[Story] Chronicles of Jakob Pettersohn (01/Jun/08 - Final chapter)

[Tapewolf]

But when a feline huntsman burst in through the door wielding a crossbow and shouting "DEATH TO THE INCUBUS!", it became clear that something was amiss.

Heheh. That's great. Something about the way Jakob was thinking in that situation.

This is a nod to two things: Sheridan's character 'Arc' in the FCRP, and a real event from the peasant's revolt of 1381.  Apparently the rather amoral Bishop of Salisbury was celebrating Mass when an angry mob suddenly rushed into the cathedral shouting "Death to the Bishop!".  They say he made it halfway across the plain before they got him.

As it I happened, I was in the vicinity of a new mill about which a certain amount of excitement was being made,

The word "I" at the marked point appears to be a typo, in case you were wondering about such things. Other than that it looks great.

Fixed.  It was a last-minute change to try and cut down on the number of sentences starting with 'I'.

[Sid]

Yay! Update!

But when a feline huntsman burst in through the door wielding a crossbow and shouting "DEATH TO THE INCUBUS!", it became clear that something was amiss.

I love that line. It strikes me as hilariously rational and analytic... and I somehow recognize myself in that sort of behaviour XD

In all likelihood the spell would take far too long and succeed only in bringing my murdered corpse back to SAIA, not quite the result Fa'lina had envisaged when she gave it to me.

Fa'Lina: *walks over to Jakob's teleported corpse* *kicks it lightly* "I hate it when that happens..."

Okay, seriously, that's my second fav line in the chapter. Again because Jakob's being very rational even while being attacked.

Minor points I noticed while reading:
- The tendency towards timeskips to illustrate the way Cubi think of time ("Couple of hundred years is not much...") strikes again. This time it seems to work much better than the last time since there are less loose ends to tie. Well, maybe aside from Izak, but then again, this is Jakob's story, so I guess we'll see his brother again sooner or later in a sort of guest role.
- Jakob's accidentally reappearing headwings somehow reminded me of Abel's reaction when Dan saw him wingless for the first time ("Hmm? *checks* Still gone...").
- Something that struck me as odd was that so many people obscured their thoughts. Especially in such a situation, most people should have a hard time concealing their fear and hate. But I also acknowledge that the situation had called for Jakob to not know of this in advance, so it's just a side note
- The story seemed to flow much better here. I'm not sure if that's just my view of things or something else. It may be the added variety in sentence beginnings, the setting and theme, or maybe just the various subtle nods and quirks you built in without making them stick out. No matter what, I'm very pleased with the chapter and quite happy I decided to follow the story in the first place. Please keep it up, I'm curious to see what happens next!

[Tapewolf]

But when a feline huntsman burst in through the door wielding a crossbow and shouting "DEATH TO THE INCUBUS!", it became clear that something was amiss.

I love that line. It strikes me as hilariously rational and analytic... and I somehow recognize myself in that sort of behaviour XD

I'm glad that worked.  I wasn't sure.. it's the sort of thing I'd do in the walkthroughs.

Fa'Lina: *walks over to Jakob's teleported corpse* *kicks it lightly* "I hate it when that happens..."

Jakob's shade: "Show some respect, you heartless old cow."

Okay, seriously, that's my second fav line in the chapter. Again because Jakob's being very rational even while being attacked.

Not to rain on your parade, but it's a bit more like he's thinking back over an event from several hundred years ago.  He may not have been quite that rational at the time, although now you come to mention it..

The tendency towards timeskips to illustrate the way Cubi think of time ("Couple of hundred years is not much...") strikes again. This time it seems to work much better than the last time since there are less loose ends to tie. Well, maybe aside from Izak, but then again, this is Jakob's story, so I guess we'll see his brother again sooner or later in a sort of guest role.

Firstly, the time skip.  I haven't planned his entire career at SAIA, in fact I'm not even sure what emotion he takes most of his energy from, although I'm gravitating towards wonder and surprise.  Anyway, I've left SAIA kind of open.  There's a few ideas I'm toying with and I'll probably go back and fill them in afterwards like Michael Moorcock did with Elric (born 1960, killed off 1963, conquered the realm 1972, last known story 1991..).

As for Izak I'm a little nervous about writing for him, he's based in part off my brother you see, only he doesn't know :twisted
In fact, for all Jakob's family, the first letter of their name corresponds to my family, although the similarities mostly end there... except for Jakob himself who is a sort of warped version of me.
Jakob was never supposed to have such a life of his own, really - if I'd planned it properly, the names are something I would have changed.  But anyway, now I've created Izak I can't get rid of him, but he will mostly be confined to bit-parts.

Jakob's accidentally reappearing headwings somehow reminded me of Abel's reaction when Dan saw him wingless for the first time ("Hmm? *checks* Still gone...").

Kind of, only Jakob gets it wrong.

Something that struck me as odd was that so many people obscured their thoughts. Especially in such a situation, most people should have a hard time concealing their fear and hate.

Perhaps they have a 'cubi drill'.  Perhaps Jakob can sense their fear but not the reason for it.  If he was kind of drowsy before the huntsman turned up, it might also explain why his headwings reappeared.

- The story seemed to flow much better here. I'm not sure if that's just my view of things or something else. It may be the added variety in sentence beginnings, the setting and theme, or maybe just the various subtle nods and quirks you built in without making them stick out. No matter what, I'm very pleased with the chapter and quite happy I decided to follow the story in the first place. Please keep it up, I'm curious to see what happens next!

Thanks.  You wouldn't believe how little idea I have of how these things are going to unfold before I write them...

**EDIT**
I'm disappointed, no-one's noticed that the Patron of Ha'Khun has changed from 'Azrael' to 'Page'..

[James StarRunner]

**EDIT**
I'm disappointed, no-one's noticed that the Patron of Ha'Khun has changed from 'Azrael' to 'Page'..

Gak! I didn't pay attention to the town! I thought it was funny that Page was an angel as well. I had some suspicion, but I didn't put 2 and 2 together. I thought Jakob still had to meet Azrael.

[Sid]

Jakob was never supposed to have such a life of his own, really

Jakob: *standing behind you* "Show some respect, author..." ()

Perhaps they have a 'cubi drill'.

That would be the only drill where Step One reads "Think happy thoughts"
But yes, tiredness and such would of course be possible reasons. The entire thing is of course minor, since all protagonists will have to let their guard down once in a while to run into a bad situation. Would be a fairly boring story otherwise ("After a few hundred years, I left SAIA. I spent the next thousand years... living among beings who never recognized me. ...I think I once caught a bad cold... but that's pretty much all that happened...")

You wouldn't believe how little idea I have of how these things are going to unfold before I write them...

I do, actually. It's the same here when I'm staring at my text editor ^^;

[Lysander]

You wouldn't believe how little idea I have of how these things are going to unfold before I write them...

I know of some who use the idea "I don't know what I'm thinking until I write it down." Usually end up holding true.

I'm disappointed, no-one's noticed that the Patron of Ha'Khun has changed from 'Azrael' to 'Page'..

Gah, didn't even realize that was the town. No wonder I couldn't put the connection together until now. I thought about the name when I read it for a moment but couldn't think of why is sounded different.

[Drake Manaweilder]

hmm.. seems that angel has a few things planned.. Even if you hadn't added the "for good and ill" line I'd still get the feeling that it wouldn't turn out very well for Jakob in the end...

Personally, I'm hooked.
Keep up the good work!

[Tapewolf]

hmm.. seems that angel has a few things planned.. Even if you hadn't added the "for good and ill" line I'd still get the feeling that it wouldn't turn out very well for Jakob in the end...

Many people here already know roughly what's going to happen, but even so I never could resist dropping a hint, especially not when it took weeks to record.

http://www.dougtheeagle.com/stuff/the_dark_revenge_of_jakob_pettersohn_spoiler.wav.mp3

I have censored out the critical word in Jakob's tirade by pulling the tape away from the heads with a q-tip.

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 4

Page knocked twice and entered my office.  "How's it coming, Yak?" he asked.  "I'll need your design for the control system fairly soon."
Looking up, I reached into my desk and handed him the plans.  "The prototype is in the back room.  It seems to be working perfectly, at least according to what you've specified.  But I can't be completely sure until I know what it's actually supposed to be controlling."

I had been designing systems for Page for about two years now, and the mechanisms he required help with were becoming increasingly complex, yet modular; evidently small components of a larger system.  It was clear from the start that he knew a lot more about technology than his fumbling attempt with the mills had let on.  "If it had worked perfectly, how would I have found a new apprentice?" he had said, with that mildly annoying twinkle in his eye.

