[Last Time, on El WHAT?!: The group invaded Shadow Square looking for information. After a few less than savory encounters, they found someone willing to part with the information they needed... for a hefty price. Afterwards, Shiho decided she wasn't ready to hear something about her elven suitor, and everybody went back to the Inverted Inix to do some identification of items and possibly contact Tithian.] [The group is currently in the Inverted Inix, in a back room, having just finished identification of the items in question.] [Session Start] * Daphne begins flashing. * Taro blinks, then looks Uhoh. * The flashing intensifies. * There is a bright flash, and Daphne's plushie drops to the floor. The flashing does not stop, though. Something in Cara's pack seems to also be flashing, and brightly, if the way Cara's pack is glowing is any indication. Wah! * Taro blinks, then sees the pack glowing, and is more confused. ?_? * Cara opens her pack and digs out the flashing thing. * Ichi deplushifies in Cara's arms. Ichi! * Ichi ends up literally nose to nose with Cara. @_@ Uhm...er...ah * Cara gives Ichi a big hug. Ichi? What kept you? I thought you were gonna dissapear like Amy and not come back! @_@ * Ichi looks surprised for a bit and then hugs and tries to kiss Cara. * Cara pushes away when Ichi tries to kiss her. "Wha...what?" @_@ S...Sorry I'm just so glad to be back it was getting boring in there and then Amy dissapeared and I thought I was going to too and and... What's going on? Boring in... Wait, what happened? * Tithian appears from thin air and slugs Ichi. * Cara takes a few steps back from Ichi, blushing but scowling slightly. Ack! ::falls over:: * Cara boggles at Tithian. "Wah! Wait! Don't hurt him!" You son of a bitch! * Taro blinks. * Shiho stands quickly, knocking her chair over. * Tithian steps between Cara and Ichi. * Ichi gets back to his feet. "I'm sorry, but if you've been away from your friends for this long and finaly got to be with them again. What'd you do?" * Cara loses the scowl, but is still blushing. I sure as hell woudln't try to use a girl's vulnerability to snatch a kiss! I...it's okay, Tithian. I was the one who hugged him first. But... @_@ * Taro falls over. He just...misunderstood, I guess. @_@ * Ichi seizes the distraction and hurries over to help Taro up. Misunderstood, my ass. * Tithian GLARES at Ichi. Thanks... @_@ Wait! Ichi! What did you say about Amy?! ... can someone please explain what's going on here? She was with you? Whhazzat about Amy? * Tithian points forcefully at Ichi. "If you ever do that again, I'll kill you, see if I don't." * Tithian waves a hand in the air and disappears, leaving behind a shower of rose petals. Uhm...I'd rather not. What was that about Amy? ... Let's go somewhere else. * Cara eyes the place where Tithian was standing a little bit fearfully. And Amy was with me while I was in the room with The Lady, but all she did was sit there. And then when our plushies got strange I felt realy weak and Amy just dissiapered! Y-yeah, someplace else is good. Can someone please explain to me what's going on with the plushies? Don't. Not yet. * Shiho goes towards the door. * Ichi listens to Shiho and cuts of his story. * Shiho leaves the inn. * Cara follows Shiho. * Taro follows. * Ichi trails along. * The bartender eyes you strangely, but doesn't say anything. * Outside on Caravan Way, there are at least two more inns in sight, if you prefer those, as well as a bar, a restaraunt, and various stores. * You could also leave the city, if you felt like it, or head to the colliseum. * Shiho considers, and tries one of the inns. Preferably well away from this one. * The further of the two inns in sight is apparently called the sleeping... something. The creature depicted on the sign is faded, and resembles nothing that you have seen before. * The lobby of the inn has a number of small tables, suitable for four or five people, and is lightly trafficed right now. Nobody seems to pay any attention to your entrance, they're wrapped up in their own conversations. * There is a good deal of ambient noise from all the conversations, which may be a good thing. * Shiho certainly seems to think so, as she sits down at a table. * Taro sits down. * Cara takes a seat next to Shiho. * Ichi finds a place to sit at the table. Alright. First off, don't call Brian by his other name, in case someone recognizes it. * Taro nods 'Kay. * Ichi nods a few times. I moved us here because it's obvious that he's spying on us. Uhuh. Yeah. Oh. I don't know if he can only see what happens in that inn, or the city, or if he's just watching us in general. But either way, I don't like it. * Taro nods And just to fill you in, Ichi, I don't trust him. Neither should you. I don't like or trust anybody who says they're gonna kill me. * Ichi is developing a nice shiner by now. Now, what's this about a lady, and what happened with Amy? * Ichi rubs his face and winces. * Cara pouts a little. "Why can't he be nice for real? It's not fair." * Ichi scratches his head. "I thought I