Re: Journal of Sociology [S!6] - [Round One: The Pacific Spire]
06-19-2012, 02:13 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Palamedes.
Curious, that golem again.
Alberich pondered the creature's fortuitous sense of timing - as delightful as Ms. Blacklight had been, a break from their conversation would allow him to recollect his thoughts, figure out how exactly she figured him out, and how she explained her trick away in fantastic terms and phrases. It wasn't exactly like John was even remotely subtle about his nature, so it could have been completely possible for her to not mistake his grabs at her exposed flesh as lewd behavior instead of the danger it really was - she did seem like a smart girl after all. Possibly the voice at the beginning of this whole ordeal tipped her off? 'Differently alive', can only be attributed to a handful of conditions after all, almost all of which are purely supernatural and not scientifically possible.
Yes, of course. Very well played Ms. Blacklight, but soon enough your 'magic' will be exposed as the trickery it is. Possibly after the examination of the golem, a far more interesting avenue of study. Perhaps he could use whatever technology created this 'Jean' to pacify John, or perhaps even give him manners or some form of intelligent thought.
*thud*
Alberich's thoughts were immediately disturbed by John shuffling straight into a desk. A bewildered employee looked up at him, his work now clearly disturbed.
"Can I help you sir?"
The scientist sighed, his mind brought back to the situation at hand.
"Yes, I'm quite alright."
"Are you sure? You're looking pretty dizzy, try not to knock anything down."
God damnit John stop flailing at him you're making a scene. "Oh no, just a bit lost in thought, I'll be fine."
"A... alright?"
The employee looked unconvinced, but Alberich had to deal with more pressing concerns, such as turning around and catching up with his two companions. After all, how could he begin to debunk Blacklight's abilities or analyze Jean if his delinquent body is walking in the exact opposite direction?
"I'll just be heading back... turning around... this way... NOW!" Alberich shouted. It was likely a mistake to contact his lesser partner so overtly, but he was already fed up with this entire situation and the group of clerks gathering around to see what was going on. Fortunately, at his final ushering, John turned around, plodding back in the direction Blacklight and Jean had gone off to.
-------------
Now... where did those two get to? It turned out that after walking in the wrong direction for several minutes, being stuck in a body that moves as fast as an infant, and being in a location you are completely unfamiliar with makes going to another place that you don't even know about significantly more difficult. Alberich wasn't particularly worried though - from what he had picked up from chatter throughout the hallways, people died all the time from violent struggles against other floors.
At the very least, it meant he wouldn't have to worry about food, or raising suspicion when people's bodies were found in rather... unpleasant situations. Worst comes to worst, he was sure he'd see the golem and charlatan again, after all they would apparently be whisked away from the situation once one of his fellow 'participants' died. Hopefully it wasn't actually necessary, and whatever brought them here would be bored of them quickly and leave them to their own universes. Hopefully if it didn't, the casualty would be some bore - the Blake twins sounded rather dull, their mother even went gave them the same name. Perhaps not even getting a name is even worse, like the one man? Why was he even contemplating this?
His reward was yet another desk blocking his way. He really needed to start paying more attention when he was going somewhere, as it was becoming more and more clear that John was completely incapable. At least it got him out of thinking about the foolish game he was being forced to play.
Alberich tried to figure out exactly where he was now, but the current spread of cubicles, desks and offices was no different from the last four he had wandered through. People working on some project or another, an employee explaining to his manager why his report was late, a small crowd waiting for one of the disgracefully few elevators, said elevator opening to reveal a man pointing a gun at two other strangers -
A pause. The passage of time in the doctor's internal clock at this new event surely felt longer then it actually was, as after what seemed like minutes passed by the man with the gun laughed - not the nervous laugh of a man caught preparing to commit murder, but the quiet laugh asking the world 'what next?'.
"Going up?" the gunman asked the assembled crowd. A middle-aged bald man answered.
"Nah, someone must have hit the wrong button."
"Besides," a young woman added in, "it looks pretty crowded in there, wouldn't want to go over capacity."
"Oh wonderful!" The gunman laughed again, and after a second or so passed the elevator doors began to close. Alberich couldn't help but notice that the masked woman from before was there, one of the ones being held back by the gun-totting stranger. She had obviously seen him too, as she gave him a bewildered look before the doors slammed shut.
"Fucking 304's, always with the stupid costumes." the bald man swore. Another employee just looked at him strangely.
"304? Isn't that almost two hundred floors away? Aren't they a little far away from their area? Should we report them?"
"You're new here aren't you?" The bald man asked. A couple of other employees chuckled. "I saw that girl get on here around ten minutes ago. Floors 113 and 281 are actually the same floor, some 'wormhole' experiment set up by the guys in 256. Any entrance to the floor'll open up back here. At least it serves as a good way to prank new guys."
"Yeah, I'm an inter- wait, what happened to the real 256?"
