Post by Andre Jenson on Feb 28, 2016 16:08:45 GMT -5
So, The Alamo. I don't need to go through everything again for you with what actually happened last week there. I won't go into excruciating detail on what's there and what isn't. I don't need to tell you about the City entrance in the shrine, with the camera in the painting and the guard who told AJ he had to beat Katherine to grant access to the city. I don't need to tell you this because you read the last story and know what's happening, right? RIGHT?
I definitely don't need to explain about the corkscrew like chamber that comes up from underground, which contains a guard that defends the realm and ensures that the city is left in peace. So I can safely skip all that bit and take you directly to AJ standing in front of the guard arguing with him. It's the same guard as last week. Just so you know, his demeanour today can be classed as “standoffish”
“Why can't I come in again?” Asked AJ, in the sort of voice that screams he's been told this about 39 times now and he still doesn't process the answer correctly.
“Because you lost to Katherine Phoenix.” Came the reply, with an edge to it, suggesting that this is now the 40th time he's explained this to AJ. The guard stood there, quite rigid, but with his right hand on the hilt of his sword and his left pushed out to keep AJ at a certain distance. By this time he was roughly 6 feet out of his pod, looking quite annoyed. He continued, “I said last week, that you have to prove your worth to enter. That proving worth isn't a small request, it's a requirement. You didn't beat Katherine Phoenix.
“I must object to...”
“No objections, you passed out, during a hug, to a skinny woman. Do you really expect the elders here to take you seriously? No. I'm afraid it's quite impossible, you must leave now.”
“In fairness, I....”
“Enough! I shall not hear any more of this, off you go!” He waved AJ away as if he was trying to shoo away a puppy or something. Every bit of self control he had was being used to not kick AJ or take his sword out and physically stab him in the face.”
“Well, let me just explain. I wasn't feeling very well you see, the potion I drank gave me flu like symptoms and I just fell asleep.” AJ tried to explain as the guard sighed and started to walk to him menacingly. Anger in his eyes and a deep, dark spark of something like hate behind that. He had seemed to AJ like the guy had finally had enough. He took the sword out of the hilt and started to point it at AJ. AJ stepped back, wide eyed and holding his hands up in a “whoa whoa, stop” motion. The guard did not take heed of this and continued to stalk him. AJ backed out of the room, the guard followed, snarling as he did. He looked like he was ready to beat AJ within an inch of his life.
However, the look changed as soon as he left the room. The look turned to panic and the wide eyed glare of a guy who knows he's just fucked the fuck up. You see, as soon as he stepped through the door there was a loud crunching noise while the empty chamber to the city spiralled downwards.
“FUCK!” The guard shouted, forgetting AJ in his panic as he dashed toward the quickly retreating chamber. He got to the chamber just as it ended its journey and frantically scrabbled about by the stone cylinder, trying to find a switch, button, anything to bring it back up. All the while cursing expletives. His next couple of seconds went along the lines of this:
“FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. IDON'TBELIEVEFUCKFUCK.”
Quickly followed by an ear piercing “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” as he realised that the button or switch was not going to be there. He fell to his knees, silently sobbing as he contemplated his next move. While this was happening, AJ stood there watching him with a furrowed brow, slightly confused as to what's going on. He cleared his throat. Mistake. The guard rounded on him.
“YOU!” He yelled, pointing his finger firmly at AJ's face. “I'LL KILL YOU!”
AJ quickly smiled, then ducked out of the room, to avoid getting a nice big sword in his face as the guard clambered to his feet to go after AJ again, who was moving out of the area as quickly as he could. He saw a group of tourists standing outside of the shrine in the plaza, so he moved toward them, thinking that being in a crowd would be the safest option when a maniac with a sword tried to kill him. He saw the guard furiously stomp out of the doorway to the shrine and survey the situation, clenching his jaw and burning a hole through AJ's face with his eyes.
“Listen,” AJ began. “Can we parlay somewhere?” He glanced at the sword, held in the guard's hand, ready to strike. “Without the sword, if you don't mind.”
“YOU JUST RUINED MY LIFE!” Shouted the guard at AJ. “I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!”
