful" Says Elena to the man identifying himself as Typhoid. If he did get any funny ideas she could always slap his head or something.
As for what he would find on her legs... indeed, the texture was similar to a polymer. The texture was soft to the touch, though not entirely smooth. If he tried to press against the dark material he would find it hard and almost unyielding. It was either made of a solid material... or nearly pure hard muscle.
If I'm sure of something it's that I'm not sure of anything.
The Wordnomnom
Typhoid knelt professionally and ran a hand down the lower portion of the leg.
“Look…don’t be upset about what I say. Its just…habit.”
He squeezed the leg lightly and then with more force.
“This is almost like some sort of memory fiber…but-flex please…yeah…you can move it like muscles. I wonder if my cloak is anything similar. Can you try a small stomp? I would venture a guess that your leg takes a lot of conscious control to make work…look at this…no plain hinge joint like a normal knee. You must have an amazing range of motion.”
http://iopscience.iop.org/0964-1726/13/4/021
memory fiber and also simpler electro-reactive polymers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroactive_polymers
Typhoid stood and extended a hand to the woman. “I think your leg is definitely going to be impressive if you learn to use it. And by the way, pleased to meet you.”
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
The Maid
Elena did stomp and it came out a little stronger than she imagined "Yeah... more than a bit disturbing that range of motion" Mention Elena at his next comments, shivering as Typhoid moves her leg in what would be an unnatural position with her previous human legs.
"Ah, sorry... With what happened I..." She then shook her head before speaking again "I'm Elena Anderson. Pleased to meet you"
If I'm sure of something it's that I'm not sure of anything.
— Guy watched the others, nodding to the woman whom spoke, Madeline, and looking around to everyone whom gave voice in turn.
Just about everyone here is... Anglophone. Okay, that's a plus.
He eyed the strange projection of energy within the room's centre, watching the man with the retractable hand's fist bob about within it. He considered stepping into it, then stopped. Introductions were not over yet.
Guy looked about sharply as "Typhoid" worked on the young woman, Elena's, metallic legs. He looked and sounded like he knew what he was doing, but at the same time, he didn't want anything improper to happen. —
"Have ya got any license, Mister, uh, Typhoid? By the way, my name's Guy Gastonbury."
—He put out a hand towards them, jerking his head towards the energy.—
"Are you feeling ready to move, Miss?"
Elizabeth Maero observed the energy and the others' reactions to it. There seemed only one thing to do.
She stepped forward into the light.
The Wordnomnom
Typhoid grinned crookedly at Guy.
“I’m no professional, but unless we have a doctor in the house well…what choice do we have? Anyone else need a look taken at their…changes…how about you Muscles? Miss-Hentai?"
He noticed Elizebeth stepping into the light.
"Hey, Muscles, why dont you follow her in case the top of that light has giant spiders or something?"
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
Just call me Fallen
When Ophelia saw the light appear, she noticed the noise it made automatically. She noted the others talking, but that high-pitched ring resonated in her ears, in her brain... as the room turned dark and the only light was that helix, Ophelia felt a slight twinge of a headache again. She looked around at everyone, unsure what to do. When she saw one girl step forward, into the light, she was hesitant... They didn't know what that stuff would do...
It was clear that she was nervous about that light, even if someone had already gone into it.
My RP site. Please feel free to join!
"Aw shit" Chester said as he saw the woman step into the light. He grabbed his hand off of the floor and chucked it into the light again, five feet above the woman who had entered it. "Hey! Hold On! Don't go wanderin' off by yourself."
Much like Chester’s hand had done a few moments ago, the very instant that Elizabeth stepped into the pastel blue light of the spiral she would feel as though she had entered a stream of cool water, one that flowed lazily up towards the ceiling in stark defiance of the laws of gravity. Moments later she too began rising off the floor, floating towards the roof of the chamber as though the muscular blonde were lighter than air, and unlike Chester’s hand she did not stop rising until she reached the apparent source of the light. It was a glowing, translucent membrane of some sort, circular in shape and a good eight feet in diameter at the very least, and it resisted Elizabeth for a moment as she came into contact with its gel-like substance; then it parted around the be-tentacled former Londoner with a faint plopping sound, and she was through.
Elizabeth would find herself standing within a squat, cylindrical room, much smaller than the one she had just left; its curved walls barely measured ten feet from floor to ceiling, and numerous vertical ridges covered their grey surfaces like the ribs of some strange animal. The same green arrow in a brown circle symbol which adorned her jumpsuit was embossed on the ceiling like a mural, and it glowed softly with a pastel inner light which did little to illuminate this chamber. The membrane which she had just passed through lay at her feet, and if she listened closely she would dimly be able to hear faint hints of the conversations going on between the rest of her fellow abductees below; if she tried to sink through the membrane and go back inside, however, she would find that it now appeared just as solid and unyielding as the cool grey floor on which she currently stood.
