feeling blue
Sans ended up spending most of the night writing a journal
, which resulted in him feeling very tired once he stopped, he could see clearly now that color had returned to the city, something he was quite thankful for. He stood up and dropped the journal into the shopping bags he had with him, picked them up and headed outside where he met with quite a different place from what he was used to. Neon lights kept the place illuminated because for some reason there seemed to be a ceiling over all of the city made of books blocking all sunlight.
"... don't tell me the city is now separated in floors," said Sans, sighing.
Problem now was that the library must probably not be in the same place he remembered it being, so that meant that he couldn't shortcut there as easily as he could before, he would have to find it's location again just to be sure. He didn't even know how many floors that city had, or which one he was in, first thing first, he had to find out he could switch from one floor to another.
Unfortunately that meant he would be carrying two kinda heavy shopping bags with him all the way, fortunately, he had the dimensional box to help him with that. He pulled out his cellphone and scanned both bags into the dimensional box, their contents going with them.
"thank you alphys for making this function." he thought, looking at everything he had stored before heading off.
While looking for a means to get to change floors was priority, Sans also took the time to see if he could find anything new in the place he was in. He probably would end up walking around for a while so it looked like the girls would have to wait longer to get their snacks.
Aigis's night was mostly uneventful. She had spent much of the time her allies were sleeping studying the various books that had been provided to her by the librarian. Sadly, none of them seemed to provide much more information on the target then she had already saw. However, she had found it interesting to read about another universe, if somewhat horrifying as well due to the particular universe and the subject matter these books focused on. At one point she had found a bit about Chaos Space Marines, who appeared to mostly match the descriptions she had received about the so called "Brother Marcus",not to mention her own memories of the encounter with the strange man when she had arrived in the city. She made sure to commit the information to her databanks. Even if these had been changed somewhat, at least some of the information was likely still relevant.
Once her internal clock determined it was now "Morning", Aigis rose from her seat and walked downstairs, seeing people were beginning to wake up. She raised a hand and waved.
"Good morning!" She said to the room at large.
The King Without a Kingdom
Middle layer, Street
Bill looked around at his surroundings. " Gee, this looks even more different than before! Hm... I wonder if I can go back to that supermarket and see if there are any other people there." He floated over to where he thought the supermarket would be.
It's been 3000 years…
Screw the Lion!
Plague Knight immediately took notice at how the light coming in from the windows seemed rather off after getting up from the booth. He walked over to the entrance and opened the door. He immediately noticed how all the lights were completely artificial, coming in from various lampposts, hanging lights, and lights that seemed to glow with some sort of electrically charged gas, most apparently with the sign hanging in front of the pub. Despite all the lights being brights enough to simulate daylight, he could see in the distance various dark patches, reminding those that the light they bathed was in fact artificial.
Looking up, the knight saw some sort of ceiling several stories up. If he squint past the light, the surface looked to be the cover of a book, just like the trees from the fourth day and the cars from yesterday. There were gaps where natural sunlight peeked through, but it was significant enough to substitute the artificial light, at least not in the part of the city they were all in.
Plague Knight turned to walked back in, but then spied on the neon lights nearby. Curiosity taking precedence once again, the knight tore off the sign and went back inside, intending on studying it for later. Back first, he went to check on if he managed to extract any residue from Garret's knockout arrow......
"Well before, I did it with reckless abandon. Now I can't control myself!" ~ Jesse Cox, 2014
For the Horde!
Ben had just managed to get back to sleep, after sitting there, wide-eyed, for the past few hours. Then, suddenly, Aigis greeted everyone in the room. Ben groaned, turning over in the couch and wincing. "No, five more minutes," Ben moaned, wiping his eyes gently. He sat up, looking around. Standing, he trudged over to the desk, noticing Miss Tairee was not there. Awkwardly, he clambered up to stand on the chair, then clambered onto the desk, his legs wobbling slightly. He then looked at the plaques sitting there, reading them.
