THE SLORG!
Miss Tairee stuck her hand into Twilight's ear to rummage in her brain for the Lord of Change's influence, and looked over at those gathered near the central desks. "wah wah wuh, wah?!" Miss Tairee said with an incredulous look, yanking her hand back with another glow in it and crushing it too, ridding Twilight of the possession. She walked back to where the typewriter was behind the desk, but not before giving Rex a quick slap on the back of the head. Miss Tairee then quickly typed up another message and tore it out for those around the desks to read; she then pointed one finger up at the glass dome and night sky visible through it, waiting as they read it.
After a few moments, Miss Tairee's eyes widened slightly as she seemed to remember or realize something herself. "wah wuh wah, wah wuh wuh. wuh" Miss Tairee muttered, typing on the typewriter for a few moments, then giving a bow as she disappeared in another film roll blur. It was less than an hour now until midnight, and even this day's comical nature with so many inanimate objects having voices was pretty died down by now. The obvious choice for most would be to get some sleep, but there was nothing forcing them to do so. Somewhere in the city a powerful demon was currently sharing ice cream with a little painting girl, though they didn't know that. Searching for him in the night would be fruitless if they tried; there was no indication or giveaway of the building he was in from the outside, and the city was too large with too many buildings to check inside each and every one during the night. Not to mention the city shifting would mean they'd likely end up hitting some buildings multiple times before they saw every building in the city.
Meanwhile, most of the city slept, even once midnight came and the blurring effect came and changed everything again...
RP IS ON SEMI-HIATUS FOR GM'S VACATION. SEE THIS DISCUSSION THREAD POST FOR DETAILS.
The King Without a Kingdom
On Grimlock's neck
Bill chuckled. "No problem there! This form sucks at hurting anyone on purpose." Then he abruptly fell asleep because he needed to sleep now.
???
When Bill woke up, he was floating above the city, his old strength returning to him. " Oh yes, finally! Time for" He turned red and as huge as a skyscraper. " some fun !" As some music began to play, he turned the buildings into molten cheese, grew all the animals up to astronomical proportions, then flew up to Ben. He squished him as flat as a pancake between his fingers then threw him like a Frisbee into the sun. " That's what you get for messing with me, kid!"
He moved on to some more targets, namely Silenaea (controlling her mind and letting her loose on several of her own kind) and that mouse from yesterday (turning him into a hat with his ears on it). When he reached the library, however, a tall man with a 149 on his shirt stood up to the demon and shot him with a Nerf pistol. It hit him right in the eye and he shrunk back down to his default (for the City) form. He screamed as he hit the concrete...
The sidewalk
...and woke back up, everything back to normal. " Man! That dream was great until that last bit!"
It's been 3000 years…
Whether or not Hol Horse decided to join the group, Plague Knight led Ranma and Grimlock as they walked back to O’Neil’s Pub and Restaurant, where the alchemist explained was where he is currently staying in. As before, the only objects alive were the bottles of alcohol. All them were now wrapping up their activities and preparing to sleep, and it looked like the two bottle that were acting frisky towards one another in the morning had somehow started a family, with two child bottles that looked to be a combination of their parents and the mother bottle holding a tiny glass bauble baby.
Plague Knight set to work putting away all the groceries procured, having to be imaginative in object placement, especially considering Grimlock decided to bring with him an entire container of bacon instead of a few packs. “At least I would be able to harvest plenty of grease for my experiments,” he said.
He managed to cook meals for everyone, though he was limited to Irish fair provided by the restaurant itself and by his own world’s European-esque cooking styles. The biggest challenge, however, was preparing something for Grimlock to eat after preparing for the humans. After getting a quick description of this “Energon” as the dinosaur called it, the alchemist began work immediately. After an hour or two of experimentation, he eventually created some kind of glowing green substance which cooked and rose up like bread and had the same consistency as brownies. How he managed to make something like that using industrial strength bleach, melted down AA batteries, and oregano was a process only he alone understood.
Despite preparing everyone’s meals, Plague Knight himself did not eat. He decided not to, as there still were things to be done before nightfall and he was used to going through long stretches without eating. After checking up on the giant wasp and the Plantera child (both of which were presumably back to their younger forms) and making sure they were fed and tended, he started doing some last minute experiments (thankfully of the non-explosive kind). He started with the knock out arrow he recovered, first by scraping off the top layer of wood and examining if there were still any traces of the compound left. Clearly the method to create the crystal had it go through an instant sublimation effect was part of the crystal was cracked through kinetic trauma, but it brought up the question of how the original creators were able to stabilize the crystal to create the cuts necessary for an aerodynamic shape........
This and many other question filled the knight’s mind as he studied, staying awake long after his travel companions either left or slept. Soon, however, sleep overtook him as well, and he went to sleep within on the pub’s booths……………………………….
……………………………..
…………………….
……………
…….
…
..
.
Plague Knight awoke the next morning, refreshed and ready to face the day. The sun was shining through the windows, and the knight checked himself for any transformations. “Well, apparently things might be normal for today,” he cheerfully said. He looked the restaurant, finding the place empty. “Huh, must have slept late.” He went to the front and opened it.
Someone was already waiting for him.
“Mona?” he said. “It seems our captor has saw it fit to – “
*WHAM*
The knight was sent flying to the other end of the room by a powerful kick to his chin, causing him to smash any furniture and equipment behind him.
He lay there in shock, horror, and mostly confusion.
“M……M-Mona?”
“THE MAGICIST?!?” Mona yelled. “All this time, you went to the Magicist?!?”
“Wha…..what are you - ?”
“I found out about your trysts with her,” Mona said, tears streaming down her face. “Your ‘joint-projects’ with were moments of lust for you! I thought we were equals! Not some toy for you to discard once you’re bored with it!”
Plague Knight tried to explain himself, try to ask her what she was talking about, trying to actually say something, but his voice was gone. Each time he spoke, the words could not come out. They would not come out, no matter how desperate he tried.
“Go ahead and hire some strumpet for you to fondle, because I am leaving!” Mona said. “You will never see us again!” She turned to leave. As she said, Plague Knight noticed her belly. He knew immediately –
“Mona…..” He tried to untangle himself from the wreckage. “MONA! WAIT!!” He ran out the restaurant and chased after Mona through the City streets. He found himself running faster and faster, faster than after drinking the Fleet Flask, faster than the book cars, the buildings becoming blurs in his vision, but no matter how fast he went, Mona was still ahead of him. As he ran, he only caught glimpse of things in the streets he past.
Ben commanding his different forms like a general leading his troops
Rex and Lune locked in passionate embrace
Sawyer stabbing Gon in the chest with her chainsaw as Cole bled out from gunshot wounds
Mary riding on top of Sadness like a space hopper
In the distance, Mona went through a random door. Plague Knight followed, reaching the door just as it close. He grabbed the knob, turning with all his might, desperately trying to open it, but while the knob turned perfectly the door was still locked IT WAS STILL LOCKED –
The door opened.
“Did you get the spark plugs, New Morty?” Rick asked.
“Rick?!” Plague Knight said. “I don’t have time for you, I need to find – “
“Did I m-m-make you to complain, Mortyganger? NO, I didn’t! Just hand them over!” Rick then swiped said objects from Plague Knight’s hands, which were outstretched to give Rick the items….and saw that his hands were not his own, but instead belonged to Morty......
“Explain yourself you drunkard!” Plague Knight angrily said. “Why am I in the form of your grandson?! Why am I even following you?!” he complained, the knight finding himself following Rick through a hallway he somehow knew should not be so long.
“Of course this is gonna work, Dopplemorty!” Rick responded, as if he heard something completely different. “More like 50-50 chance, but those *erp* odds are acceptable in my proverbial book! “ Soon the two came upon a giant machine, looking vaguely like a cannon pointed at something…..
“What is this – ?”
“Will you SHUT UP Morty 2.0!!” Rick yelled. “I’m trying to save Morty 1.0! If yyyyooooorrrrrrr tyring to sabotage, I’ll just shoot you dead early!”
“What happened to Morty?”
“Suck it *hup*, New Morty! I only made you to help block out that demon cock’s mental manip – mental track – mental fuckery while trying to cure Old Morty! If you’re lucky, Old Morty’s gonna get vaporized and you’ll be the only Morty, but no way I-I-I’m letting that happen! Not on my *urp* watch! When this works, I’m dropping you like New Coke! More reliable than Old Coke, but nothing beats the taste of the original! I’m the Rickiest of Ricks, and I *ugh*n’t gonna stoop to getting a new Morty!”
Rick’s tirade only left further questions to Plague Knight’s mind, but then he saw what the cannon was pointing at.
It was Morty. More accurately, what was left of him. Only his head was in one piece, but it and whatever remaining underneath was some sort of squalid shade of blue and purple, with various wires and machinery sticking out of whatever opening their were as tendrils and mounds of flesh tried to overtake the machinery. The boy himself could only stare at Plague Knight, in too much pain to communicate but clearly begging for death.
Few things truly horrified the alchemist, having been witness to many a disease that did things to the human body one cannot imagine. What he saw Morty become was something Plague Knight had never been witness too.
“How…….how did this……?”
“Dammit, New Morty Coke, you prove goldfish have longer memory spans!” Rick said. “Old Feather Cock is how! Was preparing to deal with a termites when the real problem wererereerere full blown Cronenberging monstrocities! Bird’s an entirely different breed of demon altogether, New Coke, need to throw out the standard rule book for something made from Games Workshop! The curroption’s like a hyper aggressive super cancer, Morty, Kryptonian cancer that rode with Superman to Earth, injected with every steroid known to man, and went out on a roided out rage fueled massacre, Morty Morty! With this I’m gonna cure this cancer, and maybe every other cancer ever!”
Rick then jumped into cockpit of the device. The machine started up to hum ominously……various wires and parts started to glow, shining brightly……
Plague Knight took a few steps back……Morty’s eyes widened in fear…….
Rick’s finger was nearing a button, ready to fire……..it hovered close to the button…….
“I can’t do this, Morty,” Rick said somberly. “I can’t do this without help.”
Plague Knight felt himself breath of relief. “Do not worry, Rick,” he said. “I am sure myself and the other could help. I can put aside my misgivings about you in order to help……..uh……..”
The knight could hear gently tapping. He looked up to see Rick was using some sort of plastic card to cut into a pile of shimmering, gold dust. The older scientist then rolled up a tube of paper and used it to snort up the dust to the sound of vacuum. His pupils dilated to the point his eyes were almost solid black.
