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

[Tapewolf]

Aww, poor Daryll. 

It might have made more sense for him to simply program the guys so that they would become sterile... but this way's more fun.

Well one reason is that if the clan is unexpectedly massacred the survivors can still reproduce (out of duty if not love).
That and Daryil has a few screws loose.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

just the odd one or two, yes.

I like the rose, too. That's a nice touch. "I'm still soft for you, but I'm leaving you your space" sort of message. :-)

[Tapewolf]

I like the rose, too. That's a nice touch. "I'm still soft for you, but I'm leaving you your space" sort of message. :-)

Actually that idea was borrowed from "The Silver Wolf" by Alice Borchardt.  The dynamics are a little different though, not least because there's going to be like 125 of the things before Jakob leaves the fortress...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... stored somewhere?

Magically preserved roses seems... so anti-Johan that I can see Jakob doing it, just to screw with people's heads. :-)

[Tapewolf]

... stored somewhere?

Magically preserved roses seems... so anti-Johan that I can see Jakob doing it, just to screw with people's heads. :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-McBb3Oia9Q
(I'd almost forgotten about that one - isn't youtube wonderful?)

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 22 - Warning, contains violence

Two hundred and ninety-five years had elapsed since Azrael had been slain, and in that time I had learned much that is hidden, dark magic in particular.  I had had my high points, and my low points.

Once I had woven a spell to show me the moment of Azrael's death so that I could learn more of his killers.  To my surprise I saw the shades of Azrael and the demon who had slain him, shaking their heads as I pursued the survivors through the castle all those centuries ago.

In times gone by I had carried a gun with me at all times, but since a vixen sniper had proved her skill in killing unsuspecting innocents from afar, the concept of the gun had lost something of its charm.
The last victim of my semiautomatic was the Angel, Zarach.  The vixen's shooting spree was ultimately his fault, having deluded her into the belief that by shooting his own followers she would be saving their souls from being eaten by me, and so putting a bullet through his head seemed to me a fitting justice for his deeds.

Fitting or not, I had decided that he should be the last to die by my hand in such a way.  To this end, I destroyed the blueprints and outlawed the manufacture of anything more advanced than a flintlock.  The weapons which I had already made were useful in the defence of the realm - indeed, they were part of what kept Ha'Khun safe from invasion - so I was not about to give up that advantage entirely.
For this purpose I maintained ours existing stocks and ensured that there was a supply of ammunition, made in secret within the fortress, but never again would I carry a gun of my own.

Another thing I had to my name was a room of the castle which was now entirely filled with roses sent to me by my clan leader, Daryil, who still believed that I would one day become his lover.
I had been unsure what to do with his unwanted gifts at first - my natural inclination had been to throw them onto the compost heap in the palace gardens, but he had preserved them by some means and they remained fresh.
Burning them was an option, but I quickly realised that he would be watching me as he had in the past - and if he got the idea that I was not interested in him at all, he might come to kill me.  So I put them in storage.  One hundred and tweny-five years later, I had a room full of the damned things.

But today I sat brooding upon my throne, casting my mind back upon these thoughts and others.
There was a sign outside the door which read:

ASSASSINS PLEASE NOTE:

• Business hours are 9:00 - 5:30
• Please deposit last will and testament in box provided
• Kindly knock and remove shoes before entering

One of my assailants had actually been foolish enough to heed this sign and I had quickly overpowered him by stamping upon his feet.


"Happy Birthday," said Ashley, and clapped his hands twice.  The door to the throne room opened, and one of my guards entered.

"These are the prisoners, Mi'lord," he said, tugging upon the chain that bound two weasel demons.  I stared at them in disbelief for a few moments, and then my mood began to harden as I realised that centuries of planning was about to bear fruit.

"You!" I shouted, "You killed Azrael!  Mere death is too good for what you have done.

"But before I decide your fate, pray tell me what possessed you to return to my territories?  Were you going to have another crack at taking over Ha'Khun, hmm?"

The weasels stared back at me, a silent act of defiance.

"ANSWER!" I shouted, but they would not.

I chose the more surly-looking one and stared into his eyes with my usual sneer of contempt.  A moment later he was screaming with agony as I smashed his mind-shield like a pane of glass.

"Yesh we were," I said out of the corner of my mouth like a bad ventriloquist.

"I am frankly surprised that you didn't learn your lessons the first time," I continued normally.
"Ah well.  Ashley, I am very grateful for your present, but I must ask you to leave if you would be so kind.
I desire I few moments alone with my... friends."

Ashley hesitated, but he could tell by my mood that I was not to be trifled with.  It was as much for him as for me, since I didn't want him to have to see what was about to take place.

At last one of the demons spoke.  "What of your ancient principles?" he whined.  "Didn't you say that all lives are sacred?"

"Indeed they are," I told them, "But some are more sacred than others."

My tentacles shot out, closing around their necks and choking off their whimpers of terror as they realised that their lives were over.  I stared intently at the pair with an expression of stark lunacy, their fear sweet as ambrosia, and I began to laugh, a loud peal of demented laughter.

