John, tempted by the promise of spells, decides to veer into morally questionable territory and make a bet on which one of his former friends will kill the other first.
"All right, I'll bet something. Luz, try not to get upset, because I think I might know a way to get Trey back unharmed in the last match, but I need just a little bit of research," he says, but it doesn't seem like she is listening all that much, being absorbed in magical research from the looks of it. John... supposes that at least she's not doing anything hostile? That's a sort of a plus. He turns to the cow and works out a deal - a Vase Boomerang on the victory of Trey 11!
"Excellent choice! Now then, it looks like Luz won't be betting anything, so we might as well begin. Send in the Treys!" it shouts, and the cube blinks a few times, a Trey appearing in each corner of it. Looking closer, John can discern a black number 11 on the dark yellowish custard-like forehead of one of them - the other one presumably has it as well, he supposes.
[Trey 11's finesse roll: 6-->2+2]
[Trey 36's finesse roll: 5+2]
Both of them seem to be well-acquainted with how this works, judging from how they immediately seem to bolt for the table - Trey 11 is faster, wonderfully enough, and immediately seizes a hoe and tries to swing it at the fast-approaching Trey 36.
[11 vs. 36: 4+1 vs. 6+1]
Unfortunately, the strike, while undeniably rapid, has the terrible side effect of coming from a hoe, which means that, just as soon as Trey 11 has swung it, the other Trey has already closed to a distance where he would be hit in the head with the wooden handle at best - that is, if he hadn't elected to duck and grab the measuring tape in the same motion already.
"Look at them go! They hardly knew how to heft a stick out of distress when they fought the first time, and now they're out to kill each other like it ain't no thing!"[36 vs. 11: 2+1 vs. 6+1]
However, the tool in question, the tape, was indeed chosen very rashly - while Trey 36 begins to unwind it, presumably for some act of binding or strangulation, the other Trey has already managed to work out a better plan - tripping his roughly identical copy with the hoe, which works rather wonderfully, to be frank, sending Trey 36 tumbling down onto the table, at which point Trey 11 primes himself for another swing.
[11 vs. 36: 6+1 vs. 6+1-
1]
It actually scratches his counterpart across the temple, although doesn't seem to have impacted - blood is, however, drawn, and John can see Trey 11 wince with pain as the strike connects even partially.
"First blood! First of a flood, presumably!"[36 vs. 11: 4+1 vs. 4+1]
It becomes clearer and clearer that these two seem to be evenly matched, as an attempt to try and capture his adversary by Trey 36 is easily thwarted by Trey 11 jumping back and going for yet another swing at the same time.
[11 vs. 36: 6+1 vs. 5+1]
Trey 36 almost manages to duck once more, but the hoe does seem to lacerate the top of his head a tad.
[Luz's affinity roll: 4+1]
However, any further development of the melee is interrupted by the distressing appearance of a slight distortion of space, one that quickly matures into a rather large vortex of... birds, John guesses? Hard to tell what they are from here, but he supposes it doesn't exactly matter - a small bird's a small bird, after all.
[Trey 11's body roll: 4+1]
[Trey 36's body roll: 1-->5+1]
Trey 36, who is closer to the vortex, is immediately taken off his feet and looks to be somewhat frightened as he is quickly pulled toward the thing - Trey 11 also seems put off, but only for a moment - looking at the vortex, then at Trey 36, he seems to get an idea, judging from the expression on his face, and runs up to his competitor, and then sharply kicks him toward the chirping vortex, leaping away as his competitor disappears into it.
"No! You have to jump in, too!" Luz says, banging on the wall of the cube, but Trey 11 doesn't seem to hear, gazing around the cube as if expecting a response.
"What a dishonorable interference! I am glad to see that Trey 11 has kept the proper spirit in mind, but really, to do that sort of thing without asking first is simply impolite, Luz!" the cow states.
"I suppose I'll have to hunt Trey 36 down and horribly torture him to death now. Are you happy, Luz? I hope you're happy!"Luz glares at the cow.
"Not happy yet, no."[Luz's affinity roll: 5+1]
She raises her arms to the air, and a green light flashes nearby - the light briefly illuminates the fact that something seems to have appeared with it - a beaver of some sort. Soon enough, bright green flashes that produce similar-looking beavers begin occurring as well.
"Well," the cow says as the beavers begin scurrying around.
