Halesey, looking at the space where the pawn shop once was, defaults to his standard operating procedure, albeit with a slight twist.
"Look. Thcheck thith out," he splutters at
Larry, who seems less than enthused. But Halesey intends to show him the way. Turning back to the empty, gray lot, he begins to invoke his holy power, attempting to create a shining beacon for all of demonkind to see.
"Come, ye demonth! I’d like a blething! Feel fthe powah ofth my potatoeth!" he shouts, his arms twisting in the customary manner of potato invocation. Larry, who stands nearby, is still confused and slightly put off by the mention of a god of potatoes of all things - suspecting a crack in his friend's already less than perfectly sound mind, he starts to step away.
"Ppfffotato god? Have you gone compppletely inthane?" he asks, beginning to retreat. Much to his chagrin, though, Halesey appears to be serious.
"Dude, I thaw him. Or heard him. It wath kind of multi-thenthory and all-encompathing. But look - I can even vortexth mythelthff without ill effthect! He hath blethed me, and requireth that I obtain the blething of a demon!" the tuber acolyte says back, and points at his own cocaine-covered abdomen suddenly.
[Halesey's affinity roll: 3+1]
As a vortex of potatoes begins to form on Halesey's belly, Larry's survival instincts kick into high gear, and he retreats much faster than before.
"I'm juthth going to waffch fwom acwoth the thweeeth, okay?" he says more than a bit warily, making good on his promise within ten or so seconds.
"Yeah, whathever dude, bathe in the gloriouth tuberth!" Halesey says right back, facing toward the empty lot once more. What he sees is cause enough to make him jump backward a little - it appears to be a clown! A rather tall Coco-looking clown, in fact, who, though undeniably jovial in appearance, nevertheless provokes more than a little suspicion through two things - firstly, the air around him appears to be vibrating in a very dangerous-looking manner, the sort of vibration that one would normally associate with a crackling in the air, though in this case it sounds more like a dull roar that makes Halesey more than a tad uneasy. Secondly, his eyes appear to have no whites - instead, there is only a small black pupil and a giant green iris filling the rest of the visible eye area. Before Halesey can bid so much as a fine how-do-you-do, the clown speaks in a cheery, though resonant tone.
"Ho there, wizard! Did you call for me, or has my hearing failed me for the very first time?" it says, and Halesey can't help but notice a rather large clown-shaped hole leading into an equally large clown-shaped tunnel that seems to go straight through several brick walls.
* * * * *
Eta, trying to keep the situation under control, tries to help
THE DUNKER's case before leaving.
"I-I'm going just, please, don't hurt anyone? He did nothing to hurt us," she says.
"Not up to me," Bart says.
"Depends on him," he says, tapping the gun against the back of his captive's head. Eta, not entirely calmed, runs off while THE DUNKER himself begins to laboriously raise himself from the ground, his bulk like a second moon slowly splitting from the earth.
"Fine. You should know that in all pastry-related crimes I'm untouchable. Speaking of such, would you care for a donut? I've found this marvelous donut shop just down the street - good-quality frosting, pretty nice dough, give you magical powers. More people I bring in, more donuts I get. You in?" he asks during his ascent, but Bart does not seem terribly interested.
"Why did you come here?" he simply asks while standing behind THE DUNKER, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
Meanwhile, Eta is rather quickly seeking help, and begins by knocking on the door of Room 108 directly opposite Room 101 - in a fit of good fortune, somebody appears to be within, and opens up after but a few moments - a man in a black bathrobe with a full beard and messy black hair, probably in his late thirties.
"A-yeees?" he asks Eta in a drawn-out fashion, and she immediately points to Bart, who is still visible from here. The man opens his mouth for a moment, then closes it, then walks over to join the happenings in the lobby.
"Who's this?" he asks.
"A wizard," Bart says.
"Maybe two wizards?" his apparent friend offers.
"One inside the other?"Bart looks at THE DUNKER critically. The other man merely chuckles.
"Why does the wizard grace us with his illustrious presence?" he asks, turning to the captive caster.
* * * * *
John decides to try and solve a puzzle box, as it would be awfully wasteful to let a room like this just sit here looking pretty.
"Yeah, this is pretty fucked up. Lets grab a few of these boxes and start solving them. We really have to find Trey before we can begin to think about getting out of here. Maybe these boxes contain clues?""Maybe. Or maybe this is all meant to lull us into a false sense of security. Nothing overtly dangerous, so maybe we're in for some kind of fucked up trap," she says, but then waves her hand as if to swipe the suspicion away and joins John in the solving.
[John's finesse roll: 6-->6+1]
Within no more than a second or two, John has retrieved a random box and solved its mystery in six manipulations - all that Rubik's cube practice is paying off, evidently. The box yields almost immediately, opening up and bathing John in a warm green light. Just like the solving of the puzzle, the reward takes no less than a few seconds, and as the light subsides, John feels enriched... with knowledge! He now knows two of the three generally accepted and practiced ways to slaughter, skin and quickly decerebrate a subdued human being with a minimum of fuss, and is pretty sure he could perform these techniques if needed. The images in his head are certainly vivid enough to help with that.
Luz takes a different box and begins solving it. It takes her a few moments, but she manages it without too much hassle despite her fingers obviously lacking practice. In her case, however, the box glows with a red light, and as she seems to wonder what this could mean, it flashes and she shrieks abruptly, the box falling out of her hands. It takes John but a few moments to realize what's wrong, judging from how Luz is looking at her hands - her pinky fingers appear to be gone. Not ripped off or otherwise removed - just gone, along with the small section of the palm they would have come from - the girl's hands look perfectly natural despite this, as if they were never meant to have more than three fingers and a thumb each in the first place, so seamless is the removal, so flowing the pinkies' absence.
"Oh, fuck me," Luz says exasperatedly.
"Not trying that again, that's for sure."
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 268166 times)