Mysthillarium - (n.) a rather fun epic about a group of people traveling through the Myst universe or parallel dimensions, solving puzzles, saving people from the evil villains, and somehow showing no sanity as they explore the land and do what they do best.

Rules for Mysthillarium:
* Make sure you read everything carefully before you post, take notes if you have to! Helps continuity...

* If you think you're going to take time over your post, put in a message that says "Posting, Please Wait" to stop others from jumping in front of you! Then all you need to do is go in and "edit" your message with your contribution. This also helps eliminate continuity problems.

* No "Posting, Please Wait" queues (this was a BIG problem in MH4). Two people posting "please wait" messages at about the same time is understandable, but please don't line up 6 deep to post.

* Once you start, please finish! Nothing's more irksome than having the story stick overnight because someone didn't finish their addition.

* Have fun! This is the most important one! 'Cause if it's not fun, there's no point.

* Please try to keep it clean. A little innuendo is acceptable, but let's keep it on the G side of PG, okay?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A message catches your attention:

ATTENTION: COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT TO DISCUSS DEMOLITION OF AGE 233 BAR AND SURROUNDING ENVIRONS TO MAKE WAY FOR NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT. AREA CURRENTLY UNINHABITABLE DUE TO OCCUPATION BY LARGE MASS OF VIRULENT CONFETTI. MISSION: TO FIND LOCATION OF THE COUNCIL MEETING, ATTEND, REGISTER OPPOSITION TO PLAN, AND PROPOSE NEW PLAN, WHICH IS REMOVE OFFENDING CONFETTI AND RESTORE AND REOPEN EXISTING BUSINESSES, SPECIFICALLY THE AGE 233 BAR. CARRY OUT NEW PLAN IF NECESSARY. REPLY TO ACCEPT.

Signed,
Marae, Urdu, and patrons of the Age 233 Bar.

P.S. Guys, we need your help. They're gonna take away our BAR!

Woah, message of distress! Is the world about to end? Is it election related? Did Clinton and Obama finally have that bowling match they declared? Who won I wonder? I mean in the gutterball contest... Or maybe Gore has just declared himself president? Is Nader his VP candidate? Or did McCain just roll his eyes at all of the bickering that is going on and just announcing that he has washed his hands of all of this weirdness coming from the democrats, and decided to just return to Arizona to start raising some multi-colored lettuce crops? But why would he care? Oh this election is just taking forever...
Or maybe it's something that's international... Has Canada decided to finally join the USA as the 51st state? Or would it be Puerto Rico? Or maybe Canada decided to split into multiple pieces, where one part DID join the USA, another part only spoke French, and the last part would continue to think that the British Queen actually does something for their government? Or is that just something I made up just now since I don't know anything about Canadian politics? I think that is the case...
Or maybe Mexico has declared war on the USA due to the extra fencing that we are putting up that is such an eyesore that the local people are going blind as a result of looking at it? Or...

Maybe I should just read the message.

reading message

Wow! Nothing related to the election or international politics! I guess that is a good thing for once...
But local politics... oh boy, that can be a pain.

thinks for a moment

Well, I do like their cookies. Might as well try to help defend things.

clicks reply and beings to type

AS LONG AS I GET TO USE MY MODSTICK AT THE MEETING.
- SPEEDY

sent message

I need to lay off the coffee.

"SUPER SAYIN SONIC!"
"NO! Mario, run!"
CK uses the smash ball to obliterate his competition, thn checks his messages.

"The bar's in trouble! We can't lose another one!"

CK sends his RSVP and starts looking for the linking portal.

Did we lose one before?

"I think we did, Urdu," says Marae, as she looks over the messages just received. "Say, I wonder why they're not clicking on the link?" She looks over at Urdu. "You did include the link, didn't you? When you posted the message?"

"Link?"

Marae sighs. "Do I have to do everything myself?"

"Well, actually, seeing as you posted the message, and not I..."

"And that's exactly what I mean!" she exclaims. "I have to do everything; is it any wonder I forget something?"

"Things," Urdu corrects quietly.

"What 'things'?" Marae sputters. "I forgot the link! That's it!"

"Well, no, actually, it's not."

Marae turns and puts her hands on her hips. "And what else do you think I forgot?"

"The coffee."