“Let us not be hasty.” AJ replied, in as much a conciliatory tone as possible, while noticing that there was now a 3 foot gap between him and the closest person to him. “I do not know of the reason for your anger. Have you imbibed a rage potion accidentally?”
“NO!” The guard spat out, with as much venom as he could muster and through gritted teeth continued. “I can't......get.......home.”
“You cannot get home?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, that is not good news.”
“No shit! And it's your fault!” Anger started welling up in him again as he took his sword and started smashing it against the stonework of the shrine, much to the disgust of some tourists. Some were even on their cell phones, calling 911 it sounded like to AJ. He urgently spoke to the guard.
“Look, I am sorry for your plight, but you need to soothe your rage, the people of this realm have already called their law makers. We need to vacate the area immediately and think of another plan.”
The guard looked at AJ as if he had just taken a dump in his house, fished it out of the toilet and fed it to him in a hotdog.
“Come with you?” He spat.
“Or stay, and deal with their law makers. I have seen them, they don't have magic but they have guns. That will hurt.”
“Guns?”
“Yes, guns. They are devices created by this realm to work like a wand blast. Ingenious really. They
fire a small bit of lead called a bullet out of a tube at the speed of sound. It's most clever. They do love to use them as well. I am surprised that you have not been shot by one already.”
The guard thought about this for a second, then heard sirens in the distance, AJ looked at him intently and the guard, resigning himself to his fate, nodded and put the sword back into the scabbard. AJ smiled and pointed to the entrance to the Alamo grounds. “I have a flying machine out this way, come – I will take you to safety.”
By the time they got to the helicopter, the sirens were getting rather loud. The pilot, seeing AJ in pretty much a nice hurry with the big beefy newcomer knew enough that the rotors needed to be moving and they needed to be up in the air as soon as possible. He also heard the sirens and dreaded the police turning up and shooting up his plane. He'd only just had it fixed since the last time this happened. Here in Texas, the chance of being shot by the police is 400% more likely. So getting the hell out of here as quickly as possible just made perfect sense. AJ and the guard jumped in the helicopter and they took off, just as the police cars came screeching around the corner, with some moustachioed police officers hanging out of the windows, already pointing their guns at whatever they could shoot.
“I am glad you thought to evacuate hastily.” Said AJ to the pilot, once he put on his headset. He motioned, to the guard to put his headset on. “Friend. I am truly sorry about your home. Why can you not get there?” He asked, when the guard did indeed put his on.
“I CAN'T GET BACK BECAUSE THE CITY WILL HAVE MOVED!” The guard shouted back, unaware that he really didn't need to raise his voice on the headset.
“Moved? How?” Asked AJ.
“THEY HAVE A MAGICAL LINK TO US WATCHERS, IF WE LEAVE THE VICINITY OF THE POD IT WILL ASSUME WE'VE FALLEN AND THE CITY IS IN DANGER. IT'LL THEN MOVE ON TO ITS NEXT PLANNED LOCATION!”
The pilot was puzzled by this, but AJ seemed like he was taking it very well in his stride, almost as if he expected that sort of thing.
“Ah, a magical relocation spell. Clever.” He mused. “Do you know where it will have gone? You don't need to shout by the way.”
The guard growled, “No. You found us once though, so you can find it again. I will not leave your side until you do.”
“No pressure then.” AJ pursed his lips. “What's your name?” He asked.
“Just call me the watcher.” Came the reply. “That is what I am, that is what I do. Names only serve to distract you from your purpose in life.”
AJ nodded, appreciating this.
“Yes, I understand that. It's why one of the campaigns I am a part of only refer to each other in numbers of importance.” He thought for a minute. “I'm number 5. How did you know my name anyway? I mean you seemed to know a fair amount of my information last week.”
“We get WCF in our audio visual devices. As well as HBO.”
“And you didn't know what lifts were?”
“No. These programs don't go into the technological breakdowns of how your contraptions work. Also, watching is very boring most of the time and I don't want to be even more bored with knowing how things like ships work.”
“Oh. So you'll know that I have a very big match this weekend and we can't go looking for the city yet then?”
“Indeed. It is a big match for most. You, however. Not so much.”
“What do you mean, not so much?”
