Re: The Spectacular Exhibition (S3G2) [Round 1: Parallels/Perpendicularities]
05-12-2011, 09:17 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Mirdini.
Tria attempted a lopsided smile at the strange group in front of her to follow up the statement. While she was still rather terrified of the mach… of Brooklyn - Is that right? – and as much as she just wanted to run and hide somewhere until this mad tournament was over, she had slowly realized that the only alternative to fighting enemies in this… place would have to be to make friends – or at least partners. Glancing nervously at Brooklyn, she remembered the thought that had spurred her to actually approach the chains… woman: if what that weird Counsellor had said was true, Brooklyn was technically also a cyborg… just one that was 100% machine. Still, judging from the word seared into the stone floor, it- she wanted conflict about as much as Tria did.
Scratching at her incessantly aching shoulder, Tria looked back at Gepetto and his “brothers”, who had frozen up simultaneously at her entrance. Butterflies twirled in her stomach as she considered them, especially the strange child – though why a kid made her feel… nervous? angry?? Tria wasn’t entirely sure. With some effort she dismissed the growing dread that stepping out from behind the pillar had been a bad idea, and attempted to continue the conversation.
“I mean… if she wanted to hurt us she probably would’ve done so already?”
The foursome, seemingly ignoring her, snapped back into whispered consultation.
”Who’s this lady? What did that Counsellor say about her again?”
“Isn’t she the one with the – nooklear? nukleearr? arm. What’s that even mean?”
“I don’t know, but if her arm’s anything like Gepetto’s it’s probably got some pretty bad stuff packed in.”
“Still Otto, she seems nice…”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“I say we should at least talk to her – it probably can’t make things worse.”
Finishing their hurried meeting, the group looked up at Tria warily. Otto stepped forward, clearly the delegate.
“Alright, I guess we can talk. But both of you better not try anything funny.”
Quietly relieved, Tria replied.
“Um, I’d really rather not get into a fight with any of you – I guess that Counsellor wanted us to but I don’t think listening to her is a good idea seeing as she’s apparently the one that brought us here in the first place.” Tria paused, taken aback at her sudden verbosity.
Brooklyn rumbled lightly in what counted for agreement, careful to contain her enthusiasm at the girl’s newfound nerve. Spooking her again, while probably interesting with regards to seeing more of that wonderful arm, would be an unquestionably bad decision. Not to mention that that boy and his puppets didn’t seem like the most stable bunch either.
Surprisingly, Gepetto was the next to speak up.
“What are we supposed to do then? I don’t think we’re going to get out of here without that Counsellor’s permission…”
Tria was taken aback by the question. She hadn’t thought quite that far ahead, having been preoccupied with terror for the majority of her time in the desert. Her previous attempts at escape from the facility had been incredibly unsuccessful and generally short.
There’s got to be some other way out of this… competition.
But for the life of her Tria couldn’t think of one.
Sensing that the discussion had stalled, Brooklyn sighed and started up her blowtorch, to the alarm of the others. Ignoring their distress, she proceeded to burn another message into the stone. The others crowded closer when she eventually finished the procedure, wondering what the spirited contraption had in mind.
“Stick… it to... that Council – ehm, Counsellor.” Tria managed to discern with some difficulty.
Brooklyn gently bobbed in confirmation - well, as gently as she could under rocket propulsion.
“I can’t say I liked that stuck-up lady either.” Otto remarked.
“Still, how exactly are we going to do that? She doesn’t exactly seem like a pushover.” Mo answered.
“Well not playing her game like she wants us to would be a start…” Tria mused. “Where do we go from here though? Before this building appeared I didn’t really see much else in that…” she halted, trying to find a word to describe the strange locale the contestants found themselves in.
“Desert?” Gepetto tentatively supplied.
“Is that what you call all that sand? Still, it doesn’t look like there’s anywhere else to go...” Tria scanned the room, looking for a way to proceed. The chamber was octagonal but only four of the sides included entrances. The walls were also covered in strange, flowing symbols – apart from four level, blank sections in equivalent positions on the other four sides of the octagon. However, the room contained no hidden mechanisms that Tria could spot, no levers or switches apart from the one Otto had inadvertently pulled.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red dashed down the flawlessly smooth corridor, alternatively marveling at the craftsmanship such a construction must have required and considering the threat the tree-man posed.