A moment later a new message flashes before your eyes; it is slightly different from the first one:

ATTENTION: COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT TO DISCUSS DEMOLITION OF AGE 233 BAR AND SURROUNDING ENVIRONS TO MAKE WAY FOR NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT. AREA CURRENTLY UNINHABITABLE DUE TO OCCUPATION BY LARGE MASS OF VIRULENT CONFETTI. MISSION: TO FIND LOCATION OF THE COUNCIL MEETING, ATTEND, REGISTER OPPOSITION TO PLAN, AND PROPOSE NEW PLAN, WHICH IS REMOVE OFFENDING CONFETTI AND RESTORE AND REOPEN EXISTING BUSINESSES, SPECIFICALLY THE AGE 233 BAR. CARRY OUT NEW PLAN IF NECESSARY. REPLY LINK TO ACCEPT.

Signed,
Marae, Urdu, and patrons of the Age 233 Bar.

P.S. Guys, we need your help. They're gonna take away our BAR!

"Much better," Marae says with satisfaction, as the message is posted.

"So, where does the link go?" asks Urdu, as he gives the hammer a final swing and drives the nail firmly through the sign and into the wall behind it.

"Go? Heck, how should I know? I just put the right color and stuff... um... I dunno. Does it need a book or something?"

"Well," says Urdu, examining the link, "maybe not a book... but isn't it supposed to have a line under it?"

"Well, yeah... but I couldn't figure out how to do that without a ruler..."

"Well, if there's no line under it, how are people supposed to know it's a link?"

"Oh. Um... good point." Marae pulls a red Magic Marker out of her pocket and makes an insertion at a strategic point. "There. That oughta do it, don't you think?"

Urdu frowns. "I don't know. Maybe..."

They both look at the sign with Marae's edits:

ATTENTION: LINK -->COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT TO DISCUSS DEMOLITION OF AGE 233 BAR AND SURROUNDING ENVIRONS TO MAKE WAY FOR NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT. AREA CURRENTLY UNINHABITABLE DUE TO OCCUPATION BY LARGE MASS OF VIRULENT CONFETTI. MISSION: TO FIND LOCATION OF THE COUNCIL MEETING, ATTEND, REGISTER OPPOSITION TO PLAN, AND PROPOSE NEW PLAN, WHICH IS REMOVE OFFENDING CONFETTI AND RESTORE AND REOPEN EXISTING BUSINESSES, SPECIFICALLY THE AGE 233 BAR. CARRY OUT NEW PLAN IF NECESSARY. REPLY LINK TO ACCEPT.

Signed,
Marae, Urdu, and patrons of the Age 233 Bar.

P.S. Guys, we need your help. They're gonna take away our BAR!

"Well, that looks better... I think," says Urdu dubiously.

"Good. Well, I guess we can go home now and wait for folks to arrive."

"Go home? Shouldn't we be waiting for them when they get there?"

"Oh. I suppose so." Marae reaches for the link.

"Wait!" says Urdu.

"What now? I thought you just said we should go ahead and go there."

"Not without the coffee," says Urdu.

Woah! Two messages in one day? The world MUST be falling apart!

reads message

Oh dang, it's the same message, but this time with a link. Shucks... I was beginning to feel well informed about the world just now...

clicks on the link

Ok. No little hand thingy. So... no linky.

"Just a second..."

Urdu goes outside and reads handbill tacked up on nearby telephone pole.

"Oh, I see..."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Urdu,

"So... *sighs* How can I be of help?" Toz asks, shuffling uneasily.

A young man wandered through town, hands in the pockets of his sweats and a bored expression on his face. The wind blew through his short, messy brown hair, making it wave gently. His skin was moderately tanned, and part of a tattoo could be seen peeking out from the right sleeve of his usual T-shirt. As he passed a telephone pole, the rattling of a paper in the wind caught his attention, and he turned his soft grey eyes to it. "Hmm..." he said softly. "Well now, that's not a fair plan at all. I think I'll go give them a hand."
He reached out and tapped the brown text with one finger, and found himself linking through.
As he arrived, he smiled. "Haven't done that before..." he murmured. "Well now, what do we have here?" He looked around, and shrugged. "Well, guess I'll wait for some others to show up," he said, and seated himself at the base of the pole he'd appeared next to.

