Plot Challenge: A Strange Statue

Diana

LOOK HOW CALM SHE IS
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  2. Slow As Molasses
Online Availability
10AM - 10PM Daily
Writing Levels
  1. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Female
Genres
Romance, Supernatural, Fantasy, Thriller, Space Exploration, Slice of Life
PLOT CHALLENGE

Plot challenges are designed to help you think quick and be inspired. We often play this game in the cbox, shouting out random words or phrases and see what ideas first pop in to people's heads.

To Participate: THINK FAST. Don't waste any time. The first idea(s) that comes to mind, write it down and post it!

NOTE: If you decide to borrow someone's concept for a roleplay, make sure you give credit.

Challenge Phrase:
A Strange Statue
 
In the center of this city stands a statue of an ancient warrior who saved the land long ago. His presence signifies the protection of this city from evil forces. And yet, recently, strange murders have begun happening in the city, and with each one, the statue gets more and more damaged. It is believed that when the statue crumbles to dust, the city will fall into darkness forever.
 
A much less know rumor however, was that with each murder, the hero grew more and more angry at the corruption within the city, and ad with the destruction of his statue he would be re-born to pull his city from darkness once again.
 
Place: Computer Lab, Collage Campus.

"Are you in, yet?"
"Hell yeah, I am. Look at all this shit, we hit gold."
"Haha, oh yeah, we did."
"Can't believe how easy it was to hack into the Private Investigations site."
"Adam, scroll down. I think we might have found something."
'What? It's just some old looking statue in the middle of the desert. Nothing seems to be odd about it."
"Look closer, you idiot. Don't see faces and bodies of people around it?"
"Hmn... Now that you mention it.... NO. I think you lost some marbles up there."
"I swear, I... There was..."
"Yeah, yeah... Anyway, are you done downloading the site on the laptop?"
"Uh... Yeah. It's done."
"Alright, let's get out of here."
"Yeah, delete the history first."
"Done."

Place: Adam's room.

"Heheh. One thing great about being collage drop-outs, police wont think that we'd be at the collage for anything."
"Yeah, I suppose. Not shut up, will ya?"
"Someone's Mr. Grumpy pants. Are you still looking at that picture?"
"Yeah, it's like it keeps dragging my mind towards it. Can't stop thinking about it."
"Mathew's gone all coo-koo in the head. Hehe."
"Shut the hell up, Adam."

~~
"Adam, come here."
"What?"
"I think I found something."
"Still on that picture?"
"Just get over here."
"Alright, what is it?"
"Just look closely at it for a few minutes. And never take your eyes off it and tell me what you see."
"I don't see anything, Mathew. Are you sure you're seeing anything?"
"Just keep looking."
"I am looking, but there's nothing..."
"Just look at it and stay quiet."
"I think you're---"
"Shh..."

After a few minutes of quietness, in the picture that the two boys look at, appears a face then a body, then after a few seconds appears more bodies and faces.
Gasping, Adam said, "Holy fucking shit. Is that really....?"
"Hehe. Now do you see?"
"But, that's impossible. A...are they moving?"
"Seems like it."
"Print it out."
"Right."

"Let's look at in more light."
"No, Adam, in the dark."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"If you look at the 'people' they are very dim in the light, but in the dark...and since it's in the desert."
"Alright. Let's try it."

~Two Years Later~
Place: General Brint's office

"Mathew; Adam. You two have currently, the most important job on the face of this planet. Do not fail me, understand?"
-"Yes, Sir!"
"If you do, I'll make sure you two are LESS than just collage drop-outs. Hackers. Quire mother fuckers."
"General, I assure you, if I found out the secret behind the photo, I can find out the secret behind the statue."
"Right, Mathew. Alright, your bags are packed, the flight leaves in an hour. Good luck."
-"Yes, Sir!"


My name is Mathew Richmond, I am twenty one years old, and am a collage drop-out. I have recently discovered the secrets in a photo and I am sent out to discover the secrets that lie in the strange statue in that photo. I am being sent to the Qattara Depression (a desert) in Egypt. For some reason many people have been dieing here. And from the looks of things, it's near this statue that it is happening. My buddy, Adam is coming with me, he may be an alcoholic and a smoker and has no common sense, but he makes good company. Hence: I sleep with him after all.
 
Go down to the ruins of that old house- they say it burned in a fire, now all that's left is rubble and one charred statue. They say if you go down there and stand in front of it and look into it's eyes at the stroke of midnight, it will take your sole and trap you inside it's stone body while it lives through your body. I was dared to do it by friends, now I'm stuck in here. Help me out, ok?
 
It was a strange statue, that much was certain. It didn't even look like anything, really. It was twisted and unnatural, and the white marble looked almost like liquid. The artist said it was supposed to be a dragon, but...it looked more like a broken snake. A sigh escaped Tony and he looked down to his student. "Try again." This one just wasn't cut out for sculpting.
 
