🚀 go-pugleaf

(continued from part two...)

#5: "Balance of Power" by Gary W. Olson
(co-presented by Plot Convenience Playhouse)

On Gyrass, after putting down a group of anarcho-syndicalists in the pay of
the Nin Conglomerate, Dynamo finds the Bless'd Thing in Tombolo Canyon, the
last stronghold of the rebels, along with a phosphorescent substance on the
walls of the cave.  Yin & Yang comment on its discovery, and muse that
they are not to be dealt with lightly.  Random tells Morph about his
conspiracy theory regarding recent occurences.  They see Monopulse leave a
surprised Shockwave, who follows with Granite, and Random convinces Morph
that they should follow.  Ernie the bartender, actually the Blue Serf of
the Inner Light, converses with the Blue Lord on the death of Grey, the
Blue Middle Manager of In-Between Greyness, which the Blue Lord blames on a
rogue Lord.  The Blue Lord muses on conspiracies, and Ernie suggests he
talk to Random.  On the cloaked ship, a link to the T-series drone is
established.  Tripoli arrives, and Excalibur disembarks, as Kid Nuclear
clashes with Sheen.  Excalibur notes that Dynamo has been sent to RR by
Wavelength so the Bless'd Thing and the substance can be analyzed there.
Spammeister shows an interest in the Bless'd Thing.  Excalibur reveals that
he was sent here to outline a very important Economic Opportunity.  Amb.
Dumont again inquires as to why Sheen and Kid Nuclear keep bugging each
other, and Sheen tells her that KN is her husband.  Shockwave and Granite
find Monopulse tampering with ALEXIS, and attempt to arrest her, but she
flees.  Morph and Random lose their trail, encounter the Dark briefly, then
are attacked by the t-series drone.  The Blue Lord joins the other Lords.
Robin orders the Ninites on the cloaked ship to have the robot kill Random
and Morph, and vows that Round Robin station will be his again.

#6: "Universal Truths" by Eric Alfred Burns
(co-presented by The National Association of Federations)

The five Lords complete the ceremony, and the Worldsphere bursts, flooding
the pentagram with their infinite energies.  Wavelength, the Green Serf,
muses on the cause of the disturbances in the cosmos.  A green pentacle
appears on her right shoulder, signifying her Serfdom.  Delphi and Impulse,
her senior and junior XOs, fret with her about Sheen, Kid Nuclear, Dynamo,
and Excalibur being together.  Ernie gets a blue pentacle on his right
shoulder.  The Black Lord gets a black pentacle in the center of his
forehead, which the Black Lord orders him to not worry about.  A pentacle
appears on Spammeisters left shoulder, marking him as a pawn.  Monopulse
accepts Amb. Dumont's offer of help.  The t-series drone attacks and
Monopulse disables it, but not before the drone programs Monopulse to act
as an assassin.  Kid Nuclear suspects that Wavelength wants to be rid of
him, and Excalibur chews out Kid Nuclear, who looks at him with hatred.
Monopulse attacks Amb. Dumont, and Excalibur rushes to defend her.  Sheen
reflects on Kid Nuclear and her relationship with Dynamo.  The Dark brings
Amb. Dumont to Dr. Combustion.  Gypsy visits Kid Nuclear and forces him
into the submissive role.

#7: "The Deity You Have Dialed Is Not In Service At This Time" or "Stop
     Making Sense" by Bill Paul
(co-presented by The Department of Redundancy Department)

The Red Lord is out.  Monopulse eludes Excalibur, Shockwave, Granite, and
Corpse, only to be caught by the Dark, who drains her of the controlling
influence.  On the cloaked ship, the Ninites consider their options, as the
t-series drone is hiding and repairing itself.  Dr. Combustion stabilizes
Morph's condition, though Random remains in a coma.  Sheen walks in on Kid
Nuclear and Gypsy.  The Black Lord probes the Dark's memory more deeply,
learning much that is hidden.  Wavelength gets briefed on the current RR
situation.  From Morphs' and Random's injuries, they deduce that another
drone may have come aboard Tripoli, and Sheen orders that the shuttles be
taken apart to find how the drones could have been smuggled in.  Excalibur
is told that attending to the Economic Opportunity will be delayed.  Sheen
orders that security be stepped up and ALEXIS be repaired.  Spammeister
seals the Damn Thing in transparent parasteel and starts looking through RR
blueprints, though ALEXIS refuses to show him Robin's design notes.
Monopulse remembers nothing under questioning.  Granite, Corpse, and the
Dark muse the nights events at Topside, and leave.  Ernie contemplates
their table, which, unlike the others, is a permanent fixture, and is five-
sided.

