The Last Oddetsey

[kodster]

*well, the thought of freezing to death isn't exactly pleasurable to Eudial. It's as harsh as the cold, so she eventually caves in*

"Excuse me?" he asked to nobody in particular, "Does anybody know how this all works?"

*Eudial turns* Ugh, how would I know how this stupid thing works?!

*nonetheless Eudial strides over and examines the control panel*

[alex_holt]

Thanks to her slightly greater intellect, fully functioning hands and reading the control panel before pushing things, Eudial is able to see how the machine operates. While there are indeed a lot of buttons, most form a keyboard, while a row of extra buttons along the top seems to provide specific functions: currently you are on "recent logs", though there is also an emergency door override, deploy defensive measures, arrival registration mode, contact control room, contact central offices.

[kodster]

*Eudial is stunned. For a moment, her arm flies out towards the emergency door override button, but then she starts to consider the other buttons, though definitely not pressing them. (given their nature)

"Deploy defensive measures" ... *Eudial lets her breath out in a long hiss, which clouds over her head in fading steam* Okay, so this place keeps people locked inside as well as outside, probably. "Contact control room" ... "contact central offices" ... like they'd be cozy with a bunch of freaks in here. Wait... "arrival registration mode" ????? Registration??? We're...

*Eudial hesitates for a second, then taps the button for Arrival Registration Mode first*

[alex_holt]

The machine whirs for a second before a slightly "Please state name, then step onto the platform for your new arrival orientation" - a small section of the floor rises up and pulses softly with blue light.

[majinb]

"Caspasian, do you know what it is that makes you seemingly helpless in the current situation? Anything we can do?"

[alex_holt]

Caspasian pauses as if composing himself, and then addresses Aurelia very slowly as if talking to a young child "I am light incarnate. I am made of solar energy. I am in this room, with no way for light to pass out into the greater universe. Light can exert no pressure of note on matter. Therefore I am trapped here until someone opens the sky to me once more".

[kodster]

*Eudial looks very apprehensive at the sudden section of floor rising. She has a bad feeling about it, and reluctantly looks at any of the others for suggestions*

[NWOWWE]

Cold! Gaunt gave a slight grimace and turned his attention to the rest of the room. Any kind of transforming always took him out of things for awhile and if someone had noticed him it couldn't be helped. Worst of all it seemed to be for nothing as the tubes had ended up being opened automatically. Wishing he had a bit more to work with, he gathered up the materials that had been in the container with him. While one of the others was carefully pressing buttons at a large machine a voice said something about new arrival orientation.

While nothing would please him more than to try and do business with someone, he wanted more information about what was going on. And it was far too cold here anyway. So trying not to show signs of shivering he stepped onto the platform.

[alex_holt]

A quick flickering grid of light cross-hatches Leland Gaunt with purple lasers.

Welcome Leland Gaunt. Scanning..... Species Designation: Polymorphous Bargaining Demon - Eighth level. Threat level.... Acceptable. Please prepare for extraction, and welcome to Earth Zero!

Leland suddenly blinks out of the room out of sight of the others.

********************

An instant later he finds himself in the remains of a very large room - it would appear that is was originally a huge area where a lot of people would have passed through, but it is now in ruins. There are desks upturned, paper matted to the floor by water and the few lights remaining are flickering on and off. The most notable thing about the room however is that half of it has been crushed away by what is a titanic armoured hand lying lifelessly across the opposite end of the room - it is titanic and Leland's Demonic nature picks the crackling of residual cosmic energy through one of his more obscure senses. The whole thing must be as a large as a freighter, and this is only the hand!

Suddenly the electronic voice from the machine starts up again but this time is buzzing with static.

"W....wwwww.....wwwwelcome Mr GauGaunt..... I will provide you with a quick summary of your situation before you will proceed to the Demonic registration desk to discuss your requirements and answer and questions". A nearby map flashes at a location in the room that is most definitly flat under the giant hand.

"You have by pure chance arrived at Earth Zero. Earth Zero is the designation of this Earth, situated in Universe Zero - the Universe situated at the basal position of all reality. As such, occasionally an individual such as yourself may, through no fault of your own, stumble out of your own Universe and into another. If you do not intersect another universe on your descent, you will end up here. Beings from all other Universes, and their descendants find their homes here. We are sorry to inform you that return to your previous reality is incredibly unlikely, and has only been attempted by a very slim number of individuals in all of history. We encourage you to find a new life here, however if you must seek to return you are permitted to make any attempts to do so as long as it falls within Earth Zero laws. Please now proceed to the Demonic Registration Desk. Have a nice day!"

The wind howls through the huge gaps the gauntlet caused in its fall, and the sunlight creeps in across the empty hall.

[playzooki]

[deleted, didnt read pg7]

[shadowflare]

'Brrrrrr~' Marisa mumbled quietly, rubbing at her arms and trying to make the chill go away, and failing. She decides that not going into the lazer array would be a good idea (man that demon guy just totally got vaporized, ze?) she decides instead going to the panel and maybe managing to find out where she-- er, they all are, though she pauses a moment when she hears the light-being needing to see the sky to get out. "I could try to blast out the ceiling for you! But, uhh.... do we know if there is actually sky out there? I don't really want to try to drain out the heat in here faster, I'm freezing enough already!" She shivered, wishing that she somehow knew in advance to wear her coat, before wandering over to the panel to see what all the people over there were doing.

[kodster]

WHAT THE HELL?! *Eudial comically recoils in shock at the demon disappearing and nearly falls over, but regains her footing* Gah! ...

*she stares around, a bit more willing to co-operate* Okay, who else wants to go on that thing... ? There's an emergency exit button right here, but we don't even know what's outside yet. Or we could just freeze... *shivers for the first time*

[NFX]

Twitch, rather than paying attention to what was going on, was trying to figure out where the disembodied voice was coming from. Before he could figure it out, though, a flash of light startled the macaw, as the demon blinked out of the room.

"He's gone!" he squawked, flying himself over towards the platform and frantically examining it, trying to figure out what exactly had happened, or where the demon might be. The parrot turned back towards Eudial, not realising that he was standing on the platform himself now. "He's completely gone!"

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt stared unblinkingly at the machine for several moments and then turned attention back to the colossal from that had crushed where he was expected to go. The odd vibes he could feel somehow intrigued him. It was at once nostalgic yet completely unknown. There seemed to be very little of use around, but he picked up one of the more intact looking desks and set it upright. He laid out his items on the desk and then began to wonder aloud to himself.

"Not the most inviting outcome imaginable I must admit, but it's some improvement from freezing. Earth Zero... Universe Zero... Quite a lot to process."

He closed his eyes and listened to the wind for a few moments.

"I suppose questions of returning back to my own reality will have to wait for a moment. But at present I'm not in any large hurry so I'll wait a while and see if any of the others follow my lead and end up here as well."

Casually, he stood at his desk and admired the sunlight working it's way across the floor.

[playzooki]

(woah, that woman might know what she is doing! maybe i should approach her)

Playzooki, having been too busy pointlessly wandering around to notice the disappearance and Eudial's reaction, walked up to Eudial's side. Playzooki was too shy to talk to her.