If I had to choose a song, I'd go with Laissons entrer le soleil (among all the songs I know, it might be the only one that would fit), even if I'm good with Having a Good Time.
I haven't remarked anything out of the usual for a story with time travel, zombies, psychic power of sound control, demons and extra-dimensional being playing a game of 4D chess with time-travelers marooned at the end of time.
I don't know 'Laissons entrer le soleil'. I'd need to know more about it before I could feel confident about including it in this quest. I'll try listening to it a few times, but my French isn't great. (Which is a shame, because it used to be better.)
Do you mean Don't Stop Me Now by Queen? (The lyrics include the words "having a good time" repeated several times. Otherwise, I can't find a song called "Having a Good Time".)
Hmm. What do you think, Freddie Mercury?
Lyrics from Don't Stop Me Now said:
Other band members: "Don't stop me, don't stop me, ooh ooh ooh..."
'It's not important, Evie,' you say soothingly. 'Don't worry too much.'
'No, I want to–'
A flash of something in your eyes. Voices from far away. Darkness. For a moment, you are in two places at once. You feel dizzy, unsure of what is real. You see two Evarvaes. One is standing in front of you right now, in the ruins of Terminus's south wall. The other is… you don't know where she is. Or was. Somewhere underground: in the Bowels, probably. A vision.
Trudging slowly along the path, dulled by pain she couldn't seem to shake, Evarvae gazed at the ground, seeing abstract patterns in the churned-up mud, like smears of black paint on a brown canvas. Dark… It's all dark. She stopped, fell to her knees, felt a burning behind her eyes like she was about to burst into tears, but... she was exhausted, too tired even to weep. Her eyes stayed dry, pinched and shaded with fatigue.
For a while, she stayed there, kneeling in the dust as though praying to a distant god, though she knew that all the gods were dead or gone except those who would look upon her with hatred, malice or cruel intentions. She had sunk so far into her pit of despair that she was unable to rise. In the distance, she could hear children's voices, laughing and shouting, boisterously playing, but even that only served to remind her of the grim futility of existence, the cruelty of hope and the inescapable fact that "life" was synonymous with "misery".
'Why live? Why fight? What difference does it make?' she asked herself. 'I know... it is too late. It has always been too late. There is nothing I can do.'
She threw back her head and began to laugh, nearly choking on it. It was the laughter of the damned: manic, tormented and despairing.
'I wish I could leave here. I wish I could fly away, but... there's nowhere I can go.'
A shining wire. She saw the light glinting off it. Wondering what it was, why it was moving closer, she raised a hand to touch it. Then, she felt hot breath on the back of her neck. Someone pressed up against her. The wire stretched taut against her hand, biting into her glove. Then, she realised what it was: a garrotte! Someone was trying to kill her!
'You're a sick puppy, girl,' said the man behind her. 'Someone with your troubles, seems to me you'd be better off dead. Never mind that I'm being paid for this, I'm doing you a favour. This is a mercy.'
Realising that her hand was in the way of his garrotte, he tried to grab her by the neck and throttle her to death the old-fashioned way. However, there was a surprising amount of strength packed into her slender body: she snapped the wire as easily as clicking her fingers together. Then, she seized hold of the man's arm, lifted him over her head and threw him forward, smashing him into the wall.
'You know nothing about me,' she said with dreadful serenity.
There was a crowbar clipped to the man's belt. Evarvae took it. She hit him with it. Again and again, until he was definitely dead. He didn't stop grinning at her, even then.
The vision fades. You find yourself pulled back into your own body, in the ruins to the south of the Belly. Evarvae stands before you. She hides her face behind her hands, apparently mortified. 'I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!' she exclaims. 'How embarrassing!'
'Are you well, Frida?' asks Garrar anxiously.
'Uh... yeah, I'm fine,' you say, gathering your wits. 'What the hell was that, Evie?'
'Power incontinence,' she says, wincing. 'I tend to leak memories when I'm stressed. Sorry, Frida.'
But no, can't find anything out of place other than things going exceptionally well for us. But those could be explained away by having people like Al-Khidr and Evie on our side. I can't remember something blatantly improbable out of my head.
I haven't remarked anything out of the usual for a story with time travel, zombies, psychic power of sound control, demons and extra-dimensional being playing a game of 4D chess with time-travelers marooned at the end of time.
I don't know 'Laissons entrer le soleil'. I'd need to know more about it before I could feel confident about including it in this quest. I'll try listening to it a few times, but my French isn't great. (Which is a shame, because it used to be better.)
Reading around, it's taken (with a few changes to the lyrics and melody) from the musical Hair, from the "Let the sunshine in" song.
