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
WFS Hummingbird Sick Bay (Maequoql)
Massaging the base of her ears, Maequoql relaxed her telepathic focus and returned to passive awareness of the planet. She was immediately distracted by a flash of annoyance from the giantess that her sister had talked to earlier.
Smaller River (Arnora Bluesword; Maequoql's psychic presence)
"Hello, I'm Mequoql's sister, Maequoql," she telepathically greeted.
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
< East of Town, David's Truck - The Wind Needs Caution Too >
David glanced at Jackson out of the corner of his eye, whispering back his frank response, "She's unabashedly looting my truck. There are a dozen of us. Yes."
The looter decided to comply, bringing out what she'd taken, but the sight of the gun—even in its holster—sent a twitch through David's arm. His finger slid over the trigger guard of his own weapon, one small flex away from wrapping around the trigger itself. His tail ceased its swaying, like the pendulum of a stopped clock. He held his breath for an unbearably long second before, with great relief, the gun touched the ground, and the woman brought her hands away, quite empty.
"Glad we're on the same page," he said, as his caution turned to a bright smile that was far cuter than he could have possibly intended — a strange sight juxtaposed with the gun in his hand. Once the forfeited weapon was drawn well enough away from the looter, David reengaged his revolver's safety and—with a quick twirl—pocketed it.
Well? he thought to Arnaya as she handed him the confiscated gun and ammo. Is this really all she took?
The answer hardly mattered; David knew he'd find himself personally accounting for all of his truck's things sooner or later.
"Joseph," he called, beckoning his companion over.
Joe, having spent the last few moments avoiding eye contact with everyone and everything but the ground, lifted his head, got to his feet, and hurried over obediently.
"Hang onto these," David said, handing him the holstered gun and ammunition. He tilted his head, fixing Joseph with a one-eyed stare. "Keep them with you, just in case."
Joe accepted them wordlessly, unsure of how to feel. On the one hand, he felt like he was being put on assignment handling a brain surgery. On the other hand, he felt like he was being given another chance. On the third, mutant hand, another chance meant another opportunity to screw it all up, further compounding his inadequacy to everyone else and, of course, to himself.
Meanwhile, David's attention had already returned to the newcomer. "A lot of fine questions in the air," he said, waving his hand about as if to point them out. Then he turned his hand over, gesturing to the looter. "At your leisure."
this place needs me here
[Wasteland]
Jackson sighed. "Well, if you have a death wish, be my guest. I would prefer not possibly angering a possible necromancer, thank you."
Nick glared at Arnaya. Roll your eyes all you want. I don't trust whatever way you have. I promised Adam a long time ago that I would protect him, and I'm not backing out on it. Just...stay away from him, okay? I mean it.
"Nick?"
Adam's voice made him jump. Thankfully, he seemed normal...at least from the onward appearance. Still, he didn't know how he would break the news to him that there was something wrong with his thoughts. Actually, maybe a damn vampire not being nosy shouldn't be too much cause of concern.
"You okay?" Adam then asked, "I came over here cause I had a suggestion. There's a chance that the thief is still in town, so we should plan an ambush."
"Good idea," Marie said, "Though let's try to be...better than this display."
"Adam and I will hide behind the buildings and wait until she comes out," John said, "When we see her, we'll give you a heads up."
"I'll block the escape," Maya said, "Trust me, she won't get far. You guys handle the rest."
Once Adam and John were a good distance away, the rest of the Hunters gathered in a circle.
"What do we do about Adam?" Amy whispered, "We have to tell him sooner or later."
"We watch over him," Jackson said, "If there really is something wrong with him, we have to be prepared."
Nick clenched his fist. "Look, let's not start freaking out just because some vampire chick wants to invade his privacy."
"Nick, honey," Marie said, "You know for a fact something's not right, Arnaya being nosy or not. We're a team, and we have to look after one another, alright?"
"I know that! I just..." he shook his head, "Okay. We'll talk about this more later. Right now, we got a damn thief to stop." He lifted his head up, "Hey, Joseph, wanna join Adam and Uncle John? They could use another eye."
Edited by Masterofchaos on May 24th 2019 at 1:06:07 PM
deleted
Edited by Merseyuser1 on May 25th 2019 at 9:43:20 AM
The Ridge
The Frisky One; Mustang herd, Whisper, Skvader; four dead juvenile moufreta; three live juvenile moufreta; two incoming older moufreta
The grown-ups exchanged glances. Then the bigger and the older one assessed the situation. There was little point in trying to attack the main group. They'd be outnumbered and, if not be killed, then they'd be seriously injured. Can't take those chances at their age. They could try to make them scatter while all their attention was on the youngster that Iolana has dropped, but the elder didn't trust the younger generation to help them in any way. She still remembered what it was like to be a part of it.
On the other hand, the group of five mustangs that got separated from the main ring could offer some chances at getting dinner. If they could thin it a little bit more, and probably remove it further away from the main herd. Thin it down to one. Not the big and angry stallion - even wounded he's still dangerous. Not the older mare that was obviously the leader - she could summon help. One of the geldings.
Giving her partner in crime an encouraging bite on the rump, the elder moufreta started her descent into the canyon.
Iolana, perched on top of a stone column, was watching them intently.
Those two mean business. Now which side should I help?
Spiral out, keep going.The Ridge — Battle Round 3
(The Frisky One; Mustang herd, Whisper, Skvader; four dead juvenile moufreta; three live juvenile moufreta; two incoming older moufreta)
Fiddler, Rook, Raven and the white gelding finished breaking the fallen moufretas' necks. They were about to start stomping open the reptilian skulls, like they would for zombies, but first they looked up and assessed the incoming enemy reinforcements. It would be slow work cracking each skull open to jellify the brains, way too slow with two significantly larger moufreta incoming. So instead, the four horses abandoned the corpses and rejoined the defense ring.
With his bucking no longer hindered by having to dodge bites to his legs at the same time, Guardian Thunder finally dislodged the moufreta on his back. A small tuft of his mane was ripped out by the roots as the moufreta lost its tooth-hold on the back of his neck.
The bucked-off moufreta temporarily retreated while trying repeatedly to spit out the white hairs in its mouth that were sticking to its teeth and forked tongue, then decided to chase Lead Mare Flashfoot instead.
Flashfoot baited the moufreta snapping at her heels into coming too close to the defense ring. Ripple, Mouse and Speckles were ready. They kicked with their hind legs, catching the moufreta in the jaw, ribs and pelvis. It staggered, screeching and limping.
Meanwhile, inside the defense ring, the airlifted moufreta scrambled to its feet and lashed out in a berserk frenzy. Filly Flashfoot retreated, now that she had a little more space in the slightly expanded defense ring. The moufreta managed to bite Angel's hind leg between kicks.
Startled by the unexpected pain of a bite in his hind leg, Angel reared, but went much higher than he'd intended. He lost his balance and fell over backwards onto the moufreta, painfully wrenching its neck in a way only a chiropractor could fix and squashing its breath out in the process. Temporarily stunned, the moufreta let go. Panicked and flashing the whites of his eyes, Angel started thrashing in a mindless (and therefore futile) attempt to scramble to his feet. The inertia of his bitten hind leg whipping around flung droplets of his blood in all directions, causing every horse in the defense ring to flinch and carefully adjust their formation to get out of Angel's way.
Three of the other white geldings were still in a Mexican Standoff, darting left and right, stamping, snapping their teeth, and keeping their moufreta from rejoining its buddies in the fight.