He looked irritated when he saw what the challenge was. "Do we seriously have to?" he muttered, laying back into the couch. "That sounds like Brother Marcus to me. And I don't wanna have to fight him..." he whined, trying to curl back up onto the couch. He was still tired because the nightmare had kept him up.
edited 17th Apr '16 6:45:24 PM by AllHailThrall
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Jedi of the Old Republic
Top Layer, Library
Despite how restless she felt having not having the most pleasant sleep, Twilight managed to get up from her makeshift bed, just in time to see the robotic looking girl greet everyone.
Ben was a bit less than receptive, probably because it looked like he was even less rested than Twilight. He examined Miss Tairee's desk. Twilight followed suit and learned what the challenge of the day was.
A layered city was strange, but was hardly the strangest thing to happen in the city. Twilight was a little more concerned about this 'champion' that was mentioned on the plague.
What is this "signature" of which people speak?
Now that he had been awake for a few minutes, Rex noticed that color was once again part of the city. In addition, he was back to normal and didn't seem to have changed in any way. Guess this day's conditions didn't involve transformation.
Rex got up still a bit confused by his weird dream and decided to stretch his arms. At that moment, Aigis walk downstairs from the top floor and greeted anyone that was awake.
"Uh, hi, did you sleep well?"
Ben was already inspecting Tairee's desk and, more specifically, the challenge plaque. It involved beating some guy that used to be human. Ben assumed it was Marcus but Rex wasn't so sure about that.
"I dunno, it seems a bit predictable. This guys isn't nearly that straightforward. And, besides, even if it is Marcus we don't have to fight him. The reward is food, Tairee can easily cook up anything we want"
For some reason, the idea of cooking made him think that he was supposed to do something, somewhere. He wasn't exactly sure what.
"I don't know why but I think I'm forgetting something. It's probably nothing important"
edited 17th Apr '16 7:33:52 PM by DeisTheAlcano
someone
Ben had just ignored her, so that was nice. She waved at Aigis. The challenge was interesting, but Rex made a certain point.
"a) Who's Marcus? and b) Are you guys forgetting the great big Chaos daemon running around the City?"
[TOP SECRET]
Aigis wandered over to the desk with the rest and glanced down at what they were looking at.
"As a robot, I have no biological need to "Sleep". I often spend the night refueling and reloading my weapons, but as I was only active for a short time before night fell, I did not require that. I estimate I will not require recharging until at least nightfall tonight. May I ask what you are looking at, and why it concerns us? Is this some form of morning riddle you are attempting to solve?"
Much to Rex's surprise Aigis siad she didn't need to sleep because she was a robot. She certainly seemed more like a cyborg, specially when compared to Legion or Grimlock.
"A robot? Huh, I thought you just had enhancements like Adam. If you don't mind me asking, who built you? Was it aliens?"
The robot girl wondered what the plaque meant and if it was a riddle they had to solve.
"It's today's challenge. The guy running this place thinks it's amusing to see us battle different monsters. He's an ass"
Shiara asked who was this Marcus fellow and reminded everyone that there was a Chaos daemon running around in the city. Rex made a mental note not to tell Marcus, least he thought the city was just an illusion and tried to kill everyone in the name of his oh so glorious emperor.
"Mark's a big guy in a blue armor, at least 8 feet tall, and hates non-humans. We made a pact with him so he won't kill anyone unless provoked. And the demon can wait for now, at least until I have breakfast"
edited 17th Apr '16 8:18:28 PM by DeisTheAlcano
someone
"Lovely. Have some food."
She proffered some food from the bundle to Rex. A giant who was anti-almost-everyone-Shiara-knows (an occupational hazard of being the housekeeper of the King of the Dragons is that you meet some weird people).
"He should meet a dragon sometime. Kazul would have some choice things to say to him."
[TOP SECRET]
"So... this is... uh... what?" Morty looked around at the scene in front of them, squinting ahead in the haphazardly lit scene. Bags of trash were strewn everywhere, some of their contents spilling out into the streets. Lamposts flickered intermittently, casting a weak yellow glow on the streets beneath. The dark alleyway ahead of them was lit in a cacophony of neon- harsh electric blues, dayglo pinks, dancing and spilling onto one another in a never-ending dance of raw capitalism. Blaring television-billboards shilling for multinational corporations flickered haphazardly on decrepit electronic billboards. For some strange reason, many of them seemed to be in Chinese. "What am I looking at here?"
