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A Randomizer in the Forever War (SI-OC in THE FOREVER WINTER; multi x-over later)
- Thread starter Trieze
- Start date
1.6 - Wanted, Dead or Alive, But Doing Little of Importance...
New
Trieze
The man from Nowhere, next stop Anywhere.
- Joined
- May 24, 2018
- Messages
- 979
- Likes received
- 9,260
1.6 - Wanted, Dead or Alive, But Doing Little of Importance...
********************************************************
The metaphorical afterglow over (potable) water security was a temporary one. I knew that when a new text-box suddenly appeared in front of me.
Needless to say, I very quietly freaked the fuck out. Glancing skyward, I noticed what looked like a flying propane tank dangling below a hover fan off in the distance, and it was moving slowly towards us.
"G." I said, insistently tapping the shotgun-"headed" robot on its right shoulder. When it didn't respond the first time, I tapped it with enough force that to have smacked anyone normal, i.e., organic human and all that jazz, while hissing, "G!"
Only then did I seem to get its attention, as its shotgun "head" turned towards me. Its glitchy voice grill burbled, "This unit is designated 4D7."
"Yeah, okay, fine," I said impatiently, before pointing at the drone, "Look over there!" The robot, which I'd already dubbed 'Forty-Seven" in my head, turned and noticed the floating propane tank making its way towards them.
"A Europan surveillance and reconnaissance drone. Typically armed," it noted, the comment about a weapons complement done parenthetically. The observation made aloud prompting Barry and Penny to do a double-take, and notice the airborne drone for themselves.
"So... how do we get rid of it? Do we shoot it down?" I wondered. Whatever passed for authority figures in Europa apparently already knew about me, but I'd prefer that they not be able to pinpoint my location so easily to whatever bounty hunter was apparently already on my trail. So, of course, I absently ended up rolling one.
And just like that, it appeared. The dragon was a quadrupedal draconian beast from the fantastical classic interpretation; a departure from the pseudo-realistic wyvernian creature thought to be more physically possible in the modern day, thanks mostly to that movie "Reign of Fire". The wings had a distinct curve to them, and what would've been a thumb claw on bat wings was instead a pair of talons on the wings of the dragon. A beautiful frill, bright silver fading to purple towards the edge, began at the top of its head just behind its eyes and in between a pair of long, black-tipped silver horns that pointed up and away from the skull, flowing down the center of its neck and body and running all the way to the tip of its tail. Another sharp frill, in the same colors, could be seen under the chin, and had the rough appearance of a goatee.
To describe this mythical creature as magnificent was an understatement. Not that I knew much of silver dragons, to my annoyance. Within moments, however, the dragon transformed into a beautiful young blonde, barefoot and apparently wearing only a purple cotton robe and small pearl earrings dangling from her earlobes. So Penny broke the awestruck ambiance. "Who are you?" she asked, in her still-childish voice.
The silver dragon-turned-young blonde beauty just quirked an eyebrow. "I am Xelliren, the Dutiful. I have been rescued from certain death, and so I owe my rescuer my life." That phrase made me quirk an eyebrow. The concept of life-debts weren't unknown to me, but the idea that I would ever be on the receiving end of one had never been an idea worth seriously entertaining. But now? I had no idea of the implications.
Naturally, this was when Barry, Penny, and even Forty-Seven, all pointed at me in unison. All I could do was face-palm, even as Xelliren knelt before me. "By the ways of dragons," she began, her head bowed in submission. "As so decreed by the Waybringer, in accordance with honor and a dragon's pride, this Xelliren the Dutiful so swears a debt of service to her savior totaling the days of his lifespan." With her words, a silvery flash of light washed over me, making me stagger. There was a strangeness to that light, almost as if a bond had been formed. But that couldn't be right, could it? I didn't know anything about dragons, but would they go out of their way to swear such a debt in exchange for such a service?
As if to answer my internal conflict, Xelliren said quietly, "It is no easy task to slay a dragon, my savior. Not with the weapons and magic at our disposal." Then she looked around, and then up at the sky, and grimaced. "But there is little magic here, save for the massive bursts that you release with every significant change that you inflict upon this benighted world. These artifices are unknown to me, and most of this land is poisoned. What has occurred here, that would kill it so?"
"Man's reach, exceeding his grasp." This came from Barry, of all people. I only recognized that reference because I'd played "Mass Effect 2" years ago, so I wondered how he knew it. "Mankind's eternal gluttony, its desire for easier livelihoods and greater power, prompted industry that poisoned the land beyond recognition and reconciliation. And so, what's left of this broken and poisoned world has been racked by war ever since."
