Singapore is a nice town, if you mind your p's and q's.  Unlike other great cities you've visited, walking throught the night alone does not scare you.  Because here, if anyone was to accost you, by tommorrow--at the latest, he would be paying a very severe price for his crimes.

Probably a beating with rattan canes that would leave him hospitalized, followed by ten years of hard labor, which would be ten years to the day.  Parole is a custom almost unheard of.  So is mugging of innocent walkers.

But you have to warn your American cousins that jaywalking is a serious crime here with a hefty fine attached.

But the neighboring country of Red China is looking with lustful interest at your city-state's wealth, and so nearly everyone serves three years in the military.  Except for those who can get a deferrment due to vital services.

You're in college, but you haven't been able to get a "vital services" major because they are all packed by more talented, quicker, or richer students than you.  So, when Dr. Lucy Langtree, a quantum physicist, asked for volunteers for her "painless experiment" you saw an opportunity to wangle a post.

Once there, you're not quite so sure.  It involves injecting a yellowish substance termed "scriff" into you.  But the doctor assures you that its perfectly safe, and that she's done it to herself.

Each person who gets injected is exposed to different stimuli at the time.  You get a mild electric shock. And then in a lethal two-step, another shock leaps from the metal prong, and the lights flicker.  You feel as if a sledgehammer hit you in the chest. Your last sight is of a panicked Dr. Langtree shouting something from the observation booth.

==========================================================================

You wake, the ache in your chest subsiding rapidly. You're laying on your stomach on grit-covered stone, and dust is tickling your nose.  A wind whistles faintly past your head.

There are no other sounds.  Its dreadfully quiet.

Playtester

The first thing Kate truly became aware of was the rough texture under her hands.  She exhaled trying to push the dust from her nostrils and slowly sat up.

The table was gone... the lab was gone.  She ran a hand over the sore spot in her chest as she tried to piece things together, but focus was slow in coming.

She looked around, trying to find something to focus on as she tried to get her bearings.

'I was in the lab... ' she told herself, but none of it felt right.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:25, Tue 20 Sept 2005.

You stand up in the middle of an extensive plaza.  Along one side is a wall of dressed stone about four feet high with what looks to be writing on it, but you can't read it at this distance.

To your right, and in the far distance are what look to be gray towers of jutting hardness that pierce the sky.  They look damaged and time-worn.

To your left, you see a white, brilliant dot hanging low on the horizon. Behind you, you see a shadow stretching out long, perhaps a hundred feet. Its your shadow on a plain of loose sand and sand devils spinning (aka micro tornadoes).

Looking up, you can just barely make out a number of red dots in the sky.

PT

Kate blinks at the red dots in the sky, thoughts and explainations still slow in coming.  She tried to recognize a pattern, match it to any of the constellations she'd known.

Finally she looked back down, shaking her head,nothing was where it should have been.  Looking up and down the plaza, she stood,  her hand still unconsciously rubbing her chest.

After a pause while she waited for her body to adjust, she moved towards the edge.  If she was lucky maybe the writing would tell her something.

You don't recognize any constellations, and in fact, there are a lot more stars than you are used to seeing in  the sky.

You walk across the plaza toward the wall with your footsteps echoing loudly in the near-dead silence.  For some reason, you keep feeling the urge to look over your shoulder.

Upon reaching the wall, you see it is divided into small yard-long sections by neat white lines inbuilt into the stone.  And between these lines are squares filled with different peoples' writings.

"Whisp!" In bold, expressive style.
"Captain Chris and Annette nee' Oakley- Hi ya'll"
"Landu--Xenforian is coming for you!" Looking at this one makes the hair rise on the back of your neck.
"My name is Tadeusz, some call me Ghost, and others Stormlord. This is my Seventeenth World."
"(*+  (*^^" The alien glyphs tell you nothing.
"Baron Coranado and She Who is Gold studied here for ten years. We put our research paper for review with Michael Di Vars reststop"

A little further you see.