“You passed out against a girl, you will be beaten in this match, probably by Dustin Beaver.”
AJ narrowed his eyes a little. “He's not even in the match.”
The guard shrugged. “Still probably will, he seemed to throw you out of all these matches. He'll find a way. Either way, you've got no chance in this match. Benson, Teo, Bonnie, Young, Hatcher, Wolfram, Jordan, Maxx, Shadowlove, McMorris and Rabid are all just better than you. You will be out first. If you're not, then I'll be surprised.”
“Thank you friend, for the vote of confidence.” Sighed AJ.
“It's true. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you'll lose. You may as well give up and dedicate yourself to helping me full time.” The guard leaned on the window, looking pretty downbeat about his situation. AJ, on the other hand looked more than a little frustrated.
“So I've been on a bit of a lull lately, so what? It shall improve.” He said defensively.
The guard gave a snort of derision.
“So what's your plan then? If you think you have a chance?”
“I have no idea.” Admitted AJ. “I have allies in this match. Perhaps they shall look out for me, Teo and Bonnie may well help in the aim of one of us winning. I shall not be more happy if Bonnie or Teo go on to the tournament and win. As for the rest of them, I can not go into too much detail as we are almost back at Kem and we have much work to do. Needless to say, the rest of the field are stalwart competition. Every single one of the participants are deserving of so much more than this match. It shall be no mean feat to survive this. Whoever wins shall deserve that position in the tourney.”
“So you have no plan, and the guys in this match are much better than you. That's what you are saying? Give up and help me.”
AJ thought for a moment. “Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement here. By my own admission, I am not doing as well as I can do in WCF larping. Perhaps you can accompany me to the ringside area and watch out for nefarious scheming? I am perturbed by the camera surveillance at the Alamo, and then we have this HWO guild who seem to have me on a list. Obviously this Sunday will not be helpful, there are too many people in this match to watch out for, but in the future you can ensure that things just do not happen to me that should not happen? In return, we shall find the city together and return you to your rightful place at home.”
The watcher contemplated this for a moment, before agreeing with a curt nod. “Aye, this seems advantageous. I will ensure that the nefarious villainy shall not happen against you. If it ensures you spend your time trying to get me home, I shall do this deed.”
AJ smiled a toothy grin at the watcher.
“Good, good. Now let us begin anew.”
I definitely don't need to explain about the corkscrew like chamber that comes up from underground, which contains a guard that defends the realm and ensures that the city is left in peace. So I can safely skip all that bit and take you directly to AJ standing in front of the guard arguing with him. It's the same guard as last week. Just so you know, his demeanour today can be classed as “standoffish”
“Why can't I come in again?” Asked AJ, in the sort of voice that screams he's been told this about 39 times now and he still doesn't process the answer correctly.
“Because you lost to Katherine Phoenix.” Came the reply, with an edge to it, suggesting that this is now the 40th time he's explained this to AJ. The guard stood there, quite rigid, but with his right hand on the hilt of his sword and his left pushed out to keep AJ at a certain distance. By this time he was roughly 6 feet out of his pod, looking quite annoyed. He continued, “I said last week, that you have to prove your worth to enter. That proving worth isn't a small request, it's a requirement. You didn't beat Katherine Phoenix.
“I must object to...”
“No objections, you passed out, during a hug, to a skinny woman. Do you really expect the elders here to take you seriously? No. I'm afraid it's quite impossible, you must leave now.”
“In fairness, I....”
“Enough! I shall not hear any more of this, off you go!” He waved AJ away as if he was trying to shoo away a puppy or something. Every bit of self control he had was being used to not kick AJ or take his sword out and physically stab him in the face.”
“Well, let me just explain. I wasn't feeling very well you see, the potion I drank gave me flu like symptoms and I just fell asleep.” AJ tried to explain as the guard sighed and started to walk to him menacingly. Anger in his eyes and a deep, dark spark of something like hate behind that. He had seemed to AJ like the guy had finally had enough. He took the sword out of the hilt and started to point it at AJ. AJ stepped back, wide eyed and holding his hands up in a “whoa whoa, stop” motion. The guard did not take heed of this and continued to stalk him. AJ backed out of the room, the guard followed, snarling as he did. He looked like he was ready to beat AJ within an inch of his life.
