TBOS Round 1.1

James looked around and found himself in a featureless white expanse.  The confused monster hunter attempted to wander around, but he didn't have any sense that he was actually moving anywhere.  As he wandered, he became aware of a woman in a white lab coat sitting in the empty expanse nearby.  Her attention was occupied entirely by a small computer screen which she appeared to be taking notes on.  James approached her.  Although he still could not feel any movement, she seemed to become closer in accordance with his desire to move.  Before he could say anything, she looked up abruptly and said, "Hello!  I'm Dr. Amelia, but you can call me Dr. A.  You must be another one of the people sent to repair the book."

James replied slowly, "That's what I was told, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be doing in this blank space.  I'm James Englehart, by the way."

Dr. A stood up and faced James, but continued stealing sideways glances at her computer.  "You're not supposed to do anything here.  I think this is some kind of empty space between stories.  It's like the waiting room at the doctor's office.  The M.D. kind of doctor, that is."

"Do you know how long this wait is supposed to be?" said James.

"No idea!" Dr. A said cheerfully, "In fact, I just made up the idea that this is a waiting room.  My intuition about the world around me is usually pretty good, though.  While I've been waiting, I've been thinking more about this place we've been sent to.  A lot has changed about my understanding of the world since I met the living avatar-princess of storytelling structure.  Did you know that abstract concepts could be embodied anthropomorphically?  I certainly didn't!"

"I had no idea," James replied.

"Once we get into the actual stories, the world will get even more interesting!  Just think, everything we know about the physical world could be completely superseded by each story's internal logic.  I might have to rewrite the laws of physics from the ground up just to get my inventions to work.  The prospect is a little bit daunting, but also extremely exciting."

"Look, all I know is that I was sent here to kill the characters that don't belong in the stories," said James.  "The woman who sent me here said that some 'character archetypes' were developing errors.  If I can fix that, then hopefully I'll be able to get back home and go back to my job.  You can conduct whatever research you want, as long as it doesn't affect me."

"Are you really going to claim that you're not interested in visiting worlds filled with magic and excitement?  If you just treat this as a job, I don't think you're going to have a very fun time."

"I already live in a world of magic and excitement," James replied.  "If I could, I would eliminate all the magic and excitement from my life."

The conversation was interrupted by a world around them slowly coming into sharper focus.   The change from the white void was so slow that it was almost imperceptible, but now that it had progressed, it seemed obvious that the world had been subtly fading in for some time.

As James and Dr. A looked on in silence, details became more evident and it became clear that they were on the deck of a large galley.  The vessel was a pristine white.  On the bow of the ship was a giant golden lion's head.  The light of the sun seemed to be multiplied rather than diminished by its reflection off the lion's head, and it seemed as though there was a piece of the sun itself within the ship's bow.  At the ship's wheel there stood a tall, exceptionally muscular man dressed in shining knight's armor with a lion's head on the chest which matched that on the ship's bow.  While standing at the wheel, the man appeared unnaturally still.  As he noticed the arrival of James and Dr. A, he slowly turned to acknowledge their presence.  The way he moved was inexplicably bizarre, as though a marble statue had willed itself to life.  James tensed up and felt for his knife.  This man's aura was decidedly inhuman.

"Greetings, honored guests," the man said.  "This is an inopportune time for me to entertain visitors, but since you two have gone through the trouble of appearing on my ship, I will endeavor to be the best host I can."

Sensing that he was outmatched and in no immediate danger, James attempted to appear cordial.  Before he could respond to the man's greeting, Dr. Amelia spoke.

"We're both delighted to be here!" said Dr. A.  "We've just begun on a noble quest through foreign lands on the behest of an enchanted princess.  Glory and knighthood await us upon the successful completion of our journey.  I am Doctor Amelia, and this is my companion, James Englehart.  You can call him James."

"I think it would be better if you called me Englehart," James said.  "Where the hell are we, anyway?  Also, who are you?"

The man laughed in reply to James' questions.  "You two must be very far from home if you do not know who I am, mortals.  I am Caerulus.  I command the sun through the heavens, and the clouds answer to my whims.  You two must be hungry from your journeys.  Come eat with me, and we can discuss our respective heroic quests."

Without waiting for a reply, Caerulus turned and walked towards the ship's dining area.  Dr. A promptly began following behind him.  James grabbed her arm before she could follow further.  Caerulus did not look back, confident that his guests would come at their own pace.  After making sure that Caerulus wasn't paying attention to them, James quietly spoke to the doctor.

"You and I are both in mortal danger here.  I don't now what Caerulus is, but we're trapped on this ship with him, and he seems much too powerful to fight.  We need to play along until we can determine what his weaknesses are."

Dr. A calmly brushed off James' arm and said, "You don't need to tell me to play along.  This is an amazing opportunity to experience myths as they unfold.  I'm not sure why you think Caerulus is dangerous."

"You might still think that this is going to be a magical adventure, but if you get in trouble, I'm not going to let myself get killed trying to save you," said James.  With that, the two of them resumed following Caerulus into the ship's dining area.

James and Dr. A saw on the table in front of them a wide assortment of foods, including fruits, unpreserved meats, and cheeses.  Caerulus was already sitting at the table putting food on his plate when James and Dr. A sat down.  Dr. A cheerfully began loading a plate while James sat and eyed the food suspiciously.

"It looks like you don't have to worry about scurvy on this trip," said Dr. A.  "Can I ask how you keep your food preserved?"

"You are funny, mortal," said Caerulus, "But the food of the gods does not spoil."  At that statement, James became even more reluctant to touch the food in front of him.  Misinterpreting James' reluctance, Caerulus said, "The food of the gods may be precious to mortals, but it does not run out.  You will need to eat and maintain your strength.  There are great deeds to be done before we all die."

