Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 3: Escheresque!]
11-22-2009, 08:49 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
Vyrm'n meandered through the corridors in the direction it thought it had come in, the clang of the Sunset's footfalls never far behind. The Balancer suddenly called out.
"HALT, FACELESS."
Vyrm'n considered leaping off just to spite him, but made the next down a more permanent one. It settled into its pillar-form, protruding impossibly out at the approaching Balancer. That eyeless face materialised on the end of the pillar, tilted slightly off-centre, the Faceless questioning.
"DO YOU RECOGNISE THAT WALL HANGING?" The Balancer queried, pointing at a tapestry adorned with tessellated ants. Vyrm'n's face crossed the expanse of black to sightlessly stare directly at it, before shifting back in its original position. This movement seemed to purely be to annoy the Sunset, both beings knew full well that that face could see about as well as the Sunset could out his- well, either way, the Faceless' behaviour was getting this side of intolerable.
"I RECOGNISE THIS WALL HANGING, AS WE HAVE PASSED THIS IDENTICAL WALL HANGING IN THIS IDENTICAL CORRIDOR TWICE NOW. WE ARE LOST, FACELESS."
Vyrm'n made no response. The Sunset felt like shooting some sense into the darkness.
"I REALISE PERSPECTIVE IS SKEWED HERE, FACELESS. HOWEVER, FINDING THE AUTHOR OF YOUR NOTE IS OF THE UTMOST URGENCY IF WE ARE TO FIND A LOOPHOLE. FURTHERMORE-"
Vyrm'n did its best to ignore whatever the Sunset was trying to declare to most of the known universe, judging by the way he was bellowing. It tried sending out a pulse to detect sentient matter-song, perhaps to find Amethyst. Instead, it picked up on something far more worrying.
A black tendril quivered, reluctant to make contact, before steeling itself and grabbing the crackling violet. The Sunset was shocked into silence by this, along with the message the Faceless was conveying:
Gestalt. Samuel. Their songs have changed.
The Balancer couldn't comprehend; the confusion his psyche radiated was enough for Vyrm'n to pre-emptively answer the unspoken question. Excitement and agitation let Vyrm'n's conclusions burst out in unbidden pulses, but it did its best to get the message across.
Their songs, I've heard from since the first round... They are distinct and very different... Samuels', with undertones and depths like no other human I have met... Gestalts', so confusing not knowing where it starts and stops and being where it really couldn't shouldn't... But somehow... Gestalt's is Samuel's, and Samuel's is Gestalt's, and there is another formed by the very state of the two being... just so. They are moving-
"WHERE?" Vyrm'n recoils, the stream of thought pausing only a moment before it returns to the task at hand-
Towards Maxwell
They are singing for his death... Both of them. I have to go and save him
The Sunset reached out with a hand to grab the shadow, but Vyrm'n had already broken the connection, infinitesimally twitching one way or the other as it tried to ascertain Gestalt, Maxwell, and Samuel's positions, and the swiftest way to reach them.
The shadow accelerated through a doorway, Balancer in hot pursuit -
And the two suddenly stood in a huge open space, its cavernous interior approximating a cube. At the least, the foundations for its construction were six-sided, each interior wall the gravitational basepoint for a medley of corridors and staircases. From where the two shifting entities stand, something resembling natural sunlight filters through from the furtherest corner. Vyrm'n glances up, before laying a final hand upon the purple coils.
The fountain is right outside there. A second pseudo-limb pointed up to the sunlit gap. Now I must find Maxwell. As it leapt into the air (or rather, as it chose the opposite wall as down), the Sunset boomed,
"HALT, FACELESS."
But both of them knew it was useless. With Vyrm'n's only motivation to assist the Balancer to ensure Maxwell's safety, Maxwell's immediate safety was a non-negotiable higher priority. The Sunset knew it, and the frustration left him without counterargument.
The Faceless paused only a moment in midair before it rushed down a corridor that would take the Sunset a good time to reach, the slick, serpentine shadow desperately following Maxwell's song.
