[The day, she's-a Wednsday. Some-a where in Italy isa a fantastic-a battle between the Yakuza and the mafia. But you're in-a Japan, so that's-a not important yet.] [(Author's note: It's actually Thursday, June 24th. The time is 8:00 p.m.)] [Everyone's at Asanjya's evil house. Well, it's not really evil, just intimidating. 'Cause of how it LOOMs over you. Hopefully, someone remembered to stop at the Gap this afternoon. If not, ya better hurry before it closes.] [Session Start!] (Makoto is not there, I assume?) [No, he most certainly is not.] * Maria has a brown paper bag full of clothes with price tags on 'em. She looks pleased. * Rei got there on time. Maybe even a little early, since she's half-buried in Asanjya's collection of bad fiction as she reads. [You're on the roof. Just kidding, you're out front.] * Maria *still* has the bag full of pilfered Gap clothes with her. But if they're in plain sight, she won't be so obvious about it. * Lazar is standing there, all tall-like and stuff. * Rei looks up to see Maria, waving with the book she's reading. "Hi! Didja bring the goods? And the other ones? And the socks? The right sock makes you larger, the left sock makes you small o/~" * Maria blinks. "They do? ...uh, nevermind. 'Splain later. But yeah, I got 'em!" ... this 'Gap' place sell magic socks? No, just evil clothes. It's up to you to put the magic in the sock. * Chie pulls her bike up to a screeching halt in front of Casa Asanjya. She pulls her helmet off and waves at the group, grinning madly. Whether or not her passenger enjoyed the ride remains to be seen. Shyeah. They *oughta* be magic for the prices they put on 'em. * Rei hums and goes back to reading. "Ernie the Sock Puppet. Hmm. Wonder if I could borrow... nah, he'd be an evil sock puppet. Don't need one of those. Try to conquer the world when I already did that." * Chomei pulls off his helmet, looking as impassive as usual, although if Makoto were here he'd probably sense something different. He waves once to the group and stashes the helmet away as he hops off when the bike has stopped. * Chie stows her helmet, grabs her bag out of the storage compartment, slings it over her shoulder and walks up to the group. "Hey, guys!" ( How're we all feeling, BTW? ) * Rei looks up again. "Hey Chie! You should read some of this stuff. It's really bad. I mean, awful. Words do not describe." * Chie laughs. "Really? Whatcha got?" [Yer all just fine.] Eh? But if it's bad, why bother readin' it? [Except you Lazar. Your head feels like a rock.] It's like watchin' bad movies, Maria. More for the amusement value than anything else. * Rei grins. "Just borrowin' Asanjya's collection." She looks to Maria. "Because it's funny, silly! Besides, I think it's training for Hell. If it's Hell, then it'll throw the worst at us, so I won't be so fazed by literary demons.": * Chie walks over to Rei to peer at the title of the book. Oh. * Chomei walks over too. "Did you ask her first?" * Maria frowns. "...hell's got killer books?" Uh... maybe? It might. ... I think literary demons no so big worry as demons with sharp teeth, big claws, and what spit acid and pianos. Gotta be prepared for whatever. * Chie blinks. "Pianos, Laz?" * Rei shows it to Chie. Title: Crewel Lye. * Chie reads that and groans. "Oh, gods. Bad English puns." * Lazar nods. "Yes. Pianos," he says, as if that explains everything. Yup! And it's even worse when translated, I bet. * Chomei raises an eyebrow. "Should I ask?" * Maria makes a note to learn English. And what movies are bad enough to be worth watching. * Rei looks around. "Where's Makoto?" * Chie grins at him. "You're probably better off not askin'." * Chomei smirks back. "'course I'm probably better off." And puns are hard to translate. By the time you're done explainin' them, it pretty much kills the whole point. Think I know what you're saying. Oh, I guess nobody knows where Makoto is, then. Go figure. * Chie looks around. "Makoto knew we were meetin' here, right? I mean, I was a little late, but..." * Rei scoots back and knocks on the door, then scoots forward again. "Probably did. I think. I don't know why he wouldn't... can go looking for him, I guess, but we should get stuff set up for when he gets here." ... silly Makoto. What, he no want to go to he- actually, that pretty good reason to no be here. Yeah, I guess hell waits for no one. * Chomei sighs. "Yeah, he knew. I mean, if I knew, he'd probably know." * Maria frowns. "We're not goin' to hell without him, are we?" * Asanjya opens the door, smiling. "Hey, guys! You're here! You get the clothes?" No way in hell. Pun intended. It doesn't sound like a really good idea. I dunno if we can just leave a note so he can catch up later, y'know? Don't think it works that way. Not that I know anything about rituals or- hey, Asanjya! Want your books back yet? * Chie waves. "Hey, Asanjya." * Lazar eyes Chomei. "No make me send to hell early." * Chomei looks over. "Huh? Oh, hey Asanjya." Catchin' up later would prolly be bad. Shouldn't go around a place like Hell on his own, an' stuff. * Lazar waves at Asanjya. Naw, you can keep them for now, I've read them enough I almost have them memorized. Aww, c'mon, Laz, if puns were a damnable offense, we'd all be in serious trouble. Cool! ( Heh heh heh.... ) Hey, I almost never make puns! ... granted, that because I no so good with Japanese, but... (Shut up. You're giving Brett ideas.) * Rei piles them into neater stacks, though, and then takes the stacks bit by bit into Asanjya's place. She keeps the last couple books, stashing them into her backpack. ( Eh, It beats my other idea. ) ( Although I might use that one anyhow. ) * Asanjya heads inside, grabbing her staff from the umbrella stand on the way down. Come on, I've got some more prep work to do first. ( Like ACTs :P ) * Chie heads on in. * Rei glances out the door, tail flicking worriedly. "Think I should go looking for Makoto? He was s'posed to be here by now, I think, or should I wait longer, or stress! Stupid stress! It messes with my hair and makes it frizzy!" (Exactly. All those college entrance exams you need to get into Hell.) * Maria follows! Bringing her l3w7 with her. (...) * Chie looks at Rei's hair. "Ehh, let's wait and see if he shows up before we send out a search party." (They have standards!) * Lazar heads in. "He show up when he show up. No sense looking for person who can look like anything." * Rei flails and panics and pulls at her hair- "Oh." She stops. "Okay!" * Chie pats Rei on the shoulder. "Calm down. We won't leave without him." * Maria pokes Rei's hair. "'S already frizzy." * Chomei heads in too. * Rei nods and moves her hands from her hair. She glances at the door again before going down the stairs. ( * Lazar suddenly morphs into Makoto. "Gotcha!" "... then where's Lazar?" "... ooh crap." ) [Suddenly everyone realizes that the Cubs have lost every game in the past 30 years.] (Nooooooooooo!) * Asanjya heads down to her room - there's a pile of jars and candles lumped in the middle of the pentacle. She starts walking around the stacks of books, picking up each one, eyeing the title critically, and either putting it back or keeping it in her arms and moving on to the next one. She's frowning and mumbling to herself. ( Whatsa 'cubs'? Is it tasty? ) (AAAAAAH! Oh wait, Rei doesn't care.) So... uh... anythin' we can help you with while we're waiting? Or should we just avoid making lots of noise so you can focus on your work? Ooh! I know this great sacrifical ritual! We just need some potatoes and batter and... mmm... a few scallions... * Asanjya kicks a ream of dot matrix printouts with her foot. "Yeah, could you pick up all these printouts and take them ... uh... somewhere not here?" Sure. * Chie walks over and picks them up. "Any particular place that's not here?" * Maria does that little thing. Go her! No. Anywhere not here/ Anything heavier that need moving? * Chie hands some printouts to Maria. "Okay, is your living room all right?" Well... sure! Come over here. (See, Kate, you're catching on.) * Lazar lumbers over to 'here'. * Chie looks over at Laz 'n Anya, shrugs, and goes upstairs to dump printouts. * Chomei sighs. "So Makoto isn't here. I don't want to think of what he's doing, really..." * Rei paces, now, tail trailing thoughtfully behind her. "'Course, the ritual requires an oven and a pan, but not *too* hot. And maybe it could use some pepper, too. Hey, I have this sudden urge to cook something. Wonder where that came from." * Asanjya holds out the stack of books for him to hold. It's getting nice and big, and all the titles are things like "Bioelectric Functions of Tertiary Order Lifeforms" and so on. [There's also a book titled, "Sleeping in the Open is Good!"] * Maria moves paper. * Rei blinks and belatedly looks