"Cyberpunk, Morty." Rick took a shot from his flask as he beckoned his grandson to follow him. Someone rode past on a greasy old bicycle as he spoke. "Y'see *urp*, Morty, back in the, I dunno, back in the 80s or something the authors that weren't- *urp* that weren't doing cocaine all day were thinking about consumerism, capitalism... all that kinda artistic over-analysis crap. And cyberpunk was their wet dream, Morty. Everything vapid and terrible about the 80s taken to its *urp* ex-it's logical extreme."
Morty blinked and stared around at the grim dystopia around him. Steam wafted up from a sewer grate, although where exactly the steam was coming from remained a bit of a mystery. A cartoon advertising mascot danced her way onto a nearby television screen. Shaking her hips licentiously, she held up a can of ramen noodles, jabbering something about the nutrition value of synthetic algae flavoring. Morty stared up at the (it must be said) rather under-dressed figure, teenage instincts momentarily overwhelmed, before Rick yanked his grandson by the arm and dragged him down the street. "Y-yeah, okay, Rick, so, uh, wh-what, logical extreme? Like, what are we talking about here?"
"Ads everywhere... a, a, *urp* rich upper class oppressing the lower class, widespread electronically-based crime, massive *urp* conglomerations fucking everything up for everyone..." Rick walked past a street café and grabbed a bowl of noodles off someone else's table, earning him a dirty look from an alien. "I-I-I... look, nothing in cyberpunk is *urp* subtle. If you can't grasp basic symbolism, Morty, then I'm just gonna ditch you when the artificial replicants or the corporate militia show up, whatever." Rick slurped up some of the noodles and passed the rest of the bowl to Morty. "God, I hate cyberpunk universes." he mumbled, washing down the noodles with some hair of the dog.
The duo arrived at an elevator tube, set into the floor. Rick pushed the button and waited for a few seconds as the elevator ground its way down to the lowermost level. As he waited, he started tinkering with something stashed in his pocket.
"So... uh... w-what's that, huh?"
"It's a bomb, Morty. An EMP bomb. Built outta the finest *urp* cyberpunk... parts... I found in a dumpster an hour ago." Morty blanched at the word 'bomb'. "Relax, Morty. It's an EMP bomb. Shuts down alarms, electronics, whatever. Temporarily. We're just gonna rob a few places, Morty, I need some parts."
"Yeah, but-"
"-Cyberpunk parts, Morty." The elevator had, by this point, arrived at the ground floor, and the duo stepped aboard; Morty eyeing the grungy machine- a massive inset TV displaying an ad for noodles- warily.
"Rob? We're gonna rob another store?"
"Yep."
"Geez, Rick!" Morty looked vaguely concerned and exasperated. "Why can't you just, I dunno, buy something? Or, or, or... uh... trade something? For something?"
"Morty, I know you enrolled in applied economics this semester, shut up and stop trying to sound smart. I need parts, Morty. Lots of parts, not..." Rick took another swig and tried to illustrate the point withis hands, "... not this I-have-two-pigs-I-trade-you-for-quantum-defrackulator-shit." Rick holstered his flask and tapped a piece into place. "Did you forget the demon, huh? Did you forget that there's a killer demon on the loose who'll probably *urp* probably emerge and start killing everybody in less than twenty-four hours time, Morty? Huh? *urp*"
"Well-"
"It's a rhetorical question. Help me rob this store." The elevator doors ground open as both Rick and Morty stepped out into the middle layer of the city. It seemed a bit airier here, shafts of natural early-morning sunlight filtering down in between the omnipresent electronic lights of noodle stands and electronics. "Think of it... I dunno, think of it as bonding with your grandpa. Do it for Grandpa."
"I dunno about this, Rick."
edited 18th Apr '16 4:27:30 AM by Locoman
HK-47 entered the library, having wandered around the city during the last day, he noticed that the others from before had appeared back in the city...while also noticing that the city had changed..alot. Now it looked like something that wouldn't look out of place in Coruscant.
He payed attention to the meatbag that woke up the others- wait...that's certainly not a meatbag at all, then she said she was actually a droid. A droid. Who looked almost like a human meatbag? Well, that's just preposterous.
HK-47 approached near where Aigis was, and looked at her in silence for a moment, before finally speaking.
