Terry looks at the rat on the carousel. "Does Brown Jenkin know his cousin's joined the carnival?"
Terry wanders into the infirmary, and introduces himself to whoever is working there. "Hi, my name is Terry ... with a Y ... and I expect I'll end up here as a patient at some point."
Kari watches the morphing of the room behind turning green with the off-movement disconnection. Focusing on the hallway, "Brown Jenkin was the more expressive cousin." A glance back at the carousel, then back to Terry, "I don't want anything from this place, but to get out we do need to figure out what the rules meant for the win conditions."
A bit of a break them, 'I hope you don't get it. Imperfections tell you so much more about a person.'
Kari looks up the cafe on the Estate system to check on the (granted highly unlikely) possibility of a dress code.
"Get to the end with a trick and a treat?"
Terry nods. "I will keep on the lookout. Do you have thoughts on what that might mean?"
Terry slaps his forehead. "Wait -- rules. Was there a rule book that we didn't read?"
"Get to the end with a trick and a treat?"
Terry nods. "I will keep on the lookout. Do you have thoughts on what that might mean?"
Terry slaps his forehead. "Wait -- rules. Was there a rule book that we didn't read?"
"In the whole not touching thing we were doing, I didn't check the box for rules. But there was a slip of paper with basic instructions about rolling, how to win, and a warning not to start if you don't intend to finish."
Is the roll a skill or just a luck thing? And if it's a luck thing can I use my luck pool?
Terry sighs. He's got the put-upon teen thing down. "I don't think I ever read any rules for games I played. Someone else always wanted to play. Why change tactics now?"
With all four of you having taken your first turns, the lights in the potion room start dimming, not-so-gently urging you out into the wider world of Halloween.
Kari takes her second turn, and nothing changes in the long hallway, other than the door to the potion room closing behind you all.
"Get out of my hoooouusssse" a hoarse whisper tickles the edge of your hearing.
When Terry enters the infirmary, there are two people at the counter, and it looks like you've arrived at a shift change. Aleph you recognize, and he holds his hand out to you to shake.
"I'm Zaika, Zaika Else," the unfamiliar woman extends her hand out as well. She's got a zaftig build, with rosy cheeks and smile lines at the corners of her very bright, blue eyes. In another world, she looks like she might be right at home wearing a German bar maid's outfit, holding two frosty mugs of beer.
"Bit of a risk taker, eh?" Aleph asks with a grin, leaning against the counter.
That's fair. Hopefully what these tell you are that I'm too busy to bother
Taking time to carefully craft texts, rather than that I'm sloppy
'Sloppy' and 'on site medic' don't really pair well together
Are you free in a few hours? Maybe an hour before the night cycle starts?
There is definitely not a dress code anywhere in the Estate, although you do find information that occasionally galas or other events are held for visitors of importance, or just to celebrate Estate 'wins', and those tend to be more fancy that normal. You even find information about a twice-a-year masquerade that's held on campus, one of which is coming up in just a few weeks.
Kari takes her second turn, and nothing changes in the long hallway, other than the door to the potion room closing behind you all.
"Get out of my hoooouusssse" a hoarse whisper tickles the edge of your hearing.
Kari looks at all the doors in the hallway and chooses a good one.
Terry holds up his hand at the sound of the disembodied voice. "Read between the lines," he says.
"Terry with a Y," Terry introduces himself to Zaika. He's wearing his shirt with the jungle on the edge of the water (and the water birds).
"I am happy to see you, Aleph, and meet you, Zaika, but not in this professional capacity. I would like to put that off as long as possible."
Terry puts his hands on the counter, and says, "Sometimes a risk taker, and sometimes my belief in my own abilities is greater than it should be."
"And sometimes my luck is bad. I pulled a muscle the other day rolling out of bed and turning off my alarm clock. I don't suppose you have a treatment for bad luck?"
Terry is clearly joking, except for maybe just a little bit not.
"There's horrors behind every door," Charlie says.
"There's horrors behind every door," Charlie says.
Brian nods.
"Ugh," Terry sneers. "Does that mean we have to open every one?"
