The confused jester expressed (via Jen) that it was classical music. At least, classical where he was from. Normally, one would sing along with the igil, but he was voiceless.


OOC: I'm using the Hindu terms raga and tala since I don't know the musical terminology of any of the Rocto-Ardae languages, and I'm not going to even attempt to dig up the terms in Tsolyáni.

---

Space? Where was Space? What kind of a country or land was it? But he did belong to Tine (or at least to his father the King), as Bozon, so he pantomimed a collar around his neck with two fingers of each hand, then a long leash which he 'handed' to Tine as a way of expressing that ownership. Where Tine wanted to go, he had to go along with it if it didn't put the prince or kingdom in serious danger.

OOC: Regarding the terms you use - that is perfectly fine to me. I like learning new things.

IC:

Tine just looked confused, and said, "Wait, whaaaaat?"

Jen looked horrified with her jaw dropped. She told Tine, "He thinks we own him! Like a slave!"

"Oh dear Vanach, no!" Time exclcaimed. "When we thought you were a toy, yes, we felt we owned you."

"But once it was clear you were sentient," Jen added, "we considered you a free man in every way!"

Tine offered, "We were honoured at the thought that you chose to stay with us, when you were truly free."

"But we were insensitive, Tine, and we didn't consider him enough to be clear and explain this. We are at fault at this."

"Yes," Tine admitted, "I feel deeply shameful for not considering what you might think about your situation, Bozon. I truly am grateful that you are with us, and I consider you my friend."

Jen added, with tears in her eyes, "Yes, we deeply care for you, our friend, Bozon."

---

After the emotional part, Tine explains, "We in the Summer Kingdom always free the slaves we buy. We believe no one should be forced against their will to do anything, so we free any slaves we inadvertently buy, and free any slaves we politically can."

Jen says, "Tine, Bozon, I'm getting sleepy. I suggest we get some rest, and then make our way to the Space Walk in the morning after breakfast - that is if you are willing to join us, Bozon?"

Either way, Tine buys a 3 bed room for the night. After explaining that Bozon is a sentient balloon-person, the staff offers to swap out the air inflating him for "333OG" as he calls it, which he explains is a super dense Noble Gas. Then he says, "It'll make you weigh 153 KG, but you'll still be mobile. We have gasses to make you weigh anything from -3 KG (Helium) to 153 KG. Just let me what you'd like to weigh."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:55, Sat 15 Feb 2020.

What?

What had he gotten wrong? Uh-oh.

Bozon crouched down, getting on his knees to be closer to the children's eye level as his parental instincts and urges took over, trying to comfort them and gently wipe away Jen's tears with a rubbery finger.

His brow furrowed, concentrating, as he tried to envision things for Jen to read. The Great Circle of the Antratschèldor-haii, the symbols of the thirteen brotherhoods arranged in accordance to their mutual relationships. The rainbow of Mahkàilh in the middle, the sun of Chélé-Avàii at the top, the dark circle of Gohlaa-Gozàan at the bottom, the lizard of Fàanel-Féléòdji furthest to the left, and the eye of Enja-Osdeön on the farthest right.

Jen, Tine. I am a toy. It is part of my ordeal as an apprentice of the brotherhood Enja-Osdeön. Every Antratschèldor-haii undergoes an ordeal related to the theme of the brotherhood in order to earn full membership in it. In older times, before the coming of Fasiltum, the apprentice primarily served as a secondary supply of power for their master through their ordeal, learning and exchanging their suffering for knowledge in the process. Nowadays, with our economy focused on tourism from other worlds, things have changed a bit. Apprenticing into the Brothers of the Weirding Device, I was made into a luxury magic item for others to use, experiencing what it is to be someone elses' belonging and plaything, within the pre-programmed limitations built into me. I became an inflatable clown entirely voluntarily, Jen. Don't feel afraid to play with me, use me, even pop me if that's where someone's tastes in entertainment might lead.

