Alex grins to herself as people begin to talk to each other, ears alert for interesting pieces of information.  Wherever they were, at least no-one from the group seemed to have any dubious intentions.



Alex looks a little surprised at the title, but smiles with amusement at Pieran.  Not summoned here, he said?  Interesting.  Making a mental note to remember that nugget of information, she swung the sports bag off her shoulder, unzipping it and examining the contents.  Nothing appeared to be missing, although there was nothing terribly useful either.

Ah well, never mind.

She slipped the sword inside the bag, leaving the hilt peeking out and easily accessible.  With that, she continued walking, content for the moment to listen and observe.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:38, Thu 22 July 2004.

“Hangover? Or concussion?” Raven said, as she looked at Johnny’s head.

“Hey, Don Juan with the gauze,” she called to Dren. “Maybe you can spare a bandage for Johnny, too.” Raven gave Dren a sideways grin.

"How about train impacting with alien object at 100MPH? But, yeah, there was some alcohol involved the day before - and by some alcohol, I mean bottomless buckets of adult soda. And don't forget an aspirin overdose in the morning, my mother trying to talk my head off wihle playing Anastacia at my brother's hi-fi...add that to being teleported to an alien dimension...is that all?" Johnny said, catching his breath and doing a dramatic pause.

 "Of course it isn't," he said, smiling like he had just gotten a direct injection of caffine, "I slept less than four hours tonight and have to catch a train in exactly twenty minutes, else I've just wasted $200. But enough about my miserable life and my mind-splitting migraine, how are you feeling?"

 Johhnny B. finally stopped talking, looking slightly thoughtful as blood trickled down his forhead and dripped onto his bag where the smallest little pool had assembled. "Did you mention bandages? I could use a few bandages..." he admitted, looking a bit embarrased, before his face melted back into the mischievous smile. "Or alternately, just a bullet up here..." he said, indicating his open mouth with the index finger, "to just end all my pain."

 "Nice shirt, by the way."

"Since Breakfast." He smiles at his joke but his eyes gaze through an inner kaleidoscope. "A long time."

He smiles again, shrugs. "Perhaps chance is kind and sets before us an International House of Pancakes." He laughs lightly, enjoying his own sense of humor.

"And you, M'Lady?" He picks an obstinate shard of glass from his hair. "Was this your glass? What was your quest before fortune carried you away?" He flicks it aside.

At the mention of an IHOP, Iona's stomach grumbled. She had no idea how long had passed since her last meal (When was dinner? What time is it here? Where is frikkin' here?), but she was starving now. The initial confusion and emotional turmoil had masked that sensation, but now it was back, tenfold in strength. She thought longingly about the granola bar she had in her purse, but wasn't sure she ought to bring it up right now. What if the others were hungry too? It would be cruel to munch away right in front of them, if they didn't have anything to eat...

She turned her gaze to the piece of glass as it twirled across the air. "Umm, yes. I think it was." It had been a beaker at the lab. Maybe. Or a vial. Seemed she was lucky not to be covered in scratches. "And I suppose I was on a quest. Am. But it's nothing big, really." She shrugged. "I was just doing some lab work. Part of a project I'm working on. Nothing dangerous, just studying how different elements react in special circumstances." Mixed with my blood, she added mentally, but kept that bit to herself.

He smiled back at Raven before casting a tell-tale glance back at Alex. Though he didn't understand how handing a girl gauze could be considered hitting on her at the same time it was pointless to deny and attraction to the swordswoman, especially to Raven, who at time knew him better than he knew himself... if he was fliting, he'd have to take Raven's word for it and leave it at that.


Dren switched the gun from his right hand to his left as he fished a small plastic tube from one of the leg pockets in his cargo pants, once again turning and walking he backwards he held up both hands to Johnny saying "Well today's yer lucky day. Got both a .45 an' Advil, choice is yers!" he smiled wickedly as he stopped walking to let Johnny close the distance all the while untwisting the top to the Advil with his finger tips.


Dren took note of Iona's statement, she sounded like a researcher, like Raven and he couldn't help but observe how the team seemed balanced in the area of weapons as well as lack there of. 3 swords, 1 gun, 3 unarmed, was there a pattern to it? Too soon to tell, but the circle, the area, the house, the group... there was certainly a plan.
"If it 'elps, Iona, y'can say we're all differnt elements reactin' to special ciercumstances." he offered with a smile and a shrug.