“WHOOOOOOOO WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB, LET’S TEAR IT UP!!!” Rick slapped the button, and continued slapping the control panel in drug fueled ecstasy while laughing maniacally. Plague Knight turned to run as the machine expanded like a balloon and exploding, covering him in blinding light –
Plague Knight stumbled about, finding himself in a grassy field, back to normal. He looked up to see…..
“Mona?” he called out happily. “Black Knight….?”
“So, the Magicist, huh?” Mona questioned accusingly.
Despair gripped Plague Knight. “No……no…….”
“Let me ask you something, Plague Knight. Where do ‘’I’’ fit in your big plans? Are we partners? Are we more?”
“Not again…….not again……”
“Look at him, b-b-busted! C-C-Can’t even formulate a response!” Black Knight mocked. “HAHAHAHAHA!! What a wimp!”
“This whole time, I thought we were in this together……was I just a tool to you?” Mona asked, almost pleading.
Plague Knight stood there, his thoughts screaming and yet not a sound coming out of his mouth, just like that one horrible moment in his life……
“I need some time to think about all this.” Mona then walk away.
Plague Knight was rooted to where he stood, his sadness clutching are every muscle of this being, preventing from moving, speaking, breathing……..a long silence followed…….
A beat.
“Wow, what was her problem?” Black Knight said –
“ I’LL KILL YOU!!! ” Plague Knight then bombarded the other knight with far more explosives then he thought he could possibly throw at the same time, every single burst of ignited flammables pelting the jet black armor and tossing the Black Knight in all direction, quickly becoming shrouded in smoke, dust, and ash.
Hours seemed to pass. Maybe days. However long it lasted, Plague Knight finally stopped when the field was nothing but charred, blackened crater and the red painted read by the chemical residue from the explosions. The alchemist breathed heavily in near exhaustion, falling to his hands and knees as the adrenaline in his body was running dry. He looked up, and saw all that remained of Black Knight was his charred, smoking armor………
But then smoke and rust started to become thicker, forming into a shape……..a very massive shape…….
The blackness started to recede, revealing a gigantic bird like creature, covered in plumage that flowed like fabric in the wind, with a head of porcelain with three empty abysses for eyes, and it sat upon an equally gigantic engine, the glass window revealing all sorts of unearthly liquids swirling within in a supernatural kaleidoscope of color......
The knight stared upon the Corrupted Essence once more.
The bird demon stared directly into Plague Knight's eyes, silently gazing into the knight's soul. The engine the demon sat upon started to shake and rumble as its contents started to swirl and mix, the fluids stirring faster and faster, combining to a concoction that was about to burst......
“yeah, you’re gonna have a bad time,” Sans commented.
The skeleton was the last thing Plague Knight saw before the lid of the engine flung open and the resulting fireball came upon him –
Plague Knight gasped.
His eyes nervously darted around. And then sighed in relief when he found it was all a nightmare.
He got up from the booth.
edited 10th Apr '16 4:56:27 PM by UdtheImp
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HOTTING HELPY!!
I mean it when I say I'm an RPG nut
Grimlock; Dino mode
Plague Knight's Pub
Grimlock followed Plague Knight along with Ranma and when they arrived, he couldn't help but be reminded of Vertebreak's lab. Of course, this one was decidedly a lot less creepy, but it still looked like it could easily belong to Vertebreak with all the experiments and bottles and...was that a walking plant with a mouth? He blinked then shook his head. He knew he'd see strange things, but hadn't seen a walking plant before.
After placing the container he had at the spot Plague Knight told him to put it, he waited. It was easier to finish human foods and humans did need to eat more often than he did. When Plague Knight was finished with that, he had asked him to give a quick description of Energon. Grimlock did his best and apparently, after about two hours or something, it was good enough. What he made was rather close enough to refined Energon and it was certainly better than the meat. It was squishy, yes, but somehow it didn't feel the same as the meat.
After downing the last of it, he decided to sleep just outside the pub. Though he did fit inside, he was worried he might accidently squish something—or someone—while sleeping. After getting himself comfortable, he laid down on his belly and watched the stars above before sleep finally claimed him for the night.
...
...
...
This was it, this was what he liked to do, punching 'cons like there was no tomorrow...with his friends by his side. Sideswipe was there doing a team up with Strongarm, Windblade dropped Drift on one of the 'cons before attacking one in the sky, Optimus was blocking and countering, Russel, Denny and Fixit were making sure their cover wasn't blown, and Bumblebee was there fighting with them and giving commands.
He missed this. He had no idea why though. He had been with them for a long while, but he missed this. His team, his friends, the Scrapyard, they were all he had. They were everything he had and he couldn't have been happier. Well, except maybe getting a chance to beat Underbite fair and square, but other than that, yeah, this was what as close as he could get to paradise.
He gave one final punch, finally knocking out the escapee. Grimlock smiled and scanned the rest of the battlefield. Everyone had finished up their fights with their respective enemies and were gathering them up. He picked up his opponent and placed him withthe others. Strongarm then proceeded to cuff them all. Bumblebee gave a smile.
"Good work team. Another successful mission," he said.
Grim's smile got wider and brighter at that. It was good to hear that. He could almost feel like he was home.
Bumblebee then looked at him. "Hey, Grim, shouldn't you be going for that other mission?"
He furrowed his brow and frowned in confusion. "What mission?"
"Don't you remember? The one in that city with lost beings, to inspire the big guy up there," he said, pointing skyward when he said "up there".
This was more confusing. "But...I don't wanna leave you guys. And aren't I supposed to not go alone? I could blow our disguise."
"Sorry, Grimlock," Bumblebee then said.
Then Grimlock found that they were suddenly in the Scrapyard again. He didn't dwell on how because he found that he couldn't move...and he was in front of the Groundbridge.
"His orders."
...
...
...
Grimlock snapped his eyes open and stared into the space in front of him. His processors slowly adjusted his blurry eyesight until he could recognize where he was. He was in a human city. He looked up and saw the sign of a resturant and then he remembered where he specifically was. He plopped down his head back on the ground with a thud. He frowned. It was just a dream, he was still in the city without his friends...
... Well, at least he had some new friends with him...
"You said you had a dream... That dream... Make it come true! ... If anyone can, it's you!" - N (shortened) Oh, and I'm a girl.
For the most part, the city had gone dark. Kids had gone to bed or tents or whatever other kind of shelter they would find on a night like tonight. Others were already dreaming, some of happier times back home.
The clock on the wall cast a faint, sad glow on Rick's workstation; the elderly scientist hunched over his desk furiously tightening screws. Periodically, there was a muffled snort and a grumble as he leaned over and snorted something note , before returning to his work. A soldering iron grumbled a half-hearted pun; a last, tired remnant of the wacky cartoon mayhem that had dominated so much of the day.
Rick took another shot of alcohol and stared blankly down at his handiwork, the culmination of about twenty . The thing that Rick had plonked down on his desk resembled some kind of modified motorcycle helmet, augmented almost beyond recognition.
Rick snorted another line of cocaine and then blearily turned back to another project, scrounged together from the remnants of his half-completed projects. It resembled a gun of some kind... more accurately, the skeleton of a gun; it clearly needed more work before he could actually use it to kill anything, demonic or otherwise. Rick took another shot, and then another.
There was a faint sound from somewhere up above, the sound of feet slowly coming down the stairs.
"Rick?"
"G-go *urp* go back to bed, Morty. This doesn't concern you."
"Y-yeah, Rick... I-I-I-I dunno." Morty's lower lip had started to shake, imperceptibly. "I mean, I, I... I just couldn't sleep, you know? All that spin... all that spinach, you know? I kinda had to..."
"Morty, this is *urp* i-i-it's delicate work, what I'm doing right now. I don't have time to listen to your exciting stories about your body functions." Rick rolled his eyes and took another swig of liquor, followed immediately afterwards by another hit of whatever he was snorting.
"I mean... yeah. It's just that... y-y'know, Rick, I dunno if I've ever been... away from home this long." Morty looked downcast. "And... I'm st-starting to miss my family, right? Mom... Dad.. Summer..." In spite of all his bravado, Morty was blinking hard, as if trying to fight back a tear or two.
Rick threw up his hands in exasperation and stared at his grandson. "C'mon, Morty, don't give me that." Morty stared skeptically at Rick, still doing his best to keep his homesickness in check.
"C'mere." Rick awkwardly tousled his grandson's hair. "Y'know... Morty..." Rick took another shot as he tried to boldly forge through good grandparenting- a largely unexplored frontier. "... y-y'know... Grandpa's been in these kinds of situations before. There was this.. . time... way back in the 1980s, Morty, I got kidnapped by some douche-nozzle from the eighth dimension. Two... three... I dunno... a couple dozen of us, I think."
"Y-yeah." Morty nodded awkwardly, not entirely sure where this was going.
"... so a bunch of us, yanked up using some trans-dimensional portal shit, and sent to some backwater *urp* rur-red- bumblefuck planet to fight to the death. The winner got to go home. Put two and two together here, Morty." Morty bit his lip but nodded awkwardly.
Rick turned back to his half-completed weapon. "And... th-that was before you were born, Morty. Now, you see, this asshole, whatever his name is..." there was another pause while Rick took a drink, "... he's right up shit creek and he doesn't even know it yet. You know why, Morty?" Rick tightened another screw, slotting in what looked like some kind of uranium rod into the device.
"Uh..."
"... he brought you into it. Jerk me around, here, Mo-mo-mOURGHty, I don't give a flying fuck. No... no-one gets to..." Rick dropped the screwdriver as his mind finally gave out for the day.
"Rick?" Morty shook his grandfather, but only managed to elicit a few grumbled grunts from his grandfather.
"uuuugrgh... y-youreagoodghkdmortagjhy"
"Yeah. Okay." Not knowing what else to do, Morty climbed up the stairs and back into bed... only to run for the toilet a few minutes later.
Beneath, on the ground floor, Rick's eyes twitched as he lapsed into a deep sleep...
Rick floated through a nondescript space. "Oh boy, here we go," he said to nobody in particular. "*urp* It's a dream sequence." Random images, pieced together from the events of the past four days, went floating past him. A conga line of Mickeys danced along the helix of a DNA strand, random schematics and half-remembered memories danced and jumbled together into an alcohol-soaked mush.
Rick pulled out a dream-flask from his dream-pocket and took a shot as he watched his memories, looking like a particularly jaded TV viewer . Dream-liquor always tasted better than the real stuff anyway.
"Oh boy, Rick." Dream-Morty popped into existence as Rick strolled idly through REM sleep. "W-what's goin' on here?"
