trans_9 | Avenues That Reek of Time to Kill [Closed]

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Avenues That Reek of Time to Kill [Closed]

Howard made sure they arrive to Med Bay early, not just because he doesn't want to be late but because if he impresses on Orc to hurry up, Orc might not have time to get completely smashed before they do this thing. Howard would rather not deal with blackout-drunk Orc, but at the same time he doesn't want Orc sober enough to be obstinate or miserable, so they did a stop at the beer tree before coming here.

He invited Barbara and Ian because they were very game for the food excursion, despite is propensity for total revulsion. He invited Anwei because he wants to be close with her again, at least, as close as he gets to people who aren't Orc. And because she brings a new perspective to Stacy, one that's been proven to be more viable than he presumed.

He wanders through the hospital beds and sets up the coffee pot. No reason not to go into a brand spanking new adventure caffeinated. The Medical Bay is large enough that meeting here doesn't even register on the people working actual shifts.

"You want coffee?" He fills up a mug for himself and glances over at Orc. He hopes they aren't waiting long enough for Orc to get impatient or lose interest.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Orc was currently resentful that Howard had sent him on his own. He hadn't intended on doing any real thinking on this mission. But at least these two adults seemed smart.

But then one asked his opinion and he had to think of something to say...

"...I think we should walk stright and turn around so we don't get lost." He said after a pause between her asking and him answering. He instantly regretted it because he was sure it betrayed how young he really was to have something so simple pop out of his mouth.

Ian was worried about how much Orc had had to drink and how much use he was for anything other than brute strength. But he wasn't about to let Orc doubt himself. So he smiled and clapped Orc on the back. "I agree," he said, although he wasn't sure Orc had answered the question Anwei had asked, and he was ignoring half of Orc's answer. "We should take the simplest path. How much string have you got?" he asked Anwei. "If we come to a fork we don't want to get lost."

The path doesn't fork, but it does come to a large round chamber with something wet and gooey at the bottom. The top of the chamber arches up high. A tendril of something extends from the ceiling, holding what looks like a little Gameboy. The walls are some strange combination of flesh and earth, and small plants appear to be growing out of the side. A few have even flowered, and glow in the dim light, plants surviving against the odds and absence of sunshine.

More tunnels branch off from this chamber, but only one is large enough for anything besides a common housecat.

"The simplest plan is usually the best. Considering the way that Stacy's passages can twist and turn around..."

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the string; it is fluffy blue with some stretch in it, bundled around a faded cardboard core. "It used to have," she squints at the bottom of the core, "twenty-five rods, however much that is? It's at least several hundred feet."

She stops at the sight of the chamber, eying that wet soft-looking floor. "Watch your step, Orc," she said; she didn't know how heavy he was, but she didn't fancy him sinking into Stacy's substance either.

Orc didn't watch his step, because he was more curious about the item hanging from the ceiling. He trudged over feeling his weight sink into the wet gooey floor and reached out trying to reach for it.

It was like a nature documentary, and he was the big gravel covered gorilla going for a low hanging fruit.

"That ought to be plenty," Ian said, just before he stepped into the chamber.

"I wonder where this lot came from." Given the choice he would fig into the earth in the walls, but they haven't brought a shovel, so he settles for touching the flowers. He pulled the leaf off one, so he could take it back and identify it later.

The little gameboy thing has six buttons: Y, N, 1, 0, On/Off, and Restart. The screen reads DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? if Orc looks at it. Orc will sink a few inches into the ground, but otherwise the ground seems sturdy enough. Ian's leaf shrivels up and crumbles as soon as he plucks it.

Anwei stepped forward tentatively, testing the wet ground with each step. This didn't look like anything else she'd seen in Stacy, but it also didn't look like something unfinished, or the result of damage. So why this oddly dry-musty air and glowing flowers?

"Careful of that, Orc," she said automatically. "If Stacy tries pulling that away, don't fight her for it." Because who knows what sort of alarm that might set off.

Orc heard her though he didn't acknowledge her. He was for a moment thinking back to the very first gameboy he had ever stolen from another kid. It was a cool little thing. Maybe this one had a game too?

He gingerly tapped at the buttons with an extended stone finger, afraid of breaking it but curious as to what would happen.

It started as a pain in his chest. A sort of stabbing deep inside his stone covered chest. A ringing in his barely visible ears.

Temperature had never really bothered Orc one was or the other. He found his stone skin absorbed temperature well. But now the cold was coming from the inside. He felt weak, woozy. The world got hazy and dark.

