Cave Slickers: The Legend of Holly-Eyes Gold [FINISHED!]

[Zerrer]

Neal's sense of propriety kicked in as soon as he saw the girl. Ignoring his scratches and his burns, he grabbed her, firefighter-style, and started swimming to the top.

[3kul]

Shambaro did not respond to Naine's words, nor does he show any signs of regaining consciousness. It's quite possible that he's dead, or maybe he's merely in need of serious medical attention.

Right now all Shambaro is doing is lying on the ground smouldering. He doesn't appear to be breathing, but you don't recall if he was making visible signs of breathing before when he was still conscious. You've no way of knowing whether he's alive or dead without cutting him open or scanning him with some kind of x-ray, but it might be best to leave that sort of thing up to a medical professional... Unfortunately, there are probably not that many of those happy to treat strangers here in the Corrupted Cave.

But on the bright side, if he is dead you've picked the best place to commit murder. If anybody finds out that you did it you're more likely to be congratulated than prosecuted.

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"You don't look very dead to me, and you didn't make the deal yet." The devil said to Goldie, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "And I'm something of an expert on both subjects."

He pointed to the battery, which burst into flames and quickly burnt away to nothing. "At the very least, we can both agree that you have no need of this anymore." The devil then put out his cigar, crushing it into dust with one of his hands, and you noticed that the smoke surrounding the two of you began to fade. "But no person ever has just one thing that they want in life, and I'm a pretty patient guy. Keep the book, think about it, and when you have something else you want... Well, you'll know where to find me."

The devil snaps his fingers, and the book sucks him back in then slams shut. It's now lying harmlessly on the library floor just as it had been before, but for some reason you feel compelled to keep it as the devil had advised. It wouldn't be hard for you to justify hanging on to this book, as it was certainly better in your hands than in the hands of the Evil Council.

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"This is... very non-usual story for Mucon to be hearing." Mucon croaked to CAM-501, not entirely sure whether to believe the strange tale or not. "But it is good that Mucon and yours can spoke."

"However and ever, Mucon had some un-understandings in this story of you." He began, picking up some papers from an open briefcase on the floor. "For ones-ly, it was dis-allowed for you to be making outsidular communicotings of any type. Ah, please object only after Mucon has explaining, please."

"Warden Forskagg is over the impressioning that you are worked for a prisoner or prisonii, to be ensuring the safe escapement of them from this faculty. As such you are in the only-one cell. Understanding, yes?" This didn't seem very fair to you, but it would be difficult to argue without making yourself look suspicious. Mucon flicked through some more papers, his bulbous eyes glancing between them and yourself. He appears to be in quite a calm mood now that he is talking to you, most likely because you are behaving in more civil manner than he expected (perhaps he too believes the warden's version of things?).

"Number 2, yours are maybe not knew where you are currently, so Mucon will explained." At this point he held up a small flier for you to see, one depicting a number of large prison ships much like the one that you were currently on. "As Mucon is mentioning early, that is Prison Faculty Flerlty-Selb, maximal security holder for organic criminaliens of all varies."

He gestures about the room with his hands, though there's really not much for you to see here. "Force-fieldular walls for the prevent running, guns and guards in every cranny and nook, and then even if they are yes to escaping... Maybe you have been ground-side, so you seeing some natives? Prison is most non-desirable to flee from thanks to them. Sentient cancer, eats anything it sees! Very afraidening to Mucon, Mucon is pleased to be safest up there, GUH GUH GUH!" His entire body jiggled as he did his weird ribbity laughter thing again, but it wasn't any less disturbing than it was the last time.

"Accidental portalling are happening more regular than you maybe thought, but Mucon and others do not know why. It was non-fortunate, few are to be living long down there. Only you, as a mechanismal folk, will be immune to most danger things. They is higher likely to worshipping you as a Deito than harmed you - the cancerlings are very pre-mitive, you see." Mucon seemed to have a very basic understanding of the inhabitants of the planet, but didn't offer much more knowledge for now.

"In every case, you perhaps is seeing how the Warden is not to being convinced by your story, and you are maybe understanding where the Warden is came from now, yes? None are bester to helping the escapers than mechanismals like your good person." Mucon rubbed his slimy chin and furrowed his brow, thinking deeply on what to do now. "You will keep your translationor to yourself, Mucon will not told the Warden of it. Mucon is at-tourneying for many several years now, and knowing that sometimes pre-tender to not understanding is muchly helpful."

"Are you had any questionings for Mucon, or was Mucon to rely your story on the warden now?"

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"Well, this is just between you and me, but I hear that what they only pay us half of what we really earn, and then top Council investors put the rest of our money to work for us." The grunt explained to Paul, not having the slightest clue as to why they were really promised such a great retirement bonus.

"Sure it's a bit immoral sometimes, but there's a lot more money in being evil than there is in being good. I mean, the biggest group of 'good' guys the Dojo's ever seen is the Guardians, and look at where they are now!" He stopped a bit to watch with a slight fascination as you bit down through the end of the wine bottle, then waited for you take a big swig of liquor with your medicine so that he could continue. "They don't say that nice guys finish last for nothing, after all."

He thought carefully about your request for a speedy recruitment process. "Anyways, you wanted to know about a faster recruitment method... Well I've never heard of one, but give me a sec and I'll check for you." The grunt pulled a communicator from his belt and begins to speak into it. "Hey, I got a guy here who wants to sign up, but doesn't want to sit through all the brainwashing movies... Nah, he seems pretty dead set on joining, just wants to get to the blood and guts of the job as quickly as possible... Well think of it this way - how much brainwashing do you really need to scrub wallslime off of the walls?... Yeah... Yeah... Oh, really?... Well I was wondering why we kept those by the door, but I guess that makes a bit of sense... Alright, yeah, I'll catch you later then."