#8: "The Ties That Bind" by John Bankert
(co-presented by DoubleTalk Stage Productions)

Sheen leaves sickbay, pondering the Monopulse incident, and arrives at
Excalibur's quarters.  On the cloaked ship, the Ninites plan to send the
t-series drone to key access points to ALEXIS, using the RR vent system.
Robin reflects on the voice that explained to him the cosmology of the
universe, and his desires to become a Lord.  Granite urges Shockwave to
talk to Monopulse.  Yin & Yang watch the Green Lord practice his skills,
and hope that he succeeds, although they stand to gain if he fails.  Sheen
unloads her frustrations with Kid Nuclear on Excalibur, and does not know
if she still loves him.  Excalibur cryptically hints that Megacorp ran
Earthguard all along, and was responsible for the creation of most of them.
Shockwave visits Monopulse's quarters, and she complains of the memories
that are slowly surfacing in her as to what she did.  They kiss rather
intensely.  On the cloaked ship, the Ninites plan to send the T-series drone
to a service junction to get info, and note that a vertical descent could
present problems.  Excalibur and Sheen chat for hours before realizing the
time, and head to sickbay to check on Amb. Dumont.  Excalibur plans to
remove Kid Nuclear from command.  Amb. Dumont verifies that Monopulse was
under outside control, and requests to see the Dark, to verify his
veracity.

#9: "Blood Dreams" by Gary W. Olson
(co-presented by Microwave Burrito Theatre)

Random awakes to find himself in an out of body experience, and is slammed
into deep space by the Lords.  Kid Nuclear meditates, trying to achieve
balance, failing to find it.  ALEXIS wakes Shockwave and Monopulse, who
head to sickbay.  Morph works on rehab, although it's unlikely he can
regain his shapechanging powers below his chest.  The Blue Lord appears and
cryptically hints that Morph indeed does have the power to repair his nerve
damage, and that he knows what Morph really is, and leaves a blue scarf, as
he did when he talked with Ernie.  Monopulse and Shockwave report to Sheen,
who tells Monopulse that she will be reinstated pending Amb. Dumont's
verifying of The Dark's story.  Amb. Dumont probes the Dark, reliving his
draining of the controlling influence, and sees the Black Lord.  The
pentacle reappears on the Dark's forehead, mixed with black and blue.
Spammeister curses the lateness of the spam shipment, and learns of the
five-sided pedestal in Topside, and its five sided slot in the center,
which is not visible on inspection.  Spammeister muses that he's not quite
as servile as the rogue Lord believes, and wonders if he'll have to steal
the Bless'd Thing.  Kid Nuclear reviews Gypsy's personnel file, and learns
she worked for MegaCorp before, as a Lone Brigade operative, and that her
invulnerability appeared after she had been trapped under rubble in the
Bekere Sigma system.  He invites her to have drinks that evening in
Topside.  Excalibur and Sheen relieve him of command duties.  Dynamo, on
his way to RR station, reflects on the story of Genges Tombolo, a Gyrass
prophet from three millenniums ago who had a gold mark on his forehead and
created the Bless'd Thing and Damn Thing.  Dynamo also recalls that
Megacorp was founded by a man named Tombolo.  He tastes the phosphorescent
substance, and hallucinates colors and light, and talks with the Bless'd
Thing.  Random arrives in the domain of the Lords, who hurl him into the
Pentagram.  On RR, his body hemmorhages massively, then heals itself, and
he wakes.  Ernie ponders how the Blue Lord knew of the existence of a rogue
Lord, and decides to call the other Serfs to meet.

#10: "Journeys" by Eric Alfred Burns
(co-presented by Best Brains Productions)

