Re: The Spectacular Exhibition (S3G2) [Round 1: Parallels/Perpendicularities]
04-18-2011, 10:11 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
Tria ran her unaugmented hand against the worn temple walls, grateful for the more tolerable climes but ever-attuned to the chainsaw's grumbling. A little alcove revealed itself beneath her fingers before her eyes had adjusted to the gloom, cast in deeper shadow as it shunned the light trickling in from the entranceway. Tria took a rest in it, one foot exploring the shape of a lever embedded in the floor. There was a moment's hesitation before she pushed it into place with a solid glunk.
Nothing happened. Tria, with bated breath awaiting some cryptic retribution, heard voices.
She heard voices. Then a distant "glunk" to match hers. Somewhere far away, the inner chambers of an arctic pyramid rearranged themselves to lead deeper. Halfway to completion.
Tria stood, peering out of the alcove, and looked up and down the corridor. A square of light showing the way she'd come in, and two slits of light in the other direction. The woman frowned a little at that. Was this thing hollow all the way through? She saw no flicker of movement across the distant doorway, and decided there was only one conclusion. Four sides. Four corridors. Speared through the middle with some kind of metal pillar, if the chainsaw's clanging and shrieking had been anything to go by. She thought a little harder. The wolf-man. The boy and his puppets. The one with a "silver tongue". The others were either too big to have walked into the pyramid without additional noise, or they were flying screeching circles round its peak. Four in one, seven in the other.
Good sense said it was Gepetto. And Slo and Jo and Otto or whatever they were called. The Counsellor had mentioned Otto had paranoia which, compared to the likes of men who saw dead people or wore the hide of animals, was... normal. Tria wasn't sure whether that was a relief, or sobering.
All Tria knew or cared about was that none of them took the guise of a chainsaw. She quickened her pace as she approached the pyramid's core - and stopped before she could manage a greeting.
The ever-present snigger had risen to a deranged, mechanical cackle that joined itself in awful chorus as it bounced down the hall. The Soulbringer and his puppets seemed unaware of it, until Brooklyn charged down the corridor with a rocket-propelled roar. Tria scrambled for cover behind the four-faced metal pillar that marked the pyramid's centre at the retort of a gun.
Otto was the first to snap out of it, and reorient himself after the confusion of jumping from desert to crypt with no recollection between. "Jo!" he barked, reloading his main arm with a shaking snap that would've made any real humanoid wince. The giant tried to cover his companion with more blasts of the shotgun, but their bullets proved ineffective against the charging machine. Otto grimaced, shoved his brother behind him, and unsheathed the sword from his wrist-
The smoking, clanking contraption halted. Sharply. It kicked up a shower of sparks as the blade bit the floor. Brooklyn moseyed back a little further, in no mood to fight, and pulled out her blowtorch with some difficulty before starting to burn a message. Otto didn't retract his sword, though lowered it a little in confusion. "Mo, light. Brother, come here. Can you read that?"
Gepetto scurried forward, frowning at the chainsaw's clumsy carbonized scrawls as he read them by the light of Mo's lamplike eyes (behind the safety of Otto's outstretched arm, warning him to go no closer).
"Uh... a, uh... n? a...ny? Oh wait! It's upside down. 'Truce'! It wants a- uh, it wants a truce?"
Brooklyn drove the point home with a big tick. The ghost was glad this boy seemed to be getting it a lot faster, even if his puppets were a bit disconcerting. The lot of them entered into a whispered conference, which Brooklyn had the presence of mind (or perhaps just the simple presence) to not appear too focussed on.
"I dunno... it stopped trying to attack us."
"But did you see what Jo and my bullets did to it? Nothing! If it decides to betray us-"
"Then there's not that much we can do about it. However, I leave it to Gepetto."
"Um..."
"Um."
Brooklyn smiled as Tria stepped out from behind the pillar. Well, she would've, had the chainsaw's "cheerful grin" been less a cause of alarm for all those gathered in the pyramid.