"I dunno, Dream-Morty. It seems like *urp* it seems like this is some way for me to, I dunno, do some introspection or something." Rick waved vaguely off at one side,
"Hey, look at me!" Plague Knight ambled past, carrying a massive pile of chemicals in his arms stacked to the ceiling. "Check this out!" Plague Knight tossed the chemicals off to one side and pulled off his mask... revealing Jerry's familiarly dopey visage.
"You know, Morty," said Rick, watching Plague-Jerry try and fail to build a basic portal gun. "I-I think my subconscious is trying to tell me something here, in the most obvious way possible. Boy, what could it be..."
"Yeah, th-that Plague Knight guy, he's kind of dumb... and up his own ass, right?"
Rick blinked and looked at Morty, as Plague-Jerry was reduced to his basic atoms somewhere in the background. "Boy, Morty, th-that's pretty *urp* astute. You know, for you. You feelin' alright in the head there? Taking megaseeds up the sphincter again?"
"Well, uh, y'know, Rick, I-I'm just a, a... dream version... of Morty based on your waking perceptions of your grandson. Aw jeez. I dunno. Hey, how 'bout some beer?" Rick blinked and stared at Dream-Morty.
"Oh yeah, right. Okay, suit *urp* suit yourself." Rick summoned up a bottle of beer and tossed it to his imaginary grandson as they continued walking. The scene changed... the cartoon world gave way to the fairy tale forst, morphing gradually back into the streets of the city. The inhabitants of the city mingled with the many, many people and things Rick had met over the course of his travels. Ben was smoking a joint with Riq V, Gear Person and Grimlock were both wasted on whatever mechanical life-forms consumed to get hammered, Sadness was dancing a tango with Scary Terry, and Mary had happily slaughtered her way through a class IV Traflorkian cruiser, her dress covered with green blood.
"Pretty crazy, huh, Dream Morty?" Rick looked around at the cross-dimensional mayhem. "All these, these characters in one place, huh? I bet someone's really lovin' all this *urp* continuity."
There was another pause as Rick downed some more dream alcohol. "Where is this going, anyway?" Rick looked around at the dreamscape, trying to figure out the point of all of this. "I mean, there's no real structure or logic to this scene, it's just kind of a stream of consciousness continuity-kind of thing. I mean, it's like someone's trying to probe my thoughts to see what makes me tick, and failing. There's no point, here, you know?"
"Uh-oh!" Morty pointed to the sky. The sky suddenly turned grey as reality began to tear itself apart, as though some higher power had grown tired with this entire sequence and had decided to abruptly cut it short. "Run, Rick! T-the dream's collapsing! The dream's collapsing like that stupid movie everyone loves!"
"When you're right, you're right, Dream-Morty! Run!" Rick took off down the street, trying to outrun the giant reality-warping fissures springing up all across the city streets. The pavement rumbled ominously as a huge, brown-haired figure suddenly lunged out of the pavement, like a bad B-movie monster. Rick fell and tried to scramble back as a gigantic Morty rose up out of the street, finger pointing accusatorily down at his grandfather.
"I'm... a representation of the resentment you ascribe to your grandson because of your drug and alcohol addiction!" it boomed.
"Great." Rick stared up at the monster Morty. "W-What is this, huh, an AA meeting? Spooky. The Intervention from the Crypt. Wooooooh. Think of something *urp* better." Rick rolled his eyes and took another shot of dream liquor.
"I'm going to sm-smash you now! It'll wake you up! You'll jump up in your bed... or wherever we are... I dunno. Where did we fall asleep? Are we on the floor?" Giant Dream Morty looked momentarily disgusted. "Oh Jesus. We're on the floor, aren't we?"
"Wait-!" Rick scrambled back from Giant Dream Morty's advancing fist... only to hit a wall. Down came the fist-
edited 12th Apr '16 1:55:28 PM by Locoman
feeling blue
Sans eventually came across a supermarket where he began searching for food. First he got the fruits, juice boxes and Lune's granola bars before going off and looking for his own stuff. While walking around the place he grabbed a couple of ketchup bottles and a bag of popato chisps. He looked around for anything else of interest, but couldn't find anything. Eventually he began to feel fatigue begin to kick in, his stamina was really drained after going around places so much and using his magic more than usual. He ended up slumping against a nearby shelf and soon found himself falling asleep.
Sans opened his eyes and found himself resting on his station. He took a look at his surroundings and saw all too familiar trees and snow covering the area. Did a reset happen? Was he back at Snowdin? All that felt far too convenient to be true, so he decided to walk further into the forest and see if he came across someone.
Eventually he came across another sentry station, this one having a little bell on it. However, in the snow in front of it he could see the dust spread all around it, as well as a dog treat, a pair of swords and some clothes. Sans stared at it, letting it all sink in. He closed his eyes and sighed before walking forward.
From then on everywhere else he looked he would see familiar piles of dust in the snow, along with some of the belongings of the people he once knew.
Finally he arrived in a completely deserted town that was once full of life with friendly monsters walking around and living their daily lives, but now there was only dead silence outside of the sound of Sans' own footsteps on the snow. At least there was no dust anywhere, just… nothing except empty buildings.
Walking further forward he came across the remnants of an armor made of plastic and an orange scarf covered in dust and snow. Seeing it, Sans just sat down while still looking at the remains of what once was his brother.
"Even in the end you still had faith in them, huh?" He said in a sorrowful voice "sorry bro, but i couldn't make them turn back..." He took a deep breath and looked as if he was trying to hold back tears "you got yourself killed for nothing."
Sans remained in place, until he began hearing other footsteps coming from behind him. He turned around and saw them, the one to blame for everything that happened. Wearing that depraved smile on their face, they seemed almost pleased to run into the skeleton again.
" Mourning over useless dust huh? How much more pathetic can you get? " They asked, giggling
Sans stood there for a moment before giving a resigned sigh. "you're a real freak, you know?"
They shrugged " So? What are you going to do about it? You already know I will beat you no matter what. "
Sans merely frowned, the child giggling again in response
" You decided to wait until I was about to reach my full strength, using a promise as an excuse for your own laziness. In a way, isn’t this an appropriate end to you? You wanted to do nothing, now you have nothing and nobody. ”
"it's not like it would make any difference in the end,” Said Sans, looking away.
" Excuse, excuses~ " the child giggled once more “ You knew about the resets, but instead of trying to stop them, you decided to just sit down and do nothing as you waited for the inevitable, you sure made my job a lot easier. " They shrugged
Sans was speechless, not even bothering to look at the child in the eye.
" You messed up, you cannot even hope to stand a chance against me now. I could just leave you here to wander this empty world forever, but... I'll be merciful and let you join your brother. " They drew out their knife, still having the same depraved smile on their face " You are even standing right next to what remains of him, surely there is no better way to go than this? "
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Sans turned to the child with his unwavering grin still on his face.
"sorry, kid, but common sense dictates that listening to the spawn of the devil is a bad idea," he said, shrugging "plus, i'm not going to give you the satisfaction of disposing of me that easily."
Sans' eye flared in a blue color as he summoned a bunch of skull drones to fire at Chara, but all of sudden the kid was right in front of him and slashed him right there. His droned dropped on the ground and vanished as placed a hand on his wound.
" You thought you still could put out a fight, what a joke, " said the kid in a mocking tone as they shook their head, " well, I want to see you laugh that one off now. "
Sans was just left groaning in clear pain, feeling himself get weaker and weaker until he simply collapsed on the ground and everything went white...
Sans bolted awake and found himself back in the black and white supermarket, he frantically looked around for a minute before realizing that it was all a dream and sighing.
"guess i won't be sleeping for a while..." he then looked at the bags he was carrying "caro and the others must be sleeping by now so i guess i came here for nothing, heh."
He stood up and began walking around the store absent-mindedly as the dream was still very fresh in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed less like a dream and more like a cruel vision of what awaited for him once he was sent back to the Underground. Either way, that had robbed him of any chance of a pleasant night of sleep, so now he had to find another way to entertain himself for the night.
A light bulb popped up above his head and he grabbed it to illuminate the area since it was pretty dark in the market and, after some searching around, he came across a section that had some notebooks in it, he picked up one of them and then got a pen around that same area. He then sat down and began writing on the notebook to pass time until morning came.
edited 10th Apr '16 6:01:37 PM by FullMoon
Hol Horse indeed did travel along with Plague Knight's group. There were many questions to be had about the nature of this place that he hadn't the time earlier on, and now he spent a few hours getting them answered. Some of it did indeed make sense as he went along, like how he now knew that he was inspiring some kind of work. Much more reasonable than for him to just kidnap hundreds for no particular reason, but considering this person apparently made an entire world, it puzzled Hol Horse as to why this author didn't just make people to populate it. He wasn't sure what kind of story crossing the street would make, even with such an interesting protagonist.
There were some attempts at camaraderie building, because chances are he was going to have to stay with these folk anyway. Among other things, he even managed to pull off The Cigarette Trick successfully this time! His time spent was shorter than the rest, as he was the first to fall asleep in the entire group. Though it seemed like it had been much longer, he had been up for over 24 hours. Flying down to Aswan, infiltrating a hospital, kidnapping a child, taking a flight back up north to Cairo, trying to assassinate people and then almost dying was tiring work, and that was before he had even gotten into the City. As such, by the time dinner was done he had already slouched in his chair and was out cold.
Something came to light. Blocking the sole window in this room was a great mass, a reptilian thing laid over on its side, absent of all color unlike the rainbow everywhere else. Its head was situated behind the bed, he couldn't see its face from where he was standing and he didn't want to.
The stomach of the beast was eviscerated, and from the hole was a continual pouring of thick black blood, which gathered in a pool under the room's other occupant. The woman was sitting there cross-legged and naked, a fork and a steak knife laid neatly on a plate that she wasn't using, her mouth covered in black from the piece of meat that she was absentmindedly chewing on. She looked in Hol Horse's direction, staring at him as if his entrance was as mundane as a fly landing on her arm. She slowly chewed for a bit as Hol Horse looked at her in stunned silence, before slowly tearing off a chunk of flesh with her teeth and holding out the meat to him. "You want some?" Her tone was quiet, but at the same time it sounded unpleasantly cheerful, like a mother offering her child a piece of candy.
After the man didn't accept it, much less do anything but stare back, she wagged it enticingly and sprinkled drops of black blood on the wall. "Come on," she said in a sing-songy voice, "You can trust me! I'm the only one who's exactly what you think I am, you know." Her arm was outstretched for a very long minute, as she chewed and swallowed her bite. Pulling her arm back, she said, "Well, doesn't matter. You're going to get a lot of it by the time you leave, anyway." More violent ripping sounds came forth as she bit off another chunk.
