Patchwork Universe

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:44 pm Post subject: Something Wicked That Way Went

OOC: Lord Doomshadow enters from Juniper School: A Visit from Dr Kirby

When Doomshadow woke up, he had been buried alive. Spitting earth, he struggled to the surface, emerging in front of a disturbingly familiar wall. His body felt as if he had been savagely beaten by a giant lobster... as indeed he had.

He rested for a while in front of the wall, letting his body heal while his memories returned. Each incident seemed more humiliating than the last. In the end, he remembered, he had regressed as far as the pathetic childhood he had thought himself rid of centuries before...

Father had been right all along, he realised. He had been considering letting the inhabitants of these worlds live, once he became a god. Even the despicable popinjay Frost. After all, Rose would probably have liked that. But no. He had rescued the wizard from oblivion, and nearly been burned alive for his pains. He had done nothing at all to the lobster man, and been savagely beaten. And the Mercury Sorceress, despite all her pretty words, had not lifted a finger to help him. No doubt she had been sitting inside, laughing, as he squirmed away through the ground like a pathetic coward...

"Kill them all, and bring them back as slaves." Father had been right.

Reabsorbing the ludicrous gills and throat pouch, he instructed his body to begin manufacturing every alchemical weapon he could remember. The next time someone started a fight with him, he would finish it.

He remembered the wall. This was the Palace of Decadence, the literary story about an Endless Museum. He would not soil himself with another visit to this place. Later, he would destroy it all. For now, he would simply avoid it.

Spreading his wings, he began to ascend. After all, it could not go up for ever...

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

. . . or could it? Lord Doomshadow's wings flapped in and out of the mist while trying not to knock against the wall, a wall that continued to rise unbroken while the thin strip of ground dwindled to invisibility.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 10:23 am Post subject:

By the time the Dark Lord reached something that might be the top of the building, he was in a very bad mood. His thorax hurt. His pride hurt. And he kept bumping his wings against the wall.

Unfortunately, the building did not so much end as... stop. The uppermost story vanished into another wall of mist, much like the ones that surrounded it at ground level. Doomshadow was determined not to be defeated so easily. He flew on up into the mist... which appeared to be completely solid. Painfully solid.

His tentacles knotted with rage. This must be the work of the gods. They contrived to frustrate him at every turn. No inconvenience was too small for them to stoop to...

Turning to the wall of the building, he extruded one of the alchemical organs he had grown during the long ascent. The glistening proboscis extended from his stomach, and began to exude concentrated Aqua Solaris. If he could not go over, he would simply have to go straight through...

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

The faces of the bricks roughened more than they normally were. More dramatically, mortar began do dissolve and rain away until one unsupported brick fell upon another and they began to tumble down into the distance. Concrete, steel, and eventually wood and plaster gave way. Eventually holes opened into the cavernous space beyond and Lord Doomshadow caught glimpses of satisfyingly polyp-like objects within.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:32 pm Post subject:

The Dark Lord squeezed himself into the newly revealed space, accompanied by a scent of scorched leather as his armour brushed against the sides of the hole. This part of the building appeared to be devoted to hunting trophies. Everywhere he looked, he could see the stuffed bodies of furry, bear like creatures. Many of them were the size of children's toys, but some - the pack leaders? - were easily the height of a man. Strangely, he could see no signs of their death wounds.

Doomshadow paused to consider. Either this place employed taxidermists of considerable skill... or these beasts were not as dead as they appeared to be. Without warning, he sprang at a nearby group and disembowelled them with his tentacles. The male gave him some trouble, almost blinding him with clouds of fluffy white entrails, but the female and the children seemed encouragingly helpless.

Still, as his old strategy tutor always said "a bear in the pond is worth a squid in the garden." Doomshadow proceeded cautiously into the interior, occasionally shredding a bear in passing to assure himself that they remained inert. He hoped he would not have to fight his way through the entire width of the building...

Besides, he still resented the contemptuous ease with which the gods had sealed the sky. He ought to have been able to soar across the top of the building, as free and as beautiful as a spider glider in flight. Thoughtfully, he began searching for an upward leading stair...

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

Moving deeper into the building, Lord Doomshadow emerged from a flurry of cotton batting, straw and recycled man-made materials into a new forest of eyes.

An elderly woman, surprised both by his sudden and his violent appearances, ran screaming for help.

There was less fur here. Many golden curls, pink ribbons and lace, but the only bears (or kittens or puppies) were tiny, held in the arms of children. Children glared at Lord Doomshadow. From three inches to three feet tall; made of wood, plaster, porcelain, cotton, latex, injection-molded plastic and even stone; realistic, hideously exaggerated and so abstract as to be merely symbolic; with painted eyes, eyes made of precious gems or the heads of nails, eyes made of plastic bubbles with little loose black balls or discs inside, eyes made of glass -- oh, so many eyes made of glass! -- all watched Lord Doomshadow.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Fri Aug 13, 2004 4:50 pm Post subject:

Beneath his mask, the Dark Lord could feel his... features... going bright pink with shock. He swayed on his feet, and almost collapsed. Every day of his second century, he had had the same nightmare, whether asleep in his womb or dreaming on the wing. And now it had come to life around him.

He had to get out. That was all he knew. He had to get out...

One frantic leap took him to the ceiling. Clinging to the rough surface with his suckers, he sprayed Aqua Solaris on the rough surface with a shaking proboscis. If only he could reach the cavity which he was sure existed within this reassuring wall, the eyes would not be able to see him any more. Once he was inside that dark, comforting space, he would be safe.

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

Bubbling paint and crumbling plaster rained down on Lord Doomshadow. They gathered in drifts on the front of his armor and occasionally trickled through the openings of his mask, irritating his eyes. Wood and iron gave way and rained aging insulation on Lord Doomshadow.