The female employee from before just laughed. "It's all storage now sweetie."
The intern stared at the woman in bewilderment. "What do they store there?"
"You don't want to know."
Alberich shook his head at this point, ignoring the rest of the workplace banter. Wormholes? That's preposterous, there's no technology in the world capable of that yet - I'll have to look into tha-
"Doctor!"
Blacklight proved the next obstacle to scientific thought that day. What a surprise. At least he had located her, and by association that golem.
"Ah, Ms. Blacklight," Alberich shouted as a way to get John to head towards her. "I was wondering where you two went. What could they possible want with you in a... mail room?" Alberich looked at the sign over the door.
"Isn't it a bit undignified for a mystic of your caliber?"
Blacklight just laughed a little. "Oh Alberich, was John giving you a hard time? John is the red part of your soul, am I correct?"
"I suppose so." Alberich badly wished he could rub his forehead out of frustration. "And it wasn't that Mr. Doe gave me trouble, I was just lost in thought."
A nod, accompanied by another knowing laugh. "Of course."
"There was an incident in the elevator by the way - more of our fellows, if I'm not mistaken." Blacklight went to open her mouth to speak, likely to show off even more of her 'abilities', but Alberich decided to cut her off.
"By the looks of it, we might be leaving this place soon."
Blacklight's mouth snapped shut. Alberich smirked - a petty victory, but still satisfying after this time. After a pause she decided to speak again.
"That's surprising."
"How so?"
"We've only started an hour or so ago, and already people are at each other's throats."
"I suppose you've had some experience with these things to assume so much about them." Blacklight just smiled.
"It's been nice catching up Doctor, but we should really be getting inside, Jean will get worried if I'm gone to long."
"Jean?"
"The golem, she's a real treat. I can tell that you're already interested in her though." Alberich frowned, and Blacklight's smile grew even wider. She turned around and began to walk back into the mail room.
"When exactly will you believe in desirey anyways?"
Alberich attempted to repress making a comical remark towards the woman's practice - after all that's how they drag you into believing their hoaxes, but found himself unable to resist. "Why Ms. Blacklight, perhaps when I see a culture, or even just a petty civilization fall."
"So you were paying attention too, how wonderful!" Blacklight exclaimed, feigning rather obvious obliviousness towards the doctor's remark. She knew nothing would bother him more.
"I'm afraid my abilities are somewhat limited in our situation though, so you'll just have to make do with what's to come. Now let's go see Jean!"
The mail room door closed behind them.
Curious, that golem again.
Alberich pondered the creature's fortuitous sense of timing - as delightful as Ms. Blacklight had been, a break from their conversation would allow him to recollect his thoughts, figure out how exactly she figured him out, and how she explained her trick away in fantastic terms and phrases. It wasn't exactly like John was even remotely subtle about his nature, so it could have been completely possible for her to not mistake his grabs at her exposed flesh as lewd behavior instead of the danger it really was - she did seem like a smart girl after all. Possibly the voice at the beginning of this whole ordeal tipped her off? 'Differently alive', can only be attributed to a handful of conditions after all, almost all of which are purely supernatural and not scientifically possible.
Yes, of course. Very well played Ms. Blacklight, but soon enough your 'magic' will be exposed as the trickery it is. Possibly after the examination of the golem, a far more interesting avenue of study. Perhaps he could use whatever technology created this 'Jean' to pacify John, or perhaps even give him manners or some form of intelligent thought.
*thud*
Alberich's thoughts were immediately disturbed by John shuffling straight into a desk. A bewildered employee looked up at him, his work now clearly disturbed.
"Can I help you sir?"
The scientist sighed, his mind brought back to the situation at hand.
"Yes, I'm quite alright."
"Are you sure? You're looking pretty dizzy, try not to knock anything down."
God damnit John stop flailing at him you're making a scene. "Oh no, just a bit lost in thought, I'll be fine."
"A... alright?"
The employee looked unconvinced, but Alberich had to deal with more pressing concerns, such as turning around and catching up with his two companions. After all, how could he begin to debunk Blacklight's abilities or analyze Jean if his delinquent body is walking in the exact opposite direction?
"I'll just be heading back... turning around... this way... NOW!" Alberich shouted. It was likely a mistake to contact his lesser partner so overtly, but he was already fed up with this entire situation and the group of clerks gathering around to see what was going on. Fortunately, at his final ushering, John turned around, plodding back in the direction Blacklight and Jean had gone off to.
-------------
Now... where did those two get to? It turned out that after walking in the wrong direction for several minutes, being stuck in a body that moves as fast as an infant, and being in a location you are completely unfamiliar with makes going to another place that you don't even know about significantly more difficult. Alberich wasn't particularly worried though - from what he had picked up from chatter throughout the hallways, people died all the time from violent struggles against other floors.
