Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 262493 times)

Xantalos · « **Reply #495 on:** January 28, 2016, 11:49:13 pm »

Sit down away from the burning drapes. Relax and talk with minder girl rather than focus on the pain.

"So. You were saying about the basics of this minder business? Sorry for the interruption, fire's rather distracting. And painful. Ow."

AoshimaMichio · « **Reply #496 on:** January 29, 2016, 04:01:00 am »

"You drive a hard bargain, guess I have to accept it.
My question: What exactly is this connection you desire?
My desire: To be a superiour minder in potential, skill and knowledge when compared to any minder in past, present and future."

Deals with demons.

Harry Baldman · « **Reply #497 on:** January 29, 2016, 06:07:37 am »

Quote from: Dermonster on January 28, 2016, 04:32:24 pm

Right. I called up a second sun, time to bring in the moon.

"MOON, PLEASE CONTROL THIS CHILD!!!!"

The moon seems to have helped already. Perhaps it needs to be put on the same level, though.

MOON

[Word: 1]

The eclipse across the false sun surges outward as the actual moon emits a sudden pulse of ominous silvery light, responding to your call. It spreads across the bright sky, plunging the area in darkness only barely illuminated by the distant fires you started and the shining stone right next to you. Alarmingly, the rest of the area now seems to be bathed in pitch blackness. You can't see anything beyond about 5 meters around the stone. And this radius, you notice, is slowly shrinking.

[White Glare: 6]

As you start to worry about this, though, you are interrupted by your brother sun, a bolt of concentrated sunlight piercing through the darkness and brightening the area with a flash as it vaporizes most of the roof above you in a deafening explosion. In the vault of black sky thus revealed you see a glowing wound, the eye of your pursuer glaring through it, zeroing in on your illuminated position in the scant few seconds before the hole mends itself. If you had to guess, you'd say you've gone and pissed it off.

Quote from: penguinofhonor on January 28, 2016, 04:39:02 pm

I crawl as far away from the burning drapes as I can, curl up into a ball, and try to rest.

The corner you settle for is the conveniently empty one that no longer houses the supply of inscribed bricks. It is damp, rough and quite uncomfortable to rest in on account of bits of shrapnel strewn about in it. But it will do. You curl up in it, breathe deep and let the pain fade away slowly. Helping with this is the way that the firelight provided by your drape fire seems to fade considerably in the coming minutes as the light of the pseudo-sun goes away, replaced by an even deeper darkness than before.

You are interrupted by the sound of thunder, seemingly coming from very nearby. You get the sneaking suspicion things are not going well.

Quote from: Toaster on January 28, 2016, 05:15:19 pm

Thomas sighed. Guess it was waiting for the other, then.

Or was he going about this wrong?

"How about you tell me about the local geography, and I try to work backwards from that?

Let's try this the other way around.

[A Lesson In Geography: 1]

Local geography? Uh, this'll probably be easier to do if he had a map, and they're all kind of, uh, carved into the walls on the third floor. It'd be kind of, uh, difficult to take you there, he says as he looks down at the considerable vertical gap between you and the second floor.

Suddenly, the tower shakes wildly and your ears are filled with explosions. The minder kid stumbles forward and out of the alcove, his arms helplessly flailing as he tries in vain to regain balance before going over the edge.

[Helpful Catch: 4]

You step forward and catch him before he hits the stone floor. He looks surprised for a moment. Uh... thanks, man. He, er, hasn't really mastered flying yet. You put him down, and notice that he seems extraordinarily out of his element as he looks around. Hasn't been down here in... huh, must be seven years now.

From above you hear a noise - looking up, you see more faces in the alcoves, their eyes drawing attention despite the deepening darkness of the area. They look at the kid you caught in frightened confusion. He looks over at you. Uh... crap. Would you mind, er, catching some more of his colleagues? They, uh, can't fly either. Yet.