Fortunately for him, Lord Doomshadow did not have to dissolve the marble tiles of the floor above. Unsupported, they fell straight down on top of him, followed with predictable velocity by a large display case of oak and glass, featuring a variety of hammered bronze hearing aids, which momentarily pinned Lord Doomshadow to the floor in a pool of glass shards.

Lord Doomshadow was out from under the smashed case with one gargantuan shrug, and he bolted toward the room he could see above, crowded with cases similar to the one that had been dropped on him, until he was brought to a crashing halt by whatever it was that had brought him to a crashing halt before, outside. He could see the floor above but he could not enter it.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2004 3:22 pm Post subject:

Trapped in this place of nightmares made real in glass and iron, the Dark Lord knew that his only chance was to rely on the most basic hermetic principles, the laws that ruled all the world. "As above, so below." "The Will is the Law, the Law is the Will." "The map is the territory." "Do unto them as they would do unto you." "If I can't see them, they can't see me."

He closed all three of his eyes, and clamped his hands over his mask to make sure. There. Now he was invisible.

Extending all of his tentacles to ensure that he would not walk into one of the... creatures... by mistake, Lord Doomshadow lurched forward. Into the Unknown...

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

Lord Doorshadow moved steadily forward, his steps echoing in the silence. His probing tentacles occasionally flinched from a touch of lace or the edge of a shelf. Sometimes an obstacle was too big and he had to turn aside to go around it. After a few dozen such alterations in course, Lord Doomshadow realized his tentacles had touched nothing for several steps. It was at that moment that he found something he had missed with his questing tentacles: nothing. His advancing foot descended to floor level and kept going.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:13 pm Post subject:

The Dark Lord plunged into the abyss beneath his feet, screaming in terror... until he remembered that he could fly. Frantically, he unfurled his wings and brought himself to a stop in mid air. Then, very slowly and nervously, he spread his fingers, and peeked out through the gaps,,,

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

Lord Doomshadow saw stairs beneath him. Marble balusters topped by oak handrails rose to each side and missed fouling his wings by inches. Above him and to the left, beside the top of the flight of stairs down which he had fallen, the stairs switched back and continued up to the haze that prevented him from entering the next floor up. Lord Doomshadow hovered just below the level of the ceiling of the floor into which he had tumbled.

A small, relatively clear area of marble tiles surrounded the stairs, only a few high-backed wooden benches and knee-high lathed objects like giant candlesticks topped with bowls of white sand clustering near the stairs. Beyond the clear area was more stuff.

Ahead and to the left were collections of funnels, tubes, bottles and strange pastel objects. Sometimes these were assembled, a funnel and one of the strange objects attached to a tube that led to a bottle. Mostly, though, rows of funnels or bottles or the strange objects disappeared into the distance with slight variations.

A vista of cloth appeared forward and to the right. Fiendish looking devices made of patches and strips of cloth, straps, hooks, buttons, snaps, laces and lace hung from wires, reclined on shelves and adorned imitation dismembered female torsos. Intervening spaces were filled with cases displaying variations on the theme of the little white disk. Some disks were paper, some were cloth, some were plain, some were quilted or embossed and some were printed with little blue and pink flowers.

Back and right were rocking chairs and chairs with strange moving parts, pillows of dozens of different shapes, mostly semicircular or wedge-shaped but never rectangular, and more wires, shelves and artificial torsos displaying large shawl-like slings.

In the remaining quarter, on the other side of the stairs down to yet another floor, shelves were lined with boxes, cans, bottles, jars, tubes, bags, pouches, cups, spoons, bowls, plates (many of the last four adorned with smiling animals and capering cutlery), mortars and pestels of porcelain and metal and crudely shaped stone, small fruit presses and devices Lord Doomshadow could only imagine how to use.

Everywhere there were little pasteboard cards covered with writing.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 1:10 pm Post subject:

Lord Doomshadow knew a torture chamber when he saw one. Descending to the tiles, he proceeded to tour the area, occasionally stopping to examine the more exotic and surprising instruments. He spent some time with the display of dismembered female torsos, shaking his head thoughtfully, and paused to pick up one of the bottles, with its attached tube and funnel. He still hoped to resume his interrupted interrogation of Quickgrip at some point, and he remembered Father's last words - "Son, you must always remember to be cruel. And to be prepared to be cruel."

But enough of this. How long had he been wandering these halls? He was not here to enjoy himself, after all. Pleasant though it was to think of Quickgrip writhing helplessly in one of those lace and strap affairs... If he could not make his way to the roof, he must find a way through this demonic maze.

Reaching into his armour, he extracted a handful of feebly wriggling beetles and, closing his eyes, threw them violently against the wall. The method was crude, but it should suffice. From the pattern of shattered insect organs and miscellaneous fluids, it should be possible to divine a route to his final destination...

Dr. William T. Odom · Good Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 471 Location: The Museum

ROGĀ

The remains of the beetles trickled and tumbled, leaving a stain on the plaster.

On the floor, near the baseboard, a glistening, black, leathery-looking beetle with a cracked carapace fought its way through a dust bunny and struggled away to Lord Doomshadow's right on its remaining legs.

Lord Doomshadow · Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

Lord Doomshadow knew that one of the first principles of warfare was to deny useful intelligence to your enemy - even if you did not understand it yourself. So he took the time to apply what his old tutor had called the "scorched brain" strategy, carefully smearing the remaining fragments of beetle across the wall until it spelled out

BOO||

That should confuse them.

Turning away, he began following the trail of fluids left by the sole survivor of the beetle apocalypse. It would not escape him so easily...