Giant Crimson Suit of Armor thing omg People in strange clothes Women in almost nothing omg Met Percy (Percival?) and Riri Thinks he's hallucinating or something VERY confused. Flitta the Centaur & her very nervous human friend Jonas Now that he's found out about how his tuition's been paid, he's really sure he's not hallucinating anymore, and he's a little paranoid about the choices he makes. Also Bram is a gay virgin. We live in Faustus, and Bram has a roomie! Bram's Roomie: Jonas the nervous friend of Flitta the Centaur ================================================== Faustus - slate gray building with heavy gothic overtones and lots of gargoyles about 10 stories tall; elevator in the ground floor common area looks to be an old-style freight elevator and, oddly enough, lists 13 floors with 2 basement levels Jonas & I are on floor 8 Riri is on ground Percy & Gillian are on the 10th floor So homey! a lot of Victorian era-type furnishings Helps Riri get into her room Sees Percy playing with fire Checks out his own room - whoever his roommate is, they don't trust people. just as well. Runs into Riri again downstairs and finds out she doesn't know what books are and can't read. Promises to help teach her. Percy's actually really good at explaining books & reading and such. They go off to find a pub. Maihem Stadium has really fast gunfire and then an explosion, so they go around it. At campus gates, and there're a lot of very fast and odd automobiles and, thank god, a sign saying Cold Beer. ================================================== 60's rock music? don't know, don't care - Bram heads straight for bar Riri transforms - pointed ears, silver hair, gray freckles, blue eyes with horizontal slit pupils, star shaped scar on the forehead, kinda thin, pale, tattered off-white dress & sandals Lisa & companion - very handsome young adult man - long silvery hair, eyes that seem to have almost a sheen of gold to them, ears slightly pointed? FANTASTIC PHYSIQUE, slightly leaner Captain America, excellent muscle tone, almost semi-military-esque uniform, leather pants, watching with cool amusement. Beside him - decidedly less human, she looks reptilian, not skin so much as fine, golden scales, three fingers and a thumb, digitigrade feet, claws, pupil-less black eyes, smiling over her blue bubbly drink, no hair but something like modified feathers or fronds on her head, a vibrant green color that go down to about shoulder height on her. two rows of little spines down her back and TAIL. She's not wearing a lot, over her torso she's got kind of a crossed harness from which hangs several bags & pouches - bandolier - very fine, delicate features but no mammary glands, from her belt a knee-length silkish skirt Bram buys a beer and starts chugging 3 beers show up. "I didn't order these." "You were gonna." Percy keeps antagonizing Bram, but Riri steps in and distracts Percy. hLyska and Phoenix are now supposed to keep an eye on the three of them (and three others?). Percy is buying Riri candy drinks to get her buzzed. Percy and Bram nearly get into a fight because Bram doesn't trust Percy to be alone with Riri. Phoenix says the situation is disgusting and hilarious; Bram is disappointed that the hot guy has such a personality water = sobriety solution @__@ Gillian & Pyewocket show up in the bar. Gillian levitates Riri. Percy goes to settle up at the bar. The Team comes into the bar. Gillian stops dead seeing Joe. Riri hits the wall and then the floor. Gillian floats her up again. Phoenix fucked off to hell (smell of smoke & brimstone) Back to Faustus! Jonas has a pistol that he keeps on his right hip and he tucks it under his pillow. ====================================== everything is blue/green outside wtf ID badge - cravat/lapel pin pinned on jacket eating at Borgia Center Jonas's ID is a pouch for carrying extra gun magazines The bookstore is by Slocum, Lemniscate, and Lilith. entering through the glass double doors the inside of the bookstore appears to take up nearly a mile in every direction. It is completely impossible. In the back, you even see vehicles and small aircraft. NOTE FOR NEXT WEEK: Bram is going to try to fast-talk his way into books! Bram is going to try to use the fact that he is "Well-trained" in Fast-talking to, ideally, talk his way out of paying for books. if that doesn't work, he'll try to haggle down the price/interest rates, and as a fall-back position, try and get a job. ======================================== Percy gets Bram's book for him because Bram fell trying to climb up to get it. Then Flitta shows up and knocks over some bookshelves. A whole lot. Bram's book has an envelope in it. From himself. With a letter. With directions around the bookstore. Back to the vehicle section. Find a 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge. The letter says to check the boot. There's books. EVERYONE'S BOOKS. Bram gets Riri's things for her, based on her list (that she had stuffed down her bodice). Bram fast-talks a chinchilla-person employee. She gives him papers to sign; he opts not to and walks