'I shall call it, a Hawkinghole...'
Part 2
The night continues, refocused.
And onward to...
Transit Nexus
...
UpWarp
You are inside of a sphere precisely 471.2 meters in circumference;
you know this because the sphere's dimensions are clearly marked, in
tidy black sans-serif text, on its inner wall. The sphere is made of
pristine white plastic, milky and translucent like quartz, and is
brightly illuminated. The room is dominated by an enormous flat screen,
50 meters across (also clearly measured), that flashes cryptic text,
talking heads, and brightly colored diagrams. From unseen speakers, a
cool feminine synthvoice announces transit schedules, public events,
and environmental conditions.
It's difficult to tell up from down here, since people seem to walk
soundly on every surface. Still more people hover in the center, seated
in floating plastic chairs shaped like hollowed eggs and spheres. They
hold conversations or interact with service terminals, but their voices
never rise above a polite hush. Stylized neon arrows and color-coded
alphanumerics mark the locations of public utilities and passages to
other locations.
Everybody seems quite cheerful, but nobody seems to laugh.
Nearby there's the glass wall of a local eatery, the [Autocaf], and
opposite that is a sliding door, efficiently labeled with bright
arrows and the legend 'To [Otissa]', and an arching corridor with
a blue line reading 'To [OptHab]'.
A flattened ovoid blob of liquid [mirror] floats here, lazily oozing
in midair.
Contents:
Materi
Miki
Squizzle
Ake
Twin
Info Kiosk [Fake]
Kangaroo Statue [Fake]
matter compiler [Fake]
public backup terminal [Fake]
Materi enters, with Coalesce walking along next to ver.
Materi pulls Coalesce along as the fluid dragon slowly regains form...
Coalesce pools limply in a field-pocket of Materi's denser cloudpart.
Twin looks around frantically, looking for symbols (she)'s never had to worry about. "Ah! Squizzle! Akeisdying! WeneedcareforhimnowandeveryonesaysUpisthebestforbodywoes!" The words pour out of (her).
Miki stares at the half-alive tengu, lip trembling.
Ake's beak opens weakly, faintly whispers "kaerimasss..."
Twin is ancient-yet-young, wise-yet-naive. (She) has no clue whatsoever what to do, just Ake carefully held in (her) gravitational grasp, abusing spacetime a little to damp inertia as (she) carries him.
Twin says, "You!Mikiwhatdoesthatmeanyouspeakhislanguageitdidn'ttranslatewhatsakaerimass?!?SomebodytellmewhattoDOwithhim!"
Miki stumbles forward until she's looking straight down into Ake's face, her hair floating a bit in Twin's gravity negation. "He said he's going home..."
Materi frowns, remembering something. "What about the mountain? Didn't anyone try to take him to the mountain? I thought th at's what he NEEDED...?"
Miki swallows, brushing a strand of hair out of the bird-man's face.
Coalesce regains enough control to speak, slowly growing limbs back out from mass.
Twin says, "Mountainmountainmountain----"
Coalesce says, "What...about Mount Vinge? "
Coalesce says, "If it is....real mountain...has to be...have stories.."
Materi says, "You know any OTHER mountain?"
Ake coughs, slowly his eyes focus. "Unnnn...song...why am I froating?"
Miki sobs, throws her arms around the crow goblin. "Please be okay."
Twin closes (her) eyes, energy crackling around (her) as (she) concentrates, exotic senses searching far, (her) physical body vanishing in ripples and fluxes, collar bleeping soft erratic rhythms. "Mountain," (she) breathes softly. And turns inside-out, punching a hole through space, bracing it open with (her)self, body a vague swirl of fractal matter about the eerie view... to a pale-pink-skied mountain.
Ake drawls woozily. "I'n gon...be okay..."
Miki stares. "Where is that?"
Twin's voice whispers in broken choruses. "Nearby planet. Real mountain. Natural processes. Breathable air for you. Hurry. Hurts."
Ake giggles, oblivious. "No rearry, I be arright."
Miki edges over towards the hole, squinting.
Twin's grasp on Ake slips. He thumps to the ground awkwardly.
Ake oof! He sits up, rubs his head.
Coalesce gathers himself back into almost normal form, and stares at the ripspace.
Ake narrows his eyes at the scenery through the singularity. "Pretty..."
Twin says, "Move, move, move, I can't..."
Coalesce's fingers flicker in a rhythm around the edges of the Twinhole, as if playing instrumental strings or keyboard.
