Subject: You spotted it! ^_^
Author:
Posted on: 2019-06-14 08:51:00 UTC
'Purple up' indeed.
hS
Subject: You spotted it! ^_^
Author:
Posted on: 2019-06-14 08:51:00 UTC
'Purple up' indeed.
hS
In the far reaches of the PPC General Store, beyond the shelves we know, something lurked. Dust-covered, lit only by flickering fluorescence, it waited for a foolhardy adventurer, an outstretched hand, the curiousity that would kill not only the cat, but the dog and budgie too. It was patient; it could wait for years, decades if it had to-
"Oh, cool!"
Agent Kaitlyn grabbed the box off the shelf and waved it at her partner. "This is like that film, right? The Robin Williams one? I love that."
Agent Selene paused in her search through the clothing section (she refused to say what she was looking for). "I think there's a sequel now," she said. "A computer game or something."
"Well, this isn't that." Kaitlyn turned the box over and studied the picture. "Definitely the original. I'm getting it!"
"As long as you don't expect me to play it with you." Selene pushed a rack of coats aside and peered through. "Oh, someone stuck a lamppost and some fake snow back here, how droll... Kaitlyn?"
Kaitlyn was already gone, heading for the tills with a determined expression. Five minutes later, she was on her way to the Cafeteria - and in the way of things at HQ, a crowd of curious and foolhardy agents was already forming behind her...
Charlotte had thought this was a bad idea. A terrible, horrible, no-good very, very bad idea, but she felt she owed Kaitlyn (even though this technically was her volunteering to play rather being roped in as part of the favor she owed).
Now, though, she was beginning to regret asking as the ground underneath them began trembling.
Technician Alex Dives gulped and reached up to lightly scritch his blue fire-lizard's eye ridges. "Shh, Zeke," he murmured. "It's alright."
"You have seen the movie before, right?" Charlotte demanded.
"Only once," Alex admitted. "And I was just a kid, then, so—"
He was cut off when the ground erupted and out poured a swarm of beetles, earthworms, ants, and—
"SPIDERS!" Charlotte screamed, jumping up and tripping over her feet. In her haste to get away, coupled with a healthy dose of sheer terror, she'd forgotten she wasn't a vampire anymore.
Zeke screeched and took flight, circling anxiously above the game board as Alex grit his teeth and pressed through the swarm to grab the dice.
One and four. The orange piece moved ahead and words appeared in the center.
Now turn your faces to the sky
Unless you'd rather keep them dry.
[Purple: 9. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 5. (Teal: 17). Purple up.]
At a table that was neither in a corner nor, in Agent Peri's opinion, nearly far enough from the probably-dangerous boardgame, Agent Leo was bothering his partner.
"I'm telling you, I'm going to do it." The taller dark-skinned man leaned partway over the table, almost vibrating in excitement.
"Agent Leofric, you are not going to table-flip their game of Jumanji. For one, even if it is not the 'real deal', it would be extremely rude. For another-"
Of course, that was when when the ground erupted. Peri startled, whipping around to grab an appropriate non-lethal weapon from their backpack.
Unfortunately, in that time Leofric had darted over to the board game and its audience.
"Use your plates as shields!" he shouted - because that was when the rain started.
It wasn't acid rain, but it smelled very unpleasant.
"Here, let me have a turn."
Flinging the various upturned animals away with cutlery, he aimed one that seemed large enough to hit the dice, issuing a softer "Sorry, Alex!" in the process.
Two and three.
The purple piece moved again as new words appeared:
Although you are in the jungle
You hear, you feel, the ocean's rumble.
[Purple: 14. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 5. (Teal: 17). Orange up.]
Then the side wall of the Cafeteria sloughed down with a splash into an expanse of water that was, rather suddenly, there. A wave hit the edge of the generic floor, completely drenching the sandwiches that two students had snuck in to eat.
Wilma glowered as her sandwich dissolved between her hands. "Um. Seriously. Seriously?"
"You'd think the adults around this place would know better," said Anne, letting her own sandwich splat onto the table.
Wilma put both hands on the table and stood up, in a somehow violent manner. "They should leave the games to us kids! I'm going to finish this myself!"