out the front door to await the others. Gillian shows up and sees hers and Joe's books in the cart and takes them. 2 HOURS LATER Bram is watching shirtless guys play frisbee and/or football. It's a nice day outside. Riri pays for her books with blood and hair (in weekly installments). Percy uses their mother's credit card. Somehow. Riri stumbles out of the bookstore looking pale and shorn and collapses in Bram's arms. ======================================== Bram is adapting to computers well enough. Typewriters without paper. Sure, whatever. Lightning, reality stabilizers are wailing. Bram goes underground beneath the Botany building. More lightning than sky. 3 tall but narrow dense plumes of black smoke - the source is the reality stabilizers, or at least where one of the reality stabilizers USED to be. They're sort of a network of a couple hundred, so the 3 missing ones are basically holes in the fence of reality. They head to Pancho Sanza's to get off campus. Joe, Gillian, Flytta, Jonas (and Pyewocket) show up there as well (not all together). Student Group #56873 gets to go meet the ArchDean cats cats everywhere in the ArchDean's office shifting shadows this was no accident; it was an orchestrated attempt by one of our competitor universities. One competitor did this but other competitors had other plans. "Direct action like this is almost entirely unheard of." They're trying to keep IOU distracted. there's a ...goal, a singular or multiple object of potentially great historical value that would bring tremendous prestige to any university or person to possess it A friendly wager - each university will put forth an individual or team to claim this object or objects for the good of their sponsoring establishment. university fees waived for two years AND also passing grades in all classes while you're away AND there will be certain other... tokens of the university's gratitude during your continued stay with us ======================================== Monday The Object - a rod of a dull, bronze-looking metal (not necessarily actually bronze), approx 1 meter long, with a disc of similar material around its midpoint half way from there to bottom, and then again, halfway from mid to bottom, and then again... 5 times Supplies and a vehicle - and it's the van Percy's band was using! except in slightly better condition. two crates: 1 crate - crowbar, entrenching tool, foldout pick, what's looks like ropes and pittance, hatchet, blankets, several large canisters of some unidentifiable green stuff - extremely thick liquid? (space goo dinner) 2 crate - 6 briefcases containing various forms of paper money for different nations/times/etc.; also sleeves of metal coins - apparently pure precious metals (copper, silver, gold, steel); ingots of pure precious metal - a couple of each. They empty and stow the materials from the first crate and get rid of that crate to make more room. Flytta is laying down in the van. Jonas is sitting on Flytta. Percy is driving. hLyska is shotgun because her datapad has directions. Bram will make sure Gillian and Riri get to sit on the back bench. starting point: inside the Pyramid Mall, in one of the sub-levels "The Fifth Stop" - standing outside is a group of large... Beings in what look to be football jerseys. NOT The Team's colors. Joe knows those colors: "those guys are like from that one team... the quargisomething. One of our rivals." 7.5 feet tall, pale bluish skin, four beady little red eyes, no nose, and the mouth is just a flat slit. also all about 5 ft wide. The opposing team is blocking our entrance. hLyska is talking to them and they are confused. Bram steps up to help confuse them more. Percy's... GONE. Joe has stepped up next to Bram to be intimidating. Jonas is ranging out to the side, picking his field of fire. hLyska eases back to Flytta and Riri and asks Flytta to stay here and keep an eye on the boys. Then uses Flytta's body as cover so she can whip up a quick wyvernling. Inside the store it smells of paper, leather, and incense. The store is empty - no visible employees. Percy opens the Employees Only door and it's not locked but it's VERY VERY LOUD. hLyska summons up a little Spyvern to send around the linebackers and then into the store. Percy gets a scroll of parchment with a ribbon tied around it from the ...monk? inside. Percy puts the scroll in their binder and then tries to sneak out the same way they got in. hLyska returns to the Wall to ask them personal questions (as distraction). Percy comes out behind Flytta. Gillian says to go faster as they're walking back. "Just as we were leaving I saw a group of not particularly-friendly-looking types approaching." People in identical black suits and dark sunglasses. back in the van, once we give Percy privacy enough to retrieve the scroll... Scroll's in English - older than Bram's type of English. Another sketch of The Object. The scroll refers it as "The Key." A means of unlocking power/longevity/potentially immortality - unlocking one's full potential, so to speak. places where The Key has cropped up before - it's