Who has posted? | | View a Printable Version

GBCE · 01-27-2010, 06:49 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.

Sorry about not posting often around the end. I suppose I got a little bored of the setting. But, I'll try to be more active! I'll probably get kicked off in either this or the next round. I'm looking forward to Jordan's death. [img]images/smilies/icon_winky.gif[/img]

SleepingOrange · 01-28-2010, 02:19 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

Midsentence, midaction, or midthought, the contestants minus one disappeared. There was a brief moment where they were all floating in the endless darkness from before the first round before they rematerialized.

The first impression was of blinding, multicolored light; eyes squeezed shut, and a moment later opened slightly. The contestants all appeared to be in a huge room, made entirely of stained glass; light shone in from all angles, bathing everything in shifting patterns of color. There were benches made of glass, a glass pulpit at the far end, and glass doors, decorations, and candelabra.

Before anyone had time to fully take in the scene, The Organizer's voice boomed out from seemingly-nowhere. "Contestants! Welcome to the Cathedral of Glass! As you can see, everything here is made of glass; as you can't, everyone is too." A cursory glance revealed that the competitors weren't any glassier than usual, implying other inhabitants of the cathedral. "Feel free to explore the grounds, the catacombs, even the library; just try not to end up alone!"

"I'll let you find out why."

GBCE · 01-28-2010, 02:48 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

"guess we don't have to drag this guy around now" Alex states while lowering the manikin to the floor, and after glancing at everyone around "has anyone seen hatman?"

Show Content

GBCE · 01-28-2010, 03:10 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Lap Otter.

"Library?" Lissa's ears pricked up--as much as a human's ears can prick, anyway. "There's a library? Yume, get someone to go with you so we can go to the library! Imagine how much undiscovered knowledge waits in a library in a different world!"

Niko scowled. "No. Fuck this. I'm tired of having her in danger, I'm tired of starting fights in her body and not being able to change. Yume, I'm taking over."

Yume shifts into her humanoid form, standing on two legs and gazing around in awe. "It's gorgeous," she murmurs, and then scowls. "Oh, don't be ridiculous, Niko," she says crossly. "If nothing else, it's obvious we haven't been dropped in the middle of a combat situation." She tilts her head, silent for a good several moments, then blushes. "Right. Of course. You know me, I forget sometimes."

Yume takes one last look at the way the light colors her white clothing, turning around to see the skirt swish, then closes her eyes and lets herself slide under...

Lainey shakes herself slightly, smoothing her hands over her navy blue clothing. Yume's right, the light looked a lot better on her--then again, what doesn't?

It looks like the whole group that was there to start, in that forest, is back now. No, not quite... someone's missing. But Vasily, Jordan, and the dragons--Eemp, Right, Rong, she reminds herself, remember it this time--all seem to be present. And the manikin. She lost track of that one fairly quick last time, and it's gotten bigger since then. Or maybe she's just imagining things.

"Here we all are again," she says cheerfully. "It seems like we're in some sort of building, and as reluctant as I am to leave it--I believe a library was mentioned?--we are all still here to kill each other. I'm forced to wonder what happens if we leave? There has to be a door out somewhere."

Niko scowled at Yume so fiercely it seemed that she was scowling down at her, even though they were the same height. "Yume--don't ever--you could have been hurt--"

"But I wasn't. Calm down." Yume wrapped an arm around her sister's waist. "See, I'm fine."

Lissa tapped her finger on her chin disapprovingly, but didn't comment to the sisters. Instead, she addressed the veiwscreen: "Do be careful, Lainey. It's bright, but with all the shifting colors and everything being made of that stained glass, visibility's low. Don't hesitate to call Niko if it becomes necessary."

Show Content

MalkyTop · 01-28-2010, 07:24 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Right blinked. And blinked again.

Everybody was bathed in soft reds and blues and purples. It almost looked like they all suddenly grew multi-colored skin. And as everybody shifted, the colors moved. It was a little...nice.

"No water here, either..." He was going to be a bit useless this round. Unless there was one of those tubs, the...the...baptizing thing. But maybe, considering their surroundings, that was simply molten glass.

"Glass, huh? Easy. We break it, everybody dies, we win."

