Oh, I'd also like to point out, Steve, that you are stuck with us, so you better get used to what we "say". We do try to help most of the time.

Except when we tell you to hug sombody else or read notes. Then we are just trying to piss you off.

>>132678

A planet is a spherical land mass. As far as we know pretty much every land mass large enough will crunch into the shape of a sphere from its own gravity. They're really really really big spheres though, so you wouldn't be able to tell the curvature just under your feet.

If you do some math and calculate how high the horizon would be, but instead the actual horizon is just a bit lower than that, then you're probably standing on a giant sphere, a planet. That's the sort of thing people with sextants and long robes do though, not so much soldier types.

Whether you are on a planet or not will only be important if you get very, very high off the ground, or if you travel very, very far along the earth. So don't worry about it for now. On our "planet" you would have to walk for about 14 days directly west without stopping, before you'd notice any effect (the morning would come one hour earlier).

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)21:57 No. 132699 ID: f2b2b3
File 126629986914.jpg - (268.48KB , 777x777 , 01-10.jpg )

>Steve Steve Steve

I told you. Just call me Burns.

I'm beginning to get the impression I should just ignore half of what you voices say.

>No, a planet is another word for world. A world is in a solar system, which is in a galaxy, which is in the universe.

That may be the weirdest thing I've ever heard. I don't know what half of those things are. It's strange that you group worlds like that. Maybe there is a "solar system" somewhere beyond the Expanse. There are legends of people escaping the Expanse, or coming in from it, from other worlds.

>we are incredibly valuable and whoever orders you didn't want your enemies getting ahold of us

I can see that. But to be honest, our command has fallen apart since the war turned, a little over a year ago. I think they don't even know what I've got, and were just carrying out emergency orders that were written down ages ago.

>are there other kinds of things like that out here?

Trying not to think about it, honestly. But no. I've never seen anything like that. Mechanized armor... even large animals? But nothing... nothing like that. Dear god, I pray it doesn't get out.

>What do you desire?

I just want to get this mission over with, and get back to my wife and kid. I'm usually not so serious about everything. But I'm an old soldier, and certain things just come with that.

I'll listen to you voices, for now. I hope I don't come across as being an asshole, but I am a soldier, after all. I have to do this.

I have to.

>>132699
If you have to, we'll help you.

And we've seen even larger animals than that thing. Like Blue Whales.

>>132699
Well then, on with the mission.

...Is what I'd like to say, but there's really nothing to do until we reach the next destination, is there? Being limited to imparting information through this medium, without any means of acting on our own, is rather perplexing.

I don't suppose this car has a radio, and that any good music would be on in war times? I could go for something relaxing. Maybe Jazz, or some Reggae. Although, seeing as we have no ears, this raises a problem.

...Who's up for 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall?

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:09 No. 132711 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630056147.jpg - (223.26KB , 777x777 , 01-11.jpg )

>spherical land mass
>gravity
>large sphere
>horizon

Unbelievable. What's in between your worlds? What - No, look... I can't keep all this up. I'm going to distract myself.

I should focus on my mission.

I'll just... explain a little about our... my universe.

Forgive me if it makes no sense to you, because I can't think of how to explain something that I've always thought was just basic knowledge.

I know enough about physics and science and have heard enough to know scientists have always been baffled by how Nahala even exists. It's one of the great mysteries of the universe.

The Expanse is a sort of contorted space. Nothing is there but kilometers of ocean and strange marine life.

Tamar's Folly lies in the Expanse, but no one lives there. It's a nightmarish place. When you journey too far in, you go insane. If you go further, you're supposed to be torn apart by warped reality, which is why our arrays have never returned from there.

>If you have to, we'll help you.

Yeah. Yeah... thanks. I'm just so tired. It's so dark. No city lights. No night light, tonight.

Goddamn this is a long drive.

Are we there yet?
Also, WHAT FUCKING YEAR IS IT?
(Oh, right. Years=Revolutions around sun. No planet= no revolutions.)

>>132709
Sure. You can start.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:13 No. 132715 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630079750.jpg - (226.34KB , 777x777 , 01-12.jpg )

>the year

What difference would it -

"SHIT!"

>>132711
Well, this is simple enough.

All you need to do is split a black hole in half, and fold it in on itself.

That should solve all your spatial warp issues!

