Hello and welcome reader, to the 28th instalment of the Character Development Threads
! These shared story exercises help budding writers develop their characters alongside the characters of other budding writers. No sign-up is needed; just jump right in with your characters. It is recommended that you read the thread page and the last couple of pages before starting.
Discussion Thread Thread Page Town Map
This is a "Main Series" thread and, as such, an element of risk is expected. Rules and participation guidelines may be found on this page.
The thread page groups active characters under the areas in which they are active, enabling you to see who is at a given location in which you might be interested or to find out where to go to encounter characters with whom you wish to interact.
Kindly add your own characters to the thread page, with a link to their initial post, under the area in which they are located and update the page if they change location.
Bear in mind that if your characters are arriving at a location, they are likely to know little more than what they see and hear as they arrive - what the location looks like, what other characters are there (both of which can be read on the thread page) and the last few lines uttered and actions taken as they are arriving (which can be found in the last few posts for that location in the story thread itself), so inserting characters need not be a terrifying process.
If you need help, have any questions, or want a quick recap (if the page count is daunting), head over to the discussion page, and someone is sure to help you out!
To help guide character interaction, having your character come in with a at least one short-term and one long-term goal or motivation is strongly recommended. It is not required, but it does make it easier to drive the plot forward. Feel free to come up with rumours about what treasures, adventure, locations, and dangers may be found in the setting - they need not be true or accurate, just some hook on which to hang an adventure.
The setting is specifically designed to be a vast sandbox into which details can be inserted by participants (for example, you are free to decide that there is a particular temple in the midst of the forest in which something may be found or that there is a particular shop/hotel/restaurant in a section of the town), if you come up with a location that you desire/expect other characters to visit, please add it to the thread page as a sub-location of the relevant area.
Things change as the story progresses. If, for example, a massive battle occurs at a location and the area is now strewn with bodies and buildings are damaged, kindly update the thread page to reflect those changes, in order that other participants have an up-to-date description of the location prior to sending their characters there.
Special thanks to all those who helped in getting the thread launched or provided ideas and feedback. In alphabetic order, they include:
Blackfire667, Collen, Corvidae, daird, DarkbloodCarnagefang, EternaMemoria, Gault, Kkutwar, KillerClowns, ladytanuki, Masterofchaos, nrjxll, Pyxo, Slysheen, TroPartner, WillDeRegio and yours truly
Apologies if I missed anyone - just let me know and I'll update the post.
Between dimensions, and linked to the rest of the multiverse, lies a strange post-apocalyptic environment made up of various regions strewn with the remnants of past glory - ruins, lost technologies and magic. Here and there, nature has found its way back amongst the ruined temples and towns.
In the midst of the blighted landscape, a fresh new town has emerged - a synergy of technology, nature and magic; clean and eco-friendly; a beacon of hope for a brighter future - where travellers can rest, recharge their batteries both literally and metaphorically and get whatever they may need - technological, magical or otherwise - to aid them on their adventures.
New arrivals can turn up by diverse means in the transportation area in the north-western part of the town or by whatever other means they deem appropriate. Here they may also find for rent, lease or hire, any transport they desire from riding animals to vehicles.
The wilderness areas have not been fully explored since the mysterious apocalyptic events that ravaged the area some time ago and no one is really sure what's out there - but rumours abound.
All that is known for sure is that both magic and technology have existed here for a long time, so anything is possible...
Currently in Day 1.
Current Time: 10:00 PM
Current Weather:
General Setting: Fine, a few light clouds Rainforest: Moderately misty, the fog is slowly thickening
See the thread page for updates.
Edited by Wolf1066 on Feb 11th 2021 at 12:12:29 AM
This is my good side.
The Scar: Crossing the River
Chitara blinked, trying to process what she had just been told. Parallel worlds? Other worlds? That was something she had never heard of before.
"Well..." She tried to speak. "I... have very little idea of what you just said. If anything, I know what it is to be in strange land."
"Me? I'm from the Harpid kingdom: Akara. Grew up in the Talltree forest. Trees so large, any hand-made building looks small next to them!" She laughed to herself as she recalled old times. "Moved to the the mountains later in my life. After that... Let's say that things went a little south. It's how I ended up here. Living on the roads, selling trinkets to earn a living."
Chitara looked back to the wagon's interior. Naiolo had hung up a hammock on a corner, and was now taking a nap. "I picked the kid up in some town called Bandaleo." She went on. "He had left his home to be a bard. If you ask me, he should have stuck to picking fruit."
"No one asked you." Naiolo called back from inside. He wasn't as asleep as he seemed.
"No one asked you to scare customers with your horrid playing, either." Chitara retorted. She sighed, and whipped the beetles to pick up the pace.
"But what you know. It's a living."
Wasteland: Southeastern Coast
As soon as Varla's arm was free, she started her healing song again. In an equally disgusting and fearless display, she managed to pick up her dagger, and use it on her wounds, despite having a bitten down arm, and the other apparently broken.
Sallara turned to Lerna. The Onden tried to extend aa hand to the serpentine woman, only for her to snap in an animalistic display. Sallara, frightened, steppd back, falling on her butt. The way Lerna looked right now, reminded of a horrid face Sallara had been faced to look at closely, not too long ago. Although this time it was more a beastly frenzy than unburdened cruelty.
Sallara sighed. "What else... What else is coming for us now?" Not to anyone in particular. Juts to the air, or maybe to herself. It seemed more creatures were after their blood than she had first thought.
Forest ~ Ruins (Jean; Gwion, Teri, Wolf; Ferrah, Parthenia)
Jean rummaged through her backpack, pulling out another cup, as well as a small metal box. "Something stronger?" she asked, before patting the box, "I've got drugs." She proceeded to open the box, before holding up a small box marked "Coglevo+ brand dimethylphenethylamine phlogimuride, 5 mg" to Farrah. "Take one, if you want," she said.
She gave a curt nod of her head, "Jean Westinghouse, antiquarian," she said, before pointing over towards Wolfe's mug and pot stand atop one of the derelict vehicles, "Water for tea's over there, just add a block of tea from this tin to make a cup if you want," she said, offering the tin of instant tea.
Jean returned to her first aid kit, retrieving a small, cloth-wrapped tube of smelling salts. Clenching the tube in her hand, she crushed it. She then walked over towards Parthenia and waved the ammonia-soaked cloth under the unconscious woman's nose.
The Wasteland ~ Mysterious Bunker (Moobly, Nora; Karl, Peggy, Sophia)
Moobly nodded and took point. Nora followed along behind Sophia.
The group traveled along through the stale air of the silent corridor, their footsteps echoing. The monotonous corridor had a slight, barely noticeable decline to it.
Edited by WillDeRegio on Mar 17th 2019 at 11:33:31 AM
It's a bird.
The Smaller River -> Upstream, Edge of the Forest (Jann, Varg; Ozurr; Rosalind)
Varg watched Rosalind disappear through the window, making sure to wait a few minutes before she glanced over at Jann and gave him a soft poke with her elbow.
"Huh?" he responded, looking up from his map.
"Just wondering," Varg said in an unusually teasing tone, nodding towards the window, "are you two just gonna hold hands and act all nervous forever or...?"
"Or what?" Jann asked, a mildly annoyed frown forming on his forehead. "Gods... it's been less than a day!"
"So you're not gonna make a move anytime soon then?"
"A gentleman does not 'make moves'. And I'm definitely not handling this like you or Gwen would..."
Jann sighed. Varg made a huge grin in response.
"STOP THE TRUCK! I think one o'ma horses died!"
Varg hit the brakes, bringing the vehicle to a quick - though hopefully not quick enough to throw Rosalind or Ozurr off balance - and screeching halt.
