The Grand Battle II! [Happy End!]

The Grand Battle II! [Happy End!]
#51
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

One of the boxes fell over. The lid popped off and a handful of objects spilled out: a white glove, a yoyo, a colander, a book, and a dozen other small, unremarkable objects. The boxes had materialized near a wall, and the glove that was now laying on the ground started to creep like an insect towards it, a small knife hovering behind. The boxes shifted gently, the spilled items tidying themselves up and stacking themselves neatly in the box; as the last one entered, the lid slid back on, locking into place with a snap. The glove reached the wall, knife not far behind; it stretched a finger out towards the stone, gently caressing the apparently-smooth surface. The glove recoiled as its fabric tore, thread hanging from unseen prominences in the stone. It drummed its now-three fingers on the soil for a moment, ostensibly thinking, then skittered back towards the boxes. The knife hovered near the wall for a moment; there was an unpleasant grinding of stone on stone, and a brick from the wall slid sluggishly out, stopped for a moment, then sprang away from the wall. The knife moved back towards the boxes, brick rolling along the ground behind. As the brick moved across the grass and dirt, it shredded the plants and left a furrow in the ground. A centipede in the wrong place at the wrong time was casually split in half at the brick's slightest touch.

Gestalt liked its new limb.

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#52
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by yousodumb.

Dairy of Professor Armidillo Reccxer: as I was floating peacefully above the endless field, I saw what at first I had taken for just a pile of boxes reveal itself to be a Schrotgolem! Remarkable! I have only seen one in my entire life, I may never get another opportunity like this again! I changed my mass to that of a feather and floated down right in front of it. " 'Allo mate, Mind if I ask you some questions for the sake of science?" I waited a few minuets, waiting for a response. when I received none I quickly stated, "no need to fear, I'm not crazy, just a little more eccentric than the average individual!" I thought to myself, a Schrotgolem is extremely rare, so it must be terribly shy, however it would prove to be an excellent ally.
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#53
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Archduke_Ferdinand.

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#54
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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#55
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by yousodumb.

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#56
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Archduke_Ferdinand.

This environment is wrong.

Everything here tasted of filth and decay, like a clean straw with bits of stale milkshake clinging desperately to the inside and waiting to be cleaned out. The Sunset was enjoying the world even less than the presence of the being that brought it there. He swiveled his great mechanic head around with a few dull whirrs, and examined his surroundings. There appeared to be no reason to become anxious- no other 'contestants' had appeared to him yet. He began walking carefully, as though at any moment he feared the nondescript 'ground' below him would fail to exist.

This contest is wrong.

No being should have the power to do what had been done here. It was like the worst of the worst case scenarios The Sunset had worked to prevent over the centuries, an ultimate defiance of the balance his race made manifest. Some kind of grand, unspeakable entity that could put the creatures of a multiverse in a blender and pour the resulting mix into this disgusting mold. The Sunset knew it hated everything to do with this world, this Observer, and with what he was being forced to do. And yet for the time being he could do nothing but march, and so he did.

Heavy metallic steps reflecting off the nothingness and wisping back to his dull, rust-purple existence.

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#57
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.

A lid slid off a box with a soft scraping noise that echoed in the dull silence. A pen, inkwell, and pad of paper lifted out, spinning gently for a moment before righting themselves. The pen dipped primly into the inkwell, then scribbled in a rounded, flowing script:

it would be most beneficial to have allies i will gladly accept you offer if it is made in goodwill

i assure you that if it is not one of us will not live to regret this union


At this point, all the lids opened simultaneously, a swarm of trinkets assembling themselves into a rough approximation of human form. The effigy held out an arm, tipped with the three-fingered glove.

Gestalt had made a move.

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#58
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by yousodumb.

