Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [MG] Jameson in the MAGE GUILD Message-ID: From: kjc@aramis.rutgers.edu (Kelly J. Cooper) Date: 26 Feb 93 01:31:49 GMT Keywords: what a wifty swatch of text! "The structure known as the Mage Guild has four entrances, set to face the four winds and dedicated to the four elements. Do not believe, however, that this gives the building anything resembling internal consistency." -Shirr Nechon, "Generican Architecture: Gift from the Gods or Conspiracy of Demons?" _House_Gothic_, Vol. 319, p.11. "It might be in the basement, I'll go up stairs and check..." -- M.C. Escher Jameson stood in one of the foyers of the Mage Guild carefully reading a brass sign that had been bolted to the wall. On the sign, one could find information relating exactly where in the building different individuals and departments could be found. The only problem was the sign kept changing. Each time it would seem to stabilize, telling her that the Department of Extraplanar Contacts could currently be found in the West wing, she would start off, heading in that direction -- only to catch, out of the corner of her eye, the sign shifting again. This time on sub-level five, that time in Ivory tower number two, then again back to the West wing, now on the second floor. Jameson stared at the sign, willing it to remain stable for more than a few moments, to no avail. Finally, smiling brightly at the malevolent thing, she began to whistle and wandered over to the information desk. Sitting behind the desk was a studious looking young man in robes that might have once been blue. Now they were blast-powder gray, charred black, and chemically stained a sickly green with patches of blue in between. He looked up frowning at the sound of her whistling and glowered at her approach. Setting her bag down beside her, she leaned forward on the counter until her nose was barely an inch away from his. Exactly mimicking his expression, she looked him directly in the eye and growled. The student mage leapt back, startled, and fell off his levitation. Peering over the counter, she asked politely, "Which way to the Department of Extraplanar Contacts, please?" Ruffled, the student stood, brushed at his robes uselessly and straightened the half of a collar left to him. "You'll need a guide." Cocking her head a bit, Jameson replied, "Pity. Got any?" "Any what?" The young man was still a bit off balance. "Guides. What else?" Jameson was very patient. "They're busy right now," the student replied haughtily. Jameson repeated, "Pity," then picked up her bag and walked away from the desk, heading down the Great Hall. The student stared at her for a moment, disbelieving. "Hey. HEY! You can't go that way. HEY! Excuse me, ma'am?" He frittered, torn between his duty to not leaving the desk and his duty to maintaining the rules of the Guild. Jameson waved at him cheerily and disappeared down a side hall. He stood, mouth agape for a full five seconds before bolting after her. By the time he reached where he'd last seen her, she was gone. Cursing himself he wondered unhappily if he should mention it to anyone that a strange woman was wandering around the Guild. Frowning, he realized he'd have to tell security. Returning to the desk, he touched the link ... -*- -*- -*- "Sec-Cent," security mage Dieter said, answering the beeping link-set. "Can you hold a second? ... thanks." He turned back to the other opened channel. "Sorry, honey, business. Have to go. Okay. Okay. I won't forget. Two loaves of bread. I will. Okay. Love and kisses. Bye." "Right. What's your problem, Reception Four?" "Uh huh. An intruder? Send me the scan-desc." "Okay. Got it. Hey -- what's she doing with Archmage Nescie's sigil?" "...with Archmage Nescie." "...with Archmage Dasham!?" "...and she asked for a guide. Look, I don't know what they're teaching you guys these days, but do try to show them a little more consideration and these things wouldn't happen quite so often, you know." "All right, all right, I'll get right on it. Sec-Cent out." "Hey, Rusken! Lost sheep, last sighted near Reception Four, possibly headed towards Extraplanar. Tell Nijorik I'm checking it out." Security mage Dieter picked up the portable linkset from his desk and clipped it to his collar, then checked the charge on his wand, just in case. Satisfied, he headed into the transfer-portal, said "Reception Four", and disappeared in a glaze of orange light. -*- -*- -*- Jameson was standing on a wall. At least, when she started down this particular hall, it had been a wall and she'd been walking along on the floor. Then everything twisted slightly and now she was on a wall, examining an air duct very closely. No doubt security would be trying to get a fix on her even as she crouched here, defying gravity. The thought amused her greatly. She'd probably get in trouble and Nescie would have to bail her out. Grinning fiercely, she abandoned the duct and went galloping along the ceiling. Abruptly she found herself in an intersection. Not just any intersection, but a reasonably major intersection of several levels and stairways. And dimensions. And directions. Smiling, she decided she liked this place and sat down on the wall to think. Perhaps finding a given thing was only a matter of concentration. She began to think very hard about finding the Department of Extraplanar Contacts and a glowing blue line appeared on one of the stairways above her. She smiled again, charmed. Then she had another idea ... what if she concentrated on wanting