"Michael Di Vars. Warrior of Odin. I built a rest stop two hundred human steps toward the city, or roughly 1/10000th the diameter of this planet I call Last."

There is at least a hundred inscriptions.

PT

Kate looks around as she reads the inscriptions a nervous tick in the back of her neck makes her looks around the alien landscape, for she has realized that that is indeed the correct term for what she is seeing.

'Studied here ten years','planet, I call lost','research paper for review....'

She shook her head, knowing that she had to move.  'The research paper,' she decided and reread the inscriptions.  She looked up towards the city.  'Two hundred human steps.'

She began walking towards the city, counting her steps.  'Two hundred human steps.... where in the name of heaven am I?'

You walk past a large number of inscriptions, ignoring them for now, and exit the plaza on the city-side which has no wall.  Trudging out into the fine dust, you feel as if something is familiar off to your right.

But that would be impossible.

You continue on a hundred paces, and come to a jumble of rocks. They shine with reflected light, and their shadows are blue-edged, as is your shadow. At first you consider walking straight over them, but a closer look assures you their edges are razor sharp.

But a path nearly parrallel with your journey is between them.  You follow it two hundred steps as it winds back and forth, and see nothing but higher jumbles of rocks, reaching above your head a few feet.

There are small aisles between the rocks, as they are not really much of a pile.  More something like a building that fell apart, and its lesser bits got blown away.

PT

Kate scanned the area, trying to make out the aisles and realizes that this was quite probably the rest stop.  She looks around, trying to keep her bearings.

She looked around the remains, looking to see if anything could remain, something built into the walls.  She still had no idea where she was, she only knew-- it wasn't home.

You keep on looking, finding nothing, and continue on a bit.  At 230 steps you see a sign in English and Runic. Evidently Michael was a bit taller than you.

"Lever back this cover plate."

A huge metal plate lays on the ground in your path.  A rusted six foot long crowbar is next to it.

You set to work, getting a basketball sized stone as a pivot point, and popping the plate loose.  It slides aside revealing a set of narrow stairs leading down into the darkness.

PT

Kate looked at the stairs and then back up at the sky.  It was finally sinking in that she wasn't dreaming this, that this was very very real and she had no water, no food... nothing, not even an aspirin or a flashlight.

She looked down the stairs trying to see what she could then looked once more at the sign, trying to remember the ruins.  If she was going to be stuck here, she might need to learn the language.

She also realized what had bothered her the most... how completely and utterly alone she was.

Still, this was supposed to be a rest stop-- and someone said they had left their research here.  She took a deep breath and started down the stairs, feeling her way as she went.  It woudldn't do if she slipped and fell.

You step down into the darkness carefully.  The footing changes after the first steps, and paranoiad you check it.  It feels like dry moss.

And then you note that it glows where your feet touched it, and even more so where your hands contact the moss.

Its faint light, but enough to keep you from falling on your nose in the dimness.

You make it down a flight of ten steps, and see a small cubic space, about five feet square, and eight feet tall.  In the right back wall, a heavy curtain hangs covering a doorway.

You see two signs in five different languages.  Two of the languages are by the same hand.  They are different writers than Michael Di Vars.  English, Hieroglyphic, Kanji, French, and some other language are the ones you see.

"The curtain is a dust guard. Leave it shut."
"The curse of the Ra the Candleholder, and the Star Gods of Lekostia upon any who takes unnecessarily.  Their blessing upon a humble traveller."

Playtester

For the first time since arriving in this strange place, Kate feels something akin to hope.  The 'rest stop' had provided light.  She cautiosly approached the doorway and closed her eyes, as if in prayer.

Then, letting her breath out she slowly opened the curtain back enough to look inside before entering.

For a second, you seem to sense a watchfulness in the air, and then it fades.  The curtain slips back, and you look in.

