Character University

Lab

"We there's still the issue of pinpointing the coordinates of the home and target dimensions. And I'd really like to meet the person who made these notes." Wilma paused stepping back, "but i have a good feeling looking at what we got here."

[Library]

"And you know this how?" Green's amplified voice asked, probably reaching the majority of the library at a volume well above conversational, and intentionally adjusted to make people within a few meters wince. There were only so many ways to express displeasure with a voice that was completely electronically masked. "Because you didn't really get a chance to talk to the man."

Whoops misread the location, my bad

edited 19th Sep '12 12:36:35 PM by NekoLLX

[Library]

Loyce turned. Why was Green yelling? He decided to listen to the conversation, walking over and becoming suddenly fascinated by something on the nearest bookshelf. Standing there and obviously listening wasn't the best option, and he'd rather know what they were talking about before joining in.

[Library]

Ozzy frowned and stared at Green, then spoke in a rather low voice.

"They didn't? Are you certain? I had assumed that they were able to interrogate the man after they had accosted him, but... then again... I was preoccupied, hanging onto the edge of that pit for dear life, then sitting around in the dark after that."

He rubbed his mask in contemplation, then lowered his head and spoke to Green in an even quieter voice. "Do you think this has all been a clever act? Perhaps to get "

Ozzy slowly tipped his head upward to catch a glimpse of Prisha, when he espied Loyce standing off to the side, investigating a bookshelf. Ozzy was very eager to greet his first companion, but...

Soon. Answers come first. There could be trouble in the very near future if something was truly afoul.

edited 21st Sep '12 5:36:17 AM by Ryuhza

[Lab]

Nathan quirked an eyebrow. "So is that it, huh? Pinpointing things?" Well, consider that Wilma said that she had a good feeling, he didn't worry about it too much. Still...

Adam glanced over at Joseph. May as well get it out right now. Quietly, so only he could hear, he said, "Owen, I've been pretty dishonest with you. When you asked me what I'd do if my life if it turned weird...well...." He rubbed the back of his head, "I've once spent my entire summer looking for my parents, while being chased by crazy criminals. I've only recently got back with them when I turned up here. That's why I was so anxious to go home." Wow that was a handful.

Lab

Rachel still didn't trust Wilma at all, but like Joseph said it was nice to have someone that at least looked like she knew how to decipher the notes left in here. For now, it would be best if she simply tolerated Wilma for now and just focused on reading this book. She really hadn't intended to become the group's resident bookworm, but she couldn't say she disliked the duty. It was preferable to the alternatives, at any rate.

She flipped to the table of contents and read through them. Naturally, the book wasn't a straight-up instruction book; in fact, judging by the names of the chapters, it seemed to be more explanatory than anything. Explanations were still useful, so in now way was the book a waste unless it was filled with drivel instead of useful information. Rachel then flipped to a random page. The font was rather difficult to read, but it at least seemed to be in English. She started skimming through this part of the book...only to have the lettering suddenly change into Japanese before she could finish the first sentence.

Rachel just stared at the page blankly. Of course, this book was going to be supernatural in nature and feeling difficult. Rachel was part Japanese herself - her mother had a strong Japanese ancestry - but that didn't mean she knew how to read the language.

"Apparently, this book can figure out your ethnicity," she commented after a few moments. "Right as I opened it, it expected me to be able to read Japanese." She turned to face others, her facial expression still looking a little flustered. "I think it might still be useful, but we're going to need to figure out some way to get it to turn back into English, unless someone here is bilingual."

Library

"If it helps, apparently anyone working for the cult also ends up keeping some kind of journal," Prisha said as he took out what looked like a different journal than the one, him and his friends have been carrying around. "I had that pathetic attempt of a copy to hand this over before it killed itself to stop the ritual. There's also an answer for why they carry it around too."

"You don't think that joining the cult means eating some worms that sucks out people's memories and make them forgetful do you?" Corey commented.

edited 21st Sep '12 6:24:13 AM by PsychoFreaX

[Lab]

"A good feeling! Great! That's what we like to hear." Joseph grinned and gave the rest of the group a thumb-claws up. He looked at Adam when he quietly spoke Joe's strange nickname. Joe listened to what was bothering Adam with concern, and even a little bit of empathy.

As Adam finished, Joseph frowned with a look of uncertainty in his eyes, as though he was not sure what to do. "Hey, uh, Adam; it's alright... I mean, that you didn't tell me before, that's fine. And don't worry- you'll see your parents again soon, we're almost out of here. Probably- most likely!"

