Lets have some fun

[Spanish eyes]

Dont scold Sooni. I do know this is the wrong place but there is so little game stuff that surely it wont hurt this once!!!!

It was having a conversation with the foxy lady which set me off. We used to have fun even in the worse times and now we dont. The big first question is:-
Can we again?
this leads on to the how?
I know I retire LUSE and I still think it had its day but where to go for inspiration.

This is my suggestion make of it what you will.
We (me and some others) would like to know what happened to Maddy, her Dad and the rest of her extended family.
So why dont we tell each other?
Not just a normal story but throw in a few literary (or not so literary) quotes and make the extended family as disfunctional as possible. Oh! and it has to carry on from the cliff hanger before it. So we are writing a chapter (paragraph) each of a long running soap.
If anyone wishes to read our first stories in the original LUSE I have just bumped it. I gave it a re-read and I think we all did exceptional work but lets see if we can do better this time.
I am starting the story in post two then when you see the 'to be continued' it is over to the next person.

[Spanish eyes]

Justin was back from his holiday seeing -------- (his wonder woman) and was searching the island looking for Maddy eager to tell her the details (the clean bits of course). He heard sobbing from behind their favourite viewpoint, on investigation there was Maddy, a big heap of shredded tissues by her side. Justin rushed up and gave her a cousinly hug and gently enquired what the matter was. She explained that she had been sitting enjoying the beautiful sunset when across the waves she had heard what sounded like an echo of a thin person singing. 'At least she didnt sound fat' was Justins first thought. As he comforted her the rest of the story came out. Left on her own Maddy had started thinking about the wonderful years the two of them had experienced investigating the secret passages and how that had led to her reunion with her beloved father but then she had made that one mistake, the one slip that had led to his re-disappearance. Would she find him before the plug was pulled, would it be joy or 'tears before bedtime', would Jeff arrive in time to help........to be continued

[Matilda]

Justin, one more up for 'a good time' than hardwork, tried desperately to think of an out. Could he possibly convince Maddie that they had done as much as they could, even the overlords of these secret passages were trying to close them. One look at his beloved cousin and Justin knew..he had to help her, powers that be, be damned. "Maddie", Justin proclaimed, "its time to rally the troops, well, our dysfunctional family. Formulate a plan and lets go find your father"...

[salmo23]

MADDIE cocked her head, trying to formulate a plan...but nothing was coming to her. She wondered why her father had disappeared in the first place. She remembered sitting with him in the Oxford Library that day so long ago, telling him about all her "adventures", showing him her latest Selfies... then calling 911 after he dozed off and nearly drowned in his bowl of porridge. Come to think of it, with this latest disappearance, she did notice his eyes glazing over as she went on and on about her escapades through the Secret Passages. He started snoring when she told him about skinny dipping in the Roman Baths. She thought, "Could Daddy be running away from...(cue soap opera organ music)...ME??!"

Maddie realized that if she was going to find her father again she might have to resort to some unconventional methods, since he was obviously trying to avoid her. She thought about dabbling in the dark arts a bit. She had heard of this thing called "shape shifting" where humans can transform into other forms. But what if she got trapped in her shifted shape and couldn't remember how to get back...she was a birdbrain, after all. And she had SP cheerleading tryouts this week...doubtful she would get many votes with a shifted shape.

to be continued...

[Cyber gamer]

After musing a bit on how she would look as a shape shifted dog, Maddie brought herself back to reality and once again concentrated on how to find Daddy. She had heard a rumor that there was another strange place that had never been explored that was under lock and key in the city of San Francisco. It was here that she thought she would find out who was controlling her father and keeping him on the run. Maybe if she and Justin paid a visit they could get a clue for why he disappeared off the radar.

to be continued... (maybe)

[JT18517]

Maddie and Justin had wondered if the rumors were true about this San Francisco...Did it really exist? Could they find it? Who could help with such a quest? What would such a City look like? And most of all would it hold the Secret Passage that would take them to the answers they needed.

To be continued...

[Primitive Caveman]

Maddie decided the time was right to sally forth and find the truth of what the city was like. She spied a massive gateway she imagined to be the portal to the city and got excited. It was ajar and emitting a bright light and in front of it were golden goblets, jewel encrusted blocks, fancy urns and leaves. "That must be the way," she hollered to Justin, "grab the map and let's take a silly walk for the next three years."

Justin gripped the map, stretched it out and marched forward. "Maddie," he called, "I don't mean to sound rude, but there's a blinding light in front of us and you're holding up a lantern. That's a little illogical isn't it!"

