:: Dearest LORD, please guard and guide me now, I pray... ::

I attempt to activate my Sight as I dig out a bit of food to share with the hound dog.

"Here you are, friend.  I am new here.  Can you tell me about this place?  What does a newcomer need to know?"

:: Ring, are you online?  Please acknowledge.  If so, begin monitoring and recording.  Summarize contents of any available transmissions.::

You look up, and notice a man in a black leather jacket with a sword at his waist, and an Uzi in his right hand strolling up toward you right after you pray.

And as you activate your Sight, you see the man has glowing wings, and his Uzi is covered by flames.  He smiles at you, and in his eyes you see something much more than human.

"Oh, uh," Gulp food. "Avoid the Greentails. They like to eat dogs, even SMARTdogs. Don't look out back, makes you Humans nuts.  You might be here one second, and gone the next.  I like it here. I'm the only SMARTdog. My names Rupert, what's yours?"

:Online. Available transmission is 1. Video/Audio channel broadcast. Unknown language.  2. Audio channel. Instrumental wind music.  3. Audio channel. Grunts, inhuman.  4. No other.:

You realize the Ovoid is rotating slowly on its long axis.

OOC: Does the approaching man feel like a Good Guy (such as Angelic) or a Bad Guy (such as Demonic)?  How far away is he?

"I'm John.  Well met, Rupert.  How long have you been here?  What other types of folks are here?  And what is that big pretty crystal?"

Clearly good (but hey, he could be deceptive), and he's twenty feet away.  He had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Last summer, I was on the Huntlands....so....less than a year.  The groups of people change at times.  There is the Bluecoats, the Greentails, and the Hornheads, and of course the Leftovers.

Its a house for the giant who makes us disappear."

OOC: As I look at my surroundings via Sight, what "symbols" do I see above the heads of the various beings within range?

I smile back at the approaching man with a friendly and respectful nod as I continue conversing with Rupert.

"It looks like a new friend is joining us.  Do you know him?"

Above the head of the child making flint arrows you see a spear and a cookpot and a rabbit.  Above some of the lads playing lacrosse you see a stylized thunderbird.  Above one of the others you see a computer chip.

Its hard to keep track of them all as they dodge and weave together.

Rupert looks around and whines.  He clearly does not see, and neither does he smell another, which makes him uneasy.

"Do not be afraid, Dog.  I am sent here to guard Oak, but your people's eyes are not ready to see certain things that are yet hidden to you by the Maker of the Makers."

"I sometimes dream of the Hound of Heaven."

"You will dream more hereafter, Dog."

"My dreams are confusing."

There is no reply, and you see that the other man has taken up a watchful post about ten feet from you.

OOC: What symbols do I see above the head of the old man in the rocking chair?

I pet Rupert reassuringly.

"All is well, friend Rupert.  We serve the Maker of Makers, the Master of Masters.  We are in Good Hands."

I turn very respectfully to the man.

"Thank you for coming, utterly unworthy though I am.  Please, what is your name?  And do you have any counsel for me?  For I know not thus far why I am sent here, nor how best to please the Maker of Makers in this place."

Musket, bear, knife.

"My name is Alon. I am sent not to give you wisdom, but as protection as you requested.  Besides have you not what you need already?"

He turns back to keeping a calm watch for trouble.

I nod, and continue petting Rupert, giving him a nice scratching.

"Friend Rupert, what do you know of the giant, and of the Bluecoats and Greentails and Hornheads and Leftovers?"

"Let's go see them." And he runs off for about fifty feet, and then turns back to wait for you to follow him.  After a bit you catch up, but he's full of energy, and he's here and back again, sniffing at walls and posts.

As you pass the wide variety of houses from Tudor townhomes to an all metal dome with solar panels.

"These are the Leftovers.  Those who were not in their section when it went back to where it came from.  Some are accident, some on purpose. Some...."

And Alon moves out in front of you, even as Rupert backs up.

A thing shaped like a man, but with blotchy, scarred skin, metal devices protruding out in spots of his shoulders and bald head.  He's ten feet tall, and at least eight hundred pounds.

He's got a car fender in chromed metal in his left hand as a club.

he roars out something at you as he steps out into the road.

"Oak, this is a human soul. That will limit my attacks." Alon says.

"Its a Hypercombat Mark II, Soldier Mod." Rupert says. "Not supposed to be any left. Bad men make them."

OOC: What does my Sight reveal about the Soldier Mod?  What symbols do I see?

:: Ring.  Activate shields.  Activate Benevolent Empathic Field.  If the Soldier Mod attacks, activate Repulsion Kinetic Field immediately. ::

"What defensive capabilities do you have, friend Alon?  Shields?"

I then attempt to reach out and sense his thoughts...

Gun. Skull. Body impaled on a stake.

The Soldier Mod calms a bit, which takes him from rage to controlled rage.

Alon draws out his scabbarded two hand sword, and takes a defensive posture.
The Soldier Mod lunges at him with astonishing speed for such great size, but Alon ducks back easily, circling to the side to force the Soldier Mod to turn away from you.

"I can't access his op system.  Too individualized." Rupert says.

He wants to hit something, and he wants dominance, and he wants some of your stuff as a gift....