"It's twelve-thirty," I said, and as their terror reached its peak I took their heads from their shoulders.  There were two thumps as their skulls hit the ground, the floor and my own fur tainted with crimson as the severed arteries shed their load.  In spite of this, the two demons weren't actually dead until the shock set in, and even then I wasn't finished with them.

Laughing with the pleasure of the kills, I closed one eye, watching the two shades coalesce as their brains died.  But before they could flee into the afterworld, I took hold of their spirits, reeling them in like fishes and feeding upon their energy.  As I watched I could see their figures becoming dim as I feasted upon their immortal souls.

Oh, how tempting it was to destroy them utterly, but Azrael's own words came back to me, clearly... almost as if he was watching over me.

"He could quite easily have destroyed your soul.
Let's just pray that he doesn't think of that when he catches your companions."

No, I thought.  Not that.  All they did was kill Azrael... what I am about to do is a crime far, far worse.  My own people think I am a monster, and if I continue down this path, they will be right.

Reaching for the chain I wore around my neck, I clutched the two jewels and they became warm in my hands.

"I shall wear your souls around my neck," I said to the faintly-glowing jewels.  "I swore to make you suffer for this, and you WILL suffer!  For ever and ever!"
"Amen," I added sarcastically.

I suppose it was all over rather quickly.  Perhaps I should have felt disappointed at the anticlimax to my three-hundred year wait, but on the contrary I was ecstatic.  Perhaps it was due in part to the high from the kill, or the fact that I'd glutted myself on their terror and pain, but whatever it was, it certainly felt good.

Leaving instructions for the demons' bodies to be burnt and their heads placed upon pikes outside the fortress, I retired to bed.  With Page finally avenged, I felt able to sleep for the first time in many hundreds of years.

* * *

That night I dreamed a dream, my first in nearly seven hundred years.  I was walking through a stone corridor, with the jewel-trapped souls around my neck and Azrael by my side.

"I've been watching you ever since my death," he was saying.  "Many things which I have seen have pained me greatly.  I have been hoping against hope that you would in time recover and see the error of your ways.  But I fear now that this may never happen of its own accord, and that is why I am visiting you tonight, old friend."

"I did it all for you," I said.  "Everything.  I have torn the land itself apart to find your killers."

"I know," he sighed.  "And frankly, I don't know whether to be touched or appalled.  I have made peace with my killer, yet you have committed many crimes in a monomaniac quest for a vengeance that simply does not interest me."

"Crimes?" I asked, in a puzzled tone.  Azrael looked at me sorrowfully.

"You have done murder, although I grant you that many of those deaths were justified to some degree by your duty to protect the realm as its patron.  But you have also joined forces with the underworld and terrorised millions of citizens - our own citizens!  And then you embarked upon a series of conquests, invading other realms for no good reason that I can fathom.

"Are you sure it will make you happy, slaying your three demons?  Can't you see how far you have strayed from the original vision of Ha'Khun?  What happened to our dream of a Furrae free from hatred and war?  Wilson's dream?"

"Johan Cross happened to it," I said, and began to cry.

"There there," said Page, his hand upon my shoulder.  He was crying too.  "At least you can see it now."

"I see it," I wept.  "How could I have been so stupid?  So wrapped up in my own petty plans for vengeance that I couldn't see how I perverted the dream of Ha'Khun?"

"Power corrupts," he said.  "Never forget that.  As Creatures we must always remain vigilant or we will become monsters.  You have resisted it better than most, but your soul has still been tainted by what you have done."

"But what can I do now?  What would you have me do to make amends?"

"The answer to that lies with you, I fear.  Now that I have helped you to see the error of your ways, my part is done.  Nonetheless, I believe that if you seek to help others, you will be able to heal yourself."

I awoke soon after, and when I did I knew at once what I had to do.  Taking a parchment and the relevant seals, I wrote a letter proclaiming my leave of absence, leaving the realm under the stewardship of Ashley.  I also included an amendment to my laws, providing that Creatures and Beings were to be considered equal within the realm, something that Azrael and I had enforced by preference but needed to be enshrined in something more durable than the whims of the then-ruler.

As I placed Azrael's ring in the envelope, I found that I was whistling to myself.  This caught me by surprise, until I suddenly realised it was because I was free.  I would not have to listen to my advisers anymore or solve other people's petty problems.  The burden of my leadership was at an end, for despite what the document said, I had no intention of returning.

Packing a bag with some of my most treasured possessions, I included the tape which Page had recorded our conversation about the HMS Resolution so many centuries ago, one of the few surviving recordings of his voice.  Among other things, I also took his treatise on gate manipulation, Daryil's notes on advanced metabiology and the bottle containing Ulric's soul.

Reaching for the charm that Fa'Lina had given me so many centuries past, my hand yet again snatched away at the last moment.
I went to inspect the turbine hall in the basement of the fortress one last time, and ensure that the staff tending it could cope with my absence.  I had other reasons too - the hydroelectric generators were the cornerstone of Ha'Khun's technological edge, and I had designed them myself.  In a way they were a link to my younger, innocent self, and stupid as it sounds, I would miss them.

