Character University

[Library]

Adam got more and more impatient. Part of him knew he shouldn't be like this; Owen and Rachel wanted to leave just as much as he did, maybe even more so. They all had the same goal after all; get out before the hounds get them.

But he had spent his whole summer trying to find his parents while trying not to get killed. He had only recently gotten his life back to a somewhat normal state...when he vanished and ended up at the university. He didn't want to spend another day on another life-threatening adventure. He just didn't.

"Maybe we should find a way out now." He finally said, his voice emphasizing the now, "Right here while we're together. I'm sure there's something somewhere in the book."

Seeing his brother's sudden change in demeanor, Nathan shot him a glare. "Adam, stop. Stop right now. Try pitching in ideas. Or sit at another table until we come up with something."

After his brother walked away and sat in the back, Nathan sighed and turned to Owen, Rachel, and Wilma. "I am so sorry for Adam's behavior. I really am. I don't know why he's acting at like this suddenly."

edited 12th Sep '12 3:07:35 PM by Masterofchaos

Paradox-Prisha had finished the ritual. The Relic cup with his own blood is in the center of the pentagram within and surrounded by flames. The cup was made to be able to withstand the flames but the burning of the blood is what's needed to bring the hounds here and feast on all those intruders.

Para-Prisha then leaves the ritual room closing the door with the Relic Key in the lock. The note on the key says, the room of any door in which this magical key is locked in can not be opened from the outside even by brute force. Only by the hands of the one who placed the key here can release it.

With that Para-Prisha walked to the exit of the chamber and wondered if the intruders are still behind it. Opening the door now, he saw they really are. With his former friends standing on a giant Ghost Hand over the pit. He created an ice sword and quickly threw it at the hand destroying it.

Rina, Corey and the real Prisha now had to jump back to the ledge of the chamber to avoid falling off the cliff.

"It's too late for you," Para-Prisha laughed, trying to slighter lower his voice so the others wouldn't recognize him. "The great ones have already been summoned!"

However, what Para-Prisha doesn't realize is he had performed the ritual wrong. The hounds aren't coming.

The cloaked boy lifted his hood to show underneath, himself to look identical to Prisha but with purple hair. Dun dun duuuuunnnn...

edited 13th Sep '12 3:25:31 PM by PsychoFreaX

Editing

edited 13th Sep '12 3:14:42 PM by PsychoFreaX

edited 13th Sep '12 3:20:37 PM by Collen

Passage

"Black Out!" Prisha recovered enough energy to use the spell to get close to Para-Prisha and use the mind control spell. Soon they discovered the key and had Para Pri unlock it and undo the ritual. But Para Pri died in the process from the flames.

Now all there is left is getting out.

Library

Rachel glanced down at the book, then back at the others. "Well... I really don't know. I just saw the book and the accompanying scribbles, thought it would be useful, and promptly raced back here to tell you," she replied to Joseph. "I haven't actually opened it yet, and given my...physiology, I can't exactly open it and take a look now."

She shrugged after watching the affair between Adam and Nathan. "I think his behavior's pretty understandable. After all, we have a potential way out of this place now, and this conversation just looks a little bit like taunting, doesn't it? We're standing around here talking about it, yet not doing squat."

"And personally, I'm inclined to agree with him." she finished. "The sooner we get this over with, the less likely time will screw over our homes and the less likely it is that we'll be drunk alive."

Library

Wilma points to a table, "Then might i suggest we find a seat and start looking them over?"

Without another word she makes a move to take the book, and stop the lollygaging.

[Library]

Joseph glanced at Adam with concern. "Hey... don't worry Adam, we're working on it. You'll get home soon..." He offered an approximation of a comforting smile. Adam must be feeling homesick. Joe wasn't surprised- in fact, he was wondering why he wasn't quite so homesick himself. Maybe Rachel felt homesick too.

Not knowing what else to do, he looked up at one of the library's large windows, out at the pouring rainfall. "Right... well," He turned back to face the rest of the group, "if none of us—except possibly Wilma here— knows what they're doing with this whole portal business, then I guess we'd better get to it right away."

