Setting
- 87 posts here • Page 4 of 4 • 1, 2, 3, 4
Then, remembering his annoyance, he spoke up. "Hey, guys, I know all this swapping is kinda fun, but these mirrors are giving me a headache, and I really wanna get this puzzle finished," he said, to a reflection of the group. Realising this too late, he turned around, and smiled sheepishly. "You see?"
Then the reality of what they were doing shot a feeling of defeat right through him. His face dropped and he slumped to the floor, holding his head in his hands. "What am I thinking?" he mumbled. "You guys might as well have your fun, I mean, people get lost in mazes like this even when the walls are visible, and we don't even have that. We're just going to starve to death until we get relogged." He looked up then, with a miserable look on his face. "I don't think we're ever getting out."
Luckily it was then that Thomas broke down. Orion took a deep breath and collected himself before patting him on the back. Here was an opportunity to show his old confidence, even if it meant hiding his own misgvings.
âRelax Thomas, I know itâs easy to lose heart in this maze, but thereâs a way out. A puzzle without a solution is rather silly after all and Iâm not giving up after all the points we have gotten so far. We just have to sit down and reflect,â he mumbled, wincing slightly when he noticed the horrible pun he had made.
âThe audio file mentioned we should keep a close eye on our companions. That might be a hint. Since weâre still all together, Iâd say we are doing just fine for now,â he scratched his head once more, looked around and shrugged, âthough I have no idea whatsoever to do next,â he admitted. It made him slightly less cheerful but he tried to keep the smile up, âweâll figure it out before we starve though. So far no puzzle has been a match for our combined wits. And if we are getting really hungry, we can always resort to cannibalism, though Iâd hate to eat my own body. Besides, I canât imagine what would happen if we ate someone who had swapped bodies and I donât really feel like finding out,â he joked, âso letâs try to decide on a course. Do we just keep wandering throughout the labyrinth or do we try to come up with some sort of plan? Regardless, if we still have any rope around it might be advisable to tie it to everybodyâs waist, just to make sure we donât lose anyone.â
Tom's eyes lit up at the rope idea. "That's fantastic! Why did no-one think of this before?" He exclaimed. Andromeda was the only one with a backpack, so she would have rope if anyone did. Luckily, Orion was now Andromeda. "Orion, why don't you have a look in the bag and see if there's any rope?" Tom said, "If Andromeda agrees, of course," he added, flinching.
His thoughts wandered for a moment. "Wait a moment... the audio guide also mentioned a glass sceptre that everyone was trying to find. Why do you think they were looking for it? Do you think it has power?" he said, to no-one in particular. "If only the audio had given us a few more hints to help us find it.."
Feeling better, he stood and looked around. "I think, in any case, we won't accomplish anything by staying in one spot. I say we explore a bit more, see if there are any hints to finding this sceptre."
((OOC in case we start exploring before my next post, there is a larger room somewhere, with a map in it))
She looked at herself in one of those mirrors. The last change was a big improvement over looking like Orion, she was female again and had more or less the right height, shape and avatar stats. âOrionâs look sure is dashing, but I think it suits him betterâ Andromeda replied to Corki, laughing. âHeh, suits, hehhehhehâ she added. âSorry.â She continued âBut look at you, I mean me now. Youâre-I am-err-you get what I mean- really pretty. And colourful. Still, I prefer my own body for myself.â
Tom seemed unhappy with the situation they were in, but also somewhat amused by it. He was the only one still in the right body, why was he complaining? Andromeda was glad Orion seemed to understand what was going on in Tomâs mind and managed to motivate him again.
âMy backpack only contains a datapad and lots and lots of apples, Iâm afraidâ Andromeda commented on the idea of looking for rope inside it. âOh well, at least it should keep us from cannibalism for a while. Until someone wants meat, anyway.â She liked Orionâs joke. It was a joke, right?
âMaybe if two of us hold onto each shoulder strap it will be almost as good as a rope. With the weight of those apples I think we would notice immediately when someone lets go of itâ Andromeda suggested.
For a moment she wondered if Corkiâs teleportation ability could take her to that glass scepter they were supposed to be looking for. If it could, it might not be possible to return to the group, and judging by Orionâs initial difficulties using her tail, she would probably end up inside a wall anyway.
