Part XXIII: The Search For Spring

We're awake. I come to at the bar in the main ski lodge. I must have been more tired from our tumble down the mountain and all that Guinness than I thought. There are a lot of people around too. Maybe they want my seat?

I get up and get ready to head out. One dude asks, "Hey Huygens, what's up?" I grumble, "Getting away from you. That's what." To which he replies, "Ouch." I walk away before anything else can be said. I'm in no mood for these people right now.

I head out the lodge and several people are relaxing in chairs by the door. A woman close to me says, "Hi Huy. How's it going?" I responded, "I don't speak English, noob." She said, "Huh?" But before she could say more, I flew straight up as fast as I could.

I attained some much needed privacy hovering over the lodge in the clouds. That's when I notice something odd. My shirt had been changed. An image of the inside of the lodge has been grafted onto it. What the hell were those chatter bugs doing to me while I was passed out. I decide I'll worry about it later.

Anyway, what weather should we find next, Torchy? Winter turns into Spring, right? What kind of weather does spring have?

I know! Tornadoes! Having experienced one in real life, why not try and find one in Second Life? Torchy groans. After our spill down the mountain, he was kind of hoping for a more tame adventure. Just to make him happy, I try and find Spring in my guide. Nothing comes up in reference to the season. But, I typed in "Tornado" and got this...

Sorry, Torchy. This looks too interesting to pass up. We're going...

Whoa.

That's a tornado alright. We must get a closer look.

I get closer but am not feeling any effects yet. Maybe we should get closer still.

Pretty damn close now and still nothing. It's doing a good job of tearing up the island, though. Hey look. A cow!

Then, the tornado itself acknowledges me. It tells me that I'm in a tornado (duh) and that I should touch the tornado and get a suction HUD. I'm not sure what that is, but it sounds fun. Everyone could use a suction HUD.

While I'm contemplating this, the twister moves and for just a moment I take up residence inside it. It doesn't sound like a freight train at all.

While the funnel cloud goes to town, I check out the rest of the island. Other people are enjoying this thing too. It looks like you can buy a tornado if you want. This island is the shop and this twister is the demo model. I find the "suction HUD" the tornado was talking about and activate it. This means the tornado will have its appropriate effects on me. Time to get sucked.

I walk up to the spinning cloud and immediately get sucked up into it. It twirls me around for a while and throws me 200ft into the ocean nearby. That was a blast! Then the twister dissipates as the demonstration comes to an end.

I walk back to the demo booth with the others who had been enjoying the event, and we activated ourselves another one.

This time I wanted to be in one of the buildings when the twister came calling. I barely miss being sucked up by it as I hightail it to one of the huts. I have the idea that maybe if I stand in the path of destruction, it might clear up this problem with my shirt. I would rather have a twister imprinted on it than the inside of that stupid ski lodge.

There. All nice and safe. Nothing can get me in here.

I am proven wrong as the roof is ripped off my hut. I see a girl named Tamostu getting sucked up into the cloud and I yell, "Nooooo! It got Tamostu! Damn it all to Hell!" As she enters the spin zone, she yells back, "Don't cry! I'll see you on the other side!" Then I watched as the twister spins her through clouds of debris at high velocities, only to discard her and send her flying a mile out into the ocean.

I'll never forget you, Tamostu.

Then, the structure around me explodes into chunks. It was weird. It looked like I melded with the ground for a second while the tornado had its way with my hut.

Then it was all done. Everything reverted back to its original status and the cloud dissipated. That was mad fun, but it looks like the experience did not fix my shirt at all. Damn.

Wait a minute. It's better! There are bits of grass and dirt grafted on the front too! Thank you, funnel cloud. You spoke to me and showed me such a good time. Maybe my shirt will start collecting images from all my adventures now. I could start a boss, pictograph-map clothing line.

And I'll always remember where that chunk of grassy dirt came from...

...