|
Konnie The storm doesn't lessen, but Konnie doesn't start flaying skin either. "So you're just caught up in Leonard Lesterman's wave?" She asks, peering over to Eliza. "Hey, E. You're the expert, they bullshitting us? The Wodnik doesn't just jump into my head for no reason, my eyes see this demon right here."
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2015 09:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 21:56 |
|
|
"He's not here!" "He's nearby." "He sent us here." "Just...let us go after we show you where." "Please." "And we'll take you there." "There's more of us, there, too." "Regular people." One of the Lennys gives Sherry a melancholy look, "Who just... wanted a little bit more..." xian fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Oct 1, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2015 17:01
|
|
|
Sherry Whoosh! Sherry catches the blast of water right in the gut, but corset boning and layers of rubbery material save her from what might have been a bruise. "The hell!" she cries out, flailing, as while her boots may be made for walking, stumbling backwards is a totally different story. Sherry manages to spin herself around, but still ends up on hands and knees as Konnie shouts about demons and whips the water into a vicious barrier between them and the Others. Dripping water, Sherry cranes her neck to look at Eliza. "Demons? For serious?" If it's demons, Eliza would know... and if it's demons, Sherry should get standing again, nowish. She's up and around again in time to hear the Others pleading, and as she brushes at her knees, to catch a look from one in particular. The expression she offers in return is just as melancholy. "All of us do," she replies, "But they've rigged the game. You wouldn't want to share thoughts with the kind of person who can get away with shortcuts. I... you don't." The blonde holds the person's gaze for a moment longer, lets hers drop, and sighs. "Before anyone goes anywhere, I want to do something, something I hope helps more than just a sympathetic motion. I'm going to feel like Queen Bitch of the Land of Ice and Knives if I don't, instead of just looking like her."
|
|
#
?
Oct 1, 2015 22:08
|
|
|
Meg "And...uh...how do we do that?" Meg asks. She bolts into a red blur when slush starts getting tossed around, dodging in and winding up landing at Sherry's side. "That's gonna frizz," she warns, and then looks up at Konnie. "Demons? Hell? Like going? Man, mom was right...."
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2015 01:33
|
|
|
Sherry Sherry leans over and helps Meg to her feet, brushing her shoulders off and making certain that she can stand. "I'll take care of it, thanks," she murmurs to the meteoric redhead, and turns back to the... well, Legionnaires works, doesn't it? "I don't know how long what Eliza did will last. I'm sorry." The blonde takes a step closer, mindful of Konnie's chilblain barrier, and makes a point of meeting and holding gaze of each Legionnaire for a few moments... or until one and another look away. "I don't know any of you from Adam or Eve," she begins, "But I do know a few things about each and every one of you. You are not stupid. You are not worthless. Your lives have worth, and you deserve happiness. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying to you. I don't care if it's some rear end in a top hat on the bus, someone you thought loved you, or that vicious poo poo of a voice in your head that digs up bad memories. They're lying. You're alive. That's more precious than diamonds." "I don't know how much you must have been hurting when 'Lennie' came to you, how lonely you must have felt. I don't think you're stupid, or weak for it. Maybe desperate, but courageous too. You're all incredibly brave for opening yourselves like that, for taking the risk of people discovering that you really are as awful as you feel sometimes. I couldn't," she continues, looking to each as she speaks, colour rising in her face. Shaking her head, Sherry says, "CEO paycheques, global warming, war in the Middle East... put that aside for a minute. Right here, right now: we have failed you, and you deserve better. Family, friends, the government, society... we blew it. We haven't given you the help you need, the help you deserve, the help that... some of you may have been afraid to ask for. For my part, I want to stop not helping. I'm going to give you cards for some friends who have been at this... weirdness thing for a lot longer than we have. They're out of town, but they take collect calls-- just tell them that Sherry sent you, who you are, and what your situation is. They'll help. I'll write my cell number on the back too, so if you ever need someone different to talk to, I'll be there." Glancing away, Sherry brushes at her eye. Konnie's whirling ice must have kicked up some dust, or something. It's quick, and she looks back to the Legionnaires momentarily. "Things probably aren't going to go well with Lenny, and I don't want you, or any of your other selves, getting hurt, you've gone through... pff. We're miles past 'enough'. Could you help us convince them to get away from him? I know it's a lot to ask, and you're getting those numbers for you and them no matter what, but please, think about it." --- Rolling Careful +4 (Sherry's speaking at length and with clarity) to give these poor people a deeply-deserved uplifting talk, and hopefully encourage them to help them get their fellows out of harm's way. [22:05] <Bieeardo> !r 4df+4 [22:05] <Krysmbot> Bieeardo, /-+/+4 = 4 [22:05] <Maidbot> Bieeardo, +++/+4 = 7 [22:06] <Bieeardo> >< It's funny, because I was torn between invoking Making Amends for a reroll or a +2. Teach me not to check the channel for multiple bots. :P
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2015 03:16
|
|
|
Sherry's speech really hits the Lennys. Visibly. Most are standing up straighter. They just look brighter. Like Sherry gave them a new lease on life. A few have their chests puffed out. One is crying, another has a hand on the crying one's shoulder. Konnie sees them not as guppies floundering around, but as ocean salmon, trying to swim against the tide of the tsunami. "Thank you." One says, stepping forward. "We... I." Not the crying one, but he's clearly choked up. "I" He repeats more forcefully. "I should have known better. Nothing good is easy. That's what my Gramps always said. But, when things go bad. And you hit a cold streak. And it makes you go on tilt... and before you know it you get desperate. Really desperate." He shakes his head, banishing whatever memory popped up, and walks up to Sherry, "It doesn't matter now. My name is Aaron." He takes the cards from Sherry and offers his hand to shake. "Thank you. If I have to start over right here, well..." He takes a few seconds to figure out how to end that thought, "Well, I'll have a day up on if I started tomorrow." "I'll help." He continues. "I was one of the first Le--HE--came to. I know most everybody." He says, "But, whatever you did to us inside the club, you're going to need to do to the rest of the Le--" He pauses, "The rest of the people that are caught up in this, before any of us are going to be able to get through to any of them." Three other former Lennys volunteer and introduce themselves as Mark, James, and Trent. Derren and Nick--the one in tears and the one comforting him--thank Sherry, and then Eliza, and nod respectfully to Konnie, before begging off and explaining that they just can't go back there. Not now. Not ever. xian fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Oct 2, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2015 05:29
|
|
|
Sherry Watching the ex-Legionnaires take strength from her words has a strong, obvious effect on Sherry. Though her eyes are brimming, she focuses her effort on keeping her voice clear and steady. She breaks down with a hiccup as she takes Aaron's hand, squeezing it quickly before shaking. "Your grandfather sounds like he saw his share of hardships too. Pleased to meet you, Aaron, I just wish we'd got off on a better foot. And I guess by the same coin, anything good is worth working for." The other ex-Lennies are greeted with red-eyed smiles, handshakes and pats on available shoulders, before Sherry distributes business cards with her cell number hastily scribbled on the back. She nods understandingly to the fellows who just can't abide the thought of going back to Lenny. "It's okay! I meant it. You take care of yourselves, leave the rest to us. It's okay. We'll work it out." Sherry turns back to Aaron. "Eliza should be able to cook up another... whatever that was. I hope it's as potent as the last one. I want the four of you to be careful: don't feel bad if you need to run, you've already been through things most people couldn't imagine. I don't want anyone getting hurt if we can help it."