Rather than teleporting, I decided to walk the entire way, although I had to avoid the throne room.  There were still bloodstains upon the floor, a grim reminder of last night's slaughter.  What had then seemed sweet now brought me close to vomiting, a symbol of how far I had fallen.

All life is sacred.  This had been my guiding principle from the outset, but of late it had become mere words, an inconvenient slogan to be circumvented and worked around with clever excuses.  That ended now.
Clasping the two jewels that held the immortal remains of my victims, I swore that I would never again move to take the life of another Being or Creature unless there was no possible alternative.

The engineer within me satisfied, and vowing to build more generators in future, I decided to end my time in Ha'Khun with a stroll through the central park before I left, for it was one of my favourite walks through the city.  As I gazed into the fountain, I was suddenly startled as a hand clapped itself upon my shoulder.

"Ashley," I said sadly.  "You shouldn't be here.  You're supposed to be running the city."

"Come on, Yak," he said.  "Two can play at the abdication game.  I don't know where you're planning to go, but I'm coming as well, like it or not."

Laughing, I took him by the hand and my other closed upon the charm around my neck.

* * *

"No," said Fa'Lina.  "This is supposed to be a 'cubi academy, not some kind of youth hostel for all and sundry.  You are an incubus.  He is not, therefore he is not welcome here."

"Oh come on," I said impatiently.  "You have other Demons and Beings on campus, so what's the big deal about one more?  I can vouch for his integrity if that helps you at all."

"He'll need to eat!  We have quite enough non-'cubi, and I am not looking for any more."

"Well, those are my final terms," I said irritably.  "You've been trying to get me to join your staff for centuries and it's not like you to suddenly just throw an opportunity like that away, but ultimately it is your choice.

"You want me to help set up and run this new Being Technology department, right?  Well if you want to have me on board, Ashley comes too - otherwise I go elsewhere.  I'm sure the military academy at Xe'Pherion City would be very interested in the weapons technology I have at my disposal."

I smiled inwardly as the all-knowing headmistress of the Succubus and Incubus Academy blanched.  Apparently my long absence from the Academy had fogged her ability to predict things where I was concerned, but she'd heard about my guns and my threat to sell the technology to the highest bidder had clearly upset her.  And then there were the rumours I had spread about the uranium bomb.

The only risk was that I might have gone too far.  Fa'Lina might decide I was a threat to our race who had to be eliminated at all costs.  But who else might I have told?  And would killing me stop it, or make it inevitable as my followers unleashed her worst fears out of vengeance?

I may have been bluffing, but she had seen for herself what a sniper rifle in the hands of a mere Being could do to a fully-trained incubus - indeed it was only by the skill of the Doctor and myself that he had survived.  The Doctor...

"Is the Doctor still looking for test subjects for his drug?" I asked suddenly.
"It's up to Ashley himself of course, but that would seem to be the only compromise."

"The serum?  It is usually far more trouble than it is worth.  Besides, Ashley is a... what?  Part-demon?  You know there are side-effects.  He'd be a very weak incubus and Clanless as well!"

"So bond him to my Clan," I said.  "His demon heritage should make the process simpler than a pure Being."

"Very well," she replied with a faint air of relief, and her usual demeanour slowly began to return.
"If he is happy to accept the risk, then that is what we will do.  Obviously you shall be responsible for his actions, at least to begin with, and he will have to attend classes to understand his new abilities.  But when he is not otherwise occupied, I see no reason why he should not become your assistant.

Provided he survives the treatment, of course."


**EDIT**
Fixed typo in possessions list, added Ulric.
Xe'Pherion City was created by Azlan.  Used with permission.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

oooo.

Promises, promises. :-)

[Tapewolf]

Hmm, no-one seemed to like the end of the Cross arc, ah well.  This one is more of a bridging chapter to bring us up to speed for #24.  That and I've had a bit of writer's block, so a lot of this is reworked from the original story.  Not everyone's read that, though.

Chapter 23

A set of colour bars wavered and gave way to a hand covered in thick grey fur.

"Stop goofing around," said a voice - my brother's.

We had removed the items from our heavy backpacks... a tripod, a microphone and a pair of headphones, which had fitted snugly upon Izak's head.  Delicately, I took out two silver machines, jewel-like in their design, and milled from solid blocks of aluminium.

The first, an Ampex VPR-5 which I had purchased on Earth more than fifty subjective years ago, and which had been lovingly rebuilt at the SAIA Being Technology department a number of times since then.  I had recalibrated it myself that very morning.  The second was a Nagra 4.2 loaded up and ready to roll.

The Nagra was used to record the soundtrack at a higher quality than the linear soundtrack on C-format videotape would allow, although it made editing a little more complex.

I chuckled, remembering how Izak's sensitive nose wrinkled in disgust as I broke the seal on a fresh reel of 1-inch videotape - by contrast I had breathed the scent in with a smile, and reinvigorated, began to lace the tape upon the recorder.

A few moments later there was a cut and I saw myself standing there, composing myself for what I was about to say.