Random wakes, and hints of what he knows to a baffled Morph.  He recognizes
the blue scarf as belonging to the Blue Lord.  Dynamo arrives on RR, and is
greeted by Sheen and Excalibur.  Edward Stuart heads for Iskandar, site of
the Economic Opportunity, in a Ninite Ship, planning his overtures towards
the natives.  After playing nu'velt to Ice, another Rialton, Kid Nuclear is
dominated by Gypsy, who knows all about him, including his quest for inner
balance.  Random interrupts, and Gypsy's power does not work on him.  Kid
Nuclear also reasserts his dominative nature briefly, forcing Gypsy to
clamp down on him.  After Random and Morph leave, Gypsy orders Kid Nuclear
to put in for his divorce from Sheen.  Dr. Combustion analyzes the jelly,
hypothesizing that it might be a hallucinogen or a poison.  Random steals a
sample of it and takes it to his quarters, and tastes it.  The Serfs meet
as essences, and the Blue Serf starts to tell of the cosmic danger.  Gypsy
contacts the Red Lord by stabbing herself, and the Red Lord tells her not
to worry about Random, who is free but won't be heeded unless reason is
given, and that he fears that the Blue Lord or another aims to destroy him.
The Gold, Red, and Blue Lords talk to Random in the hallucino-dream state,
and Random sees himself taken from the Chambers to be trained, and learns
that the Red and Gold need the Blue to accomplish something, else they'd
just cancel each other out.  Dynamo, Excalibur, and Sheen examine the
Bless'd Thing, and find that it negates Sheen's mirror force.

#11: "Phoenix Rising in the Infinite Greyness" by Evan Pongress
(co-presented by The High Priestess Council on Numerology and Eclipsed Full
Moons)

A translation of the legend of the Five Friends, from the shrine in Tombolo
Canyon on Gyrass, is recounted: the five powerful friends set out on their
journey; in their pride, they created the powerful shadows of themselves;
in their shame, they created serene shadows of themselves; they fell to the
worlds they created, and tried to forget.  Random meditates on the tarot,
and sees the card of Death in his future.  Kid Nuclear grants Sheen a
divorce from him, causing a nauseous feeling within her that soon passes.
Random steals the Bless'd Thing and takes it down into Spammeister's labs,
where he witnesses the Red Middle Manager reclaim Mayat, the part of
Spammeister that was a segment of his existence.  The blue pentacle on
Spammeister's shoulder reveals that the Blue Lord is the traitor amongst
the Lords of Outer Darkness.  Red tosses the Bless'd Thing up into a maze
of pipes, where the t-series drone eventually encounters it.  Gypsy works
on preparing Kid Nuclear for his role as the new Red Serf, by bringing him
along the road to becoming Ohm'velt, the Rialton concept of domination and
submission in balance, embodied previously by the one whose teachings he
has tried to follow: Leiphali.

#12: "Like Grains of Sand Through an Hourglass, So Pass the Days of Our
      Lives" or "Basic Black" by Bill Paul
(co-presented by The advsertising agency of Mousebat, Follicle,
Goosecreature, Ampersand, Spong, Wapcaplet, Looseliver, Vendetta and Prang)

The Black Lord determines that he must know the Truth.  Shockwave and
Monopulse crawl through access tunnels while making repairs to ALEXIS, and
note that the power system could power a thousand Round Robin stations.
Dynamo and Sheen learn that the drones on the LUX and Tripoli were
incorporated into the design of the shuttles, and that both the shuttles
were built at the Arani Shipyards, where Round Robin was built, and that
all three were designed by Robin of Biggibastion IV.  ALEXIS comes back
online and informs them that the drone is trying to escape the station, and
that Spammeister is dead.  Random applies lethera to Morph's lips, and
Morph encounters the Black Lord, who gets a vital clue when he sees Morph's
blue scarf.  The t-series drone is cornered and self-destructs with a
nuclear blast, which Sheen barely contains.  Dynamo recovers Sheen and the
Bless'd Thing.  Digulio and Dr. Combustion question Random as to why
Spammeister's body cannot be found, and Digulio investigates the log of
Spammeister's search through the ships deck plans.  Gypsy stabs Kid
Nuclear, enabling him to contact the Red Lord, and learns that his inner
duality is a strength, before returning to life.  The question of who will
run the ABSPARI is raised.  The STS Overdue, carrying Spammeister's spam
shipment, arrives and suffers a malfunction, causing it to explode and coat
Round Robin station with spam.  The cloaked ship is also coated, revealing
it to Round Robin sensors.  On the cloaked ship, the occupants muse that
they can take control of ALEXIS at any time.  The Black Lord finds the Blue
Lord in his home dimension, the 666th, and is ensnared by the Blue Lord's
power.