âThis oneâs seemingly on the sour side, but itâs definitely edible. Cannibalism averted,â he spoke with a slight grin, âgood thing you collected those apples Andromeda. Now, letâs go exploring. Somebody grab my shoulder strap and letâs get going. If anyone tries to grab my tail Iâll make sure to react as angry as the average cat, if not worse. Just so weâre clear,â he grumbled as he slowly started to walk. He had no idea how it would feel if someone grabbed his tail, but he didnât really feel like finding out. At first he didnât encounter anything new, just more of those maddening mirrors. As his irritation started to rise they stumbled across a larger room. Orion poked his head through and surveyed the room. It was pretty large and in the middle was something that resembled a map. A wide smile spread across his face.
With huge relief he immediately rushed towards it, forcing whoever had been holding on to his strap to let go. He stopped in front of the map, tossed the core of the apple aside and started to study the map with a pensive frown on his face. Absent-mindedly he started to bite on his lip. He wasnât sure why he did that as it wasnât a regular habit of his. Could it have been a habit the body performed subconsciously? Or was it merely something he did because he was in a body better suited for it? A man like himself looked rather silly biting on his lip. He shook his head, the map was more important than trying to uncover the finer details of swapping bodies. Soon heâd be back in his old body anyway, so it wasnât really something worth looking into. The map on the other hand might be a help, even if the mirrors would no doubt make following a specific course extremely difficult. Realising there was no point in keeping the map to himself he raised his voice.
âHey, everybody, get over here. I think Iâve found a map,â he cried out in delight, urging the others to come have a look. He himself wasnât making too much progress at first glance. He wished he could blame his weak map reading skills on his new body, but truth be told, he had never been particularly good at reading maps.
Grabbing the backpack strap and following Orion's lead through the winding tunnels, Tom decided that things would turn out better than he had thought. Sticking together was definitely the best way to progress through the maze.
Coming across the large room and feeling the backpack being yanked from his hand, he took a look around. Cobwebs and dust covered the once glorious tiled floor, now cracked, pieces missing from elaborate mozaics. Marble pillars reached to the ceiling; some with chunks missing, others broken completely, lying nearby like fallen trees. Walking up to the plinth, he examined the map that spread before him. A yellow square drew his gaze to a room that resembled the one they were standing in. He also noticed a red dot, and a green arrow pointing out of an open ended corridor - presumably the exit. The red dot must have been their starting point.
As for the location of the sceptre, no other markings could be seen. Perhaps it was at the exit, or even hidden somewhere in or beneath this room. He also noticed some text, scrawled in ancient Greek lettering. He couldn't make head or tail of it.
"Andromeda?" he called, remembering her familiarity with the ancient Greek myths painted on the first ceiling. "Do you think you can make sense of this writing here? It's all Greek to m..." the rest of his sentence trailed off into a fit of giggles at his own joke. "Sorry, that was terrible."
He turned back to the map and looked over it again. "It would be good if we can take this with us. I wonder if the game will allow that?" he thought aloud. Fumbling with the corners of the aged parchment, he found a nail holding it in place. Making sure everyone had finished looking at it, he prized it out with his thumb and forefinger, and peeled back the corner, anticipating something hidden underneath. He found nothing, and with a slightly disappointed sigh, he continued prizing the other three nails out. His task complete, he rolled up the map and put it under his arm.
"Let's go," he announced, bluntly. The sooner they were out of this dingy labyrinth, the better.
Corki brought up the rear of their group once they decided to leave. She had been zoning out, which was a distinct Corki thing to do she knew, which was comforting. Maybe the body swapping was more complicated than she thought, her mind muddling up. Seeing her own dreads in front of her, she longed to feel them around her ears again.
Tom mentioned a sceptre and partially, Corki wanted to jump on the chance of finding something mysterious and most likely valuable. The danger of quest and adventure thrummed through her thoughts...but not her veins. Orion's body was all business and he wanted to finish this puzzle. Truthfully, the mirror gag was getting quite repetitive...and annoying. Knocking into their own reflections, while potentially a great literary device in a fiction story plot, was not enjoyable in reality.