She and Jann got outside, their eyes wandering across the edge of the forest. Eventually, Varg spotted a body on the ground, but it wasn't one of a horse.
"Just one of those monkey-things Jann and I ran into this morning," Varg shouted back towards the vehicle. "Looks like this one's taken a Depth of a beating..."
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Maequoql)
Eavesdropping on Varla, Maequoql was connected through her microchip to the Sick Bay's AI, brainstorming with it. She packaged up some needles and two vials (one containing muscle relaxant extracted from vampiric fang glands and the other containing the opposite extracted from Viporis thumb stingers) into a box.
Wasteland, Near the Southeastern Coast (Lerna, Nerea; Varla; Sallara)
Varla thought "Well, that explains a lot," as her singing continued purging poison. Meanwhile, Lerna snapped her teeth at Sallara, who jerked back and fell.
Satisfied that the poison was purged, Varla paused the healing song just long enough to say "Good to know her brand of immortality renders my healing song redundant on her." She started to sing again, cleaning up the damage she'd done to her own circulatory system during the poison purge. This took far less time than the purge. She refused to let her left hand's grip on her right elbow falter from the pins-and-needles sensation of circulation denied and returned.
Sallara sighed to no one in particular, "What else... What else is coming for us now?"
"I'll summarize later," Varla said, letting the loyalty bond guide her dagger back to its sheath while waiting out the pins-and-needles sensation.
WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Maequoql)
The Sick Bay had a much smaller teleporter pad reserved for medical supplies under a certain size only. Maequoql sent the package she'd put together down to the storage compartment in Varla's wheelchair.
Wasteland, Near the Southeastern Coast (Lerna, Nerea; Varla; Sallara)
"How fast can Lerna purge drugs from her system?" Varla asked, getting a notice of delivery on her microchip. While waiting for the answer, she kept her broken right arm tucked to her chest while using her left arm and tail to quickly inchworm in an arc around Lerna back to the wheelchair so she could sit in it again.
??? (Sarquoql; Mael, Melissa)
Mael cringed at the broken neck. "Christ, I thought they weren't supposed to kill anyone." Then he saw that the snake woman was, in fact, still alive, but still in her drugged induced state. So far, they haven't managed to free her yet; looks like they weren't all that omniscient after all.
Hearing Sarquoql's theory, he rubbed his chin. "I'm assuming that the possible new recruits can't invoke their predetermined deaths? Because if that's so, I can use that to my advantage. I can't get to Web of Friendship themselves... but I can lower their numbers."
Sarquoql facepalmed. "Look pal, I already said I had a hard time killing them, and you didn't bother asking why. That's not how Nao Ranay Nokt works, they search for premature deaths regardless of whether they've been invoked or not. Invoking just gets one to show up before the emergency instead of during. My best guess for why Nao Ranay Nokt hasn't appeared by Varla is because Varla intends to fix the broken neck with her healing song soon and/or apparently that stranger has her own way of surviving a broken neck."
WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room (John, NCH; David, Joseph; Arnaya)
David inspected the gun he'd swapped for and started playing with the empty five-shooter revolver. "See, I prefer my guns as... deterrents—"
In certain company, Arnaya would not have bothered to censor her mocking laughter at the thought of guns being deterrents. But since this was not that company, she clapped her hand over her mouth as her ribcage shook from the effort of staying silent.
"—rather than tools of action. I'm not a soldier; I'm not fighting any war. I'm a bit like a cowboy," he winked, "but I'm not in the business of blood money." He paused, concentrating on the twirling enough to toss the weapon up into the air—this time on purpose—then swiftly catch it, aiming it at an innocent wall and pulling back the hammer. "I'm just making a retrieval."
Joseph stared in awe. "Dude, you look like Dirty Harry with that thing."
Arnaya was now having a harder time holding in her laughter. With Joseph being impressed by a gun, she couldn't stay silent anymore, her laughter started wheezing behind her hand.
David misunderstood the reference, and Joseph and Jackson explained it. Then as Jackson and his friends explained the gems, David handed them back to Amy with overly exaggerated artificial calm. Arnaya immediately picked up on David's fear and ceased to laugh. Boy, was he in the wrong neighborhood! There was magic everywhere.
Joseph asked a question about the gems that stumped the Not-Chaos-Hunters. They speculated.
"Sounds to me like the gems yank energy out of one's body," Aynara joined in the speculation, "... hard the first time, then they imprint and adjust to what you can handle?"
"Now... how are we going to intimate that thief?"
"Don't you mean intimidate?" Arnaya pointed out.
Nick's eyes widened. "Ooh! I got it! I got it! It's our favorite intimation trick."
"Again..." Arnaya pointed out.
He walked over to Amy and Maya, slinging his arms around their shoulders. "Next, you, Maya, Jacky, and uncle John get sent down and surround them in a circle, weapons drawn."
Amy's eyes almost sparkled. "Oooh! I love that one!"
Maya smirked, "Gets them every time."
Nick chuckled. "Now, for my favorite part, with three new additions." He then made his way over to David. "You, Adam, and Arnaya jump in the air, you holding your gun, him with his arrows, and her with sharp ass teeth out. And finally, we send Joseph down, and he'll pin them to the ground with his wheelchair, so they won't be able to escape. They'll be stuck, surrounded by people with weapons pointing at them. They'll learn to never fuck with David and Joseph ever again."
"I like it!" Amy said, "Let's do it!"
"Now, hold on," John said, "We need to hear what the others think before we jump to the plan."
Arnaya scoffed, "Amateurs. Your plan puts the thief in a Cornered Rattlesnake position right off the bat when we have practically no intel on the thief's capabilities and resources. And it's not enough to scare the thief, we need to do so in such a way that makes jail look preferable."
She thought for a bit. "So here's my idea. You split up into two groups — one group of volunteers for me to make a show of 'defeating' and the other group with David, Joseph and everyone else to make a show of 'defeating' me. Then I'll go off by myself with one of those gems hidden on me just in case. I stalk the thief, get a feel for the thief's capabilities, then I try to catch the thief, using the gem if necessary as a last resort. Of course the first-time gem usage symptoms would drive me to drink, but the volunteers will be showing up to temporarily interrupt me from exsanguinating the thief anyway. Once I've shown enough food-guarding behavior to cause the thief to lose hope, the rest of you show up. David and Joseph make an offer to save the thief from me in return for the thief's surrender. Then it's off to jail for the thief."
WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Maequoql)
Maequoql was still brainstorming, connected to Sick Bay's AI. She eavesdropped on the Transporter Room. Sounds like everyone in there was going to need to carry the standard blood-replenishing flask of Camelian heartfruit juice mixed with a trace amount of Mayatan lullacynth nectar extract, just in case, whether for themselves or for the thief. Maequoql opened the corresponding medicine cabinet and floated them through the quarantine airlock in her telekinesis. Arnaya herself would need coffee with filtered lullacynth nectar just in case she needed to counteract the gem's sleepiness side effect. Maequoql reluctantly prepared to open the restricted medicine vault.
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
Crazy Kiwi
Forest - Eastern End - Telegraph Tower
[Parthenia, Farrah, Jean, Teri, Wolfe, Gwion]The barefoot woman expressed an interest in either tea or "something stronger", so Wolfe turned back to his makeshift 'kitchen'. He had already snuffed the flames of the spirit burner after making the last round of drinks but it was a matter of a few seconds to remove the lid again and ignite the methylated spirits within. As the barefoot woman was giving a warning about the unconscious woman, he filled his canteen mug with fresh water from his canteen and put it on the stand to boil.