He held back from revealing his personal reasons for why he'd done this, keeping to fairly public (for most in his world) knowledge about the wizards and their traditions. He had no idea how he might have gotten this across if neither of them had had the ways of the mysteries of the mind. He guessed, though his mind flinched from the very idea, that he was fortunate enough to have this as part of what Vòrin Scord meant by his being a major protagonist, though having such an interpreter lessened some of the impact of his restrictions as Bozon.

-----------------

He listened, and gleefully jumped at the idea of being of negative weight for the night. Though his mental image of it was more of being round as a ball against the ceiling than of his usual muscular self trapped being up there.

Jen relays the information, and Tine responds, "But wouldn't popping you kill you?"


At this thought, Bozon hears the feint sound of cackling.


The staff fills Bozon with Helium and "Out of gratitude to your patron's patronage of our services," gives him free Gas Xchange (dynamically weighted gloves & boots) with 3 gas types: 333OG, regular air, and Helium. The gas exchanger will exchange all of the gas in him with whichever other gas he selects. It takes different times to recharge by collecting the target gasses from the ambient gasses available. As the gloves and boots are made from a Void Magem filament fabric, their weight can be altered from -2KG to +5KG

Gas Xchange {He Air OG} dynamically weighted gloves & boots
   -exchange gas for selected alternate. Air recharges 1 hour, He recharges 1 day, OG recharges 1 week
   -rotate dial to alter weight of gloves and boots from -2KG to +5KG

After an extremely refreshing night's sleep for Tine and Jen, they wake the next morning and have breakfast brought to the room. After settling the bill, they leave via the main Portal room of the Scuttlebus and return to Nexus. From there, it is a short ride in a Beetle Cab (giant beetle carapace used as the shell for a steam-powered mechanical beetle-legged vehicle) to Anima's giant Comowe Portal. They show their tickets to a Comowe representative who hands them each a pair of glasses. Wearing the glasses, they see a path outlined in glowing green arrows on the environment around them. They follow the arrows to a Comowe Portal room, and showing their tickets to a clockwork robot with a screen for its face, it directs them to a certain portal which they go through.

The group comes out in a room the size of an Opera theatre, with the wall and ceiling being one large curved window, open to a view of a blue and green planet in the distance, and a galactic swirl filling the view. A number of ships are moving through space around the view outside between the planet and near the ship they're on.

A uniformed attendant greets them and presses a button on his sleeve. A holographic image of the room they're in appears in the space around them. The attendant says, "Welcome to the Comowe Welcome Class Spaceship, the Icebreaker. You are on the Portal deck and welcome center of the Icebreaker, and this..." the view zooms out to an ovoid shape, which is about 50x as big as this room, with a tube extending beyond the view, "is section 2 of our ship..." and the 3D hologram image zooms out again to take in the shape of 4 ovoids joined by thin tubes in a tetrahedral shape with the 'front' ovoid being 3x as big as the other 3 sections. This room is on the middle of one of the smaller rear ovoids. "which is what you are looking at now. We will be leaving this space-station..." The view zooms out again to reveal a space-station about 100x as big as this ship in orbit around the planet below. "and traveling to this nebula..." the view zooms out again and again and a dotted line leads from the planet below to a nebula about 40 lightyears away "in about 3 hours. You are welcome to begin your spacewalk anytime you like over the next week while you enjoy our complimentary amenities at your leisure. The ship has an onboard AI and anytime you address the Icebreaker, it will respond. For example, hello Icebreaker!"

A holographic image of a woman wearing a uniform appears and says, "Hi crewmate! And welcome aboard, guests! Let me know if you would like to see our travel plans over the next week that you may be staying with us, or if I can direct you to any of our amenities."

He nodded slowly in sad agreement. "Bozon." It brought back bitter memories, things which at the time had been very happy but now that he knew more his ethics and morals saw them in a different light. Hergot had never had the warrior urges that were crucial to the devout of
shining Væran Ro'sènnpâdr, but like Grarsa he clove to the goodly values of the Celestial Knight of White Virtue, if not as strongly as his lamented friend and knight had.



Eh? What was that? It took a few seconds of frantic thought to remember what he'd been told about taboos, and the signs of one being broken. Um. He'd need to be more careful about expressing himself, and keep the rules in mind better even when they made something unduly difficult to express. They were there for reasons, even if he didn't fully comprehend all of them.