Right was almost expecting this. "We'd also get caught under the shrapnel. Besides, breaking glass would be harder than you think...I do believe I've heard somewhere that stained glass is thicker at the bottom."

"Yeah, yeah...maybe I can melt our way out..."

"Doubt it." Ignoring Rong's juvenile insults, he continued looking around at the stained glass. If this was truly a cathedral, he would have expected some images. The likeness of people, at least. But it was only clashing shapes.

Right looked down again. The contestants have all come back together, it seems, but giving a quick head count, it seemed that one was missing. He realized who when Alex made his query. Hatman the superhero wasn't here.

Which strongly supported the 'kill to move on' theory.

Out loud, he said, "I'm rather curious about the...glass people here...how do they even move...?"

Beside them, Alex shrugged, taking on new colors and throwing out the old. "Maybe they don't."

"Hm." The dragon pondered a bit while it looked like the girl...Annabelle...was...hugging the wall...or something...? Strange.

"Welp, thar's one o' 'em archways," Vasilly pointed out and indeed there was, jutting out the wall. Inside the arch, hard to see without such a visual hint, was a door. They could probably walk right by and not notice anything.

"Great, let's get outta here," Rong muttered. "All these bright colors are making me sick." At the door, she turned the handle (how does glass do that?) and Right grimaced, expecting to hear the scraping sound of glass on glass. Instead, he heard a tchk and a 'whoops.'

Rong spat out the handle. "At least it's a double door, huh?"

MalkyTop · 01-29-2010, 05:21 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

"Here, let me," said Lainey (ah, so she's Lainey again...) and she walked over, hoping that the handle wasn't that fragile, that Rong was just being clumsy. It would be a shame to be stuck in this one room.

Right glanced around yet again, looking at all the empty benches (a bit creepy, now that he thought about it - where're all the people? And did he really want to meet them?) and decorations (the chandelier was nice). He still didn't see a statue or a symbol or anything that showed what the church worshiped. It was going to bug him for the rest of the round, he was sure of that.

That mannequin thing he could see looking around (wait, looking? It didn't have eyes, did it? But it sure looked like it was looking around.) apparently taking in the random colors before it gave an experimental taste of one of the glass benches.

Lainey delicately turned the handle and pulled open the door. Though they couldn't see straight through the stained glass, she was sure they would have noticed a shadowy figure beyond the wall, but just to make sure, she looked down the hallway both ways for any sign of movement.

Nothing. Like the whole church went on holiday.

"A'iight," Vasily once again seemed to take on the rank of leader. The word 'swagger' comes to mind. "I reckon, an' I'm sure all o' ya's though' o' it too, there oughtter be an' exit tae this place. This place canna' be tha' big, so th' front door shouldn' be tha' hard tae find. If there ain't a front door, I s'pose..." The pirate squinted for a moment at the walls. "Mebbe we could break a...er, window, or part o' a wall..."

"Excuse me, sorry, but I'm interested in finding that library." Vasily paused and stared at Lainey, who indeed, looked rather determined to read some books. If you could even read a glass book. Seriously, how would that work?

"Yer sure?" Lainey nodded. "So there's gonna be two groups, one searchin' fer a library an' th' other lookin' fer an exit or sommat. Who wants tae go with th' missus 'ere?"

There was no answer for a while and the room echoed with only the mannequin's chomping. Right finally sighed and said, "We'll go, I guess."

"Th' others are comin' wit' me, 'en?" Jordan, who did like the idea of 'escape' and not the idea of 'alone,' nodded.

"I'm going to stay with the mannequin," Alex said.

Annabelle did not respond, too far away to hear anything. "Oi!" Vasily shouted to her, his voice echoing in the room. "D'ya wanna come wit' me?" The strange woman (let's face it, she's not 'all there') turned away from tracing shapes on the glass and looked at Vasily.

Ah, Blue. She remembered him. It looked like everybody was leaving, so she might as well join, right? "Okay!" she agreed happily and snaked her way to the group, tracing a path on the wall. Vasily smirked at her before turning his head to that mannequin.

...Well...if it wanted to follow one group or the other, he supposed it could. He clapped a hand on Lainey's shoulder. "See ya later."