Lead Mare Flashfoot and Guardian Thunder regrouped. This was the point in the battle where Our Watcher would have decided whether the herd would stay put to finish off the threats or retreat. In her absence, Lead Mare Flashfoot made the decision. Like any horse would do, she chose to retreat. She signaled the herd to prepare to do so, since the herd wasn't quite ready to retreat yet, not with Angel down.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 25th 2019 at 12:14:20 PM
If not for this anchor I'd be dancing between the stars. At least I can try to write better vampire stories than Twilight.
The Necropolis ~ Church Bell Tower (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
Akane smirked. "Well, you learn to look up when you work around youkai. Some of them like pulling off jump scares. And, well, quite a few can cling to ceilings. Or are the ceiling," she said, before softening her grin to a smile, "Your folks are smart people."
She glanced around the bell tower, before returning her gaze to Syrni Sandra. "I'd be willing to give you a massage; might work out a few issues you have right now. Though, we should probably go someplace else. You did ring a bell here, so I'm probably not the only one to think to check this place out. And we wouldn't want to be interrupted, now would we?"
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
For the time being, the fires cooperated. The combined efforts of Novia and her pilot managed to get one of the smaller blazes out, though they ran out of CO2 again.
They returned to Moquoql to have their extinguishers replenished.
Town Square (Maelys, Mist)
A peculiar pair was traveling through the town, shopping for goods.
The first was an amply buxom young-looking undead human woman with ashen skin that had faintly visible black veins on the back of her hands and underside of her wrists. She had stern hazel eyes, and short, white hair dyed black.
Her name was Maelys, Claire's personal maid. She was dressed as such: a black, long-sleeve dress with white cuffs and collar, an ankle length skirt, a white apron, a white, ruffled headpiece, a red stock tie, and a pair of black flats.
To her immediate left was her taller companion, a walking anachronism, the bright-faced valkyrie Mist. She had innocent sea-green eyes framed by her pale blue hair that was laced with locks of blood red, one of which had a tendency of falling in front of her left eye.
Her attire consisted of a brigandine vest crafted from burnished steel plates and red wyvern fiber canvas atop a coat of silvered steel chainmail that reached past her hips, with a matching set of chainmail stockings, which were tucked into black leather "Wellington" boots.
On her back was a large round shield made from reinforced wood and iron, colored red with silver forming the shape of a cross in a wheel, with the center point being a ring around the boss of the shield. Concealed behind the shield was her collapsible winged spear, a mechanical device sporting a bifurcated spearhead forged from patterned steel and imported orichalcum wiring.
She was also loaded down with three garment bags, and several boxes of various sizes.
"So, what's next?" asked Mist.
The maid crossed her arms. "Bear traps, caltrops, and soap, I suppose."
Mist stared blankly at Maelys for a moment, before smiling and nodding, "Right... and we would find those..."
"This way," said Maelys, beckoning for her pack mule of a valkyrie to follow.
'City Hall Second Floor (Haydn, Wilhelmine''; Oseru; elite bandits)
The trio rounded a corner with Haydn and Wilhelmine in the lead— and were confronted by heavy resistance.
Wilhelmine took a step back, throwing up her icy mists to defend herself; they had managed to somehow park an armored fighting vehicle in the hallway, which promptly opened fire on them.
Machine gun bullets fell to the ground after hitting the elf's freezing shields, while a 120 mm smoothbore tank gun round was fired directly at Haydn, who barely managed to deflect it off of his own aether shielding.
The round continued, tearing through the wall behind them and reducing it to rubble and a billowing cloud of dust.
"Ha! Was that the best you could do? Well, it's my turn now, and it's going to be spectacular!" Red lights flickered around Haydn, as he conjured up numerous magic sigils midair, prepping his spellcraft to thoroughly and completely deal with the tank in front of him, treating it as though it were a panzerfaust.
Wilhelmine whipped her head around at her grinning subordinate, "What a hell are you—"
"Flemhazard! Hellfire Barrage!"
Each of the sigils birthed forth great balls of fire, which roared forward to detonate on impact. The building shook with each explosion, bits of plaster falling from above.
"Grand! Finale!"
The sigils merged, and brought forth a massive, seething ball of purple fire. Haydn theatrically spun about, before miming a punch at it, launching the destructive orb toward the tank.
Wilhelmine threw up more magic shielding at her psychopathic subordinate's insane, reckless spellcasting.
The walls blackened and crumbled as the orb surged forwards, the metal of the tank beginning to glow as the fireball grew near.
And then it detonated.
Outside City Hall (Haydn, Wilhelmine)
The air grew deathly still.
The walls of the city hall's upper floors cracked, slightly shifting inwards a bit.
And then thunder roared. All of the windows shattered from the blast wave, the walls following suit shortly after. Billowing flames rushed out afterward.
The third floor of the city hall immediately collapsed down upon the shattered second floor, and soon the entire building was ablaze and collapsing in upon itself.
Wilhelmine managed to grab Haydn before he stupidly brought the entire building down around them, and, by carefully arranging her own shields, allowed themselves to be launched out the building by the blast wave.
Now, the pair had been haphazardly deposited on the ground. The senior lieutenant painfully rolled around as she put out the flames on her clothes, before gingerly crawling to her feet and hobbling over to her downed companion.
Wilhelmine delivered a weak kick to his ribs and rolled him over onto his back. He was still alive, breathing shallow, but thoroughly unconscious. She didn't notice any signs of bleeding, which was good.
Groaning in annoyance, she managed to haul him up and over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Belligerent imbecile, blowing up the city hall like that." She began heading away from the ruined city hall.
Realizing she had left someone behind, she froze, "Damn, Oseru..." She turned to glance behind her, "There is no way she could have survived that on her own."
Rainforest (Leto; Henry)
Having spent the past few hours running through confusing undergrowth, tripping over tree roots, and getting spooked by the slightest noise, Leto was thoroughly exhausted. Which meant she experienced a delayed reaction to almost being hit by a bright red, strange looking vehicle. A horseless carriage?
Wide-eyed, the lamprey-esque priestess stumbled backward, hissing softly. She scooted away backward until she had her back to a tree, her heart hammering in her chest.
East of Town ~ David's Truck (Claire; Nasur; Arnaya; David, Joseph; John, the Hunters)
Claire turned to address the blue man. "Name's Claire," she said loudly, with a smile. "I'm a part-time adventurer; decided to check the wilderness for anything interesting. So far, I've only found the truck."
Her attention shifted to Arnaya. Widening her eyes, she faintly gasped, "Not only are you a vampire, you're a divine vampire?!" Excitedly shaking her fists, she added, "So cool!"
Raising an eyebrow at the sudden onset of Arnaya's grinning, she pursed her lips at the sight of the Mayatan's teeth. "Oh, you've got some shiny teeth there," she said, before straightening her posture and clearing her throat. "Right, other chick. She ran off that way, towards those rocks and bushes," Claire told Arnaya, pointing southward towards a rocky outcrop about thirty yards away, surrounded by shrubbery. "She was in a real hurry, figure she needed to pee or something."
Edited by WillDeRegio on May 25th 2019 at 4:08:57 AM
This is my good side.
Wasteland: Southeastern Coast
Sallara was halfway to the cave, when the air behind her split with a thunderous roar, marking the fall of a lightning dangerously close to their position. Sallara was thrown forward, landing hard on the sand.
Dazed, she looked behind in search of the others. Both Nerea and Lerna were down, Lerna again was not moving. Varla seemed not affected though. Right now, they were perfect targets for their foe.
