05-22-2014, 11:48 AM
STORY
3rd Sub-Level, Paranormal Bureau of Investigation, New York, 1929.
“Sir. It has arrived.”
The new recruit had burst into his superior’s office, wincing at the realisation that he had not knocked.
His superior looked up, piercing the subordinate with a gaze from his one blue eye that was not covered by an eye-patch. Slade Wilson stood up and stretched his limbs, numb from having sat in the same position for hours. He towered over the room, his brown hair swaying in the slight breeze coming from the single fan on his desk. Unnatural wind in an unnatural setting.
“Well what are you waiting for, Slater? A formal invitation? Bring it in.”
“Of course, Sir. Right away,” replied the young man. He returned with a small box on
which a rune had been etched. Slade Wilson took a small pendant from his desk drawer and placed it next to the box.
“We were right,” he said, “the symbol is the same. Contact Area 51 to let them know that we finally have both pieces.”
“Roger that, Sir.” The young recruit turned on his heels, closing the door behind him.
Slade Wilson stretched once more, though the feeling of numbness had given way to pure curiosity. He gave a wry smile. His career thus far had been spent looking for that one rune. He opened the box. Inside was a minute crystal, hovering mere millimetres from the bottom. It revolved slowly, giving off a pale blue light.
Opening his pendant, Slade Wilson noted the crystal-shaped cavity that had plagued his imagination. No-one knew what this pendant was, nor what it meant. Its chance discovery by the Brits in 1917 during the Battle of Beersheba had not given any more clues as to its origins. Snippets here and there from ancient Sumerian mythology. Pictograms of huge, hulking creatures bearing the rune in Scandinavia. Sculptures to the effigy of these beasts on the island of Formosa. Slade Wilson’s search had been vast, but had yet to find any tangible results.
Then the call had come. An archaeological dig in Abyssinia had uncovered a mass grave. A mass grave in itself would not have been a significant discovery had not thousands of bodies been found, all bent as if in prayer towards an epicentre. A simple box had been found and logged. There was no way to open it, nor any method of forcing it open. Experts from the world over had been shipped to Vienna, where the Abyssinian Research Centre was based.
A specialist in paranormal artefacts had slipped into a delegation of American scientists and stolen the piece away. Due to administrative errors, the box and its particularities were not logged for a few years. Until 1929, when the resemblance of the rune to another artefact held in New York was flagged.
Slade Wilson was unaware that the box had yet to be opened and assumed that the crystal was safe to handle. Gently picking it up, he held it close to the pendant. The crystal began to exude a mild warmth. The blue glow turned to red. His heart pumping, Slade Wilson noted that the crystal seemed to be the same size and shape as the cavity. He ceremoniously placed the crystal into the pendant. And waited. The light faded. The warmth had gone.
The pendant snapped shut with a sound like the clap of thunder and a bright white light erupted from within. Throwing up his arms in protection, Slade Wilson fell back, hit his head against the wall and knew no more.
***
A field under a cloudy night sky, Unknown location, Unknown point in time
“Awwww seriously? I was just getting used to those latkes!”
“The person who activated their pendant is going to regret taking me away from that place.”
“*click-click* veselle!! *low whistle*”
“I think we just need to calm down...”
“Calm down? One of us transported us here in the middle of bloody no-where. Three months! We managed three months without an accident!”
“Well regardless, what’s done is done. Let’s just find some clothes and a warm place.”
“Guys! We’re not alone! There’s another!”
“He’s... also naked. And... he’s got a pendant! Could it be that...”
“Well there you have it gentlemen, the answer to our mystery.”
“Well he picked a very bad time to discover a pendant, I was just about to win that
latke eating contest.”
“Oh you and your latkes!”
“*chirp chirp* latkée monjeuve *whistle-click*”
“Let’s awaken him! I guess he’s one of us now.”
The moon came out from behind a cloud, casting a dim light over four silhouettes crouched around a supine body.
“Reed, what do you suggest?”
“Let me think...” replied Reed, as he snapped a piece of wood.
