NationStates Jolt Archive

Victoria follows everyone into Kathrines room and looks about...the odd sensetion...she swears under her breath...

***
Meow perks up...his eyes and ears at attention, both keeping an eye on the children and listening for something bad bad

edit:(Good night, Iansisle...(<insert tasteless joke here>))

Jeff looked down and closed the DVD player.

"No, I'm all right," he said quietly.

You sure Jeffie? Looked awfully scared to me...

-----

Niven rushed over to check on Katherine, "She seems all right," he said before turning to James, "What happened?"

*Assume James tells them what happened*

Victoria stood in the room and looked about for a moment. "Dr. Niven, I'd suggest a few precautionary steps at this time."

((really I think about hitting pause on this until Iansisle return...))

***

Bathus looked back again..."You don't look okay..what try to watch those Wild Walmington women or something?"

(I agree with ya, we probably should)

-----

Jeff shook his head, "N... nah, I'm all right. Just a little shock to the system, that's all. How long until we get there?"

Bathus just said, "fourty minutes...Passed through the Lormoth Marches Airspace a few minutes ago..."

And the fourty minutes pass by uneventfully as the craft passes over the Massive mini-continent that is the Western Klatch and passes over the Dark Sea. The craft soon has a large island looming in site. Beyound one can make out the Klatchian Continent proper.

Bathus is soon enmbarked on the process of getting landing clearence. He turns back to Jeff. "No one is going in or out of Dobson proper for at least a day. Seems someone augered into the middle of the runway. We're going to have to land at the nearby airbase....Oh and don't let on your not from Lords of War enclave...Alconian Marines will respect JDF codes but only so far."

Jeff nods, "Right, don''t be a jackass, gotcha. Hopefully I'll be able to find Ann, convince her to come back with us, and get refitted and get out."

Bathus replied, "You haven't meet a Var half you..."

The craft began to skim over the western shore of the island. Then a large lake, approaching the mountains where it appeared to still be somewhat dense forest. The mountains here looked like somone had given the alps steroids. Most of them had snow on their peaks and a few had glaicers.

The craft began to decend on a large, flat patch of ground covered with black concrete buildings. Rows of bunkers, dormitorys and hangers surrounded a long paved runway. The craft pulled along the ground til comming to a stop between two large rotodyenes that appeared to almost be saucers.

Two men in Kaki Uniforms with dark green tabs on the collar saluted as the canopy raised.

Balthus gave the same odd, midsection salute and climed down the small steps that had pushed themselves out from the side of the craft.

Jeff shook his head, "No I haven't, what are the customs here so I don't insult anyone?"

Bathus just shakes his head, "Don't do any talking, just act like I'm your aide and well get off the base without the Alco's putin a short sword in ta ya."

"Gotcha," Jeff said following Bathus.

Damnit Jeff, next time just send her an email...

Edit: I'm gonna crash, G'Night! And belated G'Night to you too I-man!

(Yeah, but then...well...he wouldn't get to meet the nice people and fauna the Klatch has to offer...)

Bathus was soon in a barter about getting a Range Rover for two, no four dozen doughnuts. It did appear there was a bakery in Dobson.

Twenty minutes later Bathus was waving his hand out of the open window on a nice spring morning. "Now then sir, strait on to Dobson?" (I'm tired but working so...)

edit: 3 what!!! Damn it....

James grasped for his broadsword hilt. It wasn't there; why would he need it in Dr Niven's estate?
OOC: I thought we went through this issue back at the ski vacation?

OOC: I'll likely not be on tonight... :?

Just throws something back at Milostein...if he want's to carry a broadsword let him carry one...

(sorry to hear that, man - we really ought to link up our schedules so we're not always off when the other's on ;)

As for the broadsword, it comes from King Ian the Great; it was forged to represent the elevation of the Kings of Shadoran as High Kings of the Empire; it's carried by the head of House Callahan at all formal occasions slung over the back.

I think Milostien means that James ought to carry a weapon wherever he goes, but frankly, we've never gone over anything. I have gone over some things, and he has watched like an annoying fly on the wall.

Niven rushed over to check on Katherine, "She seems all right," he said before turning to James, "What happened?"

"I- I don't know...there was a voice; it thought I was Jeff. And then..something. I don't know, they were lights, but looked like eyes. There was a flash, and fire reached out for Katherine. I tried to stop..whatever it was, but then it just vanished into thin air."

"I- I don't know...there was a voice; it thought I was Jeff. And then..something. I don't know, they were lights, but looked like eyes. There was a flash, and fire reached out for Katherine. I tried to stop..whatever it was, but then it just vanished into thin air."

(I sense we're all not in our happy, little Zen spots... ;) )

Niven examined the area where the flame had come from, there was no scorching, no sign of any fire.

"How did you know it thought you were Jeff? What did it say?"

"It said 'you're not Jeffie'. Whatever it was, it could hear me - I told it that no, I wasn't, then it said 'she'll have to do."

He drew himself up short. "Y-you believe me, don't you?"

Niven smiles at James, "Of course I do, son. It's not like we haven't had things like this happen before. If it could talk to you, then it might have been able to see you and figure out who you are." Niven saw the shock on James' face, "No, this is a good thing. Whoever it was might think we are still in Iansisle and go looking for Jeff there, buying us some time."

"That's good," said James, with some relief evident on his face. "I wasn't even sure I believed me.

"I'm not sure we can buy ourselves all that much time, though. If ... that thing came here, it must know we left the Commonwealth by now. Unless it can track down people irrelevant of geographical location, which I don't think would help us very much."

"Hmmm, that's a good point. Did it say anything else to you?"

"Hmmm, that's a good point. Did it say anything else to you?"

(now how in the h....*shakes fist at server*)

"Um..." James thought for a moment. "Yeah! A ....present. A present for 'Jeffie'. I was supposed to see if he'd gotten it yet."

Jeeves walked in at that point, originally to inform Niven and James that the children were at the house.

"A present? A present..." Niven murmured to himself, perplexed. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"If I may sir," Jeeves said, "Master Jeffrey received a video disk this morning. I gave it to him just before he went out with the Alconian Gentleman."

"Went out?" asked James, his eyes narrowing. "Whatever this 'present' was, it looks like it worked."

"Yes your majesty. The gentleman said something about... nutty doughnuts or something like that, and picking some up . And Master Jeffrey went with one of them," Jeeves said.

James glanced over at Dr Niven. "I don't suppose there's any doubt in your mind where he's really heading, is there, Dad?"

Niven thought for a moment, "I'd like to say that I don't think he's going to go after Antony right now. But I don't know, maybe they did go out for doughnuts, maybe he's flying to Lyone right now," Niven said, frowning a little at the thought.

(OOC: Uhh...well that didn't take as long as expected...'yeh! very cold weather', I guess... :? )

IC: Victoria didn't say much of anything durring the conversations. Just being quiet. Although her eyes darted at Jeeves when he said 'Alconian' since Crawfnord was diffinitely not Alconian, well half at least...

The small, white haired man had also said nothing until the word nutty was mentioned. He simply stated..."oooh I could go for a couple of those your Gr...." he became quiet again.

***
Outside Crawfnord, the tiger and the children had met. Crawfnord asked..."Well, I see you have got yourselves a Klatchian Tiger to play with...anyone have a frisbee?"

*gets crowbar and takes the forums out to the alley to 'talk' *

(My bad, I was just making a guess on that)

Conner looked up at Crawfnord, "No we don't. Do you have one?"

Crawfnord shakes his head no. "Ah what an unfortunate thing, to have a tiger but no frisbee for him to chase. Now young man who might ask who you are? And who the owner of this fine specimin of the feline family is?"

"Me? I'm Conner, Conner Williams. An' this is my big sister Julie, and Marcus, he's my brother," he said pointing out the twins next to him, "And this is Theodore, he's our cousin.

"Oh yeah! This is Meow Meow. I mean Sir Meow. He's Ann's. I haven't seen her around yet? Have you seen where Miss Ann is??"

Crawfnord didn't know what to say...Miss Ann was kicked out of the house by King James....Miss Ann was committing the usual fate of so many of her fellow Knights in the Order of the Gryphen...Damn Alconian morals...killed so many of them...one nasty war and they'd likely die out...if they could just get it...retirement...Order of the Gryphen...

"Excuse me children I have something to discuss with a man and his computer..."

( :shock: I'm not sure how much of a humor element we want in this but TG)

***
Bathus was driving down the country road at high speed. He seemed to be undecided on which side to be on, that or he used a navigational system that relied on almost bouncing off both edges of the road...

*argh*

*And more 'argh'-ing!!*

(Interesting! Kinda like the Keystone Cops mixed with Rambo... heh heh, I'll leave it up to you, surprise me! ;) )

Jeff sat in the passenger seat, trying not to get knocked around too much. "Ahhhh, the country," Jeff said as he looked out, "You gotta love it."

-----

"OK, mister! ... Bye bye! ... Come on Meow Meow, let's go play on the beach!" the children said at the same time.

Niven thought for a moment, "I'd like to say that I don't think he's going to go after Antony right now. But I don't know, maybe they did go out for doughnuts, maybe he's flying to Lyone right now," Niven said, frowning a little at the thought.

"Antony." It wasn't that James had forgotten the story's main antagonist, just that he hadn't been thinking in that context. "Antony," he repeated, more to himself. "Do you think that...whatever it was, might have been Antony's doing? I mean, I don't know how he'd have done it either - maybe Michael has an evil twin too.."

(Need to be up early, And I just wasted a good fourty minutes telling WoS that I really just disagree with his characterizaiton of the U.S. in the 1930's...which is likely from OOC reasons...so last post for the night.)

Meow didn't stop at the water's edge. He just jumped in and kept swimming out to sea...(Wet smelly tiger...*ilck* think what happens when he get's back in the house...)

***
Dobson wasn't much of anyplace really. The road desended into a valley and crossed a bridge over a small river before splitting. One end went south towards the lowlands, and the other north up to some mountain pass. The odd thing was that most of the buildings were nestled into the tall pine trees and rocky bluffs without massive yars or anything else. The 'buisness district actually looked somewhat normal, if you call the odd form of textlie concrete blocks they were made out of 'normal'.

Bathus pulled up infront of one that said "Bavarian Bakery" which also appeared to function as the local reasturant. Bathus walked up to the counter and asked..."ah how much for 100 nutty...frycakes..."

Bathus soon became too involved in trying to negotiate the price for making a fresh batch as soon as possible to worry about Jeff.

Niven sighed, "You mean a good twin, don't you?" he asked with a grin. "Seriously, I don't know right now if Antony did or not. If he did have something to do with it, then we're dealing with something we don't understand. And, depending on how powerful he is, he might have found a way to neutralize any advantage Jeff would have had.

"If he didn't, then the situation just got a little worse. Although his use of the name 'Jeffie' might be a hint. Isn't that what Antony called Jeff in the first video?"

Dobson wasn't much of anyplace really. The road desended into a valley and crossed a bridge over a small river before splitting. One end went south towards the lowlands, and the other north up to some mountain pass. The odd thing was that most of the buildings were nestled into the tall pine trees and rocky bluffs without massive yars or anything else. The 'buisness district actually looked somewhat normal, if you call the odd form of textlie concrete blocks they were made out of 'normal'.

Bathus pulled up infront of one that said "Bavarian Bakery" which also appeared to function as the local reasturant. Bathus walked up to the counter and asked..."ah how much for 100 nutty...frycakes..."

Bathus soon became too involved in trying to negotiate the price for making a fresh batch as soon as possible to worry about Jeff.

Jeff waited while Bathus was negotiating the new price, he looked around the area, scaning where he could, trying to catch a glimpse of where Ann might have gone.

(G'Night A&H!)

"um.." James scratched his chin. "Yeah, I thought it sounded familiar. I just...didn't really think about it at the time."

He started pacing. "If that was Antony, then Jeff really is in trouble. I mean, we've dealt with some strange stuff before, but something tells me this isn't your run of the mill vampire or dragon."

James sighed loudly. "He just can't let himself be drawn into this on Antony's terms." He glanced up at Dr Niven. "Is there any way of finding out what Jeff is doing right now? If he is going to fight Antony, then we have to help him."

EDIT: Yeah, 'night, man!

