WW LXXX: It's About Time!

[Inziladun]

As the passengers exited the train at the Blandford station in Dorset, England, they recalled what the e-mail had said: "I'll be holding a sign, and the sign will have a particular character you will instantly recognize." They looked around the platform and saw a man in a white lab coat standing there, smiling, holding a large placard bearing the Tolkien Sigil: a central line both a "T" and a "J", with two mirror-image "R";s on either side. He beckoned them to follow him. They did so, and walked behind him outside. There was a small, old bus at the curb, with its storage compartment open. The man said "Place your luggage in there and hop on board." The man closed the door of the storage bin and climbed onto the bus himself, perching himself on the driver's seat. As the bus pulled away, he picked up the PA system microphone. "I know you're all intensely curious, and I promise you once we arrive at our destination all will be explained." The passengers looked at one another, then out the windows, watching the city streets give way to open countryside.
After about twenty minutes of driving, with no houses or other buildings having been seen for a while, they saw a dirt road ahead on the right. The bus slowed, and turned onto that road. As the bus bounced and lurched along the narrow lane, its riders wondered (not for the first time) what they'd gotten themselves into.
After another ten minutes or so, a large three-story house appeared, surrounded by a high wrought-iron fence. The bus came to a stop in front of a gate, while the bus driver reached into his pocket and removed a small device on which there were two buttons. He pressed one, and the gate opened. The bus passed through, and the gate shut quietly behind it.
As the bus stopped in from of the house, the passengers spoke for the first time.
"The windows- they've been bricked up!", said Sally in surprise. Indeed they had.
"And look at the door", said Pitchwife. Where once had probably been a front door made of fine wood, there was now a heavy-looking metal one, such as one expected to see in a prison.
"What's this all about, anyway?" Fea asked.
"What? Oh, don't be alarmed! Just some security precautions, that's all", the man in the lab coat said reassuringly. He opened the bus's storage compartment. "Just get your things and follow me."
As they retrieved their bags and cases, the man reached into his pocket and brought out the same device he'd used to open the gate. He pressed the other button, and the metal door into the house opened. "Come along!", he said, waving his hand.
With no small amount of uneasiness, the 13 people followed him inside.
As they walked over the threshold, someone gave a yell. The looked back and saw Wilwa clutching Shasta's arm, apparently having nearly fallen. "I tripped on that!" she said, pointing at a tool box just inside the door.
"Sorry!" said the man in the coat. "I meant to clean up some, but I forgot." He reached into another pocket and pulled out an old-fashioned micro-cassette recorder. He spoke into it, "Note to self: 'Tidy up this place!'" He replaced the device.
"Everyone inside? Let's see...one, two, three....yes! All here." He walked over to the metal door, and they noticed a small control panel on one side of it. He stepped in front of it, so that they could not see what he was doing, but the door closed with a crash, making them all jump.
"Now", he said, turning back to them. "Would you all like to know why you're here?"

[Inziladun]

