Nils exits the car, pats his pocket to see in his firearm is still there, and follows Mayfield and the thin man
You follow the thin man through a welter of activity; circus folk haggling with farmers in a kind of impromptu open-air market; before reaching a number of carnival stands arranged in a crescent behind the main tent that is the actual big top.
Placards in front of the stands advertise various games or comestibles to be be enjoyed there at that stand.
The thin man strides over to a stand, a little larger and more solid than others, which looks like it includes an enclosed stage in the front, which bears the marquee, 'Elagabalus: is he MAN or DEVIL!'
He makes way to the back of the stand, and raps on a door.
"Blackie," he shouts, "It's me, Doc Geddowes."
Nils looks around, seeing something long and pale in the grass behind Elagabalus' shed. Looking closely he realizes, to his surprise, that he's looking at an albino, 30 inch long alligator.
Nils jumps a bit, "Geez, is that thing chained??"
'Doc' : "Get out here Blackie, I'm about to turn your pet into a handbag!"
A flimsy door in the shed is cracked open.
Man in shed : "Who's the rubes Doc?"
This must be Elagabalus; an albino with long, lank hair, in baggy coveralls.
"Nero just getting some sun."
"You’re 'Blackie', I presume? We are from Mistakonic University. While we've certainly come to enjoy the revelry, we’re also using this as an opportunity to get to the bottom of a little mystery we’ve been trying to solve on campus. Do you have a minute? Preferably away from the reptile?"
Elagabalus : Looks over Dr. Mayfield's somewhat loud clothing . "So, are you supposed to be Laurel, or Hardy?"
Doc: "He says he knows Virtue."
Elagabalus: Snorts derisively. "All right chum, where do you know our lovely Virtue from?"
Walks back over to stand by Mayfield, keeping an eye on Nero and mutters something about a mad emperor
Elagabalus : Glaring at Nils,"You've got something to say Tex?"
Confused for a second, then he gets it, "Tex? No...Well yes, is there a reason for the name? Just a fan of Roman rulers?"
Elagabalus : " Veni, vidi, vici."
Elagabalus walks past you, and casually scoops up the albino reptile.
"So how is Virtue doing? Is she enjoying her stay in the hospital?"
Through the opened door of his shack you see a shadowy, closet-like room: illuminated by a few thin bars of sunlight piercing the slats of the shack's outer-walls.
On one wall hangs a carnival-style mask; its glittering gold paint faded and peeling, though you can still see the stylized tears painted by the left eye.
Edward blushes, and knows he's blushing as his face turns hot. His lifelong inability to fit in obvious from his garish choice of outfit for the circus.
He taps Nils on the shoulder and asks him to step aside for a quick whisper:
"Do you think we should show them the flask? The one with the weird monogram?"
Whispering back, "Yes, with that mask I think so"
"Virtue is dealing with a lot of, um, circumstances. A bit jittery, she is. But willing to help when she was able to focus. One thing I found out while dealing with her was this. Do you know anything about this emblem? It's very important to our studies."
Edward shows the flask and symbol to Elagabalus.
Elagabalus appears to be stunned the sight of the flask.
Elagabalus : Stammering "Where did you find that!"
Elagabalus grabs at the flask.
Dr. Mayfield instinctively steps back.
Doc: "El, you and your new friends can have a lovely tea party, but I got to be getting back to Boston; do you have what I came for?"
Elagabalus looks dumbly at 'Doc', before nodding.
Elagabalus: "You had best come in then."
You follow the albino into the shack, more of a kind of
'reinforced tent', with a dirt floor and a canvas roof, than
anything else. Crates, battered trunks, and a camp chair make up the whole furnishings.
The places smiles of sweat, kerosene, and reptile.
Elagabalus slumps into the chair, and gently puts 'Nero' on the ground.
Elagabalus: "Just a moment. I need--compose myself."
Doc : "What the hell has gotten into you!"
Walking in, Edward does his best to thoroughly scan the small tent.
Nils waits patiently, keeping as far from the alligator as he can without appearing rude
Elagabalus sits in his chair, shuddering.
Doc seems to have lost all patience with the albino.
Doc: "I've just about had it with this drama!" It appears that Doc is about to strike the quaking carnie.
The sun must have gone behind a cloud, because the gloom of the claustrophobic interior suddenly seems to deepen.
Dr. Mayfield does note that the tear-drop design on the mask, exactly matches the monogram of the flask.
Nils steps forward, grabs Elagabalus by the shoulders and shakes him, "Damnit man, snap out of it!" he then glances at the alligator again and steps back
Edward, never one for conflict, takes a step back to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the argument.
His voice is now unsteady. The sudden gloom isn't helping. Neither is the alligator.
"We found it," he says. "The flask. We found it in..."