Joe glanced uneasily at Wilma. Her presence brought to mind something he hadn't considered before. The university was... well, a university! It was more than just a library and a secret passage. There were other people here, likely in the same situation that they themselves were.

"Hey, do you think we should tell other people what we're doing? I mean, there's got to be other people here, right? Think about how many people wandered down into the passage after us; there are probably more up here!" He nodded, his eyes wide and rather unfocused, as though he were staring into his own thoughts.

[Passage ~ Platform Chamber]

"OOF!"

Corey's magic ghost hand vanished, dropping Ozzy onto the edge of the pit, which he barely caught with his arms and chest. He gripped on as tight as he could, but his gloved hands were slipping on the dusty earthen floor. Quickly, he let go with one arm and drew his knife from the pocket of his vest, and tried to flick the straps of it's leather casing off. However, before he could get it, his one arm slipped and jerked him backwards, and the knife fell from his hand.

"Goddamn it, no!"

He grabbed onto the ledge with his free hand again then swung his legs outward, just in time to catch the falling knife between his boots. He let out an inward sigh of relief and tried to pull himself further forward onto the edge, but to no avail. He couldn't reach his knife either— not with his arm— not from this position, but... perhaps... Ozzy didn't have time to consider; whether the others saw was the least of his priorities. He freed one of his arms again, reached down and adjusted his pants to give his tail some unobstructed room to maneuver. His tail devilishly pointed, and the same light grayish blue as the rest of his skin, though one couldn't tell from the minimal light cast into the pit. He retrieved the knife with his tail and passed it into his hand, pulling the sheath off in the process, before hiding hiding his tail beneath his clothing once more.

Finally, Ozzy reached forward and—with a great effort—stabbed his knife into the floor. He barely had time to pull himself back onto the ground before Prisha shouted 'Black Out' and all light vanished. Perfect. He rolled onto his back and lay splayed out in the dark. "Oh... walking onto that hand was a bad idea..." he groaned, breathing heavily.

A short time later, the lantern's light returned, and Ozzy could dimly see Prisha doing something strange to— ...Ozzy sat up and squinted his eyes. The person Prisha was... controlling it seemed... was Prisha! The two Prishas walked back to the door that led to this place and unlocked it, then passed through, heading to who knew where. Ozzy rubbed his eyes. This time, he decided that he would wait.

edited 13th Sep '12 11:38:47 PM by Ryuhza

[Library]

Adam stood up, wiping the small tears out his eyes as he returned to the group. "Thank you." A small smile grew on his face. "Thank you for understanding."

When Joseph mentioned the other people here, he then said, "Do you want me to tell them with you?"

Chamber

With that done, Prisha was able to research a little more to make sure they broke the ritual, "Well, we stopped the hounds from coming."

"Cool," Rina answered then turned to Ozzy and Green. "So with that done, how about we head back up to the library to see how everyone else is doing?"

Library

Rachel nodded in response to Joseph. "Well, there were people here before we went down into the passage. It's likely that they're still...."

Wilma's attempt to take the book from her interrupted her. She moved away from the other woman, tightened her own grip on the book, and glared at her. "Now, now, we shouldn't be jumping the gun here," she responded in a tone that sounded slightly miffed. "I don't know what's in this book, but I seriously doubt you do either."

After that, she turned back to Joseph. "...Anyway. My suggestion is that we go check out the lab first, and then go off and try to find other people on this campus. Does that sound good to you?"

Library

Wilma scoffed, "Seriously? It's a book you expect it to bite me. IF we are to get anywhere we need to at least crack it open and see what info it does have so we can move forward."

Wilma tensed as talked turned to leaving the Library to go to some passage, Sure enough her fears were realized as she saw the Pink Farie flit into her field of view and giggle invisibly.

[Library]

"Sure, sure, no problem." said Joseph, smiling again at Adam. It had been a very long time, he felt, since he had such an affect on others. Making this kind of connection. Heck... maybe he had never accomplished something like this before. Joe's smile faded quickly. Cheering up Adam reminded him of his own younger brother, and all of Joe's failed attempts at cheering him up.

Before answering Adam's question, Joseph let Rachel speak. "Alright, sure. Sounds like a good enough plan to me. After all, we wouldn't want to gather up a bunch of people for nothing... y'know- if it turns out to be nothing, or if we can't figure it out... or something. I hope that it isn't nothing though."

