Dave attempts to disassemble the secret meanings of the Denture Vortex through sheer brainpower, which he happens to have absolutely no shortage of, most fortunately. So he focuses upon the spell, trying to discern its parameters and workings to the best of his ability.
Then, when the spell does not immediately lay itself bare before him in sheer admiration for his intellect, he instead tries to get at the meat of its meaning, the things implied by the ideas of dentures and vortex - primarily vortex, since he knows what dentures are already, and from what he can tell, there are few surprises to be discovered there. And the vortex part does take some working on before it begins to yield worthwhile information.
Firstly, it targets a point in space, around which, according to the level of... adaptation, Dave would say, a sphere is arbitrarily designated, with variations in size often being slightly situational in accordance with original intent. This sphere, as it is perceived in three-dimensional space, has a counterpart in another instance of three-dimensional space, all placed on a single axis as far as Dave can tell. So it's a connector between two points in four-dimensional space, possibly utilizing a fifth, slightly rolled-up dimension of space to facilitate quick travel. Suction is achieved in the direction of the point connecting to the denture world. One point of the connector is anchored to the designated point, which corresponds to a particular set of 4D coordinates. The other point is anchored to the same 3D coordinates, but the fourth coordinate changes. There's sort of an 'if-then' deal here - if the fourth coordinate is not 114722, with no particular unit stated, then the fourth coordinate is set as 114722, which Dave assumes to correspond with the Denture Dimension, else the fourth coordinate is set as 0, which apparently corresponds to the normal world.
However! Dave does notice another thing. The coordinates, as they are set, seem to be centered on the center of city - the city that all the magic is happening in, as it happens, and the name of which currently escapes him for some reason, and the third coordinate, when traveling back, is neglected altogether, and the vortex just deposits things above ground most of the time. The coordinates appear to correspond to a plane touching the point of return, somewhat taking into account the curvature of the Earth and obstacles. Guess the adjustment's kind of necessary, given that only a very narrow segment of the Earth's atmosphere about nine or so meters thick would be possible for him to survive landing in, and only three meters of that layer would be even vaguely comfortable to find oneself in.
* * * * *
Larry, guessing this plan is as good as any to try next, attempts to detour to Mercury through the Moon, despite how little sense that would make from a physics standpoint. He finds, unsurprisingly, that this seems to work better - over a matter of a minute or so, he finds that he has faded onto the Moon, which is desolate, dusty, abrasive, but mercifully bereft of any and all whining souls of the inconstant. In the distance, Larry can hear explosions. Probably nothing to worry about, though, so he just moves to Mercury in a similar fashion, finding himself on its blasted, rather disappointingly Moon-esque surface.
At a glance, there's not much around. A closer look nearly confirms this impression, were it not for the rather artificial-looking pit Larry can see about a hundred meters away - it's a round hole in the ground circled by gleaming objects of metal, it seems, with a bit of smoke coming out of it.
Alternatively, Larry thinks he can also perceive something further away - an irregularity in the horizon. A structure, mayhap? Looks pretty unusual, in any case.
* * * * *
Halesey, currently in a very potato-centered state of mind, tries to communicate with his brother/sister tubers, hoping to persuade them to break free of their immobile state. He starts first with a short introduction of himself - it is very short, for he is potato and he is vortex, with a smidgen of Halesey around the fringes. That is adequately self-explanatory. And with this in mind, the potatoes probably should listen to what he's saying - and what he's saying just so happens to be that these potatoes should bar him from movement no longer - their purpose has been adequately served, as all infidels are now banished or at the very least gruesomely murdered, and that they should probably leave off him already. It is obviously getting to be quite annoying at this point, Halesey explains, and he has clearly overcome the crux of the challenge in question.
Perhaps in response, the potatoes eventually do start moving about once more, no longer frozen in place by the magic wrought by that awful, if possibly well-intentioned Nigel. He is free! Free to do all the vortex things he has ever dreamed of doing!
* * * * *
John supposes that James can go where he likes - after all, just because he's going to be taking it easy today doesn't mean James has to.
"All right then, if you don't have cash on you take some of mine and pick up something to eat on your way back, would you? I'm just going to stay home and have a day off from the magical bullshit. I'll keep me cell nearby, if you need to call for some reason. Have fun.""Right. Be back in a bit," James says, borrowing about forty bucks from his buddy, then promptly leaving. He'll probably be alright, John guesses as he turns on the TV, only to find that the cable seems to be out, providing John access to not much more than some local UHF channels and some less esoteric stuff as well. Main story on the news, John discovers, appears to be the sudden appearance of a massive toothy citadel near his neighborhood.
Looking out the window, John confirms that this is indeed the case. He must have been rather drunk to miss that last night, or at least he doesn't recall seeing it so clearly. It was dark, though, and the thing doesn't seem like it has very good illumination, or electricity at all, for that matter.
As for science channels, there's pretty much none. The Learning Channel persists for some unclear reason, you find, but other than that it's just local TV. Channels 97, 83 and 55 are currently broadcasting programming, in ascending order of weirdness, unusually enough, and the rest appears to be daytime workday TV. That is to say, rather awful.
* * * * *
Eta realizes that she as well as all others here are probably overstaying their welcome significantly. Things need to be done, and they need to be done fast!
"Yeah, let's just get it and get out of here. It's been a long day."She turns to the nearby manhole and attempts to make another pit of blue skeletons, centering her magic on the nearby manhole.
[Eta's affinity roll: 2+1]
The best she can manage, though, is widening the manhole a tad as well as filling the bottom of the sewer with twitching, moving blue skeletons, who seem rather displeased at the way they are more or less submerged in raw sewage. The pit, she notices, does not seem to respond at all to her desire to make it spread out, unless the widening counts.
"I think I'll just go down there and take a look," Ivette says, walking doubtfully toward the manhole cover.
"The filth will probably wash off eventually.""Worth a shot, I would say!" Menkau agrees.
"After all, three people already went down there and did not come back yet, so what could possibly go wrong?"Ivette sighs indecisively in response, only to be interrupted by the sudden appearance of the head of Hungry Pete from the manhole, his balding head taking a deep breath of air as he reemerges from the foul depths. Clambering out fully, he rolls off to the side of the manhole, lying on the ground, facing upward with a contented expression as he pants his way into a better-oxygenated state.
"I was wondering where he went!" Menkau says.
Been holding off on this for a while, most unfortunately. Will try to get my shit together in the near future!
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 272711 times)