In Which the Overlord is No Longer Home [Open]

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Right outside the gate device on the Obs Deck, quite inconveniently located for people with a tendency to trip over such things, lay a large tome.

On the front cover, a face sat rigidly immobile. Eyes shut, mouth frozen, it might as well have been simply drawn on for all that it showed no reactivity to the environment or external stimuli.

To those who know the Overlord, well, that book was indeed the Sacred Tome. But was it still Zetta? For all intents and purposes, the Overlord appeared to have checked out.

[Just the start of a little plot. Respondents are encouraged to thread in pairs, because the book won't be responding no matter what you do.]

Comments

[kaya_waterwave]

Depression? More than a little, yes. Kaya had returned from a mission that had changed her pretty badly, only to find out that Beastboy and Eva had been podded. Her heart was honestly tired of feeling things, and as much as she cared about them both, knew all too well what finding out something like this had the potential to do to her.

For now, she could at least rejoice in the things she did have, and, seeing the big tome, would at least like to speak with the Overlord.

"Zetta? Are you sleeping?"

[crazypsychic]

Sabrina, much like Kaya had been saddened when a sknown companion had been repodded. In her case: Ash Ketchum who was from her own world. Searching both psychically and physically for the young teenager had proved fruitless. As much as she didn't want to admit it: he was gone. Spying a seemingly silent Overlord Zetta, and a girl nearby she forced a smile.

"Greetings."

[kaya_waterwave]

No response from him, and that was something she was definitely not used to. It was Zetta after all, and it wasn't like him to be quiet, or at least be belittling her for being depressed yet again for not allowing the latest batch of disappearances to get her down. Eva had been like a mother, and Beastboy like a wild and crazy brother in crime. Their loss was pretty biting.

And then she looked up at the striking girl with the dark hair and smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Oh, hi! I must look pretty silly, talking to something that's not talking back! Did you need to talk to Zetta too?"

[expendable_mind]

Obs Deck was usually a rather dull and boring location, but something about the lack of life within it made it sort of comforting? Like a dauntless void that swallowed your thoughts as you tried to make the best of things wondering what lied beyond the bleed.

This time however, there was something, or rather someone taking some time off in the area... This was one of the few times he'd ever encountered the Overlord made book by themselves and even weirder, very quiet. In fact, it looked like he was completely out of it.

Splicer walked over and leaned against the nearest wall, taking a moment to nudge the tome with his book.

"Yo, dude, this really isn't the best place to grab some Z's yanno? Won't you get like, bookworms or something like that?"

[starbolts]

"If he is sleeping, it is fairly simple to wake him."

Starfire promptly walked away, leaving this unexplained for a few minutes. When she returned, she was carrying a hodgepodge of any spices she could find.

"It is time to wake up, Zetta," she said softly, pouring the peppers and powders over the book. They had not spoken in a long time, but her fondness for the arrogant overlord remained. And when he did not awaken, she looked helplessly up at her friend.

"Where are his minions?"

[expendable_mind]

Splicer remained speechless for a few moments wondering what Star had meant. After a while he simply lit up a cig while he waited for her, nudging the overlord every now and then to see if he'd at least... well blink since a book probably didn't stir in it's sleep.

When she returned, he looked at what she was doing with interest, smirking a little amused at the sight of the overlord-turned-book now with a small mountain of spices on it's cover.

At the inquiry, Splicer gave a small shrug. "No idea beautiful, I found him like this when I got here. Hasn't moved an inch since."

[starbolts]

Starfire blinked, running a finger along the spine of the book in concern. Surely he'd wake up and yell at her then?

When he didn't, she stood once more.

"This is most unusual. He is not a heavy sleeper---he cannot avoid making his voice heard for very long. Is he ill?"

[expendable_mind]

"'Fraid I'm not the best to diagnose his illnesses if he's even capable of getting any sweetheart." Splicer crossed his arms and let out a small frustrated breath.

"But I really hate not knowing what's going on, and without his minions around, either we wait till he turns around, or we just leave him in case it's just some sort of weird, silent protest..." Which just sounded weird enough coming from a book.

[ruffntumblenut]

And one such person who trips over things easily is Ruffnut.

WHAM! She trips over her most respected and often mocked teacher and falls flat on her face. Way to go Viking warrior.

[moms_temperment]

Cue Hana walking in to see two badasses totally owned by the floor. And it's hilarious.

Begin laughter.

"Hahahahaha!!

[ruffntumblenut]

"Stupid floor." Ruffnut growled slamming a fist to the floor for absolutely 0 damage. She sat up rubbing her nose. "Ah shaddup you!" She retaliated by picking up the familiar tomb and hurling it at Hana in defense of her wounded pride.