Laissons entrer le soleil – Julien Clerc
On se guette,
Traqués, à bout de souffle
Marchant, pétrifiés dans nos manteaux d'hiver
Refoulés aux frontières du mensonge
Des nations qui crèvent.
Tués par des rêves chimériques
Ecrasés de certitudes
Dans un monde glacé de solitude
Savoir
Si quelque part il y a
L'espoir
D'être un jour les enfants
Du hasard
Je vois ma vie projeter
Son futur dans l'espace
Et le silence me répond,
En secret
Son secret
Laissons, laissons, entrer le soleil
Laissons, laissons, entrer le soleil
Laissez, laissez entrer le soleil
Laissez, laissez entrer le soleil
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
On se guette,
Traqués, à bout de souffle
Marchant, pétrifiés dans nos manteaux d'hiver
Refoulés aux frontières du mensonge
Des nations qui crèvent.
Tués par des rêves chimériques
Écrases de certitudes
Dans un monde glacé de solitude
Chantons
Nos rêves d'espoir sur un sitar
Sitar
De toi le roi est né
Et chantons
La vie qui est en nous et autour
De nous
Laissons, laissons, entrer le soleil
Laissons, laissons, entrer le soleil
Laissez, laissez entrer le soleil
Laissez, laissez entrer le soleil
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
Let the sunshine in (translated)
Staring
Stalked, short of breath
Walking, stiff in our winter coats
Turned back from the lying borders
Of dying nations.
Killed by Chimeric dreams
Crushed by certitudes
In world frozen by solitude
Knowing
That somewhere there is
the hope
to be one day children
of hazard
I see my life projecting
Its future in the space
And silence is answering me
In secret
Its secret
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
Staring
Stalked, short of breath
Walking, stiff in our winter coats
Turned back from the lying borders
of dying nations.
Killed by chimeric dreams
Crushed by certitudes
In world frozen by solitude
Let's sing
Our dreams of hope on a sitar
Sitar
From you the king is born
And sing
Life which in us and around
us
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
Let the sun shine
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine in
Let the sun shine ....
All right, well... I hope this doesn't disappoint:
*
This Is Not the Greatest Song in the World (This Is Just a Tribute)
You instruct Evie and Al-Khidr to partially dismantle Lothangrim's time machine so that it can't be used as a makeshift bomb. Given enough time, he could probably repair it, but you intend to make sure that he won't have a chance to do so. From where you're standing, it looks like Evie is doing most of the work, with Al-Khidr explaining the meanings of some of the arcane runes and symbols, but otherwise taking this opportunity to rest. He probably needs it, poor fellow: he was very badly injured earlier.
Meanwhile, you and Glitch put on the greatest show of your life. It's a shame that you don't really have an audience: Evie and Al-Khidr are busy with their work, and Garrar is standing guard, so none of them are really giving your music the attention it deserves. What a shame. Still, after your pounding rhythms have shattered the evil necromancer's magical network and prevented him from sending another horde of zombies to attack you, you're sure that your friends will all be suitably grateful. Someday, they will appreciate your genius!
You start off by playing the 'Ghostbusters' theme by Ray Parker Jr. An oldie but a goodie, it's been remixed, sampled, and covered many times over the years by various artists. Given its subject matter, it seems the perfect song for anyone who's trying to defeat an army of the undead. You play the tune while Glitch provides the backing track. "I ain't afraid of no ghosts," you think to yourself, remembering the glass vial which mysteriously disappeared before it hit the floor. "I ain't afraid of no ghosts…"
It's an amusing song, the lyrics are fun and it's got a beat you can dance to, but you feel like there's something missing. Loud as you can make it, you still think it lacks some of the verve and passion you need for a performance like this. If you want to defeat Lothangrim, you're going to need to turn it up to eleven.
"An invisible man, sleepin' in your bed. Ow, who you gonna call?"
Almost without thinking, you segue into 'The Invisible Man' by Queen. Some of the lyrics are similar enough that it seems to you that there's a connection. Glitch is caught off guard, but recovers quickly, changing the beat to fit.
"I'm in your room. And I'm in your bed. And I'm in your life. And I'm in your head. Like the CIA. Or the FBI. You'll never get close. Never take me alive. I'm the invisible man. I'm the invisible man. Incredible how you can… see right through me!"
Getting warmer, you think to yourself, letting the music flow through you, pulsating and exhilarating. You feel inspired. So, carrying on your impromptu concert, you play a medley of some of your favourite songs, starting with Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now' (after you'd played 'The Invisible Man', it seemed like an obvious next step).
