Questioning the Notion

[Rezantis]

"How large an explosion?" Nathan asks sharply, "Can we set it to go somewhere else, and will it only take one person?"

[Brian]

"It pulls everyone within a certain range," Tim clarifies.  "Thirty yards or so.  As for the explosion ... I think it would be very disruptive, but I don't particularly want to test that theory."

[Dracos]

"Sounds fun.  It's likely a safety trap.  Brings Massif plus any of us questioning into a place where we can be readily dealt with.  Can it be turned off?  Or if not, is everyone ready for a wild ride across the spheres?"

[Brian]

"I could destroy the power source," Tim says after a minute.  "That would stop it.  I might even be able to keep it from exploding."

[Rezantis]

"I pity the poor bastard who tries to trap us," Nathan notes cheerfully, "let's see.  Holmes, Catherine, and any one else who doesn't want to come on this little venture, clear those idiots -" he waves at Massif's lackeys - "and find us as many guards as they can spare."

[Dracos]

Philip nods simply, releasing the telepathy as he readied to take hold of the earth totem once they teleported.

[Bjorn]

"Oh yes," Bjorn replies cheerfully, his countenance back to midget-standard normal.  "Let us go and visit the friends of Harold Massif, and share with them his willingness to speak, to chat, to tell us everything he knows!"

[Rezantis]

"I was more planning on matching their hospitality with our own, but I suppose a picnic sounds nice."

There's a pause as Nathan looks around the room.

"YOU!" he bellows, glaring at the Massif-lackey types who are still milling around, "CLEAR THE ROOM, IN THE NAME OF THE KING!"

[Brian]

OOC: Tom is now IDLE.

"Right," Holmes says, glancing at the guards.  "Stay if you're willing," he comments, before dashing from the room, grabbing the guard who had the book, and the recorder on his way out the door.  The guards in the hall escort Massif and his entourage away, as Holmes shouts a few orders.

Catherine looks hesitant, but then shakes her head.  "I'm staying here," she decides.  "We can't afford to keep an eye on things here, and I'm not a front-line fighter."

Tim debates, and grimaces.  "I'm staying here, too," he says.  "Changing the location is fairly complex, but there's a 'return' feature."  He indicates a red switch.  "Just flip that, and then after about two hours, this dial will fill, and press this button to activate it."  The dial is almost completely full at the moment.  "Something about how the device is charged; it works like a pendulum.  Phil, you mentioned that you were having the Gatekeeper build you another one of these?  I'm going to investigate that."

"Good thinking, we should act quickly to ensure that something potentially challenging the King's Spark is carefully guarding," Catherine agrees.  "Well, good luck, I'm certain we will meet again, and I'm leaving the radius of that thing before it goes off."  With that, she curtsies to those assembled, and dashes from the room.

Not long after that, Colonel Riggins and Seven appear, leading a contingent of about 80 of the Palace Guard (the ones with the very nice guns).  The guards already in the room without comparable firepower sheepishly leave.  Riggins looks around swiftly, and apologizes, "I can't go with you; I need to stay here, even though I am supposed to be the acting liason; Nathan, my apologies, but I'm going to have to deputize you as an agent of the Investigator to act in my stead."  He hands Nathan a nice badge (it's got a shield on it, and bears the crest of Anabara; the lightning-spoked wheel with the eye in the center.  He then points to one of the more decorated guards, "This is Seargant Millhouse."

This guard is a bit short, barely taller than Bjorn, and aside from the familiar name, has familiar features to the apprentice Tim trained with.  His close-cropped brown hair is mostly concealed beneath his officer's cap, but he salutes smartly, a gravelly voice saying, "It'll be a pleasure to work with you, good sirs."

"Seven," Tom says, somewhat surprised.  "Good to see you here."

"Heard something was going on," he says with a shrug, shifting his shoulders.  "Didn't like the idea of leaving everyone else like us without help."

Tom nods, grinning and clapping the other red-skinned brute on the shoulder.  "Good to see you again, then."

Riggins quickly adds, "Millhouse is one of our best; he works frequently with the Lesser Council, so is very experienced at following orders from inexperienced or non-military personell."  In a more quiet voice to Nathan, he explains, "He won't disobey orders or do anything to make you look bad in front of the men, but my suggestion is to follow his advice if you find yourself at a loss."

Millhouse winks at that, producing a large cigar the second Riggins leaves the room, and biting down on it.  "Men," he barks.  "Attention!  It'll be close, but I want us all within 25 yards of this device when it goes off!"  It's a very close fit, and Nathan needs to move to the doorway with the device for everyone to have room, but it's managed.  A moment later, the device emits a soft chime, as the 'charge' gauge hits red.  Tim is the last one to leave the device's range, and Nathan presses the button before the device has a chance to explode.

There's a terrible wrenching sensation, along with a skull-shattering piercing shrill, just as Tom remembered from seeing Massif use the device to escape before.  A reverberating shock echoes, as everyone is subjected to an otherwise total lack of sensory input.  A heartbeat later, another shock reverberates -- a disturbing, difficult to describe sensation -- and then abruptly vanishes, leaving Tom, Bjorn, Nathan, and Phil standing in a traditional Japanese-looking room.  One of the fusuma panels implies being illuminated through trees, before it abruptly slides open.

The familiar figure of Shade steps into the room, dressed like a poorly defined period samurai (he keeps slowly shifting eras), with a crystal ball beneath one arm.  He closes the door behind him, then sits at a low table that wasn't there a moment ago.  "Hey, guys," he says casually, putting the crystal ball on a summoned stand.  "Not sure how you pulled this one off, but I was on watch, so, good to see you.  Oracle access, and we can hold for about forty-five minutes for Q&A, though anything much beyond thirty will cost us some time in the next trip.  But dream-weather could be harsh and make future trips difficult anyway, so up to you."

He sets out a timer, showing that about 20 seconds have passed.

OOC: NIGHT OF THE LIVING AFK.  Also, through laziness, assume that things that the AFK observe are automatically reported to you via mind-board abuse or just plain-old asides.

[Rezantis]

"This doesn't actually surprise me as much as it should," Nathan says cheerily, "but odds are we're going to be able to do this again - so we'd better keep it below thirty.  How're you doing?"

He goes to sit down at the table.

"And how is her Oraculousness today?"

[Brian]

"I'm feeling pretty good for a dead guy," Shade says, shrugging.  "It's eye-opening."

The crystal ball projects a large image of Relm's temple in the upper half of the room, where (slightly larger than life) she's sitting at the edge of the pool on the moonlight.  Flickering candles around the periphery of the pool don't shed any light compared to the full moon, but they flicker like twinkling stars in a passing breeze.  "Is that a Rez-baby I hear?" she asks, peering into the pool (or down into the room, from the group's point of view).

[Dracos]

"Howdy Shade, Relm."

"Alright, the big win question off the bat then.  Do we know what's causing the sphere's to be regularly shifting forward through time?"

[Rezantis]

"Philip, Master of the Infinite Courtesies," Nathan chimes in, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.

[Brian]

"It's the advancement realm, right?" Shade asks.  "It advances.  I guess that follows; Alan's been here before to place Holmes to help you out, but this is a separate Dream, so the whole memory retention thingy until you guys bridge the gap."

"Pandora concurs," Relm says happily.  "The advancement realm advances."

[Rezantis]

"Then when it resets back to a very low technology level, is that 'working as intended'?"