A rock cube of similiar material to outside serves as a desk.  Another, its edges smoothed is a backless chair.

The room is ten by twenty feet, and very sturdily reinforced by blocks similiar to the chair.  A layer of dust covers everything.

A pool is covered by a slab of heavy stone.

On the desk as you approach you see a pile of metallic sheets, and a research paper in a folder made with yellowing plastic.

The metallic sheets are in English and Runic.

"Fellow traveller,

My name is Michael Di Vars.  If you are not a verser, I recommend that you leave immediately before your transport breaks down or runs down.  This universe is inimical to higher technology like gate transport devices, or to the greater magics needed to walk between worlds.

As near as I can ascertain, this is the last planet in existence.  Unless there are others with you, you are currently the last living being in existence, in this reality anyways.

Sorry, I can't be more comforting.  To me, this looks like a universe where Ragnarok has been lost to Ymir.  Entropy has won.

If you're a verser and are scriff infected, well, sign your name on the wall if you would.  This seems to be a hotspot for versers.  Welcome brother or sister.  I'm off to circumnavigate teh planet, and if it kills me, as I expect, then I'll see you in another universe, and another universe until finally the All-Father draws the Twilight Sword and ends the Multiverse.

Till, then, my fellow Enjherar, keep fighting."

You flip open the research paper hoping for something more conclusive.

The first sheet is a list of credentials of Baron Coranado and She Who is Gold.

Lunagrad 2014 Anno Domini. Masters in Cross-Cultural Statistics.
Vienna 1873 Anno Domini. Doctorate at Hapsburg University in History.
Rivendell Fourth Age. Studied High Elvish for twenty years.
Touchdown Isle, Moon Bow, Starsong System, Settled Space 2436 Masters studies in Positive Translational Dynamics in Infospace.
The Tower Library at Rhodes, time indeterminate, studied multiple languages for approximately ten years, Sumerian, Middle English, ...
Ka-liv-ver Sonmilak (closest translation in the Viri-ta Tongue is Place of Learning) for eleven years learning the basics of the Tongue.
Taught at Menlo Park College for Versers in 1935-45 as Visiting Fellows until killed as per college policy.
Verity's Planet, Planetary University, Democratic Peace, Year 1426 Post Jumpgate.  Taught in the Alien Languages Division for fifty years.
Studied with Socrates for two decades in Hellenic Greece.  Sixteenth Year of the Reign of King Artaximedes is our best start date.



Your head swoons, and you sit down. Next to the cube is a pile of metal cans well rusted.

PT

Kate rereads the information, hoping to find something that will help her make sense of all this.

Words keep echoing in her mind.  "Scriff infected... scriff..."  She saw the needle and the good doctor assuring her that it was completely safe.  "I"ve taken it myself...."

She shakes her head.  "Verser"  "Multiverse..."

"If it kills me, I'll see you in the next world... and the next"

"Killed as per college policy"

She tried to deny the proof in front of her, but she couldn't ignore it.

"Scriff"

"Dear God, what have I gotten myself into?" She sobbed.  She looked around wildly for more information but it all came down to the same thing... Her world was no longer hers and there was nothing she could do about it.

"Verser... "

"Enjherar"

She looked at the research paper again, looking at the credentials.  Names both familiar and unfamiliar... And the history continued after being "Killed as per college policy"  Ten years.  Ten years teaching... until killed.

"If I die as I suspect I will, then I will see you in the next..."

She gently blew the dust off of the report cover and turned to the next page. Part of her was trying to find a way out, something that would tell her that this was all just in her head...

"My wife and I have attempted to discover something of the nature of the inhabitants of Planet Last, and the universe that surrounds them, as is our custom.

We believe that the local inhabitants were of the classification carbon-based, demi-humanoid.  They had an aversion to creating pictures or representations of themselves, at least ones that our eyes can decipher, but from analysis of the City Two Tower Three Chair, and from studies down on the defunct control surfaces in City One, we believe they had a basically human body with twin spines, and an extra pair of fine motor control arms. See pg. 11-23 for further analysis.

