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It was inevitable

15 (42.9%)

Winners don't do drugs

6 (17.1%)

I'll be back

2 (5.7%)

Drink the Kool Aid

6 (17.1%)

Groovy

3 (8.6%)

Insane in the membrane

3 (8.6%)

Total Members Voted: 35

[Lenglon]

still sleeping
((Lenglon wants to give Ike the opportunity to respond in private, Irine hasn't had the opportunity to fall into a natural sleep ever since she was brought to the Games until now, twin reasons for her to be sleeping herself out until River chooses to wake her.))

[Harry Baldman]

Campaign, Ike!

<Oh, sure, I understand. Is the main man actually here, or is it still just in the mental sort of way he was before? By the way, that whole bit where someone's trying to assassinate you, you plan on doing something about that, or are we strictly and only here for that guy you don't know, but still hate on principle?>

[Parisbre56]

Campaign, Ike!

<Oh, sure, I understand. Is the main man actually here, or is it still just in the mental sort of way he was before? By the way, that whole bit where someone's trying to assassinate you, you plan on doing something about that, or are we strictly and only here for that guy you don't know, but still hate on principle?>

<Assassinate? You can not- He can not know that! Not with certainty. Maybe the Outsider of this world did it and he was confused. Or maybe he is making excuses, because he caused the damage. Or it could be that S0 was watching us as we travelled to this world and accidentally hurt us while trying to stop him from reaching us. Maybe he was even trying to protect us, because he made a mistake. You can not trust that idiot! He could had hurt us! Killed us!>
He is mentally shouting near the end, showing his teeth for a split second and breathing quickly.
He looks down and starts slowly working on the wire, bending it into a jagged spiral. The wire starts to form something like a very angular spring. His breathing slows down a few seconds later and he continues speaking, more calmly now.
<Even if what he says is true, there is nothing I can do about it. What do I do? I can not ask for help. What will I say? How did I learn of such an attack? I have not witnessed evidence of it myself. What if they ask me questions I can not answer? What if they look inside my mind? Inside my memories? Or yours? I can not ask him to search secretly. I can not be vague. What if they find evidence he was here? I can not stop the mission, not like this. I have no way to contact anyone other than him. I can not investigate on my own. Not when we I have to take care of you.>
He shakes his head and looks at you again.
<The only thing I can do is finish what we came here to do quickly so that we can escape this danger. If this danger really exists. So that I can investigate on my own. And hope that nobody learns of what happened. If I do not bring attention to it, then maybe they will not bother to investigate and nobody will get hurt more than they have to. More than they already have.>
He continues working on the wire, this time straightening it.
<As for where he is, I have... devoured him. He is inside me. I could not let him work freely. Even with the form he had chosen there was still the chance that he could had attracted attention. Especially if he attempted to help us directly. I have let him watch through my eyes and listen through my ears, but that is all he can do right now.>

EDIT: Gah, trying to get colour right when writing from phone sucks. Edited to fix that and some spelling mistakes.

[Lenglon]

still sleeping
((Lenglon wants to give Ike the opportunity to respond in private, Irine hasn't had the opportunity to fall into a natural sleep ever since she was brought to the Games until now, twin reasons for her to be sleeping herself out until River chooses to wake her.))

((Same as before, letting Ike do his thing.))

[Alarith]

Bryan Survival
If the car is still working drive off, preferably through the tunnel. Otherwise bail on the car and run for the tunnel. What does radar say, people nervous and closing in?

[Harry Baldman]

Campaign, Ike!

<Well, I guess there's no point in doing much investigation, either. That bit of teleportation misdirection at the start, if that even was some kind of plot against you, was pretty anemic as far as assassination attempts go. Not that I'm disparaging the assassination skills of your peers, obviously, and I'm sure that, should it be an assassination attempt, it has not fully played out yet, to be sure, and we'll all probably be very surprised when we die without exception. Again.>

<Speaking of, about your bodies, I heard you had only two, and I do remember the wolfman one got vaporized with its soul sphere. Did you actually make a new one and shunt the other one back to where you got it from, or did you just reshape Mr. Beetle into a more marketable form? Now, I realize this may be a delicate matter and all, but I just need to get a better handle on things in case of everything going completely tits up and barreling southward at Mach 3 again, which would be a wise scenario to expect in the near future, since we are going through with this whole quest thing.>

[Parisbre56]

Survival

"Agh!  Mother fucker!  Get us out of here, they're toast!"

John swore more as he checked his wounds.


Summon up a simple first aid kit; something with a tourniquet would be nice.  Apply to self as best possible.

You have just enough concentration to summon a simple cloth tourniquet. Applying it with just one hand is hard but you manage to do it in the end. Your hand still hurts like hell and has a metal rod embedded in it, but at least it's not bleeding as much anymore. Good thing the rod was so hot, for it cauterized part of the wound, helping with the bleeding.

