Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 3: Escheresque!]
10-20-2009, 12:32 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Sruixan.
Maxwell grimaced. He was either halfway up or halfway down this ladder, he couldn't quite decide. After climbing a few rungs, he'd suddenly felt his stomach do a backflip and had found, to his confusion, that he was now climbing down onto what he had previously assumed to be the ceiling, rather than up towards it. Curiousity had of course prompted him to move up and down a rung several times and his digestive system was now getting him back for doing so.
Pulling himself together, he descended those last few rungs and stood, with a little difficulty, on what had earlier been the ceiling. Maxwell considered this for a few moments, then gave up. He was on the bloomin' ceiling and he wasn't falling - under the circumstances, that was actually quite a good result.
A few tentative steps later and things clicked into place. A few happy moments were spent frolicing around, failing to do cartwheels and stretching to touch the floor above him, before Maxwell progressed through a side door that was now more of an obstacle-course feature than an entranceway.
The first thing that struck him about his new surroundings was the colour - whereas the previous room had kept a farily tidy monochrome scheme, here there were tiles of countless blues, gleaming greens, splotch of yellow and red; simple, yet effective. Second to stand out were the tiles themselves; in the style of the artist, the floor... no, hang on, the acting floor was covered in tesselations, concerning subjects from all over the animal kingdoms.
Were the place the right way up, there would be a huge dome, the sort one might find in a cathedral or planetarium, covered in these patterns, to entertain the bored eye that would dart about the room in search of interest. For Maxwell, it was a bowl to circumnavigate, but one that could prove quite interesting...
With slight courage, he stepped off the flat and put his foot down on the bowl, quickly following with the other, before spiralling around the outer edge. As he did so, the rest of the room span with him, always keeping Maxwell as the central reference, so that the fish tiles appeared to swim, so that the birds flew, the lizards crawlled - it was marvellous, but a tad nauseating!
...the dome...
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Maxwell swore that it was always the same seagull that sat perched on that tiny point in the roof above the door when he arrived. It always had that same rather defiant look in its eyes everytime he or Betty tried to scare it off - it never worked, but, hey, they tried, right?
Still, as he waited for the door to be answered, Maxwell couldn't help but glance around the well-kept rockeries that surrounded the observatory. Betty Saville wasn't just an astronomer, having once been quite a successful zephyrnaut, but he would never have thought she would have had green fingers. Mind you, she was getting on a bit now, so, well...
"Ah, Max! A pleasant surprise! Please, please, do come on in!"
Bless her. Maxwell ducked under the doorway and blinked a little as he adjusted to the lowered light, something which was rather important to do unless you wanted to trip as you navigated the knick-knack cluttered corridors that made up the place. Cottage, orrery, planetarium, observatory; popular with local schools as well as those interested in the heavens, and all kept by dear old Betty Saville. Bless her once more, for luck.
"And what do I owe this visit for, then?"
"Ah, well... Uncle Nick-"
"Ooh, ooh, that reminds me - when you go, do take this for your uncle, will you? He asked me for it last time he came up here and I forgot to give it to him..."
Maxwell relieved her of the burgundy tome, but didn't bother to check what it was about. There were more pressing matters to be heard.
"Yes, yes, now - Uncle Nick was talking to me today about space. Not about how the planets orbit, or how the sun works, or stuff like that. We were talking about life."
In the half-light, Maxwell could just about make out a grin forming on Betty's face. Yep...
"We talked about how there are so many stars out there, and how many must have planets around them, then on to the Goldilocks planets and so on... and I want to know... do we know of any that could support life? After all, there are so many people like you looking out there, curiousities piqued; we must have found at least one so far, surely?"
"Follow me..."
There was a little door in the kitchen, slightly crooked and due a coat of shiny new paint, that lead to another world. Or at least, the same world, but in perpetual dawn, night or dusk. The Planetarium at Damile was the biggest in the region and certainly the most comfortable, with quaint knitted cushions padding the velvet seats that let the occupants dream of the final frontier above them. The colossal dome onto which these dreams were projected had been built by Betty's late husband and had been the canvas on which the heavens were painted for a good fifty years, but no wear and tear was visible. Passionate hands had kept everything in tip-top shape, and would hopefully continue to do so for years to come...
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
...nine years later...
