TBOS Round 4.1

As Reinald and Anna broke away from each other, the world went black around them.  "What the fuck?" Anna said, looking at Reinald with exaggerated distaste.  Their usual clothes replaced their ballroom outfits and the new world came into focus.  Reinald and Anna quickly regained their composure and surveyed their new surroundings, pointedly focusing their attention away from each other.  They were on a viewing platform that formed the top of a white stone tower which allowed a commanding view of the other structures around them.  On the other side of the tower a group of men were huddled around, murmuring and wearing robes made out of a combination of silk and paper, words of every language covering them.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a group of monks," Anna said.  "I think the Book is finally giving us a lucky break.  There's no way we'll have to sort out any mushy relationship issues if we're involved in a story with a bunch of monks.  Right now I don't think I could handle more romance."

"That makes two of us," Reinald said, still not looking directly at Anna.  He advanced towards the group of paper-monks.  "Hello, my name is Reinald Todorov.  Has anything happened here that requires attention?"

The monks didn't seem to directly notice Reinald and Anna, but instead parted to reveal a woman in a white lab coat and colorful clothing.  The woman in the lab coat advanced immediately to introduce herself.  "Hello.  I'm Dr. Amelia, but you can call me Dr. A.  The men with the lovely word-robes are chanters.  I've been helping them come up with ways to keep the Book's stories flowing.  In a way, you two have arrived just in time.  One of my friends has a bit of a possession problem.  Have either of you gotten any practice dealing with archetypes taking people over?"

Reinald and Anna stopped avoiding each other in order to exchange annoyed looks.  Anna spoke. "Do we really have to deal with all this again?  We've been spending the last two stories dealing with archetypes taking us over and sabotaging the story and generally being sneaky bastards.  Say what you will about a magic lion eating people, at least he attacked directly."

"I'd rather deal with subtle problems than ones that try to eat me," Reinald replied.  "This woman seems to have some ideas about how to deal with the problems plaguing the Book.  If we help her, there's a good chance that we can let her handle things in her own way, which should keep us out of the line of fire."

Reinald turned to address Dr. A, looking her straight in the eye as he spoke.  "After conferring with my partner, we've decided that we would be more than happy to be of assistance.  We have some experience with archetype possession, but we will of course defer to your superior knowledge."

Dr. A looked a bit taken aback by Reinald's apparent confidence in her intelligence.  "I'm not used to having such eager volunteers.  Perhaps I should tell you what's going on before I involve you with my brilliant plans.  One of my friends recently came into contact with a corrupting influence.  It left a rather nasty stain on his clothes and, more importantly, might gradually cause him to lose control of his actions and become a force of the Book's unwriting."

At this point Anna loudly interjected.  "You knew that this guy was going to start trashing the Book, and you're letting him wander around freely?"

Dr. A continued, unfazed by the interruption.  "I left him with an expert in the field of behavior analysis to make sure that he didn't become too unhinged.  However, after analyzing this blood sample I surreptitiously took from him, I discovered that he was already wrestling with some nasty infections from before I met him, some of which were on their way to making him something other than human.  This new information has significantly changed my hypothesis about the effects of the stain. I'm afraid he might be turning faster than I anticipated.  Once he transforms, he could become a serious threat to the Book's stability."

"Did you just say that you took a blood sample without him noticing?" Anna said, backing away slightly from the doctor.

"It's something I do to most people if I get to know them well enough.  You can never be too careful, or too zealous in the advancement of scientific knowledge.  I have a rare opportunity here to encounter people from all sorts of different realities, and it would be downright crazy not to study them as much as possible."

"Yes, that would be crazy," Anna replied, backing away a little bit more.

"Well, clearly your initiative in drawing your colleague's blood benefited all of us in this case," Reinald said, silently reproaching Anna for interfering with his attempts to get Dr. A on their side.  "If you lead on, we'd be happy to help you prevent your friend from becoming a threat to the Book's stability."

"Wonderful!  I assume Hyde and Jackal can mind the chanters while the two of you accompany me.  I'm sure everything will work out perfectly," Dr. A turned back to Reinald and Anna.  "Let's go find James.  That's his name, by the way.  I probably should have mentioned that earlier."

