Night 54: The Sphinx's Chamber

[toxicspiderman]

[from here]The room was warm. Boiler room? Anyone who'd gild the bowels of a psych ward was a nutcase. Or -- S.T.'s brain coughed up equally ridiculous yet plausible scenarios as he stepped through the door, flashlight trained on the floor in front of him. Glittering toilets for visiting foreigners who'd flown out of their palaces on a private

Comments

[its_the_mileage]

"Sphinx," Indy said, putting two and two together. Ryuuzaki and Lunge had been here on the night Indy himself had stumbled into Barnett College. What had they said? Ryuuzaki had mentioned a riddle, one patients rarely got wrong (four legs in the morning, two legs at midday, three legs in the evening?), and had suggested he'd won something for guessing correctly. The room was disorienting (true enough, with the overwhelming gold color of the ceiling and walls). The shift had ended (conveniently, he thought) before Ryuuzaki could answer any of Indy's questions, and Lunge hadn't had much more to add on that subject

[unheroed]

While Harvey had heard a number of stories about things that he could barely believe -- such as what Jones had told him about that monster that he'd run into when he'd traveled out to those ruins -- a sphinx hadn't been one of them. He knew what a sphinx was, but it was something that was supposed to be purely fictitious

[damned_monsters]

"So he is," came the deep voice, resounding around the empty chamber. Obviously, the last, at least, had been heard. There was not much use in attempting silence near ears as large as a man is tall. What was this, then? Another group, another trio of men, and another night to end without satisfaction. The sphinx stared at them, clearly unamused. "At least one of you has some intelligence in dealings of this sort."

And what did that mean, but a quicker question and answer period in the end. The sphinx sighed, hot air casting out over the room, and refolded his paws in front of himself. "I'm surprised a group is down here tonight, after everything, but I suppose one has to amuse oneself. At least you have the option of choice, in the end...." Another sigh, and then it narrowed its eyes in due seriousness. "I'll advise you; speak carefully, or you'll lose before you've begun."

[toxicspiderman]

"You know this critter -- er, sphinx?" S.T. was still whispering, despite the cat being so far out of the bag it had its own shrine. Hell of a place for a temple. Hard to get congregants flocking around with no PR and an obstacle course filled with brainwashed apostates on the way in.

Then the thing was talking and they all shut up. Cryptic bullshit. "Are you actually going to give us the cost-benefit analysis, or do you get off in talking in riddles?" The room seemed fractionally warmer. In a friendly, not sulfurous way. S.T. pushed up one sleeve with the back of his flashlight, then the other. He didn't know why a duck-squeezer biologist would find thumbing his nose at men -- er, sphinxes -- of power to be as comfortable as the broken-in cotton of their clothes, but he wasn't arguing with that.

The sphinx was a different story. "It's not much of a choice if we don't know what we're choosing. Or if you won't tell us, Mr. Jones will, so really, go on."

[its_the_mileage]

"Only by reputation," Indy replied half under his breath. "Some friends of mine made its acquaintance a couple of nights ago."

Once the sphinx itself spoke up, Indy suddenly remembered the other thing Ryuuzaki had said about it: ill-tempered. Great. He didn't have much experience (all right, he had no experience) talking to sphinxes, but he had a hunch that provoking them probably wasn't the way to go. It took a fair amount of restraint to hold off from pointing that out sharply (or reiterating that he had a Ph.D., though that was just momentary touchiness stemming from frustration over his lack of progress in the last few days. Indy'd never liked academics who wielded their diplomas like swords, as if their work was complete and they were trying to fend off any expectations that they do something useful in the future

[unheroed]

What the hell. It could talk.

The other two men took it better than Harvey did. Jones had the advantage of having heard about this before, though in that case he should have given them some warning. (Harvey ignored the fact that Jones hadn't really been given the chance, all things considered.) As for Sangamon, it was anyone's guess since the "Ringmaster" was still more or less a mystery.

But that would have to wait either way, since it looked like the sphinx was presenting them with some sort of option. Seeing how both of the other men took the initiative with asking for more details, Harvey actually chose to remain silent, only crossing his arms, hands full, over his chest as he waited for the beast to respond.

It was a damn good thing that he had more or less given up on anything here resembling normality, but he still did watch the sphinx with a slightly suspicious glance.

[damned_monsters]

Three different types, indeed. One kept to silence, one seemed as if he could be as rude as another the sphinx had encountered recently, and the last being the only one with any sense so far. The sphinx's eyes narrowed, caught between boredom and irritation, and then he only rolled his great eyes. "Here is your analysis, human. Choose wisely

[toxicspiderman]

Bullshit. That thing didn't want the cold shoulder. It wanted them to fail the pop quiz and then to eat them. All that languid motion was as fake as -- oh hell as something really fucking fake. Or that's what his gut was screaming. Without memories, S.T. had to trust his instincts.

He ignored the hindbrain ones and stuck to those that built fragile webs above them, nigh-impossibly strong and breaking at a touch simultaneously. He turned his back on the sphinx. "We'll be in touch," he called over his shoulder.

