In a room in the Red Tower of Power...Niklas, having found mere walking impossible, tries jumping instead. This attempt seems doomed to fail as well - after all, jumping does require far more strength than mere shuffling about. And he doesn't really have any way to move his legs, or the rest of his body, for that matter. Things look grim for his continued mobility prospects, he has to say.
"Maybe you could tell them you have candy, dad!"In the streets of Mothdale...Sigmund, hoping rather dearly that he isn't about to die in a manner as excruciating as he thinks being slowly digested by a slime might be, tries to keep on rolling onward.
[Sigmund's escape roll: 4-1]
[Cloud Jelly's pursuit roll: 1-1]
And he does manage to get to a decent pace - in fact, he seems to be fast enough that the slime appears to decide that pursuing him isn't worth it, and simply flaps upward and away, forming a flattened, cloudlike shape as it takes to the skies, leaving Sigmund quietly hoping that any other vicious creatures he encounters will be just as easy to dissuade from snacking on his stolen flesh.
Elsewhere,
Mark decides that being able to run away whenever you damn well please is probably the best part about not giving a rat's ass about what people think, and so tries to hop away after getting up, utilizing his halberd as a crutch.
[Mark's escape roll: 5+1-
1]
[Screechy's pursuit roll: 1]
[McStrange's pursuit roll: 1]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 4]
He soon realizes that the halberd's really only holding him back, and instead hops rapidly, utilizing his ability at vertical ascent to run up a nearby stairway and get on a roof - this seems to be enough to lose two of the dolphins, who lack the proper anatomy to ascend stairs, while one is merely delayed, somehow climbing to the roof only about fifteen seconds after Mark has ascended - it seems to have jumped upward from the water, actually.
[Mark's escape roll: 5]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 4]
As Mark jumps to another rooftop from this one, the final dolphin tries its best to follow, but it is difficult for it to do so, granting Mark some precious distance as he hops for his life.
[Mark's escape roll: 4]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 4]
Now, though, the dolphin seems to be getting into a rhythm - when Mark jumps to another building, the dolphin seems to have less trouble following him, even though it is relatively far off. Hopefully it would tire out its sea-adapted muscles soonish, as Mark isn't sure if he can keep this up for too long.
[Mark's escape roll: 1]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 2]
Just as Mark thinks this, he actually miscalculates the next jump somewhat, and nearly falls down, only managing to hang on by the fingers on one hand, and though he does climb back up as quickly as he can, the dolphin has gotten much closer in the time he took to do it.
[Mark's escape roll: 6]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 5]
And while the dolphin seems to taste blood in the air, which seems to motivate it, the approach of the crazed mammal motivates Mark to do much better on his next jump, and he scales a rather perilous gap with some effort - the dolphin will have quite a bit of difficulty following him here.
[Mark's escape roll: 1]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 4]
Which makes it all the more surprising when the dolphin simply coils up in an unnatural fashion, then performs a mighty springlike leap, practically landing right next to Mark within moments.
[Mark's escape roll: 5]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 3]
Mark, thinking that his momentary advantage has been nullified, slides down a nearby chimney - the beaked dolphin is clearly far too large to follow effectively, he thinks.
[Mark's escape roll: 5]
[Beakley's pursuit roll: 2]
It's a bit surprising when it actually tries to do this, in fact, and doesn't really seem to get stuck - instead, it appears to be slowly moving downward through very deliberate movements and controlled breathing. A very impressive feat indeed, Mark thinks, and quickly hops out of the house and into the streets, jumping away for about ten minutes through various detours until he becomes absolutely sure that no dolphins are following him. Now it's time for phase two, he thinks, and goes looking for his friends - almost immediately after he hops out of the alley, he notices a rather familiar ducklike shape flying his way - Evelyn. She seems to be flying somewhat evasively, and once she notices Mark, she immediately addresses him.
~We are leaving in no more than two hours. Regroup at the large tower at the center of town. Pass on the message. Get everyone you can. The Captain is a priority. Do not fool around.~After relaying this message, she immediately flies off. Huh.
Aboard the Second Shank...Morton chooses to obey his bad feeling as well as he is able, as he hasn't ever had a bad feeling about anything that was all that good, and heads down into the streets, trundling back to the Dancing Fly to take cover. As he moves through the streets, he tries not to attract any attention.