"By Apsu..." Xelliren breathed, horrified.
"Inasmuch the same way I brought you here," I added, drawing her attention. "I'm also trying to escape this blighted world, and leave it to fend for itself. I also never know what kind of changes I will end up enacting, and there are countless potential dangers that could end up causing even greater and more drastic problems for this accursed world. Nor do I know if my lifespan won't end up being extended to match your own, or even surpass it."
The humanformed dragon just shook her head. "But honor has been served to me. That is all that matters. If I am to spend the rest of my days with you, my savior, then so be it."
I really didn't know how to answer her. There was every chance that I would roll something that would make me immortal, after all. Something that I didn't really like thinking about, either, if I'm honest...
So instead, I just pointed the AK up at the drone, which was fairly close to us by now, and started shooting at it. The Europan drone turned out to be the size of a vending machine, so it couldn't exactly evade the bullets, but Forty-Seven started shooting at the large turbofan above the drone's main body, its apparent method of propulsion, at the same time. The bullets from both of our weapons- well, okay, more Forty-Seven's M4A1 carbine than my own AK, considering that I had never thought to ask Barry about how to handle recoil- quickly chewed through the drone and ended up setting off its internal power source. Naturally, the resulting explosion blew most of it to pieces and left its remains to come clattering down to the ground, some twenty feet ahead of us amd directly on the path that we'd just been walking up from.
Forty-Seven was quick to wrench open what was left of the drone's hull, pulling out an oddly arcane-looking object and studying it for a while before centering its gaze on a bullet hole in the object and then tossing the object to the wayside just as quickly.
"Escaping Europan surveillance is the b- b- best-" and here, it hit its vocal grill again before continuing with, "Recommend that we continue on our path with all haste."
This time, Penny was the first to ask. "But where do we go? Which way does each path lead?"
So I decided that now was the best that I roll for it.
True to its word, something that resembled a thousand-page book appeared, landing in my hands quite unceremoniously. I was the first to say it. "Well... that doesn't help. G?"
And even as Forty-Seven opened another one of its storage bins for easy carrying, I rolled again.
Just like that, a box the size of a large looseleaf binder filled to capacity fell into my hands. I just looked at Forty-Seven, who was just about to close the storage bin that it had just packed the DOCTOR WHO DVD case into, prompting it to open up the bin's lid again.
I rolled again.
A dimunitive thing, barely coming up to my knee (if you discounted the Viking axe on its back that seemed cocked back at all times, just ready to go). Just like the text-box said, it made a beeline for Penny, its surprisingly expressive eyes apparently quite happy to share in her delight. Given that she named it Axel, I guess that she was happy enough. I also heard her promise Axel that once she got her hands on some tools, she would see what she could do to upgrade her very own personal robot. I wasn't sure if she mistook Forty-Seven's association with me as the stereotypical 'human master of robot' seen in boilerplate sci-fi, but I didn't think that it was worth asking.
Of course, our resident dragon had to put in her own two cents. "I have not eaten in an age. I don't suppose that you have food to spare for my person?"
Without missing a beat, Forty-Seven pulled the largest drawstring bag from its rig and then opened up its largest storage bin, quickly pulling out one of the spare water canteens on hand. As Xelliren pulled open the bag (it being reminiscent of a coin pouch), she pulled out a four-tiered metal bento of sorts that was about a foot tall. Steam was wafting from between the lid and between the tiers of the lunch box, and she was already drooling from hunger. Sighing in annoyance, I asked her, "Can you eat on the move?" to which she just nodded mutely, having already popped open the first box and placing its lid on the second in order to the contents from spilling. I just grunted impatiently. "All right then, let's move. Now, the road on the right seems to be thicker. Hopefully, the tree cover will keep any more surveillance drones from spotting us too quickly."
And so, our little ragtag band took the road to the right, wherever fate would end up taking us. The road to the left would be the road not taken, to quote Robert Frost. But I was fairly certain that we all wanted to get out of this broken, post-apocalyptic Hellhole of a world, after all.
*******************************************
TBC...
********************************************************
The metaphorical afterglow over (potable) water security was a temporary one. I knew that when a new text-box suddenly appeared in front of me.