He shakes his head sharply. "Sorry," he says in a more normal tone of voice. "Teenage coming through. That wasn't even me as a teen."
"For whatever it's worth," Charlie says cautiously, "I don't think Brown Jenkin could get in here. Not without significant help that would immediately render him the lesser of dangers."
Terry holds his hands up like he's weighing two objects.
"A danger that can be tased and bought off with pretzels," he moves his left hand down three inches.
"Almost literally anything else," he moves his right hand down seven inches.
"I'll take Brown Jenkin," Terry says.
"I like the way your mind works, Terry," says Brian.
The first door Kari opens leads to a dusty bedroom, with creepy old toys spread throughout. The only thing in the room that looks like it doesn't belong purely because of a lack of layer of dust coating it is what you clearly recognize to be a Chucky doll. It looks up to Kari as she opens the door.
"Heya, toots." He says in his trademark smoker's voice. He winks at her, but makes no other move. Yet.
After Charlie makes his roll, the carousel that you left behind drops down from the ceiling, giving the hallway those weird geometries that don't make sense with what your body is experiencing in terms of movement.
The voice calls out again.
And once that's decided and Brian rolls, a silence descends upon the upper level of the house. A witch's cackle comes from the same direction as the carnival barker's; everywhere, and nowhere.
Zaika laughs, and Aleph looks serious.
"Bad luck is no laughing matter. I had a cousin die of bad luck." Then he smiles, indicating that yes, he is joking. "A cypher exists for anything, I'm sure there's something out there that cures or blocks bad luck."
"Didn't Harry Potter stories have a luck potion or something like it?" Zaika asks both men.
"I… can't say I've read that series yet?" Aleph turns it into a question, as though expecting the exact response Zaika graces him with.
"You what? Isn't that required reading for people from Earth?"
"Well that's just racist."
"Tell me you've read it," Zaika turns her attention back to Terry.
"You're damn right I do," Charlie says, hopping on the carousel.
Charlie mounts the carousel creature next to him - a unicorn with milky-white eyes and a missing lower jaw, tongue lolling grotesquely, lacquered into place in a perpetual zombie-blep.
The carousel begins spinning, his unicorn mount rising up and down as the carousel gets going. Calliope music starts slow and builds with the movement, and lights on top of the machine begin flashing. Aside from the location and the look of the ride, it's fairly pleasant, and over in about a minute's time.
A compartment in the unicorn's belly opens up, dropping a sizeable portion of candy, as well as a large skeleton key-shaped, foil wrapped chocolate. It glows with a sickly orange light.
The barker calls in excitement.
Once Charlie picks up the candy key, the carousel folds in on itself and disappears into the floor. Moments after that, a thin woman in a beautiful, sea green shawl appears at the end of the hallway. Her hair is dark and long, moving in a gentle wind that none of your group feels. Her face is obscured by shadow.
"One of your number has summoned me. In my own home! How bold." She whispers, and it sounds like she's whispering directly into each of your ears.
"One of your number has summoned me. In my own home! How bold." She whispers, and it sounds like she's whispering directly into each of your ears.
"Some of us, maybe," mutters Brian, still unsettled by the carousel.
Brian steps forward towards the Witch. He nods his head in greeting. "Madam."
With a blink, the Witch stands before Brian. Her face is still, somehow, obscured by shadow. She smells of roses and grave soil, and occasionally, her shawl shifts enough to reveal the dangerously-thin body of an old woman beneath it.
"What shall it be, young man? A trick, or a treat?" She asks. Her voice doesn't match her body at all - it's strong, vibrant... and maybe a little alluring, if you're into that sort of thing.
Brian looks at the Witch, where her eyes should be in the shadows. "I think I'll take a treat."
"A fine choice." She says with a chuckle. She drops the shawl from her shoulders, and with it, the shadows drop from her face. She has the face of a corpse that doesn't know it's dead yet, with papery skin stretched too tightly over sharp cheekbones. The only thing about her that seems alive, other than her voice, are eyes filled with ancient wisdom and witchy cunning.