The barefoot woman introduced herself as "just 'Farrah'" and Gwion was surprised when it became apparent that she thought someone might take issue with what she had said back in town. He raised a placatory hand. "No need to settle anything with weapons, I've got no issue with you and I doubt anyone else here has. 'm Gwion Walker, by th'way." Then, since Jean had given her job title as 'antiquarian', he gave his own as "Antique."
When Jean pointed in the direction of the water supply for tea, Wolfe gave a smile. "Kevin Wolfe, Mad Bastard. Y'c'n call me Kev, or Wolfe - I'll answer to either. Y'll havta taihoa a spell, the water's not boiled yet."
Teri, used to Kev's frequent interjection of Māori words and phrases into otherwise fairly serviceable English sentences, gave a smile. " 'e means you'll 'avta wait a bit. M'name's Teri Walker. Also a Mad Bastard."
Gwion gave Teri an appreciative look. Her casual translation of 'taihoa' wasn't a surprise as such - clearly she had learned it from Wolfe - but it hadn't occurred to him that she might know it until now.
Wolfe caught a whiff of ammonia on the breeze, recognised what Jean had as smelling salts, and wondered if that was really the best way to rouse a person who had allegedly tried to claw someone's throat out.
This is as much as I could handle tonight, will attempt Chitara's Wagon and Wasteland Bunker another day.
Edited by Wolf1066 on Mar 20th 2019 at 8:15:59 AM
< WoF Scouter Hummingbird, Transporter Room - A Simple Plan >
David felt another dreadful weight leave him as he passed off the gems to Amy, though they themselves were not particularly heavy. He said little more on the matter aside from brushing off Amy's offer with a labored smile and the words, "If such a thing ever comes to pass, I'll be sure to tell you." Silently, he pocketed his revolver and gave his hand a discreet rub, thumbing his palm where the gems had been.
He briefly considered revisiting the Dirty Harry talk, but the conversation had moved onto more pressing matters, and there was no undoing his buffoonery. Still, he couldn't help but notice Arnaya sniggering behind her hand. She'd since stopped, but he still gave her a wary glance out of the corner of his eye.
Joseph looked between each person with interest as they debated the usage of the gems, though none could draw a solid conclusion. "So where'd you get 'em anyway?" he wondered, lowering his head to his hands as his gaze settled on the gem in Amy's possession. "I don't remember you having them last time we met. And it doesn't sound like they came with an instruction booklet or anything like that, huh?"
Nick moved to the center of the room to present his plan for handling the thief, which involved surrounding her with the present company through several waves of teleportation.
"Oh, I don't actually need the wheelchair anymore," Joseph pointed out, hopping off of it for a moment. "It's just, you know, why stand when you can sit?" With that he climbed back on, returning to his backwards position. "Or, well, kneel." It wasn't the most comfortable position for his legs, but it gave his tail more room to be swayed to and fro, his arms and shoulders a place to rest, and besides all that, he just didn't feel like turning the chair around.
"I guess I can still do that though. I mean, unless she's armed." He paused, glancing from the wheelchair to Arnaya. "I don't s'pose this thing is bulletproof."
Arnaya, for her part, had her own plan, involving several shows of escalating danger, before... she hunted down and caught the thief herself?
David, having heard both plans, was left with a muddled frown and a knitted brow.
"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I believe the both of you are overthinking the situation. This is just one woman. Un."
He looked to Arnaya, "If it's intel you want, I've already tussled with her singlehandedly and won. If it wasn't for..." he glanced at the nearby wheelchair, "...an errant dust storm, we'd be back in town, toasting to a job well done."
Joseph slowly turned around, sinking in his seat, this time without any grin, dumb or otherwise.
"We aren't dealing with a will-warper here," David continued, "or a sand monster, or even a martial artist. Granted, she does have my truck and thus access to my arms which..." he paused for a moment, murmuring indistinctly to himself as he numbered off on his fingers, "...amounts to my shotgun, my snubnose, the semi-automatic, and the derringer. And what you said about a cornered snake is worth considering; she does seem desperate. Willing to risk getting her head blown off if it means a chance at escape. But that was only with one gun pointed at her." He spread his arms out to the group, "If we can pinpoint her position, then with our numbers, a simple ambush should be more than enough."
the color today
[Hummingbird]
Amy's eyes widened.
"Jackson gave some to us when we first met him!" she said, "Maya was weary, and the side effects didn't help...but afterwards, we started using them more and more! They're so cool!" She nearly jumped up and down, "I can't wait until I get to show you what else they can do!"
Nick felt a little deflated at his idea being shot down twice. Actually, every encounter with WOF involved either him or his friends being talked down or insulted. Friendship truly was just in-name after all.
Then again, the ambush was much more preferable than what Arnaya suggested; with how unstable Jackson's laser pistol was, there were so many chances they could hurt her for real and the plan to go awry.
"We'll do the ambush then," Nick said, "My idea is more fun, and it worked every time, but I see your point. No need for overkill." He turned to Jackson, "Hey, Jacky, can you pinpoint the location?"
"Stop calling me Jacky," Jackson growled, pulling up the blue hologram back up, "But, anyway, we're practically above the truck now. Oddly enough, I don't have any sign of thief being there."
Adam quirked an eyebrow. "Really? Why?"
"I'm not sure. Odd....why steal a truck but then abandon it by the side of the road?"
"Maybe she's in town!" Amy said, "That'll make the ambush easier!"
Upon hearing that he and Joseph were in a sandstorm, Maya's eyes widened. "You got in a sandstorm...again? David!" She playfully hit his shoulder, light enough to not cause any harm, "We talked about this!"
"We're in luck, cause there's not going to be another one for a while now," Jackson said, "Also, the truck seems to be fine."
John rubbed the back of his head. "I have a bad feeling about this..."
"We'll be fine, Mr. Richman," Marie said, smiling, "Don't worry."
"Hard not to when Mael's out there. I mean I just got freed, but what would've happened if I didn't run into WOF? What if...ah, I'm being a worrynut." He turned to Arnaya, "Send us down, please."
[???]
Mael sighed.
"Like I said, I don't know how your system works, so forgive me for sounding ignorant."
He turned his eye back on the screen, "I'm guessing this Nao Ranay Nokt is the reason why you had a hard time killing them? Explain this in more detail for me."
Melissa turned to Mael. "My lord, the drug is being taken out of the lizard lady."
Mael smirked. "That's fine. They were distracted, and they didn't even consider the fact that I'm the one who did it. That red head is now a mole, and they never even noticed." He rubbed his chin. "Don't send any more, or else they're going to start catching on, and you know I can't reveal myself just yet.
"Yes, my lord." Melissa stood up, then turned to Sarquoql. "Would you like anything to eat?"
Edited by Masterofchaos on Mar 21st 2019 at 3:06:20 PM
Town Square (Michelle, Michelle, Carly, Jenny; Soryn; John Smith)
Soryn's pheromones had adjusted to the enchanted kind meant for humans. Since humans didn't have functional vomeronasal organs or a pheromone communication system of their own, the chemicals were scentless themselves but carrying a mild reminder enchantment to trigger memories of whatever the individual thought smells sexy.
Soryn looked at the flavors Michelle was holding out. There was a Rocky Road-flavoured chocolate; "Montana Mint", a mint chocolate bar with some spices in; and "Devil's Toffee", a toffee-flavored chocolate bar with some wine in it. He was a bit daunted by the size of the bars. "All of the flavors, please and thank you, but I can't eat that much chocolate." Soryn twitched his staff, casting a spell to cut along the dented lines, precisely breaking off a bite-sized designated portion each of the exemplary chocolate bars. The staff floated the chunks to his face and he sniffed each in turn. He murmured, "Oh my... Mmm... wow!" Pavlovian reflex opened the floodgates from a trickle on his pheromone production. He summoned a strip of wax paper from his Bag of Holding and folded it securely around the Rocky Road and Montana Mint. "These are too good and intense to eat all at once, I plan to savor them slowly." He was about to pop the Devil's Toffee in his mouth when...