And maybe some of ours, as well? Iain thought ironically, but he didn't comment.

Pieran's comment about the IHOP had raised a concern Iain had preferred not to think about until that moment: there didn't seem to be many chances of a meal, for a person on a liquid diet.

In fact, he could count them precisely: six.

Well, we'll burn that bridge when we come to it, I guess...


"So you are a scientist? Interesting... What is your field of expertise?" Small talk aside, Iain looked genuinely interested in knowing about his new fellow travellers.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:33, Thu 22 July 2004.

Iona grinned back: "That's just what I was thinking!" She beamed back at him, the smile lighting up her features, revealing a dimple in her left cheek.



"Well, some chemistry, some physics, some engineering - you know, electrical, computers, robotics, the fun stuff..." She trailed off there, seeing his quizzical look. "Er... I... couldn't really bring myself to pick a major in just one field." She looked slightly embarrassed. Anxious to shift their attention elsewhere, Iona quickly moved on: "So... um... Dren? Are you an archaeologist too, like Raven?"

Turning to Iain: "And what about you... Ian, was it? What do you do?"

Raven glanced at her standard, khaki work shirt that she wore over a white tank top. It was a little on the dirty and disheveled side after that E-Ticket ride through the vortex. “Um, thanks, I guess,” she said.



“And what’s with all the swords. Were you three pulled out of some Xena/Hercules fan club convention, or what?”

Iain chuckled: "Well, picture the scene: I am home, busy in a daisho training session - which would be a martial arts session where you use a long sword and a short one: usually a katana" he raises the long sword so that Iona and Raven can see it "and a wakizashi. He raises the shorter weapon as well. "I am halfway through the second kata, when the ground starts shaking under my feet: living in California, you kinda get used to it, after a while... Anyway, I take my jacket and my wallet - and the swords, of course - and go upstairs, in case I have to leave the house. All of a sudden, I hear this noise behind me, like something is breaking. I think it's the quake, you know, maybe something has fallen, or the walls have finally decided to demonstrate that the house was built with crappy materials and designed by an even crappier architect... Anyway, the last thing I expect is a freaking crack in mid-air: like a neon tube, only without the tube. Then I remember a huge blast of cold light, a long fall... And when I can see again, I find myself soaking wet, and... here."

He shrugged: "It could have been worse... I'm in Hell, alright, but so far I've met three hotties and no demons: it's a nice kind of hell, if you ask me." Iain grinned widely to Iona and Raven, and turned to Alex: "One of whom carries a big sharp piece of metal... And looks like she knows how to use it, too."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:55, Thu 22 July 2004.

   Johnny suddenly looked up, somewhat interested as he turned towards Iona. "Computers, you say? Interesting. You wouldn't perchance have heard of the W32.HenPeck.Exe then? Just curious," he said with a mighty big smile on his face.

   "Say, where did those bandages go?"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:49, Thu 22 July 2004.

Dren shrugged as he put his gun in his belt line so as to free up a hand for dispensing Johnny's pills while he answered Iona, "Nah, you can say that she's the brains... I'm jus' th' muscle." sending a sly look to Raven he smiles adding "An' I think she 'as a lit'le crush on me, too!"



Dren rolls his eyes as Iain explains his style, "Dinna worry, Raven's been to Japan, she knows all about Musashi." he quips.


"An' if I'd known I'd end up at the RenFest, I'd brought m'swords too."

Iain turns to look at her: "Really? Well, that's good to know. Then I'm sure you can appreciate a fine blade when you see it..." He hands both swords to her, one at a time, so that she can have a good look.

Alex chuckled to herself at Raven’s comment, then shot Dren a cheeky grin before picking up her pace, ponytail bobbing as she strode along.  She shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans, and was pleased to notice that they seemed to be drying out quite nicely.

She listened to Iain as he describes the moments that led up to his arrival; apparently his journey was as unexpected as her own.  When he shows the daisho to Raven and Iona, an expression that could almost be described as longing crosses her features.



Alex shrugged, hands still resting in her pockets.

“Do I?” Though spoken as a question, she sounds utterly uninterested in any answer, apathy written on her face.  The change in her mood is brief, however, and she quickly looks to Iain, the apathy replaced by amusement.

“Should we ever get home, I’ll be sure to convey your compliments to my tutor, the old bastard.”