However, the look changed as soon as he left the room. The look turned to panic and the wide eyed glare of a guy who knows he's just fucked the fuck up. You see, as soon as he stepped through the door there was a loud crunching noise while the empty chamber to the city spiralled downwards.
“FUCK!” The guard shouted, forgetting AJ in his panic as he dashed toward the quickly retreating chamber. He got to the chamber just as it ended its journey and frantically scrabbled about by the stone cylinder, trying to find a switch, button, anything to bring it back up. All the while cursing expletives. His next couple of seconds went along the lines of this:
“FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK. IDON'TBELIEVEFUCKFUCK.”
Quickly followed by an ear piercing “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” as he realised that the button or switch was not going to be there. He fell to his knees, silently sobbing as he contemplated his next move. While this was happening, AJ stood there watching him with a furrowed brow, slightly confused as to what's going on. He cleared his throat. Mistake. The guard rounded on him.
“YOU!” He yelled, pointing his finger firmly at AJ's face. “I'LL KILL YOU!”
AJ quickly smiled, then ducked out of the room, to avoid getting a nice big sword in his face as the guard clambered to his feet to go after AJ again, who was moving out of the area as quickly as he could. He saw a group of tourists standing outside of the shrine in the plaza, so he moved toward them, thinking that being in a crowd would be the safest option when a maniac with a sword tried to kill him. He saw the guard furiously stomp out of the doorway to the shrine and survey the situation, clenching his jaw and burning a hole through AJ's face with his eyes.
“Listen,” AJ began. “Can we parlay somewhere?” He glanced at the sword, held in the guard's hand, ready to strike. “Without the sword, if you don't mind.”
“YOU JUST RUINED MY LIFE!” Shouted the guard at AJ. “I SHOULD KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND!”
“Let us not be hasty.” AJ replied, in as much a conciliatory tone as possible, while noticing that there was now a 3 foot gap between him and the closest person to him. “I do not know of the reason for your anger. Have you imbibed a rage potion accidentally?”
“NO!” The guard spat out, with as much venom as he could muster and through gritted teeth continued. “I can't......get.......home.”
“You cannot get home?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, that is not good news.”
“No shit! And it's your fault!” Anger started welling up in him again as he took his sword and started smashing it against the stonework of the shrine, much to the disgust of some tourists. Some were even on their cell phones, calling 911 it sounded like to AJ. He urgently spoke to the guard.
“Look, I am sorry for your plight, but you need to soothe your rage, the people of this realm have already called their law makers. We need to vacate the area immediately and think of another plan.”
The guard looked at AJ as if he had just taken a dump in his house, fished it out of the toilet and fed it to him in a hotdog.
“Come with you?” He spat.
“Or stay, and deal with their law makers. I have seen them, they don't have magic but they have guns. That will hurt.”
“Guns?”
“Yes, guns. They are devices created by this realm to work like a wand blast. Ingenious really. They
fire a small bit of lead called a bullet out of a tube at the speed of sound. It's most clever. They do love to use them as well. I am surprised that you have not been shot by one already.”
The guard thought about this for a second, then heard sirens in the distance, AJ looked at him intently and the guard, resigning himself to his fate, nodded and put the sword back into the scabbard. AJ smiled and pointed to the entrance to the Alamo grounds. “I have a flying machine out this way, come – I will take you to safety.”
By the time they got to the helicopter, the sirens were getting rather loud. The pilot, seeing AJ in pretty much a nice hurry with the big beefy newcomer knew enough that the rotors needed to be moving and they needed to be up in the air as soon as possible. He also heard the sirens and dreaded the police turning up and shooting up his plane. He'd only just had it fixed since the last time this happened. Here in Texas, the chance of being shot by the police is 400% more likely. So getting the hell out of here as quickly as possible just made perfect sense. AJ and the guard jumped in the helicopter and they took off, just as the police cars came screeching around the corner, with some moustachioed police officers hanging out of the windows, already pointing their guns at whatever they could shoot.
“I am glad you thought to evacuate hastily.” Said AJ to the pilot, once he put on his headset. He motioned, to the guard to put his headset on. “Friend. I am truly sorry about your home. Why can you not get there?” He asked, when the guard did indeed put his on.
