Night 65: Test of Strength

[vstheworld]

[From here]

It wasn't a California beach.

Instead, they were greeted with a very long, straight hallway, no adornments or interesting colours. Just kind of plain and boring, if a little dimly lit. Honestly kind of a letdown, though Scott. Granted, it wasn't a lava pit, which was a plus, but after things like robot laser dinosaurs and talking skeletons and having to jump off cliffs to nowhere, a hallway seemed kind of unimaginative by comparison.

The one thing of interest was an object on the ground in front of them: a small-ish, heart-shaped... thing, probably made of stone or plaster, and painted a dull red colour.

"Aww, we love you too, Landel. You shouldn't have," Scott remarked, walking up to the object and peering down at it. Was this what it was like to find a Piece of Heart? If so, it was a decidedly underwhelming experience. Too bad there wasn't a Link wasn't on hand to ask.

Comments

[dualistic]

The jump into the water wasn't any easier this time than it had been the first, and Harvey hadn't been able to warn Scott about just how ice-cold the water was. Enough that you felt numb by the time you pulled yourself out, but not quite cold enough to kill you unless you lingered. Just how Landel liked it, apparently. Still, Scott managed to complain enough for the both of them, so it all evened out.

Keeping the bandages on helped slightly, but Harvey was still in a world of hurt -- and shivering besides -- as he moved through the next door into another chamber. Or rather, another hallway.

He took a moment to look at his journal, but the pages were almost all soaked, except for a few in the middle. He cracked it open and grabbed for his pen, but a quick test showed that the ink was running badly. He let out a breath that should have been a sigh, but had no tone to it.

Dripping wet, he gave his body a few shakes as he tried to dry off and then moved over to where Scott was standing. The kid's comment wasn't much help, though. What were they supposed to do with this thing?

[toxicspiderman]

"More evidence Landel's really a frustrated knick-knack shop owner?" Neither Scott nor Harvey had made a move to pick it up. At this rate, they were going to stare at it all night. S.T. ripped a chunk of duct tape off the squelching mess at the end of his pipe, and used it like an extra-durable Kleenex. "Think we're supposed to smash it? Or are we starting a charm bracelet."

Even as he said smash it, his grip tightened. "Don't chew on it, it's made of lead." Or uranium. Heavier than it looked, but probably lead. Banning it in paint and gasoline had helped, but you couldn't stop kids from eating dirt. "Keep an eye out for yellow moons and orange stars."

[vstheworld]

Scott watched Harvey opening his waterlogged journal and dripping ink all over it and nodded in affirmative. "Boy you said it, man. Being wet does suck all the balls in the world," he answered back to the presumed complaint.

As for S.T.'s observations, Scott reached out for the object when it was pointed out that the thing was made of lead. "Really? How can you tell?" he asked, suddenly realizing he was slightly disappointed that they couldn't chew it. Whatever was going to happen in this hallway tonight, Scott was pretty sure he would much rather have had a box of Lucky Charms be their challenge instead.

[dualistic]

In a way, it was nice to have someone respond to him as if he'd actually said all the things that he'd been thinking. At least it made Harvey feel like he wasn't just here as a third body, but was actually contributing to all of this somehow. He tucked his journal under his arm and let out another silent sigh when he realized that without the ability to talk, Scott and Sangamon were left to make all the pointless smartass comments that they wanted.

Were they honestly talking about chewing some big heart made of metal? He rolled the one eye that was showing and then started to walk past the pair. They were going to have to make it to the end of this hall somehow, and he wanted to figure out what the catch was already.

[toxicspiderman]

S.T. rolled his eyes. The jump had been his second time in the water, and it wasn't his fault Harvey hadn't heard of Ziploc baggies. Lake Wannabe-Lethe had managed to eat his flashlight, but the rest of his stuff had survived.

Meanwhile, Harvey had headed down the hall. He couldn't yell, but he could figure out how to make noise if something reached up from the floor and went for a flash-fried lawyer kebab. So S.T. did the mature thing and ignored him.

"It's heavy." Not the most rigorous of scientific examinations. "Pick a heavy metal. Lead's like, the least toxic option." Except for iron, but Landel tended towards vicious over ironic. "Here, catch," he said, tossing it to Scott. His hands felt lighter as soon as it left his fingers.