He frowned at Wilma, "Hold your horses. If we're going to pool information, it's better for us to do it in one location. That way we can compare what we find in the book to whatever was left in the lab, see?" Joe returned his attention to Rachel with an optimistic smile. "So, lead the way, I guess!"

[Passage ~ Platform Chamber —> Chamber ~ Chamber Chamber]

Upon hearing this matter-of-fact news, Ozzy climbed to his feet, taking his time deliberately.

"Done? What's 'done'? What does done even mean? I'm not at all sure what just now occurred, and all you tell me is it's done?" He caught himself before he could rant further. Wincing and rubbing his head, he spoke in a far more subdued tone. "God... never mind, let's just... " He sighed, then waved his arms around with a great lack of enthusiasm, "Let's have leave of this place..."

Chagrined and more weary than ever, Ozzy half-walked, half-stumbled back into the chamber. He found Prisha and stared at him for a few seconds, just blinking, before asking simply, "We going?"

edited 15th Sep '12 2:04:08 AM by Ryuhza

Library

Wilma sighed, "I suppose I just seems counter intuitive to ignore initial research first. Especially if the 3 of you are in such a rush. At the very least we should open the book to make sure it's in a language we understand. What if we gather everyone together and the entire lynchpin of our mission, that book, is untranslatable, damaged, or something." lowered her head and sighed again, "I hate going into a project blind."

[Chamber]

"If I ask what happened, what are the odds you'll get through the explanation before I try to shoot you?" Green muttered. Her hands were opening and closing, clicking the fingers against laser muzzles. "Sure, let's get out of here."

Chamber

"I don't see why not," Prisha answered Ozzy as he, Corey and Rina walked up the path to the gas chamber and soon back out the library.

edited 16th Sep '12 6:40:45 PM by PsychoFreaX

[Chamber ———> Library]

Ozzy gave Green a worried look, for whatever could be seen of it. "Well now— I don't believe that such... extremity is necessary Green. I am confused and irritated just the same as you, but at least we're still on our feet." He paused with a glare in the others' direction. "...Barely."

"Still," he sighed, "Things could be worse. And surprisingly, I don't think that our friends here are directly responsible for what happened."

Prisha, Ozzy noted, still seemed hold that he was unobliged to explain anything. He shook his head, and—drawing his cloak back into place over his arms—spoke to himself, "...and everything was as it always had been..." then tailed behind the rest of the group, trekking back through the passages, the dangers, and the unsolved mysteries; all the way back out to the library.

edited 17th Sep '12 2:16:18 AM by Ryuhza

Library -> Lab

"Very well, then." Rachel replied, smiling herself, "then let us be on our way." She then turned around and exited the library again, looking back occasionally to make sure the others were following her.

As pleased as Rachel was to finally be getting somewhere, there was still that nagging question: why did she want to return to her hometown, anyway? Granted, staying here wasn't going to be all that pleasant either; however, there was nothing stopping her from going to a different world. It was tempting to open up a portal to someplace else, where her kind weren't so looked down upon.

That was when she reminded herself that, for all the time she spent moaning about it, there was a reason to go back. Just like the sort of group she found here, she still had a group of people back home who didn't care about her appearance and looked after her all the same, such as it was. She'd spent several weeks going through that mess along with them; and it'd be a shame if she abandoned them now.

She picked up her step slightly with her newfound determination before re-finding the door to the lab. It was time to see if her excitement had been worth it.

"Well guys, here it is. Hopefully it will prove to be useful somehow...." she said, before opening the door and heading back inside.

"To put it simply," Rina explained to Ozzy and Green as they walked back into the library. "That other Prisha was like a paradoxical duplicate who wanted to kill his original because apparently there is no room in the world for two Prisha's. He made a deal with some cultist here to kill us and done that ritual to summon the hounds. But since we undone the ritual, there's nothing more to worry about."

[Library —> Lab]

Joseph followed close behind Rachel through and out of the library, reaching the door to the lab very quickly. It was much closer than he had imagined, and he felt a little silly that he and Rachel hadn't checked there before. Eh, oh well. That didn't matter now.