He looked me over with a fatherly expression.  "You're quite right, Jakob," he said.  "I'm ending your two-year probationary period.  You've earned the right to know just what you've been designing for me.  But I warn you, there will be a lot to take in."

"Let's begin with this," he said and took from his pocket a polished grey rock.  He placed it upon the table and handed me a small dagger.  "Put the dagger on the table, and nudge it slowly towards the rock."

I did so, and as the dagger approached the rock, it suddenly moved of its own accord and twisted to meet the stone edge-on with a clang.

"You see?" said Page, "It attracts iron.  But this is the clever part - it uses no magical energy to do so that I can detect.  None."  I gave a gasp of astonishment.  "This effect is simply an inherent property of the lodestone," he continued, "so it can be used by Beings and Creatures alike.

"Now, if it were somehow possible to turn the magnetism on and off, one could arrange them in a circular manner and have a metal shaft constantly rotating under its own power.  You could make a gryphonless cart."  Not knowing then what I know now, I must admit I laughed at the idea.

Page lead me to a darkened room in the most secret area of the palace.
"Do you recognise this?" he asked, handing me a piece of paper on which was printed a most lifelike image of a peculiar creature, a strange, flat-faced thing vaguely resembling a shaved ape.
"Is it a.. human?" I asked.  I had heard legends of such creatures, although it was said that they had died out of our world.

"Indeed it is," said Page.  "Occasionally human travellers from other planes become lost and enter our own world by means of dimensional gates.
By good fortune I have had some contact with these humans, enough to construct a charm of concealment, and learn something of their ways.  Observe!"

Page took a small golden band and placed it upon his arm.  Immediately his form shimmered, and his fur was replaced with pink, hairless skin.  His long hair remained, but his muzzle was gone, reduced to a small triangular nose protruding rather foolishly from his face.

"How do I look?"  He asked, but I was speechless.  I had seen such patches before - they were rather popular with Angels and Demons who needed to live amongst Beings - but I didn't know it was possible to change one's species, especially not into a mythical creature such as a human.

After a few moments Page continued.  "Now it's your turn, Jakob.  Do you think you can do it?"  He gestured to a mirror.  Staring hard at him and the portrait, I concentrated and made the transformation.

"Not bad," said Page.  "Shrink the nose a little... that's better.  Ah, the ears are wrong.  Look at mine.. the funny little channels and markings.  I think they're unique to each human."

"Page," I said, having got it down pat, "why are we disguising ourselves as mythical creatures?  Have you discovered an enclave of humans or something?"  There were rumours of a settlement known as 'Haven' although most people dismissed these as fable.

Page grinned broadly.  "You could say that.  This is likely to be a bit of a shock, my friend, so brace yourself."  He took a deep breath before continuing.

"If I may say so myself, my chief contribution to science is my work on the ability to measure things, so that they can be reproduced in controlled conditions.  Only in this way can we truly study things.

"In particular I have concentrated on the ability to measure magic, as you are probably aware.  But the key breakthrough I made was when I became interested in dimensional gateways."

"My Gods.." I stuttered, realising what he was about to say.

"Yes, quite.  By measuring the magical forces around a dimensional gate and after years of painstaking experimentation, I was able to construct a spell which allows me to create a transdimensional portal at will, and manipulate it."

Page was now grinning so broadly it was almost frightening.  "You can't imagine how much I have longed to share this discovery with another Creature, Jakob.  I particularly wanted a 'cubi, owing to the natural shapeshifting ability of your kind.  It's hard to do it alone, you see, and most Beings lack the magical potential.

"I have made a few preliminary expeditions myself.  Such secrets I have seen already.." he trailed off and was silent for a few moments.

"Most humans have no magic of their own.  Whether they are innately unable to harness the forces you and I take for granted, or whether they can in time learn to do so like other Beings, I am not sure.  Most of the humans that find their way into Furrae have done so by taking possession of artifacts created by magical races.

"In the world which I intend to visit they have built such fantastic devices to compensate for the lack of magic.  They know the secret of creating lodestones that can be switched on and off at will.  This technology gives them light on demand, gryphonless carts, the ability to record sounds and even create moving pictures of an event so that they can watch it again and again.  All this is done without using any magic whatsoever.

"I intend to learn how these miracles are achieved, Jakob.  By travelling to their world and bringing back some of their technology..  what we could learn would transform Furrae forever!
But I can't do it all  by myself.  I need a partner to come with me, preferably a shapeshifter.  It may also be necessary for us to live in that realm for a number of years to absorb what we need to know.  Does this prospect interest you?"

"Count me in," I said, nearly overwhelmed by the possibilities.  "A chance such as this comes once in a lifetime.. even for an incubus.  But I do have a question - what about the language?  Do you know any of the human tongues?  And will you be able to teach me in time?"

"We will be going to a land where the humans speak the same language as us.  Don't ask me how," he added, seeing my expression.  "It's just one of those weird coincidences, I guess.

"Anyway.  I brought you here to show you the machine which we've been designing."  He opened up a curtain to reveal a pair of large standing stones with a control pedestal in front of it.  Beside it was the machine which I had been designing the control system for, a complex mechanism made from cams and irregularly-shaped gears.  In effect, a simple mechanical computer.

"This machine allows us to control the gate.  The control system you have designed will rotate a set of enchanted crystals in the precise pattern needed to cause the gate to appear.  The most important part is that it will do this automatically every 3 hours, giving us the ability to return home easily.  This will be less important if we undertake a long-haul mission, but in order to do that we would need to set up a safe-haven anyway, and that would require a number of return trips.

"But as I say, that's a future project.  Right now, I'm just interested in acquiring some technical reference books."

Page made the necessary arrangements with his Being staff.  He was, after all, the lord of Ha'Khun and it would be necessary for someone to act as regent until he returned.  This was mostly a precaution, since we were effectively planning a day trip to the world which he called 'Earth'.

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 5

Like many new experiences, it took me a while to adapt.  Page and I emerged from a disused building upon a pier in a place which we later learned was called 'Clacton-on-sea'.  From the smell of the air, it was some time in late March.
Page had decided upon smart dress so that we ought to look fairly inconspicuous, and I was also wearing a pair of dark glasses to conceal my eyes.  There were quite a number of other young people in similar attire so it seemed that we had chosen well. 

Our first priority was to obtain some of the local currency.  This could have been easier.  We did eventually manage to find a pawnbroker willing to take the gold which we had brought with us, but he was rather suspicious of where we had obtained it and I could see in his mind that he was intending to report us to the police after we had left.

I'm not really into terror - after all, it usually involves killing - but suspicion with a little hint of fear is something I can rarely resist.  "I don't think you will," I said quietly, in answer to his unvoiced decision to call the police.  Taking off my glasses, I stared into his eyes.  The fact that mine were amber did not make him happy at all.  Slowly my face began to take on a more canine appearance as I relaxed my disguise a little.
The pawnbroker's reaction to that was absolutely beautiful - he went sheet-white, and I smiled, exposing a set of teeth which were almost entirely unlike his. "That's better," I told him.  "Good day."

"Yak, what the Hell were you playing at?" hissed Page as we marched swiftly back towards the seafront.

"He thought the gold was stolen," I pointed out, since Page didn't have the ability to read thoughts.  "He was going give the authorities our description.  Now he thinks I'm a 'were-wolf', which suits me just fine since no-one believes they exist, rather like humans in our world.  I don't believe he's going to tell anyone about us now.  Besides, his fear was tasty."

"Well I guess it's easy enough for you," grinned Page.  "But I need a more physical sustenance.  Shall we look for a cafe?"

We didn't have to look far, since the town was a seaside resort, after all.  Page was hungry and I was curious to try the local cuisine.  After the showdown with the pawnbroker, I was pretty sure that we wouldn't have any more problems - selling mysterious gold was by and large the riskiest part of the exercise.
I popped into a newsagent first, to buy a newspaper or two, since that would give us valuable information about the world.  Scanning the headlines, I saw that my hunch about the season was right; by their calendar it was the 29th of March, 1964.

I could smell the hide from the black jackets which many of the patrons were wearing as we entered the cafe.  Their thoughts were peaceful enough - until they saw us sit down.  "MODS!" yelled one of them, and the others all looked up.  Many of them rose, brandishing impromptu weapons.

My natural reaction would have been to raise my hackles, bring out my tentacles and snarl a lot.  Doing so would certainly have impressed these humans, but it would also have impressed the police with the urge to shoot us on sight, which was not quite the idea.  So I did the next best thing.  "RUN!"