She was wearing a blue denim jacket with black jeans and high-heeled black boots; she had blonde hair with streaks of pink, green and blue in it.
Seeing the open curiosity in Jenny's face, Soryn felt free to let his own curiosity show on his face. He had carefully grown his frosted tips hairstyle, blond at the tips and black at the roots. He briefly wondered if Jenny had dyed her hair or if she had the same control over her hair color that he did.
Now that Jenny had engaged Soryn in conversation, he couldn't talk with a mouth full of chocolate. He folded the Devil's Toffee square into the strip of wax paper with the others, cast the mildest refrigeration spell he was capable of on the improvised package, and held out his hand for a handshake. "A pleasure to meet you, Jenny. I was grown in a vat for a role that I'm expanding beyond also." He waited to see how she would react to the handshake before deciding whether to attempt kissing her hand.
Author's note: Yes, I used the word 'Pavlovian' correctly, not in an "All Behaviourism Is Pavlovian" way. Chocolate has a strong enough association with seduction to get him excited. If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
Strepsirrhine of DOOM!
The Necropolis (Akane; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris)
"Not sure what a 'wolvz' is," Krakka'a said, "but you need to understand something very important about me...I'm a survivor, and rule #1 of survival is that I stick my considerable neck out for nobody."
WHAT YOU ARE IS A SOCIOPATH. AND ALSO AN IDIOT. NOBODY WILL FEAR YOU IF APEP DESTROYS THE UNIVERSE.
Krakka'a rolled his eyes. "Okay, I don't know if you have a skull, but if you do, you need to get this through it: I DON'T BELIEVE A WORD OF YOUR STORY! What could this particular human possibly be able to do against your Apep friend?"
HE'S SMART AND RESOURCEFUL
"He got lucky! The only smart thing he did was slather himself in lavaweed. He attached himself to bigger, stronger allies because he was too weak to fight his own battles. If that Elasmosaur and her Mosasaur friend hadn't shown up when they did, He'arkka would have killed him."
LIKE I SAID, RESOURCEFUL.
"Whatever. You're going to have to try harder than that to convince me. And you'll have to do it quickly, because as I recall, you only have power while I'm in the Necropolis, and, well...bye!" With that, he turned and took off running.
YOU KNOW SHE'S GOING TO GET OUT OF THAT, AND SHE IS NOT GOING TO BE HAPPY WITH YOU FOR ABANDONING HER.
"She's the one who told me to run. She also knows that I know she's tough enough to handle herself."
The Smaller River -> Upstream, Edge of the Forest (Jann, Varg; Ozurr; Rosalind)
"STOP THE TRUCK! I think one o'ma horses died!"
Ozurr tried to brace himself against the inevitable sudden stop, but there wasn't much to grab onto except the top of the cab, so he was still thrown a bit as the truck screeched to a halt. He carefully dismounted and followed Jann and Varg as they exited in the direction Rosalind was looking.
"Just one of those monkey-things Jann and I ran into this morning," Varg said. "Looks like this one's taken a Depth of a beating..."
Ozurr crouched to get a better look at the carcass. The feet didn't look anything like how Rosalind had described horse hooves, and the teeth were definitely those of a carnivore. The ones that weren't broken, anyway.
He gingerly prodded the body with as much finesse as his massive fingers could manage. "I think its frontal bone's been fractured. Something hit it really hard, probably straight on." He stood up...and noticed something further along in the grass. He took several steps over to it and saw that it was another one of those predatory creatures. "Got another one. This one's in even worse shape. Looks like it's been stomped on by a unicorn." He knelt down and examined the dirt near the corpse. There were several odd, yet familiar, prints in the dirt. "Or something else..."
The Scar, Bridge Over the Smaller River (Arnora)
Arnora arrived at the bridge. Nobody was there, but clearly someone had been. On the near side of the bridge, something had been rubbed off into the mud that, even at 24 feet up, Arnora could smell. She almost pulled her collar over her nose before she remembered that there was still bush-monster gore all over her clothes. She was definitely going to need to get some new clothes at the first opportunity.
On the far side of the bridge, Arnora saw several sets of footprints in the mud leading downstream. Two that looked like they could have been Fae, or possibly even human, one that looked like a slightly larger human, one with clawed, reptilian feet...and one massive set of footprints that could only have come from Ozurr. Excitedly, Arnora took off downstream towards the beach.
Edited by apocalemur on Mar 21st 2019 at 12:00:17 PM
Tidesson Son of the staves of timeThe Smaller River, Edge of the Forest -> Grassland Battlefield (Jann, Varg; Ozurr; Rosalind)
Rosalind was half-expecting the sudden lurching stop — after all, she'd asked for it — so when it happened, she semi-deliberately tumbled forward off the roof, down the front windshield and hood, and landed feet-first on the ground.
A murder of crows took flight from the corpse and briefly landed in the treetops. They glared and yelled at the group for interrupting their meal, before taking off south en masse to get even further away from the giant on the truck and join their compatriots at a different corpse.
Rosalind paused and looked back just long enough to see Jann and Varg start to get out of the truck, then she darted over, first one to the corpse. "Whew!" she whooped, "Case o' mistaken identity," she announced. The crows had made the mass kind of hard to identify from on top of a bumpy moving truck.
"Just one of those monkey-things Jann and I ran into this morning," Varg shouted back towards the vehicle, presumably informing Ozurr. "Looks like this one's taken a Depth of a beating..."
"Yech, musta happened hours ago," Rosalind grimaced as the stench hit her nose. "Blood's all congealed and not fit for drinkin' anymore."
He gingerly prodded the body with as much finesse as his massive fingers could manage. "I think its frontal bone's been fractured. Something hit it really hard, probably straight on."
Rosalind measured the dent in its skull with her hand. "Just the right size an' shape to be a horse hoof. This fella got kicked in the head, just like the zombies back home. I'm so glad the mustangs remembered without me."
The crows squawked and flew away again with much disgruntled cawing as Ozurr took several steps south along an obvious path of trampled grass and reported, "Got another one. This one's in even worse shape. Looks like it's been stomped on by a unicorn." He knelt down and examined the dirt near the corpse. There were several odd, yet familiar, prints in the dirt. "Or something else..."
Rosalind jogged over to join Ozurr. "So that fella had company. And there's the mustangs' hoof prints again." There was a wide bulge in the path. Puzzled, Rosalind paced it until she realized, "The mustangs ran, obviously, that's their standard reaction to predators. But then they picked this spot to stand their ground an' fight. There musta been a lot more o'these predators than just those two."
More stench hit her nose. "Yech! I smell a lotta spilled expired blood nearby." And predator fecal matter, but she didn't mention that. She looked around for the pool of wasted blood, and found it via the thick swarm of flies. This predator's corpse was headless, its chest ripped open and its heart was missing. "That's weird, horses definitely don't do that... who else was here?"
Between Town Hall and Power Plant (Nyorla, Murquoql, Blackthorn, Zip, Zing; Mr. Marobla's voice; Gar May)
Murquoql silently sent a request to Arilay to move the spaceship through the comm-chips. "We're crew members. I passed your request on to the pilot."
"That's what I suspect," Murquoql agreed.
The newcomer introduced herself as Gar May and added, "Also, for future reference, the telepathy thing? Kinda creepy and rude. You could have just asked out loud."
Murquoql tilted her head. "Creepy and rude? I don't understand. I was trying not to draw attention to your location, just in case you were being hunted like we are."
