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Post by Scar on Nov 30, 2006 22:13:37 GMT -5
Wow, I'm dead. And I didn't even get any screen time for it either xDDD
Erm, and if you're still angry about the fuzzt weasel thing please don't take it out on the rest n:P
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Post by aerisangel01 on Dec 2, 2006 12:13:26 GMT -5
Wow, I'm dead. And I didn't even get any screen time for it either xDDD Erm, and if you're still angry about the fuzzt weasel thing please don't take it out on the rest NO! You can NOT be dead! *squeeze you* But... awww... so touching...
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Post by Rider on Dec 4, 2006 19:53:02 GMT -5
Chapter Four
The beast let out a roar that could turn a grown man’s bones to jelly.
Thankfully, Hu was not a grown man. She was the forum’s finest ninja. Her katana was drawn and she was racing, racing towards the wolf. Her skin blazed white as she shifted to fire element.
The silver witch’s gaze fixed on Hu, and the corners of her blood-red lips turned up in a smile. “Grab her, my baby.”
Suddenly filled with a sense of purpose, the wolf bounded towards Hu, its flying leaps making the earth shake. Rider charged towards the wolf, fingers instinctively scrabbling at the belt on which no cutlass was sheathed. It was as though all of her dreams had taken on substance and were collapsing in on her.
As in her dreams, she could not reach her daughter in time.
Hu let out a shriek as the wolf’s great jaws closed around her arm. In a whirl of silver and blood, the wolf retreated to the back wall, dragging the wounded Hu like a rag doll back through the dark portal.
The darkness had enveloped the tenth, ninth, eighth row of seats. Seven… six… five… four…
“Aeri, get out of here!” Gav pulled frantically on Aerisa’s shirt. “Now!”
“I want to save Scar!” Aeri wailed. “Scar is back there, somewhere!”
“And so is Kat, but you don’t see me acting suicidal.”
Thundy shifted to his kitsune form, sniffing at the odors the beast left behind. The bittersweet wild aroma of sweat and the metallic tang-taste of blood. This feral and familiar musk obscured all other pheromone information like a lunar eclipse.
And Rider just stood, watching in stunned silence and waiting for the darkness to consume the four.
* * *
… And woke up.
She groaned, rolled over, sat up, and took personal inventory. Arms, check. Legs, check. Eyes, check. Privileges, check. (Amazing, see as she had Hu and Crystal for daughters.)
Head, pounding. Tongue, swollen. Ears, ringing. Limbs, lead.
“Rider, you’re up!” Ginz ran over to the couch, wringing a wet cloth out. “We thought we’d have to bring out the smelling salts… or a piece of the burning Weewoo.”
“Ow… where am I?”
“Times Lobby. Kiddo didn’t want to move you far.”
“Ginz… how much of that was real?”
“… I’m not sure. You, Thundy, Gav and Aeri… You were swallowed up. Then you all passed out. Things got a bit blurry… it was like two realities going on at the same time… or maybe two dreams. Because I’m certain that Times Lobby was a lounge with couches and tables… but I’m also certain that it was a theatre.”
“So it was some kind of enchantment?”
“I think I might have been dreaming, except… Hu’s not here.”
Rider lay back down and sighed. “That girl is gonna drive me to drink.”
Ginz tactfully chose to remain silent.
“Rider!” Aerisa was up, trailing her sheets and being chased by the waddling Kirby. “Finally, everyone’s awake. Kiddo has a plan to get our forumers back.”
“Aerisa, Spot told you not to get up!”
Rider mentally pitied Kirby. Arguing with Aeri was sometimes like arguing with a brick wall. “Let me guess, she’s At Pen’s Point? I’m there.”
“Rider, you’re not supposed to be out of bed eith-“
The cap’n was out of earshot before Ginz could finish the sentence.
* * *
“Beaker!”
“Beaker.”
“Tongs!”
“Tongs.”
“Arsenic!”
“Arsenic.”
“Banana!”
Meowth gave Leoness an odd look. “Banana?”
The lion-fae pulled her goggles down and blushed. “All of this testing has made me hungry…”
Leo and Meowth were in Mod Squad, testing the broken vial and the glowing substance on the floor. “I’ve seen this before,” Leo muttered, dripping arsenic into a sample of the substance. It turned deep green and started to smolder.
“Put your goggles back on. You two make me nervous.” said Stal, who was reading a newspaper in the corner. The headline read in big, bold letters, “KATANA PRICES EXPECTED TO SOAR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON!”
“I’ve seen it too,” Mindela whispered. “In a book somewhere… Or maybe a movie…”
Leoness tried to touch it, but it was too hot. Her plastic gloves melted before they made contact with the substance. The lion-fae cursed, shook her paw around, and chanted a healing spell. “It’s on the tip of my tongue… It’s like I’ve seen it in a different form before.”