It seemed like a good idea at the time.. after all the beach was full of other people in suits just like us, I'd thought that we could lose ourselves in the crowd.  It didn't occur to me until afterwards that the black leather people and the suit people were natural enemies in the wild.

I suppose it could have been worse - we did after all manage to lose the people with the jackets.  When we returned a few years later, I looked up the event in the old newspapers held by the local reference library.  Apparently there were 44 arrests.

However, we had not yet completed our mission, which was to obtain details of the human technology which powered their lights and other artifacts.  A solution to this problem soon presented itself however, as we found our way into a library, but this presented new problems of its own.

First of all, the librarian treated us with extreme suspicion.  Reading her mind I discovered that most of the local men of our apparent* age were the leather-jacketed ones known as Rockers.
Mods, which were the people we had dressed as, were the natives of an important and distant town known as Lun'Don, and they had come here for a short pilgrimage to the sea.  Since we were quite obviously not local, we were unlikely to return any books which we borrowed, hence the Librarian's distrust.  Sadly, she was entirely correct, but the books we were 'borrowing' would be going a lot further afield than Lun'Don.

Meanwhile, Page, his physical hunger replaced by a hunger for knowledge, had found the shelves of the library containing all the technical reference books.  He gave a short "psst!", producing yet more frowns from the librarian, and I hurried over to where he was.  Looking across the shelves, I found two encyclopedias, for children and for adults.  I put both on a desk and began to leaf through the children's one, since finding out how the lighting systems worked would be a good start.  As I had hoped, it gave a good overview, explaining much that an adult from this time would have taken for granted. 

"Electricity!" I cried, annoying the librarian.  "That's what their power source is called.  Look for books on that."  I strode over to a switch on the wall, and pressed it, turning the lights on and off a few times with an expression of wonder.  The librarian's face was incandescent by now, so I went into her mind and devoured her rage, leaving her glassy-eyed for a few seconds.

I looked back at the children's encyclopedia and tried to find out what electricity was and what it was made from.  This proved to be an inspired move, since it immediately gave me a design for a small power source which used vinegar, copper coins and zinc-coated nails.  I showed it to Page and he almost wept.
Wordlessly he passed me an ancient book entitled "Principles of Electromagnetism".  My eyes widened as I flicked through it, and I carefully placed it on the pile as well.

We now had a description of what the humans' power source was and probably enough information to attempt to recreate it at home, but there was one thing which still intrigued me - Page's wild reports of moving pictures and sounds being recorded.  I found some references to it in the encyclopedia, and it seemed there were several ways of going about it, but all the systems described required electricity to amplify the sound.  Evidently there was more to this electrical magic than simply using it as an energy source.

'Electronics' was a word that I had overlooked at first, thinking that it simply referred to the use of electricity as a power source, but it seemed to me that this was part of the key.  Looking around the shelves I found a book entitled 'Basic Electronics' and added that to the pile as well.

By now we had seven books on the table, plus the one Page was reading.  It hadn't really occurred to either of us to Scry the books, since it was considered rude in our homeworld.  (That we were probably not going to return the books for a hundred years was a moral contradiction that didn't register at the time.)  Besides, we would probably not have been able to write out the contents of all eight books afterwards before the synthetic memories created by the Scrying spell faded away, and the glowing-eye effect it caused while operating would be hard to conceal, even with sunglasses.

The problem now was to sneak the books out of the building in front of the already-suspicious Librarian.  If I had the skills I do now, it would have been a simple matter of making the books invisible, or even hiding behind a shelf and teleporting out, but my powers were fairly basic back then so we had to use other means.

The library had a separate exit and entrance, so I took all the books and moved them onto a table close to the exit.  Then I left, leaving Page behind.
I morphed myself into a Rocker and went back inside.  The librarian watched me with a suspicious eye, this time suspecting me of intending vandalism rather than the theft of her books, and this gave Page time to snatch the pile and leave quietly through the exit while she was distracted.  Taking one more circuit of the library, I pretended to look at a few books and then left to rejoin Page, reverting back to the Mod outfit once more.

Page was getting very hungry now, and it would soon be time for the Gate to materialise on the pier.  We visited a corner shop, where I bought a small electric torch and some batteries for it, along with a small tool set.  The carrier bag proved handy too as I was able to put the books in it.  Finally, we went to a small chip shop and purchased some food.

Sitting down at a stool within the shop, Page began to devour the fish greedily.  I took a small chunk of it myself to see what it was like, and and ate a chip or two on the side.  It was when we stood up to leave that the spell inside the patch on Page's arm suddenly wore off.

Page reverted to leopard form in an instant, including the suit which turned into a small piece of paper.  There was a scream from behind the counter as someone saw him.  "Get down!"  I hissed.  "Down on all fours!  We'll make a break for the pier."  The woman who had screamed had now fainted, aided in part by my own telepathic ability.  At a glance from behind, Page looked a little bit like an oversized Labrador retriever although his feet and hands were something of a giveaway, the spots were a bit of a no-no and the wings on his back were most horribly, horribly wrong.

We ran towards the pier, and I discovered that the peculiar rotating gate which had been quite happy to let us out would not now let us back in.  Page crawled under the turnstile to a chorus of horrified yells as people realised there was a huge alien feline on the loose.  I suddenly noticed the coin slot and fortunately had the correct coin in the change from buying the torch.
Perhaps I'm too honest most of the time, or perhaps I just didn't want to cause any more panic on top of what Page had already caused.  While I fumbled with the turnstile, Page had reverted to two legs and, running in a most un-leopard-like way, was now halfway to the hut where the Gate was scheduled to reappear.

However, there were a number of humans chasing him.  I joined in the pursuit, catching up with Page by virtue of the fact that I was naturally faster and stronger than most humans.  I used a psychic attack on all the nearby humans, a very basic spell that most Beings can block, but it took most of the humans down, and when they awoke they would have forgotten the last five minutes.

Together we entered the hut and plunged through the gate which had appeared just in time.

Safely inside, I put the books on the desk and after changing into my usual clothes, reverted back to my natural lupine form.  It had almost been a disaster, but the prize we had won more than made up for the mess we had caused.  And my Gods, what a prize it was!  There was enough new technology in the few books we had stolen to keep us busy for years, more likely decades.

Page looked at me with a triumphant expression.  "We are going to get busy on this tomorrow, Jakob.  A short rest to recover and we can begin.
We'll build lightbulbs and a generator to take power from the river.. my Gods.. I'll be famous for this! And so will you, Jakob."

Page looked at me with an expression of admiration that I'd never seen on his face before.  "Three times you could have fled back there and saved yourself, but you didn't.  From this day on, we are equals.  Half of my city is yours, Jakob, and we shall rule it together."

'Cubi are extremely emotional creatures, and being made joint lord of Ha'Khun was an extremely emotional moment.  I was so grateful I began to hug him+, when a small, bewildered voice behind me said "..demons.."

We turned around in surprise and saw one of the security guards from the pier, crossing himself as he stared back at a pair of tall, winged, humanoid animals.


*Jakob at this point was nearly four times older than the town itself
+Page is something of a father figure to Jakob.  Anyone who implies that Jakob is gay for Page will be modded down.

[Sid]

Nitpicking first:
Not know then what I know now, I must admit I laughed at the idea. -> Not knowing
"Yak, what the Hell were you playing at?" hissed Page as we marched swiftly back towards the seafront. -> Needs a double linebreak after this since the speaker switches.

That being said, wow! Double chapter, you're a fast writer!

The lack of scrying occurred to me a short time before you mentioned it. The explanation of course makes sense, even though scrying would have been smart for the initial phase (to pinpoint what Jakob is looking for in the first place). But mistakes are natural, so this makes Jakob look less perfect. Works for me.

I now understand your Sliders reference in the other thread, and it's a quite interesting touch. Explains a lot of things, and I'm interested in where things are going from there.

You obviously put a lot of thought into the details and potential "loopholes" (like why Jakob doesn't scry or why they have to smuggle out the books in this quasi-oldfashioned way), and the two(?) scenes where Jakob tries to be a Good Citizen even while causing chaos and doing bad stuff work really well. I like character quirks like that.

Only thing that made me go "Huh." is the presence of patches. But I'll just go with the easy way out and assume that unlike Jyrras' invention, these patches are simply paper-bound illusion spells.

Overall, very nice and becoming better and more interesting with each chapter!

[Tapewolf]

That being said, wow! Double chapter, you're a fast writer!

I'm not sure the next one will be up so quickly, I guess we'll have to see.

The lack of scrying occurred to me a short time before you mentioned it. The explanation of course makes sense, even though scrying would have been smart for the initial phase (to pinpoint what Jakob is looking for in the first place). But mistakes are natural, so this makes Jakob look less perfect. Works for me.