"Would you all like to know why you're here?"
"Ummm....Yes!" answered Boro.
"Well, we know that you all responded to an advertisement I put out. I placed it all over the internet, in places I thought were likely to be visited by my target audience. It read as follows: 'Calling all fans of the written works of J.R.R. Tolkien: you have the opportunity to join in a great project to preserve the artistic integrity and general dignity of Lord of the Rings and other Middle-earth related works. Assist in this matter and your reward will be great. Send replies to...' etc. And one by one you all wrote back to me. And here you are."
"So what's this "great project"?", inquired The Elf-warrior.
"And who are you?", asked Shasta.
"Well, the answer to your second question, is that you may call me "Professor Inzil". "As for the first one....well...who all here has seen the LOTR movies put out in the last ten years?"
Everyone raised a hand.
"Now, how many of you were completely happy with those movies?"
No hands were raised.
"Not I, either", said the Professor. "Any movie based on these books has to be an abysmal failure, at least as far as integrity to the books is concerned. The deeper meaning is lost, in favor of mass-market attraction. Why did they bother making the movies if they were going to fundamentally change so much? Why couldn't Jackson have done an original script and left Tolkien alone? I'll tell you why! MONEY!"
"There's no need to shout", said Greenie quietly.
"Sorry", said the Professor. "Anyway, I decided to do something about it. I'm going to prevent those movies from being made. Prevent anyone from making Tolkien-based movies."
"Slight problem there", said Nerwen. "The movies have already been made for LOTR, and one based on The Hobbit is underway."
"Ah", said the Professor, "but I have a way to undo that. Follow me!"
The group followed him through a door, exchanging uneasy glances. Clearly they had been lured here by a lunatic.
When they emerged into the next room, they were dumfounded. What before had apparently been a large dining room at one time, now contained several computer consoles, surrounding a central, egg-shaped chamber with a door in it. Pipes and cables ran out of the contraption in all directions.
"This", said the Professor, 'is a time machine."
"Of course it is", said Boro, "and I have a fusion reactor in my basement."
There were several laughs.
"I expected no less", said Professor Inzil. "So here's a demonstration". He strode over to the door to the central chamber and pressed a button beside it. It opened. The room inside was quite small, no bigger than a large bathroom. There was nothing inside it, but a half-sphere bulged from the ceiling. There were several foot-long rods jutting from it, and from the walls.
The Professor picked up a small cage from among the general clutter, and withdrew a white rat.
"Here you go, my beastly", said the Professor, and set the creature on the floor in the chamber. He then shut the door, and pointed to a set of buttons on the console, all glowing green.
"This", he said, "is where the action is, so to speak. The number keys allow you to input your destination, which is displayed here." He pushed buttons, and an LED readout above showed that day's date, with a time one minute in the future. He then pressed the largest of the buttons, in the center. "Gzzthktkk!", came a loud noise from the chamber.
"What did you do to it?", cried Sally.
"Sent it into the future. It'll be back in one minute. Have a look in there." He went to the door and opened a cover of a round window like a porthole, covered in safety wire. They all crowded round.
"It's gone!", exclaimed Fea. There were murmurs from the group.
"Ok, let's say you aren't totally insane, and you aren't having us on", said Lottie. "Why do you need us? And what exactly are you going to do?"
"I intend to go back in time to 1969 and buy the movie rights myself", was the reply. That's why I chose this location. Tolkien lived in Poole then, and that isn't all that far from here. I can't do it alone though; I need some assistants to go with me, and some to stay here and monitor the equipment."
"Gzzthktkk!' from the chamber made all but the Professor jump. They looked into the porthole again.
"It's back!", exclaimed Pitchwife.
"Told you so", said the Professor.
"Wow!", said Shasta. "You could do all kinds of things! Like take an I-POD back and sell it for lots of money!" The Professor looked affronted.
"Never!", he said. "I didn't build it for personal gain. Besides, electronic objects don't seem to transport. They, well, break. He picked up an object from the floor. It was burned-looking, but appeared to have been a digital watch.
"I tried to use this while experimenting", he said, "but it didn't do so well. "I'm not sure why."
"You could still do other things", said skip. "Like prevent the Titanic from sinking."
"Or stop the assassination of JFK", said Nerwen.
"Or keep Lady Gaga from having a music career", said Lottie.
"Those are good ideas, especially the last one", said Professor Inzil. "And other things will come. Think of this as a trial run."
"The ad said something about a reward", said Shasta.
"Ah, well, about that, I can't exactly pay you all. Your reward will be the honor of being part of all this!" Seeing the looks on some of their faces, he added, "I'll feed you while you're here, and you have bedrooms prepared upstairs. Nice ones! Go ahead and take your bags and claim one. This used to be a writing school, so there's room to spare. The stairs are through there, and the door
opposite is the kitchen. There's plenty of food here, enough for weeks, so help yourselves! Fair warning, though," he added as they moved to pick up their luggage, "If you brought cell phones and such, they won't work here. Nor internet. It might be something to do with the ionic fields. And there's no phone service. I never had it installed."
Mumbling, the group trudged away.

