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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 27, 2022 19:37:06 GMT -5
"Good. It wasn't just me then." I reply to Finny as I look around the immediate area.
"Oh, he's finally noticed us..." I say to Finny as we both look to the giant and Tetanya before I continue with, "at least he doesn't seem unhappy about finding us here in his domain.".
<thinking> I guess we're about to find out...
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Post by hengest on Jun 27, 2022 20:13:17 GMT -5
He sets Tetyana down next to you on your table. Then, eyes smiling, he reaches into a pocket and pulls out (to him) a wad of parchment. He unrolls it before your eyes: it is the same one the hand retrieved before. He looks at you questioningly.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 28, 2022 2:48:08 GMT -5
I look at the parchment and then to him and say, "I know what it says.".
[I'm up and ready for work. I will have to backtrack later to fill in what it says...]
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Post by hengest on Jun 28, 2022 6:24:35 GMT -5
[No need to backtrack.]
"Oho!" he says as you speak, his voice booming "So you can talk like me! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I thought you were all the same in there! Now what has been going on there? Are many of you trapped?" His voice sounds a touch strange, a bit childish for a man his age, with a bit of a foreign flavor, but also sounds much as people did not too far from your home.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 28, 2022 17:00:46 GMT -5
"I'm from another place. I'm just...working in there with Finny," I answer but then think for a moment while I look at Finny.
"That IS your home? You're not trapped, right?".
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Post by hengest on Jun 28, 2022 17:26:00 GMT -5
"I'm from another place. I'm just...working in there with Finny," I answer but then think for a moment while I look at Finny. "That IS your home? You're not trapped, right?". "You can understand him?" He looks, again, flabbergasted. "How do you know that language? It sounds like you sounded without the...charm. A bunch of jabber! But...no, we're not trapped! Or if we're trapped, nobody told me!" You might wonder whether you will ever see again the relatively carefree Finny who handed you that mace. The giant man looks blank for a moment, as if wondering about something. Then he speaks to you again, more quietly now. "What does your...fellow worker say? Does he know that he is trapped? Or was?" Tetyana is watching all your faces, apparently slurping up information as best she can.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 28, 2022 18:02:57 GMT -5
"Okay....just checking."
I turn to the giant man and reply, "My friend says they're not trapped back there. At least he didn't know it if they are.". Pausing for just a brief moment, I ask the giant man, "What do you know about them being trapped?".
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Post by hengest on Jun 28, 2022 18:39:13 GMT -5
He makes a gesture, half-familiar in the details--but how could it be familiar when he is from another world?--to show that you are asking for an explanation of the most self-evident thing. "I..." he looks stressed, then relaxes and smiles.
"Perhaps I should show you all something. It may be easier that way. You know both these two? You are responsible for them?" He does not even need to indicate Finny and Tetyana; of course he means them.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 28, 2022 20:24:34 GMT -5
"Showing would probably get the point across easier." I gather my thoughts for a moment.
"Yes, I know both of these two. We are together but it's not that simple. I signed on with them - agreed to assist them in defending their land from hostile forces. You could say we are all part of a team.".
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Post by hengest on Jun 28, 2022 22:19:02 GMT -5
He shakes his head a bit as if laughing at a private joke, but seems to accept your claim. Putting his hand down, palm up, on the table, he seems to be offering for you all to climb aboard.
[I assume you do so.]
The ride is less rocky than you think. He takes you out of the room and into a hallway that seems to be lit only by the light leaking in from several chambers, including the one you just were carried out of. There are many objects crammed into strange cubbies that you pass on your right. You see no other living beings.
Without walking long, he carries the three of you into a large chamber lit with glowing lights along the wall and no windows. Under many of the lights are small slits or tears such as you have seen before, most about like the recent one through which you came (small to him, large to you), but one rather ragged, longer, and more vertical.
Along the left wall is a long tapestry that appears to depict something, but at a glance you cannot interpret it at all.