You remember what Abel looked like when he did it?  Man, that was scary.  I don't think a pair of dark glasses would be able to conceal it, and the librarian is suspicious enough without them casting magic all over the place

I now understand your Sliders reference in the other thread, and it's a quite interesting touch. Explains a lot of things, and I'm interested in where things are going from there.

One of the ideas was to have them staying on Earth until about 1985, but I decided to go for a day out instead.  Their next trip will be to 1967 or '68.

You might find this interesting too:

http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/test/jakob4.txt
..I dismantled it for use in the Furrae Chronicles RP, but this version still has the description of the funding technique they use later on.

It's fun to write these, most of the chapters have a little grain of truth in them.  The Mod/Rocker thing was real (although not as violent as reported*), but disappointingly there were no leopard sightings in Essex at all that year.
Likewise, the 'practical joke' in Jakob4 did really happen, although I can't find any references to it so far

Only thing that made me go "Huh." is the presence of patches.  But I'll just go with the easy way out and assume that unlike Jyrras' invention, these patches are simply paper-bound illusion spells.

A disguise is necessary to take Page/Azrael into the human realm.  (And it's necessary to take Page into the human realm for him to earn the name 'Azrael', but we'll get to that later).

I'm assuming that the Patch/concealment spells which Azrael uses are an earlier version of the devices perfected by Jyrras 490 years or so later - Azrael doesn't have the level of technology which Jyrras does, after all.  This could also be part of the reason why the patches are less stable than the later model, because it's the technological component that makes them stable.

Alternatively, Azrael perfected them but the secret was lost when he died, Jakob not paying much attention as he doesn't need them himself.

Overall, very nice and becoming better and more interesting with each chapter!

Chapter 4 is really a lead-on for chapter 5.  It would have been one huge chunk, but it's pushing 20k so I split it.

WHY IS 'FORGETTEN' IN THE SPELLCHECKER?!?

*True story: my father was living in Clacton at the time.  On that weekend while working in the garden, he suddenly saw a small group of people chasing each other down the street, with a film crew following them. He ignored it.  A version of this film was promptly broadcast around the world, carefully edited to portray the entire town being consumed in an orgy of destruction.  Panicked calls from relatives as far abroad as Australia ensued.  If they had left the camera running for another two seconds or so, you would have seen him happily repainting his boat on the driveway, completely oblivious to the alleged carnage.

[Sid]

*snrk* at your True Story there. Gotta love media hype 
And that's a quite interesting way of funding things. Well thought-through and researched o.o

You remember what Abel looked like when he did it?  Man, that was scary.  I don't think a pair of dark glasses would be able to conceal it, and the librarian is suspicious enough without them casting magic all over the place the one true smile

*giggles* Good point! Would've been quite a sight, though (And Abel looked totally awesome when he was scrying! )

I'm not sure the next one will be up so quickly, I guess we'll have to see.

Not rushing you! Just mentally slapping myself for being so slow these days

[Edited after noticing the overuse of a smiley]

[Nikki]

Xze likes ^^

[Hilary]

I love it... made me crack up a couple of times. The first time they entered, they came on my birthday. ^^ Kinda funny.

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 6

It took us a year to get our first full-sized generator working.
In the meantime we had been working on the light-bulbs, using chemical batteries made from lead and various kinds of acid to drive them.  We had also discovered that potatoes and certain fruits would work as well, although with considerably less potency.  In any case, it gave us enough power to test the bulbs which we had made.

The human guard had proven himself most useful - we had been able to to question him deeply about everyday human life, both verbally and by reading his mind.  Once we had convinced him that we were not legions from Hell or some kind of alien invasion force, he was rather more cooperative.
After a few days we returned him back to his home plane, and what we learned from him would make our next trip considerably less hazardous.

Two years later we had a pair of three-phase generators powered by a dam on the river, and plans for an even larger installation in the mountains.  From this smaller plant, we were able to light all the streets in the town at night, without using coal gas.  We had also discovered a way to make heat from electricity, which proved useful in the winter although it was rather inefficient.
From my calculations I had seen that we would not be able to support these in every home, at least not until the mountain dam was operational, so currently only the palace was heated in this way.

While I had been working on the designs of the generators, electric motors and helping with the lightbulbs, Page had been experimenting with electronics.  From the basic concepts in the textbooks we had stolen he had been able to construct a simple voice-coil speaker, and by running a small generator into it at different speeds he was able to create various rather unpleasant sounds.  Remembering what we'd read about telephones, I pointed out that the speaker should work in reverse, and that if we had two of them we should be able to transmit voices along a wire, a rather more elegant solution than the speaking-tubes which we had used in the palace until now.

This did work, but not very well.  The resulting sound was always too quiet, and it was this more than anything else which really got Page started on electronics, because we needed to amplify the signal and that could not easily be done in a purely mechanical fashion.
Once we had devised a way of reliably producing lightbulbs, Page was able to experiment with thermionic valves.  These, among various other components which we were able to duplicate fairly easily, were the building-blocks of the humans' electronic technology.

As with the humans' initial efforts, Page's first attempts looked like some kind of freakish lightbulb, but they did what we needed.  Depending on the voltage attached to the control pins of the device, we were able to affect the current passing through it - increasing it, or cutting it completely.  And so, after a few false starts we were able to amplify voices, Page's exultant howl promptly treating us to our first demonstration of negative feedback.

From here we were all set - we had the basic elements of a technology that would allow us to record voices as vibrations on a wax disk.  It had taken the humans seven years to do what Page had done in about seven months, although it must be acknowledged that they had been groping in the dark and we were simply retracing their steps.

A couple of years went by, and in spite of the miracles which we had wrought, I could sense that Page was becoming despondent.  "Everything we've done so far has been simple tricks, Jakob." he said, "According to the histories we have, the humans had managed to do all of this by 1914, and more besides.  When we visited it was 1964.  That's fifty years of advancement!  Fifty human years." he added, flexing his claws in frustration.
"I want it all, Jakob.  I want to make our civilisation's technology equal to theirs.  We'll have to go back."

So we did.  Leaving the refinements to the valve, lightbulb and generator designs in the capable hands of our apprentices, we prepared for another voyage into the human realm.

One of the things I have never really understood about Page's dimensional gate spells was the time relationship.  It seemed that he was capable of altering the time at which we arrived relative to our own time.
"Does this mean that we could use it to travel into the past?" I asked him.
"Perhaps," he replied, "but I'm not about to try it.  Those books we took, for instance.  What would happen if we went back in time to the day before we took them and tore them up?  Or burned them?  For all I know that might end the universe.  So I've designed the controls such that we can only ever go forwards in time relative to the destination."

"Anyway," he went on, "the textbooks were talking about some new technology that could replace valves - 'transistors' I believe they were called.  I want to see what happened, so I'm moving us ahead a few years from our last visit."

We emerged once more on Clacton pier, and made our way into the town.

* * *

It was 1968.  The library had a few new books, including two volumes of 'Television Receiver Theory' by G. H. Hutson, and a couple of other works about transistor circuits which we also stole.  Fortunately a different librarian was on duty this time, and I saw in her mind a curious difference from the attitude of the other librarian.
Having learned our lesson from the Mod clothes, we had gone for something slightly different but still smart-looking.  The librarian approved of this, mentally comparing our smart look to the long-trousered, long-haired and scruffy appearance of youth in that time.  This was an interesting change.

As before, we had to resort to subterfuge in order to make off with the books, although as a form of compensation I had brought back the least useful of the books which we had borrowed from our 1964 expedition.

Wandering around the town, we entered a music shop of some kind.  Using some more of our earth money, I purchased a small portable disk player and a selection of the black grooved disks which it used.  I made a mental note to buy another of these machines, so I could have one for my own use and the other to dismantle for study.

The shop also had a few recording machines, which used spools of flat rusty ribbon to store the sound on.  These must be the advanced magnetic recorders I had read so much about.  I sorely wanted to buy one of those too, but they were rather heavy and expensive.  I didn't want to have to change more gold if I could avoid it, so reluctantly I settled for the disk player alone.  We could more-or-less duplicate its technology anyhow, since it only needed an amplifier to pick up the vibrations of the stylus.  The magnetic recorder would be a lot more work, requiring fields we hadn't even begun to study.  Nonetheless, I had managed to obtain a book detailing the principles of magnetic recording and I intended to study it fully at a later time.

Sitting in an area of parkland, I began to experiment with the disk player, carefully reading the instructions that came with it.  The first disk I put on was called 'The Nice' by 'Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack', whoever she was.
I was rather impressed - I had been so caught up with the idea of copying human technology that studying their culture as well had not really occurred to me.  There were strange sounds and instruments in this song, products of a technology we had yet to invent.