He put the communicator back in it's holster and reached into a cupboard near the door, procuring a large cardboard box. It seems pretty heavy, and after a bit of difficulty he places it down in front of you. "Okay, this is the speediest method of recruitment that we've got. Shouldn't take you longer than 15 minutes, then you're free to roam the Cave as a grunt like me." He opens up the box to reveal a dozen or so two week old kittens, mewing and playing about in a manner so adorable that they make four week old kittens look downright hideous by comparison.

"So, basically, you just have to bite the heads off of all these kittens, and then you're in." The grunt said without showing a hint of remorse or disgust at the prospect of this task, a true testament to the brainwashing skills of the EC. "No closing your eyes by the way, you have to watch these kittens as you end their tiny innocent lives."

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"Uh, you sure you want me to go?" Duncan asked Evil Swix, now quite curious to see what she was doing now that she seemed to be transforming her hand into some kind of concentrated evil. "Coz, uh, I mean, serving under you beats what I usually do. You might need, like, a secretary or something? I can do phone calls, appointments, messages... phone calls..."

He kind of trailed off as he watched you envelop the eye-ball in a shroud of darkness, and the beetle began to squirm furiously as it felt strange dark tendrils wrap around it's legs with surprisingly strong grip. "Don' yew try playin' yer games wit' me, yew loi'in tramp! We all seen wot you done as' th' las' beedle wot was up he'a. Dumbarse gon' an' told yew all abou' wotchin', an' oi got nothin' else t'add toit."

It might have Duncan a bit freaked out, but your tricks don't seem to phase the beetle too much. If you're hoping to get some information from it you might have to up the ante.

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Neal found the girl lighter than she looked, despite having such a bulbous head, and it wasn't long before the two of them were on the surface.

The girl was still unconscious, but upon closer observation you could see that she clearly wasn't human. She had seven eyes (all of which were closed at the moment), a head bigger than her body, no arms, and her legs were like those of a spider or a crab.

If you knew anything about the Council and it's infamous members, you would recognize this as the ferocious Little Sister... But if you don't know the Council that well you'd probably think that you've just dragged up some kind of weird/horribly deformed animal or squid larva or something like that.

[Zerrer]

Neal felt a chill go down his spine as he examined the girl- or was it a female? This is a non-human, so it'd probably be called a female, rather then girl.

He briefly flirted with the idea of splashing water on the female's face. But then he realized that if gallons of water hadn't awoken her, then a light sprinkle wouldn't do a thing.

He did put his ear down to where her lungs would be if she were human. That way, he would know whether she is alive and breathing or not.

[3kul]

Neal would hear many of the young female's organs beating, sloshing and pulsating about inside of her, which would suggest that she was alive... maybe? Hard to say without advanced medical knowledge in whatever the hell she is.

The sudden sensation of (more) water splashing against your hands draws your attention to the female's neck. You hadn't noticed it before, but she appeared to have a set of gills - was it possible that she could only breath in the water, and that in attempting to save her you were killing her?

Fortunately for you, this was not an ordinary little girl. Suddenly jerking herself into an upright position, Little Sister's many eyes snapped open and she began to gasp for air. Immediately seeing that she was not underwater, she extended some hair into the water and then wrapped it around her neck. ~Ah! Much better.~ She spoke in a very strange manner - not by opening her mouth but by projecting her words directly into your mind.

~You.~ She thought, looking directly at you. After looking you up and down for a moment or two, she raised an eyebrow. ~Really? You took out the squid?~ She didn't seem to have a very high opinion of you (hey, you are disguised as a grunt) and has her doubts about how you managed to beat the massive beast, but fortunately for you Little Sister was too busy 'drowning' in air again to give you anymore attitude right now. A large woven tendril extended from her head and drew up some more water from the pool. This was a most unusual creature who seemed to be capable of moving her hair as though each strand were a limb that she was in control of.

~Keh, useless gills! Give me a few minutes to sort out my respiratory system and we can get going.~

(( Little Sister lives once more! The story should start moving at a much quicker pace soon...))

[Zerrer]

~Keh, useless gills! Give me a few minutes to sort out my respiratory system and we can get going.~

Neal didn't overlook the significance of that 'we'. He wasn't altogether sure exactly how she was talking without using a mouth, though.
"No problem, erm, Ma'am." Neal said, not completely sure who or what this female is, But he guessed what kind of personality she had- rude, commanding, most probably evil- and that would make her part of the council. ~Give her something for her to berate you about~ He thought to himself, before continuing "I did take out the squid, but if it makes you feel better, miss, I screwed up and almost blew off my arm."

[Swix]

"Look Duncan" Evil Swix said, ignoring the beetle for the time being, though his jibes were starting to get to her already short temper "if you really want to do something else for me, go find the crocodile pit and make sure the one in there is still alive" she didn't seem to care that his body wouldn't be able to open doors more than smash them or would have to ask someone else to do it.

Then she turned her attention to the beetle, the smile gone and the same darkness from earlier beginning to cloud over her "Lying am I?" she said, though ordinarily this wasn't all that much of an offense since she often had and saw no reason not to "Did your friend tell you what I threatened to do to him if he didn't talk? Hmm?" Evil Swix paused briefly here, as though for dramatic effect "Since you don't seem to want t add anything, maybe I should just show you!"

One of the many small tendrils began to pull on one of the beetles middle legs, exerting an ever increasing pressure. The evil woman fully intended to pull it off, but there was no reason she couldn't enjoy what she was doing.

[drlupinmario]

"Yeah? Well -Bleep!- You too then! I have been waiting a long time for this, And now finally I can rest!"

Lucifer holds out his hand and quickly grabs his machete. "But I am sure as -Bleep!- not going to let you slowly toss daggers at me, Leaving me half-dead before gutting me open and slowly ripping out my Innards, Hooking me up to life support only so I may watch as you slowly eat all of my -Bleep-ing Organs, You sick -Bleep!-tard!"

