Re: Journal of Sociology [S!6] - [Round One: The Pacific Spire]
05-15-2012, 12:58 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Palamedes.
Alberich glanced around at this newfound situation. On one hand, it was rather infuriating to be pulled from a known locale to an unfamiliar one, where he might not be able to escape quickly should Mr. Doe feel it necessary to consume one of the nearby men or women. On the other, it was rather fortunately timed, as Mr. Doe had failed to realize that consuming a prince is not quite the same as feasting upon your run of the mill dot com billionaire - royalty happens to be quite vindictive and relentless when you attack one of their own after all.
Regardless of whether or not this situation was an improvement or not, what was more interesting is how he had arrived in it. Quantum teleportation was practically impossible in today's day and age. He had heard that Dr. Gin and a team of researchers had been working on attempting it, but were still decades off from a working solution for anything larger then an atom - and either way he doubted such a machine would be calibrated for one of his... unique makeup. So who, or what, was responsible for this? And what exactly was this place? It was obviously human in design, but he had never heard of 'Pacific Spire', and considering how important it was he should have.
Whatever was going on in the grand scheme, he'd have to put it off and deal with the here and now. After all, Mr. Doe was still hungry, and if immediate action wasn't taken one of the other people around him would pay the price. Fortunately, Doe didn't seem very interested in the two closest members of his newfound group yet, some woman with a mask and another individual shuffling about in a pile of woman's clothing. He'd question why this was the case, but decided to put that off until later and not pass up the opportunity to appease his more barbaric half.
"Mr. Doe!" He whispered, not wanting anyone else to get overly suspicious, "we've discussed this, we're to consume the mixtures whenever we have them with us, not the brains of nearby people whose deaths may alert everyone around us of our nature! Go, into the pocket, yes that one, pull it out."
After some further irritated directions, John had managed to fumble out a large water bottle, filled with a slush - red because it required less colouring to be mixed in, being the natural colour of human blood. Alberich was pleased with the progress, normally it took Mr. Doe several minutes to even get this far, but rather worried. He only ever carried three on him, never properly expecting to be whisked away like this. Hopefully it could all be resolved in a day or so so he wouldn't find himself needing a new outfit.
"Good, now go to the lid, yes, right there on the top, and turn it. Yes, that's it, don't just give up, we had to get it on somewhat tight so it wouldn't spill. It's not that hard, just give it one more - what are you doing? Stop that this instant! I am not opening it with my morgfm."
And with that, John had gotten fed up, as fed up as one without a proper mind can anyways, with the inconvenient cap and just shoved it in Alberich's mouth so he could figure it out. Alberich, forced to concede (at least it wasn't to chewing through the rather unpleasant taste of flesh this time) used what control he had to twist the cap off slightly with his teeth, and began draining the bottle of its contents. Unfortunately, the cap got caught in their throat, which caused a bit of an mess on his suit as the liquid overflowed. As Alberich had expected though, the cap was pushed through in a couple of seconds, more then enough time to prevent the pair from being completely drenched and potentially exposed.
Another fortunate event occurred in the form of several screams, originating from one of the better-dressed women, and followed by several others. Whatever caused it was unknown to Alberich, but he took the opportunity to force John to turn around and wipe off the mess they had made on the front of their suit. It was a good thing indeed that he chose the more stain-resistant suit over his other options (who was he kidding, this was the only half-decent suit he owned anymore).
Alberich looked up after ensuring that there were no particularly incriminating stains, he glanced up at the commotion, letting loose a sigh of relief once he saw that it didn't seem like anyone saw his 'accident'. At least, nobody was looking at the current moment. Whether he was relieved with what had caused the commotion was a different matter entirely - it turned out the person under the pile of clothing was not in fact a person at all, the clothing was in fact moving all on it's own. He had thought the voice was lying when it claimed there was a golem. Once he got his full bearing (and the people around him stopped panicking, arming themselves, or running) he'd have to figure out exactly what it was made out of.
Another concern - there were supposedly nine people involved in this situation - with ten minds, though Alberich supposed that was referring to his relationship with John. So why weren't there nine people here? Where were the others? More importantly though, was it entirely necessary that they killed each other, and if so how would he deal with them? The ability to control desire? An unparalleled doppleganger? An alchemist? A ghost? Certainly most of their abilities were just shams, clever tricks of devious minds, but his was one of the best, and the question was whether he could pull their ruses apart before their collective tricks overcame his... physical limitations.
John had none of these complicated thoughts, or really any thoughts at all besides the fact that he was no longer hungry. So it would come to no surprise that though Alberich wanted to wait, John deemed it an excellent time to start going for a walk. Which in John's mindless world usually meant shambling forwards. Alberich, eyes closed in thought, didn't notice what was going on until John was practically out the door into another office area.
"What are you doing? Stop this instant and turn around, we need to find out who these people are if we want to surv -"
*thump*
John had accidentally leaned too far to the right in their journey, causing Alberich to find his face meeting an open door in a rather unpleasant way. Now accompanied by the light sobs of Alberich instead of his incessant complaining, the duo marched on, Alberich preparing to expose the frauds he had to 'compete' against and John just waiting to grab another bite.
