In the library of the Red Tower of Power...Niklas decides to set the text on enunciation aside for a bit and instead read up on his nonlinear linguistics - that one proves to be
quite fascinating indeed, dealing with a subject as interesting as this. The first few chapters seem to be devoted to learning how to think in a nonlinear fashion - a skill that is quite integral to nonlinear writing and nonlinear reading, obviously, and Niklas tears into the texts and exercises with great enthusiasm. They're kind of like koans, but they actually make a lot of sense once you start to think about them in the right way, and they're not philosophical at all. As Niklas moves through them, he feels like certain bits of his mind are beginning to twist, and he starts to get the general gist of the radial, circular and prismatic modes of thought, if not the exact details - when he goes through all the exercises again, just to be sure, he feels much more nonlinear! Finding this to be worthy of some further experimentation, he goes through the thing again, in what is assuredly a manifestation of circular thought already.
He isn't sure when exactly he faded out of consciousness - it was rather weird to encounter the problem of sleep sneaking up to him like that. What was also weird, though, was the mix of prismatic, radial and circular dreams he had, none of which could be effectively relayed to a linear listener without them becoming more than a little confused.
Also, he's hungry, thirsty, and needs to pee quite a bit. All of these are relatively new sensations to him, or at least only barely remembered. They're not very pleasant.
The feeling of a good night's sleep, though, that he
could certainly get used to.
At the harbor of Mothdale...Sigmund, upon spotting
Mark getting chased and abused by dolphins, looks for a handy cobblestone to suck into his gaping mouth - unfortunately, what he first takes to be a loose cobble instead proves something rather more organic. And when he attempts to regurgitate it rapidly at the uncouth sea mammals harassing his personal surgeon, not only does it not fly further than two meters, it also sprays a little. And it also tastes rather awful.
[Mark's escape roll: 1]
Mark, still about fifty meters away from the harbor, promptly trips on the exact loose cobble Sigmund was looking for, which makes the vampiric worm a bit sad. By the time he regains his footing, all three dolphins are upon him.
Morton, though, seems to have roughly gotten the idea of what Sigmund was doing, and, even though the worm is unfamiliar to him, attempts to hurl a flask the entire considerable distance to Mark.
[Morton's throwing roll: 3-
1]
However, he can't quite seem to reach Mark with his flask, and it hits the ground about twenty meters away from Morton, which is saddening indeed.
Kevin, who seems to also be interested in his compatriot's fate, tightens his grip on his board. These dolphins will pay for what they are doing, that much is certain. His resolve strengthening, he moves after Mark.
[Screechy vs. Mark: 1+2 vs. 1+2]
[McStrange vs. Mark: 4+1 vs. 2+2]
One of the dolphins begins to ineffectually beat Mark over the skeleton with his own stolen leg, while the other starts to chew on his tree in a rather nasty-sounding way. Neither do much damage, but they do seem to be hindering Mark's escape quite a bit, jumping all around him and menacing him with attacks from all fronts.
[Beakley's charge roll: 4]
And the third dolphin, arriving from whatever business kept it away beforehand, jumps rapidly toward Mark, seeking his death like some sort of sentient pebble flung from an infernal sling.
[Beakley vs. Mark: 3+1+
1 vs. 3+2]
The bump it inflicts with its nose as it contacts Mark would surely slay a human being - however, Mark could never be accused of being one of those. Not these days, anyway.
[Kevin's movement roll: 6+1]
Luckily for Mark, however, Kevin has arrived to save the day!
[Kevin vs. McStrange: 3 vs. 4+1]
The board is... less than helpful. The strange dolphin barely seems to notice the strike as the board impacts its skull. There's just a slightly comical, wet bonk.
In a place of blinding white...Scott listens to the voice's advice, and goes the
other way. Just as he gets to an appreciable speed, the voice calls out to him again.
"Wrong way again, Jeremy! Better than before, but you need to correct your course a little! Go a bit to the left!"Outside a ruined tavinn in Blynn...Timothy, though hesitant, ultimately goes for telling it like it is to the guy.
"I uh, I finks we's gotted off on da wrong foots." "You!" the woman says, recognizing Timothy pretty much immediately.
"Hm?""The voice that was badgering me earlier! That's who it is!""Oh.""I was only just tries to help... 'cause I hears youse talk about how hungry you is, I wanted to gets you some foods. Gone to lotsa troubles to getsit, too. I's real sorry. Not havin' much lucks wif being helpfuls lately. At least youse not be hungry now, right? I helps 'leasta little teeny bit?""Food for broken legs? What kind of messed up gnome logic is that? Did you ask him to make a wish, too, and looked for ambiguous wording in that?""Now, come on, dear. He really was trying to help. And I'm not hungry anymore, so there's that.""Everything's blown to shit now! Everything! Do you understand that?""I'm sure it'll be alright. Timothy can help us, you know."The woman looks at the man with the broken legs in horror.
"Did he do something to you?" she asks.
"No... well, I don't think so, anyway. He just sounds trustworthy, you know.""What the hell are you even talking about?"The lady looks a bit frightened now, actually.
At the engineers' graveyard of the City of the Dead...Darren retreats from the graveyard a little. It seems like bad news, you know. He also turns his telekinetic construction into something as harmless as anything he can think of - a reasonable dirt facsimile of a human baby! The insects react to this - all of them, actually. The nearest one immediately and, it has to be said, very gently lifts the construct from the ground, then begins to look around for something. The other insects also seem equally alarmed, taking a moment to inspect the creature, then beginning to scurry about, all intents of landscaping completely abandoned from the looks of it.
What strange creatures, indeed.
Author
Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 542886 times)