#13: "Leave Your Body at the Door" by John Bankert
(co-presented by Incubators 'R' Us)

Dr. Combustion tends to the Dark, who is experiencing mental conflict.
Sheen orders that the cloaked ship be captured, encountering surprising
second-guessing from Excalibur.  Excalibur tells Dynamo that Sheen might
have to be replaced.  The cloaked vessel surrenders, and is towed in.  The
Green Lord becomes curious about the Black Lord's disappearance, and
decides to investigate.  Kid Nuclear breaks free of Gypsy's influence, when
she oversteps her bounds as a dominative, but tells her she did not fail in
her mission.  The Serfs of the Inner Light continue their meta-discussion.
A plan is formulated to get rid of the spam coating the ship, involving an
EVA by Dynamo, Excalibur, and Kid Nuclear.  Random convinces Morph to take
more lethera, and they journey into higher dimensions, to meet the Green
Lord, whom they tell that the Blue Lord is the traitor amongst them.  When
they return, it becomes immediately apparent that Morph's shapeshifting
impairment has been healed.  The Green Lord intimidates the Blue Lord,
giving him a stern warning before departing.  The Dark, tormented by a
Black Imp and a Blue Imp in an infinite grey region, and is rescued by
aspects of the Blue Middle Manager and the Green Middle Manager.  The Black
Imp escapes in the confusion.  On Round Robin, the Dark is enveloped by a
pale grey glow.

#14: "Rhapsody in Blue" by Gary W. Olson
(co-presented by Blue Velvet Elvis)

After chatting with Random, Morph returns to her quarters and encounters
the Blue Lord, who tells her that she healed herself, with the help of the
lethera, and that he is her parent.  Dr. Combustion, Gypsy, Corpse,
Granite, and Random play poker, and are visited by a bizarre tarot-style
deck.  Wavelength considers the ending of the Serf conference, and decides
to make the trip to Round Robin.  The Red Lord confronts the Blue Lord in
the 52nd Dimension, and learns that Random has an important role in what is
to come.  Kid Nuclear and Dynamo start their EVA on Round Robin's outer
surface, burning away the spam.  The Blue Lord reveals his goals to the
Black Lord: to annihilate all that is, achieving perfect balance in
nothingness.  He cuts off the Black Lord's head, which continues to talk,
and leaves the 666th dimension, which soon implodes.  The Dark revives, and
asks Combustion to tell Sheen that Lt. Grey wishes to speak with her.
Robin learns of Wavelength, Impulse, and Delphi's trip to Round Robin, and
asks to join them.  The crew of the cloaked ship, Nichet, Nixaen, Bryce,
and Qukuk, work in their cell on establishing a phase link with the
modifications the t-series drone made earlier to ALEXIS systems.  Kid
Nuclear and Dynamo finish their spam removal job, and each learns of the
other's affiliations with Death and Yin & Yang, respectively, burying their
past animosities in the process.  The Blue Lord takes over Morph's body,
shapeshifting into a duplicate of Robin to establish a command shell before
shifting into a duplicate of Spammeister, so that he can finish
Spammeister's work.  He leaves Morph's quarters, bringing the Black Lord's
head with him, leaving his sunglasses behind.

#15: "Endgame: First Move" by Eric Alfred Burns
(co-presented by Pound, Eliot and Doolittle, Imagists-at-Large)

Gaylord Tombolo, distant cousin of Genges Tombolo and the current
incarnation of the Gold Middle Manager, leaves to join his fellow Managers,
reassuring the skittish Gold Lord on the way.  Hypershuttle Menelaus enters
wraithdrive, on the route to Round Robin station, and an energy buildup
cuts off Wavelength from the rest of the passengers.  Spammeister/Blue Lord
tells Sheen that an accident with contaminated spam was the cause of his
momentary absence from Round Robin station, and sets up a macro to attempt
to kill Random with cold.  Tombolo forces Wavelength to conceive a child,
which he grows to adulthood before departing, taking the child with him.
Excalibur goes over a new discovery by a trader named Riposte on Iskandar:
Arisite, crystals that allow gestalt-forming, which both Megacorp and Nin
would be very interested in having.  Sheen sends Digulio, Ice, Shockwave,
Ambassador Dumont, and Monopulse out by shuttle to establish relations with
Iskandar.  Mayat, the Red Middle Manager, Tombolo (Gold), Ornatho (Black),
and Sutai (Green) have a reunion on Gyrass.  Sheen converses with Lt. Grey/
The Dark.  Admiral Kyson Lochair (retired), the current Red Serf, arrives
on Round Robin station.  An apparition of Graisoul is drawn out of
Garrison, the old man who told Dynamo the story of Genges Tombolo, and the
first move of the Endgame is initiated: the destruction of Gyrass, which
sends a wave of energy out towards Round Robin station.  The Black Imp that
escaped makes Excalibur into the pawn of the Black Lord.  Sheen walks in on
Kid Nuclear and Dynamo comparing pentacles, and Genevive Tombolo appears, a
precise duplicate of Sheen, save for her gold coloration.

