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Author Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again  (Read 561984 times)

Spinal_Taper

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10410 on: February 22, 2015, 03:18:30 pm »

"No, I don't. What happens?"
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Xanmyral

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10411 on: February 22, 2015, 07:33:56 pm »

Morton is rather confused at the plaza, Mr. T's reaction, and more so from Mark's response. He takes it in stride though, displaying the true stoicism only found in the role of thankless hired help.

"I'm afraid I barely know anything about this, good surgeon Mark. There was a mage good tailor Craig and I was speaking to who knew of this pink, but I'm afraid I wasn't present for the conversation. Shortly after seeing him again, things have become like this for a reason that eludes me." The desk explained as best he could, now looking back into the courtyard, thinking.

"Hm. I do believe I think good sir Tee might be trying to show us the way." The desk looked at the various wooden steps and tried to ascertain with sight if they might be safe to step on and perhaps cross the sea of pink, watching Mr. T to see if perhaps he was appearing in significant places.

Harry Baldman

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10412 on: February 23, 2015, 02:50:22 pm »

In the chambers of King Fintel...

Niklas, prompted by the unsuspecting king, commences his inaugural soliloquy.

"Not so much, no. Ascension or descent imply up or down. This is just ... becoming more. Seeing more. I can do many things with this gift, and my mind churns with glee at the possibilities I will inflict upon the world imminently. But I am reminded of something from very long ago, in another lifetime. One that propelled me on this route to begin with. What I've started I must end, after all - I have to kill the ninjas. Then my mortal aspirations shall be more or less complete," he says, and casts an eye across the universe for his quarry.

He turns up... little. Nothing, actually. His sight beyond sight appears to be failing him. This seems like a bit of a letdown. To be expected with ninjas, of course, but to see... nothing? After all this?

"Not quite a god yet, you'll note. It's a slightly misleading process, I will admit. Partly because I'm improvising. Conditions remaining favorable, you should have a connection momentarily."

Niklas gets the impression that the king is indeed telling the truth. There's a connection forming here, beneath all this flashy magic and symbolic powers. True godhood is upon him. It is still upon him, as it has been for the past few minutes already. The god-hype is starting to fade.


Outside the progressively more ruined town of Eckledun...

Sigmund, like any connoisseur of unmitigated disaster in his position would, elects to watch the town from afar. Policy of non-interference and all that. Wouldn't want to ruin the beauty. He considers the towers of pink, the crumbling buildings, the screaming people getting carried off into the sky by forces unknown, then plummeting down fatally.

It is fairly clear that magic is involved, first of all. Probably magic gone horribly wrong, or magic intended to go horribly wrong. Either seems possible, though Sigmund keeps to the old wisdom of considering stupidity first, and only then outright malice. Is it the Black Circle that's responsible? It seems quite catastrophic, this incident. Perhaps a highly unfortunate dabbler of some kind? Would be rather unfortunate to bungle something up so badly it destroys an entire town, but that's magic for you. Magic kills, children. Often when you don't want it to. Combined with a scatter-brained enough practitioner, shit is practically guaranteed to hit the fan.

The towers appear to be rising still, Sigmund quickly deduces. In a straight path. Curious, he takes a metaphysical look at these things, trying to make them out from afar. What he sees is somewhat displeasing - the pink towers seem to be made of gibberish. Solid gibberish. All the knots are frayed to the point where they resemble a pom-pom more than a properly structured thing. It'd look fairly amusing if it weren't for the fact that the knots of the objects around them seem to be fraying by association. Some of them more than others. The pink seems to be spreading like an insidious plague, that much is clear. And furthermore, it appears to have an agent as well. Sigmund traces the path of towers, which seems to be extending tremendously quickly, and for a moment manages to get a bead on its leading edge.

There's a thing at the front of it. It's all made up of whirling ruins of what may have once been a whole mess of knots, thrashing wildly as if trying to escape from the cage of impossibility reality is trying to keep it in. Its very touch, nay, its mere presence seems enough to corrupt all things near it to one degree or another. And it seems to be on a rampage. Sigmund looks closer.

The thing looks back. Sigmund feels awfully light all of a sudden, and gravity feels like it's skewing. His four feet phase into the ground a little. It looks away, seemingly having better things to do. The effects do not abate.