Dairy of Professor Armidillo Reccxer: I can't believe it! An actual sentient Schrotgolem!!! I will have to be careful with first contact, lest I offend the poor thing. I slowly reached out to the effigy's hand, going to shake it, suddenly the pen wrote down on the paper, yes, a hand shake will seal the deal. Goodness! it had frightened me out of my skin! I quickly regained my composure, and shaked its hand-like appendage. "I, am Professor Armidillo Reccxer and believe me, you won't regret this alliance! By the way, what is your name, if you have one?" The pen wrote down, I am know as Gestalt to humans. "well then, the first thing to do is find the other contestants. I have a wonderful way of transportation." I said looking at The Cane of Materialistic Probability.


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#59
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by bobthepen.

Galus made his way alongside one of the labyrinth walls, taking care not to touch its serrated surface. His work as a pilot had cultivated his naturally keen navigation skills; however, in a maze as featureless as this one, the only reliable way to navigate was to follow the path, keeping the wall on your left side. If no pathway out exists, then he'll return to the bloody hand prints he had seen earlier, and if there is an exit from this maze...

He paused to examine his pistol, double checking the safety and tightening his ursine fingers around the leather grip. Battle. He thought. The one who had sent him here had mentioned something about a "change of scenery" when one of them dies. Could it be that the only escape from this world, is the death of a "contestant"? Should this be the case, one of the others would inevitably try to kill him. Should this happen, he'll need to act swiftly. He pondered this for a moment longer, but quickly his senses alerted him to the presence of another.

Footsteps. Someone's coming from the...left?

Pistol ready, Galus swung towards his left. The wall he had been following for quite some time had completely disappeared. Instead, before him stood a tall blond haired man in a expensive looking suit. The man had his hands held up in the air and a slight smirk on his face.

"Hold your fire." Samuel spoke softly, "I mean you no harm."

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Several minutes earlier:

After his initial outburst, Samuel managed to regain his composure. Though the thought of overcoming such a powerful being was still intoxicating, Samuel focused himself on the task at hand. This world presented a mystery to him. It was quite possible that Karma, as he knew it, had no real presence here. Such a turn of events would prove most unsettling. Samuel closed his eyes, outstretched his arms, palms open, and inhaled deeply.

Oh Karma was present here. Indeed it appeared to align itself with the very fabric of this world much as it did in his own. There was an odd taste to it however, something which Samuel found quite intriguing. Life. This entire world is alive. He could feel the flow of living Karma circulating through the ground, the walls, the sky. The potential energy of life, the true force of which is only released by death, permeated the atmosphere. And yet, something was amiss. The tumult of energy cycling through this place was such that it never reached its ultimate goal, its ultimate conclusion. This world was such that nothing died, at least not naturally anyway. Untimely death was a concept forlorn to this world.

How could such a place exist? Many would find a world of unending life a paradise, an Eden. To Samuel Therion, however, the very concept was distasteful, a burden. It sickened him.

Suddenly Samuel felt something dark and familiar. A small life, an insect perhaps, had just been extinguished. Undoubtedly this had occurred as a result of one of the other contestants. He then remembered the words of his abductor.

"Every round one of you will die"

Samuel lowered his arms and exhaled, a grin spreading across his face. This world will not be so naive to death for much longer. He began walking in the direction of a strong life he had sensed, most likely another contestant.

He spoke aloud to the labyrinth about him, "It seems I have come here to give you a gift. I do hope you enjoy it."

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#60
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

Cabaret, former stage magician and very very embarassed, hurriedly pulled up his trousers, he'd been on the toilet when everything had just disappered and he'd ended up in front that...man? atleast he'd had the sense to pull up his boxer shorts as soon as he'd materialised in front of the guy. He flicked his hand and pulled something from thin air with a flourish, a small plush-toy and ran it down the wall. To his horror it had be torn to bits by the time he took it off. He decided he'd be better off away from this death-trap made of masonry and run away.
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#61
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

The Faceless gazed up along the boundary of this little world, trying to understand what its senses registered about the situation. This place didn't make any sense, what disconcerted it slightly more was that its previous action made little sense.