Squizzle hops onto Ake's shoulder, bodily moves Ake's beak over and looks him straight in the eyes. "You said you needed a mountain to ground yourself in. I don't want your condition to keep deteriorating. Go on through."
Miki trots back to snatch up Ake, hesitates, weighing the consequences of throwing him and herself through...
Twin's voice, wispy though it is, is carefully encoded with pain and urgency.
Squizzle catches itself. "Please."
Ake blinks thoughtfully. "You come wiss me, squirrah?"
Materi nods, urging. "Will we be able to visit..?"
Coalesce struggles on the verge of touching the edges of the hole, backs away to give room.
Twin's voice ghosts. "TIME IS NOW."
Squizzle shrugs and nods and headshakes all at once. "I don't know. Just move."
Coalesce says, "Someone will....regret....either way..."
Twin ripples and contracts, the hole in space quivering and straining. This is not something (she) has ever done before. "can. find. you."
Ake wraps a gnarled hand around the squirrel and holds it to his chest. "You my friend...?"
Miki fidgets. "Erm..."
Squizzle says, "Yes, I'll come with you if you want-- you probably should bring along Miki--"
[OOC] Twin is going to collapse upon (her)self soon, just so you'll know. This is not what black holes are built to do at all, and (she)'s hurting (her)self.
Ake snaps into lucidity. "Futoru!"
[OOC] Twin says, "10"
Coalesce turns to Ake... "Birdthing. Now is not stubborn time. We...will miss you. But go. "
Miki looks immensely frustrated.
[OOC] Twin says, "9"
Twin crackles with hideous colors not meant to be seen by mortal eyes.
Ake scrambles out of Miki's grasp. "Have to find Futoru!"
Ake is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Ake has left.
Twin collapses.
Miki cringes, watches helplessly as Ake runs off, wondering if she should...follow...him...
Coalesce dives onto the ground, anticipating something more from Twin.
Miki stares helplessly.
Twin reforms matter, sprawled on the ground, the singularity in a lazy orbit about (her) usual form, weak ripples of distortion trailing (her).
Materi leans over Twin, examining. "Are YOU all right...?"
Twin/mass lifts (her) head. "I need to eat," (she) whispers.
Miki puts a hand over her mouth. "What...what do you eat?"
Materi hops back slightly. "Can I instantiate something for you?"
The mirror-blob swells into a pregnant sphere and then bursts to release Ake.
Futoru has arrived.
Ake carries Futoru with him.
Ake says, "I find him!"
Ake drops Futoru off of him.
Coalesce says, "Does your...singularity self need to eat...too? "
Twin/mass grimaces as the singularity twists, more distortion surrounding it. "I can do it again if he finds his pet. But not now. I have to eat."
Materi sighs. "A bit slow, Ake..." ve says without taking eyes off Twin.
Futoru wobbles. "Uh? I thought you said we were going someplace. I been here before. Er...I think." The tanuki scratches his head.
Ake looks embarassed. "Oops."
Ake crosses his arms. "I had to go rooking foh him in Chahmwahp too! Ugh! Dammit."
Materi looks to Twin. "Eat what? Plasma? Osmium? Biological food, what?"
Twin's physical body vanishes in a puff of elementary particles let go, as (her) true self blurs into a eye-tweaking line of distortion, visible for the barest instant, accelerating to half lightspeed impossibly fast. (She) vanishes in a direction that might lead to normal space. A hole through the walls trails (her), path elaborate and twisting to avoid *any damange to sentients*...
Coalesce says, "I suspect...just plain matter. That must have been very hard. "
Materi hms, and watches, curious yet again. "Hm. Okay."
Coalesce wiggles his fingers along the air, as if Twin's hole was still there. "It felt....it felt like the music..."
Miki watches. "I um...I don't think that was really a good thing, was it?"
[OOC] Twin is probably diving frantically through one of the stars Puzzlebox holds captive for energy right now.
[OOC] Materi thought as much.
Squizzle shakes its head at Twin's frantic retreat, then turns and skips over to Ake. "Are you... uh... all right?"
Ake scratches at his head. Some loose strands of hair drift to the ground. He still looks sick but seems operational. "Ah...I guess so. Sat music make me rearry woozy zough."
Coalesce glances at Ake. "I'm sorry. I...couldn't stop it."
Ake hiccups. "Sat okay..." He sits down rather ungracefully.
Miki gulps. "I hope we didn't hurt the nice uh...whatever she is."
Materi says, "Ake, are you sure the mountain in Topwarp won't work?"
