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 Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:13 pm
Malodore had kept on climbing in the interim; now it was on the wall (?) and the other students were... on every plane imaginable. It was sort of entertaining provided one didn't try to think about it too hard. A window loomed to one side; unfortunately, looking out of it didn't yield anything other than more faceless gray. There wasn't the faintest suggestion of which way was up or down.
"I'm not going to exhaust myself," it said, finally. "Slow and steady." No more of this tearing up the stairs business. Instead, it sat down on one of the steps, watching the others. "Our watcher there would probably love for us to arrive bone-tired and beaten down, don't you think?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:17 pm
He'd been thinking about maps, and how they are usually flat. This place was clearly not flat and so---
The sudden voice in his mind startled him. In one motion he jumped and turned-an instinctual move, as the voice didn't actually come from any outside direction. All he could see were glowing eyes and purple.
Still in the same motion he flailed and tried to back up. There was more flailing than anything, and in the end, he fell. Well, he felt like he was falling. He seemed to just roll to the side more than anything.
It wasn't until his momentum was gone that he realized the face full of purple belonged to the mind-flayer of their group.
"Oh," he breathed. "Was that necessary?" He glanced around in flustered embarrassment. His pride had taken a small hit. "Nice to meet you, too."
Though, the purple demoness seemed to have this whole moving around thing down. "How...how can you move like that?" She did make it look almost...fun.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:24 pm
Riley gave Draven a wink, and set off down the stairs. Break the chains of thinking realistically, and you'll find you can move in any direction you like.
Malodore had sat down on a staircase that was positioned three stairwells away, and on the same plane as Draven was. This put it upside down in comparison to Riley. She climbed up the three stairwells, until she was directly over/underneath the plague doctor. If it looked up/down at her, she would crane her neck as far as she could and brush her face against the tip of it's beak.
You have more stamina than that. We run every morning, I would wager that has bolstered your longevity. You could probably run these steps ragged if you needed to.
Mention of the hooded figure seemed to dampen her mood just slightly, however, and she tilted her head to look at him. He didn't move when we were outside, and he doesn't seem to be attacking now. For all we know, he might be part of the illusion as well.
For she had, at some point, convinced herself this was just another illusion; albeit one that they were all seeing. That simply meant it was one created by an outside force, and not simply manipulating the mind. It was probably meant to drive someone mad - and Riley refused to let that happen. Enjoying herself was far greater a revenge.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:27 pm
Pausing again on the steps, Jericho listened while staring up at the cloaked figure there. For a moment or so he had tuned out what the others were saying as he was trying to figure out some way to get up to the top of these steps. Running up seemed to be of no use, and it appeared that if he were to jump, he'd end up suspended in midair, so flight was probably not an option either.
Wait.
"Sheridan... are you able to fly around like that?" he asked the celestial dragon with a tilt of his head.
His attention then shifted over towards Riley, who seemed to be enjoying herself quite a bit.
"Having fun?" he asked with a light grin.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:31 pm
Malodore... well, if it could, it would have made a face at Riley's suggestion; instead, it just projected a momentary sense of uuuuuuuuuugh in her general direction. "Getting here was rather trying on my undead bones," it said, though there was a thread of teasing in its words. It nudged its beak upwards to awkwardly nuzzle at the top of her head, hoping it didn't hit a damaged tentacle in doing so.
It then glanced again at the floating ones. "Can you move upwards or downwards at all?" it asked, raising its voice. Somehow, their position hadn't seemed to change much, as if the stairs were warping themselves around the center. That could just be its own interpretation, however... a few fog-voices were hissing at it through the window now. It was doing its best to ignore them.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:32 pm
Arachne had listened to the theories, the ideas until her head began to spin; what she knew was that for whatever reason they had ended up here there had to have been some knowledge about the island or why else would the ships have been heading in this direction? She couldn't imagine they would have washed up so very far from where they were actually heading..anyway. She looked from the new door to Sepheran and back again, before looking back at the boil.
'Are you okay? I'll go through first this time.' she said, with a little smile, and as she went past him she squeezed his arm. She entered and looked up, now seeing the figure they had spoken of, stepping forwards to see better. And suddenly everything was wrong, and she let out a little gasp of surprise, walking slowly along the steps and peering down. There were stairs in all different directions, and even ones that she could see her fellow students walking along that were, from her perspective, upside down. Going to the edge of the set she was on, she looked out into the space between the staircases and blinked at those that were hanging in the mid air, just suspended by nothing that she could see.
She didn't know whether to venture out there with them, or to keeping climbing. For a moment at least she climbed, moving onto a new set, the room angle changing for her this time.
'This is really, really freaky.' she muttered, a large understatement to be sure.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:57 pm
Malodore's attention did wonders for her already giddy mood. She skipped -- yes I said skipped wanna fight about it - up another flight, before stopping at the edge of a staircase that led nowhere. She dropped to her knees, wrapped her hands around the edge of the staircase, and flipped herself over the edge until she had found the gravity well that supported the underside of the stairs.
It was a good day to be wearing pants.