over at Chomei. "Doing?" ( Written by A. Grue ) * Lazar holds a stack of books! With one hand, even. * Chomei shakes his head. "Nothing Rei, really." * Rei frowns. * Chie heads back downstairs, dusting her hands off. "Okay, paper moved. What next?" Yeah, you have anything else we could help with? You don't have to coddle me. I'm not here to be coddled. Bah, stupid archers and their stupid not-really-cryptic statements. Need me to alphabetize your collection or somethin', Asanjya? * Asanjya keeps putting book after book in Lazar's pile. "Uhh.... put the candles at the exact corner of the pentagram... exact, mind you, be sure you're dead on, or we'll be really dead." * Chomei blinks at Rei, then shrugs. * Chie blinks at Rei, then glances at Chomei briefly, then sighs. She goes over to the pentagram and picks up a candle. * Chomei does the same to another one of the candles. * Lazar does an excellent impersonation of a book-holding statue, showing no particular effects from the continuous addition of books. * Chie carries it to one of the corners of the pentagram, sets it down, then takes a step back. She narrows her eyes, lets out a soft "hmm," then picks it up and moves it an centimeter or so. * Asanjya keeps mumbling. "Too much math... too much bio... too much math.... good lord, is that where that one got to?" The stack grows. * Maria frowns, then gets up on the upper part of the wall so as to be out of the way of people. * Chie walks back over to her bag, pulls out what looks like a very small measuring stick, then kneels down next to the candle and double-checks the position. * Rei does, too! Well, she floats, then goes sideways and sits on the wall, next to Maria. She pulls out BOX and starts typing away. * Chomei holds the candle up, looking directly down, and placing it when he's sure it's dead-even, then backing up and taking another glance at it. "This one look on track to you, Chie?" * Maria looks surprised that Rei's wallclinging at first, but gets over it soon and watches over her shoulder at the computer, instead. * Chie looks up from the first candle when she's sure it's positioned properly. "Hang on a sec." She walks over and takes measurements on Chomei's candle. Yeah, looks good. * Asanjya finally finishes her round of the room, then stands back, hands on her hips. "Did I miss any piles, Lazar?" * Lazar is starting to do an impressive immitation of a golem buried under a pile of books, but doesn't seem to be particularly perturbed. * Rei types. She's browsing websites with disturbing speed. "Why'd you like looking over people's shoulders so much, Maria? You did it lots with the prof." ... no can really see over books, I afraid. * Chie picks up another candle and repeats the process. 'Cause it's more interesting than what's in front of me? * Asanjya blinks, then turns to Lazar and blinks again. "Sweet Cthulhu! Are you all right under there?" ( For the record, Lazar's got his illusion active. ) Yes. Is good thing I no can get arm cramp. Where want books? * Chomei works on the process with a fourth candle. * Asanjya seems a bit nonplussed. "Well, uh, go put them wherever they put those printouts." * Chie finishes with the third one, then picks up the fifth and last one. * Chomei finishes up. * Chie sets the fifth candle down, takes measurements, and looks satisfied. She then double-checks the one Chomei just placed. Okay, I think we have it. What next? * Asanjya looks the books over one last time, then turns to the candles. "Oh, hey, that's pretty good, for the first time." * Chie waves her measuring stick. "Well, sometimes I gotta do precision work, so..." * Lazar nods, although it can't be seen behind the rather large stack of books in his arms, then goes to lumber up to the living room. * Chomei shrugs. * Rei taptaptaps at the side of her keyboard, but not on. That's her father's habit. And then she bites her lip and goes about checking e-mail. * Maria watches, fascinated by the wonders of modern technology. * Asanjya picks up a tiny black notebook from the top of one of the piles, and grabs a piece of chalk. "You guys could count out eleven eyes out of the one jar - don't look at what they're from! - and six batwings. And uh put them in that silver bowl. Leave the pig's blood there - I have to add that later." * Chie looks over at Chomei. "Eyes or wings?" I call wings! ( "What about the newt's tails?" "Oh, that's my lunch." ) (Hee.) * Chomei shrugs. "Eyes then." * Lazar lumbers back down the stairs, arms free of books. "Books in piles next to paper." The eyes have it. * Rei stuffs BOX into her backpack and jumps down, grabbing the jar of batwings. Less slimy than eyes. Always good. * Chie puts her measuring stick away, then walks over to the indicated jar. She does *not* look at what they're from. * Maria changes focus, now fascinated by the wonders of quasimodern demonology. * Asanjya kneels at one of the corners of the pentacle and starts drawing with the chalk. "Oh, and watch where you're walking. You have to be really careful not to smear these when I'm done. I'd do it on a better surface, but unfortunately I can't ask my parents to get a chalkboard floor down here." * Chomei walks over to the jar, pulling out the required eyes with any provided implements, not being queezy in the least. * Chie lets Chomei handle this one. ;p * Rei cackles as she opens the jar and starts placing wings in the bowl. "Mmm, preservatives. Fly, my pretties, fly!" * Chomei smirks at the eyes, placing them in the container. "Reminds me of Supernatural Biology, 101." Chomei, *where* did you go to school? You took Sup. Bio. 101? Didn't know they had a class on that around here. Or around most anywhere, actually. * Maria shrugs. Home schooled. Of course they don't have classes like that in high school. Lazar, can you draw? So you never went to a public school? Mages back home took class like that. I no mage, so I in different classes... favorite was 'Introduce to Stakes'. Oh, so your parents are demon hunters or researchers or something. Explains your hair. Only not at all. Maybe you should shave it. Ever consider the bald shining look? You'd never have to worry about someone dying your hair, because you won't have any! Um... I did when I was in high school. But my parents still tought me the things I'd never learn in a public setting. * Lazar tilts his head at Asanjya. "No really, no. I have all art skill of thing what no have art skill." * Asanjya moves around to the next pentacle point. "Aww, that's too bad. I figure you'd be good at wards and all." * Maria frowns. * Chomei eyes Rei. "I'm not cutting my hair." Heh. Your family sounds very interesting. * Rei sets the last wing in the bowl. "Now, if you say 'beetlejuice' three times... nope, don't have a mirror. Probably doesn't work anyway." And then she looks slowly up to Chomei, eyes wide and grin firmly in place. * Chie looks over at Asanjya. "Did you say 'wards?' I didn't say cut. I said SHAVE. Me? No, I no do wards. That Chie schtick. ... Right. The hair's still staying on my head. Yeah, wards. You can't summon a demon without wards, that'd be suicide. I mean, really! * Rei gleams. "We shall see." She cackles. "Ooooh we shall see." * Chie pulls one of her medallions out. "Like these, or somethin' a bit more potent?" ( * Lazar pulls out Dick Greyson. "No, this kind of ward." ) ( Sidekick! *punt*) ( Hey, how come we don't get sidekicks? What do you think Chomei's for? Point.) * Asanjya looks up. "Definitely more potent." She goes back to drawing. ( Holy Hand Gernades Chie!) ( "One night only! The Falling Greysons!" ) ( Quick, Chomei! To the... dammit, the bike needs a cool name now.) Oh. Well, can I help you with those, then? ( ChoMobile! ) (No, he's the sidekick. Sidekicks don't get things named after them.) * Lazar moves off to the side, to get out of the way of people. He's big'n all, y'see. (For the interested, she's drawing things like http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9879/necro38.gif ) * Asanjya eyes Chie critically. "Well, sure, if you're good at wards." She hands the notebook and a piece of chalk over to Chie and points to the third point. "Draw that one there, just like that." * Chie takes the notebook and chalk and starts drawing. * Rei realizes she's done and goes to have a seat on the stairs. * Maria continues watching! Poor girl misses out on all the fun stuff. * Asanjya moves on to the fourth point, drawing out of another notebook she picks up. It's all so boring and then it gets really exciting really quick! * Lazar decides he's prolly not gonna be needed for a bit, and finds a corner where he sits down and starts meditating, chanting softly in Hebrew. * Chomei takes a seat near Chie. Yeah, I bet it gets really exciting. Should I look for him? Maybe I should. * Chie