Brian, as sturdy and as sure as he's been since being introduced to the Strange, is not prepared for an animated corpse of a woman trying to embrace him. His visceral reaction to her approach involves a stumbling step backwards and involuntary yell, throwing his hands up to ward himself against the scent of her.
"Oh, you couldn't have wanted a treat that badly, then!" Her tone is one of mocking offense - she gives the impression she wasn't at all surprised that Brian didn't want to get close to her. "Come then. Time for the real treat!"
Initiative
Charlie unfurls the whip, striking low to entangle the witch's ankles and pull her off her feet.
Brian uses his staff to push the Witch away. "Hey, back off!"
"Heya, toots." He says in his trademark smoker's voice. He winks at her, but makes no other move. Yet.
Kari backpedals trying to slam the door shut, breath stuttering.
['ooc]Action: Spin Encouragement: Defense[/ooc]
'I had a third option.' A little pause, 'I'm free in a few hours.'
Overthinking things, the way she does, Kari goes up to scope out the place. Partially to make sure the fractal skies don't make her queasy, partially to see what kind of place it is.
Terry's action plays into his role in the game.
"Hey lady, you don't want a piece of him. He's all collar and gristle. Come get a piece of me, instead."
Of course, Terry backs around the room to keep the nice lady from giving him the really big hug.
Terry looks like he still isn't sure that Aleph is joking. "Given the stories I've been hearing from Abby and Baruchiel, I'm not discounting it out of hand."
"Tell me you've read it," Zaika turns her attention back to Terry.
Terry looks chagrined and takes half a step away from the counter. He shrugs, expansively. "Not much of a reader," he says apologetically. "I do think I heard of it, at least."
"I assume there's a recursion for it somewhere," Terry is entirely serious. "Is it a science fiction or a fantasy or a Western or....?"
Brian
"Personal space, lady." Kari says. "Man of the cloth and all, kinda sorta maybe."
"Hey lady, you don't want a piece of him. He's all collar and gristle. Come get a piece of me, instead." Of course, Terry backs around the room to keep the nice lady from giving him the really big hug.
But she does seem very interested in giving Terry that hug instead now, rather than hugging Brian. You all notice that her nails seem a lot longer than they did just moments ago.
Charlie unfurls the whip, striking low to entangle the witch's ankles and pull her off her feet. A move she deftly sidesteps, all the while cackling as is only appropriate for a witch of her stature.
Brian uses his staff to push the Witch away. "Hey, back off!"
This is all the encouragement she needs to divert her attention to Terry; the meatier, less gristly target of the group. She raises her hands, muttering something under her breath as she shoots a torrent of purple light at Terry. She barely misses, and Terry feels all of the hair on the left side of his arm stand straight up as the bolt of light skips past him.
I'd love to know what the third option is, but either way, the location is secondary to the company. I'll be happy wherever we end up.
The terrace is secluded, it's reachable only by either a lift or a set of stairs in what is commonly called the "food building" on the campus. It's all outdoor seating, of which the space is fairly intimate, with only seven tables set out with ample space between them for private conversations, or no conversations at all. It's well kept, with plants from all sorts of locations giving additional privacy and color to the terrace. With an investigatory eye, Kari spots a sort of extendable roof at the edge of the terrace, although there's no indication it ever rains at the Estate.
The sky shifts through oil slick colors above the terrace, fractal patterns forming, dissipating, turning into new patterns, endlessly. There are options to open umbrellas at the table to block direct view of the sky above you, if you'd prefer not to stare into the void while eating a meal.
"Given the stories I've been hearing from Abby and Baruchiel, I'm not discounting it out of hand."
Aleph seems to concede the point. "They have been in the field a lot more than I have, so they probably know a lot of somethings that I don't."
After Terry mentions not being familiar with Harry Potter, Zaika looks between them, seeming a little confused herself.
"I was under the impression it was basically some sort of holy book on Earth," she says with a chuckle. "Maybe I was wrong, or maybe I just happen to be in the presence of the only two humans who haven't read it." She shrugs. "For a fictional world that large, there is most certainly a recursion for it."
"Are you much of a reader?" Aleph asks Terry.