In the center of the chamber lies a body arrayed as for a funeral: in a long box of unknown make, surrounded by flowers such as you have never seen before. You can see that it is the body of an elderly woman.
"Tell your comrades what you will, as you seem to be under an enchantment that allows you to speak to them."
He gestures toward the tapestry with his free hand. "This is our history, such as is recorded."
Nodding towards the lights and slits, he says "This is our work, my work now."
Of the figure in the center of the room, he says "And this is my mother."
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jun 29, 2022 14:29:12 GMT -5
[You assume correctly!]
<thinking> This will be the first and probably only time I take a ride in a giant's hand. I chuckle internally.
"Ok. I will tell them what you have told me and then I will see if they may have any questions for you, if that's okay?". After replying to the giant, I explain his words to Finny and Tetanya as well as the questions I am about to ask him myself.
"I have explained what you told me. Here is what I am curious about..."
"I am Ethan Greyback. This is Finny and his sister Tetanya. What is your name?"
"Do all of these slits lead to a different place?"
"Is this job split among your people or just something your family is responsible for?"
"What exactly does your mission entail?"
"That's a good start. Let me know if you have any questions of me."
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Post by hengest on Jun 30, 2022 17:23:58 GMT -5
Here is what you learn:
"Our tongue sounds so strange, but familiar, from your lips! As you will see, it is only really my mother and myself who speak it. Spoke it, in her case." He glances over at the body. "You three are welcome here, although you may not wish to stay. I confess I am at a loss myself, now that she is gone. But there really is no one else here, and no family to speak of. My father is still extant, I suppose, but he rides away for ten years and a day before returning here for a night. I have seen him only a handful of times. And as he does not age as she did, and as I do, so now he seems more like my would-have-been son than anything else! Of course, I have never seen these great families and villages she spoke of. So what do I know of fathers and sons!
The job, as you call it, is mine now, if it is anyone's. Mine to do with the...skills my mother taught me, as she was able, and the beings who inhabit this world, if they still obey me as they did her. Many do, at least for the present.
And I am sorry for what must have been an ugly intrusion of...well, my hand, into your unsuspecting land! I should make some things clear.
This chamber was my mother's workshop. She made it the heart of all the skill she possessed. I cannot make up my mind to remove her, by sinew or by art! The slits, as you call them, do indeed lead to different places or worlds. It was she who worked these openings, these doors, at times at great cost to herself. How I remember watching her pained face as she worked her art!
These other worlds...some are merely the size of this room, many are much larger. In some live noble beings, I guess, and in some, horrid monsters, or...emptiness. Possibly some are stranger than that. She knew more than she taught me, I am sure, and travelled herself at times.
I was attempting something new when I discovered you folk. Look." He walks the three of you to a slit under a light-sconce. "Look there. It is not dangerous. Often you can see what is on the other side." Looking in, you see a lush patch of moist-looking greenery. "So many doors she opened, and some she closed again. But all these places are in danger. So her art told her! They are poorly...separated. What fits in one place is a poison in another! Some beings have been quite destroyed, she learned. She had converse with many. Some thought her a goddess and some merely a voice in their own heads. Little did they know that she was my mother!
This place, where we are now, is not like that. These tears or slits rarely open naturally. She learned to force them to be, and to control what can pass through. I know some of this art. Much she took with her, of course.
I said this to explain why you encountered my hand. I was...trying to open a door into nothing. I thought perhaps if a new space could be opened, the existing worlds might be folded into it, together but distinct, and no longer a danger to each other by this leaking. Surely she would have done this if it was a good idea! But such was my thought.
I thought I had succeeded. Perhaps I did, in part. But the space was thin. A touch of nothingness, but then...something beyond it. What would be beyond nothingness?" He laughs. "I suppose I was acting again as I did when I was little, reaching for who knows what through a door I did not understand!
Well, then I learned there was someone there. And you got my scrap of writing and I imagined you might write a reply and...and explain everything to me! Well, then this lady appeared." He blinks at Tetyana. "I could not understand her a bit! I suppose that was another of my mother's tricks. But she seemed cheerful enough. A little company was welcome. This has not happened in a very long time. And then you two appeared, I suppose to look for her?