told everybody about her... Any way, one time when I turned into a plushie I found myself in this big room with lots of chiars and stuff and there was this place where I could see what everybody was doing." Yeah, I remember you telling us about the room and the lady. Can someone explain the plushie thing to me? Right. I remember that part. And there was a Lady there and she seemed nice. Anyway when Amy was a plushie she was there too, but she didn't seem to notice anything...just sorta stared of into space. * Cara chews on her lower lip as she listens. And then one time I suddenly felt realy weak and strange and when I looked up Amy wasn't there anymore! And when I looked at you guys our plushies had changed. And then I noticed that he ::points at Taro:: was sitting where Amy was, But he acted the same way she had. * Taro blinks. And then time passed, and now I'm here again. I don't remember being in a room with you or any Lady. None of us ever did except Ichi. You were just sort of sitting there. Were you able to move at all? ... I'm confused now. Can someone explain to me the plushie thing? Yeah...but it was so comfortable in the chair I just sort of stayed there watching you guys. * Shiho frowns. * Cara sighs. * Shiho sighs. "Guess there's nothing we can do about it. Look, a lot happened while you were gone." * Cara mumbles "Dummy." under her breath. * Ichi nods "Yeah. I'm glad I wasn't there for some of it. I probibly would have fallen in all thoes traps." .... you said the plushies looked different? How? Could you actually hear us, or just watch? It was like I was watching a movie, except in 3-D realy realy good 3-D. Good. Then you know the current situation. I don't. ;_; ... can someone explain the plushie thing to me? Uhm...sometimes we suddenly turn into little stuffed toy versions of ourselvs and then go watch what's happening with the Lady? Ah. Right. And you said that the plushies looked different somehow after Amy's dissapearance... could you elaborate? 'Cept Ichi's the only one who's ever remembered seeing anything like that. * Taro nods * Ichi shrugs. "And the plushies sorta faded like they'd been left out in the sun too long." All of them? Mine and Amy's...How does Daphne look? Is she the same? * Taro looks at the Daphne plush * The plushie is not faded. She looks alright. Whew. That's good. * Taro writes down the new information he's gotten. It probably has to do with how long we're gone. Though I must say... * Shiho looks at Taro sternly. "Stop that." Sorry. ^^; Anyhow... I'm worried about Amy. Me too. Yeah... What kinda horrible thing could have happened to her? Maybe she just went where Taro came from? He showed up where she was. * Shiho nods. "Maybe." That's what I was guessing... But for the moment, we have more important things to worry about. * Taro nods But...that doesn't explain the fading thing. * Ichi shakes his head. "I'm outa ideas." You guys already know what Brian wants us to do. But that's not what's going to happen. * Cara nods. "I don't think we should let Brian have the Le-thingy." Do you think we can safely say no to him about this? I doubt it. * Taro frowns Besides, at the very least, he was right about one thing; we can't afford to be stuck here much longer. Uhuh. * Ichi nods. I've been thinking that given what the thing does, maybe Cara can use it to get us out of this place. But that still leaves us with the problem of having to go there in the first place. M-me? * Shiho nods. You're the best magic user we've got. I only know how to do one thing! But...I'm still not very good. * Shiho frowns at Ichi. "Careful with the m-word * Cara looks at the floor. Erk. Sorry. ... I-... there's got to be a better way. Going there seems worse than suicide. * Shiho shrugs at Taro. "Like what?" Worse than suicide. We...we can't go there without some kinda plan. Some sorta edge. Yeah. I know that. I've thought of a few. But if you guys have a better idea that avoids that place at all, I'm willing to go for it. I can't see how...if there's any other way off this world...Brian's not telling. I'd like to hear the ideas... * Cara frowns sadly. No plans here, sorry. Then we'll have to try my idea. Maybe we'll come up with a better one on the way there. * Cara bites her lip again. As for how we're going to get through it, I've got a wand with stoneskin. Two charges. What's that do again? ... Um, makes your skin hard as stone. Ah But...can't you still be scratched with something like that? He said that's all you need for the curse to effect you... If we're lucky, that's hard enough that those creatures can't penetrate it. Yeah That's...really really really risky. It is. Yeah... any other ones? It's also the only idea I have. I see. But...even if that works, that's only two people who can get in. And no telling on the duration... One, more likely. One use in, one on the way out. Then...how's that gonna work? Who'd go? How would they get the thingy out? I'd go. And I'd figure that out later. * Ichi nods slowly. "There has to be a better way...I wish I knew what it