The Last Oddetsey

[majinb]

Aurelia looks to Twitch and Marisa

"Hmmmm, yes Twitch, yes, you bring up good points... a stealthy flight overhead... you can pull this off! Remain unseen... if at any time your mission risks reaching the point of failure, get out and get back to us!"

Then, to the members Old Worlds Club

"You, beings of times gone by, we, the Macaw, the Witch and the Angel, not to be confused with the similarly named trio that can has been chronicled in the books of Narnia, shall aid you in your quest. Macaw, I trust in you and your suggested attempt to find entrance overhead, but I think I can do something to aid you in your plan. For this I must leave you for now, but do not worry, we, will meet again!"

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt was finishing up one of the science magazines. He planned on asking if he could keep one. At face value it was pretty worthless, but you never knew...

A sliding sound jerked him out of his thoughts. He could see a little bit of Dr. Seben's face. Gaunt's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Mr Gaunt, your chakra are incorrectly aligned for psionic abilities, however, as a very magical creature you can still be of use to us. You will not be rescued, your friends think you have left already."

The hatch immediately slammed shut. Get back here you f***ing a**hole! Gaunt was ready to scream, but a sudden pain in his chest robbed him of his breath and voice. He staggered over to the wall and propped himself against it. The pain continued along with a kind of draining sensation. What was going on? He looked at his hands and saw them changing. He was changing back into a demon. Through the pain, he screwed up his concentration as best as he could manage to reverse the transformation. Nothing. What were they doing to him? The draining sensation... Were they...? They were! They were actually draining his powers away from him! Anger surged through him. Anger... and fear. He had never felt anywhere near this kind of helplessness. He had never thought such a thing could be possible.

He pulled off the jacket he had acquired and shakily dug through the pockets. He extracted one of the smoke balls and the collapsible harpoon. A vague plan was swirling in his head. Demon-Gaunt sauntered over to the bathroom unit. Was the room watertight? Might as well find out he thought with a snarl. He screwed up all the strength he could manage and attacked the toilet, trying to burst the water line. Success! He tore up pages of some of the periodicals and jabbed them down the sink's drain and turned it's water on as high as it would go.

There... I'm being destructive and insolent, he thought. Perhaps they'll want to come in and reprimand me. Let them. If the wrong f***ing person opens that door they won't live long enough to regret it! He then went about making as much noise and commotion near the door as possible.

[playzooki]

keep running, its the daily mail!

[kodster]

Eudial exited the room and stood outside as the doctor moved away, slightly surprised. So there was some power within her? But of course, tied to her fire-based power. Just brilliant. Maybe she would set Mimete's wardrobe on fire when she got back. Heheh... yes...

Then she heard a distant slam. She looked down the hallway... wasn't that Gaunt's room?

Your friend Mr Gaunt, he has already left, although he was unfortunately unsuccessful, I think he went off to explore the city

He was hardly a friend, but from what Eudial knew of him, it wasn't like Gaunt to just suddenly take off like that, not in a place like this. And that slam... hmph. So that meant Gaunt was still in his room... locked in.

So the doctor lied.

And Eudial had no reason to believe the rest of what he had said either.

Rather than fear, a demon's smile crept onto her face. Psychic power, huh... what a joke. It was time to show these doddery old fools what power she really had.

Still wearing Vengeance's hat, she hid the savage grin on her face and approached the other room, with an air of hardly noticing what she was doing. The loci in her pocket was still there. Perfect.

"Hello..." she said nonchalantly to the doctor, "I wanted to ask a few more things... for one, what exactly do your tests, of sorts, involve? Secondly, might I inquire as to whom you were talking to before you opened my door... third, is the city you are referring to the one we were teleported from... and last of all, that man isn't the one who would leave a place like this that fast at all..." Eudial inclined her head. "Where is he really?"

[alex_holt]

AURELIA

Aurelia leaves to find herself outside in the kind of area that looks like it was incredibly upmarket fifty years ago but has subsequently been surpassed and fallen out of fashion. A being are going about their business, a family of small chocolate monkeys, a monster-truck-centaur and a a gentleman made of glass who appears to be wearing all his suit inside out.

LELAND GAUNT

The plan works and despite the intense pain, the floor quickly begins to flood with water at an alarming rate. Despite the weakness he manages to hold himself together long enough that the water seeps into the ground and the weakening light flickers off. After quickly inspecting himself it would appear it wasn't too long there, although his skin has gone a lot more leathery in accordance with an actual demon, however this isn't bad enough to point him out as a demon. However, despite his new toughness, he is still trapped in the room for now and the water level is rising.

PLAYZOOKI

Playzooki runs away again and this time finds himself in courtyard of the Retirement Home for the Psycorps, where retired psychics insist on telling embarrassing childhood stories of everyone who visits to their friends. Already an old lady on a rocking chair is pointing out Playzooki and chuckling with her friends.