Lucifer Pulls down his cowl to reveal a sick, psycotic smile, as well as a single fang on his right. Or your left. "See you in Hell!" He yells. And finally, With all the force left in his body, He slashes his neck in one swing.

The dagger fade threw lands directly into lucifers heart. If he wasn't dead already, Such a blow would have him pushing up roses at the nearest Crematorium. Yes, Roses. Because Daisys are dumb.
___
I look into her eyes. I see No mercy, No compassion... No forgivness. What of thoose I thought I saw in her has manifested itself into Hate, Hate, And still More Hate. If she has her way with me, She would... -Bleep!-, I dont want to even think about it. No, It is best to end this. All of this. Right here. Right Now.

I hold out my arm to summon my blade. Staring into her eyes again, I see the hatred slowly fading away and turning into fear. She knows what is going to happen. I am going to kill her chewtoy. And holding it up towards my neck, I thrust my arm.

I thought the end. At long last, I sleep. But I lied to myself it was all over. It was'nt over. And it would get worse before the end...

___
((Oi, havent posted here in a long while. This suicide thing is intentional, I am putting trust in 3kul that I WILL turn into a ghost and at one point or anouther I would go back into corprol form.

Anouther note that thoose -Bleep!- 's are just there as a censor filter. Even though BSD has a builtin swearfilter, all its filters are just dumb nonsense. And if I were to try and BYPASS this filter by using letters and numbers (Not that I would you understand, Or at the very least, Not here) I would probobly End up like Crazy D and be whiped away by an avalanche. ))

((And anouther note that the Firstperson section was last minute. I thought it would be fitting. What thoughts are expressed there are mostly only in Lucifer's forked-up mind, clutterd with paranoia and other insanitys. So uh, Yeah))

[3kul]

((A lot happens in this post, so it may be a little difficult to follow. If there's anything that you don't understand, please ask me about it ))

~Why doesn't that surprise me...~ Little Sister mentally groaned to Neal, rolling her many eyes. Well, that was about on par with what was to be expected.

~That burn looks like it'll be a problem, do something about it.~ She snapped at you, as though she expected you to simply heal over your own wounds. ~Or else you'll have trouble defending yourself. That two-faced idiot isn't going to sit quietly anymore now that he knows I'm free again...~

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"Chairman Meow! So good of you to join our tea party!" HollowEyes shouted to Caton, a wide grin spread across his face as his feline minion entered the room. "Bad news, boss." Caton said bluntly, hoping that the most direct approach would enable him to avoid his master's nonsensical ramblings. He was finding his master progressively difficult to deal with every day, but Caton continued to obey the Parasitian's orders.

"We're out of tea? That's fine, I hate tea." HollowEyes replied, melting a CD over a flame, the silvery liquid dripping into a cup. "No boss, it's the beetle-" "Oh yes! The beetles! Yes, I've already seen that though, the plasmas give me a very clear view of what's going on, and what's not going on." He gestured about him, to the many others that filled the room. "The spirits also keep me informed, I know that a large bird has killed two of the millipede spirit's underlings, though that's not entirely unexpected - birds love caves and hate millipedes, what with them being natural enemies and all."

Caton didn't really understand what HollowEyes was getting at, but was a little relieved that he didn't have to be the bearer of bad news. "Yes, yes, the food chain quite clearly goes 'bird', 'millipede', 'vice-chairman' and then 'CEO'. I've heard that it's not a profitable business, but charity never is." Caton still had no clue as to what HollowEyes was talking about, and as such continued to remain silent. One of the spirits in the room, however, suddenly felt a need to speak up. "My child has fallen HollowEyes." The dark, squid-like being spoke in a quiet voice, it's silent rage masking it's deep shame. It had seen it's underling fall to a mere grunt, and was both furious at the beast for failing it's immensely important task and embarassed that this was a failure for it as well.

"Oh, that is bad news." HollowEyes said, shattering the cup and saucer in his hands. "But you could have delivered it in a more dramatic manner. 5 points." He looked at his blood dripping to the ground, somewhat mesmorized by it. "I'm not angry though. I'm happy, because it means that things are moving. It's fun when things are moving, don't you think Caton?" "... Yes, boss?" "YES DAMN YOU, A THOUSAND TIMES YES! NOBODY WANTS TO RIDE A STATIONARY FERRIS WHEEL!" HollowEyes shouted back, now furious for no apparent reason. Caton did not move, now quite used to his master's sudden and unpredictable outbursts. "... God how I hate ferris wheels... And Gods! Damn them, always turning and turning..."

"Many pardons for interrupting your deep thoughts, HollowEyes." A spirit addressed HollowEyes, bowing slightly as a show of respect. "But your sister could throw a sizable wrench in our works. How goes progress on the... you-know-what?" "The what?" HollowEyes asked, looking very puzzled. "Oh! Yeah, it's going great, I actually had a breakthrough this morning, that's why I'm happy. Breakthroughs are good, breakdowns are bad, breakups are totally mutual, or so I'm told." "Indeed? Then what shall we do about your sister?"

HollowEyes thought for a moment, twisting his head about and chattering his teeth. "Umumumummmm... I think that the Chairman here can handle it. I still need you guys for... you knooooow." "Is he really up to it?" Another spirit asked. Many of them had serious doubts about Caton, whom HollowEyes seemed to rely a great deal on, and fairly so - out of all the beings present, Caton was undoubtedly the weakest. "Only on days that end in 'y'... Just as well that 'today' is not 'tomorrow', eh Chairman Meow?" HollowEyes answered solemnly, turning to Caton. He was speaking in a very stupid manner, and he called him by a completely different name, but Caton could tell that his master still held a lot of faith in him.

