[ We find Kenji, Pat, and Will outside the hospital. After a brief delay - the hospital staff was kind enough to clean their clothes while waiting for their discharge forms to process - they are dressed to kill and on the streets. ] [ Out there, they see the damndest things. It turns out the hospital was well over two hundred feet tall. One of the neighboring buildings is nearly five hundred feet high, and most of the buildings in the surrounding densely packed urban environment fall somewhere in that range. ] [ Everything is paved, with only the occasional open space reserved for a tree or a garden. The streets are wide, seemingly carved from a single piece of rough stone, and painted with what appear to be guidelines. ] [ What the guidelines are guiding is phenominal; massive, metal housings that careen along with great speed and seeming purpose on four wheels made of something dull and black. The housings usually shine and are decorated, and inside them, on the other side of glass, sit people, who often get out of the things when they stop. ] [ All in all, our heros are befuddled. But they're all guys, so there's no way they'll ask for directions or read a manual for help. ] [ Session Start! ] Patrick, we're not in Rokugan anymore. No shit, really? * Patrick grins. "So where are we?" Nova Vaasa, wherever that is. * WillS stands mouth agape. "What god's realm is this?" Maybe the lack of divine magic has something to say about that? No god at all? How did they accomplish such wonders then?? Best not to think about it so much right now. For now, we need to move. Specifically, to Will's abode. * Kenji looks about for someone who could be called a peasant. * WillS nods uncomfortably while gripping his symbol of Bahamut tightly in his hands. Will, put that away. In fact, try not to do anything magical. This entire situation calls for caution. [ Everyone seems to be dressed more or less the same; either in suits, in suits with large white coats over them, or in unicolor outfits like the nurse was wearing. ] But but... Fine. * Patrick hmms and looks around for some form of transportation. [ Kenji's the snazziest dresser around, Will seems to fit in, and Pat seems the closest to 'peasant' in the whole area. ] * WillS puts his symbol of Bahamut away. [ One man gets out of one of the moving monstrous carriages, and as he walks away, he squeezes a small device affixed to what looks like a key; the carriage chirps at him in response, apparently signifying something of import. ] * Kenji steps toward the man who most recently ejected himself from the innards of the beast and says loudly, "Pardon me, sir, I am in need of directions. Have you a moment?" * WillS assumes battle positions, ie. moves behind Kenji and Pat. Those large beeping honking things scare him. He's learned long ago from Little Loremissy that large things making wierd noises are dangerous. [ "Eh? Oh, certainly, sir. Where do you need to go?" ] * Kenji takes Will's ID and reads off the address. [ "Ah, that's not far from here. What, is your friend an amnesiac?" He points down the vast street. "Head four blocks thataway, it's the large condominum building on your left. You can walk, or you can hail a cab for a few bucks." ] A cab? I am sorry, we have trouble with some of your terms. They're unfamiliar to us. [ "Yeah. They tend to come by here a-- oh? Ah, you must be from out of town. Look for the big yellow cars with the lights on top. You can pay the driver to take you places." ] Ah, like a rickshaw. * Kenji pulls out a fairly large bill from his pocket and holds it out in both hands. "Please accept a token of thanks, sir." [ "Uh, yeah, actually. Er? Oh, no, please. This is gratis. Just happy to help out. Besides, if someone gives me money before I go in to inspect the hospital, it'll look weird, y'know?" ] Ah, I see. Very well. At least have a good day, sir. Does anybody else have one of those devices he was using? * Patrick pulls out a device similar to it. On it is 'BMW' and has an odd circle with divided colors; perhaps a coat of arms of some kind. * Kenji pulls out his own, and looks at Will questioningly. * WillS shakes his head. * Kenji presses one of the buttons on his own, while aiming it at one of the conveyances nearby. [ Kenji gets no response. He does notice, however, that across the street is a large, semi-open, multi-tiered structure apparently dedicated to housing such things. ] * Patrick does likewise. "Let's see..." He also looks for the symbol on one of the mechanical things. [ Patrick sees three with the right symbol; they are all large and nice-looking. None respond, however. ] There's an entire building full of these across the street. I think it's not likely we'll find ours there, however. Hmmm. Well... Let's think about this. I can see how we're supposed to get across, though. It can't hurt to check. If these are used to transport us, wouldn't they still be where our, uh, other selves left them? Most likely. That's why I find it unlikely that our conveyances are here. Couldn't hurt to check though. Let's move. * Kenji