"If you don't die," Right said dryly, and with that, everybody parted.

Alex, alone with the mannequin, sat down on a bench. It was rather hard, but felt cool and nice to the touch. "It's just you and me again, hm?"

GBCE · 01-30-2010, 05:09 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Show Content

SleepingOrange · 01-30-2010, 05:36 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

Show Content

GBCE · 01-30-2010, 05:46 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Show Content

MalkyTop · 01-30-2010, 11:46 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Show Content

GBCE · 01-30-2010, 04:18 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

The world twisted in the manikin's vision. It's ability to detect life was similarly warped. Bewildering, but the manikin was capable of understanding that it's world had changed, although wasn't sure how to react. It focused on it's eyes, and looked around. The colliding and reflecting light was hard enough to look at, but combined with the insect eyes' kaleidoscopic properties, it was too much information to handle. The manikin immediately swallowed it's own eyes, depriving itself of that sense. It scanned it's immediate area, and realized that Alex was beside it again. The manikin wasn't sure why that blue life was always there, but decided to let it be. It focused it's sense further. In addition to the other lives... wait. The manikin noticed that one life was missing. It found that a little strange... Had that life been lost? The manikin decided it wasn't worth pondering and Continued to sense. In addition to the other lives, there were several others. However, they had a strange property to them, as if they weren't quite... whole, exactly. The manikin was very curious about this strange life, and decided to find one. It located the nearest one, and began running in it's direction. Periodically, it felt resistance. However, the resistance wasn't strong enough to delay the manikin for long, and gave way easily.

Alex got up when the Manikin did.
"Going somewhere?"
Without answering, the manikin charged towards a glass wall, and smashed through it. The manikin didn't stop, and the sound of glass walls shattering rang out constantly.

Alex was at a slight loss, but quickly regained his bearings, and chased after the Manikin.

MalkyTop · 01-31-2010, 11:16 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Show Content

Strangely enough, they didn't make much sound walking down the hallway. Lainey didn't know why, but she sort of expected for glass to, well, echo more, or something. She was prepared to carefully tread her way through the building, but found herself just walking normally.

They've gotten a knack for finding doors, at least. Out here, there were no telltale arcs, but the apparently carefully camouflaged doors could be easily seen if you knew what to look for. Handles, for instance, could be hard to spot straight on, but if they looked for them ahead of time, they were seen conspicuously jutting out the walls.

Each time they reached a door, Lainey would try looking through it for any suspicious movements, then poke her head in carefully and find more empty benches and more pulpits. Why a church needed so many pulpits, she would never know. Either way, this cathedral seemed to be ridiculously large now. She comforted herself by noting that Eemp was still leaving a trail of hay.

At one point, Eemp, not any of its arms, pointed out a door everybody else had missed, which slightly surprised Lainey. Maybe it was more than just straw after all.

For some reason, this one had no handle, and so she pushed it carefully and ducked back out, a bemused look on her face.

"What was it?" Right asked.

"I think...it was a bathroom."

This strange idea dwelt in both minds (once again, Right found himself wondering 'How does that work?), but not for long. Down the hallway, previously empty, was one of the glass people mentioned before.

Calling it a glass person probably gave the wrong image. It was really more like a molten glass person (How does that work?), not showing any definite appendages, somehow not cooling and hardening, somehow not leaving trails of itself behind. The only thing that was solid glass was its head, beautifully clear, completely blank. It almost reminded Right of that mannequin.

It was standing there, apparently surprised at finding people that weren't molten. The two more organic beings stood there staring back. It seemed like the two parties were waiting for the other to react.

Looking at the glass head, Right couldn't help but think about his earlier idea of baptizing water. Was it possible he was actually...right? (Ha!)

GBCE · 01-31-2010, 02:46 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

Show Content

GBCE · 01-31-2010, 03:01 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Alex made sure to maintain a safe distance so that the glass it just smashed had enough time to settle on the floor so it wouldn't fill his face with shards. "so the chase begins again, huh buddy? hahahaha" after a bit of running Alex saw what the manikin was after, it was a glass person, and from Alex could tell, scared shitless from the manikin bursting through the wall like the kool-ade man. the manikin stood there for a moment studing the person for a bit before he lifted up his arm and a mouth formed on his hand. Alex, knowing what was about to happen, jumped in front of it and interposed his sword to it's hand-mouth, causing it some mild confusion.