"Query: A droid who looks like an meatbag. Some meatbags can't hold their ego back I suppose. What kind of droid are you, If I may ask? Protocol? Military? Assassination?"
Please don't be a protocol droid please don't be an protocol droid I'd rather not hear the babbling of one of these stuck in here..'
edited 17th Apr '16 8:59:16 PM by Darkomega245
Sticking her head out the window to notice that she was now basically higher up off the streets than before, the recently awoken girl decided to get a bit of the surrounding views. Leaping out so nimbly and swiftly that monkeys would be jealous, the girl let gravity take her downwards to see that the streets closest to the ground looked much akin to ghettos though a bit more high tech. Just a few inches before her feet hit the pavement, the girl's hand snapped outwards.
Attached to said hand was a gymnastic's ribbon, one that could be found just in just about any highschool with such clubs. The tapered silk darted out far faster and rigidly than it should have to wind about a mass of catwalks. Strengthened by ki, the tool was reinforced to be many times stronger than it should be for the briefest of instants. With her fall halted somewhat, the girl calmly slammed both feet into the ground to get a reactionary force that shot her upwards once more.
Retracting her tool, the girl then bounced her way diagonally up the walls to see what was up in the highest layers. Cool wind blew across her features from the sheer speed of said movements, the martial artist letting herself float for a few seconds as she scanned the richly decorated top layers before swinging back into the place she stashed her foods. Taking out a couple of packaged breads (curry-bread, custard-bread, and yakisoba-bread), the girl idly munched on the thing even as she reclined lazily and viewed the scenery, a thoughtful look in her eye. "It's already way better than all the other days... and I'm back to normal so that's a good thing."
The fact that she was doing it on a stone window ledge with no railing was something that didn't seem to worry her one bit either. If anything, she enjoyed being in places that shouldn't be reclined on. It fed that feeling that her training was all worth it, that she could do things that people could only wish they could do in their wildest dreams and have it be so easy. It was one of the rare times she found herself in full control of her life, before reality came crashing in on her like it always did. And thus she exulted in that prideful feeling and ate those delicious Japanese breads while she still could.
I just want to help!
Cole didn't have much experience with nightmares. Not with dreaming in general really, though he could usually pick it out when it was happening.
This...this was not a nightmare. This was a threat. A monster the likes of which he'd faced before, and been just as scared of then, except this time, he didn't have his friends there to protect him from it. Only an image, a picture of his good friend, and even that picture was warped and corrupted before his eyes as the giant demon loomed over him, threatening.
"N-no...stop..."
And then, as horrific as it was, it got worse, when somehow, some way, this creature, this monster tore Sawyer herself out of the mutilated image of Varric, realizing it wasn't just a dream, it was her, sensing her as plainly as he could when they were awake.
"Don't hurt her! Please! Don't-!"
It threw her into him, sending them both tumbling. It told him its way was the only way. It called him brother.
The next thing Cole was aware of was sitting upright in the bed, screaming at the top of his lungs, clawing at his temples as though trying to physically remove a nastiness clinging inside. "No! No no no no NO!"
His voice seemed to reverberate, echo as though something else were speaking along with him at the same time, and his eyes flared glowing green, along with what almost seemed like scratches along his arms, showing a further green glow, as though his skin were merely a covering over something else that was about to burst loose of it. For all this, however, he still just shivered, whimpering, sounding more scared than anything else.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt anyone..."
edited 17th Apr '16 9:07:27 PM by ColeMinor
"Ah. I comprehend. As for my creators, I was built by the Kirijo group, headquartered mainly in Japan, although they also have international dealings. Anything more specific then that is classified." She said, nodding. Before she could say more, another robot approached her. She turned toward it.
"I am classified as a Seventh Generation Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon. My name is Aigis, and I am better described as a robot, not a droid, which may imply I am a less advanced machine without a fully functional AI. However, as you do fit that classification, I understand where the confusion may come in, and do not mind." Aigis said in a flat voice, any insults that might have been implied in that statement going unnoticed by the blunt robot.