"It, um, can't talk, I don't think, but I'm pretty sure it -she. She doesn't want to hurt us."
Tria ran her unaugmented hand against the worn temple walls, grateful for the more tolerable climes but ever-attuned to the chainsaw's grumbling. A little alcove revealed itself beneath her fingers before her eyes had adjusted to the gloom, cast in deeper shadow as it shunned the light trickling in from the entranceway. Tria took a rest in it, one foot exploring the shape of a lever embedded in the floor. There was a moment's hesitation before she pushed it into place with a solid glunk.
Nothing happened. Tria, with bated breath awaiting some cryptic retribution, heard voices.
She heard voices. Then a distant "glunk" to match hers. Somewhere far away, the inner chambers of an arctic pyramid rearranged themselves to lead deeper. Halfway to completion.
Tria stood, peering out of the alcove, and looked up and down the corridor. A square of light showing the way she'd come in, and two slits of light in the other direction. The woman frowned a little at that. Was this thing hollow all the way through? She saw no flicker of movement across the distant doorway, and decided there was only one conclusion. Four sides. Four corridors. Speared through the middle with some kind of metal pillar, if the chainsaw's clanging and shrieking had been anything to go by. She thought a little harder. The wolf-man. The boy and his puppets. The one with a "silver tongue". The others were either too big to have walked into the pyramid without additional noise, or they were flying screeching circles round its peak. Four in one, seven in the other.
Good sense said it was Gepetto. And Slo and Jo and Otto or whatever they were called. The Counsellor had mentioned Otto had paranoia which, compared to the likes of men who saw dead people or wore the hide of animals, was... normal. Tria wasn't sure whether that was a relief, or sobering.
All Tria knew or cared about was that none of them took the guise of a chainsaw. She quickened her pace as she approached the pyramid's core - and stopped before she could manage a greeting.
The ever-present snigger had risen to a deranged, mechanical cackle that joined itself in awful chorus as it bounced down the hall. The Soulbringer and his puppets seemed unaware of it, until Brooklyn charged down the corridor with a rocket-propelled roar. Tria scrambled for cover behind the four-faced metal pillar that marked the pyramid's centre at the retort of a gun.
Otto was the first to snap out of it, and reorient himself after the confusion of jumping from desert to crypt with no recollection between. "Jo!" he barked, reloading his main arm with a shaking snap that would've made any real humanoid wince. The giant tried to cover his companion with more blasts of the shotgun, but their bullets proved ineffective against the charging machine. Otto grimaced, shoved his brother behind him, and unsheathed the sword from his wrist-
The smoking, clanking contraption halted. Sharply. It kicked up a shower of sparks as the blade bit the floor. Brooklyn moseyed back a little further, in no mood to fight, and pulled out her blowtorch with some difficulty before starting to burn a message. Otto didn't retract his sword, though lowered it a little in confusion. "Mo, light. Brother, come here. Can you read that?"
Gepetto scurried forward, frowning at the chainsaw's clumsy carbonized scrawls as he read them by the light of Mo's lamplike eyes (behind the safety of Otto's outstretched arm, warning him to go no closer).
"Uh... a, uh... n? a...ny? Oh wait! It's upside down. 'Truce'! It wants a- uh, it wants a truce?"
Brooklyn drove the point home with a big tick. The ghost was glad this boy seemed to be getting it a lot faster, even if his puppets were a bit disconcerting. The lot of them entered into a whispered conference, which Brooklyn had the presence of mind (or perhaps just the simple presence) to not appear too focussed on.
"I dunno... it stopped trying to attack us."
"But did you see what Jo and my bullets did to it? Nothing! If it decides to betray us-"
"Then there's not that much we can do about it. However, I leave it to Gepetto."
"Um..."
"Um."
Brooklyn smiled as Tria stepped out from behind the pillar. Well, she would've, had the chainsaw's "cheerful grin" been less a cause of alarm for all those gathered in the pyramid.
"It, um, can't talk, I don't think, but I'm pretty sure it -she. She doesn't want to hurt us."
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow