Robert is the first to awaken. Urrrrrr... His eyes manage to force their way open, revealing a sky-blue sky above him. [SESSION START.] A few feet to his left, something stirs. Urrrrrr... Maggie? Togo? Rina? * Robert tries to sit up. What the hell happened? Upon sitting up, Robert is greeted by a somewhat less familiar sight. Off in the distance, large, cube-shaped stone islands float majiestically through the sky, with the larger cubes -- some almost seeming continent-sized -- playing host to mountains, lakes, forests, rivers, and even cities on them. ...sweet Jesus on a pogo stick. (... Floating islands. I love you. *_*) ( We're in a cross between two of the outer planes! ) ( Or rather, a cross between an outer plane, I can't remember which, and an inner plane, Air, specifically. ) (The thing off to Robert's left stirs again, mumbling something in a feminine voice. -( * Robert looks over to the left. * Rina curls up. "Not goin'," she mutters. "Head hurts." * Robert shakes Rina by the shoulder. Wake up, kid. (Rina wakes up.) (And actually, this all came out of my twisted little head. ^_^ ) * Rina opens one eye, takes in light, and shuts it. "Don' wanna." She stays that way for a bit, then pushes herself up off the ground anyway. You might not want to look around. * Rina opens both eyes this time and covers a yawn with her hand. "Oh, hi. Did we win?" It's kinda... uncertain. You don't know? Look around. We're alive... I think, so that must mean it was either a win or a draw. * Rina rubs at the back of her head and does what Robert told her to. She blinks. She blinks again. Hey, Robert? Where are we? I wish I knew, kid. * Robert checks himself for survival gear. And where's everyone else? * Rina gets to her feet. You seem to be on a cube yourself, naturally. The cube you inhabit is maybe half a mile on each side, and has a lovely little pond in the center, surrounded by trees. The grass is green and very soft. My guess? We got scattered to all these floating cubes. ... You know, I bet there's some video game comparison here, but Jackie's not here to tell me. * Robert pats himself down, feels around inside his coat, and then sighs. At least we have all my gear. (No, Zeal was all rough around the edges. This place is all geometical. ^_^) * Rina grins. "That's good." You hungry? You're about fifty feet from the edge of your own little cube. * Robert looks around for any sources of food. And you're both hungry, yes. Yup. Me too. Hopefully we can find some native food. Hopefully it won't poison us, assuming we can find some. The trees grow strange, perfectly spherical, translucent fruit. No animals seem to be in evidence around you. Okay, now I know what this reminds me of. Geometry class. I hated Geometry. So did I. I failed it twice. * Rina blinks at Robert. Serious? Yep. Wow. I hate geometry. The only form of math I just can't seem to wrap my mind around. * Rina grins. "But you got through it!" Yeah, I did. * Robert reaches into his coat and hefts Reason. Listen, kid. I'm gonna try that fruit, so if it's poisonous, I want you to be able to use this. Not that you can't defend yourself, but Reason's got a lot of handy features, okay? Reason seems just slightly heavier here. * Rina blinks. "But- but I don't know how to use a gun." * Robert strains a little, as Reason was already at the upper limits of his strength. Don't worry about it. It's easy, just point and click. How's your memory? ... Um, sure. Pretty decent, I guess. Can't remember big words for beans. You won't need words, just strings of numbers. * Rina tilts her head. "Okay." Okay, the main mode is the SAW. If you switch away from it, the code to get back is 25425. You enter all these cods on this keypad here, by the way. Passwords, right. Yeah. 62535 will get you the flamethrower. It's got very little fuel, so use it sparingly. Umm, 'kay. 53142 will get you the grenade launcher. Again, you've only got a few grenades, and they're _very_ powerful, so use them only when absolutely necessary. * Rina nods. "53142." 