"I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah. Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit. I'm traveling at the speed of light! I wanna make a supersonic woman of you!"
And then a few snatches of 'Let the Sunshine In' from Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical:
"With supreme visions of lonely tunes, singing our space songs on a spider web sitar, life is around you and in you. Answer for Timothy Leary, dearie. Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in…'
"Moving on, keep moving on, yeah! Moving at one million miles an hour, using my power. I sell it by the hour – I have it so I market it – you really can't afford it, yeah! Really can't afford it. Shooting stars never stop, even when they reach the top!"
You are so caught up in the music, entranced by it, so involved in what you're doing that you barely notice as a web of tiny cracks spread through the floor, as plaster dust rains from the ceiling, and the headless remnants of one of the zombies Garrar defeated earlier suddenly explodes for seemingly no reason. Even when Glitch lays a hand on your shoulder and says, 'FRIDA, WE SHOULD GO NOW,' it takes you a few moments to pull yourself out of your fugue state.
"There goes a supernova – what a pushover! We're a long way from home, welcome to the pleasure dome! On our way home, going home where lovers roam…"
With an effort, you manage to focus, glancing around at your friends who all seem to have packed up ready to get moving. 'Congratulations, Frida,' says Al-Khidr. 'These vaults were designed to outlast the apocalypse, but you have successfully managed to damage the structural integrity of this one. I didn't think you had it in you.'
'That's what you wanted me to do, right?' you say, giving him a cheery grin and a thumbs-up.
'No. We need to get out of here. Quickly, or we're all going to die.'
You feel a rumbling under your feet that isn't from the music you've been playing. Although maybe your music started it off. The floor is shaking.
'I don't think you can blame me for this,' you say, raising your hands placatingly. 'This vault was badly damaged when Lothangrim destroyed the Buried Village. It's all his fault, see?'
'We don't have time to apportion blame,' says Evie, tense as a cat about to pounce. 'We need to run. Now!'
I tried to include all of the songs that were suggested, plus a couple of extras.
What will you do?
[] Run!
[] Persuade Evie to carry you, bridal-style.
[] Ask Al-Khidr to teleport you closer to the exit.
[] Find one of the time flies.
-[] Have it bite you.
--[] Get instantly teleported back to the centre of the Maze.
Hmm. I'm curious as to what the others think of Frida. Despite moments like this where she shows herself to be kind of a weirdo, they take her cue pretty well.
Hmm. I'm curious as to what the others think of Frida. Despite moments like this where she shows herself to be kind of a weirdo, they take her cue pretty well.
Most of the time, she's competent enough that they can put up with her eccentricities. Even if they do snark about it. Like... when you first met Al-Khidr, he was very kind and polite, but now he's being snarky like the rest of them. Although, in his case, that might just be the exhaustion and blood loss talking.
Chandagnac, I think it's been a few years since I last used SV (or any forum really), but I am so unbelievably happy that this is still continuing. Kudos to you and your determination. I suppose now is as good a time as any for me to start again!
Cheers, yes?
Chandagnac, I think it's been a few years since I last used SV (or any forum really), but I am so unbelievably happy that this is still continuing. Kudos to you and your determination. I suppose now is as good a time as any for me to start again!
Cheers, yes?
It's good to see you again. Feel free to post whenever you like.
I've only recently continued this quest after a long hiatus. Considering how many times I've dropped it for several months before carrying on, I'm surprised I've got any readers left. But it's nice to see people keep coming back, so thank you.
Yup, makes sense. Also, she can hold him above her head and use him to shield the rest of you from falling debris. Soon, all the fashionable ladies will be wanting their very own robot umbrella!
Yup, makes sense. Also, she can hold him above her head and use him to shield the rest of you from falling debris. Soon, all the fashionable ladies will be wanting their very own robot umbrella!
And if she's holding him above her head, it would be so easy to throw him at any obstruction, like a herd of zombies. I mean he's supposed to be pretty tough, so he wouldn't take any damage. And he could transition right into clobbering zombies once he's in the middle of them.
You break into a run, heading for the stairs. Fortunately, before you can get very far, Evie intercepts you, latching on to your arm and asking, 'Where are you going, Frida?'
'Back to the stairs. You know, where we came up,' you say, bringing your headlong flight to an abrupt halt.
'That leads deeper into the Vault, further away from any of the exits we know about,' she reminds you. 'Unless… when you were scanning the building with your powers, did you find another secret exit?'
'No,' you admit.
'But there must be another set of stairs that way,' says Evie, pointing to the doors on the opposite side of the room. 'Otherwise, where did those zombies come from?'