~I will not let you down, boss.~ Caton responded, shifting to his human form. Spiritual strings extended from his fingers, stretching out to the many 'puppets' he had scattered throughout the Cave. To control this many would most likely consume all of his energy, but he knew that he couldn't afford to pull any punches here. Slowly but surely there were people closing in on them, and if they reached HollowEyes before he was ready then all would be for naught.

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~Oh, and just so you know, messing with my respiratory system in such a short time like this is damn hard work.~ Little Sister mentally grumbled to Neal. ~I could explain the technical side of it, but it's way more than some grunt like you could understand, so why don't you just take care of these guys for me?~

Just as Little Sister finished speaking, a boney hand burst out of the water, clinging to the edge of the pool. The skeleton dragged itself up out of the water, and was soon followed by several others. ~That mangy cat's gotten better with this sort of thing... Be thankful that he's not good enough to control these and the squid though or you'd have been screwed.~

The skeletons rushed towards you and Little Sister as they emerged from the water. They're a bit creepy, but otherwise totally unarmed and most likely very brittle - as long as you don't let yourself get overwhelmed you shouldn't have a problem fending them off.

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"Oh... Well, alright then." Duncan replied to Evil Swix. He still didn't seem to want to leave, but he felt a little satisfied having secured another job from you. It would be a great excuse for him to use when his supervisor asked him why he cut out on wall slime cleaning duty today.

"Agagagagagggg!" The beetle screamed, it's feelings of pain increasing as your dark powers pulled it's leg harder and harder. "Yer a real peece a' werk, Evil SweeeEEEEEX AG MY LEG LEGGO LEGGO LEGGO!" It's now wriggling about furiously, desperately attempting to free itself but to no avail. "YER GUNNA BREAK I' ORF!" It screamed, and a slight cracking sound would suggest to you that the beetle was indeed telling the truth.

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At this point in time, several rotting corpses burst up from the ground in various locations throughout the library. These seven dead bodies all look the same, each of them having been Cornelius at one time, but all having been killed on seperate occassions.

Unlike zombies these Cornie corpses are not groaning for brains or any other internal organs, but they aren't very silent in their search for people in the library either, and the sounds of bookshelves being smashed (as well as a certain librarian shrieking their head off at them) makes it hard not to notice that something is amiss in the library.

None of them are anywhere near Evil Swix or Goldie just yet, but the library is only so big, and it won't be long before at least one of them manages to find each of you.

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((Oh drlupinmario, you placed too much faith in me, and now you're irreversibly dead! Hope you enjoyed the RP!

... Only joking, that would be a bit harsh of me, especially considering that I hinted at the possibility of ghostification. Unfortunately you picked a bad time to vacate your body.

This post is for Fade, and the next one is for DLM.))

Instead of slumping over as a good dead body should, the recently deceased Lucifer remained upright. Wrenching the dagger from it's chest, it hurled it back at Fade. ((If this isn't possible (like, if the dagger was meant to explode or something), just ignore this part.))

The corpse attempted to leap forward after the dagger, but without legs to enable it to do so it awkwardly falls to the ground, skewering one of it's arms with the machete that it was holding. The corpse struggles briefly before ceasing to move altogether.

Almost immediately after this five more corpses burst up from underground. These are all remains of Cornelius and they advance upon you without hesitation. Most of them are missing one or two limbs and one of them is missing a head, but this doesn't seem to impair their movements too much, althought they certainly aren't moving very naturally.

Walking silently and with the kind of grace that you wouldn't expect from a bunch of rotting corspes they advance upon you, the headless Cornie corpse stopping momentarily to remove the machete from Lucifer's body so that it may use it on you.

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The spirit of Lucifer witnessed this bizarre scene, but most likely didn't have the slightest inkling as to what was happening. But hey, death is a pretty disorienting experience, so nobody will hold it against you.

You're now floating in the room that you were in before, only you'll find that you can't physically or mentally interact with anything, and that most things can't interact with you. You are a spirit, a ghost, the etheral remains of the being once known as 'Lucifer'.

Whether you are bound for heaven, hell or someplace in between is impossible to say right now, for you don't seem to be going anywhere, and nobody seems to be here to meet you.

((... It's fun to be a ghost, huh? ))

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((And because I'm too lazy to type individual posts for everybody here...))

Throughout the Corrupted Cave corpses began to rise up, most of them belonging to Cornelius but with a few grunts thrown in every now and them. Those corpses that are half a body or less stop moving quickly, but any capable of walking or at least hopping continue to move once they've emerged from their 'final' resting place.

A vast majority of them are unarmed, but they are still pretty scary and gross. They could be zombies, as those who fall to them quickly join their ranks, but they do not groan about brains (or anything, for that matter) and are quite agile despite being dead. Their attacks are random and not too well organized, as for now they seem to be going for whoever they can find.

[Zerrer]

"Erm, I don't have any magic or equipment to heal my arm. Until I do, I guess I'm just going to try and- YEEP!"
Neal yelped slightly when the skeletons started trying to climb up out of the pool. Swiping Belinda the Rubber Duck off of the ground, he pelted it at the skull of the first skeleton. Seeing it bounce off harmlessly, he quickly tied a bit of shrapnel to his towel. From there, he started swinging it around, using the extra weight on the towel as a weapon.

[Swix]

Evil Swix watched the beetle with a kind of malicious intent coupled with a morbid enjoyment, watching it's useless struggles against the force that she'd made hold it. The evil woman would have let out a sigh of relief at Duncans finally leaving her if she wasn't so wrapped up in what was going on with the bizarre insect. "That's the point" Evil Swix said to the beetle after it screamed that she was going to pull it off "now listen... what the...?" Evil Swix finished her sentence a bit lamely due to her surprise and the Librarians unbearable shrieking at whathever it was that appeared to be trying to destroy the library and weren't taking a bit of notice of the ancient creature.

