01's Obsession

 

I returned my attention to the tentacle. A scene was coming closer, or was I going to it? Everything was confusing and difficult to place. Suddenly it snapped into existence around me, the walls of the cave melting away, phasing into a new room. I seemed to be standing in a bedroom. It was sparesly decorated, containing only a bed, a chair, a bureau and a table. Standing at opposite sides of the small table were two figures robed and hooded in red. My gaze seemed only to move in small increments, taking in little pieces of this at a time, so it seemed that I only noticed all of this over quite a bit of time. One of the robed figures had a plain silver-grey ring set with a grey-white gem, the other had a similar ring set with a dark red gem. As my eyes began to register the table, I noticed a number of objects on it. One was a gleaming red jewel, faceted, another was a ball of constandtly moving energy, shifting and changing, but pleasant to look at . The third was a smoky grey orb. Slowly this fell into place . . . the Jewel of Judgement? The . . . whatever . . . of the Logrus? So what was the Orb? Abyss, perhaps?

I became aware that one of the robed figures was 01. The other one I couldn't identify. He? seemed to be in a constant blur, somehow out of phase with time, either a head or behind, I wasn't sure. The only thing I managed to identify were the occasional flashes that indicated red hair. Well, discounting shapeshifters, that did limit the playing field. Neither of them were moving at all, they seemed almost like statues. I reached out to touch them and my hand went right through. Ok, observe.

The red-head seemed to be speaking to the 01 figure.

"You have done well enough."

"I wish to move on" 01 replied.

"Do you think you're ready for the next level?" he asked 01.

"Yes" 01 said.

"Bring me the rest, and I will consider it" 01 was told.

I was thoroughly confused and rather alarmed now. I tried again to grab the jewel on the table, but I moved in slow motion and my hand went right through. They began speaking again, but I was distracted, feeling an incoming trump call. Here? Neat trick...

PING

A drop of water ran down my face to the tip of my nose. How annoying. I reached for the contact, but it faded away.

I looked back at the figures. The blur effect on the red-head was slightly nauseating. I looked over at 01 and noticed on hand take on motion. It suddenly started to jerk around randomly. It seemed almost as if it was being moved by an outside force. Very odd, I thought. I reached out, and found that it was solid. Surprised, I grasped the hand. The arm continued to try to flop about, very strongly. I began having a wierd suspicion. I tried to touch the table again, but it was still insubstantial. The arm got more control, and seemed to be flexing it's fingers as it were learning to move for the first time. I tried to grasp the hand to get it's owner's attnetion. But it seemed to pay me no heed. The other arm reached forward toward the items on the table.

PING

Arg, not now! There was moisture on my head. I blocked off the incoming contact, returning my attention to 01.

The other arm pulled my hand away from it. Alarmed that it might reach the objects, I asked Frakir to tie the hands together, but she didn't respond. She didn't even seem to be there, now that I was looking for her. The hand's swept towards the items and swept right through them all. Trying to collaborate an effort, I regrasped the hand and pushed it directly towards the jewel. It passed through again. The other hand hovered over the grey sphere, eventually passing through it as well. 01 lifted one hand, trying to touch the other robed figure, and again passed right through.

I decided to try to get 01's attention, to try to communicate with him and let him know I was there. I tapped on his arm, to no avail. Turning one hand over palm up, I tried tapping again, but there was no discernable response. The other hand was still trying to grasp things on the table. Finally he stopped and backed away from the table.

This produced a bizarre effect. An image of 01 detached himself from the image of 01 at the table, creating two 01's, neither of whom could apparently see me. I tried using a binary code, tapping 0-1-0-1-0-1-0-1 on his arm, but this didn't do me any good either. The mobile version of 01 moved, walking around to the other figure and moving inside of it. Interesting theory. Almost immediately, it backed out again. Frustrated at not being able to get his attention, I pushed him. I was startled to see him stumble forward and fall through the floor. I reacted fast, trying to grab him, but he dropped through the floor and was gone. I stood staring for a moment, then the scene began fading out, leaving me again in the cave.

Go on to Chapter Twenty, Part Three

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Lady Corvina I of the Courts of Chaos