In the wilderness, where the weather is fine...

Scott, like any person with a modicum of education in natural philosophy, is never satisfied when told that a forest is just a forest. He tries to identify as much as possible of the area, so that he may better know his location.

This plan falls apart momentarily when he realizes that all he can really tell about these trees is that a lot of them are probably some weird kind of pine, and that the forest itself looks persuasively virgin. There's a bunch of birds around, too. Most other animals seem to be staying away from this area.

Oh, and in the distance Scott can see a rather tall stone pillar. That's a little unusual, and doesn't seem like part of the forest as such. There's a bunch of broken garbage and blood near it, too, as he can tell as he draws closer. Definitely not a natural feature, then!


Next to a pink-plagued yard...

Mark, like any true survivor of events beyond his control, tries to shift blame onto something familiar. Like Morton. Morton can take it, clearly. He writes up a somewhat sternly worded accusatory letter of inquiry to the desk and passes it to him, then hugs Wilma, who appears to appreciate the gesture and hugs back. This creates a very firm and carefully engineered atmosphere of exclusion, scorn and incompetent reliance toward the desk, so that he may be better motivated to help them all out of this.

Fortunately, Morton is used to this sort of treatment. They never give the help the time of day around this part of the world, do they? All the same, these friends of his.

"I'm afraid I barely know anything about this, good surgeon Mark. There was a mage good tailor Craig and I was speaking to who knew of this pink, but I'm afraid I wasn't present for the conversation. Shortly after seeing him again, things have become like this for a reason that eludes me," he explains, then takes a look at the pond of pink and its wooden lily pads, floating over to the edge. "Hm. I do believe I think good sir Tee might be trying to show us the way," he mentions as Mr. T jerkily floats and blinks to the middle of the pond, then stops abruptly. Morton watches confusedly for a moment, trying to pick up on the exact environmental cue Mr. T seems to have done, but is at a loss.

Mr. T, as if to spite the guessing, disappears into the pond. The surface does not stir one bit as a result.


Outside the village of Rugish...

Kevin plays it cool and walks over to the man to socialize.

"Why, hello. What's your name?" he says, perhaps sounding a little too smooth to assume innocent intent.

The man looks at him and opens his eyes. He seems to be trying to maintain eye contact. His face is slightly red.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to stare or-" he starts to say at a quick pace, but stops himself abruptly, then takes a deep breath. "Montark. Edgar Montark. Pleased to meet you. Hello, I mean. Yes," he stammers out.

Kevin's not quite sure what this fellow's malfunction might be. He seems shifty.


In the chamber of the Crown of Flowers...

Darren bites readily at the mention of more exposition. More readily than is perhaps healthy.

"No, I don't. What happens?"

"They take your soul and peel the experiences out. The peeling is what feeds the gods. Then they cast the soul back in when it's done, probably into a little baby or maybe a blade of grass." the ghost says less than probably would normally be expected. Darren counts his blessings, and realizes he's a few short when the ghost speaks again. "And life is just the way the gods fatten you up for consumption. There is a sweet spot, as I understand it, where a soul has lived long enough and seen enough to make for a great meal, but has not become a proper long-term investment yet. And this, you see, is the crux of the issue. I do not want to be eaten by a god. Velusius wants to eat me and my countrymen, and I shall not permit it."

"But enough chitchat. Shall we do battle for the Crown, or will you retreat and face possible retribution from a god? Choose quickly, or I get the first strike. I'm growing impatient."
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Tomcost

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10413 on: February 23, 2015, 03:44:41 pm »

Quickly! Try to pull my feet from the ground, put them into some kind of solid surface.

Alternatives if it fails:

-Use metaphysical sense to feel if anything got screwed up, try to fix it.
-Use rock focus to move a chunk of stone underneath my feet until I am not phasing downwards any-more.


((Hmm, I may have to deal with this thing. How to destroy entropy itself?))

Innsmothe

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10414 on: February 23, 2015, 04:21:18 pm »

Scott will scan for cultists around the pillar.

Maybe these idiots know how to appreciate spirits.
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Tomcost

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10415 on: February 23, 2015, 05:43:20 pm »

((I'm considering various alternatives:

Physical destruction: hurling giant stones would be the best bet here
Metaphysical tinkering: This has many different options. Do I stabilize the anomaly? Do I destroy it? Do I desprive it from its powers?))