Fortunately, or more accurately thanks to Varla, the elemental was not in any shape to threaten them for the time being. Not as many lightnings struck it down, but its diminished mass was boiling and releasing steam. Was it something done to it, or some way it had to attack?
She had been told about these beings' nature, back at home, as teachings given to her by her father and the Sisters of the Tides, but right now she couldn't remember anything. The more imminent danger being not faar away did not help matters.
They needed to regroup, and fast. As she stood back up, Sallara stretched an arm towards the sea, calling to it. Doing this right now was dangerous, but at this point she had no other option. A thick stream of water started flowing from the shore, washing over Lerna and Nerea, attempting to drag them towards the cave. With her free hand, Sallara waved at Varla, signalling where to go.
Outside Hub Town
"Pleasure to meet you, Claire." Nasur answered back. "I am Nasur. Ill-fated exile, but the matter is not that important." He presented himself in a similar enough way to how Claire did.
Both Joseph and Adam stepped back, going with their respective companions. Nasur just sat down cross-legged on the ground, scratching his head under his hood. Since now they had a track of the supposed thief, staying here felt like wasting time.
He decided to speak up. "Should we go after her?" He proposed aloud. "I think we have the numbers to split up."
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
Already right next to the fuel tank with her own emptied fire extinguisher, Moquoql glanced up at the sky, saw the metallic glint she was expecting, and made some miniscule tweaks to the target coordinates. She adjusted her telekinesis as best she could — it was still difficult getting a grip on air — and looked up to see the metallic glint was larger and fiery from re-entry heat, right on schedule. Seeing the kids getting closer she shooed, "Get away from me! Get behind the pod!" looked up again, then warned, "Hold your breath for ten seconds!" did so herself and silently counted, "Three... Two... One..."
A sonic boom heralded the arrival of a spheroid dropship, which slowed down as best it could, opened up and dumped its entire interior atmosphere of cold carbon dioxide and nanobot soup down onto the Panzerfaust. The nanobots looked like a ludicrous amount of dust. They billowed along with the carbon dioxide until they stopped at Moquoql's telekinetic barriers and tried to form close-enough-to-airtight barriers out of themselves.
Meanwhile, Too Fast to Stop, the dropship overshot the Panzerfaust and slammed into the ground a safe distance away, bouncing and rolling to a stop.
Outside Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale; Kris, James, Kaitlyn) -> ??? (Kris, James, Kaitlyn)
Kris, James and Kaitlyn abruptly had to leave. They retrieved their transport from out of the camouflage (Arilay volunteered to help) and left, leaving Shale to explain her plan to get into town while Arilay adjusted the camouflage (eating the excess) around the last remaining motorcycle and side car...
(Some time and at least one Unspoken Plan Guarantee later...)
Ghost Town, ??? (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale)
KABOOM!
Knowing that somebody was bound to ask "What was that?" Arilay took a look through her spaceship's sensors and answered in a whisper, "Somebody just blew up City Hall." She felt a pile of bandits on the teleporter pad, but not Aynara, not directly, at least until an invisible presence on the cameras started hauling bandits into armored medical pods.
Author's note:
Ghost Town, City Hall (Aynara; Seven Bandits) -> WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room (Aynara; Nine Bandits)
Still draining the blood of the sixth bandit, Aynara telepathically eavesdropped on the impending bandit ambush, and watched in dismay as Haydn got the idea to use an overkill destructive spell on the bandits again. Aynara's mind reached out to the two bandits she'd left in the bathroom and locked the teleporter onto them, the several mind-controlled bandits she had captive, and herself. They all disappeared in the nick of time.
WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room (Aynara; Nine Bandits) -> Sick Bay (Maequoql, Aynara; Nine Bandits)
Nine bandits on the teleporter pad. Two of them trying and failing to get up, seven silver-eyed. Of those seven, six were in hypovolemic shock struggling to stay conscious and the one not yet drained was still in her constantly adjusting telekinetic sleeper hold. Aynara called nine prisoner-grade medical pods with her comm-chip.
Maequoql was in a telepathic conversation, but she absentmindedly wandered after the pods and manually assisted by putting the least active bandits in a pod while Aynara put in the rest. With all the bandits podded, Aynara could finally release the last neck from her telekinesis. Maequoql got out blood-replenishing potions for the bandits and a little for herself, and Aynara took a quick swallow of Maequoql's blood before leaving Maequoql to guard the bandits while she headed for a drop pod...
WFS Hummingbird Transporter Room -> Ghost Town (Aynara in a Spheroid Dropship)
On her way down, Aynara used a drop of Maequoql's blood to telepathically berate Haydn, "You Trigger-Happy idiot, you nearly buried me under the rubble! Did you not think to find out that I was in the building with you, or do you routinely bury the women you fancy?"
Wasteland, Near the Southeastern Coast -> Cave (Lerna, Nerea; Varla; Sallara)
Varla didn't know whose "hand" was reaching out from the sea, and very nearly blasted the water with heat too before she realized it was under Sallara's control. So instead she started her carpet-bomb of heated arcs, vaporizing rain into mist with a series of violent sizzling hisses, while still boiling the water elemental.
Under the cover of the newly formed mist, Varla rolled her wheelchair back to the group and bent down to easily haul Lerna back onto her lap. This time she properly flagged Lerna, Nerea and Sallara for teleportation, but prisoners were already traffic-jamming the transporter pad. Fortunately, the prisoners were being cleared off into medical pods post-haste. Varla stalled for time by rolling back towards the cave. If the timing went according to plan, they could use the cave to cover their teleport-retreat and thereby potentially sow confusion.
The mist was already rising to rejoin the clouds of the storm.
Outside Hub Town, David's Truck (Claire; Arnaya; Nasur; David, Joseph; John, the Hunters)
"Good Cop/Bad Cop then?" Arnaya privately queried, "I can still make a necromancer fear me more than a decent jail by myself."
"Well?" David thought to Arnaya, "Is this really all she took?"
Arnaya's icy blue eyes bored into Claire's as she rummaged in the thief's memory. "Yes," Arnaya confirmed privately to David.
Joe, having spent the last few moments avoiding eye contact with everyone and everything but the ground, lifted his head, got to his feet, and hurried over obediently.
"Hang onto these," David said, handing him the holstered gun and ammunition. He tilted his head, fixing Joseph with a one-eyed stare. "Keep them with you, just in case."
Joe accepted them wordlessly, unsure of how to feel. On the one hand, he felt like he was being put on assignment handling a brain surgery. On the other hand, he felt like he was being given another chance. On the third, mutant hand, another chance meant another opportunity to screw it all up, further compounding his inadequacy to everyone else and, of course, to himself.
Arnaya wondered if now would be a good time to initiate the mentor-student muscle-memory-borrowing connection, but she was distracted by John finangling Adam away and the rest of his friends huddling.
"We watch over him," Jackson said, "If there really is something wrong with him, we have to be prepared."
"I'm with Jackson," Arnaya interjected, "this calls for espionage."
"You should know that Mayatans usually can't turn off our telepathy," Arnaya interrupted, disgruntled. "From our point of view, you think loudly enough to where I'd have to do the equivalent of sticking my fingers in my ears and yelling 'la la la la la'."
"I know that! I just..." he shook his head, "Okay. We'll talk about this more later. Right now, we got a damn thief to stop."
Her attention shifted to Arnaya. Widening her eyes, she faintly gasped, "Not only are you a vampire, you're a divine vampire?!" Excitedly shaking her fists, she added, "So cool!"
"Oh, I am most definitely not divine," Arnaya uncorked her Evil Laugh to add to her Slasher Smile, "I'm merely from another planet."