MalkyTop · 02-01-2010, 08:17 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Show Content

He would have preferred to be alone with that Annabelle chick, honestly. Still, the Jordan kid looked so...jumpy. Quivering. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the kid. Besides, Annabelle didn't seem very interested in conversation. She lagged behind, still tracing strange designs on the walls as she walked (or pranced?) through the hallway.

The silence was a bit creepy. To fill the void, he tried talking. The others didn't seem as inclined to talk as he did, so Vasily basically talked to himself.

It was sort of meaningless babble. Stuff like "Th' next one'll pro'ally be 't" and "Place looks nice" and "Shower? I 'ardly know 'er!" At one point, he even tried "Le's see wha's behind door number ooonne!" but it was all to silence. He had the unfortunate luck to have an audience equally hapless and obliviously happy.

It seemed they had been walking these colorful halls for ages. Vasily was seriously starting to consider pounding the walls until it broke or his shoulder did when the hallway just suddenly ended.

"Ah," he said brightly. "Now we're gettin' somewhere, eh?" Confident and hopeful, the pirate threw open the doors.

The first thing he thought was that they probably should have gone down the other hallway.

This new room was far from empty like so many others. This, in fact, was full of molten glass people, most of them sitting on benches. The small group seemed to have interrupted some sort of strange ceremony. All the way at the front of the room, there was a completely glass person lying down and a molten glass person with an ornate head standing over it. The ornate glass person was holding a glass knife high, presumably to plunge into the one on the alter.

It looked like every glass person was staring eerily at them, though it was really hard to tell. Annabelle finally caught up, humming cheerfully. "Oh! A party! I love parties! I don't see any sign of Friend Computer here, though. You can't have a party without that!" She seemed to remain completely oblivious even as Jordan and Vasily nervously started backing away, even as the large group of glass people stood up and advanced.

GBCE · 02-02-2010, 02:55 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Show Content

Dragon Fogel · 02-02-2010, 02:58 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

Show Content

GBCE · 02-02-2010, 09:36 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.

Show Content

While walking around, Jordan had thoughts about simply killing the jubilant lady or the guy with the strange accent, but he decided not to, for fear that one of them would survive and know. So, he simply followed Vasily while keeping a distance from Annabell, which wasn't too difficult.
Soon, Vasily opened a certain door leading to a room filled with glass people. At first Jordan was petrified with shock, but he quickly regained the ability to move his body. He noticed that Annabell was rather calm and happy about this while he moved away from the possibly deadly crowd. Once again the thought of murder crossed his mind, but he refrained from taking action and quietly backed away.
Vasily, like the heroic(ish) man he is, grabbed Annabell's hand and ran for it, away from the glass creatures. Annabell didn't put up a fight at all, and Jordan followed without hesitation. He looked back and focused on one of them, trying to find a weakness. All he managed to do was melt one of their heads.
Although it immediately morphed into a giant blob, it reshaped its head slowly but surely. It would most likely take a while to harden. Jordan, of course, didn't pay too much attention to what he had done and simply noted that their heads could be melted at an extreme temperature.

Show Content

GBCE · 02-02-2010, 03:11 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

Quote:fun fact, glass never actually hardens at room temperature. it just flows very very slowly. it's why old cathedrals have the glass thicker on the bottom, it's flowed downward for years.

GBCE · 02-02-2010, 03:58 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

Show Content

The manikin paused as a familiar object brushed it's arm mouth. It couldn't do anything to break the object before, but now? The manikin had something worth testing. Swiftly it morphed it's mouth into the giant pincers, and attempted to bite down on the sword.

Alex drew his sword back as soon as he realized what it intended, and the pincers collided against each other.

"What are you doing!?" He yelled, while remembering how futile trying to communicate with the mankin was. Still eying the manikin, he turned to the glass person. It reminded him of the manikin a little in shape and lack of definition, but maybe it could be communicated with.

"Hello, I'm sorry if my..." He pondered a word to describe the mankin with. He blinked for an instant in thought. As soon as he opened them, a man with a sword stood in front of him... a man who looked exactly like Alex.