Library
Zelda frowned upon reading the challenge. By the looks of things, it was clearly meant for the people who could fight. It may had been possible to beat it through wits, but if she wasn't able to help with the previous day's challenge then she'd be of even less help here. As much as she didn't like it, the best she could do was hope the people better equipped for it would be able to manage it. She did hope they did; the more food supplies available in the city, the less Miss Tairee would be burdened with food requests.
In the time it took her to read and mull over the challenge, a few others in the library had also come up to the desk and also spoke about the challenge. Zelda recognized a few of them as the ones Miss Tairee had given the books to and were talking about the Lord of Change.
"Forgive me for interrupting, but I heard some of you may have met the Lord of Change personally?" she asked of them, "I would really like to help you defeat this thing. I spent enough time studying it last night that it worked its way into my nightmares. But the book's only going to tell me so much. Without knowing anything about what this specific daemon wants, there's not much I'll be able to do."
She glanced back towards the challenge and reward plaques again. "And regarding the challenge, I think it's worth undertaking anyway. I think Miss Tairee hasn't been happy about constantly being asked to make food."
Icon by Civvi the Civilian!
For the Horde!
Ben did not notice Shiara attempting to ascertain his condition; he was too shaken by the nightmare he had last night. As he lay on the couch, he attempted to go back to sleep, though his eyes shot back open as soon as he closed them, and Ghostfreak's trademark eye appeared in his vision for a brief flash. He needed to get some fresh air. He stood, shaking his head to wake himself up, then started to walk towards the door to the library. His eyes widened when he saw the splendor of the upper floor.
"Whoa, check it out," Ben gasped, simply gazing at the surroundings.
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.
Nightmare
Caro's dream had started off pretty simple and relatively harmless. It began mostly as just a memory from the time Erio and she had fough Lutecia and Garyu for the last time. Specifically, it had begun right at the moment, when ,after they had managed to somewhat get through to Lutecia, Quattro overrode Lutecia's will and made fight them once again.
So they were back at where they had started, with Erio trying keep off Garyu, Lutecia's insectoid summon, while also trying to convince him not to fight them and that they were not really enemies. Meanwhile, Caro attempted to get through to Lutecia's heart once again.
But that was when things started to wildly differ from reality and take turn for the worse. As Caro remembered, they had eventually been able to get Lutecia to listen by showing her just much pain she was causing to her summons by forcing them to battle the way she was.
In the current nighmare however, the sky had turned blood red and it seemed that the fabric of reality was breaking down. A silholuette of Quattro appeared behind Lutecia, before starting to flicker and twist until it had turned into much more terrifying and downright incomprehensible form. Just looking at caused a lot of pain and also had her senses go hayware.
Even worse, more horror happened as Lutecia and her insectiod summons were suddenly forcibly pulled towards each other and then started to fuse into a single being. What emerged from this horrifying process was a huge, half-human, half-insect creature that was just as incomprehensible as the first entity. The last thing she saw before blacked out from the terroble sight was the unnatural beast lunging at Erio and her with its huge, scythe-like arms extended and aimed at them, ready to shred them
Top Section - Library
Caro suddenly woke from a combination of screaming because of her horrible nightmare and also because of someone greeting the entire library. As a result, she ended up accidently falling off the couch, landing somewhat hard on the floor and thus finding out that she could pain normally.
His mistress' antics caused Fried to be woken as well, so after seeing it was just Caro causing the commotion, he quickly took flight and went over to her.
Caro looked at Fried and then at herself. It seemed the monochrome effext from yesterday was gone, as well as the weird body proportions. In fact, it seemed they were finally back at their normal selves. " It is good to be back to normal, isn't it, Fried?"
The dragon lowered his head as if to nod in response and made his typica happy sound.
" Yeah, I think so too." Then after looking around and seeing that there was quite a group gathered around Miss Tairee's desk. " Let's see what's that all about, shall we?"
She the proceeded to get up and walk over to the desk, with Fried following closely. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that the librarian herself wasn't around yet. Getting even closer, she managed to catch a glimpse of the plaques that some of the others seemed to be focusing on. From what she could gather itself that they would have to fight someone who was a master of combat, with the reward being having a larger supply of food being available in the city which surely would be nice. But thinking about food made her turn her thoughts to Sans, who had gone off to find foods for her and the other girls last night. She didn't remember seeing him again before she had slept and as far as she tell, he still didn't seem to be back. Which made her worry, because that probably meant he was in some random part of this crazy city. And while they seemed to be back to normal themselves, who knew into just what the place itself had morphed today...