looks up briefly from her drawing. "Ohh, I'll bet..." Have you tried callin' him, Rei? * Rei blinks. "Oh. Oh! No, I haven't, I'll do that. That's a good idea. Why didn't I think of it? Silly Rei, thinking's for phones..." She digs out her cell and dials Makoto's number. * Chie nods and resumes drawing. You don't mind if I look over your shoulder, do you? [Rei gets no answer, surprise :P] Mmm? No. If somethin' doesn't look right, let me know. ( *sacrifices balloons to cast Summon Schneeble* ) * Rei lets it ring for a while, then hangs up. "He's not there." * Chomei looks over Chie's shoulder, then. Eh. Maybe he's on his way. *mutterinHebrewmutterinHebrew* ( Hebrew meditation is identical to Buddhist meditation, except replace "Ohm" with "Oy" ) * Rei shifts her tail to a more comfortable position. "He'd better be." ( Oy is actually Yiddish. =P ) ( Which is identical to Hebrew except it's Yiddish. ) * Asanjya finishes and moves to the fifth one, which she finishes in short order, as it's just a pentacle with a little squiggle at the end. "Make ye sigil of transformation and step into ye gulf." She nods smartly. How's it coming, Chie? Almost done. * Maria wrinkles her nose at the use of 'ye' in an actual sentence. * Asanjya steps gingerly over her freshly-drawn ward and looks around the room one last time. "Uh... if any of you have watches or calculaters... or that computer, that's gotta go." What about cell phones? Gotta go too. * Chie finishes drawing. "Okay, where should we put them?" Anything made from math. Gaap _hates_ math. Upstairs with the books and the printouts, I guess. * Maria blinks. "Gaap?" That's the demon we're shooting for tonight. Oh. * Chomei turns off his cell phone. (Maria's obviously been thinking about clothes shopping while Asanjya detailed the plan.) * Lazar pauses his meditation for a moment, then realizes that the most technologically advanced item he posesses is a compass. *mutterinHebrew* * Awaymancer peeks in and looks around. "Jex gone? Drat." * Rei clutches BOX. "No way! You're not tellin' me I can't bring BOX to hell with me!" ( Oops. Sorry, didn't notice game. ^^; ) * Chie wips her hands off on her shirt, then takes her watch off and pulls her cell phone out of her pocket. "Here, Chomei, I'll take yours, too." [An evil necromancer breaks into the room!] ( You kidding? She took care of robbing the Gap last night. ) * Chomei hands Chie his cellphone. * Rei blinks at the necromancer. * Awaymancer is now known as Segev [Actually, he's an evil teleporter.] * Chomei eyes the evil necromancer. "So, how do you guys want to kill him?" * Maria blinks. "Uh..." Oops, sorry, wrong room. *walks out* ( ... ) * Chie takes Chomei's cell phone, then looks over at the necromancer. "Oh, good. Let me get my wards." ...this happen a lot? * Asanjya looks at the necromancer...teleporter... guy. "Oh, good lord!... wait, he's gone." Never mind. Damnit, and I had worry to work off, too! Yeah, really. ( Never a dull moment in this game :P ) * Chie heads upstairs to drop off yicky math-related things! I could have used the chance to express my anger in hurting someone I actually should hurt. * Rei just keeps clutching computer and turns her attention back to Asanjya. "Do I *have* to leave BOX behind? Dad took his computer to hell!" I could've taken everything he had on 'im. You should've. * Lazar finishes whatever he was meditating about, and stands up. "If want, can punch me few times to work out stress, Chomei." *grins* You can bring it with, just not when we're summoning. Oh. What're we summoning? Yeah. He prolly had cool stuff. * Chomei chuckles and looks at Lazar. "But you're not squishy like that guy was." We're summoning Gaap! Wait, we're summoning? I thought we were taking the highway to hell or something. * Chie returns to the basement. We don't need to summon Gap! You already went to Gap so the rest of us wouldn't lose our sanity! ... so? What few broken bones in hand between friends? No, I went to Gap so you wouldn't lose your *money*. (*laughs*) My money and my sanity! They're both important, sanity moreso, because I don't have much! Aww, sanity's overrated. * Asanjya looks at Maria. "You have the clothes?" And boy, would you ever've lost it. I can't believe anyone'd charge fifty bucks(in yen!) for a shirt. * Maria nods and points to the bag of Gap loot she set on the floor. * Rei sighs heavily when she realizes nobody's going to answer her question and floats up the stairs. ( Maria: A good estimate for yen prices is to treat 1 yen = 1 cent. Not great, but good enough for most nonserious work. ) * Chomei shrugs. ... Right. ( This is true. I enjoy saying 'In yen!' tho. ) ( Actually, since this game is set 40 years in the future, I deem the trade rate to be exactly 1 yen per cent :P ) * Maria follows. "Rei? Rei! What's wrong?" * Asanjya reaches into the bags and pulls out... a shirt. "This should do. Gotta get this price tag off, though." She pulls it off, then uses a lighter to burn it. (Which, coincidently for when you go to China, is also equal to 1 Yuan.) ( Sure. They're NuYen. ) ( What kind of shirt? ) (Glittery blue blouse! I dunno. <_<) ( "Ahhh... I see you have a shirt from the Gap. But... This says 50% off, clearance. 50% of 39.99 is... is.... rrrrgh! I'll kill you!" ) * Rei sits on a couch in the living room and pulls off her backpack. And sets BOX down. And her cellphone. And removes a bracelet, and pulls off her shoe to get at her left sock... "Huh? Oh. Makoto's not here, and I don't know where he is, but he wouldn't just disappear like this, and we're summoning a demon, but I didn't even know we *were*. What's going on? I dunno. I ask and nobody tells me. I'm clueless, that's what's wrong!" It's like I'm Chomei or something! Er, I said we were summoning 'Gaap'. Dunno who he is. 'Scuse me a sec. * Chie heads up the stairs, too. Don't ask me what kind of name that is. Maybe he's got a hole in his head. * Chomei nods and lets Chie do her thing. Who's got a hole in his head? Gaap. In theory. It'd explain the name? * Asanjya looks up the stairs, then shrugs and goes to sit down in a pile of books. She picks one up and leafs through it. "I think we're ready, then... I mean, if that one guy shows up." She looks at Lazar, and then at Chomei. * Rei tosses her sock onto the pile. "Well, it'd be nice if I knew." She slams her shoe back onto her left foot. "And I didn't really do anything to help, either, I guess I'm not cut out for demon summoning, unless it involves sacrificing squash, but I don't think demons like squash very much." ... so what kind demon is Gaap? Well, maybe you can make up for it by insulting Gaap in ways he won't understand? Honestly? I'm not counting on Makoto to show up. * Chie walks over and gives Rei a quick hug. "S'okay, Rei. I'm not happy about this, either." I- I just, I don't know. Think I should go astral and look for him? I mean, I'm faster in my astral form now, because I can fly pretty fast normally, so I get really fast, but I dunno if it's fast enough- * Lazar tilts his head at Chomei. "Makoto no always very reliable, but he no seem like chicken." * Asanjya leans back in the books. "Heeee's a prince of Hell, a President in another, he commands 4 kings and 60 legions of demons, and he's big on moving people places and the liberal arts. Especially drama." She leans conspiratorially over towards Lazar. "They say once someone summoned him when he was performing the lead of 1776. He wasn't happy at aaaaaalll." Calm down. Try calling him again? He won't be there. * Rei removes the cell from the pile and dials. * Chie sighs and looks over at Maria. * Asanjya looks to Chomei. "So.. are we goin' without him, then?" [He's still not there. :P] ... so, in other words, he big guy we no want to get mad. *nodnods* Nope. Not there. * Rei hangs up with this odd feeling that some higher power's mocking her. * Chie sighs. "Dammit, Makoto." [Nah, it's just a coincidence.] I bet it's not his fault! It can't be his fault. He wouldn't just go and run away, would he? I don't think he would. Not with you going. ( Nah. It's more likely that he saw some hawt blond or something :P ) * Chomei shrugs. "It's up to the rest of the team, really." * Rei nods. "There, you see? He wouldn't." * Chie does not say, "He'd *better* not have run away, or else I'm kicking his ass." (Actually, I dunno about that.) ( I mummified him! He's my servant now, you ghost wannabe! Muhahahahaha! ) ... no like demon lords. Always big trouble in Transylvania when one decide get... what word... frisky? * Asanjya nods to Lazar. "Yeah. That's why we had to get the math stuff out. He hates math." She looks back to Chomei. "Oh." She pauses. "How long have you guys been, uh... doing this? Whatever it is you're actually doing?" I'd like to have him along, the more help the better, ya know... But if he's not going to show up, we dont' have that much time to waste. ( Ok, then, some hawt blond saw him instead and he's been kidnapped. ) So whatever it is that's keeping him is probably important. (That's possible. ;P) Team been together... what, few months now? * Rei sighs. "Okay." Why don't we go ask Asanjya exactly what she's planning on doing? Who knows, maybe we aren't going anywhere and she just wants to talk to this Gap demon first. And once we know what's gonna happen, then we can decide what to do next. ( "Rei! Help! I'm trapped in a room with twenty beautiful wome... uh, nevermind." ) 'about a month. * Rei nods. (*snerks*) (It'd be straight out of Monty Python!) * Chie gives Rei's shoulder a squeeze. "C'mon." So... what is it you do, besides break into my house? Only month? Seem longer... then again, I never look at calander. No can read Japanese calander. And fight necromancers? * Rei gets to her feet. "Okay, okay. 