"That's probably not a good—aaaaand she's gone." Anne grimaced for a moment, then stood and followed after her friend.
By the time Anne caught up, Wilma had already seized the dice and rolled: two and two. The orange piece moved, and the next message appeared.
A feathered cacophony all around
Guard your ears against the sound
[Purple: 14. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 9. (Teal: 17). Orange up.]
—doctorlit 's spellcheck doesn't think "snuck" is a word
Kaitlyn had just enough time to slap her hands over her ears before a kaleidoscope of birds exploded out of the ceiling. These weren't simply Earth birds, either, but a collection from across dozens of canons.
"This was a bad idea!" Kaitlyn shouted, as an angry-looking Zapdos screeched at a bewildered ostrich amid the flood. "This was a bad idea!"
"I think possibly I might have actually said that," Aella yelled back, and snatched up the dice. "Doubles means you go again, right? Right, and repeating things is my whole job now."
She flicked her wrist, and the dice tumbled across the rain-soaked board. The nearest agents just had enough time to see them settle out as a 4 and 1 before-
-Clatter!-
-a small and rather frantic-looking green parrot snatched them up in its claws and headed for the door.
"Oh, what?!"
And the poem ghosted into view, unheeded...
Five you rolled, and five you'll need
If you'd escape the Tyrant's greed
[Purple: 14. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 14. (Teal: 17). Purple up.]
hS
'Purple up' indeed.
hS
Alex pointed frantically at the parrot, and the little blue fire-lizard darted after it, snapping at the parrot’s tail feathers.
They collided in midair and tussled, green and blue turning over and over as they tumbled to the ground. Alex lunged and caught them before they hit concrit and wrested the dice from the parrot’s talons, which garnered him a few scratches for his trouble.
There was a loud roar, and a very large, very hungry lion slunk into view.
“Tyrant,” Charlotte said faintly. “King of the jungle. Right.” She tapped her necklace, which she’d stolen off a Sue, and a sword expanded in her hand. “Nice kitty?”
“Who’s on purple team?!” Alex screamed over the cacophony, holding up the dice. “I don’t think this thing’s as nice as Zeb!”
She knew that the only way to avoid an even bigger catastrophe was to end this game as soon as possible, and that meant playing.
Keeping one careful eye on the lion, she announced breathlessly: "I'll go!"
"That's a very bad idea," said Edward, as he walked up behind her.
Kat shrugged and snatched the dice from Alex. Without pausing, she rolled them gently onto the table. Four and three.
Another poem appeared in the middle of the board as the purple piece shifted forward seven spaces.
Darkness falls upon the jungle,
And out of the earth rises something fungal
Kat reached up and pulled a feather out of her hair. It might not work on the lion, but it was worth a try.
She held the feather in one outstretched arm and looked directly at the lion. "C-cast your eyes upon this feather," she tried to say, but she knew at once it hadn't worked. The lion growled and to her horror, Kat saw it crouch, preparing to spring...
[Purple: 21. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 14. (Teal: 17). Orange up.]
he had started his spring over one of the cracks that had erupted with bugs earlier. Now, a burst of dust spewed upwards from the crack, and the lion started, shaking his mane and sneezing. Immediately, shelf fungus of a sickly yellow color began growing across the lion's fur.
"Oh, ew!" yelled Wilma. "That's super nasty-looking!"
As the lion's face became covered in growths, he made chuffing noises and tried to rub them fungi off with a front paw, which itself became covered. He clumsily began staggering around, making spores drift off him to the ground. He nearly trampled a trio of plovers, which began pipping in panic as they, too, became hosts to the shelf fungus.
"Oh, jeeze," said Anne. As she ran for the dice, she yelled out to the room, "Everybody, stay away from those mushroomy animals!" She rolled while muttering, "Gotta tell the grown-ups these things, otherwise they get themselves hurt . . ."
Five and three. The orange piece slid forward eight, and the smoky ball said:
Soil spills, creatures flee, tree trunks crash
The sky is dry, yet water arrives in a flash
[Purple: 21. (Yellow: 11) Orange: 22. (Teal: 17). Purple up.]
—doctorlit apologizes for deus ex machin-ing the lion, but he doesn't think we stood much of a chance against an adult big cat with the cast we have assembled . . .