Brian takes a swing at the Witch with his staff. "Hands off my friend, too!"
"That's good, that's good," Terry says, continuing to back away. "That's Prince color. I think I heard a dove crying."
"When I was growing up, the holy book was Rolling Stone," Terry says, by way of answering both Aleph and Zaika's question.
"Now? I read when I want to know something."
Terry clasps his hands together and stretches. "That may put me a disadvantage, but I can accept that."
Terry thinks for a moment. "I read the one with the girl and the giant brain and the tesseracts when I was a kid, and I remember liking that one." He wrinkles up his nose. "Don't think I want to fall into it though."
"Do you recommend reading? As a ... professional skill?"
"Guys, on the count of three. One... Two..." Instead of the three, Kari turns on the flashlight and tries to get it in the witch's eyes. Without focusing on the aiming and purpose of the flashlight, the witch merely turns her head to the side to avoid being blinded… and to keep her eyes on Terry.
"That's good, that's good," Terry says, continuing to back away. "That's Prince color. I think I heard a dove crying."
"And like a dove, you'll make a pretty pet for me," the Witch hisses, stepping forward to close the distance between herself and Terry.
Charlie cracks the whip once in frustration, then sends it out to wrap around the witch's neck, and with her focus on Terry, he find success with his second attack. She croaks something unintelligible, hands rising to her throat to pull the whip away from it.
Brian takes a swing at the Witch with his staff. "Hands off my friend, too!"
When Brian's staff hits, she hisses at him, trying to claw at him in vain while using her other free hand to tug at the whip.
Aleph laughs and shakes his head.
"No, I think there are enough readers at the Estate. Besides, you've also got your movie recursions, television recursions, and in a few rare cases… musical recursions."
"Big music fan, then?" Zaika asks, gesturing to her own ears as a means of showing she sees the earbuds in at least one of Terry's ears.
Edit: ... too bad that isn't an attack :)
She looks around the area for a bit and then takes the stairs back down.
Kari comes back just a little early to meet with Aleph, looking almost absolutely normal in her attire, unless someone is sensitive to little details - change in shoes, a black shirt with a relaxed neckline, hair up in a braids and pinned but not covered by a knit cap.
If she doesn't see Aleph, she checks in and asks for a table near the edge of the balcony. If she does see him, she waves with a smile.
"First track on the record is Let's Go Crazy"
Terry picks up a piece of the environment (...a lamp?), and throws it at the witch.
Terry nods to Zaika. "Big music fan. It's like the magic carpet that helps me get out the door and on with my day, you know?"
"If you know a music movie, I've probably seen it," he admits. "There's just something about a melodic line that starts here," he taps an ear, "goes down here," he taps his chest, "and continues on into the limbs, sometimes out into the environment."
Terry has an earnest look on his face when he quotes, "You can't stop the music. Nobody can stop the music."
Frustrated by not being able to connect with the Witch, Brian takes a deep breath before going for another swing.
"No no no." Kari says, "No pets. No staying. No secrets." She steps in, the flashlight swinging. And although Kari was swinging wild, she manages to temporarily blind the whip-snared crone. The Witch makes a noise that sounds like a cat screeching in pain.
"First track on the record is Let's Go Crazy" Terry says, picking up the closest thing he can find to throw at the Witch. It's an old, antique lamp, and he manages to catch her square in the face. It shatters, covering her in lamp oil and broken glass, further blinding the monster.
Charlie yanks the whip, pulling the Witch backwards onto the floor. She has little choice - being blinded, grappled, and on now oil-slicked flooring. The whip slides free from her neck once she's prone, which she barely seems to notice as she tries clawing at her eyes.
Frustrated by not being able to connect with the Witch, Brian takes a deep breath before going for another swing. Unfortunately, he finds himself overextending with his staff, and slips on the oil leaking from the broken lamp on the floor.
The Witch cries out in fury once more, raising her hands, looking feeble and weak on the ground.
"You've bested me, now leave my home!"
And with that, the four of you find yourselves standing just outside of a large mansion on a hill, overlooking the town of Halloween. A cat wails in the distance, knocking over garbage cans, and you see the shadows of someone, or something, moving between pumpkin-lit buildings in the town below.