'm coming." She heads down the stairs. We hit bad guys until they no do bad things no more. * Chie follows, muttering. "Dammit, Makoto, you'd better have a good reason for this." * Chomei nods. It's our, ehem... job. Oh. Well, that seems like a nice hobby... or a nice job. It is until they pull out automatic weaponry at you. I bet you guys have some _great_ stories to tell.. yeah! Like that! Mostly magical bad guys. Mages, undead, demons... is job. Kind of. *eyes Chomei* Automatic weapon no so bad. * Chie ends up in the basement just as Chomei says that. "Please don't remind me." ( Hey, that only happened... a couple of times. ) * Maria walks down the stairs with Rei and Chie. For you maybe. It nea- Hey Chie. And Maria, Rei. Automatic weapons? They're fine as long as the people with 'em can't aim. Hey guys. You need a drink or something? They're upstairs, or food, I think we have some. No thanks. Had somethin' before I drove over. * Lazar waves at the people coming down the stairs. So, Asanjya? What exactly *are* we doin' here? Nah, but thanks. I feel bad taking people's food when they know I'm in the house. * Rei scratches at the back of her head and looks at one of the candles, but doesn't say anything. Weeee are gonna summon Gaap, and heeee is gonna take us to Hell. And if I can do it right, he's gonna let us back out again too. Oh, so we *are* goin'. Wasn't sure if that was right now, or if you just wanted to talk to him. * Chie sighs. And please do it right? Yeah. Otherwise we'll bug you for all eternity. * Chie snickers softly. Well, if I do it wrong we're not gonna die. Uhm necessarily. I'll just get the wrong phone number, so to speak. Oh, you mean the contract... yeah, I'll try hard to get that right, too. Thank you. One near-death experience is more than enough for me. * Maria nods. I've had some experience with it, though, so it's not like it's the first time. * Lazar nods. "Anything we should get before get started? I sure I could get rabbi to bless I-beam on short notice..." * Asanjya looks around. "Are we ready to go?" * Maria shrugs. "I guess I am." Are you sure I can't bring- * Chie walks over to where she left her bag, picks it up, and slings it over her shoulder. "I'm ready when the rest of you guys are." * Rei shuts up. * Chie walks back to stand next to Rei. I'll ask him if you can bring the laptop and the phones, kay? * Maria gives Rei a worried look. Okay. ... no I-beam, then. Okay. * Asanjya sits up out of the books, and pulls out the lighter. "Then let's get to work!" She proceeds to walk around, lighting the candles. * Chomei stretches. "Yeah, let's do this." * Chie sighs and casts one last glance towards the stairs, as if willing Makoto to show up so Rei can at least not worry about him on top of everything else. * Lazar adjusts his Demonic Bracers on his wrists/forearms, then nods. * Rei stuffs her hands in her pockets and watches the candle lighting. ( Rei loses her hands amidst all the other junk in there :P ) (Her pockets were never filled with junk! That's not fair. ;_;) * Lazar watches Asanjya light the candles, and mutters softly. "... it like Chanukah. Minus four." * Chomei pockets his right hand, the left (gloved) one just haning there naturally. * Chomei cracks his neck. * Chie folds her arms and watches Asanjya. * Asanjya then proceeds to pour the pig's blood into the bowl of other things, and then places the folded shirt in the bowl, and pours blood ove that, too. She's chanting softly the whole time. * Maria watches silently. * Asanjya stands up, and walks to outside the pentacle, making sure not to smear any of the wards. She stands in front of the one with the pentacle+swirly ward, and suddenly belts out with a "GAAP, HE KNOWN ALSO AS TAP! COME TO US!" She tosses the lighter into the bowl and the whole thing lights on fire. * Rei wrinkles her nose. "Gap... Tap... Tab?" She shuts up. * Asanjya waves her hands, which are curled into signs that also might mean she is about to "rock out". "By the first name, Yahweh, COME TO US! By the second name, Eheieh, COME TO US!" [Poof! A familiar person appears, at least to Rei. He's got a beard and a mustache, fully armored in Chinese yellow armor, complete with a yellow cape. He's got a funky sword that looks like the point was split in half, and most remarkably, he's wearing a three-foot tall model of the Eiffel Tower for a helmet.] * Maria blinks. Cao Cao is but a pebble in the road to me! I shall crush him into the foundations of my dynas... hey, wha? * YuanShao looks around. "You're not my audience!" He looks down at the pentagram too. "A summoning? That's just great. Can't you see I was busy?" * Asanjya blinks. "Bound by Bileth bound by ... aw, Shub-Niggurath take it, I missed!" * Chie actually has the good sense *not* to say anything this time. * Maria works her jaw silently. * Lazar tilts his head, and eyes the guy's hat. * Asanjya peers at the "demon". "Who by all the hells are you?" * Chomei don't say anything either. * Rei blinks, then points. "Hey, you're Yuan Shao! Hi!" * YuanShao rubs his forehead. "Well, right now I'm supposed to be Yuan Shao. The lead character in the play I wrote based on Chinese history, which I like to call, "Yuan Shao kicks Cao Cao's butt". * Chomei would say "... Right." But doesn't. But normally I'm Someone Very Important. So this had better be worthy of Someone Very Important's time. * Asanjya blanches. "... then I didn't miss?" * Rei considers asking about tree hats, but thinks better of it. For now. Look kids, if you're trying to summon Satan like all the other wannabe cults, I'm not him, ok? ( Trust me, we're not a cult, even if some of us have a predilection for dressing all in black.) * Asanjya stammers out. "Um..umm...I-I-I was trying to reach uh Gaap..." * Maria rubs her neck. Well, you found me. What do you want? And it better be good. If you dragged me away for some stupid reason like "The school bully is picking on me, so curse him!", then I'm warning you I'll give you full knowledge of Plato's philosophy regarding the importance of the existance of cheese molds. * Chie grins. He might be a demon, but she likes his sense of humor. ( Of course you do. He's Yuan Shao :P ) * Maria blinks, and suddenly starts contemplating the importance of cheese molds. (Yeah! We fought in his army! We kicked ass in his name!) * Chomei blinks. * Asanjya takes a deeeeep breath. "No, sir! We are looking for entrance into a hell, and um then exit out again, contingent upon your release from the summoning pentacle and other boons such as you might require for said service, to be laid out in a Demonic Compact and sealed by blood. * Rei flicks her tail. She glances up the stairs. * YuanShao tilts his head. Probably a bad idea, 'cause the weight of the helmet nearly causes him to fall head first to the ground. But he props it up with one hand and pushes it back upright, and settles for just looking at Asanjya. "You want to go to Hell. What is WITH kids these days? Whatever happened to the golden age of religion when people were terrified of hell? Sheesh." We are under special contract from another party, oh great Gaap. Someone hired you to go to Hell? Yes. And you accepted? * Chie frowns. She thinks "hired" probably isn't the best word for it, but, hey. I was subcontracted after the fact, great one. * Maria has to bite her lip to keep from responding. * YuanShao shakes his head and sighs. "Even still, at this rate you won't have to go to hell, 'cause the whole world is headed in that direction." Ok, well, it's your funeral. Or lack of one, I suppose. * Chomei raises an eyebrow. So you want to go to hell. Got a specific one in mind? I might have a tour pamphlet for it. * Rei opens her mouth, then closes it. She looks to Asanjya. * Asanjya narrows her eyes a little and spouts off a bunch of high-demonic- language gargling. "And we want in AND out. When we want out." Alive, obviously. You want to come out of hell alive. Hah. I know you can do it. (We won!) (WHOOO! CUBS WON!) Hey, I'm just the driver. I can't keep you people from getting yourselves killed. (*dances*) ( You won, cause your 3rd baseman dropped the ball. =P ) That's true enough, but if we're alive when we call for you to get us out, I expect us to be alive when we get out. I guess, if you do me a favor. ( * ND predicts that when you guys are in hell, it will suddenly start snowing because the Cubs won the series." ) Any specific one, or just a favor to be collected later? (I agree.) (*laughs* It should!) (Sonny: It's the Cubs. Of *course*.) ( Go, Cubs. ^.