[Inziladun]

After dinner, everyone was again grouped around the time machine.
"I intend to get seriously cracking on this tommorow", said Professor Inzil. "Anyone have any questions before bed?"
Several hands shot up. "Yes?" he said, pointing at skip.
"I'm not sure about this", said skip. "What if we just leave?" Others nodded in agreement.
"You can't, I'm afraid".
"Why not?", replied skip heatedly, over the sound of many murmurs.
The Professor sighed. "The only way out is the door we entered through. It's on a timer, and it won't open until the time's up."
"When will that be?", demanded Wilwa.
"Only I know", replied the Professor. "Like I said, it's all for security purposes. I've had serious threats because of the way I've been so critical of the movies. There's a lot of money tied up in them, and there are those who think I'm too outspoken. And it doesn't help that I've tried before to destroy the movie industry's ability to exploit Tolkien's work."
"What did you do?", asked Lottie.
"It isn't important. But because of those past incidents, I wanted this project to be as safe and secure as possible. There are lots of safeguards. For instance, any attempt to tamper with or destroy the machine, without first performing a small action, will likely result in a tremendous explosion." He looked at the group's faces, satisfied. "What else would you like to know"?
"What does the machine use for fuel?", asked The Elf-warrior.
Professor Inzil laughed. "Oh, I'm not telling you that just yet! It's actually made from several ingredients that are fairly cheap, and easy to come by. I've got enough for what we need to do. I can make more with no problem when necessary. Anything else? Yes?" He pointed at Nerwen.
"Where did you get the money to do all this?", she asked.
"Well, ummm..."
"And how did you figure out how to build a time machine?", inquired Boro. The Professor looked nonplussed.
"There are perfectly good answers to those questions, but I'm afraid they'll have to wait for another time. Good Night! See you all in the morning!"

IT IS NOW NIGHT 1. Wolves may discuss, Seer may send me a dream-pick.

[Inziladun]

Time To Get Down To Business

It was now very late, so late that it was early.
Professor Inzil was walking around the time machine, checking various things. Every so often he made a note for himself on his micro recorder. He went behind the apparatus and picked up a 5 gallon clear plastic container resting against the wall. Written upon it in black Sharpie marker was the word "FUEL". He carried it to the machine, to a round port curiously also marked "FUEL". He removed the canister's lid and poured the contents into a round aperture in the machine. A reddish-orange liquid flowed out. He poured the entire can into it, thinking that it would be enough for what they needed. That was the entire stock of fuel, but, as he'd told everyone, it wasn't exactly difficult to compound. He closed the Fuel Port and watched as the needle above it swung over from "DEP", which meant "depleted", over to "OPT", which meant "optimal".
He set down the can and once again took out his recorder. "Note to self," he began "Make more fuel."
Before he could press the recorder's "STOP" button, he started as he heard a stealthy sound behind him.

IT IS STILL NIGHT 1

[Inziladun]

The early sun was shining brightly outside, but inside the house it might as well have been midnight. No friendly sunshine pierced the walls and windows of that secret enclave in the countyside.
The "guests" (who at the moment thought of themselves more as conscripts) were walking downstairs, quietly talking of yesterday's strange events. They had seen or heard no sign of Professor Inzil since the previous evening. Some of the party went into the kitchen to find something for breakfast. Others assumed the Professor was probably in the dining room with the time machine, and went there first. Those in the kitchen heard yells from the dining room, and quickly followed their sound. What they found in the dining room was most disturbing.

