"Well then, let's go. I've got little else to do," THE DUNKER says as if somebody particularly awaited his opinion on whether going back is a good idea - Joanie only nods and Schlomo hardly even acknowledges him as all three walk back toward the hotel, entering the lobby one by one. Bart, upon noticing the three of them, nods to himself.
"Hello," Joanie says to Bart cheerily.
"Good morning," Bart answers a bit more formally.
"No time for meeting and greeting. Let's go to the backroom already," Schlomo says and leads both Joanie and, by virtue of not deliberately excluding him, THE DUNKER as well.
The backroom seems to be a rather austere affair, compared to the look of the rest of the hotel - there's a round table here with a set of six chairs around it with a somewhat old lamp hanging over it, a dartboard on one wall with some picture THE DUNKER doesn't really recognize on it, a pool table in another and a very retro jukebox that doesn't seem to work propped up against a nearby wall. A typical room of recreation, pretty much.
At the table appears to sit a man, in his early sixties, with white hair and a sizable beard, currently reading a newspaper of some sort, his feet propped up on the table. He gives the three a glance and raises an eyebrow.
"Who're they?" he asks.
"Wizards," Schlomo replies nonchalantly, and the old guy's eyebrow shoots up an extra amount.
"Why're they here?" he asks after a moment.
"Well, Joanie here can apparently conjure cocaine. I was hoping she could demonstrate it to us," Schlomo explains, pointing at Joanie, who waves and smiles.
"Huh.""Yeah. So, Joanie, why don't you demonstrate, eh?" Schlomo asks of his old friend.
"Oh, sure," she says, walking up to the table and leaning forward.
"Let's see now..." she starts saying to herself and raises her fingers to her temples.
[Joanie's affinity roll: 3+2]
She begins to glow softly for a moment, and her silhouette begins to undulate, then starts to glow a bright purple as she seems to hover a few centimeters up from the ground. The old guy's eyes widen, and Schlomo begins to grin.
Said grin presumably disappears, though THE DUNKER can't quite say for sure, when some sort of purplish wave shoots out from her body in every direction, and light is momentarily blocked out completely as a large amount of the wave hits nearby individuals and furniture alike.
[THE DUNKER's body roll: 6-->6-1]
[Schlomo's body roll: 2]
[Old Guy's body roll: 2]
THE DUNKER, aware of proper protocol to be observed when witnessing unusual discharge of fluids, turns away, bows his head to avoid any splattering and crouches down with surprising quickness, and the wave shoots almost completely over him. The same cannot be said of either the old guy or Schlomo, he notices, who seemed to have failed to turn away - the former appears to have fallen back together with his chair, the entire front and sides of his body covered in purplish black growths vaguely resembling barbed, waving hairs, and the latter seems to have simply toppled backward, his body suffering the same fate. They sound like they're screaming, though the hairs appear to be warping it in a mildly otherworldly fashion. THE DUNKER, mildly curious, runs his hand over his back, and notices that it seems to have similar growths.
Joanie, standing in the center of the room, looks a bit surprised.
"Huh. Didn't expect it to work that well, actually," she says, then looks at THE DUNKER.
"Hey, you're okay. Cool. Say, I'm going to try and kill these two right quick and then eliminate their guy in reception as well. And when that's done, maybe steal some valuables or something. You wanna help?" she asks, smiling at him.
* * * * *
Eta, hoping to lighten her mood with some friendly banter, speaks with her companion.
"As long as they aren't apocalyptic visions of the future, I think it's all right," she says.
"It's called dreaming. And it's quite normal.""Oh. I think I was dreaming about that guy from on TV. The rambling one. He was saying something, I think. It was kind of strange," she says, still watching TV.
"I think he was also naked, but that's less important," she adds. Eta is about to ask more, but her eye is drawn to the program on TV - it looks like some kind of mock duel between men on stilts holding long poles in their hands. One appears to be significantly fatter than the other, and as they pretend to duel, a very dull-sounding commentary emanates from the TV. The program seems to be something from Channel 97, and looks slightly more news-like than their actual news show, leading to some confusion from Eta when just it doesn't seem to end.
For some reason, she finds it oddly mesmerizing, and so evidently does Lois. Perhaps it's the regular bleeps as about every third audible (that is to say, shouted at the top of their lungs) word from the two men seems to be unsuitable for daytime viewers somehow.
* * * * *
John, not one to argue with a deranged mancow, decides to provide as much motivation as is needed.
"I... okay. You were able to capture three people who had enough power to demolish a school, and you did it without breaking a sweat. You then seperated us, enacting elaborate punishments on three people at the same time. You were able to impart knowledge on me by having stored it inside of a puzzle box, which was impressive as well. I even had conversations with several other cows that I can only assume were your creations as well. You even upgraded one of my spells, I didn't even know that was possible without the magazine. Honestly, as much as I dislike being here and as much as I dislike you, I'm pretty impressed by all this," he says, and the cow appears to be responding positively.
"Yes, I can do this! You're right! Rise, Luz! Rise and live to fear another day!" it shouts, and a light surrounds Luz. As commanded, her body rises from the ground, and the hole in her chest fills seamlessly with new flesh. She stays still in the air for a second, then the cow opens her mouth and she suddenly draws breath, seemingly awakening all at once.
"Oh god," she mutters.
"Welcome to the land of the living!" the cow congratulates her, and lets the girl sink to her knees before turning to John.
"Thanks, man. I appreciate you having faith in me, really. So, in recognition, I'll just let you pick a Trey to take back with you and I'll disintegrate the others I've got on my own time. So, do you want 11, 54 or 64? You already know 11, 54's pretty quiet and seems to be dealing nicely, though he's got a few nasty scars, but 64 broke down into tears a few times, so you might not want that one. I'd ask Luz, but I get the feeling she'd not cooperate a whole lot."* * * * *
Halesey, spurred on by the clown demon but slightly discouraged by the way he seems to be looking like a normal person again for some unfathomable reason, keeps up his routine.
"Okay, Mr Demon! Thay, whath your name? Eh, Larry - could you thummon uth up thome more coke? I think thith ith wearing off, man.""Me? I'm Reuben the Clown!" the demon says, still giggling at Halesey's kung fu.
Larry, meanwhile, is somewhat unsettled by this whole business. For one, he's pretty sure somebody's looking at the happenings over there from within the heavenly portal. Secondly, he's not sure if Halesey needs a storm of eldritch cocaine in his life right now. So he just gives Halesey his bag instead.
"Errr... how about you juth take tthome of mine?" he says, and Halesey graciously accepts, using the bag as a sort of flail against the villainous air before him. This continues for a good minute before Reuben raises his palm.
"Enough! I am slightly bored! Into heaven, toward adventure!" he says and leaps into the bright gateway, emitting a peculiar warble as he does so.
* * * * *
Dave has but one more question of his fungal hosts.
"Um... before I go, why do you want this?"[/glow]
"Why. Is. A. Meaningless. Question," the first voice merely replies, and Dave is suddenly shot up from his current position, flying out of the ground after a few minutes of moving. Strangely, he does not appear to be in the same place that he was before - instead, he seems to be currently atop a rather tall mound of the blackish smut that appears to make up the majority of the earth around here, and around him giant hogweeds sway to and fro in sync, the wind producing odd music as it moves through the field. From here, six trails seem to lead outward, and none appears much different from any other.
However, there are several plumes of smoke on the horizon all around - how many of these are chimneys and how many civilization, though, is difficult to say.
I was going to post yesterday, but a combination of earth science and time mismanagement prevented me from doing so. Multitudinous apologies.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 273570 times)