Quote from: Xantalos on January 28, 2016, 11:49:13 pm

Sit down away from the burning drapes. Relax and talk with minder girl rather than focus on the pain.

"So. You were saying about the basics of this minder business? Sorry for the interruption, fire's rather distracting. And painful. Ow."

Not really the basics, no. The aptitude test. It's like lucid daydreaming, basically. Useful in combination with some other techniques, and possible for most anyone to learn, given time. The idea is that you generate a persistent world in your mind that continues on its own track even if you don't pay attention to it. Usually it takes a round of visualization and what you require to qualify as a prospective student is to demonstrate the ability to partition off a section of your mind like that before you hit the age of six. It speaks of adequate seriousness and malleability to be able to do it that early. She did it by age four, she notes proudly. One of the earlier enrollments the old minders had permitted. And look at her now! Mistress of the tower at her age? Virtually unheard of, she guarantees.

[Secrets of the Mind: 5]

She concentrates on you for a moment, and you feel a little odd. There. She's partitioned off a section of your... well, what looks like your mind, anyway. The keyword is "liverwort".

Mm. Something changes. The darkness around you, having only been deep before, becomes absolute, and only you and the minder girl remain, both perfectly illuminated, hanging out in a void. Yeah, so this is kind of a daydream-space you can occupy and put stuff in. It'll just run in the background, so to speak. And you can come back at any time. That's really it - you can do fun stuff in here, and there are some practical things you can do once you master the actual basics of minding - mostly setting down actual problems you can resolve by devoting a bit of resources to it over a long period of time. Kind of like sleeping on a problem, but considerably more effective.

Quote from: AoshimaMichio on January 29, 2016, 04:01:00 am

"You drive a hard bargain, guess I have to accept it.
My question: What exactly is this connection you desire?
My desire: To be a superiour minder in potential, skill and knowledge when compared to any minder in past, present and future."

Deals with demons.

Your answer: a connection is not unlike a relationship (see socialization, cooperation, exchange of goods and services). It exists between you and another creature of sufficient capability (see emotion, memory, communication). The interpreter permits a large number of potential connections to be made, and they can be easily redirected to the well. Connections themselves are of no use to you. They may however afford you certain secondary benefits (see magic, general aid, items of power) if worked on and developed. If a connection is given to the well, it is severed from you permanently and irrevocably - when you attempt to interact with someone who has a severed connection to you, they see the well in you and hear it speak. And whatever they think, this also is given to the well. Along with other things found on the way (see opportunity, long-term memory loss, conversion of knowledge).

Your fulfillment: your potential for altering reality already exceeds the potential of primitive methods such as minding (see words, magic, minding). The knowledge you seek would be on the scale of roughly three well-chosen questions. The skills would also require at least two rounds of fulfillment to approximate. Your request is thus best fulfilled as perfect compatibility with minding techniques. A technique needs to be observed before it can be learned.

Your price: a sixth of your future connections will now belong to the well.

Will that be all, or would you like to make another exchange?

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

Dermonster · « **Reply #498 on:** January 29, 2016, 08:03:53 am »

Shit shit shit shit time to run. ride the rock down to ground level.

"MOON YOU GOT THE WRONG ONE!"

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #499 on:** January 29, 2016, 09:29:37 am »

I don't know what's going on out there, but I am certainly not prepared to deal with it.

I sit up slightly, brush some debris out of the corner, and lay back down.

Toaster · « **Reply #500 on:** January 29, 2016, 09:51:35 am »

"You should be more careful up there; where's the handrails? What? More coming down? They should just use the fire stairs. What? No stairs? No emergency exits? Oh dear, oh dear, this place is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I can't possibly insure this until it's brought up to code... the fire marshal would have a conniption fit if he saw this. What? Catch? Um... I suppose?"

Help catch. Fret over innumerable fire code violations.

AoshimaMichio · « **Reply #501 on:** January 29, 2016, 11:38:50 am »

"An answer to that question leading to futher exchanges is worth of half of my future connections already given to the well. Will you pay?"