When the map was in view and Tom's fingers around it, Corki had the urge to take it. Instead she said, "To the exit!" in a slightly comical way, but could notice the irritation around Orion's deeper vowels. Why shouldn't she have the map? She felt she could handle it and Tom himself said he couldn't read it. Corki had no promise that she could either, but she hadn't even had a chance to look. But, the prospect of an exit lifted her spirits somewhat. The sceptre was long out of her mind, the exit strongly pulsing in a scene of clouds and golden gates. Salvation from this hell hole!!
Corki shook her head a little. Was this Orion or something else interfering with her thoughts? She couldn't discern, but didn't like the sudden fear taking hold of her throat. They had to get out. Now. Exit, exit, exit. Exit!
"Go, go," she tried to urge gently.
âTo the exit!â she was startled by Orionâs voice, used by Corki. Andromeda jumped, and stepped on a shard of something that had been shattered by a fallen pillar. Suddenly she was holding the map. The disorienting feeling of switching bodies was becoming familiar, and she didnât have to guess who she looked like now. âThat just had to happen, didnât it?â she sighed with Tomâs voice.
Her attention returned to the text below the map. It had to be something more important than the location of the exit, why else would it be there? To taunt them of course, but it might as well be important. âHmm, reckon itâs in all caps? Maybe we should shout it.â She chuckled. This was such a silly place. Silly, and meaningless, and empty, and depressing...
âYo-uh shpks... sepgh... sergh in fen. Ummm... de sepi... sep ter is in... anoh-der kasn... kasleh.â Andromeda mumbled as she puzzled. These did appear to be words, perhaps a magic formula that would fix everything. âYo-uh sergh in fen. De sep ter is in anoh-der kaslehâ she tried. Nothing happened. She took a deep breath and yelled âYO-UH SERGH IN FEN! DE SEP TER IS IN ANOH-DER KASLEH!!!â, waving her arms hoping it would somehow add magical effect. Nothing.
âTo the exit it isâ, she said with a sheepish grin.
âYeah, letâs get to the exit. That Greek text there made it all too clear the sceptre canât be found here,â he managed to say before he started laughing again. This was simply too funny. Once more the odd sense of humour of the creators had managed to surprise him. It was a nicer surprise than walking into a wall, risking a flight with a shabby plane or turning into an animal. The things they did for points...he shook his head and started to mumble the words:
âYo-uh sergh in fen. De sep ter is in anoh-der kasleh,â a silly smile appeared on his face, âwe seem to have a case of mock latin or perhaps should I say mock Greek going on here. Oh my oh my. Well letâs get to the exit,â he agreed, Iâve had it up to here with this place. Andromeda, you seem to have gotten the map so why donât you lead the way? Iâm sure itâs a subtle trick of the puzzle to put you in the lead,â he suggested with a mocking smile. Corki seemed to be getting used to the authority that came with his body just a bit too swiftly to his liking. Better to let Andromeda lead who no doubt was still adjusting to her new body.
âOkay, sure, Iâm good with mapsâ she replied to Orionâs suggestion that she should lead. At least she did understand maps, she had even made some, long ago, when... when was that? She traced the shortest route to the exit with her finger. âRight, right, left, left, straight ahead, corner to the left, right, straight ahead, corner to the left, exit! Easy.â She went over it a few more times until she was sure she knew the sequence. âI hope we find enough stuff to get everyone back in their own body. Whatâs the shortest series of swaps now anyway?â She grabbed one of the shoulder straps of her backpack. âI wonât mind if some of you like your new bodies better, but I still want my tail back.â
Andromeda heard a low rumble, like a distant waterfall. âI donât know what that noise is,â she commented, âbut it canât be good. Letâs go.â
"One, two, testing, testing..." Oh no. He looked down at himself, finding that the view had changed a bit. He absent-mindedly felt around a bit to check if it was real, then when he realised what he was doing, he hurriedly stuffed his hands in Corki's pocke... oh God, everything sounded wrong. He blushed and gave Corki an apologetic look, wincing at how Corki's perception of him must be changing for the worse.