was." * Taro nods We could try finding out more about this world. Possible places that could lead to a way out. We've already been to one possible place. It melted. * Taro blinks. Why? It could take years, decades to find something like that. I don't want to wait that long. Sh-Shiho...if you go by yourself like that... * Cara looks like she's on the verge of another panic attack. She'll come back. * Taro frowns... * Shiho shrugs. "It's only a worst-case scenario." * Ichi's shiner throbs painfully. And I'm getting a headache, he didn't have ta hit me that hard. No. He didn't. ... he didn't have anything weird linked to the hit, did he? No. He's not very nice. Not nice at all. * Cara fixes her gaze on Ichi, attempting to look as stern as possible. "But you still shouldn't have tried to kiss me like that." I'm sorry! It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. There will be plenty of time to argue about it later. Let's concentrate at the task at hand. Uhm...so what do we need to do first? First, we look for equipment. Something more useful than this. * Taro nods Probably, we should ask Brian. I don't think he'd give us anything faulty. Not if he wanted the thing first. Uhuh. * Ichi nods. If that doesn't work... We'll look around the square. I don't want to spend any more time going off on adventures, though. ... hm. I've got a feeling there are other ways out of here than going through the Pristine Tower. But it's likely to either be really dangerous compared to what we've been through before, be outside of our ability, or take years of time. ... That's what I just said. ... right. So, equipment. What will we probably need? More stoneskins. Or something stronger. A way to get in undetected, maybe. * Taro nods. Maybe some form of instant escape, if one of us is hurt. * Ichi rubs his acheing head "Some way to heal would be nice." If it were that easy, we'd just use it to get into the tower in the first place. And from what we've heard, if you get injured, you won't need to worry about healing. Healing won't help. Oh, right. * Cara shudders. * Ichi thinks "Better armor then? Better armor could be useful. But it'd have to be REALLY good. I doubt we'll find much better. Not enough to help, at least. * Shiho frowns. "Well, let's talk to Brian first, see what he has. * Shiho stands up. Yeah. We're basically asking for invulnerability to all physical and magical damage. -_- That's right. * Cara gets up slowly. I wonder how they got it in there..::stands as well:: I'm guessing it was placed there, then the weird curse fell upon the place * Shiho heads for the door. "Probably, they put it there, then someone else put up the magic trap." * Taro follows Shiho Ahh. ::walks:: * Cara trails after Shiho. * Shiho heads for the first inn. * The innkeeper eyes you warily as you leave, but doesn't do anything. * Back at the Inverted Inix, the barkeeper gives you a very strange look when you walk in, but goes back to tidying up quickly. * Shiho walks up to the bartender. * Bartender looks up curiously at Shiho. Back already? * Shiho nods. "Something came up. We'll need to use the "special" room." * Bartender nods. You know the place. Close the door behind you. I'll take care of the rest. * Shiho nods and goes to that room. * Cara continues to follow along. * Ichi follows the rest of the party there. * Taro follows * Tithian appears in a swirl of cherry blossoms once everybody is in the room and the door is closed. He's a little more unkempt now, his hair ruffled and the top two buttons of his shirt undone, revealing the necklace tattoo. He glares at Ichi. You again? Why have you called me this time? * Ichi edges behind somebody who isn't Cara. Because we need help. * Ichi suddenly feels as if his feet are on fire. * Tithian rolls his eyes. And I'm supposed to provide it? * Ichi Yells and starts hopping and running around before he trips. That's the idea. Unless you don't want us to try to get the Dark Lens for you. * Cara gives Tithian her most winning smile. "Well, yes, you seem to be the one to ask for help." * Ichi's feet stop burning and feel like they're freezing solid. * Shiho turns to Ichi. * Tithian smiles a little. Grrk! My feet! ::curls up:: * Tithian bows to Cara. "I'll certainly give you what help I can." * Shiho turns back to Tithian. "Stop that." * Ichi's feet stop freezing. Instead, it feels as though thousands of ants are walking up and down his back, and every couple of seconds, one bites him. Hard. Stop what? * Ichi starts squriming and scratching at his back "THIS!" * Cara smiles brightly. "Thank you, Tithian." Stop bothering Ichi. Why should I? Uncultured barbarian. * Shiho nearly snarls. "Because if you want our help, you'd better." * Cara blinks. "Bothering Ichi? Tithian, please don't do anything to him. He's still my friend." ...very well. * The insects go away. * Cara smiles brightly. "Thank you." * Ichi heaves a sigh and crawls back to his feet. That was not pleasnt in any way. It wasn't supposed to be. * Cara eyes the tattoo on Tithian's neck speculatively. Now, if you're