[moms_temperment]

Hana reached up to catch the book, his wrists cracking in protest because Ruffnut had a mean throwing arm, but he just grinned.

"Wait 'till I tell Mindy you got your butt kicked by the ground."

[ruffntumblenut]

"Yeah like it would be the first time." Ruff rolled her eyes and stood up dusting herself off. "Hey wait, I recognize that cover. Zetta the hell are you doing on the floor?" She roared instantly transferring her humiliation to indignation.

[moms_temperment]

Hana blinked in confustion and looked at the book in his hands. He chuckled at the funny face on the cover.

"He's totally out of it." Hana turns the book around so Ruffnut can see.

[ruffntumblenut]

Ruffnut examined him and a realization dawned on her face. "Aw man not this crap again. Zetta!" She shouted directly in his face. "OVERLORD ZETTA IS THE BIGGEST DORK IN THE MULTIVERSE AND HIS STATS ARE ALL SINGLE DIGITS!" She roared trying to get him to snap out of it.

"He pulled this crap on Mindy and me awhile ago. Went all..." She tried to mimic the expression the book was making. "It's like he's dead or something and when he wakes up he doesn't remember anything. He didn't even believe us. The jerk."

[moms_temperment]

Hana just stared at her for awhile before chuckling. "That looked even dumber on your face."

[ruffntumblenut]

"Better then your face looks most the time." She took the book from him and began thumbing through pages. "Useless. Totally. And his minions just blank out when this sorta thing happens." You could practically see the smoke leaking out of her ears as she struggled to solve this problem.

[moms_temperment]

"Shut up, ugly mug." Hana pouted, snatching her helmet off her to plonk it on his head while she struggled with her mentor. "So, whatcha gonna do?"

[ruffntumblenut]

"I dunno." She mumbled flailing a fist halfheartedly when he stole her helmet. "Can you even sense his soul or whatever or is he just like...a book right now?" Then her eyes boggled "Oh shit! What if his soul fell out!? You know that thing Gladys is supposed to keep from happening?" She pointed in a random direction indicating GLADoS who was not around.

[moms_temperment]

"Well, not much." He shrugs. "But if it's happened before maybe he's just putting it somewhere else?" Hana seems unfazed by all this soul drifting. "He probably gets bored possessing a book all the time, or his soul looks for something more compatible, I dunno, I've never looked at it too closely."

[ruffntumblenut]

"But it's not like that." Ruff insisted apparently starting to finally take this issue seriously where the time before it had been Mindy who was obsessing. "His soul's supposed to be like...trapped there. He can't leave on his own."

She tucked him under her arm. "I guess all we can do is keep him safe. Maybe head back to his castle and see if Lash is around. She's smart she might figure something out."

[moms_temperment]

"I dunno, he's your mentor, shouldn't you know?"

Hana shrugged. "Whatever you wanna do."

[hit_girl_mindy]

Here, at this point, limped the girl who usually was on top of things. Walking toward the two, she smacked the helmet off Hana's head and put it on her own, albeit slower than usual, and looking a little paler.

"Ruff, what are you doing with the Overlord?"

[ruffntumblenut]

"Man shut up." She slugged Hana in the shoulder with a smile "You know I don't know anything."

And just as Ruffnut was about to complain about Mindy not being around to be the voice or reason...

"What in Thor's name are you doing out of bed?" She turned on her girlfriend baffled and frustrated as the confusion mounted.

[moms_temperment]

"Everyone knows you don't know anything." Hana teased back, taking the hit.

Hana blinked in confusion at having the helmet stolen and pouted at Mindy. "Hey!"

Then he smiled and put his arm around her for a rough, one armed hug. "Did they let out out, Mindy? I told you you were indestructible."

Noticing his friend's anger he glanced back and forth between the two. "Errr..."

[hit_girl_mindy]

"Don't 'hey' me squirt, I just stole it back!"

In fact, she was now gonna put it on her head, and though she winced slightly at the hug (still a bit tender) she was smiling too.

"I'm not fucking feeling like I'm gonna melt is what! I promised Morgan I wasn't gonna overexert myself. I didn't say I was gonna be laid up like some freak. Do you know how boring it is, staying in a place doing nothing all day?"

[ruffntumblenut]

"You weren't doing nothing you were healing." Ruffnut argued though they all knew she probably would have done the same thing.

"Anyway the Overlord is broken again so I was gonna see if Lash knew what to do." she held up the book upside down.