Survival

Keep watch for any stragglers. If stragglers are found and within range, attempt to blast them.

*stormtrooper voice* "Stop that car! Blast them!"

Bryan Survival
If the car is still working drive off, preferably through the tunnel. Otherwise bail on the car and run for the tunnel. What does radar say, people nervous and closing in?

You jam a shard of glass into the ignition switch and turn it in hopes of starting the engine again. You can hear the starter complaining as it tries to force the engine to start its cycle. But the engine refuses to start.

You take a quick look around. It doesn't look like anybody is moving. There's only the burning parts of the destroyed roadblock, that are slowly being extinguished by the drizzle. You can feel that the men in the roadblock are still alive but are either too scared or too in pain to do anything. Further away, you can feel people approaching from somewhere behind you, quickly probably in cars. You can also feel a line of people further inside the tunnel, coming towards you on foot, mostly nervous.

You try the engine again. The starter works for a long time. You're starting to think the car is never going to star when it suddenly vibrates and the engine starts working on its own, emitting a puff of white smoke in the process. Let's hope that wasn't something important.

You drive away, going through a gap in the roadblock and then accelerating to top speed. The source of the emotions you sensed comes into view soon enough. 5 more men dressed in military camo are walking up the road towards the entrance of the tunnel. They are staring at the headlights of car charging towards them like deer. Some of them eventually start firing their weapons, but they don't manage to do much more than create a few cracks on the glass before you drive through them. One unlucky bastard gets caught in that hellish contraption John has rigged to the front of the car, which results in a disturbing amount of blood falling on the wind-shield. You put the windscreen wipers on high and keep on driving.

You're almost there. Just got to get through this tunnel and you're done.

Campaign

still sleeping
((Lenglon wants to give Ike the opportunity to respond in private, Irine hasn't had the opportunity to fall into a natural sleep ever since she was brought to the Games until now, twin reasons for her to be sleeping herself out until River chooses to wake her.))

((Same as before, letting Ike do his thing.))

Zzzzzzz
People in the room make a will save to resist petting you.[/joking]

Campaign, Ike!

<Well, I guess there's no point in doing much investigation, either. That bit of teleportation misdirection at the start, if that even was some kind of plot against you, was pretty anemic as far as assassination attempts go. Not that I'm disparaging the assassination skills of your peers, obviously, and I'm sure that, should it be an assassination attempt, it has not fully played out yet, to be sure, and we'll all probably be very surprised when we die without exception. Again.>

<Speaking of, about your bodies, I heard you had only two, and I do remember the wolfman one got vaporized with its soul sphere. Did you actually make a new one and shunt the other one back to where you got it from, or did you just reshape Mr. Beetle into a more marketable form? Now, I realize this may be a delicate matter and all, but I just need to get a better handle on things in case of everything going completely tits up and barreling southward at Mach 3 again, which would be a wise scenario to expect in the near future, since we are going through with this whole quest thing.>

River spends several seconds giving you a blank stare.
<You use many words to say something.> he observes before continuing.
<You asked me about my body. I think. I will try to explain.

When the magic released stopped disturbing my magic, I was able to wake up. I was hurt. My mind was damaged. Not as I should be. I could not move. I could not see. I had no help.

I did not have the strength to create a new body. When I was strong enough I moved to the closest and most weak minded living thing I could sense. I searched for food. I searched for you. I tried to stay away from dangerous things. I found hiding places where I could heal myself and work to change my body and mind into what it should be. When I was strong enough, I started moving you to hiding places. I worked on healing all of you so that you could be woken up.

The last time I tried to heal myself fully, something attacked. I can not see when regenerating. Getting ready to fight was hard. I was almost killed. Again. So I found the materials needed to wake you up. I felt I could trust you with protecting me as I healed.

The body and mind you saw was not complete. No endurance, no sight, no tongue, no mind. But it was me. Part of me, supported by parts from others. Turning into me.

If I die again, a similar thing will happen, as long as I am not completely destroyed. As long as my Soulsphere stays intact, even in part. But if I have your help, I believe it would be easier. I will not need so much time and effort to heal. To be me again.>

[Harry Baldman]

Campaign, Ike!

<And you, my friend, tend to be very terse and obtuse about most things. Our styles have an entertaining disagreement, it seems. Anyway, that whole healing thing I'd already gathered. What I was asking was this: if for some reason we all get killed again, do you have some kind of fallback mechanism? Did your soul sphere thing actually survive the last explosion? I mean, I thought you died a little before everything went boom, and I heard from the main man that the beetle thing was your secondary body, and that you only have two in total, so I assumed you brought that in on recovery duty. Was that an incorrect assumption?>

[Parisbre56]

Campaign, Ike!