"Ah," it spoke. "It's been too long, trapped in this glass palace without something solid to reflect. Thanks..."

It brought it's blade up in a flash and swung down at Alex, who hurriedly parried the blow. Alex was shocked to realize that his clone had what seemed to be the same amount of power as he did.

"But I need to get rid of you... or else, the others will reflect you too- and then, how would I be original?"

GBCE · 02-02-2010, 04:38 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.

"well, if you are gonna be like that, maybe i should just LET my friend eat your face." alex continued to deflect all the blows, this reflection may have the same strength as he did but it was sorely lacking in experience and skill so it was executing it's moves very clumsily. Alex switch his blade to ice, and on the next attack he blocked but didn't deflect so it's copy-blade rested against his.

it did exactly what he expected, ice-crystals started forming up the glass from the contact point. the glass-man noticed it, but too late. it's hands and wrists were frozen in place and without the ability to bend those it's sword ability was dropped to almost zero. with another whack, with fire this time, it's hands and blade shattered into pieces.

MalkyTop · 02-02-2010, 05:30 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

Show Content

That's actually false. Glass is an amorphous solid.

Sorry, I just felt like sharing this. The reason cathedral glass is thicker at the bottom is the technique of the glass blowers. For panes of glass, they spun molten glass to create a round, mostly flat and even plate. It's not exactly flat, though - the edges would grow thick. So when the glass was cut and placed, the thicker side would be placed downward. Stability and whatnot.

Sorry. Pointless. And I have no post ideas yet. And Myifan, that is quite awesome. I didn't think of that whatsoever.[/spoiler]

GBCE · 02-03-2010, 01:12 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.

Show Content

Alex brought his blade up, ready to execute the glass man.
"Tell me." He demanded in an even tone. "what are you? Why did you try to kill me?"
The glass man slowly answered.
"We are... Glass. We hold light in our bodies... But I am tired of bein filled with dancing, formless light. So, that's why, as the light bounced off you, I knew that I desired to take your light, to take your solid nature. " Desperation crept into the man's voice. "But, How can I be solid if it is known that I am glass, a mere reflection? I will forever be subject to the formless nature of perception. That's why..." It's voice became decidingly calm. "I must erase you, so I'll be the true form, and not a simple reflection."
The thing held a blank smile. "What's your name?" It asked emptily.
Alex said nothing, but it continued to stare.
"ah, I see... You are Alex. That means, I am Alex."

It faintly smiled, and dove forward wildly. In one motion, Alex swung down, shattering the glass man into thousands of shards.

What had the Manikin done in this time? Well, it had observed. It observed the Strange life twist into one similar to the blue life, but somewhat less bright. It watched as the life fell to pieces, yet did not disappear. It crawled over, looking to feed on the remains. A fractured part of the leg found it's way into the Manikin's many mouths, and was digested promptly. The manikin analyzed it, and found it similar to the glass it had eaten before, but more tightly composed, as if it had been compressed many times. There was something else there too, though... A bit of a life, with a lonesome, selfish quality. It imprinted into the Manikin's own life, and flowed out.
Finishing it's meal, The Manikin stood. The glass was a curious thing, with many possibilties. It wanted to find another one. This time, however, it wouldn't allow it to change first- the base form held the manikin's interest. Although the manikin had only sensed it in depth briefly, the glass man's basic form had felt extremely similar to it.

MalkyTop · 02-03-2010, 08:55 AM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

When Right blinked, there was Lainey, suddenly standing across from him. Beside him was also Lainey.

Lainey seemed as surprised as he did.

Glass-Lainey felt her new clothes, her new skin, her new face. "Oh, this is so wonderful~!" It...she...uh...yeah. Lainey looked almost sickened as she watched herself gleefully spin around, arms outstretched, watching her skirt twirl. Even though Glass-Lainey looked as fleshy as the original did, her shoes clanked on the ground, sounding rather hollow. This...she...what...?

Rong reacted more quickly than anybody else and relented to her base instinct. She shot raging fire at the fake Lainey. Lainey, standing so close to the dragon, had to back away and cover her face from the warm blast of air and the light that was taken in by the walls and given back in different colors.