At the very least, it meant he wouldn't have to worry about food, or raising suspicion when people's bodies were found in rather... unpleasant situations. Worst comes to worst, he was sure he'd see the golem and charlatan again, after all they would apparently be whisked away from the situation once one of his fellow 'participants' died. Hopefully it wasn't actually necessary, and whatever brought them here would be bored of them quickly and leave them to their own universes. Hopefully if it didn't, the casualty would be some bore - the Blake twins sounded rather dull, their mother even went gave them the same name. Perhaps not even getting a name is even worse, like the one man? Why was he even contemplating this?
His reward was yet another desk blocking his way. He really needed to start paying more attention when he was going somewhere, as it was becoming more and more clear that John was completely incapable. At least it got him out of thinking about the foolish game he was being forced to play.
Alberich tried to figure out exactly where he was now, but the current spread of cubicles, desks and offices was no different from the last four he had wandered through. People working on some project or another, an employee explaining to his manager why his report was late, a small crowd waiting for one of the disgracefully few elevators, said elevator opening to reveal a man pointing a gun at two other strangers -
A pause. The passage of time in the doctor's internal clock at this new event surely felt longer then it actually was, as after what seemed like minutes passed by the man with the gun laughed - not the nervous laugh of a man caught preparing to commit murder, but the quiet laugh asking the world 'what next?'.
"Going up?" the gunman asked the assembled crowd. A middle-aged bald man answered.
"Nah, someone must have hit the wrong button."
"Besides," a young woman added in, "it looks pretty crowded in there, wouldn't want to go over capacity."
"Oh wonderful!" The gunman laughed again, and after a second or so passed the elevator doors began to close. Alberich couldn't help but notice that the masked woman from before was there, one of the ones being held back by the gun-totting stranger. She had obviously seen him too, as she gave him a bewildered look before the doors slammed shut.
"Fucking 304's, always with the stupid costumes." the bald man swore. Another employee just looked at him strangely.
"304? Isn't that almost two hundred floors away? Aren't they a little far away from their area? Should we report them?"
"You're new here aren't you?" The bald man asked. A couple of other employees chuckled. "I saw that girl get on here around ten minutes ago. Floors 113 and 281 are actually the same floor, some 'wormhole' experiment set up by the guys in 256. Any entrance to the floor'll open up back here. At least it serves as a good way to prank new guys."
"Yeah, I'm an inter- wait, what happened to the real 256?"
The female employee from before just laughed. "It's all storage now sweetie."
The intern stared at the woman in bewilderment. "What do they store there?"
"You don't want to know."
Alberich shook his head at this point, ignoring the rest of the workplace banter. Wormholes? That's preposterous, there's no technology in the world capable of that yet - I'll have to look into tha-
"Doctor!"
Blacklight proved the next obstacle to scientific thought that day. What a surprise. At least he had located her, and by association that golem.
"Ah, Ms. Blacklight," Alberich shouted as a way to get John to head towards her. "I was wondering where you two went. What could they possible want with you in a... mail room?" Alberich looked at the sign over the door.
"Isn't it a bit undignified for a mystic of your caliber?"
Blacklight just laughed a little. "Oh Alberich, was John giving you a hard time? John is the red part of your soul, am I correct?"
"I suppose so." Alberich badly wished he could rub his forehead out of frustration. "And it wasn't that Mr. Doe gave me trouble, I was just lost in thought."
A nod, accompanied by another knowing laugh. "Of course."
"There was an incident in the elevator by the way - more of our fellows, if I'm not mistaken." Blacklight went to open her mouth to speak, likely to show off even more of her 'abilities', but Alberich decided to cut her off.
"By the looks of it, we might be leaving this place soon."
Blacklight's mouth snapped shut. Alberich smirked - a petty victory, but still satisfying after this time. After a pause she decided to speak again.
"That's surprising."
"How so?"
"We've only started an hour or so ago, and already people are at each other's throats."
"I suppose you've had some experience with these things to assume so much about them." Blacklight just smiled.
"It's been nice catching up Doctor, but we should really be getting inside, Jean will get worried if I'm gone to long."
"Jean?"
"The golem, she's a real treat. I can tell that you're already interested in her though." Alberich frowned, and Blacklight's smile grew even wider. She turned around and began to walk back into the mail room.
"When exactly will you believe in desirey anyways?"
Alberich attempted to repress making a comical remark towards the woman's practice - after all that's how they drag you into believing their hoaxes, but found himself unable to resist. "Why Ms. Blacklight, perhaps when I see a culture, or even just a petty civilization fall."
"So you were paying attention too, how wonderful!" Blacklight exclaimed, feigning rather obvious obliviousness towards the doctor's remark. She knew nothing would bother him more.
"I'm afraid my abilities are somewhat limited in our situation though, so you'll just have to make do with what's to come. Now let's go see Jean!"
The mail room door closed behind them.