And here we are. Well.
Well." He shakes his head. "You, Ethan, are familiar. And I understand your speech! But I do not think I have ever seen your people...and your garb is unlike that of these two. Perhaps you are a meddler, like me? Probably you are a great wizard come to check on the child left alone with his mother's tools! Or perhaps not.
As to this..." He holds you up closer to the tapestry. "This was her story as she told it. She was not of this land herself, but began as a wanderer of some kind, finding my father here. There is a story to all this, but I do not know what I really grasp of it." He gestures. You see various figures and places, crudely but effectively woven, tied, or even dyed into the material. It has a motley look, as if it was made with great effort and attention but no particular mastery and no one technique. "These here are her first family, in the ruined world. They fly away. Then the man who held her hand and went with her into the earth. Some kind of horrid beasts..." He smiles and moves you along a little. "A door in a wood and then my father. This is me, the little thing. And then she holds up her loops and masters this place. Of course there is more along here. And I suppose I will have to finish myself, while I live.
As to what to do now...my idea may not have been very good. Perhaps there is nothing to be done. I know she felt a kind of debt, like there was something she had to do or rectify. Maybe it cannot be done! Maybe that debt has not passed to me. But there is nothing else I know. I suppose there are other lives, and they do not all need me peering in on them.
A strange life, perhaps, in your eyes! But now you know it, or as much as you want or need, anyway.
So I do not know just what I am doing. I thought I would try out my own thought. It did not work as I hoped, but at least I met you folk. But I do not expect you to stay just to talk to me! Anyway. You can tell your friends what you wish of this, but maybe it is wearisome to hear me prattle on, whether you understand the speech or not." He sighs.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 1, 2022 18:48:48 GMT -5
"Thank you for the explanation. I will relay the information to my friends." I point towards Tetanya and explain, "The first one you met is Tetanya. She is Finny's sister. Now you know all of our names. Please, forgive my manners for not asking sooner but what name may we call you?".
"A few more questions if you don't mind. You said your father doesn't age as you do. Why is that? Is it just the work here that ages you now like it did your mother before you?".
"I just committed to assisting Finny and his people. I lost my former comrade, Alla, through one of these tears. She stumbled through one or was pulled through I can only assume. I have no idea which one. She was there one minute and gone the next. Maybe I can find her at some point. You don't have any ideas where I might begin my search, do you?".
Walking along the tapestry for a few paces I stop and look back to the giant. "I have seen tapestries that are somewhat similar in nature to this one but much smaller in scale. This one appears to tell your story from the very beginning up through the ages. By what name is your people known?".
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Post by hengest on Jul 1, 2022 21:05:23 GMT -5
He gets a bit of a faraway look in his eyes when you ask about his father. His hand that holds you seems unsteady for a moment, and you can feel that he is really no longer a young man. Finny and Tetyana are clearly taking some time to absorb what you "interpreted" for them.
About the tapestry, he clarifies. "The people...well, there are only two of us. Or were two. The tapestry is only my mother's story, and now mine. We have no people to speak of. She called me Newson. I only called her mother. The others...you may meet some others, but they are not as we are. They are smaller. Otherwise, more like my father.
My father...truly belongs to this place. Eh...my mother explained it to me as she could. Strange: she and I were the ones that needed explaining, and now here you are, and I see that you are like us rather than like him! Well, to him, I suppose we flicker like shadows by a flame. Inconstant, we change size, we grow old...then this." He gestures at the body in the center of the chamber. "But he is like the sun, or like a comet. Comes and goes, but always the same.
It isn't the work but just our nature. I remember she warned me about this...all this," he says, nodding in the direction of the body again. "He does not think as she does, or as I do. Goals, plans. Silly failures! He only is. There is no...ah. No lying, no hiding. You will not see him, I think, unless you stay for a long time."