She looked up again when Rong was finished, but immediately wished she hadn't. The glass was still her, but deformed. Sagging. Melting. "Hello to you too!" Glass-Lainey warbled, its mouth going in strange directions as though it had no idea how it was oriented. "But please don't do that again, it makes me lose solidity!" Another thing Lainey wished she didn't see was Glass-Lainey reform herself. She couldn't help but have the disturbing feeling she was watching her death in reverse.

"Now. Who are you? How did you get in here? What are you?"

After a long silence, Right finally spoke. "We...are, uh, the same as you," he said before hesitantly shapeshifting to a likeness of Rong and back. Lainey realized what she was supposed to do and closed her eyes, letting herself sink back within herself as Yume, once again, pushed out.

This seemed to have convinced Glass-Lainey very well and she excitedly clapped her hands, which made a disturbing tck tck sound. "Wow! I can't believe you can do that! I never thought of making my own image! You two are so creative! But how did you get this to breathe fire?" Curiously, Glass-Lainey strode over and crouched down to examine Rong. Apparently oblivious to the fact that this is generally not a good thing to do to a dragon, she forced open Rong's mouth and tried to look down her throat.

Knowing that fire wouldn't work this time, Rong turned to another one of her base instinct. Biting.

"Oh!" Glass-Lainey giggled as she ducked out from Rong's snapping mouth.

"GODDAMMIT, I HATE EVERYBODY HERE! I NEED TO DEMOLISH SOMETHING!"

"Wow! Two heads! I never thought of that!"

"Get in my mouth again, I'll show ya what happens when ya piss off a dragon!"

"I wonder how that'd look on me..." Though thankfully, before the mimic could disturb them, Rong interrupted.

"Would you freakin' LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY!"

"Oh! I'm sorry! What were you going to say?"

"Nothing," Right quickly said, ignoring Rong's smoldering glare.

"Alright!" Glass-Lainey chirped, as though she didn't actually care what Rong had to say at all. Suddenly, her cheerful expression dropped. "Wait! What are you doing? I thought everybody would be at the sacrifice today! It's all the way on the other side!" Sacrifice? Yume and Right avoided giving each other questioning glances, but tucked the information away as something to talk about later.

"We...didn't want to see it...?" Yume almost smacked herself for sounding so questioning, but Glass-Lainey seemed as oblivious as ever.

"Oh! I know what you mean. The sound of the sacrifice shattering is just so...so creepy."

"We were actually going to go to the library."

"Oh! Cool! I'll go with you!"

"Oh great."

As Glass-Lainey walked in front and chattered and Rong moaned and complained, Yume decided to talk a little with Right.

"I didn't know you could shapeshift."

"Well, I can. That guy mentioned it in the very beginning, anyways." Now that he mentioned it, Yume sort of remembered the strange, apparently omniscient being saying that.

"Why didn't you do it before?"

"Why didn't you take the place of Lainey immediately?"

MalkyTop · 02-04-2010, 07:23 PM

Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.

"Get them! Capture them!"

Vasily was not aware that glass could speak.

Sneaking a glance behind him, the pirate saw that beyond the mass of glass, the priest was still at the back of the crowd. Only...it looked like Annabelle? What?

As he watched, the crowd changed too. In fact, like some strange B-movie plot-twist, all the glass people were changing into a likeness of Jordan and Vasily. There were no more copies of Annabelle, as though her form was reserved only for the priest.

It was certainly a surreal experience, being chased by yourself. A crowd of yourself.

It seemed some of their copies were forming weapons from their own hands (what happened to just capturing them?) and Vasily took advantage of this by swiping a glass clone's sword, but dropped it immediately when it started to grow his face. Eeeuuch. Creepy.

As the pirate wished to be away from this damn glass church, Annabelle looked on in confusion at the pursuing crowd. So many clones suddenly decanted here? This was...strange. And those expressions...

Though Blue was yanking hard on her arm, she could still take out her Happiness Tester and wave it across the new clones. The reading made her almost blanch.

T-ten percent...? That...that can't...

Yanking her hand out of Vasily's grasp, Annabelle's grin grew psychotic and strained as she fingered a container of Happiness Pills and her flamethrower.