The air smells and tastes flat, lifeless without fragrance or odor. The breeze freshens and grows stronger into a short gust of wind. It catches the dust your feet have disturbed and swirls it into a small Dust Devil. It spins and dances about for a short distance and then blows apart, becoming nothing more then part of the trailing cloud, settling back down onto the ground.

Pieran keeps his pace, the last in a broken line trudging toward destiny. He listens to the conversations that shatter the unwholesome stillness around them. The experience brings him some measure of calm and even delight. But though he watches astutely Iain hand off his swords, he thinks better of voicing his apprehension.

He attends to the dance, allowing his eyes to flit back and forth between the furtive passing of smiles, winks, and smirks, the forging friendships, the bold show of swords, the cylinders of medicine and rolls of gauze, the roiling sky, the horizon and the approaching house, a bobbing ponytail, the footprints they are leaving behind. He smiles within, content to listen, and watch, and occasionally taste the air.

He adds nothing to the conversation, now watching warily the taunting dust devils.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Fri 23 July 2004.

“Oh yeah, most days it’s all I can do to hold myself back.” Raven’s tone was so matter-of-fact that she could’ve been discussing the weather.



There must be something in the air, Raven thought to herself. The male hormones seemed to be raging even more than usual. She glanced at each of the men. Or maybe it’s just a lot of competitive posturing that is so common among the testosterone crowd. She caught Iona looking all moon-eyed at Pieran. Ok, the men aren’t the only ones being affected. At least Alex appeared to be keeping her wits about her. It was nice to know that somebody else could remain clear-headed in extreme situations.



“Well, I’m no martial artist and I certainly don’t know how to do battle with swords. That’s more Dren’s department. But as a student of history, yes, I know of the samurai sword master and The Book of Five Rings.



And the competition between the men continues. If Dren had brought his swords, the guys could’ve all pranced around like peacocks trying to see whose was the prettiest.



Raven stopped walking so she could examine the weapons. She took the first sword in her hands, turned it slowly, studying the blade and the hilt. “Very impressive,” she said, a hint of awe in her voice. “Seventeenth Century? It is indeed a finely crafted weapon and I can see that you keep it very well maintained.” Ok, maybe there wouldn’t be much of a contest about whose was the prettiest.

No sooner had Raven appraised the weapon was Dren standing next to Iain and Raven watching her study the blade, he even went so far as to pull a mini-LED flashlight to examine the grain of the blade, all without touching it.
Okay, now he's realy showing off. Dren thought to himself, but he also couldn't blame the guy at the same time, to own a weapon of this nature and not display it would be like sticking a Monet in your closet because it was a conversation piece. "Iain, I feel tis only fair t'warn ya... I'll be the first one pryin' them from yer cold, dead, 'ands!" Dren added a smile to his statement before returning his attention to dispensing Johnny's Advil.

“Simply magnificent.” Raven smiled as she returned both of the swords to Iain. “Are they a family heirloom?”


Raven once again started heading towards the house. It wasn’t looking anymore inviting the closer they got to it but, she was incredibly curious what artifacts might be found in an ancient house located in a hell dimension. They may have lost the Orb of Anubis – at least temporarily but, perhaps this adventure could still prove to be worthwhile for them. She wasn’t concerned about finding a way out of here – not yet anyway. She and Dren had found themselves in sticky situations before and they’d always managed to escape.

“So Pieran, if you don’t know who or what you’re supposed to kill – how will you know when you find it? And, what makes you think it’s here?”

Iain nodded a hint of a bow at the woman's compliments: "Actually, yes. They have been passed on from father to son in my step-mother's family for generations. When her father dies without any male children, the blades became hers. She and my father haven't had children of their own, so she gave the swords to me."


Iain grinned widely: "You wouldn't be the first one to try... Would-be buyers so far have found that these swords are like an arm or a leg to me: some of them were eager enough to acquire the blades to try the chainsaw approach."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:42, Fri 23 July 2004.

While the other talked swords, Iona and Johnny delved into the finer points of hacking:



"Henpeck, you say?" Iona exlaimed, somewhat surprised. "Did you make that virus?"

"Now, now, let's not get carried away. I wouldn't call it a virus - admittedly, that is what it is, per se, but... More of an experiment, I would say."

"An experiment? Iona said sceptically. "So you actually formulated the hypothesis: 'I betcha I can crack this code'?"