A WANTED MAN
Alert, Randomizer! The eyes of greater forces have caught you. Get moving, and quick. You're wanted, dead for asset denial, or alive for resource production monopolization. Take these ten (10) free rolls. You're gonna need them.
Alert, Randomizer! The eyes of greater forces have caught you. Get moving, and quick. You're wanted, dead for asset denial, or alive for resource production monopolization. Take these ten (10) free rolls. You're gonna need them.
Needless to say, I very quietly freaked the fuck out. Glancing skyward, I noticed what looked like a flying propane tank dangling below a hover fan off in the distance, and it was moving slowly towards us.
"G." I said, insistently tapping the shotgun-"headed" robot on its right shoulder. When it didn't respond the first time, I tapped it with enough force that to have smacked anyone normal, i.e., organic human and all that jazz, while hissing, "G!"
Only then did I seem to get its attention, as its shotgun "head" turned towards me. Its glitchy voice grill burbled, "This unit is designated 4D7."
"Yeah, okay, fine," I said impatiently, before pointing at the drone, "Look over there!" The robot, which I'd already dubbed 'Forty-Seven" in my head, turned and noticed the floating propane tank making its way towards them.
"A Europan surveillance and reconnaissance drone. Typically armed," it noted, the comment about a weapons complement done parenthetically. The observation made aloud prompting Barry and Penny to do a double-take, and notice the airborne drone for themselves.
"So... how do we get rid of it? Do we shoot it down?" I wondered. Whatever passed for authority figures in Europa apparently already knew about me, but I'd prefer that they not be able to pinpoint my location so easily to whatever bounty hunter was apparently already on my trail. So, of course, I absently ended up rolling one.
2 - 13
Roll for permanence - 10
Xelliren is a silver dragon that was slain while standing guard over a dungeon holding a fragment of an apocalyptic god of destruction. Now rescued, the permanence roll means that it is immune to small arms fire, but not heavier weaponry, and its magic is mostly to keep it alive.
Roll for permanence - 10
Xelliren is a silver dragon that was slain while standing guard over a dungeon holding a fragment of an apocalyptic god of destruction. Now rescued, the permanence roll means that it is immune to small arms fire, but not heavier weaponry, and its magic is mostly to keep it alive.
And just like that, it appeared. The dragon was a quadrupedal draconian beast from the fantastical classic interpretation; a departure from the pseudo-realistic wyvernian creature thought to be more physically possible in the modern day, thanks mostly to that movie "Reign of Fire". The wings had a distinct curve to them, and what would've been a thumb claw on bat wings was instead a pair of talons on the wings of the dragon. A beautiful frill, bright silver fading to purple towards the edge, began at the top of its head just behind its eyes and in between a pair of long, black-tipped silver horns that pointed up and away from the skull, flowing down the center of its neck and body and running all the way to the tip of its tail. Another sharp frill, in the same colors, could be seen under the chin, and had the rough appearance of a goatee.
To describe this mythical creature as magnificent was an understatement. Not that I knew much of silver dragons, to my annoyance. Within moments, however, the dragon transformed into a beautiful young blonde, barefoot and apparently wearing only a purple cotton robe and small pearl earrings dangling from her earlobes. So Penny broke the awestruck ambiance. "Who are you?" she asked, in her still-childish voice.
The silver dragon-turned-young blonde beauty just quirked an eyebrow. "I am Xelliren, the Dutiful. I have been rescued from certain death, and so I owe my rescuer my life." That phrase made me quirk an eyebrow. The concept of life-debts weren't unknown to me, but the idea that I would ever be on the receiving end of one had never been an idea worth seriously entertaining. But now? I had no idea of the implications.
Naturally, this was when Barry, Penny, and even Forty-Seven, all pointed at me in unison. All I could do was face-palm, even as Xelliren knelt before me. "By the ways of dragons," she began, her head bowed in submission. "As so decreed by the Waybringer, in accordance with honor and a dragon's pride, this Xelliren the Dutiful so swears a debt of service to her savior totaling the days of his lifespan." With her words, a silvery flash of light washed over me, making me stagger. There was a strangeness to that light, almost as if a bond had been formed. But that couldn't be right, could it? I didn't know anything about dragons, but would they go out of their way to swear such a debt in exchange for such a service?
As if to answer my internal conflict, Xelliren said quietly, "It is no easy task to slay a dragon, my savior. Not with the weapons and magic at our disposal." Then she looked around, and then up at the sky, and grimaced. "But there is little magic here, save for the massive bursts that you release with every significant change that you inflict upon this benighted world. These artifices are unknown to me, and most of this land is poisoned. What has occurred here, that would kill it so?"