"um.." James scratched his chin. "Yeah, I thought it sounded familiar. I just...didn't really think about it at the time."

"I can understand it too," Niven smiled at James, "It's not the first thing to come to mind when you're staring at some demon."

He started pacing. "If that was Antony, then Jeff really is in trouble. I mean, we've dealt with some strange stuff before, but something tells me this isn't your run of the mill vampire or dragon."

James sighed loudly. "He just can't let himself be drawn into this on Antony's terms." He glanced up at Dr Niven. "Is there any way of finding out what Jeff is doing right now? If he is going to fight Antony, then we have to help him."

(Run of the mill vampire or dragon? :lol: Although that gives me another idea... :twisted: Yeah, Kindred Masquerade's leadership caste unofficially would probably still have a price on Jeff's head)

Niven nodded, "Yes, Jeff will be in trouble if that was Antony. But how could he have... turned into this?

"Ann was right, this is a trap for Jeff. And if Jeff walks into it, this would get horrfically ugly, very quickly. Give me a moment."

Niven blinked and quickly dialed Jeff on the cell implants.

Jeff, where the hell are you...

... really?

You're kidding. Seriously? ... OK. And what else are you doing there? ... I thought so. Oh really? Well you all need to get back here quickly.

OK, what else. ... *long pause* ... I see. Get back here quickly, I think we're in more trouble.

Niven looked at James, "This is bad. The good news is, Jeff is in fact standing in front of a bakery while someone is ordering 100 doughnuts to go. The bad news is he saw the first part of the DVD," Niven said, pausing before describing the first minute of the DVD Antony sent Jeff.

(Run of the mill vampire or dragon? :lol:

(Speaking only hyperbolically, of course ;))

Niven looked at James, "This is bad. The good news is, Jeff is in fact standing in front of a bakery while someone is ordering 100 doughnuts to go. The bad news is he saw the first part of the DVD," Niven said, pausing before describing the first minute of the DVD Antony sent Jeff.

"A hundred...?" wondered James to himself quietly. Then he listened to the rest of what Dr Niven had to say.

"That's disgusting!" he exclaimed, his face twisting into a position that defied description. "He...he can't get away with that!"

(Run of the mill vampire or dragon? :lol:

(Speaking only hyperbolically, of course ;))

(Well the first thought to hit me was "They've seen enough to say 'another vampire?" *yawn yawn*... 'A dragon??' *yawn*.. :P )

"A hundred...?" wondered James to himself quietly. Then he listened to the rest of what Dr Niven had to say.

"That's disgusting!" he exclaimed, his face twisting into a position that defied description. "He...he can't get away with that!"

"No he shouldn't be able to," Niven said. "But the earthen alter, the robe, the words he was trying to speak... I think Antony was sacrificing her to the forces of evil, not just another sick killing."

"And you think these apparitions - these were the results of that...sacrilege?"

"Possibly. And that's the good answer," Niven sighed, "I'd like to see the rest of that DVD, and know how far Antony went with his ... sick little experiment. It might just be a one-shot deal, until he does it again. If it's not, then Jeff and Katherine could be in very serious troub..." Niven stopped a moment, "The children! Oh dear God, he might come after them."

"He wouldn't dare," said James coldly, but he knew full well that Antony would. "Damn it all, I wish Michael were here...we may not have gotten along famously, but at least he knew how to ...even think about things like this.

"But he's not," he continued sighing. "We'll have to keep a close watch on the children; this thing can't be omnipotent. Otherwise, it would have just brushed me aside and killed Kate. Or killed us both." He shrugged. "Maybe determined resistance can deter it."

(Ooooooh!! and another DVD for Jeff! ;) I-man, you're reading my thoughts, that's scary. I was gonna save it for later, but.. maybe not.)

"Yes, even though he wasn't alive, he would have known what ... acts, this thing is doing now," Niven said before James finished his thought.

"We'll need to keep an eye on all of them. He can either be held back, or he's just toying with us to get to Jeff."

Pridemore walked into the room at this point, "Another delivery for Sir Jeffrey sir," he said handing Niven a package.

"Thank you," Niven said taking the package. "Another disk," he said quietly.

(Cool! I'm a psychic and I don't even know it!

...or maybe that's a psychotic ;))

"He may just be toying with us, true," nodded James. "But if he is, I can't think of much to do when he tires of it. So we might as well be optimistic..." His voice trailed off as Pridemore delivered the package.

(Man, Antony must be using the ACME delivery system or something! Those packages are hauling ass from Larkinia to Celeborne! :P)

"I guess we ought to watch it," half-whispered James, "but to be honest, I'm more than a little scared of that."

EDIT: I'm off to bed, man - I'll catch ya tomorrow!

(Actually, he's had a few years to plan for this, he's known about Jeff a lot longer than Jeff has known about him. That plus international overnight express mail.. ;) )


Niven nodded and walked with the group back to the house, Niven caught a glimpse of the tiger playing with the children. A smile crossed his face as they slipped into the house and sat down in a small study.

"I don't want the children having to watch this."