Bozon had a fun night on the ceiling, and then more at breakfast trying to jump "up" (down) enough to snatch tidbits before he floated back up again. Playing around a bit with the gloves and boots, getting a feel for how to use them to change his weight while still full of helium, led to some deep thought over what kind of enchantments they bore. He tried his Enchantmentsensing cantrip on them to see what bit if it might tell him, if anything.


-------------

Keeping the boots and gloves set to the most weight they'd give him without changing what he was inflated with (still helium, though he'd come to realize that he was somewhat drunk on it), Bozon faithfully accompanied his Elf friends along the way, taking in the remarkable new sights and experiences.

He didn't know what he was seeing with the planet below them, only recognizing that the station and ships were artificial, made things. He thought that the planet and the galactic spiral were quite beautiful, seeing them as works of art. Seeing stars against the blackness of space did not register to him. The skies of his world had moons, The Day Sun, the Night Sun, and the various planets, but no visible stars. For their star system hung alone in the Void, ensnared in the vast dimensional energies of the workings of beings far beyond their comprehension, a speck of unwary dust caught in the wards as they were laid.

He paid attention to the crewperson and to the hologram and what they said, even if most of it made no sense to him.

01:35, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Bozon the Burstbarian, rolled 181 using 50d6.  Enchantmentsensing cantrip.
For a brief moment, Bozon knows absolutely everything about the gloves - exactly what they're made of, where they're from, who made them, why they were made, and even their specific subatomic structure. Unfortunately, that was more information than his mind could contain, and after blacking out for a moment he remembered as much of the following as he would understand or could guess at.


Tine says, "Can we go outside now?"

The Icebreaker AI hologram responds, "Absolutely! We will be travelling via Portal Projector, so there is no momentum shift for anyone inside a 500m radius of the outer edge of my hull. You will be wearing AAFT spacesuits, so you will be perfectly safe from the void while barely noticing the translucent protective layer around you. You can obtain spacesuits in the antechamber of any airlock, such as that one over there." Icebreaker points to an airlock a few meters away. A small pale man in a tie-dyed business suit carrying a strange staff walks through a doorway which appears to have a bubble membrane covering it, but the membrane doesn't burst. He then jumps off a platform into the void of space.

Tine and Jen excitedly run over to the doorway, and Tine let's Jen go through first, then he goes, and they wait for Bozon to join them before jumping off of the platform into the void of space.

In reply to Narrator (msg # 61):

A dazed burstbarian eyed one glove ruefully after he regained consciousness. He understood cotton, wire, knitting, and that the enchantments generated two different forces. He had no problems with grasping that the gasses supplied were absorbed from his surroundings over time and stored, unlike the more complex concepts.

Deep inside of him, in the human self beneath his enchanted state, the faintest trace of Amài'ish stirred ever so slightly in response to the flood of super-detailed sub-atomic information that had struck his mind. But Hergot did not have sufficient Khùl-Algrenàthi'i-Atailh ancestry for the process of Amài'ish-Métschài to begin unaided, nor was the true life-or-death struggle essential to sparking that potential transcendence present. And so, 'the power which comes when it must' subsided back into nothingness within him.

----------------

Careful not to lose his carpetbag, Bozon joined them, stepping through the bubble-like membrane. His limited understanding of what Icebreaker had said boiled down to that there was a protective spell of some kind around them during this 'spacewalk.'

Now would be a good time to roll for advances on your cliches. I highly recommend at least levelling up once. I can walk you through it if you like. Otherwise, the instructions are in the procedures thread (first post).

In reply to Narrator (msg # 63):

OOC: Walk me through it. I'd been thinking of trying to advance Burstbarian Apprentice Conjuror anyway, since I've been focusing so much on that side of him for humor.

You currently have
***Figurehead King (5/5)
****Neurodiverse Father (4/4)
*****Burstbarian Apprentice Conjuror [24/2]

So for BAC you spend one * to roll 2D6 the number of die of your level
If both numbers are even, you advance
If one is odd, you can reroll that one by spending another *
Once you've advanced, you can continue repeating the procedure as long as you have *s to spend

In reply to Narrator (msg # 65):

OOC:
Spent 1 "*" and got
06:37, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 7 using 2d6, unique dice ((4,3)).