"Was that supposed to accomplish something?" it asks, then looks sharply at a nearby beaver, who disappears. The other beavers seem to take this as a sign of some sort, and immediately begin scurrying faster. One runs into a wall, and the wall immediately breaks in half as the beaver plunges into the void.
"Ah. Hm," the cow observes as Trey 11 looks on in confusion at a beaver in the cube. The cow looks at Trey 11, and the cube immediately resets itself, sans the Trey, the vortex and the beaver.
"I'd like you to shut that off, Luz," it says, and Luz appears to be staring at it with some variation of a petulant sneer. More beavers in increasing states of irritation seem to be appearing all around, and it seems to be doing a bit of a number on the structure, as the beavers look incredibly talented at destroying things for some reason.
"You can't do it, can you?" she asks of the cow.
"Well, it would require me altering the setup of this place a bit, and I'd... rather not do that for a bit yet."* * * * *
After making her grievances as plain as politeness and mild uneasiness allows her,
Eta goes back over to her room quickly, and finds that Lois appears to be wide awake within, looking quite unkempt at the moment and watching the morning news.
"Oh, hey," she says as she notices Eta, but doesn't really take her eyes off the screen for longer than half a second or so.
Back at the lobby,
THE DUNKER slowly assumes waddling position.
"Let's go then," he says as soon as he has set up for launch, and the other man moves on with him without a word, leaving Bart back in the lobby. They have gone halfway to the exit before the man seems to realize something.
"Wait, I'm still wearing the bathrobe. One moment," he says, then quickly skips off to his room, returning in a few moments, dressed in a rather tacky dark tracksuit. Thus outfitted, he follows THE DUNKER out to the donut shop, which doesn't seem to have changed much in the period of THE DUNKER's absence, being just as devoid of non-wizard customers as it was the last time. The girl, upon noticing the man, smiles genially.
"Welcome! I see our marketing program is working wonderfully already. Would you like a free sample donut, sir?" she asks, and the tracksuited man with THE DUNKER looks pleased.
"Holy crap! It's Joanie!" he says with a hint of incredulity.
"Hm?""Joanie!" the man repeats, drawing closer with arms outstretched. The girl looks confused.
"It's Schlomo! Don't you remember me?"Joanie's eyes flare with recognition, and just for a moment there even THE DUNKER begins to suspect that she might not be entirely glad about it.
"Oh. Schlomo. Yeah... nice to see you," she says.
"I knew you'd remember! Nice gig you've got here. How's the donut business?" Schlomo asks, slapping one palm on the counter and leaning toward the girl.
"Good, I guess? Wanna try a sample? It's free," she says cheerfully.
"Is that one of the cocaine-laced ones?" Schlomo asks right back, and Joanie's face is momentarily entirely bereft of a smile, and she glances at THE DUNKER displeasedly. However, as soon as she looks back at her friend, she is smiling again.
"Yeah, let's say it is," she says.
"Let's have one, then!" he says, and Joanie opens up a box and hands him one of the plain donuts.
"Baked this morning - still warm, in fact, and fresh as a spring morning," she tells him as he takes a bite and chews doubtfully for a moment.
"Bake this yourshelf?" he asks with his mouth full.
"Yeah.""Yeah, you can tell. You should work on your technique on theshe, really," Schlomo says, slowly swallowing the contents of his mouth between words.
"They don't feel too magical, either, though they seem to work fine on this guy over here. Ain't that right?" he says, looking at THE DUNKER.
"Speaking of, what's with this whole magical thing?" he asks.
"Are you one of these wizard types?"Joanie is quiet for a moment, then nods.
"Yep.""Is that where you got the coke? You can conjure things with magic, I know that much.""Yeah, that's about right," Joanie says.
"Sweet. How much can you make at a time?""Varies, I guess. I can demonstrate, sort of. Probably best not to do it here, though," Joanie shrugs.
"Okay, where, then?""I dunno. Not in public, that's for sure. Where are you at? Close by?""Yeah, walking distance. There's this hotel I'm staying at.""Hotel?""Well, not really, it's Esposito's, actually.""Oh, you mean the-""Yeah. So, let's go?""Yeah, sure. Give me a moment to close up and I'll be with you - just a second, really," Joanie says, beginning to shut off the various lights in the room.
"Sure, we'll wait outside," Schlomo says, and beckons THE DUNKER to follow him with a somewhat dismissive hand gesture.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 273672 times)