Mr. Marobla abruptly hung up, and Nyorla scanned the skies, looking for signs of Tecia sa Valdela's return.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Mar 23rd 2019 at 11:32:33 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
WFS Hummingbird Corridors (Pilot 0037, Unit 09; Moquoql; Nasur)
"Uh-huh..." The boy scratched his head, before shrugging, "You lost me there. Though, like you said, we could be lost together... but we're not lost... so, we're found together...?" he said, perplexing himself further, "Am I making sense?"
Unit 09 stared at her pilot for a moment before nodding. She then turned her attention towards Nasur. Mana... the raw, primal elemental energies of the world... " I do not, though I do have a high aether density," she told the pale blue man.
The Wasteland ~ Southeastern Coast (Lerna, Nerea; Sallara; Varla)
Nerea turned her head towards the sound of Sallara's rear hitting the ground. "Are you alright?" she asked, "My servant did not bite you, did she?" She applied more pressure with her foot; Lerna twitched her head, her breathing a rattling wheeze.
The empress then turned her attention to the surrounding area. She shook her head, "I am not sensing any other creatures nearby... except the isopod."
Cuddles waved its antennae.
Nerea tilted her head towards Lerna, "As for how my servant handles drugs... it took her an entire day to recover fully from when she accidentally drank her-self into intoxication."
Outside the Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale; James, Kaitlyn, Kris)'''
By this point, there was sufficient enough replaced foliage to hide the motorcycles. In fact, it was working a bit too well...
"Cynthia, where you going with that?" Diantha called out, waving to her comrade.
The young knight turned, raising an eyebrow before noticing that she headed in the wrong direction with her bundle of leafy branches. "Oh..."
"I think we might be good to go," Diantha commented to Shale, as Cynthia handed her bundle over to the alien.
Edited by WillDeRegio on Mar 24th 2019 at 5:25:19 AM
[City Hall Basement (Haydn, Wilhelmine; Oseru)]
"Ah, smoking the hornets out. Unfortunately, my mission is still not complete." She sighed. "I think for now, I should like to interrogate the leaders of this sad rabble, one 'Black Morgan'. They might have information on your missing device as well." As long as the two weren't one in the same. That could lead to issues.
Though to be fair, the goal was to find a way to undermine Alice and her agents, not strictly to retrieve the device they were afraid of. New allies would be an acceptable to do that.
Conversationally, she said, "I have not seen magic like yours — well, outside of Terran fiction. It is interesting; much more... orderly. I don't feel any strong presence behind it."
Will probably have Oseru and her new friends encounter something a bit tougher than your average mook in the near future, but only when I've got a clearer schedule to keep the pace up.
[Purple Fez Tavern (Ava Sharpe, Trine, Caroline Gyaltsen)]
"I don't know what's going on either," Caroline said, finishing her beer and ordering another.
"I'm a visitor, Caroline said. "An explorer, I guess. Looking for anything to undermine Alice and her agents." She paused. "Alice being a woman from my world. Powerful, evil, psychopathic, popular on the TED talk circuit, your usual suit taken up to eleven." Then a guilty look came to her face. "Not to uh, cast a cloud over your vacation, though. Yeah. And honestly..." she paused. "I'm not totally convinced Aseyu expected me to find anything here. Maybe she just wanted me to take a break. Actually make small talk. So. Um. Yeah."
Border of the Warpfields, Petrifying Pond (Syrni Sandra, Jen Jara; two shrivers)
As the shrivers lost consciousness, they also lost their ability to direct their digestive swarms, which returned to their bodies, presumably into designated cavities. Syrni Sandra waited a bit longer, then slowly and cautiously advanced. She poked the shrivers with a toe, tentatively at first, then a more firm prod in the ribs, then an almost kick, testing to make sure the shrivers really had been knocked out by the chloroform.
"All right, let's get these guys outta here," she called to Jen Jara. "Two miles south oughta do it."
Jen Jara joined Syrni Sandra, and they each snaked their arms in between the shrivers' four arms, hauled them up and teleported.
WFS Hummingbird Corridors (Pilot 0037, Unit 09; 'Moquoql''; Nasur)
It didn't help that something in that kid that made Nasur light-headed, which made him more nervous. He really was wishing he could get out of here.
"Ehm... You wouldn't have some mana with you, would you?" He blurted out. Well, why not try luck with them then?
Unit 09 stared at her pilot for a moment before nodding. She then turned her attention towards Nasur. Mana... the raw, primal elemental energies of the world... " I do not, though I do have a high aether density," she told the pale blue man.
Moquoql tried a different tack and gently asked, "So, if you weren't going to anywhere in particular, where were you coming from?" She could always review the security camera footage, but it was polite (and a source of meta-information) to give the guest a chance to speak for himself.
WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room (John, NCH; David, Joseph; Arnaya)
Arnaya listened to David's exposition and summarized, "So, basic desperate human with a few guns. Ambush does sound like less work after all, but two things. One, if the thief does something Crazy Enough to Work and gets away with another stroke of luck, I reserve the right to say 'I told you so'. Two, instead of just showing my face in the ambush I'd rather work my telekinesis from somewhere the thief can't see me. More spooky that way, and I can get the guns out of the equation." In paltry demonstration of the spookiness, without even looking she gently adjusted Adam's socks with her telekinesis. She was not aiming to trip him or restrict his movements, she was just aiming to get his attention.
"And as for pinpointing the thief's position — one moment..." Arnaya sprinted off into Sick Bay. One indulgently sighed "Here We Go Again!" from Maequoql later, Arnaya came back licking a stray trace of blue blood from her lips. "...there, that'll make things easier."
Arnaya motioned everyone to get on the transporter pad, and noticed Joseph hesitating to do so. She remarked, "Oh, and by the way, the thief is indeed not with the truck. Otherwise Maequoql would have had them both on board way before now."
Edited by Miss_Desperado on Mar 24th 2019 at 7:21:00 AM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
< WoF Scouter Hummingbird, Transporter Room - Alighting >
Joseph considered rephrasing his gem question for about half a second. But there was little point. No one cared. He wasn't helping, he was just playing at the idea of being helpful. All while the others graciously ignored him, or pretended that something else was the hindrance. The constant drag. The dead load.
Miles above the planet, he felt heavier than ever.
"That's not the only question that begs asking." David said of Jackson's inquiry. "See, this thief was a thief before she ever stole my truck. We were hired to find her, detain her, and bring her back to our client for stealing a set of keys to what I can only presume are some fairly important locks. But our client lives in town. So why—after fleeing town, running all this way on foot—would this thief then drive right back there?"
He gave it a moment's rumination, then waved it off. "Ah well, hardly matters to me. As long as I get my truck back and tidy up this job, all's buttercream."
Maya's arm socking was met with an appreciative glare. "All right, dust storm might be overstating it; it was more of a dust devil, or a dust imp, if you like. Still enough to wrench the situation out of control."
There came a mirthless laugh from Joseph's wheelchair.
Sparing the sound little more than a glance, David continued, "Don't worry, I haven't had much a chance to brave the fierceness of weather like that since we met." He grinned, "Don't tempt me though!"
Facing Arnaya, he said, "Right, if she somehow gives all ten of us the slip, you're more than welcome to sing to the world just how wrong I was. Although... " he knit his fingers together and shrugged his shoulders,"...a group effort is a group effort. A roof rarely collapses by the fault of a single beam."
John instructed Arnaya to send them down to the truck, and as the Mayatan ran off to take care of something, a forgotten thought suddenly resurfaced in Joseph's mind.
Dutifully rising out of his funk, he twisted around to say, "Hold on a second, I need to, uh..." he climbed off the wheelchair, flapping his hand as his mind bobbed for illusive words, "there's someone who I've gotta..." he hurried to the other side of the room, turning in a circle and hunting for some sign of Nasur's whereabouts. Finally, as he faced the others, he managed, "...I've got to say goodbye!"