The impact of Orc falling over was several tons of dead weight.

Ian was frowning at the leaf and then brushing the crumbs from his hands when Orc fell. "Orc!" He rushed over, but it was hard to work out if he had a pulse. Or what it was supposed to be under normal circumstances. "What happened?" he asked Anwei, hoping she'd seen something. One minute Orc had been poking at something hanging from the ceiling, the next he'd fallen and Ian had missed what had gone on in between.

She threw herself against Orc's side, feet slipping in the ooze, trying to roll him over and failing. She shoved again - and thought she could see something under his side.

"He took something like a little control panel," she panted. "Tapped it. Can you reach it?"

She grabbed Orc's arm with both hands and lifted, feet squishing in the ooze, joints creaking in protest, and her teeth bared back to her ears. She was not going to see Howard's best friend die in front of her. She wasn't. She couldn't let that happen.

The little gameboy thing now displays 'GAME OVER', and while trapped under Orc's heavy arm, is reachable.

[OOC: permissions vis a vis Al to skip Orc until he's conscious again.]

Anwei had lifted Orc's arm just enough for Ian to pull it out from under him. "'Game over'," Ian read, with a frown. "What game, I wonder?" Having never seen anything like a gameboy in his life, Ian didn't understand the thing at all. But it didn't stop him from pressing all the buttons.

It took a few buttons before Orc's body seized and shuddered to life coughing and gagging as his heart sprang to life and his body tried to compensate for the sudden start and stop.

"Wha...huh?" He wheezed slumping to the floor.

Anwei had been about to shout "Don't touch any of the buttons!" when Ian just went ahead and - and pressed them. Orc shook against her hands; she drew back and looked at his eyes blinking far back in his stone-blistered face.

Her next impulse (since her first impulse to drag Orc back to Med Bay clearly was not going to need to be obeyed) was to take the whatever-it-was away and hide it. It made no sense, no sense at all, that such a dangerous thing would be left where anyone could grab it!

But then again, when did anything on Stacy make any sense?

"Orc, you fell over. I don't know why. Ian, please do not touch any more of those buttons." She looked up at him, all pleading eyes (and just the edges of her teeth showing). "Please."

Ian gave a sigh of relief at Orc speaking. "I won't," he promised Anwei. He kept hold of the thing, just in case. "Are you all right?" he asked Orc, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Orc was wheezing, he felt overheated and dizzy unable to rise to his knees. "I got close that time." He rasped his eyes watering and quickly getting lost in his gravel face.

"Keep still, get your breath back," Anwei urged him, kneeling in the muck with her hand on his shoulder. She wondered how much oxygen he needed to keep moving around, carrying that stony body. More than normal, certainly. Hopefully the rocks didn't need to breathe too.

"What did you get close to? Did you see something when you touched the box?"

From the other tunnel, should they choose to follow it, a humid breeze gusts in - and the sound of chimes.

Ian was worried about that, but wasn't about to let Orc show it. That just touching something so small could do that to him was concerning. "It said 'Game Over' when I picked it up," Ian said.

Orc nodded gently his shoulders slumping with obvious disappointment.

"I saw a light. Couldn't have been Heaven though..." He muttered trying to sit up and rub at his chest. Everything just...stopped. I got cold and weak..."

How could he have been so close to ending this miserable existence only to be brought back? Was life really so unfair that it wouldn't let him quit early? It wouldn't have even counted as suicide would it? More like an accident.

Anwei patted at her pockets, but she didn't have anything that she could use to hold the box and keep from touching any buttons. "Game Over. I wonder if it really is some sort of grisly game for people. I'd suggest holding on to it - carefully."

She couldn't really offer a hand to help Orc up, so she had to settle for keeping contact with his shoulder, waiting for his to move on his own time. "You never know. Maybe service to Stacy gets you a free ticket to Heaven," she joked - and then cocked her head.

"Do you hear something?"

Now they were quiet and listening he could hear chimes. "I do." He walked around the area they were in. "It's coming from down here." He indicated the tunnel. Given the breeze he wondered what else was down there. "You up for some more exploring?" Ian asked them both.

Orc grunted, his limbs still felt heavy and numb but he got to his feet and wheezed before straightening up. "If you want." He agreed without much interest either way.

She leaned her face into the breeze, feeling the humidity; at least this wasn't some special dry zone they had opened.

"I'm game," she turned her attention to Orc, "but please tell us if you start to feel bad, Orc. We can turn back whenever you want."

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