Still, these are close quarters. He won’t be able evade flamethrowers easily.
Reaching a larger chamber, Red skittered to a halt at the sight of a strange metallic pillar that seemingly perforated the center of the pyramid. It was mad of the same material as the rod that had been frozen beneath the igloo – and scuttling around the circumference of the obelisk he identified yet another lever on the far side of the room. Intrigued, he clanked over to the wall, pulled the lever and waited. The pyramid’s interior remained stolidly quiescent, with no discernible change resulting from his action.
Maybe the levers are time-delayed mechanisms? Perhaps powered by extensive hydraulics…
Red was quite fascinated by this point, but his ruminations were cut short by the thump of Crepitans’ steps echoing down the corridor immediately to his left. He whirled towards the entrance, readying his mech for the inevitable confrontation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I don’t know about you, but I could really use some water.” Tria sighed, trying to make conversation with Gepetto. The brothers and Brooklyn had swiftly canvassed the sweltering exterior of the pyramid to no avail, and now the bizarre sextet had congregated within the central chamber once more to attempt to come up with some sort of strategy.
“There’s got to be something to drink somewhere around here. I mean, that Counsellor wouldn’t get her results if she let us die of dehydration.” Otto declared.
Brooklyn considered the prospect with some disquiet – while she and the three puppets didn’t require hydration (despite their strange delusions to the contrary) Gepetto and Tria could probably not last for more than another day or so unless they found some source of water. She supposed that at a stretch she could go try to chop down some of the cacti outside, but they were some strange species she’d never even heard of – who knew if there was any water to find in ‘em.
Even more frustratingly, she could make out the faint resonance of machinery deeper in the pyramid but for some reason there was no apparent way down. The goddamn heap of rock was concealing whatever mysteries it contained a bit too well.
The group’s efforts arrested by the stone wall they had quite literally run up against, they were jolted from their uncomfortable respite by a raucous scraping.
The pyramid, roused from its somnolence, had begun to rumble and shudder forebodingly.
Tria attempted a lopsided smile at the strange group in front of her to follow up the statement. While she was still rather terrified of the mach… of Brooklyn - Is that right? – and as much as she just wanted to run and hide somewhere until this mad tournament was over, she had slowly realized that the only alternative to fighting enemies in this… place would have to be to make friends – or at least partners. Glancing nervously at Brooklyn, she remembered the thought that had spurred her to actually approach the chains… woman: if what that weird Counsellor had said was true, Brooklyn was technically also a cyborg… just one that was 100% machine. Still, judging from the word seared into the stone floor, it- she wanted conflict about as much as Tria did.
Scratching at her incessantly aching shoulder, Tria looked back at Gepetto and his “brothers”, who had frozen up simultaneously at her entrance. Butterflies twirled in her stomach as she considered them, especially the strange child – though why a kid made her feel… nervous? angry?? Tria wasn’t entirely sure. With some effort she dismissed the growing dread that stepping out from behind the pillar had been a bad idea, and attempted to continue the conversation.
“I mean… if she wanted to hurt us she probably would’ve done so already?”
The foursome, seemingly ignoring her, snapped back into whispered consultation.
”Who’s this lady? What did that Counsellor say about her again?”
“Isn’t she the one with the – nooklear? nukleearr? arm. What’s that even mean?”
“I don’t know, but if her arm’s anything like Gepetto’s it’s probably got some pretty bad stuff packed in.”
“Still Otto, she seems nice…”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“I say we should at least talk to her – it probably can’t make things worse.”
Finishing their hurried meeting, the group looked up at Tria warily. Otto stepped forward, clearly the delegate.
“Alright, I guess we can talk. But both of you better not try anything funny.”
Quietly relieved, Tria replied.
“Um, I’d really rather not get into a fight with any of you – I guess that Counsellor wanted us to but I don’t think listening to her is a good idea seeing as she’s apparently the one that brought us here in the first place.” Tria paused, taken aback at her sudden verbosity.