-----------------------------

"Wow."

"It's so pretty, isn't it?"

"I need to eat something."

The library was huge, and possibly more ornate than any room they had gone through. A dome allowed even more color to be thrown across the room. Tiled paths wound around the various shelves. Sturdy signs announced how the books were ordered, and though they were simple signs, just their sheer glassiness made them beautiful.

Yume took a book down, just some random book, and almost fell from the weight. Well, the pages would have to be thick enough to be engraved, so the weight probably made sense. Wadding over to a nearby table, she set the book down with a thump and felt the cover. It was dyed dark blue, completely smooth besides the engraved title, which was dyed in red. Though it wasn't really much of a title. Just a symbol. A religious symbol, she couldn't help but think.

Surprisingly, the pages turned easily, but Yume still handled the book carefully, not wanting to accidentally snap off a corner or something.

Each page was engraved only one one side - the other was blank. It explained the thickness of the book. The pages were dyed in such a dark color that she couldn't see to the next page and could thus read the words easily. She wasn't sure how a civilization that didn't usually have eyes could develop language, but it didn't matter right now, did it?

"Ooooh! The Scriptures! I suppose that book fits for such a holy day!"

So she was right. A religious book. "Yes," Yume replied, forcing a smile at the fake Lainey. She wished it would take some other form. Seeing Lainey was a little freaky.

She tried concentrating on the book instead. It was hard. After reading the first page, she was bored. Lissa was very excited about it, though, so she just continued turning the pages, trying not to think about freaky-Lainey off to the side or about how glass books could be used as pillows.

"So, we'll just look for more books then," Rong drawled.

"Either I just heard you wrong or the end of the world is afoot." Right got hit in the jaw for his trouble.

"Want some help?" Glass-Lainey beamed.

"...No. C'mon, let's go."

Once Rong felt that they were far enough that the others couldn't hear or see them, she gobbled down a few books and then stared hard at Right. "Okay, seriously. What's with you?"

"Hm?"

"Don't look so confused! I've been waiting for you to give orders or a signal or something! We were alone with that girl or girls or whatever for a long time and you didn't even think of trying to kill her?"

Right seemed to gape at her for a few seconds before saying, "We...we couldn't."

"Why? Why couldn't we? She was right there! Alone! Defenseless! We could've killed her right then and got one step closer to winning this war thing!" Right just withdrew as Rong ranted at him. War...

He hadn't been thinking of it as a war for a while now. Why was that? Maybe because nobody seemed like an enemy? Maybe because everybody felt like a comrade? Not like their supposed 'allies' back at that wretched kingdom, where the knights avoided them and stood back to let them do pretty much everything. These people actually talked to him.

"...and I hope you aren't just gonna reuse that lame excuse about 'oooh, what if the others found out and everybody went after us' 'cause nobody's here to see us and besides, we can obviously take everybody on! How can anybody beat us? Hello? Are you ignoring me too?! Fine!" Rong ate some more books, almost emptying half a shelf. "It's gonna be hard for me to keep waiting. Next time I see sword guy, I'm killing him and eating his sparkly sword. I don't care 'bout alliances or whatever."

This threat continued to loom in the atmosphere as Eemp walked them back in tense silence. At the table, Glass-Lainey seemed to have wandered off and someone replaced not-Lainey. This version of Lainey was studiously reading the book unlike the previous form, and she looked up at the dragons when they came. "Hello there. I see you haven't found any books."

"Uh, yeah," Right mumbled. "What's in there?"

"A very interesting prophecy of doom, actually," not-Lainey II said, turning back to the book. "These people fear a beast that apparently heralds an apocalypse."

"Surprised they can even think," Rong snorted. She continued to be ignored.

"They hold a sacrifice every week or so to satiate the beast and keep it from destroying this world."

"Huh. That's a lot of sacrifices."

"Yeah yeah, very interesting. Except it isn't useful to us in any way."

"It gets more interesting. It predicts that one day, dangerous outsiders will come and spread chaos among these glass people and cause the beast to rampage."

Silence fell once more as the implications became evident.

"...We should probably leave soon."

"Perhaps," Lissa agreed.

Show Content