Archangel
Recruit
And thus did the Archangel descend from Heaven itself...
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Post by Archangel on May 1, 2006 22:08:57 GMT -5
As he walked into Lily's house, Jason had a few obligatory rituals to perform, as usual. Actually, he made it in last through the door, having to walk around a few times and touch the jamb more than once before he could actually go in. He smoothed out his shirt, and walked as confidently as he could to Lily's room. As the two sat on the bed, Jason found that he would much rather keep quiet than interrupt Lily's or Alex's thoughts. Plus, any interruption from him might blow something completely out of the water. So instead, he walked over to Lily's desk, and sat down at it. Reaching into her bottom drawer, which was actually more like his drawer, unofficially, he pulled out some tools, and a small hunk of metal. A small hammer, a screwdriver, some pliers, and a small but hot blowtorch. Without saying a word, he set to work.
Clicking the blowtorch on, he didn't bother wearing safety glasses anymore. His eyes were used to it by now. Carefully, he made sure the flame didn't get anywhere near Lily's books. He had scorched one or two before, and she had been royally pissed. Lily was used to this....everywhere he went, either his house, Erika's house, Lily's house, or school, he had projects he was working on. They were, of course, weapons and charms used by Midnighters to fight the Darklings. But he wouldn't tell Alex that.
Right now he was making some links for a chain mail jerkin he was in the process of building. Good thing Lily's desk was stainless steel. Jason took a small amount of metal, roughly 2 inches long and 3/4 inches thick, and began heating it. He would hold the metal at the far end from the blowtorch, where it wouldn't get too hot, then, when it was glowing red and malleable, he would put down the torch, take the pliers, and bend the end until it made an almost-J shape. Letting each one cool, he would move to the others first, before going back, holding it by the other end, then bending that one too. It was simple stuff. He estimated that he needed 487 of those links, roughly, to make a good-looking and workable piece of armor. He planned on naming the armor "Undeliverable". It was a good name for a piece of armor.
He was ignoring the other two, he knew, but hey, it would give them time to talk, wouldn't it? And he was sure that Lily had plenty to say to Alex....
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demented
Veteran
Cool Title Girl
Vade Mecum
Posts: 245
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Post by demented on May 9, 2006 12:30:00 GMT -5
There were full minutes of silence, not completely awkward, but not comfortable either. Finally, when she couldn't take it anymore, Lily hopped off the bed, pacing the small space that was left in her room. She checked her watch, and saw that it was only around 5 o'clock, and sighed. "Well, I guess I owe you an explanation." Lily said, stopping her pacing for a second to look at Alex. She ran her hands through her hair, closing her eyes, concentrating on what she could possibly say to him. The other Midnighters had spent plenty of time in the Secret Hour before they were found by Erika and Lily, making it much easier to explain... Alex, however, didn't even remember the Blue Time, and would probably think they were all crazy.
"I'm going to make you a deal." She said after a minute of thinking, "If you want me to explain myself, you have to promise that you will stick around to find out if what I claim is true or not." She went back to the bed, standing over him, hands on her hips. "If you still don't believe me, or chose to have no part in anything, then you can leave, no questions asked. But you have to stay until one AM." She eyed him, and he nodded his agreement, so Lily went back to her pacing, looking in her bookshelves, trying to find pieces of Lore that she could use to help her. "I met you last night." She started, glancing at Jason who was working on one of his projects, looking for some kind of support. She looked away after a second though, telling herself that if she was the self appointed leader of this here group, she wouldn't need his input.. not yet at least. "You were stealing snacks.. and a darkling chased you."
Lily rubbed her temples, knowing she sounded crazy. She relayed the details to him, telling him about the food he got, exactly what he said, even what clothes he was wearing. "We followed you back to your house.. To make sure you would be alright." She said, then relayed his exact address to him. She gave in great detail what his house looked like, and even told him where his room was in the house. "Look, I know this sounds wacky, and I feel like a stalker, but you need to stick around to see..." Lily sighed, her brow furrowing as she flopped back down on the bed, turning Alex to look at her, taking him by his shoulders and looking into his eyes, "At Midnight, things happen. Everything around here freezes, and these... creatures called Darklings wake up. For one hour the only thing that is left breathing in all of Bixby are those Darklings... And us." She let him go, but did not let go of his gaze, "I am willing to bet five hundred million dollars that you were born on, or close, to Midnight." She knew by his expression, she was right, but she already knew that. "Thats the key.. the only way humans can transfer into the Darklings world. They exist for only an hour, an hour that only we can see.. to everyone else it feels like a blink of the eye, and that hour is over, but for us.. we live in it."