“He’s got a pulse!”
“Good thinking, Zed, perhaps we should have thought of checking whether he was actually alive first,” replied a young man with fingerless gloves.
“How come you still have those, Adessi? We all lose our clothes when we transport, but those gloves just stay right there.”
“I say this everytime. I. Don’t. Know. Maybe they’re magic. Who knows.” The man named Adessi slapped the unconscious man. He slapped him again when there was no response. “It’s no good.”
“Atta *chirp* *double-whistle-chirp*!”
“What is it, Him?”
The smallest silhouette had hobbled forward. Slowly he placed his bony hands on the man’s face and pressed down. He burst into laughter as the afore-unconscious body started writhing around.
***
Wilson Slade woke with a start. He was on soft earth. The air was cool. He could not breathe. He could not breathe at all. Rolling over with all his strength, Wilson Slade knocked over a figure that had been smothering him. Harnessing his training, he leapt to his feet and backed away. Feeling a quaint breeze upon his backside, he looked down. He was naked.
“What in the...”
The four shadows before him erupted in laughter.
“Don’t you worry,” wheezed a scarred man with a moustache and a small beard. “This always happens to the new guys.”
Slade Wilson bared his teeth. “You four have ten seconds to explain why I should not end you right here.”
The scarred man turned to his companion, “You want the pleasure of explaining, Reed?”
“Right! You don’t want to kill us because one, we are the only people here that can tell you what is going on, and two, this may be the most hostile place we have ever transported to.”
“Transported?” asked Slade Wilson.
“Transported,” replied a third shadow who identified himself as John Adessi. “What you have there is a transporter. We have no idea how it works, only that we all touched one in our past and have since been transported here and there through time and space.”
“I must be dreaming... still knocked out in my office...”
“Your office?” asked Reed. “Actually, where are you from?”
“New York.”
“You will have to be more precise than that. Did we not just say we travelled through time?”
“1929.”
“Hoo boy, perhaps it was best you left New York at that time!” piped up John Adessi.
“And why might that be?”
“Let’s just say that things are about to get very... depressing in your country.”
Slade Wilson glared at them all, then conceded. “Right. Let us assume that what you say is true. Where are you all from?”
John Adessi spoke first. “John Adessi, Liguria, 14th century.”
“Reed, Valnec II Colony, 30th century.”
“Just Reed?” asked Slade Wilson.
“Just Reed, OK?”
“Right. And you are?”
“Zed Williams, U.S.N.C.A., 22nd century.”
“U.S.N.C.A.”
“United States of North and Central America. Long story.”
“And him?” asked Slade Wilson turning to the man who had been smothering him.
“Exactly.” replied Zed Williams
“What?”
“He’s ‘Him’. He’s been transporting the longest. John Adessi joined after him. They then lost two companions during the Boxer Rebellion. I joined next, then Reed. We had been in the Levant area, 18th century when you transported us.”
“How did I transport you?”
“Well we’re not sure. All we know is that whenever any of us presses on our pendant, we transport to a random point in space and time, though mostly on earth. Whenever we transport, we lose all of our belongings, hence why we are all as bare as at our birth.”
“Lovely,” replied Slade Wilson. “I’m just going to assume I’m in a dream. What now?”
“Lumèr ! Lumèr ! *loud clicks*” cried Him, pointing towards lights.
“Lights!” echoed Zed. “Maybe a way to find out where and when we are.”
TLDR
SCIENCE
DECISIONS
Episode I
3rd Sub-Level, Paranormal Bureau of Investigation, New York, 1929.
“Sir. It has arrived.”
The new recruit had burst into his superior’s office, wincing at the realisation that he had not knocked.
His superior looked up, piercing the subordinate with a gaze from his one blue eye that was not covered by an eye-patch. Slade Wilson stood up and stretched his limbs, numb from having sat in the same position for hours. He towered over the room, his brown hair swaying in the slight breeze coming from the single fan on his desk. Unnatural wind in an unnatural setting.