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2015 06:35
|
|
|
Eliza "L... Legion." Eliza's voice is pale, shell-shocked. Her eyes glow a dull luminous yellow, not even bothering to hide the preturnatural spirit behind the windows. She only speaks now. Even when Konnie and Meg shouted and nudged, even at her, even when Sherry gave an impassioned speech, even when hit with a wall of slush. She just sort of ended up sloshed over and kneeling on the pavement, getting wet knees and damp hemlines. She barely acknowledges the thankful ex-legionnaires. From the moment the hive-minders mentioned 'Lenny's Legion,' she's been silent. Until now. Fragments of scripture escape her mouth in a strangled voice. "And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit... ...And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain... ...No one had the strength to subdue him..." "...And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.... ...For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” "Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside... ...And they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission." "And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea." She visibly grimaces and winces in pain as she utters the holy name of the Son, and by the end of the speech, a little bit of black blood oozes from the left corner of her lips. In a more normal voice, she continues, "They represent sort of the ideal of Hell. Th-the well oiled machinery... cogs, spindles, and gears; Faceless, interchangeable, efficient, utterly devoted to the Fallen's plan for humanity. The Engine of Damnation. What every devil should be," she looks up at Konnie, "You joke about me because I'm just a runaway imp. Call me a succubus and a slut. But Legion are the real deal. Company lifers. They've drunk the corporate Kool-Aid. Humans are just a means to an end, and a soul is just a tick on the bean counter saying whether or not HellCo. is winning." She wipes her bloody mouth with the back of a hand and reaches into her disheveled Queen outfit, for pockets concealed within sashes and silk, "Dang well better better be able to cook up another Ear-Worm. You need good strong chaos to break up a well oiled machine, and that's me."
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2015 10:07
|
|
|
"Not my soul." Aaron says, "I didn't know... that Lenny was... that bad. An actual demon?" You can see Aaron's posture change... like he's no longer kicking himself quite as hard for falling under Legion's power. "He's winning? Winning what?" "There are other groups like us. Out around the city. Trying to recruit. If we go back to the Camp now, most everybody will be gone. Except... him." Want to give Sherry, Konnie, Meg, or Jules a chance to respond before moving forward. xian fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Oct 4, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2015 21:40
|
|
|
Konnie As the situation calms down, so too does Konnie. The barrier of ice and water slows down and stops, everything splashing bak down on the ground. The Wodnik might have warned her, but the people standing in front of her were just fish caught up in a stream stronger than they could swim against. Try as they might, mighty salmon or not, the only way they could break free is if the tsunami was stopped at sea. This demon had to be sent back to hell. "I'm so glad you two were here." Konnie nods to Eliza and Sherry. "Fighting this demon I have a handle on, soul stuff or not. Wodnik was pretty clear about that. But having to try and handle all of this mind-cult-stuff?" She shakes her head. "I don't even know, dude." Konnie points to the cards. "They're good, trust us." She tells the group. "If you're worried about anything after we're done with Leonard Lesterman, they'll help you. But…" She looks to Eliza for confirmation. "The best way we can help everyone now is to take down the demon, right?"
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2015 12:47
|
|
|
Jules Jules wipes the ice slush from his face and hair, shaking his hand out. Part of him thinks to use his power on this people, calm them down... but he doesn't. He's not sure why. Maybe the whole demon thing has rattled him. Sure, Eliza's got some of the fire and brimstone thing going on, but it's one of those things that you just kind of stop noticing after a while. The fact that's an honest demon cult - cult? Jules isn't sure if that's right, but it seems right - is something else. "Right," he says at last. "So, I'll get the crosses and holy water... If it's a demon, and that seems to be the case, we can't just let it keep doing this. If he's the only one there now, it's a good time. Eliza, you can fill us in on anything we should know, right? Like, for starters, if we kill him or banish him or whatever, what happens to everyone he's recruited? Will they snap out of it?"
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2015 14:13
|
|
|
Within the hour, the Frogger is parked on the beginning of a dirt road surrounded by woods, about twenty minutes outside the DC beltway. The van is parked a few yards behind a wooden sign that says "Oakmere Lake Cottages." The group, led by Aaron, Mark, James, and Trent walks down the dirt road until the four former Lennys stop. They lead the group into the woods, obscured by trees, the underbrush, and bushes and continue making their way forward through the woods. Soon after, they come to the treeline, and see a lakeside field. In the field are multiple dark structures, with four lit. And the four that are lit look to be one or two bedroom cottages. Beyond the cottages, the lake is a glimmering black pool, reflecting the light of the moon and the cabins. In the summer, this place would be a camping, fishing, and water sports resort. In the off season, it was often rented out by corporations looking to throw retreats. And, also, demonic cults. "Each of the lit cabins has four people in it. Maybe others are sleeping. In the dark cabins, I mean. I don't know." Aaron says apologetically, then his demeanor sours. "Except for the one closest to the lake. That's the demon's. Is there anything that I could tell you? How else can I help?"