to go everywhere ... -*- -*- -*- After listening to the Reception student's report, Dieter set off down the Great Hall and turned left. As he walked, his sense-spells told him that the blue guide line had been activated. Mentally he complimented the little lost lamb and changed direction, heading for the Department of Extraplanar Contacts. Abruptly the entire hallway lit up, every imaginable guide line glowing as brightly as possible on the floor, on the walls, on the ceiling. Dieter stumbled and stood still, dumbfounded. There were guide lines even he didn't know existed, all shining quite brightly, except for one black line that seemed to be an intense non-glow. He stood, staring, while silent alarm spells jangled at his nerves. -*- -*- -*- Jameson kept her mind completely scattered, her concentration everywhere, and her feet following the blue line. Eventually she ended up outside a plain wood door with a dusty brass doorknob. Taking a deep breath, she knocked loudly. There was silence, then a voice said, "Come in!" Jameson grasped the knob, turned it, and pushed. The door swung inwards to reveal a perfectly circular room. The walls of the room were lined with empty picture frames of all sizes, like an overpopulated portrait gallery that had been cleaned out by a neurotically efficient gang of art thieves. The floor, oddly enough, was covered with something that reminded Jameson of ceramic bathroom tiles. A man with wispy grey hair, perhaps in his late 60's, was seated on an invisible couch in the center of the room, a crystal hemisphere a foot in diameter hovering before him. He pushed the floating object out of his way and narrowed his eyes when he saw her. "Is this the Department of Extraplanar Contacts?" Jameson asked, slipping into the room as the door closed behind her. "Yes. This is Archmage Fauteuil's personal office and I am Archmage Fauteuil. If you don't mind my asking, who are you, how did you get here, and what do you want?" Jameson bowed deeply. "I am honored to introduce myself as Jameson W. Walker, representative of the Onari here on Nexus. I arrived on Nexus through a World Door located ..." "Excuse me, I meant how did you arrive at my door?" Fauteuil looked faintly displeased. Jameson smiled brightly at him, "I followed the blue guide line." "I see." Fauteuil said, moving his hand as if to perform a magical gesture aimed vaguely in Jameson's direction. Then he squinted at her and stopped himself halfway through, apparently thinking better of it. "Please continue." Jameson inclined her head. "The Onari would like to extend their formal thank you for any cooperation you might be able to give me toward further mapping this portion of the universe, and in exchange, I am willing to make available to you my own maps and information. I am interested in ..." "Yes, I see." For some reason, Fauteuil appeared relieved. "I'm afraid that you've come to the wrong place. We cannot help you. This is the Department of Extraplanar Contacts. We do maintain working records of other dimensions and our involvement with them, but we do not keep a comprehensive listing of the World Doors, and we do not accept reports or surveys from freelancers because we have no way to guarantee that their work meets our standards. You want to talk to somebody at the Generican library across the street, or someone at the World Gate." "Sir ..." Jameson began. At that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Come in," Fauteuil said again. The door opened part way. Security mage Dieter stuck his head around it, and smiled nervously. "I'm so sorry to bother you, Archmage, but I am looking for--" He saw Jameson standing in the middle of the room. "For her, I believe. Sir." "No bother at all," Fauteuil said. "In fact, you are just in time to show the young lady out. If you will follow the Security Mage, Ms. Walker, you should have no difficulties." "Thank you, sir," Dieter said. "Ms. Walker?" "Just Jameson." she said softly. Turning back to Fauteuil, she entreated once more, "Sir ..." "Good *day*, Ms. Walker." Fauteuil looked back to his crystal, effectively ignoring her presence in obvious dismissal. Dieter stepped into the room to take Jameson's elbow and firmly moved her out of Fauteuil's office. He closed the door quietly behind him. "Now, Ms. Walker ..." Dieter began. "Jameson," she interrupted pleasantly. "Ok. Jameson. I have a few questions. First, would you mind telling me what exactly you thought you were doing, wandering around, bothering busy ArchMagi?" "Mr. Security Mage..." Jameson began. "Dieter," he interrupted with an amused smile, and started them walking. She acknowledged her come-uppance with a nod and brief grin. "Dieter. I am a representative on this planet of a race that has traveled and mapped thousands of galaxies. They ... we ... are well respected on hundreds of planets and our work is the basis for experimentation and exploration in many cultures. And while I realize that that is there and here is here, and it's neither here nor there to ask, do you suppose perhaps there is anyone in this silly place who might actually talk to me? Here?" Dieter paused in a doorway to look down her. She looked experienced, mature and slightly goofy all at once. He had no reason to trust or distrust her outside of the fact that she was avoiding his question. Frowning deeply, he said, "I'll answer your questions if you'll answer mine. AFTER you've answered mine." Jameson scratched the back of her neck and squinted up at him. "Ok." Dieter paused for a