"Man's reach, exceeding his grasp." This came from Barry, of all people. I only recognized that reference because I'd played "Mass Effect 2" years ago, so I wondered how he knew it. "Mankind's eternal gluttony, its desire for easier livelihoods and greater power, prompted industry that poisoned the land beyond recognition and reconciliation. And so, what's left of this broken and poisoned world has been racked by war ever since."
"By Apsu..." Xelliren breathed, horrified.
"Inasmuch the same way I brought you here," I added, drawing her attention. "I'm also trying to escape this blighted world, and leave it to fend for itself. I also never know what kind of changes I will end up enacting, and there are countless potential dangers that could end up causing even greater and more drastic problems for this accursed world. Nor do I know if my lifespan won't end up being extended to match your own, or even surpass it."
The humanformed dragon just shook her head. "But honor has been served to me. That is all that matters. If I am to spend the rest of my days with you, my savior, then so be it."
I really didn't know how to answer her. There was every chance that I would roll something that would make me immortal, after all. Something that I didn't really like thinking about, either, if I'm honest...
So instead, I just pointed the AK up at the drone, which was fairly close to us by now, and started shooting at it. The Europan drone turned out to be the size of a vending machine, so it couldn't exactly evade the bullets, but Forty-Seven started shooting at the large turbofan above the drone's main body, its apparent method of propulsion, at the same time. The bullets from both of our weapons- well, okay, more Forty-Seven's M4A1 carbine than my own AK, considering that I had never thought to ask Barry about how to handle recoil- quickly chewed through the drone and ended up setting off its internal power source. Naturally, the resulting explosion blew most of it to pieces and left its remains to come clattering down to the ground, some twenty feet ahead of us amd directly on the path that we'd just been walking up from.
Forty-Seven was quick to wrench open what was left of the drone's hull, pulling out an oddly arcane-looking object and studying it for a while before centering its gaze on a bullet hole in the object and then tossing the object to the wayside just as quickly.
"Escaping Europan surveillance is the b- b- best-" and here, it hit its vocal grill again before continuing with, "Recommend that we continue on our path with all haste."
This time, Penny was the first to ask. "But where do we go? Which way does each path lead?"
So I decided that now was the best that I roll for it.
True to its word, something that resembled a thousand-page book appeared, landing in my hands quite unceremoniously. I was the first to say it. "Well... that doesn't help. G?"
And even as Forty-Seven opened another one of its storage bins for easy carrying, I rolled again.
8 - 4
Roll for permanence - 4
...I'll be honest. You're just gonna get a battered copy of this obscure card game. Keep it, sell it, toss it, I don't care. It's pretty much dross by the numbers.
Roll for permanence - 4
...I'll be honest. You're just gonna get a battered copy of this obscure card game. Keep it, sell it, toss it, I don't care. It's pretty much dross by the numbers.
Just like that, a box the size of a large looseleaf binder filled to capacity fell into my hands. I just looked at Forty-Seven, who was just about to close the storage bin that it had just packed the DOCTOR WHO DVD case into, prompting it to open up the bin's lid again.
I rolled again.
5 - 1
Roll for permanence - 14
...this thing's an axe-throwing ripoff of that helmeted peon enemy from the Mega Man X game series. On account fo the permanence roll, it will now follow Penny around. Once she gets some tools, she'll have something to keep her busy. So go get her some already!
Roll for permanence - 14
...this thing's an axe-throwing ripoff of that helmeted peon enemy from the Mega Man X game series. On account fo the permanence roll, it will now follow Penny around. Once she gets some tools, she'll have something to keep her busy. So go get her some already!
A dimunitive thing, barely coming up to my knee (if you discounted the Viking axe on its back that seemed cocked back at all times, just ready to go). Just like the text-box said, it made a beeline for Penny, its surprisingly expressive eyes apparently quite happy to share in her delight. Given that she named it Axel, I guess that she was happy enough. I also heard her promise Axel that once she got her hands on some tools, she would see what she could do to upgrade her very own personal robot. I wasn't sure if she mistook Forty-Seven's association with me as the stereotypical 'human master of robot' seen in boilerplate sci-fi, but I didn't think that it was worth asking.
Of course, our resident dragon had to put in her own two cents. "I have not eaten in an age. I don't suppose that you have food to spare for my person?"
