DiscoDude: ---BEGIN SESSION---
DiscoDude: Session logging commenced
Ryusui|GM: It's late night. <@!Casper>, <@!Zeta>, you're back at the safehouse with your companions - both willing and unwilling.
Ryusui|GM: Jocelyn is only just now starting to tone down the waterworks. It was a bit awkward ordering curry with her in such a state, <@!Zeta>, but you got it. Jocelyn hasn't touched hers yet, but there's enough to go around.
Ryusui|GM: Yes, that includes a portion for your other guest, who I'm going to presume <@!Casper> has taken the precaution of tying to a chair, or restraining in some other fashion?
Casper: Correct. Hands and legs are tied.
Ryusui|GM: She's still unconscious, but it should be a simple matter to wake her back up, once you're ready.
Casper: "Right, let's address the conscious one first; Zeta, remind me who this is, and why she's here?"
Zeta: Zeta is still holding tight to Jocelyn in case she starts crying again. "She was friends with the main bad guy in the auction house...And also my friend, I couldn't just leave her to mercy of...him." Besides, She was bawling like mad, and she wouldn't let someone cry like that!
"...But why did we have to bring...her... here?" She counter-asks, pointing at the Seal Lady that ran after her for the Idol.
Casper: "She claimed that she had a better idea of how to handle the statue than we did, and I decided that she should test that claim. As she already decided not to trust us, this seemed like the most viable method of bringing her here."
Zeta: "...Then get done with it! She scares me..." Well, she seems to be willingly ignoring the fact that the seal lady is unconscious.
Casper: "She's presently unconscious. I wish to use the time before she awakes to gage where the assistant stands. Do you expect to have such titivating conversations in front of her without addressing this?
Ryusui|GM: Jocelyn is still weeping, but she looks like she might be able to produce a coherent statement.
Zeta: Zeta looks at Jocelyn...then back at Casper "..I think she might be able to help us...Back when they...or rather, he tried to trick us..." Hmmm, she did think it was weird that Jocelyn got so scared when the Auctioneer was still in his human form...
Casper: "Continue."
Zeta: "...She seemed scared of the auctioneer...her partner, even though he didn't transform then?" She then looks back to Jocelyn. "I wanted to ask about it but..." She was his assistant...
Ryusui|GM: "I s-swear," she says, "he wasn't like that when I l-left to g-get the c-curry..."
Zeta: "...they looked the same to me..." For a moment, its as if Zeta could hear an SFX like those from the games she played on those abandoned consoles back in the future, those with the pictures and loads of text, whatever their name was.
Ryusui|GM: "Y-you couldn't see it?" Jocelyn looks at you, Zeta, genuinely shocked. "B-but you're..." She shakes her head. "Never mind, it must sound crazy..."
Casper: "See what? Explain."
Zeta: "...what Casper said!" Ah, she tilted her head a bit in confusion, perhaps...she had some sort of secret super power??
Ryusui|GM: "You're like...you're like he was, but...different." She looks between you two, a little desperately, as if scanning your faces for any sign that whatever she's saying simply doesn't make sense. "You're...you're still you. You're a person, not like...that."
Ryusui|GM: She looks at the statue. "And that wasn't like...that, either."
Casper: "Define 'that.'"
Zeta: "Maybe....The fact he was... corrupted by him?" She taps her chin a bit. "You know, how they transform into monsters? That's definitely...the product of dabbling with things one shouldn;t...it taints the soul, or corrupts our body, rather..."
Ryusui|GM: "You have to understand, it's..." She shakes her head again. "All my life, I've seen things other people can't. People thought I was just a loony child. And...and some of the things I saw...some of them didn't like being seen." She shudders. "I'm quite good at seeing the hidden beneath the surface, if you'll forgive me for being poetic. But...I've never seen anything like that before."
Ryusui|GM: She regards the statue warily. "It's just like my boss. It's like...something was hiding inside, and now...now it's the only thing I see when I look at it." She shuts her eyes, but that doesn't seem to help. "It's not shape or form or even color, it's just..." She looks at Zeta. "Can you imagine what it feels like being a spoonful of that curry, heading straight for a mouth? That's what it feels like looking at that statue."
Casper: "So... is that a 'something indescribable' I'm hearing?"
Ryusui|GM: Jocelyn frowns. "I think I rather well just described it," she pouts a bit.