Edward then pauses and thinks: Crime scene. Can't tip our hands, even to these freaks. One wrong word to a policeman and we are suddenly persons of interest in a brutal murder.
The alligator at Elagabalus' feet begins hissing.
Elagabalus : Punctuated by a nervous giggle "It's happening again! It's happening again!"
He looks expectantly at Dr. Mayfield.
"I think you're going to come along too!"
The ground beneath your feet seems to shudder; a train passing on the tracks outside? But you don't hear a train, strangely enough, everything seems strangely still and quite, except for the sibilant hiss of the reptile at Elgabalus' feet.
Wide eyed, Nils' head whips around, not having seen train tracks on the way in . He backs up to the outside and hollers in, "What? What is happening again?"
The light outside appears to be dim and flickering, and for a moment Nils imagines that he is at the bottom of a lake, or the ocean; and the light filtering down through stilted water is hazy and tinted.
Elagabalus : "We're about to take a little trip! We're going through the looking-glass!"
Doc : "You're going to the hospital, freak!"
He slugs the albino.
A very angry, and perhaps frightened, 'Doc' violently slaps
Elagabalus.
There's a booming noise, like a crack of thunder, and suddenly Dr. Mayfield and Nils feel very light-headed.
Occult Skill is 60%.
Edward stuffs the flask back in his pocket and covers his ears. The train-like roaring making his teeth hurt.
Nils sways a bit and manages to sit on the ground, "W-what is happening?"
Doc : "What in Sam Hell!"
Lets have some SAN rolls: attempt to roll under your current SAN.
The tent-shed is gone.
The circus is gone.
You're standing in the same field, but its now empty beneath a gray, over-cast sky. There's a chilly breeze.
There's a train on the track, but the locomotive has been crushed, flattened; the thick plates buckled and split, the wheels scattered around like they were haphazardly tossed about.
Edward's SAN is 28, down from his original 30.
Edward's eyes glaze over as if shell shocked. He makes a series of short, squeaking sounds, one of which sounds a bit like Iä.
Doc stares goggle-eyed around him.
Elagabalus stands, looks disdainfully around him.
Elagabalus : "Dam, I wish I was wearing something warmer."
The only advantage to Edward's garish outfit is that he has a plaid coat and hat.
Still, Edward is now shivering from both the cold and pure old fashioned fright. He’s confused as he does a 360, looking for something... anything, really... to focus on that looks the least bit rational.
It does appear to be the same, you can see the road that brought you here, paralleling the train tracks.
You didn't pay enough attention to the train when you got here, so you cannot really tell if it is the same train.
Doc : "What the hell did you do!" He balls his fists, glaring at Elagabalus.
Elagabalus : "Easy there Doc," he backs away from Doc. "This isn't something I did on purpose."
Nils is wearing the typical university professor suit, Wow, what? WHAT? Did on purpose? We clearly are not here...I mean where we were..." Nils holds his head in his hands as he stands shakily up, keeping his eyes closed, "what in the name of all that is holy did you do?"
Elagabalus appears to have undergone another violent mood swing; now appearing to be almost giddy.
Elagabalus : "Is my flask empty?"
Edward doesn't like the way Elagabalus is talking to him. Of course, Edward doesn't like any of this, so...
"Why do you want to know? I'm not offering a 'hit'. We may need these 'tears'. We are a long way from nowhere!"
Elagabalus : With his hands raised. "Take it easy friend. Hey, I thinks there's a farm-house across the way, lets go see if there's anyone there: maybe they'll let me borrow some clothes; it feels like it might be really cold out here when the sun goes down."
Looking across the way, you do see what appears to a farm-house among the trees.
Edward’s ears perk up at notion of clothes. Maybe he can get out of his ridiculous outfit and put on something proper. He looks to Nils and shrugged, as if to say, What do you think?
Doc: "Wait a damned minute. Before we do anything, what happened! Where the hell are we!"
Elagabalus : Somewhat smugly. "It's not where we are that's changed, its when. We've traveled forward in time, and the circumstances of the world are--a bit different now."
Nils is starting to look cold and thinks for a second then and nods in grim acceptance, "Shelter, yes shelter...wait..." whipping his head incredulously to Elagabalus, "...the future?? How far? How? Why did you do this to us?"
Edward, who's managed to contain his emotions to some degree so far, simply can't contain himself any longer.
He runs about in circles flailing his arms madly. "Don't you see? Don't you SEE!? We are at a carnival! This is a circus trick! We're not in the future. That's complete and utter hogwash! Nobody can travel to the future! Professor Einstein proved it! Now stop this charade or I'll... I'll..."
Edward balls his fists and glares at Elagabalus. "Stop this tomfoolery right now!"
Elagabalus confidently strides off towards the distant farmhouse.
'Doc', looking completely dumb-founded, looks around goggle-eyed, and then starts to follow.