heads down the street to where other people are crossing regularly. * WillS nods and follows. [ Kenji arrives at a large pole with lights pointing in various directions. The signals telling people when to cross or not are simple enough that even these three completely unfamiliar people understand them immediately. There is a sign below the lights saying, 'press button and wait for light to turn before crossing the street'. ] Very organized. * Kenji presses the button. Erm, can't we just walk back to um... that place which seems to be mine? It doesn't seem far from that guy's description. [ Momentarily, the lights change. Two women cross the street with them, apparently talking about a pair of singers who happen to be exceedingly violent. No idea what else they'd mean by 'the Sopranos'. ] * Kenji crosses the street! Success! * Patrick crosses the street as well. * WillS follows quickly as well, not wanting to be left behind. [ Patrick rolls a 20 on his endeavor to cross the street. ] * Patrick is awesome like that. *victory music* [ Inside the building, row upon row of cars sit in neat fashion. ] * Kenji jogs down the rows of cars, testing his buttons occasionally to see if any beeping happens. * Patrick goes about trying to find his mode of transport. * WillS tries to help by looking for matching coat of arms. [ Will finds one with the three-pointed star on it. It's bigger than most of the others. ] Hey Kenji, try this one! It looks nice! * WillS points to the car. * Kenji comes back and points his doohickey at the car and presses buttons. [ The car chirps. ] [ It is large and hunkered down and black with a white interior. The back emblems proclaim it, apparently, to be a 'S 650', which is one of the less intelligible names on these things. ] Lucky. * Patrick is off still looking and beeping around with his device. Um, so what now? The other people seemed to just sit inside and it goes. I'm not entirely sure. * Kenji presses the unlock button. I'm sure I'll learn quickly, however. [ There's a 'click' from the car that sounds like tumblers turning. ] * Kenji opens up the door to the wheel and slides in. Everybody in. * Kenji starts looking for how to start this thing up. * WillS follows Kenji's example and opens the door behind the one Kenji just slid into. He then settles in himself. "Hey, it's pretty comfortable in here. Smells nice too." ( You will make us go. ) [ Kenji finds that one of the seats has a wheel with levers in front of it. ] * Patrick heads back and, seeing the guys in one of the large metal vehicles, hops into one of the seats that's still open. [ After about a second of eyeing it, he 'remembers' that this is what you use to tell the thing where to go. ] [ Pat and Will sink into wonderfully soft leather seats. ] Anybody know how to start this thing? * Kenji looks for something that says "start" [ Kenji finds a round metal button that says just that. ] Damn, this is comfortable. You've got good taste. * Kenji eyes Patrick. Was there ever any doubt? * Kenji presses the "start" button. * Patrick grins. "I ment the other you." [ The thing you're sitting in roars abruptly and then begins... purring? Growling? ] Is it alive? It sounds like Tia when she's hungry. If it is, it doesn't sound like any natural creature. [ It does, but smoother in tone. ] So far, so good. * Kenji tries to figure out how to get the thing to actually move, now. It's times like this that I wish Ariake were here. * WillS pats the empty seat next to him. "Don't worry, Kenji will feed you soon." Aha. Yeah, she'd be pretty useful here. * Kenji grabs a lever and shifts it several notches. * Kenji presses his foot on a pedal and the car jerks violently backward. [ The car roars as it moves back. ] * Kenji slams his foot down on the OTHER pedal without thinking, and the car screeches to a halt. This is quite a bit more responsive than my horse. No kidding. Uh, maybe try being more gentle? * WillS sits himself back upright. "Yeah." * Kenji lets up gently on the brake this time. [ The car rolls back a little without a foot on the brake. ] Interesting. * Kenji lets the car roll, and watches behind him. [ Kenji is soon free of the parking spot. ] Good, good. I could get used to this. * Kenji puts the car in "drive" [ The car rolls slightly forward, awaiting a prompt for greater speed. ] * Kenji presses the "go" pedal. [ The car lunges forward a bit before Kenji eases up on the 'go' pedal. Oh, my. ] This conveyance has an exceptional amount of power. * Kenji maneuvers it carefully to the exit. You'd expect anything less? [ Kenji reaches the exit without incident. He is now faced with a fairly busy road. ] You had best grab whatever handholds you can find. This is going to be interesting. You want to drive around this building a couple times to get a better feel for this thing, Kenji? That looks like a racetrack out there. Uh, yeah. I don't know if this thing can take very much bumping into things. [ Wusses. ] Have a little faith. Let's get dangerous. * Kenji waits for a halfway decent opening and pulls out into