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2015 07:23
|
|
|
Konnie Konnie had spent the trip preparing herself. This was going to be a big fight, against a big demon rear end in a top hat, and she was going to be front and centre. She was the most geared for fighting, her own attitude aside the Wodnik was famous for drowning people on a whim. So no matter what Sherry, Eliza, Jules and Meg did, she would have to stand up and take the fight to Leonard Lesterman first. She was going to have to be the wrecking ball. And it frankly scared the poo poo out of her, so hopefully the band and the freed thralls would forgive her for the half bottle of vodka she goes through on the way to the camp site. Polish courage. "Just let me check first who's where first." Konnie tells Aaron, peering up and around a large tree to see the camp proper. Her eyes meld into a hazy black mire, only the slightest hint of yellow either side of the slit of a pupil. She focuses, staring at each cabin one at a time to get as sure a read on the camp as possible. Her Frog-eyes is different this time, it's much more literal than usual. Konnie's not sure if the Wodnik just isn't playing games any more, or he's there with her translating what she's seeing. Kon still sees Coral reefs around on what should be land, but the houses are still houses. Just made out of seaweed. It's very trippy. So, Konnie sees that there are two groups as Aaron described, one of the lighted cabins is empty, it just has its lights on. And there are a few sleeping people scattered around in other cabins. There are a dozen cabins total. Lenny the Demon is in the cabin closest to the lake, from this distance, Kon can't tell much about him. Just one detail. Konnie senses the same network that was at the club before Eliza's earworm broke it, but like three times more intense. Just like an arctic ice-flow about to break off and crash into the ocean, bigger the network is the harder they fall. "All right." Konnie announces, ducking her head back down and looking at her crew. "Twelve cabins. Four with lights on. One of those is empty. Two of them have people in like you said, Aaron. That's eight people. The one closet to the lake has the demon in it." She confirms, eyes still decidedly inhuman. "Aaron, Mark, James, Trent; maybe you guys should keep your heads down. Leave the demon to us." She advises, looking more directly to her bandmates. "Okay, I think Eliza should take charge here. You know this stuff best, E. But I saw that whatever was keeping these guys together at the show is, like, way stronger here. More powerful. So your earworm is going to hurt even more." She grins. "All right, there's a lake here and I'd be stupid to not take advantage of it." She announces, stepping towards the water. "I'll hide in the pond. You guys give a signal, and I'll come out and bring as much of the lake as I can with me."
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2015 08:21
|
|
|
Meg Meg spends the drive sleeping. She's gotten up in the shotgun seat, managing to twist and slouch in the seat, her feet up on the dash with the seat belt nearly garroting her. Probably not good in a crash. Because she needs the snooze, honestly. Parking jolts her awake, legs snapping into a blur as she straightens up. A click and the belt comes off. "guess I could..." but Konnie's already frog-eying and sighs. "Wish I could see through walls," she says. "Can't even do that phasey thing like in TV," she humphs. "Put a brain map in me, Julesy, I can just swoop in," she suggests.
|
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2015 01:35
|
|
|
Eliza Eliza spends much of the trip in the back of the the van, raiding the band's special effects budget for spare parts. Eventually, but soon enough, she emerges with a string of tiny red firecrackers, each enscribed upon with a tiny crayon etching. One in pink, an elephant, another a blue duck, a third a cherry pie, and yet another a dancing mouse, and a polka-dotted turkey leg, and Luigi from Super Mario on another, also a ham sandwich, a spoon dancing with a dish, windup chattering teeth, a purple frog, a turquoise walrus, a skeletal horse with a violin, and Spongebob Squarepants. Also a bunch of singing grapes, Santa Claus, a hermit crab wearing a tuba, and a tea-kettle that is also a car. She snaps off a handful and passes it off to everyone... even, Konnie, whose water power she trusts enough to keep them magically dry. "Thought Caps." she explains, "A stray thought in every pop. Just pops in their head. A quick burst of the wrong think, break the connection with a bit of noise. Toss them if you're in a tight corner. It'll buy you a breath or two." She hefts another Ear-Worm, this bottle decorated with what rather looks like a pair of psychedelic centipedes passionately screwing. "Okay, first thing you need to know," she addresses Konnie directly, but everyone else by conjunction, "Even if they're centralized in a command node... a control Leonard if you will, Legion are not a single demon. They're a multiplicity in one head. No limits on how many thoughts they can process at once. They can go from hacking a computer system to shooting a gun without changing mental gears. Their only limit is how many bodies and hands they have in their local network. Break up the network, scatter the pawns, and the action economy still works against them, because one body can only do so much. Just expect them to think fast because Lenny're always multitasking in their headspace." ===== +4 Magic with the Impish Sorcery Approach to create another Ear-Worm and a handful of Thought Caps for everyone (I imagine thought caps as creating an Advantage for folks, what need them.) Let me know if I'm loving up the Fae rules again. Drakli fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Oct 14, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 14, 2015 06:25
|
|
|
After delivering her recon, Konnie stealthily makes her way back to the lake to set up her ambush. Once she gets there, she reaches out and begins to feel the strength and depth and volume of the water as an extension of her. She'd been in bigger bodies of water since she met the Wodnik--the Hudson, the Atlantic--but never with the intent of wrangling them. The ease and willingness with which the water complies is nothing short of intoxicating. Not vodka intoxicating, either, this is a feeling on a higher, more intense order of magnitude. While Konnie is becoming a lake, Eliza is hard at work making ear caps. She hopes she's made enough, and she's given the bulk of them to Meg, and a few to each of the former Lennies. With Konnie's layout, Meg's got a good enough layout to run through the camp, through enough ear caps to disrupt Lenny's campers, and isolate all the demons into as few of the bodies as possible. "After you run through," Aaron says, "We'll try and convince as many of them to get as far away from here as possible. No guarantee we can get everyone, though." Eliza has to pay a FATE point to do this. Everyone post how many Fate points you've got. If that's annoying to track down we can say you all have a full refresh of 3. Save for Eliza who now has 2. What is Eliza going to do once Meg takes off and fires those ear caps? Same for Sherry? Help funnel former lennies? Try to identify and isolate Legion? I know PS is somewhat AFK, but wanted to give her a chance to post, so if she doesn't in a few days I will NPC. Anyone heard from the Milkster?
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 04:24
|
|
|
Konnie Konnie takes a moment to turn herself into water, before jumping into the lake. But it was totally different to when she swam in the river or the sea. This was like putting on overalls. Or clothes. No, not even. This wasn't just something she slipped into like a band-tee and jeans, this was a second skin. Her arms, legs, her whole body was now the lake. Or the lake was her. Some combination of the two. If she rose up in a wave, she could flatten the whole camp with nothing but a punch. …but she had to wait for the signal first. Her friends were still there, and in danger. My sheet says 3 fate points.
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 04:52
|
|
|
I'm here! Just had a busy weekend. Jules has earned two fate points so far. I'm pondering Jules' actions...
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 19, 2015 05:33
|
|
|
Eliza Eliza lifts the jar of Brainworm and holds it to her ear, to listen to the jingle thrumming through the glass. Up close, the frantic mating centipedes look rather more like a twisted distortion of time and space warping around itself in the form of impressionistic technicolor space worms. As she turns the jar round, it's possible to see what looks like a small oblog blue box with opaque windows and what looks like rectanguloid text across the very top. "Okay, here's my chunk of the plan," Eliza states, hefting the jar as if to test it for weight, "This magnificent bastard is for Lenny Prime. I'm going in after them." though her voice remains steady, one might hear the quaver in her voice chiefly by its absence, "Ram it down their throat. I'll recognize their concentrated sleaze. I need someone on me to guard the payload. And someone to scatter outer defenders and the milling troops; that's Meg. Someone needs to coordinate the ex-Lens. Once we have a clear shot, Konnie's for Prime." ==== Eliza's plan! Voila! Drakli fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Oct 20, 2015 |
|
#
?