Soil analysis suggests carbon-based ecology, although there are troubling discrepancies.  One suggested theory was that the Lastians were in a symbiotic relationship with machines.  Cyborgs to put it crudely.  See pg. 54-57 for tables and analysis.

We believe that the last high-technology civilization on the planet decayed, or was possibly Ascended (although we have not verified such  a process is possible) approx. half a billion years before the writing of this document.  See pg. 71-79 for further info.  Also see Pg. 100 for a time clock on the age of this document.  We believe sentient life ended with a total ecological collapse a hundred thousand years later.

Studies of the local language were very difficult. Despite considerable effort, the lack of a Rosetta Stone, and the paucity of writing made our efforts of only minor use.  We have compiled a partial alphabet, and a list of some guide signs similiar in function to an Earthly stop sign.  See pg. 101-140 for our efforts, and pg. 141 for our results.

It seems clear from astronomical studies, see pg. 58-63, that with the density of stars, and the near universal preponderance of Red Supergiants that this planet is located near the center of a very old galaxy.  Since we have not detected other galaxies, we assume that this is one of the youngest of the galaxies, and the others have decayed in entropic soup.  In other words, we feel this universe is on the verge, perhaps within a billion  years of Total Entropy, and the either Collapse or the Big Chill end state scenarios.

It seems likely, although we have no means of detecting such, that the white dwarf sun of this system is an artificially created sun.

Here is a list of the artifacts we studied.  We left them in place as we found them. See pg. 142.

If anyone can add further to our data, we would greatly appreciate it.

Baron Coranado
She Who is Gold

Leafing through it, you see some very clever analysis, much formulae, and a lot of extremely tentative conclusions drawn from insufficient data.  At the end, there are ten pages of further notes from other versers.

Playtester

Kate read everything she could, trying to get oriented to the world she had fallen into.

'Versers... scriff

She ran a hand over the desk, brushing away the dust as she tried to peice it all together.  'Versers...' She closed her eyes as she tried to figure it all out.  Gate technology-- that was the thing of science fiction and yet, it was mentioned here as if it were common place.  'Scriff infected...'  she shook her head.

'I expect to die.... see you in the next world... the next world.... killed as per college custom... and yet they were here... they wrote.. they...

"What have I gotten myself into!?"

They were the first words she'd spoke aloud.

'Sciff infected...verser... sign your name on the wall... brother... sister...'

Woodenly she rose and read the list of names.

You walk out of the rest stop, deliberately, ponderously, being careful not to fall, and yet wondering why you bother.  Two hundred thirty steps back takes you to the plaza, and then you begin reading from the wall.

There are over a hundred names here.  And some repeat.  I'll hit some of the high points.

"Graeme aka the Magic Engineer."  You remember seeing his notes added at the end.  A long page of formulae for calculating the date by the movement of the stars had been his contribution.

"Sir Ray and his consort Lilandra, Paladin of the Eye of Truth bid you good greeting."

"i have got to be dreaming. this is insane. i want to go home. Derek Browne."

"I have escaped from what seemed to be Hell.  Clarence Bevridge." And then a later comment. "Indeed, I understand now. Still that place was most peculiar. Since I'm back here, I'd like to say I bear no ill will to the verser who ended my reign as C at MI-5, which some called Claude's Corral.  It was a very clever assassination.  However, you have left the people of that world without protection."

"And we stopped your enslavery of versers, Clarence. The Swordsman."

"Does anyone know how to summon the Shadow Prime, a ninth level demon of the Darkoir? Dr. Mystery."

"Why in the name of all good sense would you want to, Mystery?  Malachai Vanek, Master Magician."