The Professor lay motionless on the floor beside the machine, with many people huddled closely around him. There was drying blood on the side of his head, and a quantity of it on the floor beside.
Shasta knelt down and checked the Professor's pulse. After a few moments, he shook his head.
"He's dead!" There were several gasps.
"What happened to him?", asked Sally.
"Look! There's more blood on the edge of that console!", exclaimed Aganzir.
"That would explain how he died", said Eomer. "But how did this happen"?
A sliding sound and a "Thump!" made them all jump. They looked down, then were relieved.
"Someone kicked the Professor's little recorder, that's all", said Fea.
The idea seemed to occur to them simultaneously that it might contain clues to what had befallen the Professor, and several hands reached for the device. Greenie came up with it, and pressed "Play". The button immediately popped back up.
"It must be at the end", said Wilwa. "Rewind it." After doing so for a few moments, Greenie pressed "Play" again.
"Note to self", said the Professor's voice. "Make more fuel". Then there was a gasp.
"Oh! You startled me! What are you three doing up? Insomnia? I understand that you're eager to get this going, but you really must get some sleep. I...hey! What are you doing? Let go!"
They heard the sounds of an apparent struggle, then a "Thud" sound, followed by a more final sliding sound which told them the Professor was then going down for the count.
Footsteps could be heard walking away, more than one set. The sound of a door opening and closing, then silence.
As the group stood there, three of their number gazed upon their work with inner satisfaction.
Three others had secret thoughts of their own.

One of them thought of the dream xe'd had last night. Xe had had clairvoyant dreams before, and they'd never led xem wrong. Now, xe felt certain xe had some powerful insight to help find the killers.

A second person was torn with pity and anger. How could xe have let this happen? Xe decided then and there that xe would do whatever was in xyr power to stop whoever it was from killing again.

A third onlooker did not have such benevolent thoughts. Xe had been furious when the Professor informed them they would not be paid, and xe felt wronged. Now, dark words ran through xyr mind.
"Serves him right. He shouldn't have lied to us. Anyway, I did like the movies."
Xe made up xyr mind that even though xe wasn't willing to kill the way this had been done, xe would do what xe could to help whoever was responsible.
"Maybe they'll reward me!", xe thought.

And the rest just wondered what to do next.

IT IS NOW DAY 1. Away we go. Wolves stop PMing.

The Living
Nerwen
Pitch
Wilwa
Shasta
Sally
Lottie
Greenie
skip
Boro
The Elf-warrior
Fea
Eomer
Agan

The Dead
Professor Inzil- Head full of knowledge cracked open Night 1

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Poor Professor... I was looking forward to going back in time. Haha, looking 'forward' to go 'back'.

In any case, let's get the ball rolling, shall we? I'd like to accuse the lovely Fea for no real reason other than that she's pretty. Defend yourself!

[satansaloser2005]

Nerwen is evil. Always. Or she's the seer. Either way, let's lynch her, because she'll end the game far too quickly.

Pitch's case against Fea puts him on my hit list, because....well, it's just not quite right somehow. I'll agree with what Shasta said a few posts above, and add that I do think a Pitch-wolf could do that, because it would be too obvious to be so. That and we know how tricksy he can be.

Wilwa is sweet, but I have to say, the wicked vibes coming from her make me think my muffin may be a little past her sell-by date. I'll look at her closer and see why I'm getting that feeling.

Shasta seems....strange to me somehow. I'll take a look at his posts and see if it's just my tired brain or if there's really something there.

Sally is sweet, innocent, and gives people cute nicknames. Don't kill her. That'd be stupid.

Lottie isn't giving off much to me. I think she's probably innocent.

Greenie doesn't like the in-jokes, which I can understand, but she seems overly fixated on them to me. I'm trying to decide if it's a natural dislike of meta or if she has a more specific reason to not want people communicating covertly. I'll be keeping a close eye on her, to be sure.

Skip is sadly not giving off vibes to me. I'm not voting him, but I'm not trusting him either. That said, I'm happy he's playing of course!