Joe patted Adam on the shoulder and reassured him, "All we have to do is translate a couple of mumbo-jumbo notes and maybe read some instructions out of the boo-"

He was interrupted by Rachel, who was speaking of the book being in Japanese when she opened it. Joseph furrowed his brow and looked at her, then at the book, then at her. "Wait, wait. I don't get it, isn't the title in English? Why is the book suddenly in Japanese? That doesn't seem like a very intuitive design."

[Library]

Ozzy lifted his head all the way and blinked at Prisha. Once, twice, three times. "A journal."

He crossed his arms in poorly hidden skepticism. "And I suppose this journal will explain why there was a copy of you down there, trying to kill us? Perhaps days worth of his plans, still so faultlessly put to a stop by you three." He shrugged. "Alright, let's see it."

[Library]

Loyce selected a book at random and moved to a nearby seat, turning the pages every once in a while, but focusing on the nearby conversation. A journal? He hoped it mentioned a way out. Looking down, he noticed that he was 'reading' a book about pet care and moved his hand to rest on the chapter title.

Stairway

Vivian smirked a little. "What, are you afraid of the dark?"

Admittedly, she wasn't too found of being slapped with the leadership duties, especially since she hadn't been with this group for very long at all, if for no other reason than that her being ahead of the other two might draw attention to the shadows. Then again, if they really were that perceptive they would have noticed that the second she joined this little party.

Yet, this Linna person seemed to suspect something. Accepting this little request of hers might convince the other two that her intentions were pure...or looked that way, anyway. Yet, Vivian couldn't help but admire her intelligence. If it came down to a battle of the wits between herself and a target, then her victory was all the more satisfying. She might as well play along here; it was shaping up to be a fun little game.

"If that is what you wish of me, then very well. Let's see what else this place has in store," she concluded before making her way past the other two and further up the stairs.

[Staircase]

Maria made her way up the steps behind Vivian, that uneasy feeling still refusing to leave her. There was just something about this girl that she didn't like. She was serenely overconfident, a bit condescending, impossible to read, and clearly quite dangerous.

Just like Maria herself, in fact. And that gave Maria a pretty good idea of what Vivian was capable of.

As the three of them finally reached the top of the stairs, she nudged Linna surreptitiously and shot her a darkly significant look, not wanting to risk anything more direct.

[Staircase]

Linna nodded back. The girl was...well, open hostility would have been okay, some of her best friends were actually irredeemable assholes, but still. Everything about her was wrong, the actions and words not going with everything else, and there was a nagging sense that something was...dark? Not dark. Related. Recognition floated just out of reach.

"The dark," she said, "is a good friend of mine, actually. So few people appreciate how helpful it is to someone who has trained themselves to work with it."

Staircase -> Second Floor Hallway

Vivian nodded, stretching out her arm and flexing her hand, as if she was reaching out and physically feeling the darkness. "Indeed," she replied. "People say the darkness is filled with nothing but evil. Yet, there's nothing inherently wrong with it, methinks."

She dropped her arm back to her side before looking back at her two current to-be-playthings. She was quite sure that neither of the two trusted her, but that was only one part of this game of wits. Vivian wasn't expecting to earn their trust, especially given the nature of this area, and how to them she had simply come out of nowhere. If she did, against all odds, then when the time came to drop the charade the satisfaction would be all the sweeter. On the other hand, there was probably some fun to be had in playing with their paranoia. Perhaps she could use it against them somehow....

For now, however, she still needed to properly judge their personalities to see how easily they'd break, and there was no easier way to do that than further exploration of this strange building. She looked to the left of the hallway they'd found themselves in, and then to the right. To Vivian, this looked relatively ordinary compared to the brightly lit hallway she had encountered earlier.

"So, where to?" she asked.

Lab

Wilma paused a Rachel explained the book's quirk then flinched, the pink faerie giggle, brushing her finger over her pager a moment "I do have a translator device but I never considered written forms only auditory, and I have no idea what my ancestry is so probably wouldn't be a good idea to even touch the book."

quick apology, my laptops hardrive died so had no access over the week end, checking this along with a bunch of other things at the campus

edited 24th Sep '12 12:50:53 PM by NekoLLX

[Hallway]

"Well, trying to find the people in charge hasn't brought us much luck so far," Maria pointed out. "Why don't we check out the library or something?"

[Stairway]

"Might as well at this point." Linna agreed. She hmmed softly. Shadows...that was it.

What the hell. Nobody said physics had to be obeyed here anyways...

Lab

Rachel flipped back to the cover, and found that it also had turned into Japanese. "Well, it was in English, then it suddenly turned into Japanese for some odd reason."

She shrugged and half-frowned. "Either the guy who wrote it accidentally merged his portal research with the book and the letters are warping out and getting replaced, as stupid as that sounds...or the book wants to make us work if we want to get anything useful out of it."

