mayfield_rpg | Puzzle 34

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Puzzle 34

[726 Anderson Lane.]

[Luke had only been gone a little over three hours, but the way he's stumbling into the house makes it look like he's been gone for a week. The front of his shirt is covered in blood, and he has a nasty bite on his shoulder. Despite that? He doesn't look scared or traumatized, as he usually does with each horrible event the town puts them through.

Instead, he looks really tired.

He darts towards the kitchen, and rummages for something to eat and drink. He's tempted to find someplace to sleep, but there's still a few things he needs to do first. The first thing he needs to do is make a phone call...]

[Phone.]

What all was found in those portals? What did everyone see? The more you can tell me, the better. We ought to start making a record of our discoveries as soon as possible.

[Around town.]

[After a fresh change of clothes, Luke doesn't look that much better, but at least he's not covered in blood anymore. His first goal is to check on the people he traveled with in the void and make sure they all came back in one piece. While he's mostly interested in checking up on people he knows, he'll stop for just about anyone.

When he's finished making sure everyone is okay, he'll go pay a visit to a certain sea creature at the lake.]

[462 Stone Street - Late night]

[The event may be over, but Luke's paranoia gets the better of him. He's spent most of his day fighting sleep and stalking his Mayfield family just in case they don't get eaten by a glitch or something. But even as he tries to go to bed, he still keeps waking up in the middle of the night thanks to some very nasty nightmares.

Deciding sleep is a lost cause, he slips out of the house in the middle of the night, still in his pajamas. He makes his way over to 462 Stone Street to check up on a certain puzzler. Worried about waking them up, he ends up sitting outside the door like a creeper while he decides if he should knock or not.

Unfortunately his lack of sleep catches up with him, because before he can make a decision, he dozes off on the doorstep of the Nigma family. If Edward or Ema checks outside in the middle of the night, they'll find Luke curled up and fast asleep on the porch.]

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Uh-huh. There's still a lot we don't know, isn't there? It's...heh, it's pretty darn surreal, actually. Feels like everything we're doing now actually has meaning. And that's coming from someone who hasn't even been here for as long as some of you old folks have; I bet this feels extra weird for you.

If I remember right, I think I've been here nearly two years. For the longest time, I just accepted that we weren't going home. I thought we were all alone here, with no way out.

But...what if it's not like that? Maybe Mr. Grey isn't the only one trying to help.

[Luke sounds a bit more excited. He can't remember the last time he felt this hopeful.]

Maybe there's more people on the outside, trying to help us get out!

[blinkblink] Like a resistance group? Rebels? Freedom Fighters Anonymous?

[it's an interesting thought and he'd like to share Luke's sentiments so very much, but let's be honest: someone needs to be realistic.]

Why would it take them this long, though? This stupid town's fit to fall apart and they still have the nerve to be cryptic? What kind of sense does that make?

I don't know. I mean, it's taken up until now for us to be able to do anything. Maybe they were having as much trouble breaking in as much as we did trying to break out.

As for being cryptic, well, we still have a lot of enemies here. It's a little worrying that Lucy has been so quiet for a while now.

Pretty much all of them have been MIA. Can't say I blame them. I'd be pretty terrified of facing down a giant angry mob filled with magical creatures and robots and...whoever else is stuck here with us.

[he hums thoughtfully, gently wiggling his feet back and forth.]

...Right, so. If we were running Mayfield, where would be the most logical place to hide anything even remotely resembling a portal out of here?

Ah, well...it would either be in the place that's the most difficult to get into or the last place we'd think of looking.

[Luke makes a face.]

Ugh. Come to think of it, what if it was in the same house as the Smiths?

Positive thinking, Luke. Positive thinking.

[YEAH OKAY SCREW REALISM.]

R-right. Well, we can start by process of elimination. Find out where people have tried already and go from there. Perhaps we should scope out the easiest places first and them um, move down the list from there.

Obviously storming City Hall would be a terrible idea without some planning. So um, maybe we could start with what's out on the highway?

[oh, right. they have a highway.

huh.]

I've never been out there before. Is it, um - [he twiddles his fingers.] ...Dangerous?