Xantalos

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10416 on: February 23, 2015, 05:45:22 pm »

"...shit, I was hoping to actually do productive things with godlike power. What connection dyou mean?"

Try something more mundane while king guy talks. Summon a sword of infinite sharpness. That can be on fire. And unbreakable, or near as I can make it.

((And now the saga of Niklas refusing to confront his possible delusions continues, this time with cool weapons! Let's hope I'm not massively misinterpreting whatever this thing does.))
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Nunzillor

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10417 on: February 23, 2015, 08:52:58 pm »

((I'm considering various alternatives:

Physical destruction: hurling giant stones would be the best bet here
Metaphysical tinkering: This has many different options. Do I stabilize the anomaly? Do I destroy it? Do I desprive it from its powers?))
Well, you could try and make the space around you extremely boring and logical from a metaphysical standpoint.  Perhaps make each knot reference and insert programming into the surrounding knots to create a competing wave of boring?  Hopefully when the pink and the boring meet they will just cancel eachother out.

Or you could run away really fast after fixing your feet.  That might be easier.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2015, 09:04:13 pm by Nunzillor »
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killerhellhound

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10418 on: February 24, 2015, 04:36:59 am »

Mark studys the area looking for a safe path even if that path is through a wall or two.
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Xanmyral

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10419 on: February 24, 2015, 10:47:05 pm »

"Hmmm." Morton hummed in thought as he looked about and investigated. "I... Believe that may be a warning against coming through. Perhaps there's another path? Or maybe I'm misunderstanding good sir Tee."

Morton will pick up a small object and toss it on one of the wooden lily pads to see if there's any reaction. If no reaction, he'll toss something slightly heavier. He'll also backtrack a bit and see if there's another route they can take beyond the alleyway.

Harry Baldman

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10420 on: February 25, 2015, 04:03:54 am »

"...shit, I was hoping to actually do productive things with godlike power. What connection dyou mean?"

"Connection with the, how best to say this... realm of the gods? Sounds mystical enough, yes. You wouldn't think the, er, divinity was in you all along and you just had to reach out and grab it, would you? Some transfer will be required."
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Xantalos

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10421 on: February 25, 2015, 04:20:32 am »

"You better not be trying to possess me or something."
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miauw62

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10422 on: February 25, 2015, 08:54:46 am »

Kevin realized that he didn't actually know what this body was called. He suspected that this fellow would be rather confused with "Kevin".
"I'm... Uh... Lisa. Yes. Lisa. Why are you looking so flustered, Edgar?"
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Harry Baldman

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10423 on: February 25, 2015, 12:47:47 pm »

"You better not be trying to possess me or something."

"I'm not, unfortunately. But let's say I was. What exactly would you do in that case?" the king asks, looking completely and utterly mirthless.

Kevin realized that he didn't actually know what this body was called. He suspected that this fellow would be rather confused with "Kevin".
"I'm... Uh... Lisa. Yes. Lisa. Why are you looking so flustered, Edgar?"

"Er, I was... and you were, um... and then you... sod it all, there's no way I can explain this without buggering things up spectacularly, is there?"

Edgar looks at you earnestly for a moment. Then he takes off at a sprint, running inside his home (you think it's his home, anyway), then slamming the door behind himself desperately. He seems to have dropped his axe on the ground. And left the firewood woefully unchopped, too. What a strange man.

On another note, you feel rather cold now. The weather's perfectly awful around here. Not nearly as warm as in Shriekpot, even if it's less windy.
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miauw62

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Re: Life Begins At Death - Chapter 6: Enjoying the Gub Life?
« Reply #10424 on: February 25, 2015, 12:49:31 pm »

Knock on the door.
"Hey, I'm not here to kill you or anything. I just want to find my way to... Well, there's better places to be than an isolated village that wants to murder a powerful mage."
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Quote from: NW_Kohaku
they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the raving confessions of a mass murdering cannibal from a recipe to bake a pie.
Knowing Belgium, everyone will vote for themselves out of mistrust for anyone else, and some kind of weird direct democracy coalition will need to be formed from 11 million or so individuals.
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