Caro then took a look around the assembled group, trying to see if there was anyone she might recognize, even with all the changes to their bodies from the previous days.
She spotted a girl that looked somewhat familiar. She seemed way taller than she remembered her being due to the previous days' respective conditions, but the rather pointed ears she had and her long, light hair made her pretty certain that this was actually Zelda.
So with a bright smile, she walked up to the now older looking girl and said, " Good morning, Zelda. It is good to be back to normal today , isn't it?" Then looking once again at the plaques, since Zelda seemed to be on them as well, she then said, " Seems like we will end fighting a rather skilled warrior today, huh? Seems kinda tough, but earning food wouod be kinda nice. Speaking of which, have you seen Sans around? He never did come back last night, at least before I went to sleep. I'm a bit worry. I mean, your bodies maybe back to normal, but there's no telling what may have happened to the city itself."
edited 17th Apr '16 10:09:32 PM by JamesShields
The library (Top layer)
"Oh, isn't it grand of him?" Garrett asked with a humorless smile, tapping his finger against the plaque which displayed the day's reward. "All we need to do is do tricks for his amusement, and he'll spoil us sweet with toys and food. I wonder, if I do really well, do I get a diamond-studded collar, or a bowtie for my tail?"
He sighed. "Well, if any of you want to take part in his prize-fights, go ahead... I don't like playing by anyone else's rules." Shaking his head, Garrett stretched himself, then walked up to one of the windows and took a look outside.
"Whoa!" he muttered. "Now that's classy. Sure beats the views at Cragscleft prison."
Classy indeed. Polished promenades stretched between vibrant, fairy-tale gardens — which spread freely, unchoked, so unlike the cramped gardens that Garrett knew. Between the trees, upon the grass, gem-studded fountains spewed fantastically-shaped curlicues of water. And the buildings! They were solidified splendor. Monuments carved from stone of every variety — speckled and plain, pink and gray — and crystals, of course, diamond and onyx and spinel. Garrett used to think Auldale was the peak of luxury — but Auldale was a slum compared to this.
"Yup... Guy's still an artist. ...I wonder how easily these gemstones come off..."
edited 18th Apr '16 2:45:28 AM by Korodzik
Uminari City
It was a cold December morning as Nanoha flew across the cityscape. It had only been a few days since her Linker Core had fully recovered, and she still wasn't sure she'd completely regained her abilities just yet.And then it happened. Time seemed to slow, to jump. The colour drained out of the world, and everything went black for what seemed like an eternity.
The City, Bottom Layer
There was a sound like breaking glass as reality splintered for a fraction of a second, then slammed back together. The split lasted just long enough to spit Nanoha out the other side, forcing her to swing around to avoid slamming head first into a wall.
"What... what happened?" She asked, looking down at the staff in her hand.
"Unknown. Transit phenomenon does not correspond with any known method of Dimensional Transfer."
Slowly, she lowered herself to the ground. The area was dark and squalid, lit by little more than a few street lights placed as sparsely as possible, as though whoever planned this area wanted to provide the minimum amount of light for people to see and nothing more. There was no sunlight, and no stars either.
"I think we need to work out where we are. Raising Heart?"
"Understood. Area Search initiated."
A small pink sphere of mana appeared at Raising Heart's tip, before flying off to map the area.
"Yup. That tasted purple."
Another day, another bad guy defeated. Amongst the pleasant greenery of the city park, a gathering of superheroes stood with heads held high, as the corrupt executive of Uncle Creamy's Ice Cream was carted away by the officers of the law. There stood the Tick, stalwart defender of justice wherever it may be found, Arthur, his loyal moth-centric partner in crime fighting, their class of budding young superheroes- ever-active Mister Exciting, doll-flinging Baby Boomerangutan, bitter-tongued Sarcastro, soft-spoken Flying Squirrel and force ten allergist Gesundheit -and finally, Mister Creamy, the ordinary man turned vengeful frozen treat, who first seemed as cold as snowcones, but turned out to have a heart of creamy goodness all along.