Vyrm'n had been acting on an instinct it did not know it had, cast away long ago when it plummeted from the Edge into this mad universe of matter which burned its elsewhere soul. The emptiness it had seen beyond there (true emptiness, the sort it soared into with its legion brethren back home; not the matter-studded voids called outer space found within the Universe) reminded it of a home it now only remembered from an encylopedia, a dry, clinical version of a memory that once lit up this black soul.

Of course, it had no comprehension of this. It only assumed the void would be the best way to escape this "game", so the researcher could give Vyrm'n the "freedom" it had been promised since its memories were cast away.

Vyrm'n, again, had no understanding of "freedom" either, beyond that dictionary definition the Faceless' soul could never truly yearn for. It knew one was supposed to wish for freedom, but at the same time, it did not know.


If it had lungs, Vyrm'n would've sighed about then. It simply shivered, sending its inky form aquiver; its closest approximation to the state of being a sigh would've conferred. All this rumination was meaningless and without fruit. Perhaps its time would be best spent finding out the nature of its task in this pseudo-world.

It slithered over to the nearest person, an emaciated human arm extending seamlessly from the black mass and tapping Cabaret on the shoulder. Waiting mutely, the pillar of night stood awaiting his attention.

Cabaret turned, taking in the shadow's appearance, trying not to let any misconstruable emotion appear on his face. Last thing he wanted was to go offending big effing shadows from the word go. "Um, hello there."

The Faceless made no response. Cabaret raised an eyebrow behind his mask. "Can I help you?"

"..."

"Can you talk?" At this, the pillar of night started to liquify around 7 feet up, on a patch facing the conjurer. Something resembling a human face, still as a death-mask, formed upon the inky surface.
The face appeared to be a human girl's; except Cabaret noted, slightly disconcerted, that there were no eyeballs, simply empty sockets - though it was hard to tell what with a lack of reflective sheen on the Faceless' hide to show where the light and shadow worked across the face.

Vyrm'n was expressionless, but then the whole face shifted from side to side. The rest of the darkness made not a move; the face simply slipping first right and left.

"Oh. Was there something you wanted to ask me?" The face shifted up and down. "Hmm... try writing in the dirt, then. Can you write?" Nod. The Faceless' shape slid like a melting snowman, until black arm emerged again from the darkness and clumsily carved awkward letters into the dirt, clunky caps which took the creature an age, as its limb only resembled an arm and seemed to have no muscle to make it move in a normal fashion.

WHY ARE WE HERE?


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#62
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

Cabaret, former stage magician and now feeling mildly confused, ventured "I don't know, but I'll ask someone" WHO ARE YOU? it then carved. "Oh I can answer that one!" Cabaret stated, an expression of pride adorning the face under his mask, he bowed a deep, theatrical, bow which caused a small torch to appear in his hand and the remains of the plush toy to disappear in a puff of smoke and said "I am Cabaret, stage magician and under different circumstances I would probably be here to mystify and amaze you".
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#63
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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#64
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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#65
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

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#66
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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The Faceless' expression was unchanging as Cabaret completed his introduction. Deciding this man was not worth its time, it turned to leave, when the conjurer asked, "And what's your name, and where have you been transported from? I'm assuming you came the same way as me..."

The Faceless considered taking on an air of complete unintrest, then supposed courtesy was not a huge ask. Its arm appeared again, started carving the words from the soil.

<THE MAN CALLED ME VERMIN. I COME FROM THE EDGE OF YOUR UNIVERSE. THE MAN SENT ME HERE.>

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#67
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by cyber95.

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#68
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Sruixan.

From a distance, a slight one, but still a separation, Maxwell watched the proceedings with slight bemusement. Nothing here had overly surprised him - when one considers the possibilties of other realms beyond our own, surely most things, however ficticious at first glance, must have a home somewhere, a little corner of spacetime where they exist as an entity. He'd long since conditioned himself to the idea that there was no such thing as fiction, merely facts that weren't true when and where he was.