55555 will bring up the sensors. They'll display on the screen right above the keypad. They ignore anything in between you and the limit of the sensors, unless it's a potential target. Generally, that means it's either moving or living. * Rina nods slowly. "Y'know, I'm pretty good with phone numbers, but I don't think I'm gonna remember *all* of this." If you have something to write with, write it down. I wish I'd thought to put in a help function, or better menus, but I didn't. (Rina has nothing to write with.) * Rina checks her pockets. "'Sokay, nobody else's s'posed to use it but you, I bet." Yep. If somebody else has Reason, I'm dead. Luckily, the modes you should be using are the easiest to remember. Phooey. I'll just try to remember it. 55555's sensors, and... um.... 25425 is the machine gun thingie, right? Yep. 44444 will get you the grapnel launcher. It'll launch a grappling hook wherever you've pointed, and reel in the line attached to it. * Rina nods. 33333 will bring up the cutting torch, it's also good for starting fires. * Rina laughs. "That's useful." A breeze blows, bringing with it a sweet smell. * Robert sighs. * Rina sniffs and looks in the direction the breeze came from. 22222 opens up the mini-kitchen, it's got a microwave and a mini-fridge. and 11111 opens up a compartment with a swiss army knife. You thought of everything for that thing. I certainly tried. The trees with fruit are in the direction the breeze came from, as well as the pond. Hey, lookit that. * Rina points. Now, you memorize those numbers, if you can, and I'm gonna try those fruits. What? * Robert starts walking toward the fruit-bearing trees. It's like an oasis! See, there's a pond with water, and... wait for me! * Rina walks after Robert. * Robert puts Reason back in his coat. Robert reaches the nearest tree. The fruit are large; perhaps six inches in diameter. They do smell good. * Robert says a swift prayer and picks a fruit. * Rina walks over to the water and peers into it. * Robert takes a bite of the fruit. The fruit is soft to the touch, and quivers like gelatin when handled. The fruit is very juicy, and tastes exceptionally good. Well, it tastes good, at least. I think I'll call it Jell-O fruit, for now. The water is clear as Rina looks into it. There are a few plants growing in it, as well as some very tiny fish. * Rina laughs. "Grape Jell-O, or lime Jell-O?" (The fruit happens to be purple. o/~) * Rina dips her fingers in and swirls them around. (Butter purple?) (...sure, why not. ^_^) Rina sends ripples into the pond. * Rina splashes some water onto her face, and smooths her hair a bit. "So 's it safe to eat? You're not dead yet, right?" It could be slow acting. * Robert eats the rest of the fruit. * Rina stands and turns to Robert. ("I'm gonne eat a few more, just to be sure. You keep waiting." "...") Nope, not dead yet. (*snerk*) We should probably wait at least an hour. After that, I'll call it safe. I'd prefer to wait a day, but I don't think you want to eat an MRE to tide you over. I'd rather risk poison, thanks. Kids today. No sense of adventure. * Robert grins. Have a seat, and wait an hour. * Rina sticks her tongue out at Robert, but has a seat anyway. * Robert sits down and reclines against a tree. * Rina goes back to swirling her fingers in the water. "Wonder how everyone else's doing." A cloud slowly rises past one of the edges of the cube you're on. It floats merrily over you, going off to rain on some other cube, no doubt. I don't know. Knowing our luck, though, Sayuri and KITT will be on a cube somewhere together. (Unless you guys wanna explore a bit, I'm gonna fast-forward to the end of that hour. I mean, we're still alive, so they're probably still alive, right? +) * Rina laughs. (At the end of the hour... Robert dies! Sure, go ahead. :P) ( Go ahead. ) (An hour passes, and Robert distinctly fails to so much as feel slightly ill.) (so->do) (, er make that "+do". *shoots the Typo Demon for 7 damage*) * Rina listens to her stomach rumble. "It over yet? I'm starving." (Wow, Yu. You're on a roll. ;P) Go for it. * Robert stands up and grabs another Jell-O fruit himself. * Rina grins and hops to her feet, running over to a tree and grabbing a fruit. She sniffs at it, then takes a bite. * Robert tosses Rina a root beer. ( It's nice and cold. ) * Rina blinks and catches it. "Gah!" * Robert proceeds to have one himself, and then fill the half-empty fridge with as many Jell-O fruits as he can fit. Wow, that's good. How'd you wait a whole hour before having another one? Discipline. Robert can fit four of the fruits in. * Rina finishes off her fruit and opens the root beer. "Oh, that thing that Mom kept telling me I need more of." (The fruits are big, so Rina finds herself reasonably full after just one.) * Robert chuckles. (Wow, I find myself full after one? Those must be majick fruits. *nod*) Yeah, you probably could. ( Well, yeah. And they're big, too. :P ) Everybody could, really. Even me. * Rina laughs. "Betcha can have too much, though. Then you start waiting for things that never happen." * Robert grunts. We should start exploring. Keep an eye out for any animals. You never know if something is poisonout. ( poisonous, even. ) * Rina nods and starts drinking root beer. "Okay. But if they make me spill this, they're gonna