8FOLD: Mighty Medley # 16, April 2015, "The Last Story" (1/2)

[Andrew Perron]

On 4/4/2015 2:53 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
<snip>
> -------------------The Last Story-------------------
> -------------------------BY-------------------------
> -------------------SAXON BRENTON--------------------
> -------------------ANDREW PERRON--------------------
> --------------------MARY RUSSELL--------------------
> --------------------TOM RUSSELL---------------------
> -----------------DAVE VAN DOMELEN-------------------

HELL YEAH. This is the BIG one. <3

> The spell calls for three drops of the mancer's blood, but as Rachel's
> never had blood, she hopes three drops of water will do in a pinch.

That's a good opening.

>     She wants to reach out and stroke him upon the muzzle, as she did
> when she was a child. But something tells her it's safer to keep him
> in the circle and herself out of it. "Can you hear the lullabies? I
> can't. For a long time now, they've been getting fainter with every
> heartbeat. I thought at first that I was becoming mortal," and here
> she laughs at herself, "but my powers have only grown stronger as the
> spells have grown weaker. Without the lullabies, They won't slumber
> much longer. I can feel Them stirring, tossing, like ripples in the
> water. After ten thousand years, Venus is waking."
>     The stag seems unmoved; unmovable.
>     "You know what I want," says Rachel. "What I need. He stopped them
> once before. You know he can stop them again. Please. Restore my
> father to what he once was. Forgive an old man his grief. She was my
> mother, more than my mother, she was a part of myself, and I felt the
> same grief, and keenly.

...ahhhhhh. Thinking about this, it took me a bit, but I got it.

>     Real damage like what? Like what's happening on the television?
> (You catch a glimpse of it in the corner of your cornea, red and
> nasty. PICTURE'S GONE, TOO, and it is.)
>     Yeah, they should be grateful you don't want to hurt anyone; lucky
> for them you're such a stellar guy.

He needs someone who can hug him.

>     "He was scared and out of options," says Kate. "Him and his buddy,
> some alter cocker that died in the quake, they never had a plan.
> Everything was anger and easy, violent answers."

Hmmmmmm.

>     Three-Nine beeps. "I backed up my memory core this morning. The
> Gelding did the same. As we could be reconstructed, we would be the
> best choices."

Oh, man, the Gelding's a member! <3

>     "Gelding's likely to agree," says Blue Boxer. "Thanks, Three-Nine.
> You leave in ten minutes. Kid E will keep you all patched in to the
> comm-network. Kick some butt, guys. And come back alive."

Hell yeah :D

> As my readers might not be fully acquainted with the
> gentleman-- and since he is a rather disreputable sort, it would not
> surprise me that you are not!-- I should explain that it was not a
> state he tended toward, or that suited him, or that any of his
> acquaintances and accomplices had ever seen him in before.

Mmmmm, yes, good narrative voice, I shower in it

> Then, Ziz would descend to confront Leviathan, and
> Behemoth to oppose them both, and Humbaba to tame the Behemoth, and so
> on, until all Thirteen of the Great Beasts awoke and fought and, as
> long-prophesied, destroyed the unjust world that saw fit to deny
> Edvark his crown.
>     This was, of course, most indecorous but sadly and perfectly in
> keeping with the gentlemen's nature.

Indeed. (u).u (wonderful)

> ----------------------------------------------------
> -------------HOUSTON, WE HAVE A KAIJU---------------
> ----------------------------------------------------

That is the perfect title to follow the previous story. :D

> Stanley Marsh had died two months ago,
> and while his estate continued to fund the project, the three pilots had only
> ever worked on simulators.  They knew the control interfaces would be exactly
> like the sims, but Marsh had kept things so compartmentalized that they had
> no idea what the actual vehicle would look like.  All they knew was that it
> was intended for fighting giant monsters.
>     And Houston had a giant monster problem.

HELL YEAH. :D ROBOT VERSUS MONSTER BATTLE TIMES.

>     "Ready?" Jason asked, his palm on an invisibly-altered segment of the
> monument.  Rolando and Kayle nodded, placing their palms on identical
> locations.  All three patches glowed redly for a moment, scanning their
> palmprints.
>     "Identities confirmed.  Welcome, Earth Defense League," Stan Marsh's
> synthesized voice greeted them.

yesssss

>     After a harrowing and MUCH more dramatic than absolutely necessary ride,
> they found themselves in the control chamber.

