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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Still nothing.

Or... maybe there was a twitch?

Or maybe that was just from her shaking him?

[thewunderkind]

Right! So this would be the part where she panics and does something--

PUNCH.

She hit the top side with her fist, her features betraying the worrying look creeping up on her. Maybe that would wake him up.

[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]

The Overlord slowly cracked one eye open, a general sense of animation and life returning to the book as he did so. After a moment, the other one followed, and then (doubtless to Lash's relief), much of the weight of the tome seemed to vanish as the natural mana power took over the duty of causing it to float.

"...What up, Lash?" Zetta said, a little confused.

[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.

[thewunderkind]

No way was Lash relieved. It's not like she cared or anything! (althuoght take note; violence did solve everything) She let him go and crossed her arms, pouting.

"You did it again! You were on the ground near the Mess Hall!"

[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.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Did what again?" Zetta grumbled, still not entirely with it -- or really even aware of where he was, or that he wasn't with it yet.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta cracked an eye open. And promptly got water in it.

THAT woke him up. With something of a horrified cry, the book began flopping about violently.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Oops. Well, at least he was up now, right? Even if she did feel bad about it.

"Zetta? What were you doing here?" She asked, picking him up and drawing the water back with her fingers.

[thewunderkind]

She pointed to the floor, like that would somehow help him understand.

"Y-you were out cold!" She explained, "Just like when you were floating in space! I had to hit you a couple of times to wake you up before you even started to move around." Okay she might have looked even more worried now, as much as she was trying to hide it.

"Maybe we should take you to medical."

[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.

[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

[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]

"What the hell was with the splashing?!" the book demanded, this of course being obviously much more important than anything Kaya was asking.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I'm fine!" Zetta insisted reflexively. Lash's insistence on taking him to Medical had pretty much shut down any possible comprehension of the problem, since now she was implying he was SICK or something. And obviously that could not be.