moment, then asked, "How did you turn on ALL the guide lines?" Jameson grinned. "Like this..." she let her eyes unfocus and once again the hallways of the Guild were illuminated by all the lines and alarm spells began ringing in the security mage's head. Dieter sighed. -*- -*- -*- Looking at Jameson in disbelief, Dieter spluttered, "What you are telling me, here ... is ... that you're ... insane?!?!" Jameson shook her head and shifted in the office chair Dieter had sat her in. "No, no. I can separate myself from this reality a bit more easily than most. There are a lot of layers of what is real and what is perceived and what is archetypical. The first is collective, the second individual and the third is sort of like a truth/perception/absolute vodka cocktail." Dieter just stared. "Look, can you accept that by not being able to accept it, you aren't at the same level of perception?" Dieter frowned deeply at her. Then his face cleared abruptly and he nodded, almost disbelieving himself. "I think I understood that. Ok. I think I've got everything. Now, as for whom you should talk to, that's a bit more difficult. In the Great Library you may be able to find the records you seek, although I don't know of anyone who could, what was it? 'Upload' your data. The best person to talk to would be ..sage. He's the Archmage Librarian. Otherwise, there is the Gateway to the Worlds, who would probably have information more like what you carry, in terms of star coordinates and brief cultural sketches. It's operated by a Golden Elf named Traveller. And there's always the Generican Guild of Cartographers. You may be out of their league ... then again, perhaps not. Grumbli Blisterthum runs their shop, and you'll want to talk to him. Don't be put off by his manner, he does know his stuff. Any other questions?" "Well, yes. About time flows and power and influence and politics and magic and Greater Beings and fate and Fate and truth and beauty and beauty and truth and architectural anomalies and bindings and relationships and like versus love and lots of other stuff but I'm not actually going ask you any of those, I just want to know what you think of ArchMage Dasham." Jameson finished somewhat breathlessly and watched Dieter with a small smile. The security mage's parsing ability was about five steps behind Jameson's but she could tell when he reached her final question. His eyes darkened and the muscles around his mouth tightened and jumped. He said, softly and very carefully, "I have the utmost respect for ArchMage Dasham's ability to perform her office." Jameson nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, you would, wouldn't you. Thank you very much Dieter. You've been more helpful than almost anyone else in this town." She stood up and smiled at him, then went to the door. Turning back, she looked at him curiously, "Aren't you going to escort me out? Make sure I leave? Keep me safe from myself?" Dieter blinked at her and stood slowly, "Good idea. Can't have you digging up any more ArchMagi and pissing them off." He preceded her out the door and they left the security offices. The front lobby was much larger and more ornate than the one into which she and Nescie had 'ported. An unhappy looking man at the information desk stared at her through psychedelic glasses. Dieter held the front door open for her and said, as she left, "Next time, tell ArchMage Nescie he really should register his guests, so you don't have to suffer similar difficulties again. Ok?" Jameson smiled and nodded. "Good. Take care. Don't be afraid to come back if you need help..." He smiled slightly and walked away, still looking distracted. Jameson shoved her hands deeply into her pockets and headed across the street to the Great Library. She stopped just outside and looked up, feeling sure that she recognized this architecture as well, though for the life of her, she couldn't remember from where. She walked in to face another unhappy looking person at the front desk. Leaning absently from one foot to the other while the information librarian looked up ...sage's whereabouts she realized she always forgot that Bureaucracy was an Archetype. "I'm sorry, ...sage is unavailable. You may leave him a message." The librarian droned. "May I make an appointment?" Jameson smiled. "You may leave him a message." "Any idea when he'd get it?" "You may leave him a message." "I see. So, basically, I can leave him a message?" "You may." "Gosh, thanks. Paper?" Jameson waited until the librarian had rummaged in the desk, found a scrap of parchment and handed it over before asking for a pen as well. Having procured both, she scribbled a quick note in Generican: [ ...sage I would like to organize an exchange of information. Please contact me at the Dragon's Inn. Thank you. Jameson W. Walker ] She debated adding a line about being an Onari Field Representative, then defaulted and printed her name. She blotted and folded the worn scrap and handed it back to the librarian, along with the pen. Settling her pack, she left the library to head back to the Inn and wait for Nescie. They still had an appointment for dinner, after all. [admin: ...sage! This is a note!] Comments, compliments, and complaints can be conveyed to: Bernie Hsiung (bshsiung@eecs.umich.edu) and --------------------------------------------------------------------- Kelly J. Cooper \ Jameson W. Walker Tragically Hip Waif \ Comments appreciated. ...individual at large... \ kjc@cs.rutgers.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------