Halesey, not deterred by lack of cash, engages in a short bit of ATM hunting, making sure to walk steadily for fifteen minutes in a particular direction before beginning to properly search. Not five minutes pass before he has found his quarry - a skittish, wild machine that regards him with slight suspicion as he approaches the wall it is embedded in - said wall appears to have belonged to a supermarket before a large proportion of it had been leveled by what was, in all likelihood, a falling dinosaur of immense size. The ATM, for its part, seems to still work.
Halesey can spot several small feathered fiends feasting on certain bits of dinosaur left in the ruins - only about half of them seem to be dinosaurs. The other half are simply crows. They look rather similar, once one gets past the slight size difference and the fact that one type of scavenging beast has slightly more teeth than the other.
* * * * *
Dave, with diplomacy having proven a resounding failure, chooses to engage in more spell attainment. Eventually he will get something useful, he knows it!
[Dave's mind roll: 2+2]
Striking a match and letting the green flame take him in, he finds himself suddenly standing atop a crumbling skyscraper in the middle of the town he was forcibly pulled out of not too long ago. The city all around him seems to have crumbled quite a bit. Tiny figures can be seen moving about on the ground, and enormous beasts both prehistoric and downright magical seem to roam the trashed landscape all around. The only structures in proper condition seem to be towers - incongruous towers stretching up into the skies, strange, almost imperceptible light shining at Dave, causing him to turn away.
Guided by impulse, he looks at the sky. There is no sun despite it seeming to be midday, and no clouds to obscure it, either. There's just an endless, vomitous green up above, screaming ghosts flying all about, trying to hunt large, flying birds. As Dave watches them go, he doesn't even notice how quickly time begins to pass all around him, and when he blinks, he is back in the denture dimension, slightly confused.
1. Transform Into Porcine Clown
2. Shrink Tuberculosis
Something interesting is happening with your mind! Too bad there can be no tests. Have one of these two spells anyway, though.
* * * * *
Larry, unrestricted by the presence of any busybody potato maniacs, pigs out on magical research with no remorse or shame.
[Larry's mind roll: 3+1]
His mind, though, seems to be getting real plump now. Knowledge still seeps into it, but the process is becoming more arduous and mildly uncomfortable. Larry guesses it might be very much like another thing one does privately in one's home in that respect.
1. Transmute Dentist Into Cactus
2. Storm of Eldritch Cocaine
WHAT A DIFFICULT CHOICE LIES BEFORE YOU, MORTAL!
* * * * *
John knows that he can waste no time, as it is rather a-wastin' as it is, and if he allows it to be wasted, he may get wasted himself, and not in the fun way, either. Grabbing his money, wallet, cell phone and snub-nosed revolver he keeps in a shoebox exactly for times like these, he runs outside, locks his door and quickly gets on his personal bicycle and tries to pedal his way out of the Lower Esplanade, presumably for good.
Half an hour later, he dares say he has been remarkably successful, having relocated his sorry ass to the middle of the slightly ruined locale of Retiree Row. Slightly decreasing his speed, he surveys his surroundings. The place seems pretty quiet, and slightly lacking in people other than the occasional pensioner walking down the street, looking even more fearful than John himself in many ways.
* * * * *
Eta is glad to have a lawyer on hand - she's fairly certain that, for a wanted terrorist such as herself, legal counsel within arms reach may prove critical in the near future.
"Oh, thanks, that's good to know. If I understood what that spell does, we're going to have some gold to sell tomorrow.""That does sound useful," Lois says slightly absently as she stares at the screen. Eta, seeing how Lois doesn't seem very conversationally inclined, chooses to watch the rambling man as well.
"-and that's why going to space is, uh, well, important, you know?" the man says, shrugging.
"I mean, there's, like, dinosaurs coming back. They want the planet, I think. It used to be theirs, and it's, like, only fair, man. We are only, uh, kids playing around here. Like, playing around on the lawn of the, uh, ancients and sh-uh, stuff. Yeah. It was a pretty nice lawn, too, you know, until we, uh, started fu-uh, messing with it. And if you mess with the, uh, lawn, at some point the groundskeeper's gonna, like, come out and be all like 'imma fu-erm, imma make you be sorry!' And we totally will be. Sorry for, like, everything. Sorry our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great," he continues, pausing to gasp for air,
"great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great times a million grandparents ate their eggs while they, like, weren't looking. Because if they were looking, they'd, like, have eaten all of our ancestors. And then we wouldn't even be here. Imagine that, huh? Evolution's amazing, man. It's, like, everything that's alive in the world is your cousin. Like a hillbilly wedding. Uh, no offense to, like, actual hillbillies. I'm sure they're great people. Good people. Moral, uh, god-fearing, pious people, like, total stand-up gentlemen. And ladies. Wait, do you call a lady hillbilly a hillbilly? I honestly don't know. Or is 'hillbilly' a slur?... You know, I think it's a slur. Forget I, like, uh, said any of that, okay? I don't want to, uh, alienate anyone. Especially, like, people who real aliens, like Mexi-uh, I think I'll, like, shut up now, guys. And gals. That's okay, right? Yeah, I thought so," he says, and then gestures at somebody off-camera to stop. The footage cuts off and
music starts playing, with the message "Channel 97 Will Be Back At 5 To Fulfill All Of Your Needs" written in white letters across the picture of a fairly bland pastoral landscape. These UHF TV stations can get pretty weird late at night, it seems. Eta stares at the picture for a moment before she feels compelled to yawn.
"I think it's time for me to go to sleep. Are you OK with us sleeping in the same bed?" she asks of Lois, who turns off the TV now that it seems to hold nothing of interest.
"Sure," she replies.
"Why would it be a problem?" she then asks as Eta gets ready for bed.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 270943 times)