In Which the Overlord is Flat On His Face

[badassfreakingoverlord]

It's going to be one of those days.

In the hallway directly outside the mess hall lay a book. The bright red body and overall size clearly pointed to it being the Overlord, for those familiar with him, but his back cover was the one facing upwards. No sign of any minion around. None of the cursing, struggling, and flopping one would expect from Zetta in such an undignified posture.

Just a tome, lying flat on the ground, as if a crew member had simply discarded it thoughtlessly.

Comments

[black-hawke.livejournal.com]

Hawke liked books. There was nothing quite like kicking back with a cup of coffee and delving into a giant, heavy, (really boring) academic tome. Since arriving on the ship, he'd spent a fair amount of time in the media library, trying to absorb knowledge from the many different worlds assembled together on the ship.

He also knew that Zetta was a book, though having only encountered the Overlord in the Sensoriums, wasn't quite making the connection between the book on the ground and the man he'd met when he first arrived on Stacy.

All he saw was a book lying on the floor where it shouldn't have been. Curiosity, of course, compelled him to pick it up.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

And there's a horrible face on the front of the book!

..which was motionless and silent. Not even sleeping, simply shut-eyed. The book appeared to have no awareness of its surroundings.

[black-hawke.livejournal.com]

Well, Hawke had seen weirder. He certainly knew not to judge a book by its cover (haha) anyway.

Only one way to find out what the deal was, of course, and that was to open the book and see what was inside.

Hawke was gonna read the shit out of Zetta

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Good luck with that, Hawke; the Sacred Tome had infinite pages. And thanks to its destruction at the hands of someone who most definitely was not Zetta doing something really dumb, most of those pages were empty.

But a few moments after Hawke cracked the book open, it began to stir.

[black-hawke.livejournal.com]

Curiouser and curiouser.

Determined to find something written inside this book, Hawke began to rapidly flip pages until he felt the thing move underneath his hands.

Which, of course, only prompted him to drop it.

[thewunderkind]

First message out was as such;
"Hey Zetta, I'm having a problem with Dog, you wanna come see over? He's surrounded himself in a cocoon and it's really weird."

When the Overlord didn't reply a few minutes later she sent in another one.
"Hey you there?"

A few minutes later.
"Fine I'll just figure it out for myself!"

About an hour later, she sent out another one.
"Uh you okay?"

After that one was unanswered, she went out in the city and his castle to look for him.

"Where did he go..."

She might have been. Just. A bit. Worried. Maybe. No emotional attachment and so on.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Well, he's not going anywhere...

[thewunderkind]

It took a while, but red books were eventually found him near the mess hall. The fact he wasn't moving felt like a trick or a trap so Lash's first instinct was to poke him with her finger.

"Hey! Wake up, sleepy head."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

No response.

Been a while since THAT happened, huh, Lash?

[thewunderkind]

Since she totally didn't rescue him outside the hanger because she didn't care, that's for sure. She took the book from the floor, thankful for her Ranger Training because Zetta was a fatty a pretty heavy book when he wasn't powered by magic.

"HEY!" This time she shook him a lot more violently. Or at least tried, considering his size.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Kaya was humming happily to herself, fixing herself an unsatisfying bowl of gloop before settling own to eat, when she notices that a certain book is lying on the ground here. She became curious, of course considering a book lying around on the floor was a big deal.

And upon further inspection, she saw that it was a book she knew.

"Overlord Zetta?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

No answer. No movement. No nothing.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

That was just disturbing. Disturbing enough that Kaya decided to wake him up her way.

Opening up her pouch, she aimed a concentrated bit of water from her pouch at his his and let loose. Hopefully that would do the trick.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Just a 'bit'?

Not nearly enough.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Ok, now you forced her to be a little less nice.

The "concentrated bit" just got colder, and this time went all over the book instead of just his face.

[not_the_philistine]

There's no reason a book should be lying out in the open when Goliath has a perfectly good library to store it in - at least until he figures out who its owner is, and whether or not they want it back.

He picks up the book, turning it over to see the cover.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Behold! The cover has a face!

The face is utterly motionless, though. Zetta didn't appear to even be sleeping, just inanimate. On the other hand, Zetta could sleep through being on fire for a while, so maybe he just slept really deeply?

[not_the_philistine]

Curious.

Goliath flips the book open, looking for at least a title.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Not really much of one, it must be admitted. Most of the pages he looked at are blank, though some have writing in a strange demonic language. Of course, since the book had infinite pages, actually trying to piece useful information out of it might be tricky.

But being opened was causing the book to stir.

[not_the_philistine]

Goliath flipped the book shut. His knowledge of strange demonic languages was limited, but this hardly looked like something to leave lying around where any civilian crew member might find it. At least he could keep it safe in the library until its rightful owner was found.

[nokosi.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, there's a book just laying in the hallway. Well he was getting pretty good at that whole 'reading' thing, so what better time than now to crack open a book?

Nokosi plopped down on the floor, crossed his legs and reached for the tome. The size and color looked incredibly familiar already, but once he felt the weight of the book in his hands, he knew why that was.

It was his fellow Overlord pal, Zetta!

The elf quickly flipped the book to its front to give his good, old friend a cheery greeting.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Good luck with that! Because the face on the front was motionless. Not asleep, but downright inanimate.

[nokosi.livejournal.com]

A small frown curved on his lips. This would not do.

"Friend?" he called out, holding the book to his face.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Nnnope. That wouldn't be nearly enough to get a response, it seemed.

[nokosi.livejournal.com]

Huh. Maybe it required some sort of activation like other magical items, did.

Nokosi sat the Overlord in his lap and performed a series of tests that included, poking, prodding and buffing whatever that shiny gem on the cover was, speaking ridiculous phrases (which all of them included the words 'badass' and 'freaking') and forcefully trying to pry open the eyes and mouth on the cover with his fingers.