done torturing your workers and breaking your vows, we're in need of a few things before we try for this tower. Hey...Tithian? I wanna try something... Yes? * Cara points to the exposed tattoo on her neck. "Can you just try touching this lock here? I wanna see if something happens, cause yours is a key and all..." ...no. * Tithian reaches up to his shirt and starts buttoning it. ...why not? * Shiho eyes Tithian. "Yeah, why not?" * Tithian smirks. "Because unlike _some_ people, I don't lay hands on a woman who's not my wife. Or an acceptable substitute." * Cara pouts cutely at Tithian. "Just one finger, that's all you need. Pleeeeease?" Just a little poke! * Tithian scowls. "No." Grrk. Touch...uh, Taro's then! * Taro blinks. @_@ * Tithian scowls still more. "I think not. If that's all you wanted from me, I'll be going now." Why not? What if it does something important? We might be able to get back home! Some of us don't _want_ to go home. * Shiho clenches her hands into fists. "And some of us do." Yes, and I'm doing my best to help you on your way. * Cara begins to tear up. "But...but..." You...you're the key somehow! Are you? Then why are you so scared to do this? I don't wanna go to some creepy tower and get turned into a cactus or something! Especially if there's another way! I am NOT taking a chance on this. * Cara sniffles. "I...I thought you cared." ... * Shiho just stands there, scowling and waiting. Very well. Come here. * Cara walks over to Tithian. * Tithian holds up his left hand and extends a finger. * Tithian reaches out towards Cara, trembling, and touches Cara's lock tattoo. Nothing happens. ... huh. * Cara grabs Tithian's hand and pulls it to touch her lock. SHIT! * Tithian's key tattoo and Cara's lock tattoo flash brightly, and Tithian begins shimmering. Over the course of about two seconds, he shimmers steadily more, going translucent, then transparent, then dissolving altogether. A woman appears in front of Cara. She glows golden so brightly that you cannot see any specific features, but you are sure that she is a woman, and that she means you no harm. * Taro blinks. o_o Ichi, is this the Lady? * Cara blinkblinks. Y..Yeah * Shiho stares wide-eyed. "What... just happened?" * GoldenWoman speaks in a peaceful voice that sounds familiar, but you can't quite place it. You have before you a choice, Cara Carter. You may return to your home with the one you called Brian, or you may remain here with your friends. Be warned, however, that if you do not return now, you may not return until you _all_ return. This may well be your only chance. What happens to Brian if I don't go back? He has been returned to his former dreary existence. The spell he and his used to entrap you and yours has been broken, for him at least. All that he gained because of it has been lost. * Taro blinks. What spell did he use? Whaaa? * Cara nods. If I choose to stay with everyone else, will we go back to that same world? Or a different one? * Shiho narrows her eyes. "So, he WAS behind it..." There are no guarantees, should you stay. What about Amy? What happened to her? She wanders elsewhere, in the service of another, as one of your current companions once wandered. Why? * Taro blinks What caused her and me to switch places? * Cara lets out a sigh of relief. "So she's still alive." I do not know. * Taro nods Why not? She was with you, wasn't she? At least she's alright. My time grows short. You must make your choice, Cara Carter. * Cara looks at the other three. "I can't leave without you guys. Shiho...and Ichi and I guess Taro too. It wouldn't be fair." * Taro nods... You should go, Cara! This is the chance you've been waiting for! We'll all go back home together. ^_^ * Taro turns to the Lady. "Can you at least tell us your name, or who you are?" * Cara shakes her head. "I won't abandon my friends." Dammit, Cara. It wouldn't be fair for you to stay, either. The choice is made. This world no longer holds any of your captors, and is thus barred to you. * GoldenWoman waves her hand and a glowing circular portal opens under her arm. It is impossible to see to the other side. * Taro blinks * Cara shakes her head at Shiho and smiles. "I don't want to go back alone." * Shiho sighs. "You could die, you know. You should've left while you had the chance." And then what if one of you guys died, and there was nothing I could do about it? You must go quickly. What if YOU die? How will we feel? * GoldenWoman begins to waver. We won't die. We'll stick together. ^_^ * Shiho looks up at the woman. "Fine. We'd better move." Uhm...I think we should go now...together. * Cara walks towards the portal. * Shiho goes towards the portal. * Taro follows * Ichi heads twords the lig..er portal * Shiho goes through the portal. * Cara steps through. * Rocky goes with Shiho ^^ * Taro goes through. * There is a flash of light as each person steps through the portal, even Rocky. * Ichi bows to the Lady and walks through Thank you... Thanks! * GoldenWoman waves her hand and the portal closes. "She chose... wisely." [Session End]