Realization dawned on Stal’s face. “Yes, you have. One second.” From the newspaper, he carefully tore the KAT out of Katana. He stole Leo’s goggles and tongs, lowering the piece of newspaper to the puddle. Hot amethyst light spilled from the broken vial, blinding Leo, Mindy, Meowth and Stal. It luted up and down like the notes of a songbird or piccolo, in notes that could not be heard with the ears but rather shook in the bones, in the marrow of the bones, in the birthplace of the blood.
And Leo understood. “It’s Kat’s life force.”
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Post by Nimras on Dec 4, 2006 20:39:02 GMT -5
Ewww, gooy life force stuff...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2006 21:15:43 GMT -5
Aha. Kats life is on the table. *thwack'd*
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Post by aerisangel01 on Dec 4, 2006 21:30:34 GMT -5
*rip Gav's head off* How DARE he prevent me from saving my love! >O And hurray for hardheaded-ness >D
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Post by Kat on Dec 5, 2006 5:27:21 GMT -5
Ewww, gooy life force stuff... [shadow=purple,left,300]Dude, I'm all over the floor and that's all you can say? XD I'm DEAD. I'll probably be the next Kiddo. ...*runs* *or rather, flows*[/shadow]
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2006 15:24:00 GMT -5
Well that'll make any day even more pleasant.
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Post by Omni on Dec 5, 2006 23:31:45 GMT -5
So she didn't return to the lifestream? ...What? It's green, glowy, magicy, liquid stuff.
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Post by Scar on Dec 5, 2006 23:50:24 GMT -5
*rip Gav's head off* How DARE he prevent me from saving my love! >O And hurray for hardheaded-ness >D Actually he had a valid point. I mean, look at what happened to Kat ^_^; ... Wait ... I think I can guess my fate already T_T
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Post by phoenixblessed on Dec 6, 2006 5:18:07 GMT -5
...And I know where this leads up to. >>
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Post by Kat on Dec 6, 2006 9:54:18 GMT -5
*rip Gav's head off* How DARE he prevent me from saving my love! >O And hurray for hardheaded-ness >D Actually he had a valid point. I mean, look at what happened to Kat ^_^; [shadow=purple,left,300]Yeah, he had a valid point, all right - save your own sorry hide and pay no heed to those people who get their life-forces sucked out. XP Coward. No, not you, Scar. [/shadow]
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2006 20:16:34 GMT -5
Rider, do we have the week long time limit for this one? If so, you're waiting for a profile change. =_____=
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Post by Kat on Dec 12, 2006 0:26:55 GMT -5
Rider, do we have the week long time limit for this one? If so, you're waiting for a profile change. =_____= [shadow=purple,left,300]And because it was my life-force she toyed with, I get to dictate. >=D[/shadow]
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Post by Rider on Dec 12, 2006 16:36:12 GMT -5
Chapter Five
There is a roped-off area of Pen’s Point, a sacred area where books of wizardry and science whisper to one another in the dead of night. This is Kiddo’s section, her haven in the midst of chaos.
The fox-fae sat at a polished oak table, flipping through a yellow-paged, leather-bound tome. The spine was covered in old runes that swam and scurried like pale yellow tadpoles. “Rider, Aeri, you’re here.” Kiddo dog-eared the page. Injured, the book let out a squeal of protest and attempted to spit glowing acid, which the fae easily deflected.
Rider’s eyes grew wide. “What is that thing?”
A low, papery growl.
“She is called, Theoretical Journeys through Tears of the Mind,” Kiddo explained patiently, unfolding the dog-ear and stroking the book’s spine in apology. “It’s one of the more… banned books in the magical community.”
“I wonder why,” Gav growled, nursing a small burn on his elbow.
“She seems like a real charmer,” Rider said weakly, sitting down on a rickety teak chair.
“Poor girl, she’s been traumatized since she was newly published,” Kiddo said, creating a glowing bone of phoenix fire. The book drooled ink onto Kiddo’s jeans and gnawed happily on her new prize. “People have tried to burn her and tear her apart. No one will let her in their house. She can’t find a nice, quiet library where she can socialize with books of her own kind. Finally, she was picked up by a peddler and I bought her off of him for a few of my feathers. It’s contentism, that’s what it is!” Kiddo’s eyes blazed with the passion of a true lover of the first amendment. “She can’t help it if her publisher put pictures of nude men being blown apart inside her!”
Gav smiled dryly. “Blown, or ‘bl-‘” *insert acid squirt here*
“So why is she banned?” Rider asked, subconsciously scooting out of the book’s range. “I’ve seen interesting pictures in some of your other books before, and they don’t try to burn my face off.”
“Dangerous information,” Kiddo said. “Theories about rips and tears, theories too dangerous to test.” She paused. “Rider, you know that no mind is completely whole, right?”
“Well, you’d be hard-pressed to find any sane people here…”
Kiddo groaned. “Not what I meant. Well, Rider, you obviously know what insanity is.”
Rider paused as she tried to figure out whether or not she was being insulted.