He put the disk in a player and started it.

~~~~~

The scene starts in a dark, moldy earthen room. Gregorian Chants are heard in the background. A child, looking very much like Marcus, is lying unconscious on a table in the room.

Antony walks into view from the side, slowly, carrying a cross, by the bottom half, in his hands in front of him. Wearing a black robe like a monk. His face and hands still stained with the blood of the nun. (Like he went from one room to the next, which he did.)

"And for today's sermon," he started slowly. He stopped behind the table and turned the child's head so the viewer could see their face clearly.

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

"Blessed are the innocent, for they are the children of God.

"And blessed are the strong, for they shall inherit the power of god," he said as he rose one hand from the bottom of the cross to the top, revealing a wicked, serrated blade.

"Take a close look Jeffie," he put the blade against the child's throat. "From now, until the end of time, this is the view that will haunt you at night. Me, with one of your children's lives in my hands. One by one, you'll turn around as the days pass, and they will fall into the darkness."

He drew the blade across the child's throat incredibly hard, a soft gurgle was heard before the head fell backwards onto the table, rolling away from the body.

Antony laughed, a deep laugh that eminated from the bowels of the earth. "Everytime you turn around Jeff, nothing but sadness and despair. You're family, stripped from you like clothing from a whore. And everytime..."

"I'll"

He slammed the knife/cross into the child's torso

"BE"

*Slam*

"THERE!

*Slam*

Antony threw the robe down, exposing the bloody carvings of the now glowing pentagram on his torso, and a large ethereal face was again seen behind Antony, laughing with him before turning into vapor and getting sucked into Antony through the slashes of the pentagram. As this happened, he appeared to get somehow stronger, the glow brightened, his muscles bulged.

He pulled out the blade and licked the blood on it, "I'll see you around, Jeffie."

(I need a drink and an exorcism after writing that... )

(Edit: G'Night Iansisle!)

By the end of the video, James was shaking with barely-suppressed rage. This rage was different from the one he had experienced talking to Ann; this was a righteous fury that boiled from the deepest pits of his soul.

Iansisleans may be many things - primitive, racist, colonialist, elitist, or any number of other things - but there was a major rule in their ethical system: you do no kill children, the circumstances be damned. Not even the dark powers Antony apparently summoned seemed to dissuade him.

"He has to die," James said at last, his voice shaking. "If he's so devoted to this dark overlord of his, I'll be glad to send him to a reunion in hell." He shook his head. "I'm sorry now I tried to hold Jeff back. If I'd known what sort of monster we were dealing with, I'd have charged after him myself."

(dropped by quickly on my way out...I'm gone for good now ;))

Jeff may not have known it, or been involved, but there was another Williams on the way. In about nine months his fourth child would be born....

***
Deep in the Klatchian Orc lands stood a temple. It's dark walls of basalt seemed to absorb all light and reflect none. The walls were covered in releifs of women and men in sexual ecstacy or being whipped by demonic monsters.

Beneath in the heart of the temple stood a group of women in a large crypt. One wore nothing, but weilded a sword high in the air above her head as she chanted some anchient verse. Before her lay a coffin of black marble, the lid secured by four huge metal clamps with small keyholes in their centers.

Women in red robes steped forward. Each carried a key and placed them into the locks on the lid.

The nude woman began to give orders..."Zerbas, Metat, Escar, Montag..."
As each word was called a women unlocked the clamp before her. They then pushed the lid back, revealing nothing more than the ashes.

"Bring forward the sacrafices...." Four young girls about age eight were pushed forward into the chamber. Each was shivering, naked and chained. Each was forced to kneel before a set of four large silver bowls.

The nude woman stepped behind each girl. She leaned over the first girl and forced the child to kiss her, as she slit the girl's neck. The warm blood drained into the bowls before the new corpse. Someone began to chant an inhuman hymn in Welsh. The process was repeated with each young child...

The chanting became lounder. The nude woman, the 'Mother' as she would refer to herself in the future, walked over to a small alter. She placed down the sword and raised a large syringe that had been in a constant temperature bath (Milostein, they have a generator outside that is also running the lights down here...)

She stepped into the coffin and laid down, her legs on both sides of the pile of ashes. The four lesser preisteses picked up the bowls of blood and stood on both sides of the coffin.

(edited out due to graphic nature...)

The blood and ashes swirled around the Mother. She lay back her eyes closed. The they opened, glowing red as an inhuman voice said..."I have been recast, now I shall be reborn. Prepare the world for my return and triumph." (note: nothing to do with current thread except what happens below...If we are going to have unholy death, how about unholy birth...)

***
The symbol on the detention center wall changed slowly. Blood almost burning into the stone, the marks of black grease turning into blood...
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/wall2.jpg

***
The molten metal pool under Athena Hubris froze for a few moments...

***
Bathus finally got an agreement and turned to Jeff. "Well we've got a three hour wait on those doughnuts. They only had three left...." He profered one to Jeff as he sat down in a booth. "Well I hope they have good coffee."

edit: Damn, I should avoid writting lengthy posts when I feel tired...

*D'Oh!*

( :shock: Wow! That was very trippy! Interesting post! So we'll see all hell breaking loose in say... 18 years? ;) )

Jeff took the doughnut with thanks and sat down, "Yeah, I could go for some coffee. That'd be great." He realized that he hadn't slept since the attack, except for the restless few hours he'd had before Ann left.

He looked around the town, "If the airport is out of commission, then Ann might be waiting there until she could leave," he mused to himself mostly. He had to stop her from going after Antony, he didn't know why, he just knew he had to stop it.

-----

Niven turned to James, staying as calm as he could. "I agree with you. This thing has to die, immediately." He dialed up his team in Larkinia, putting a bounty on Antony's head, dead only.

One of the guards walked into the room and whispered to Niven.

"We have to see this," he said turning back to James and Victoria. "Come on, something in the cell the woman was in."

Niven led the group out the door and back down to the detention cell, where the guard showed them the symbol melting into the wall.

-----

The molten metal pool under Athena Hubris froze for a few moments...

(This is bad, isn't it...)

(ooc: Dude! I just thought of what we need to beat Jeff's evil twin..an Octavian!

After all, an Octavian always beats an Antony, doesn't it? :P

[/pointless post] (sorry, I can't post anything more relevant right now))

(Oh you didn't... *checks post* yeah you did :P heh heh)

((Well that worked... ))

Bathus tried to get the attention of the waitress who was talking with a man in another booth. "I don't know who this Ann is...I'm just here to pick up doughnuts..."

Niven turned to James, staying as calm as he could. "I agree with you. This thing has to die, immediately." He dialed up his team in Larkinia, putting a bounty on Antony's head, dead only.

One of the guards walked into the room and whispered to Niven.

"We have to see this," he said turning back to James and Victoria. "Come on, something in the cell the woman was in."

Niven led the group out the door and back down to the detention cell, where the guard showed them the symbol melting into the wall.

"The woman," muttered James to himself. It took a few seconds for him to remember of whom they were speaking. He followed Dr Niven and Victoria down to the cell, and frowned at the wall.

"Greek, isn't that?" He pointed at the letters. "Damn peculiar. From the style, I'd say ancient (*leaves out "but it's all Greek to me"*), but I never really learned anything about it. Anyone here a classics scholar?"

Victoria answers. "It is not greek. It's a form of Etrustican from 800 B.C. this is a symbol of the Dark Preistess, or the Dark One as she is sometimes known. She wrote all that in her own blood?"

Niven shook his head, "it was in some kind of grease pencil before. Now it's in blood, boiling blood. What can you tell us about this Dark Priestess?"

-----

Jeff took a bite from the doughnut before continuing. Damn, this was really tasty, he'd have to order some for he and Katherine..

Katherine.. Damnit! He should be home with her.

Come on, kid, keep your head in the game.

"Baroness Winton, Ann Gretchen. She was the envoy to Larkinia for the Alliance of the New Highlands. She in the diplomatic jet I was trying to find."

Bathus shrugged, "I'm from the Enclave of the Lords of War...I don't know anything about Alconian Baronesses or Barons. The only one I've ever meet is the Overlord's aunt, the whatever of Hubris..."

The waitress finally arrives..."Alright, what will you two boys have? Well besides a real need for a fix of those frycakes your eating...you boys are a hungry lot ordering a full one hundread, or the Marines get a hankering again..."

***
Victoria looked at them both. "The Legend of Dark Priestess says that she was a woman who beleived that she was born to be a God, The God of all inhuman and incarnate. To rule all the lands that surrounded the Isle of Amazons. In that, she enlisted every vile form of magic known to raise an army of creatures. After destroying the Amazons she plunged the lands surrounding the Sea of Mara into a horrific war putting her incarnate evil creatures into existance. The Sea of Mara became known as the Dark Sea as ships and their crews couldn't pass through without dying, the sea was supposedly ruled by demon ships that ruled the waves."

She shakes her head and pulls out a small pocket knife.
"In the end a group of young women finally killed her while engaged in an orgy. Supposedly this was the beginning of the rise of the Order of Athena, they rebuilt the temple of Athena and pledged to do Athena's work on earth.
The Dark One's followers disappeared after that, supposedly to the nortwest beyound the freshwater seas...In some ways many say her work lives on...the peverse nature of Klatchian fauna, the Durakians, the Wal-Vrak."

She places the knife in the "boiling" blood.

"We would say something has brought her back, at least her spirit...it may be this Anthony person you were speaking of. We are also noting that this blood isn't boiling, but is being "areated" by something."

Bathus shrugged, "I'm from the Enclave of the Lords of War...I don't know anything about Alconian Baronesses or Barons. The only one I've ever meet is the Overlord's aunt, the whatever of Hubris..."

The waitress finally arrives..."Alright, what will you two boys have? Well besides a real need for a fix of those frycakes your eating...you boys are a hungry lot ordering a full one hundread, or the Marines get a hankering again..."

***
Victoria looked at them both. "The Legend of Dark Priestess says that she was a woman who beleived that she was born to be a God, The God of all inhuman and incarnate. To rule all the lands that surrounded the Isle of Amazons. In that, she enlisted every vile form of magic known to raise an army of creatures. After destroying the Amazons she plunged the lands surrounding the Sea of Mara into a horrific war putting her incarnate evil creatures into existance. The Sea of Mara became known as the Dark Sea as ships and their crews couldn't pass through without dying, the sea was supposedly ruled by demon ships that ruled the waves."

She shakes her head and pulls out a small pocket knife.
"In the end a group of young women finally killed her while engaged in an orgy. Supposedly this was the beginning of the rise of the Order of Athena, they rebuilt the temple of Athena and pledged to do Athena's work on earth.
The Dark One's followers disappeared after that, supposedly to the nortwest beyound the freshwater seas...In some ways many say her work lives on...the peverse nature of Klatchian fauna, the Durakians, the Wal-Vrak."

She places the knife in the "boiling" blood.

"We would say something has brought her back, at least her spirit...it may be this Anthony person you were speaking of. We are also noting that this blood isn't boiling, but is being "areated" by something."

*Ooooooooh! Bad Forums! Go to the penalty box! *

Jeff nodded after Bathus shrugged, "If we've got a few hours before the doughnuts are ready I might run over to the airport and see if I can bump into her."

He smiled at the waitress, "I'll have some coffee. That should do it."

-----

Niven listened to the story, "So she might have been the face we saw in that video disk we just had...

"If her work lives on, or they are trying to bring it back, what would a vial of semen have to do with it? We'd figured the woman had taken some of Jeff's semen while he was asleep, but haven't found any test tubes, or things to hold it in. She probably dropped it off to that courier."

The waitress replies..."Hun we don't have no coffee and we don't have no Airport. We have a long runway built during the wars with a few qonsut huts...But unless your looking for a Air Division Milita or a Klathian Marshal" She shivers at that name...
"your not going to find a 'her' around there cause some idiot plowed into the concrete...now what will ya have that's on the menu?"

Bathus replied..."House Tea, please"
He was looking as though Jeff must be a fool trying to order coffee in a place like this...

***
Victoira looks at both men. "We have no understanding of who or what is going on. Which of course stems from the circumstances around her arrest..."

( :shock: N... No coffee?? Does not compute...)

"Yeah, I'll have some tea then as well," Jeff said lost in thought.

Chartered flight to Dobson, now the airstrip is out of commission.. If she's not here yet, then she might land at the same airfield we did. Or not at all if she doesn't need to stop here.

-----

"Yes it was," Niven said, "and now we have to figure out how to pick up the pieces of what's happened and keep going."

OOC:Well, like most British subjects future Alconians had a thing for tea. Of course they produced the tea and so did Hubarians...Coffee is just not a popular drink. And Dobson is the in the middle of nowhere really, the other response would have been..."Does this look like Torrhall honey, try something on the menu..."

IC: To mugs of dark, hot tea quickly appear. "You need anything else boys...? (hint :!: Oh, and she was leaving Dobson by plane...)

***
Victoria turned fully towards the doctor, "At the moment you seem to be the individual most informed about what the parts are. I would ask that you propose a theory."

Jeff nodded, "Ma'am ... someone's chartered a plane out of Dobson, with the airfield out of commission, what hotels are closest to the airfield?"

-----

Niven stroked his beard thoughtfully, "Well, I would have to say that Antony's acts to call out something evil to help him, which we've all seen now on that disk, might have also given this Dark Priestess an opening to come back into our world."