Apologies about the brevity; can't think of anything else to say here. x_x

Vivian looked into the shadows again, then back at the other two. "Certainly, there has to be some explanation for the...strange design choices that were on the first floor, and we just got to this one. Perhaps we should take at least a brief look around before we run off somewhere else?"

Part of her hesitance was indeed due to the fact that this sort of environment was perfect for her plan, and that she wasn't sure that she would get another chance to pull it off. On top of that, her brand of "play" worked best on one or two people. Then again, one or two people was her personal limit. If these two were dead set on leaving this building to look elsewhere, then she might get the chance to test out her skills on a large group of people at once. If she managed to pull that off, it would do wonders for her sense of self-confidence.

However, she would still rather prefer messing with one or two people using tactics she knew how to use, rather than attempting to mess with a bunch of people at once in an area where she might not have the advantage. Whether or not she could stick to her original plan depended on the mindsets of this pair.

[Lab]

Joseph frowned in dismay. Here they were, they had notes, they the book, and now... the book was in a language that none of them could understand. He sighed and glanced back towards the door. "Well, I bet that library has some sort of Japanese to Enlgish translation dictionary, or whatever you'd use... but..."

He turned and slumped his head against the wall. "...that's going to take ages!" Joe pushed off the wall and faced Rachel with a look of distress. "I'm mean- the book is chunky as-is! It's not too chunky, but it's chunky enough! How are we supposed to translate all of that- character by character- in any decent amount of time?"

Joe leaned back against the wall and stared at his feet. The daunting task made the whole thing seem hopeless. He was a little worried about getting home himself, but largely he felt more concern for the others— for Rachel, and Adam, who both seemed to be missing home a great deal. He knew the feeling himself. He didn't want to see what more waiting would do to them...

He tipped his head to the side to look at Wilma, and spoke to her with a rather weak-willed voice. "Hey Wilma... how... how are things going on the board? Pinpointing, and all that?"

edited 25th Sep '12 6:06:29 PM by Ryuhza

[Lab]

Adam slowly felt his hopes of going home quickly dash away. Where were they going to find the time to translate everything? He sat on the floor and buried his face in his arms, not knowing what to say or what to do next.

Nathan frowned, waiting for Wilma's answer.

Ugh. x.x

Lab

Wilma found a place to sit and took a long breath, "I've figure out all i can from the note but i still need a better idea of our relative space-time location as well as some way to calculate your own homeworlds. I was hoping the book might plug those holes but..." she trailed off, how exactly does one explains 'i have 2 fairies that play golf with my dna and gender and the book could very well be in ancheint FAE if she touched it.'

Library

"Yes... almost all," Rina also read through the journal one more time. "Though the part about how the copy came to be started before the journal a long time ago."

Rina then handed the journal to Ozzy and Green. "It should have all the information on his plans though."

[Lab]

Joseph shut his eyes and sighed, "Fantastic. So I guess we're all relying on that book for answers. Fantastic..."

Turning around to lean his back against the wall, Joe noticed Adam huddled on the floor. Unsure of what to do, and slightly grinding his teeth in worry, Joseph tried very hard to put the distress out of his eyes and forced a smile onto his face.

"Hey, Adam, come on- chin up! We'll get this sorted out! You'll see your parents again before you know it." He knelt down next to him and patted him on the back, putting an extra effort to use his palm instead of his claws.

[Library]

Ozzy gave Rina a hard look as he took the book, then focused on it entirely, flipping through the pages quickly to gauge the span of the journal. It wasn't very long, and it's passages were clipped and generally to-the-point. Ozzy wished he knew more about the other three... their handwriting, and the very pattern one of them might write in. As it were, he had no evidence that the journal wasn't to be believed, but he didn't have much to go on either.

With a sigh, he closed the book and raised his eyes back to them.

"I suppose it's only fair to tell you." Ozzy said, drumming his gloved fingers on the back of the book as he held it. "I'm suspicious of you three, and if I'm not mistaken, so is Green. A whole host of unusual- and frankly, rather unlikely-events occurred back in that passage. When that- that other Prisha showed up, you three jumped to action surprisingly quickly, and then dealt with the problem surprisingly quickly, and then got over the entire ordeal surprisingly quickly."

He shook his head in confused displeasure, "It's not normal— it's— it's not normal human behavior. Not to mention that you three completely neglected the states of myself and Green when you went ahead and made the entire room pitch black! I almost fell into that huge pit! What was that all about!?"

Ozzy looked down and pressed his fingers against his temple in exasperation. "Hnnnnrg.... do you at the very least see where we're coming from?"

University ends here.

edited 30th Sep '12 11:58:14 PM by Ryuhza