Return of the Improv Thread

[Tanuchan]

The corridor is dark, but some steps awayfrom the door it spirals down gently. From that point on, there's a soft, diffuse light, revealing some landings and doors along its descending walls. Looking for the source of the faint light, Rialla notices small depressions high on the wall, regularly spaced. Small bubbles come out of them from time to time, looking exactly like soap bubbles. But these ones are slightly colored, some bluish, some dark-yellowish, and some greenish. They float gently, and when bumping into each other or into the wall, pop releasing a soft luminescence.

 

Rialla stops for a while, entranced by the slow dance of the soap bubbles. A darker patch of shadow observes her from the end of the corridor.

 

She senses. She can help. She has the acorn. But she needs the knowledge.

 

Rialla awakes with a shudder, suddenly throwing her eyes and mind around. A very light awareness of something again catches her attention, but it fades away quickly. Sighing, she follows the corridor until her inner senses tell her that she's at ground level.

 

A door opens at her touch, and she finds herself in an ample room filled with light. Her steps echoe a bit oddly as she goes to the big window with drawn curtains, her mind registering the sparse covered furniture. She stops some paces into the room as she sees what the light falls into: a statue... a woman carrying a bowl, her lower body again part of a seething mass of curves. However, although its face is the same as the smaller statue upstairs, this one is completely human. The curves around her legs haven't yet become tentacles. And there are no acorns around her.

 

After examining the statue carefully, Rialla goes to the window in time to see Robby emerging from under the hedge wall. Fumbling a bit with its rusty panels, she opens it.

 

"Hi."

 

Robby jumps some steps back, completely surprised. Rialla grins in spite of all the mystery, and waves him inside. "There must be a door somewhere... I can't seem to find one, but maybe you find one from the outside."

[Vlad]

Down and down and down the rabbit hole goes. At least that's what it seemed like to Floyd. He had been falling for what seemed to be an eternity, with no end in sight. It was completely dark and hours ago Flyod had lost all sense of direction. For all he knew, air currents could have been propelling him through a circular tube. His reasoning would allow it however. He had gotten into the tunnel somehow, so there must ba a way out.

 

Sure enough, Floyd slowly began to slow down, and things began to heat up. As quickly as he had fallen into the hole (conveniently forgetting those horribly boring middle hours), Floyd landed in an open cavern. This area was well lit with a very reddish hue. The temperatures were enourmous, and Floyd simply couldn't see straight.

 

Making a quick judgement call, the robot boy began to walk forward, hoping to someday find a way out. The journey soon became very slow-going and tedious. It began to wear away at even a robot's infinitesmal levals of patience. The same scenery would be recurring, with an occasional mile marker.

 

Just when Floyd was ready to give up, he saw a wiry man meditating on the side of the path. Hoping for some WD-40, he approached the stranger. When he neared the meditating man, the man eyes burst open as if he was possessed. "Here. Take this. Quick. And don't read it!"

 

"What am I suppose-"

"Don't ask questions. Just take this unread scroll."

"Why is it so impor-"

"Don't. Ask. Questions. Just run"

"..."

"That way." The man pointed in the direction from which Floyd had come.

"You're crazy."

"John Connor, get down!"

"Wha-"

"Run Forrest! Run!"

 

Floyd gave the man a blank look, and decided it best not to question authority. Or what seemed like authority. So he did the most logical thing he could come up with. He ran.

It wasn't much of a plan, but at least it was a plan.

 

OOC: Sorry about being so late with this post. I'm going to try for more consistency.

I'm fine with random dragons in my character's path. As long as they're not dragoons.

Edited May 14, 2004 by Vlad

[Katzaniel]

OOC: I was worried that my prop requests had been the cause of this lull, but looks to be not so. If anyone finds themselves with long-lasting writer's block because of some request of mine, don't be afraid to say so, I'd rather that I had to retract something than that the thread died. Having said that, my own creativity with regards to this seems to have returned, so I too will be making a long-due post. And it seems about time that Vlad and I started working toward each other. Onward, then!

