mayfield_rpg | event: portal three

The third portal is not what you expect.

It's found in the middle of the Greased Lightning auto garage in the center of one of the building's walls. The drone workers in the garage don't look at or speak of it, but they seem to be avoiding its presence.

From what you can see in the garage, the portal opens up into what seems like the interior of a train's carriage, or first-class seating on an airline. You can see down what seems to be a large, impossibly miles-long aisle, with floors and seats made of luxurious red carpeting. From where you're standing, you can see the arms and legs of the people sitting in those seats, and in some cases the backs of their heads. They're all very well-dressed, and seem pretty lively, although you can't hear anything from this side of the portal.

Upon stepping through, other than the same tingle felt by the other portals, a few other sensations may hit you. The first, and most jarring, is the sense of vertigo caused by suddenly being hundreds of feet above sea level. If your ears pop, that would be why. The second is the smell of delicious food wafting into your nostrils; the supper trolley must be getting close.

The third, and a little less pleasant, is a faint buzzing in the back of your head that will be more than a little familiar to anybody who visited the carnival. Glancing around the cabin, you may notice the same holes that littered the sky back at the carnival: pockets of pure nothing, each about the size of a dinner plate, are scattered here and there across the aisle. Looking at them for more than a few seconds hurts your eyes as well as your mind.

It is while glancing around the cabin that you may notice two things. The first is the windows of the cabin, outside of which you can see the surroundings of your vehicle. It's neither a train nor an airplane: it's a blimp, bigger than any you've ever seen. Above your window you can see the bottom of the great balloon your cabin is attached to. Below, you can see the ocean, and ahead on the horizon, land. It seems the airship you're aboard is headed straight for a large metropolis on the coastline.

The second thing you might notice, now that you're close enough to see them, is the fact that none of your fellow passengers have faces. Their bodies are moving, shifting positions and gesticulating as if they're talking to each other, but no noise emerges from the patch of skin where their mouths would have been. The same goes for everyone occupying the seats down the aisle, which stretches further than you can see. Even when you poke and prod at them, the faceless passengers don't seem to notice your presence- yet.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I doubt it, considering our current circumstances.

[He'll take a quick peek at the small portal.]

That's to say the least.

[Ted's still looking at that small hole in reality.]

I have to wonder what would happen if you poked at it with something...but there is no way in this or any other world I'm going to try that myself.

Give you anything it'd make it bigger.

[Shoutaro is more interested in their other surroundings for the moment. A quick scan will reveal a number of things. Questionable things.]

I wonder why a blimp?

Yeah, I have to admit, it's not exactly what I'd expect to see on the other side of some portal randomly appearing in the garage.

[He thinks a moment.]

At least it's not a portal to Apokolips or somewhere like that...

Sounds like a fun place...

[Any more sarcasm and something might've exploded there.]

Oh, yeah, one of the great vacation spots of the universe, what with all the firepits and slaves and Darkseid and all that. Loads of fun.

[Sarcasm of that caliber deserves a similar sort, after all. It's only proper.]

[That'll make Shoutaro crack a grin.]

What? No cybernetic transfigurations? I suppose I'll have to pass.

[Ted's grinning, too.]

Hey, who knows what they could set you up with at the torture pits. I'm sure they'd be willing to accommodate any special requests.

I dunno. Shocker's got that great underground base set-up with the glowing glass table to do the operations. So much cleaner.

Oh, yeah, the glowing glass table always lends an air of class to any operation. You do something like this, you want to make sure you're doing it in style.

And that's why they've had so many copycats. Style and flair that goes back to the 70's. And it lasts too.

[Shoutaro'll hold back a laugh.]

Shoutaro Hidari. Nice to meet you.

Hey, when you find something that works, there's no reason to improve on perfection, right?

[Ted grins and holds out a hand for a handshake.]

Ted Kord. Good to meet you, too.

Feels weird to talk about a terrorist organization like a spa...

[He'll take Ted's hand firmly. Like a man should.]

[It is the manliest of handshakes.]

Eh, I do that sort of thing all the time. Might as well laugh at all the crazy stuff that goes on, you know? Beats crying over it.

True enough. Though, I reserve the right to look at it strangely.

Hey, nothing wrong with that.

[Ted shrugs.]

I mean, I'm a guy dressed like a giant bug. I'm used to getting a lot of strange looks.

Now THAT I'm used to. When your heroes all tend to have compound eyes in their helmets, you tend to deal.

Really? Back home, this isn't exactly a really common look.

Next to every Kamen Rider has them. Including myself. The motifs differ, but those eyes are almost always the same.

[He hasn't seen the newbie yet...]

Kamen Rider?

[Ted's looking a bit curious now.]

What's that?

Our world's heroes. A tradition of men and women that do battle with people who would seek to take over the world and twist it in their own image.

And ironically, in the majority of cases, they use the villains own technology or magic against them.

[Oh no! Everything is going horribly wrong!]

[Ted grins.]

That's not a bad idea...but I've always preferred building my own toys, myself.

[And he'll just pat his BB gun.]

Too bad I couldn't have brought more in, but the Bug's way too big for this place.

Most of them didn't have a choice sadly. The older of us were forcibly converted into cyborgs.

[He will look impressed at the gun.]

Nice piece.

Oof. That's got to be hard to deal with.

[Ted shows off the gun a little bit more.]

Thanks. I designed it myself--it fires compressed blasts of air. It's completely nonlethal, but it can stun someone for a little bit.

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