...Or, it might destroy your universe in every timeframe and standpoint in existence ever, simultaneously. You may wish to wear safety goggles.

>>132715
Don't swerve, swerving means ending up in a ditch. Slam the breaks if you must, but if you hit him it's his own damn fault for standing in the middle of the road.

>>132699

If all we do is provide helpful advice, why would we be so closely guarded like that? Take us in proximity to those "emergency orders" if you can. We would be most interested in taking a peek at them. They might reveal a clue that only we would be able to recognize.

Full speed ahead!

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:15 No. 132721 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630095717.jpg - (51.81KB , 777x777 , 01-14.jpg )

Too... late...

I...

just reacted...

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:18 No. 132724 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630110380.jpg - (242.71KB , 777x777 , 01-15.jpg )

I wake up, feeling pain coursing through my body. I feel blood pouring out of my body. Fractures everywhere. I can't move. I can barely breathe.

Well, shit. Survive a 20-foot ancient evil monstrosity, who killed all of your friends, retrive the psychic crystal, and, on the way home, get in a car wreck and die. Pathetic. Get the fuck up.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:19 No. 132726 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630118759.jpg - (241.45KB , 777x777 , 01-16.jpg )

"Hey.

Nasty spill you took there."

>>132711

Ugh sorry, but that was the only question you asked. I wanted to be as helpful as you've been to us.

>>132724

Shit! Crystal healing powers activate!

>>132724
Um... hold on? We would totally go for help if we had legs. Seriously.

>>132724
Well, fuck.

Can you hear me? Us? Them? Whatever the hell you call these voices?

Look, if you go dying on us, we'll be stuck in the bottom of a ditch for the rest of our timeless lives. So don't die. If you die, I'm going to kill you.

Wake up. Try to move, little by little. Start with trying to move your fingers and your toes. Work slowly from there, until you can get a feel for what's broken and what isn't.

As long as one of your arms is intact, you can probably administer some rudimentary first aid.

And don't waste your energy trying to talk to us. Focus on surviving. Focus on the pain, if you have to. Don't go to sleep, whatever you do.

Seriously, Steve. Wake up. You've got a mission to do, and I suggest you live long enough to do it.

>>132726
In a tiny act of defiance, reach up to pinch out his cigarette. FUCK YOU, MYSTERIOUS DUDE. MAYBE NEXT TIME, DON'T STAND INT HE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.

>>132724
You better not die. You're the last of the TGC soldiers, you can't afford to die. It's not your right. Fight it. Fight to keep living. That's an order.

>>132726
Get up, Steve. We have a mission to complete.

ARE YOU LYING DOWN ON THE JOB, SOLDIER?

HELL NO YOU AREN'T, GET THE FUCK UP AND GIVE THAT SMOKING BASTARD A PIECE OF YOUR MIND FOR SUCH UNSAFE BEHAVIOR.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:32 No. 132742 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630196832.jpg - (191.73KB , 777x777 , 01-17.jpg )

>move

I'm... trying. Even your stone is... it's just resting in my palm.

>"You've got something that belongs to me, Mister Silver."

"Who... are you?"

He thinks for a moment, in between two breaths of smoke.

>"A religious man.
>"You know, Burns, if you'd wanted her Second Tear, all you had to do was ask. Now, here you are - "

"Dying. I'm... I'm dying."

>move

I keep trying. My body is trashed. I can't believe this has happened.

>"I can see. I'm sorry, Jack. You did well. I'm legitimately sad to see it end this way.
>"Tell me, Burns... are you a religious man?"

What... what can I do?

>>132734
This is right. Get up so we dont have to sit next to the empty cheetoes bag for a millenia.

>>132742
Swallow us. He'll have to keep you alive.

As nasty as it is... Its a way out.

>>132745
I think then he'd just cut Burns open.

>>132742
Ask if he's so sad to see you like this, why he's just fucking standing there.

>>132747
He'll have to take us out of the car, first. Or we die anyway.

Tell him the jewel says screw off, we like you and won't do a single thing for him if he lets you die.

>>132742
The man outside seems to want us.

It's better than lying in a ditch for centuries.

I'm sorry, Steve. It looks like this is where we part ways. But don't feel bad. You did the best you could.

After all... you're only human.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)22:45 No. 132757 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630271961.jpg - (170.96KB , 777x777 , 01-18.jpg )

I was never a religious person. My wife was. She always attended church. Her smile... Oh god. Delia... I'm going to leave her alone. In all of this. Please, no. I have to survive this.