Before he could proceed any further, Arnaya returned. Raising his hand slightly, he said, "Hey, uh, did you see a kinda skinny bluish guy in a hood that way?"
the color today
The Necropolis (Akane; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris)
Akane shook her head at the Quetzalcoatlus galloping away. "I did tell him to run..." she said, before glancing down at the stone hand clenching her wrist.
"Right, you guys. I guess you don't" Stone cracked and crumbled away as the oni wrenched her arm free from the statue's grasp, "value your fingers!" she yelled at the statue. Pulling off a high backflip, she nimbly landed on her feet outside the circle of statues. Drawing her scythe, she deftly twirled it. "Alrighty then, I'm going to blink once. Anyone who doesn't want to fight me, cover your face."
Blink.
Many of the statues closed in, others hanging back with their faces covered. "Right... don't say I didn't warn you..."
Forest's Edge ~ Campsite (Bonnie, Carol, Lily; Mequoql, Morpho; Henry, Joseph; Rebecca(?))
Lily nodded, "Yes, he should be fine now," she told Henry, before turning towards the lagokin medic. "Bonnie, could you tell if perhaps there's something wrong with his aether matrix or something?" she asked.
Bonnie scowled, before scratching her head, "I could try... but I'm probably just going to come up with circles since he's not trained in magic—"
"He started off as a lizard, used magical gems to become a boy, and has had spell-craft worked on him," the flight mage deadpanned.
"Right..." Bonnie said, gently tugging on one of her ears, "Silly me, that would make something noticeable, I suppose. I'll see what I can find— right after Mequoql finishes... whatever it is she's doing," she said, gesturing with her staff towards the staredown the Mayatan was having with Joseph.
Meanwhile, the zebreer returned to continue grazing on the mushrooms.
"So you did," Carol told Morpho, before staring at the beasts for a moment, before huffing and turning her head away, "Weirdo deer. Must be the 'shrooms."
[Ship]
Jackson's eyes widened. "Oh! So you and Joseph are on a job? Kind of like the ones you mentioned earlier before I gave you the laser?" He looked over at Joseph, a little baffled; from the time that he knew him from the city, this guy did not look the type who would willingly do dangerous hits like this. There was a story here, no doubt. He would ask later, once the thief was accounted for.
"My best guess," he continued, "is that she's stocking up. Either she's getting food or more ammo. Even so, if that's the case, why park the car away from town? That's practically asking for it to be found." He rubbed his chin, "How odd."
Adam jumped when he suddenly felt his socks move slightly, then sighed.
"...D-Did you really have to use me as an example?" he asked, "Listen, if you're trying to flirt with me, no thank you. I'm not into vampires or girls." He rubbed his arm, "Oh. T-That sounded mean."
"She was just trying to show you her tactics, Adam." Amy said, "Stop being like that towards her! She's on our side."
"Gosh," Nick said, "You're really protective about her, Amy. Almost as if..." A huge grin grew on his face when the realization hit him, "Ooohhh, I get it now."
Amy turned away and blushed. "S-Shut up!"
Maya smirked at Davey. "I'll reign ya in, pal."
Just as they got on the transporter pad, Joseph spoke up. Apparently, he needed to say goodbye to someone before they hunted down the thief.
"Take your time, sweetie." Maria said, "We'll wait here for you. I think we need to give our gear another look over, anyway."
John looked over Arnaya as she walked back in the room, small bits of blue blood hanging from her mouth, and shuddered. "I'm very afraid to ask what you just did."
"Okay," Maya said, "Now that we have some time before we go, I need to ask this question before I forget. What, exactly, is Web Of Friendship supposed to be? Because you are the weirdest friendship group I have ever seen. I mean...you're a vampire that strikes fear, and you guys have a robot who thinks trash talking people relieves stress. What gives?"
Edited by Masterofchaos on Mar 27th 2019 at 5:43:27 AM
Forest - Eastern End - Telegraph Tower
Jean; Teri, Wolfe and Gwion; Parthenia and Farrah
She saw them again. The shadows. Some had eyes staring at her in accusation. Some had fingers, pointing at her, finding her wherever she'd go, however she'd hide. In the dark chamber they were in, above the shadows hung a light, just low enough for her to reach. Bright enough to chase the shadows away. She went towards it. The shadows' eyes followed her. Gestures of accusation turned into a forest of arms. They grabbed her. Tried to stop her. In spite of countless souls weighing her down, she kept reachig towards the elusive light, trying to grab it. Finally! She held on to it. Held it as tightly as she could. And…
"A'right, Sparky, you can let her go."
Her eyes met the green carpet of the forest. Her nostrils were attacked by its lavish air. She was holding something in her hand. That something was struggling to break free. She raised her head. Hanging from the saddle, it was rather difficult to do. She was holding a practically-dressed young brunette by her forearm. The mercenary was also there, along with three more people she couldn't recognize. Farrah's accusatory stare was painfully familiar, though.
"Oh," Parthenia released the woman. Pulled herself up, let herself off the horse's back. "How long was I out? Who are these people?"
"For about two hours," said Farrah. "The girl whose arm you just tried to tear off is Jean. This guy is Gwion."
She gestured at the cyborg.
"They're tomb raiders, or something." The merc smirked. "Those two are Teri and Kev. Angry Sumbitches. No, Batshit Whoresons?"
She paused for a while, thinking.
"Wait. Mad Bastards." She turned to Kev. "Is that a gang name? I'm sorry, but you two are too nice for ordinary hoodlums. They usually don't offer tea on the first meeting. They sure as hell don't refuse a fight."
The Inquisitor nodded a greeting to everyone.
"My name is Parthenia the Keraunos. I'm the … former Inquisitor of Technocratic State of Shattered World's Scarab Shard."
Edited by Millership on Mar 25th 2019 at 10:03:12 PM
Spiral out, keep going.
City Hall Basement (Haydn, Wilhelmine; Oseru)
Wilhelmine nodded, "Yes, the original intention was to find out if the locals knew anything. Finding and interrogating this 'Black Morgan' of yours would work just as well." She glanced upwards towards the ceiling, "I'm presuming that with the numerous bandits crawling about this building, that this is where they're calling their headquarters."
She hefted her icy hammer, "Indeed. Standardized spells. Easier to train mages that way." She glanced over her shoulder at her subordinate, "Simple enough that even a perverse half-wit could more-or-less safely learn magic."
Haydn flipped Wilhelmine off.
"My point exactly," she said, shaking her head.
Turning her head back towards Oseru, she continued, "Well, there wouldn't be any presence behind my magic; it's fueled by aether." She sighed softly, "It might be a different story if I had a Goddess shard, though."
Forest ~ Ruins (Jean; Gwion, Teri, Wolf; Ferrah, Parthenia)
"You... have a rather strong grip," Jean told Parthenia as she rubbed her wrist.
She tilted her head towards the overgrown bunker, "We're investigating these ruins. Not quiet tomb raiding—" she said, before glancing down at the partially uncovered skeleton, "mostly."
Tapping her chin, she hmmed softly to herself. "The former inquisitor? My, that must have been stressful for you," she said to Parthenia, "doing all that work by your lonesome?"
Border of the Warpfields, Petrifying Pond (Syrni Sandra, Jen Jara)
After returning from depositing the wildlife elsewhere, Syrni Sandra started zig-zagging to a specific spot and said, "Okay, so you know that shimmer Arilay said she wanted us to investigate? I caught glimpses of it too, it stayed put in the same spot while we were doing our song and dance with the wildlife. It's somewhere right over he—" In mid-sentence, she flinched and abruptly teleported away.