traffic. ( Queues darkwing duck music ) Okay, so. We're going... the wrong way entirely. Get? This was already dangerous. * Kenji reaches up and pulls a lever, and water squirs up across the windshield, followed by wipers doing their job. Wrong lever. * Kenji pulls that OTHER lever. * Kenji waits for an opening on the other side of the road and swings the car around, HARD, throwing everybody towards the passenger side as he does a u-turn. * WillS holds on to the back of Kenji's seat tightly, all the while praying to Bahamut. "Bahamut, let this turn out good in the end." * Kenji laughs. These other conveyances are going far too slowly. * Patrick grips on just before the turn. "Now you tell us." [ Suddenly, Patrick notices that the seats have odd harnesses. With warning labels begging people to wear them. ] Be calm, Patrick. Controlling this conveyance is not nearly so difficult as it looks. * Kenji counts off four streets, and as he nears the last, starts looking for a large "condo", whatever that is. Will, tell me if any of these places look familiar to you. [ Kenji sees a sign on the side of the road saying 'Speed Limit 45 mph'. What's an mph? ] * Patrick takes a look at the device and how to fit it together. "Uh, Will, you might want to put your... harness? on." There's a harness? * Patrick points at Will's belt thing near his seat. * WillS looks around by turning his head, refusing to let go of Kenji's headrest. Oh. Thanks, Patrick. * WillS waits until Kenji is on a straight stretch and quickly puts the harness on. [ Will feels safer. ] [ Kenji suddenly realizes he's gone four blocks. That was fast. On the left is a large building bearing a name found in Will's address. ] Aha. That must be it. Yeah. Find a place to put this thing. * Kenji looks for a place to "park" this thing. [ There's another garage across the street. ] * Kenji heads into that garage, then, to park this bad pony. [ Kenji parks ably enough. Interestingly, right next to the parking space he selects is something more like a horse with wheels and no head. It bears the symbol on Pat's keychain. ] * Patrick blinks and tries his keychain on it. [ It chirps. ] * Kenji looks for a "stop" button for his car. Heh, cool. I found mine. Good. More resources we can use to find Seylin and Tia. * Kenji stops the engine sooner or later, gets out, and hits the "lock" button. * Patrick gets out of the vehicle and looks around. "Yeah. Let's see what Will's place is like, and if we can get any more information on where or what's going on." Alright. It should be that building across the street. I wonder what my other self's place is like. Only one way to find out. * Kenji heads down to street level to cross over. * Patrick does as well. Stairs are whee. * WillS heads on towards his place too. [ Before long, Our Intrepid Doods are at Will's place. Inside it, even! It's a nice, open apartment mostly in whites. ] Anything, Will? Maybe a font of holy water that you can try to use to find them? * Kenji starts casing the joint. [ The place has sinks. It has a large collection of small clear boxes with paper markings in them featuring soothing images and names like 'Enya' and 'Yanni'. ] * Patrick starts looking around likewise. "Yeah, if you can scry something it'd make things a lot easier." * WillS looks around for anything that resembles Bahamut or magic-like. * Kenji pokes around looking for odd things that have an unknown function. [ Will sees nothing of the sort. He sees a holy symbol featuring a prominent sun, however, as well as several texts that appear to be about theology. ] * WillS nods satisfactory at the holy symbol. "Seems like the other me worships Bahamut too!" Will, can you do a quick check for magic, to see if you have anything useful around? * WillS nods, takes out his symbol of Bahamut, and does just that. [ There are a few minor magic items around. Only useful thing is a small stash of potions and wands. ] * WillS goes around the place gathering up all the magic items and piles them on to a table. "Seems like the only thing useful are these potions and wands." Better than nothing. Yeah. These potions and wands are all for healing. You guys should take some for emergency purposes. What kind of healing are the wands? I could probably use one. * Kenji grabs a few each and stows them in his bag. And those non-white ones makes you resistant to extreme temperatures. The wands are good for light wounds. * Patrick snags some of each and stowes them away. * WillS takes the rest and stuffs them into his haversack suitcase. Anybody happen to find any notes about where Tia and Seylin live? * WillS finds his diary and ends up with this wierd look on his face, half blushing and half holding back laughter, as he finds out where Sey and Pat lives. Find somethin' Will? Erm, I think you guys should read this section yourselves. * WillS hands his diary over. * Patrick snags it and reads it over. Our next stop is Patrick's place, then. * Patrick smirks. "Yup." * WillS nods. [ And so they ventured out to doom! I mean, Patrick's place! ] [ Session End! ]