“I CAN'T GET BACK BECAUSE THE CITY WILL HAVE MOVED!” The guard shouted back, unaware that he really didn't need to raise his voice on the headset.
“Moved? How?” Asked AJ.
“THEY HAVE A MAGICAL LINK TO US WATCHERS, IF WE LEAVE THE VICINITY OF THE POD IT WILL ASSUME WE'VE FALLEN AND THE CITY IS IN DANGER. IT'LL THEN MOVE ON TO ITS NEXT PLANNED LOCATION!”
The pilot was puzzled by this, but AJ seemed like he was taking it very well in his stride, almost as if he expected that sort of thing.
“Ah, a magical relocation spell. Clever.” He mused. “Do you know where it will have gone? You don't need to shout by the way.”
The guard growled, “No. You found us once though, so you can find it again. I will not leave your side until you do.”
“No pressure then.” AJ pursed his lips. “What's your name?” He asked.
“Just call me the watcher.” Came the reply. “That is what I am, that is what I do. Names only serve to distract you from your purpose in life.”
AJ nodded, appreciating this.
“Yes, I understand that. It's why one of the campaigns I am a part of only refer to each other in numbers of importance.” He thought for a minute. “I'm number 5. How did you know my name anyway? I mean you seemed to know a fair amount of my information last week.”
“We get WCF in our audio visual devices. As well as HBO.”
“And you didn't know what lifts were?”
“No. These programs don't go into the technological breakdowns of how your contraptions work. Also, watching is very boring most of the time and I don't want to be even more bored with knowing how things like ships work.”
“Oh. So you'll know that I have a very big match this weekend and we can't go looking for the city yet then?”
“Indeed. It is a big match for most. You, however. Not so much.”
“What do you mean, not so much?”
“You passed out against a girl, you will be beaten in this match, probably by Dustin Beaver.”
AJ narrowed his eyes a little. “He's not even in the match.”
The guard shrugged. “Still probably will, he seemed to throw you out of all these matches. He'll find a way. Either way, you've got no chance in this match. Benson, Teo, Bonnie, Young, Hatcher, Wolfram, Jordan, Maxx, Shadowlove, McMorris and Rabid are all just better than you. You will be out first. If you're not, then I'll be surprised.”
“Thank you friend, for the vote of confidence.” Sighed AJ.
“It's true. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you'll lose. You may as well give up and dedicate yourself to helping me full time.” The guard leaned on the window, looking pretty downbeat about his situation. AJ, on the other hand looked more than a little frustrated.
“So I've been on a bit of a lull lately, so what? It shall improve.” He said defensively.
The guard gave a snort of derision.
“So what's your plan then? If you think you have a chance?”
“I have no idea.” Admitted AJ. “I have allies in this match. Perhaps they shall look out for me, Teo and Bonnie may well help in the aim of one of us winning. I shall not be more happy if Bonnie or Teo go on to the tournament and win. As for the rest of them, I can not go into too much detail as we are almost back at Kem and we have much work to do. Needless to say, the rest of the field are stalwart competition. Every single one of the participants are deserving of so much more than this match. It shall be no mean feat to survive this. Whoever wins shall deserve that position in the tourney.”
“So you have no plan, and the guys in this match are much better than you. That's what you are saying? Give up and help me.”
AJ thought for a moment. “Maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement here. By my own admission, I am not doing as well as I can do in WCF larping. Perhaps you can accompany me to the ringside area and watch out for nefarious scheming? I am perturbed by the camera surveillance at the Alamo, and then we have this HWO guild who seem to have me on a list. Obviously this Sunday will not be helpful, there are too many people in this match to watch out for, but in the future you can ensure that things just do not happen to me that should not happen? In return, we shall find the city together and return you to your rightful place at home.”
The watcher contemplated this for a moment, before agreeing with a curt nod. “Aye, this seems advantageous. I will ensure that the nefarious villainy shall not happen against you. If it ensures you spend your time trying to get me home, I shall do this deed.”
AJ smiled a toothy grin at the watcher.
“Good, good. Now let us begin anew.”