"This morning we are coming to you from the hills of Crow Valley, a strange and beautiful place which is believed to have been created by a deranged Fae.  And it is here, as the year begins to draw to a close, that we can find among the damp leaves, some of Furrae's most appalling fungi.

"Here on this branch, for example," I continued, "is the rare, worm-eating slime mold, which is actually capable of moving around and devouring prey.

"Over there, and I dare not get too close, is the fearsome death-cap mushroom, which, if consumed, kills within hours.  Indeed, the toxin is so poisonous that it can cause sickness at a range of up to six feet.  The only known cure is magical regeneration of the affected organs."

As I spoke, Izak zoomed the camera in upon an otherwise unremarkable-looking white toadstool.

"Even worse than the death-cap is the giant Doom puffball.  If disturbed, it will explode, which can result in serious injury."

Upon the screen, my miniature self picked up a small pebble and threw it at one of the round, white blobs for effect.  The blast knocked me flat and left a green stain upon the screen where the vidicon tube had been overloaded.  The blast had been fearsome - even seeing the replay made me cringe.

Shortly after that, Izak had turned off the camera for about five minutes, giving the smear time to fade, and myself time to recover and unruffle my feathers.

I would also have to remove some choice swearing in the editing suite, although I was sure that the outtakes would be shown around the Academy again and again.
I made a note of the timecode, and then swore again as I remembered that we had left the Nagra running.  That was going to mean re-synchronising the audio and video after the cut.
Ah well, I thought to myself, where would the fun come from if it was perfect every time?

There was a cut as the tape began rolling once again, showing an image of me pausing to sniff the air before donning a pair of night-vision goggles.  Having caught this spectacle on tape, Izak had put on a curious helmet containing its own internal video display, simultaneously plugging it into the recorder's monitor line using his wing-tentacles.  This was taking place behind the camera however and the only visible sign was when he knocked it slightly causing the image to wobble.  We could soon edit that out, though.

"Now this fungus," I added by way of explanation, "is so deadly that we cannot even look at it directly."

As I spoke I searched through the heather until I came across an oddly-shaped rock, which I picked up and held before me.

As the camera zoomed in, it became clear that the rock was in the shape of a large feral brown rat.

"We are looking for the Reaper mushroom, which occurs only in this particular valley.  It is so deadly that if you so much as glance at the mushroom's gills while the moon is visible in the sky, it will immediately turn you to stone - as this poor rat has discovered the hard way.
You can usually locate them from the stone corpses found nearby.

"It is a truly remarkable, and very, very appalling fungus."

So saying, I was striding towards a large stream.  Izak kept the camera steady upon me.  Removing the goggles, I stared intently at the water, and then, with a flash of wing-tentacles and a spray of water, I brought out a small fish.

Replacing the goggles, I had returned to the spot where I had found the rat.  Banishing my tentacles lest their heads also gaze upon it, I cleared back the heather so that Izak could get a good picture of the deadly thing.

Slowly I placed the writhing fish upon the ground under the large mushroom, whereupon it immediately became grey and stopped flopping around.

"Isn't that appalling?  Now, if we look over here... yes...  the grey radshroom.
These are usually found very close to the Reaper mushroom."

Izak handed me a small Geiger-Muller counter.  As I held it over the fish, it began clicking furiously.

"As you can see, the fish, having been transmuted into stone, is now highly radioactive.  But the radshroom absorbs the radioactive energy for food, like so.."

With a stick, I prodded the stone fish closer to the grey mushroom.  As I did so, the Geiger counter began to ease off, and the mushroom slowly began to change colour from grey to green.  Taking the stone fish, I snapped it in two, revealing the now-calcified internal organs and showing them to the camera.

Again there was a cut.  Once we had sufficient footage of the Reaper mushroom and its hideous effects, Izak and I had moved the camera rig bodily to the bank of the stream where I had caught the fish. 

"Finally," I said, standing before the camera with my goggles removed once more, "we will be looking at something slightly less appalling, the Crow Valley song-algae.  Here you can see the algae, on the bark of this fallen tree.  Notice that it grows in distinct clumps.

"Now, the fascinating thing about this algae, is that if it is struck, it will emit a sound.  Each clump will emit a different tone, depending on its age and species.  By finding a log with a variety of different algae, it is possible to play songs on it.  Izak?"

Izak came back from behind the camera tripod, to be relieved by myself, as I donned the headphones and took over recording duty.  On seeing my signal, Izak strode into the centre of the stream, and suddenly exploded into a hedgehog of arms and tentacles, each clutching a small rock taken from the bottom of the stream.

So armed, Izak stood before the log and poked each section of the algae in turn, causing it to squeak.  With a sly grin, he began frantically bashing at the log with all his arms and tentacles, capturing the sound of 'Greensleeves' on the microphone.

This done, he handed the mic back to me as I stood once more before the camera to record the farewell.

"Next week, we are hoping to have an interview with the legendary Crow Valley panther.  From Jakob and Izak, good day."

I froze for a few moments, giving us enough material to fade or cut to the credits.

"...aand cut!" said Izak.  Moments later the screen went grey as the noise suppressor kicked in.