When the song finished, I put it on again, and suddenly noticed that Page wasn't there.  Looking around, I saw he'd headed off to a group of people relaxing in the sun elsewhere in the park.
This irritated me - Page was an Angel and didn't have the 'cubi ability to read minds or emotions, so he wouldn't be able to tell what they were thinking in the same way as I could.  Nonetheless, he was older than me so I figured he would be able to take care of himself, and besides they had a van with the word 'peace' written down the side.  I just hoped they practiced what they preached.

As the song finished the second time, I took the disk off and tried another one.  This was about a year old but still extremely popular. It was called 'The Beatles' by 'Strawberry Fields Forever'.
Curious names, I thought.  Curious sounds too - strange, unreal wind instruments played in a rather stilted manner, as if they were somehow being played like a clavichord.  I was seized by a strong desire to know how they had achieved some of the things I was hearing on this disk - it was fairly obvious that this was not just a band playing in front of a recording machine, something more complex was afoot.
Listening to the words I suddenly realised that I'd got the song title and band name the wrong way around.  Looking back at the other disk, I saw that it actually had two different sides - I had assumed they were both the same.

I put on the other side of the first disk by 'The Nice', which was apparently called 'Angel of Death'.  At this point Page returned, weaving slightly and clutching a small thin, smouldering object in his hand.  He was looking at me with an idiotic grin, and proffered the thing to me.  It was a small stick of incense.  "Try this," he said, "it really helps clear your mind.."

I looked up at him with exasperation.
"My Gods, Page!  What were you thinking?  You have no idea what this stuff is or how it will affect your metabolism."  He didn't reply but started giggling at the lyrics to the song.

I told them what they asked - why hold my breath?
'Cos Az-ra-el on wings of death collects his pound of flesh
I told them what they asked - why hold my breath?
Az-ra-el the Angel brings only death!

At this he burst out laughing and nearly dropped the little stick of incense he was carrying.  I was forced to take it off him in case he burned himself, which annoyed me, partly because I had expected more caution from the genius of Ha'Khun, but also because I was trying to listen to the music.  There was a rather clever bit made by some keyboard instrument, rather like a clavichord but considerably more advanced.

"Angel of death!  They must be talking about my mad uncle, Jakob!  What do you think?  Reckon I'd make a good avenging angel?"  He started giggling again.

"Come on, 'Azrael'," I said, "and pull yourself together.  What did you learn from the humans?" I was starting to get a headache.
"Love and peace," Page smirked, "that's the secret of their technology.   Come and listen to them, and it will all make sense.."

Unfortunately the fumes from the incense were starting to affect me too, and I found myself grinning as well.  "What do you think they would do," I giggled, "if I reverted to wolf form?"  This was a real risk as the shapeshifting wasn't entirely automatic.  Yet somehow it didn't seem to matter.. in fact I found the idea more funny than dangerous as the drug began to cloud my senses.

A long-haired man in spectacles and brightly-coloured clothing looked us over and offered another of the incense sticks.  "I'd like you to meet my friend Jakob," said Page.  "he's, like, a wolf."
"Groovy," said the man, his eyes not quite focussing.
"Azrael and I were just wondering what would happen if I stopped being human," I babbled, scanning his mind.  It very difficult, since the haze of the incense was impairing my judgement, and it also meant that his own thought processes were very bizarre.  I did however make out that the drug they were burning was a leaf which they called 'mary', and that small doses had no serious side-effects among humans.  What that meant for Creatures was anybody's guess.

"Wouldn't it be, like, cool, if we were animals?" said one of the others.  He looked rather like a woman, but it didn't fool me for a second.  After all, my sense of smell could tell me things like that instantly, even if I was unable to feel his mind.
"Like, what would you be?" he asked Page.  "Oh, I don't know - what about a leopard?" he said, grinning foolishly, and for a moment I was afraid he would remove his concealment charm or something equally foolhardy.

We talked for a number of hours, the others being too stoned to really pick up on the few times we were in danger of revealing that we were nonhuman.

It seemed that these people had decided to drop out of everyday life, to try and find themselves, living off the land in the process.  Page and I learned a great deal about their philosophy and ideals, which proved quite interesting even though it was in some ways opposed to the technological progress which we had come here in search of.

Not all of these people, who called themselves the Flower Children, seemed entirely convinced of their decision either, at least not deep down, and sadly I wondered how long the movement would last before it disintegrated and all these happy dreamers would wake up, drifting back to the world of hot showers, hot food, and nine-to-five jobs.

Page, however, was enraptured and I could see that although he was still hell-bent on bringing a new technological age to Furrae, his grand plan had just been modified to include bringing back the philosophies which he was absorbing at this very moment.

Of course that was hardly a surprise.  Page had already succeeded in creating a small paradise out of Ha'Khun, a place where Beings and Creatures could live together in harmony.  As an incubus, I had spent some of my life on the run from Beings who believed that the only good 'cubi was one that's dead, and so the way I saw it, a healthy dose of peace and love would do Furrae a world of good.
If what Page was picking up now could help turn all of Furrae into a haven where there would be no more 'cubi witch-hunts, no more eating Beings and no more hatred, then I was all for it.

And so, sitting cross-legged upon the floor with beads around my neck, wrapped up in my own beautiful dreams of love and peace throughout all Furrae, I utterly failed to grasp the significance of the punch which was being shared around the group.

* * *

The first sign I knew something was wrong was when I realised that the sky had become green and the grass was blue.  At first I assumed that I had simply fallen over, but the trees were blue as well.  Actually I had fallen over, because the trees were starting to drip down onto the grass.. or was it the sky?  I couldn't be sure.

Picking myself up and looking at Page, I could see his wings, but they weren't the right colour and he was still human.  He was looking at his hand with an expression of sheer awe.  The Flower Children were now pointing at something in the sky which I couldn't see and babbling about electric snakes.
The more I looked at them, the more I noticed that humans actually looked quite a lot like Furrae.  Why hadn't I noticed their cute little muzzles before?  And the reptilian scales and claws on their hands?  Actually, that was quite an interesting combination.  I began to wonder whether it would breed true, when Page suddenly began to sing campfire songs in a high-pitched voice.

I picked myself up again, and realised that my hands felt different.  But no, they were grey and furred as usual.  The Flower Children were all staring at me now, with an expression of happy wonderment.  Damn, that tasted good.  I still had this nagging feeling that there was something wrong, but I couldn't place it.

As the sun was beginning to set, I realised that I could see the end of my muzzle again, and the cool breeze was stirring my feathers.  In a flash I realised that I had reverted to my natural form.  I tried to make myself human again but I couldn't.. it was just too hard.. everything was getting so distant and fluffy.  With an enormous effort, I managed to stand up.  "You know," I said, "I do believe there was some kind of drug in that punch." And that was the last thing I remember.

* * *

I awoke underneath the van.  It was fortunate I had managed to crawl there otherwise some early riser walking their dog might have seen me.  My head was pounding, but clear enough to allow me to change back to human.  The Flower Children were totally zonked out, and a quick inspection of their dreams and minds revealed that they remembered my becoming wolf, but had written it off as a trip caused by the LSD which they had put in the punch.

Given the circumstances, I thought it best to examine Page as well.  Physically he was still human, the charm holding out well.  After the last expedition he had made sure to bring more than one in case of emergency, but I was more worried that he had removed it while we were all out of our gourds.

Examining his mind, I found that he seemed to be pretty healthy.  I had picked up from somewhere that this particular drug could cause permanent changes to the user's core personality, but fortunately neither of us had been so affected, possibly because we were both Creatures and thus not entirely biological so far as our metabolisms were concerned.

Time for you to wake up, I thought, and entered his dreams.
Page, in his proper snow leopard form, but with even longer hair and a garland of beads around his neck, was building a small DC motor, an exact duplicate of the one we had seen inside the disk player.  I called out to him.

"Page..." I said.
"Azrael!" he replied.  Perhaps the acid had affected him after all.
"Wake up!  We have to get going!"
"Damn it!  You mean this is just a dream?" he replied, peevishly.
"I'm afraid so.  We're still on Earth, and we'd better get cracking if we're going to make the 9 o'clock portal."
"You're right, let's go." he said, looking forlornly at the tools in his workshop.  Suddenly we were back in the park, and he was opening his human eyes to the world.

