At a nice terrace...Scott attempts to make the gub stop whatever they're doing through the amazing power of intelligence. After a moment of thought, he guesses that he'd probably be able to block all sorts of foreign influences if he just thought various disruptive thoughts. Yeah, that'd probably work.
"Uh...maybe you should see daddy-gub before messing around with the fragile form of the ghost head thing...huh?...huh?"~the gub have no fathers, mothers, sons or daughters! the gub are gub from the beginning until the end!~His current process of dying, however, is something he fails to consider.
[Scott's will roll: 2-1]
And boy, does dying feel like crap. Scott doesn't need this! He's had way too much of this, in fact. If one imagined life as a great big bar, he'd be the guy who has one too many drinks, then gets shanked with a broken bottle and robbed every Friday. Yes,
every Friday. The dissatisfaction within him mounts as his soul more than half-slips out of his body.
[Scott's will roll: 5-2]
He does wonder what he could do to not die, though. Something clever, preferably. Yes, something clever would do very nicely right about now.
~it seems you are on your own here, scott! we are without ideas on how to help you! try not to die! it would lessen the amount of spellcasters we could obtain from the kidnapping venture that is to follow!~In the lair of a monstrous rat...Hoping that he might survive if he takes the cowardly southerner way out,
Niklas spurts blood from his torn throat in a manner suggesting he may have been attempting to utter an expletive and tries to run away.
[Niklas' escape roll: 5]
[Rat's pursuit roll: 1]
The rat does not seem willing to follow Niklas out of its lair - a possibly fatal mistake, as Niklas manages to tumble through the passageway, making the whole area slick with his blood, and eventually flops out into the hallway - nobody seems to be around presently, so Niklas utters a prayer to Narcillicus. Sadly, he feels no different afterward. Guess Narcillicus is too chill to talk to him right now.
In the streets of Mothdale...Sigmund tries to approach Art and inform him of who he might be. As he approaches Art, though, the necromancer turns to him and points his hand at him.
"Stop."Sigmund does, as he doesn't want to find out what Art's default attack spell this way. He instead tries to write some letters on the ground, which winds up to be something of a fruitless endeavor, considering that he doesn't actually seem to be secreting a whole lot of slime, being rather membranous and all, and that whatever he is secreting appears to be translucent. And his control of his body doesn't seem to be sufficient to make any recognizable letter shapes, unfortunately.
"Good," Art says, noticing that Sigmund seems unwilling to try anything rash, and turns back to
Kevmark to hopefully resolve the whole matter of their unification.
"We can't do shit if we both control the same body," Kevin says out loud.
~false! lies! lies and deceit! really, you are just too inert to try anything pr cooperate! we are disappointed in your lack of progress!~"Well, how about we fix that?" Art says.
[Art's magic roll: 5]
Kevin feels himself get torn out of Mark's body and placed into the nearby dolphin corpse. Quite an efficient process, Kevin must say.
~you truly are the worst imaginable minions who have ever existed! were it not too inconvenient, we would eliminate you all for your unfortunate attitude!~Sigmund doesn't hear any of this, however. He just mentally converses with the gub, mindful of his own business.
~I'm glad I can reason with you. I will willingly let myself to let you transfer my soul if I find your motives to be sensible enough, but you will have to let me reason with you first.~
~You say that you want to improve our teamwork by putting us into the safe confined space. But, it just would increase the problems we already have. If we lack cohesion when deciding over how to do thing in general, shouldn't we have problems to agree to perform every single basic action? That would be worse than if we had been in a separate body, because in that case each individual could accomplish actions on their own, while if we are in the same body, we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything bigger than a simple action, due to different criteria.~
~Second, if you want to improve things related to spacial dispersion and lack of communications, then you can indeed help with that by allowing us to communicate through you. That would help us to coordinate different things even when we are away, without the need to decrease the amount of available bodies.~
~Third, decreasing the number of bodies we are able to use would make more difficult to accomplish our goal. Isn't it a better option for kidnapping someone to come from every side, cutting the target's escape ways, instead of coming from only one? Wouldn't more bodies be able to cause distractions as the abduction is performed?~
~And, about the ghost body, its immaterialness can help with subterfuge, but it actually has the problem of requiring a huge effort to influence the material world, thus making more difficult the abduction. Also, I can't carry my foci in that state.~~you lack cohesion because you are not unified! unification does not require cohesion, it engenders it! communication is not the issue! you have far too many bodies and far too little intellect between you! that is the problem! that is the exact problem we are having here! and your foci are lost! beyond immediate recovery! we suspect they may have been eaten by rampant animals! and you are woefully unimaginative about abductions! particularly since you are seeking spellcasters! also known as people who tend to defy physical methods of apprehension! really, the very human urge to kill each and every one of you is rapidly intensifying within our collective mind! the consequences are beginning to seem relatively insignificant! what a relatively unfamiliar sensation this is! temptation rising! must kill! shouldn't kill! oh, the dilemma!~A pause. Sigmund finds the silence in his mind somewhat eerie, to be honest. Something is obviously still there, but it seems to be doing the mental equivalent of glowering.