They both waited in awkward silence for a long time, the woman unaware of anything wrong and Hol Horse entirely repulsed. Eventually, he asked, "...Are you with Dio?" The woman shook her head immediately, and spent some time finishing her bite before answering. "I don't know who you're talking about. He's probably still back home." Hol Horse looked at her in confusion, and the woman eventually picked up on it. "Well, you know where you are right now, yeah? It's not home, but it just looks like it sometimes." Hol Horse internally realized that this was indeed the City, not Cairo, the nameless one he and the strange others were thrust into. The woman instantly answered as if she had read his thoughts. "Yes, that's the right idea. You've met a lot of people today, haven't you?" She popped the last bit of meat into her mouth, swallowing it and sucking her fingers clean. In the middle of pulling off another chunk from the corpse, she said, "Lots of weirdos, none of them understand, all of them don't know what to do. None of them...even..." She stopped mid sentence to give a bit more effort into ripping off the meat, grunting as she gave a final tug before a last bit of sinew snapped and she was rewarded with another black blob. "Ha! None of them even seem to care what's happened. Don't they have people who miss them?"
The woman got off the ground, holding a much more sizeable chunk this time. She planted herself on the foot of the bed, smearing ichor all over the formerly pristine bedsheets. She scooted over and patted the spot where she was at, bidding him to come sit. "It's not gonna be any fun for you if you don't listen to people who know better." Before he had a chance to react, he blinked and was exactly where she had asked him to be. His hands were covered in black, and he could feel the same stuff dripping from his face. "Some things are going to happen whether you like it or not. I have a feeling you knew that already, though." He tried to look her in the eyes, but she was too focused on eating to look back at him. "When can I leave?"
"As soon as you listen to my last piece of advice." She chewed for an agonizingly long time, seemingly to savor every drop and to drag it out as long as she could. "If you let yourself act like you did back at home, you're going to get killed. It doesn't take someone like me to tell you that." He got up immediately and briskly walked towards the door, but the knob didn't seem to budge. "H-Hey, ma'am, this door, it's locked." He turned back to look at her. The entire room, everything past the brim of his hat was completely covered in thick layers of the black blood, down to the woman's eyes. She raised a dripping finger to his lips, and said, No it isn't.
Hol Horse awoke pretty early, having been left in his chair instead of moved to another bed. His eyes were wide, but he didn't make a sound as he played back what had just happened in his head. After a minute of silent recollection, he mumbled "Fuckin' symbolic dreams." He noted that he was finally uncensored, but was too tired to care. He immediately went back to sleep.
someone
Shiara read through the book, muttering under her breath. If someone was listening particularly hard, they would've heard "I kinda feel for Antorell now", or "Really gonna need a weapon." She stood up and stretched, noticing it was nighttime.
She thought she should probably get some sleep. She had been awake for awhile before she even came to this place. Standing up, she looked around for her bundle, but found it on the pavement outside. She walked back inside and pulled out a slice of meat pie, and ate it, before tiredly walking to a couch, pulling out a blanket from her bag, and curling up into what could aptly be described as a fire witch sushi roll.
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Her dream was fleeting impressions, memories and not quite memories. A push and a pull in a vortex of whirling images. People she knew, know and barely even met, mixed with experiences she didn't even know if she had had.
Some lasted longer than others. The memory of the invisible castle spell, the first and last time she had a friend. The wizards in the circle, and the feeling of the fire as it raised its head and turned the Head Wizard's staff to dust.
Daystar and his family, Morwen and Telmain. The dragon and his grandmother, Kazul. The feeling of success when she got cherries jubilee right, and the first time she discovered her clothes weren't fireproof. Nightwitch and the Enchanted Forest, that blasted sword. That damned quozzel.
Then some weirder ones. Screams of pain from people she didn't recognise, a feeling of hate towards others.
Out of nowhere she heard a great big MRROOOOAAAAWWW!!! and felt a weight land on her chest. Nightwitch had jumped from the floor she was on straight onto Shiara. Unsurprisingly, this woke her up, and she immediately noticed she was now in colour.
"Hooray!"
[TOP SECRET]
throwback
Eventually, Sadness fell asleep where she stood, her head resting on the table..................................
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But emotions don't have dreams. So she was okay.
For the Horde!
Ben sat down on the couch again. "You're right, Miss Tairee," he yawned. "It's way too late to deal with this... guy right now. I'll... I'll get him tomorrow. Just you see." He yawned again, curling up onto the couch and immediately falling asleep.
Ben, Gwen, and his grandfather Max were walking down the hall of a school. The walls were off-yellow, the floor was tiled marble, and every so often they passed by a door leading into one of the classrooms. However, the entire place seemed abandoned; no one was walking the halls, there was not a sound coming from any of the rooms, and even though the lights were on, it seemed... empty. It would've been unnerving to Ben... had Ben not been relaying to them his (biased) account of the events of the city thus far.
"...and then I was all like, Take that, triangle! and I shot some goo, and stuck him to the ground!" Ben explained, recounting his experience fighting Bill Cipher. Gwen crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
"That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. You were fighting a yellow one-eyed triangle? With a top hat? You're being even more of a dweeb than usual," Gwen spat, looking cross with her cousin.
"I believe you, Ben," Max responded. "Clearly whatever trapped you in that other dimension trapped people from many other worlds as well. I'm just glad that you're back." Ben smiled at Max.
"Thanks, Grandpa. I knew I could count on you," Ben told Max, then continued walking, with a smug expression on his face in the direction of his cousin. Gwen simply groaned angrily and continued walking. All three of them stopped when they heard a distant female voice yelling Help! Help! Max's brow furrowed. "Come on!" he exclaimed, running in the direction of the voice. Ben and Gwen followed suit. The three of them ended up at a door leading downstairs, a gunmetal grey door with a picture of a flame on it.
"This must be the boiler room," said Max, pointing towards the fire image on the door. Gwen winced.
"Ew! A boiler room? That's so gross!" she moaned. Ben smirked.
"No boiler room is gonna scare me away!" Ben triumphantly replied, then swung the door open. Sure enough, there was a large, open boiler room with a raging furnace. A woman in her mid-30s with her hair in a bun, a red button-up sweater, a black skirt, and high-heeled shoes, was backed up against one of the corners of the room, but nothing else seemed to be in the room to scare her. She seemed to be one of the teachers. Gwen raised an eyebrow skeptically, but Ben ran down the stairs into the boiler room anyway. "You okay, ma'am?"
At that moment, the boiler room door swung closed and slammed shut. Gwen and Max tried pounding on the door to open it, but to no avail. The woman shot her gaze up, her eyes dark with purple irises and slit-like pupils. Ben gasped and stumbled back, falling onto his rear end. The woman stood.
"So predictable," the woman hissed, her voice being tinged with a hissing echo of herself. "Always running in to help those in need. But what will you do when the one in need is yourself?" Ben jumped to his feet, shaking a bit, but then he readied his Omnitrix.
"Who are you?!" Ben shouted at the woman. The woman simply laughed, the sinister chuckle moving straight through Ben's very core, and he winced again.
"I am..." The woman morphed as if she were made of putty. Her features sunk into her being, then she took on an ethereal, wispy quality. Her legs vanished into a ghost-like tail, while her arms, the only thing that remained of her human appearance, grew long and almost skeletal. Finally, black lines moved across her body, with the all-too familiar Omnitrix symbol appearing on her chest. Finally, one of the black lines parted into two, showing off the piercing purple eye of.... "...Ghostfreak."
Ben's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Ghostfreak?! But you're supposed to be in the watch!"
"Yes. But in due time, I will be reborn... and there is not a thing you can do to stop me," Ghostfreak replied, advancing towards Ben dangerously. Ben started turning the watch.
"Don't move any closer, or I'll—" Ben shouted at the specter-like alien.
"Or you'll what? Turn into Four Arms and punch me out? It is hopeless, Tennyson. Nothing you have in that watch of yours can stand up to me. Give up," Ghostfreak derisively replied. Ben glared, selecting an alien on the watch.
"No, Ben, don't!" Max shouted from the other side of the door, still banging on it.
"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" He slammed on the watch, and there was a bright flash of green light.... where nothing happened. Ben looked confused, examining the watch. His eyes widened. Where there was once the image of Four Arms, instead was a blank green area, as if he had not selected an alien at all. He tried to turn into every alien at his disposal. Even Spellicorn. Nothing. As soon as he pressed their icon on the watch, they all vanished. Ben shuddered, backing into a wall. "W-what do you want?!" he asked. Ghostfreak moved closer, so close that Ben could feel the cold, evil aura around him.
"I... want..... OUT!!" Ghostfreak shouted, the word out echoing through Ben's mind. The room began to spin and fall apart, and Ben fell screaming into a black-and-purple swirling void...
....and then Ben, shot up, screaming, falling from the couch and tumbling onto the floor. He lay there on the floor, shaking and breathing heavily, covered in sweat.
edited 12th Apr '16 9:24:44 AM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Dinner was okay, and the company was certainly fun. Though the quality wasn't as great as the eldest Tendo's home-cooking, it was more than passable. That, coupled with people Ranma could sort of let her guard down (the sort of due to Plague Knight being the weirdo who liked to play with drugs and that weird eye-triangle thing, made for the experience to be somewhat pleasant and soothing to the nerves. Coupled with her full stomach and tiredness from general day shenanigans, the girl found herself out as a log pretty soon.
Waking up to find herself in the Tendo Home and Dojo, the girl blinked and then looked around. Everything was way too quiet for Nerima, no hustle and bustle of the house residents, no birds chirping, and no signs of life from the outside world. It was a quiet that was fit for dead places such as cemeteries and tombs, a deathly silence. Walking out into the neighborhood, the martial artist continued her silent trek throughout the still world with a frown on her face. continuing to search for people that she knew.
The teen continued her sojourn over the district, the only thing to keep her company being her shadow which grew and shrunk in the sun. Time slowly passed by, day turned into night. No signs of life could be found, the oppressive silence slowly and steadily weighing down upon the slim girl's shoulders. Shop fronts and homes devoid of residents, toys left out in the streets, bowls of food long turned cold. "Where... is everyone?" The voice asked hoarsely, with a hint of fear and longing in its tone before being lost in the quiet.
Ranma continued to walk, her feet never stopping as she once more looked about the empty Neerima. This time instead of simply walking from one end to another, she went inside residencies and buildings to search for people. "Why..." Loneliness gnawed at the girl as she stared blankly at the night sky and the crescent moon, her features hidden in the shadows of an alleyway. She fervently wished for the local weirdos to come out to challenge her to a fight... for Akane to come and chastise her for what an idiot she was... for her father to drag her along on yet another hair-brained training trip. And yet they never came.