EUDIAL

Suddenly there is a powerful psychic emanation from Dr Seben, and her head screams. But actually that was just a normal headache wasn't it? There was something going on here but she couldn't will the knowledge forward (remember your ability scores :P).

"Are you alright, you were just about to choose your free training?"

There was something very wrong, Leland had gone back to the city, but she couldn't place her finger on what wasn't right...

[NFX]

"But that's not what I..." Twitch began, before Aurelia swiftly about faced and made her exit. An exasperated sigh passed his lips. "I'm gonna have to fly over the wall, aren't I?" he asked nobody in particular. Him and his big beak. Grabbing his bag of iteming in said beak, he trudged over towards the window, hopping up onto the ledge and peering out to see a highly unusual collection of beings wandering the equally unusual street. "Can someone open the window for me?" he asked, giving his wings a shake. "And which direction is the spaceship place?" he added.

[shadowflare]

"Do we know anything about the spaceship, exactly? Or just the fact there is a spaceship there?" Marisa questioned, before proping the window up for Twitch. "Good luck with your wall thing! Don't forget, if you get into trouble, wing it back to us."

She quickly converted some of her mushrooms in the damp bag (ewww man I need a new bag for these before I spawn paperbag mushrooms. ) into the powder she uses for her spells and loads as much of it as she can into her hakkero. Could be helpful if she needs to fire her laz0rz, after all. The situation may call for it.

[playzooki]

playzooki looks around the courtyard for no reason maybe because hes dumb or something idk

[NWOWWE]

Gaunt propped himself back up against the wall and took a few moments to catch his breath. The effort taken in destroying the water fixtures coupled with that draining light had nearly caused him to black out, but at least it looked as though he had managed to disable it. That was something at least. He looked down at his leatherly looking skin and felt a mixture of renewed anger and some relief. Anger because they had taken some of his power, but at the very least they hadn't got all of it so he wasn't completely helpless. Helpless! The room was steadily being filled with water! So, watertight after all it would seem. Well friends and neighbors, how about that now? All the same it was better than being sapped of all his power. Psychics or something were they? Well, either they'd have someone monitoring him or he could try and "reach out" to them. So he began screaming thoughts out of his head as loud as he could project them.

(Attention to anyone listening in! I have a few bones to pick with you! I want to know what kind of lazy, slipshod establishment you're running here! Your lights give me a hell of a migrane and some sort of skin irritation! And just look at the state of this place! Water leaks! Is there someone in management I can speak with? What about that Dr. Seben fellow? I should definetly like a word with him! I wouldn't presume to treat a client so coldly as all this! The man could barely spare a few words for me before leaving me with whatever passes for bad television around here!)

Following that he began running a constant stream of old tounge-twisters and occasionally the word "shield" through his mind. He still had his smoke bombs and his harpoon and he wanted to keep them from probing any of his plans from his mind. A handy trick he had picked up from observing the group concousness "alien-invasion" of The Tommyknockers back in Haven shortly before he set up in Castle Rock. And he waited on a response.

[steven_mcg]

*SOME TIME LATER, AT THE CATHEDRAL*

Vengeance strides up to the front of the Cathedral after a battle against the evil forces of Melded's bizarre public transport, which had involved a number of changes including a giant ladybird, a Da Vinci style helicopter, and, for some reason, a sledge pulled by aubergines.

The Cathedral is the biggest free-standing building that Vengeance has ever seen, and this for a man who has owned his fair share of massive secret complexes. It somewhat resembles what would happen if you took Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, multiplied it by the Taj Mahal, Notre Dame and an overgrown patch of brambles and had it be so massive that the stones of the first few floors had been compressed into crystals by the weight.

As Vengeance enters inside he discovers that the innards of the place are designed as as if was grown of great stone trees, and the floor was alive with a living mosaic which moved in radiant fractal patterns in brilliant colours spinning around a central hub in the centre of the room. Vengeance walked towards this hub cautiously, but even as he neared the centre point he suddenly began to grow dizzy until he could no longer distinguish anything... and then.... he was elsewhere.....

[One real-world weekend in Leicester later...]

(Ohhh, my head. My spleen. God, I feel as though I've been drinking bleach for four days straight. On Mercury.)

(What do I remember? OW! OK, don't remember quite that hard. Let me think... I was in the Cathedral - very nice too, if a touch weedy by now. There were things like stone trees and a disco floor for some reason and...)

(Well, a lot of white, for one thing. Not anymore, though. Head's clearing a bit now. Where am I anyway?)