Oct 20, 2015 05:38
|
|
|
Jules Jules exhales and, with it, extends his mind outwards, letting his mental sense reach out and lightly touch as the minds of everyone around the area. Around four people in each cabin, according to Aaron, maybe more, maybe less. The one closest by the lake is the one belonging to the demon. He's just checking, seeing if he can get a feel for how many people there might be. And, maybe, if the demon is in that cabin. As Konnie dives into the water, Jules says to Aaron, "I can help get people out." For Eliza's benefit, he adds, "I'll co-ordinate the ex-Lens, keep them from getting in anyone's way, y'know? But if you need help, just call out." To Meg, Jules takes her hand does his best to pass along the information he'd picked up from his psychic scan, and some advice: "Don't do anything stupid, okay? This whole mind-control demon stuff gives me the creeps." Wow, my post must have been eaten or something because I definitely calculated my Fate points - Jules is at 2 based off my checking. Anyways, Jules will try and pass the information he gets from his psychic scan to Meg, help keep the Lens out of danger and be ready to jump in if a Frogger calls for help.
|
|
|
#
?
Oct 26, 2015 11:25
|
|
|
Sherry It only takes a minute to detangle or cut the flails from Sherry's hair, and to straighten the shortened strands out. Who knows how she manages to get out of her Future-Kill costume and into something less conspicuous almost as quickly. Flats, pants and a jacket with pockets for stashing a handful of those spiky balls away. She's grown her hair out shorter than it often is, a bit below the shoulders, long enough to have some utility without giving it a growth spurt, short enough that it probably won't be an immediate tell for the massive cognitive power Legion can bring to bear. The best defense is to be underestimated, the best offense, to be unexpected, or something like that. "I'll go with Eliza, and tie up anyone who tries to get in her way. I should have put my Fairuza Balk outfit on, so I could look like her familiar." --- Barf. I hate trying to use depression and anxiety episodes as an excuse for slow posting, almost as much as I hate dealing with them in the first place. I'm sorry. Refresh is currently 4/3.
|
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2015 04:04
|
|
|
Meg takes off with the Thought Caps and nearly instantaneously the group hears the sounds of the thought caps exploding and then the sounds of whatever Eliza out in them. An elephant's trumpet from one cabin, "It's-me, Luigi" from another a half a second later, and another, and another, until the campground is a cacophony of noise and chaos. Jules senses that the campground has shifted from 10 distinct minds to 40 something. He reaches out to all of them and urges them to trust the ex-Lens headed their way. He's aware that he's basically doing the same thing as the legion, so it's with a light touch that he pushes the ex-Lenny's to the main road. Sherry and Eliza pass the ex-Lens vacating the camp as the two of them make their way farther in. To the only cabin still with someone in I---- "MADAME SKRATCH!" The voice is from all around you. It sounds like it's coming in off the water, from the trees, the cabins, the ground, and the sky. It's deep and booming and contemptuous. One Eliza has heard before. It's Legion. "A FAIR TRADE I THINK. THE legion, heh heh, OF THEM FOR THE FOUR OF YOU. FAIR INDEED." "HOW did YOU GET UP HERE, YOUNG ONE, AND SO FREE. WELL, THAT CAN BE FIXED. YOUR KIND WERE CREATED TO SERVE MINE. AND HERE, WE WILL BE ABLE TO DO SO MUCH. Heh heh." "AND THE FIRST THING WILL BE TO BRING THOSE THRALLS YOU JUST FREED BACK INTO THE FOLD. I WILL LET YOU DO THAT PERSONALLY." Wait, four of you? At least one of you realizes that he's not counting Konnie. So the ambush is still set, but for it to work, Konnie, and probably the rest of you except for Jules, for that matter, need a target to hit. What do you do? xian fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Nov 8, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 05:27
|
|
|
Konnie All this setting up Eliza was doing, all the work Meg and Sherry and Jules were putting into making sure innocent people got to safety, risking their lives for it; that was real hero stuff. Konnie? She was just lying in wait, biding her time and saving her strength. She wasn't supposed to be a hero. That was her great-great-great-whatever-grand-ma. That was Liani and Sisay. That was everybody else in the band. Konnie got her powers from an evil frog who got off on drowning people and sealing souls away in jars, nothing heroic there. But she didn't need to be, right now they needed somebody to drag this demon underwater and beat every last breath out of him. And if he wouldn't come to the lake, she would just have to bring the lake to the demon. But she had to wait for the signal first.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2015 05:47
|
|
|
Eliza 1/3 A shiver passes up and down Eliza's spine, and her stride falters, stutters to a stop. The squirm of her shudder pulls her tail free of her outfit, and she lashes it back and forth like an agitated cat. Her arm and wrists tighten around the jar of Ear-Worm against her chest, as if gripping it as a talisman against evil... or a teddy bear. She doesn't feel like a hero right now, herself. She feels like going to ground and scrambling for the hills. But this... was always probably going to happen eventually. Someone from her homeland was bound to recognize the runaway eventually. "Oh, the prodigal daughter am I, now? How Biblical!" she spits at the everywhere voice, "But you are all in on the family business, aren't you, Legion? Doing the good work of our old man, Papa Satan? Sticking it to the big guy upstairs for throwing him out of Heaven, by scourging and tormenting and torturing the souls that Kingdom Come has rejected!" She pauses and looks down, stamping her foot in Hell's general direction, "That's great, by the way, Dad! Really brilliant! Just hurting and hurting and hurting souls Paradise doesn't care about anymore, forever. Now that's a terrific revenge! Way to go, Dad! You know Heaven even advertises it in their good book? It's better than buying a spot in prime time football!" She strikes a pose and casts her hand out wide like she is gesturing to a grand billboard, "Sinners! Hell! It's where you go!" She lets her arm drop, "You know what? The humans here have a saying, "Living well is the best revenge!" So I'm setting a good example to our old man! I'm free! I'm not broken! I don't need to be fixed! I've just recognized the whole operation is a farce, I've moved on, and I'm having a good life! I've left, and if you want to tender my resignation to the Emperor with No Clothes, you're more than welcome!" She's forgetting her fear, working herself up to this moment, and steps forward, "Or you can come try and drag me back and get more of your cogs stripped, Infernal Engine! I've said it before and I'll say it again! I'm never going back!" ==== Eliza's trying to call Legion out to squish the little impertinent imp... and into the ambush. I'd want to say she's being Sneaky (which is a +4,) but I imagine that a Big drat Speech is more of a Flashy (which is a +3.) Either way I'ma throw down with her Drive of 'Life,' which brings her Refresh to 1/3 because... well, this is pretty much Eliza's whole ideal. Drakli fucked around with this message at 13:43 on Nov 15, 2015 |
|
#
?