His curiosity, however, was certainly piqued. The announcement by the Observer had contained several snippets of information that he found most disconcerting. Having to fight to the death wasn't one of them - as much as he wouldn't want to have to harm someone, sometimes one needs to differentiate between want and need. Thankfully, as of yet nobody appeared to be taking conflict too seriously, and though he could see that several of his companions were primed for battle, the current order of the day seemed to be the trifles of alliance and general communication. How... peculiar. If one is to die each round, then at some point alliances must be broken, whether by choice or not. He would have to consider if the short term gain was enough to balance out the loss he'd surely suffer.

No, there were other, more curious affairs to deal with at the moment. The first was the Observer's choice of words in his first few lines. The second was his description of Maxwell himself and the third was another matter of wording, this time the very last thing uttered by the Observer. Trivial, a slip of the tongue perhaps; maybe it just meant something different altogether. But nevermind. With so much around him, Maxwell's attention span wouldn't do a goldfish justice. Presently he was occupied with the lumbering beacon called The Sunset. As the only other entity here that hadn't made any attempt at co-operation or communication, mayhaps he was worth investigating...

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#69
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

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Cabaret, former stage magician, pondered this, "vermin huh? I guess whoever named must really not like you-oh" he muttered before noticing that the pillar of black was gone. Shrugging he started to walk, in the direction that he thought was, north.
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#70
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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#71
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Sruixan.

Maxwell wasn't quite sure what was happening with The Sunset. For a minute or so now, it had merely walked, repeating one well-learnt movement over and over, in a seemingly random direction, with no real regard as to a goal - at least, as far as he could tell. It was a little difficult to spot and interpret the tiny gestures that are so revealing as to a person's emotions on a robot, but if Maxwell had to take a gander as to what the machine was feeling right now, he'd have to go for disgust. If something like The Sunset could feel disgust, that is. Only closer examination would tell, but right now the observer was about to become a player. The man called Cabaret, one of the more... human competitors in Maxwell's eyes, had begun to move, trudging in a direction not quite towards him, but a little off-skew; not quite a straight line either. As much as he would rather avoid contact until he had a better idea of what was going on, it seemed relatively sensible to find out as much information on his competitors at possible, and early on, whilst everyone was still reasonably amicable, seemed like as good a time as any.

Joints clicked slightly as locomotion was enabled and Maxwell was soon to intercept the stage magician with a joke in his name.

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#72
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

Cabaret, former stage magician, looked around when he heard his name and saw someone coming towards him and, noting the rapier, reached behind the man's ear and pulled out a frisbee while the torch disappeared in a puff of smoke, and introduced himself."I'm Cabaret and you are?".
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#73
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by Sruixan.

Maxwell rolled his eyes at such childish "magic".

"Maxwell Deakin."

His further silence on the matter unnerved Cabaret, who tried once again to break the ice by throwing the frisbee in the air, catching it and suddenly revealing to have caught a bouquet instead.

There wasn't much of a response straight away, but then a slight grin appeared in a far-flung and rarely used corner of his mouth. Perhaps a small chuckle was allowed to slip through, though for all Cabaret knew it could have been a sigh.

"Clever. You're a little more than just a simple magician, aren't you? Doesn't take a genius to figure out that the simplest explanation here is the right one, no matter how silly it might first sound. When the Observer said that you could use anything as a weapon, he literally meant anything, as long as you can conjure it up."

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#74
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by snoomanwaff.

"Thats right, I was a former stage magician" Cabaret replied, flicking the hand holding the bouquet to side and getting a harisen which he used to fan himself in mock fluster. "When do you think it'll kick off?".
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#75
Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 1: The Labyrinth Field!]
Originally posted on MSPA by bobthepen.

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