"...ooopppppppssss"

Marae comes to herself and looks around. She is standing next to a pole, at the base of which sits a young man in a t-shirt. "Excuse me," she says, addressing him tentatively, "but could you tell me where the um... the council meeting is being held?"

The young man shook his head. "I'm afraid I have no more idea than you," he said, smiling. "I just followed the link myself." He extended his hand. "The name's Sora. Kapalo Sora. Nice to meet you, Miss...?" He grinned and tilted his head.

Sora and Marae's discussion is interrupted by two simultaneous links in:

VZZRREEEWWZZEEWWEW
VZZRREEEWWZZEEWWEW

Two nearly indentical figures suddenly appear, looking like men with doggy ears and claws, with long white hair and red kimonos, but one looks like he's been digging around in the dirt for months. A split second later, another 'mog' links in with considerable momentum and bowls the other two over. All three mogs become a spinning furball that comes to rest several yards away from the light pole.

"What the..." Sora trails off, but the three newcomers soon fill the silence with a vengence.

All three point to one another and shout,
"YOU?!"
"YOU?!"
"YOU?!"

"What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?"

All three slump to the ground in an entagled mess and moan,
"Not again..."
"Not again..."
"Not again..."

Toz shakes his head and chuckles.

"At least the MNs from the hotel aren't here. Or Id for that matter."

Sora chuckled. "What hotel might that be?" he muttered, and then turned to the three mogs. "Well, now... one Inuyasha look-alike I could understand, but three?" He laughed. "Well, what are your names?" he asked, holding his hand out. "I'm Sora."

Marae looks around at the conglomeration and mutters something unintelligible. Then she realizes that the nice young man in the t-shirt still has his hand extended, although now in a different direction. Since the three mogs seem to be preoccupied with yelling at each other, she slips around in front of Sora and completes the interrupted handshake.

"Marae," she says, "patron of the Age 233 bar and co-author of the sign you must have linked through. Welcome. Any assistance you can offer will be greatly appreciated, although having a location for the dang meeting would have been helpful..."

Yes, Marae certainly does have a way with words.

"Surely there must be a way to find out?" suggests Sora.

"Well, yeah," says Marae, "I expect there is. I just don't know what the heck it is."

Sora's greeting didn't go unnoticed, but the random assortment of selves needed to sort out who they were before any could answer that ever philisophical question, "Who are you?" Mind you, Sora only asked their names, but that turned out to be all the more complicated as they had none.

"Which one are you?" the more upright mog asked the messy one.

"You tell me who you are, and maybe, I'll return the favor," he growled in reply.

"I know who I am," the reckless mog chimed in, "At least, I think so... I hit that sign pretty hard."

The first mog shook his head and tried to convince his other selves to get along, "Look, this isn't going to work unless we all know who we are. I'll start: I'm the self from the 1000 posts club house, the one and only."

"I'm from the Order of Catmeister!" the last self announced, "Well, I'm the second self from there. What happened to the first, I wonder?"

"From what I heard, he had his soul sucked by a demon and reverted to a child."

"Wow!" the Catmeister mog exclaimed, "That sounds fun. Can I have my soul sucked too?"

The clubhouse self and muttered, "No." They both turned to the second mog. "Well, we introduced ourselves. What about you?"

"Fine," the dirty mog growled, "I started off as the MH 13 self, but then, I became the Age 233 bar self, and let me tell you, if I ever catch whatever cursed moron, whatever loathsome fiend, that caused this mess..." The first mog flinched repeatedly as the second ranted a long string of violent intents.

Marae, Sora, and Toztabud .

"Oh, right," the first mog whispered to his other selves, "We're going to need names. I'm from the 1000 posts club, so I guess I'm 1000 Posts."

The second, dirty mog snorted, "Hmph, guess that makes me Unlucky 13."

The third mog whined, "Ahhh, everyone else gets to be a number. I want to be a number too!"

1000 Posts , and Unlucky 13 hissed, "Just pick a frodding name!"

"Alright, alright... Hmmm... I guess I'll be Cat."

1000 Posts objected, "But you're not a cat, you're half dog."

"But I wanna be Cat! It's the only part of my homethread's name that I like..."