Then he looked Indy square in the eyes. He'd have done the same with Harvey, but flinching at that face would detract from his speech at best, and have them chasing their own tails until the real-tailed sideshow had them for a midnight snack. "Full disclosure. I don't remember anything before I got here."

Shit, I could have written a dissertation on Sphinxes and I wouldn't even know. There was a smell, not here, where it was all evaporating honeybee concrete and his own sweat. He couldn't place the memory

[its_the_mileage]

"What?" Indy asked sharply. That Taylor had amnesia wasn't all that remarkable when you considered that Indy's other acquaintances here had included a mutant, a self-proclaimed dragon, and a guy with slightly less than half a face; what was important was that it was recent and that Taylor attributed it to the gas at breakfast. Indy himself had taken a face full of it. "Any evidence that it was that substance?" he followed up, a knee-jerk reaction although of course he didn't expect Taylor to have anything. That stuff could have been anything and none of them would have the faintest idea what the real effects might be, aside from the obvious pain and gasping. He supposed they couldn't rule out memory loss

[unheroed]

That more or less came out of nowhere. Now it made sense why Sangamon had barely said a thing about himself since they'd met up; he didn't remember it. Well, all he remembered was this place, which was tantamount to torture on its own. Everyone had their reasons for wanting to go home, and Harvey hadn't ever come across someone who was interested in staying here and who preferred it to home. But now this guy didn't even know what he was trying to get back to, and the thought was honestly frightening

[damned_monsters]

...Hm. One of the sphinx's ears twitched in irritation. Being told to wait seemed too ironic for a being that waited in boredom for such bland guests and repetitive challenges. It supposed it should commend them, for actually thinking it through instead of jumping in only to fail, but it bordered on disrespectful. It waited, however, tail moving idly in impatience. Finally, it was the one who had remained mostly silent who ended up accepting the challenge.

The sphinx shifted again, staring at the trio with some distaste. Here, again, another game. "Very well, here is your riddle:

"My life can be measured in hours, I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick, fat, I am slow; wind is my foe. What am I?"

Another inane night to be ended in success more than likely. Joy. Was it too much to ask for some difference in the pattern? Ahh.... "Four minutes, thirty-nine seconds remaining. I'll await your answer with baited breath."

It grumbled to itself lowly. "As if there is anything else to do...."

[toxicspiderman]

"Naah," he told Indy. The gas was the prime suspect just because it was the only thing he remembered getting hit with. Today was still sharp, too. If he wanted to be paranoid, the water, air, and food all made suspect vectors. Indy hid his skepticism less well than Harvey did. Plus S.T. still wasn't looking at Harvey. The sphinx was still stuck on Bored Boston Brahmin; if the similarity was lost, the scorn wasn't.

Harvey went ahead and pushed the button. In an abstract sense. There weren't any light-up numbers. Pity. Or one of those signs that flipped numbers down, clack clack clack in front of the huddled masses. I can remember useless crap like that without knowing what it's for. Triumph of science, man. Or the sphinx secretly liked hearing itself talk. S.T. shrugged, and shook his head. Faster than using up the time chit-chatting to cover the potholes in his brain

[its_the_mileage]

Indy was no stranger to riddles (and just about every other cryptic puzzle in the book), but he'd never heard this one. Still, he had a fair sense of what usually worked for him: breaking it down clue by clue, playing word association until he came up with something that might work, testing that hypothesis against the other parts of the riddle. Eventually something had to stick.

My life can be measured in hours. Could be anything, Indy thought. Insects were the first thing that came to mind, but in his experience riddles were usually more abstract concepts, which left a lot of options. Better to shelve that one for now. I serve by being devoured. That could be anything that was consumed in the use: food, water, time, fuel. Time could be measured in hours, but it didn't seem to fit the next condition: thin, I am quick; fat, I am slow.Fatness and speed connected made him think of ship sails, especially with the reference to wind in the next clue. But that seemed backwards: a fat sail, one full of wind, ought to make a ship faster, and

[unheroed]

Riddles weren't really Harvey's forte, and they reminded him a bit too much of deceit and mischief being used for the wrong reasons. Either way, it bothered him and he couldn't entirely explain why, but he was going to have to help out if he didn't want to get eaten. He knew he wasn't stupid, so he was just going to try and take it one clue at a time until he found something that fit

[toxicspiderman]

"Thin I am quick, fat I am slow. Tires?" He sounded uncertain, which wasn't like him. He knew that much

[its_the_mileage]

"Right," agreed Indy, who'd been about to raise the same point about the lifespan of tires himself. Taylor's mention of gasoline, though, made him think again about fuel. Fuels other than gasoline. Oil, kerosene, coal... "Coal?" he repeated out loud. "It's consumable; the time it takes to burn could be measured in hours. Larger pieces would be consumed more slowly." Seemed like it might bear out. "Thin" didn't seem like quite the right word to describe a small piece of coal, but riddles weren't meant to be taken literally. "And a strong enough wind could blow a coal fire out