Counter-offer.

Xantalos · « **Reply #502 on:** January 29, 2016, 04:50:18 pm »

"Interesting. Mayhaps I could change the scenery? Infinite blackness is a bit boring."

Concentrate on changing the scenery - preferably to a kung fu temple on top of a mountain.

Harry Baldman · « **Reply #503 on:** January 30, 2016, 06:29:31 am »

Quote from: Dermonster on January 29, 2016, 08:03:53 am

Shit shit shit shit time to run. ride the rock down to ground level.

"MOON YOU GOT THE WRONG ONE!"

You exercise the better part of valor as you hop onto your stone, telling it to take you down while you try to instruct the moon once again. Here goes!

MOON

[Word: 4]

The moon hears you. This situation is inadequate. A deeper darkness is required. One that a mere false sun cannot pierce. The lunar veil grows thicker, greater. You see a flash up in the sky as your brother sun attempts to repeat its previous feat. The veil glows for a solid few seconds, but is not pierced. Success!

[Stone's Help: 5]

You breathe a sigh of relief as your stone takes you down through the ceiling holes down to ground level, where you see a curious scene - Mr. Minstep and a red-haired guard appear to be facilitating the evacuation of quite a few robed and frightened children. They look up at you, and you try to look like you have things under control.

Quote from: penguinofhonor on January 29, 2016, 09:29:37 am

I don't know what's going on out there, but I am certainly not prepared to deal with it.

I sit up slightly, brush some debris out of the corner, and lay back down.

[A Pocket of Safety: 4]

You find the corner much more comfortable to lie in after the shrapnel is cleaned up. It's still a damp stone floor, granted. But maybe that's also not as much of a minus as you'd usually think - at least here you don't need to worry about leaving a mess of whatever bits feel like peeling off from you, of which thus far there seem to be quite a few.

In any case, you continue resting. It's much better than before! But you only feel slightly better than before. And also a little dry and crumbly. You're not sure you like the feeling.

Quote from: Toaster on January 29, 2016, 09:51:35 am

"You should be more careful up there; where's the handrails? What? More coming down? They should just use the fire stairs. What? No stairs? No emergency exits? Oh dear, oh dear, this place is a lawsuit waiting to happen. I can't possibly insure this until it's brought up to code... the fire marshal would have a conniption fit if he saw this. What? Catch? Um... I suppose?"

Help catch. Fret over innumerable fire code violations.

[A Speedy Evacuation: 2]

The guard who appears to have stuck around through your attempts to divine the area's geography for whatever reason gets up and tries his best to help as the two of you prepare to catch a few more falling children. Two of the older ones take the plunge quite readily, but the remaining seven or so younger ones seem rather leery of the drop despite the visible assurance of the others that they'll probably be fine. This is at least partly because by the time they are in a position to consider it, it's gone so dark that you can't see them and you presume that they can't see you either.

Matters aren't helped when Mr. Codeburn appears through a hole in the ceiling, riding his shining rock with a look of manful concern, rocking quite the charred floral nightgown. You hear the patter of footsteps from above as the potential evacuees make a run for it, knowing better than to hang out nearby, and even the ones you already caught move toward the door in unison and out of sight range, prepared to get the hell out of her in case of trouble. Isn't that the Minister of Moronic Affairs, the guard asks. Is he a minder too?

Quote from: AoshimaMichio on January 29, 2016, 11:38:50 am

"An answer to that question leading to futher exchanges is worth of half of my future connections already given to the well. Will you pay?"

Counter-offer.

Your assessment is, once again, entirely incorrect. You would think you would have learned by now.

Quote from: Xantalos on January 29, 2016, 04:50:18 pm

"Interesting. Mayhaps I could change the scenery? Infinite blackness is a bit boring."

Concentrate on changing the scenery - preferably to a kung fu temple on top of a mountain.