"Once I underwent my transformation," Mister Creamy told his new friends and the surrounding press. "I realised that what this man has been passing off as 'ice cream', is in fact, nothing more than the runoff from his factory's coolant system!" A gasp of shock went up from the crowd. "Industrial affluent, gussied up with artificial sweeteners!"
"Yes!" the mastermind ranted and raved, "Yes! 's all true! And I would've gotten away with it! If it wasn't for those meddling superhero students!"
The artificer of artificial sweeteners was yanked away to his fate, as the Tick folded his arms, and turned with pride to the little mystery men that could. "Well, I can't think of a higher mark than the bitter confession of a villain being hauled off to jail. Congratulations, class!"
Mister Exciting punched the air and hooted with glee.
"But what have we really learned? Well, for one thing, not everyone can know everything. Some people don't know anything. I myself don't know much, but I do know this." He cleared his throat. "That, uh...well, the thing I just said. I also know that...you've all passed the course! Except for Sarcastro...who passes with highest honours!"
For a single moment, Sarcastro let down his guard of insincere jibes and smiled with the purest hope and joy. "...I...I do?"
The Tick gave a hearty chuckle. "Yeah, right." Sarcastro had been less than helpful throughout the entire course. In fact, turning ones sarcasm on their teammates and then turning tail at the sight of a real bad guy would be considered even less than unhelpful. But on the other hand, the class of super-heroics had turned out some real wonders. None more so than Flying Squirrel, timid as her namesake, who had lit the flame of passion when its heat was needed the most, and found the cream of goodness beneath the most frosty of exteriors. Sure, they all had a long way to go, but as the Tick and Arthur looked around, they could see clear as day that the future of the City was in safe hands, long after they were gone.
Which was good, because they were to be gone sooner than they thought. A fraction of a second after the Tick's ironic jab, time jittered to a halt. The world was whisked away one colour at a time, as the heroic teacher and teacher's assistant were sent adrift in stifling darkness. Then, as suddenly as it occurred, the horrific experience was at an end, and the two were sucked back into the warm embrace of reality.
The Tick and Arthur tumbled onto the balcony floor. Sputtering and confused, Arthur was the first of the two to find his voice. "Holy smokes, what was that?!"
The Tick sat up and stroked his oversized chin. "By the look of this place, which is clearly not the place that we were previously placed, I'd deduce were just the victims of a teleportation. But where, and why?"
"Ohhh, great," mumbled Arthur, getting up and rubbing his head. "I'd have at least liked an hour in front of the TV to rest up, before getting thrust into more craziness."
"Well, no sense in crying over spilt downtime!" The Tick hopped to his feet and stretched his arms. "First port of call is to assess the immediate area."
"Good thinking, Tick." Arthur headed towards the railings. "I'll check over the edge, see if there's anything interesting down beloooOAOAOAAAAAAH!" Arthur stumbled back, and had to be caught by the Tick's mighty hands.
"Steady, old chum! What did you see down there?"
"N-n-n-nothing!"
"Come on Arthur, you can tell me."
"No, I mean nothing!"
"Gonna need you to be a bit more precise in-"
"TICK, THERE'S NOTHING DOWN THERE! THERE'S LITERALLY NOTHING! IT'S ALL JUST AN EMPTY BLACK PIT WITH NO BOTTOM TO IT!"
"Oh?" The Tick checked over the railings. "Yes, I see. Does have a very nothing-ness ring to it, doesn't it? Very pretty nothing, though. You could stare into it for hours. Perhaps when people speak of staring into the abyss, this is the abyss they spoke of."
"Come on, Tick, focus, buddy!" Arthur massaged his face to steady his nerves. "Aghhh, what kind of nutcase what teleport us over a yawning abyss like that?"
"More to the point, why would they teleport us into that spooky black place first, and then transport us here? Ugh, that place gave me the willies something fierce, and I don't make that statement lightly. Welp! Passage beneath us isn't an option, so the only way open to us is forward! Come on, Arthur, time to press on into the depths of danger!"
The Tick strode forth with pride, swing his fists in a military manner, while Arthur awkwardly trudged behind him. It soon became very apparent to the two of them that they were in a most decrepit locale. Warped, black skyscrapers, corporate light shows and rundown hopes and dreams as the eye could see. Even the Tick was given pause, as he stood with hands on hips to survey the area.