Brian is still on the ground, but next to him, another foil wrapped key glowing with a low, orange light.
Aleph arrives on time, but enough time after Kari that she is able to secure a spot on the balcony. He glances upwards and sees the wave, and returns it with a smile of his own. He's wearing a long-sleeved and hooded white shirt, contrasting well with his sun-browned skin, and a pair of comfortable hiking pants and shoes meant for long walks outside. He looks well kept, as prepared to dine with Kari as he would having to make an emergency run to an infirmary across campus. His dark hair is slightly unruly, but looks to be the sort that's hard to tame in any one direction.
"Hey, it's great to see you!" Aleph greets Kari when the Terrace staff shows him to their table. It's at the furthest edge of the available seating, on the balcony, as she requested. He joins her at the table.
"How am I supposed to be gallant and pull a chair for you if you're already sitting in it?" He teases.
Unlike the tavern, the café, or the other restaurant downstairs, the Terrace has an actual menu printed on thick vellum. Kari sees that the first menu on the table is merely the first course list - including several different salads, soups, and shareable appetizers. So, still a lot of options, but not the seemingly infinite amount of options in locations connected to the Estate tablet.
Zaika has a strange smile on her face after Terry finishes his explanation of how music affects him. "Who would want to stop the music?" She says, shaking herself out of whatever line of thought she was following.
"By musical recursions, I didn't mean musical movies, per se, although those exist too. I meant like… you've heard Pink Floyd, right?" Aleph asks, clearly expecting this to be a band Terry recognizes. "There's a recursion for one of their albums. It's, ah… I shouldn't mince words. It's basically like taking drugs the entire time you're there."
I just finished a preliminary experiment on something I've been studying that you might find interesting
Or you might not, but it's too late, I'm telling you anyway
I'm studying whether or not it's possible to leave evidence behind in a recursion that isn't specifically tied to a personal visit. It's easier to test the theory in recursions that don't change much and aren't very big, so I've been visiting Sunnydale and… planting flowers.
The same flowers, over and over again. They're an Earth variety, so I'm not trying to pollute the recursion, I just wanted to see how long it would take for the flowers to become a part of the recursion whether or not I was there to plant them.
The answer is fifty times. There are too many variables for me to publish any sort of papers on this, but it's a start. Did I force a change in the same way that fan fiction can change a recursion? Or is something else at play here?
How are things on Earth?
Charlie receives this message on his giant brick of a mobile phone. It comes through as a very staticky text-to-speech voice message. It's Sabine's voice, but the cadence is a little clunky. No one else seems to have heard the alert that Charlie got the message, nor do they hear the message if he listens to it in an obvious place.
If he wants to respond while he's in Halloween, he'll need to do it either by voice to text, or by the old style of "3 button pushes for the letter C" sort of thing.
Kari offers Brian a hand up. "I think that a better treat than she wanted to give," she offers with a shrug.
"I... do better when I can tell what the goal is. I don't have a clue where the kids would have gone here." The words just don't jive with her teenage form.
"I would go to town," Terry says. "That looks like where the action is."
"Where the pumpkins are."
"Exactly," Terry says to Zaika. "If you prick me, I will bleed B-52s. Broken arm?" He grimaces. "Sonic Youth."
Terry nods to Aleph, he recognizes exactly the band. "I wonder which album. Probably Dark Side of the Moon, that's the reason I saw Wizard of Oz in the first place. Piper at the Gates of Dawn would be interesting, psychedlic." Terry shakes his head sharply. "Not The Wall. I have zero desire to visit that."
"What sort of places do you favor, Aleph? Zaika? Or is that the thing--" Terry thinks for a moment. "One of my ex-girlfriends had it. She was fine with one or two choices, but you give her seven, she'd freeze up."
He finds the words. "Analysis paralysis."
Brian takes Kari's hand as he hauls himself to his feet. He rubs his hip where he landed. "Ow. I bet that's going to leave a mark."
He picks up the treat, and pockets it.