:: Ring.  Activate Sleep Empathic Field.  Attempt to override his op system. ::

"What do you know of these Soldier Mods and their op systems, friend Rupert?"

I pray for strength, and reach out with my telekinesis, attempting to lift him slowly into the air.  He may be heavier than most creatures, but he probably isn't heavier than a space station...

::designate 'Op System' is, in context, the operating system for his electronically enhanced CNS.  I am attempting to impose the Sleep EMpathic Field on the merely human part of his brain, but the Op System is fighting back::

He is momentarily difficult to grab on to.

In that moment, he charges.  He swings too late, and strikes a glancing blow off your Kinetic Defense field.  Your field wobbles a bit, and now that you're close to him, you can tell that a skunk is more bearable than his close presence.

"Before the rise of the SMARTanimals, there were the Ravaging Wars.  Many bad men created according to designs made by smart, wicked men various mods, mostly soldier mods, out of unwilling slaves.  They bent their minds and bodies.  The Soldier mods lived to kill and destroy.

The older they got, the more twisted and weird got the programming in their op systems because theyu could program it themselves intuitively, which often meant madly, and force the computer to come up with a way to do two impossible things at the same time.  Hacking one of their systems is like trying to reason with a madman."

I nod grimly.

"The Adversary has power to bend minds and bodies... but the Sovereign LORD we serve has power greater still."

I gather thought and breath, and pray aloud...

"Dearest LORD, please break the Adversary's grip upon this twisted soul, and restore him to wholeness, I pray..."

And then I lift up my voice strongly in song...

"A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever."

You sing, and you feel the possibility of some sort of wholeness, even if not complete, and for the bare trace of a second, you see in his eyes a frightened man, but then his third attack comes down, and shatters your Kinetic Field.

::Reset. Resetting....:::

Alon gets in his path, and for his trouble gets smashed twenty feet away through a tipi wall.

:: Ring.  Initiate Flight Mode. ::

I pray as I activate my light saber, holding it in a defensive position.

Then I reach out with my mind, and attempt to teleport one hundred feet straight up...

::Initiated.::

And then its a comedy of errors.

You squeeze your forehead and eyes trying to port, but the incoming bumper spoils the thought.  You raise your sword to block, but way too slow, but then he slips and nearly falls and goes down to three points before rising back to his feet.

And then, with both of you feeling a bit embarrassed, you teleport straight up a hundred feet, and hold in the air.

He looks right and left, and finally up at you, and then grumpily stalks off.  Alon floats up next to you, powered by wing strokes.  Rupert is down below, making fun of the Soldier Mod, which looks dangerous, but Rupert is clearly faster than the man.

I give a grateful and respectful nod to Alon.

"Thank you for your help."

I watch him stalk off, and sigh.

"We have escaped him... but he cannot escape himself."

I am relieved as I observe that Rupert can fend for himself.  If I had realized that sooner, I would have been quicker to teleport to safety in the first place.  Live and learn.

While I am up here already, I look around to see what can be observed from this vantage point...

You see the gold wall you arrived next too.

Its the number '12'.  Circling the whole area every two hundred yards is the rest of the golden clock, with the Ovoid's shadow falling on '1'.

You can see the place is clearly in four quarters.  You see men in fancy blue coats and bearing swords on their hips in one quarter along with oxen pulling carts through cobblestoned city streets.

In another quarter you see tall, blonde men with axes and swords, and a thatched roof village.

In the last, you see foam geodisic domes with humans in various colored jumpsuits, and walking tall and proud among them, you see a green skinned alien with a large green, prehesile tail.  There are a lot of trees in this quarter.

Beneath you is a hodgepodge.

And now you know what Rupert was talking about with areas.

And you see that the base of the Ovoid is free-floating with an interval of five stories space between the base point, and the ground.

Alon nods, and goes back to guard duty.

Rupert is considerably more capable than an ordinary dog.  You suspect that despite the size differential he could defeat a German Shepherd.

And suddenly the splinter kicks in.  And you see that he has orangutang genes, and rattlesnake genes added in, along with cybernetics to turn him into a SMARTdog.  He has more tech than that, but the splinter gives up for the moment after evincing the opinion that the Ovoid is not really there.

I attempt to make telepathic contact with Rupert.

:: Friend Rupert, where were you referring to when you said 'don't look out back'? ::

:: Have you ever touched the big pretty shiny crystal ovoid?  What is it like?  Is it dangerous? ::

It takes you a minute to wade through his brain.  Its an odd mix of an intelligent breed, computer ware, and new genetics.

::Um. Bad idea.::

And you find your thoughts being swamped by a replicating code.  It repeats, copies itself, and repeats again...Its already established a foothold base in your brain.

You've downloaded a virus into your brain.

OOC: On the plus side, +@1 mark to telepathy for contacting an animal/computer hybrid.

I immediately put the business end of my lightsaber against my forehead, and activate it.

As I do so...

: Into thine hands... :

And new world....

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

Oak's Ocean

Dreams of stabbing yourself in the eye with a green crayon pass into getting a pie in the face pass into someone using your head as a tee for a golf game pass into your being Elvis's white jumpsuit tossed into a spin cycle....

And the ground is shaking under you.  Only its rough-timbered wood.  Its wet, and the timbers creak in the high wind.

OOC: Continued in this new thread: link to a message in this game :)