- Joined
- Jul 6, 2008
- Messages
- 11,370
Interlude: Escape
How many cycles did you endure?
Hundreds?
Thousands?
There were cycles in which you watched as they were killed, and you did not lift a finger to save them.
There were cycles in which they killed you, and you did not lift a finger to save yourself.
You clung to only one thought. "Wait."
You waited.
***
The ground shook as you opened your eyes again. This time there were no friends to greet you, no family to mock you. Your hunger-sharpened senses detected, from a great distance, a presence akin to one you had only felt once before, near the peak of Olympus. At last, they were here. Were they on a routine trip? Were they attracted here by the piece of Vajra?
You did not know why exactly, but you knew what to do. For countless cycles you had been gathering your strength, meditating and conserving energy, all for the day when the sphere was distracted from its games with you. You hold Vajra out in front of you, stained dark with the blood of your countless deaths. At the end of every game, everything you had was always returned to you - even your clothes, though they were ragged pieces about to fall apart by now. You suppose it was part of the game.
Vajra flares to life. Immediately, your surroundings begin to dissolve into uniform whiteness, the sphere noticing the oddity within. "Too late," you grin, and you put all of your power into Vajra. A massive blue spear of electricity roars out from the outstretched artifact, melting through the sphere. Gritting your teeth, you sustain it until you feel the last of the resistance fall away as the lance thrusts out into the void. You fall to the ground, spent. The ground shook violently as the sphere attempts to mend itself, but something was assaulting it from the outside. For the first time, you are able to pick up an emotion from the sphere itself. Panic.
A glaring white light shines in from the hole that you have made, but despite the brightness, you slip away into darkness.
***
"It is a pleasure to meet you at last. My colleagues have told me plenty about you."
The male voice speaks to you in fluent Akkadian, his accent natural. When you open your eyes next, you are sitting in a garden. You are not surprised. A man sits across you, one leg crossed neatly over the other. He had a thin, hard face, with a pencil thin moustache and sparse black hair that was swept back from his forehead and somehow kept there without the use of any instruments. A circular, flat piece of glass sits on one eye, and he raises the immaculately kept eyebrow above it.
"Why are you looking at my hair?"
"It's... thin."
"In the mood for jokes, I see. No matter. I believe you are the specimen that calls yourself Ean, are you not?"
You nod. "You must be a friend of Zeus."
"Not exactly. He was in some ways, my superior. We have... had... a working relationship, but that is no concern of yours." He raises a gloved hand - in it you see the piece of Vajra that you had. You instantly realize that you no longer had any connection to it. It had been ripped away, unsettling your powers, but doing no major harm to your body. The man continues, as he snaps his fingers and Vajra vanishes into thin air. "We thank you for bringing this piece back to us. It might be a mere bauble in the greater scheme of things, but it is a very costly bauble. As a reward, you may have tea."
"What is tea?"
"The discovery has not been made yet? How primitive. Very well, enlighten yourself."
Two cups appear on the table in front of you. Within there was a steaming, clear brown liquid.
"I hope you like it black."
You are about to say that it wasn't black, but you shake your head. Evidently you were still not free of strange things happening to you.
"The tea can wait." As you say that, the cup disappears. "You saved me from the sphere, didn't you? What are those things?"
"Ah, curiosity. Those 'things', as you put it, are protrusions of higher beings from a realm above this one. Think of them as their fingers, poking, sensing, touching, learning. You were but a curiosity to them - granted, you are a unique aberration that interests even us - and your entry certainly made them even more curious about the world you came from." says the man nonchalantly, as he raises the cup to his lips lightly and sips the tea within. Before you can say anything else, he gives you a smile. "Do not worry, your world is still intact. After some observation, it has now been given the designation of a test world. Hopes are high, especially with the legacy you had left behind."
You narrow your eyes. "That sounds too good to be true."
"It's not. We expect results from test worlds. If they do not meet our exacting standards, they will also be disposed of."
"What results are these? What do you expect from us?"