"Would everyone please stop hunting me?  Just because I'm a vampire doesn't mean we have to be enemies. Gavin."
The next tile has a big word "NO!" followed by Marcoe, Tadeusz, those alien glyphs, Jack Frost, and Captain Chris.  The next tile has even more names.

"Combat Consultant and Detective Misty Reynolds. If you have a problem, I may have a solution. Reasonable rates."

"We are the Ubermen. We are not pathetic, puling versers, but Gods! It is our job to rule over the Multiverse, and purify it of lesser beings.  Join me and prosper.  Oppose me, and suffer certain doom. Colonel Horst Wansofv, Special Security Division."

"Charlie Gordon, Lew Martin came by here.  Woo this is a weird place. Rode our horses through that shining light, and bam."

Then about a dozen in some alphabet you are not familiar with.

"I like to kill people. Fact is, I'd kill for a burger.  I don't see any McDonald's around here. That stinks. Kyle."

"Hi! I'm Gabby. Some folk call me the Summer Queen, but Gabby will do just fine. Sam, Gravity, and RuthAnne, and of course my old friend Whispering Winds have joined me.

"Unlike some people, it seems I'm cursed to find unpleasant worlds.  Well, I do what I can to make them better.  Doulos.  Also named Tyr, god of war.  But I'm not a god, really.  And I don't like war anyways.  Its a long story."

"Rob and Naomi here. Hi. See ya' on the flip side."

"This is not Utopia. Kill yourself and seek Utopia. The Quester for a Perfect World."

"Josh, Karen, Vak, and May were here. We came, we saw, it was a dull party, so we left."

There is a pawprint like that of a dog on one tile.

"Where am I? Susan Montgomery."

"My name is Jesse Quick. Gun for hire."

"I am Master Mentat QR416-9."

"Human monkeys talk too much."  Looking at this next tile makes your blood run cold.  Something about the way the letters are shaped makes you suspect the hand that formed it was not human.

"I've been to Rome where gods walked, Australia with the Neandrathals, and yelled 'help, Superman!' And now its the End of the Universe.  Not a bad tour for an old lady. Wish I'd versed out sooner.  Its tough being immortal with arthiritis.  Sightseeing Old Lady from Kalifornia Republic."

"There are spells and technologies in some universes that can cure arthiritis, and restore youth. Malachai Vanek on his second visit to this universe."

"I am the Bringer of Pain. You will..." It goes on for some time promising to track down every verser's dopplegangers, and execute them, and to do the same to the versers.  Its visiting the ravings of a pschyotic serial killer.

Next tile says.

"He's been dealt with.  Hopefully permanently by being confined in a bubble dimensions with negative bias in magic and tech and where death is impossible.  Nearest thing to hell that I could find for him.  Mike Davis, formerly Lord of Haston City-State and Largest Car Dealer in Carbondale, Illinois.  Now knight errant for my sins."

You come to the end of the list. A toolbox with a wide array of tools suitable for leaving a message is sitting there in front of an empty tile.

Playtester
OOC: I know my posts are long. I'm fleshing out this world for eventual use, so I intend to reuse this work.

Reading the inscriptions Kate tried to peice together what has happened, but what she was thinking was too fantastical.

It was all too strange.  Scriff.  Scriff infected...immortal?  Died... killed... trapped in a place where death is impossible...

Kill yourself and move on?  There were no bodies here, but the idea of testing a theory was too much.

When she reached the toolbox... she paused.  Finally she inspected the tools and tried to decide on what to write and how to write it.

You sit there for a long time, deciding.  There is a wide array of tools from the very basic to more advanced, including some you don't recognize.  Eventually you come up with something to memorialize yourself with.

As you sit there, you feel a strange sensation, like there is something out there in the desert that is familiar to you.  It feels like a specific direction.

PT

Carving wasn't as easy as it looked at first-- she tried several tools until she found something she could work with.  If she was wrong, she was wrong.  She carved an Om next to her name, where she simply wrote "Kate"

The process kept her busy and her mind focused.  For a few moments, all that existed was the wall.  The insanity of what had happened happily forgotten, but that too passed.

