Friday, February 16, 2007

I never expected that!

I thought papa’s poker chip, the chip that put him in the mayor’s seat (if his journal has the straight story) would give Scott enough luck to advance in the tournament. Instead, it put him in no fit state to compete!

Like I said before, I snatched the chip from its hiding place in the Lucky Jack room. I didn’t want to get too close to Scott, he still gives me the stink-eye whenever he sees me and won’t talk to me. I’ve always been good at getting a flipped coin to go right where I aim it. I flicked it right at his back pocket but as it sailed through the air the chip turned all sorts of funny colors. It went right where I sent it, but it seemed to hit poor Scott something fierce. It’s like he got lassoed onto a bucking bronco of time!

He was coming out of the toilet, you see, and now he walks two steps out of the bathroom and then seems to “rewind” back into that room. There’s a pause and then he opens the door and does it again. It’s always the same, right down to the toilet paper stuck to the bottom of his shoe! Luckily the sawbones lives nearby. I was able to persuade him to let me borrow a privacy curtain and fixed it up in front of the bathroom with an “out of order” sign. At first I thought that would be enough, but doubt settled in… What if Robert Baron himself peeked behind that curtain? I’m not proud of this, but I spied a firehose one floor down, and I turned it on. No one noticed what was happening until the water started to spill in the playing area. I quite flooded the bottom floor, and now they have to postpone the game for a few days until they dry the place out. Everyone evacuated so I don’t think anyone will be exploring up there… but that doesn’t save Scott!
I don’t have anyone to turn to so I tried to grab the coin out of Scott’s pocket. I couldn’t do it! I felt like I was pressing against glass, and I saw something. It was all hazy, like I was watching a half-tuned television station, and I saw a man’s hand holding up all five fingers spread wide and then I heard the same voice that spoke to me when I tried to pull the chip out of its hiding place!

“I am confused. Create order from chaos!” It told me. I think I need to show it something, but I’m not sure what! Can someone tell me, or better yet, give me something to show it?

28 comments:

Tesseract said...

hey y'all cry for help and we're here!

My only thought so far is it's the name of a hand of cards, but can't find y'all any that seem to fit...

RedHatty said...

Mabel - try showing it this http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/_/_h/_helena/228176_royal_flush.jpg

Also, I think the chip rewinds time with each flip! so maybe your boy there just needs to make it through the cycles of the flips it had when flying into his pocket

Tesseract said...

There is a card trick called Order out of chaos, if you know it...

otherwise you might have to be practicing your magic skills...

RedHatty said...

there's a video of the card trick here

http://www.pedagonet.com/videos/island.htm

Unknown said...

May be he is just stuck and may need a little nudge to get him going again. Like if a record is stuck you can just smack(create chaos) the record player to get the record playing again (order).

ShadyLady said...

Mabel, try showing it a full house like the one your Daddy had when he beat McCall.

Mabel said...

Thank you, Tesseract and Red Hatty, that did the trick. I got that vision in my head once again, and now it’s a hand showing four fingers, and the voice spoke again. “My world spins out of control. You did it. You spun me! The fates are unbound, and I cannot see. Stop the spinning!”

Tesseract said...

Hmmm could this be slot machines? It's a move away from cards, but seems to fit..

mshelton said...

Or how about a roulette wheel or maybe just the ball in the roulette wheel.

Heather said...

Hey Mabel! Do you have a deck of tarot cards? Maybe the chip wants to see the Wheel of Fortune card? There's a picture of one here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Major_10.jpg

Mabel said...

Thank you, heather. That’s using your head. I had a heap of trouble finding a tarot deck, though! And there were some rough looking fellows sneaking around the boat tournament hall. I suspect they were running errands for Mr. Baron but I don’t know what they were doing there. I don’t think they saw me sneak up to where Scott is, either. Whew!

Two down. Scott’s still moving in and out of that bathroom, but he’s moving slowly now. Whenever I get close to him I see a hand holding up three fingers, and the voice says “I can feel. Scott. He walks a tightrope and someone seeks to push him off. Right him and his cards. Re-establish balance!