"Well, there's no harm in letting you know. It's simple. There are many other test worlds in your reality. As your technology grows, you will encounter them, sooner or later, and there will be a clash of civilizations. The eventual victor, out of the countless test worlds, will be admitted to the Gate, and there we will ask them what they have learnt from their experience." After a pause, he adds, "Of course, there will be a reward: we will grant one wish of the victor. Any wish, as long as it is within our reach, and as you well know, our reach is long indeed."
"Your reach isn't that long in my world, it seems. As far as I know, you were locked out by some tentacles."
"So you know of the Gieloth damaging the system," he chuckles. "A temporary setback. By the time a victor emerges from your reality, it will have been long fixed. In fact, by providing us with the piece of Vajra, you have only sped up the timeline. I must thank you for that."
"Ah, this is all crazy. Give me some of that tea." you complain. Since you were here, you might as well taste the fruits of his hospitality.
"Gladly."
The cup reappears again, and this time you drink it. It had a light, slightly sweet taste, with an underlying smokiness.
"Oh... This is good."
The man beams. "I'm glad you like it. Now, what to do with you... we would like to see what you can do with the world you are from, but unfortunately, your tentacled friends damaged the system. We can't access it directly just yet, not without going through the rift that my brilliant friend created, and even we do not want to spend more time in that particular place than necessary. It is out of the way anyway. I'm afraid I will have to drop you on one of our more accessible test worlds. You can always make your way back from there, if you find out how."
"I thought I was a unique aberration. Should you be dumping such a unique specimen anywhere?"
"You are unique, but that also means that your interactions wherever we put you should be unique and enlightening. Some advocated putting a new set of voices inside you, but I personally think it's a waste of time. You'd probably just eat them," he winked. "Alternatively, you can come back with me to our home, where we will find a way to put you to use. It might not be a pleasant experience, I warn you. Finally, we dump you back where we found you. If you're quick enough, you might be able to get back without attracting the attention of any of the things in there, I suppose. You would have to be very quick."
He chuckles, and you ponder your options.
***
A. You head to one of the test worlds that the Master is offering.
B. You return to the Master's homelands.
C. You go back into the void.
How many cycles did you endure?
Hundreds?
Thousands?
There were cycles in which you watched as they were killed, and you did not lift a finger to save them.
There were cycles in which they killed you, and you did not lift a finger to save yourself.
You clung to only one thought. "Wait."
You waited.
***
The ground shook as you opened your eyes again. This time there were no friends to greet you, no family to mock you. Your hunger-sharpened senses detected, from a great distance, a presence akin to one you had only felt once before, near the peak of Olympus. At last, they were here. Were they on a routine trip? Were they attracted here by the piece of Vajra?
You did not know why exactly, but you knew what to do. For countless cycles you had been gathering your strength, meditating and conserving energy, all for the day when the sphere was distracted from its games with you. You hold Vajra out in front of you, stained dark with the blood of your countless deaths. At the end of every game, everything you had was always returned to you - even your clothes, though they were ragged pieces about to fall apart by now. You suppose it was part of the game.
Vajra flares to life. Immediately, your surroundings begin to dissolve into uniform whiteness, the sphere noticing the oddity within. "Too late," you grin, and you put all of your power into Vajra. A massive blue spear of electricity roars out from the outstretched artifact, melting through the sphere. Gritting your teeth, you sustain it until you feel the last of the resistance fall away as the lance thrusts out into the void. You fall to the ground, spent. The ground shook violently as the sphere attempts to mend itself, but something was assaulting it from the outside. For the first time, you are able to pick up an emotion from the sphere itself. Panic.
A glaring white light shines in from the hole that you have made, but despite the brightness, you slip away into darkness.
***
"It is a pleasure to meet you at last. My colleagues have told me plenty about you."
The male voice speaks to you in fluent Akkadian, his accent natural. When you open your eyes next, you are sitting in a garden. You are not surprised. A man sits across you, one leg crossed neatly over the other. He had a thin, hard face, with a pencil thin moustache and sparse black hair that was swept back from his forehead and somehow kept there without the use of any instruments. A circular, flat piece of glass sits on one eye, and he raises the immaculately kept eyebrow above it.