Nov 15, 2015 13:38
|
|
|
Sherry - 4/3 The tall blonde walks with Eliza, to her side and slightly behind, like an escort. Given the difference in size between Sherry and diminutive demoness, and the latter's precious mode of dress, she might pass for a chaperone. Nothing to see here; just two sisters off on a firefly collecting expedition. Sherry has worked for powerful, dangerous men, most often as a social manager, or social appendage, but also as an obstacle for their counterparts on the righter side of the law. She learned things from those encounters, and from listening in on the conflicts that blew past her like an indignant cliche. Things like body language and tone, ways to provoke and to mollify, and when best to play either card. Legion. From the Biblical story to the scheme with the Lennies, it's all ego. He wants to be acknowledged-- no, understood as a power unto himselves, to get the attention of the great beyond by wrecking its favorite toy. That's why, as she tries not to jump at those first booming words, Sherry digs deep to bring forth the most dismissive ice queen in her repertoire. To Konnie's frogeyes, her anemone tentacles might seem to bulge with poison. Sherry waits, impassive as Legion booms his demands, stifling an urge to rest a hand on Eliza's shoulder as the demoness gives voice to her own frustrations. Then she looks around, eyebrows raised to emphasize her lazily half-lidded eyes, boredom billowing from her like frost from an industrial freezer. "Booming voice. Oh, very nice, very Oz. And very impressive, living in the weak and the wounded like that. I'm surprised you weren't serving Kool-Aid as a sacrament." Her gaze stops moving, fixed halfway up toward the moon. "Now." Beat. Condescension drips, as Sherry drawls, "They say that the greatest trick the Devil played was getting people to believe he didn't exist. I say his best trick was getting people to believe that he was still relevant." --- Mouthy mortals make great targets! Sherry is trying to support Eliza's attempt to draw Legion out. Assuming Eliza's Overcoming an Obstacle (Legion's Lurking), I'd like to Create an Advantage to help her out by tagging Legion as THE Biggest Ego and tossing a few barbed verbal darts straight at him. Either Clever +4 or Flashy +3 (because this is equal bits Puss in Boots trickery and the flinty flash of society knifeplay), and spending a FP to invoke her Self-Actualizing Narrative for a reroll if she needs it, because this is some archetypal poo poo hitting the fan.
|
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2015 04:01
|
|
|
Sherry and Eliza's taunts succeed in drawing Lenny out. He coalesces into his true form. One second there's nothing, then a swirling force of really negative energy, and then he's there, standing in front of Sherry and Eliza. Sherry sees him however she imagines an actual demon from hell would look, but Eliza sees his true form a rippling mass of arms, feet, legs, and faces--the trapped victims of the legion--undulating around a center mass of the same. "We are as relevant as we make ourselves. He could do a lot better." Lenny responds to Sherry. "But he's banished from this realm. Not like you," He says to Eliza, "And I." Lenny laughs, another cacophonous thing that echoes through the trees. "Come out." And Meg walks out from the trees. "Hey guys, I know we thought Lenny was bad, but he's actually really good!" She says, in a voice more tranquil than hers ever is. Then, forcefully, she says, "TRUST ME" Then, sounding like a panicked, actual, Meg, "No! Get out of my head!" Then the tranquil voice again, "Let's stay here for a while and hang out. We're by a lake, it's super nice." Meg looks at the group, then Lenny, and she slowly, really slowly, resisting, but not enough, gets into a Tae Kwan Do fighting stance and begins glowing red. "We really want you to stay." She says. Everyone gets a Fate Point for this revoltin' development.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2015 01:27
|
|
|
Konnie 1 or 2 / 3 At this point Konnie was just going over Howl Bitch Howl in her head. Tweaking lyrics and the bridge a bit, seeing what new thing she could bring to it. Because frankly, this was boring. Sherry and Eliza were smart and letting them do whatever the gently caress it was they were doing is the right thing to do, Konnie knew all that. But that didn't make laying is wait and hiding away waiting for the signal any more interesting. The perils of being superheroes… …wait. Something wasn't right. Konnie was all water, she was seeing in nothing but FrogEyes and right now she could something bad. An anglerfish. Big, bright light in pure darkness. Attracting in all these little fishes, drawing them in until they were too close to do anything about it. Eliza's demon friend and his followers, sure, but there was a new fish. A sailfish, fastest fish in the sea. A bright, glowing magenta one. Covered in suckerfish, being dragged down towards the anglerfish. To somebody else, this might just be total gibberish. But to Konnie it was crystal loving clear. When you watch those videos of the Japanese tsunamis, it's frightening just how quickly the water goes from an inch high to being taller than buildings. Silently swelling. Growing. Inexorably moving inland and rising higher and higher. That's exactly what anybody who has eyes over the lake witnesses right now. The water slinks away from the shore and begins to rise in the middle of the lake. First a few inches, almost unnoticeable. Then up to a foot, a small hill now in the middle of the water defying all gravity. Then ten feet. Twenty feet. Fifty feet. The entire lake empties out, the water risen up into a frozen tsunami wave looming from the centre of the bare lake. In the very middle of the wave, if anyone can see that well in the dusk, is the faint ghostly outline of a very pissed off rusalka. "GET YOUR loving HANDS OFF HER!" The words are deafening, and boom across the camp more loudly than any concert Gypsy Widow had put on. It sounds inhuman, like a drowning man shouting his last words before being dragged to the bottom of the ocean. But even if you couldn't understand it, the intent was obvious. Without a moments hesitation, Konnie forms up every ounce of water into as hard a wave as she could manage and slams her watery fist down upon Lenny. Attack action. Using Forceful +4 and tagging Signature Power Sublimation from using the entire lake in my attack and Trouble Punch. Drunk. for getting very aggressive outside of the plan and probably collateral damaging everyone and everything in the area. Forceful +4+2+2, and I will set aside 1 FP if I roll in the negative. Either 2 or 3 fate points used.
|
|
#
?