"Sh**."
The computer voice gave him the spiel about bad language, which gave him time to calm down slightly.
"Why?" he asked, to no-one in particular. "Why did it have to be a girl?"
Calming down a bit more, he followed the rest of the group out of the room, feeling incredibly awkward and finding it difficult to walk on feet that were about 4 sizes smaller than his own. Hearing the rumbling noise, he sighed. Just when they were finally getting somewhere. He spoke aloud to the computer.
"Really? Are we really doing the Indiana Jones thing right now? Seriously?"
The noise became louder. The change in volume didnât seem to depend on which way they were going, and the sound did not have an echo (although thatâs a bit difficult to tell about a constant noise). The maze appeared to be vibrating, and yet it wasnât, which made Andromeda nauseous... or was it her feeling Tomâs nausea? No, definitely her own.
Now, the computer voice began to talk. âWe are about to arrive at an unknown destination. Congratulations, your teamwork has beat the highscore by six million threehundredtwentyfivethousand ninehundred twenty points. We apologize for the delay and for the inconv-â
The noise and vibration were replaced by a different, unbearably loud noise and violent shaking. The computer voice stopped mid-sentence, everything in the maze stopped moving, then -- black. Seconds later, there were a bang and a crunch, one last extra violent shake, followed by silence.
Andromeda lost consciousness at the bang.
.
.
.
In less than a minute, Andromeda was back. She opened her eyes. She was sitting in a chair inside a round white thing, something almost like an egg. Hanging from a chair was more like it, without the seatbelts she would have fallen into the door in front of her. The air smelled awful, like zombie breath. She felt dizzy and sick, and her head hurt, and at the same time she was hungry. Andromeda unbuckled. Her arms and legs felt weak, tired, sleepy, but they still had the strength she expected from them, allowing her to land almost graciously on all fours. It was a bit awkward not to land on the door.
To her left there was a small closet, which contained a familiar looking backpack. It didnât look as full as before. And were those loops at the side always damaged like that? Were they always there in the first place? Sheâd worry about that later, first she needed to get back to the group. She put on the backpack.
Now wait as second.
Andromeda looked at her hands. She was back in her own body! She grabbed her tail. âHello! I missed you!â It felt so soft, so real. Strange.
She finally opened the door below her. There were more of the egglike things, one directly below her with its door facing her. Hadnât she seen Corki enter that one, long ago? It occurred to her that they had become friends at least twenty times.
She looked around. Most of the doors of the pods were open, nobody had ever been in there. To the left, after a few rows of pods, there was a wall. An equal distance to the right, there also was a wall, but one that didnât seem to belong. It was made of rock, and where the metal walls joined it those were bent all out of shape. Following that wall in the direction that should be up, but wasnât, there was a huge hole and a mess of crushed pods. Something red was dripping from a few. Water was flowing in through one side of the hole.
âWhat kind of fucked up shit is this?â Andromeda commented. Nothing happened. âCome on, relog me goddamnit. I donât want to play!â
Andromeda climbed down from her pod. It was good to be upright, but she had no idea what to do. The water slowly flowing into whatever this place was worried her. Getting away from the water was a good idea. There was a door in the wall to the left, its frame was bent out of shape and it had dropped open. Behind it there were racks containing suitcases. Two things that werenât suitcases stood out, they were rectangular orange things labeled âblack boxâ. How odd that they werenât black.
One of the suitcases looked familiar, but Andromeda was intrigued by the universal connectors on the orange boxes. She reached into her backpack. How come her datapad had grown a keyboard? Another thing to worry about later. Copy that data, find a clue what to do...
There were lots and lots of numbers. Coordinates, speeds, sensor readouts, life support system statistics per pod... Nothing looked like a clue. She closed the laptop. There were sounds coming from the room with the pods. There were other living people here!
The familiar suitcase had her name on it. She tugged at it but couldnât get it to move. Maybe one of those other people could help. Andromeda slapped her forehead, not a good idea considering she had a headache. She had been right above Corkiâs pod and never bothered to look inside to see if her friend was still there and okay!
- 87 posts here • Page 4 of 4 • 1, 2, 3, 4