Without missing a beat, Forty-Seven pulled the largest drawstring bag from its rig and then opened up its largest storage bin, quickly pulling out one of the spare water canteens on hand. As Xelliren pulled open the bag (it being reminiscent of a coin pouch), she pulled out a four-tiered metal bento of sorts that was about a foot tall. Steam was wafting from between the lid and between the tiers of the lunch box, and she was already drooling from hunger. Sighing in annoyance, I asked her, "Can you eat on the move?" to which she just nodded mutely, having already popped open the first box and placing its lid on the second in order to the contents from spilling. I just grunted impatiently. "All right then, let's move. Now, the road on the right seems to be thicker. Hopefully, the tree cover will keep any more surveillance drones from spotting us too quickly."
And so, our little ragtag band took the road to the right, wherever fate would end up taking us. The road to the left would be the road not taken, to quote Robert Frost. But I was fairly certain that we all wanted to get out of this broken, post-apocalyptic Hellhole of a world, after all.
*******************************************
Oops! Turns out Xelliren is canonically male, and I misgendered him badly enough for dysmorphia to set in. I'll try to go into that in the next chapter, and hopefully I can do it justice. Basically, she won't be able to change back into he until enough magic is available for the change, either through enough macroscale changes or if the whole group gets ISOT'd to a magic-rich universe.
TBC...
Last edited:
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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The image is broken, you need to remove the stuff after .jpg
size*
Trieze
The man from Nowhere, next stop Anywhere.
- Joined
- May 24, 2018
- Messages
- 979
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- 9,260
Works just fine for me.
EDIT: Or maybe not. Not on my phone, anyway. I'll see what I can do, as soon as I can.
EDIT #2: Used a different image source. It works on my phone now.
EDIT #3: Removed new link after expiration.
Edited. Thanks.
Last edited:
Wonderbread16
Making the rounds.
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nice a dnd dragon that is very good.
Intothekillzone
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2024
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Well the Europans are after our mc because they know he is summoning all these resources now scavs are gonna come after him
Thank you for the update its awesome!!!
Thank you for the update its awesome!!!
1.7 - Making for Downtown
New
Trieze
The man from Nowhere, next stop Anywhere.
- Joined
- May 24, 2018
- Messages
- 979
- Likes received
- 9,260
1.7 - Making for Downtown
******************************************
It wasn't until after Xelliren had been taking a long swig from her canteen that she stopped dead in her tracks. She'd already finished cleaning out that four-layered stack of a lunchbox singlehandedly, quite appreciative of the fact that each container would magically refill itself instantly with random examples of food from various cuisines. Thus, effectively, allowing her to gorge on food until her appetite could be sated. But to see her suddenly so unnerved stopped all of us in our tracks, Even Forty-Seven ended up stopping after noticing that we hadn't been following it, and it turned back to us to see what was wrong.
"What's wrong?" Penny asked.
Xelliren just reached out with her free hand, delicate fingers grazing her trachea before passing down to her chest. An expression of dawning horror slowly passed across her face as those same fingers dragged down past her robe's belt, and both me and Barry promptly made an about-face. Just in time, too, judging from the human-form dragon shouting, "Oh, I don't BELIEVE this!"
Neither of us having the courage to look back, I just asked, "What? What happened?"
"What happened is that I messed up that transformation spell and turned myself into a human female!" Xelliren shouted, anger and annoyance coloring her words.
...I guess I had to end up asking, given the look on Barry's face. "Were you born male? Or did you simply consider yourself male in a female's body?" I didn't consider myself transphobic, but this was my first experience with expressed gender dysphoria, so...
"Nothing so puerile." Xelliren scoffed. "And stop looking away, already, I've got strength enough for this!"
Even as me and Barry turned back, Xelliren's body was suddenly swallowed in a massive flash of light before fading to revealherhim wearing winter clothing in the same style as the robe he'd been wearing.
"A wardrobe change." I noted, rather unnecessarily.
Barry just asked, "I'm guessing that changing back into your, uh... original, form will take more magic than you have on hand?"
Xelliren just nodded. "That this world has little to no more magic on hand is not important to me. For the moment. No, the kind of power I would need in order to safely revert my transformation before changing again to my proper gender in human-form would be quite significant, at least in comparison to the ambient magic on this planet."
"How significant?" I asked, never one to keep my business to myself.