Spend a second "*" to re-roll the 3 and got
06:40, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 6 using 1d6, unique dice ((6)).

which gives me a 4 and a 6 with 3 stars left on that cliché?

That's right. Now you currently have
***Figurehead King (5/5)
****Neurodiverse Father (4/4)
***Burstbarian Apprentice Conjuror [24/3]

In reply to Narrator (msg # 67):

OOC:
07:37, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 9 using 3d6, unique dice with rolls of 3,2,4.  Advancement, Burstbarian 3 to 4.
07:37, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 6 using 1d6, unique dice with rolls of 6.  Advancement re-roll, Burstbarian 3 to 4.

That would give me 4th level in the cliché, and 1 star left, if my math is right?

And for Neurodiverse Father...
07:39, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 18 using 4d6, unique dice with rolls of 3,5,6,4.  Advancement, Father 4 to 5.
07:40, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 8 using 2d6, unique dice with rolls of 2,6.  Advancement re-roll 2 dice, Father 4 to 5.

That would be level 5 in the cliché, with 1 star left over?

And back to IC, since I'm not advancing King yet...

Once Bozon's foot leaves the floor of the exit door, he begins floating in zero-gee just like when he's in Portals space ((I've not mentioned it before, be the space between the entrance and exit of a Portal is zero-gee and wraps in on itself around the sides such that one sees a distorted image of themselves around the edges - as if in a mirror tube)) but instead of a distorted image of himself, he sees the distant galaxy, the very few other stars, the space station they're docked to and about 1000 other tourists free-floating in the area around the spaceship.

Tine and Jen zoom toward Bozon and each grab a hand as they laugh ((he can hear them)), spinning him in a circle. Whichever way Bozon tries to move, he moves intuitively.

The membrane spacesuit they are all wearing is an invention of Patrus Cosmodomini of the AAFT company. It comes installed with communicators and intuitive vector thrusters to make movement in zero-gee practically effortless.

There are people playing a game with weighted beach balls being passed back and forth nearby. One of the balls drifts over to the three of them and a nearby tourist says, "Oh hey, could you guys pass that back, please?"

This was an interesting.... whoa! Thoughts went everywhere as Bozon was thrown into a spin by the playful kids. Somehow, he managed to end up upside down relative to them, still spinning for a bit until he learned to cope a bit better.

Ball? Ball! He remembered Tine's early command to behave like a dog, and decided to react that way to it. The big clown tried to bound after the ball on all fours, 'barking' his name several times as he went. Catching up to the ball, he tackled it, wrapping both arms and legs around it briefly before looking around in obfuscating stupidity as he used the intuitive movement of the membrane suit/spell to head back towards the tourist who'd spoken up, pretending that the ball was carrying the barbarian with it.

Tine and Jen joined Bozon, and the tourists took the ball. The tourists were a young woman and a young troll with blue skin and Magem crystals embedded throughout his body gratefully greet Bozon. The young woman says, "Thank you, friends! My companion here is Djordan, and my name is Auricle, who are you three?"

Jen says, "Hi Auricle and Djordan! I'm Jen."
Still laughing at Bozon's antics, Tine adds, "And I'm Tine!"

"Bozon!" Bozon barked, still playing 'dog' after letting go of the ball. He bounded around the little group on all fours, mock-panting with a big grin.

Auricle laughs at Bozon's dog act and claps. She says, "Greetings, Bozon, Tine and Jen! We're here on holiday, enjoying the sights of the Comowe culture. Want to join our game of Spaceball? It's like Quidditch, but without gravity."

Djordan's crystals light up and he blows glowing dust over the three of them. "There, your Comowe spacesuits are designed for leisure, but I've enhanced them to be competitively faster."

Tine's excitement keeps mounting and he gleefully agrees to join in. Jen wants to hang back for a few rounds and watch before joining in to get a feel for the gameplay.