Brooklyn rumbled lightly in what counted for agreement, careful to contain her enthusiasm at the girl’s newfound nerve. Spooking her again, while probably interesting with regards to seeing more of that wonderful arm, would be an unquestionably bad decision. Not to mention that that boy and his puppets didn’t seem like the most stable bunch either.
Surprisingly, Gepetto was the next to speak up.
“What are we supposed to do then? I don’t think we’re going to get out of here without that Counsellor’s permission…”
Tria was taken aback by the question. She hadn’t thought quite that far ahead, having been preoccupied with terror for the majority of her time in the desert. Her previous attempts at escape from the facility had been incredibly unsuccessful and generally short.
There’s got to be some other way out of this… competition.
But for the life of her Tria couldn’t think of one.
Sensing that the discussion had stalled, Brooklyn sighed and started up her blowtorch, to the alarm of the others. Ignoring their distress, she proceeded to burn another message into the stone. The others crowded closer when she eventually finished the procedure, wondering what the spirited contraption had in mind.
“Stick… it to... that Council – ehm, Counsellor.” Tria managed to discern with some difficulty.
Brooklyn gently bobbed in confirmation - well, as gently as she could under rocket propulsion.
“I can’t say I liked that stuck-up lady either.” Otto remarked.
“Still, how exactly are we going to do that? She doesn’t exactly seem like a pushover.” Mo answered.
“Well not playing her game like she wants us to would be a start…” Tria mused. “Where do we go from here though? Before this building appeared I didn’t really see much else in that…” she halted, trying to find a word to describe the strange locale the contestants found themselves in.
“Desert?” Gepetto tentatively supplied.
“Is that what you call all that sand? Still, it doesn’t look like there’s anywhere else to go...” Tria scanned the room, looking for a way to proceed. The chamber was octagonal but only four of the sides included entrances. The walls were also covered in strange, flowing symbols – apart from four level, blank sections in equivalent positions on the other four sides of the octagon. However, the room contained no hidden mechanisms that Tria could spot, no levers or switches apart from the one Otto had inadvertently pulled.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Red dashed down the flawlessly smooth corridor, alternatively marveling at the craftsmanship such a construction must have required and considering the threat the tree-man posed.
Still, these are close quarters. He won’t be able evade flamethrowers easily.
Reaching a larger chamber, Red skittered to a halt at the sight of a strange metallic pillar that seemingly perforated the center of the pyramid. It was mad of the same material as the rod that had been frozen beneath the igloo – and scuttling around the circumference of the obelisk he identified yet another lever on the far side of the room. Intrigued, he clanked over to the wall, pulled the lever and waited. The pyramid’s interior remained stolidly quiescent, with no discernible change resulting from his action.
Maybe the levers are time-delayed mechanisms? Perhaps powered by extensive hydraulics…
Red was quite fascinated by this point, but his ruminations were cut short by the thump of Crepitans’ steps echoing down the corridor immediately to his left. He whirled towards the entrance, readying his mech for the inevitable confrontation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I don’t know about you, but I could really use some water.” Tria sighed, trying to make conversation with Gepetto. The brothers and Brooklyn had swiftly canvassed the sweltering exterior of the pyramid to no avail, and now the bizarre sextet had congregated within the central chamber once more to attempt to come up with some sort of strategy.
“There’s got to be something to drink somewhere around here. I mean, that Counsellor wouldn’t get her results if she let us die of dehydration.” Otto declared.
Brooklyn considered the prospect with some disquiet – while she and the three puppets didn’t require hydration (despite their strange delusions to the contrary) Gepetto and Tria could probably not last for more than another day or so unless they found some source of water. She supposed that at a stretch she could go try to chop down some of the cacti outside, but they were some strange species she’d never even heard of – who knew if there was any water to find in ‘em.
Even more frustratingly, she could make out the faint resonance of machinery deeper in the pyramid but for some reason there was no apparent way down. The goddamn heap of rock was concealing whatever mysteries it contained a bit too well.
The group’s efforts arrested by the stone wall they had quite literally run up against, they were jolted from their uncomfortable respite by a raucous scraping.
The pyramid, roused from its somnolence, had begun to rumble and shudder forebodingly.