Quick note: John G. ("Seanchai") joins the game in progress. He had been a lurker up to this point. ---------- From: Paul, Brett To: Seanchai The light comes to you. You've heard about it from somewhere (but at the moment, your mind freezes, and you cannot think where you may have heard about it). The glowing sphere vibrates, and an eerie, disembodied voice emits from it. "John -- you have been chosen. Prepare for your journey. I will return by moonrise and you will be taken." - Brett ---------- From: Seanchai To: Paul, Brett My body sings with adrenaline and my consciousness with questions. What is the sphere? A ghost? An alien construct? Something of the occult? And why moonrise? It seems to lend credence to the idea that the sphere is something of magickal nature, but, pacing in front of the forgotten computer, I can't rule out the other possibilities. Finally I decide to stop speculating and actually prepare for the sphere's return. I decide to fill my black duffel with whatever I can. I pack a change of clothing and pick out a few of my stones to take with me: the small dark one I am fond of, the tiger's eye, a piece of hematite, the flat fossilized shell, and the red and green eggs of heavy stone. Then I root through my father's sock drawer for one of his large combat knifes, one with a compass in the handle and a hollow section which I fill with matches. I think about bringing some books with me, but discard the idea as impractical. I put on my winter coat. Sitting on the stuffed duffel, I wait for the sphere to reappear... John ---------- From: Paul, Brett To: Seanchai >Finally I decide to stop speculating and actually prepare for the sphere's return. I decide to fill my black duffel with whatever I can. How big is the black duffel? >Sitting on the stuffed duffel, I wait for the sphere to reappear... While you are sitting there, you have some time to think. Looking around your room, you see books, paper, the computer, your bed and its pillow, furniture. You also look towards the rest of the house. You know the time is approaching, but you've got at least an hour to kill. "What else would I need... what else would be practical...," you think to yourself. "I've got a little time, anyway." You are still a bit wired (weird?) from seeing the strange floating, glowing object. In the back of your mind, you register that your stomach rumbles faintly. - Brett ---------- From: Seanchai To: Paul, Brett >>How big is the black duffel?<< It's the one I bring my game stuff in with me on the weekends. >> you register that your stomach rumbles faintly.<< I'll have some more tacos, about three. John ---------- From: Paul, Brett To: Seanchai >>How big is the black duffel?<< >It's the one I bring my game stuff in with me on the weekends. Oh, that one. >> you register that your stomach rumbles faintly.<< >I'll have some more tacos, about three. Ok. Shouldn't be a problem. :) It's dark outside, and has been rather quiet. You see a faint glimmer of light outside. Moonlight. A car drives nearby. You hear its engine winding up as it accelerates. Suddenly, you hear the screeching of tires, and the impact as the car hits a nearby tree. The lights go out! The car must have cut the power off to your house! You go to look outside, and pause in thought. You grab your duffel bag before looking. Outside, the world is light. You look up to see the sphere that visited you earlier in the day as it floats through the sky towards you. It seems to be floating almost casually, weaving back and forth, up and down, in a sort of odd, almost hypnotic pattern. Its descent increases in speed, and its weaving ceases as it turns into a white blur rocketing straight towards you. You momentarily hear a scream of whistling air as it approaches. Reflexively, you close your eyes and brace yourself for impact, but none comes. Slowly, hesitatingly, you reopen your eyes, and find yourself inside a sphere of light! Your bag is with you as you feel the sphere moving around, floating you inside it. As your eyes adjust to the light level, you look around, and experience the sensation that you are in flight within the sphere! Below you, you see only water, passing beneath your feet quickly. Ahead of you, you see a lighthouse with an odd black diamond pattern on it. The lighthouse is on the north end of a small island, on which you see other spheres that appear to be landing on the island. The sphere that you are in seems to have disappeared, giving you a momentary feeling of free-flying without support. Then, you realize, the sphere is simply invisible. You are hanging in the sky, perhaps a thousand feet off the ground. The people on the ground seem to be moving incredibly quickly as they collect near the lighthouse. You see someone hanging from the lighthouse, who climbs inside at a very fast pace. Looking up from the scene playing out below, the sun seems to run its way across the sky in minutes, then fall from the sky as fast as if someone had dropped it! Below, you see that the people on the island have settled themselves into the house. As darkness descends, you see a mist weave across the waters and the land, obscuring your vision of the land and sea. When you see the light come up again, it is because the sun is rising from directly behind you. The night passed in the span of a minute. The day breaks quickly, and almost as soon as it dawns, the sun is in the western sky. Clouds begin to gather, and as quickly as you blink, a storm collects and is hitting the island, again blinding your vision from the scene. A moment of trepidation hits you at the same time as a bolt of lightning does! The sphere around you seems to weaken for a moment, and your stomach rises into your throat as you drop in altitude quickly. You are then thrown into the back of the sphere as it streaks its way across the sky, running from the storm's path. When you are able to look around, it is totally black, and you are hovering again over only water. The sphere seems tired, drained. It comes to a rest on the water and seems to be resting as you bob, bounce and tumble over the waves. The