Maddie was about to turn and give Justin a deathly glare, when suddenly, she felt her strangely curled fingers and massive palm begin to freeze. "Justin, I'm being petrified!" she tried to scream. "Now I know how the ancient Greeks felt on beholding Medusa!" But no words came out, as her face froze, staring, gaping at the light ahead. Her ability to move had gone and she was unable to turn to see that Justin too was motionless, his outstretched arms grasping the map, his eyes fixed intently forward, thick furrowed eyebrows forever demonstrating his keen sense of purpose and dedication to uncover the mysteries before them.

As they stood rigid in their calcified state, they saw words appearing from out of the golden chalices. "Passing Secrets" the text read, and a bluish beam started to emerge from the words towards her.

"Surely this will be over in a few seconds," she thought, as it slowly approached her leg. But it just jutted forward at a snail's pace, like a faulty lightsaber that even the weakest Jedi would have been ashamed to carry. For no less than two minutes, or maybe longer, she suffered, unable to shout out in pain, as the beam slowly entered her left leg and passed on through to her right one. "I'm an explorer, get me out of here," she mused, hopelessly.

Justin noticed the words "Pocket Gems" below the beam and thought, "They're to blame for this, but surely they'll change our position sometime over the next few years."

His thoughts rang out forlornly into the eternal beyond, before a bright white glow enveloped the entire scene.....

To be continued...

[salmo23]

As the white glow slowly dissipated, Maddie and Justin suddenly found themselves in what appeared to be a maze of corporate offices. One of the office suites was equipped with ping pong tables as far as the eye could see and had the sign "Abandon All Work Ye Who Enter Here" hanging above the entryway. Maddie and Justin took that as a joke of course, because everyone there seemed to be working their tails off trying to keep things up and running. One of the execs was wearing a baseball cap with a big "W" on it. He challenged Maddie to a game of ping pong, while a couple of ladies showed Justin around the headquarters.

Justin needed to get to the truth. He sensed that he and Maddie were somehow connected to this strange company. But as it is with almost everything, there are inner and outer layers of truth. Sometimes, in order to get to the good stuff, one must break away from the herd and explore beyond the surface reality. So he ditched his lovely tour guides and slipped away on his own to perhaps find the secret workings of the company. Rumor had it that Shadow Programmers really ran the show. If he could find these people, maybe he could make them understand the situation and they might program something wonderful for Maddie and her father in the future.

As luck would have it, he found a slot machine in the cafeteria and hit the Jackpot on the first spin which triggered the opening of a trap door, hurling him several hundred feet below into what appeared to be the Cave of the Master Programmer.

to be continued...

[Spanish eyes]

The master PTP was sitting, like a spider in the middle of a web. In this case it was a web of PC's all linked to the central one by several miles of colour coded cables. The master, who is wearing a cap that proclaims him as HC, chortles as Justin falls in. 'Now I have you, you spineless woozy' he breaths, in a very asthmatic sort of voice. He walks to a wall and presses the biggest of red buttons which has the words 'dont press' embossed on it in thick black gothic print. 'Come play with our non-hero my little friends' he cries and out of every crevice and cranny ooze the sub-hero's, the Lola, the grandmother of Maddy, the Jeff, the genie, the little boy, all of the characters from myth and legend who are now lost because of cutbacks. The only two missing were trader and tinker being thought too important to be sub-hero's. Get him yelled HC, jumping up and down in manic glee, without him she is hamstrung...
to be continued...............

[salmo23]

Uh oh...everything hit the fan when the Master Programmer pushed that Red Button. As this intricately wired subterranean crypt came crashing down on him, Justin was able to grab a Secret File and a Gold Key at the last minute before he started running for his life! He had no idea what the Key opened...the Executive Bathroom perhaps? "Let's hope so", he thought... he realllllly needed to take a quick leak. He already took a quick peek...into the"eyes only" file, spying a section which read "LEGENDS OF THE GAME"...those names, written in gold. Grave Digger, Pietrpahn, Kate, Elle, SE...the list went on. If he could escape, he and Maddie might be able to use the information in this strange file to somehow make sense of the past few years. Maddie was still upstairs, playing ping pong with the PG support staff. She had probably discovered some new information that would point them in the right direction.

to be continued...