shown up in a number of places and in the hands of numerous people previously - pharoahs, emperors, warmongers, presidents (like JFK). It's at a museum in Northern California (in this timeframe). It's not on display though. ======================================== Percy notices a Hummer on steroids hLyska notices a sleek black sedan with blacked-out windows Bram notices an RV (Winnebago-esque) can't see inside the Hummer Bram asks about the RV. couple of young (possibly college-aged) people in the RV the RV stays at the same motel they do the first night the RV is gone the next morning Jonas points out a (windowless white) van, too the RV sideswipes the Hummer and sends it off the road Percy floors it the sedan breaks away from the pack and is right on our ass Hummer is back on the road Time for some vehicular manslaughter!! Percy slams on the brakes and Riri flies into Flytta Hummer coming up on our ass Jonas shoots at the Hummer with a laser bolt, and so does Bram with the Clockwork Gatling Handcannon Riri is shrieking, Percy is swearing a streak in French and sometimes English Hummer flips and rolls and is no longer in danger of hitting the van. RV & sedan are fighting for dominance; we're (several vehicle lengths) behind the sedan Bram's emptied about 25 of his 50 clip Flytta is hugging Riri and doing her best to quiet her. Gillian turns to face the other van - a bright flash, a wave of heat, and then the pursuing van plows into now-liquified asphalt The other half of the magazine gets emptied into the RV Riri is screaming again the RV driver panics and cranks the wheel, jerking away from us and off-road Percy accelerates past it the sedan is out of sight, presumably ahead of us an hour w/o any sign of further pursuit - pull over Gillian's going to drive after this Jonas is looking over the van - the van is fine, for now Bram will lean against Flytta and stay away from Riri and Percy since they seem to be shell-shocked and a little afraid of him now. stopping at the rest stop for morale and bathroom break the rest of the trip to the museum is completely uneventful. itty-bitty tiny museum actually in the redwood forest primarily devoted to Native American artifacts, some fossils of creatures from the region, fossilized cuts of trees - it's all about This Area. it looks like a giant cabin Flytta stays in the van; Percy is still in their blanket but they're out of the van. No sign of the sedan or any of the other "playmates." A station wagon, a completely normal-looking brown sedan, an older model Jeep, and probably a couple more family cars. Riri is clutching at Percy's blanket. Bram goes in first. Riri & Percy are suddenly feeling sapped - Riri is feeling numb, like she's having some sort of disconnect. Riri goes to sit down in a chair, but Bram refuses to leave her. A guide/employee named Logan approaches... and Bram's leg suddenly feels lighter. And it doesn't have its locking mechanism. Logan is a solid 8 or 9 btw (handsome, intelligent, no hiding those biceps). He tries to fast talk the guy saying he's a foreign student interested in how the museum operates. Logan goes off to talk to his boss. hLyska is sending in a spyvern - it does find an open window to worm in. The spyvern gets in but its signal is sort of hazy? It feels... off. IT'S A CHICKEN. A rooster, actually. (A COCK xD) CAPITAL M MUNDANE ALERT the chickified spyvern goes upstairs Gillian and Joe are attempting to help Riri Jonas is trying to keep an eye on all the doors & windows Joe tries to take Riri back to van; as soon as she's outside, she feels 100% better...and walks right back in. And then goes back out. She tells Joe to bring them out because that place is wrong. 3rd floor has more display cases but also some doors marked Private - offices not storage space. Spyvern checking through windows (so it's no longer a chicken). There's a place on the first floor without windows. There is a fire exit or some sort of metal doors in addition to the glass ones that are the main entrance. Logan comes back with a woman - short, dark-haired, really skinny, and has an extremely large and heavy set of glasses, very stone-faced. Bram resumes fast-talking her about ancient artifacts peculiar to this region and how do you decide what to keep back and what to display and blah blah blah. hLyska explains Mundanity to Riri and Joe. Joe goes back into the building, but Riri stays outside. This lady really wants to have a reason to turn Bram down but she doesn't have an obvious one. She looks very unhappy about the prospect of this, but she lets Logan show us around. Joe tells Bram sort of what's going on. in his own way. Logan's Butt is a Fine Butt The lady goes to her office and gets on the cellphone. hLyska can overhear the conversation through the spyvern outside the window "This is where we have all the stuff that's not on display..." "Yes, I HAVE the artifact, or at least something that matches its description. Well, you'll get it when you bring me our promised arrangement. You bring me the cash, we get the thing. I know what it's supposed to do, but I can't