[Morton's dodge roll: 1-
1-
1]
However, just as he thinks he is about to be home free, only about a hundred or so meters away from turning into the street that the Dancing Fly is on, a bird swoops down from the sky, its beak held out like a mighty lance. Before Morton even notices it, the bird's beak tears right into the middle of his top surface, the resulting massive crack proving enough to split the desk in half, leaving an arm and drawers on one side while another arm is left on the opposite side. Even the bird looks more than a bit dazed from the impact, though it seems to realize after a few pecks that Morton probably isn't exactly what it might have been looking for, and promptly begins to fly away.
[Morton's will roll: 3]
Even considering all else that has happened to him, Morton does have to say that this is probably the most traumatic, senseless and terrible event that he has experienced ever since he burned to death all those years ago. The sheer shock of it makes him feel a tad... blunted mentally, as if something has fundamentally failed in the world just now.
At a ruined tavinn in Blynn...Timothy resolves to help the poor guy with the crushed legs before his girlfriend gets back, and immediately flies down to him and tries to apologize.
"Uh, uh, I's real, real reallyreally sorries! I-I-I um, I just, um, let's us just be gets you outta dis hole, yes?! You's not needs a worries, it nah too bad, we fixes you up real good, yep, I's a helps you gets better, we is got plenties a' foods, it's alrighties, Timothy is makes all better..."The man looks to be have entered a somewhat interesting state of mind from the excruciating pain.
"Yeah... it's alright, I guess? I think my spine might have shut off from the pain... good riddance, too... what good was it doing me, hahahah... hah... aw, shit, that still hurts..."Timothy thinks he should be delivered to a safer place. Say, next to a pile of food, for instance.
[Timothy's telekinesis roll: 5]
Working quite expertly for once, Timothy gently lifts the man from the basement, making sure to put him outside next to all the food. Though the dog vibrates uncertainly at the sight, Timothy ignores it, and is done in record time with a record zero additional inflicted injuries. With that done, Timothy inspects the man whose sudden lack of coherency and leg movement he is responsible for - an examination reveals that his legs aren't in all that bad of a shape - one's broken in two places, the other only in one - that shouldn't be
too hard to fix!
In the engineers' quarter of the City of the Dead...Darren guesses he can accept a halfway-agreement like this - once they see all the knife-puppies and so forth, they'll probably want whatever that lady can sell them.
"I'll go and tell her the news, then.""Do so.""But we'll still need to see the pets, you know."Darren keeps that in mind, and quickly floats back to the pet store, where the lady is drifting about, adjusting the weapon pets on occasion. She looks over at Darren.
"Ah! Welcome! Welcome to my store! There are many pets here that await new homes! You must buy one!" she says excitedly. Darren isn't sure she recognizes him, actually.
In a dark basement...Scott, quite intent on determining what the glowy really is and how he can use it to become rich, powerful and attractive, imagines that the box is like a metallic orange - to get at the possibly good bits, he must first remove the damnably useless coating.
[Scott's telekinesis roll: 3]
He does manage to peel back one layer of parts, but he gets no further on the stubborn box before it wantonly flashes with light, and suddenly Scott sees the room around him completely transform from a dank basement to a rather expansive, austerely-decorated library about two floors deep. At the bottom floor, he notices an ancient creature that looks to have been once a perfectly ordinary, if ancient man, but now seems to be more dust than flesh, so brownish-gray and earthy is his look. The man shoots Scott a look of extreme disdain, one that makes Scott wonder if he shouldn't just turn around and float off instead of choosing to be here a second longer.
In a guest receiving area of Lizzie's mistress...Kevin thinks that she needs to find magic and get him into the body. This is very important. She is convinced of it. And, to not let this test run get out of hand, he will indeed put her soul back into her body. Or was it something else that needed to be done? His soul in his body? The distinction is getting difficult to make, which is in itself an indication that things are getting risky. So she concentrates and tries to set things the way they should be.
Interestingly, the separation is slower than the joining - the adhesion of souls is rather tight, it seems. But Kevin's soul is slowly coming loose. And she feels that things will probably work out rather fine. At least he had started to do this in a timely fashion. Now it was only a matter of applying force of will.
But which of the wills is his own? Even as she thinks this, the souls keep on adhering more strongly, his work coming undone. This was worrying to her, and to him. Maybe the process really was far more dangerous when attempted on oneself. This may have been a bad idea. It was a terrible idea, in fact, he thinks. Somehow, he seems to complement her in unforeseen ways, which makes separation more difficult than predicted. He is starting to get a bit worried. And the diffusion is continuing.
Author
Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 564897 times)