Why yes, I think I am. Riley replied to Jericho's teasing question, as she stood up and walked down the underside of the steps she'd just walked up. I don't think these stairs were designed to be amusing. I will therefore defy their original intent as boldly as possible, by being amused by them.
As she walked by a floating Sharra, she paused and cocked her head. She was tempted to jump out and try floating in mid-air.. but then all of her stair fun would be over. Plus, if they were stuck there, with no way of moving..
Sharra? Riley leaned in to hold her hand out, but he was far too deep to reach. Can you float back to the stairs.. or are you stuck there?
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:02 pm
Still hovering (as dog-paddling in mid-air had gotten him a grand total of nowhere, though it was indeed rather amusing), Sharra shifted, or at least he tried to, extending a hand towards the mindflayer. "I've no idea...it's a very interesting experience, however...the stairs look a touch more fun. I suppose I'm waiting for something to shift here...I think this space...is just as topsy-turvy as the stairs themselves, only there's nothing to really ground us, so we're just in a state of perpetual hovering...or at least that's what I'd guess." The nergal smiled faintly, "Is it terrible to say that this is actually more entertaining than terrifying? Or at least until some great time-displacing beastie comes up trying to eat us or something..." Oh sweet Jack, he hoped he hadn't just jinxed himself. "But going up the stairs seems to be getting us all equally nowhere. I think we're all a touch stuck until something changes." Oh now that was not a pretty thought at all.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:10 pm
Riley could tell she wasn't going to reach Sharra by any stretch of the imagination, but she still tried. She hoped that he would be able to float in her direction, at least. One leg lifted and the other perched precariously on the edge of the stairs, lifting up on her toe to give her more reach. For a room that had already proven itself to defy the laws of gravity, this may not have been the best choice. Instead of reaching further, the gravity well of the staircase underneath pulled Riley down, swinging her to land on her hands and knees on the underside of the stairs. It was a quick, and disturbing movement - and it left her breathless. A little nauseated, even.
That.. wasn't as fun.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:15 pm
Draven started to relax a bit. Though the mind-flayer had gave him a bit of a scare, it was almost refreshing. A friendly fright was comforting, especially compared to what they had run into on the island so far. (He wished he hadn't flailed quite so much, though.)
"Huh." Her comment on 'thinking realistically' was interesting. This place was certainly not like any 'real' place he'd ever been. Perhaps she was right, they shouldn't treat it like a normal place.
He wormed his way to something of an awkward sitting position, and started to poke around at the air in front of him experimentally. He didn't expect to find anything, but it couldn't hurt anything.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:18 pm
Sharra's eyes went wide, seeing the sudden way that Riley shifted...and what the room did in response. "Riley!" Concern was laced in the boil's tone, as his hand balled into an utterly useless fist, knowing that he wasn't going to be able to reach the ghoul like this. "Are you all right!? I really don't...think that's a good idea..." Slowly, he turned his head upward, as though by doing so he could see some glimmer of hope. Ah, Jack...this really was a mess they'd found himself in. What sort of power would be able to conjure up a place such as this one? If naught else, it really was a rather fabulous trap for one's enemies.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:25 pm
"Are you well?" Malodore called anxiously over to Riley. From the plague doctor's angle, it almost looked like bits of the mindflayer might have clipped through the stairs. Hopefully that wasn't the case.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:39 pm
Riley brushed off her fall, standing up on the stairs once more. To both Sharra and Malodore, she responded with a quick I'm all right, before muttering something about more of a bruised ego than anything else at the spill. She was now looking at Sharra upside down, and tilted her head to the side without thinking.
If each set of stairs has it's own gravity well, and you seem to be floating in mid-air, then it's safe to say you have no gravity. Which means..
Riley had a feeling she might regret this, but regrets weren't on her list of priorities at the moment. She crouched down, and pushed herself off the stairs - launching off and floating in mid-air as well.
She floated by Sharra, still upside down in comparison to him. It was a little awkward. Her hand reached out to him. Flip me over?
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:50 pm
Cringing at Riley's 'fall', Jericho quickly made his way over to see if she was alright. Well, at least he tried to make his way over. Navigating the area proved to be more tricky than he thought and he ended up not quite where he wanted to be. Frowning, he looked around, but.. he couldn't really figure out how he was supposed to reach her right now.
"It sure's easy to get lost on these steps," he said in exasperation. Scratching his head, he kept moving on around some more, but again it didn't quite turn out as he planned.
But... it seemed that wasn't really necessary as Riley had launched herself off the stairwell.
"So what's it like to fly without me?" he teased.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:56 pm
Sharra just stared at the mindflayer for a long moment, utterly astonished. Doing that on the stairs was one thing, but to be floating upside-down. Oh right, yes, that was probably rather disconcerting. Chuckling softly, he reached out a hand, taking hers and slowly trying to guide her to a more upright position without flipping himself around as well. "Decided to join the party?" Since none of them were going anywhere, might as well enjoy all of one's options. "I didn't imagine that I'd be flying for some time, to be honest, a shame that we can't harness this somewhere other than in dire peril." There was almost a wry note to the boil's words, as he once more attempted to shift about...hung in space without anything to ground him.
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