She talked for a long while, telling Alex of the Lore. She explained about the Darklings, and about the history of Bixby, the real one. "Man was not always top of the food chain." She started, "Like, dinosaurs and all, sure, but there were other creatures too.. Darklings. They were the top of the top, and they hunted us. You can find plenty of cave drawings around here, all sorts of things with dark looming creatures which look like spiders, or panthers, or things of your worst nightmare." She explained about the rituals of the humans, the sacrifices to the Darklings, things they did to preserve themselves. "We've all heard the theories about the first caveman to discover fire, right?" She nodded, and continued, "It's said to be the best invention ever made, and thats not far from the truth. Fire was the first of the weapons used against the Darklings. Fire signaled the end of the fear, the fear that gave the Darklings power over humans. Once we found out what they were afraid of, we no longer had reason to be afraid. After that came metal, arrowheads, spears, and other weapons, all of which the Darklings feared. After a while, we were the ones hunting them, and not the other way around."
Lily rubbed her neck, her mind filled with only the Lore, almost feeling like she was a tape recording, not able to stop herself. "Finally, in one last desperate attempt to preserve themselves, the Darklings pulled themselves into the Thirteenth hour of the day, closing any other beings out from that hour, and choosing to only exist during that time." Lily stood, pulling out a book from her shelf, a thick journal of sorts, filled with drawings and writings which most couldn't understand. She showed Alex drawings she made, sketches of the darklings in great detail. She flipped through the pages, not saying anything, until they got to the last entry, about three fourths of the way through the book. There she had a sketch of Alex, the three other Midnighters standing to the side, faces contorted in pain from the flashlight in Alex's hand. It was a perfect display of last night, the panther, the pocket watch, the expression on Alex's face, it was all detailed, perfect, if not sketchy and done with haste. To the side, she had scribbled a few words, drawn some Lore symbols, and wrote in careful, clear handwriting: "Alexander Wolfe."
"You're one of us Alex.. You're a Midnighter."
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Wolfe
Trooper
I know my choice is the right one.
Posts: 111
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Post by Wolfe on May 9, 2006 15:38:14 GMT -5
Alex looked at Lily, and laughed. "Wow that's... really something. I think I sort of remember... something about... something like that but... I dunno. But... I guess that doubting would be beyond the question by now. I guess I'mm just wait for midnight and find out. In the meantime..." He shrugged, not comming up with anyhting to do.
So many things were going through Alex's mind all of a sudden. Trying to remember the night before, and having a very faint recolection of leaving the house late. He also wondered what he would do if the whole thing was true. He saw the story two ways. One: These creatures called Darklings were monsterous and had to be stopped, and still might. He could be very useful in helping that. Two: The Darklings were threatening the Human life, as the humans have threatened theirs and the lives of almsot every other creature on the planet. Maybe there really was a more superior race than the Human.
Either way, he jsut had to wait and talk form then to midnight.
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Archangel
Recruit
And thus did the Archangel descend from Heaven itself...
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Post by Archangel on May 18, 2006 22:34:12 GMT -5
The blazing torch clicked off as Jason turned around. He squinted at Lily, letting his eyes readjust to the light in the room, to the two before him. And, with a heavy heart, he sighed, a deep, breathy sigh.
"She's right, you know. She's not crazy. We saw you last night, and we know what we saw. We saw...something unbelievable. We saw something spectacular. We saw...you."
He shook his head, as if to clear cobwebs.
"You don't understand what you are to us. You see, in the Blue Time, nothing works. No clocks, no cars, no lights, no nothing. It's like everything stops, completely and utterly. We've been prowling the Blue Time every night for years, me, Lils, and Erika. And we know that nothing works. We've tried everything, we've pushed every button, we've turned every knob. Nothing. Even the Lore, our guidebook to what we are, the history that only Lily can read....even the Lore states that nothing can work in the Blue Time. But you know what happened last night? Your flashlight....it worked. It worked. There are no odds in favor of that, no mathematical explanation of why or how or even what. All we know is that it worked...and therefore, it is amazing."
He quickly flipped out his notebook, filled with the super-neat scrawlings of his hand, all in perfect alignment. He opened up to a page near the middle of the book, where his most recent notes were.
"See, these are my notes." They were complete gibberish to Alex, the only things he could recognize were the fact that there were numbers interspersed between Greek letters, and sometimes he saw a fraction or an addition sign. "Here's where we came in, last night, see? Odds are here, multiplied by the factor of local Darklings of certain size ratios displayed in this matrix here. Now..." Here he pointed to a series of numbers, and even sometimes flipped the book upside down, showing more than one thing at once. "Now this here is the calculations I made involving the ratio of time to quadrant angles of the certain flashlight beams. We all know light moves in particles/waves, so you multiply the frequency by the denominator of the sine of the right angle to...."
He stopped, and his face blushed a bright red. "You probably don't give a shit, right? Right." He sat back in his seat and put the notebook down. Sighing again, this time embarrassedly, he spoke.
"Anyways...you're something new, Alex. We've never seen something like you. And you have to believe us. This story...it's too crazy NOT to believe. You think we'd make this shit up? So...what do we say? What do we do? We still have a little time left."
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