[OOC] Twin says, "If people are going to call me a goddess, even if I refuse the label, I should JUSTIFY it now and then."
[OOC] Materi was impressed. :o)
[OOC] Coalesce snerks.
[OOC] Ake really is a god-thing and can't do a dern thing to help himself. PATHETIC.
[OOC] Coalesce says, "Pity your priest wasn't around. "
[OOC] Twin says, "He would've just gotten horny. n.n"
(removed some vaguely related post-RP OOC yammering)
[OOC] Twin says, "Oh, and what Twin did was probably at the very edge of (her) capabilities: (she) somehow dug up the nearest planet with what (she) hoped qualified enough as mountains to support Ake, and pried a wormhole open. With (her)self. (She)'s pretty sure (she) can find it again..."
Miki rubs her eyes, yawns. "I guess the...hole...whoever she is...isn't coming back...right now"
Coalesce hmmms. "Singularity needed to...replenish."
[OOC] Materi says, "Think she could thread it with exotic matter, too? I mean, she's kinda made of the stuff. ;o)"
Miki slumps over and lifts her tengu off the ground. "We should...get some sleep..."
Ake nods and buries his face in the oni's neck. "tiahed."
Squizzle nods. "Please, get some rest, Ake, Miki. Good night."
Ake waves to Squizzle. "See you in mohning, squirrah."
Miki offers to carry Ake with her.
Ake scrambles up on Miki.
Squizzle says, "I certainly hope so."
Miki is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Miki has left.
Ake has left.
Miki takes Ake with her.
Futoru blinks. "Eh...if it's all the same to everybody...I'm going back to that Charm place, okay?"
Futoru is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Futoru has left.
Squizzle blinks. "... Well."
Materi nods.
Coalesce wavers a bit, then sits down.
Coalesce says, "That was...draining for me as well. But I don't feel like eating, I feel like...singing. More. The song was unfinished, not enough to...do whatever it was trying to do. I think...it needed more singers. "
Materi just nods a bit, seemingly knowingly, but doesn't say anything else.
Coalesce says, "The infection has spread now, that is certain. It's out of my control. "
Materi mmms. "It will be all right." ve states, placidly.
Coalesce says, "It's...bigger than I imagined..."
End Part 2
The night continues, refocused.
And onward to...
Transit Nexus
...
UpWarp
You are inside of a sphere precisely 471.2 meters in circumference;
you know this because the sphere's dimensions are clearly marked, in
tidy black sans-serif text, on its inner wall. The sphere is made of
pristine white plastic, milky and translucent like quartz, and is
brightly illuminated. The room is dominated by an enormous flat screen,
50 meters across (also clearly measured), that flashes cryptic text,
talking heads, and brightly colored diagrams. From unseen speakers, a
cool feminine synthvoice announces transit schedules, public events,
and environmental conditions.
It's difficult to tell up from down here, since people seem to walk
soundly on every surface. Still more people hover in the center, seated
in floating plastic chairs shaped like hollowed eggs and spheres. They
hold conversations or interact with service terminals, but their voices
never rise above a polite hush. Stylized neon arrows and color-coded
alphanumerics mark the locations of public utilities and passages to
other locations.
Everybody seems quite cheerful, but nobody seems to laugh.
Nearby there's the glass wall of a local eatery, the [Autocaf], and
opposite that is a sliding door, efficiently labeled with bright
arrows and the legend 'To [Otissa]', and an arching corridor with
a blue line reading 'To [OptHab]'.
A flattened ovoid blob of liquid [mirror] floats here, lazily oozing
in midair.
Contents:
Materi
Miki
Squizzle
Ake
Twin
Info Kiosk [Fake]
Kangaroo Statue [Fake]
matter compiler [Fake]
public backup terminal [Fake]
Materi enters, with Coalesce walking along next to ver.
Materi pulls Coalesce along as the fluid dragon slowly regains form...
Coalesce pools limply in a field-pocket of Materi's denser cloudpart.
Twin looks around frantically, looking for symbols (she)'s never had to worry about. "Ah! Squizzle! Akeisdying! WeneedcareforhimnowandeveryonesaysUpisthebestforbodywoes!" The words pour out of (her).
Miki stares at the half-alive tengu, lip trembling.
Ake's beak opens weakly, faintly whispers "kaerimasss..."
Twin is ancient-yet-young, wise-yet-naive. (She) has no clue whatsoever what to do, just Ake carefully held in (her) gravitational grasp, abusing spacetime a little to damp inertia as (she) carries him.