Arnaya watched and waited to see how everyone else would react. She was prepared to reinstate her stealth alongside her twin's stolen stealth energy if push came to shove. Trying espionage to figure out what's wrong with Adam without tipping off him or anybody potentially more cunning than him would be more of a challenge than catching thieves.
The Necropolis ~ Church Bell Tower -> ? (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
"Ooh, thank you, where do you have in mind?" Syrni Sandra didn't know what to expect, would she be whisked off or expected to follow?
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 26th 2019 at 9:45:00 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.
The Wasteland ~ Southeastern Coast (Lerna, Nerea; Varla; Sallara)
Feeling water flowing around her, Nerea stirred. Rising to her feet, she felt around with her senses, noticing the water was headed towards the cave they had been heading to, guided by Sallara's hand. The air was also filled with mist, useful for concealing their position from prying eyes— completely useless to block something akin to aether resonance.
Seeing as Varla had scooped up Lerna, the Empress did the same with the panicked isopod scuttling around, spared from the massive lightning strike moments earlier. Cuddles curled into a ball in Nerea's arms, as she held the creature tightly to her chest before chasing after Varla.
Meanwhile, Lerna's heart settled into feeble quivering, unable to pump blood. Her breathing stopped in its entirety.
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
The two obeyed Moquoql, seeking refuge behind the pod and holding their breath, as superfluous as it was for the artificial Silver Witch.
The arrival of the dropship and the subsequent cloud of carbon dioxide and nanobots startled the boy, while Novia looked on, unfazed. She didn't flinch when the pod crashlanded, either, unlike her pilot.
"It is OK," she told the boy, "you can breath now."
Pilot 0037 peered around the pod, gawking at the dropship. "Wow..."
The smothering cloud of cold CO2 was working; the flames were being blanketed into submission by the gas.
Outside Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale)
The two girls were prepared to enter the ghost town when the explosion went off.
Instead of asking what happened, they took defensive measures; Cynthia projecting a domed shield of hard light, and Diantha dropping to ready stance, calling up the powers of her noble spirits.
Turning her head slightly in Arilay's direction, Cynthia piped up, "Why would someone do that?"
"Bandits?" Diantha ambiguously replied, before scanning the sky. "I don't see any debris falling, and we don't have incoming— we should press on."
Cynthia nodded, dispelling her shield in an instant. "Right. We'll head in and look for survivors. First, we need to get to those buildings. Having concealing cover would be better than charging straight in. We wouldn't know what we were in for that way." She pursed her lips in thought for a moment, "Though, we should be on the lookout for traps in the buildings."
Diantha nodded, and the pair began carefully and quietly making their way towards the closest building, a two-story house on the edge of town.
Outside City Hall (Haydn, Wilhelmine)
Wilhelmine was having a similar train of thought. Carrying her unconscious subordinate over her shoulders through the center of town left herself and her asinine companion at risk of being shot at by any bandits. And considering those bandits had managed to get their hands on some decent military equipment...
The elf shuddered at the thought of having to block an entire artillery barrage in her current state. Especially considering the only thing she could hear right now was the high-pitched, omnipresent, incessant ringing in her ears.
She headed towards a nearby building, getting herself and Haydn to relative safety. Setting the unconscious man down on a table, she began massaging her temples in an attempt to relieve the headache she was now having to deal with.
Meanwhile, Aynara's telepathy fell on a deaf mind, as Haydn was oblivious to the outside world.
The Necropolis ~ Church Bell Tower —> Nearby Ossuary Roof (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
Akane's eyelids dropped a little. "Hmm, let me see..." She scanned the area, looking for any place decently secluded, and hopefully hard to reach. Her gaze fell upon the roof of a tree-shaded ossuary.
"Found a spot, I think." Turning her head towards Syrni Sandra, she smirked, "Okay, now if you'll let me, I can take you over there." She moved to wrap her arms around the Void Maiden in a tight embrace, her spectral flames leaving the Viporis' toga unharmed. Then, using her oni magic, willed a whirlwind to encompass the pair.
A near-instantaneous moment later, they were on the rooftop walkway the Admiral had her eyes on; the tented spire of the ossuary on one side, and concealing crenelations on the other.
Edited by WillDeRegio on May 27th 2019 at 9:11:20 AM
Edge of Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale)
It ended up being Shale who asked, as Cynthia and Diantha prepared defenses. Arilay scanned the sky along with Diantha, the incoming dropship was too far away to see.
Arilay and Shale followed Cynthia and Diantha towards the two-story house on the edge of town, Shale using her antennae and Arilay using her spaceship's scanners to double-check what was inside.
They made it to the house without incident. Arilay and Shale flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the door. Arilay reached out and probed the knob with her nanobots. "Door's locked," she whispered. Arilay could reverse-engineer and mimic the key, but she wanted to triple-check for booby traps first.
Above Ghost Town (Aynara in a Spheroid Dropship)
On her way down, Aynara bookmarked chewing out Haydn for later. She could have started meditating to follow Haydn's mind into the realm of unconsciousness, but she had an idea. She began praying, ignoring the mild ache that was the usual consequence of her in particular doing that activity. As she asked if her idea would work, she tweaked the dropship's destination coordinates, aiming for the displaced heart that she'd smelled through the Angry Guard Dog earlier, the one that had smelled tampered with and wrong.
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
Shivering and smiling from the drop pod's cold effective contents, Moquoql carefully consolidated her nanobot-reinforced telekinetic barriers, then jumped off the wreck and glided over to the pod to triple-check that Novia and the pilot were indeed OK.
"It is OK," Novia told the boy, "you can breathe now."
Pilot 0037 peered around the pod, gawking at the dropship. "Wow..."
Moquoql kept consolidating her telekinesis as she refilled the fire extinguishers just in case. Meanwhile, the spheroid dropship picked itself up from where it had rolled to a stop and slowly floated closer, unharmed. Good ol' sturdy drop pods, built to withstand lithobraking just in case.
The Necropolis ~ Church Bell Tower —> Nearby Ossuary Roof (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
Syrni Sandra nodded, then had a moment of startled speedy overthinking when she was pulled, accidentally off-balance, into Akane's embrace. Syrni Sandra didn't expect species that didn't have stingers or claws in their fingertips to follow Viporis culture's reluctance of hand contact on skin, the question was whether or not it would be polite for Syrni Sandra to grab back. Syrni Sandra twitched with hesitation in Akane's embrace before she mirrored Akane's embrace to keep from stumbling. Oh well, Syrni Sandra didn't have enough paralytic in her glands to do anything more than give Akane a sore muscle and she didn't intend to sting Akane anyway. Between that and Akane's almost certain unawareness of what Viporises thought of hand contact on skin, the question was moot.
One whirlwind later, Syrni Sandra kept her opinion that that was a lot of unnecessary air movement to herself, instead looking around taking in the surroundings. There was a large tree growing nearby that contributed to the privacy in one direction. "Interesting spot you picked," Syrni Sandra concluded, reaching down between where her three cloths met to remove the first aid kit from her biological pouch. She set the case aside out of the way in preparation for the massage, guessing that it would get in the way and dig in uncomfortably if it remained in her pouch. She looked to Akane for cues on what other preparations to do, unsure if Akane would want clothes out of the way.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 29th 2019 at 4:39:37 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.
Town Square, Bulletin Board (Zelena; Michelle, Michelle, Jenny, Soryn)
A flash of light suddenly appeared and it was bright and glowing like an emerald, all green, very peridot in hue.
Suddenly, a woman appeared - she was almost 6ft tall.