Finally deciding to settle down once she arrived back at her starting point, the girl huddled atop the roof of the Tendo Dojo and stared at the rolling hills and the soulless district. "Ranma Saotome... never loses..." The redhead whispered halfheartedly, longing shown in her dull eyes as she wanted the chaos and excitement to come back to the town. The loneliness and helplessness siphoned out of her frame, forming a pallid yellow orb that hung above in the skyline like a second moon. As more and more negativity roiled out of her frame, the ball grew ever bigger until it was hundreds of feet in diameter, hanging like the Sword of Damocles. "....Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan."''
With that uttered phrase, the energy sphere descended towards the earth and smashing everything in its path apart. The explosion grew more and more, spreading outwards until the deathly place was engulfed in the technique and shattered in millions of pieces. What was left was a blank expanse... and one Ranma Saotome. Her little shoulders shivered, her tiny hands clenched. And yet her face was determined and eyes fierce. "Ranma Saotome... DON'T LOSES!"''
Eyes snapping open due to listening to the sound of her own howl, the girl propped herself up and hurriedly wiped away the tears on her face before anyone could see her state. With that weakness hidden away once more, the Japanese traveler simply sat back and let her breathing still back to a regular pattern and her mind calm down from the strong emotions that was experienced. "Not to this... not to nobody. I'll always come back out on top, no matter what." Confidence seeped back into her murmurs as the spirit was lifted and body readied for what was to come. "It's time to face a new day." And thus she did.
edited 13th Apr '16 9:22:18 AM by Makaioh
Library
Garrett had already returned to the Library (in one way or another); right now he was eating his makeshift supper, a haphazard mixture of foodstuffs he picked up at the grocery store. A lot of this food was... weird; the "candy bars" and the "gummi bears" looked like nothing he's ever eaten, but he couldn't say they weren't tasty. The "soda", on the other hand, just stung his throat and made him feel oddly queasy on the inside.
"Demons, you say..." he muttered as he overheard the others discussing the situation. "You know," he continued to speak, "I have robbed a god before. A demon would be just practice compared to that." Granted, the endeavour sounded more than a little dangerous, but then again, Garrett could do much worse that having a bunch of super-powered, heavily-armed people at his side. "Can't say I feel comfortable knowing that a creep like that is going around and possessing people. And it's not like I have much else to do in this place anyway. I suppose I'll tag along, assuming nothing else comes up tomorrow... Though... If I do, I hope I get first dibs on any valuables the bird guy might have around his place." Not to mention, Garrett thought, that a demon just might have some knowledge on how to get out of this City and back into his Citynote . It was a long shot, but worth a try... He's going to have to look out for books, diaries and notes, and with a little luck he might get to interrogate the fellow...
Night was normally Garrett's time. But this day had taken a bit of a toll on him, and he was bloody tired with the madman's fever dream that the entire world was right now; he'd rather sleep away the rest of the time until next day, he decided. He found himself a place to rest in the library, and sunk into troubled dreams...
Revenge of the late-night supper
Garrett wanted to ask Miss Tairee about something, but when he turned away for a moment, she turned into the Hag and began crawling towards him over the desk. He tried to draw his dagger, but then two burly Mechanists approached him from behind. One of them grabbed Garrett in an iron grip that robbed him of all strength, while the other systematically took away all his equipment and put it into a bag, all the while laughing and sneering at the thief. The moment Garrett was released, he felt that he could move again, and ran out of the library. In the street, the glow of a Keeper Door Glyph caught his eye, and with relief he opened the passage and sneaked in.
He came into a room full of Keepers, all of which looked upon him with disapproval, and First Keeper Orland angrily scolded Garrett for interfering in the initation ceremony. Today the Keeper order was taking in a new member — it was Cole, who in the black initiate garb looked oddly like a scared rabbit. Orland continued to explain that Cole would be a major asset for the order. Finally, he said, the cryptic ancient prophecies would be made clear, because Cole can use his mind-reading skills to read the writers' thoughts. Garrett scoffed at the idea and tried to ask what about the writers who were already dead, but everyone ignored him and left, and now he was alone in the dining room. Alone? No, that girl, Shiara, was sitting at the other end of the table, playing with her cat. And behind her, one of the Hag's animated statues was approaching. It was going to splatter the kitten over the walls and smash in the girl's skull. He tried to warn her, to save her, but his body felt like lead and he could only whisper...
Library
Garrett awoke from the troubled dreams, and found himself back to his normal self — of the right coloration, plasticity and age. With a grumble of begrudging relief, he arose and took a look around.
Library - Night of the Sixth Day - 0 Hours of Cartoonishness Remain
Zelda waited patiently until at least one member of the other group was finished with a book before she took it and brought it back to Caro's, Sadness's, and her own table. Before she left she also managed to get a name and an appearance to assign to the 'presence': Old Feather Beak, a bird-like demon also known as a Lord of Change.
As soon as she sat down again she opened the book up and started reading, sharing bits and pieces of it with the other two as long as they were awake. She stayed up for a while after they fell asleep, looking through the book and trying to figure out just how to deal with the Lord of Change judging from what was she was reading. She eventually moved from the table to one of the couches for when she eventually fell asleep as well.
Her first impression was much the same as the others: the world Old Feather Beak was apparently from sounded like a simply horrible place. It was clear that it appeared to be for a game of some kind, and that the group covered was probably meant to be villainous, but it seemed like the rest of the world was no better if the tidbits about "the Lost and the Damned" were any indication. Somehow she was even more reminded of the calamity that sent Skyloft to the sky, if on a much greater scale. She also briefly wondered if her own world was for a game itself if something from a game was real here, but wisely decided not to spend much time dwelling on that.
She considered simply skipping through everything irrelevant to Old Feather Beak, but then decided that if that was here than it was fully possible that everything else could show up eventually as well and gave everything she could a thorough look. A lot of it referenced things she had never even heard of before and flew over her head, but from what she did understand it appeared that this 'Chaos' faction consisted of a group of four great gods, some minor gods, and their demons (spelled "daemon," for whatever reason), plus some beings from other factions in the world that turned to them for one reason or the other. These gods and demons were apparently born from the thoughts and emotions of living beings, twisted by the realm they lived in. The good news was that these beings spent just as much of their time fighting each other as they did threatening the rest of their world. The bad news was...well, everything else. The sort of beings she read about made the monsters of Skyloft's tales look tame in comparison, and these gods were the opposite of benevolent even if they embodied positive as well as negative emotions.
Out of all of them, the one that worried her most was Tzeentch. The other three, nightmarish and stupidly powerful as they were, sounded at least outwittable in some fashion. From what she read about him, they didn't even have that against Tzeentch. He was described as a master manipulator, who would benefit no matter what everyone else did, and who had every soul that ever existed involved in his plots upon plots. So naturally, this was the god they were up against. Rather, it was one of his greater daemons that they were up against, which wasn't of much comfort when said greater daemon was described as being his strongest.
On the bright side, it was entirely possible and in fact was rather likely that Old Feather Beak was just as much a victim of the storyteller god's mass multiversal kidnapping as everyone else in the city. In that case, it would lack the connection to Tzeentch and thus be easier to deal with, although the thought made Zelda question the storyteller god even more than she already had been. However, the Chaos Gods certainly sounded powerful enough to override the storyteller god's power, leading to the worst case scenario: Tzeentch had something planned for this city, and beating Old Feather Beak meant beating Tzeentch as well. Of course, that was making assumptions about the limits of the storyteller god's power, of which she hadn't the slightest clue. For as much as Tzeentch worried her, he and his fellow Chaos Gods had all this written down about them, which probably meant they weren't quite as powerful as this book lead her to believe.
All the same, it was probably best to prepare for the worst case scenario even she hoped for the best case, which left her in the unenviable position of outsmarting someone who couldn't be outsmarted. For that task, it was probably best to figure out what they already knew about Old Feather Beak before this and maybe try to figure out just what it was he was trying to do. Having not met Old Feather Beak herself and having no desire to between what he did to some of the others and what she read about his kind here, she decided she would have to ask the people who were unfortunate enough to meet with him.
By the time she came to this realization, most of the others had fallen asleep. For now, Zelda just decided to keep looking this book over to familiarize herself with the material. Eventually, she lay down and fell asleep herself, clutching the book in a similar manner to how a child would hold a plush animal.
edited 16th Apr '16 12:01:58 PM by Yomegami
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
Gon went back to his personal safe house, all exhausted and ready to sleep.
He wanted to try and determine if Silanea was an obstacle to not himself, but to anyone else who wanted to get out of this place.
Sleep claimed him for the night. And in that night, he dreamt of how his mother promised him a new life in Americe for the two of them to live out the American Dream.
And he cried when he rembered how his mother treated him like a piece of shit just to get money.
And the last thing he remembered was his mom reaching for a revolver and raised it towards her mouth.
Annoyed Mode: ON
Mary (Apartment Building) - Eat, Sleep, Dream, Repeat
"Yay! Thank you, sir!"
Mary spent the following twenty minutes devouring the contents of the tub and thoroughly enjoying herself. After all, it was the first time she ever tried ice cream (and it was chocolate ice cream, no less) and it was absolutely delicious.
For some reason she couldn't quite figure out, it tasted a lot like blue pizza... which made no sense, because that wasn't made out of chocolate.
After she had ran out of ice cream to eat, she decided to simply go and sleep a little. Sleeping had been very good last time, because it'd managed to calm her down a lot after... well, all that had happened during the fourth day. And seeing that she was still feeling a bit anxious about the gray world, she figured some rest would definitely do her well. Soon enough she found an empty and very comfortable bed, and simply drifted off to sleep.
"Helloooo?"
Deserted. Absolutely deserted. The city, formerly a temporary home to many people, seemed to be almost completely devoid of life. There were no adults, no children, no men and no women, no humans and no other things. The only one in the streets was a short blonde girl in a green dress, walking around in confusion.
"Sadness? Ben? Where is everyone? Helloooo?"
Her steps and voice echoed throughout the silent city as she kept calling for her friends. But no matter how loudly she yelled, or how many buildings she checked out, there was no one to answer; no one to find. She was all alone.
Or at least she thought she was, until she spotted a silhouette looking outside from a window. Naturally, she was curious enough to go and investigate.
"Hello? Who's in there?"
Seeing that no one answered, she decided to venture into the building, closing the door behind her.