#16: "Endgame: Second and a Halfth Move" or "Back in Black" by Bill Paul
(co-presented by The Committee In Charge Of Putting Things On Top Of Other
Things)

Genevive warns Sheen, Kid Nuclear, and Dynamo of future events, and
disappears.  They rescue Random, who was about to ingest lethera to survive
the freezing temperatures, and Random learns that Spammeister is apparently
alive.  He confronts Spammeister/Blue Lord, tricking him into revealing he
is not who he appears to be.  The Ninites escape, and are forced by
Excalibur to assist his plans.  Lochair muses on his limited role in what
is to come.  The Blue Lord tells the Black Lord that the lethera injection
was to make the spam into a fifth dimensional representation of a three
dimensional vector, thus giving the Round Robin station a million times
its power, to enable him to take over his permanent host, and retrieves
the Damn Thing and Bless'd Thing from their storage areas.  The shuttle
Menlaus arrives at Round Robin, and Sheen learns of the energy wave
approaching.  Robin opines that the station's shields can survive the
energy wave.  In greyspace, Lt. Grey recovers his memories, and Graisoul is
whole again.  The Ninites steal the Damn Thing, Bless'd Thing, and the
Black Lord's head from the Blue Lord, and reattach the Black Lord's head to
the damaged but still functional MARIO unit.  The Black Lord announces his
intentions to ascend in his own special manner.

#17: "The Eye of Shiva" by Gary W. Olson
(co-presented by Space Research Corporation and Motor Lodge)

Random drifts in greyspace, and sees a vision of a blue circle opening,
with destructive light pouring out.  He is awakened by Dr. Combustion, who
informs him that the wavefront will hit in two hours, and that The Dark
died following the end of his communion with Random.  Combustion send
Random to the bridge, then has ALEXIS scan for the Damn Thing and Bless'd
Thing.  Upon location, Combustion leaves, his body transforming into that
of Kid Nuclear.  Wavelength enters Topside, and finds Ernie, the Blue Serf,
and Adm. Lochair, the Red Serf, waiting.  Random reaches the bridge and
finds that Combustion has been there for the past ten hours.  He realizes
that the entity he talked to in sickbay had to be the Blue Lord, who
possessed Morph.  Sheen leads a task force to track down Morph, who is
chasing the Black Lord, Excalibur, and the Ninites.  The Blue Lord/Morph
forces Sheen's force to fall back, and ALEXIS transports them, against
their will, to Topside, where most everybody else of any importance to the
story has gravitated to.  The Blue Lord arrives, and gives a quick
explanation of the cosmology involved, while the wavefront approaches and
the core explosion grows more imminent.  He takes the Damn Thing and the
Bless'd Thing from Robin and unifies them, slipping the result into the
five-sided pedestal as he is killing Robin.  The wavefront hits, and the
energy from the core erupts, combining to take the station to the 52nd
dimension.  The Lords of the Outer Darkness and the Middle Managers of the
In-Between Greyness arrive to challenge the Blue Lord, but Random realizes
what is happening, and convinces Ernie and the Green Lord to not oppose the
Blue Lord.  They, in turn convince the other Serfs and Lords, in turn
getting the mortals on their side, eventually convincing the Middle
Managers not to attack.  The Blue Lord plucks Genevieve Tombolo out of the
air, not wishing her to remain invisible.  The station enters the
pentagram, which collapses around the station, becoming a Worldsphere
again, which emits blue light that appears to destroy all of time and
space.  The Blue Lord merges with this nothingness, allowing his
consciousness to dissolve.  After this happens, everyone else is able to
see the truth, that by refusing to oppose the Blue Lord, they had stopped
consenting to the reality he had created by manipulating the world of form,
thus denying him the power to bring it about for real.  The Blue Middle
Manager reabsorbed the Blue Lord, and the other Middle Managers do the same
with their Lords and Serfs, becoming the Five Friends once again, and
leaving the seeds in their former serfs, to eventually grow and become this
universe's version of the Five Friends.  They then resume their journey
into the infinite grey, and the station returns to Realspace.

ROUND ROBIN II

#1: "Bridges" by Eric Alfred Burns
(co-presented by Cap'n Spit's Shrimp Emporium)

(to be reposted soon, in revised form)

(end of primer.  please pick up your number two pencils and your blue
books, and answer the essay questions on the board.)
--
Gary W. Olson    swede@shell.sojourn.com    swede@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
                      http://www.sojourn.com/~swede