:D STYLE

> "ETA approximately six hours.  Despite the heavy
> armor, you should be able to reach about 100 miles per hour."
>     Kayle smacked her forehead.  "Or zero miles per hour in NORMAL Houston
> traffic once we get there, much less whatever's going on now...."
>     "You are not going to space today," Rolo sighed.

...wonk wonk waaaaaa~

>     "Uh-huh. Three-Nine, you're still picking up the Dingham Effect?"
>     "Affirmative, and he's getting closer.

Hmmmm, I wonder how he detects that.

>     She nods and her molecules shake violently apart. Usually Kate's
> powers leave a fuzzy sort of Kate-shaped thing visible, but in this
> case her form becomes so inchoate as to render her practically
> invisible. She rarely uses this trick, and from their time together on
> the Nostalgics, David knows the reason why. Because when no one can
> see her, neither can she see them. She calls it "going blind".

AWESOME.

>     Kate turns visible, and rushes her fingers immaterially toward
> Dingham's throat. "GO AWAY," he says. She screams as her atoms pull
> apart again. The scream lingers after she's gone. David opens his
> mouth to curse him, but only blood sprays out.

Oh now that's just. :/ Dirty pool.

>     "You were in the museum," sneers Dingham. "An antique. Out of
> fashion even when you were in fashion. YOU BELONG IN THE OLD WEST OR
> SOMETHING. GO THERE."
>     A blue light wraps around the gelding, and in a flash he and
> Three-Nine are gone.

Ohhhhhhhh :D

>     They were both teachers at Burlington College, a school for young
> superhumans. Galadriel only seemed to be a tall, blond, and ethereally
> beautiful elf-woman dressed in vaguely Celtic robes. It was a facade
> that had served Muriel Muunoki - English and psionics teacher - well
> ever since she had started adventuring as a four-colour decades ago.
> Light Eagle was John Danisee - school counsellor and occasional
> fill-in psionics teacher.

Wundaful. <3

>     Light Eagle piggybacked his own perceptions through her direct
> scans of the planet. =( The Blue Witch couldn't tell us much about
> them, apart from the bit about monsters being bound in sleep for a few
> thousand years.

Only thousand?

> After all, the mystics of Earth might not
> know much about the abominations, but for thousands of years they had
> been casting and recasting magical wards to keep the Elder Gods
> quiescent. Collectively that magic was known as the Lullaby.

Ahhhhhh, I see. o.o So they were still active in Orphans-time?

>     6. rocking out to Supertramp, shut up they're awesome seriously
> shut up you know I'm right.

:D

>     Brian Clipper. The second Darkhorse. "But you were in prison..."
>     "A feint," comes a voice from outside the door. "To convince the
> Gorgon Brian's out of circulation. To bring him back into the open, so
> we can end him once and for all." Phil Whaley. The original,
> now-powerless Darkhorse. (He still owes Melody a fancy dinner.) "The
> Gorgon's ready for you, Melody. He's planned for you. Which means he's
> not prepared for us."

Ah! AWESOME ULTIMATE TEAMUP. :D

>     What the four-colour sensed was a crushing weight, a baking heat, a
> taste of acid.

Mmmm, I love abstract psychic descriptions <3

>     "No," says Rurik. "She's no threat to our mission. I'm more worried
> about the grazer." Sensors picked up a small meteor heading their way.
>     =( The meteor will only come twelve million miles near the planet.
> That's why it's called a grazer, Rurik. )=

Ohhhhhh shit.

>     "I suppose." He opens his spiracles, holds the oxygen, lets it out.
> "Venus awake. What is wrong with Earth that they would do such a
> thing?"
>     =( What indeed? )=

I understand the context better now!

> It is a madness, a
> cancer upon the universe-- and the Pulse has asked us to cut it out.

Well I'm definitely asking you to cut it out >:/ Ya jerks

>     "We were like them once, queen-sons. Once, we too were a hundred
> things, and a hundred more, and we scratched imaginary lines across
> our world, and fought over them. And then the Pulse..." (Say it. You
> know you have to say it.) "...The Pulse taught us a harsh lesson. And
> we learnt, and we became one thing. And today that thing we become is
> glory.

uuuuuuugh. Good job of making something hateable.

> ----------------------------------------------------
> ------------------OFF TO THE SIDE-------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------

Also, I *love* where you put this one, in terms of its message as part of the 
overall narrative. <3

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, dramatic commercial break sting!