David opened the door to the old museum. He'd been tasked with archiving the contents for relocation or sale by the corporation that had purchased the old building. This was the fourth night of his inventory, since the Museum was still open during the day. once again he entered through the main doors and went to another wing of the building, but every night, no matter where he was the same statue appeared. It was almost like it was following him, which was crazy of course.

Maybe since he was going to be in the revolutionary war area the marble statue would not appear. It was in the first area he'd inventoried, the Elizabethan period. As he flipped on the lights of the second floor wing, there she was near the entrance. how had it gotten up the stairs? There was an elevator of course, but who would have brought it up here? Maybe someone was trying to mess with his mind. Yeah, that must be it. He worked quickly that night, and was able to move to the Civil war wing just down the hall. He wasn't able to finish but before he left he noticed that the statue was now at that entrance, as if it had been watching him.

He went over to it and looked at it closely. He could have sworn the eyes blinked, but he shook his head and backed away. "I am definitely working too much. I need a break." he left then and didn't return for three nights. He was half afraid to return but he did. He only had two more sections to complete and he would be done. Like always she was there near the entrance of the area he was working in, but he just worked and tried to ignore her. The last night he had the eerie feeling that he was being watched, and it seemed like the statue was closer and closer as he worked. He was about to leave and the statue moved while he was looking at it to block his exit.

He blinked and started toward another door but before he could get there the statue was there. He looked at her and frowned, "What is wrong? Why are you following me?"

The statue back away and its arm pointed down the long stairway.

"Downstairs?"

She nodded and he moved to the stairs thinking he'd be able to make his escape then, but she was there at the bottom of the stairs when he got there. Again she pointed to where he'd first seen her.

"You want me to go back in there?"

Another nod and so feeling he had no choice, he went into the Elizabethan wing. Once there the statue again pointed and he followed to the far side of the room. There was an empty pedestal there and she pointed to it.

"I don't understand."

She pointed to the spot again, and he bent to read the plaque there. "Romeo."

The statue just watched him and then pointed to her own base.

"Juliet." he frowned, "What happened to Romeo?"

The statue pointed then to the door and he was once more following her lead. They went to the lower level storage area and she led him to an old crate. "Is he in here?"

How very odd that such a valuable statue would be hidden in such a way. Who had done this? He opened the crate only to find it empty. When he turned around to ask Juliet what was going on the statue fell on him, crushing him under it's weight.
 
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It stood in the center of the quad, that strange statue that nobody knew anything about. It was the focal point, the piece de resistance, if you will of the school. They were extremely proud of it; its jutting lines and harsh angles cast unusual and interesting shadows across the ground. It was there in those shadows that Amelia found herself on most afternoons. Today was no different. She leaned her back against the bottom of the statue, a large trunk like feature that stretched high into the sky before it branched off in several different directions at unnatural angles.

It was there she found herself. It was there she found her peace.
 
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Smooth edges and eerily translucent, yet not at the same time. Carved in such a way that one would almost think it had been cast from a truly human being. Like it was a painted man sitting elegantly and in such an effeminate pose. Hands were turned upwards, resting comfortably in his lap, holding what could have easily been mistaken as a real lotus flower between delicate looking fingers. he wore robes of thin material and bands of what one could only guess to be gold etched with careful glyphs. He had been created almost as though he had been someone's wife in a past life. It as though there was another statue out there, made to fit against this feminine male. It was incomplete. The soft expression on his face made one wonder if he was feeling warm contentment, or if he sensed the loss of his mate statue, hanging between pleased and longing.

Quite the strange statue, and yet it brought the most attention.
 
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Mankind looked up at the stars and reached far with a long arm. Between the United States, the Russian Confederacy, and the Korean Consortium of Asia, the dark between the stars was mapped out, each of them named, cataloged, and marked down for navigation. Swiftly, the last frontier filled, as humans found planets worth inhabiting, staking claims as if outer space was an Old Western landrun. Light years were squashed to hairpin lengths by the Noboru Drive, and even further did space feel small.

But despite all that, we found not a single clue of sentient life besides our own. Whole contingencies were built around the chance - the growing chance, we had thought - that we would encounter a race not at all like our own, from another star system, another planet, a different chemical soup. Despite all that work, the contingencies gathered dust, and the Fermi paradox beckoned us to the age old question: are we alone? And if we are, why?

Then, the mining dropship Abdura landed on UIP-009 in the KIC system, well known for the early gaff that scientists made thinking there was a Dyson sphere dimming the light of its sun. At first, all seemed normal as the geology team went out to survey the planet, until they found it: a statue, worn by the winds of the planet, clearly in the shape of a humanoid man.

Immediately, scientists, xenoarchaeologists, xenobiologists, and reporters flocked to the dim planet to see this monolith, this only clue to a people beyond humans, but one that must have been similar. The longer they study it, the more it becomes apparent that two things are evident: it is almost nine hundred million years old, and it is, without a doubt, man-made.
 
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