“Well what are you waiting for, Slater? A formal invitation? Bring it in.”
“Of course, Sir. Right away,” replied the young man. He returned with a small box on
which a rune had been etched. Slade Wilson took a small pendant from his desk drawer and placed it next to the box.
“We were right,” he said, “the symbol is the same. Contact Area 51 to let them know that we finally have both pieces.”
“Roger that, Sir.” The young recruit turned on his heels, closing the door behind him.
Slade Wilson stretched once more, though the feeling of numbness had given way to pure curiosity. He gave a wry smile. His career thus far had been spent looking for that one rune. He opened the box. Inside was a minute crystal, hovering mere millimetres from the bottom. It revolved slowly, giving off a pale blue light.
Opening his pendant, Slade Wilson noted the crystal-shaped cavity that had plagued his imagination. No-one knew what this pendant was, nor what it meant. Its chance discovery by the Brits in 1917 during the Battle of Beersheba had not given any more clues as to its origins. Snippets here and there from ancient Sumerian mythology. Pictograms of huge, hulking creatures bearing the rune in Scandinavia. Sculptures to the effigy of these beasts on the island of Formosa. Slade Wilson’s search had been vast, but had yet to find any tangible results.
Then the call had come. An archaeological dig in Abyssinia had uncovered a mass grave. A mass grave in itself would not have been a significant discovery had not thousands of bodies been found, all bent as if in prayer towards an epicentre. A simple box had been found and logged. There was no way to open it, nor any method of forcing it open. Experts from the world over had been shipped to Vienna, where the Abyssinian Research Centre was based.
A specialist in paranormal artefacts had slipped into a delegation of American scientists and stolen the piece away. Due to administrative errors, the box and its particularities were not logged for a few years. Until 1929, when the resemblance of the rune to another artefact held in New York was flagged.
Slade Wilson was unaware that the box had yet to be opened and assumed that the crystal was safe to handle. Gently picking it up, he held it close to the pendant. The crystal began to exude a mild warmth. The blue glow turned to red. His heart pumping, Slade Wilson noted that the crystal seemed to be the same size and shape as the cavity. He ceremoniously placed the crystal into the pendant. And waited. The light faded. The warmth had gone.
The pendant snapped shut with a sound like the clap of thunder and a bright white light erupted from within. Throwing up his arms in protection, Slade Wilson fell back, hit his head against the wall and knew no more.
***
A field under a cloudy night sky, Unknown location, Unknown point in time
“Awwww seriously? I was just getting used to those latkes!”
“The person who activated their pendant is going to regret taking me away from that place.”
“*click-click* veselle!! *low whistle*”
“I think we just need to calm down...”
“Calm down? One of us transported us here in the middle of bloody no-where. Three months! We managed three months without an accident!”
“Well regardless, what’s done is done. Let’s just find some clothes and a warm place.”
“Guys! We’re not alone! There’s another!”
“He’s... also naked. And... he’s got a pendant! Could it be that...”
“Well there you have it gentlemen, the answer to our mystery.”
“Well he picked a very bad time to discover a pendant, I was just about to win that
latke eating contest.”
“Oh you and your latkes!”
“*chirp chirp* latkée monjeuve *whistle-click*”
“Let’s awaken him! I guess he’s one of us now.”
The moon came out from behind a cloud, casting a dim light over four silhouettes crouched around a supine body.
“Reed, what do you suggest?”
“Let me think...” replied Reed, as he snapped a piece of wood.
“He’s got a pulse!”
“Good thinking, Zed, perhaps we should have thought of checking whether he was actually alive first,” replied a young man with fingerless gloves.
“How come you still have those, Adessi? We all lose our clothes when we transport, but those gloves just stay right there.”
“I say this everytime. I. Don’t. Know. Maybe they’re magic. Who knows.” The man named Adessi slapped the unconscious man. He slapped him again when there was no response. “It’s no good.”
“Atta *chirp* *double-whistle-chirp*!”
“What is it, Him?”