Victoria nodded..."And the vial of seamen?"

***
The woman turns and yells..."Hey, Jimmy got anyone waiting for a plane out at the Inn?"

A young man who is eating with a young brunette looks up and shakes his head no..."All we've got at the moment is one old couple from somewhere, studing artifacts...a couple of mountain climbers but their gone for the next two days. Oh, and a Marine and his fiancee are enjoying his leave from the base. They had an awful row cause he dropped a Baroness off at The Red Lodge"

(Ah, city kid never lived in small (and I mean small) town America did you Lark?)

(Well, probably not. I was raised in part in a oil town, but it was still 55,000 (allegely) when I was there, then I spent the rest of it in Albuquerque)

"A baroness at The Red Lodge" Jeff asked. "Ma'am? Where is that?"

That had to be her, how many Baronesses could there be here??

-----

Niven pondered the question, "Well, if this woman's group was looking into bringing this priestess back, maybe they need a body for her? They could be trying to clone Jeff, it might not be that hard given the experiment he was part of. Or maybe they were trying to get one the 'old fashioned way', in-vitro..."

(Well I spent my summers at the 'family place' the county population was 10,000 souls or so...there was one traffic light in the entire county...The true definiton of living in a small town: "I don't use turn signals because anyone behind me knows where I'm going..." the rest of the year I lived in Lansing...)

Everyone looked at Jeff as though the Red Lodge was known to all inhabitents of the world. To not know it was a sign of being a Wog.

"It's up the road about fourty miles or so, in a place called Cythreuliaidyffryn. Big place, made of stone..." The waitress replied sort of stunned.

"yeah well ya better watch up there, the new Dean up there is a nut job..."
pops out of a six year old's mouth...

"Blake...that's not a nice thing to say..." the mother chimes in

"Well, they say she talks to stuffed animals...and she says they talk back..."

"Will see what they have to say when I wash your mouth out with soap..."

***
Victoria frowns..."Or it may be more simple than that...the sperm was removed and then the attacks began. It could be that they are using it as a tracer on Jeff..."

(I went to college in a small town like the one you're taking about, but the locals there were never this nice to us 'Techies' and we all just kinda holed up in our dorm rooms)

Jeff nods as he recognizes (I think) the name of the town, "What's the name of the Dean up there I need to worry about?"

.....

Then Jeff turned to Bathus, "Can we get up there and back before the doughnuts are ready?"

-----

Niven nodded a moment, "I didn't think of that. That's a good analysis. If they have a tracer on Jeff, then they know where he is now. And that places Ann in a lot of trouble if he stops her in time."

(shakes head...likely larger than this place...we're talking 450 people in the largest town...Yeah, the smaller the town the more insulated against outsiders they become. I was tolerated because 'everyone' on the point was at least 3rd generation owners (well not everyone but until last year all property up there was owned at least 20 plus years...))

IC:"Ahh..." people seem not to know the name of the Dean.

A woman's voice carries through the room. "Good Day your Grace, I happen to be heading through there if you want to catch a ride."

She is a tall, handsom woman. And later Jeff would likely be trying to describe her, pretty didn't quite fit nor did plain nor ugly. She was wearing a white dress and sandals. She appeared to be paying the cashier for some bag of sweet goodness. Although the cashier was staring at the cash with eyes somewhat wide. She turned saying "keep the change..."
walking towards the two men, "After all it would be more on his way to pick you back up before returning to the Marine base now wouldn't it?"

(Yeah, there were about 10,000 in town there.)

Jeff was surprised at the 'your Grace' comment. He didn't think .. well at least he hope he wouldn't be recognized, "Yes, that would be great! I'd really appreciate it, ma'am." He turned to Bathus, "Sound like a plan? You meet me there on your way back?"

The woman smiled and said..."Of course Bathus will agree...He is a servent of the House of Crawfnord. And knows that his role is to help you...although not showing up with the doughnuts would be a mistake..."

Bathus gave the woman a strange look..."Yeah, I'll see if I can get directions using the map...best keep an eye on things...and if I see anyone who looks like an Alconian Noblewoman I'll...well I'll tell her that..ah Jeff Williams needs to speak with her..."

The woman smiles and nods..."Shall we Duke Williams?"

Jeff looked at the expression on Bathus' face, and wondered if he should be concerned. "That sounds like a good idea," he said pulling out a card, "My cell phone's on there, she can reach me there. Thanks, and I'll see you in a little bit."

Jeff smiled charmingly at the woman, "Of course we shall, after you?" he asked as he opened the door.

The woman said, "Well how nice..." and walked out, across the porch and down to a 1933 Arlington Duensenburg convertible across the street. The silver paint seemed to shine as the woman stepped up to the left hand driver's side door.

"I hope you don't mind, but I don't get to drive her much anymore..."

Jeff stood next to the passenger side door, "What would I mind?" he said with a smile, "I'm in your capable hands. I have to confess though, you have me at a disadvantage. You know my name, but I haven't had the pleasure of knowing your name?"

"Oh, just a girl with a thing for heros I guess." She get's into the car smiling at Jeff. "I've got a pile of titles but most people just call me Pallas..."
She pushes down the starter on the car, and the engine turns over. Eight cylinders roar out that they want to Go now...a deep throaty purr.

"She looks up and grins...You know, I've always loved that sound..."

edit: somehow posted before I was done... :?

"He.. Heroes?" Jeff asked, "Does my reputation preceed me that much?"

He listened to her name, "Finally! Someone else with titles who wants to go by a regular name! It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Pallas."

Jeff smiled as the engine roared to life, "Me too. Nothing better than a day out in the mountains, the silence giving way to the roar of horsepower."

"Oh, well I'd say that I go looking for my subjects..." She shifts into gear, and pulls out onto the road heading north.

The speed of the car increases as the road follows the stream through a thick mountain forest of green. Twisting and turning, crossing small rapids over narrow bridges. She doesn't lose control but going 75 mph up a twisting narrow ribbon of road in a car with no seatbelts?

"Ah perhaps you can do me a favor. I've had an item I borrowed from Baroness Winton's Grandmother. Could you return it for me please?" She pulls a small, blue box from under the seat and hands it to him.

but going 75 mph up a twisting narrow ribbon of road in a car with no seatbelts?

(LOL, sounds like fun, I've almost been there and done that, but I was going down the mountains instead of up)

"Er... go looking?"

Jeff quickly glanced out the window, wondering how much it would hurt.

"Baroness Winton?" Jeff asked as he took the box (It's not like, ticking or anything is it? ;) ), "How did you know I was going after Ann?"

most people just call me Pallas...

(*click* *final tumbler of the clue snaps into place* :shock: )

(never riding in a car with you... :shock: )

The box was thin, everything about it said expensive jewlery. And it was somewhat heavy, but too light to be a bomb of any real power.

"Yes, go looking for... I've got data files on such figures as Achillies, Winston Churchill, Sargent York, a whole pelephera of heros. Oh just tons of intresting things, on each. Stuff you don't get by reading the crap about them out of second rate biographies and Iancorp press clipings. Like your freindship with another young hero, Ann Gretchen."

She give a nice large smile to Jeff as the car turns a hairpin curve as though it were glued to the pavement...

"And since your looking for a Baroness and the only woman of noble linage recently associated with the Red Lodge is Ann...well two and two make four don't they?"

most people just call me Pallas...

(*click* *final tumbler of the clue snaps into place* :shock: )

OOC: If you look up the world fact book entry on Eris Kristalii you'll see I've been playing her on and off for a good deal of time. She only shows up in fantasy threads...this is the first non-Eris use of her...

(That was nothing, the real fun was driving downhill, on the interstate in the evening from the mountains at the NM-Colorado border, and pegging the speedometer, which ended at 145 mph ;) Thank god there were no cops and it was a straight road)

(OOC2: I'll try and find that link!)

Jeff was still trying to process that in his mind, Achillies? Like THE Achilles? Sgt. York.. Churchill? She's ...

"Really?" Jeff asked, "Achillies? Churchill? You're not just someone who .. wait a sec.. 'Pallas'..."

Jeff's eyes start to get wide.

Oh... god...

"Really, Mr. Williams...I think your jumping to the wrong conclusions after all, in your own definition of reality the concept of an Olympian God seems a bit far fetched? No, I'm not what you are thinking I am...*"

The car pulls out of the trees and into a bright medow. On the far side is a massive stone and log building. Seconds later the car stops and she says..."This is the Red Lodge, your Grace. Please remember to return that item to Ann for me would you? And watch out for the rabbits..."

After Jeff has left the car, it speeds off turning a corner and vanishing behind trees and rocks.

(It's a seperate website...but their should be a link somewhere unless it was deleted...oh look at the error page, realizes someone else is on there too in this RP...)

Interstate NM-Colorado border? you mean near Raton?

(*Well let's say I've Rped the Olympians as not 'Gods' but Aliens...Q anyone?)

"My definition of reality? I've been told I was living in a different world than others, but I guess this really proves it," Jeff said with a smile, relaxing again. Hmmm, that would explain getting Excalibur those years ago...

Before the car pulls away, Jeff asks, "How do I know she'll even see me?"

(The olympian gods as Q? Well it'd make sense, cause Q does appear god-like. And I think we were south of the Raton pass, but in that area)

(Well, this is certainly interesting! Do you have the entire Pantheon, or just Athena? I only wonder because we use Hermes as one of the official symbols of state.

And I love Q :P)

(No, under the agreements of God Rp you only get to have one, or two at most but Nyx is a single Rp character we needed for approving the Eris Resi marrige.
I got Athena out of trying to figure out what mischeif Eris was up to
...no one's Rped Hermes but Zeus, Mars, a few others have been used. Oh Clio...that's the one I was forgetting...no more god modding for me now :p )

The wind blew through the tree's. The birds chirped, the cadya's buzzed. All was peacful and quiet. You could actually hear the grass rustle in the wind. The faint sound of grunts could be heard comming from the heavy doors behind him.

Jeff looked around the peaceful area, no car was there, no evidence he'd ever had a ride to the building.

"Ok Jeff, for once you're not going nuts," he whispered to himself as he turned around to face the doors, "here goes."

He walked up to the doors and knocked on them.

No one answered...the clang of metal on metal could be heard...

(male or female voices?)

Jeff tried once more to bang on the doors (always polite to knock twice ;) ) before he was going to open them.

(female)

There is an apparent yell of "comming" A young girl opens the door and looks up at Jeff.

The sound of sword play fills the air, metal against metal. The yells of women and men now fill the air. It sounds like a 15th century war is going on inside.

**
Victoria looks at Dr. Niven and King James. "Well, what are you doing about this threat?"

Jeff smiles down at the young girl, "Hi, I'm here to see Baroness Winton. I'm a friend of hers who's dying to see her."

She says, in her young voice..."I don't know who that is...you'll have to talk to the Dean." She leads Jeff into a large foyer. On both walls are long seats with coats haning on pegs above them. Below them are boots/shoes etc.

"Take off your shoes..." the young girl says. After Jeff has complied, She leads Jeff through a few rooms filled with wood furniture, persian rugs and dark wood panelling then up into a large space filled with people. Everyone there was holding a sword and dressed in what appeared to be body padding. Everyone except for the blond and the brunette at the center.

The two women circled each other, both had a long sword and dagger. The Brunette charged forward, her sword swinging upwards as her dagger attempted to lock on the blonds sword.

The blond countered by locking down the brunetts sword with her dagger and then flipping inside the bruette's dagger arm. The brunette pushed forwards and brought the dagger up to perry. The blond pulled free her dagger and thrust at the sword hand of the brunette.

The Brunette pulled back for a moment, then attempted to thrust with the sword.

The blond again locked her dagger on the sword and pulled the brunette forward.

The Brunette checked the blond to the floor. But the blond was able to get her feet on the brunette and toss her over. Both women wound up taking deep breaths and facing each other. Ann stopped as she saw Jeff.

Ann just looked at Jeff for a moment..."Jeff what in the hell are you doing here?"

The Brunette turned and yelled, "everyone outside to finish practice"...the room began to empty.

OOC: Just sticking my head in, after reading, I'll say that the tutallory goddess of my Fraternity is Pallas Athena, and her owl is one of our sacred symbols.

OOC: don't recognize the word tutallory at all...
I always like Athena the goddess of wisdom and tactics...

But her sense of humor has nothing on Hermes :P;)

Sorry, checked the pledge manual, the word is tutelary

But her sense of humor has nothing on Hermes :P;)

(Yeah half to play her a bit straitlaced, especially around Eris...those two have a real history...

Now then...there are things for you to repond to IC in this thread!!!)

There are? I'm sorry - I thought James got smacked down; I wasn't planning to have him offer any commentary, just sort of play a wallflower. Did anyone ask him a direct question?

Ann just looked at Jeff for a moment..."Jeff what in the hell are you doing here?"

"Ummm, I don't suppose you'd believe 'delivering a package', would you? Although I have one to give you. A woman gave this to me to give to you," he said handing the package to Ann.

Then after the room cleared out, he pulled out the letter, "I realized, I never actually got you to promise you wouldn't go after Antony. Then I read this..." his voice got quiet. "I wanted to stop something bad from happening to you."

"I see..."

Ann opens the box and looks at what is inside as she attempt to calm down.

"Jeff...I am old enough to make decisions and mistakes on my own. Now I'm prepared to admit that your brother is bad A** supreame with an extra 50 gallon supersize of demonic evil...."

She picks up a gold braclet and holds it for a moment.

"However, at the moment James prefers to fight with me Dr. Niven is doing who knows what while watching over Ann, and you've got serious emotional problems if you attempt to remove your own brother."