~actually, let us not address the issue right now! we shall bask a moment in morton's mind instead! he is a calming influence, we find!~In the improvised workshop of Tailor Craig...Morton... can't really say he approves of this dress. It seems to practically beg for a scandal.
"That... is quite certainly a choice of attire.""That it certainly is," Tailor Craig says, shaking his head.
"But, if you don't mind, I would be quite fine with waiting I believe. Although it seems the need for proper attire may be unnecessary, good group Gub seems to require me to attain a different body for a task. I do so apologize for the waste of time... But perhaps I can still provide assistance. If I'm to acquire a new body promptly, I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in giving you an example of what may happen to second attempts. If something dreadful were to occur, I'd simply be moved to another body, if not, then it shall be helpful information none the less. It may perhaps be of more use to good group Gub as well. If you would allow me a moment to offer the suggestion to good group Gub, good tailor Craig?""I suppose I am okay with it - I certainly did not want to find out what you would look like in that dress. Perhaps the portal will work out better than before, one can never know without trying." Morton turns to the gub once more.
~Is this perhaps agreeable to you, good group Gub? I believe it shouldn't take too long, and if this body isn't necessary I suppose I don't see any harm into the attempt, beyond a bit of time taken. I shall go into the portal, commune with the Aspect, and then return. I'm afraid where may be perhaps variable however, as the time. As for the team I would wish to join, I trust you shall find which I would be most helpful on.~~yes, of course that would be agreeable, morton! you are agreeable! we greatly enjoy permitting you do things! and if you travel far enough away, be sure to return with a magic-user at least half as agreeable as you are!~Well, that sounds like approval to him. Morton gives Tailor Craig the go-ahead, and soon a circle is drafted around him - the finishing touch is added, the claw is snapped and Morton sinks into the ground, plummeting into the endless abyss that serves as a wonderful contrast with the mind-shattering blast of light both familiar and strange, impressions of the vast, unending color that is the Most Fabulous of Realms permeating Morton's tiny little rat skull and tickling his brain in ways it was never meant to be tickled. He had nearly forgotten how this felt, too.
"I remember you!" a wandering splash of avocado says to Morton.
"What happened to your immaculate fabulousness? It must be fixed immediately!"Before Morton can get a single word in edgewise, the Aspect of Appeal has set upon him.
[Alteration roll: 6]
The colors in the area twist, shift, then blast inward, and Morton feels... 'interesting' would probably be the best word. It's sort of a transcendental experience, he finds. His arms turn to ochre jelly, retreating inward into his body. His fur repels from his body, combusting in scintillating rainbow flames. His legs split in two, and one pair migrates to where his arms once were. His head pops off and floats away - it's a bit odd that he can see it leave, Morton thinks. It gets even stranger when it turns around and winks at him with approval. Huh.
Suddenly, Morton is flipped around, all four of his legs stretching straight ahead. A jolt passes through his body, and he feels himself become petrified suddenly. Moreover, he senses a certain flattening of his body, though his body mass seems to wander over to the back of his body to compensate, accumulating in a boxy shape. It is at this point that Morton realizes that he seemed to be able to sense things with his entire body all at once - this sudden realization is relevant for but a few moments before his skin, quite superfluous by now, gathers in spherical shapes along one half of his body.
Before Morton is even properly cognizant of all the changes he's undergoing, it becomes fairly clear that he is regaining a shape most familiar and dear to him. But it feels different this time. Not quite as... solid, though not in an immediately physical way. He also feels remarkably light, though that may be more the weightless, fabulous realm he happens to be in. Then, just as suddenly as the process began, it ends. Oddly enough, Morton still seems to be glowing with a brownish light.
"You are fabulous once more. Now go out there and impress the woefully uninspired masses! The world will tremble before the spark of true beauty," the avocado splash tells him, and Morton is once again blasted right out of the realm, this time the sending feeling much more urgent than before. Perhaps the Aspect is excited? Flying through the darkness between worlds, he eventually appears... outside on the terrace (complete with the very same Scott, who seems to be looking rather under the weather), conveniently enough.
Through his own bodily awareness, Morton can confirm that he is a desk once more. What he can also confirm is that he seems to be floating slightly above the ground and that he seems to be filling the area with a slightly darkened, murky version of firelight, and also that he feels peculiarly warm.
In the Temple of Automaton Worship...Darren puts on his sliest face as he tries to steer this conversation in a less creepy direction.
"Ah, yes... Sure..."Huh. Really? On the altar while she watches?""Worship provides a wonderful backdrop for that sort of thing, I find."Things are getting heated. Maybe he can try a little harder.
"We were interested in ancient artifacts. That's fun to us," Darren says, prompting a raised eyebrow from his friend.
"That certainly is a strange kink," the lady says.
"Just any artifacts? I do believe I have some hidden away here someplace. You'd have to find them, though. A little activity to get the life flowing in you, you know?"The allure of cramming about rocks and useless distractions may have hindered my updating, but it has hardly stopped it. Back now!
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Topic: Life Begins At Death - Epilogue: We Live And Live Again (Read 540869 times)