Boro is up to something, as always. Need to figure out what it is before I shove him off a cliff, as he may be completely innocent. But if the cobbler turns up dead come Morning....o_O

Elf hasn't said enough for me to judge guilt or innocence. Not getting my vote.

Fea is getting a lot of unhealthy attention. Nothing unusual there, but the bandwagon (because that's what it is!) forming against her is fishy. Regardless of Fea's role, I don't like to see this kind of rather simple voting, especially toDay.

Eomer is always talking about his wargs and stuff, thus he must be evil. Or just silly. Really, though, I think he's all right, at least for now. We'll see.

Agan is standing out to me, and I'll completely admit it's mostly a knee-jerk because of her vote for me. She knows I have a job, and that I can't post during my work time. I don't expect her to consider all the meta, because that ruins the game, but to say she wants me dead before I can joke around, when I haven't even begun to do so, is really odd, especially for her. It seems like she's trying to get rid of me before I can sort out what she is. And the fact that I'm getting that feeling gives me the feeling that whatever she is, it isn't good. However, as I said, part of that is knee-jerk (though I would have said it had she opportunity voted for anyone else as well) so while she'll remain higher on my BOLO list, I will not be voting for her toDay, alas.


Basically, my suspects for toDay are Pitch, Muffin, and Greenie, with Shasta coming in at fourth. Agan is a leader too, but I'm trying to step back from my suspicion because I know part of it is me protecting myself. Also, I'm rather hoping I just pinned the entire wolf pack and will be able to rub it in some faces again.



EDIT: x'd with my snuggle muffin

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Extremely, extremely odd, considering that you actually agree with me about Pitch. Very fishy, m'dear.

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Shastanis Althreduin

Extremely, extremely odd, considering that you actually agree with me about Pitch. Very fishy, m'dear.

Just because we agree on Pitch doesn't mean I trust you. I'm just sayin'.

[The Elf-warrior]

Apology accepted. However, I feel compelled to vote for...

++Feanor

It's a matter of self preservation, mah dear.

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by The Elf-warrior

Apology accepted. However, I feel compelled to vote for...

++Feanor

It's a matter of self preservation, mah dear.

The votes are spread out enough where surely you could have gone with someone else maybe a little suspicious other than "for self-preservation"

Now you are forcing my hand to you or Fea, and you weren't someone I said "no lynch."

[Boromir88]

++Elf-Warrior

Edit: crossed with Lottie.

[satansaloser2005]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

The votes are spread out enough where surely you could have gone with someone else maybe a little suspicious other than "for self-preservation"

Now you are forcing my hand to you or Fea, and you weren't someone I said "no lynch."

This. You didn't have to vote for Fea, you chose her because she was an easy target. There wasn't self-preservation on your mind there.



EDIT in advance: x'd with the mod?

EDIT #2: Yup. Rubbish interwebs. *grumbles*

[Inziladun]

All day the group had discussed ways to escape their unfortunate predicament.
Various plans had been posited, such as figuring out a means to convert the machine to allow simple distance transportation, or traveling back to when the Professor was still alive. The base problem remained though: even if they tried to use the machine to travel as a group, Someone would be obliged to stay behind to operate it. Who would it be? Knowing there were killers among them, the party was not too keen on being at the total mercy of someone who might use the machine to do who knew what.

As they debated, they heard a muffled ringing sound coming from behind the machine, on the far side of the room from the door to the stairway and kitchen. Cautiously, they peeped around the far end of the machine's computer consoles in the direction of the noise.
There was a door back there, too, slightly ajar. They walked over to it and pushed it open. Inside, there was a very small room that might once have been a pantry. In it now were a bed, and a tiny desk covered in papers, notebooks, and spiral binders. An old-fashioned alarm clock on the desk was revealed as the culprit of the noise.

"The Professor was a late sleeper", said Sally, turning it off.

"Look at this stuff!", said Fea. "I guess those are his notes and things."