I don't know. I've never been out there before either.

[Thus why he doesn't mind starting there. How does that saying go again? Curiosity killed the cat...]

There's um, a forest. And a diner. That's all I've really heard.

Dumb place to hide a secret portal, but whatever, I can dig it.

[he sighs. it can't be any worse than the void, right? sure, he said the same about the carnival, but darn it, this is DIFFERENT.]

Yeah, sure. Let's give it a shot. It's not like we have anything else to lose, right? [he tucks both arms behind his head, glancing up.] I'd make a terrible old man anyway.

[Oh yes totally different. It's not like the forest has anything dangerous in it, no sir.]

Like I said, we start by process of elimination. We have to be a lot cleverer about this then the people who think it's okay to start blowing up buildings all over town.

[He frowns at the Once-ler's last comment.]

Well, I hope it won't come to that...I've still got a lot of growing to do yet!

[He hopes. HE HOPES.]

Yeah. Let's save the fireworks for the grand finale. If I'm going out, I want to to go out with the biggest bang ever [and really hastily:] ...But not just yet. Let's just focus on playing detective and biding our time 'til the real fun starts.

[and speaking of fun...]

We're not going alone, right?

Try not to have too much fun. It'd...be nice if we could all make it and see what's on the other side of this place.

Of course we're not going alone. I'll see about rounding a few others as well. The more the merrier, right?

I'm not too sure if that's such a good thing. It could be just as bad as Mayfield.

Mmhm. Just make sure not to tell Annie, yeah? She throws a mean, uh...well, you. Believe it or not, but that isn't a good thing.

And it might not be as bad as Mayfield.

[Although they did mention a wasteland. He's doubtful, but being pessimistic about it wasn't going to do them much good.]

Throws a mean me, you mean. [Yeah he's still pretty cranky about that.]

Yeah, yeah. Almost forgot: positive thinking.

That's what I said! If there was a bowling league where you bowled with little kids instead of balls, she'd totally take home the gold. [a beat] But yeah, sorry I had to catch you with my face.

Well, I think I'm done being used as a bowling ball. Thank you very much. I still can't believe she threw me! Who else does that?![No he's never going to get over this. He's very butt mad.]

And um, sorry I hit with you my foot. Or head. Whichever crashed into you first.

Hm, let's think. A crazy person, a psycho, someone with a track record of getting really unstable and murderous at the absolute worst times... [he counts each off with his fingers.] Tough choice, but I'm gonna go with "d" - all of the above.

Well, water under the bridge, right?

Hrmpf. I really don't get her at all. Just when I think I'm starting to understand, she turns me into a bowling ball.

Mhm, I suppose we just ought to put it behind us. Aside from that, I think we made a pretty cool team.

Girls can be complicated like that. 'course, Annie transcends complicated. She's more...oh, what's the word? Infuriating.

A regular dream team. Remind me to thank your dad if we manage to somehow rope him into this stupid plan. I need to know where he got that cane; it was beyond neat.

[huff!]

I actually wouldn't mind having one.

She reminds me a lot of someone else I used to know here. They just do as they please and never think about the consequences of what they do or say. It's absolutely maddening sometimes!

Oh, his cane? It is pretty neat, isn't it? He gave me one like it as a Christmas gift! I altered it so it could fire coins.

Right? The moment you get involved with a girl, everything gets weird. At least you haven't reached the point where you're jumping through hoops to impress one. That's pretty much the point of no return.

Maybe he could get me one if I ask real nicely. [he frowns nervously, gnawing on his lower lip.] ...I mean, if worst comes to worst, I could bribe him with a new mailbox. I kinda...forgot to replace the old one when I ran it over.

I-I guess so. It's really hard to impress girls anyway...

...Oh! So that's why our mailbox is gone. I was wondering about that.

That's the right way to think. Wrap your mind around that while you're still young, it gets really hard to understand much less dig your way out of when you're older.

In my defense, he's sort of a jinx.

[seriously, it's a wonder Once-ler didn't accidentally cut his head off or something while they were in the void.]

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hintcoinplz - 2012-09-24 12:50 (UTC) - Expand

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