^ ) * Asanjya has pulled out a piece of parchment and is writing on it in a flowing hand. It's in Demon, but it's still kind of pretty. For Demon. Since you're going to hell anyway, I want you to get any demons who don't try to kill you to come to the debut of my master play, "Yuan Shao Kicks Cao Cao's Butt: an epic drama of the tale of Yuan Shao kicking Cao Cao's butt at Guan Du. (Based on a not-true story!)" * Asanjya nods, and adds another section to the growing document. "That we can do." She pricks her finger on the other side of the pen and then signs in blood, and hands the parchment gingerly over the pentacle to Gaap. * YuanShao takes it. "Excellent." He pulls out a whistle and blows into it. And suddenly there's a demonic taxi in the room! You can tell it's demonic, because the headlights are glowing red and it's laughing "Muahahaha"ly. ...it really is a highway to hell? Guess all rumors have to be grounded in something like reality. Or at least some of them. Uh, don't forget, Asanjya? Nah. We'll take the toll road to avoid the traffic jam. Oooh, right. * Maria opens her mouth, closes it, opens... and just doesn't know where to start with this one. * Asanjya turns back to Gaap. "They want to know if they can bring laptops and cellphones." * Chomei takes a deep breath. * YuanShao twitches. I know, I know, but they really really want to. * Rei fidgets. "Just the laptop would work. I don't even know if a phone would work in Hell. Do they have hookups? I never asked." * Chie doesn't care all that much, really, but she's willing to argue this point for Rei's sake. * Chomei doesn't care either way. * YuanShao twitches again. "Only if you uninstall all calculator programs, all games involving geometry and numbers, all spreadsheets, all financal programs, and all the stuff that uses math. * Asanjya turns back to Rei. "Can you do that?" * Rei looks at Asanjya blankly. "Computers are built on math? It's programming. Math's all logic, so computers are, too... but, uh... I can show you some plays? I think I have a few downloaded. And you can laugh at all those actors who'll never be as good as you?" * Maria smiles and nods! * YuanShao twitches again. "Built... on... math? No! No no no no no! It stays. It stays!" * Maria pouts. Sorry, Rei, we tried. * Rei looks crestfallen. "Oh." * Chie sighs, then gives Rei an "I'm sorry" shrug. * Maria pats Rei on the shoulder awkwardly. * Rei sighs. "Okay." She looks back up the stairs. "Okay." * Asanjya smears one of the wards with her foot. "My part of the bargain, then. Demon, be free! And make with your half." * YuanShao opens the back door of the Taxi. "Get in." * Maria hops in! Literally. (But I wanna drive!) * Chie gives Rei's arm a squeeze. * Chie then waits for her to get in. * Rei gives Chie a shaky almost-smile, then piles into the taxi. She doesn't make a comment on how she wants to drive. * Chie climbs in after Rei. * Asanjya gets in, pulling her cloak around her and grabbing her staff. She checks the pocket and smiles, then looks at Rei and the others and stops smiling. [The taxi is a lot larger inside than it looks like outside. Which is good, 'cause it means you'll juuuuust barely be able to fit, instead of not at all.] * Chomei gets in, not smiling in the least. * Maria perches on a seat. * Chie maneuvers herself so she's between Rei and Chomei. * Lazar gets in, trying to find a place where a sharp turn wouldn't cause him to crush the others into paste. * YuanShao opens the front door and tries to get in. But he forgot about his hat, which hits the roof of the car and causes him to tilt his head back so much that he winds up falling onto his back. ... * Maria looks the other way and pretends she saw nothing. * Chie does not comment. Really. * YuanShao grumbles and takes the hat off. He gets in and puts it on the seat next to him. * Rei grins a little and fights the urge to giggle. Mostly successful. Alright, fasten your seatbelts. * Maria blinks, then does so. * Rei looks for seatbelts. If found, she fastens! * Chie does. * Chomei fastens seatbelts! * Asanjya fastens her seatbelt. She appears to be sitting next to Lazar. * YuanShao drives in reverse, which, rather than make the car go straight backwards, makes it slope upwards. When it's pointing down for the ground, he slams on the gas pedal and zoom! Off you go! And the car doesn't suffer from colliding with the ground, either. * YuanShao drives through lots of red. Red what? You can't tell; the cab is moving incredibly fast. You're pretty much stuck to your seats due to the velocity. * Lazar has, thankfully, fastened his seat belt. Otherwise, there'd be 800 lbs of golem bouncing around the taxi. * Rei grins despite herself and wonders when they have to stop to pay toll. * Chomei looks about. * YuanShao gestures with a hand. "Coming up on the right is- Ah! Was Jememey's Famous Burnt Hotdogs. A nice place to eat if you go for that sort of thing. * Asanjya is eagerly looking out the windows. [Asanjya sees red! Swirling red zipping by. Whee!] * Chie leans forward and peers out the window, too. It's like blood! But redder. * Chie gives Asanjya a Look, which she probably doesn't see. Or, if she does, probably doesn't care about. * YuanShao gestures left a few seconds later. "And co- er, gone by on the left is the Hell of Romulus. He used to be small time, but he gained a lot of power about 40 years ago when an American baseball team, the Cubs, sold their souls to him just to win a game." ... well, this cinch it. Rabbi have explaining to do. * Asanjya taps her pocket. "Stop whining, I don't think anyone even knows you in this hell." (*laughs* And then it snowed!) * Rei raises a hand. "Did it snow?" For fourty days and fourty nights. After that, we all played Ice Hockey for ten minutes before it melted again. * Asanjya leans back from looking out the window - directly back into Lazar. * Chie can't help but laugh at that. "That's *great*." * Chomei smirks. * Rei considers, then nods. "Some ice hockey's better than no ice hockey at all." ( Darn right!) ( Damn straight, eh?!) * Lazar is leaned on. He is, despite looking like a big muscley guy, strangly... uncomfortable to lean on. (Don't say 'damn'. It'll come true.) * YuanShao waves to the right again. "Over there is where we keep all the lawyers." Oy. Do they *all* go there? Are there any good ones? Good question. * YuanShao laughs out loud. * Asanjya doesn't seem to notice, or care. She's looking out the window and smiling. Kind of. Xaphan's peeking out of her pocket and vibrating like a cellphone. No, really, it's important! 'Cause my aunt, she... uh... uh oh. Uh oh? Hmm? She's a lawyer! She's going to hell! * Rei flails. "I have to convince her to change professions, quick, only it probably won't matter 'cause sins are most likely cumulative!" Well, maybe when we get back we can convince her to turn from her evil ways. And it's never too late for redemption. * YuanShao gestures to the left. "And here we have the Beatles. 