The dome that Maxwell currently occupied was also pristine, but not for the same reason. The Observer would of course want to make a perfect world for them to play in and it would be fabricated an instant before the arrival of the combatants - no time for dust to accumulate, for tiles to crack and fall, for plants to wither and die, for fountains to dry...
...until of course, all hell broke loose, and the battle butchered everything... Maxwell sighed...
Pulling himself together, he descended those last few rungs and stood, with a little difficulty, on what had earlier been the ceiling. Maxwell considered this for a few moments, then gave up. He was on the bloomin' ceiling and he wasn't falling - under the circumstances, that was actually quite a good result.
A few tentative steps later and things clicked into place. A few happy moments were spent frolicing around, failing to do cartwheels and stretching to touch the floor above him, before Maxwell progressed through a side door that was now more of an obstacle-course feature than an entranceway.
The first thing that struck him about his new surroundings was the colour - whereas the previous room had kept a farily tidy monochrome scheme, here there were tiles of countless blues, gleaming greens, splotch of yellow and red; simple, yet effective. Second to stand out were the tiles themselves; in the style of the artist, the floor... no, hang on, the acting floor was covered in tesselations, concerning subjects from all over the animal kingdoms.
Were the place the right way up, there would be a huge dome, the sort one might find in a cathedral or planetarium, covered in these patterns, to entertain the bored eye that would dart about the room in search of interest. For Maxwell, it was a bowl to circumnavigate, but one that could prove quite interesting...
With slight courage, he stepped off the flat and put his foot down on the bowl, quickly following with the other, before spiralling around the outer edge. As he did so, the rest of the room span with him, always keeping Maxwell as the central reference, so that the fish tiles appeared to swim, so that the birds flew, the lizards crawlled - it was marvellous, but a tad nauseating!
...the dome...
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
Maxwell swore that it was always the same seagull that sat perched on that tiny point in the roof above the door when he arrived. It always had that same rather defiant look in its eyes everytime he or Betty tried to scare it off - it never worked, but, hey, they tried, right?
Still, as he waited for the door to be answered, Maxwell couldn't help but glance around the well-kept rockeries that surrounded the observatory. Betty Saville wasn't just an astronomer, having once been quite a successful zephyrnaut, but he would never have thought she would have had green fingers. Mind you, she was getting on a bit now, so, well...
"Ah, Max! A pleasant surprise! Please, please, do come on in!"
Bless her. Maxwell ducked under the doorway and blinked a little as he adjusted to the lowered light, something which was rather important to do unless you wanted to trip as you navigated the knick-knack cluttered corridors that made up the place. Cottage, orrery, planetarium, observatory; popular with local schools as well as those interested in the heavens, and all kept by dear old Betty Saville. Bless her once more, for luck.
"And what do I owe this visit for, then?"
"Ah, well... Uncle Nick-"
"Ooh, ooh, that reminds me - when you go, do take this for your uncle, will you? He asked me for it last time he came up here and I forgot to give it to him..."
Maxwell relieved her of the burgundy tome, but didn't bother to check what it was about. There were more pressing matters to be heard.
"Yes, yes, now - Uncle Nick was talking to me today about space. Not about how the planets orbit, or how the sun works, or stuff like that. We were talking about life."
In the half-light, Maxwell could just about make out a grin forming on Betty's face. Yep...
"We talked about how there are so many stars out there, and how many must have planets around them, then on to the Goldilocks planets and so on... and I want to know... do we know of any that could support life? After all, there are so many people like you looking out there, curiousities piqued; we must have found at least one so far, surely?"
"Follow me..."
There was a little door in the kitchen, slightly crooked and due a coat of shiny new paint, that lead to another world. Or at least, the same world, but in perpetual dawn, night or dusk. The Planetarium at Damile was the biggest in the region and certainly the most comfortable, with quaint knitted cushions padding the velvet seats that let the occupants dream of the final frontier above them. The colossal dome onto which these dreams were projected had been built by Betty's late husband and had been the canvas on which the heavens were painted for a good fifty years, but no wear and tear was visible. Passionate hands had kept everything in tip-top shape, and would hopefully continue to do so for years to come...
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
...nine years later...
The dome that Maxwell currently occupied was also pristine, but not for the same reason. The Observer would of course want to make a perfect world for them to play in and it would be fabricated an instant before the arrival of the combatants - no time for dust to accumulate, for tiles to crack and fall, for plants to wither and die, for fountains to dry...
...until of course, all hell broke loose, and the battle butchered everything... Maxwell sighed...