Dressed regally like an Ancient Egyptian queen (white dress and a fancy hat), was Zelena Zmije. She had very adobe-colored skin, and wore jewellery with it.
You could have sworn she was an Ancient Egyptian who ended up Trapped in Another World, but alas, it was not to be.
Zelena looked human but was not actually human - it was just a form that was taken on not to frighten people.
She was actually snake-person, but she had arms and legs, and had came here via finding a wormhole in her home universe.
From what she could see it was a meadowland, much like her home planet, so not that bad.
In the distance - she wasn't that far from them, she could see Soryn, the two Michelles and Jenny, close to a spaceship of some kind.
Zelena had a purpose for being here - she was intent on bringing back artifacts to sell on the black market. For her, it was about the paycheck.
"Z-z-zhhello-ooo—oo!!" she shouted, quite loudly, with it able to be heard by Soryn, the two Jennys and Michelle.
The zh- thing was a slight verbal tic, making her words sound "zh-" in pronounciation, and it came out when she was in a new place she didn't know well or if she was nervous.
Zelena had ambitions of finding some artifacts to take back to her homeworld, but suddenly got distracted by Soryn.
"It'll be a quick fling", she thought, "He's so goddamn hot, and looks like my species, sort of!"
Edited by Merseyuser1 on May 30th 2019 at 2:35:17 PM
It's a bird.
Grasslands, Battlefield -> Following hoofprints south (Varg, Jann; Rosalind; Ozurr)
Jann climbed up into the vehicle's cabin and made his way to the middle seat, throwing occasional nervous glances towards Rosalind following behind him. What he had said had clearly affected her more than she let on, and given what she'd already revealed about her past it wasn't difficult to come up with possible reasons as to why...
"Money, mostly," Jann answered, thankful for the distraction. He sat down, adjusting his coat behind his back and pushing his gun holster further to the side. "The Brightcliff mage academy has the finest laboratories in the known world, so matching that would be quite expensive. Not to mention the uh, cost of the needed security and so on."
He scratched his head.
"And the views that both the Temple and the Merchant Lords share on the whole subject certainly doesn't make it any easier. It was a rather... misguided attempt at funding an expedition that sort of kicked off my first little adventure with Varg and her colleagues, actually."
Varg and Ozurr approached the vehicle as well.
"I was just reminded..." the haugr woman said as she noticed Ozurr's surprise, gesturing towards the nearby wake of crows. "Where I was born most folk pray to the Crowmother. I heard the tales about her as a girl..." She paused briefly, with a blank expression on her face as her mind drifted to her childhood home. "...and later from visiting merchants, but she's not as popular down south."
She reached the vehicle, and grabbed one of the crudely shaped metal bars by the door to pull herself up.
"Her children still watch over us no matter where we travel though, or so the stories go at least." She shrugged. "With what I've heard about the other gods, I guess you maybe are better off, but I don't know..."
Edited by Corvidae on May 30th 2019 at 11:32:08 AM
Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
< Forest, Edge - of Hysteria >
Joseph's head was torn up by a swirling storm of voices too loud, too overlapping to properly comprehend, pain that seemed to intensify just as it was growing bearable, a strange, profound fear of Mequoql, and his own frantic thoughts, trying fruitlessly to piece any of it together. His hands were back over his ears, as though to block his sanity escaping from within, or to hold himself steady, or maybe just to make some sense of the outward silence.
As Bonnie drew nearer and declared her intentions, Joe shook his head no, his eyes pleading amidst their confusion.
"No, please..." he begged, trying to back away. But there was nothing but Morpho to back into. Bonnie's hands were at his head, and with no further struggle possible, Joseph slumped forward into unconsciousness.
Nearby, Henry was taking the slow train to unconsciousness through repeated low speed baseball bat induced head trauma. Everyone seemed to be operating on different frequencies. Words and concepts he didn't understand were being thrown around casually. Mequoql and Morpho kept talking about someone he didn't know as if he did know them. His mind was being assaulted by words and memories that weren't his own, many of which he couldn't seem to hold onto. Like a word on the tip of his tongue, there was something key that remained just out of reach. People and vehicles were appearing out of thin air.
The situation had erupted without so much as a rumble to clue him in.
"I know all of that!" he exclaimed as Morpho tried to explain something he called 'the masquerade'. "Obviously," he added, twirling his hand in a circle above his head. "I don't know why you keep claiming I've lost my memories. I remember how I got here, I remember what happened between then and now. There are no gaps, there's no lost time! I came here by myself, by accident while hiking through the woods. I'm not about to be gaslit into believing different. This? This? All of this? It's too much. You know-"
He paused for a moment, holding his eyes shut in the middle of something like a grimace. Jaw clenched tight, he growled, "This has been really something, but I've hit my limit. I need to go now."
Henry slung his bat over his shoulder began pacing through the campground, looking left and right, murmuring, "I need to just... just get on out of here and go home. Where are those stupid gems?"
Silently, Joseph's eyes flickered back open. He winced and tried to move, then seemed to notice his restrainer, and then seemed to notice his impending cage.
"Wait." he said, twisting around to try and face Morpho. His voice came across more measured and—though it still bore a sense of urgency—far less panicked than before. "Wait one moment. Please, hear my words."
< East of Town, David's Truck - That Within >
"Hey, if she's a necromancer, what's a little death in the face of all those new postmortem opportunities?" David winked at Jackson, then began walking over to his truck, passing Claire on the way.
"Much obliged for the cooperation, Claire," he said as he went, "but looting parked vehicles," he clicked his tongue, "bit of a nasty habit, hm?" He paused for a moment, glancing back at her. "Ah, not to worry," he winked, "we've all got a few."
He approached the back of his truck, noticing something on the way. "Oh," he said, crouching briefly to flick his clawed finger against the thief-warning plaque adorning his bumper, "the aforementioned sign. Seems I need a few more of these."
He climbed onto the rear bumper, pausing only to call back, "Hold a tick Nasur, I'd like to see how our thief is armed," before vanishing head to tail into the covered bed.
Back outside, Joseph was quietly trying to keep his mind from wandering too far from the realm of reason as he stared at the holstered firearm in his hand. Stop, he thought, just stop. Stop looking at it.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on slowly bringing the gun down to his pocket, and slipping it in, finally releasing his grip on the thing. He could still feel its weight, its distinct shape against his leg, but it wasn't in his hand, and if he somehow fired it with his thigh, well... who could blame him for missing?
Satisfied, he pocketed the box of bullets as well, clinking and clacking like a deadly set of Legos. He looked up at the sound of his name, turning to face Nick with a faint air of cluelessness. He'd been so wrapped up in his own business that the surrounding chatter had gone in one earhole and out the other, barely sparking a synapse between.
"An extra eye?" he repeated, glancing at Adam and John, then glancing over his shoulder at Nasur and the back of David's truck. "Uh... yeah, maybe. What're we looking out for?"
Edited by Ryuhza on May 30th 2019 at 5:39:19 AM
this place needs me hereGrasslands, Battlefield -> Following hoofprints south (Ozurr; Varg, Jann; Rosalind)
Ozurr and Varg were discussing theology. Fiddlesticks, Rosalind was surrounded by heathens. She tried to amend that knee-jerk Bible-Belt-centric thought to something more diplomatic, but then intrusive memories of tortured vampire screams coming from churches flooded her mind and she had to stop and push those aside. Annoyed at herself for not sufficiently distracting herself, Rosalind hastily retreated into the truck after Jann, slamming the door shut behind her and huddling in the window seat.