ShadyLady said...

Hi Mabel,
I found a card game called relationship tightrope which has relationship or 'balance cards'. I don't know if you have such a game in Parare but if you do you could show it one of the balance cards - perhaps the 0 card.

akhirnya said...

There is also a "Restore Balance" card in the Magic: The Gathering card game, in the Time Spiral series. It looks like this:
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/search_result_card.asp?id=14338

Doesn't look expensive and the series came out last year, so might be easy to find and worth a try!

-Karija

Heather said...

Mabel, I don't know if it wants another tarot card, but maybe try the Two of Pentacles? That's a balance card and in some decks it shows a man walking a tightrope.

Mabel said...

Boy howdy, y’all know about a lot of things I’ve never set my eyes on before. Magic cards! I don’t think any self-respecting magicians would be doing tricks with those! I had a heck of a time tracking down some, too. There isn’t much call for that sort of thing around here, what with the constant poker playing and all. I managed to get Joe, who runs the poker supply depot, up on this very fine President’s day and I poked through his stock. It turns out he had bought some on a whim. I went through a few boxes of the things, and I found the card you told me to use.

( What strange names those cards have, let alone all the odd instructions and symbols. I saw one called a “Black Lotus.” Who would want a lotus flower that had been colored black, I ask you.)

And now there's two fingers, and Scott is moving slower still. The voice is talkin’ liiiiikkkkeee thiiiisss and I think it’s sayin “What time is it? What day, what hour? Mark the time for me. There are too many threads of fate to follow.”

RedHatty said...

Mabel, maybe something as simple as a time card (you know the ones you punch at a job) would work here

RedHatty said...

Mabel, I also found these:

http://www.randomdice.com/games/talisman/trolls/cards/Troll_Treasure_04_CLOCK_OF_FUTURE.jpg

http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/images/Cards/3768.jpg

Mabel said...

A punch card! I knew just the thing. Papa is pretty wealthy on account of his card playing, and being the mayor (though Parare is not what the papers would call a metropolis) but he’s always wanted me to hold down a job here to make sure I knew the people, and I’m fine with that. I like working all over the place, and I’ve put in some time at most of the local businesses. I’ve got time cards to spare, so I took one up to Scott.

Down to one finger now, and I think Scott is almost back to normal! I still can’t grab the chip, but the voice is a whisper now. It says “Where is my home? Where am I? My path started with a dead man’s hand. Where did I end it? Put it in a house. Help me find my house.” What could I possibly show it for that?

Tesseract said...

Hey

I'm a guessin that the hand yer looking fer is the 2 black aces, the 2 black 8s and the King of Spades

Tesseract said...

...or it could be he mean house as in suit, in which case it's Spades yer after...

akhirnya said...

Mabel,

Might try building an actual house of a deck of cards! Here is a link that explains how to do it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_cards

Chris Wetzel said...

If a dead man's hand is aces and eights, then adding one of those would make it a full house? How about another ace?

Mabel said...

A house of cards. I'm beginning to feel like a house of cards, and I'm
starting to lean... I'd love to build a house of cards in front of Scott but
I'm afraid he'd knock it down, and while I'm good at flipping a coin I'm not
good at building houses of cards. Could someone get me a picture?

Abyss said...

Here's a pic for you.

http://www.edventure.org/images/pic_house-cards.jpg

Nicko D. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicko D. said...

There you go Mabel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dead_man%27s_hand.jpg

Mabel said...

What is this voice I am hearing when I approach Scott? It sounds tired now, and almost sad. I tried to show it both of your suggestions, to the dead man’s hand turned into a full house it said, “The house is empty, not full. The house holds the dead man. And to the house of cards, it asked, “Where is the dead man?” Do I… do I need to put the dead man in a house somehow?

akhirnya said...

Mabel, try putting the dead man's hand into the house. Just lay it on one of the platforms in your house of cards.