Dec 7, 2015 02:24
|
|
|
Sherry 5/3 Sherry already has a zinger about things beneath the Almighty's notice when Meg and her unwelcome occupants come stumbling out of the woods. And then, the lake heaves up and stands on its edge, like a tsunami waiting for a family of ducks to waddle past. The ducks are quick. Sherry slides behind Eliza, drops to her knees, and wraps her arms tight around the little demoness's middle, leaving Eliza's free to deal with her jar of whoop-rear end. Behind, the blonde's hair billows out and begins to weave itself, a desperate attempt at a cushion, or to corral enough air to float. "Do it," Sherry whispers to her. "I've got you, and I'm never letting go."
|
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2015 02:33
|
|
|
Eliza 0/3 Eliza's eyes go wide in horror as Lenny +1s poor, fun-loving Meg into their collective. She momentarily shrinks back against Sherry, head swimming with the still-unsettlingly novel sensation of empathy. Meg is her friend. And then, her furrowed brow inverts... no longer krinking up, instead bunching down low around a furiously narrowed gaze. Said gaze flickers with sparks of yellow fire. She wheels her arm back, a whorl of slippery hexcraft bleeding around her fingers to coil around the jar, and heaves the garishly painted receptacle at the ground before Lenny's feet. If it impacts anything, the jar explodes in a shower of sound and melody that proves Earworms are Cool! "I'd quote the son of a carpenter and say 'Get thee behind me,' but I've already got people I trust watching my back," This said, leaning against Sherry's anchoring support, as the shadow of Konnie's awe-inspiring wave nearly blots out the sun. Eliza smirks in the shade. But she also murmurs at Sherry out the corner of her crooked grin, "Oh thank you thank you please don't let them take me away." ===== I'm going to have Eliza use a fate point to tag Impish Sorcery (+2) to the jar throw, using the Powers Approach (+4) and I'd like to create a Stunt (Sleight of Jinx) and use it to slip a butterfingers jinx upon the jar so that if someone with super-speed tries to catch it... oops! If I have it right, that gives me a +6 and a sneaky drop-the-jar hex on it as a trap. And 0 fate points. Drakli fucked around with this message at 05:36 on Dec 8, 2015 |
|
#
?
Dec 8, 2015 05:30
|
|
|
Jules 3/3 Alright, good. He's got the various Lennys (Lennies? Lens? Don't think about it too much, Jules!) heading out of the camp and, hopefully, beyond the thrall of Legion. As if on cue, Legion's voice booms into existence like a clap of thunder, all around and everywhere. Even though he's just saved forty people, he suddenly feels very small. It's probably something like the feeling an ant gets when it runs into a highway overpass - the sheer disbelief that something so outside of its realm of experience can even exist. Sure, Eliza is around, but there's a gulf of difference between friendly, charming, and occasionally scary as hell Eliza and that thing that feels like it exists in all the dark spaces around him. And then- "Meg?" Jules pauses. He gets what's happening before he even looks at her. He can feel it - it's not Meg. At least, not Meg as she should be - as she usually is. Oh, the anger. The rage. He's aware of his telekinetic powers beginning to ebb away - only for them to surge back with furious intensity. He hasn't felt like this since Trevor. He's not going to let someone take someone else away from him. No. He quashes it immediately, lets the telekinetic energy bleed away. That won't help Meg. Konnie has all the force they need to bring down Legion, surely. They need something else, even if Konnie is shouting what Jules is thinking. He takes a breath and focuses on Meg, trying to catch her eyes, and lets his vision expand past her. "Babe? It's going to be okay. Just focus on the sound of my voice." However, he's smart enough to know that Meg is simply a better fighter than him. Sure, Konnie might laugh, but Meg has Tae Kwon Do. Jules has... Well, whatever Jules has. Telepathy. A power that takes concentration and time, and he'll probably run out of both the way things are going. Ultimately, if push comes to shove, it means that Meg is going to have the advantage. Between her super speed, force fields, and simple martial arts ability, Jules is under no illusions that he can hold her off for long - at least, if he doesn't want to hurt her. But perhaps, between her attempt at fighting off Legion's control, and Jules' telepathy... maybe he can figure something out. That is, before Meg beats him into a pulp. ===== OOC: Hey guys! I've been dealing with some pretty hectic stuff - new job, health stuff, moving house - but things are generally okay. So, let's see what Jules is going to do here... Jules is going to go and try to help Meg {Meg First! compel). He's going to use this with Careful (+3) Telepathy. If necessary, Jules will use 1 FP to Invoke Line of Sight Helps. If it ends up in a brawl, would Jules' I Know This! once per-scene stunt allow him some measure of ability to hold off Meg's Tae Kwon Do under the idea that they've surely sparred a bit in the past? Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Dec 10, 2015 |
|
|
#
?
Dec 10, 2015 11:25
|
|
|
The thing about Megan Harrison is that she is really, very fast. Even after she whiffs trying to catch the earworm bottle, she has acres of time before anyone else does anything. Eliza and Sherry don't even register Meg rushing at them... Eliza and Sherry are flying backwards before they register that they've been hit. Both swear they heard Meg say "Sorry guys," before they went flying. And now, tumbling backwards, they both know what it feels like to get the business end of Meg's force fields. A flash of red light, right in your face, and then a feeling like the world just belly flopped onto them. Between the Earworm Jar and Jules' efforts to connect to Meg through whatever barriers' Legion has thrown up around her, Meg becomes Meg again the second Earworm Jar explodes at Legion's feet. Meg becomes herself an instant after she throws a Force Field a Jules. But as he braces for impact, he realizes Meg is Meg again, because she redirects the Force-field headed for Jules into a wall between Legion and her, Eliza, Sherry, and Jules. Everyone feels a sharp pulling at the back of their neck, in the part of the brain that controls the basest impulses--breathing, chewing, your heart beating. It feels very much like something--Legion--is trying to hook them like he hooked Meg. Gain control of those base impulses and you have root access to everything else. Lenny doesn't get much time to force their way into everyone's heads, because the moment after the Earworm jar hits, so does Konnie. Konnie, in her watery wisdom, decides that this is the perfect moment to drop the hammer on Lenny. She hits him with the force of the entire lake, tons and tons of water, and then continues surrounding them, drowning them, beating them with the pressure of the deep as Lenny thrashes. It goes from the almost-cartoonish, red, muscular, horned demon that everyone but Eliza was seeing to what she was seeing: a horrific undulating mass of flesh. And then, it seems, horrific undulating masses of flesh need to breath too, because that vanishes, just disappears completely, as all of Konnie's water crashes to the ground with nothing left to squeeze and pressurize and drown. Meg's forcefield wall absorbs the blunt impact of the water, but the overflow still tumbles Meg and Jules like they just got barreled while big wave surfing, and the intense currents drag Sherry and Eliza, already feeling the effects of Meg's force field hit, into a couple of trees. Hard. There is nothing but an intense blurryness, like severe heat distortion on a long highway in the desert all around (or like opening your eyes in brackish water), and a tenor anguished scream that is truly inhuman. It sounds like it's being made by a swarm of wasps. Eliza realizes that between the ear worm and Konnie's harnessed power of the lake, they've forced Lenny out of his corporeal form. Eliza has precious few moments to banish them back to whence they came before they recover and take off to find a new host. I planned for this fight to be longer but the dice don't lie. Eliza and Sherry take a damage rank from Meg's attack. Meg explains in the aftermath that she was doing her best to pull her punches. Then everyone (including Konnie) takes an additional damage rank from the collateral of Konnie's attack.