She looked around, too aware of something calling to her, drawing her towards it.  She closed her eyes and stood turning slowly she tried to see if she could feel anything else.

With nothing else to do-- she began walking towards the 'call'.

You walk through the dust which lays like a weak tissue paper across the land, and occasionally, you think you see something out of the corner of your eye, but when you spin your head, there is nothing.

About a mile away you see something bright in the distance.  By this time, you've found that if you relax, you can sense the direction very well.  Its like an internal compass, but you have to try to sense it.

Getting closer, you break into a run as you see all the most cherished things you might have taken with you on a sudden emergency trip, laying about on the dessert.

The odd thing is, your apartment was about the same distance from the lab as you walked.  And you see all the items laying as if they were in your apartment, although a few look as if they fell from atop a dresser that was no longer there, and then rolled.

PT

Kate stared at her things in disbelief, almost sobbing as she recognized her possessions.  With a trembling hand she picked up the photo that she kept on her night stand.

The only picture she had of her mother.  Her parents seemed so happy then, she held the frame to her chest, looking around at the other thigns.

She didn't care if it was all in her head or not, she gathered up her things, desperately looking for something to hold them all.  Then she saw her backpack.

Quickly she began tossing her things into the bag, almost as if she was afraid they'd dissappear before she could.  There was no logic in her packing.  She packed the things she found that meant the most to her.

The picture was the first thing in her bag, followed by her journal.  A pocket knife was followed by socks and a t-shirt.  She gave a worried look to the horizon, as if they would vanish or something would come to take them away.

If this was madness that she was now experiencing-- she embraced it.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:41, Thu 13 Oct 2005.

Trembling with fear and mental exhaustion, you pack your bag, and still find a few things that won't go into it.  Your gymnastic trophies looked nice on the mantel above your "fireplace" (an in-wall heater), but here they are simply too large.

Perhaps its best that your tiger fish did not come with you.  You know your landlord admired it, and he will take care of it once you turn up missing.

You rearrange your few sets of clothing, favorite shirts, and pants and such to better pad your back, and then slip the somewhat heavy backpack on.

And then you walk back to the Wall, and sit down covering two tiles.  One says

Jhiaxus, Lord of the Orcs, and the other says Bob White, US Army Cpl 1985, Dreamtraining Research Project---and I want out, now!

And there you weep until your tears dry out of sheer exhaustion.  Not knowing what else to do, you slip down and sleep.

PT
OOC: Feel free to add some scenes, or contradict a detail...

Sitting against the stone wall, Kate hugged her backpack tightly.  This had gone on far too long for it to be meerly a nightmare-- and there was too much detail.

'If I am not dreaming, then I am either here-- or dead...'

She remembered the look on the Doctor's face as the arc of power hit her.  She couldn't have survived.  And yet--

'Coma? Maybe I'm in a coma and trying to wake up... stuck in a loop'

She wasn't sure which thought was more comforting.  She cried herself to sleep, but sleep was a long time in coming.  The hard stone made comfortable resting impossible, so she dozed fitfully, never untangling from her backpack.

It was as if it were a life preserve-- keeping her anchored to some sort of reality.

She forced herself to sleep as much as she could, but when it was too bright to sleep, she pulled out her journal and began taking notes of the strange inscriptions and the differen't languages present.  It was something to do, to keep her from thinking about what had happened and what was really happening.

The day passes, and you realize the sun is not really moving.  It just hangs a bright, white ball near the horizon.  By your clock you've been here for twenty-seven hours which surprises you as you're not as tired as you think you ought to be.

And food and water is starting to be a serious concern.

On the plus side, you've copied everything on the wall down.

PT

Kate looked up suddenly realizing that she was hungry.  It was not uncommon for her when she was working on a problem, totally absorbed in her work, but now...