Joe followed Rachel into the room, which did not look at all like he had expected. He had expected the room to be full of bubbling beakers, and tube-like constructs running brightly colored liquids from flasks into funnels and back again. He realized now, that his idea of a school laboratory- or a laboratory of any sort came solely from TV shows and movies. The real deal was much sleeker, cleaner, and drabber. There weren't any active sciencey setups, of course. Why would there be? The place was empty apart from they themselves.

Still, there was indeed writing left on some of the boards, not that Joe could determine what it meant from just a passing glance. There were even some pieces of assorted science bric-a-brac left scattered around, possibly from the same people who left the notes.

"Kind of steely in here... reminds me of the doctor's office." he said, before approaching one of the whiteboards with what seemed to be related scribblings upon it. "...my old doctor had a very steel office." He shuddered, "Always a pain to go there, especially when they make you wait in that cold chair without anyone around to see to you. I swear, one time, my doctor must've forgotten-"

Joe stopped himself and shook his head, "I'm sorry. What am I saying? Right... anyway..." he looked to Rachel, "So Rachel, do you think we'll be able to figure all this junk out?" He pointed at the whiteboard in front of him. "'cause I'm having trouble making head or tail of it."

[Library]

Something did not sit right in Rina's explanation. Ozzy turned his head slightly, focusing on her with one eye. "Did you know about this before? A duplicate? Why on earth- or wherever we are, does Prisha have duplicates of himself running about and trying to kill us?" He lowered his voice to a frantic whisper, "And if he really was a duplicate, then does that mean...?"

Ozzy left the question unfinished, but eyed Prisha with a sudden and growing unease, nodding his head towards him several times to try and communicate his concerns.

Lab

Comming in behind Joseph Wilma Looked arond the lab, moving to the white board and stroking her chin as she read the notes, "Very, very interesting." Grabbing a marker in a different color she began to make some amendments, a few adjustments here and there as she worked out the numbers on t he board and in her head.

[Library-Lab]

Adam and Nathan followed Joseph and Rachel to the lab, glancing over everything.

"Dad would've loved looking at this place." Nathan said to himself, smiling.

Adam looked over at Joseph. He felt bad for not being honest with him, especially since Joseph had been kind to him, and understood how he was feeling. He figured he could tell him the truth while they here. He wouldn't get that chance again once they made the portal-if they successfully made that portal.

Lab

Rachel waited a few moments for everyone to take in their surroundings before saying anything. "Well, I hope we can figure it out. I know most of this stuff's Greek to me - I've never had much of a science brain."

She then noticed Wilma making her own adjustments to the notes. On one hand, Rachel was happy that someone here knew what they were doing, but on the other hand she was annoyed that the other woman was jumping the gun again. First the almost-incident with the book, and now this.

"Hey, don't you think we ought to take a look at the original notes before we start screwing with them?" she asked, again with a tone of slight annoyance. "Actually taking a look before you leap works wonders sometimes."

After that, she dropped The Dimensional Portal down on one of the tables and opened it up. It was time to actually take a look through this thing and see if it was useful as it looked back in the library.

Lab

"Which is why I'm using a different colored marker and not erasing anything." Wilma said waving the marker, "I'm just composing my thoughts right here, nothing has been erased or modified only anoted!" now she was starting to get annoyed, this was the kind of stuff she lived for.

[Lab]

Joseph looked at Wilma, then at Rachel and shrugged, "Hey, I'm just happy that one of us knows what to make of all this. I'm no good in math... or science. Or math-science. I really can't tell, but there are a bunch of formulas and honestly, I'm not particularly good with formulas either."

He turned and glanced at Adam, then grinned and said to him, "But hey, at least we're getting somewhere! If Wilma knows what she's doing, we'll be homecoming in no time flat! That is..." He shot Wilma a sly look and teased, "Unless she's trying to sabotage the portal! Oh, and how I trusted you!"

Joe shook his fists in mock despair, then stood next to Wilma and asked, "But seriously, how is this looking? Do you think you can come up with something?"

edited 19th Sep '12 6:19:17 AM by Ryuhza