<And you, my friend, tend to be very terse and obtuse about most things. Our styles have an entertaining disagreement, it seems. Anyway, that whole healing thing I'd already gathered. What I was asking was this: if for some reason we all get killed again, do you have some kind of fallback mechanism? Did your soul sphere thing actually survive the last explosion? I mean, I thought you died a little before everything went boom, and I heard from the main man that the beetle thing was your secondary body, and that you only have two in total, so I assumed you brought that in on recovery duty. Was that an incorrect assumption?>

<No. I can regenerate using my soulsphere, by taking over the bodies of others and converting them to me. I can not do anything like you said, not without breaking the rules.
I did not see the explosion so I can not tell you much about it, or how we survived. I believe it might be because there is a delay between death and the creation of the soulsphere. It could allow us to escape the worst of the blast.
Or maybe someone or something chose to protect us. I do not know with certainty. I have not had time to fully examine the forces of this world.>

[Harry Baldman]

Campaign, Ike!

<Okay, got it. One last thing, though, "the rules". What are "the rules", exactly?>

Get answer, take sweet nap unless River's got something else for me, awaken refreshed.

[Hawk132]

Survival

More projectile defense!

[Parisbre56]

Campaign, Ike!

<Okay, got it. One last thing, though, "the rules". What are "the rules", exactly?>

Get answer, take sweet nap unless River's got something else for me, awaken refreshed.

<The Rules are...>
He looks down for a second and then begins showing you a memory. The viewer is laying on his back, staring at the starry sky, feeling slightly bored as an electronic voice is talking to him through a speaker somewhere nearby.
: ... was accused of breaking the Rules by the Guardians of universe 523 and was thus transported to the Core World for further investigation and sentencing according to- :
"Stop. What do you mean by 'The Rules'?"
: It would be more efficient to transfer the knowledge directly into your mind. :
"I said I wanted to hear you. What you have to say about it. Now continue, please."
: Affirmative. Compiling summary.

The Rules are a general term used by entities and those that associate with them to refer to formal or informal contracts between groups of people that have been stored to and are being monitored from the Library. Different groups can have different rules for different contexts, which sometimes leads to confusion in beings with inferior capacities.

They are used to define the way the group and its members are permitted or obliged to operate. User 1 states that they arise from the need to protect the group and those that associate with it from certain behaviours of its members. Each member has to agree to the Rules of their group before being formally accepted, even if they are not fully aware of them.

Enforcement, judgement, mutability and rigidity varies between groups and contexts.

Judgement is usually left to part or all of the group, the Library, or some variation thereof, depending on the Rules themselves and the wishes of the collective. Power is usually a major factor in enforcement and judgement, with more powerful Entities often escaping judgment altogether, although there are exceptions to this, most notably the Light's.

User 0 was instrumental in establishing the Rules as a way of organization and policing in the entities, setting many of the precedents that are followed to this day. He did so by establishing the first Rules of all Powerful Entities, thus marking the official creation of the group known as the Entities, after the- :
"Stop. Tell me about the Light."
: The Light are a group of entities created on... :
The memory stops.
<I hope that gives you the answer you were looking for.>

You shrug at the rather encyclopedic and non-specific knowledge, twist around on your bed so that you are facing away from him and go back to sleep.

Harry Baldman & Lenglon
<Wake up.>

River is sitting close to Irine. He has a wire wrapped around his neck and two more wrapped around his wrists. It must be a bit later in the morning. The light coming through the cracks is brighter and you can see through them that the sun has started to paint the sky yellow and blue.
<I am going to leave soon. I am going to hunt what I need to revive the others. Sorry for waking you. I wanted to make sure you knew, so that you are not surprised.>

((I decided to start enclose text in : : to show something heard through a speaker or radio that causes distortions in the sound.))

[Harry Baldman]

Campaign, Ike!

<Need backup, maybe?>

If yes, provide backup to River.

If not, continue work on Skullflail.

[Lenglon]

Pfp
<Hmm? Um... Okay! Where are we going?>
Look up at River, then stand up, shake myself awake, spin around once to orient myself, and then follow River around.

[Parisbre56]

Campaign, Ike!

<Need backup, maybe?>

<You can come along, if you want. I would appreciate your company. But I do not believe I will encounter anything I can not handle.>
<If you go exploring on your own, be careful. I am not sure how far these can reach.> he says, pointing at the wire around his neck.

Pfp
<Hmm? Um... Okay! Where are we going?>
Look up at River, then stand up, shake myself awake, spin around once to orient myself, and then follow River around.

<I believe those creatures we saw near the crater are of the same element as Zechariah's.>
He looks down and rubs his wrists and the wires around them.
<If I can catch them, I could use them to revive him much faster. Same as I did with you and Ike. If not... I can do it on my own, but it will take more time and effort.>