I gazed sightlessly at the test pattern as the tape ended, pondering over which segments to keep and which to edit out.  Suddenly my reverie was interrupted as Ashley knocked and entered the editing room, two pairs of wings protruding from his back and from his head.
Despite the fact that he was part-demon, these wings were coated in the same grey feathers as I was, one of Daryil's changes.

Daryil himself had readily agreed to assist in joining Ashley to our Clan, having experimented with 'cubification himself in the past.  His sole proviso had been that the lynx have the words "by appointment" etched in magical tattoo beneath the clan symbol which now glowed proudly down the side of his chest.

Ashley could easily have concealed this marking, but he was still immensely proud of his newfound 'heritage' and dressed like most of the other male students - flamboyantly and naked to the waist.

"I can lend you a shirt," I said, my conservative dress sense somewhat offended by his insistence on such skimpy attire.

"Ha ha," he replied, rolling his eyes.  "Fa'Lina wanted me to let you know that we're about to bring the fourth generator on stream."

"Ah!  Excellent!  I'll be right over."

* * *

One of my first tasks in reconstructing the technological peak of Ha'Khun was to provide a power source.  Hydroelectric power was not practical within the Academy, but there were alternatives.

Wilson would not have been impressed by the means I eventually settled upon - atomic fission.  Nonetheless, it was the most suitable and thinking about it he might even have agreed in the end, since we had no interest in nuclear weapons and as the radshroom aptly demonstrated, magic could even stabilise the radioactive waste through transmutation, rendering it safe.

Having been forced to wait for about four hundred years to hire me as a lecturer, Fa'Lina was extremely disappointed to discover that I was actually pretty useless at it.  Nonetheless, as far as I am aware there was no-one else in Furrae who knew as much about humans and their world, let alone their technology.

Eventually we found a compromise - I wrote course material and did my best to teach my fellow lecturers what I had learned, so that they could teach it themselves and do a better job of communicating it to the students.

Fa'Lina had offered me tenure to pursue my own experiments with technology, but I declined, preferring to remain a freelance agent.  This was how it went in theory anyway - in practice I was pretty much free to do as I pleased, the only real demand being that I was expected to help run the technological infrastructure.

To begin with I worked on direct conversion of magic to electricity, and some of the converters I designed were used to supplement the experimental reactor.  I still preferred hydroelectric though, as the sheer size involved was impressive.  Once you'd seen a giant dam feeding a cathedral-sized hall filled with mighty turbines, anything less seemed pretty feeble by comparison.

My big break had come when I had brought back a 16mm print of an educational nature film shot on Earth.  Fa'Lina had immediately seen the potential and requested that I look into the possibility of filming our own.  'Cubi are good actors, and I was no exception, having put these talents to questionable use during my wicked reign of Ha'Khun.

Perhaps Fa'Lina believed that by making these films I would eventually make a better lecturer, but either way my first attempts had been well-received and I had been commissioned to produce many more - a task I was only too happy to perform.

"I think she wants to talk to you about the computer as well," Ashley added.

Damn...

[Gabi]

Ooooh, the documentaries!

Chapter 22 was amazing, sorry I didn't comment on it earlier.

You have a repeated "a" near the beginning of chapter 23.

It was funny to see the Cubi serum at work again, even if I was a member of the resistance (and still would be if the serum became a threat again).

So... there's a computer now?

[Aisha deCabre]

That's a cool chapter...and now that I've read the whole story, nice writing in general.  I liked the end of the arc, actually.

The documentary segment is neat too...the funny thing is though, I watched a nature documentary a couple of days ago in class.  And I can't stop imagining that Jakob might sound EXACTLY like David Attenborough there.   

[Tapewolf]

Ooooh, the documentaries!

Chapter 22 was amazing, sorry I didn't comment on it earlier.

Oh, that's okay, I'm not doing this solely for praise, but I do like to know if I'm still moving in the right direction.  IIRC 'Quest for Twelve' is still running on 2003 material, which is one of the reasons I've been a little quiet on that - commenting on a re-run seems a little redundant (correct me if I'm wrong).

You have a repeated "a" near the beginning of chapter 23.

Fixed.  Thanks.

It was funny to see the Cubi serum at work again, even if I was a member of the resistance (and still would be if the serum became a threat again).

You may have noticed the notes on Cubification which suddenly appeared in the Wiki 

So... there's a computer now?

I made a small reference to it in Furrae Chronicles, but I won't say any more because that's what chapter 24 is about, when I get it finished.  It's about 3k short and it's third-person at the moment.  I'll probably have to do the switching thing like I did when Niall Cartwright was introduced.

That's a cool chapter...and now that I've read the whole story, nice writing in general.  I liked the end of the arc, actually.

It was rather bloodthirsty.  I wondered if that put people off, but it has to be that way because that's what caused Jakob's squeamishness.

The documentary segment is neat too...the funny thing is though, I watched a nature documentary a couple of days ago in class.  And I can't stop imagining that Jakob might sound EXACTLY like David Attenborough there.   

Guess what the 16mm film he showed Fa'Lina was?    [has the Life of Birds series on DVD]

I once saw an outtake of David Bellamy stepping on a frog he was documenting... I don't think I've ever seen any Attenborough flubs.