Twin says, "You!Mikiwhatdoesthatmeanyouspeakhislanguageitdidn'ttranslatewhatsakaerimass?!?SomebodytellmewhattoDOwithhim!"
Miki stumbles forward until she's looking straight down into Ake's face, her hair floating a bit in Twin's gravity negation. "He said he's going home..."
Materi frowns, remembering something. "What about the mountain? Didn't anyone try to take him to the mountain? I thought th at's what he NEEDED...?"
Miki swallows, brushing a strand of hair out of the bird-man's face.
Coalesce regains enough control to speak, slowly growing limbs back out from mass.
Twin says, "Mountainmountainmountain----"
Coalesce says, "What...about Mount Vinge? "
Coalesce says, "If it is....real mountain...has to be...have stories.."
Materi says, "You know any OTHER mountain?"
Ake coughs, slowly his eyes focus. "Unnnn...song...why am I froating?"
Miki sobs, throws her arms around the crow goblin. "Please be okay."
Twin closes (her) eyes, energy crackling around (her) as (she) concentrates, exotic senses searching far, (her) physical body vanishing in ripples and fluxes, collar bleeping soft erratic rhythms. "Mountain," (she) breathes softly. And turns inside-out, punching a hole through space, bracing it open with (her)self, body a vague swirl of fractal matter about the eerie view... to a pale-pink-skied mountain.
Ake drawls woozily. "I'n gon...be okay..."
Miki stares. "Where is that?"
Twin's voice whispers in broken choruses. "Nearby planet. Real mountain. Natural processes. Breathable air for you. Hurry. Hurts."
Ake giggles, oblivious. "No rearry, I be arright."
Miki edges over towards the hole, squinting.
Twin's grasp on Ake slips. He thumps to the ground awkwardly.
Ake oof! He sits up, rubs his head.
Coalesce gathers himself back into almost normal form, and stares at the ripspace.
Ake narrows his eyes at the scenery through the singularity. "Pretty..."
Twin says, "Move, move, move, I can't..."
Coalesce's fingers flicker in a rhythm around the edges of the Twinhole, as if playing instrumental strings or keyboard.
Squizzle hops onto Ake's shoulder, bodily moves Ake's beak over and looks him straight in the eyes. "You said you needed a mountain to ground yourself in. I don't want your condition to keep deteriorating. Go on through."
Miki trots back to snatch up Ake, hesitates, weighing the consequences of throwing him and herself through...
Twin's voice, wispy though it is, is carefully encoded with pain and urgency.
Squizzle catches itself. "Please."
Ake blinks thoughtfully. "You come wiss me, squirrah?"
Materi nods, urging. "Will we be able to visit..?"
Coalesce struggles on the verge of touching the edges of the hole, backs away to give room.
Twin's voice ghosts. "TIME IS NOW."
Squizzle shrugs and nods and headshakes all at once. "I don't know. Just move."
Coalesce says, "Someone will....regret....either way..."
Twin ripples and contracts, the hole in space quivering and straining. This is not something (she) has ever done before. "can. find. you."
Ake wraps a gnarled hand around the squirrel and holds it to his chest. "You my friend...?"
Miki fidgets. "Erm..."
Squizzle says, "Yes, I'll come with you if you want-- you probably should bring along Miki--"
[OOC] Twin is going to collapse upon (her)self soon, just so you'll know. This is not what black holes are built to do at all, and (she)'s hurting (her)self.
Ake snaps into lucidity. "Futoru!"
[OOC] Twin says, "10"
Coalesce turns to Ake... "Birdthing. Now is not stubborn time. We...will miss you. But go. "
Miki looks immensely frustrated.
[OOC] Twin says, "9"
Twin crackles with hideous colors not meant to be seen by mortal eyes.
Ake scrambles out of Miki's grasp. "Have to find Futoru!"
Ake is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Ake has left.
Twin collapses.
Miki cringes, watches helplessly as Ake runs off, wondering if she should...follow...him...
Coalesce dives onto the ground, anticipating something more from Twin.
Miki stares helplessly.
Twin reforms matter, sprawled on the ground, the singularity in a lazy orbit about (her) usual form, weak ripples of distortion trailing (her).
Materi leans over Twin, examining. "Are YOU all right...?"
Twin/mass lifts (her) head. "I need to eat," (she) whispers.
Miki puts a hand over her mouth. "What...what do you eat?"
Materi hops back slightly. "Can I instantiate something for you?"