"There's probably some useful info here, but it would take weeks to look through all this," said Nerwen.

The Elf-warrior picked up the notebook nearest the door. It had the distinction of
being on top of the general clutter. He leafed through it.
"Hm," he said. Most of this isn't even legible. Listen to this, though: 25 Feb- Trnspt process must NOT be interrupted once begun. Harmonic vibrations... can't read that part....pol. rvrsl....destruction!."

"So don't try to stop the traveling once you start it. Important safety tip there," observed Shasta.

"The only other thing I can read is this," said the Elf-Warrior. "03 Mar- Inter. phenom with field harmonics- cause subj to declare truth on whatever's on their mind. During expmt, found myself confessing my deep infatuation w/ Kate Winslet. Only obsrvd just b/f trnsprt harmonics cnvrge at point to init travel."

"So, right before you go, you tell the truth about what you're thinking about?", asked Wilwa. "Hmm."

The Elf-Warrior passed the notebook around, but no one else was able to read any more of the Professsor's jottings. There appeared to be nothing else of immediate interest in the room.
They filed out, closing the door behind them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Discussion continued for hours more.
In the end, only one alternative presented itself: to try and eliminate the killers
and hope that in the mean time the door to the outside opened.
"How do we do it, though?", wondered Lottie.
"We don't have to kill one another, do we?", asked skip.
"How would we go ahead executing someone anyway"?, inquired Fea.
"We could use the machine to send them away. Even if they're still alive in some other time, they'd be away from us, and that's the main idea, isn't it?" said Boro.
"That's a pretty good idea", said Sally, slowly nodding."Plus, we could have a way of knowing if we send one of the killers or not.'
All agreed that was the best option.
So the question became who would be the first to go.

They decided to settle the question democratically, with each giving a vote for one of the party.
By that manner, it was decided that The Elf-warrior would be sent away.

"You're making a mistake!" he cried. "I didn't kill anyone!".

"Get in there!", said Fea. "It isn't as though we're killing you."

They backed him into the chamber door. Once he was inside, it was shut with a clang.

"Right then," said Lottie. Which button was it?"

"The big one in the middle, I think," replied skip. "but we need to enter a time, don't we?"

"How about 1000? Nice round number," said Fea. She pressed the numbered buttons and a readout above flared up with an LED, showing "1000".

"Here goes," said Boro. He pushed the center button.

As the machine cycled up and began to hum, the Elf-warrior began to yell loudly.

Instead of confessing anything, he said "You're all going to die! My friends will....." His voice sounded strangely metallic., and became crazily disjointed.

"Movies! protect......kill....you......merchandising.....ca sh cow.....aggkkk......."

His voice became weaker and weaker, but there was no sign of the "Gzzthktkk" sound they'd heard when the Professor transported the mouse. Finally, there was silence from the chamber.

"What just happened?", whispered Nerwen.

They crept to the porthole in the chamber and slowly peeked inside.

The Elf-warrior was lying on the floor. Smoke boiled out of his ears and nose. The machine did not transport electronic objects, the Professor had said.
They were looking at a robot.

The Living
Nerwen
Pitch
Wilwa
Shasta
Sally
Lottie
Greenie
skip
Boro
Fea
Eomer
Agan

The Dead
Professor Inzil- Head full of knowledge cracked open Night 1
The Elf-Warrior-Robot Killer (wolf)- Fried like foil in a microwave Day 1

Night 2 has begun. Wolves may PM and send a kill. Seer and Ranger may send a pick.

[Loslote]

++Elf

Sorry, TEWie.

[satansaloser2005]

Also, might I say that I'm relieved to have been proven wrong about lynching Elf possibly being a bad idea. I hate to ambush someone, especially on Day One, but for once it turned out (as did he, right before he died ).

I'm busy tonight filling my nose with dust particles but I hope to be active a bit later, and then the last few hours of the Day as usual.