She just puts it on as she wants to use both hands to express herself. "Now, a completely defensive stratagy isn't going to work, sooner or later Antony will go to far for you not to go after him or get lucky and hurt one of the kids or you."

"On a mission of this type you should send in the person with the least to lose and the least damage to the orginization if lost...and that is me..."

"And who gave you this thing anyway...and does the box tell me how to get the bloody thing off!!"

"Her name was Pallas, she said she got that from your grandmother," Jeff said quietly. "And I know you're an adult and can make your own decisions. I know that you and James are getting ready to have an old-school street fight, I know that dad is trying to keep Katherine from dying and I know that sitting back and letting Antony keep going on killing people isn't the way to go. And I'm going to go after him soon enough if I have to tear the entire city of Golden Agate apart to find him!

"You are not the person with the least to lose, and I'll be god damned if I'm going to let you risk your life to go after him, you're too damn special to me..."

Awwww, you love her, just go ahead and admit it. the smirking reflection grinned in his mind.

I do care about her, not like I love Katherine, but she is special to me, very much like I care about James...

The reflection rolled his eyes and sneered, How touching... you hypocrite! At least let her die on her own terms, not helpless like everyone else you care about.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," Jeff said quietly. "Now if we want to do this as a team, come back with me and help me work on a plan."

"Well that's nice isn't it..."

She sighs..."Damn Jeff, should you even be doing this..." God I didn't realize how hard I had fallen for him

"I mean Kathrine needs you, your not in the best place to deal with this emotionally..."

The Brunette is now looking at a stuffed tiger on a nearby bench.
whispered...'no....'no no no...no more talking...fine fine...just stop singing'.
she turns back towards them and interupts...

"Well, you've got one ex-demon hunter on the team. And Ann will be quiet now and actually listen to the nice man who wants to actually help her. And now run off to your room to shower and get your stuff, and put some soap on your wrist and it will come right off..."

She gives a wry smile to Jeff. "You just have to know how to handle us women...Ah so...Jeff...right...ah seing anyone?"

"He's married, and your a lez..." Ann quirps.

"Yeah, I am...lesibian...or was...or am...or will be...get your stuff...Now!"

She pulls Ann to the other end of the room and pushes her through the door.

"Always like that...you know...doing foolish things...like chasing after a man who raised a vampire from beyound the grave..." She says this to the stuffed tiger.

"So, your married...and your wife doesn't mind you being around women like Ann all day...god, she's trusting. I know I wouldn't be...not to say your not trustable...or trustworty...or whatever. You know...I'm going to go get showered and changed myself. Ah...I'll make sure she comes along peacefully..."

She turns to start climbing a set of circular metal stairs the phrase she keeps on saying is

"we are all going to die..."

The box lays on the floor, a note card on the bottom says...Evil Will Never See Thy Beauty

The stuffed tiger toy hasn't moved...has it?

(and on that note: I'll say good night and let Jeff stare at the stuffed animal...)

A&H, after my sixth bottle of Corona, and about 40 some odd tequila shots....that post is really wiered.j

A&H, after my sixth bottle of Corona, and about 40 some odd tequila shots....that post is really wiered.j

My post? your post?...who's post?...now go throw up in the toilet like a good overly drunk human being and worship the porcilin goddess and tell me in the morning...

"Well that's nice isn't it..."

She sighs..."Damn Jeff, should you even be doing this..." God I didn't realize how hard I had fallen for him

"I mean Kathrine needs you, your not in the best place to deal with this emotionally..."

I may never be in the best place to deal with these emotions... Come on Jeff, head in the game. 'No time for love Dr. Jones.'

"Yes, I should be doing this. Katherine needs me, and you can't die on me... Yes. Yeah I should be here."

"Always like that...you know...doing foolish things...like chasing after a man who raised a vampire from beyound the grave..." She says this to the stuffed tiger.

"You tell me that story, and I'll tell you the one about my friend Chris and I dressing up like nuns and sneaking into the convent one night before the Academy."

"So, your married...and your wife doesn't mind you being around women like Ann all day...god, she's trusting. I know I wouldn't be...not to say your not trustable...or trustworty...or whatever. You know...I'm going to go get showered and changed myself. Ah...I'll make sure she comes along peacefully..."

"OK, our ride will be here soon with... like.. a hundred fried, nutty doughnut things.."

She turns to start climbing a set of circular metal stairs the phrase she keeps on saying is

"we are all going to die..."

The box lays on the floor, a note card on the bottom says...Evil Will Never See Thy Beauty

Not on my watch we won't

He read the note card, "Evil will never see thy Beauty." The clue gears clicked again and Jeff smiled, putting the card in his pocket.

And now we know who the bait will have to be... me.

Jeff kept a wary eye on the stuffed tiger.. wasn't it over ... there before?

(G'night! I'll get another Antony post up soon-ish)

Victoira looks at both men. "We have no understanding of who or what is going on. Which of course stems from the circumstances around her arrest..."
(bump for I-man, there hasn't been no smacking down yet, plus Niven gave his theory of them trying to clone another Jeff or have some kind of unholy child from him)

(Hey, it's time for another Antony post, but this time he's not killing anyone.. )

Black Pearl Hotel and Casino, Lyone

Antony was sitting at a table in the small suite when Dariana walked back in, counting the money in her hands.

"Sweet take at the craps table?" He asked.

"Hell yeah," she grinned, "It helps when you walk in with 'the most feared man in Lyone' by your side."

Antony chuckled at that, if they thought he was bad before, they hadn't seen a damn thing yet.

She flopped down on the bed, her green eyes twinkling, "So you want to finally tell me what's going on?" she purred.

Antony smiled at her and stood up, "Well, you know we're going to kill Jeff."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I haven't forgotten. What's the deal with the altar, and the sacrifices, and that damn carving into your chest."

"Well, look at things this way," he said before starting in his best Bayou accent, "In dis life, der are two worlds. De 'Deadside', und de 'Liveside'. In de Deadside, dat's where you go when you get put in de ground. Dat's it, you'se dead. Or is you? Call it purgatory, or hell or a place to go to pay for your sins, you'se gonna go der, and you'se gonna suffa'. Now in de Liveside, dat's where we is now, where we breat'in de air, and drinking de wine and making de fine, fine loving."

Dariana grinned at the last comment and Antony swung around the bed and kissed her.

"But," his voice returned to normal, "If you can pass from Deadside, to Liveside and back, there is another world to explore. A world of chaos, of evil. And there are monsters there waiting to come back to liveside. Temples, not to gods, but to death, to pain, unspeakable pain. That's what's behind all of this. And if you can jump back and forth, when you do get killed and sent to Deadside, what's to stop you from just jumping back to there here and now? If I can't kill Jeffie as just myself, I have no problem sacrificing souls to the Darkside to get what I need. That's what I'm doing, getting their power to do my bidding."

"Well why not just jump worlds now and chase after him?" Dariana asked.

"It's not that easy. It's a whole new world, with new doors to this world that have to be explored, I can find him faster than anyone else, because we're the same, he's like a beacon to me. Two sides of the same coin. I'm the side he sees in his nightmares, I'm the sarcastic voice running through his head, daring him away from his morals," Antony said stalking around the roon quietly. "I was close to him the first time. I found him asleep in bed when I started to come back to Liveside after my first trip, but some damn tiger interrupted me. Then the next time I found his wife in the hospital. There was someone else there, and again I got interrupted by the guards. Jeff was gone though."

"Yes, I should be doing this. Katherine needs me, and you can't die on me... Yes. Yeah I should be here."


Ann spent her time trying to figure out that last statement...



"You tell me that story, and I'll tell you the one about my friend Chris and I dressing up like nuns and sneaking into the convent one night before the Academy."


He gets a look for that...

The building is quiet...somewhere above a shower can be heard. A few minutes later a gong outside and people trumping up stairs. But then again nothing.

Just Jeff and the stuffed tiger. The stuffed tiger and jeff...in a room with walls containing pole arms and swords. A gonging of a clock from somewhere can be heard....nothing...

***
Bathus is having tea, what else is there to do. He looks out the window...there is a group of old men in kaki uniforms standing around the Rover....[i]Now what?{/i] is his only thought.

(the question is, a look from who? And what kind of look? ;) )

Jeff walked around the room slowly, looking at the different polearms, the only sounds in the room are the shower and his desert boots on the floor.

Exhaustion started to kick in again, he reached out and put a hand on the wall to steady himself. Closing his eyes he saw a moment of darkness.

Then a second later he was in a shining, silver room. At the other end, was the flaming outline of a man, in between them were people, and parts of people, who'd been speared, or flailed to death, or tortured beyond belief.

The flaming man pointed at Jeff, smoke billowing from the man's burning hand, the scent of burning and decayed flesh filling the room.

"You can't run from me! I'll find you eventually!"

A bolt of fire shot out from the man's hand in time to slam into Jeff's chest.

-----

Jeff's head snapped back up and he jumped back from the wall with a start.

Whew, come on Jeff, no time for this.

"You must not give in to your enemy's temptations..." The voice is old and weak. "or everything you love in this world will be destroyed..."

Jeff looked around the room quickly, the only thing there was the stuffed tiger, which was now over there ...

"H... hello?" he asked to silence.

"Great," he said to himself as he rubbed his eyes to wake up, "Now the stuffed tiger's talking to me."

(Sorry not the stuffed tiger...that only talks to Jill :( )

"Go take a nap, there is a sofa you can use back in sitting room."

(Cool, I was gonna have a hard time figure out how that would have happened ;) )

Jeff turned toward the sitting room, "Thanks, I think I'll try to."

He walked back into the sitting room, then sat down on the sofa. A few minutes later he'd collapsed onto it and was nodding off.

As Jeff nodded off...he smelled something...a few seconds later he was out cold in a dreamless sleep.

Ann was down a few minutes later..."Jeff...Jeffff...Jeff...here Jeff...*tice tice* come here Jeffy boy...Oh there you are...out cold I see..."

She shakes him..."Hmph...the man needs to get sleep...real sleep..."

The Brunette Jill appears..."Hey what's up with lover boy?"

"He's out cold...I guess he finally just collapsed..."

"Okay...now what..."

"Well get some of your pupils down here and toss his sleeping a** in a guest room I guess..."

"So what are you going to do?"

"Call his family...see if you can stall the guy with the doughnuts..."

"Ah, your going to have to go to the top of the mountain to get a signal..."

"Yeah, yeah...fine..."

So Jeff was then hauled off to a nice compy room with dark green paneling and white sheets. (Where he got a rotational guard of young women who had a tendency to use sword violence towards people they didn't like much.)

Fourty five minutes later (with no Bathus in appearance) Ann makes a call to Dr. Niven...

"Hello, Doctor Niven please...Ann Gretchen..."

(he smelled something... hmmm... )

Niven answered the phone, "Yes dear? Are you all right? Did Jeff find you? Where are you? He was worried about you!"

(Well this plot has obviously become the forces of 'good' or relativly good against the forces of evil...with Jeff getting used as the ball in a mystical version of Pong.)


"Ah Doctor Niven, Jeff found me...He's hot on the trot to go after Anthony and he appears to be physically exauhsted by the traveling and just collapsed. Anything new from your end of the front?"

(Yeah it's looking that way. Poor Jeff... heh heh... I remember Pong ;) )

"It's not just that if I know Jeff, he probably hasn't slept since this started a few days ago," Niven said. "It's good that he's getting some rest now. There's not much new on this front. Something tried to attack Katherine, but was scared away."

Niven went on to describe the latest disk they'd received from Antony.

She cringes..."Remind me never to go with you to a horror movie doctor..."

She sits on the mountain as one of the girls carries two buckets of water up the path.

Ann gives her a raised eyebrow.

"I...I got bored and tied that man's hair into small braids..."

"Did you take them out?"

"No..."

Ann turns back to the phone. "Well, we are out of contact for the moment. I'm on a sat phone and cell phones don't work up here. And their no land line either. But I have located us some assistance in dealing with the dark arts..."

(braids?? )

"You have? Well, that's better news for us," Niven said a little more relieved. "I think I can call one or two old friends who might have a little knowledge on this also. It looks like it's not a person we're contending with.

"Are you two going to be all right to get back? And I know James hasn't had a good scare in the last 20 minutes, maybe I'll ask him to call Jeff and watch his reaction when he can't get through," he said mischeviously. "Also, I know Victoria was concerned about you, you are all right?"

(Minor plot point actually...))


"Are you two going to be all right to get back? And I know James hasn't had a good scare in the last 20 minutes, maybe I'll ask him to call Jeff and watch his reaction when he can't get through,"

"I've got a plane chartered, and Jeff is on some sort of doughnut run but I haven't seen the guy who was supposed to pick Jeff back up. And I think that might cause a war, Doctor..."


"Also, I know Victoria was concerned about you, you are all right?"

"Victoira? Victoria?...." Her eyes go wide and panic fills her voice..."Don't tell her you found me please...the Landgravine is going to....Ah...god no...bye bye!"

She hangs up...

"Alright, now to rescue Jeff from a bunch of male hungry teens..."

(rescue Jeff? Oh dear ;) "Ahhh *at work* chooo..." :P )

"Yes, that does seem to happen a lot when Jeff's involved," Niven said before the call was cut off.

Oh goodness me. That can't be good.

James looked up at the mention of his name and watched Niven curiously.

Thirty minutes later Ann is swearing as she attempts to remove the various little braided thingies in Jeff's hair. She is laying on the bed next to him...

Jill walks in..."Aww how cute..."

"Put a sock in it Jill, before I don't stop my blows..."

"Ohh..so how is he in bed..."

"Ask his wife..."

"Ah, girl...boys don't go dragging themselves all over god's green earth for a chick that isn't giving out a little sugar..."

"You don't know anything about it..."