"Significant enough that I believe that a significant enough alteration of the world around us, as prompted by your power, may be the only catalyst readily available enough to generate the power I'll need to cast my spells properly." Xelliren grimaced.
Well, I guess that was going to be an inconvenience by the numbers. But why not? Let's see if I can pull something off.
Well, that was about par for the fucking course, wasn't it?
"This is so embarrassing!" Xelliren moaned. "If anyone else of my kind were here and saw me like this... they'd never let me live it down."
I highly doubted I was going to summon another dragon anytime soon, let alone one that Xelliren would recognize, but I didn't know a damn thing about dragons so I couldn't say, one way or the other.
...maybe I should take another crack at it.
Interesting, but not what I'd been looking for. But considering the circumstances of its effects, I ended up wondering if this Randomizer cheat power wasn't meant to be directed. I mean, I could barely keep it from going off randomly as it was, so maybe trying to get a desired result was an out-and-out impossibility.
...and just like that, another text window spontaneously appeared before me.
Aside from the fact that my patron apparently had been playing "CYBERPUNK 2077" recently, this was also the first time that I could "roll the dice" on this power over twenty times in a row (apparently), but that apparently wasn't too significant to be worth noticing.
We'd cleared that patch of healthy forest by now, the trees giving way to the familiar and rather depressing sight of a denuded landscape, baked clean by nuclear fire and slagged bits of junk and rebar and whatever else had managed to survive the warzone thus far.
It was Penny who realized that we'd stumbled across the blasted ruins of some suburban neighborhood, long since picked clean by scavengers... and others... years before any of us had ever showed up there. Our little band cut across scrubland, hiked up hills and down through old backyards, discreetly carrying off a ways when nature came a-callin' for each of us. Which is when those canteens and their absurdly-sized internal dimensions came in handy, really.
True to the text-box blurb, a leather jacket popped up, completely out of nowhere. The inner lining was layered with a cougar pelt, and its head was attached to the jacket's collar, to rest on its wearer's head as a large hat of sorts. Knowing that Barry wasn't exactly dressed for the weather, I gave it to him. He nodded in thanks as he quickly slung the jacket over his traditional clothing, leaving his legs and feet still not quite covered up properly. I could only imagine that we'd end up having to strip some local soldiers for warmer clothing if I couldn't roll anything useful. And to think, this was only my second day here!
True to the text-box's word, a DVD of the movie in question fell into my hands. A quick glance at the cover revealed a bizarre writing that I didn't recognize, and none of it was even translated into English. Honestly, I wasn't interested in letting Forty-Seven know that I'd gotten something else when it probably wasn't even valuable. So I tossed it.
By now, it was starting to get dark. Hah! Imagine that. Two days after Christmas in post-apocalyptic L.A., at the tail end of 2099. If I was still stuck in this Hellhole world come the New Year, I was going to do the Philip J. Fry line unironically. Somehow.
...well, I'd have to modify it for the situation, but it would still apply, nonetheless.
Looking over to my right, I could feel my eyes widen in surprise at the sight of a half-wrecked building, somehow preserved in spite of the active warzone raging around it. Maybe it was intact enough for us to be able to spend the night.
Wonder of wonders, for upon reaching its front doors, we found the glass cracked but not broken, and the doors themselves locked. Penny of all people made short work of that lock with a pair of reinforced bobby pins somehow, and we got into the building quickly. No muss, no fuss and all that.
What was left of the building was pitch-black, prompting Forty-Seven to turn on its flashlight head and cast a high-powered light on the decayed innards of the building. It was a long hall, with a few doors on the right side and several more on the left. A quick look into the first door on the right revealed an undecorated room apparently once used for any number of reasons. As good a place as any to settle for the night, considering that the stage still had a set of massive curtains that we could repurpose as blankets. Penny was quick on that, having found some heavy fabric shears backstage. In short order, we were all bundled up in trimmed curtains and getting ready to settle down for the night. Naturally, I decided to try a roll, Call it... curiosity.
This roll left me optimistic enough to try again.
And just like that, Murphy threw his hat into the fray. A thin, weathered bundle of paper slowly landed in front of them, and promptly burst into a shower of confetti upon landing. Talk about a fucking non-sequitur.
So, for no reason at all, just to put an end to a day that had seemed to last an eternity, I asked aloud, "Anyone hungry?"
With that, 27 December 2099 would come to an end for this ragtag party I'd ended up making. Forty-Seven's headlamp shone down on the four of us as we broke out our bento (and Xelliren, his Tiffin box) and canteens for dinner.