"Fine..." 1000 Posts turned to the other three forumites and announced, "There you have it: I'm 1000 Posts, my filthy, violent friend here is Unlucky 13, and the whiny, reckless mog is Cat. Any questions?"

Marae, Sora, and Toztabud .

When she finishes ing, Marae says, "Yes. Where's the um... frodding council meeting?"

"Frodding"... mmm... I like that word.

Thanks, MN! I have been missing that word over here -- now I can use it! YEAH!

The group hears the linking noise from above accompanied by a shout of "Look out below!" as CK finds the link. A chair, a ruler, and 3 pencils hit the ground as people scramble like eggs.

"Darn, my noodles and fork didn't join me for the ride."

marae turned her head upward to see who had linked through. The familiar sight of black clothing--always with pants hiding a very peculia pocket that seemed to have no end--and red hair being carried lazily by the gentle breeze that started up gave more explanation than a 1000 word descriptive paragraph.

"Do we even want to know why you drag stuff through with you?"

"Probably not, but always keep your eyes out for it. I think you should really just be glad that I lighted down upon this post rather than on top of anyone...That reminds me, is speedy here yet?"

CK gazed about to no avail. The blue stork was no where in sight.

"Ummm....until she arrives, I say remaining on foot would be best...especially for me."

"Dangit! Why is this link not working?"

punches the link and FINALLY links out

links by the pole but in the middle of the air

"What the... FINALLY it works!" cried the stork who just appeared.

"Oh no! We got another!" chimed Toz, who believed that the bird was going to fall too.

"Aha! But I got my wings..." said the stork, and with that she gently glided to the ground, away from people. "Ok, Marae! You're here. You need to work on that link because it took me three touches and punch in order for me to get here! Not very convenient if I am TRYING to come and help you guys out,"

"Oh, sorry..." Marae managed to get off the ground from CK's 'entrance'. "By the way, do you know where the town council meeting is?"

Speedy "I thought you knew,"

"Now how would I know?"

"You organized this meeting!"

"But I assumed that someone who was going to link in was going to know! I'm just the messenger,"

"Ok, so I can't shoot you, huh,"

Marae "I was hoping you wouldn't!"

"Just a joke. Sorry, me a little high on the caffeine right now from a lot of thesis writing and stuff..."

"Oh! That reminds me! Urdu is supposed to be bringing coffee!"

Speedy "Great... just what I needed..." she said dryly.

"Sorry but who are you? I'm Sora,"

"Oh, hello there. I'm Speedyserd, or just Speedy for short... and waitaminute, we have THREE Mystnovices for this adventure?"

"Yep! I'm 1000 Posts!"

"I'm Unlucky 13,"

"And I'm Cat!"

Speedy "Riiight... this is going to be a long adventure,"

"But we still don't know where this meeting is," moaned Toz.

"Check the local newspaper. They always have these meetings listed in there," Speedy commented, "CK, do you have one in those bottomless pant pockets of yours?"

Some people just need their special words, I guess.
On Topic:

"Wait a minute," 1000 Posts speaks up, "You're telling me that all of us linked here without knowing where to go?"

Speedy raises an eyebrow at the mog and says, "Like you're any different."

"Well, I just followed the note the mouse gave me," he protests, "I figured that anyone sending out notices would know what's going on." All eyes turn to Marae.

"No good deed goes unpunished..." she mumbles.

1000 Posts suddenly recalls something, "That mouse said something about a blue bird trying to take its note and linking out. Was that you, Speedy?"

"Maybe..." the mod replies suspiciously.

"Then, how come you got here after us?"

"It was a very poor link. I had to stab and punch it."

"Ah, come on," Marae whines, "I spent a lot of time on it and everything."

1000 Posts recalls, "But when I used it, it worked just fine."

"Watch it!" Speedy threatens, waving her signature stick above her head, "I've got a mod-stick."

Cat whispers to Unlucky 13, "Is it just me, or does she seem a little on edge?"

"And I'm not afraid to use it!"

"I like her already," Unlucky 13 snickers.

"I'll banish you all!!!"

1000 Posts leans in and whispers to Marae, "Maybe we should hold off on that coffee." Suddenly, Speedy gets a head ache and needs to sit down.

"Caffeine overdose," CK observes, "I've seen it before."