A few moments pass before anyone can think of anything to say.
"Huh, you don't see a man with a vortex in his belly every day. I'll get to you in a minute, dear fellow, I just have to summon some double vampires," THE DUNKER starts off, hoping to end the introduction before it has begun.
"Yeah, it's not a vortex, or rather not just a vortex - it's the will of God. Would you care to join me as a disciple of the True Potato?" Halesey makes the usual pitch in lieu of proper conversation.
"No, I'm too far invested in donuts to go there. Nice proposition though, much more polite than some I've received," THE DUNKER replies, and tries out his new spell.
[THE DUNKER's affinity roll: 6-->1+1]
All three packets of margarine in his possession suddenly burst open violently, the sandwich spread within liquefying and coalescing into a greater, violently mixing whole. It starts to bubble and expand in a way that makes the three people in the room back away a little bit, afraid of margarine stains that may never come off in their life. Halesey, suitably unsettled by the stated conjuring of double undead, takes certain measures.
[Halesey's affinity roll: 4]
As Halesey makes a welcoming gesture, a group of hairy fellows in tracksuits appears to the left to him, standing in a very solid-looking line.
"Ah. My acquaintances. Good evening, mafiosi," says Halesey as the blob of margarine continues to grow.
"I think I will go. You two seem to have the situation well in hand, really," says the lawyer lady, but does not start walking away, apparently seeking affirmation before doing so, which neither of her two friends seem to be willing to give.
"I HUNGER!" shouts the blob of margarine, taking the shape of a rather tiny creature, about the size of a small child, yet nevertheless possessing a very predatory look to it. Its figure fills out at first, then immediately deflates around what look to be some very well-defined bones, in essence forming what looks like a very tiny ghoul of sorts. And the final step of the transformation, it seems, is the skin - the margarine turns a variety of pinks, blues and greens as the outer layer of the creature covers itself with a variety of winning numbers on eye-catching paper, twitching as its very sharp claws no doubt capable of inflicting many of the more severe varieties of papercut, such as across the jugular. As it takes shape, its first course of action, it seems, is to leap.
[Double Vampire vs. Lawyer Lady: 1 vs. 1]
It manages to fly right past her, its ghoulish, yet garish visage rolling across the factory floor for a moment before realizing that it, too, appears to be flesh, and probably easier to capture, too. It sinks its teeth into the floor, drawing a significant quantity of blood from it. After a short moment, it gets up, looking about despite having no visible eyes.
"Well, that didn't help at all!" it immediately observes.
"What am I even supposed to want, then? Souls?"The creature casts a glance over at the gaggle of people, unsure how one may eat their souls, presumably, or at least considering what equipment might be used to do so.
* * * * *
The Observer, not about to waste time when there could be singing ducks about, searches for their likely location, easily isolating it to the backyard of a rather abandoned-looking house in the neighborhood. Curious, he sneaks along the side and takes a look at the noisy proceedings, which sound a lot like fighting, to be perfectly honest, and discovers that it does, in fact, appear to be a fight of some kind. Two esteemed-looking individuals appear to be engaging in less than gentlemanly combat, in fact.
[John's finesse roll: 5]
Less than gentlemanly, the Observer observes, largely because one of them, a balding, meek-looking fellor, has a singing duck blade of legend and the other, a rough urban adventurer type, seems to have a sausage. Not that he is not using it to great effect - the Observer himself is amazed when the sausage sails through the air and strikes the sword wielder straight in the eye, which seems equal parts maddening, confusing and painful according to the reaction.
[Stan's body roll: 3]
The balding man shrieks and backs away, rubbing his eyes to get the sausage slime out. The other guy uses this moment of respite to run away for a moment, putting some distance between himself and his adversary.
"Now that's the kind of thing I'd pay to see!" a man on the sidelines, somebody who the observer would immediately peg as an executive were it not for his absurd-looking mop top and the company he keeps, who appears to be a frazzled waitress of some kind. This looks to be some sort of post-apocalyptic competition for supremacy, the Observer immediately concludes. Unfortunately, though, in his observation, he seems to have wandered out of cover, which has not gone unnoticed by the executive man.
"Hey! You look like a wizard! Wanna join wizard fight club? There's prizes to be won!" he shouts.
"Come on over!"[John's affinity roll: 2+1]
The Observer looks back at the fighting, where fascinating things appear to be happening. Namely, the adventurer person appears to have summoned a small floating marsupial of a bright yellow color and, shockingly, no significant electric charge. He looks bewildered at this result, though why exactly that is the Observer can only begin to guess. Meanwhile, the balding fellow appears to have regained his composure and begun a charge at the wallaby man, seemingly a bit sad and hurt and also possessing a bit of redness in his left eye, his blade emitting an ominous duck chorus clearly building up to some form of fighting song.
"You got him on the run, John!" the waitress laughs, and it is unclear who John's supposed to be, though the Observer suspects that she laughed because it's a pun of some kind, and the one running is the balding fellow, which would mean that
John would probably be the guy with the marsupial.
"Let the wallaby guide you or something!" she then confirms his suspicion.
* * * * *
Eta, curious about the potential contents of the nearby alcove, walks over to it, brushing past a few rushing shades (though the traffic toward the middle is certainly less dense than around the edges), then approaching the shutter, which appears to be made of almost solid aluminum, and gives it a good knock to hopefully attract someone helpful. As luck would have it, the shutter immediately opens outward like a set of doors on an overturned closet, causing Eta to step back for fear of being knocked over. The top shutter, which has opened toward the ceiling, has "INFO KIOSK" written on it. The lower shutter, which has opened toward the floor, has "FAQ" written on it above some writing that's slightly too small to see readily without kneeling down and examining it carefully.
Inside the kiosk, which seems to be a perfectly white room with no visible entrance, stands a shade without any form of visible eyes. The kiosk smells strongly of dust, and doesn't seem to have been opened in quite a while. Last time it has been opened, judging by the other smell Eta can detect, has been to throw some trash in there, which just seems kind of mean-spirited.
"Yes?" it asks in a very neutral, emotionless tone, its voice more like a whisper or an echo than an actual sound.
"Before you speak, check the FAQ."* * * * *
Larry believes a little haste may be in order.
"Yeah, I gotta get back home. Gonna meet some outsider for the Oldthinker. Tell him I'm tracking one down for him," says he, and Cal nods.
"I will. Now," he says, putting his glowing hand on Larry's head.
"Let's go."Almost imperceptibly, and Larry wonders briefly how this is even possible, given the drastic changes involved, the two seem to have returned to the more ordinary world of the more conventionally living.
"Right, dude," Cal says, withdrawing his hand from Larry's head. Larry feels like his hair might have experienced a little rising at the charge the hand evidently possesses.
"I've gotta go, keep yourself alive and magical, y'hear?" he then says before suddenly not quite being there anymore in a completely soundless disappearance, a mild glowing afterimage left on Larry's vision where the angel once stood.
Author
Topic: The Forgotten Art: Approaching the Nexus (Read 255122 times)