Not seeing anything immediately near her, Evil Swix looked back to the insect. The tendril applying slow pressure suddenly had a sense of urgency as she stopped playing and went for the whole thing. "Just what the hell is going on?!" she asked, more forcefully, and the threat of losing more limbs emphasised by slight pressure on the unworked legs
____________________________________________________________

Fade raised an eyebrow at both Lucifers emotional outburst-not entirely unexpected when people faced death-and his assumptions of what she would do to him. In one way, it was better for intruders to meet Fade rather than another, more passionate member, as she didn't tend to go for the torture route a lot of people in the EC loved. But in another way, that would usually mean that intruders life was shorter. Fades emotionless expression did not change when he raised the knife to his throat and cut it, though she stopped moving forwards, or when her own dagger thudded into his chest shortly after.

Fade would have turned to leave that very second if the body had begun to fall, but it didn't. Instead the body moved with a will of it's own, tore the dagger out and threw it back at her. If Lucifer hadn't done that to himself, Fade would have suspected this was his trick, but since he'd killed himself that made this something else.

Fade threw herself instinctively to her right behind one of the many surgical tables scattered around the room the second she saw the blade coming, by now she was too close to block-and too close for the blade to completely miss her no matter the instincts or adrenaline driving her. The throwing dagger hit the upper thigh of Fades left leg and buried itself there, it's owner could already feel the effects of the odourless, colourless and tasteless poison that coated the blade working on her even as she looked up from her place on the ground, now behind the table. Fade being Fade, the irony of dying from her own poisoned throwing daggers was both understood and completely lost on the mutant. She could hear and see other creatures coming out of the ground now, her sensitive ears picked up Lucifers corpse falling on it's own machete and then stopping moving, just before another scooped it up, minus a head.

The assassin needed to sort out her leg wound and neutralise the poison before she could fight properly though, from the looks of it these things were everywhere so she'd get no relief except what she made... she had to get rid of the things in the medical ward before she could use anything in it to help her. Disappearing was a possibility, but that required time she didn't have and energy she couldn't spare, and they already knew where she had fallen. It too, was out of the question until a space had been made.

Fade sat up, tearing a strip of blue cloth off her jacket and tying it tightly around the top of her leg as a crude tourniquet in order to slow the flow of poison. She didn't pull it out, knowing full well doing that would only make her situation worse by letting blood flow freely. Fade then hauled herself upright unsteadily, one hand still clutching the Sapphire Dagger and the other gripping the wider part of the table. The undead hadn't been affected by a blad to the heart nor did they seem to be like classical zombies, who wouldn't have been able to move without their head, so the assassin saw only one other option at this time-she had to incapacitate them. That involved her first propelling the table ahead, herself pushing it. She hoped to surprise and crush them against the wall with it.

((EDIT: Edited because I wasn't happy with the first actions ))

[Cirrial]

((Whoops. Back from my semi-absence to post!))

Naine takes a few moments to reflect on the past happenings of his journey here. What had driven him and Goldie to this place? He isn't entirely sure that Goldie's ill-conceived plot to earn some money and favour from Blackstar as a whole by holding EC members hostage had been the sole motivating factor, but rather a crude attempt at rationalisation from someone whose morals were... questionably selective.

Perhaps if things had turned out differently, Goldie would have made a perfect EC member. ...Perhaps, without Naine's influence, Goldie would become a perfect EC member.

My influence? My influence just ended up shocking a slightly dodgy but otherwise perfectly okay salesman to a crisp! I don't know what I'm doing any more. I'm lost in a cave. Half of the machine I need to keep me alive and mobile is broken. My dearest friend and ally is somewhere I do not know. I could wish for all the power in the universe to help me, but all that this'll achieve is complete destruction. And I am not going to become that which has driven me this far!

With his completely silent mental motivational talk and an increasingly unhinged psyche, Naine storms off down the corridor, the odd spark of energy as he marches forward, the exobody seemingly held together through sheer willpower.

---

Goldie snaps out of its momentary identity crisis. The time for answers would come later. It grabbed the book, contemplating where to put it, before deciding to slide it into itself. Without the constraints of whatever bindings and powered armour it was wearing, it suddenly feels far more free than it ever had before.

Everything about it seems new, so fresh, so fluid. The book is absorbed into its inky black mass of tendrils and it doesn't even notice its presence.

Goldie's attennae shake wildly, its red eye glowing brightly as it screeches triumphantly, a noise of scraping metal, broken glass, and high-pitched sirens. It does not know why it feels this necessary, but something in every fibre of its being cries out for it to do so. It mentally giggles to itself as it realises how much annoyance this noise must have caused the librarian.

Noticing the Cornelius zombies creating just as much distracting noise, it decides to do the most sensible thing and tear them to shreds.

Wait. The most sensible thing to do would be run. No. No, I can't run. I have to fight them. I have to. Why do I have to? I have to. Wait. Okay, either someone's mind-controlling me really well, or I really, really need to look up whatever it is I am very soon...

Finding it increasingly hard to ignore its rising desire to destroy the undead Cornies around it, it screeches once more and tears across the library, a nightmarish apparition of dark tendrils, its glowing red eye illuminating its path of carnage, as it flies across the fallen bookshelves, two black tentacles of spikes and blades slicing everything they come into contact with.

---

501 groans. "Mucon, go ahead. Tell him my extraordinary tale that'll likely be received as well as a hat decoration made of his mother's feathers. ...Er, sorry, that doesn't translate outside out of that particular language very well. And yes, I think perhaps pretending not to understand would help me a lot in this situation."

He shuffles the mental augmentations he has running, focusing all the spare head space he can afford to translation programs and parsers and widgets and gewgaws. After all, strapped down or not, that forcefield isn't likely to co-operate with any plans for a sudden dash for freedom.