What is Quidditch? Bozon wondered. He stayed back with Jen to watch and perhaps learn the game. Also, to deal with the inner oddness of Lucky Charms and suddenly ingested knowledge of these two they had just met... Aura of Doom? Crystals? Jewel-bird people? It was too much, too fast, and gave him a headache.

OOC: Do a magic perception check roll for Bozon noticing his mind being read. I'll roll for Jen.

Jen stares at the game intently.

After an hour of watching and distracted thinking, the concept and goals of the game suddenly become apparent to both Jen and Bozon. Jen asks Bozon, "Wanna make a go at the game?"

In reply to Narrator (msg # 75):

The big clown made a round-mouthed expression of surprise, then answered Jen with a broad grin and several affirmative nods expressing an eagerness to play.

He was a toy. Play, play, play, play!


OOC: 21:11, Today: Bozon the Burstbarian rolled 16 using 4d6 ((4,3,4,5)).
That was rolling Burstbarian Apprentice Conjuror for the mind reading check; I wasn't sure what I was supposed to use so went with his lowest cliché.

GM's EDIT: Bozon is able to tell that Jen listened to some of his thoughts, but he doesn't know what she heard.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:20, Tue 25 Feb 2020.

The 5 of them all join the same team. Djordan plays as seeker, and about 40 minutes in, he captures the snitch. The other team plays hard, and when one of the other team is about to hit a ball at Tine, Bozon manages to intercept the ball with his groin, making hilariously exaggerated gestures and causing the other team to get distracted laughing long enough for Jen to score another point through their goal-ring.

Most of the way through the game, the ship undocks and starts moving. At first a few people panic, until they realize that they're all being kept in the same relative position to the ship as when they were stationary. It's as if they're all being pulled along by the ship. Everyone agrees to pause the game while they all watch the planet and it's sun shrink to nothingness.

Suddenly Tine, Jen and Bozon start to drift toward the back of the ship while everyone else remains stationary. Auricle and Djordan notice and ask what's happening, but Tine and Jen have no idea.

Bozon didn't/doesn't mind Jen listening in on her own. He has no idea what, beyond his own past, he should be keeping from her. And since he seems to be 'okay' in that otherworld backstage, he reasons that Yafla is as well. Hopefully. The idea of keeping backstage a secret from the Elf kids never even crosses his mind. It's confusing enough for him to try to grasp.


Bozon freaks out when he realizes that he and the kids are inexplicably drifting relative to the ship unlike anyone else. The big clown tries to grab hold of both Tine and Jen and make for the entrance back onto the ship with them, if he can do so. If some safeguard here isn't working right for them, he was not going to let the children be endangered by that failure if he could help it.

It is absolutely hopeless for Bozon to reach the ship in time, though he and Tine and Jen are all trying as hard as they can. Auricle and Djordan have spacesuits that are different from everyone else's, and they are significantly faster, but even they can't catch up to Tine, Jen and Bozon before they all reach the boarder of the safe-zone of the ship. They all grab onto eachother, and tethers shoot out from Auricle to wrap around the group just as the 3 cross the boarder. The ship is moving at an unimaginably fast speed, and the moment they are beyond the safe zone, the ship is out of sight.

The only reason they aren't torn to shreds by changes in momentum is that the ship isn't actually moving at all, but projecting its existence into this Oner via a complicated Portal mechanism.

They are completely stranded in the middle of nothingness with no nearby stars or planets.

Just then an image of a planet exploding appears filling the sky, it seems to be everywhere at once and visible in every direction. As quickly as it appears, it is gone.

Hergot clung to both children to avoid risking losing them. He had no idea where they were, what kind of dangers or foodstuffs were nearby, and the sudden illusion of something exploding suggested to him that they were supposed to learn something from this experience. What, he did not know, but it felt a bit like the kinds of fabricated events that guides led tourist parties into back home. And here, he was a tourist.

Hmm.

This might be the tragedy that Vòrin Scord had hinted was coming? If so, don't lose hope, he reminded himself. Mind the safety and needs of the children first.

He concentrated, trying to light up his nose to give them some small illumination to use.