"Well then, what have we here? A city, and yet, not our city at all. A dark, decrepit funhouse mirror of the metropolis we know and love. But not one of those wacky, goofy funhouse mirrors that stretch you out, or make you look fat, or give you a three tier hourglass figure. No, this was the funhouse mirror thought too disturbing for public consumption, so it was thrown out, shattered, covered in grime, and left to rot forgotten in the junkyard."
"Woah...I think I almost prefer the empty void."
"Indeed, Arthur! For this is a city of great excess! Look around, and what do you see? Corporations of stately technology and modern convenience, at the expense of the common man, resulting in excessive amounts of garbage and human suffering. In this cold metropolis, mankind has coveted and hoarded the greatest, latest and coolest commodities on the marketplace, and piled their bedroom high with piles upon piles of their coveted gains, tossing aside items once used and letting them lie for next time. Sure, it's your room and you can do what you want with it, and the mess surrounds you so often that you find it perfectly ordinary, but in time, oh, in time, that great mess becomes far too great for even yourself to ignore. You tell yourself and others that there's a system in place, and you alone can find the items that belong to you. But deep in your heart, you know... You have no earthly idea how long those underpants have been lying there. Where's that nifty pirate hat when you really need it?! And one day, quite by accident, as you scrounge about for that file that has your old resume in, you find it... a drawing by your ten year old self, about one of those dinosaurs you used to love so much, now torn asunder and left to gather dust beneath the many piles. A glimmer of beautiful humanity, consigned to be forgotten beneath the dreck and squalor. For in the grim darkness of the future, there is only synthetic algae flavouring."
While the Tick was engaged in one of his customary rambles, Arthur decided to do a bit of wandering, and see if there was anyone who knew anything about what the heck was going on. It wasn't long before he noticed a little girl in a white dress sending a small pink ball thing flying away. She seemed pretty normal, if you disregard the whole 'flying pink ball' thing, so he hurried over to her, calling "Hey! Hey, excuse me!"
BEGINNING OF DAY 7:
Gon woke up, after spending hours and hours of sleep. He looked around and saw that there wasn't any source of light coming in.
"What the fuck?"
He looked outside to see that there wasn't any light, natural or artificial wise.
"I got a bad feeling about this."
Gon proceeded to dress up in his original clothes, noticing that the other weapons, either given to him by Lune or pilfered, were gone. Worse, the two pistols with him when he got to the city were gone as well.
Gon stepped outside, looking to investigate what had happened.
edited 18th Apr '16 5:12:41 PM by Ominae
Happiness is a cup of tea
Day Six: Screw it.
Specter Knight decided to ride out the day's insanity from the comfort of a small apartment room. He could only deal with so much chaos, and was exhausted anyway.
———————————————————————————————————-
Day Seven: Apartment Room, Middle Layer
When Specter Knight awoke, he was relieved to find that he was back to his normal self. That fact alone made today much better than the previous ones. Hopefully, he wouldn't be proven otherwise. After picking up his scythe, which had been leaned against the wall, Specter Knight looked out the window.
The first thing he noticed was the the massive ceiling above, blocking the sky and sunlight. Of course, there were enough artificial lights to illuminate the area, most likely for practical reasons. With these observations in mind, Specter Knight teleported outside to a sidewalk he could see.
If there was a ceiling, than it was likely that there was a layer above this one, maybe even more than one. "A layered city." Specter Knight said to himself, "If I could teleport between layers, this would be trivial..."
With that, Specter Knight began searching for the Library, or at least a means of travelling between layers.
edited 18th Apr '16 7:16:14 AM by astrokitty
Somebody once told me the world was macaroni, I took a bite out of a tree
Library
Shiara was relaxing after her unexpected stint as a trampoline. Nightwitch had gotten comfortable, and Shiara was stretched out on the couch leisurely.
And then Ben woke up screaming.
"Woh."
Shiara got up, kicking Nightwitch off, noticing in the corner of her mind that she was back to normal, or at least as normal as she can be. She jogged over to Ben.
"Are you okay?"
[TOP SECRET]