He looks around. "Yeah, the town looks promising."
After both Kari and Terry make their Halloween rolls, the familiar thunder booms above them, even more pronounced now that they've been ejected from the Witch's manor. Looking upwards reveals the spectral form of a d20 rolling through the sky. From where you're standing, the Halloween dice may be the size of your head, and close to the ground… or a mile up and the size of the mansion you just left.
A scream, followed by a horror-movie laugh, echoes from the town below. From your vantage point, you see bonfires on distant hills, and in one section of the town, the lights and distant music of a carnival.
"I wonder which album. Probably Dark Side of the Moon, that's the reason I saw Wizard of Oz in the first place. Piper at the Gates of Dawn would be interesting, psychedlic."
Aleph points at Terry when he mentions Dark Side of the Moon. "That's the one. And it's very… interesting. I would only recommend visiting a musical recursion if you're prepared to be the music. I've treated a couple of Agents who thought they were ready, but really lost themselves in the music. Literally."
He finds the words. "Analysis paralysis."
They both give the question some mulling over before offering up quick responses.
"I think everyone deals with analysis paralysis when they're first introduced to the Strange and everything it entails," Zaika says, finally, in response. "For me, I tend to favor soap operas." Aleph laughs, and she shoots him a look. "It's not the stories or anything. I don't watch soap operas myself. But… being in them? It's hilarious. Either that, or action recursions. Any recursion where you can just turn your brain off and say literally anything that comes to mind. No one will think you're weird. On the contrary, the more dramatic or over the top your actions in places like that… the more you fit in. It's a good time."
"Huh, that actually makes a lot of sense." Aleph says. "For me, I tend to favor recursions that were born of authors who spend a lot of time detailing environments. Where I can kind of just… enjoy my surroundings and not worry about other people for a bit. Fantasy recursions tend to hit the spot best, but I'm not picky."
"See? Different genres, but we go for the same reasons." Zaika says with a nod. She turns back to Terry. "You probably haven't had a lot of opportunity to see what's out there yet, and I'm sure everyone has and will ask you this, but… do you have any places you're interested in seeing? Just to see them?"
"I would go to town," Terry says. "That looks like where the action is."
Kari points to the lights and music, "Carnival, then?" Setting off if everyone seems agreeable.
A pause, "... or technically go somewhere else." She blushes, "Which would have worked but didn't occur to me until... well.. now."
She shakes her head, picks up the menu and studies it hard, because that will totally have the answers.
"Yeah, the carnival is probably pretty safe," Charlie says, recoiling the whip and once again attaching it to his belt.
"For some values of 'safe', yes," comments Brian as he sets off with the others.
"I wonder if the elephant ears are tricks or treats," Terry ponders aloud. "Fried food and I don't always get along."
"But wait! I'm a teen again! I can eat anything!" He holds his hands over his head, fists clasped, as though signaling in triumph to a crowd. "Yes!"
Terry gets a dreamy look on his face when Aleph mentions being lost in the music. There is no doubt that Terry falls in the thinks he is ready camp.
He listens to Aleph and Zaika, and nods along. "I have been here and to Ardeyn and to a..." Terry ponders for a moment. "Something craft? Love craft? It was not pleasant."
"What I would like to vist -- now that I know they exist -- is a place that I can get lost in the music." Terry looks at Aleph, and shrugs. "Now I know how I want to go when that day comes."
Terry takes a deep breath and sighs, gazing off into the middle distance, "Or safer, just to visit the music. The Yellow Submarine. Doubleback Alley. A Hazy Shade of Winter. Puff the Magic Dragon. Carnival 2000. The Power of--"
Terry cuts off abruptly and is focused in the present again.
"Other than Mr Rogers' Neighborhood, I now have recursions I would like to visit."
"Thank you."
"But wait! I'm a teen again! I can eat anything!" He holds his hands over his head, fists clasped, as though signaling in triumph to a crowd. "Yes!"
Kari stares at Terry like he is a foreign species, "I don't remember that being the case for the teens I went to school with."
"It was the eighties," Terry shrugs. "Nutra-sweet wasn't even invented yet."