Now she was hungry.

She looked around the plaza.  There had to be food and water... didn't there.

The planet was dead...

She felt a slight panic welling up inside of her and then started to think.  If her 'apartment' was to the... towards the big rocks, then ... the cafeteria would be... to the left.

She closed her eyes as she tried to visualize the cafeteria, and then shook her head.  She was being rediculous.  Still as she began her search, she realized it was as good a direction as any.

She stretched out her senses, trying to smell or hear water.

You keep searching out on the plain for a good hour, and find no water, nor any sign of water.  In fact, by now, you note that the air seems very dry, and your throat is unhappy with this new environment what with dust and the parching lack of humidity.

Now it seems obvious that there should be water somewhere, unless all the water evaporated.  But that doesn't make sense does it, after all Baron Coranado and She Who is Gold survived ten years here.

PT

Kate thought about the survival books she'd read, and about solar stills-- but if there was no moisture in the air.. how could it...

She shook her head.  There had to be water.  There had to be.  If there was no water in the air or on the ground that she could see-- then perhaps... under ground?

But how to find it.  She sobbed in frustration, then stopped.  Panicing was not going to help here.

That thought sobered her up.  She tried to think of anything that could remember about survival and finding water.

She lifted a few of the larger rocks around her, looking for signs of moisture beneath them.

You begin tipping aside large rocks, straining your arms, and creating water, that is sweat, which you watch bitterly as it drops to the dust.  On the ninth rock, you've flipped, you see nothing, and continue on, wondering how long...

...Say wasn't there a little shred of differently colored dust back there...

You go back to under the ninth rock, a thing the size of a circular laundry basket, and see a small crack in the soil alongside of which is a slightly darker strand of dust.

You touch it with your fingers, and it may be damp.  Its hard to be certain its so dry.  Ordinarily you would call it dry soil, but compared to the other dust here, well, what to do now?

Playtester

In despiration Kate looks for a stone or stick that could be used for digging.  She works at the cracks, hoping to find signs of water.

"Please... please... she chanted as she dug.  She'd read enough survival manuals to know that dying of thirst was not something she wanted to experience.

You haven't see any sign of a stick here, except for the metal crowbar at the rest stop. You go down about a foot, and it seems to peter out, until you realize its running horizontally.  Another foot sideways, and then a foot down, and you see a trickle.  And another hand, covered in a gray leather glove, helps you dig out some more water.

You look up and see a handsome man, violet eyes, wearing a gray suit jacket, three-piece, and an aura of dreadful calm. He's helping you dig. You're not at all sure how he got here without you noticing him coming closer.

"I think you've found water. But you've lost part of a fingernail. Do you consider that a worthy trade?"

He doesn't look...insane, but then he doesn't look...normal either you decide after a hesitating look. Still you find part of your head wanting to surrender to your desire to kiss him on the perfect lips, and another part of your head shrieking that that would be a very bad idea.

PT

Kate does a double take when she realizes she's not alone.  When he speaks she feels some sort of attraction, but she's too focused on the water to worry about it.

This is what insanity must feel like.

She looks at him when he speaks, noticing for the first time his eyes, but then looks down at the water.  She looks around for something to hold the water with and pulls out the empty water bottle from her back pack.

"... who ... are you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:11, Mon 17 Oct 2005.

"Ah, well Kate, some call me the Gray Prince, and others the Right Hand of Entropy." He stands with a gracefulness that is so much so that it seems inevitability.

"Do you know something Kate? Everything dies except perhaps for the Firstborn of Creation, even the Creator died. Even versers die. Oh they pass near by, time and again, just seeing the gates of Thanatos, but never really entering in, until the time comes that thousands of years of life pall for even them, and they take that final step of their own free will."

He turns and looks back at you with a knowing glance.