"Well if your not sleeping with him you two are going about things the wrong way..."

"What is that supposed to mean..."

"That I'm not the only person who's going to think that you two have been taking romps in the hay..."

"Oh, god..." (And Ann finally has a *click*)

Niven turns to James, "It's all right. The doughnuts appear to have gone missing, but they should turn up soon," he winked. "And his entourage will be in tow, I'm sure."

-----

(ahhhh, I gotcha. I guess that's what James was getting all upset about)

Jeff was slow to wake up after the conversation. He looked at Ann as he ran his hand through his hair, getting it tangled in the braided things.

"What in the hell?" He said looking around.

Niven turns to James, "It's all right. The doughnuts appear to have gone missing, but they should turn up soon," he winked. "And his entourage will be in tow, I'm sure."

"That's good - great," said James with relief. "No good-bye, though?"

Niven made sure Victoria and the other Alconians were out of range before responding.

"Well, that was Ann, and she had to go quickly. Apparently Jeff had collapsed in addition to losing the doughnuts."

James kept his voice down. "Collapsed - like, fainted?" He frowned. "Is there anything wrong with him, and how soon can we get him back here if there is?"

"Yeah, like he'd fainted. I think between the flight to Dobson, and the exertion he's been putting himself under, that disk I told you about, and his lack of sleep the last three days, his body's finally just shut down," Niven said quietly.

"They're supposed to meet up with the gentleman who flew Jeff out there, once they locate him."

James nodded. "I was afraid of that happening. He needs rest before anything else. I don't suppose that young man is arranging Jeff's transport back here?"

He glanced over his shoulder, then leaned in closer to Dr Niven. "Dad, I know I must be making it pretty obvious, but I don't really trust these Alconians. Not just Ann; the whole lot of them. I didn't really know that much about the Dual Duchy before the past few days, and I can't say that I like what I've learned."

"Well he's supposed to pick up Jeff, Ann and someone else, some kind of demon-hunter type, then head back here." Niven said.

He listened to James' concerns, "What? You don't like them? No one would have guess," he joked with a smile. "Seriously though, what have you learned?"

"At least he's getting some help," agreed James hesitantly. "Or, anyways, at least we think he is."

"Well," he admitted, "they remind me a lot of your stereotypical Imitoran. Not like Christin or John," James ammended quickly, "I mean more like Hoot or any one of the last few of their leaders. Not as quick to fly off the handle, maybe, but I wouldn't trust one in the dark."

*mumble, grumble forums..*

"Well, I hope he is also, I think they will be as well. Are you worried about something else there?

"And they might seem a little rough around the edges, you have to agree they aren't as quick to throw down as Imitorans are. But keep in mind, those same Imitorans were the ones who rescued Katherine and the children when Grant had kidnapped them, so while they have their flaws, they also have their virtues, like all of us."

"No," said James after a moment's thought. "Not really.

"I suppose you're right," he said to Niven, breaking eye contact and glancing in whatever direction their companion had wandered off in. He shrugged at last. "I suppose I can't really explain it; I just have a gut feeling."

"Well, don't let that gut feeling go yet, you could also be right. I've never been one to discount them. Just, maybe go a little easier on them, and try to keep from strangling Ann the next time you two talk," Niven winked. "Cause I'm running out of medical rooms between Katherine and Jeff."

Unfortunatly they had been overheard in the last snipits of conversation. Victoria gave a wry bit of smile...

"Your majesty, if I might have a moment of your time..." she asked stepping over towards them.

***
"Oh, so your awake now I see."

Ann begins undoing a few knots.

"Yes, you've been attack by a sophmoric prank Jeff."

Unfortunatly they had been overheard in the last snipits of conversation. Victoria gave a wry bit of smile...

"Your majesty, if I might have a moment of your time..." she asked stepping over towards them.

"I'll try not to..." James was saying to Dr Niven when Victoria came over. "I...yes, I suppose you might."

"Oh, so your awake now I see."

Ann begins undoing a few knots.

"Yes, you've been attack by a sophmoric prank Jeff."

"Oh, well if that's the worst thing I get attacked by then I'll consider myself lucky," Jeff said with a smile. "I think I just needed a few minutes sleep, so I ended up crashing on the sofa."

"Your majesty might we talk outside...we would prefer not to have that symbol around..." She pollietly bows and offers James to lead.

"Your majesty might we talk outside...we would prefer not to have that symbol around..." She pollietly bows and offers James to lead.

[4-year-old in school.

Ummmmmmmm!!!! You in truh-ble!! :P

/4-year-old in school]

"Of course," replied James, turning and walking towards the exit.

(oops...is there any sort of title I should be using for Victoria? Sorry, I forgot)

(OOC: She introduced herself as "Consul" However since Jeff seems to be doing digging...although at Iansisle level of intel he likely isn't going to put two and two together but maybe someone has been nice:

Victoria Wittelbach Crawford:
http://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/donatgw/victoriatiny.jpg
Landgravine of Hubris (equivilant to Prince of Wales)#
Outer Consul of the Federated Klatchian Coast*
Overall Military Comander of the Klatchian Joint Defense Force*
Lt. General, Marines 3rd Armored Division@
-Knight Secretary of the Order of the Griffen#
(B.S. Thunderbay Naval Acadamy
Ph.D. Nuclear Physics--Princeton Universtiy)

#Hereditary Post
* Elected Post (by fellow Klatchian States)
@ Earned...
nickname: M.A.V
Age: 34
_____

Victoria followed with out saying much of anything until they were outside. "Your Majesty, some recent events have become...disturbing in nature to my government. Specifically these charges that we are exactly like Imortians..."

(Thanks! Quite the list of titles! I think I'll stick with consul, though - the MoFA isn't good enough to keep James up, even with future heads of state ;))

"Charges, consul?" asked James. "I don't believe any formal charges have been leveled."

Victoria looked at James..."I did not know that being an Imortian was a crime. However, perhaps charged is not the best word. Would you prefer venomously described instead?"

*sits back with popcorn and watches the fireworks start... :D *

(boy...I try not to argue with the Alconians, but it's just so hard! ;))

"That depends on to whom you speak," replied James with ice in his voice. "You could ask the parents and children of the thousands killed in Imitoran-instigated riots.

"And, had you eavesdropped on the entire conversation, perhaps you'd know just how wrong your assumptions are. Of course, it is an Imitoran trait only to listen to the evidence that supports one's position."

"Yes, we could see how that would taint one's perspective. Of course one should not condemn an entire population, nor even one person because of the actions of their government, but we assume you know that already your Majesty." Her voice doesn't alter in anyway but the faint sound of metal under pressure can be heard.

"As for being called an Imortian, you have just been one of several to make that implicaiton. However, we are prepared to hear what you think the situation really is."

"Perhaps the Consul ought to remember that I am married to an Imitoran," shot back James. "I do not condemn that entirety, but one can not deny that the majority often display certain traits.

"That said, I'll tell you just what I think. From what I have observed, the majority of Alconians tend to be rash, arrogant, insubordinate, rude, inconsiderate, and tend to grind on my nerves. Yourself quite included, of course."

"Then you can obviously see the point. Your wife is saddled with the burden of what people assume about her because of her birth, and the injustice it is to her." She is attempting to be pleasent, smiling and not at all goaded into a shouting match with James.

"Now, we are rash arrogent, rude, inconsiderate, and we grind on your nerves. Ah well, could you please enlighten us as to how we have been rude to you? Besides an unfortante misunderstanding about our comparison to Imortia?"

Jeff sat up a little as Ann worked at taking out the braided objects, "Just so you know, I swear I look better than this when I usually wake up," he said with a chuckle.

Then he got serious, "There's another disk from Antony, I've got it with me, there was only a minute I could stomach watching."

Ann said, "Give, I'll look at it...better someone who he isn't trying to manipulate..."

Jill looked at Jeff, the tiger dangling in one hand. "Ah when was the last time you showered?"

Jeff pulled the disk out of his bag and handed it to Ann, "yeah, I'll check it out later," he said finally awake.

He looked at Jill, "After we got to Celeborne and before I tried to crash the second time."

"Well, I'd suggest another one..." says Jill "since your sort of well...a bit ripe... Shower is in there."

Ann takes the disk and pulls out the last braid. "And you've got a bit of sticky stuff in your hair now..."

"Oh man I am?" Jeff said, embarrased, "I'm sorry. I guess my mind was elsewhere."

He jumped up, "Right through there?" he pointed. "Got it. I'll meet you both downstairs in a little bit."

The women both leave but Jill just laughs at the comment.

A few moments later Ann is looking at a small DVD player she has borrowed from one of the girls...

(pulls out vodka...I think I'm going to need this...)

(It's the second DVD that he sent, I'll try and find the post for it. The one where he gets his power)

Jeff looked confused at Jill's comment. I didn't think it was that strange, sense of humor, who can tell...

"Now, we are rash arrogent, rude, inconsiderate, and we grind on your nerves. Ah well, could you please enlighten us as to how we have been rude to you? Besides an unfortante misunderstanding about our comparison to Imortia?"

"Several incidents leap to mind, most of which involve Baroness Winton." James was aware he was treading on thin ground. It was hard to think of specific incidents. "But then again, perhaps its not so much one particular example as it an entire attitude."

"Ah, yes...attitude your Majesty...If you would, please enlighten us as to how we have such a disrespectful and rude attitude."

James was starting to get irritated. "It's not that easy to define these sorts of things, consul. However, I can say without doubt that I consider your attitude right now to be rude, in a condescending sort of way."

"I'm confused your Majesty, you mean to ask you to enlighten me as to why I'm being rude and irritating is rude and irritating? Or am I missing something?"

James took a deep, nasal breath. "That's just what I mean," he said at last. His voice was cold. "I consider your wording, your feigned ignorance, and your condescending attitude to be very rude."

"My feigned condesending attitue and my feigned ignorance. So how would you prefer me to act?"

"And your very real, I suspect intentional, and continual misinterpretation of my words!

"Consul, I'd prefer you to act as far away from me as possible, and for Alcona and Hubris to stay as far out of the Commonwealth and Iansislean interests as is possible."

"Misinterperatation of your words? We ask for a clarification and you just what...tell me that we are misinterpeting your words. And what point in time and in what way do you I need to indicate to you that I do not understand the meaning of what you are saying to me? How can I convey that my questions are not based on some evil menical plot to whatever but a general desire to figure out how things got so badly screwed up between us. And then deal with those items?"

"I said that your professed ignorance was feigned; you took it as my saying that your condescending attitude was some sort of tactic! I can't think of a more obvious, nor a more calculated, misinterpretation!

"Now then, I can say that there appears to be no obvious way to settle the problems between us. After our argument, I tried to apologize and settle things with Baroness Winton; she took the opportunity to make me look like a fool. I can't obviously say, considering our conversation so far, that I expect anything different to come from such an arrangement here. Which is just why I'd prefer never to have to associate with anyone from your government again, lest something unfortunate happen."

(the DVD for Ann)

At a small underground 'temple' in Lyone

Antony was sitting at a desk, flipping through an old leather bound book. He'd taken to reading books on the occult and evil magics in the years after he'd found out about Jeffrey. The more he read about Jeff's cybernetics, the more he'd tried to find something, anything, to give him an edge over his brother.

He'd finally found something. In one of the books he'd found, there was some kind of ritual, Sacrifice of an innocent to the Darkness. He'd read the ritual over and over, memorizing each nuance of what he would have to do.

And what could be more innocent than a nun? He'd asked himself as he stood up.

He walked into the small chamber next to his office, where the woman had been tied to the earthen altar. Dariana was in the room, with the video camera again. If this had worked, Antony wanted it saved for, posterity? No, he grinned at the thought of sending another of his little 'home movies' to Jeffrey.

Antony slipped into the black robe, and pulled out a long, curved dagger.

"To think, for so long I'd been doing this merely for the fun of it. And now, I can gain so much more from it."

He leaned over and laid his head next to the woman, "Thank you, for what you are about to give me," he said as he slipped the dagger up between the woman's legs.

"Assssshhhh, Kaaaaaaaaashhh, de'B'A'de tuuuuu" he started to murmer underneath the woman's screams.

(Ugh, can write no more about that, you guys know Antony's personality, I'll leave what he did up to your imaginations... if you've imagined it, then he probably did it.)

-----

Later, the woman's body, what had been left of it after the defilement, bled slowly into the earth of the altar. Antony, covered in the woman's blood grinned bestially at Dariana (who was herself a little unnerved at what he'd done).

Behind Antony, another larger face was seen materializing. A light blue, glowing face.

"What do you want of me?" An unearthly voice boomed through the room.

Antony never turned around to look at it.

"You know what I require of you."

The headless face bobbed up and down, as if nodding. "I do know. But do you know what you must do?"

"I've done it."

"No you haven't completed the ritual."

Antony nodded as he put the blade up against his chest. The red lines formed, and trickles of blood started to drop on to the alter. Antony's blood mixed with the woman's blood as he finished carving the pentagram across his chest.

The face turned to vapor, and appeared to enter the man's body, through the open wounds on his chest. Antony's eyes opened, a slight red glow behind them for a moment.

"You see Jeff," he said quietly, "Gary Oldman got it right in Bram Stoker's Dracula..." he looked up to the ceiling.

"The blood is the life."

(Boy..that scene gets more and more disgusting every time I read it. Thanks, Lark :P

In other news, I wonder what Imitora has to say after he reads the past couple posts? heh...can't wait for it Imi ;))