[Mind's Refuge: 6]

The void gains depth as you lightly compel it to slope downward on several sides, and rise in different ones, the shapes attaining clarity even before the colors spring from your mind to paint them truly to life. An errant thought creates a grand winding staircase in the picturesque rocky mountainside, running all the way down to a blue forest lake at the bottom, numbering in the hundreds of thousands of steps as it navigates the twists and turns of the cliffs. Water springs from fresh mountain creeks, and behind you you hear the creak of the mountainside shaping itself into the mouth of the ancient temple. A mist rises in the cold morning as the sun paints itself onto the pinkish sky, commencing the most beautiful sunrise you have ever seen, recreated to perfection.

Turning around, you look upon the carved stone of your temple, its entrance resembling the head of some ancient guardian demon, eight spiderlike eyes reflecting the sunrise with inset mirrors as fifty-odd robed students assemble, nodding their heads in unison at you.

Well done, the girl says. You seem to have taken well to the partitioning.

Spoiler: Status (click to show/hide)

penguinofhonor · « **Reply #504 on:** January 30, 2016, 06:49:26 am »

I stand up, stretch, and take a look around the well. Then I climb up the chain just far enough to stick my head outside and see what's happening. I drop down into the well if I see anything dangerous or particularly fiery.

Xantalos · « **Reply #505 on:** January 30, 2016, 06:54:42 am »

"I'm told I take well to a lot of things. Now then, what's the next general step with this sort of thing? You've said that you can leave problems lying here on autopilot?"

The well also kinda implied that I'm not really a human while I'm in this ... dimension or whatever, aren't I. The mentions of substrate and all have got me thinking. Also something that one on-fire lady said. Something made out of rats? And given the minder girl mentioned that she found what she thought was my mind instead of being certain, maybe I've an aptitude for this sort of thing. Hopefully so, seems pretty cool.
Gotta talk with whoever built the well at one point.
See, this is why I need that problem autopilot thing!

Toaster · « **Reply #506 on:** January 30, 2016, 09:34:40 am »

"Say, weren't you looking for a doctor a bit ago? I take it you found one? Can you perhaps help us get these kids out of here? I see you've found a way down; I hope the wires on that thing are secure. This place has dreadful safety features."

AoshimaMichio · « **Reply #507 on:** January 30, 2016, 11:23:19 am »

"Can't blame the man for trying." Leif shrugs. "Theoretically speaking, could I decide which connection I give to you in exhance for answer and fulfillment? Purely hypothetically, I mean. I'm not paying anything yet. Just trying to probe possibilities."

Extended payment methodology probing. Once answer is received, exit the well, ask the girl levitate and observe it. And observe everything she does. Tell her how the well considers minding being a primitive method.

Dermonster · « **Reply #508 on:** January 30, 2016, 12:39:27 pm »

Quote from: Toaster on January 30, 2016, 09:34:40 am

"Say, weren't you looking for a doctor a bit ago? I take it you found one? Can you perhaps help us get these kids out of here? I see you've found a way down; I hope the wires on that thing are secure. This place has dreadful safety features."

"Oh wow I am sick and tired of your schtick THE SUN IS COMING DOWN FROM THE TOP OF THE SKY, I REPEAT, THE TOP OF THE SKY. RUN MOTHERFUCKER, RUN.!

Escape to the battlements! But out of sight of the massive stoat army I've gone and pissed off! And the second sun!

Toaster · « **Reply #509 on:** January 30, 2016, 10:42:42 pm »

Thomas shook his head. "Why are all the crazy people here?"

Anyway, keep trying to save people from this deathtrap.

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Author Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 262493 times)

Xantalos

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

AoshimaMichio

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Harry Baldman

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Dermonster

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Toaster

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

AoshimaMichio

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Xantalos

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Harry Baldman

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

penguinofhonor

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Xantalos

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Toaster

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

AoshimaMichio

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Dermonster

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun

Toaster

Re: Our Salvation: the Second Sun