"Please," I beg him, "you... have to help me."

>"I know, Jack. But the way I help people... well, it's just not time, for your world. Soon. But not now. I'm so sorry, Jack."

>move

I think I feel my arm move, but not of my volition. I'm going limp. My organs are shutting down.

"Can't you... please..."

My thoughts are only of my family. Delia. Johnny. I can't let them down like this.

"Please."

He thinks for what seems like an eternity. Whatever he has considered, it seems to pain him.

He does not look as sinister as I might have thought. Out of the limited view, through my own tearing eyes, into the dark and under the brim of his ashen hat, I think I make out the glint of tearing eyes.

>"I don't want to do this to you, Burns. You're a good man, now."

>move

I feel my breathing slow. Soon, it will stop, entirely.

I whisper my final words:

"Save them."

>>132757
...Final directive recognized.

Good night, Steve... no.

Jack Silver.

We will remember you.

>>132757
Understood, Boss.

>>132757
That- that's not fair. There was nothing we could do.

... dammit. It's times like these I hate being merely an observer and adviser...

>>132768
Geez Veteran, quit deleting your posts. In response to your now deleted insinuation, I don't see this as railroading. It was excellent storytelling. And the fact that I'm this bothered by it is merely a testament to that fact.

>>132757

I'd rather sit next to the Cheetos bag for all eternity than go with this smug preacher. He better have a damn good explanation, lest the voices go silent forever.

Barring that though,

> Jack

> Jack

> Wake up, Jack

>>132769
And i felt like an asshole when i posted it. Happy?

>>132772
No worries, happens to me a lot. But I felt it was pertinent enough to respond to as it may have been an unvoiced concern of someone else.

Man, I am shedding manly tears right now. I don't even have an appropriate manly tears image.

I don't think I want to sully this thread though with a response image. Just gotta say.

Manly tears.

Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)23:05 No. 132776 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630394745.jpg - (196.59KB , 777x777 , 01-19.jpg )

>"I can hear them, Burns.
>"The voices in your head.
>"They want to see you live, as much as you do.

I feel a tear roll down my face, but the sensation soon fades.

>"I was going to just take back the Tear you stole from my guardian. But it seems you've made an impression on the real world.
>"I'll leave it with you, for a while.
>"If you wake up one day, it won't be because of me, or you. Remember that."

Anyway, i hate it when these quests, especially good ones, take me up past 2:00am. Love to see more, but too tired. Need sleep.

[end of chapter 1] Plague!!NkAwOzZ2H0 2010/02/15(Mon)23:09 No. 132782 ID: f2b2b3
File 126630416864.jpg - (72.20KB , 777x777 , 01-20.jpg )

>"My master is making a new heaven, Burns. You'll meet your family, again.
>"But... maybe not when you want to, or how."

My vision fades.

The last thing I can make out is the red glint of a cigarette, as the drug is consumed.

>"I hope you'll forgive me.
>"I'm just a religious man.
>"See you around."

His words ring in my head, unwelcomed. I decide. I hate the sound of his voice.

I never wanted to die a soldier.

I wanted to live as a husband, and as a father.

But the voices always called me back.

Hey bro, fucking help him man. Don't be a dick. Apparently, what we say has weight so... don't be a dick. Call an ambulance or other emergency personnel and leave it be. Moving him's dangerous so let a professional do it.

Hmm... fascinating. I believe I understand. The Preacher knows about us. Not the simple understanding of what we are in their universe/dimension, but he actually says that we are "the real world," and that implies that he knows that this world, Jack's, ISN'T. What must it be like, I wonder, to be aware that all that you know and love are merely dreams of those that exist in reality? Still, Jack doesn't know, and as the Preacher says, since he's picked us up, he's made an impression on us, the real world. And because of that... I think we can save him.

The Preacher left us with Jack, and said that Jack may wake up someday, tho thru neither of their powers. But us, we can still act.

We can bring him back.

JUST CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SAY YOU DO BELIEVE IN FAIRIES!

>>132782
Burns, you're not allowed to just lie down and fall asleep. Your wife and kid still need you. So stop lying there and philosophise and get on your feet.

Best time ive had on /quest/ in a while. Cant wait to see what happens next.

Also, GET UP. YOU DONT HAVE TIME TO DIE.