Damn it, Ak-tse, was all this supposed to be part of your grand plan for me as well?! All I wanted was to go home, pick up some stuff, and get Station Zero up and running again. But no, instead I end up strapped down on a table in an isolated cell on a prison ship orbiting some primitive world in some random universe!

After a few seconds, he suddenly realises how disturbingly routine this sort of thing has become. And they used to call me "Lucky 501". Five, that's a depressing thought.

[drlupinmario]

Faced down on the floor, Lucifer, Or his spirit atleast, Gets up. He looks at himself. His skin is blue and somewhat transparent, but otherwise fine. Compleatly fine. He examins his legs and grins wildly before running up and slugging fade directly in the face.

Nothing happens, apart from fade getting a small shiver of cold directly to the face, as if an invisible hand had rubbed ice upon her. He tries again, Same predictable result. Finally, He looks at himself. Is he dead?

[Chronos]

((Sorry I took so long, guys. Got a nasty case of Blepharoconjunctivitis.))

Ensichrys nodded in reply to Byule's sanity. The more Ensichrys thought about his options, the less there seemed to be. He strolled over to the corner of his quarters and folded up the Ultima Scroll on the wall and hid it within his feathers. He had finally tested it and he couldn't think of a better time to use it. Next, Ensichrys crossed to another corner and moved aside a dark metal sheet hanging from the wall. Behind it was a round niche in the cave wall and, hanging from the top of this niche, was something glittering with the purest gold light. Ensichrys looked upon them with complete admiration. They were beautiful. Such horrible memories, though.

Ensichrys sighed. He looked down for a moment with a defeated look on his face, then suddenly looked up again with the fierce glint of determination in his eyes. Ensichrys reached within the niche and pulled out a shimmering set of War Talons. "I can't believe I'm going to do this," he said. These Talons had led him to countless victories, but he would never forget when they had failed him. One time is all it took.

Ensichrys slipped his talons into the battle claws. When he buckled them to his wrists, they flashed briefly with white light. He turned back to the sanity basket. He walked over to it and placed the nearby charms in his feathers, organizing them into T, S, and W areas of his plumage. He briefly paged through the book written by Serpells, since he was going to be dealing heavily with parasitians very soon. He was careful not to damage the pages with his horrendously sharp battle talons. He had been using them for far more delicate things than that long ago.

Ensichrys mourned the loss of his electricity resistant cloak, but donned a spare he had that was simply made of fine linen and not resistant to anything. He would hide the basket this way. "I think," Ensichrys said as he picked up the basket, "we have an EC jet on standby. Let's go." Ensichrys flapped his arms once, then descended from his quarters into the cul-de-sac that terminated in his room. He strode powerfully out with the basket well hidden beneath his vermilion cloak.

As he stepped into the main artery of the cave, he noticed that there were far too many Cornelius clones out and about. "What the hell..." Ensichrys didn't quite know what to think. Suddenly, he realized what must be going on. Byule was behind this.

Thinking quickly, Ensichrys did what he did best: he ran. He ducked and dodged the zombie-like ones in the cave and tried to make his way to the pocket hangar where the jet should still be there.

((3kul, I guess you can just tell me what things get thrown my way as I make my way to the jet.))

[3kul]

((GOD DAMN IT FIREFOX STOP CRASHING!

Watch this space folks, I'll be editting this post several times later tonight/tomorrow morning in order to bring you all a much needed update.

Sorry for the wait as well, I've been trying to work out a few kinks in the story, as I don't really like the sudden leap that I took in my last post. It feels like a bit of an abrupt and awkward fast-forwarding of the plot, and I'd like to avoid having that happen again in the future, but at the same time I don't want to drag on the story for ever and have everybody leave the RP out of sheer boredom... It's been a while since I had to take charge of a plot for an RP, it's a lot harder than I remember it ))

After a quick bit of searching Neal managed to find a loose tile lying conveniently nearby. Not ideal, but much better than a fluffy towel.

Tying it to the end of your towel, you swing your makeshift flail at the nearest skeleton. The skeleton, being close enough to almost strangle you, had no time to react, and it's brittle skull was instantly shattered by the porcelain square.

This wasn't enough to put the skeleton out of commission however, and it merely stumbled backwards a little as two more advanced upon you. Little Sister is being unusually silent at this point it time, and you have no idea how much longer she'll need to re-organize her respiratory system.

----------------------------------------------------

"Oi dunno nuffin'!" The beetle insisted, struggling furiously in an attempt to free itself from Evil Swix's clutches.

Either it's telling the truth or you simply aren't hurting it enough, but the beetle's pained squirming and the sounds of it's exoskeleton cracking would suggest that you can't do much more without ripping one or more of it's legs out. Or perhaps you simply aren't asking it the right questions?

At the moment you can hear quite a ruckus being caused in various locations throughout the library, but nothing that's too close to you. It seems that you have a bit of time to remain here undisturbed or escape unnoticed, depending on what you want to do.

----------------------------------------------------

Fade's plan worked amazingly well, as the Cornie corpses didn't seem to expect such a direct attack from one of the Council's stealthiest members.

They were pushed back with little difficulty, their rotting muscles offering not nearly enough strength to put up much of a defense, and being caught off-guard didn't help them much either. As they hit the wall there's a sickening symphony of crunching bones, bursting organs and assorted bodily fluids splashing against the ground.

After a bit of writhing, the corpses stop moving altogether, and none appear in the room to replace them. Well done on eliminating the threat in this room, but it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that these corpses are appearing in other locations throughout the Cave...

Well, you're safe for now, at least.

----------------------------------------------------

For a little while Naine was travelling down the various tunnels of the Cave, moving too quickly to be caught by any of the wandering corpses or frantic grunts.