The inside of the building was painted in a soothing white, but it didn't have much furniture. Merely a desk with a couple of books on top, and a chair behind that. On the wall, a poster featuring a massive, oddly familiar fish announced the current exhibit, a tribute to...
"...father?"
TO BE CONTINUED...
Akuma Shogun
To pass the time while waiting for Sans, Lune decided to tell a tale regarding the Bartoll to the others. Originally, they were unpiloted giant robots who ran off the ODE System. However, their creator went mad with grief after seeing his daughter and wife killed. He modified the ODE System in each of the Bartoll so it ran off the brainwaves of captured humans. He believed that humanity should be unified in thought, but that process should be done through force.
Unfortunately, his creation went awry and turned him into a puppet. During the war against the Bartoll, Lune was forced to fight a few of her fellow Steel Dragons. While confronting the ODE System for the last time, he destroyed Lamia Loveless, a gynoid who was among the brainwashed Steel Dragons. She was also a former mole for the Shadow Mirror forces, an army from an alternate dimension who believed that war allowed mankind to grow and prosper.
After beating the ODE System, a gigantic blob named Duminuss destroyed the system for failing to achieve its objectives. Duminuss also rebuilt Lamia as a slave, and the Steel Dragons were forced to fight her. Fortunately, another member of the former Shadow Mirror organization, helped the Steel Dragons out by undoing Duminuss’s programming on Lamia.
After she finished the tale, she dozed off where she was standing. A stream of the letter Z started to flow out of Lune’s mouth, and a puffy white cloud with Lune’s thoughts appeared over her head
Lune was piloting the Valsione R, and not transformed into her for once. She was facing off against a large blue-and-gold robot. The Valsione R fired off a Cross Smasher and her opponent opened up a black hole right in front of itself. The beam was sucked into the hole. Suddenly, a white hole appeared behind the Valsione, and the Cross Smasher beam hit the Valsione, knocking her down.
Suddenly, a rather smug voice could be heard from the robot’s loudspeakers. “Hahaha! Without the Cybuster, you won’t stand a chance against the mighty Neo Granzon…”
The Valsione slowly got up and just spat at the Neo Granzon, who just calmly wiped off the robotic spit in an instant. How did the Valsione do that?
“Shut up, Shu,” exclaimed Lune. “Even if I’m alone, I still have what it takes to beat you!”
“How pitiful,” replied Shu. “Then allow me to end your misery. Shukutai Hō! Fire!”
The Neo Granzon opened its chest cavity and began charging up for its strongest attack. If this black hole is launched, Lune and the Valsione will be destroyed. The attack was suddenly interrupted by a rapid-fire fisticuff volley to the Neo Granzon’s head. The unknown assailant helped the Valsione up, and the mysterious protector was revealed to be a gigantic Four Arms. Apparently, dream logic changed the abilities of the Omnitrix.
“Need a hand, Lune”, asked Four Arms. Lune just nodded to the gigantic four-armed Ben. The friends that Lune had made over the 5 days in the City showed up to help her. Rex had made a gigantic replica of himself. Zelda had showed up in a white ninja robot. Sans had a skeleton-themed robot. Ranma showed up in a martial-arts themed Huckebein. Morty even hijacked a robot Rick had made just so he could help Lune. Why Grimlock’s T-Rex form was just as large as the gigantic Four Arms. A gigantic Kieri also showed up wearing a blue version of the Valsione's armor, but with angelic wings. A gigantic Caro wearing a metallic version of Fried arrived last, rounding out the group of Lune's friends coming to help her out in her time of need.
“T-thanks, guys! Now, let’s take him down as a team!”
The Valsione R led a valiant charge towards the Neo Granzon. The others readied their best attacks, and then…
Lune suddenly woke up. She was finally back to normal. Unfortunately, that came at the expense of ending a cool dream right when it was getting to the good part. She fell back asleep, seeing as she was still tired.
edited 15th Apr '16 2:19:00 AM by josh6243
Library - End of Day 6
A few people had tried to organize a party go find the culprit behind Ben and Twilight's possessions. However, Miss Tairee rightfully warned then this was not a good idea, since it was deep into the night already and that was not even getting into how the city behaved, with all the constantly shifting locations and all. So in the end, the librarian managed to convince the group that it was best to wait until another day.
Lune shared some information about what she had mentioned earlier in response to her mentioning of her fight with Lutecia. It seemed that someone had built robots somewhat like the one Lune said she piloted, but these ones were made be someone mad with grief and using the minds of captured people to power them. Unfortunately, this predictably went wary and they started to control the people inside, including some of the poor girl's own teammates it seemed.
This was not quite like what Caro meant, but it was a equally sad tale nonetheless. She would have shared some more details about whad exactly had gone down with Lutecia, but it seemed that Lune was really tired and so ended up sleeping right where she was.
Zelda had gotten one of those books that apparently had information on the entity that affected Ben and Twilight. The universe it described was terribly bleak and violent, so much so that she couldn't help thinking of what she had heard of the fall of the Belka. Having almost witnessed the destruction of Mid-Childa by the Saint's Cradle, an ancient and massively powerful relic of that doomed civilization, this information hit pretty close to home.
It seemed that a very malevolent deity, something called a Chaos God, was involved. This god, along with three and their underling lesser gods and their daemons, were apparently formed from human thoughs and emotions, having a very damaging and warping effect on reality, something back in her universe would surely be seeing as a massive dimensional distortion. Which was only more reason to find a way to combat this being. It was her duty after all, even if not officially.
But it wouldn't be easy. The entity involved, whose name apparently was Old Beak Feather, was a greater daemon of Tzeentch, one of the four Chaos Gods. From what Zelda described, it seemed he was by far the worst of them all. He was a master manipulator, with no being safe from his devious schemes and who would no matter those involved in such plans did. This was a very scary thought. Fighting this greater daemon would definitelt be a nightmare and she didn't even want think of the possibility of Tzeentch himself being around or having planning his servant's presence on this place. It was possible that Old Beak Feather ended up here same as everyone else, through the schemes of the storyteller god who ran this place and she prayed that proved to be the case, because otherwise ....
Eventually Zelda ended up moving to a couch and Caro followed suit and stayed with her for a while, before she finally became too tired, managing to barely move over another couch close to the one the other girl was occupying before promptly laying down and dozing off, with litttle zzzs coming out along with her steady breath, with Fried once following fashion by laying on t the couch arm closest to his mistress,
Jedi of the Old Republic
After everything was said and done, Twilight went to sleep on a pile of books.
—
When Twilight awoke, she was back in her castle at Ponyville. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she was glad to be home.
She stepped outside... And saw a nightmare.
Ponyville was in ruins. No one was around.
"What happened to this place? To my friends?"
She went to the Friendship Express station. No one was there either, and the station looked run down.
Panicked, Twilight decided to fly to Canterlot. Maybe she could find answers there! It took a while though, due to the distance between Ponyville and Canterlot.
But she arrived at another devastated site. She still couldn't see anyone. Finally, she arrived at the castle.
At that point, she finally saw somepony: Princess Celestia, battered and lying on the ground. Twilight felt a mixture of both major relief and utter panic at the sight. She ran over.
"Princess Celestia! What happened here?! What's going on?!"
The Princess opened her eyes and looked at Twilight, but she didn't seem happy to see her former student.
"Twilight, where were you?"
"I, I was-"
"You could've helped us! You could've stopped this!"
"But-"
"You abandoned us!"
"I couldn't-"
"You have failed in your duty as a princess!"
"N-NOOOOOOOOO"
—
Twilight shot up, awake.
She was in the library. She was still in the city. What she had just gone through was a dream.
There was very little light. She didn't know how long she had been asleep. It could still be night, or early morning. She didn't know. But there was definitely a day transition as shown by her no longer being black and white.
Twilight lay her head down in her hooves, and started shedding tears.
"I don't want to stay here... I want to go home... I want to see my friends again..."
edited 15th Apr '16 4:43:23 PM by Cybersbe
What is this "signature" of which people speak?
The Library at Night
Cain had passed out from exhaustion, Jurgen stayed awake a little longer to guard his Commissar, but had passed out soon himself, clutching his Melta like it was some sort of plush toy, snoring somewhat loudly.
Cain looked about, it looked like any other Hive World, a bustling colony filled with various citizens and the PDF, oh how he pitied them. Ciaphas had seen a million of these, well closer to a hundred or so, as his time with Amberly had ferried him about, as much as he feared her wrath, just the thought of her could make him smile.
But here Ciaphas was, alone, not even Jurgen in this city. How did he get here anyway? Where was here? Perhaps a Civilian coul-
It was empty. The City of the world was empty in a instant, this made little sense, was it a trick? A illusion? Did he fall into a chaos trap? His survival instincts kicked in and told him to run, sadly he found little where to run to as he had no idea where he was. Cain put on a scowl as his brow furrowed, this was unpleasant, this is what he gets for not keeping Jurgen by his side all hours of the day.
Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch
Cain froze up, he had heard the scraping of metal like that once before, oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh Emperor please no.
Heavy footsteps were heard, as if the weight of the dead was upon them, Ciaphas slowly turned his head hoping to just see a Mechanicus, or even a Iron Hands, or even one of those foul Chaos automatons! He'd like that, he could deal with that, he'd dealt with that before! Anything, anything but-
Cain saw it, those sickly green eyes staring at him soullessly, whatever was the origin behind these monstrosities it would never say, they only had one purpose in life. A purpose they would fufill no matter what. The dead glowing green eyes of the Necrons.
It was only one, but only one was ever needed to wipe out ever human on the planet, and yet it stood there. Just staring at Cain, the Commissar backed away from it and drew his Lasgun, which in response it drew it's deadly rifle like weapon, Cain could never properly get the name of it, he recalled a Mechanicus calling it a "Gauss" of some sort.
The two stood there at a standstill, Cain sweating bolters in terror as he waited for it... to do something.
"FOR THE EMPEROR!" A familiar voice called, it was Jurgen! Charging in with his Melta firing at full blast, surely that should do somet-
In a instant the Necron turned and blasted Jurgen, Cain watched in horror as his aide and friend's molecules were ripped apart, his flesh and tissue flaying from his shattering skeleton, a singular cry of anguish was heard from it as the mist drifted off. The Necron turned back to Cain, Gauss still raised.
"THE EMPEROR PROTECTS!" Another voice called, it could only be. Amberly! Out came the Inquisitor in her Power Armor charging with a Power sword and wielding a mighty shield to protect herself, only to be bitterly struck down, but this time, even wrose.