********************************************
TBC...
******************************************
It wasn't until after Xelliren had been taking a long swig from her canteen that she stopped dead in her tracks. She'd already finished cleaning out that four-layered stack of a lunchbox singlehandedly, quite appreciative of the fact that each container would magically refill itself instantly with random examples of food from various cuisines. Thus, effectively, allowing her to gorge on food until her appetite could be sated. But to see her suddenly so unnerved stopped all of us in our tracks, Even Forty-Seven ended up stopping after noticing that we hadn't been following it, and it turned back to us to see what was wrong.
"What's wrong?" Penny asked.
Xelliren just reached out with her free hand, delicate fingers grazing her trachea before passing down to her chest. An expression of dawning horror slowly passed across her face as those same fingers dragged down past her robe's belt, and both me and Barry promptly made an about-face. Just in time, too, judging from the human-form dragon shouting, "Oh, I don't BELIEVE this!"
Neither of us having the courage to look back, I just asked, "What? What happened?"
"What happened is that I messed up that transformation spell and turned myself into a human female!" Xelliren shouted, anger and annoyance coloring her words.
...I guess I had to end up asking, given the look on Barry's face. "Were you born male? Or did you simply consider yourself male in a female's body?" I didn't consider myself transphobic, but this was my first experience with expressed gender dysphoria, so...
"Nothing so puerile." Xelliren scoffed. "And stop looking away, already, I've got strength enough for this!"
Even as me and Barry turned back, Xelliren's body was suddenly swallowed in a massive flash of light before fading to reveal
"A wardrobe change." I noted, rather unnecessarily.
Barry just asked, "I'm guessing that changing back into your, uh... original, form will take more magic than you have on hand?"
Xelliren just nodded. "That this world has little to no more magic on hand is not important to me. For the moment. No, the kind of power I would need in order to safely revert my transformation before changing again to my proper gender in human-form would be quite significant, at least in comparison to the ambient magic on this planet."
"How significant?" I asked, never one to keep my business to myself.
"Significant enough that I believe that a significant enough alteration of the world around us, as prompted by your power, may be the only catalyst readily available enough to generate the power I'll need to cast my spells properly." Xelliren grimaced.
Well, I guess that was going to be an inconvenience by the numbers. But why not? Let's see if I can pull something off.
12 - 6
Roll for permanence - 7
...bruh, this came straight off the bat in its uselessness. Tell you what, you'll get a free pity roll out of this.
Roll for permanence - 7
...bruh, this came straight off the bat in its uselessness. Tell you what, you'll get a free pity roll out of this.
Well, that was about par for the fucking course, wasn't it?
"This is so embarrassing!" Xelliren moaned. "If anyone else of my kind were here and saw me like this... they'd never let me live it down."
I highly doubted I was going to summon another dragon anytime soon, let alone one that Xelliren would recognize, but I didn't know a damn thing about dragons so I couldn't say, one way or the other.
...maybe I should take another crack at it.
9 - 10
Roll for permanence - 12
A type of carrion beetle native to Eurasia, north of the Himalayan foothills, North Africa, and the northern part of the Middle East, these otherwise unremarkable insects have since adapted to consume human flesh for lack of any other meat being readily available.
Roll for permanence - 12
A type of carrion beetle native to Eurasia, north of the Himalayan foothills, North Africa, and the northern part of the Middle East, these otherwise unremarkable insects have since adapted to consume human flesh for lack of any other meat being readily available.
Interesting, but not what I'd been looking for. But considering the circumstances of its effects, I ended up wondering if this Randomizer cheat power wasn't meant to be directed. I mean, I could barely keep it from going off randomly as it was, so maybe trying to get a desired result was an out-and-out impossibility.
...and just like that, another text window spontaneously appeared before me.
YOU'VE GAINED WIS!
Congratulations, choom! You've just proved that you're not as much of a gonkbrain as we thought! Take these ten (10) rolls as a reward!
Congratulations, choom! You've just proved that you're not as much of a gonkbrain as we thought! Take these ten (10) rolls as a reward!
Aside from the fact that my patron apparently had been playing "CYBERPUNK 2077" recently, this was also the first time that I could "roll the dice" on this power over twenty times in a row (apparently), but that apparently wasn't too significant to be worth noticing.
We'd cleared that patch of healthy forest by now, the trees giving way to the familiar and rather depressing sight of a denuded landscape, baked clean by nuclear fire and slagged bits of junk and rebar and whatever else had managed to survive the warzone thus far.