"What the—?" Jen Jara was confused. She'd been right behind Syrni Sandra, and now there was a small green eight-pointed star shape shimmering in midair where Syrni Sandra used to be. It was strangely fascinating, and Jen Jara felt herself unconsciously starting to reach for it.
"Freeze!" Syrni Sandra warned from behind Jen Jara, her voice thick with pain.
Jen Jara froze — she'd heard that exact tone before in Syrni Sandra's voice and in her own. That was the tone they used when one of them broke an exoskeletal leg plate and the other was in immediate danger of suffering the same fate.
From directly behind Jen Jara, Syrni Sandra directed, "Keep facing forward. Back away slowly. Don't turn your back on it."
Jen Jara complied. "What happened?"
"I'll explain later — scoot left. Further. Further. Go backwards again. Keep coming, keep coming, keep coming — okay, you're safe."
Jen Jara turned just in time to catch a collapsing Syrni Sandra. "What happened?" she repeated.
Syrni Sandra had her gauntleted hands pressed to her thigh, bright red blood already oozing out from under the armor. She briefly parted them to let Jen Jara glimpse a missing section of leg plating. Jen Jara interjected "Kat-chi-atz!" at the sight. At least the blood wasn't spurting.
"Invisible hazard." Syrni Sandra bobbed her head, "Is that the missing chitin it took?"
Jen Jara looked again. Suspended in midair and slowly twirling was a section of green chitin in the shape of an eight-pointed star. The air around it glimmered as well. "Apparently."
Syrni Sandra murmured, "That would be so beautiful if I ignored its origin."
Jen Jara realized she was about to fall into a trance from the sight (again) and shook it off. "Right. First aid. Now." She pulled it out of her pouch. Viporis first aid was taught in their elementary schools, so Jen Jara wasted no time applying quick-drying plaster.
Ghost Town, City Hall (Aynara; Seven Bandits)
Aynara continued telepathically eavesdropping on the conversation between Oseru and Wilhelmine in the basement. She had nothing to contribute to the conversation at the moment.
Earlier Wilhelmine had thought about locating the Panzerfaust, so behind her mental shields, Aynara earmarked that information in her entry to the ship's log, then started scheming up ways to delay Haydn and Wilhemine and/or give them what-for for their treatment of the Panzerfaust's pilot.
Haydn would be easy to distract, as long as Aynara started in on him first instead of Wilhelmine. Wilhelmine would be difficult either way. But it was probably too early to make a move, what with the bandits still swarming all over the place and Oseru's status as Friend or Foe? still up for question. Aynara speculated she'd need to be careful to not drop a hint of the Web of Friendship's collective disapproval of the Panzerfaust pilot's and computer's treatment until the opportune time to make a move.
Aynara's coagulants sealed up the fourth bandit's bite wound and she switched to drink from the fifth bandit.
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
Crazy Kiwi
The Wasteland - Mysterious Bunker
[Nora, Moobly, Sophia, Peggy, Karl]Karl and Peggy fell in behind Moobly, the beams of their headlamps projecting easily above her and illuminating the passage ahead - there wasn't a lot to see.
Sophia had planned to take the rear guard position but Nora fell in behind her. It seemed odd having the seemingly youngest member of the team - it was impossible for Sophia to determine how old Moobly was - at the rear of the group, but Sophia was mindful of Nora's shape-shifting abilities and couldn't honestly say that she herself would do a better job protecting the rear with her two pistols and G36 than Nora could with her natural abilities.
The tunnel carried on straight and featureless, tending slightly downhill. Karl wondered about the purpose of this place. There were no doors on either side of the tunnel, so no rooms, but the tunnel had to lead to something.
The beams of the head lamps lit up a wall directly ahead of them and a dark rectangle on the left wall of the tunnel suggested that the tunnel made an abrupt turn to the left at that point.
Bank of the Large River
[Chitara, Naiolo, Pearl, Aubrey, Finn]Naturally enough, Finn, Pearl and Aubrey had never heard of any of the places Chitara mentioned.
Finn had assumed that Naiolo was Chitara's son, but that turned out not to be the case. It occurred to him that his assumption was based entirely on them both being the same species, which was foolish and short-sighted. After all, he was the same species as both Aubrey and Pearl and wasn't related to either of them.
It seemed to Pearl - from Chitara's description of how she came to be living the gypsy life, the nature of her vehicle - that Chitara and Naiolo may have travelled from elsewhere on the same landmass... Chitara had not mentioned anything that suggested they were aware of being transported to this world.
"So," she started. "Am I to assume that you are both from this world? How far have you travelled to get here?"
Edited by Wolf1066 on Mar 28th 2019 at 10:33:47 PM
[Between Town Hall and Power Plant]
Gar May gave the strange-looking aliens (admittedly a subjective term, but still, spotted skin and mono-color fur??) as much of a side-eye look as she could muster. Which, for a vayen, meant literally tilting her head to the side to fix them with one of her side eyes. "Uhh... I'm generalizing here, but I always thought people who were being hunted would be trying to keep out of sight." Her nose wrinkled. "Which technically I guess I was, but not that hard. Obviously. Since you knew I was here."
Not strictly true, but whatever. She also filed away the response about stealth tech for later analysis.
She shooed the drones away with both a hand gesture and a brief implant text. "Anyway, you don't actually need to move your ship. The 'obstructing the hyperlane' thing was mostly a joke. What I'm really curious about is why - make that how - you even have a ship in local orbit. I had to land well outside the area for a reason."
Tipping her head back, she added "By the way, do you have names? That's not meant as snide or anything, since you're telepaths. Apparently." The last word was said with just enough emphasis (she hoped) to imply to the aliens that this was not a generally realistic thing in her own reality.
Between Town Hall and Power Plant (Nyorla, Murquoql, Blackthorn, Zip, Zing; Gar May)
"We're not hiding because we were just drawing aggro," Nyorla explained, "Some dogmatic so-and-so is hunting two of our friends. As long as we're more visible than our friends are, we stand a better chance of predicting where that so-and-so is about to show up."
Murquoql asked, "What in the name of sanity is a hyper-lane doing so close to orbital traffic? Aren't there minimum safe distances designated in the traffic laws?"
"Mostly a joke, I see." Then the confusion returned to Murquoql's face. "And what is your reason for landing well outside the area? Orbiting is easy for us, much easier than landing where there's no designated landing pad. What makes orbit so apparently difficult for you?"
"Ah, I thought we were forgetting something. I'm Murquoql, this is my youngest sister Nyorla."
Outside the Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale; James, Kaitlyn, Kris)
As the camouflage was constructed, Arilay monitored the news.
The auto-repair procedures had sent a drone out the airlock at Engineering to systematically replace pieces of the broken tractor beam one by one until there was an entirely new tractor beam in place, right now the process was about 40% done.
After Aynara had reported Mael teleporting away, the spaceship sensors had temporarily stopped hiccup-glitching, only to resume when Aynara put on Mael's sensor-sabotaging necklace and exchanged nenro with her twin. Now the internal security cameras couldn't see what Arnaya was up to in the transporter room, even though the actions and reactions of everyone else clearly indicated she was in there.
Murquoql notified her that someone, instead of trying to contact the WFS Hummingbird directly, was poking around town looking for crew members to ask to move the ship out of the way. Arilay prepared to shift the Hummingbird's orbit accordingly to a lower, not-so-geosynchronous orbit, wondering what in the name of sanity was a hyper-lane doing so close to orbital traffic. But then she got a "never mind" from Murquoql and kept the ship where it was.
When Arilay judged that the camouflaging was close enough to finished, she sped up the process by splitting off the extra nanobots she'd made. They locked into formation and shut down. Now Arilay had her own secret marker of where the motorcycles were.