die, poisonous or not." * Robert grins. I wouldn't blame you. * Robert polishes off his root beer and fills the can with water. * Rina continues drinking root beer and peers out at the lake. "Remind me not to get too close to that magic stuff again. It keeps throwing us into the weirdest places." As said earlier, the cube you're on is roughly half a mile on either side. There is an edge about sixty feet from you, at the moment. I don't like magic much, either. Yeah. I suppose it's got rules, everything does, but I don't know them. and I don't like that. * Rina finishes her root beer and fills the can with water. "Like Geometry, huh?" Pretty much. * Robert walks over to the edge of the cube. * Rina walks after Robert. * Robert peers over the edge of the cube. There are other cubes of assorted sizes, forming what might be a path from your cube to a continent-sized one not far off. The cubes are all twenty to fifty feet apart from each other. ...that's a big cube. * Rina nods and shades her eyes with one hand. "Bet I can jump to the next one." ...don't take the chance. A river flows off of the continent-sized cube, going over it's side in a great hurry to reach whatever is below; in this case, what appears to be the planet's mantle, which glows red down below you. I don't want to know how the hell this world came into existence like this. Um... yeah. and I _definitely_ don't want you falling off. Erm. I don't want me falling off, either. Also below you is a whole other network of cubes similar to the strata you find yourselves on now, although they don't seem so green. You can make out what looks like a battle on one of those cubes. * Rina tries to get a better look at that. "Looks like there's people on this world." The nearest cube in the 'path' is only twenty feet in front of you. * Robert punches 44444 to bring up the grapnel and aims for a sturdy looking tree on the next cube. (The next cube has no trees. Sorry. ^^;) ... ( Any big sturdy boulders, mountains, or rocky projections? ) Each of the cubes in the 'path' have odd contraptions on either end, however. They resemble springboards. What in the world... Rina uses her Niftyvision and can see strange humanoid creatures with long, flexible arms like strands of taffy. They are two groups of them, weilding long, flexible glaives against each other. What is this, a video game>? Jackie would think so. * Rina blinks. "Weird. They're like rubber-band people." Jackie would be able to tell us which video game, too. And how to beat the final boss with the beginning weapon. ...I don't want to know. Well, they are! They're using... um... look like cleavers. Let's make a point of not going down there, then. Yeah. Didja find a way off of this thing? Well, there's that contraption there, there seems to be one board on each cube side. I'm not sure how to use it, though. * Rina nods and judges the distance. "I still say I can jump to the other one. I've jumped a hundred feet or somethin' up before, back at Tokyo Tower." Why does that not surprise me? * Rina grins at Robert. And Margie rode piggy-back! * Robert snerks. Hard. Okay, okay. Just... take this rope, willya? Just in case? Eh? All right. * Robert unwinds a the grapnel and a length of cord and offers it to Rina. * Rina takes the rope. (o/~) * Rina smiles cheerfully. "Gonna give it a try. Back in a bit." She turns and jumps for the next cube. * Robert holds his breath and tries not to have a heart attack. Rina misses te next cube entirely. She lands on the one after it instead. * Rina blinks. "Oops. * Robert blinks. Lord almighty. * Rina waves back at Robert. "Hi!" ^^ How the hell am I gonna keep up with you, girl? Would it be too soon to say I told you so? * Rina jumps back. That's great, now how do _I_ get over there? Easy. I carry ya. ... ... ... * Rina smiles sweetly., Let it never be said that I'm afraid to try insane ideas. It's not insane! I've carried Margie, and Sayuri, actually Sayuri and Shiori at the same time once... * Rina considers. "Oh well. Anyway, I can do it. Really." If you say so. Let's get this over with. ( ...I can't believe he's going along with this. ) * Rina snickers and picks Robert up. "No complaining about the airline food." She jumps. (If he didn't, Rina'd just have picked him up and did it anyway. :P) Rina makes it to cube after next easily. * Rina sets Robert down. See? That wasn't so bad. ... This cube is small; twenty feet to a side. The springboards, on closer inspection, are more like wedges. They have strange writing on them that you don't understand. * Rina grins madly at the expression on Robert's face. Let's just get going. * Robert walks over to the next jump. * Rina laughs