"Even universes get old, and hunger for what comes after.  This one is old, so old, if it wasn't interested, just a little bit, in all these strangers come to its shores, it would have passed already.  But its not a good place for such as you to linger.  It pulls at the mind. I wouldn't stay here too long if I was you."

He turns and makes to walk away.



PT

Kate was busy filling her water bottle to exactly notice what the man had said until he started walking away.

"Wait..." she called out after him.

She finished filling the bottle and stood.  "What are you talking about... please...

She looked around and sighed.  "This has been the weirdest day and ... I'm still ... Versers?  Universes.. Dying.. what is going on here!?

She didn't mean to blurt it out, but there it was.

He turns back to you.

"Its not good for you if I spend too much time in your presence.  You, Kate, are now a verser, a quasi-immortal.  A vagabond in the greater scheme of things that we, the Firstborn, call the Multiverse.  You are also the last living material being in this universe, which is not a good place for such, anymore, especially ones such as you, not protected by wards and shields, and long experience with the uncanny.

Now I can offer you a way out of here, or you can find your own way.  But you really shouldn't stay."

Even as he speaks, a sense of quiet, of surrender strengthens in you, and you find yourself calming.

"I should go now."  He quickly turns away, and he's not there. No blink, no flicker, just not there.

PT

Kate looked around her, trying to figure out exactly what the Gray Prince had said and even as she went to ask how, he was gone.

She stared in disbelief and then shrugged.  If things were as mixed up as they seemed...

"How? How do I leave? HOw do I .. move on?"

Part of her knew the answer.  It had been written in the papers she'd read, inscribed on the walls-- but it was against everything she'd been taught.

"How..." her voice was softer now, but she also knew she couldn't do it on her own.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 09:36, Tue 18 Oct 2005.

You sit there for a long while, recovering from being in the presence of something you're beginning to suspect was not very human.

"The Right Hand of Entropy?? What's that?"  You mutter to yourself to distract yourself from the choice before you.

"This, Lady Kate." And you feel a kiss in the wind although you see no one. Images run through your mind.  Glaciers slowly melting, cities eroding away, an old man taking his last breath with a smile while a horde of relatives looks on, a wounded and burnt fireman staggering with a precious burden out of a burning building and then dying once the babe has safety...the kiss fills your veins with a chill lethargy, and then it fades.

And for a long second you feel sorrow.  Followed by shudders as reaction to nearly dying sets in.

"Come to me for the real thing, or blow with your breath, blow a star out. Either will win you freedom of this place, before it drives you mad."

PT

Kate hugs herself against the chill she feels.

Entropy... time and energy running down, the measure of disorder...

She shakes her head, feeling very much as if she's gone down a rabit hole.  Everyone is speaking in riddles...

'Win your freedom before you go mad'

But at what cost?  She looks at the world around her and thinks.  'What you want me to do is madness...

She has always believed that where there is life there is hope.  Hadn't she volunteered for the doctor's project in the hopes of keeping herself safer?

She thinks back to her physics classes....

The total entropy of an isolated system can never decrease.

He'd called it a dead world, with her the last living being.  If that were true, wouldn't her existance have changed the balance in the system?

'This has to be a dream' she tries to tell herself, but even as she does she knows-- there is no way she could have dreamed this.  She died.

Maybe it isn't killing herself, or letting herself die-- maybe it is just letting go of the illusion that she is still alive...

This thought fills her with sadness, but also a degree of relief.  It is not suicide to accept that you are already dead.

She straightens herself up and walks to where the man had been.  She is crying openly.

"Where... are you?

Suddenly, he's there, and kissing you.  It feels good to surrender, to take the last step, knowing the contest is over, and then you see him retreat sadly from the embrace.

"I can never hold your kind for very long.  You always slip from my fingers. Time and again. Farewell, Kate in your new life."

You fall to the dust, and before it hits you on the side of the face...


=========================================================================

go to "Kate Comes Calling"...

PT