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Post by Jongluer on Jul 3, 2010 15:06:15 GMT -5
At the end of a long hot day in early September, the Air Condition has once more puttered out. For the fifth time this week, and the second time today, you are heading down to the bowels of the school because American children cannot sit in a mildly warm classroom for longer than thirty minutes. Of course, as you already know it probably has just seized up and the system just needs to be restarted. Still, down into the bowels of pipes and machinery you go.
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 3, 2010 23:17:55 GMT -5
The trip to the mechanical room, while made unnecessarily complicated by the number of locked doors and cluttered hallways/storage rooms Arkadi must pass through, allows him the time and privacy for some simple pleasures. After receiving a call by radio from one of the assistant principals, Arkadi, once again, fetches his tool belt and chest. And a pack of Lucky Strikes, one of which is dangling from his lips prior to ignition once he gets deep enough into the bowels of the school.
The AC units have grown unnecessarily difficult recently. He has forwarded the necessary work orders to have a local specialist have a look, but so far no appointment has been made.
He arrives in the mechanical room, which also houses the boiler used during the winter months. Closing the heavy fire door behind him, he sets his chest aside and finally lights that Lucky Strike, taking a satisfying puff.
"Time to get busy," he mutters to himself and goes about checking the AC unit for faults.
<<Mechanics: Succeed by 4.>>
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 3, 2010 23:29:18 GMT -5
As Arkadi examines the air conditioning unit, he can't help but realize that nothing is actually wrong with the unit. Once more its sheer propensity for breaking down perplexes him, as he begins the process to start up the large industrial unit again. Still the brief moments of supposed "repair time" give him more than enough time for a few very precious cigarettes. As he goes through the process of turning the machine, Arkadi hears something moving in the darkness of the somewhat overly large mechanical room, though his old eyes cannot seem to pierce the darkness of the room.
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 3, 2010 23:35:54 GMT -5
Just as he reaches to switch the power supply from OFF to HAND, the sounds of movement in the room give him pause. Before reintroducing the deafening noise of a running AC unit, he tries to locate the direction the noise is coming from, and fetches a flashlight from his tool chest while he's at it, flipping it on.
<<PER role succeeds by 3>>
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 3, 2010 23:40:10 GMT -5
Arkadi moves the flashlight around the deep darkness of the surprisingly quiet mechanics room, and while most of what he reveals is machinery for a very brief moment his flashlight sweeps over the top of a boiler and something catches his eye. Arkadi is confused at first, as the light flashes across a large grin, and the body of a cat. But it is quite larger than the average house cat, about the size of a man's torso to be precise. Furthermore it is in a wild array of blue and green rather than anything resembling standard cat coloring. The creature looks to be a large tabby cat, with stripes going down along it's body in a light green across its blue body. It has wide purple eyes, and its mouth is set in a massive, impossible grin. The creature seemed to be moving along the pipeline but it has paused in the light of Arkadi's flashlight.
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 3, 2010 23:47:42 GMT -5
Arkadi's first thought is that the juggaloes have once again spray painted some poor house pet as a clown for their own, permanently brain-damaged amusement, and mutters a quiet Fucking juggaloes to himself in Russian. Truly, such sentiments are international....
[Here, kitty kitty kitty] he says, holding his palm out towards the feline.
But upon closer examination, he realizes that even with their penchant for vandalism, juggaloes are rarely this....gifted? And the grin.....incredibly eerie.
[What are you?] he says finally, and mostly rhetorically.
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 3, 2010 23:50:46 GMT -5
[Just a friendly tabby cat] Replies the creature in perfect Russian, as it creeps across the boiler and then hops down to the ground, pausing in its approach to Arkadi. It stretches a tad as it waits, watching the old Russian man. [And what exactly are you up to in this strange place?] The cat asks, its voice surprisingly deep and curious.
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Arkadi Gorodin
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 3, 2010 23:55:52 GMT -5
A period of silence and blinking follows, in which his cigarette coils smoke above him.
It's not as if he hasn't seen similar things before....but the presentation this time around is....unsettling and creative at the same time.
Arkadi thinks back and tries to recall any data from his past experiences that would help him approach this situation. Meanwhile, he answers plainly.
[Fixing HVAC. Americans hate heat like they hate responsibility.]
<<PS: Brotherhood Op succeeds by 3>>
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 4, 2010 0:00:31 GMT -5
While the data from Brotherhood files cannot help him narrow down the creature that stands before him, it is clearly something from the Other Realm. Arkadi knows that such creatures are not to be trusted, as while they can not necessarily tell a lie they can bend the truth to such degrees that it might as well be such. Such creatures also require a portal to enter the mortal realm, and therefore one must be near by. [They are not known for their patience to say the least.] The creature replies as it walks forward, it's grin growing wider, [Might I trouble you for a smoke?]
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 4, 2010 0:04:45 GMT -5
[It's bad for your health, you know?] he says, pulling out the pack and fetching a cigarette for the cat anyway and holding it out for it.
[Might I ask what your business is, or are you here for pleasure?]
Might as well try to find out what he could, before the inevitable foolishness so characteristic of Other Realmers ensued.
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 4, 2010 0:11:25 GMT -5
The cat slinks very carefully forward as it takes the offered cigarette and backs away, lighting it under the same magical principles that Arkadi seems to. As the cat puffs away on its cigarette the cat contemplates its answer before responding, [Oh I'm just passing through I suppose, you know how that goes.]
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 4, 2010 0:24:39 GMT -5
[Nice trick] he mentions off-handedly at the cat's supposed control of ignition.
Having lived the street life, Arkadi had some idea of what passing through places entailed. But he also knew that this didn't apply at all to Fades, who operated on entirely different principles of reality. He reminds himself that pointed questions are the key.
[It's rare that we have visitors from your realm. Even rarer that you take any interest in....well...] he gestures at the mech. room [any of this. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the mechanical failures this past week, would you?]
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 4, 2010 0:28:38 GMT -5
The cat laughs, puffs of blue smoke curling through the air as it leaps back atop the large pipes and machinery. It takes a long drag before responding, It laughs again as it dances about the boilers.
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Arkadi Gorodin
WOW! You just got your first magical weapon!
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Head Custodial Services Technician
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Post by Arkadi Gorodin on Jul 4, 2010 0:34:31 GMT -5
"Pravda," he concedes. [But while I enjoy the opportunity for a smoke break, I would be grateful if you left the machinery be, if your only goal is mischief."
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Post by Jongluer on Jul 4, 2010 0:37:53 GMT -5
The cat takes a long drag from the cigarette before placing the cigarette on the ground and putting it out. It then gives a widespread grin to the janitor, It asks as the creature slinks slightly further back into the shadows, still barely visible under Arkadi's flashlight.
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