If only they knew how difficult that would be - though one can't exactly blame John for not thinking.
Alberich glanced around at this newfound situation. On one hand, it was rather infuriating to be pulled from a known locale to an unfamiliar one, where he might not be able to escape quickly should Mr. Doe feel it necessary to consume one of the nearby men or women. On the other, it was rather fortunately timed, as Mr. Doe had failed to realize that consuming a prince is not quite the same as feasting upon your run of the mill dot com billionaire - royalty happens to be quite vindictive and relentless when you attack one of their own after all.
Regardless of whether or not this situation was an improvement or not, what was more interesting is how he had arrived in it. Quantum teleportation was practically impossible in today's day and age. He had heard that Dr. Gin and a team of researchers had been working on attempting it, but were still decades off from a working solution for anything larger then an atom - and either way he doubted such a machine would be calibrated for one of his... unique makeup. So who, or what, was responsible for this? And what exactly was this place? It was obviously human in design, but he had never heard of 'Pacific Spire', and considering how important it was he should have.
Whatever was going on in the grand scheme, he'd have to put it off and deal with the here and now. After all, Mr. Doe was still hungry, and if immediate action wasn't taken one of the other people around him would pay the price. Fortunately, Doe didn't seem very interested in the two closest members of his newfound group yet, some woman with a mask and another individual shuffling about in a pile of woman's clothing. He'd question why this was the case, but decided to put that off until later and not pass up the opportunity to appease his more barbaric half.
"Mr. Doe!" He whispered, not wanting anyone else to get overly suspicious, "we've discussed this, we're to consume the mixtures whenever we have them with us, not the brains of nearby people whose deaths may alert everyone around us of our nature! Go, into the pocket, yes that one, pull it out."
After some further irritated directions, John had managed to fumble out a large water bottle, filled with a slush - red because it required less colouring to be mixed in, being the natural colour of human blood. Alberich was pleased with the progress, normally it took Mr. Doe several minutes to even get this far, but rather worried. He only ever carried three on him, never properly expecting to be whisked away like this. Hopefully it could all be resolved in a day or so so he wouldn't find himself needing a new outfit.
"Good, now go to the lid, yes, right there on the top, and turn it. Yes, that's it, don't just give up, we had to get it on somewhat tight so it wouldn't spill. It's not that hard, just give it one more - what are you doing? Stop that this instant! I am not opening it with my morgfm."
And with that, John had gotten fed up, as fed up as one without a proper mind can anyways, with the inconvenient cap and just shoved it in Alberich's mouth so he could figure it out. Alberich, forced to concede (at least it wasn't to chewing through the rather unpleasant taste of flesh this time) used what control he had to twist the cap off slightly with his teeth, and began draining the bottle of its contents. Unfortunately, the cap got caught in their throat, which caused a bit of an mess on his suit as the liquid overflowed. As Alberich had expected though, the cap was pushed through in a couple of seconds, more then enough time to prevent the pair from being completely drenched and potentially exposed.
Another fortunate event occurred in the form of several screams, originating from one of the better-dressed women, and followed by several others. Whatever caused it was unknown to Alberich, but he took the opportunity to force John to turn around and wipe off the mess they had made on the front of their suit. It was a good thing indeed that he chose the more stain-resistant suit over his other options (who was he kidding, this was the only half-decent suit he owned anymore).
Alberich looked up after ensuring that there were no particularly incriminating stains, he glanced up at the commotion, letting loose a sigh of relief once he saw that it didn't seem like anyone saw his 'accident'. At least, nobody was looking at the current moment. Whether he was relieved with what had caused the commotion was a different matter entirely - it turned out the person under the pile of clothing was not in fact a person at all, the clothing was in fact moving all on it's own. He had thought the voice was lying when it claimed there was a golem. Once he got his full bearing (and the people around him stopped panicking, arming themselves, or running) he'd have to figure out exactly what it was made out of.
Another concern - there were supposedly nine people involved in this situation - with ten minds, though Alberich supposed that was referring to his relationship with John. So why weren't there nine people here? Where were the others? More importantly though, was it entirely necessary that they killed each other, and if so how would he deal with them? The ability to control desire? An unparalleled doppleganger? An alchemist? A ghost? Certainly most of their abilities were just shams, clever tricks of devious minds, but his was one of the best, and the question was whether he could pull their ruses apart before their collective tricks overcame his... physical limitations.
John had none of these complicated thoughts, or really any thoughts at all besides the fact that he was no longer hungry. So it would come to no surprise that though Alberich wanted to wait, John deemed it an excellent time to start going for a walk. Which in John's mindless world usually meant shambling forwards. Alberich, eyes closed in thought, didn't notice what was going on until John was practically out the door into another office area.
"What are you doing? Stop this instant and turn around, we need to find out who these people are if we want to surv -"
*thump*
John had accidentally leaned too far to the right in their journey, causing Alberich to find his face meeting an open door in a rather unpleasant way. Now accompanied by the light sobs of Alberich instead of his incessant complaining, the duo marched on, Alberich preparing to expose the frauds he had to 'compete' against and John just waiting to grab another bite.
If only they knew how difficult that would be - though one can't exactly blame John for not thinking.