After a few turns however, you wind up stomping on something that you probably shouldn't have. It sounds a bit like a combination of glass breaking and metal buckling, and after a flash of red light the ground begins to swell beneath you. Looking back, you see that the tunnel is rapidly filling with robotic accessories, needlessly complex devices and apparently useless trinkets.

You have unwittingly just busted up Shambaro's briefcase with your great mechanical clodhoppers, and it is now forcefully releasing all that it once held, one item at a time. There's a chance to grab some components to replace the many of your own broken ones, but there's also a chance that you'll be swallowed up by the increasingly large heap of overpriced merchandise if you don't start moving quickly.

----------------------------------------------------

It didn't take much effort on Goldie's part to track down the Cornie corpses, as they weren't exactly trying to hide themselves.

Hurling yourself at the nearest wandering corpse, you skewer it into a nearby bookshelf with your claws, sending the whole thing toppling over. This causes a chain reaction, knocking one bookshelf into the next, taking out at least a dozen bookshelves and creating a partial divide between the library.

The corpse pinned beneath you struggled and attempted to grab you, but your new-found overwhelming desire for carnage quickly put an end to him, fleshy ribbons flying to your left and right as you tear your defenseless prey to shreds.

With one foe dispatched your eye scans about the library, searching for the next target. Thanks to the bookshelves being knocked over you can spot one Cornie corpse shuffling over near the far wall of the library, though it appears to have spotted you and might be heading around the shelves to get to you. Further down the aisle that you are currently in you spot another corpse trudge past, though this one does not seem to have seen you.

Any preferences for victim #2?

----------------------------------------------------

"Mucon is to be left now." The toad-like attourney/translator said to CAM-501, attempting to put on a brave face and failing rather miserably (the sweaty-slime dripping from his forehead was a bit of a dead giveaway as to how he was really feeling about this). You knew that to most people your story certainly would seem far-fetched, and the warden didn't seem like the type willing to believe, but, unfortunately, you would simply have to leave things in Mucon's webbed hands and hope that he was capable of getting you out of this mess.

The forcefield covering one side of your cell parted to allow Mucon passage, quickly closing behind him. It was a bit of a strange sight, like he was simply passing through a curtain, but common sense told you that if you were to try the same thing you wouldn't get through.

He spoke to the warden in an odd series of hissing noises that, most fortunately, your translator was able to pick up on. "Mu-con hathhh thhpoke to mechthh. Much to thhaid, if Mu-con may-" "In my office Scubble, not in front of this one." The warden said, his stone-grey eyes glaring at you in a very suspicious manner. You also noted that Blackstar common was not the only language that Mucon was bad at. "But thhir, it doessss not have a funthional tranthhlator. Worry you notthbthbth."

The warden's tongue flicked in and out of his mouth for a moment as he contemplated this, but you could tell that it wasn't good. Mucon had handled this situation with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer, and the reptilian found it strange for Mucon to suggest that he discuss this business out in the open. "My office, Scubble. I don't want to talk in front of the guards or the prisoner."

This was not something that Mucon could argue his way out of. Whether or not you could understand what was being said was still uncertain to the warden, but everybody here knew that the guards could understand what was being said. They exchanged some strange looks with the warden, wondering what they shouldn't be hearing, but the warden ignored them, placing a large claw on Mucon's slimy shoulder and pushing him forward. "The guards will watch the prisoner. If it tries anything, I will be the first to know."

He looked to you out of the corner of his eye as he said this, which lead you to believe that the warden doubted Mucon's words. You would have to do things very carefully from now on, as if your lies fall apart then the truth will be lost along with them.

For now, all you can really do is wait, or perhaps attempt to interact with the two rotund guards standing just outside your cell.

----------------------------------------------------

Being freshly dead, there's not all that much that Lucifer can really do.

You've already learned that your etheral body can't interact with very much at all, and it shouldn't take you too long to figure out that you can float, but then what?

As a spiritual being (albeit a fairly weak one) you are also able to sense the presence of other spiritual beings, although you probably don't know this yet (unless you studied spirits back when you were alive, in which case you can pat yourself on the back for possessing good foresight). Feeling the presense of spiritual beings is an unusual sensation that feels not unlike a change in atmospheric pressure. Beings significantly more powerful than yourself, such as spirits, will exude a noticable amount of pressure the closer you get to them, the kind that you can notice but, for the most part, doesn't cause you too much discomfort. Gods and Goddesses, on the other hand, are capable of exuding an overwhelmingly crushing pressure that can easily bring weak ghosts like yourselves down to your hands and knees, though they are also capable of restricting this energy, and some are even able to hide it entirely.

If you explore the room a little, you'll notice that the air towards the back wall feels denser than the air near the door. It gives you a slight sense of dread and foreboding, as though you've caught the scent of a beast lurking deep within the Cave... Will you travel in the direction that the pressure seems to be coming from, or away from it?

----------------------------------------------------

((Sorry Chronos, this is going to be a really long post.))

Leafing through Serpells' book, Ensichrys found quite a bit of useful information on Parasitians.

Of course, the book begins with a short description of their unique biological bag of tricks - the ability to copy genetic material from their prey and then replicate bodily structures and functions of said prey. However this is probably the only bit of information about Parasitians that you might find familiar, for the rest of the book examines many different aspects of the strange alien creatures.

Some of it is simply interesting to know for curiosity's sake, as there are facts here that one would not gather from simply knowing HollowEyes and/or Little Sister. Apparently, Parasitian brains are very well suited to puzzle solving, and in addition to this they have a natural flair for deciphering languages, something that neither HollowEyes nor Little Sister seem to have tried their hands at. Serpells seems to believe that the puzzle-solving part of the Parasitian brain is to help them select the correct genetic material from their prey to copy over to themselves, though he finds the language part strange as all Parasitians speak the same language.