The smallest silhouette had hobbled forward. Slowly he placed his bony hands on the man’s face and pressed down. He burst into laughter as the afore-unconscious body started writhing around.
***
Wilson Slade woke with a start. He was on soft earth. The air was cool. He could not breathe. He could not breathe at all. Rolling over with all his strength, Wilson Slade knocked over a figure that had been smothering him. Harnessing his training, he leapt to his feet and backed away. Feeling a quaint breeze upon his backside, he looked down. He was naked.
“What in the...”
The four shadows before him erupted in laughter.
“Don’t you worry,” wheezed a scarred man with a moustache and a small beard. “This always happens to the new guys.”
Slade Wilson bared his teeth. “You four have ten seconds to explain why I should not end you right here.”
The scarred man turned to his companion, “You want the pleasure of explaining, Reed?”
“Right! You don’t want to kill us because one, we are the only people here that can tell you what is going on, and two, this may be the most hostile place we have ever transported to.”
“Transported?” asked Slade Wilson.
“Transported,” replied a third shadow who identified himself as John Adessi. “What you have there is a transporter. We have no idea how it works, only that we all touched one in our past and have since been transported here and there through time and space.”
“I must be dreaming... still knocked out in my office...”
“Your office?” asked Reed. “Actually, where are you from?”
“New York.”
“You will have to be more precise than that. Did we not just say we travelled through time?”
“1929.”
“Hoo boy, perhaps it was best you left New York at that time!” piped up John Adessi.
“And why might that be?”
“Let’s just say that things are about to get very... depressing in your country.”
Slade Wilson glared at them all, then conceded. “Right. Let us assume that what you say is true. Where are you all from?”
John Adessi spoke first. “John Adessi, Liguria, 14th century.”
“Reed, Valnec II Colony, 30th century.”
“Just Reed?” asked Slade Wilson.
“Just Reed, OK?”
“Right. And you are?”
“Zed Williams, U.S.N.C.A., 22nd century.”
“U.S.N.C.A.”
“United States of North and Central America. Long story.”
“And him?” asked Slade Wilson turning to the man who had been smothering him.
“Exactly.” replied Zed Williams
“What?”
“He’s ‘Him’. He’s been transporting the longest. John Adessi joined after him. They then lost two companions during the Boxer Rebellion. I joined next, then Reed. We had been in the Levant area, 18th century when you transported us.”
“How did I transport you?”
“Well we’re not sure. All we know is that whenever any of us presses on our pendant, we transport to a random point in space and time, though mostly on earth. Whenever we transport, we lose all of our belongings, hence why we are all as bare as at our birth.”
“Lovely,” replied Slade Wilson. “I’m just going to assume I’m in a dream. What now?”
“Lumèr ! Lumèr ! *loud clicks*” cried Him, pointing towards lights.
“Lights!” echoed Zed. “Maybe a way to find out where and when we are.”
Slade Wilson, agent of the Paranormal Bureau of Investigation, activates a pendant that transports him to an unknown location in an unknown time.
Four companions wake him up and explain that they are all transported to a random point of time and space, mostly on earth, whenever one of them presses their pendant. Slade pressed a prendant and therefore transported himself and the others to this unknown location.
Four companions wake him up and explain that they are all transported to a random point of time and space, mostly on earth, whenever one of them presses their pendant. Slade pressed a prendant and therefore transported himself and the others to this unknown location.
No science.
Decisions can be public and posted in the logistics thread, or sent to me by PM if you don't want the others to see and/or be influenced by your decision.
Remember, you all have a pendant and can decide to press it at any time.
Remember also that you can do whatever you want. The story will tailor to your choices. Just don't go to crazy or the story won't make sense!
Slade Wilson -
Reed -
Him -
Zed Williams -
John Adessi -
Remember, you all have a pendant and can decide to press it at any time.
Remember also that you can do whatever you want. The story will tailor to your choices. Just don't go to crazy or the story won't make sense!
Slade Wilson -
What do you do? Do you trust the four companions and go along with their choice?
What do you do?
What do you do?
What do you do?
What do you do?