"Alright now then, if we recall correctly your majesty you said...something of
that you found our feigned ignorace and condesending attitude to be rude.

We then asked how you would like us to act in your presence. Your reply was something about intentional misinterperation of your words.

Which was only more confusing since we were trying not to misinterpet them. And were asking for clarification of what you ment, To better understand and correct those things.

And who in the hell we going to make you look like a fool infront of. Your father's security? Our bodyguards, the Var? Hell we don't even know what happened in that room between you and Baroness Winton. She only says that, and we quote, "I have caused King James so much personal injury and pain that it is obvious that no break between us can be mended. I have failed my nation and Duke Williams..."

God this man is acting like a fifteen year old brat She stands there with an exasperated look. The Var believes he's been called and starts wandering this way. As does Mr. Crawfnord.

(Boy..that scene gets more and more disgusting every time I read it. Thanks, Lark :P

In other news, I wonder what Imitora has to say after he reads the past couple posts? heh...can't wait for it Imi ;))

(Don't thank me, thank my special "Antony Music File" which I put on to get... 'motivated' to write in Antony's frame of mind. :P )

Jeff stood in the shower, letting the warm water flow over him as he rolled his head and popped his neck.

What are you doing here?

He laid his head against the tile wall of the shower, letting the last of the soap disappear down the drain. Sophomoric pranks huh? god I hope my clothes are still in here.

(Damn, of course Anthony made a severe mistake. Horrifically murdering a virgin is one thing...a 'bride of christ' is another.)

Ann didn't flinch. She had steeled herself for seeing something even worse soon. Conner bleeding and dying after being analy raped.

She stopped the tape and began to study the scene. Looking for anything that might help them. Her eyes looked down at the body of the nun. Her eyes focued on the ring...

Jill looked down at the scene..."Strange, you wouldn't expect a married woman...a virgin yes but a married woman"

"A virgin who wears a wedding ring?"

The both look at each other and say..."a nun"

"Nun's don't vanish into thin air...most are part of the orginization of the church..." begins Ann.

"Yes, so guess I need to go to up the mountain and make a phone call...to my contacts at the Vatican..."

"Aww, you think they'll know anything?"

"The people who will take my call will have noticed a missing nun...they keep their antente on alert all the time...now don't do anything rash with that guy in the guest room while I'm gone." She points a finger at Ann, "I know how you hetero's get."

Ann gives her a look...

"I was listing - according to the generally accepted rules of English, the adjective 'feigned' would only apply to the word it was used with - your wording, your feigned ignorance, and your condescending attitude. Three separate noun-adjective groups, unless you want to think your ignorance was condescending as well, and your wording was both feigned and condescending.

"Not to mention that I explained explicitly how I would like you to act in my presence: not at all! Previous experience may have tainted me against anything or anyone from your country.

"Now, I'm very sorry that Baroness Winton and I were not able, now or at any conceivable future date, to work out our differences. However, I will not be swayed by that most reprehensible tactic, an irrational appeal to emotion. I am happy that Baroness Winton managed to realize, as I did after our first argument, how unreasonable she was being, but I cannot anticipate us ever making up our differences - I went to talk to her with an apology and an offer to rescind my previous, admittedly rash actions in hand; she rejected both.

"If that is the sort of person the Dual Duchy has representing itself in foreign lands, I can honestly say that I will never be truly comfortable with any of its emissaries."

Jeff finished dressing and looked at himself in the mirror, "Well, looking almost presentable at least," he said to himself as he walked out and back down the stairs.

"So what did I end up missing?"

(A&H, check your TG's for some background if you want to use it)

"Alright, we both agree that you believed I feigned ignorance at why I am rude. So, I'm going to be rude from now on, and you can compare."

"First you little twit I have had it up to here with your circular arguments and your refusal to answer a simple question. I have asked repeatedly for some illustrative example, an explination of the basis of your feelings and all I've gotten is the third degree as though I were Malthus himself with your child in the pot.

You have accused me of attempting to make you look like a fool. The only person here that is making themselves look foolish is you. Instead of answering a fairly simple question you avoid it and accuse me of trying to entrap you. Which says to me there is no answer, that all of the following has been a white wash for your own emotional responses. The fact is that you are a spoiled brat who doesn't like female authority figures. One who might emotionally care about other people as long as fit their proper place in the world as ordained by the God Prince James. Now go run off and have your pathetic little hissy fit, before I declare war on your pathetic little country."

"Oh and you can explain to Iancorp, Royal Mines and Manufacturing, and the rest why their ships are no longer allowed in Klatchian or Alconian waters. I'm sure Royal will be thrilled that they will have to shut down their gold minning operations in the Klatch."

(Ooooooo Kay, this didn't go do well.. Too late for both sides to kiss and make up? ;) )
"Alright, we both agree that you believed I feigned ignorance at why I am rude. So, I'm going to be rude from now on, and you can compare."

"First you little twit I have had it up to here with your circular arguments and your refusal to answer a simple question. I have asked repeatedly for some illustrative example, an explination of the basis of your feelings and all I've gotten is the third degree as though I were Malthus himself with your child in the pot.

You have accused me of attempting to make you look like a fool. The only person here that is making themselves look foolish is you. Instead of answering a fairly simple question you avoid it and accuse me of trying to entrap you. Which says to me there is no answer, that all of the following has been a white wash for your own emotional responses. The fact is that you are a spoiled brat who doesn't like female authority figures. One who might emotionally care about other people as long as fit their proper place in the world as ordained by the God Prince James. Now go run off and have your pathetic little hissy fit, before I declare war on your pathetic little country."

"Oh and you can explain to Iancorp, Royal Mines and Manufacturing, and the rest why their ships are no longer allowed in Klatchian or Alconian waters. I'm sure Royal will be thrilled that they will have to shut down their gold minning operations in the Klatch."

(OOC: really...King James has just constantly avoided her questions and was fairly condesending towards her. God, I mean every time she attempted to be reasonable and get to the bottom of things James went off like a overfulled cannon...))

Crawfnord pauses mid-stride...Oh f***

He makes a frantic phone call to the only person he can think of...Dr. Niven. "Ah Doctor Niven, I need you to calm down King James before he says something really stupid...like declares war on a nation four times his size..."

(ooc: [doesn't kiss and make up]...I've honestly always been in awe of the skill you and T.B. have at solving these sorts of crises, Lark. I'm pretty terrible at it. ;)

Well, you were quite correct when you said James has trouble with female authority figures (he doesn't listen to his mother, either ;)). However, I'm really having trouble finding the question he 'didn't answer'...I think he did at least an adequate job of addressing both the 'what did we do to you' and 'how shall we act' questions)

James stared at her in brief shock, then started laughing. That went on for about thirty seconds, before he came up, resting his hand on his stomach.

"You do play a fine game of one-upsmanship, don't you?" he asked, a ridiculous smile on his face. "I tell you that I'd prefer if your self-absorbed statesmen or stateswomen delt with my subordinates - and you cancel trade relations! How delightful! Is it my turn now?"

Then, in one second, the smile was gone, and he frowned severely. "Now, look - I've been called a lot worse and Iansisle's been insulted a lot worse. If you think for one second that some snotty-nosed little upstart throwing about terms like 'pathetic little hissyfit' and 'pathetic little country' - I think the variety of the insults more than makes up for their lack of quality - is going to make me back down, you're sadly mistaken.

"I'll be sure to let both Royal Mining and Manufacturing and IanCorp know just why their trade is being refused: because an unreasonable, megalomaniacal tyrant willed it to be so. How will you explain that same cancelation of trade to the many Klatchians who will be adversely affected?"

Edit: Actually I-man, you kinda lost me too on the whole what's expected thing. I'd like Jeff to help out, and maybe he can, but he's got his mind full.. :?

(Well there's always next time to kiss and make up, call me an optimist.. ;) And speaking of not being an optimist...)

Antony sat in the hotel room again, while Dariana lay on the bed, passed out from exhaustion.

There's something I need to take care of

He waved a hand quickly, and a rift opened up in front of him, a sickly green glow was seen eminating from it. He stepped inside and the rift closed behind him.

-----

Throne Room, Cathedral of Punishment, Deadside

Antony stood in the empty room, silent save for the screams of people throughout the castle. Their shreaks and screams brought a smile to his face. The inside of the castle looked like any other, but from the outside, the walls seemed to be made of living, pulsing, bleeding flesh, sickly against the green sky outside.

Antony looked around as he stepped down from the steps and walked into the hallway... Damnit! which way had it been. He didn't get a signal from Jeff now, he was trying to navigate this from memory.

He walked down two flights of stairs, and through another corridor. Two spectral minions stood between him and the door in front of him. The pentagram on his chest glowed brilliantly, through his shirt. The two minions saw the sign, and parted for him.

He opened the door... yes, this was the one.

The rift before him showed Katherine in the hospital bed, and two guards keeping watch.

He stepped through the doors.

-----

Dr. Niven answered the call from the cell, "I'll be right the..."

The temperature dropped noticably.

"Oh no..."

-----

The two guards turned when the saw Antony, now flaming, step through the doors. They turned their rifles on him, but before they could split he was next to them. Taking each of their heads in his burning hands, he slammed them together. The sickening crack filled the room.

He dropped the bodies and pulling out a fountain pen as he walked to the doorway before the guards could arrive. He squirted the acid in the inkwell into the locking mechanism and onto the security keypad.

Then he looked at the camera in the room, grinning he turned to Katherine. He reached out , setting his hand above her chest as blue sparks started to rise from her, swirling under his hand.

Edit: Actually I-man, you kinda lost me too on the whole what's expected thing. I'd like Jeff to help out, and maybe he can, but he's got his mind full.. :?

(oops...did I? Well, probably. I have to admit I'm sort-of-doing this with the side of my brain (watching Star Trek bumps even NationStates to the side ;)) oh well, what's done is done.

And I think we can forgive Jeff....this time! :)

EDIT: What I meant James' response to mean for that question was sort of an see no evil, be no evil solution - Alconian reps. don't get sent to him. What with the vast Iansislean government, I don't think cutting the King out of the loop on just about any issue is that big a deal.)

Edit: Actually I-man, you kinda lost me too on the whole what's expected thing. I'd like Jeff to help out, and maybe he can, but he's got his mind full.. :?

(oops...did I? Well, probably. I have to admit I'm sort-of-doing this with the side of my brain (watching Star Trek bumps even NationStates to the side ;)) oh well, what's done is done.

And I think we can forgive Jeff....this time! :))
(LOL, heh heh, thanks. I'll see what can be done to salvage this when he gets back. I sense a meeting at Casa de Williams.)

Niven come running back through one edge of the courtyard and burst into the hospital. Looking at the monitor, he sees the actions taking place.

He growls and sprints to the door, raising a boot he starts to kick it open.

-----

The first slam of the boot against the door jars Antony from his task. The second one, with the groaning of the hinges breaks his concentration. He clenches one hand around the sparks that had flown into it.

"That's all for now, I'll come back for the rest of you later... dear."

As the door flies open, Niven catches a glimpse of a flaming Antony step back into the shadows and vanish as the door in the cathedral is closed.

OOC: Well actually no, I don't see an aswer all I see his him constantly accusing her of entrampment. And his comment..."I don't want to deal with you..." sounds a bit pathetic really.

IC:"I'm so glad your laughing. Since it only proves a point. Specifically when I irrationally threw out all of Iansilse trade out of the Klatch. You called it Tyranical and me a meglomanaic. Yet when you throw out a woman out of not just your nation, but all of your allies nations, your perfectly justifiable? She presents no threat to your crown does she. No, you just didn't like her, so you acted like a tyrant having a fit. Then you gave her some appology with a nice noose tied around it like a pretty little bow to make yourself feel better and let your government do the dirty work of killing her off. Now explain that or am I once again twisting your words around? No your majesty...we've insulted each other for no apparent good reason other than to satisfy our own egos...which really is foolish."

James snorted. "Is that what this is all about? Not surprising, given the utter lack of knowledge about diplomatic protocol Baroness Winton displayed earlier. Being persona non grata isn't the same as being exiled: it simply means that person is no longer welcome to continue in a diplomatic function in a given state.

"Furthermore I - apparently, quite unlike your tyrannical powers in the Klatch - have no power to dictate policy in New Highlands member states. I can suggest that a person be barred from being the representative to the New Highlands, but only a vote of the Council would determine such things.

"My offer was to let her continue to function in her role as an ambassador to the New Highlands, as well as conduct official business on the Shield when her duties demanded it. Quite some noose, no?

(What we have here is.... failure to communicate. ;) )

Niven looked at Katherine and quickly examined her. She was ice cold to the touch, her vital signs were low.

"Quickly," he said to a nurse who had walked in, "We need to elevate her body temperature, have her brought into the cybernetic IC unit. And I want around the clock, complete unit watch in her room!"

