Halesey, lacking any better ideas, decides to just settle down with his drink. Surely an idea will come to him, he thinks as he gets another pint of Goodness and drinks it. He almost misses the moment when his buddy
Larry apparently gets somewhere with Sherry.
"Halesey, catch you later!" he says, heading off with his new acquaintance and leaving Halesey all alone and not in the best of material states. A few minutes pass as he considers what he could possibly do now that he has all this time and a not too considerable amount of money, and he feels rather tipsy. And also he feels a very distinctive rumble in his ears, though he disregards it at first, guessing it's probably just his blood pressure or whatever. But then it suddenly increases its volume, sounding like rolling thunder from deep beneath the earth, and drawing closer. Halesey begins to sweat as the sound draws closer, and his hands begin to tremble - he's not entirely sure why exactly, to be frank. Just a gut feeling of sorts. He looks around nervously, but sees nothing of real note. If the sound is indeed real, these people seem quite insistent on pretending it does not exist.
As seconds pass, the sound gets closer and closer, and Halesey starts to recognize it for what it is - a voice on the air. A voice from very far away, its volume rising and falling in waves. As it draws nearer, Halesey begins to perceive what it might be saying - its message feels familiar, and it is slightly comforting to hear it from an external source, disturbing as that source may seem.
"Embrace the potato!"The voice resonates within Halesey, its tone oddly compelling, yet also without anything human in its address.
"Open the gates of heaven!" the voice shouts again from afar.
* * * * *
Eta, eager to test out this pillar of explosive thylacines and see if it is the genuine article, turns to look around for any buildings that seem like their inhabitants would not mind a sudden thylacine explosion. She's pretty sure that most of the ones around are rather densely inhabited, but one can't say the same of the street - nobody at this hour seems to be willing to brave the mysterious, enchanted avenues of the neighborhood, and this, Eta thinks, provides her with a sufficiently safe place to try out highly dangerous spells like these. After warning Lois to stand back, she tries to invoke the deadly power of extinct marsupials.
[Eta's affinity roll: 5+1]
The tree line of the nearby Benthurst Avenue begins to rumble as the power courses through Eta, and without warning a column of intertwined, mingling thylacines, unseen on this world since the early 20th century, and never before found in a form such as this, bursts from the cold ground, rising to a height of three stories and then some. The thylacines do not make a lot of noise like you would expect from a literal cylindrical conglomerate of wild animals - instead they seem silent, and regard the world around them with a mixture of wonder and apprehension. Looking closely, Eta thinks she can see bright yellow stickers on the sides of some of them - they seem to have the standard "explosive" warning pictogram on them, every last one.
"That's a very interesting power," Lois notes.
"Thylacines. Those are some kind of animal, right?" she asks, but then seems to remember her own magical concerns, and snaps her fingers. A second passes before she begins to grin like an idiot, then starts to laugh, bursting into loud guffaws within a few moments.
"Oh, this feels perfect!" she says breathlessly between laughs, and Eta thinks she can see tears in her eyes.
* * * * *
John, having no better idea than Trey's spell, sits back for the next few moments.
"Alrighty then. Whenever you're ready.""'Kay, let's go!" Trey says and points dramatically off the side of the roof.
[Trey's affinity roll: 5]
Though nothing is visible from here, something is obviously happening - it only takes going a bit closer for John to notice that some sort of reddish pillar has appeared, reaching up to a height slightly greater than the level of the second floor. It seems rather large, and it would certainly not be very difficult to land on it.
"Yeah, we're making stairs!" Trey shouts, then jumps off the roof and onto the pillar - he seems to land softly, so John follows suit and finally Luz lands next to them as well. Trey then points at a position next to them.
[Trey's affinity roll: 5]
A similar pillar, but lower and wider, appears around them, offering another one and a half floors of descent.
"Right, make sure to relax and try to land ass-first," says Trey, jumping down and landing without issue, followed by his two companions doing the same. The surface of the pillar is quite pliable and welcoming, in fact. And from here the last jump to the ground is simple, and nobody sustains any injury during it whatsoever. They proceed to run until well clear of the school, stopping behind the sizable secondhand clothing warehouse. After taking a moment to catch their breath, several high-fives are performed, mostly by Trey's initiative.
"Pretty nice work, baby," Luz says, giving Trey a kiss sloppy enough to make John slightly uncomfortable.
"Right, so, thanks for the help, man," Trey says after he's done with his little lip lock, looking at John.
"Probably best if we split up and make a run for it - me and Luz will go clean out the hideout, then we'll look for a new place. Gimme your number, maybe we can cooperate again, eh?""Us leyline people have to stick together, you know?" Luz adds.
* * * * *
It's only a bit of a walk from the bar to Sherry's hotel, the relatively-nice-but-nothing-special W7000 - the architecture and the style of the furnishings seems to be going for a Raygun Gothic theme, and it's painfully terrible-looking in places. But Sherry does assure Larry that the place has great room service, and very clean rooms. Plus the receptionist is dressed like a robot, so that's pretty nice as well. As Sherry takes Larry past the person, Larry catches the whiff of broken dreams and crushed dignity emanating from... it? So he must say it's got the most important bits of being a sci-fi robot down.
"I think I was a bit, uh, high when I picked out this place," Sherry notes as they get out of the silver elevator with a computer-generated voice telling them very clearly that they've reached the third floor. Stepping out into the plain, very clean hallway and walking to the Executive Suite, Sherry searches her pockets for the keys.
"Let's see, now where did I... wait, are these even my clothes?" she asks, looking slightly more drunk than she did at the bar - must be the beer kicking in right properly.
"Shit, I don't think I have the, uh... let's just knock, huh?" she then says, having found nothing, and knocks on the door, slightly surprised when they just open.
"Ah. Did I even lock it? Guess not."They both proceed inside, only to stop in the middle of the rather decadent-looking living room when they notice somebody inside. It seems to be a man, completely nude, reading a newspaper. But the strangest part about him seems to be the fact that he is very definitely dark green in color, with bright green, puffy-looking stripes running vertically over his rather round body. As they enter, the man looks at them, eyes almond-shaped and dark as black bears working in a coal mine, and smiles with greenish-white teeth.
"Hey, Sherry. Who's your friend?" he asks.
"That's... uh... who are you?" Sherry replies with a question.
"Call me Tom. Didn't I introduce myself to you already?" the green man shoots back slightly peevishly.
"I... think I'd remember. I think.""Eh, well, doesn't matter. Just don't be too loud, y'hear? Frankie's sleeping in the other room," Tom says, then goes back to reading the newspaper.
"Just to confirm, uh..." Sherry says, looking at Larry.
"You can see him too, right?"
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 270992 times)