“Yes,” Kiddo said, pressing on regardless. “This is insanity. The world outside is insanity. Neopian, Earth, the Daemon Worlds… What is the definition of sane, or normal? Is it complete goodness? Is it physical or mental perfection?”
“It’s an illusion,” Rider said. “I know it’s an illusion… but where are we going with this?”
“Patience, pirate,” Kiddo sighed. “All will be revealed in time. So… what in your life makes the least amount of sense?”
“… The fact that my daughter took Ches as a lover?”
“Besides that.”
“… Stal’s infatuation with a homicidal leopard-girl?”
“Keep thinking.”
“… Leoness’s mere existence?”
“… Dreams.”
“… That was my next guess.”
“Dreams are a manifestation of the missing sections of the mind, the subconscious’s attempt to make sense of the brokenness and imperfections of the world. They float between the layers of space and time in an attempt to bind the layers of our universe-sliced-like-Christmas-ham and make the merely Probable, certain.”
“What’s that mean?” Gav asked. “We’re not certain enough?”
“How do you know that you really exist?” Kiddo asked sagely.
“I think, therefore I am,” Gav retorted.
Rider smiled. “If that were true, do you know how many forumers wouldn’t exist right now?” Aeri shot Rider the Look of Doom.
“But Are you really?” Kiddo asked, somehow capitalizing the A. “You see, one cannot judge ones own existence, can he?”
Gav just gave Kiddo a questioning look, but decided not to argue with the girl who was stroking the spine of the psycho grimoire.
“There is no certainty or impossibility, only percentages of probability. Where the layers of space and time thicken, this is where we are. The sentient, the Knowing, the thinkers. Between these clumps of thickness are sparse strands where something might once have been, but had faded into darkness. These remnants are the holes, the incompleteness which the mind seeks to repair in sleep. Because all minds, in order to be whole, must bring wholeness to their environment.”
“This is a bit too deep for me,” Rider said, resting her head in her hands. “But the Underdeep, the portal! Surely that is as real as you or I, though it is between worlds.”
“Funny you should mention the Underdeep.”
“Oh dear,” Gav muttered.
“That wolf, when it came through the portal of darkness, well… he wasn’t all there.”
“NSQ is ‘never all there,’” Rider scoffed. “What of it?”
“It’s difficult to explain, but I think the silver witch was using a sort of magic which is too dangerous to use. You see, she has taken a dreaming wolf and gave it a physical manifestation. She modified it according to her needs, and she sent it through the Underdeep.” Pause. “From the Daemon Worlds.”
A small gasp. Aeri covered her mouth with her hands.
“The wolf’s actual body was left behind in whatever forest it came from. The physical body is in no danger.”
“Brilliant,” Thundy sighed. “Insane, but absolutely brilliant.”
“That brilliant psycho has one, possibly four forumers!” Rider snapped. “Take me to the Underdeep. I’ll follow that wolf wherever it will go.”
“And I!” Gav said, showing an uncommon display of spine.
“Count me in,” Aeri said with a bright smile.
“I’ll nuke them into a glowing mess.” Thundy grinned.
“A fine display of bravado, but after that ordeal, your bodies are in no shape to travel anywhere,” Kiddo said. “But since you seem so willing…”
The book rustled happily.
Gav was the first to see where she was going with this thought. “Oh my…”
“Do you know how many different types of illegal that is?” Aeri asked. Thundy’s eyes went wide.
Rider still didn’t understand. “What?”
“The risks are great,” Kiddo said. “There’s a chance that your minds might be broken entirely. There’s a chance that you won’t be able to return to your bodies at all. That’s why I’m not going to put any pressure on you. But Rider, you have the right to know. That broken vial in Mod Squad… contains a bit of Kat’s life force.”
“What?”
“If that’s all that’s gone, she still has more than enough to live on,” Kiddo reassured her. “But we don’t know why Kat’s life force ended up on the floor of Mod Squad, or if that’s the only magic taken from her.”
There was silence. Even Gav wouldn’t, couldn’t speak, thinking of the danger that his dear friend faced.
“I don’t want you to participate in this experiment because you have to,” Kiddo continued. “I want you to do it because you want to. I want you to understand all of the risks associated with leaving your body, and… I want you to understand that we can wait until your bodies recover. It wouldn’t take more than two weeks...”
“By then, Kat might be dead,” Gav said flatly. “By then, Kat, Scar and Ikkin might all be dead. They might even be dead now, but… we have to try.”
“I want to rescue Scar,” Aeri said. “More than anything in the world.”
“I feel no obligation or pressure, just friendship,” Thundy said.
Gav nodded. “All for one and one for all.”
Rider stood and bowed to Kiddo, ninja-style. “Sensei, I am yours to command.”
“We’ll start tomorrow, at dawn,” said the fox-fae. “Before every great mission, a general informs his troops to get some sleep. I won’t do that, for obvious reasons. I’ll just advise you… to spend the night productively.”
“Productively?” Gav said, “What can we do?”
“Well, you can start by writing out your wills…”
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