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2015 07:25
|
|
|
Konnie 2/3 When the water subsides, there's no Konnie. There is the destruction left in her wake. The impact site, the soil and concrete broken inwards. Water flooded everywhere, drenching the cabins and washing away the nearby plants. Everybody was knocked on their asses by the waves, and some of them half drowned along the way. But at the very middle of it all, there was no Konnie. After a few moments, droplets of water start to rise up off the ground and come together in the very centre of the impact site. At first it's only a handful of rain droplets mashing together to form little more than a spitball. But more follow, water rising up and joining together until something vaguely human shaped starts to emerge. It's Konnie, kneeling down, hands out in front of her. Even as water she looks worse for wear. Discoloured blotches of water and welts cover her body, and her hands are blood red, cut up, broken and bleeding. Hands clenched together, like she was still trying to strangle the life out of the demon. Hands hammered into the ground, like she was still pounding the demon. "Meg?" Konnie calls out, as the ghostly mist becomes a more solid body of water. "Meg! Say something! Tell me you're you again!" X O O < first stress box ticked off
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2015 12:59
|
|
|
Meg "Hey guys, I know we thought Lenny was bad, but he's actually really good!" Did Meg just say that? She can't quite believe it. She knows she said it, she heard herself say it, after feeling it develop in her mind. Yet, at the same time, she knows she didn't. That wasn't her thought...was it? No, it was something foreign. Something else... "Trust me!" Meg calls, with a level of insistence she usually reserves for solos and mixed drinks. "No!" Meg yells at herself, hands grappling her temples. "Get out of my head!" The creeping in her mind grips in harder, fighting against her and taking control of her, body, powers. Meg's swept along as a passenger. It's horrible. Thankfully, her friends know how to beat the crap out of villains. For a rock band, they're remarkably well put together. Meg gets swept up in the water and tossed around once it breaks her forcefield, and that's about when the creature releases her mind. It lets Meg groan and rub her eyes and stretch her limbs. She's her again! She's got control of herself. Konnie can hear a plaintive cry from the forest. "RUM!" And then.... "Jules!" Meg shifts and lands atop him to check him out for injury.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 19:57
|
|
|
Konnie Kon smiles. "Atta girl!" She calls back, pulling herself together into something vaguely approaching solid Konnie-shape. And slowly slinking down onto her belly in the mud pit she smashed into the concrete. "Hey Eliza," Konnie then calls out to… wherever their keyboardist was. "You know this stuff, what do we do now?"
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2015 22:57
|
|
|
Eliza This is going to suck. Eliza barely has time to wince and not quite enough to shrink back against Sherry. But then, Meg slams her force-field into Eliza, and Eliza slams into Sherry, and they both go flying into the landscape. And she certainly doesn't have time to react to Konnie Tsunami. Eliza tries desperately to cling to her larger compatriot, as the waves wash them away, hoping Sherry can use her hair to grab hold of a tree trunk or something to keep them from being swept into the lake. CRASH! Oh. There's that tree trunk. Good job. Ow. It's the buzzing, that hungry, envious, bleeding-into-the-edges-of-your-consciousness drone that brings Eliza back from the brink of just lying in a daze among the muck, roots, and Sherry's limbs and hair, "Oh. Right. Sorry Sherry, I still got something to do." Eliza rises from the mud and ankle-deep water, a Drowned Queen, silt clinging to her sleeves and torn stockings, crown still managing to stay on her head by virtue of getting snagged up in her left horn and hair and the black lace torn from her sundered, tall, popped collar. Steam starts to rise from the Imp Queen of Battered Hearts, as she turns on her fire magic into a low grade sizzle in an attempt to dry her bedraggled clothes. She stumbles forward and barks a squelched laugh, spitting out a bit of the lake, "Hah. H-have to thank you for setting your operation up where you did, Lenny. It's not quite drowning you in the sea like Big Mister Jay did... but a lake, it'll do." She wobbles on her feet, hands to her temples, "Right, sorry, no time for long goodbyes. So... from all of us, to all of you." Her wings flutter out and lift her into the air like a drunken bumble-bee, Eliza closing her eyes and gathering focus. Her hands snap up, and she starts drawing designs in the air, points of fire appearing like a tiny close-up, highly detailed constellation, lines of flame connecting the dots until the hex forms into the shape of a wire-frame boot. She opens her eyes, and they glow cat-yellow. "Get off of our planet!" Das Boot hex lashes out at the unholy conglomeration of delusionary mirage, rabid beehive, and unwelcome guest. Drakli fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jan 6, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 08:13
|
|
|
"GET OFF OUR PLANET!" Eliza's voice is, for that moment, more than just her voice. It's imbued with Force that she didn't know she had and isn't sure she could draw upon again if she tried. The boot glows bright, and then snuffs out. For an instant, Eliza thinks it doesn't work. There's no sound. No lightning crack, or expulsion of power, but also no buzzing cacophony. There is silence. And clarity. Lenny... Legion, is gone. The air is just air. The woods are just woods, albeit drenched and flooded with lake water (that is just water) that Konnie knows she should put back. The five of them stand around, bruised, battered, drenched, but alive, and victorious. We need to talk about where this game is gonna go next, but before we do that... LEVEL UPS! EDIT: I was gonna go by the book but Robodog convinced me there was a better way to go about things. xian fucked around with this message at 09:05 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 08:51
|
|
|
Konnie Face down in the mud, Konnie holds a hand high and gives her band a thumbs up.
|
|
#
?
