RE: QUIETUS [S!5] [Round 2: Krei'kii'kelriz]
07-04-2017, 04:06 AM
"Not the end we expected, but an end nonetheless."
There were six, now. The Outsider had gone without the macabre display of the last visit, leaving two empty plinths in the arrangement the contestants found themselves once more placed upon. Their domain had not changed, still an empty hall of pitch-dark material, unadorned except for the geometric experiments in architecture. Their tormentor had not seemed to change, either-- while its robes were no longer tattered, wispy ruins approximating fabric but something tangible, it had not undergone as dramatic of a metamorphosis as it previously had.
"We are impressed," the Outsider said. Its speech was experimental, clumsy, drawing out words for too long and placing emphasis on the wrong syllables. It was language, though-- not the primal, roiling wave of unfocused telepathy that had been its sole form of communication until now. "We wish/desire/demand to see more."
Woah-oh here she comes, echoed the Outsider's cathedral back. Watch out boy, she'll chew you up.
Sonora's plinth was empty.
Arokht was the first to react to the opening, storming forward off of his plinth, landing with a heavy crack as synthetic muscle and servo-actuators whirred to life. "Now, move!" he ordered, his voice crackling with feedback static as he raised his cannon--
No/no/no. Everything paused-- Sonora churning along the walls, Arokht firing, the stream of near-absolute zero energy hanging in mid-air, condensing the air around it.
A lapse in judgment. It will not happen again.
Without anywhere near the ceremony of the last time, the contestants felt themselves shunted somewhere else-- a city, this time, full of wall-to-wall buildings and empty streets and narrow alleyways. Wider canals separated city blocks, with small boats paddling beneath rows of strung-up lanterns. Everywhere, there was the soft patter of rain.
Once again, they were alone.
There were six, now. The Outsider had gone without the macabre display of the last visit, leaving two empty plinths in the arrangement the contestants found themselves once more placed upon. Their domain had not changed, still an empty hall of pitch-dark material, unadorned except for the geometric experiments in architecture. Their tormentor had not seemed to change, either-- while its robes were no longer tattered, wispy ruins approximating fabric but something tangible, it had not undergone as dramatic of a metamorphosis as it previously had.
"We are impressed," the Outsider said. Its speech was experimental, clumsy, drawing out words for too long and placing emphasis on the wrong syllables. It was language, though-- not the primal, roiling wave of unfocused telepathy that had been its sole form of communication until now. "We wish/desire/demand to see more."
Woah-oh here she comes, echoed the Outsider's cathedral back. Watch out boy, she'll chew you up.
Sonora's plinth was empty.
Arokht was the first to react to the opening, storming forward off of his plinth, landing with a heavy crack as synthetic muscle and servo-actuators whirred to life. "Now, move!" he ordered, his voice crackling with feedback static as he raised his cannon--
No/no/no. Everything paused-- Sonora churning along the walls, Arokht firing, the stream of near-absolute zero energy hanging in mid-air, condensing the air around it.
A lapse in judgment. It will not happen again.
Without anywhere near the ceremony of the last time, the contestants felt themselves shunted somewhere else-- a city, this time, full of wall-to-wall buildings and empty streets and narrow alleyways. Wider canals separated city blocks, with small boats paddling beneath rows of strung-up lanterns. Everywhere, there was the soft patter of rain.
Once again, they were alone.
Spoiler