try it with that brainless pretty boy I'm saddled with. His presence completely nullifies everything. You come, you bring me the money, we make it look like a break-in, you get it. Well then I'll see you later tonight. The hassle better be worth it. Hell, if I were you, I wouldn't want it to fall into My Boss's hands, for that matter." The Key is in a box and Bram looks at Percy then at The Key and then Bram engages Logan in conversation and questions so that Percy (and their blanket) can edge towards the box that The Key is in. There's something else in the box. Vaguely squarish? But you can't tell. It's a book of some sort? Not paper or parchment. "It's weird and now it's in my shirt" Grabs the Key and...then hides it (it's HEAVY) in their blanket. And exits. Bram gets Logan's number!! xD They get back in the van, and Percy puts The Key down in the middle of the van and pulls out the document. Animal skin - tattooed animal skin - probably human skin ======================================== Bram tries to make heads or tails of this ..."user manual"? it's not one of the Classical languages. It doesn't appear to be a substitute cypher, near as he can tell hLyska recognizes some of the symbols because she's used some of them before. it doesn't seem to be a contract but the document does make use of some infernal symbols as part of its writing. they decide to drive straight through, taking turns driving and only stopping as biological necessity requires. they're heading straight back to university Percy pokes at The Key - looks like copper, maybe a little redder? uniformly cool to the touch no matter how much it's handled. it tastes like iron - or, really, like blood. smells like metal. doesn't make Percy tingly like cold iron would. it does produce sound although it's generally difficult to hear over the noise of the van and such - a very very faint hum, like it's been struck and it's ringing but there's no sensation of vibration to the touch. 16 hours w/o harrassment but definitely with boredom THE GODDAMN BLACK SEDAN SHOWS UP AGAIN at a gas station hLyska grabs the rod and slips it under poncho. and also the manual. hLyska uses the floor in the back of the van to make a circle as Jonas pulls the gas dispenser out of the tank. Bram tells Flytta to grab two people (who are NOT him) and head for the van. Joe & Gillian are in the Men's and Ladies' Rooms respectively Riri dashes for the van. There's no one for Flytta to grab, but she dashes. Three men and one lady all come out of the sedan at once and they all have firearms. Two are advancing on the van. Bram's gonna lock & load. Riri will cower in the van. Bram is winding up. Percy sneaks into the men's room to give Joe a heads up. Bram is edging towards the van but still aiming at the sedan. Percy sneaks into the ladies' room and warns Gillian. hLyska is still chatting with the guys while her imps head towards the sedan. TIME TO PARTY Jonas opens fire Flytta makes for van Joe is surprised Gillian makes a dash for the van hLyska sics imps and goes for the van Bram opens fire (1st spare mag) - expends 1/2 the mag on the sedan, but the thing is freaking bulletproof with run flats Percy tells Joe to run and runs themselves one of the Suits kills the imp on him Jonas takes more shots; catches the imp-shooter who is NOT dead but goes down with a charred hole in his shoulder Joe snaps out of it and makes an impressive run for the van; he dumps the snacks that Percy dumped on him and grabs Gillian en route hLyska opens the driver's door and turns the key so the van is ready to go. Bram unlocks the thigh brace and "runs" for the van Percy makes for the driver's seat and gets in! Jonas unleashes three more shots; couple glancing shots on the sedan Joe, still carrying Gillian, plants one foot into the driver's side floorboard, reaches up, grabs hold of the top rack and vaults over the van to get to the side door Gillian gets into the van and tries to pull Joe in after her hLyska helps situate Percy Bram is still running Percy is mostly upright; they shut the driver's side door and hold action Jonas is in the van Bram is in the van Percy's gonna floor it hLyska dismisses the imps AND THEY'RE GONE no pursuit after a good 15 minutes Bram takes the now warm-to-the-touch Key from hLyska hLyska is poking at the book - it's not exactly a manual. bits and pieces which don't make sense. more of a descriptor... and a warning. The Key isn't the item of power itself - it is the key to OBTAINING one. The Key has to be present at a certain place to receive the object of power but there's something in there about the Object of Power being Powerless until its wielder has proven themselves worthy or some shit like that. Though the Key doesn't automatically grant one Power as it's the beginning of the path under no circumstances should this thing be given to anyone you feel shouldn't be more powerful than they are. The Key starts you on the path to gaining Absolute Power. "Surrender it only to those you trust implicitly. More than you trust yourself." ========================================