Shale tossed the leftover camouflage to Arilay, who ate it. Shale checked the charge on her scooter, the battery was full. She folded the wing-shaped solar panels, rolled up her chain mail sleeves to her elbows as best she could and said through Arilay's radio, "All right, I need skin-to-skin contact so we can communicate faster than speech. I have an idea to get us all in fast now that the lookouts are distracted."
Arilay flattened herself to the ground and experimented with texturing her nanobots to camouflage on the ground, then tried moving. She dismissed the idea when she realized the lump of her life-support suit made her look like a monster moving underground.
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
This is my good side.
The Scar: Greater River
Chitara raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes?" She answered the question as if she had been asked if the sky was blue. Which, last time she had checked still was. "How far I travelled? Well, I believe we reached the town last night. We were going down the mountains, far to the west, and..."
Now that she was thinking about it, the circumstances surrounding their arrival were a little strange. Her memories of the town last night were rather blurry, which was weird, as Chitara had an excellent memory. And the trip before was a glaring missing spot.
"Hmm." The old harpid mused, scratching the bald of her head.. "Now that I think about it, I don't remember much of last night. Or before."
Wasteland: Southeastern Coast
Sallara took a moment to calm her breathing. She stood up again.
"I'm fine, thank you." She told Nerea. "No, thankfully, I wasn't bitten." The onden looked around. As far as she could see, no other living being in the surroundings.
"It seems we are alone, yet something struck Lerna and she almost attacked us." Sallara pointed at Lerna. "What is going on? Who, or what, is suddelny after us?"
As she said this, she walked up to Varla, and offered a hand to get her up on her chair.
WFS Hummingbird
Nasur shook his head vigorously. "Well, that explains much." He told the little girl. "it's not Mana, but it certainly feels like."
"Me?" He got asked where he was coming from. "I think it was that... 'Transportation Room'. The one with the not-portals."
"I... honestly don't know where else to go. I mean, it's my first time in a place like this, and there were so many people around, I just had to leave. And here it looks like a labyrinth, and I'm lost, alone, and just so hungry." He pretty much snarled the last word. Oh, how much he wanted the hunger to go away. "I don't know where I am supposed to go." He said, disheartened.
Hotel, Room 184 (Archaeologist)
The sunbeam had long since gone away. The archaeologist stirred and yawned, her telekinesis fumbled for the light switch on the yellow-bulb lamp and switched it off. She groggily waited to find out whether she would fall asleep again or start feeling more alert. Her bladder won, so she yawned again and reluctantly left the bed. She plodded into the bathroom, grumbling in between more yawns about how bladders didn't have snooze buttons like alarm clocks did.
Wasteland, Near the Southeastern Coast (Lerna, Nerea; Varla; Sallara)
Varla could feel fluctuations in the local background magic field drifting like pollen. The spaceship had already backtracked their origin to the site of an ancient disturbance that the locals called the Warpfields. As Varla made her way around Lerna to the wheelchair, she wanted to examine the fluctuations for specific volatile pockets that she could whip up into a storm that would make incoming teleports or eavesdropping more difficult, but inchworming this fast required breathing in a pattern not conducive to singing.
"I'm fine, thank you." She told Nerea. "No, thankfully, I wasn't bitten." The onden looked around. As far as she could see, no other living being in the surroundings.
Cuddles waved its antennae.
Varla now had her left hand on her wheelchair. She asked Nerea, "What about automatons, do you sense any of those?"
By the time Sallara offered a helping hand, Varla was already back in her wheelchair. Varla had too many pressing concerns on ticking clocks to gloat about the preparation she'd put into moving fast enough on dry land to outpace offers of help, so she choked back a disdainful "Too slow" and instead tried to answer Sallara's question. "I'm pretty sure it's one of my many enemies. I said I'll summarize later." She twisted in her seat, snagged the box in her left hand, and put it on her lap. As she took out the vial of vampiric muscle relaxant and a syringe and prepared a half-dose, she quietly hummed to reduce the cracks in her arm bones and listened to Nerea's answer for the previous, drug-related question.
Varla rolled to Nerea and adjusted her seat and the box so she could whisper in her ear, "Good, then this muscle relaxant will last as long as I need it to." Varla planned, "Let's see how much this affects her and adjust the dose until she ragdolls accordingly. Then we can put her on my lap and get moving again."
Varla rolled back a little and continued the next bit out loud, "If we're going to continue helping her out of this, I'd rather do so while on the move instead of loitering here like sitting ducks."
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
< Forest, Edge - Losing Heads >
"So if anything, he should be more lucid?" Henry asked, glancing between Lily and Joseph.
"Now you're discussing me as if I'm not even present," Joseph complained, though he retained an air of calm, if dotted with slight impatience. "I thought we were friends."
"We are, that's why I'm trying to help figure out what's wrong with you. Look, maybe it's because you're feeling out of it that you don't realize how out of it you're coming off, but just the fact that you've lost your memory should be setting off some kind of alarm bells."
Henry then looked to Mequoql as she stepped in and offered her own take, mentioning something about someone-or-other's 'time-delayed psychic fish hooks'.
"I don't know what that means, but if you've got some insight into whatever is happening, then by all means-"
Joseph threw up his hands, "this is absurd. I forget one measly day and you all lose your heads. I'm not about to stand here and be dissected; you can tell me all about what I've forgotten if it's that important, but right now, I'd like to-"
Before he could finish, Joseph himself was interrupted by Mequoql's sharp and sudden demand. He stared back at her in a mix of surprise and curiosity, silent for several seconds. Slowly, he turned his head, checking behind him to see if there was some interloper, then, meeting Mequoql's gaze again, he finally pointed at himself, eyebrows raising.
He studied her expression a moment longer, with the same fascination of a child witnessing a cat stalking its prey.
"Just... Joseph," he answered, before sending Henry a questioning glance. "...didn't we meet already?"
< Rootland, Pool - Seen and Unseen >
Joseph still found himself—whatever he was—suspended deep in that luminescent white pool, his grip on space no stronger than before. In fact, if not for the images appearing before him, he might have started to go a little stir crazy. Or at least, more so than he already had. It was hard to know for certain without having a grip on how he was normally. He had an impression of his normal self — an idea, but it was nigh impossible to accept with full confidence. Still with nothing else to work off of, that seemed like the best 'him' that he was ever going to get.
The nude figure with the silvery fur briefly left his sight, replaced by two others he thought he knew. A figure with a billed hat and another with strangely colored hair. He couldn't quite make out their faces— not all at once anyways. There were flashes of an eye blinking, or a mouth opening, closing, and making all manner of oblong shapes between. But the identities remained just out of reach, like a word on the tip of the tip of his tongue.
The were speaking, but their words came much the same way as their faces, in blurs and noise with flashes of clarity. They were talking to him, or about him, but there was more disconnect. Drugged he heard, and out of it. Out of what? Out of the pool? Were they trying to get him out? Another voice mentioned fish hooks, which sounded a little extreme, unless it was some kind of big hook he could hang onto.
Suddenly, the silvery furred figure returned to view, and in a shock of clarity, he saw her face and heard her voice in full.
Mequoql, he thought almost immediately as the distinctive features clicked into place. Yes, he knew her from when they had met a... time ago.
Was it a month?
A year! ...No.
She was one of many that he'd met recently, and a year wasn't recent. Unless it was, relatively speaking. How old was he again? Young, right? Or was it too old? He felt like... both, somehow.
Who goes there, she asked.
"Joseph," he thought. "I'm Joseph, I think."
It still seemed right.
Edited by Ryuhza on Mar 15th 2019 at 4:19:42 AM
the color today