day passes in minutes, as does the night, and you feel vaguely out of touch with reality. After one day has passed, the sphere again begins to move. You are moving in an westerly direction. The sphere has climbed a few feet above the level of the water. It moves quickly, completing its journey to just inside the shoreline before the brightness of day hits your eyes. Ahead of you is a city that the sphere is approaching quickly. It decelerates as it approaches the buildings of the city. You hear a momentary whine as the sphere vibrates a bit, almost as if it is attempting to speak to you. The sphere penetrates the roof of a building within the town, stops on the floor, and pops, leaving you lying on a wooden floor. You suddenly fall unconscious when time shifts, beginning to move normally, compared to the accelerated pace it was moving while you were in the sphere. After some time, you wake up, and find yourself in the same place, on a wooden floor in the topmost floor of a building. There is a bed here, with white linens on it, and a light coating of dust on the floor, and on everything in the room except for yourself. A lamp stands in the corner. It is made of wood with twisted iron bars. Looking towards the window, you see daylight. As you near the windows and push the lace curtains aside, you can see the town hall across the street. You seem to be on the third or fourth floor of the building you are in. Beyond the town hall (by perhaps a quarter-mile), you see the ocean as it rolls in to shore. To the left of the town hall, you see a collection of maybe fifteen people standing around a gallows. You look at the stand on the gallows and see two figures standing there. A rope leads to one of the figures' neck. With the push of a lever, the floor drops out from beneath the figure and he is hanged. Welcome to Bamf. You are no longer a lurker. :) Any questions? - Brett ---------- From: Seanchai To: Paul, Brett I brace myself for impact, expectant, waiting for the sphere to dissolve all bonds and ties to my old life, to burn me out of complacency and doubt and lack of purpose. The sphere, some kind of salvation... Seeing the other spheres by the lighthouse, I itch for mine to descend. When it does not, I focus my thoughts, reaching out for the alien device that works off the will of its user or to touch the mind of magickal entity responsible for my journey, and try to get the bubble of light to slowly fall to the earth. But it does not. I try again, wanting to know who is inside the other spheres. They've been chosen just like myself, I decide, and desire to meet them so we can begin to do whatever it is that's drawn us here. But the sphere will not cooperate. Then the day blurs by like a time-lapse film. I panic, sensing something is wrong. I reach out to touch the surface of the sphere, hoping physical contact will improve my chances of controlling my strange craft. Another day passes between my fingers. When the lightning strikes the sphere, hope falters. It plummets and my thoughts go crazy as I try to make sense of what I imagine will be my last few seconds of life. But then my decent levels and I am streaking through the sky. I begin to think I'll die impacting a tree, building, or cliff instead of crushed against the waves. When I feel somewhat safe again, I dig through my bag for a shirt to wad up under my head and drift off into a fitful sleep. Dreams come like dark messengers from Ragnarok: I am careening through a midnight sky. I am speeding toward an impact that I can only sense. I am falling and floating. The sphere is a cradling hand or glowing prison... Waking inside the sphere, I resign myself to wait out its apparent malfunction. Patience will win the day, I tell myself, and try to keep from thinking about the insidious image of wasting away inside the sphere while it rockets over world after world. I think about not having brought a book with me. I chuckle at that and allow myself to dream up story after story. I think about what my disappearance must be like on Earth. I think about - The sphere shooting like a hollow comet over an alien planet, my skeleton a dark spot on its bottom. A city looms on the horizon. I draw closer and experience another transition. I wake, realizing only then that I have been unconscious. I am in a bed. And free of the sphere. Free of the damnable sphere. I smile, darker thoughts fading. When I see the man hanged, I decide this must be the event that is to set things in motion. Whatever I am here for is beginning now. I check over my clothing and hair, then go out into town to find the hangman, gallows, and noose. John ---------- From: Paul, Brett To: Seanchai >A city looms on the horizon. I draw closer and experience another >transition. I wake, realizing only then that I have been unconscious. I am >in a bed. [OOC: Um, you were on the floor. A bed was present in the room with you.] When I see the man hanged, I decide this must be the event that is to set things in motion. Whatever I am here for is beginning now. I check over my clothing and hair, then go out into town to find the hangman, gallows, and noose. A cursory search of the room does not reveal anything to you. Do you take your bag with you when you go? Do you try to climb down the side of the building or search out a staircase somewhere? I assume you will be going through the door. The door has a latch on the inside which must be undone to open the door. Looking at it, however, you know that if you close the door, it will lock behind you. - Brett ---------- From: Seanchai To: Paul, Brett >A cursory search of the room does not reveal anything to you. Do you take >your bag with you when you go? Do you try to climb down the side of the >building or search out a staircase somewhere? I assume you will be going >through the door. The door has a latch on the inside which must be undone to >open the door. Looking at it, however, you know that if you close the door, >it will lock behind you. I will take my bag and leave the room despite the latch. Once outside the room, I'll look for a staircase and then a way out. John