Rosalind didn't miss the nervous glances Jann was throwing her way, which disheartened her. But she didn't dwell on it for long, Jann was answering her question anyway.
He scratched his head.
"And the views that both the Temple and the Merchant Lords share on the whole subject certainly doesn't make it any easier. It was a rather... misguided attempt at funding an expedition that sort of kicked off my first little adventure with Varg and her colleagues, actually."
Desperate to keep the distracting topic of zombies and ghouls and whatnot going, Rosalind blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "You still have money and laboratories? Huh. Where I come from, we've been forced back to barter. And as far as I know, my world's laboratories are all abandoned and in disrepair. There have been attempts to restart one or two, but I didn't keep track of whether or not they were successful." Instead she'd hightailed it away from any rumored restarting laboratories before anyone could even come close to getting the idea to make her an unwilling test subject. Oh for the love of— she was trying not to think about that!
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 30th 2019 at 6:07:42 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.
Mr ship
[Rainforest/Henry, Swanwhite and Leto]
Henry got out of the car and approached the shiverin figure. The figure was female looking to him but wasn't human. However he wrote that off as the acid he took an hour earlier finally kicking in.
He knelt down beside her calmly and looked at her. "Are you ok? Do you need a ride?"
After he asked he heard something up in the trees. This place was starting to give him the creeps and he wanted to get out of there quickly.
Rainforest (Henry, Swanwhite, Leto)
Hovering and peering through the mist, Swanwhite briefly wanted to growl at the man approaching Leto, but she cancelled the growl when she heard the atonement and concern in the man's voice.
Even though her many telepathic owners had done their very best to try to teach her the strange concept of 'language', Swanwhite's comprehension was still fundamentally limited. So when she heard the word "ride" she had no idea that the man was referring to the machine and mistakenly thought that that was her cue to let someone get on her back. So she carefully threaded through the branches, still snapping a few twigs in the process, aiming for a spot that she hoped would be a nonthreatening distance away. She showed herself, landing in a surrender posture with her muzzle, wings and tail pressed firmly to the ground.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 30th 2019 at 7:09:21 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.
[Wasteland]
Nick blinked. "The thief. You're looking out for the thief. The whole reason why we even came down here, dude." He furrowed his eyebrow. "Were you...paying attention?"
"Don't be a dick, Nick," Jackson said, before stifling a laugh. "Heh. Dick, Nick. That's funny."
"And you say my sense of humor is bad."
Marie walked over to Joseph and said very quietly, "Look, I don't know if you were listening...but we think that there's something up with Adam. That bug bite may of not actually been a regular one at all, and we're worried. We just need you to go over and see if he acts any different while we look for the thief." She gently touch his cheek, "Please don't tell him. We don't want to freak him out if nothing's actually wrong. Can you do this for me?" She smiled gently, "Please, hon?"
"Can you, for once, stop being fucking creepy?" Maya said to Arnaya, "Jesus Christ, I can't hear your laugh, but your expression is giving me bad vibes."
Amy frowned. "Stop being mean to her! She's nice! She's going to help us! Just give her a chance, okay guys? I know she'll help us..." she cleared her throat, "...put the theif behind bars! We'll be by the truck making sure nothing else gets stolen!"
Adam quirked an eyebrow. "Mr. Richman, what's going on?"
"Nothing, son," John said, "Let's just wait for Joseph to come with us. You said to hide behind the buildings to look out for the thief, right?"
"I know, but they just said—"
"I know what they said, but just stick with me and Joseph. The others will watch the truck, we'll watch the buildings, and the others will head in the bushes and try to track her down."
Something wasn't right. Something wasn't quite adding up, and he knew it. Adam was no idiot; he could instantly tell when people were hiding something from him. Going into town now rendered his plan useless since she wasn't there, and yet here they were, still insisting he separates from his friends.
But he didn't want to argue with Nick's uncle, so he only swallowed his annoyance and sighed. "Okay, Mr. Richman. If you say so."
Whatever idea you have, John thought, You best do it now. Just don't touch a hair on his head, got it?
Edited by Masterofchaos on Jun 4th 2019 at 9:25:03 AM
Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale)
Cynthia and Diantha flattened themselves beside Arilay and Shale respectively. Cynthia brought up a body encompassing hard light shield, enough to fill the doorway in the event of any problems.
"I can take care of that for you," Diantha said, clenching a fist.
Cynthia raised up a hand, quietly saying, "Wait! Is there anyone on the other side?"
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
Novia quietly observed the hovering dropship, noting how sturdy it was. "Is it made of adamant?" she inquired.
The boy took his extinguisher back, on the ready for any flames that might well up, but there were none.
The wreckage site was soon a collection of ruined metal and isolated patches of smoldering slag.
The Necropolis ~ Ossuary Roof (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
Akane gave a small smirk and a brief laugh when Syrni Sandra seemed to pull a first aid kit from nowhere. "Huh, so you can do something similar to what I can do— not quite though, otherwise you wouldn't be taking that out. Anyway..."
She gestured towards the ground, "Just need you to lie down, and I can start working on your back." She passed a hand through her hair, "I'll have to get a feel for your body, so I'll be starting out really gentle. Make sure I don't hit the wrong pressure points, or anything like that, m'kay?."
The Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Jen Jara; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)
OH LOOK. NOW WE HAVE AN AUDIENCE.
Krakka'a looked back to the human. He had been joined by two others. One appeared to be another human, and the other was...some sort of mammal-dinosaur hybrid? Was that even possible? It made him sick just looking at her.
The pterosaur drew himself up to his full height. "And just what do you insects think you're looking at?"
YOU KNOW, IF YOU WERE GOING FOR INTIMIDATING, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T HAVE OPENED BY ATTACKING SOMEONE WHO ISN'T, STRICTLY SPEAKING, THERE.
Grasslands, Battlefield -> Following hoofprints south (Ozurr; Varg, Jann; Rosalind)
"Crowmother, eh?" Ozurr mulled over Varg's words as he watched two of the scavengers squabble over a piece of meat. Must be nice, feeling like someone's looking out for you. He climbed back onto the back of the truck. I wonder if Varg's Crowmother could look out for Arnora, wherever she is. I hope she's okay.
Smaller River (Arnora; Maequoql's psychic presence)
"Hello, I'm Professor Ozpin Mequoql's sister, Maequoql,"
Arnora yelped and clawed at her ear as though a hornet had just buzzed it. In the same motion, she whipped the sword around her in a wide arc, cutting a nearby sapling in half. "Who's there?"
The Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Cody, Alexa, Jen Jara, Krakka'a)
"Well, from where I'm standing, I'm looking at a stuck-up dinosaur," Cody snarked.
Alexa gently brought Cody behind her and stepped forward. Cody was right, he came off as rather haughty. Not surprising, considering his predatory assets. Still, it made him the perfect target for messing with.
"I dunno kid, I think I'm looking at one who got up on the wrong side of the nest," she said, smirking.
Edited by Mroh on May 31st 2019 at 1:43:11 PM
Town Square, Bulletin Board (Jenny, Michelle, Michelle, Zelena, Soryn)
Jenny was fairly distracted from everything around her, and had become very giggly and high, probably due to eating drug-induced chocolates she'd got suddenly from her pockets. She'd eaten a lot of these, which were about the size of your average Mars bar.
Chocolate was a sort of addiction or vice for her, but drug-induced chocolate - well, not very often for her, it was new
Most normal humans would be sick or dead, but perhaps for Jenny, it made a bit more sense that she wasn't that affected, as she was human, but with some different biology.