"Again, let us get our definitions straight. I didn't do it -- unlike what most virus-programmers do -- just to prove I could, or to chuckle evilly when I had outsmarted some poor thirteen year old." Johnny paused a bit, smiling at the thought of that.
"I wanted to show why not only the current systems used to protect again worms and trojan horses are outdated, but also that the whole copy-protection system that is currently in use needs to be revised... completely!"

"So, you made a slight point that's already been hashed to pieces ages ago, and just happened to make $100,000 in the process... never mind the code owners' hard work and copyright." Sarcasm laced her comment.

"What you are forgetting is that the CD-keys I -- stealing is such a harsh term, I prefer surprise lending -- have no inherit value. First when they are put to use will the original owner take any actual harm. Geez," Johnny said, smiling yet more outrageously than usual, "had I wanted to make money, I would have set up a browser hijack to snap up their credit card numbers. I prefer more honest work, though... money is no fun if you haven't earned it."

Iona raised one eyebrow. "Since when did gambling become honest work, Mr. B?" She made the slightest pause before she resumed. "So, how do you propose to solve the problems of modern electronical security, then?"

"I say, firewalls, routers, anti-virus software? Forget all of that crap, it won't do any good when any hobby programmer like myself can make idiots search out and download my virus to their computer, and actually run it! The virus-protection cannot possibly be updated fast enough, as it is; the process must be automated and general solutions to the problems must be found!"

Iona listened incredulously, not really expecting this jokester to get all riled up over this particular subject. "I agree with some of your observations, but I fail to see how you suppose to achieve these goals."

"So does everyone else, for some or other reason. Imagine, no sooner than I had anonymously informed Symantec of the wormhole, than I was given a job offer. I say, we need an online list of valid applications -- including sizes, to be on the safe side -- with which any program must be verified by the system before being allowed to run. Only the few programs which need write-access to system files will be given this, according to the list. It's simple and effcient." Johnny extended his hands, as if to ask why hasn't anybody else thought of this?

She looked thoughtful for a few seconds, moistening her lips while she processed his suggestion. Then she shot off her list of objections, marking each post off with a finger.
"One: who will control the list? Bill Gates? Linux Torvalds? Kofi Annan? Two: how will you keep someone from hacking the list? Three: what about the Big Brother aspect? "

"Well, without getting to deeply involved in the tedious details, I would say these slight up-hills are cakewalk compared to the Chinese Walls people are climbing nowadays.....Say, isn't that house over there getting mighty close?" Johnny said, examining the building more closely from a distance.

"The mother sea turtle lays her clutch of eggs on the same beach within inches of the very patch of sand she herself crawled from twenty years before. How does she know to find that precise spot? She knows. It is born in her.

"I am like the sea turtle. The knowledge is born in me and it compels me just as a compass is compelled to point North. But I am not a compass, neither a sea turtle. I’m a man. So if you like, just call it my ‘spidey sense.’ But I beg you please don’t. I am not a spider, either.

"As to your second question, I do not know that my quarry is here. I know only that my quest has led me here. There may yet be more lands to see before I am finished…before we are finished."

Dren stared at Pieran as he walked by focused on reclaiming Point, in the march to the house "So, Mr. Miyagi, w'en ya gonna teach us to clip bonsai?" he said in passing.

The walk to the building is not difficult, but it was a lot further then you initial thought. As you approach the structure, you realize it is a large mansion. As you pass through the gate in the metal spiked fence that completely surrounds the building, you see your first signs of life. The grounds are still filled with flowering bushes and small trees. All are withered and dying.

The mansion’s tall walls are capped with even taller peaked spires on the corners. The entryway has a definite gated castle feel to it. The large arched double doors give the feeling that you are looking into the maw of a huge resting creature. The windows above the door are lit with flickering light, perhaps candlelight or maybe there is a fireplace in the room above. They only add to the appearance that “creature’s glowing eyes” are looking at you as you approach. High atop the entrance wall, a large winged Gargoyle sits guarding the mansion. The flashes in the sky momentarily illuminate it and give the appearance of movement, however slight, to the house guardian.

The slightly serpentine path leads to the steps at the base of the large double doors.  They are sturdy wooden doors reinforced with metal bands. Heavy round knockers hang in the center of each door.

"Wow, what knockers!" Pieran suddenly becomes self- conscious in the presence of ladies. "I mean, -er- I was just...saying....that the...  Never mind," he blushes.