[Cyber gamer]

Justin finally reached the end of the subterranean lair pushed open a heavy door and emerged strangely enough on Alcatraz Island. He slammed the door shut behind him just in time to keep all the sub-heroes from escaping and used the gold key to lock them back inside. Whew he thought, that was a narrow escape. There is no way I want to have to deal with all those people and critters again. He spied a small boat at the dock and got onboard. As the boat captain turned around Justin realized it was Sir Keon from SP. Before he could ask Sir Keon explained that he realized SP was coming to an end and he needed another job so he bribed his way out of the lair and became a tour boat operator. Justin asked him if he happened to have seen Maddie's father on any of the trips to and from the island and Sir Keon replied that he did recall one older man who looked to be well traveled he picked up who asked for directions to PG headquarters. Justin still clutching the secret file thought, "Here I go again, I just have to remember not to play the slot machines this time." Meanwhile Maddie was thinking "Boy, Justin has been gone a long time. My arm is getting tired from all this ping pong playing. I hope he has found out something useful."

to be continued...

[Cyber gamer]

After getting off Sir Keon's boat at Fisherman's Wharf, Justin proceeded to catch the next cable car back to PG headquarters. Just as he was about to enter the door again, out rushed a swarm of rats and mice followed closely by Maddie. She screamed that the place had become overrun with cats (see Random Thread starting with entry #1974) and that any people left in the building were not talking anyway so they were on their own once again to figure out what happened to her father.

So Maddie and Justin re-entered the Secret Passages and thought they might try a methodical search of each of the 89 (and counting) Epoch Grove "dunes" to see if they could find any clues to his whereabouts.

to be continued...

[Matilda]

As Maddie and Justin tried to enter the first dune, they realized it was still locked. It looks like they have been forced to search the Mummies' tomb for rubies, or perhaps spend sometime in the casino...last time that was so much fun

[salmo23]

Alternate Ending

SE stood alone in the middle of the skeletal remains of what was once the thriving corporate machine that powered the legendary Secret Passages game. It was surreal. Everything was gone...all the computers, the furniture, the plants, the art...the ping pong tables. The only thing left behind was a crumpled piece of paper on the top of a small metal desk which had been shoved into a corner. She had an eerie feeling about what might be on that paper,so she waited a bit before reading it, deciding instead to take a few moments to reflect on the past four years. She was a true Seeker. She was there at the very beginning and she was still standing, even though now it all seemed to be crashing down.

She had made the long journey there for what was probably her final "on it." Looking back, she had some successes and a few flops. Some of her pleas and negotiations with the powers that be fell on deaf ears, but at times, it was simply a matter of batting her long dark eyelashes to get results. "Ray darling" was probably her favorite...though, she did love all her PG mannies. She loved the seekers she met along the way as well, those wonderful forumers. Like most things, her Secret Passages experience was often good, often bad, and once or twice, a little ugly. But she wouldn't change anything...she was a firm believer in the Bootstrap theory...'everything is connected to everything else, every which way in time.' Change one thing, and that might change something you didn't want to change. Enough reflecting though, it was time to see what was on that crumpled piece of paper.

There were two lines, each rather cryptic..."MT. Hamilton" and "23 skidoo." Both rang a bell...she remembered Pietrpahn had mentioned Mount Hamilton, a location which is just outside the Bay area. And the 23 skidoo was a popular phrase from decades past. On the surface, 23 skidoo simply meant "GET OUT FAST!" But there were deeper meanings to consider. SE was very attuned to the Esoteric...she came from a long line of European witches. And Secret Passages was never "just a game" to her.

She found a bottle of wine in the desk and looked about for something to pour it in, but found nothing...so she slugged it from the bottle. The wine seemed to clear her head. She knew it was over. She caressed the Sheriff badge that had been so much a part of her persona for the last few years. She was never without her badge, she would even pin it to her nefarious nightie long after the sun had set on her lovely Spanish villa. She never knew at what hour she might be called to get "on it." But now, maybe it was time to let it go. She slowly unfastened the badge from her bustenhalter and gently placed it in the desk drawer.

Hazel, the cleaning lady arrived. SE gave her a crash course in Good Housekeeping then asked her if the words on the crumpled paper meant anything to her. Hazel said that they all just picked up and left for Mount Hamilton a few hours ago...when they left, everything disappeared...poof! But she was able to give SE directions and, once again, the Sheriff was "ON IT." As she raced through the hallways to the Exit she suddenly came to a screeching halt. "Hell no," she thought..."they'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands!!" She turned and ran back for her badge.

She reached her destination a little too late...the motorcycle rental they gave her at the airport was more of a scooter, so she couldn't make great time. But she did make it there. She wasn't really sure what she witnessed though...

Life is a mystery.

[Pippy]

Cont from #13...

As Maddie and Justin wandered through the crisis passage, on the way to the casino, they came across cat cafe. Maddie peeked through the window, the cats had disappeared, oh, she thought, that's where all those cats came from. She also noticed someone looking a bit fed up