It was Penny who realized that we'd stumbled across the blasted ruins of some suburban neighborhood, long since picked clean by scavengers... and others... years before any of us had ever showed up there. Our little band cut across scrubland, hiked up hills and down through old backyards, discreetly carrying off a ways when nature came a-callin' for each of us. Which is when those canteens and their absurdly-sized internal dimensions came in handy, really.
14 - 12
Roll for permanence - 11
A garden-variety puma was shot and killed before its pelt was removed and used as the lining for a leather jacket.
Roll for permanence - 11
A garden-variety puma was shot and killed before its pelt was removed and used as the lining for a leather jacket.
True to the text-box blurb, a leather jacket popped up, completely out of nowhere. The inner lining was layered with a cougar pelt, and its head was attached to the jacket's collar, to rest on its wearer's head as a large hat of sorts. Knowing that Barry wasn't exactly dressed for the weather, I gave it to him. He nodded in thanks as he quickly slung the jacket over his traditional clothing, leaving his legs and feet still not quite covered up properly. I could only imagine that we'd end up having to strip some local soldiers for warmer clothing if I couldn't roll anything useful. And to think, this was only my second day here!
8 - 11
Roll for permanence - 16
...I'll be honest, choom, I have no idea how you do it. Without fail, you go for the eclectic, esoteric, and obscure. That being said, take the DVD of this off-beat movie from 1984 India.
Roll for permanence - 16
...I'll be honest, choom, I have no idea how you do it. Without fail, you go for the eclectic, esoteric, and obscure. That being said, take the DVD of this off-beat movie from 1984 India.
True to the text-box's word, a DVD of the movie in question fell into my hands. A quick glance at the cover revealed a bizarre writing that I didn't recognize, and none of it was even translated into English. Honestly, I wasn't interested in letting Forty-Seven know that I'd gotten something else when it probably wasn't even valuable. So I tossed it.
By now, it was starting to get dark. Hah! Imagine that. Two days after Christmas in post-apocalyptic L.A., at the tail end of 2099. If I was still stuck in this Hellhole world come the New Year, I was going to do the Philip J. Fry line unironically. Somehow.
...well, I'd have to modify it for the situation, but it would still apply, nonetheless.
Looking over to my right, I could feel my eyes widen in surprise at the sight of a half-wrecked building, somehow preserved in spite of the active warzone raging around it. Maybe it was intact enough for us to be able to spend the night.
Wonder of wonders, for upon reaching its front doors, we found the glass cracked but not broken, and the doors themselves locked. Penny of all people made short work of that lock with a pair of reinforced bobby pins somehow, and we got into the building quickly. No muss, no fuss and all that.
What was left of the building was pitch-black, prompting Forty-Seven to turn on its flashlight head and cast a high-powered light on the decayed innards of the building. It was a long hall, with a few doors on the right side and several more on the left. A quick look into the first door on the right revealed an undecorated room apparently once used for any number of reasons. As good a place as any to settle for the night, considering that the stage still had a set of massive curtains that we could repurpose as blankets. Penny was quick on that, having found some heavy fabric shears backstage. In short order, we were all bundled up in trimmed curtains and getting ready to settle down for the night. Naturally, I decided to try a roll, Call it... curiosity.
12 - 7
Roll for permanence - 11
Your actions have a fifty-five percent (55%) chance of setting in motion a certain event or events that will ultimately prove beneficial to you, Randomizer. You're getting luckier, keep it up!
Roll for permanence - 11
Your actions have a fifty-five percent (55%) chance of setting in motion a certain event or events that will ultimately prove beneficial to you, Randomizer. You're getting luckier, keep it up!
This roll left me optimistic enough to try again.
And just like that, Murphy threw his hat into the fray. A thin, weathered bundle of paper slowly landed in front of them, and promptly burst into a shower of confetti upon landing. Talk about a fucking non-sequitur.
So, for no reason at all, just to put an end to a day that had seemed to last an eternity, I asked aloud, "Anyone hungry?"
With that, 27 December 2099 would come to an end for this ragtag party I'd ended up making. Forty-Seven's headlamp shone down on the four of us as we broke out our bento (and Xelliren, his Tiffin box) and canteens for dinner.
********************************************
TBC...
Intothekillzone
Know what you're doing yet?
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Sweet nice to see this story being updated this is the best wiki warrior fic on this site