Casper: "What I'm getting is that it 'looks' like getting drunk, and I'm supposed to just imagine what that 'looks' like."
Casper: (You have to understand; Casper's a bit literal-minded. XD)
Zeta: She covers her mouth after Jocelyn made the comparison... "...So you can see....the forms they are hiding? The powers behind their flesh? the secrets of the outer cosmos?" Of course she sounds a bit muffled, she did cover her mouth.
Ryusui|GM: "I...I wouldn't go that far," Jocelyn says, raising an eyebrow at the "secrets of the outer cosmos" comment. "But...yes, I can see them even if they look, well...normal to everyone else." She pauses. "Unless they're hiding, like the thing in that statue was."
Casper: "Fascinating, I'm sure. Shall we move on to divulging our ridiculousness, Zeta?"
Ryusui|GM: "What's to divulge?" Jocelyn says. "You're some kind of freelance special ops sort, and she's...well, we've already gone over that."
Zeta: "Time Travelling Hero!" She raises both arms, as if it was something to be proud of.
Zeta: Or Crazy person that might be right about it all along, as Casper has assumed
Casper: Casper stares daggers into Zeta.
"You revealed our mission to one who you must have assumed was a civilian?"
Zeta: "You kinda did the same to another civilian." she retorts, looking at the scary seal lady.
Ryusui|GM: "Oh, like Marty McFly?" Jocelyn says, completely unfazed by this revelation. "You're here to restore the timeline you came from?"
Zeta: "Yes! Or, well, a bit darker and grittier...like the robot film about a super computer i learned about in a poster on the way here!" she probably read about it back in her timeline in passing, to be fair.
Ryusui|GM: "So...Terminator, then," She cocks her head. "So you're from a future where these creatures have the run of everything, and somehow they turned you into one as well, and...you're here to stop all that." She frowns. "This isn't going to be one of those things where fixing the future means you don't exist anymore, is it?"
Casper: "Or she's looked into the future and gone mad. I've seen enough to at least realize that the events she's describing are accurate."
Casper: "... Mostly." He cocks an eyebrow, almost as if accusing Zeta about the true nature of the auction.
Ryusui|GM: Jocelyn looks at Zeta. "So the point is, one way or another, you have knowledge about what happens." She wraps her arms around herself, as if bracing herself for a bitter truth. "So what happens? How...how does our world change enough that you'd want to go back in time and fix it?"
Zeta: "Er...uh...Y-yeah!" Seems she got caught day-dreaming about robots terminating...she wondered how she would look as a robot- BACK TO THE POINT!! "....Well, the statue was supposedly meant to disappear...and then, it would be used as the main catalyst in the summoning of The Sleeping One... And with a few other items...it would spell the enslavement of the entire planet...or most of it."
Casper: "Does the 'Sleeping One' have a name?"
Zeta: "Uh...Err...yes...But it's better if it remains unspoken..." She looks to the side, as if the question was incredibly awkward.
Ryusui|GM: "Th...the Sleeping One? Enslavement?" She looks sidelong at the statue, as if suddenly aware that a rabid dog chained up in the room is also radioactive.
Ryusui|GM: "His name is Cthulhu." The seal stares from her seat. "That was the name my ancestor spoke with such reverence. The name of the creature which led him and others to damnation." She glares at the statue with unrelenting hatred. "That graven image is a vessel for his evil. For his hunger."
Casper: "Oh, you're awake. You mentioned knowing how to destroy it?"
Zeta: Ah, Zeta looks at her as if she just said a really bad curse word.
Ryusui|GM: She looks at you, Casper, and consciously chooses not to bring up the fact that you pistolwhipped her. "Your friend said that," she says. "Were it in my hands, that accursed object would be consigned once more to the crushing depths. I would deliver it there myself were it possible."
Casper: "Only for someone else to find it someday. If this is truly a part of this being, I doubt your ancestor finding it was an accident. It will be found again. Zeta, do you know of a way we can deal with it for good?"
Zeta: "...I planned to throw it into a volcano." She blurts out, and quite quickly too. She then looks away and starts whistling.
Ryusui|GM: For the first time, Patricia smiles and starts laughing. "Clever. Most clever. A volcano. Even better than the Marianas Trench."