and walks over to the next edge. * Rina judges the distance to the next cube or two. "Ready?" ...yes. * Rina picks Robert up again and jumps. ( Unless we find something interesting, we'll probably keep going like this until Rina is too tired to keep going. ) Rina makes three cubes this time, leaving eight more between you and the continent cube. (Sliptime, then?) (Sure. ^_^) ( I think so. ) You reach the continent cube in good time. Rina isn't so much as winded by the experience. You find yourself on a bueish cobblestone road leading off over some winding hills and eventually to a city with a harbor. Ships sail from th harbor, going over the edge of the cube and floating through the air towards who knows where. (blueish, even.) * Rina taps the road with the toe of her shoe. "Y'know, this reminds me of... um... some old American movie we rented a while back..." ...really? ( It does? ) Yeah, something about wizards and forests and ending up in... well, we didn't have a tornado, at least. ( well, it reminds me of a combination of two places from the Planescape campaign, so I suppose it could remind her of a movie. ) ... We are _not_ in Oz, young lady. Aww, are you sure? Quite. * Rina stomps her foot. "Drat. And here I was looking for red shoes back to Kansas. Even though we didn't start out in Kansas." Besides, the bricks are supposed to be _yellow_, not blue. Oh, well I guess we could get some paint and fix that. * Robert blinks twice. * Robert gives up and starts following the blue brick road. * Rina hums to herself and follows Robert o/~ The road winds itself merrily along. A few more fruit-trees are found here and there, and some of their fruits are different colors. A vaguely humanoid man with ornate clothing and the head of a lizard walks by you, not seeming to notice you. He's whistling, and can apparently whistle two parts at once, because he's doing so. * Rina points out the trees. "Grape Jell-O fruit, cherry Jell-O fruit, peach Jell-O fruit..." ...interesting. Well, at least we apparently don't stand out here. Nope! That guy didn't look like the rubber-band people I saw before. Maybe this is where everyone gets thrown when two really powerful wizards clash in secret organization base thingies. The city comes into view ahead of you. It consists of tall, shimmering spires. The ships are graceful and elegant, except for one smallish one that stands out rather roughly amongst them. It looks kind of familiar. * Rina blinks at the smallish one. ... Does that ship look familiar to you? Yeah. * Rina tries to get a better look. Let's check it out. * Rina nods. After a few more minutes of walking, you can make out the shape of the ship; it looks like a van, albeit with long tubes affixed to it by short, almost wing-like extensions. The tubes have something red and glowing at the front end. ( ...KITT with Warp Nacelles! I like it! ) ... That KITT? I... It might just be. I don't want to know where he got warp nacelles from, though. Well, at least *I* didn't get funny tubes attached to me. * Rina shrugs. Let's go see if it's really him. * Rina nods and makes her way over there. * Robert follows. ... wait. * Robert slaps his forehead. * Robert reaches into his coat and pulls out a walkie talkie. * Rina blinks and turns to look at Robert. "What?" * Robert pushes the transmit button and says, "KITT, do you read?" KITT's voice comes back over the radio. "Yeah, I read. 'Bout time you showed up!" * Rina laughs. You have no idea how happy we are to see you. Are any of the others with you? "Nope. Just me. I can get you out of here, tho, and I have instructions from some creepy tall chick on how to find the rest of you shmucks. Although I think I'll just leave Margie where she is..." Well, at least you've got directions. Where'd you get the warp nacelles? "Oh, yeah. And I've been here for three days. So get over here and pay my dock fees!" Wait, dock fees? Do we even have money to do that? How the hell am I supposed to pay your bloody dock fees? I don't have any money! Unless these guys take credits, or yen. "Hell, I dunno. Pay them in interesting trinkets, or something." Or something, indeed. So how much are the dock fees, or did you even bother finding out? Near the docks you see an open-air market. People of all kinds are bartering there. "They're thirty 'thrones'. That's what these people al their money." What, we're s'posed to bring them chairs or something? ...time to see if we have anything they want. Come on. * Robert starts off into the market. You reach the market soon enough. People are hawking all manner of things, including several types of food, all of which smells bad. Ugh. Why're they selling that