Alan walks into the centre of the inn and clears his throat loudly.
Everyone, everyone look my way please.
Conjure an extremely plushy couch. Sit on couch.
This is MY couch. Just wanted to make that clear.
((I just remembered that I based Alan off of Alan from the Hangover movies, so just imagine him doing all of this.))
((Yes, I can see the resemblance. He does have a Galifianakis vibe to him.))
You summon your couch and sit on it, making sure to mark your territory beforehand.
"I... I am sorry, nobody has asked me this question before. I just don't know and I do not want to lie to you. I never considered it a very important thing, never paid attention. Food is food. Sometimes the meat is more tender, sometimes it's more juicy, more sweet. But in the end, meat is meat.
I'm trying to understand. May I ask what your favourite food is?""
Theri lightened up and smiled as River talked. There was a flurry of thoughts that brought a deeper understanding of him, and a deep-seated appreciation of his mannerisms. It was like she could feel how he felt in trying to parse what she said.
It was something very hard to translate into words, directly.
...
"I have little idea either. Never had a real specific preference...ahah. I'm a bit silly for asking yours but not having one of my own. Though its pretty much nearly the same as yours--those fish jumping up waterfalls are Salmon, and the varieties of meat have sources. Me? I like squid. Fried squid. Rubbery, yet pretty juicy to the palate.
"And...I, erm, just asked that because of...I have no idea how to describe why. But I'm still confused over some bits--like, could I know why there is this contest of sorts?"
"Because the others like me want there to be a contest. Because they want to compete with each other. He most of all.""No one has explained Is happened to me"
<Oh. Well that's just poor etiquette, isn't it? Why didn't you tell him?><So that I may judge him. Know if he is worthy.><Well, anyway, you are here because he brought you here.
He is what people call an Entity.
And he brought you here to participate in challenges with others like you.
Win the challenges and you gain more power.
Sounds reasonable? I hope it does, because you don't have much choice on the matter.>
The shadow man stands up and claps his hands twice to get everyone's attention.
"Okay then, looks like everybody is here, there's nothing important anyone wants to say and people are starting to ask questions about the mission. So let's start this thing."He lifts his hand and orbs of shadowfire fly out of them.
"Once again, you're being split into two separate challenges."The orbs hover over Bryan, Ron Bones, "Rune", John, Saevus and Lioraw."First challenge is a simple and fun one. The ones with the orbs above their heads are going to this one, if it wasn't obvious.
There's some sort of gang war going on in a world we're in control of. The specifics aren't terribly important, since you won't be dealing with that. And your hosts will be able to provide you with any of the necessary data. Tech level is around what you'd find in the 1950s for those of you who know your Earth-3 history.
Anyway, you'll be in control of people trying to survive one of the events of said gang war. You will start off together, as a group. You will be hunted and you will face overwhelming odds. So you will have two very simple objectives. Survive for as long as possible and if possible, evade your pursuers and reach a safe area. If you fail, then the last man standing wins. Fairly standard thing all in all.
We won't be able to communicate with you during the challenge, but we will be watching, so try to impress."He then turns to address Nikolai, Ike, Irene, Zechariah, Theri and Alan."The rest of you have been granted a great honour. Darkstar has asked for assistance in a... let's call it hunting trip. The situation doesn't allow him to hunt this prey on his own, at least not without causing some major disruption in the process. So he has selected you to accompany him.""The challenge itself is fairly simple. You'll be teleported somewhere near your prey. Make your way there, find it, kill it and then get teleported back. You'll be provided with a few supplies. Appropriate clothing, backpacks, food, camping gear, in case the trip takes longer than expected, but I don't think it would take more than a day or two." "However, there are some complications. You'll be operating in a world that is not under our control. In fact, we don't even know that much about it. And the outsider in control of it seems to be fairly powerful, so we'd like to avoid any conflict with it, for now at lest. So we're going for a minimal influence, more stealthy approach.""What that means is, no hosts, no interfaces, no interactions with us, no way to communicate with you even if we wanted to. We'll have to make minor modifications to you in order to fit in better, most notably knowledge of the most common local language, but it shouldn't be anything major."He shows you a small pendant that appears in his hand in a small burst of shadowfire. It's a simple thing, just a silver metal ring hanging from a chain made out of a similar, if a bit less shiny and darker alloy.
"Since you'll lack Interfaces, these things will provide short range communication. They should also be able to provide low level translation, should you meet anyone not speaking the same language. Try not to loose them."He's looking at Alan as he says that last sentence.
"They are not indestructible nor bound to you in any way. Just low level magical artefacts."He flicks his hand and the pendant is hidden by a burst of shadowfire. When it clears, the pendant has disappeared, replaced in his hand by a knife. A wooden dummy appears besides him with a similar effect.
"And, final and most important thing: Death. Now, since we'll have no connection to you, that means that if you die, then... well, you'll die. No way for us to revive you. But, it was decided that that might be a tad too dangerous, considering your previous injury and mortality rate. So, instead of dying, you get this:"He stabs the dummy near where the heart would be. The dummy moves as if it were alive, putting a wooden hand over its "wound" before collapsing to the ground. A few seconds later, it begins to glow. When the glow disappears, all that is left in its place is a brown orb, a bit bigger than a human hand.
"When it is detected that your body can no longer be revived, all relevant information will be transferred to a little thing like this one." he says and picks the orb up.
"As long as you can manage to retrieve it and nobody damages it, then Darkstar should be able to use it to revive you. Assuming he has enough time and energy, of course.
He won't have his full power, because that would make him stand out like a meteor in the night sky. So don't expect any instant revives.
And the orbs are not indestructible and can be lost. If they aren't recovered after a long time or if they run out of power or if they are damaged beyond repair, then they will self-destruct to prevent capture."To demonstrate, he stabs the orb. It starts cracking like glass, fractures appearing across its surface as the knife gets embedded deeper and deeper. And then, something breaks and the orb disappears in a small flash of light.
"So try not to have that happen to them. Don't fall into any volcanoes, don't drown out at sea. The usual things any sane person would do."He is looking at Alan again as he says those last things.
"So, I think that's everything. Any questions?"
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Topic: Special People: Mechanical Syndrome (Read 1146061 times)