[NFX]

"Heh heh, wing it, yeah..." Twitch replied, acknowledging what could have been a pun on Marisa's part or not, with a nervous squeak creeping into his voice. He leant out of the window a little, and took a moment to inspect his surroundings. The wind seemed calm, it wasn't particularly overcast. Good flying weather. That was a little consolation, he supposed. However, taking a look in either direction, he still couldn't see the compound he was to attempt infiltrating. "Which way's the spaceship?" he asked the Old World members, a little louder this time.

[alex_holt]

TWITCH, AURELIA AND MARISA:

The Night Pine creaks, and despite there being no words in that the group can hear, they suddenly understand exactly where the Space Ship is hidden, how to get there and a bit about it. It is a small intra-solar system fighter, designed to be a super tough spearhead of skirmishes, and has been developed here secretly on earth with the prospect of selling it to alien empires to help re-establish King Industries. It's name is the Oddestsey.

Aurelia has begun to assemble her first small army, her angelic presence drawing seemingly disparate people together and she has assembled 25 beings and started to instill in them the capella singing she had planned. All except for one drunken dwarf who only seems capable of singing the word "gold" raucously to the same tune as the intended song, but twice as loud as everyone else combined.

PROFESSOR VENGEANCE

Looking around Professor Vengeance finds himself in a woodland glade with the city nowhere in sight, though looking up still reveals the shield humming overhead. There is a single path heading up a hill out of the glade into the deep woods, while a few small obsidian black butterflies flap lazily around the clearing. He looks down to see the key he received on his little trip and assumes that this must the path to the lost Flying Castle of Lord Doomforall that he was tasked with finding, and, apparently where several of his classic canes and top-hats had been stored for a little added incentive...

PLAYZOOKI

As he looks around the courtyard, he finds a few items - a rusty fork, a pot containing a Crystal Rose and a Rook from a chesspiece made of ivory, but all the while hears the whisper of the old people and what feels largely like his brains being turned to scrambled egg from the number of psychic connections established at the same time. "Do you see that time that he wore that costume to that party?" "AHAAAHHAA yes dearie, but have you got that time where he tripped over into that puddle? I've seen funnier trips I have to say.... ooh but what's this....."

Suddenly dozens of old people eyes are staring at him, glowing with a pale blue-white light...

"I see the little gods have taken an interest in you" a greying talking dog says to him... "They have power if they worked together, perhaps enough to prolong the life of this world a little longer.... and certainly whoever freed them would gain some of their powers. But at what cost? It is shrouded to me... my precognition is shrouded in any timeline where this one stands in front of the PantheUrn...."

Then, almost as abruptly as it had stopped, the rummaging through the private thoughts and memories of Playzooki returns and his head gets increasingly painful...

LELAND GAUNT

Though the initial call for attention didn't seem to yield much of a result, through force of will he manages to fend of an attacking mind twice, though its origins remain mysterious, though it doesn't *feel* like it is Dr Seben - perhaps one of his assistants? The water seems to reach a level eventually, and Leland is forced to sit on the bed which begins floating or get his trousers severely wet. It looks like unless he can break his own way out he will have to rely on Eudial.

[playzooki]

(THE PAIN! musnt let it show, don't want to look weak. are they psychics? errr that dog is talking wth. better talk to it, i hope i dont get attacked!)

"What is this PantheUrn you speak of?"

[alex_holt]

"The PantheUrn is an ancient device.... it was built long ago to stop this world overflowing with Gods, it filters out all the little ones of minor things that no one cares for and contains them all in a great urn in a park not far from here."

The dog pauses for a second.

"As I have been a good boy, do you have any food?"

[steven_mcg]

Looking around Professor Vengeance finds himself in a woodland glade with the city nowhere in sight, though looking up still reveals the shield humming overhead. There is a single path heading up a hill out of the glade into the deep woods, while a few small obsidian black butterflies flap lazily around the clearing. He looks down to see the key he received on his little trip and assumes that this must the path to the lost Flying Castle of Lord Doomforall that he was tasked with finding, and, apparently where several of his classic canes and top-hats had been stored for a little added incentive...

Oh god, I really am in Narnia this time.

Ah well. I could be in bloody Essex for all I care right now if it means I get the key to a flipping flying fortress into the bargain! Hahaha! Oh, Doomy, you silly billy sastard, you!

Right! Time to claim my prize. I'm assuming this is the right way - why else would he dump me here? Still, better safe than sorry. I'll send out my little robot friend a little ahead of me to scan the area and see if I can't get some decent GPS around here. I might as well take a closer look at this "Thoughtsteel" stuff. Lots of fun to be had there and besides, I might get a proper hat again soon...

And you know what, "little robot friend" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue well, does it, my helpful H.E.R.B.I.E-esque handyman? You deserve something more befitting the valet of a gentleman criminal. Something dignified, by George!

By George...

Perfect! Absolutely capital! Come along, George! Let's catch ourselves a castle!