They are very primitive creatures (but not mindless killing machines, Serpells emphasizes), and they live in distinctive primitive societies (referred to as 'clans'), each of which adheres to specific beliefs, laws and practices. Serpells notes that the shape of a Parasitian's tongue, the one part of their body that they can supposedly never change, can be used to tell which clan they belong to, and the book has diagrams to show what a tongue from each clan looks like.

Serpells goes on to mention that despite the numerous differences between the clans, they all seem to adhere to one universal rule: Parasitians must not eat other Parasitians. Serpells notes that he is sure that there is some kind of history behind this taboo, but at the time of publishing this book he seems unsure of exactly what this history might be. This does not fit in at all with what you know about Little Sister, who seems to constantly be out to devour HollowEyes, but all the same you read on.

Eventually the book begins to talk of interaction with Parasitians. It is quite a difficult thing to initiate, Serpells notes, and just about any attempt is doomed to end in tragedy. The only 'people' that they know of are other Parasitians, and anything that is not Parasitian is considered food. Serpells seems to feel that if Parasitians knew that other creatures were capable of thinking, talking and living like they were they would not hurt them, with much of his belief firmly rooted to the Parasitian taboo of not killing other Parasitians. "If they are capable of understanding murder, then there is still hope for interaction that does not end in my untimely demise" the scientist writes.

The final chapter takes a rather strange turn, and is entitled 'A History of Poaching and Exploitation'. Parasitians are fierce predators capable of eating just about any living thing, but they are relatively defenseless against machinery, having no understanding of it, and Parasitian abductions are reasonably common. Serpells himself confesses to abducting a pair of Parasitians, but notes that these were 'lucky ones', for after studying and educating them he allowed them to leave.

Parasitians are apparently in very high demand in the black market, prized as both deadly warriors and exotic pets, and Serpells lists three case studies. The first is an adult female, no name given, who was abducted from her homeworld by space pirates, and kept under their control with an electric collar. Within a month she was able to speak their language, and within two she was off the collar, but by the third month she killed herself. The crew did not understand why, for she seemed to get along quite well with them, and suspected that she had only accidentally trapped herself in the airlock, but Serpells does not seem to believe this.

The second case is a newborn male, affectionately referred to as 'Beanie' by the aristocrat who had purchased him. The aristocrat, whom Serpells did not name, is a passionate collector of exotic birds, and did not understand exactly what Beanie was when he first bought him. After just a few weeks though Beanie was speaking in simple terms and telling the aristocrat of his homeworld. At first the aristocrat thought this to be quite endearing, but Beanie would not stop talking about his homeworld. Serpells noted that he was actually contacted by the aristocrat, who was looking for vetrinarians of unusual alien creatures, but when he met with Beanie the poor Parasitian was simply repeating the word 'home' over and over again. He did not respond to any stimulii and after a close examination Serpells found that Beanie's brain was "irreversibly scrambled".

The third case is referred to as Gassadhena, an older male purchased from the black market to fight in some kind of arena-style competition. Reports indicated that he was capable of speaking quite well when he was bought, and that the salesman, believing it to be an impressive trick for a pet, had taught him to read and write. It is noted that his earliest fights in the ring were quite spectacular, and he had a natural flair for coming up with unusual strategies and turning an opponent's strength into their weakness.

Unfortunately, after a year of fighting in the ring he had degenerated into a mindless beast, and his career as a fighter ended when he tore the head off of his opponent's owner and climbed up into the stands, killing nearly a hundred people before being subdued. The beastmaster who owned Gassadhena (again, somebody not named) assured Serpells that he had not changed anything in the Parasitian's training regimen, but he noticed that Gassadhena had begun to stutter about six months in, and ceased to talk altogether in the few weeks leading up to the bloody disaster.

Serpells ends his book by noting that Parasitians, despite being physically hardy beings, are mentally very fragile. There is quite a bit about Parasitian psychology that he does not understand (and he freely admits this), he at least understands that removing them from their home world for prolonged periods of time will cause most Parasitians to lose their minds, and advises anybody who currently possesses a Parasitian to return them to their homeworld, even if they feel that there is nothing wrong with them.

Could this be the root of HollowEyes' problems? A disasterous case of homesickness driving him mad? If that was the reason then it would be very strange for Serpells to send this book to HollowEyes... Well, worrying about that won't help you right now, so you put these thoughts to one side to focus on the task at hand: getting to the hangar.

The first several hundred metres are hell. Corpses are desperately tearing at you as you sprint past them, pulling out feathers and shreds of your new cape. Fortunately they aren't very strong, and simply running is enough to make them let go or fall over (though a couple of times you end up pulling their arms out of their sockets and you're left with limbs dangling off of you).

As you head upwards though, towards the hangar, you notice that there aren't as many Cornie corpses around here. Looking back, you can see that they are bunching around tunnels that lead deeper into the Cave, but completely ignoring tunnels that lead to higher parts or tunnels that lead nowhere in particular. If HollowEyes was indeed hiding deep within the Cave this was almost certainly his doing.

The only people in the hangar itself are alive, and there's not a corpse in sight here. "SIR!" An oil-soaked grunt sharply salutes you as you enter the room with a little too much enthusiasm, and the wrench that he's holding on to slips out of his hands and flies across the room. A crash of metalwork and a scream of pain from several grunts would seem like something that this grunt should apologize for, but he seems to be resolute in attending to your needs first and foremost. "How may I assist you, SIR!"

He's a bit loud, and it seems more like he's shouting than asking an actual question, but it's better than being ignored.

[Zerrer]

Neal grinned like a schoolboy when the skeleton stumbled back. "TAKE THAT!" He exulted. Reaching down, he picked up a few pieces of saw-blade-gun shrapnel and some more tiles. Then he started using them as projectile weapons, albeit not very well.