Due to her over-eating these, this affected her judgment so much that she had ignored the presence of the spaceship landing and the sudden appearance of an Ancient Egyptian-looking woman.
Jenny turned towards Soryn and began offering him some of the sweets.
"So, y'wanna try some of this fiery milk or dark chocolate?" Jenny said, whilst still high and laughing, with a very stoner-induced sound to her voice. She spoke sort of like how a 1970s stoner hippie stereotype would sound, and her accent shifted from an Ontario Canadian accent to a Southern California one, which showed how out-of-character Jenny was.
Jenny normally didn't speak in a Californian accent, so unless she had a split personality, drugs could be the only answer.
This was out-of-character as you could get for Jenny.
"Goddamit.... what the hell is going on?" said Michelle (the Alternate Self version). "Is she drunk?"
Michelle wasn't sure what to make of Jenny's behavior. Party girl, perhaps, Michelle thought? Jenny reminded her of the prostitutes who were sometimes on drugs in the seedier, more run-down areas of Toronto she knew (in her universe, Toronto, Ontario, Canada was larger than the one most of us know).
Edited by Merseyuser1 on May 31st 2019 at 9:19:29 AM
The Necropolis ~ Ossuary Roof (Akane; Syrni Sandra)
Akane gave a small smirk and a brief laugh when Syrni Sandra seemed to pull a first aid kit from nowhere. "Huh, so you can do something similar to what I can do— not quite though, otherwise you wouldn't be taking that out."
Curious, Syrni Sandra elaborated, "That was not magic. I'm a marsupial—" she considered the out-of-the-box features of her species and amended with a mutter "—mostly—" before continuing, "That was my pouch." She folded the top half of her third cloth down off of her midriff, taking care to keep her pelvis covered, and ran a finger along the pouch's opening just below her ribcage. "See? Nothing mystical. What can you do?"
"Anyway..." Akane gestured towards the ground, "Just need you to lie down, and I can start working on your back."
Syrni Sandra's suspicions were confirmed, lying down on her belly would indeed have pressed the case into her in an uncomfortable way. She instinctively threw a glance southeast to the distant volcano on the horizon first. It was still being quiet.
Viporises rarely laid down on their bellies, and Syrni Sandra suddenly felt nervous and vulnerable on her belly, her heart was thumping notably harder. But she chalked it up to ancestral environment-related instincts still acting up despite the seismic stability of this planet, and didn't do any further soul-searching to discover the other causes.
Akane passed a hand through her hair, "I'll have to get a feel for your body, so I'll be starting out really gentle. Make sure I don't hit the wrong pressure points, or anything like that, m'kay?"
"Okay." Syrni Sandra voiced what she'd thought of earlier, "The magnetic clasps on my clothes are all on the back. Those lumps of metal are going to be in the way, aren't they?" She was about to reach back and yank the upper cloths' clasps apart and out of the way, but that was the last straw for her neck and shoulder muscles. Already tense from how she'd bent her neck backwards to rest her chin on the stone, they spasmed, stopping her and triggering a grunt of discomfort.
Now Syrni Sandra was distracted by an increasingly annoying dilemma — she couldn't figure out how to position her face up against the stone floor. Up until now she'd had her chin on the stone, but evidently that was a bad idea for her neck muscles. It wasn't comfortable on her nose to smoosh her nose into the stone. Trying to smoosh her forehead into the stone just led to rolling right back onto the nose again. When she tried her left cheek and right cheek, her neck muscles painfully spasmed again, triggering more frustrated grunts of discomfort. She couldn't move to stick her head over the precipice between two crenellations, they were part of a low wall that was in the way. "How am I supposed to lay like this?" she complained.
Ghost Town (Cynthia, Diantha; Arilay, Shale)
"I can take care of that for you," Diantha said, clenching a fist."
Shale grabbed Diantha's fist. Her fingertips sought a bare patch of skin so she could warn, "Don't! You'll break Arilay's nanobots!" They had already penetrated the keyhole and the small gap between the door and its frame.
"Yes, one bandit," Arilay whispered as her nanobots got to work, "He's one room away and heading for the basement." Her nanobots snipped a wire that would have pulled a pin out of a grenade if the door opened, then carefully unlocked the door, trying to minimize the noise of doing so.
As soon as Arilay opened the door, Shale shot inside. The next second, there was a loud masculine "OOF!" followed by Shale's whistle.
Arilay led the way inside — between her spaceship sensors and Shale's antennae, she could tell the way was clear to rendezvous with Shale, who'd run over the bandit and was using her hoverboard to keep him pinned to the floor.
The downward force that the hoverboard was exerting to keep a heavy Sleutrienn aloft was quite considerable. On its own it might not have been damaging, but the sheer suddenness of the ambush was enough to cause what would soon be a record-breakingly large bruise from the bandit's shoulders to his toes.
Shale reached down and grabbed the bandit's head, searching his memories for anything useful to know.
Above Ghost Town (Aynara in a Spheroid Dropship)
Aynara wasn't bothered by how the atmosphere inside the dropship was thickening to the consistency of jelly in preparation for a rough landing, as a vampire she could temporarily suspend her need to breathe. It wouldn't even interfere with her prayers. She continued to pray as bandits started firing their anti-air missiles to explode on the dropship's increasingly holy-infused force shield.
WFS Hummingbird, Transporter Room -> Sick Bay (Maequoql; captured bandits)
Maequoql was herding the medical pods full of bandits back into Sick Bay. She paused to sneeze, then continued the conversation below...
Smaller River (Arnora; Maequoql's psychic presence)
Arnora yelped and clawed at her ear as though a hornet had just buzzed it. In the same motion, she whipped the sword around her in a wide arc, cutting a nearby sapling in half. "Who's there?"
Maequoql continued, "I apologize for startling you. I'm one of Mequoql's sisters, the one whom she asked to look for Hromstgard. I can't help but notice you're having some slight difficulty reuniting with Ozurr."
The Necropolis, Cody's Cove, Coffin Room (Jen Jara; Krakka'a, Shade of Osiris; Alexa, Cody)
The pterosaur drew himself up to his full height. "And just what do you insects think you're looking at?"
Alexa gently brought Cody behind her and stepped forward. Cody was right, he came off as rather haughty. Not surprising, considering his predatory assets. Still, it made him the perfect target for messing with.
"I dunno kid, I think I'm looking at one who got up on the wrong side of the nest," she said, smirking.
Jen Jara thought of a retort that was less than diplomatic. No doubt Syrni Sandra would dope slap her for saying it if she were here, but the pterosaur started it and Jen Jara needed to get his attention off of Cody. As casually as discussing the weather, she described, "I see oversized talking prey whose divided flesh could feed an entire city if you're stupid enough to pick a fight with me or those whom I protect." Her stomach was still gurgling in emphasis.
Jen Jara added as an afterthought, "There also seems to be someone else lurking just outside my perception."
Sun-Dry Sea ~ Panzerfaust Crash Site (Pilot 0037, Novia; Moquoql)
Moquoql started carefully pacing to measure the now-extinguished crash site. As she did so, she didn't sense the Lanceros in her telepathic range, so she connected her comm-chip to the drop pod's sensor arrays to double-check the wyvern's location.
Novia quietly observed the hovering dropship, noting how sturdy it was. "Is it made of adamant?" she inquired.
"What's adamant?" Moquoql counter-inquired before answering with an incomplete list of the hull's non-classified components, "This is made of tungsten, kryxtahyte and—" she hesitated to say 'diamond', knowing how precious some outside cultures deemed what was so convenient to get and use in the Jewel Galaxy "—carbon arranged into its sturdiest molecular formation." She added as an afterthought, "With a force field for good measure."