As we dusted ourselves off and made to leave, the leader of the Flower Children awoke too.  "You takin' off, man?" he said.
"I'm afraid we must," I replied.  "Thank you very much for the Mary and the punch, and talking things out in general.  It's been very instructive.  But we really do have to go, I'm afraid."
"Well I guess that's cool," he said, "but if you change your mind, we'll be here 'till tomorrow.  There's a Happening at the Naze!"

I didn't stop to find out what he meant by that, but I waved goodbye, Page following groggily.  When we got back to the pier, I put a coin in the turnstile and handed one to Page so that he could enter as well.

At 8:58 by my pocketwatch we were waiting patiently for the Gate to materialise.  At 9 am we were still waiting.  At five past nine, we began to panic.  At ten, there was still no gate, nor any magical residue. 

At twelve noon, we had to face facts.  We were stranded.

[Hilary]

Oh...

Oh, my lord...

Wooooowwww...

Too much laughter. I can't form coherent sentences.

Trippin' furrae! You're right-- all these sword-happy heroes could use a dose of acceptance and love. 

[Gabi]

He, right. This story is always full of surprises. I wonder if the whole 'Azrael' deal will mean something in the future.

[GabrielsThoughts]

why do I suspect they'll run into dr who?

[Tapewolf]

He, right. This story is always full of surprises. I wonder if the whole 'Azrael' deal will mean something in the future.

Remember this?  http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/test/jakob3.txt
It's the draft I sent to Gareeku which he used in Furrae Chronicles.  Those like Drake who seem to be blissfully ignorant of the Johan Cross affair probably don't want to read it - contains spoilers.

I was mortified when Gareeku removed the line 'as the song goes' from Furrae Chronicles, because I'd planned to do this about six months back - even before the rest of his backstory fell into place.

why do I suspect they'll run into dr who?

That's extremely unlikely, since the idea is that they've gone into our past, and Dr. Who isn't actually real in our timeline.
I toyed with the idea of them stealing tapes from the BBC, though.  No-one knows what happened to the last episode of 'tenth planet' - it wasn't listed as being burnt, but it doesn't exist either so someone must have nicked it.

[Gabi]

He, right. This story is always full of surprises. I wonder if the whole 'Azrael' deal will mean something in the future.

Remember this?  http://www.jpmorris.force9.co.uk/music/test/jakob3.txt
It's the draft I sent to Gareeku which he used in Furrae Chronicles.  Those like Drake who seem to be blissfully ignorant of the Johan Cross affair probably don't want to read it - contains spoilers.

I was mortified when Gareeku removed the line 'as the song goes' from Furrae Chronicles, because I'd planned to do this about six months back - even before the rest of his backstory fell into place.

Ah... right. Sorry, I hadn't seen the text file before. I did read Gareeku's version, but it wasn't so clear there. Thanks.

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 7

"Okay Az," I said.  "So, we're stuck.  All we need to do is find somewhere nice and quiet to summon a gate manually, right?"

"It's not quite that simple," said Azrael.  "It's been a while since I've had to do it, but I should be able to get back into it.  The big problem is that my gates are produced by harnessing the physical properties of a certain kind of rock.  We'll have to find some and puck it into just the right configuration.  Either that, or we look for an inactive gate that someone else has made and try to make it work."

"And how are we going to find one of those?" I said.

"We'll have to ask in the library.  Stone circles and that kind of thing.  Humans don't use magic so they probably don't know much about dimensional gateways.  An active gateway would have a reputation of being haunted.
Failing that, Warp-Aci are able to cross dimensional boundaries, although it takes a lot of coaxing from what I've heard." he looked at me expectantly with a raised eyebrow.

"Gah," I said.  "Forget it!  I know some people think they're for girls, and frankly I don't care about that, but have you ever met one of those irritating little beasts?  You can sit there in the dark for four days and nights or more, concentrating on the spell of summoning, and what do you get out of it?  A whiny little nuisance that's wholly dependent on you for the rest of your life.
They're always eating, and they don't necessarily care whose food they take, I might add.  Started a lot of arguments at SAIA, I can tell you.
"And supposing it doesn't want to take us home, or can't?  After all, we'll have a big problem explaining to it which plane we came from in the first place.  We'll then be stuck with a glowing black thing, the likes of which the humans have never seen and never will see in the normal course of things.  What could we do with it?  Disguise it as a dog?"

"Okay, fair enough.  We'll keep that as a last resort, but we might have to reconsider it if we have no luck with the gates."

"Sure," I said.  "But we aren't going to be able to do the dimensional gate thing in a hurry either, so whatever we do we'll need to set up for an indefinite stay in the human realm.  First and foremost, money.

"We've got some gold, and we can create more if need be.  With a bit of effort I could probably fabricate some duplicate coins too, but for now we'll have to pawn off the gold.  We'll also need to buy some provisions.  Let's do that and then check the library."

"Where are we going to stay?" said Azrael.  "I don't know about you, but sleeping under a pier doesn't sound like fun to me."

"Well," I said with a grin, "many human youths are going back to nature, so if two more 'drop out' as well, we'll hardly be noticed, right?  That Wilson guy offered to take us to some kind of ceremony, and I think we should accept that offer if it still stands.  It might lead us to a commune or some other group which would take us, give us a base to work from.  Just as long as we don't touch the punch.

"But anyway, let's do the shopping run first."

We exchanged the remainder of our gold for money.  I did this alone and disguised as another human, while Azrael went to the library.  In the shops I bought some human shampoo for myself, since I could maintain my human form indefinitely.  Azrael's charm was a combination of psychic and illusory magic, so that it would fool both people and optical devices alike, but it also meant that he still had his fur underneath the projection and that gave him slightly different needs.

I bought some anti-flea shampoo intended for cats, some milk and a selection of pet food.  Hoping that it would be digestible, I got him tinned meat and dried cat biscuits, but I was unable to resist the aroma and also bought some dog biscuits and rawhide chews for myself.
Carrying a brown paper bag with the shopping, I headed to the library where Azrael was waiting for me outside.  "Any joy?" I asked.

"Not really.  We're in the wrong part of the country.  There simply aren't any stone circles in the whole of the east coast!
Now, there is a large, famous circle in Wiltshire.  I've seen pictures of it, both photographs and artist's impressions of how it might have been.  I'm not honestly sure what it is, though.  If it ever was a dimensional gate, it must have been quite some nexus point, but we won't really be able to tell unless we can get to it, and it's nearly two hundred miles away."

Page and I scratched our heads about the journey for a while.  The train was a possibility except for the unfortunate fact that Stonehenge was in the middle of absolutely nowhere and we would need to obtain a lift from someone with a powered vehicle, or 'car' as they were known.  Eventually we decided that we should try to attend Wilson's ceremony, and if we could find someone willing and able to take us to the Henge, so much the better.

We sat with the Flower People, a faint aroma of Mary filling the air once again.  This time Azrael and myself had got wise so we politely declined any offer of food and drink - besides we had enough pet food to go on anyway.
As it happened this caution proved unnecessary, since the Flower People were going to head out to The Naze later on for their ceremony, and even they were not going to drive under the influence of LSD.  So we just sat and talked again about their philosophies of experimentation, peace and free love.
And it was this talk of free love which triggered a memory, long hidden now.  My thoughts freed up by the Mary, I suddenly recalled the first time I'd practiced the 'cubi charm in the world outside.

* * *

It was a few months before I'd met Azrael, and I was sitting in a tavern where a shapely vixen of my apparent age was sat.  After probing her mind briefly, I strode into the restroom and made a few subtle changes to bring myself more in line with her expectations before sitting down next to her with a charming smile.

Let's just say it worked.

Later that night, the pair of us lay in a contented sleep.  Chelsea was, at least, but I was in a slightly different state, invisibly strolling through her dreams as my body remained motionless in the bed next to hers.
Suddenly a female hare grabbed hold of her from behind, which puzzled me for a moment, until I suddenly realised that the newcomer was a succubus, intruding upon the vixen's dreams and most likely after her soul.  Chelsea yelped and tried to twist herself free, but the succubus held her fast.  Her dreams were now lucid, meaning that she would be able to interact with them, and us too.

"Let her go," I said forcefully, suddenly becoming visible to both of them.  "I was here first - this one's mine!"  As I said this, my back and headwings reappeared, along with four snarling, wolf-headed tentacles.  The succubus dropped Chelsea and responded in kind.


At SAIA we had been taught ways of manipulating a Being's dreamspace, for recreational purposes, to aid in generating emotions and as part of the stereotypical 'cubi attack of stealing someone's soul in their sleep.
There were a number of friendly Beings on campus for us to practice dreamspace manipulation in, and I had become quite good at it.  Although there were rarely disputes over prey, it was a possibility, particularly with a rogue 'cubi and so we were taught how to fight in dreamspace as well.
This had given rise to 'Dreamwars', where competing 'cubi would battle for dominance inside a sleeper's mind.