 

IC:

In the morning the young woman awoke refreshed and ready to begin her journey. Looking through her bag for the stone that would help her find this man Trey, she came across the bag of newt-eyes and wondered briefly why they didn't come in the convenient form of a ring or brooch. It would be the best way to keep one on her person, in case the backpack got lost or stolen. In the meantime, she cut herself a slender branch from the hedge and tied it around her waist, afixing to it the sack of little eyes. This would suffice until the next town she could find. That first task done, she returned to locating the rock.

 

The stone was smooth and flat, with a niche neatly placed along its side, like a slice of rock. Inbi traced the edge once and found it strangely comforting. She nodded to herself and tossed it in the air. When it landed, the niche pointed to the hedge maze.

 

That pointed out the first and most obvious problem with the stone. It showed only the direction of the man, not the direction in which she must go to reach the man. Since it seemed unlikely that he was actually in the house within the maze, Inbi decided to walk a way along the hedge and try again, to gauge how much the angle of her destination changed. She guessed that she would have to go all the way around the maze, and the thought displeased her, but nothing else was to be done.

 

The young thief spent the next half day trudging alongside the overgrown hedge before tossing the stone again into the air. The action proved to her that Trey was indeed far beyond the maze, and so after eating a little food, Inbi continued on her way.

 

Within another few hours, Inbi was able to turn around the corner and begin progress along the next side of the huge rectangle. When she did, she saw in the distance a shape a little way apart from the maze. Curious.

 

As the girl got closer, she began to distinguish that the shape was actually another hedge, grown in a little enclosure not three paces wide and not much taller than herself. Approaching it, could see no way to get inside of it, and loping easily around it she found no hints of any kind.

 

Still not wanting to rely on her magic, Inbi first tried prying it apart with her hands, then cutting it with her dagger. This one seemed to be made of much stronger wood for it budged not an inch. At that point the young woman froze a doorframe shape into the hedge, making sure the ice was well formed and firm before setting fire to the inner section. She as well should not have wasted her time and energy, for the wood did not burn, only blacken mockingly.

 

One more trick up her sleeve, Inbi steeled herself for a difficult and very likely futile manouever. Nevertheless, she felt that whatever was inside the close-packed hedge must yield a great clue in her puzzle. So the girl knelt, knees close to her chest and palms carefully placed on either side of each foot. Then she caused a jet of ice to propel her forward, aiming painstakingly at a location about a foot below the top of the hedge.

 

Shooting forward, balancing precariously on two streams of ice, Inbi reached the hedge and scrabbled quickly onto the top without noticing right away that there was indeed an opening. When she found her balance, she looked around and discovered that the hedge was nothing more than four walls, and perched atop one of them she could see clearly what lay in between.

 

It confused her all the more, for it was unclear why anyone would go to the trouble of protecting or even hiding this object. Below her in the grass inside the hedge lay the form of a doll, well worn and missing both its head and left foot. Nevertheless, Inbi felt that it would not do to leave it here, for it had to be a large part of the mystery. Climbing down as carefully as she could, she picked up the doll and studied it. It was the shape of a little girl, as most dolls were, knitted carefully together and though dirty it had clearly had an owner who had cared for it. Its pink dress was ripped but mended, the missing leg had been gently sewn up, and it seemed to have had its stuffing replaced at least once. Strangely, though, the head seemed to have been recently torn off for the neck showed no sign of patching and some stuffing had already fallen out. Feeling like she had fewer answers than before, Inbi placed the doll in her pack and used the same trick as before to gain the top of the wall a second time. Seeing nothing else to do but continue her journey, the young woman hopped back down, threw the stone to be sure of her bearings, and walked onward.

 

Edit: A couple spelling mistakes corrected and an extensive description of the doll added.

Edited May 14, 2004 by Katzaniel