The Eternal Journey of 'Mr Benn'

[Adrift in Obscurity]

He recalled his thought about there being nowhere to hide, but this time with fear. Flight was out of the question; instinct dictated that he must and would fight for survival, tooth and nail however high the odds were stacked against him. And they were very high.

The shark with a sudden lash of its tail disappeared from view once more.

The man watched and waited, his senses straining to their maximum.

He slowly rotated himself around to keep his awareness.

Nothing.....

Mentally he found himself oddly detached, the potentially overwhelming feelings of fear and terror niggling at his psyche but for some reason unable to consume the rational part of his mind.

To add to the surreal nature of the situation it also occurred to him that he must be neutrally buoyant, as without any undue effort or motion he remained floating some 3 meters below the surface.

Nothing....

Then a thought occurred, a note of panic threatened to tear through the wall, he looked down and there it was, the shark had travelled down into the depths and was now circling its way up directly below him.

Is he dreaming or hallucinating?

I think you have rolled his willpower stat so:

Willpower roll of 11 to see if he can break out of this ‘imagining’.

(I am completely at a loss of what is happening and what to do here.)

[Adrift in Obscurity]

The ocean grew murky, discoloured with blood which appeared purple submerged, he was aware of being jerked ferociously, joints in his leg popping, flesh, tendons and sinew stripped from bone like pulled pork.
Despite the intensity and sheer agony, his mind was still oddly detached as if a voyeur looking out from his own eyes.

"No, No, No" he snarled through gritted teeth

"Doctor, he's coming back" came a distant female voice, "DOCTOR" the voice screamed in terror

"NO" he roared as the great wedge of a head visibly mangled his lower body

(Roll 3d)

12 Mate

[Adrift in Obscurity]

The ocean distorted, almost warping and bending, a vortex of movement and watery motion flowed into his legs.

His lost blood and tissue flowed back into his legs; the same vortex swallowed the predator sweeping it helplessly down into the crushing depths.

An enormous pressure seized him around his head, shoulders and back, searing pain bore into his temple's, agonising weight seemed to constrict his upper body almost as if it were trying to crush his spine. He gritted his teeth so tightly he felt his wisdom teeth crack.

And then he breathed out.

"Wakey wakey!"

[Adrift in Obscurity]

Opening his eyes he immediately squinted to avoid the spray, a gelatinous clear fluid exploded everywhere, he was drenched a combination of the fluid and sweat.

He stood in a field tent, row upon row of bare metal framed beds surrounded him, each holding a soldier seemingly asleep, each now sodden.

The walls dripped, nurses slid around on the floor, doctors attempted to pull themselves to their feet.

"Welcome back!"

‘What….. the…. hell?!’ the man croaked as he reeled and fell to his knees and doubled up, retching whatever remained of his stomach contents onto the floor of the tent.

[Adrift in Obscurity]

His memories remained of the girl, the voices and of the ocean horror but he could not recollect anything else. Eyes watering and rolling, he set to focussing at the mess he had made on the floor, trying to make sense of the mess in his head.

Within the liquid and food debris he had ejected, coupled with the water pooling on the floor which he guessed must have been thrown over him; he was sure that he could still see snapshots of his experiences. He gathered in his fevered mind that these experiences were now in fact a dream or a hallucination. Or were they? Was this just another scenario of his psyche torturing him?

He was battling to gain some purchase on whatever was going on. Who? Where? What? He strained to find any memories of the life he must have lead up to this point.

His mind drew a large blank to this questioning, nothing. He could speak, and seemed to have rational cognitive abilities but that was it. He felt like a transparent leaf blown adrift into an ocean of mirages without any identity or memory.

‘That’s very poetic’ a strange thought exclaimed calmly in the inferno of his mind as he continued to dry retch to the point where his stomach muscles seared with the exertions.

Blood began to spatter from his mouth between his wretched contractions.

‘You must be an artist of some sort!’ the thought continued. ‘Why look! Look at the modern art masterpiece you have produced!’

This as you could imagine, wasn’t helping the man very much.

[Adrift in Obscurity]

I guess I must be driving myself insane.
Damn it all! does earth plug a hole in heaven,
Or heaven plug a hole in earth - 'how wonderful to be so profound,
when everything you are is dying underground.'

Anyway

: Genesis : 1974

[Adrift in Obscurity]

Spare a little candle
Save some light for me
Figures up ahead
Moving in the trees
White skin in linen
Perfume on my wrist
And the full moon that hangs over
These dreams in the mist

Darkness on the edge
Shadows where I stand
I search for the time
On a watch with no hands
I want to see you clearly
Come closer than this
But all I remember
Are the dreams in the mist

These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Every second of the night I live another life
These dreams that sleep when it's cold outside
Every moment I'm awake the further I'm away

Is it cloak n dagger
Could it be spring or fall
I walk without a cut
Through a stained glass wall
Weaker in my eyesight
The candle in my grip
And words that have no form
Are falling from my lips

These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Every second of the night I live another life
These dreams that sleep when it's cold outside
Every moment I'm awake the further I'm away

There's something out there
I can't resist
I need to hide away from the pain
There's something out there
I can't resist

The sweetest song is silence
That I've ever heard
Funny how your feet
In dreams never touch the earth
In a wood full of princes
Freedom is a kiss
But the prince hides his face
From dreams in the mist

These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Every second of the night I live another life
These dreams that sleep when it's cold outside
Every moment I'm awake the further I'm away

These dreams go on when I close my eyes
Every second of the night I live another life
These dreams that sleep when it's cold outside
Every moment I'm awake the further I'm away

These Dreams: Heart: 1986

[Adrift in Obscurity]

The room was Persian in image, the large circular turtle green cushioned bed surrounded by billowing chiffon drapes.