You mention Alla and he looks at you with interest. "Slipped through something like one of these, you think? Large, to her, I suppose. I see...something like that is shown here." He holds you up to the tapestry again, where he mentioned the wood and the door. You see a strange thing represented, a kind of shapeless embroidered squiggle. "She called this a door, but I know that she did not mean to pass through it. I know that she tried to return but never could, even with sight, until that land was greatly changed. Time is not always reliable, I have learned. Often yes, sometimes no."
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 5:40:12 GMT -5
"I don't even remember my name", do any of you know who I am?" says the Conan look a like ,with a huge bowie knife.He is only wearing ripped jean."I think it might be Joshua"
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 5:49:54 GMT -5
"I don't even remember my name", do any of you know who I am?" says the Conan look a like ,with a huge bowie knife.He is only wearing ripped jean."I think it might be Joshua" He begins to wander away
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 6:35:13 GMT -5
"I don't even remember my name", do any of you know who I am?" says the Conan look a like ,with a huge bowie knife.He is only wearing ripped jean."I think it might be Joshua" He begins to wander away Newson jumps, startled, but does not drop anyone. Instead he puts everyone down carefully on the floor and grabs a milky glass vessel and places it upside-down over the strange and tiny visitor, holding it in place. "Another of yours?" he asks Ethan.
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 6:37:07 GMT -5
"What the ?....ok first is my name Joshua? His eyes go feral and his face whitens,he slowly draws the bowie knife up in a seriuos attempt at self control
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 6:43:53 GMT -5
'Answer the question" he says cautiously, his voice is showing strain
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 6:45:15 GMT -5
"What the ?....ok first is my name Joshua? His eyes go feral and his face whitens,he slowly draws the bowie knife up in a seriuos attempt at self control first gesturing Ethan over, Newson waves to the fellow through the glass, looking worried. He holds up a hand as a token of peace and motions for the man to calm down.
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 6:46:11 GMT -5
Tetyana runs over before her brother and begins communicating through the glass with frantic gestures.
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 6:47:14 GMT -5
"I am not going to ask nicely now, is my name Joshua?"
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 7:06:10 GMT -5
"I am not going to ask nicely now, is my name Joshua?" "Last chance I am going to ask this" he shifts into a menacing combat stance ."Joshua? an small half smile on his face'".I remember a jungle... not a jungle, a swamp"
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 7:25:56 GMT -5
"I am not going to ask nicely now, is my name Joshua?" "Last chance I am going to ask this" he shifts into a menacing combat stance ."Joshua? an small half smile on his face'".I remember a jungle... not a jungle, a swamp" Newson lifts the vessel, grabs the little man, and plucks the weapon out of his hand, then releases him. He gestures deliberately, miming speech, then covers his ears. Pointing to each of the slits in turn, he makes a questioning face.
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 7:43:26 GMT -5
Yes or no?, still with the feral eyes, he asks quietly
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 2, 2022 7:53:46 GMT -5
Newson jumps, startled, but does not drop anyone. Instead he puts everyone down carefully on the floor and grabs a milky glass vessel and places it upside-down over the strange and tiny visitor, holding it in place. "Another of yours?" he asks Ethan. "No, I've never seen him before." Pointing at the stranger in his hand Isay, "Please, keep a hold of him for a few more moments.". I address the stranger and say, "We are as confused as you. We will do our best to answer any questions, but you WILL control yourself and stop threatening anyone of us before that happens.".
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 7:54:45 GMT -5
Yes or no?, still with the feral eyes, he asks quietly Frustrated, but half-getting the idea, Newson tries simply nodding firmly.
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on Jul 2, 2022 7:57:31 GMT -5
"The only thing we're going to answer is that we don't know your name."
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Post by mao on Jul 2, 2022 8:00:34 GMT -5
"Then I am Joshua until I know any better...., he gestures toward a tattered Hawaiian shirt.
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Post by hengest on Jul 2, 2022 8:38:50 GMT -5
Newson straightens up a bit, surprised at your apparently successful interaction. He gestures to Tetyana, who clambers back onto his hand.
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