A second Necron had stepped out, green bolts of electricity crackled over its Gauss weapon. Cain looked at the remains of Amberly and felt sick, her armor was torn, blood oozed from what flesh remained, a terrified look lay in her singular remaining eye as large parts of her body were missing, exposing internals, there was barely even any brain matter in what remained.
Cain vomited, he couldn't stomach the look, and slowly began to step away, he heard the footsteps. The Commissar knew the Necrons were after him. But why, why hadn't they killed him yet, why hadn't they done anything!?
One last voice called out in defiance, oh no. This one was only fresh in his mind. Marcus, the Ultramarine, the finest of them all. Marcus no, it wouldn't work, only a exterminatus could save them, or an entire army of Marines!
Cain's doubts were only proven true as the shell that contained Marcus was vaporized from existence, 2 more Necrons stood there holding their Gauss weapons high. With all threats gone, they turned attention to Ciaphas Cain.
He ran, he ran as fast as he could, Cain couldn't hope to take them on, he ran through the city, the sound of the heavy march of the Necrons getting louder and more plentiful as they approached closer, civilians around Cain ignorant, until they started to get vaporized as well. Cain didn't dare look back, but he could feel it, the overwhelming presence of the Necrons approaching closer and closer, they need not run, they had as much time as they wanted.
A powerful screech was heard, and Cain dared to look back, and was shocked as he saw it come for him, closer, and closer and closer and-
Cain awoke with a gasp and felt himself, he could feel sweat on his forehead, his lungs burned for air, good. He was still alive. Still alive, for now. The Commissar turned his attention over to Jurgen, still fast asleep slumped against a wall. It was just a nightmare, Emperor blessed it was just a nightmare. A horrific one he had been having variations of ever since he had first faced Necrons. But, dreams couldn't kill you. So long as no Chaos followers were around.
Cain relaxed, and soon found himself unable to sleep.
"Don't worry, Cole. This guy seems tougher than I thought but at least Twilight and Ben are cured now. So, don't try to kill them while they sleep" he said the last part smiling before heading off to a random chair to snooze off.
And now, he realized he hadn't eaten all day. The eternal struggle of man made its presence known to Rex: He was too tired to eat and too hungry to sleep.
He simply decided to let sleep win, eating would only take half an hour if he was particularly slow but he had have to his beauty sleep. Oh, and being alert was an added bonus.
"Good night everyone. First time tomorrow we're gonna kick that bird's ass. As long as the city doesn't turn into another wasteland" he closed his eyes and began snoring, random z's floating above his head.
Rex had somehow appeared in Abysus, the EVO infested country controlled by his archenemy, Van Kleiss. Time to kick some butts.
Rex made his way through Van Kleiss' castle, casually defeating anyone he fought against. He reached the highest floor and found Breach who made a giant dinosaur appear out of thin air. She had teleporting powers so, Rex wasn't particularly surprised by that but the dinosaur wasn't normal, it had cyborg enhancements which gave it laser eyes.
"What kind of freaky stuff have you been playing with here, Breach?"
There was no time for puns and bad jokes now (ok, maybe a few) so Rex flew to the dino's face and shut off his machines. The dinosaur fell unconscious from the shock and crushed Breach on the process. Or maybe she teleported away, you never know with that kind of people.
"You're just in time for my plan, Rex"
"I already dealt with your dinobot. And Breach. And every other EVO here"
Van Kleiss jumped at Rex with intent to kill but he was no match for Rex's punch. Not a mecha punch mind you, but pure 100% human muscle directled to the madman's crystal jaw. It goes without saying that he fell after only one punch.
With the world saved, Rex "Rex to Providence, Vain Kleiss was planning on cloning a cyborg dinosaur and sending them to Europe to control the contintent"
"And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kid!"
"Take it easy, Van Kleiss. At this point you should be used to tasting defeat"
At the celebration were the leaders of every country in European Union declared him a hero (no, that wasn't nearly enough to describe a hero of such a magnitude). A world renowned hero, everyone cheered his name, there were hundreds of banners with his face and even White Knight and Six smiled at how awesome Rex was.
Truly, there wasn't anything better than being a hero.
Rex's dream was cut short when he slipped on the chair he was sitting on and fell on the floor. He realized everything was just a dream and was disappointed but also a bit embarrased that he had dreamt something so cartoonish.
"Oh, man. Bobo was right. If you go to sleep with an empty stomach, you're gonna have weird dreams. I'll never going to do that again"
I just want to help!
Cole dropped off almost immediately once they were settled, still exhausted from the excitement of the last couple days.
...
"Hey, kid."
Cole's eyes opened, and he glanced around a moment, startled. He was settled on a railing above a staircase, a spot he recognized as being inside Skyhold. It wasn't all quite right though, this spot was where he tended to stay, and there had never been a desk here before, covered in papers and quills, with a familiar strawberry-haired dwarf settled, working hard on a new manuscript.
"Varric!" Cole jumped from the railing, running over to practically leap onto the man with an embrace, but being halted before collision when Varric grabbed his shoulders.
"Whoa, whoa, kid! I might be wider than you but I'm shorter too." He chuckled, before pulling Cole in for a quick one-armed hug. "We've been worried about you in Skyhold. You just sort of vanished into thin air, which, admittedly, isn't all that strange for you. But not coming back in about an hour with someone's missing great-granny's brooch or an armful of chickens or whatever you show up with got everybody in a tizzy."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it."
"Yeah, I know, kid, don't worry." Varric finally released his embrace, gesturing. "Well, sit down, tell me about it."
Cole immediately slid down to sit on the floor next to Varric's chair, leaning against his desk, even as the dwarf went back to his writing. "I've made lots of new friends! People who aren't anything like anyone we've ever met, and some who are but are backwards, and some who I don't think we could ever see in Thedas!"
Varric smiled and listened as Cole went on to describe all the fascinating new people he'd met, mages and shapeshifters and bizarre golems without souls, skeletons and cats and talking unicorns, elves that were spiders on the bottom, women who were half dragon, ogres that talked and were almost friendly.
"It sounds like you're being taken care of," Varric said, when Cole finally ran out of steam. "That's good, that's honestly sort of a load off my mind."
"You're not the real Varric, you know," Cole said, almost a little plaintively. "Your desk is in my room, and I fell asleep, so I must be dreaming. And dwarves can't come into the Fade."
"Well, yes, but just because I'm not the Varric doesn't mean I'm not still a pretty good Varric. You've been in my head more than anyone, I'd have to hope your brain can kick up a decent copy." He turned his head from the paper enough to give an amused smile to the spirit. "So tell me about what's happening. You gotta know the Inquisitor is turning the world upside-down looking for you right now."
"I know. I wish I was there." Cole rubbed at his eyes a little. "For all the good things in this new world, I miss where I came from. I want to be there with you and everyone."
"I know, kid. We want you to be there too. You know even Sera and Vivienne are probably helping try to find you right now." Varric reached out to ruffle his hair a little, chuckling. "Well, Vivienne's helping. Sera's probably helping by throwing bees at someone other than Viv and Sparkler."
"Dorian never did like bees..." Cole said, grimacing.
"Not a lot of people do like getting hit with a jar full of bees, kid. So...speaking of Sparkler, he's gonna owe me five royals, seeing as how you got a new...friend." Varric snickered. "He was sure you were gonna go for a guy..."
Cole blushed a bit before lowering his gaze again, fidgeting his hands together. "She...she's nice. She helps me, a lot...with things. I don't always understand her but sh-she treats me like she would anyone else, she doesn't care what I...what I am, what I used to be, what I can do. She...just likes me."
"You don't think maybe she's a little too...different, for you? Everything considered, she seems to me a little loony. Even considering the company we keep."
"It's different in her world, what I've seen of it. Worlds make people into what they are, shape them into something that fits...or doesn't. She fits her world. She wouldn't fit our's."
"Yeah. Don't you think that's something you ought to consider too, kid? Assuming this thing that's kidnapped you all does what it says it's gonna do, your best case scenario is getting sent back home without her in about three weeks." Varric turned, reaching out to touch Cole's shoulder. "It's gonna hurt, you know."
Cole nodded a little. "I know. It's okay. I'm helping now. I-it doesn't matter if I get hurt so long as I'm helping...and I think she'll be okay. She's been hurt a lot. I can at least help her to not hurt so much now."
"Ohhh kid." Varric sighed a bit. "Look. Just...be careful, okay? You're in a place full of demons and monsters and things that wanna kill you...or worse. I want you to still be you when you come home, you understand that? You're more human than you ever were but you still aren't human, and just getting killed isn't a worst-case scenario."
"I'll be all right, Varric." Cole smiled reassuringly, still just a bit red. "I'll see you again when this is over, and I'll tell you everything."
"You damn well better. You go off and have an adventure full of this much crap, I want to be able to write it all down. My readers are clamoring for something new after the book about the Inquisition. Pretty sure a story about a halfling spirit meeting people from other worlds will be right up the 'weird shit' alley." He sighed a bit, leaning back in his chair. "Well, you should go. You still got a long journey ahead of you, kid, and Maker knows what tomorrow's gonna bring. And Cole, hey..." Varric paused. "If you...if you can. Look around the city and see if you...find anyone familiar."
"You hope Hawke is here." Cole tilted his head a bit.
"I might be a dream, but I'm still Varric. I...I'd like to know if he were around. It'd be nice if this weird person kidnapping all of you was able to somehow yank him out of the Fade and give him a little more time to have adventures."
"I'll look, I promise." Cole rose onto his knees to lean in and hug the dwarf again. "I miss you."
"I know you do. We miss you too. And know if the Inquisitor can find any way to rip open a hole in the world and come to rescue you, it'll happen. But in the meantime, just be careful." Varric patted his back. "And try to let the others feed you, all right? I know you hate it, but you gotta learn."
"Blegh. ...all right."
"Good boy." Varric smiled. "Now go on. You're gonna be away soon. Take care of yourself until I can be there to do it properly, all right?"
Cole didn't remember leaving, and wouldn't become aware of the fact that he had until he would wake up the next morning. But he would feel a good deal more settled once he did wake up, whatever the next day of their bizarre imprisonment would bring.
edited 16th Apr '16 4:26:36 PM by ColeMinor
Gon promptly woke up, gripping his TT-33 on his hand.
What the?
He noted that he was alone in his safehouse.
A dream? From the yesteryears?
Gon laid back again to sleep, putting the pistol underneath the barrel.
Damn it all.
END OF DAY 6.
THE SLORG!
RP IS NOW OFFICIALLY OFF OF HIATUS.