"Why are you looking at my hair?"
"It's... thin."
"In the mood for jokes, I see. No matter. I believe you are the specimen that calls yourself Ean, are you not?"
You nod. "You must be a friend of Zeus."
"Not exactly. He was in some ways, my superior. We have... had... a working relationship, but that is no concern of yours." He raises a gloved hand - in it you see the piece of Vajra that you had. You instantly realize that you no longer had any connection to it. It had been ripped away, unsettling your powers, but doing no major harm to your body. The man continues, as he snaps his fingers and Vajra vanishes into thin air. "We thank you for bringing this piece back to us. It might be a mere bauble in the greater scheme of things, but it is a very costly bauble. As a reward, you may have tea."
"What is tea?"
"The discovery has not been made yet? How primitive. Very well, enlighten yourself."
Two cups appear on the table in front of you. Within there was a steaming, clear brown liquid.
"I hope you like it black."
You are about to say that it wasn't black, but you shake your head. Evidently you were still not free of strange things happening to you.
"The tea can wait." As you say that, the cup disappears. "You saved me from the sphere, didn't you? What are those things?"
"Ah, curiosity. Those 'things', as you put it, are protrusions of higher beings from a realm above this one. Think of them as their fingers, poking, sensing, touching, learning. You were but a curiosity to them - granted, you are a unique aberration that interests even us - and your entry certainly made them even more curious about the world you came from." says the man nonchalantly, as he raises the cup to his lips lightly and sips the tea within. Before you can say anything else, he gives you a smile. "Do not worry, your world is still intact. After some observation, it has now been given the designation of a test world. Hopes are high, especially with the legacy you had left behind."
You narrow your eyes. "That sounds too good to be true."
"It's not. We expect results from test worlds. If they do not meet our exacting standards, they will also be disposed of."
"What results are these? What do you expect from us?"
"Well, there's no harm in letting you know. It's simple. There are many other test worlds in your reality. As your technology grows, you will encounter them, sooner or later, and there will be a clash of civilizations. The eventual victor, out of the countless test worlds, will be admitted to the Gate, and there we will ask them what they have learnt from their experience." After a pause, he adds, "Of course, there will be a reward: we will grant one wish of the victor. Any wish, as long as it is within our reach, and as you well know, our reach is long indeed."
"Your reach isn't that long in my world, it seems. As far as I know, you were locked out by some tentacles."
"So you know of the Gieloth damaging the system," he chuckles. "A temporary setback. By the time a victor emerges from your reality, it will have been long fixed. In fact, by providing us with the piece of Vajra, you have only sped up the timeline. I must thank you for that."
"Ah, this is all crazy. Give me some of that tea." you complain. Since you were here, you might as well taste the fruits of his hospitality.
"Gladly."
The cup reappears again, and this time you drink it. It had a light, slightly sweet taste, with an underlying smokiness.
"Oh... This is good."
The man beams. "I'm glad you like it. Now, what to do with you... we would like to see what you can do with the world you are from, but unfortunately, your tentacled friends damaged the system. We can't access it directly just yet, not without going through the rift that my brilliant friend created, and even we do not want to spend more time in that particular place than necessary. It is out of the way anyway. I'm afraid I will have to drop you on one of our more accessible test worlds. You can always make your way back from there, if you find out how."
"I thought I was a unique aberration. Should you be dumping such a unique specimen anywhere?"
"You are unique, but that also means that your interactions wherever we put you should be unique and enlightening. Some advocated putting a new set of voices inside you, but I personally think it's a waste of time. You'd probably just eat them," he winked. "Alternatively, you can come back with me to our home, where we will find a way to put you to use. It might not be a pleasant experience, I warn you. Finally, we dump you back where we found you. If you're quick enough, you might be able to get back without attracting the attention of any of the things in there, I suppose. You would have to be very quick."
He chuckles, and you ponder your options.
***
A. You head to one of the test worlds that the Master is offering.
B. You return to the Master's homelands.
C. You go back into the void.
I stick to my vote, even if treave cheapened it by likening it to Mass Effect..
