Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #146: Water Hazard (3/29/01)
Plum walks down a glowing pathway flanked by narrow pillars.
Plum can only see ahead and behind on the path; the area beyond the pillars is lost in the swirling mists.
Plum looks up but he can't make out where the light is coming from.
Plum is lost again, but he figures that he might as well just keep moving forward.
Plum wishes he could find Albert again. There were questions he forgot to ask. And he wouldn't mind another almond cookie, either.
Black shape coalesces from the mist, moving silently.
Plum pauses, seeing the black shape emerge from the obscurity.
Black whorls and eddies form into the outline of a great black horse.
Plum admires the power of the noble animal before him
Plum wonders if he could catch the horse and get it to carry him back to some kind of civilization.
Plum feels as if he has been wandering endlessly and not getting anywhere.
Black stallion moves towards Plum as if in answer to his thoughts.
Black stallion moves with a stately, dignified stride. Its hooves make no sound.
Plum: Here, boy!
Black stallion snorts and walks the rest of the way to Plum.
Plum feels in his pockets to try to find something with which to tempt a horse.
Plum pulls out the orange that Snake juggled in the sunlight on the day his descent into Hell began.
Black stallion wears no saddle or reins. It has no white markings.
Plum thinks this horse does not look very tame at all.
Plum: Do you like oranges, boy?
Plum holds the orange out to the horse.
Black stallion says, "Do you give me your most precious possession so freely?"
Plum: It's all I have.
Black stallion says "If you do, then I will carry you home. But if you do not give freely, then I cannot accept it."
Plum: I want to find Annabelle. Can you take me to her?
Plum isn't sure he wants to go home.
Black stallion arches its neck proudly and looks down its elegant nose at Plum.
Black: You must wait. You must live all of your life, and live it as well and as humbly as you are able, before I may take you there.
Plum looks downcast.
Black: I may answer a third question. Have you a third?
Plum considers this. He has a million questions.
Plum has one that is particularly pressing however.
Plum: Yes, Black Horse. I think I left my body behind somewhere.
Plum pokes his insubstantial self which doesn't seem to get tired or hungry.
Plum: Do you know what this is?
Black stallion nods, its forelock spilling down over its face.
Black: It is your ka, your soul. Just as you see mine before you.
Black: I can tell you how you may find your material form again.
Plum regards the Black Horse gravely.
Plum: I hoped that might be true.
Plum: I was afraid I didn't have a soul any more.
Plum: What was happening to me was too terrible.
Black: Follow me, and I will show you. When you are ready, you will know where to go.
Plum: I don't think I want to go back.
Plum: Can't I just stay here where I'm safe?
Black: If your body dies, you will be reborn. You will remember nothing. You will be a babe new.
Black: If that is what you wish, then you may stay until you are chosen again.
Plum considers his life.
Plum: That doesn't sound too bad.
Black twists his tail as he realizes he has just answered a fourth question for free.
Plum is, however, practical in his way.
Plum: But I haven't decided yet.
Plum: Perhaps you had better show me the way.
Black gives a little stamp of his forefoot, but sets his impatience with himself aside and returns to Plum's dilemma.
Plum holds out the orange.
Black: That which is not given freely I may not accept.
Black: Come.
Black turns and walks towards the mist.
Plum follows the black horse.
Black walks through the mist, which resolves to a vista of a great ocean, fronted by a sandy beach.
Plum gazes around, trying to orient himself to the dizzying changes in terrain.
Black stallion is now a shadow, which moves on the sand before Plum as if it is his own.
Plum rushes to keep up with the dark shadow that slips along the ground ahead of him
Tide swells slowly, its powerful force masked by the lesser thrash of surf against the beach.
Plum's feet drag, enveloped in drifts of clinging sand.
Shadow: The sea holds your body now.
Shadow: To go back, you must embrace the sea.
Plum stares into the churning waves.
Plum: I can't go in there!
Foam gathers along the edges of the backwash.
Plum: I'll drown.
Weathered stones heaped here and there testify to the ocean's strength.
Shadow does not answer.
Go on to Episode #147: Displeased Doesn't Cover It
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