'Cept for Ringo. He went to Heaven since he assassinated all the others." Well, okay, sometimes it's too late. But I'd guess that your aunt's proably okay. * Chie is not amused. ... Right. ...you keep bugs here, too? * Rei grumbles, "They didn't really, did they? The poor Beatles." * YuanShao gestures to te right. "This one used to belong to Berith until Microsoft bought him out..." (Hmm. All those people who said rock 'n roll was satanic? They were right! ;p) (*cracks up*) I think he's pulling our leg, Rei. * Rei perks. "But maybe we can go there and get their autographs!" And then go to Heaven and get Ringo's, too. Yeah! But I didn't bring any of my stuff with me. Damn- er, darnit. I don't know if I can get us into Heaven so easily... Hate to tell you, but everything here is already damned. There Heaven too? Oy... One implies the presence of the other, you know? * Asanjya giggles. ... not in Judaism. What time for crisis of faith... *muttermutter* * Insanity-kun has quit IRC (Read error: Connection reset by peer ) Oh, as far as I can tell, they're all pretty much right. I think. * Lazar runs his fingers across the 'tattoo' on his forehead. "Better be..." I've been comin' to that conclusion myself, yeah. It'd be why there's more than one, I bet. * Chomei nods. * Maria is confused. * Asanjya keeps looking out the window. For those of you that notice, another white stripe is slowly appearing in her hair. Uh, Asanjya? Are you supposed to be gettin' a sudden bleach job right now? * Asanjya looks upwards. "Huh?" * Rei peers. "Yeah, I'll definitely say your hair's changing colors, and not even an interesting one." Your hair. I mean, it looks good, but normally there has to be some dye or somethin' involved when somebody's hair changes color. * Insanity-kun has joined #besm ... oh. Yeah, it happens when I summon major demons. * Chomei looks over at Asanjya. "... Right." ... demons take color from hair as payment? Huh. That's weird. * YuanShao screeches to a halt, stopping in the middle of a sparsely vegetized plain. The sky above is a blood-reddish color. "Well, here we are." (Chie calling somebody's hair weird. Pot, meet kettle.) I think it's pretty cool. Oof! Well, yeah, it is cool. But kinda odd. It's not like she couldn't dye it back if she wanted to. ( Gimme sight rolls. ) No, actually, it won't take dye. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6) and gets 5. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Asanjya (2d6) and gets 4. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chie (2d6-2) and gets 1. Come back on its own, right? 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6-4) and gets 2. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Maria (2d6-2) and gets 9. * Chie blinks. "Really? Yikes." 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lazar (2d6-2) and gets 5. No hair dye... man... [Everyone who makes it spots a white speck in the distance that looks like it might be a structure or something, and on the opposite side of where the cab is, a forest.] * Rei peers at the structure, then points. "What's that?" Yeah. Is that where we have to go? [Everyone who doesn't doesn't see nothin'] * YuanShao shrugs. "Beats me." * Chomei looks casually. "It's definetly something. But I'm not exactly sure what." Well, maybe we can take a look. I think it's less creepy than the dark foreboding forest, but then this is hell, so everything's probably creepy. Well, I guess this is where we get off. Thanks for the ride, Yuan Shao, sir. And thanks for the tour. Interestin' stuff. * Rei nods. And I like the hat. * Asanjya peers. "From here on out, you guys know more than I do." She turns to Gaap. "Thank you, Gaap. How do we signal you when we're ready to leave?" Just call for a taxi. Assuming you live long enough to. Thanks for the ride. And have fun with your play. * Maria hops out and looks around. You just remember your end of the bargain. Yeah. Hope you get good reviews, or whatever. [Maria sees Hell!] * Lazar nods at the demon lord guy, and exits the taxi. I will, sir! ( Wow. Looks like hell. ) * Asanjya waves and hops out of the taxi. * Rei climbs out of the taxi. She reaches back for her backpack, then remembers she didn't bring it and drops her hand to her side. * Chomei gets out as well. * Chie climbs out and stretches. * YuanShao drives off when you're all out. So. I guess we're headin' for whatever that building way out there is? Well, we're here! In Hell. With no idea where to go outside of that we need to talk to a Chinese tribe, so I propose we go to that mysterious white structure over thataway. * Chomei shrugs. "That's as good as any idea." Works for me. Want me to go up ahead and check it out? ... I thought we were lookin' for your godmother, Rei. * Lazar eyes Maria. "This Hell, Maria. No split up in Hell!" I think splitting up now would be a kinda bad idea. As in, really bad. And if she's in this hell, that'd be great... anyway, I'm going that way. Oh, fine. * Asanjya adjusts her cloak. Stick together, guys. And be *alert*. * Chomei nods, keeping alert with all four and a half of his senses. (My six *so* beats your four and a half. ;p) ( Session title: "There's No Splitting Up In Hell!" ) * Rei nods and starts walking! Yeah. * Chie walks along next to Rei. (Nah. Highway to Hell.) * Asanjya follows Rei. Xaphan pokes his head out of her pocket and peeks around. * Maria follows and looks around for anything demonic. (Cabride on the State Road to Hell) [You walk! Walk walk walk.] ( Gimme a perception roll ) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chie (2d6-2) and gets 6. ( o/` We're on the tollway to hell! o/` ) 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Maria (2d6-2) and gets 8. * Lazar walks. "... question. Should keep illusion on, to maintain surprise, or drop for intimidation?" * Rei is silent for a while before looking at Chie and saying, "You're sure he didn't stay behind on purpose?" 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6) and gets 2, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "o/~I love you... you love me... o/~" 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lazar (2d6-2) and gets 7. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Asanjya (2d6) and gets 8. I think so, Rei. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6) and gets 8. (Rei is at one with the universe!) (Hell no!) (And the jokes get worse...) ( Actually, Rei is at 2 with the universe. ) (AND WORSE.) (...) * Chie does not add, "But I am going to have words with Makoto when we get back." [Everyone who made it notices a bag of movie-theatre popcorn standing upright on the ground. Rei notices it's fresh and buttered.] * Rei nods. Then blinks at the popcorn. Well, likewise. Should I keep Rownal out or leave it hidden? (AAAAAH, SATANIC KILL IT NOW!) * Chie blinks. "Huh? Popcorn? What the he... eck?" (DESTROY!) * Chomei shrugs. ... I think we should avoid popcorn. Think it's a trap for moviegoers everywhere? It was definitely put here recently. * Asanjya looks around. "What? What are you talking about.... oh. Popcorn." * Rei perks. "That means there's other life! Death." I'm not touchin' it. ...popcorn? Is it buttery? Yup. (They butter it with the souls of the damned!) * Chomei blinks, then sees popcorn. "Let's just stay away from popcorn..." (Just like at Bloews.) Aww. But Mom always told me to stay away from food lying around on the ground, and I listened to Mom, because... I don't need to go into why, but suffice to say, it was a *really* good idea to listen to Mom. * Rei edges around the popcorn and keeps going. * Asanjya pulls out a small book from her cloak and flips through it rapidly. "... okay, I thought so, but popcorn is not a major demon." What about a minor one? How about demonic food? What about that? I can't carry those books around with me, they're huge. * Chie casts a glance over her shoulder at the popcorn as they go by. [The popcorn... uh... sits there.] * Chomei avoids pseudo-buttered food-stuffs. You could put it in a PDA and... oh wait. No. No PDAs in Hell. Never mind. Should have asked. Could put in backpack, I carry. * Asanjya looks up at Lazar. "Oh... yeah, hey, that's right! Dam..... er... darn!" She looks around carefully. [Walk Walk Walk.... Gimme sight checks again!] 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chie (2d6-2) and gets 6. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Maria (2d6-2) and gets 8. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lazar (2d6-2) and gets 4. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6) and gets 7. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Asanjya (2d6) and gets 5. 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6-4) and gets 2. [Everyone who makes it sees a bottle of Corke lying on the ground.] Okay... first, there was food, now there's drink? ... this either very odd, or worst trap ever. We're going to a movie theater in Hell! I wonder if they show old releases. Are we going to find a box of Jujubees next? All I can tell you is NOT to eat it. Or drink it. Or... touch it is probably bad too. Nah, probably goobers. Yer a goober. ( Those who don't already know it: Corke is the future equivalent of Coke. It's basically Coke except lower quality :P ) * Rei keeps going. (We have Corke, and we have Dr. Pepsi.) * Chie keeps going, too. ( And Mill Dew! ) * Chomei keeps going. "... Right." * Asanjya follows Rei, flipping through the book. "Aww, nothing on Corke, either." (Mill Dew? I'll have to remember that one.) (Thought it was Flower Dew.) ( Sight checks! ) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Asanjya (2d6) and gets 8. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6) and gets 8. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chie (2d6-2) and gets 3. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Maria (2d6-2) and gets 5. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lazar (2d6-2) and gets 7. 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6-4) and gets 0. ( Rei: It was. But in the past 20 years it became Mill Dew :P ) (Eeeeew.) ... so? Illusion, or no illusion? (Ewwwww.) [Everyone who made it notices a stop sign in the middle of nowhere.] Keep it on for now, I think. * Chie stops. * Chomei raises an eyebrow and stops. * Rei sees the stop sign. And... stops! * Lazar stops. "Okay." * Rei looks left. * Asanjya stops at the stop signs. She's staring ahead attentively... too attentively. * Rei looks right. * Rei looks ahead. What about traffic violations? Anybody see a crosswalk? Nope! Or anything else. Outside of the stop sign. Well, we stopped. Should we go? I think so. * Chomei looks right, then left, then right again. Assuming nothing catches his eye, he nods to himself. [Some guy comes along perpendicular to you.] ... or we wait. Is it a four-way stop? [He's wearing glasses and talking on a cell phone. He stops right in front of you and says, "Can you hear me now? Good." Then he continues on.] ... Yeah, I kinda figured he'd end up in Hell. I *knew* those people would end up in hell! ...outta my head, Rei. ... S'why I held off on gettin' a cell phone for so long. * Rei shakes her fist. "Curse you! Guess you're already cursed- HAHA! No, I don't think so, it's entirely too spacious and empty." * Rei runs! * Asanjya looks between the two, then giggles. Hey! * Chie chases after Rei! * Chomei smirks. Hope I don't get arrested for speeeeeeding! Come back here! * Chie laughs. Hey, guys! Don't split up! Hell no! * Lazar shrugs, and crosses after the strange man with the cell phone passes. * Maria blinks and follows Rei! Think? Why? * Chomei shakes his head, then crosses after Lazar. * Asanjya follows after Chomei. * Chie keeps running. "You're gonna get it for that, Rei! I will force you to listen to 80's music!" [Speeding things up a bit, you eventually get to the big white structure, which turns out to be a castle made apparently entirely of white marble.] (Remember: The Lame is strong in this one.) * Rei blinks. "Wow. White Castle. That's in Hell, too? With the quality of their food, it's not too surprising, either..." It'd explain why it's so bright. ... marble. Feh. Is weenie rock. * Chie catches up to Rei and lightly taps her on the shoulder. "You're it." * Asanjya walks up to stand beside Lazar. "Oooh, that's kinda neat." Huh. Damn that tag game! And since we're in Hell, it is! * Asanjya winces. "Watch saying that here, Rei!" Oh, fine. ( Rei is it. All the monsters are gonna go after her now. ) * Chie sticks her tongue out at Rei, then looks at the castle. "Huh. Kinda neat." What, it's to you like feldspar is to diamond? * Rei tags Asanjya with her tail. "But you know what? You're it." * Asanjya blinks. "It?" Tag. ... oh. * Rei grins. "It." And she walks up to the castle. There's a door, doorbell, something something? * Lazar nods at Chomei. "Something like that. Now granite... than REAL rock." * Asanjya reaches behind Lazar and tags him from the other side. "You're it!" She then runs up to follow Rei. * Chie follows Rei to the castle! Which probably doesn't have a princess. Doubtless that's another castle. [You're outside the castle! The gate is open! But there's two guards there: They're stone-skinned, 8 ft. men wearing Roman Empire-like armor and carrying spears.] * Rei waves. "Hi!" * Maria walks up to one of the guards. "Hey." * Chie stops. "I didn't know Laz had relatives here." [The guards drop their spears. "Halt! What are your names?"] * Chomei walks up and waves. ( Um, by drop, I mean, drop them so they're pointing at you. Not drop them on the ground :P ) (And here I was thinking they were just really clumsy. ;p) (Me too. ;p) * Maria rolls her eyes. "This the place where the old Chinese exiles settled?" * Lazar blinks. "It?" He shrugs, and then concentrates on the large(r) stone guys. * Rei blinks and stops. "Oh, names. Sure. Rei Chelsea Ueda. But really, we're just looking for directions or something. Have you seen a tribe of Chinese people, about... I don't know how tall, but they're Chinese, so they're probably about my height, give or take?" * Asanjya raises her hands. "I'm Asanjya!" * Maria nods. * Chomei shrugs. "Chomei Tochikura." Chie Matsuda. Lazar Thau, from Transylvania. [They wait stonily.] * Maria sighs. "I generally make a point of not giving my name to guards, but... Fujiko Tachibana." * Rei blinks. And looks at Maria. "Uh..." * Chie eyes Maria. No fair. She cheated. * Chomei blinks, glancing back at Maria. * Asanjya blinks. "What are your quests?" We're looking for a bunch of Chinese people. Exiles, tribe, whatever. * Chomei is SOOOOO tempted by his player to say 'To search for the Holy Grail,' but as Chomei is lamer than that, he instead waits for people to open their mouths. They settled somewhere around here a long time ago. So, really, we're probably actually looking for their descendants. * Chomei nods. And if my godmother's around, I'd like to talk to her, too. But primarily find the tribe, talk to them, get some weapons to stop a metal demon, save the world kinda deal. "What are your favorite colors?" * Asanjya looks back and forth between the team and the guards.... Honestly? Don't really have one. It changes pretty often. All of them! Except black and white. Black and blue. Black and white. (We like black.) * Asanjya nods smartly. * Rei eyes Asanjya. "You must be my negative." Ananjya's the anti-Rei! * Chomei chuckles. Faveorite color? Gold. If I run into her, the universe will explode! * Asanjya looks at Rei. "Maybe you're MY negative." Oooh, good point. (Favorite Color? Plaid.) Grey. Then don't run into each other. There's things I'd like to do before the universe ends. * Grysar has joined #besm [The guards nod. "Very well, you may pass." They point their spears at Maria. "Except for you."] Yay! We win... almost? Why not? * Maria pouts. "Awww. Why not?" * Chomei shrugs. "I think it's because you fibbed your name." * Brett the guards are as silent as rocks. ( Ummmm.... Yeah, they are. ) ...I'm gonna kick your ass when you least expect it, Chomei. But now that you've told him, he'll know to expect it. * Chomei nods. "Exactly." You'd think that. On the other hand, that now means he's got it hanging over his head. So that was a pretty effective tactic, too. Anyhow. What are we doing now? Going in, I think. ... maybe try walk away, walk back to guards, try again? * Maria eyes the rockfolk. "Fine. Maria works. Just Maria. It's what everyone calls me, pretty much." But we can't just leave her behind! That's not good. And I bet it doesn't work twice. "You may try again in 8 minutes, 47 seconds." You gotta be honest with demons, Maria, they're sometimes really mean. Okay, so we wait. ( They almost have the best security system ever, except for one slight flaw. ) Well, shit. I figure everyone would lie around here. And that why guards can detect lies, no? * Chomei nods. "It'd make sense they'd be good at telling lies if everyone lied here." * Maria paces, back and forth. Do the guards follow her? ( Don't you mean 'detecting lies'? ) (Yeah. detecting lies.) [Nope, they just guard the gate.] * Rei checks her watch. * NinjaDebugger is now known as SleepDebugger * Chie checks her watch out of habit, then realizes she's not wearing it. [Time passes!] * Maria wanders off to the side, about twenty feet down the wall. And then starts up it. ... Hell odd. It is. [Maria starts up the side! ... Good thing?] * Chomei taps his foot impatiently. It has its own set of rules, is all. Can we try again now? Oooh, right! * Maria gets to the top, glances around. * Asanjya walks up to the guards. "Halt! What are your names!" "You guys gotta go to Gaap's play! ... oh, no, not again." * Rei snaps in salute. "Rei Chelsea Ueda!" Chie Matsuda. Chomei Tochikura. * Lazar looks around. "Lazar Thau. From Transylvania." Asanjya Mikigawa! And you gotta go see the play. ... where Maria? Yeah! You really do. Definitely! It's really good! He's been working really hard on it. "What are your quests?" (Here. To buy gum.) * Lazar looks around. "Maria! Get back here!" We're looking for a bunch of Chinese people. Exiles, tribe, whatever. They settled somewhere around here a long time ago. So, really, we're probably actually looking for their descendants. * Chomei nods. Also, maybe find Rei's godmother. Finding Chinese people to get weapons to stop a demon and probably save the world. And talk to my godmother, if I can. * Chomei looks around, and makes sure Maria's not sneaking up to kick his posterior. (Nah, he's expecting it.) 2d6-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Maria (2d6-4) and gets 0. "What was the name of the general who recaptured Rome from the barbarians during Justinian's rule?" * Chomei hrmmms... ( Gimme cultural arts (histoy) if you want :P ) Honestly, I- uh? * Asanjya opens her mouth, then... shuts it again. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chie (2d6-2) and gets 9. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Asanjya (2d6-2) and gets 0, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "A WINNER IS YOU!" 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6) and gets 9. ... huh? 2d6-1 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rei (2d6-1) and gets 5. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Lazar (2d6) and gets 5. [Everyone who made it realizes it was Belasarius. Asanjya... um... Realizes it was Belasarius.] * Rei thinks. And thinks. And thinks. * Chomei scratches his head. * Rei reaches for BOX, realizes it isn't there, and thinks some more. * Chie shrugs. ( She realises it was Belasarius and knows his entire biography. ) Oh! Belasarius. Pretty sure it was him. "You may pass." * Lazar looks around. "... no Maria, though." Ooooh, I know this! It was Belasarius! Yeah! He was a general of the Byzantine Empire! He fought the Persians at Dara! * Chomei blinks. "Yeah... Where did she go?" * Rei cheers. "Hey, yeah! Those Persians are always up to no good." * Rei passes. * Asanjya passes, too. * Chomei walks past? * Chie heads in. * Lazar rubs his head, and enters. [As they pass under the gate, a yellowish light washes over them.] And then he got a kingdom and he... oooh... and then he got to war against the Vandals! * Rei blinks. "I'm glowing?" What's this? I knew that Roman History class was good for something. * Chomei shrugs. * Rei peers. "Nope! No I'm not. That was a disappointment." Rei, the last time you glowed was not good, remember? ... oh yeah. * Rei goes back to walking. * Chie walks alongside Rei. * Chomei walks. (But does he walk the walk?) (No, I walk the walk.) But it could be a different glow. Like, a good one. In Hell. Which is unlikely but possible! ( No, he doesn't. Nor does he talk the talk. ) I'm thinkin' pretty much anything is possible here. [Inside is a town! It resembles something out of the Reinassance period. Oh, except most of the people there don't look human at all. But hey, nobody pounces on you yet! You're on a road that passes by some shops to a market square, and then to the palace, where a large crowd of the demons have gathered.] * Asanjya walks along, looking around at the scenery. This is... kinda cool, actually. But where's Maria? ... Right. Didn't she hear the part about splitting up is bad? We only said it about seventeen million times. * Maria yanks on one of Chomei's hair spikes from behind. A peddlar calls, "Minced meece meat for sale! Minced meece meat! It's usually not diseased! Get your minced meece meat here!" Meece? * Rei perks. "Meece!" * Chomei is yanked? "Hey hey! Stop that." * Rei walks, looking for meece. "Hi Maria!" Oh, *there* you are, Maria. Splitting up is bad, 'kay? .... oooooh, meece meat! I bet that's an awesome spell component! Hey, they said I couldn't go through the gate. So I didn't. We waited for you so we could all go through together. ... they said you could if wait 8 minutes. Yeah. * Maria rubs her face and sighs. "And I didn't want to wait, okay? We're in hell. I'd rather not stay here any longer than we have to." Anyhow. Seventeen million and one. And what's a meese? I doubt it's tasty. I dunno. Is it t- yeah, prolly not. It's like this cross between a moose and a mouse. I'm not going to ask. They really like eating things. That's how you get them to go places and drag you all over Hell. Tend to be pack animals, I think. ... just no do no more, please. No want anger people in castle in Hell. So what's with the crowd of people? Meatbuns! That's what they liked. Maybe this is a market? Maybe. Looks like one. But I dunno about that gathering over there... But they're all up by the palace. I don't really feel like shopping now. * Rei starts walking over. "Let's go find out, and we can go shopping later, and hopefully not sell our souls." Yes, I'd like to hold onto mine. * Chie walks too! Ooh, yeah, I need that. * Chomei raises an eyebrow and follows. * Asanjya follows. Definately need soul. ( Chomei, hearing check! ) (*snerk*) I mean, that's a pretty big bargaining chip if I ever end up in a tight spot, though I really don't want to end up in a tight spot. ( o/` It's all about soul o/` ) * Rei hums. "MC booty got soul! MC girls like to rock and roll! o/~" 2d6+3 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Chomei (2d6+3) and gets 11. ...we do? We do. Yeah, we do! MC? Oh. And our *what* has soul? Mystery Club! Mystery Club? [You're walking through the market when suddenly Chomei gets glomped from behind. "Yay! You guys came to visit me!" Guess who?] * NotYuanShao is now known as Victoria Yeah! That's us... * Rei nods. "And besides, we can probably- Victoria!" * Chie turns around. Hey! * Rei turns and waves. "Hi!" * Victoria wavewaves. "Hi!" * Maria blinks. "You?" * Asanjya looks, and turns ashen. "Oh, no." * Chie stalks up to Victoria and gives her a Look. Wow, what're you doing here? I haven't seen you in days! * Victoria wavewaves at Chie too. * Chomei is glomped. "... Hi? Could you kindly let go?" I live here! I thought I told you that. Well, yeah, but Hell's a big place and there's more than one, so I didn't think you'd be in *this* one, but you are. ... you mean YOU could have brought us here? Oh. ...that big palace isn't yours, is it? * Lazar mutters something in Hungarian, then waves politely. It's rather obviously forced. * Chie clears her throat. * Asanjya stamps her foot. "I went through all that with Gaap and now we have to promote his st...wonderful play to everyone, and you could have gotten us in for free?" * Victoria blinks at Asanjya around Chomei. "Um.... Yeah, I guess I could've..." OoooooooOOOOOH! Speaking of which, you should go to his play. Something about Yuan Shao kicking Cao Cao ass. Should be interesting. * Chie twitches. * Asanjya stalks off a few feet. * Rei doesn't look particularly bothered by the fact that Victoria could have brought them all along. Okay! If It's got an ass kicking, it has to be good! Would you let him go? * Chomei tries to get lose of Victoria. Ah well. You gotta go see Gaap's play! It's great! Probably. You should. You should go right now! Huh? Oh! * Victoria lets Chomei go. That's what I figure. So what's going on? We just got here. Thank you. My uncle is giving a speech in front of the palace. Let's go listen! * Chomei backs away from Victoria and composes himself again. "Yeah. What's up?" * Chomei shrugs. * Asanjya walks back, more composed. "Next time TELL ME, you silly demon!" Uh, it's not going to make my brain run screaming from my head, will it? * Victoria grabs Chomei's and Rei's arms and drags them towards the palace. "Who cares? Let's go! Let's go!" It doesn't already? * Chie growls. * Chie runs after them. * Rei is dragged. "Okay, okay!" * Maria follows! * Chomei is pulled, because I bet Victoria has more strength than him. All NPCs do. ( Hands OFF my boyfriend and my best friend, demon girl!) * Asanjya runs after. ( Someone's jealous o/~ ) (No, really? ^_~) (Dude, if she knows what's good for her, Victoria *will* let go.) (Mad Chie = scary.) (Victoria knowing what's good for her? Are you kidding?) (... Right.) * Chie is practically snarling. Possibly she's scaring a few demons as she stomps along after Victoria and company. * Lazar blinks, shrugs, and lumbers after the others. * Maria whistles innocently. Noooooot getting involved. * Asanjya is hurrying after Victoria, cloak flapping in the breeze. [You get to the palace! You've got a nice spot to see the speech from, since the demon in front of you is apparently a head on two stubby legs. Standing in front of the palace is a demon that almost looks human, save for two black leather wings. He's got spikey white hair, black lips, pale white skin, and many earrings all on the same ear. Maybe he's a goth!] * Maria turns and watches Asanjya's cloak flap dramatically. "Hey, cool." ... * Victoria escapes Chie's wrath through ignorance. (Nice move. ^_~) No way. * Rei points at him. "That's your uncle? Is he patron demon of goths and vampiric penguins?" * Chie catches up. "What no way?" No way is my uncle here. No way at all. ( *twitch* ) * Chie blinks. Then blinks. Then blinks once more. Your... your what? * Victoria grins and grins and grins. * Rei blinks. "Wait, I thought it was Victoria's uncle, unless he's your uncle, too, or what the hell? No offense." ... now I'm all confused! But... you... she... * Chomei blinks, looks once more, actually squinting this time. "Yeah. That demon up there... He's my uncle Joe. Only with wings." [Session End!]