Directly across from her, the wall was dominated by an immense circular slab of what looked like stone; ten feet in diameter, its surface was covered with an intricate series of etchings which divided it into multiple segments, and raised lines which pulsed softly with the same green-and-purple light that Elizabeth had seen on the walls of the egg-chamber ran organically across its surface like veins or roots. Twelve circles ringed its circumference like the numbers on a clock face; nine of these were a dull green, while two of them glowed a harsh red. The twelfth light was a pastel blue, the exact same colour as the helix and the membrane through which Elizabeth had just passed.
Though she had only been in his company for a minute or so at this point, Madeline had already decided that she really did not like that spiky-haired man with the hooks protruding from his shoulders. The way that he had immediately slapped everyone around him with rather unflattering—or downright crass, in the case of the blonde woman with tentacles protruding from her back—nicknames, combined with his attitude towards the black-haired young woman whose legs he was currently examining* rubbed her the wrong way; if she had any say in the matter, the twenty-nine-year-old would be keeping her distance from this unsavoury man for the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, that muscular fellow—Guy Gastonbury, was it?—appeared to have taken an interest in what was going on there, and despite his somewhat-nauseating appearance it seemed clear to Madeline that the young man was a decent person; something told her that he would not allow Typhoid to do anything unpleasant to the young woman with the strange legs. Satisfied, she turned her attention towards the spiral in the center of the room, and watched as the muscular blonde with the tentacles rose into the air and vanished from sight at the roof of the chamber.
“Well, that’s definitely the way out, then,” she murmured under her breath, sounding more confident than she actually felt.
The red-haired single mother began to approach the helix, but stopped almost before she had begun; out of the corner of her eye Madeline caught sight of the pointy-eared young girl, and seeing how nervous the black-haired teen was brought her to a halt. Perhaps it was maternal instinct, or merely empathy, but in any case Madeline found herself feeling the need to comfort the girl; she approached Ophelia, slowly so as not to spook her, and began to reach out to put a hand on the teen’s shoulder. the sight of her transfigured hands made the twenty-nine-year old reconsider that idea, however, and she let her hands hang at her sides.
Hey,” she said softly. “Are you alright?”
The Danse Macabre Codex
Elizabeth looked around and examined her surroundings briefly before taking action. She stepped forward towards the slab with the odd etchings and looked at it. It seemed as if these indicated something, although there might be more to it. She reached out and tried to touch the pastel blue circle just to check.
The strange light was lost on Leonard and his x-ray vision, as it appeared to his eyes as only another shade of light in a world of light and lines. Those voices...they sounded human. Perhaps...they had been changed in the same way that his eyes had been? Slowly, he approached them, trying his best not to walk into someone.
"I...excuse me? Can someone please tell me where we are and what is going on? I...I can't see."
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
The Wordnomnom
Typhoid turned and approached the “blind” fellow.
“Hey. Hey you’re in strange place with us, we don’t know where, and we have all been modified-I guess you could call it- in different ways. Could you see before this?”
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
"Well..." Chester said in response to Madeline's comment, as the woman with tentacles on her back rose past his hand and disappeared. "Screw it, if she wants to run off like an idiot, that's her problem." He started pulling his hand back, "If we hear any screams, we'll know not to go out that way."
edited 20th Jun '12 6:40:11 PM by nman
The Wordnomnom
Thomas turned to Chester.
"In case you havnt noticed, thats the ONLY way we can go. Im not happy about it but we cant just sit here till we all starve."
While the breath's in his mouth, he must bear without fail, / In the Name of the Empress, the Overland Mail.
Leonard nodded. This person sounded like he knew something.
"Yes. I...needed glasses, but I could see. Now all I see is outlines and..."
He swallowed. He had not noticed this before he got this close, but...
"I...I can see your skeleton."
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!
The Maid
"Maybe" was Elena's answer to the muscled man who just came to her side "I still feel a bit unsteady... but I can try. Would you please walk at my side in case I stumble?"
If I'm sure of something it's that I'm not sure of anything.
— Guy's brow creased in displeasure upon hearing Typhoid's "credentials", disconcerting enough that he ignored the man's attempt to wave him off. While it would indeed be prudent to follow the tentacled blonde, helping the wobbly Elena seemed a more immediate concern. Getting her mobile would help get the others moving, for a start. He also wanted to keep an eye on Typhoid, specifically his hands.
"I can do that, Miss."
— He put an arm out from his side as he turned round, in case Elena needed to grab hold.—
"Ready?"
What the hell, what the hell, what the hell, this is wrong, wrong I could feel it going back and and... what the hell, no, no, no, no Thought Elena as a shiver went down her back once she felt the full degree of motion her new legs were capable off.
Flexing her legs until they were on a slightly comfortable position, Elena closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands as she tried to still her breathing and get a hold of herself.
It wasn't easy.
Abducted, experimented, kidnapped
The words came to her mind unbidden, each of them carrying images from the news that had been circulating lately with the ship coming to Earth, of her new legs and of her own childhood nightmares.
Elena then noticed a change on the lights around her... and with some degree of effort she decided on concentrating on what was happening around her right now and momentarily forget about her legs. She slowly opened her eyes, noticing the people in the room... and the blue helix.
If I'm sure of something it's that I'm not sure of anything.