"I'd like to learn more about this god-food," said Dr. A, ignoring Caerulus' last statement.  "Does the fruit itself avoid decay, or is there some process you use?  I know of a few ways to preserve and replicate food, but most of them are significantly less discreet and require too much energy to be truly practical."  As she said this, Dr. A curiously examined her food and stealthily stashed some up the sleeves of her lab coat.

"Can we return to your previous statement?" James said.  He gestured with a piece of meat in order to avoid having to eat it.  "Who's 'we,' and why are they all going to die?"

"When I saw you appear on my ship, I assumed that you were already aware of the consequences of arriving here," said Caerulus, a grim expression on his face.  Caerulus' expression abruptly became cheerful again as he said, "It appears that we have more to discuss than I thought.  You two can tell me more about your noble quest, and then I will tell you why I am here."

"Well," said Dr. A, "We're on a journey to the center of a book that contains every story ever written.  Once we reach the book's core, we ought to be able to fix the power imbalance and save reality itself!  That's the current hypothesis, at least.  There's a chance that we'll destroy all of existence instead.  If we already knew the results, there wouldn't be any reason to run the experiment."

Caerulus did not display any noticeable reaction to the possibility of the end of reality.  He seemed to be incapable of assigning importance to any story other than his own.

"Now that you have told me about your quest, I shall tell you where we are going," said Caerulus.  "This ship is headed to the edge of heaven.  In a week we will reach the boundary between this world and the one below and I will confront and kill Inmanitas, the most powerful beast from the lower realms.  During this battle, I shall be killed as well, along with everyone on this ship.  This incident will provoke a series of battles which will result in the destruction of nearly all life in every realm."

"You sound awfully certain about all this," said James.  "Why are you so determined to start the apocalypse?"

"The denizens of the lower realms have openly held the gods in contempt for too long.  The gods are too busy taking shelter from the coming storm to realize that their world has grown stagnant around them.  Our blood shall rain down and rejuvenate the world, and from our flesh a new land shall be born.  The human race will rebuild and flourish without the help of their gods.  I know that this will happen because it has already been recorded.  These events are as inevitable as the flow of time."

"So you subscribe completely to determinism?" said Dr. A. "What happens if someone directly opposes their fate?"

"Many have tried," replied Caerulus. "Nobody can escape their fate, whether that person is a peasant, an emperor, or a god.  Those who try only ensure that they will die without dignity."

"So what you're saying is that every god and every monster that plagues humanity is going to be destroyed, and that this apocalypse is completely inevitable," James said.

"Yes, that is what I am saying," replied Caerulus.  "Now that we've all eaten and shared our stories, I believe it is time we retired for the evening.  You two can take rooms in the area below, directly above the rowers.  All the rooms are available since we have no other passengers, and the rowers do not sleep."

Once James and Dr. A were below-deck and out of the god's presence, James turned and said, "I think the safest thing to do right now is stay in our rooms for the night and hope the god upstairs doesn't arbitrarily decide to kill us.  We need to find a way to leave this story before we get killed by this Inmanitas monster."

"That all sounds good," said Dr. A.  "I need to contact EMIL and see if she's had any luck analyzing the book from the outside.  My beacon should allow her to track our progress."

"While you do that, I'm going to go down to talk to the rowers.  If one of them is a malfunctioning character, I ought to be able to kill him right now.  Hopefully that will allow us to leave," said James.

"I know what Lady Ink told you, but I don't think the archetypes should be our main focus," said Dr. Amelia.  "If anything, the problems they're experiencing are probably just a consequence of the Book's decay.  Lady Ink must not respect your time very much if she's just making you do minor clean-up."

"I've never had a problem with being a small part of a large solution," James replied.  With that, the two separated to investigate.

Less than an hour later, Dr. A was distracted from her analysis by rapid knocking on the door.  She opened the door to find James looking concerned.

"This situation is more dangerous than I thought," James said.  "None of the slaves rowing this ship seem to possess any kind of thought past their devotion to rowing.  It's as if all independent thought has been tortured out of them.  I talked to over a dozen of them, and all of them had the same single-mindedness."

"I don't see any reason to jump to conclusions," said Dr. A.  "Maybe they just like rowing more than they like talking to pesky outsiders."

"I've seen this before," James replied.  "When my mother and I were in the wastelands, we encountered a group of vampires who kept humans as beasts of burden.  During the night, the vampires would force the humans to hunt and scavenge for them.  The vampires would keep the humans too drained of blood during the day for them to fight back or escape.  I don't know how long those people were held like that, but by the time my mother and I killed the vampires, the surviving humans were like hollow shells.  They could only function on a basic level.  They couldn't have survived on their own like that, so we had to kill them as mercifully as possible.  If these slaves are in the same situation, then Caerulus could be a lot more dangerous than I thought."

"Are you planning to do something dramatic and destructive?" asked Dr. Amelia.

"There's no way either of us can challenge a god," James said.  "I think we need to make sure that this story reaches its intended ending, and that the god massacre goes according to schedule.  I don't know what society would have gods like this, but the sooner those gods are out of the picture, the better off everyone will be.  Do you have any idea how we can escape this story?"

"I've been looking into it, and I think the only way to exit one story and advance to another is to bring the story to some sort of satisfying conclusion," said Dr. A.

James crossed his arms, displeased with this answer.  "I don't think we can resolve this story in a way that doesn't end in our deaths."

"If it helps, that's only one theory I came up with.  Maybe there's some other way of getting out of here." Dr. A didn't sound nearly as reassuring as she thought she did.

"In any case, we should get some sleep.  As long as we don't die in the meantime, we ought to be able to figure something out in the week we have before we arrive at the edge of the world."  With that, James left to go to his room for the night.