Although the act of self-defence in dreamspace was grudgingly accepted as a necessary part of the course, the Dreamwar championships were frowned upon since the loser was usually left in a mild coma unless they surrendered first.  This meant that they were more-or-less an underground activity, so finding a volunteer dreamer to play in was not easy.

Usually a play area was obtained by bribing one of the Beings or finding a young 'cubi who still had the ability to dream on demand.  At a pinch, some of the more uncouth 'cubi had been known to cast Stun on an unsuspecting fellow student, but this was highly undesirable since people do not dream while unconscious which left a black, empty and boring dreamspace to play in.  More to the point, casting Stun within SAIA was a severe breach of the rules and Fa'lina would get extremely angry when she found out.


"I must warn you, I'm a former champion at Dreamwar," I pointed out.
"So am I", she smirked.  This was not so good.

Run, I thought at Chelsea.  This was easier in dreamspace, since I was already inside her mind.  To send telepathic messages to Beings in the real world took a certain amount of effort.  The succubus and I chased each other through the vixen's dreamspace, apparently the village she used to live in as a cub.  We both had clubs which we'd found lying around in the village and we faced each other off with these.  Suddenly I threw mine at her, morphing it into a spear as it flew.

We were both a little rusty and this caught her off-guard.  She pulled the spear from her heart, blazing with rage and came at me with her tentacles.

I dived into the house behind me and hid around the corner, striking her head with a cooking implement as she entered.  Stupid, I would have looked first with my tentacles.  The hare lay there, and I went to examine her, but it was a feint and her tentacles suddenly tore through my chest.  This was it - only while you were physically penetrating your opponent were you able to get through their mental shield and forcibly banish them from the dreamspace.  This was doubly bad because when she had finished with me, she was going to eat Chelsea's soul.

Just as I was about to black out, I suddenly noticed the hare's eyes go wide with astonishment - Chelsea had put a cooking knife in the back of her neck.  This distracted the succubus long enough for me to pierce her, and I also managed to steal a chunk of her energy to revive myself.  Chelsea kept attacking the succubus with whatever she had to hand and thanks to this combined attack I was quickly able to smash her out of the vixen's dream.  She fell to the ground and faded away.

Panting, I looked up to see how Chelsea was doing, and was surprised to see that she was now waving the knife at me, her eyes narrowed with hate.
"Get back!" she yelled.  "Keep away from me, you monster!  You demon filth!"

"Put it down," I said softly, and turned my appearance back into the Being I had pretended to be.  She became less tense, but kept the knife.  With a sigh, I clicked my fingers and the weapon was suddenly at her feet.

"You're an incubus," she snarled defiantly, retrieving the knife once more.  "You came to seduce me.. to.. to devour my soul, while I was sleeping!  And I fell for it!" 

"No," I said, and sat down on the bed behind me with a sad, tired expression.  "I came for your companionship.  If I wanted to eat your soul, I could do so right now, and there is nothing you would be able to do that could possibly stop me.  But I don't want it.

"Power games do not interest me, lady.  I have at least twenty-five centuries left to me, just by feeding from emotions.  Perhaps in two thousand years time, if I live that long, I will begin to feel that my own life is worth murdering others to prolong.. but not now, not yet.

"Yes, I came to seduce you.  I had hoped that perhaps we could even marry.  I could have been a Being for you, kept myself in disguise until death did us part.  I wouldn't have been the first 'cubi to do that, either.  I could have guarded your life with mine - no other Creature would have dared to attack you.  But I don't see that happening anymore.  Perhaps I should never have tried."

I sighed again and rose.  Chelsea's face had changed from hatred and terror to something more like pity, but there was no going back now.

"I am going to leave you in peace.  I see now that I could never have revealed my true self to you.  And with that in mind, I can't ask you to love me.  But I do bid you remember that I saved your soul's life this night.  Sweet dreams."  And with that, I faded from her dreams.

Back in reality, I awoke.  The Succubus was lying unconscious under the bed so I dragged her out and stole one of her gold bracelets.  Having first made sure that it was free of any charms or curses, I left it on the bed beside the still-sleeping Chelsea as something for her to remember me by - or sell - as she saw fit.
This done, I carried the succubus' unconscious form down to the empty tavern, and walked off into the night.  Our clans were bitter enemies, but despite that and the crimes she had committed against Beings, I did not want her death on my conscience.  Deep in the woods I left her by a spring, before carrying on in the direction of the path which would ultimately lead me to Ha'Khun.

* * *

"You alright, man?" said a voice beside me.
"I must have drifted off," I replied, looking up to see Azrael lying in the grass with a reefer and Wilson shaking my arm.  "thanks for waking me."
"We're about ready to leave for the Happening, man." he said.

[Zedd]

Real nice

[Hilary]

Very entertaining, I love the concept of dreamspace manipulation.

A small edit: Did you mean, 'I left it on the bed beside the still-sleeping Chelsea?'

[Tapewolf]

Very entertaining, I love the concept of dreamspace manipulation.

Yeah, Aary does that to Merlitz when she changes his sword into toast, so they're obviously taught to do that kind of thing.  The whole 'Dreamwar' concept sort of followed on from there.  Dreamwar has probably been superceded by video games nowadays

A small edit: Did you mean, 'I left it on the bed beside the still-sleeping Chelsea?'

Yes, that's done.  "puck it into the right configuration" is actually a mistake, but it sounded so lovely that I left it in - I have a penchant for creating new verbs.

I think my favourite bits in this one are where Jakob lists the drawbacks of Warp Acis, and the various ways they get venues to play Dreamwar in.

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 8

The Naze turned out to be a grassy peninsula on the coast, about eight miles east of Clacton.  This would have been a few hours' walk, but we were able to hitch a ride with Wilson and the other Flower Children in their camper van.

The van was the end-product of nearly 70 years research and development into griffinless carriages, and I was quite impressed with its design.  I could feel that Azrael too would have been just as eager to strip the machine down to its component parts for analysis, save for the slightly inconvenient fact that this would have proved somewhat distressing to our only allies on the planet.

"Never mind," I whispered, "I'm sure we can find a scrapyard or something before we leave."

The Happening turned out to be rather different from what I'd expected.  Not that I was too sure what to expect in the first place, mind you.  I had been half-anticipating some bizarre rituals and sacrifices to nameless dark gods, something which the librarian had suspected the Flower-Children of doing, but I saw now that this was simply a case of her fearing what she did not understand.

Far from being a religious ceremony, it was a half-organised gathering of like-minded individuals to partake in a festival of music, poetry and similar arts.  Many of these individuals, I discovered, came from the local academy known as the University of Essex.  I resolved to learn more about this place, since if we were going to be here for an extended amount of time, getting enrolled would be a fine way to learn more about this place, to say nothing of its technology.

As it drew towards early evening, the haze of Mary increased and eventually the performances ceased.  No-one showed any signs of leaving and besides, we didn't really have a place to go to anyway, so we just went with the flow, lying in the grass on a warm summer evening.

I was watching someone with one of the portable magnetic recorders, listening to the recording, a very strange song about someone called 'Alice' who apparently consumed some rather dangerous substances and had a series of extremely bad experiences.  It only occurred to me afterwards that dormice were unable to speak in this realm.

As the song ended, I turned back to see Azrael talking to a newcomer.  She was drawing a curious diagram on a piece of paper.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's a horror-scope," Azrael replied.  "It is supposed to predict key events in my life."

"Horoscope," the woman corrected irritably.  I nodded respectfully, wondering how its predictions compared to the phoenix oracles back home.  It was quite an irritating experience talking to them, since although they invariably knew the true answer to any question you put to them, they were oath-bound not to tell you in any straightforward manner.

Some of the more enterprising 'cubi would accompany you to the temple for a considerable fee and ask the question on your behalf.  Using their mental powers and a large amount of cunning they could phrase the question in such a way that they could trap the oracles into providing enough truth that they could recover the rest in hints from the oracles' emotions and stray thoughts.
In earlier times, a 'cubi could simply have read the answer straight out of the oracles' mind, but they had grown wise to that and embarked on an extensive program of training in mental shielding.  In some of my less-charitable moments I occasionally wondered if their confused thoughts really were shielding or simply the product of a deranged mind.

Meanwhile, the woman was looking at her diagram with a furrowed brow.  I could see that she had already erased some of the diagram and redrawn parts of it.  Eventually she stood up.  "I have never come across one like it," she announced.  "But from what I can see, you should be very wary of capricorns. I fear that one shall bring you great tragedy, although I cannot interpret what I am seeing, so I cannot tell you when this will be."