The mirror-blob swells into a pregnant sphere and then bursts to release Ake.
Futoru has arrived.
Ake carries Futoru with him.
Ake says, "I find him!"
Ake drops Futoru off of him.
Coalesce says, "Does your...singularity self need to eat...too? "
Twin/mass grimaces as the singularity twists, more distortion surrounding it. "I can do it again if he finds his pet. But not now. I have to eat."
Materi sighs. "A bit slow, Ake..." ve says without taking eyes off Twin.
Futoru wobbles. "Uh? I thought you said we were going someplace. I been here before. Er...I think." The tanuki scratches his head.
Ake looks embarassed. "Oops."
Ake crosses his arms. "I had to go rooking foh him in Chahmwahp too! Ugh! Dammit."
Materi looks to Twin. "Eat what? Plasma? Osmium? Biological food, what?"
Twin's physical body vanishes in a puff of elementary particles let go, as (her) true self blurs into a eye-tweaking line of distortion, visible for the barest instant, accelerating to half lightspeed impossibly fast. (She) vanishes in a direction that might lead to normal space. A hole through the walls trails (her), path elaborate and twisting to avoid *any damange to sentients*...
Coalesce says, "I suspect...just plain matter. That must have been very hard. "
Materi hms, and watches, curious yet again. "Hm. Okay."
Coalesce wiggles his fingers along the air, as if Twin's hole was still there. "It felt....it felt like the music..."
Miki watches. "I um...I don't think that was really a good thing, was it?"
[OOC] Twin is probably diving frantically through one of the stars Puzzlebox holds captive for energy right now.
[OOC] Materi thought as much.
Squizzle shakes its head at Twin's frantic retreat, then turns and skips over to Ake. "Are you... uh... all right?"
Ake scratches at his head. Some loose strands of hair drift to the ground. He still looks sick but seems operational. "Ah...I guess so. Sat music make me rearry woozy zough."
Coalesce glances at Ake. "I'm sorry. I...couldn't stop it."
Ake hiccups. "Sat okay..." He sits down rather ungracefully.
Miki gulps. "I hope we didn't hurt the nice uh...whatever she is."
Materi says, "Ake, are you sure the mountain in Topwarp won't work?"
[OOC] Twin says, "If people are going to call me a goddess, even if I refuse the label, I should JUSTIFY it now and then."
[OOC] Materi was impressed. :o)
[OOC] Coalesce snerks.
[OOC] Ake really is a god-thing and can't do a dern thing to help himself. PATHETIC.
[OOC] Coalesce says, "Pity your priest wasn't around. "
[OOC] Twin says, "He would've just gotten horny. n.n"
(removed some vaguely related post-RP OOC yammering)
[OOC] Twin says, "Oh, and what Twin did was probably at the very edge of (her) capabilities: (she) somehow dug up the nearest planet with what (she) hoped qualified enough as mountains to support Ake, and pried a wormhole open. With (her)self. (She)'s pretty sure (she) can find it again..."
Miki rubs her eyes, yawns. "I guess the...hole...whoever she is...isn't coming back...right now"
Coalesce hmmms. "Singularity needed to...replenish."
[OOC] Materi says, "Think she could thread it with exotic matter, too? I mean, she's kinda made of the stuff. ;o)"
Miki slumps over and lifts her tengu off the ground. "We should...get some sleep..."
Ake nods and buries his face in the oni's neck. "tiahed."
Squizzle nods. "Please, get some rest, Ake, Miki. Good night."
Ake waves to Squizzle. "See you in mohning, squirrah."
Miki offers to carry Ake with her.
Ake scrambles up on Miki.
Squizzle says, "I certainly hope so."
Miki is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Miki has left.
Ake has left.
Miki takes Ake with her.
Futoru blinks. "Eh...if it's all the same to everybody...I'm going back to that Charm place, okay?"
Futoru is suddenly enclosed in a wobbly sphere of liquid mirror, which then disappears with a >pop<.
Futoru has left.
Squizzle blinks. "... Well."
Materi nods.
Coalesce wavers a bit, then sits down.
Coalesce says, "That was...draining for me as well. But I don't feel like eating, I feel like...singing. More. The song was unfinished, not enough to...do whatever it was trying to do. I think...it needed more singers. "
Materi just nods a bit, seemingly knowingly, but doesn't say anything else.
Coalesce says, "The infection has spread now, that is certain. It's out of my control. "
Materi mmms. "It will be all right." ve states, placidly.
Coalesce says, "It's...bigger than I imagined..."
End Part 2