Cole didn't remember leaving, and wouldn't become aware of the fact that he had until he would wake up the next morning. But he would feel a good deal more settled once he did wake up, whatever the next day of their bizarre imprisonment would bring.
... Or maybe not.
The room suddenly shifted; the colors became darker and the wood all warped. Varric was frozen in place, still looking at Cole with that smile- while rapidly decomposing.
"So much like me, but so... Different."
It came walking out of the wall just behind the dwarf, the wall rippling like water as it phased through it, towering its full, intended two-story height well over the both of them. (The room had become larger to accommodate if it wasn't that large before.) The Lord of Change spread his wings menacingly as he regarded Cole.
"What is it you desire, spirit? Peace and happiness among those in the city?" it asked in its demonic double-voice.
"But you know, so long as they have free will, they will bring suffering to each other; you have seen it, just as I have" it told him, holding an arm to one side and morphing part of the wall into a visage of Brother Marcus and Silanea confronting each other.
"And you know what's at stake..." it continued, reaching its other hand down to grab Varric's head, now nothing but a skull and writhing maggots, and pulled upwards; suddenly it was no longer the dwarven corpse, but a living and breathing Sawyer. Not a recreation of Cole's mind either, but Sawyer's actual consciousness, abruptly yanked from whatever dream she'd been having to this now shared nightmare, "in time, you will see that my way is the only way."
It tossed Sawyer into Cole, sending them both tumbling to the floor, then leaned forward, stretching out its neck to stare at them deeply, its eyes glowing intensely. "Will you be joining me soon, 'brother'?" it questioned, pointing the head of its staff at them as it started to glow the same way its eyes were.
Then Cole and Sawyer both abruptly woke up. The Lord of Change was nowhere to be seen or felt by Cole's abilities, but the effects of its mental visit could still be felt...
Miss Tairee took a deep breath to try to calm her nerves. Then she screamed in anger. "Damn it boss! Why do you keep pulling these stupid pranks on me!? I'm just trying to do the job you gave me, but you keep making it difficult!" Miss Tairee yelled out. Nothing but silence responded.
"... I mean, alright technically my job is just to do whatever you want me to do, but I thought you wanted me to run the library! Not be the butt of constant jokes!" Miss Tairee went on. Still nothing but silence, for almost a whole minute.
"..... Um, what are you doing?" Miss Tairee asked, and finally there was the familiar sound of a pen scratching on paper.
"I'm reviewing the dreams the city inhabitants are having. I subtly influenced things to make them more likely to have one this night; the results are quite interesting."
Miss Tairee thought about it for a moment, and ultimately looked a bit confused. "Aren't they all just dreaming about going home? It's what I would expect" Miss Tairee said. The sound of a pen writing came back again.
"Most are dreaming about their own homes, yes, but some are dreaming about their time in the city. Disappointingly, almost none of them are dreaming about what the homes of the other inhabitants might be like. I also find it curious how many of them dream about there being a sun over the city."
"Huh, a sun? That's weird... Well, let me know when you're done I guess" Miss Tairee muttered, and prepared to pass the time only for a piece of paper to float over to her. "What's this?" she thought out loud, taking the paper. The sound of a pen writing on paper sounded out once more.
"Just something for you to do in the meantime; there are preparations to be done, assuming the inhabitants defeat the next challenge. Don't worry about finishing it; I'll pick up wherever you leave off."
"Very well" Miss Tairee answered, and used her wrist hologram computer to get started. Some time passed; Miss Tairee didn't really track time in this place anymore, but it seemed like at least a few hours, maybe even days. It could have been years for all she really cared to pay attention to that, since it didn't really matter anyways. Finally another piece of paper floated over to her, and the sound of a pen scribbling on paper sounded out.
"Alright, it is time to continue. Here is the conditions for the next day."
Miss Tairee adjusted her lenless glasses as she read the piece of paper. "This almost seems mundane compared to the other days, but alright" Miss Tairee commented, tossing the paper aside and looking forward, "I am ready."
Light started to shine down from above as the 'sunrise' came, but mostly only reached the upper parts of the city. The upper most section had its various lamps and walkway lights toggle off as it became light enough to not need them; down below, the middle section kept its lights on, the natural light above not really necessary and only came through in a few places anyway; down in the bottom section, no light came down, much as it was needed since the area was in near constant darkness, but the two layers above completely blocked it out.
Up in the library, as usual Miss Tairee had not yet appeared, but it likely wouldn't be much longer until she did. For the moment, everything seemed relatively peaceful as a few random civvie types even came in to take a look around, a few going upstairs to browse the bookshelves.
Whenever Mary finally awoke, she'd find herself in a bedroom of the apartment; currently alone, but there were sounds coming from the small kitchen along with a faint smell of sausage and pancakes. Outside the window, there was no view of the sky above, only the underside of the top layer; but there was quite the view of the middle layer and the multitude of neon lights about it, along with various people walking around the streets.
edited 17th Apr '16 5:28:33 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this.
A Nightmare
Zelda found herself walking through nothing but pure darkness. No landmarks, no horizon, just inky blackness. She had no way of knowing where she was going or how far away she was from it. She tried looking around, but nothing revealed itself to her.
Then a loud, all-too familiar roar reached her ears. Suddenly, a gargantuan black beast rose from the equivalent of the ground. It was covered in round scales, with shadowy plumes rising from its form and a mane running down its spine. Its most notable feature was a massive mouth filled with razor sharp white teeth. In fact, this mouth was all it had for a face. It was the same creature that had been haunting most of her nightmares as of late, but no matter how many times she saw it it never failed to fill her with dread.
Then its roar started to turn into a chuckle. Then the chuckle turned into howling, maniacal laughter. The beast threw its head back and laughed and laughed, convulsing in such a manner that it was hard to believe that it wouldn't fall over at any second. Then it suddenly collapsed, shattering the darkness apart and sending both itself and Zelda falling into an orange sky.
After what felt like hours, Zelda landed on solid ground. Somehow, the beast had vanished during their plummet. As she pushed herself back to her feet, she realized where she was: back in Skyloft, standing before the Statue of the Goddess. Except the sky was still an eerie orange, and the familiar stones around her were unusually dark. It was almost as if she stood in Skyloft's ruins, if it were actually in ruins.
She wandered away from the Statue, through what should have been comforting and familiar but was instead desolate and alien. Furthermore, no matter how hard she looked she couldn't find anyone. Her father, Link, Groose...everyone was gone. No Loftwings flew in the sky, and nothing so much as a bug remained. She was completely alone.
Then she found herself in front of the Knight Academy, where the Wing Ceremony had initially been held. There, in front of the building, there was someone familiar at long last. He looked to be a boy around her age, with short light brown hair and dressed in the clothes of a Knight Academy student. His back was turned to her, but she felt certain she knew him.
"Link!" Zelda called out, running up to her childhood friend. Then the boy turned towards her, his familiar shape suddenly shifting and morphing into something also familiar, but not in a comforting way. Where she thought Link stood was now the avian form of the Lord of Change, feathers the color of his hair and clothes matching his as if to mock her.
"Tragic, isn't it?" it asked of her, tone triumphant and condescending, wildly gesturing to indicate their surroundings, "It had been going so well. Your people lived peaceful and productive lives, full of hope for the future. Then one day, they fell into Chaos and vanished into time. This is all that remains to show that they even existed."
Its eyes narrowed, as if in judgment but also to indicate its own pleasure. "What have you done?"
"I...." Zelda's expression varied between confusion and misery. "...I don't know what you mean. This wasn't my fault...."
"That is what anyone would say. But the results speak for themselves, do they not?" the daemon asked back, "The only reason all this came to pass was because one selfish little goddess thought she was above consequences." It leaned in close, the tip of its beak mere inches away from Zelda's face. "You abandoned your people when they needed you most. They respected you, relied on you. You rewarded them by leaving them to fend for themselves. You practically gave them to Chaos, already fattened up for the slaughter."
Then it descended into a fit of howling laughter, exactly as the black beast had. Zelda opened her mouth to try and refute its claims, but no matter how hard she tried the words would not come to her. In the end, she held her head down, shut her eyes tightly and grimaced, trying her best to deny the daemon's claims.
Then a book fell on her head from out of nowhere and knocked her clean out.
Library - Dawn of the Seventh Day - ??? Hours Remain, With Hopefully No More Shenanigans For a While
Zelda's eyes snapped open to see nothing but darkness for a moment. Almost immediately afterwards she sat up, causing the book that had fallen on her face to slide down into her lap. Sometime during the night she'd fallen off the couch, and that nightmare was frightening enough to make the book fall down after her.
She looked down at it briefly, before picking it up and checking it to ensure that it wasn't damaged. In the process she almost missed that color had returned and she was completely back to normal. When she did, however, she looked at her hands, then stood up to find that she had returned to her normal height. Without a day condition obscuring it, it was clear now that she was in her late teens.
"I was wondering if we'd ever go back to normal," she said to herself with a sigh of relief, before picking up her book and her harp and walking over to a table. She plopped the book down upon it with the intent of studying it further later. One part of her really wanted to go wake Caro up, but she ultimately decided to just let the girl and her dragon get up at their own paces.
Instead, she made her way to Miss Tairee's desk, looking over the challenge for the day and the reward for it.
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Rex's charging up and calling out might not have been enough to wake most people at a level of exhaustion, but Cole was used to being aware that such sounds might be a sign that he was needed to come along with the Inquisition for some mission or another.
Still, he was bleary, and by the time he completely opened his eyes to try and detect the source of the sound, Rex had already headed back downstairs, leaving him to blink a little dazedly at the bookshelves nearby before becoming aware that both Sawyer and Nightwitch were curled up with him. He considered this for a moment before smiling faintly, closing his eyes again.
The twitching in his head that there was something big going on downstairs kicked in before he could stop it though, and he opened his eyes once more, frowning slightly. It took him a second to get the focus together to take a look into heads and try to piece together what was going on, and what bits he could get, he didn't like.
Cole shifted a bit to try and slowly sit up, trying not to disturb Sawyer, smiling again as he took his hat from where she'd put it, considering just a moment before putting it over her head, then held Nightwitch carefully, getting to his feet to start downstairs, letting out a wide yawn as he shuffled down, looking as though he were still about halfway dozing.
"Wh-why are you...why are you going to go after him?" he murmured, wandering over, supporting the cat in one arm while rubbing at his eyes with a fist. "He's dangerous. He could hurt you all. And he was inside the man's head that k-killed me. There could be others. Th-this is not a good plan."
All of this might have sounded more serious if he weren't mumbling it in the way one would when awoken after not nearly enough sleep.