Larry has a hypothesis on what may have happened to Mr. Klein. It seems fairly plausible, given the circumstances.
"Think he wanked himself to death?"Halesey stares at him for a moment before beginning to formulate thoughts of his own.
"I... Er... So, do we rob him? Perhaps we should call an ambulance... I don't really know first aid and don't really wanna touch the naked dude...""Let's poke him with a stick," Larry suggests. This is a measure Halesey finds acceptable.
"Er, yeah? Okay. You do it," he says, taking a big step away from the naked pawnbroker. While he braces, steels and otherwise prepares himself, Larry retrieves a broom and tries his ingenious plan of poking the insensible man. He pokes Klein in the back, then in the chest, then in the shoulder, finally tapping the handle against his head - he definitely doesn't seem very dead, judging by the way he appears to be shrinking away from the cold aluminum of the handle. After a few more pokes, he approaches a state close enough to mental coherency for purposes of dialogue.
"Uh... what? What's going on? Why am I naked?" Klein asks, seemingly snapping out of whatever state he was in.
* * * * *
John perhaps unwisely lets himself be talked into seeing 'the most incredible thing ever'.
"Oh very well, if you really can't contain yourself. But I expect to hear what you've all been doing here afterwards. Also, try and see if you can't call the others here while you get your poster, would you kindly?"Shauna laughs while exuding a strange sense of peace.
"Can't call the other two over, sorry. I suspect they're, er, heh-heh, getting busy, if you know what I mean. Wait right here," she says, then disappears into the next room for a few seconds, immediately returning with a rather large rolled-up poster. Giggling, she unfurls the poster.
Rather interestingly, it seems to be a picture of Adolf Hitler, looking very serious and Hitlery as he is typically known to do in these old pictures.
"'Kay, watch this," the girl says, then snaps her fingers at the picture, and the people in the room feel a shiver pass over their bodies as the picture suddenly seems quite different - for one, the fuhrer seems to be smiling, and is now dressed like a man vacationing on a beach in the thirties rather than decked out in his standard uniform. His mustache seems to be gone, replaced by a well-trimmed goatee, and his hair has changed to look less shiny and orderly and more trustworthy and slightly messy. And finally, he now seems to be looking straight at whoever is looking at the poster. What's more, his eyes and general expression seem to radiate genuine kindness. After the others take in the transformation's full effect, Shauna, seemingly unable to control herself, begins to guffaw rather wildly and unexpectedly.
"Tell me that's not the most amazing spell you've ever seen!" she eventually exclaims after she has to briefly stop laughing in order to breathe.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 272961 times)