stuff with the Jell-O fruit only a few feet away? ( What's the tech level? ) I'm not going to speculate. (Tech level is early industrial age at the best. You hear a few people throwing around words like 'magic' and 'enchanted', oddly enough.) ...great. What the hell do I have that I can sell? * Robert ponders. * Rina wrinkles her nose. "Well, all I've got on me is this cell phone." It's too far beyond their tech level, I doubt it'll have the cellular network necessary to work. Are you getting service on it? A large one-eyed fellow nearby is hawking what he claims is the best food in some kingdom or other. It smells like engine grease. * Rina takes out the cell phone and tries turning it on. You know... * Robert cackles. * Robert approaches one of the vendors. The man with one eye looks up at Robert as he approaches. "Yes, m'lord, what can I do for you today? I have something I'd like you to try, a new food. * Robert reaches into his coat and pulls out an MRE. The being eyes Robert incredulously. "Oh?" * Rina grins and puts the cell phone away. The being looks at the MRE. "...what is it, exactly?" * Robert opens it up and offers him some of the food inside. * Rina walks up to the stand. It's portable rations, basically. They'll keep forever, and taste great. The cyclops takes a sniff and his eyebrow goes up. He reaches for an odd utensil that looks somewhat like a scythe and reaches into the MRE, pulling out a bit of... something, and putting it in his mouth. He chews thoughtfully for a moment, and his eye goes all sparkly as he begins sniffling. "This..." "This... this is the best food I have ever had the honor of consuming!" * Robert grins. * Rina bites her lip to keep from laughing. And when I say it'll keep forever, I mean forever. He takes another bite, relishing the flavor, not bothering to keep a look of ecstatic bliss off of his features. These packaged meals have lasted for hundreds of years, and are still as good as the day they were made. "Do you have more?" I have a few, yes. Do you have enough money to buy them? "I... I will five you ninety Thrones for each! How many do you have?" Unfortunately, I only have eight available. I'm willing to part with them all, however, for the generous price of only a hundred thrones each. * Robert whispers to Rina, "Run back to KITT and ask him to open the MRE reserves for you. Grab six and bring them back." * Rina nods and runs off towards KITT. * Rina runs back with an armful of MREs. "Got 'em!" The being continues to eat the MRE as he fishes out some money. The currency here appears to be small, clear marbles with what look like tiny golden chairs in them. The being notices Rina's stack of MREs and his eye emits a river of happy tears. "Oh, glorious day!" * Robert pulls out two more from his cloak and adds them to the stack. "Here, I have enough for all of them!" He hands Robert a large, heavy bag that he had been putting the little marbles into." * Rina deposits the stack on the counter. * Robert makes a show of looking into the bag. "It's all there, sir, I assure you!" Thank you very much, kind sir. It's been a good day doing business with you. The being takes the MREs and puts them away somewhere. "No, thank *you*!" * Robert pockets the bag of thrones in his coat. Well, come along, Rina. * Rina grins at the cyclops and starts walking back towards KITT. "Well, some people have weird taste in food." I'm comin', I'm comin'. Hold up. We've got far more than we need, so let's go shopping. * Rina turns. "Oh yeah. Do ya think we're gonna need more than thirty later?" I'll probably keep a hundred thrones or so back, but that still leaves seven hundred to spend. There are people all around hawking nearly everything imagineable. A very short fellow with a grizzled beard is nearby selling swords, shields, and other weapons. Let's go see what that can get us. * Rina nods with a grin. "Okay." (::think:: You want to actually RP the shopping, or shall I just give you free levels of Personal Gear for you to do stuff with?) * Robert looks around to see if magical good are at all common. * Rina looks through the market for anything that particularly catches her eye. ( Up to you two. I have to start Zodiak in about fifty minutes, though. ) Magical goods do seem fairly common. (You can just give us free levels, I guess. You'd need to give us guidelines on what we can and can't get, natch.) ( Yah. ) (Naturally.) ( Definitely give us guidelines. I'm willing to spend up to 770, but I'll probably keep an extra 70 back JIC, so whatever we can get with 700 Thrones. ) (Okay. You go shopping, and then hop in KITT, who takes off and starts warping reality around you.) [END SESSION.]