Town Square, Archaeologist's Spaceship (Mael; Archaeologist, Sarquoql alias Ren 4)
"I'm not going to steal her away from you," Mael said defensively.
"Good," Sarquoql interjected.
"But you may have already lost, my friend."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Sarquoql demanded out loud, putting on a show for the archaeologist. He added a private telepathic clarification to Mael, "I already knew her inclinations when she hired me, and as for myself, my own species does not hold much appeal to me. So you'd better not have been referring to mind control just now."
Meanwhile, the archaeologist telekinetically summoned a single-serving plastic bag of star-nuts (so named for their silvery hue), opening it up to munch on them while watching the argument between her bodyguard and guest.
Mael turned his attention back to the archaeologist. "Thank you. You're very kind. A little tour of this place would be helpful as well."
Because Sarquoql had already installed the "search the town for past enemy activity" task back in the hotel room, he didn't need unobstructed eye contact to telepathically piggyback an activating nudge on Mael's words.
"All right." Still snacking, the archaeologist looked around, then started to lead the way to the section of road between the hotel and the restaraunt.
Sarquoql was about to try steering the archaeologist towards the billboard where Soryn was, but there was a sense of impending useful information that made him hesitate. He looked back and forth between Soryn and the archaeologist, then made a hasty decision. There was a way to get Soryn's attention. Sarquoql telepathically sent a hallucination of a Wolf Whistle at Soryn, then started to follow the archaeologist.
Town Square, Bulletin Board (Soryn; Michelle, Michelle, Jenny, Zelena)
Distracted, Soryn temporarily forgot about leaving for the abandoned satellite town. "Did somebody just wolf whistle at me?" He looked around in confusion trying to spot the perpetrator. Usually he could accurately tell from which direction a whistle came from, but this one was different, distorted and unclear which direction it had come from.
Soryn scoped out a trio of likely candidates, but that group he was hesitant to approach. The old man moved way too easily and gracefully for his apparent age, the Mayatan lady was striding with determination towards the general direction of an alley, and the dragon man in the spacesuit was clearly muscle for hire. Soryn didn't want to take any unnecessary chances that that trio might have spontaneously planned to rob him.
Then Soryn turned his head and spotted two more ladies. He flicked his forked tongue out, but the wind wasn't blowing in the right direction for him to ascertain by scent exactly what kind of undead the one dressed as a maid was. Since she was clearly capable of holding a conversation, he called "Excuse me," and waved at the duo, beckoning them over.
And then he heard a lady call "Z-z-zhhello-ooo—oo!!" Hmm, going by the way she was eyeing him, maybe she was the one who'd wolf-whistled at him. He winked and grinned at her, beckoning her over as well.
"So, y'wanna try some of this fiery milk or dark chocolate?" Jenny said with a very stoner-induced sound to her voice.
It occurred to Soryn that he'd just air-tasted something that reminded him of some drugs he had stashed away. He analyzed Jenny's sudden out-of-it behavior, flicked his tongue in the air again to re-examine her chocolates, and stifled a pleasantly surprised laugh — Jenny had slipped herself a mickey or something. Since he needed his wits about him at the moment, he gently turned down the offer, "Maybe some other time, Jenny," and sidled up to her, slipping an arm around her waist and encouraging her with gentle pressure to lean on him. If anyone asked, he could claim he was just steadying her on her feet... but then again, that was rather implausible deniability. He murmured a crooning question in her ear, "Just how many of those did you eat?" There was an amused subtle lilt to his voice.
Edited by Miss_Desperado on May 31st 2019 at 4:58:33 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.
Town Square, Bulletin Board (Michelle, Michelle, Jenny, Jenny!Alternate-Texas, Soryn, Zelena)
Michelle (the original one, not her Alternate Self counterpart) turned towards Soryn and began to point out the problems with the flow of time.
Jenny was starting to recover from the high of the drug-flavored chocolates, and could feel Soryn touching her.
"I guess I've eaten around ten or twenty of these... built up an endurance to chocs." Jenny said, somewhat valley-girl sounding, "But then again, I'm human and I'm not human, so I can probably eat more chocolate and not damage my teeth or whatever. Confusing I know, about being human and not human."
A few hours, later, she'd have a comedown from this high which would not be pleasant.
Michelle - the Alternate Self counterpart - turned towards Soryn and said "What the hell is this spaceship doing here? Why did it come here?"
She wasn't really aware, as she'd been planning what to do next while here, looking at her saved plans in a notepad-like application on an iPad-like device. Michelle had got so into viewing her saved photos and files and planning that the spaceship was secondary in importance for her.
Zelena continued to try and gain Soryn's attention.
"Z-zhe-zhello-ooo!" she shouted, and it sounded more like a hooting in tone. "How are yooou?"
She then approached Soryn, and with blunt honesty, asked, "Can you help me find some good historical artifacts? Gotta get them from here, to sell in my home universe. Money, well, you know, I need it. It pays my bills doing artifact-hunting."
Zelena was still in the persona of an Ancient Egyptian woman, but Sarquoql's mind-scanning would probably reveal her true form as a snake-person.
Of course, whether a dragon-man and snake-person would make a good couple would be anyone's guess.
For Zelena, all she wanted was a quick fling, no matter how long quick could be defined as, and to find her artifacts, but equally, she was so headstrong that Soryn would like her.
"Maybe I can get this guy to help me find some artifacts and nick them from here?" Zelena thought, laughing to herself (laughing in her mind, that is).
In the background, near the spaceship, but closer to Jenny and Soryn than the ship, a second Jenny arrived, this Alternate Self being a somewhat darker, moodier version with blue and pink streaks in her hair, and speaking in a thick Texan accent.
This version of Jenny wore a black leather jacket and crystal blue denim jeans with ankle boots, and was carrying some weaponry. She also had a teleporter device that looked like a watch on her, which could only be removed by her or the creator of the device.
"Goddamnit", said the alternate Jenny. "How the f—k did I get here and what is this place? Looks cruddy as hell."
"What the fuck is that second-rate lookalike of ME doing here?" she said to herself, angrily. "And what the fuck is that animal with the lookalike? Grrrr."
Edited by Merseyuser1 on Jun 2nd 2019 at 4:49:45 PM
Forest's Edge ~ Campsite (Rebecca Jane Walsh, Bonnie, Carol, Lily; Morpho; Henry)
Rebecca was slightly annoyed by Mequoql twitching her eyes.
"That pickup truck that landed? Not mine." Rebecca explained. "No idea where it came from... how it got here, anyone's guess."
That was certainly true. The truck had literally Fell Off the Back of a Truck in Fuzhou, China and its owner had not even bothered to check, unawares it had fallen into the Forest's Edge.
"I don't want to upset anyone. Sorry for causing trouble... I'm an idiot." she said, in a somewhat over-apologetic tone. "I don't really want to upset anyone... I should try and help, but then again, I probably can't."
Rebecca was genuinely sorry. She hadn't planned to be here, and this was to her, something different and she had to try and make the best of it without being a Crazy Survivalist.
The spending on food and drink couldn't exactly be seen as madness, more generosity - outside of this universe, she was already generous enough and helpful anyway.
Rebecca actually wanted to get out but wasn't sure how. She wasn't aware though, that there were portals appearing, or that two people who knew her were watching (but not in a way that was like spying) through the portal.
"Goddamit... how am I going to get out?" Rebecca thought.
Edited by Merseyuser1 on May 25th 2019 at 9:43:02 AM