Zeta: Oh, she quickly looks back, definitely not expecting the compliment. "... Besides, wouldn't throwing it into the sea be just what he would want?" she wasn't gonna say that she planned to throw acid on it as she threw it onto the volcano for good measure.
Casper: "What, so there's no spell or ritual to undo whatever this... thing's creator did?"
Zeta: "It isn't that simple, no." she answers.
Ryusui|GM: Patricia turns to you, Casper. "It is a fragment of Cthulhu's will, contained. If you somehow managed to slough off the thousands of years of black magic and dark rituals which have crusted upon this object...you would unleash that fragment. Perhaps you are somehow a greater expert in these matters than I, but that does not seem particularly wise."
Zeta: "..." Oh god, Zeta had to admit that she agreed with the Scary Seal Lady.
Casper: "What if we... I dunno, banish it to some outer dimension or something where nobody will find it, ever? Is there a spell for that?"
Casper: "Or at least hide it from this thing's senses?"
Ryusui|GM: Patricia laughs again. "Perhaps I judged you both too quickly. You still strike me as amateurs in these matters, but you at least seem to pick up on the idea quickly." She takes a deep breath: "Yes, it should more than suffice to simply place the statue permanently out of reach of the Sleeping One or any of his pawns." She gives you an intense stare, Casper: "But be warned that using magic, especially in these circumstances, is a dangerous proposition. Banishing the statue beyond this world would be the surest means to ensure it can never be used to awaken the Sleeping One. But the cost may be high."
Casper: "If it means securing humanity's future, I would pay any price. Any."
Zeta: "D-don't say that! This are really bad prices we would be paying!!" she then looks at the Seal "And don't call me an Amateur, I have read more books on the subject that you could ever wish for!!" maybe she should dump the seal lady into the volcano too...
Casper: "Right then. If you aren't going use that bottomless well of knowledge to tell me where to find such a ritual, then you will excuse me while I consult Mr. Google."
Ryusui|GM: Patricia's gaze narrows. "Ask the bidders at that infernal auction. All collectors of the dark and devilish. No doubt at least one possesses some scrap of arcane power you could use to your desired end."
Casper: "They turned into tentacle monsters, the lot of them. I suspect the whole auction was a trap for time-travelers. Don't worry; we killed them."
Ryusui|GM: Patricia frowns. "Then you have a dead end."
Casper: "Except Xiong Xia, our insider. Come to think of it, why was the one set up to win the statue bid the only one who wasn't corrupted directly? Why was Jocelyn, for that matter, considering she was the one supposed to handle the statue directly during the auction?"
Ryusui|GM: "Maybe it's got something to do with...with my strange seeing ability," Jocelyn says. "Maybe it means I can't be corrupted, or I'm harder to corrupt, or...something. Maybe Mr. Xia's the same."
Casper: "We can discuss that later. What matters is that Mr. Xia is alive, and he wouldn't have been contacted to participate if he didn't have some connection to the occult. Do we have any word on where he is currently?"
Ryusui|GM: "You left him at the auction house, right?" Jocelyn says. "Perhaps he's still there?"
Casper: "With... the police. Right. I suppose I should try calling him?"
Zeta: "... We should get to him quickly... If the followers of The Sleeping One get to him first..."
Casper: "... Right, let's go, then. What shall be done with the statue in the meantime?"
Ryusui|GM: "You two seem to be the ones with all the plans," Patricia says, pointedly drawing attention to her still-bound arms and legs.
Casper: "I suppose if we leave it with you and Jocelyn, you won't just run off and chuck it into the ocean?"
Ryusui|GM: "I promise I won't let her!" Jocelyn says, with surprising determination. Patricia gives her a wry look. "I prefer the volcano plan anyway," she says. "But if you are determined to attempt to banish the statue from our world entirely, no matter what it takes..." She shrugs as best she can. "I would gladly help see it through."
Casper: "Right, I'll leave untying her between the two of you. Guns are there, there, there, there, there, and there," he says, pointing at various drawers and cabinets, "if you absolutely need them, that is. You'll find a larger gun in the armoire in the bedroom. Let's go, Zeta."
Ryusui|GM: (any last lines?)
Casper: Casper finally calls up Mr. Xia once he's out of the building.
Ryusui|GM: The call goes to voicemail.
Ryusui|GM: (anything else?)
Casper: "Let's hope he's alright..."
Ryusui|GM: (and with that, let us...)
Ryusui|GM: !end