Oh - I forgot to add the logo Turnsky sent me - it's on the first page of the thread now.

And I'm about ready to roll with 'Future History'... but I'll probably create a new thread for that one and add to CJP as and when I get more inspiration.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

"By appt"

*giggle*

The Bellamy frog thing is also pretty funny.

(IOW, I'm still reading, and enjoying, the story.)

[GabrielsThoughts]

future quote of the never happen: "Unfortunately once I started recording my fellow Cubi with the video camera, after a few years, I soon realized many weren't as wonderful actors as I had once beleived,  in fact more then half of the footage was blooper reels of some of the less coordinated Cubi at the academy, and then I was it with inspiration when a young cubi named Abel went into the library and I had accidentaly left one of the cameras on... unfortunately Fa'lina perma- banned Abel from the library soon afterwards.  However this facinating discovery of porn has opened a new window of opportunity."

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

*chokes*


Oh, that's classic, GT. :-)

[Gabi]

Oh, no, commenting on reruns is not redundant. It helps me to know what the readers think, so I can use that knowledge in my future writings. And I'm still writing Quest of Twelve, so I can still use it towards the end. That, and I'm revising the old chapters before I post them here. Not making any major changes, but I may rephrase a few things which weren't clear enough and things like that. So I'd appreciate the input.

Where in the wiki are those notes?

[Tapewolf]

Oh, no, commenting on reruns is not redundant. It helps me to know what the readers think, so I can use that knowledge in my future writings.

Oh right.  Okay then.

Where in the wiki are those notes?

It's a footnote at the end of 'facts and trivia' in the 'cubi' article which points to the 'Cubification' thread, in particular Amber's comment about how it's possible but not usually worth the hassle.  Do you think it's worth splitting to a separate page of its own?

(If so, it might be worth discussing it in the wiki thread, rather than here)

[Tapewolf]

Chapter 24

Eric worked for a large computer corporation, one of the more prodigious names of the 1980s, second only to their big competitor whom they sometimes referred to as 'Inferior But Marketable'.  While their business of selling few larger minicomputers would ultimately run dry as they failed to adapt to the new world of many smaller desktop machines, that time had not yet arrived.

Eric, blissfully unaware of what was to come, worked as a field technician.  Today he had been sent out to see a client in an industrial estate somewhere around Newport.

As he approached it, he noticed a curiously derelict air to the building, although the same could be said for many other buildings in the estate, and there was certainly a light on in the reception.
It didn't seem to be a particularly large office, though... perhaps the number of terminals in the customer database was wrong.  Most likely it had listed the entire organisation's installation rather than just the units in this local branch.

As he parked and entered the building, he was greeted by a rather bored-looking receptionist.  "Mr. Peterson will see you shortly," she said.  "If you'd like to take a seat..."
Eric did so, and his feeling of unease increased as he noticed that the building was quiet and empty.  Very quiet and very empty.

S&I Limited, he thought.  I wonder what they do?

A few moments later the pallid figure of a man strode through the door, and shook his hand warmly.  "Mr. Dalton, I believe?" he said, "follow me, please."
As he led the way, Eric heard a noise and glanced behind him.  Turning back, he saw the receptionist turn off the light and walk to the front door, locking it with a loud 'clunk'.  Oh my God... he thought, but the worst was yet to come.

Turning a corner they entered an empty room.  "Where's the VAX?" asked Eric.
"It's just through here," said Peterson, opening a door into a room so brightly-lit that Eric had to shield his eyes.  He couldn't make out any internal details in the room at all. Turning around, he could see the receptionist following behind them.
"Come along," said Peterson, and the three of them stepped into the room.

There was a very strange sensation, and when Eric opened his eyes again, he saw a corridor decorated in pastel shades.  What the hell? he thought, and turned to look at the room where they had come from.  But it wasn't there.

* * *

Peterson led him into the machine room, where a VAX 11/785 stood purring away to itself.  There were a pair of 9-track tape drives, a number of disk packs and he could faintly hear a lineprinter in an adjacent room.
The CPU module had the words "Property of the Succubus and Incubus Academy" etched into it by some curious means that Eric could not immediately determine.

"I should have asked you before," said Peterson.  "But you do know why you're here, right?  A couple of dead terminals, and I'd like the VAX upgraded to two hundred and fifty-six megabytes."

"Uh, yes..." mumbled Eric, "I.. I might have to get some of the parts from my van.."

"Damn," said Peterson.  "Ah well.  Check the terminals out first, then."
He gestured to a stack of three VT100 terminals, and Eric, in a desperate bid to take his mind off the strangeness and the horrible notion that they were most likely going to kill him as soon he had finished, forced himself to examine them.

Mr. Peterson stood back, watching what he did with an intent gaze.  It was a curious thing, the circuitry was quite dusty for a machine that couldn't have been more than about six years old.  Indeed, one of the terminals had failed because an electrolytic had dried up, and that usually took more than a decade.
Furthermore, there was an abundance of what appeared to be hairs.  Now that he noticed it there were quite a few of them caught in the tiled carpet floor as well.

