The Lost City

"Wraiths deal with toxins a bit different than otters and humans do," Kartiel replied, the smile on his face briefly flickering from malicious to smug. Though a hungover Kartiel would have been a nice dose of karma, Nadira found herself grateful for him being fully sober - it was impossible to predict what he would have done to them if he was still intoxicated.

The god remained in the doorway. "While you were sleeping, I told everyone what you'd be doing. You'll be going through a stargate to a planet of my choice. If things go well, I might let you return home. It depends on how good the data you give me is."

The otter raised a paw up to his temple, using the other one to pull out a scimitar and point it at Kartiel. "Don't get us all killed or I'll give you some great data," he said.

I stood up, and addressed Kartiel properly, arms crossed in the style of a lecturing professor.

"I second Aegeas, there. And data on what, exactly? What is it you want, a survey on the plantlife? A sonnet inspired by the local fauna? An interpretive dance?

So far all you've had us do is run around the city, playing with you, the wraiths, and the body-switching stones, and If I may, I daresay almost none of that was directly your doing.

I take no shame in my failure to decode your plans and goals- for I suspect that there are none."

"Dude I swear if I get thrown somewhere weird I'm going to get a gun and then I'm going to shoot you," Raiden said, getting up off the ground.
"And then I'll shoot myself. Actually, I'll skip you and just shoot myself."
He spoke with a sort of practiced air of calm. As if he had said this many times. He didn't look like he was joking, though.

"I've gotta admit I'm pretty confused on what you mean by 'data' as well, but I have a feeling asking you won't make much a difference," Bo commented offhandedly with a small shrug.

Kartiel gave Aegeas - and his scimitar - a look. "Should that be terrifying?" he asked. "If that threat was supposed to intimidate me, it failed spectacularly. The only reason I was injured by anyone here was because I hadn't anticipated the attack or believed I still had a spare body left. But now I have a very good idea of what you're capable of, and I doubt you'll try killing me. After all, you do want a chance to return home, don't you?"

He turned his attention to Bo. "I actually don't mind explaining what that data I'm looking for is, though I doubt it'll change anything," Kartiel said. "If you remember, you're a test run. I want to see how you react while forming the actual project - I need to make adjustments when necessary, just to keep things entertaining. I'm also trying to determine if this sort of thing works better with people from a variety of universes, or if it'll be more engaging if I take them all from a certain little planet known as Earth."

Bo stared at Kartiel, blinking for a moment before raising his hand as if he was in a classroom. "If we die on accident, do we get to go home?"

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Maybe," Kartiel said, giving a chilling smile. "It depends on how much you can entertain me during this leg of the experiment, and how much data I can collect."

Bo looked back with a warm smile, though he felt mixed feelings. He had a gut feeling that Kartiel's answer was yes, but decided not to press it. So instead, he opted for: "If I sing you a song would that be entertaining, or would you rather me scream or shoot some things? If I pretended like my life was a musical, I'm sure that'd be very entertaining. You wouldn't want to stop watching. I have a very nice voice."

"I can adlib for Bo, too," Raiden said, standing up.
"Also, if you give me enough time I can maybe work up a dnd campaign we can play through, for entertainment."

"I don't do 'entertaining,'" Aegeas said, not lowering his sword. "What are you going to do if you don't get what you want?"

"Keep you here, maybe," Kartiel said, studying the seemingly nonexistent dirt underneath his fingernails as he answered Aegeas's question. The other questions were ignored. Nadira and Codix exchanged worried glances; Maahes looked like he was on the verge of crying as he dug his fingernails into his palms.

"And why do you even care about entertainment in the first place?" Aegeas said, waving his sword around. "You're a moron, and you sure like controlling people, but I don't think even you're a sadist. If you were, you'd be loving this, but right now you won't even look me in the face. You're just a coward."

A frown flickered across his face for the briefest of moments; it was frustrating how easily Aegeas had pegged him. He disagreed with the last opinion - he was anything but a coward - and disagreed with the part about him being a moron, but he was right on how terrible his acting skills were when it came to acting sadistic. He wasn't able to change that now, but it was certainly something to consider working on in the future.

He looked up at Aegeas. "I was avoiding looking at your face because I didn't want to give you the satisfaction of a conversation," he said. "And I care about entertainment because I've been around for a very, very long time. I've been alive nearly 10,000 years. As a god, there's only so much I can do before I start getting bored with my options."

He gestured at the room around him.

"Projects like this are what have captured my interests right now," he said, giving a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I don't think you understand just how entertaining it can be to watch interactions between people, and see how they react to certain things. It's like watching a TV show or a book - only I have control of what happens in the story."

Aegeas grimaced. "We made fun of you, shot you in the legs, and got you drunk," he said. "I'm pretty sure you've had enough excitement."