For comparison, she cast one for me as well.  Reading Azrael's mind I saw that he had given his age as a percentage since humans, like Beings, generally had a maximum lifespan of around 100 years.  I did the same, and a few minutes later the woman had cast my horoscope also.
Birthdays are an interesting topic among Creatures, on account of the fact that they have so many.  As 'cubi grow past the usual span of their Being brethren, many of them - like me - gradually become tired of celebrating their birthday annually.  At this point in time, I was celebrating decades of my life - nowadays I tend to ignore anything less than centuries.

The woman was pondering her horoscope again and muttering to herself.  I could see in her mind that she was itching to know where we both came from to give such peculiar results in her casting.  Suddenly she gave a gasp, and after a few moments to collect herself, began to give her prophecy.

"I see that your life will be forever changed by a terrible event.  It will  happen on the same day as your tragedy.." she added, looking at Azrael.  Taking back his horoscope, she compared them.
"I think I see now.  I fear that this event may well bring about the end of your life, Mr. Page.  Mr. Cross will outlive you, but the manner of your passing will change him considerably, and not for the good."

* * *

"Do you suppose there's any truth in that?"  I asked Azrael afterwards.  "She made it sound like I'm going to murder you.  I mean, it can't be a true prophecy, right?  Humans don't even have magic."

"You never know," he replied.  "she might have the Gift. She could even have been leaching our magic in order to see the future."

"Come now," I said, feeling slightly hurt.  "what could I possibly want to kill you over?  I already have a free hand in the rule of your kingdom."

"Jakob, my trust in you thus far as been well-founded.  I have no fear whatsoever that you would turn on me for no reason.  Besides which, the seer claimed that it would be a capricorn who does me over - you're a virgo."

Feeling slightly cheered by that remark, I followed Azrael to the car-park where some enterprising soul had set up a mobile kitchen inside their van, evidently modified to that particular purpose.
From this vehicle he was selling cooked sausages to hungry Flower-Children, those who still ate meat at any rate.  He reacted rather badly when Azrael asked for six raw hotdogs each, but eventually consented to sell them, albeit cooked.

I wasn't actually feeling very hungry at the time, having gorged myself on the emotions felt by the horde of Flower Children during the Happening, but the food did smell nice, so I ate a couple of mine, and offered the rest of mine to Wilson, as a token of appreciation for his generosity.

"What are your plans, man?" he asked.

"Well, we were intending to sail abroad," I said - it was half-right anyway - "..but we missed our one chance to make the boat.  So right now, we're open to suggestions.  We have a bit of bread and we should be get enough to live by, but right now we're just going to chill out, and go search for ourselves," I finished, pulling the lingo from his mind.

"Well, we're planning to split in a few days, man." he said.  "It's gonna be the equinox soon, and Stonehenge is where it's at."

Page sat bolt upright, an almost palpable look of excitement filling his eyes.  The wave of anticipation was so intense that it distracted me for a moment, but I recovered and chose my words carefully.

"Page and I would be very interested in seeing this monument," I said slowly.  "In fact it is the one place we would like to visit most since we missed our boat.  We were actually trying to figure out how to get there by rail, man.  But that would have been a real heavy journey."

"That's cool," he said.  "We got room to spare in the van."

* * *

At first I had wondered what it was that Wilson and his friends were getting in return.  As the journey unfolded, it turned out that they were interested in our company, and any interesting tales we could tell them.  There were a good many which I was happy to share, although I had to be careful to relate them in terms of men and women, constantly having to remember not to say 'dog' or 'vixen' by mistake.

The van broke down in a country lane, which left us in something of a predicament since we had no way of signalling for help.  Fortunately, despite having never seen a four-stroke engine before I was able to deduce the principles through examination and reading the minds of all present.

The problem was actually quite minor - moisture had broken contact within the power distributor.  By dismantling and cleaning it we had the van working once more, but it was dark before we had the system operating again.

Page was a little tired, and suggested that we call it a night.  Wilson became frantic at this suggestion.  "We have to be there before dawn, man!" he protested, and so we drove on through the night.
I used my power to help prevent him becoming too tired to drive properly, and we made it mere minutes before dawn.

Azrael, Wilson and I stood among an exultant crowd of Flower Children, freaks and people who claimed to be druids, standing in awe as the sun rose through the stones.  Azrael in particular was so tense his fur was standing on end, although the humans could not see this, fortunately.

Finally, as the moment reached its climax, he reached out and touched one of the stones.  Suddenly he let out an absolutely unbelievable cry and then curled up into a little ball on the ground.  Everyone was looking at us, Wilson included.

"Be cool people, he's just had a bad trip," I said, and they all looked away again.
Page was crying as I approached him.  "It's not a gate," he said, tearfully.

[Hilary]

Aww, there, there, Azrael... *pats his back* (Horror-scope is more fitting. )

Once again, nothing but praise, man. ^^

This made me want hot dogs. Yummeh.

[Tapewolf]

Aww, there, there, Azrael... *pats his back* (Horror-scope is more fitting. )

I had an.. aunt(?)* who was heavily into astrology.  She cast a horoscope for me when I was born, and accurately predicted that I would not get along with my mother.  I doubt she had the power to predict our deaths, though.  In any case, those horoscopes have long since been lost.  She is now a lesbian Buddhist, or so I've heard.  You just don't want to pry into things like that. D:

If anyone's curious, you can find The Naze on Google Earth.  "the naze, uk" will work as a search query.  It's rather fuzzy but it is there.  I've got a stack of photos of the place too, I might put some of those up on my new photobucket thing if I can be bothered to scan them in.
And thanks go to my father, who is no doubt wondering why I've been grilling him on what Essex was like in 1968

Once again, nothing but praise, man.

Not one of my best efforts, but it keeps the story ticking over.

This made me want hot dogs. Yummeh.

Yeah, I almost cooked one, but decided it wasn't a good idea at 10pm.

*My family is extremely strange, primarily owing to my great-grandfather, an insane genius who among other things designed the seat-liferafts still in use on most ferries today.  He also sired about 10 love-children during the closing years of Victoria's reign and then went on a great crusade against vice and sin on the grounds that he'd tried it and it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.  This aforementioned vice and sin has left parts of the family tree in a somewhat abnormal state, hence my confusion about her actual relationship to me.  We call her 'aunt' because it's easier than trying to work it out.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

There's just one point I'd like to mention...

I was under the impression that the oath that the phoenix oracles take is kept more or less hidden, as part of it - ie, they give cryptic answers because they give cryptic answers, and that's just the way things are... but if you were one of them, you'd understand that they're oath-bound to give cryptic answers, and not to tell anyone of the oath, and the rason for it is, if people understand too much of the prediction, they'll change too much of it, and create a paradox, as it were, making it much much harder to predict. At least, that's the usual reason given for cryptical answers...


more conversation can be supplied, if you want to chat about it, but this probably isn't the place :-)

*... then went on a great crusade against vice and sin on the grounds that he'd tried it and it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

That's hysterical. :-)

[Tapewolf]

There's just one point I'd like to mention...

I was under the impression that the oath that the phoenix oracles take is kept more or less hidden, as part of it - ie, they give cryptic answers because they give cryptic answers, and that's just the way things are... but if you were one of them, you'd understand that they're oath-bound to give cryptic answers, and not to tell anyone of the oath, and the reason for it is, if people understand too much of the prediction, they'll change too much of it, and create a paradox, as it were, making it much much harder to predict. At least, that's the usual reason given for cryptical answers...

True, although in all honesty I'm not sure whether they really do see the future or are simply clairvoyant.  When Aary sees them she's asking about what is, not what will be.

As for the oath being secret, I'm assuming that some 'cubi read about it before they got the mind-reading lockdown sorted out.

more conversation can be supplied, if you want to chat about it, but this probably isn't the place :-)

If you want to discuss it in depth, email is fine.

*... then went on a great crusade against vice and sin on the grounds that he'd tried it and it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

That's hysterical. :-)

Yeah.. it's so outlandish you just couldn't make this stuff up.  I just wish I'd been able to record some of the dinner-time conversations where parts of it came out.  That really was hysterical.  I think I've done a reasonably good job of summarising it.

The most incredible thing is that he went around doing things it was forbidden to even discuss and yet somehow made himself into a highly respected pillar of society.
"..and so when she married, it made the front page in the local paper.  And it didn't say 'bastard gets married', it made a big fuss about how she was the daughter of the illustrious Mr. Love.. " -- fragment of said dinner-time conversation..

Aah!  Off-topic!