The nurses moved the gurney into the main cybernetic chamber while Niven prepared the rejuvination tanks. He'd used them on Jeff when he'd implanted the majority of his enhancements, now he was hoping the environment would help keep Katherine alive.

She was slipped into the recovery harness and Niven slipped her into the tank. He quickly checked the breathing equipment and saw that she was breathing all right. The viscious fluid surrounded her, and kept her body warm.

Niven stormed out of the room as the guards filed in. He walked out and spotted James and Victoria's... spirited argument.

In the background the children could still be heard playing with Sir Meow on the beach.

"You two. I don't know what your f---ing problems are, and right now I don't care," Niven said as his scottish burr kicked in (well he is based on Sean Connery). "But right now I need your help in identifying something that just happened to Katherine."

"You two. I don't know what your f---ing problems are, and right now I don't care," Niven said as his scottish burr kicked in (well he is based on Sean Connery). "But right now I need your help in identifying something that just happened to Katherine."

If it was possible to have a complete emotional turnabout in less than a nano-second, that's what happened to James. One moment, his face was the perfect mask of fury; the next, nothing but concern, perhaps even bordering on panic, was all that could be seen.

"Something happened to Kate? What was it - is she all right?" The questions poured from him even as he started to make for the manor.

"No she's not all right, someone was in the room with her. Tall dark and flaming, sound familiar?? He took something from her.. like.. it might.. you have to see the video."

"Very familiar," said James. "Took something from her?" he mused. "No, I don't like the sound of that at all. Where's the video?"

(think we ought to wait for A+H?)

(For this part, yeah, I figured Niven would kinda stop the fight and get you two to check out the security video. And on that note, I'm off like a drunk cheerleader's T-Shirt at a frat party, catch ya on the flip side)

(Where do you GET these analogies?! :lol: )

(I dunno, I just get them ;) )

Victoria raised an eyebrow at both the Doctor's response and James response.

Well he actually cares about someone besides himself.

She nods to the doctor. "At once, Doctor we will give any and all assistance that we can." She follows although avoids looking at James.

Niven leads the group into the small security office, "Play it again, Sam," he says to the security guard at the first console. The man punches up a display and replays the burning version of Jeff attack the guards and perform some ceremony over Katherine.

Victoria turns to the doctor, "What is the patient's current condition?" She is dialing a number into a small cellphone. She looks down at her watch also...

***
Jeff discovers that he is apparently in a maze of hall and rooms.

***
At the edge of the medow a man stands looking through bonoculars at Red Lodge. He looks down at his watch...

"She's in the cybernetic rejuvenation tank right now, I'm trying to keep her body warm, she's got low vital signs," Niven said.

-----

Jeff sighed, Damnit all Jeff, let's try to not get too lost in the house. He turned to go back... which way did he walk in from.. He looks down and checks his watch (why the heck not, everyone else is. :P )

"That - " started James, watching the display "- is no good. Do you have any idea what that...stuff coming from Kate?"

Niven shrugged, "I have an idea. Knowing you're not the most religious man on the planet it may be hard to believe, but I think it's her 'soul'?"

"Her soul!?" asked James, his mouth hanging open. "That's preposterous! Her soul? I mean.."

His voice started to trail off as he though of the alternatives - which were few and even more preposterous.

"Well, I can't think of any other alternatives, and given what we've seen in the last few years, it's not totally preposterous," Niven sighed.

"Yeah," agreed James with a sigh. "Which begs the question: how do we get it -" he seemed unwilling to say the word soul "- back?

"Except.." he started, "going to get it back!" James took a deep breath. "Dad, I'm going to need one of your transports."

Niven looked at James a minute, "If you think I'm letting you go after this psychopath alone, you're insane. I've already got one son on the verge of a breakdown, I don't need another one out there missing."

"Well, I'm not just going to sit here and do nothing," said James firmly. "I've done far too much of that in the past."

"Well right now, until we get Jeff and the rest back, we need to figure out what happened, and what to do next." Niven said.

James flexed his hand open and then closed again. Waiting with... well, whatever was wrong with Katherine sure didn't feel right. He wished, not for the first time, that Michael were still about. He would know what to do.

"How did she look when you found her, Dad?" asked James, trying to think of something other than how good Antony's neck would feel in his hands - or on the other side of his blade.

"She looked..." Niven shook his head, he switched to another camera in the cybernetics lab. James could see Katherine enveloped in the liquid, a breathing tube in her mouth.

"She didn't look too good," he finally said.

James flexed his hand open and closed again. He didn't like feeling so helpless. "Dad, I really need to borrow a transport," he said, but he threw up his hands before Niven could say anything.

"I know what you're thinking, but I've no intention of taking it to Lyone. (Lyonne?) I'm pretty worthless here; I know nothing about the mythological or the medical. But there's .. something I need to grab in Iansisle."

Niven looked at James, "And what is it you'll be needing from Dun Adien?"

He'd already started dialing up a transport for him when he asked the question.

James shrugged. "Just a few things."

(be right back.)

(gotcha)

"All right, it'll be landing at the pad in a few minutes," Niven said.

"Great, thanks Dad," said James, embracing him quickly. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

He turned to walk up to the landing pad.

Niven hugged James back, "You'd better be boy," he said with a quiver in his voice. "I'm losing enough children today."

As James walked toward the landing pad Marcus waved at him in the distance, "Hi Uncle James!!" he shouted.

The transport was waiting for him when he arrived on the pad.

"Don't worry," James smiled as he walked out the door.

"Hi, Marcus!" he shouted, waving back. "Sandcastle's looking good!"

He settled into the passanger compartment. "Dun Adien's courtyard, and quickly please."

The pilot nodded and the transport shot into the air.

A few hours later

The transport was on final approach to Dun Adien and quickly touched down with a fury of steam in the courtyard.

"Thanks," James just had time to shout as he lept from the transport, "I'll be back in a flash!" And much to the surprise of the few KIG men who had assembled about, he rushed past them and towards his bedroom. A few minutes later, he was back with a large duffle bag nearly as long as James was tall.

He flopped it into the transport's passanger section - it made a distinct clanging sound.

"And back to the mansion, if you don't mind," said James, who was slightly out of breath.

(And what's any King without his 8-foot-long sword? ;) Damn, wish I'd thought of that, Jeff's got that sword in his mansion.)

"Right," the pilot said taking off again (any KIG men with him?)

The transport landed a little while later at Niven's home.

(heh...why not?)

Just as the transport was about to take off, Weathers jumped in.

"I don't think so..." James started.

"Anywhere you're going with that sword, you're going with me too," said Weathers. "Your Majesty," he added on the end.

"All right," he sighed. "But we ought to get out of here before anyone else gets any bright ideas."

"Right," the pilot grinned closing the doors and taking off at the same time.

(hmmm...I hate to spoil a good party, but this seems like the perfect time to be waiting for A+H :()

(not at all, I was thinking the same thing, and who knows, I might just get one more Antony post... Hey wait a sec! is James ready to talk with the man face to face?? :twisted: er.. on a video phone at least?)

(*taps thumbs together*

I guess so...would this be something on the transport?)

(I was thinking...)

As James walked off the pad and into the mansion to drop his bag off at his room, a soft ringing from the main video phone could be heard in the house. No one appeared to be around to answer it.

"Hello?" called James once. No one answered.

"Confound it," he muttered, walking over to the video phone. "How do I work this contraption?" He pushed a likely looking button.

A familiar, smirking face was seen on the screen. It suddenly looked surprised, "Well, you're not Jeffie. You look familiar though... yeah, you were with that bitch in the hospital.."

"You," growled James. He reached for his duffle bag, but managed to remember this was just an image in time.

Weathers looked at the videophone. "Antony?"

"Yes," confirmed James. "What do you want?"

Antony smiled in satisfaction at James's confirmation, "What do all great men want in life? Power? Money? Gold? Jewels? Ahhhh jewels," he said.

He showed a brilliant blue sapphire to the camera, "Or more precisely, the jewel to Jeffie's heart. I'm guessing you've seen the video, does the color look familiar," he said as the smile morphed into a smirk.

"What did you do to her?" asked James furiously.

"Tut Tut." Antony said, amused, "Before I answer that, you must tell me who you are and why you care."

"Oh no," retorted James. "Not that easy. You can just call me ...Brian."

"Brian eh? Brian the butler? Well, we'll go with that before I send you buttle-ing your way to find me someone worthy of talking to a god.

"What did I do to her? I took the one thing of hers that Jeff could never have. He may have her heart, but I have her soul," he said glancing at the jewel. "Very pretty isn't it. I might have it mounted and wear it as a pendant. Or who knows, I might just sell it on the open market."

"Yeah, we'll go with that," retorted James. "One thing, though - you're not a god, whatever dark powers you may have stumbled upon in a back alley. Now listen carefully: we'll have Katherine's soul back."

"Oh you will? And how do you propose to get it?" he says tossing the jewel up and down in his hand. One time he misses the catch and a clacking is heard on the floor. "Oh, excuse me a moment," he bends down, showing the people walking on the sidewalk behind him.

"Oh dear," he sits back up, "look at that," he shows James the crystal, now with a crack in it. "I hope that doesn't do any damage to her soul. Well it's not like I got all of it, I'll have to come back again for it.

"Speaking of Jeffie's dear family, has he been getting my little home movies?"

James' face contorted in fury. "Tell me where you are. I'll come and fight you like a man - but you've already proven yourself a dog. Attacking a helpless woman as she lay in bed? Killing children and nuns?" He spat on the ground.

"Oooooooooh, the butler boy is mad at me. What are you going to do? Withhold the cream for my coffee?

"So Jeffie is so scared of me that he'd rather send the butler to do a man's work," he smirked and blew James a kiss. "You want to fight me like a man? A man against a god? It'd hardly be a fair fight," he started tossing the crystal up and down again.

*clink*

"Oh damn, I did it again." he said pulling the video camera out of the holster as he stood up. He pointed it down at the jewel and then back up to his face, "I'm such a klutz." He pointed the camera down as he tried to move around the small booth. James saw one of the boots step on the jewel. The sound of crystal popping and grinding was heard and when Antony removed his boot, there was shattered blue crystal and dust on the ground.

Antony pointed the camera back up to his face and looked at it in mock shock and horror, "Oops...

James was shaking in rage. Without another word, he turned from the console and ran for where Kate was being kept. Weathers started to follow him, hesitated, and glanced down at the figure on the screen.

"God, I never remember, was her soul in that crystal... or this one," Antony asked Weathers, waving a hand while another crystal appeared in his palm, this one glowing inside. "I'd be willing to bet this is the one," he grinned. "But the look on his face was so very worth it, I just wish it had been Jeffie.

"A butler, who looks like Jeffie's little pal, with a security guard," Antony said after setting the camera back on the pedestal. He shook his head. "You know chappie, I could give you a better deal than whoever that is will."

Niven looked at the door as James came running into the room, "Good god boy, it looks like you've seen a ghost."

Weathers snorted. "My honor's not up for sale."

(ah, the KIG - more or less the sole exception to the general rule about Iansisleans ;))

--

"Is Kate all right?" panted James. "...Antony, he called...is she all right?"

(and I think this is getting dangerously close to something we'd need A+H for ...I mean, James was gone for a few hours)

"Honor," Antony sneered back, "An outdated form of control. I don't care about your honor, I'm offering you more money and women and power than any butler could."

-----

"What do you mean?" Niven asked, "There's no change that I've seen."

(Yeah, I thought James would like a little word sparring with Antony. Oh, and check your TG's)

"Some of us like outdated things," shot back Weathers. "Religion, though dated, can still provide comfort. Honor can still provide far more comfort than any two-bit whore or pile of generals."

((TG checked/sent back...sorry about the delay!)

(got it, will get to work on it)

"Religion, how many people have died in the name of religion?

"Well it's your loss. Honor? It's your weakness. Just like that pathetic brother of mine," Antony replied. "Why will he always be pathetic? Because the narrow confines of his mind can't get past his moral code. That's why he's so easy to read, and his family is such an easy target." Antony waited a moment.

"Tell your butler friend I'll be seeing him around again," Antony said. "Ta ta."

He click off the transmission.

(and I'm outta here, g'night man!)

(g'night, dude!)

Weathers just shook his head. "I feel truly sorry for you."

He pushed the button to turn off the phone after Antony's image vanished.

(OOC: Yeah Tech Support!)

Victoria had nodded and left the house to get a signal. She was sitting on a bench overlooking the sea by the time James had returned. She was watching the children and Tom was sitting next to her. He trying to comfort her.

Flashback
Dr Niven's phone rang again..."Ah, hello Dr. Niven?" It was a female but unkown voice...(I'd assume James has just left)

***
The man in black turned and walked back in the tree line to two cars stitting in the middle of the road. "It's time...she's been here for eighteen hours...."
"And she resigned...Your sure"
An older man looked up from the front car.
"Yes, she resigned..."
"Good, now Yosef I want her dead, understand..."

"Yes...but those knights are going to demand that one of them be the Marshall of the Feild...."

"Fine, someone go pick up them up..."

***
Bathus turned around the corner and hit a rough moutain road at almost sixty miles an hour. A man in kaki and the doughnuts rolled into the far side of the car. The man in kaki said "Stop...we're not going to make it in time..."

Bathus looked at the old man next to him. "Sir, you...I mean...damn...bastards..."

OOC: I think we are going to have to catch things up on my end...