Vyrm'n meandered through the corridors in the direction it thought it had come in, the clang of the Sunset's footfalls never far behind. The Balancer suddenly called out.
"HALT, FACELESS."
Vyrm'n considered leaping off just to spite him, but made the next down a more permanent one. It settled into its pillar-form, protruding impossibly out at the approaching Balancer. That eyeless face materialised on the end of the pillar, tilted slightly off-centre, the Faceless questioning.
"DO YOU RECOGNISE THAT WALL HANGING?" The Balancer queried, pointing at a tapestry adorned with tessellated ants. Vyrm'n's face crossed the expanse of black to sightlessly stare directly at it, before shifting back in its original position. This movement seemed to purely be to annoy the Sunset, both beings knew full well that that face could see about as well as the Sunset could out his- well, either way, the Faceless' behaviour was getting this side of intolerable.
"I RECOGNISE THIS WALL HANGING, AS WE HAVE PASSED THIS IDENTICAL WALL HANGING IN THIS IDENTICAL CORRIDOR TWICE NOW. WE ARE LOST, FACELESS."
Vyrm'n made no response. The Sunset felt like shooting some sense into the darkness.
"I REALISE PERSPECTIVE IS SKEWED HERE, FACELESS. HOWEVER, FINDING THE AUTHOR OF YOUR NOTE IS OF THE UTMOST URGENCY IF WE ARE TO FIND A LOOPHOLE. FURTHERMORE-"
Vyrm'n did its best to ignore whatever the Sunset was trying to declare to most of the known universe, judging by the way he was bellowing. It tried sending out a pulse to detect sentient matter-song, perhaps to find Amethyst. Instead, it picked up on something far more worrying.
A black tendril quivered, reluctant to make contact, before steeling itself and grabbing the crackling violet. The Sunset was shocked into silence by this, along with the message the Faceless was conveying:
Gestalt. Samuel. Their songs have changed.
The Balancer couldn't comprehend; the confusion his psyche radiated was enough for Vyrm'n to pre-emptively answer the unspoken question. Excitement and agitation let Vyrm'n's conclusions burst out in unbidden pulses, but it did its best to get the message across.
Their songs, I've heard from since the first round... They are distinct and very different... Samuels', with undertones and depths like no other human I have met... Gestalts', so confusing not knowing where it starts and stops and being where it really couldn't shouldn't... But somehow... Gestalt's is Samuel's, and Samuel's is Gestalt's, and there is another formed by the very state of the two being... just so. They are moving-
"WHERE?" Vyrm'n recoils, the stream of thought pausing only a moment before it returns to the task at hand-
Towards Maxwell
They are singing for his death... Both of them. I have to go and save him
The Sunset reached out with a hand to grab the shadow, but Vyrm'n had already broken the connection, infinitesimally twitching one way or the other as it tried to ascertain Gestalt, Maxwell, and Samuel's positions, and the swiftest way to reach them.
The shadow accelerated through a doorway, Balancer in hot pursuit -
And the two suddenly stood in a huge open space, its cavernous interior approximating a cube. At the least, the foundations for its construction were six-sided, each interior wall the gravitational basepoint for a medley of corridors and staircases. From where the two shifting entities stand, something resembling natural sunlight filters through from the furtherest corner. Vyrm'n glances up, before laying a final hand upon the purple coils.
The fountain is right outside there. A second pseudo-limb pointed up to the sunlit gap. Now I must find Maxwell. As it leapt into the air (or rather, as it chose the opposite wall as down), the Sunset boomed,
"HALT, FACELESS."
But both of them knew it was useless. With Vyrm'n's only motivation to assist the Balancer to ensure Maxwell's safety, Maxwell's immediate safety was a non-negotiable higher priority. The Sunset knew it, and the frustration left him without counterargument.
The Faceless paused only a moment in midair before it rushed down a corridor that would take the Sunset a good time to reach, the slick, serpentine shadow desperately following Maxwell's song.
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