"Do you keep dogs in the computer rooms or something?" he asked.  Peterson seemed to be rather taken aback by that question, but he answered almost immediately.  The funny thing was that Eric couldn't quite remember what he actually said, but it made perfect sense at the time.

When the third terminal was dismantled, the door suddenly burst open and a figure entered, with the words "Hey Yakob, where did you put the..." followed by a scream of fear.  No, two screams... Eric and the thing.

It was a tall cat-monster with wings coming out of its head.  It looked at him with an expression of sheer terror, and backed against the wall.

"NO, Ashley!" yelled Peterson.  "Did you not get the memo?  I cordoned this area off to try and prevent this from happening!  Human form ONLY until the upgrade is completed!"

Eric had never believed in demons before, although after his experiences on this callout so far, it made a warped kind of sense.
As he looked back at Mr. Peterson, he suddenly noticed that he had grown a tail.  Peterson looked at him in alarm, and made a curious gesture.  Then everything went dark.

* * *

"I'm sorry it had to be like this," I said gently to Eric as he came to.  "I really was hoping we could do everything in human form, like the original installation.  It was for your own comfort, really."

I looked into his mind, feeling his thoughts as his eyes focused upon me, seeing a wolf-like creature with a small pair of wings on its head (my head) and a large pair protruding from my back like some kind of twisted angel - or so it seemed to Eric.  From my voyages into the human realm I knew that the human conception of Angels, Demons and Incubi came with rather different connotations than to someone who had been born and raised in Furrae.

I was wearing in the same kind of clothes that I had worn in my human form, mainly to give Eric something to latch onto.  I had been forced to change the top though, because of my wings.
Behind me, Eric saw the other creature - the one with the lynx ears, was looking down at him worriedly.

"Please excuse me," said Ashley.  "I thought we were going to do this next week.  I have heard of humans, but I've never actually seen one.  They are considered to be a dangerous mythical creature in our world."

"Your world?  Where am I?  And what are you?"

I briefly considered the pro's and con's of erasing his memory, but it was probably too far gone by now.

"'I mean you no harm' has always sounded rather trite to me," I said, "But on this occasion it is true.  And before you ask, no, you are not in Hell.

You are in another plane, upon a world we call 'Furrae', which is lamentably behind yours when it comes to technological matters.
Hence, when I decided that the Being Technology department of our university required a computer system, rather than design my own I opted to purchase one from Digital Research Intergalactic - whom I chose on the grounds that they already had some experience dealing with extraterrestrials."

"That's not us.  We are Digital Equipment Corporation."

"Indeed.  It proved quite a disappointment, not least because they chose their name on a whimsy and not because of their target market.  My appearance in base form at their UK office caused quite a stir and I was forced to erase their memories.  They didn't even sell computer systems of the kind I require, so I came to you instead in the errant belief that your companies were related.

"Nonetheless I am reasonably satisfied with your computer - the sole exception being that more and more students are requiring access to it, and I will need the memory upgraded."

* * *

Upon realising that he was in no real danger, Eric resumed the job and soon enough the minicomputer was upgraded as I had intended.  Warning him to leave DEC before 1992, I sent him on his way with a small protection charm as a tip.

All in all, the upgrade went rather well.  There was just one problem.  As a light came on in the security system, I realised that I hadn't closed the link with Earth properly.

Reverting to human form I raced back to the portal, and found three burly newcomers in dark blue clothing.

"You shouldn't be here," I said.  "You're from the future."  They ignored this.

"BSA.  I have come to inspect your software licenses," their leader began.

"Really?" I smiled, "I hope you're good with TOPS-20 and VMS."  He ignored this too.

"Listen," I said, "you are trespassing on private property.  If you really must inspect the computer systems, then I suppose you can - but you do so at your own risk.  Do you understand?" Indeed, no-one would ever find your corpse, I thought and then mentally slapped myself.

"Don't be difficult," he said.  "I can have a warrant for this place at the drop of a hat."

"I'll take it that's a 'yes' then," I said with an air of resignation.  "Come this way..." I led him and his two cohorts into the machine room.

"Where's the..." his voice trailed away as he saw the VAX.  "You use that?"

"Yes.  There is a 9000 series in the, er, next room," I faltered. The 'next room' was actually a hyperrealm I had created.

That installation had been quite a challenge, because we didn't have space for it inside and I couldn't do anything too magical that would upset the human installers.  I had eventually settled on having it installed in a prefabricated building outside and dimensionally transposing it afterwards so that the interior of the shed was connected to the broom cupboard.
The outside of the shed had imploded, and I was not entirely sure what would happen if we drilled too far into the walls of the mainframe room, although the professor of dimensional mechanics assured me it was quite safe.

Sod it, I thought.  If these goons get awkward, hyperdimensional geometry is going to be the least of their worries.

"Enough games.  Where are the Windows machines?" he said in a furious voice.  "Every business has at least one Windows box.  Show me where they are."

"Are you threatening me, human?" I said, with what Eric would have called an angelic smile.  I locked the door and when I turned back to face them, my smile had become what a Being might call an angelic smile - the smile of Johan Cross.