"How do you plan on finding a specific person in this entire Book?  In case you haven't noticed, this place is a bit big, and we don't exactly know where this guy is, much less how to find the bastard," Anna said, leaning against a convenient pillar with her arms crossed.

"I've already considered that," Dr. A said.  "That's why I took the beacon that Lady Ink gave me and converted it to a homing device.  With the communications device I left with James, I can now follow him anywhere he goes in the Book of Stories.  We just have to get to the right story, which is actually relatively simple from this location.  The chanters can help us get to a new story, and with the beacon activated we won't be able to go off-course."  Dr. A turned and walked back to talk to the chanters.

"Are you looking for a new employer, Todorov?" Anna asked tauntingly.  "You're acting awfully obedient to the mad scientist there."

"Letting the Book choose our path for us hasn't been keeping us out of danger very effectively.  This woman may be erratic, but I'd still rather follow her than let the Book decide our next move," Reinald replied.

Anna grumbled silently, but she didn't argue.

Dr. Amelia strode towards the pair, proudly holding an arrow-shaped piece of dull metal.  "The chanters say that they can only give us this one piece as a method of conveyance.  You two can haggle with them if you want to, but I don't think they're very generous."

"I'm sure you were very persuasive," Reinald said.

Dr. A held out the arrow between Reinald and Anna.  "All right; if we all grip onto this arrow at once, it should transport us to the story James is currently occupying.  I'm not sure if these things were designed to transport multiple people, but we won't know if we don't try."

The three champions grabbed hold of the arrow and promptly felt an intense tugging that pulled them off the platform, followed by a tearing sound as they forced their way from one part of the Book to the other.  The images around them quickly grew blurry and indistinct until all they could see was vague shapes in multicolored lights.  The world came back into focus and Reinald and Anna crashed into the middle of what appeared to be a village square.  

The first thing they noticed was that the doctor was nowhere to be seen.  The second thing they noticed was that the town appeared entirely lifeless, absent even the sounds of animals.  The noon sun sat amid fluffy white clouds in the blue summer sky.  There was just enough wind to make the day quite pleasant, had anyone been around to appreciate it. Houses lined the streets in all directions, but none of them appeared occupied.  The houses showed signs of violence and panic. The windows that hadn't been boarded up were smashed in, and the cars in the driveways had their tires slashed and their windows broken.  One nearby house had a large fire still burning in the front yard, though they couldn't see what was being used as kindling.

"Well, I hope you weren't putting too much faith in your new doctor friend, because she appears to be missing," Anna said. "Her and everyone else in this village.  Did this story lose all its characters?"

"This should answer part of your question," Reinald replied, looking at some graffiti written on a nearby wall.  The writing appeared to have been done with spray paint and a stencil.  The concrete surface had numerous cracks which made it poorly suited to carry a message, and the lopsided letters reinforced the impression that this had been done hastily.  The paint had not been allowed to dry properly, causing some of the letters to flow into each other.  As the two of them looked closer, they could detect the faint smell of the paint, indicating that it had been applied recently enough that whoever sprayed it should still be around.  Reinald and Anna read the message silently.

It lives in our blood.
Trust no one.
Animals aren't safe. Kill them.
Burn all bodies.
Spread these rules.

Anna looked around for signs of life.  "Hmm. That certainly explains why there aren't any animals around here," said Anna.  "I think we know what kind of story we're in too."

"I suppose the Book separated us from the doctor because it didn't want someone who knew what she was doing interfering with its little horror story here.  This Book might be incapable of acting with a will of its own, but I still feel like we're being guided by the whims of an especially capricious child," Reinald said, looking around the ruined buildings for signs of life.

"Well, if past experience has taught us anything, it's that trying to leave this place before the story is over would be a complete waste of time.  Let's see if we can find some way of making this story progress so we can get out of here.  Since neither of us are idiotic yet sexy coeds, I think we should be able to handle horror pretty well."  Anna started walking in the direction of some nearby buildings that looked relatively intact, causing Reinald to follow after her at a bit of a distance.