He regarded the reclining female form lounging almost cat like across the bed; in return she smiled a mischievous smile and stroked his arm, purring in satisfaction.

He said nothing, and lay with his back against a large cushion, musing upon the situation.

"Are you getting all serious on me" she laughed

He shook his head in amusement "I'm just wondering why"

"Why what" she laughed rolling over, giving him a pleasurable view

"With all you have, wealth, your husband being a successful high ranking officer?"

"Boring, boring, boring" she replied, "With you I have adventure, pleasure and best of all it’s all in our dreams"

Her eyes glinted and the room melted away

[Adrift in Obscurity]

>Mr Benn is an ordinary fellow, living an ordinary life in an ordinary suburban house, at Number 52, Festive Road. One day, Mr Benn receives an invitation to a fancy dress party, and so, donning his bowler hat, he sets off to find a costume to wear. Unable to find a suitable outfit in the usual shops, he turns down a small lane and finds a shop filled with strange and unusual costumes. Inside, Mr Benn asks the fez-wearing shopkeeper if he can try on a suit of red armour; he then enters the changing room, puts on the outfit, and walks through another door... and suddenly finds himself transported back to medieval times. It is the first of many amazing and extraordinary adventures for Mr Benn…<


Through his terrible haze of confusion and hurt he could pick out the blurred shapes of people crowding around him. He was hunched in a foetal ball on a cold damp floor literally coughing his guts up, with sharp stinging pains tearing through his stomach and his throat. Shaking like a leaf he fought to break out of this state of being. He seemed to have done it before he thought, why not again?

‘Damn it Muree, clean up that mess’ a peeved young male voice droned nonchalantly; seemingly unmoved by the mans plight. ‘Orderlies; get him up, cleaned, and operational. Ensure that whatever information he has gained is downloaded before giving him an adrenal flush’

‘I don’t have all day, so move your arses!’ he snapped.

The man felt hands, which gently assisted him from the floor, as the footsteps of the speaker moved away from him.

‘Ready?’ he heard another mans voice near his right ear, obviously talking to an assistant.

‘Ready.’

His arms were lifted, and placed around the back of the necks of his helpers, who straightened and took his weight on. He then felt more hands take the insides of his legs and lift him completely off the floor.

‘Poor sod.’ One of the orderlies muttered.

He felt himself being lowered into some form of stretcher, which was then lifted off the ground which gave him the strange feeling of weightlessness, almost like he was floating. He gave into this sensation gratefully, hoping that he would never wake. Night fell for the man again.

‘Enough of that talk Jevan. You’re to have no pity for the Benns. This is what they were born for.’

‘Still ain’t right though.’ Jevan piped up breathlessly.

‘Shut your fucking mouth and watch you don’t drop ‘im. These things aren’t cheap as you well know!’

‘You’re all heart Talis’. Jevan snarled.

[Adrift in Obscurity]

From the utter darkness of his minds eye appeared a tiny pin prick of neon light, which started to grow larger and more substantial as he perceived it.

It wasn’t a light at the end of a tunnel he realised with a flash of recognition and irony.

The neon light was circular in shape, and seemed to spin slowly like a coin in zero gravity which moved with a frightening momentum from an unimaginable distance away, towards him.

This light took on more identity as it closed the distance to his conscious being. He looked around and realised that it gave off no illumination to where he assumed his physical form should be, and as far as he was concerned he was but a pair of disembodied eyes hovering in oblivion.

The man ‘perceived’ it as a barbed rotary blade of a vast size, and he knew that the light it radiated was a physical and perception suppression aura that was designed to overawe and extinguish any significance or hope its given target or subject may have.
It made its final approach with an aggressive pulse, and appeared to stop suddenly before it struck him.

The ‘blade’ of sickening multifaceted light began to turn slowly in a clockwise direction and appeared to shrink to the perceiver, or was he in fact getting larger? Another form of control he acknowledged, as he now perceived the blade as the size of what he would consider a dinner plate would be.

From the void dark centre of it poured a mass of small needles that were connected to the nothingness by thin web like wire. The wires gave off the sinister sound akin to sheet metal being shaken as each needle lanced into individual teeth of the blade as it continued in its turning.

The rumbling, shuddering sound rose in its intensity, and battered against his being.

Through this horrid intense sound, the man seemed to hear or sense a distorted voice which seemed to be shouting from a great distance, which although quiet could be heard perfectly through the tumult.

>Welcome to the Total Perspective Vortex. You are Benn 85426-1. I give you a final moment to savour your new found memories before they are crushed and wiped from your being<

>As you are aware from my suppression matrix, there is no escape from your predicament, because in one minute’s time you will be completely unaware of being in any derived predicament<

>Face your life, your reason to be and. I gift you with the perception of the total perspective of where you fit into the universe.<

>This is what will destroy your current mind and its memories therein<

>Feel free to drop in anytime<

>That is all<

From the centre of the construct came a piercing red beam which drew the ‘man’ into the utter darkness of the vortex.

In an instant, the man’s complete existence was winked out; like an old television being turned off.


Angels on the sideline
Puzzled and amused
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused

Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys
Where there's one you're bound to divide it right in two

Angels on the sideline
Baffled and confused
Father blessed them all with reason
And this is what they choose?

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys
Give them thumbs, they forge a blade
And where there's one they're bound to divide it right in two

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground
Silly monkeys
Give them thumbs, they make a club to beat their brother down
How they've survived so misguided is a mystery
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here

Gotta divide it all right in two

Fight till they die over sun, over sky
They fight till they die over sea, over air
They fight till they die over blood, over love
They fight till they die over words, polarizing

Angels on the sideline again
Benched along with patience and reason
Angels on the sideline again
Wondering where this tug of war will end

Gotta divide it all right in two

Right in Two: Tool: 10,000 Days : 2006