"The DEC engineer thought I was a werewolf," I said, enjoying their confused stares.
"Actually I'm a demon.  An incubus if you want to get technical."

I love theatrics, so as I snapped my fingers the lights went out.  I took a small gold cigarette lighter (inscribed with the name 'Keyser Soze') and lit it, raising it slowly until they could see my face.  A human with head-wings was guaranteed to give me a tasty reaction, and I was not disappointed.

When the lights came back on, I was all fur and teeth and Ashley was standing next to me.  I had cut a hole in my mind-shield so that he could tell what was going on.

"You know, Fa'Lina has been bugging me for years to try and get her a few human specimens," I said to him.  "The problem is that most of the humans we get were invited, and dissecting guests would be downright rude."

"But these humans weren't invited, were they?" he said.  "I think we might have a solution to that problem now."
One of the BSA agents made an almost canine whimpering sound.

"Oh look," I said.  "A portal leading back to Earth has just opened up in that wall!  Perhaps, if we close our eyes and count to ten, the humans will not be here anymore and we won't have to take them to the Headmistress who might want to find out whether eating a human's soul is any different."

"Good idea, Jakob," said Ashley, and began counting.

Two subjective days later we received an invoice from DEC and a certificate of compliance from the BSA.

[Gabi]

Well.. that's one way of solving the problem.

I liked the comparative demonology, though. Especially the part about the angelic smiles.

Oh, there's a missing space on the 3rd paragraph where it says "thecustomer".

[Tapewolf]

Oh, there's a missing space on the 3rd paragraph where it says "thecustomer".

Thanks.   I have also changed the mainframe to '9000 series' (I wrote that bit while offline) and changed 1996 (when I thought Compaq bought them) to 1992 (when Ken Olson left and they had a huge number of layoffs).

For the curious, the main setup would look rather like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vax780_small.jpeg

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I'd love to do that to some BSA thugs. I really would.

.. I'd have expected them to be thin weedy geeks, though. Or at least, a geek accompanied by two thugs...

[Tapewolf]

I'd love to do that to some BSA thugs. I really would.
.. I'd have expected them to be thin weedy geeks, though. Or at least, a geek accompanied by two thugs...

Well, the latter configuration is what I was aiming for, although I might edit it to reflect that a bit better.

[GabrielsThoughts]

Years later Eric purchased a wii, his hair had become grey somehow, as the eighties and ealy ninties had not been kind to him, upon inspection of his home I dicovered drug periphenalia and several shiny mirror like disks with names like "Britney Spears" and "Spice Girls" enscribed upon one side of them. Eric then began to prattle on about the Olson twins, a team of female impersonators of some sort I assumed this based on several of the other items in his collection. Momentarely I wondered if not killing poor Eric when I had the chance twenty or so years ago was wise, he had apperently become a low level pimp in the City and was now the professional manager of a singer known simply as Baby Spice.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

*grin* you're evil. I like you a lot.

[Fex]

future quote of the never happen: "Unfortunately once I started recording my fellow Cubi with the video camera, after a few years, I soon realized many weren't as wonderful actors as I had once beleived,  in fact more then half of the footage was blooper reels of some of the less coordinated Cubi at the academy, and then I was it with inspiration when a young cubi named Abel went into the library and I had accidentaly left one of the cameras on... unfortunately Fa'lina perma- banned Abel from the library soon afterwards.  However this facinating discovery of porn has opened a new window of opportunity."

wait are you saying that Abel is banned from the library becouse he had sex there and the camera filmed it all *burst into laughing*

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

wait are you saying that Abel is banned from the library becouse he had sex there and the camera filmed it all *burst into laughing*

That is, indeed, the implication, although GT has been clever enough to leave it non-explicit. :-]

[Fex]

wait are you saying that Abel is banned from the library becouse he had sex there and the camera filmed it all *burst into laughing*

That is, indeed, the implication, although GT has been clever enough to leave it non-explicit. :-]

*snickers* I thought he burned the place almost down or used the books as ninja stars or so


oh and I like the story's Tapewolf =3 keep it up

[Tapewolf]

oh and I like the story's Tapewolf =3 keep it up

Thanks.  I have a two-part storyline coming up which I'm really happy with, although I still need to polish the ending.  (There may be a cameo in this one, we'll see)

To be honest I could do with some more comments on 'Future History', since that one was actually thought out rather than mostly being improvised like CJP

[Fex]

wait are you saying that Abel is banned from the library becouse he had sex there and the camera filmed it all *burst into laughing*

That is, indeed, the implication, although GT has been clever enough to leave it non-explicit. :-]

I am kinda wondering how do you guys know that in the comic they never said anything about it

[Tapewolf]

I am kinda wondering how do you guys know that [Abel had sex in the library] in the comic they never said anything about it

We don't, it's just something GT made up.  It's possible Amber doesn't know what he did either, and in any case I'd kind of prefer not to know because some jokes are funnier when you only know part of it.

[Aridas]

My memory is fuzzy, but didn't the library incident have something to do with his taste for confusion?