City of IF

[Chainfire]

Deciding that Zachis just didn’t want to be known at the moment, Yahoo set out to look for any clues from the jolly man. He nodded towards the bar keeper before heading up the stairs. Upon reaching the second floor, he headed for the room that he thought the big bang had came from. Slowly opening the door, he put up some simple defenses against whatever might be in there. Peculiarly another long hallway stretched out from beyond the door, and Yahoo was about to retreat when he saw a slight flourish of a cloak at the end of the shadowy hall. With his defenses still raised he ran into the shadows at the end of the hall, took a sudden right turn, and ran head first into a solid closed door.

Yahoo shook his head to frighten away the twittering birds that inexplicably fluttered around his aching cranium. After regaining his senses and reprimanding himself for such carelessness, he opened the door and moved on. Behind this door was a very strange room indeed. Initially the room appeared just like the bar downstairs, but something was different. Sure there were no people, but that wasn’t it. Yahoo found it difficult to pinpoint the oddity other than that the room just was abnormal.

Reluctant to enter this strange room, Yahoo summoned the desire when he glimpsed the flourish of the cloak’s hem disappearing down a flight of stairs on the opposite side. Entering cautiously this time, Yahoo felt as if he pressed into a viscous membrane and then popped into the room. He had the impression he was stepping into a giant bubble, and inside was nothing but open air. He looked below him and saw infinite white; same for everywhere else he turned. The stairs on the other side of the room offered the only break in the wall of whiteness.

I must be heading deeper into the headquarters of the Club of the Bizzarre, he thought. The atmosphere of the tavern seemed like a giant fun house, but what could the significance behind it be?

He gingerly placed one foot in front of the other, and after determining that this bubble wouldn’t pop below him he hastened towards the stairs. He promptly slipped on the non-substantive bubble floor, sliding ungracefully into the sticky wall on the other side. He was trapped! He quickly looked up and saw the cloak slurp out the bubble where it bulged into the stairwell and vanish to his left. He pushed futilely on the membrane trapping him inside the room, before inspiration struck. Gesturing in tight circles, murmuring softly, he conjured a giant needle. Closing his eyes, he thrust the point into the bubble and waited. After moments of nothingness, one eye slowly crept open. The whiteness surrounding him shattered into a spectrum of color as the bubble vacated with a loud explosion.

Landing on the floor of the restored room with an unceremonious thud, Yahoo quickly regained his feet and darted into the stairs. He descended left, chasing after the cloak until he found himself in a labyrinth of some kind. Its walls consisted of giant hedges and it looked like a professional hedge cutter treated it every day.

He summoned up a large ball of string to stream behind him and follow back if he ran into any dead ends. He had heard somewhere that if you take all right forks you will eventually get out, but since this was the place of bizarre he decided to do the opposite. He reached the first fork and took the left, after 30 more paces or so he came to another fork. He took the left one again and then found himself back at the beginning of his string. He looked behind him but saw only the hallway, and so set out again. This time when he got to the second fork he slowly looked around the left turn. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, other than his string suddenly cutting off, he went down the right one this time around. When it became apparent it wouldn’t cut him off again, he set out more assuredly. Another fork popped up and he once again looked for anything different between the two. Finding nothing he held his breath and went through the left again. He didn’t disappear in this one either and figured the pattern might be a left-right.

He continued this pattern for a while then came to a four-way intersection in the hedge. He took the path directly in front of him first, only to end up at the one he came in from. He then tried the one on his left and came up back at the beginning. He then took the right turn. At the end of this path was a light, he walked towards it thinking it couldn’t be that he was out so soon but directly found himself in another hallway.

This place really is bizarre.

He walked on, turned left at the end of the hallway and found another door. Reaching for the knob, Yahoo was startled to find that the doorknob leapt away from his hand. He tried to grab it again, and it again evaded his reach. He reached for it a third time, this time putting a hand on each side to grab it. The knob hurdled upward. He backed away from the door and the knob flew back into its original position. He then reached out with a small force of magic and turned the knob. Just as it was about to click and swing open the door did some strange twisting maneuver and set back down. Yahoo then tried something else entirely; since the knob didn’t seem to work he decided the hinges might be worth a try. He created a chisel of sorts and went to wedge out the nails in the hinges. It worked!!

The door came swinging open and exposed another room. In this room he would finally find his answers, for there in the center of the room sat Zachis in some neon green pants and a bubble-gum pink shirt. Zachis was atop a tall stool in front of three doorways: on his left was an indiscreet wooden door, the middle one was made of some strange stone that reflected every little detail in the room around it, and the right seemed to be made of pure gold.

Yahoo proceeded into the room and Zachis exclaimed to him, “Ah, Yahoo! Thank you for joining me on this lovely day. Now that I have you here I suppose I can explain myself. I’m sure you have many questions, and all shall be answered in time. Right now, though, you shall have to make a very important decision. You see behind me three doors, and each shall give you a different answer.”

Zachis indicated each of the doors in turn. “This one (points to the wooden door) will take you back to the street where you were being followed. I think you will find your pursuer in a bit of a ‘sticky’ situation. This one (points to the reflective one) will show you a glimpse at that which you seek from the life you once lived, when you had captured the heart of a fair and lovely maiden. This one (points to the gold) will take you back to tavern where we can discuss what ever your heart desires, other than the other two answers you seek of course.”

After this explanation he casually stood, pulled his cloak around his shoulders and exited through the gold door, leaving Yahoo alone to contemplate his decision.

[D-Lotus]

Great chapter! I like the way Yahoo has to use his mind to get through all the obstacles, it really goes with the theme. I would take the middle door, the one with the reflection; it's time we get an explanation of who Yahoo's love is, and some of his obscure path.

Also, I'm confused...what two questions does Yahoo desire to know? Could you clarify on the third option and what kind of things they would discuss?

Anyway, good work :D

[kingcappie]

Even though he's wondering about whoever was following him, and probably wants to ask Zachis more about the Club of the Bizzarre, I think the question most on his mind will be the one that brought him to Vlusos in the first place: he'll take the reflective door to get a glimpse of his long lost love.

I like the bubble room and the labyrinth. :lol:

Of course, he might just be weary of Zachis and the puzzles, and decide to go back out the way he came in. Satisfy any curiosity he has about whether the rooms are just normal rooms now, or if Zachis put some kind of permanent enchantment on them. He could bypass all the doors Zachis indicated and just walk back out the regular tavern door, and seek the answers to all his questions on his own.

[Chainfire]

D-Lotus wrote: Also, I'm confused...what two questions does Yahoo desire to know? Could you clarify on the third option and what kind of things they would discuss?

Through the wooden door lies the answer to who was following him...that's one question Yahoo wants answered. Through the reflective door lies a glimpse of his lost love...answering the question is she alive and well or is she dead, or in pain or unhappy. He doesn't know any of that yet.

If you pick the gold door, Zachis will answer questions about the club, or perhaps anything he knows about the tournament. It's up to the team to come up with some good questions to ask Zachis if you choose to go through the golden door.

[D-Lotus]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up.

[Araex]

Very nice story, I admire the way he had to think on his foot, though the sequence did seem rather rushed.

As for which door... I don't know.


Knowing our pursuer might help, although we're not promised that, just that he's in trouble.
We came here to get our true love's admiration back, didn't we? So if we find she's dead, then we might have nothing to live for. If we find she is alive and happily married, do we want to intrude?
What else is there that we want to know? Other than a scientific curiousity about the Club of the Bizarre.

[kingcappie]

A three way tie. Where is the rest of the team?