Even as she speaks, another mob of zombies comes spilling into the room. They seem poorly coordinated; having reverted to their base instincts, they are less than animals, lacking the ability to work together except by accident. Since you shattered Lothangrim's phylactery network, they're bereft of his guidance. Easy meat. In fact, you don't even have to lift a finger against them. As you watch, Glitch and Garrar carve through them with contemptuous ease.
'This way,' says Evie, guiding you by the hand. Her long-legged strides cover the distance as quickly as if she were dashing for the exit.
'Of course, there's another staircase that way,' you realise, hazily remembering how it felt when you used your echolocation to map out this entire building. It's a shame that you forgot most of it almost as soon as you'd pieced it together. In fact, as you go down the stairs and have to navigate through the warren of halls and corridors on the lower level, you suspect that what little you remember is more misleading than not. You keep wanting to veer off into side passages or dead ends; you suspect that you'd be hopelessly delayed by now if Evie or Al-Khidr didn't keep pointing you in the right direction.
You don't feel like you're in immediate danger. Cracks keep spreading through the floor, the walls and ceilings, but deceptively slowly, so you might almost be fooled into thinking that you had plenty of time to escape. However, the air is getting thick with dust, you see fragments of brick, plaster, and bits of metal dropping from the ceiling, and you're aware that… well, if the roof fell down on top of you, you're not sure you could survive that. It'd be game over for you, pretty much.
Glitch is falling behind. He doesn't mean to; it's just that he can't move quickly enough to keep up with the rest of you. You hear a whirring and a grinding and an ominous clicking coming from somewhere within him; you suspect that his joints are getting clogged with grit, filth, and the gory remains of the several dozen zombies he's squished in close combat. As you turn back to glance at him you see a broken ceiling tile drop on his head; you wince, worried that this is but a portent of a much greater collapse.
'YOU MIGHT… HAVE TO GO ON WITHOUT ME,' he crackles.
'No. I won't lose any more friends,' Evie declares. 'Not here. Not today.'
She dashes over to Glitch and – with the aid of her telekinesis and advanced technology – lifts the large and bulky robot over her head as if he weighed nothing at all. Despite this unwieldy burden, she's still capable of moving at nearly full sprint; you're impressed by the ease with which she catches up with you. Because of course she does.
It seems like Glitch is stunned into silence for a few moments, but he soon sees the funny side of his current situation. 'HELP! HELP! I'M BEING KIDNAPPED!' he cries. 'OH, WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE PITY ON A POOR HELPLESS MAIDEN?'
'Hey, I've just realised: if you hold him lengthways like that, we can all take shelter underneath him if the roof caves in!' Garrar exclaims. 'Good thinking, Evie!'
'DON'T YOU CARE? I'M BEING CARRIED OFF BY THIS DIRTY BARBARIAN WHO NO DOUBT INTENDS TO RAVISH ME!'
'No doubt,' says Evie, with heavy irony.
'I'm the only dirty barbarian around here!' Garrar protests. 'And I'm not carrying you. No way!'
'SAVE ME, FRIDA! DON'T LET HER TAKE ME AWAY! LET HER TAKE YOU INSTEAD!'
'Stop it, please,' Al-Khidr murmurs. 'When we get out of here… then, you can joke around as much as you like. For now, let's keep going. Please.' He is visibly flagging, exhausted and injured; his olive-dark skin has taken on a greyish tinge. It may just be your imagination, but he looks thinner and more haggard than he did before.
You round a corner and see a massed horde of zombies and meat puppets gathered there, waiting for you. A solid wall of decaying flesh, bristling with spikes, claws and teeth, and various primitive weapons. They won't let you leave, not without a fight; but if you get past them, you're home free.
One last performance, then it's farewell. You'd better get on with it. Give them a show they won't forget!
How will you get past the army of zombies? (Choose as many options as make sense)
[] Blast them with Mastery of Sound.
[] Get out your handgun and start shooting.
[] Taunt Lothangrim. (Write in: what do you want to say to him?)
[] Suggest that Evie should throw Glitch into the middle of the horde.
-[] Let Evie loose with her 'bullet hell' technique.
[] Tell Garrar to start hitting them with his sword.
[] Ask Al-Khidr to teleport you and the others out of there.
[] Do something else (write in).
No piña coladas were consumed in the writing of this update. In fact, piña coladas don't feature in it at all.
It's almost like I've run out of clever ideas for titles, isn't it?
[X] Suggest that Evie should throw Glitch into the middle of the horde.
-[X] Have him sing "I came in like a wrecking ball"
-[X] Let Evie loose with her 'bullet hell' technique.