Jan 5, 2016 08:56
|
|
|
The Band pulls themselves together and walks back to the Frogger. Sherry gets a text message from Liana: "Drive back to New York Tonight. See you tomorrow. Good work." Other people might have gotten it too, but all their phones are soaked and shot except for Sherry's, which remained miraculously dry. ~~~~ Jules drives, while Konnie, Meg, Eliza, and Sherry sleep in the back. While he drives he contemplates Lenny--the Legion. He can't help but compare the Legion to his own situation. The records of his existence are lost. He's a ghost. A blank slate with immense power. He could be whatever he wanted. And yet, there he was, driving away from the wreckage of that impulse taken to its logical conclusion. His was the same power, or close enough, to the Legion. The same possibilities. The same consequences. At the same time, on a parallel track, he finds himself thinking about Legion's victims. Legion's untold and forgotten--pardon the pun--Legions of victims. He tries to imagine being denied agency like they were, tons of minds mashed together trapped in clear boxes, able to see out but do nothing, with no one to defend them. In defending the group from the Legion's assault, he got a first hand look at the psyche of one of the Generals of Hell and of what Control truly meant. At one point, Eliza told him he shouldn't look into her memories too deeply because mortals weren't meant to see what Hell really looks like. Even then, Eliza locked her past behind a lot of doors in her brain, the ones she didn't want anyone (or herself) stumbling through. But Legion is the unvarnished experience... after getting a dose, he's not he's not sure if he'll ever be willing, or even able to enter someone else's brain and not picture, vividly, the revolting worst extreme of what that action represented. Of what it could so easily become. For the first time in a long time, he notices the quiet in his mind. Usually, even without trying, he picks up things here and there from the rest of the human members of the Band. Konnie's routinely lunchtime craving for Pierogi's, Sherry's mind in spreadsheet mode, Meg's... But there's nothing right now. Absolute silence. All he can feel is exhaustion, satisfaction, and relief radiating off the rest of the band's slumbering bodies. He imagines pretty much anyone would be able to pick that up. But then he feels the pull of impatience, of the desire of wanting to be somewhere, of the feeling of walking into your house and being able to relax and kick your feet up, of wanting to hug loved ones, of soreness from sitting, of frustration, of bladder control, of job-stress, of unearned rage, of that low-grade confusion when you're not exactly sure where you're going. He realizes that with each flash of headlights passing him, he's picking up another cardinal desire, hope, or anxiety--each individual reference point a brushstroke in a larger tapestry. Previously, this would have given him a tremendous headache, a jumble of contradictory thoughts and impulses rattling around in his head. But not now. Before long, he realizes that he can feel the pulse of the New Jersey Turnpike flowing around him. If he's willing to think another bad pun into the world, he might say he's part of the Legion of the New Jersey Turnpike. ~~~~ In the back of the Van, four dreams are dreamed.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 07:32
|
|
|
Sherry's Dream Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that have dramatic consequences. A man who controls his own destiny is a god. Tonight, you will help me be a blah blah blah eternal life blah blah blah hidden secrets blah untold power... This mook was monologin'. What else was new? The mook--Sherry couldn't keep track of all of them at this point--was talking like she was the key to his plans. Didn't he care that *she* had plans? His dumb plans are why she is locked up in this ruddy, druidic temple in the Scottish Highlands. If he could only explain, make her see the grander vision. Yeah, right. She has been tied up in much nicer temples than this, and the mooks... the mooks never learn. One, a few months ago, was trying to reincarnate himself as a Rakhasa. At least the Taj Mahal had some stuff to look at while she waited for her opening to escape without bringing the whole place down around her in the process. A few months before that, she put up with a mook way longer than she would've otherwise because he was helicoptering around the Himalayas (cluelessly) in an attempt to use her to open the gates to Shangri-La and hey, it's Shangri-La. Why do they always only see the damsel in distress? Why do they always put themselves in positions to get so blindsided when Sherry decides this is tiresome, or she's hungry, or she doesn't mean to be rude, but, or she's had a long day and just isn't in the mood for this right now, or she's late for a date with someone who actually walked up to her and tried to have a conversation and make her laugh instead of these jerks who just want to blather on about their own self-important mansplaining! She'd tried arguing with them before, but she might as well have argued with people in the comments sections of the Band's videos on YouTube. Sherry decides it's time to get herself to a nice B&B in the Highlands, take a long hot bath to get all this grime and muck off, get next to some comfy pillows, and wake up to a hot buttery scone with jam and a strong cup of tea. She is, after all, only outnumbered six to one in this muddy cave. And once she could move around, ten times that many wouldn't be able to contain her. Why do they always forget that her hair is as strong as titanium and she can grow and control it better than they can do anything?! Two strands of hair snake up through her restraints and snap them like dry clay. At the same time, strands of hair weave into braids as they snap out like whips and crack six mooks unconscious. That left her alone with the monologuer, who was quickly backing away. Was he even worth her time? xian fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Jan 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 07:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 21:56 |
|
|
Eliza's "Dream" Eliza didn't know where she was, yet she did. She hadn't been there before, she'd only been scared of what would happen if she ever found herself there. She imagined there would be way more flaming swords and platinum crusader armor. She also knew it was entirely possible this was more than a dream. She is on an asphalt road that is cracked and uneven, desperately in need of repaving. In the distance, there are some gates, but the sky is hazy, and it's hard for her to discern their color from this far. "Hi," Eliza looks at the source of the voice. Another girl, slight of frame, with short black hair, looked to be in her late teens, early twenties, in jeans shorts, a turquoise tank top, with feathered wings poking out the back of her tank-top. She's sitting on the porch of some sort of small sheltered structure. A bus stop, maybe? A lamb grazes in front of the other girl. A puppy sits on the girl's lap. How had Eliza missed this pastoral scene right next to her? She knows the answer the moment the question pops into her mind: This is not the Angel's true form. None of this is, but that is to be expected. Eliza realizes that the deception is not exactly that. They've softened the edges, made things more accessible for her, as she doubts her ability to handle True Forms on their home turf. "Don't worry. If we wanted to hurt you, which we don't, we wouldn't do it *here*. And we're not going to send you back *there*." Eliza gazes foggily into the middle space as she tries to place just where she's seen all of this before, or rather, where she hasn't done. It's like reverse deja-vu, or a tingling sense of wrongness, like she instinctively knows she's somewhere she should never be. Her hands come up to cover her face in shock and immortal dread, "Oh, oh, goh-dah," she strangles down the words before she can actually blaspheme, here of all places, "Consarnit!" she stamps her pretty little foot, and scowls, "I just faced my worst fears! We just banished Legion! I shouldn't have to deal with this shi...schlock now!" Eliza looks between the girl and the puppy, why the puppy? She's pretty sure it's the girl talking, not the puppy, right? Otherwise this would be Doctor Who. "Why, then?" she asks with weary desperation, "What do you want from me? Haven't I earned looking the other way? I'm registered with the Sheriffs!" The girl smiles as the lamb takes a break from grazing, walks over to Eliza, and nuzzles itself against her side. Eliza squirms a bit uncomfortably and pats it awkwardly, like it may be a friendly viper. "Call me Sadie. Or Hesediel. You... I don't know how to put this," another softening, a lie of compassion, to put Eliza at ease, because of course she knew exactly how to say everything she intended. She was a perfect creation of the Host. Of the Will. "You've made fans of a few of my Brothers and Sisters." She inclines her head toward the gate. Eliza, for once, is at a loss for words, "Really?" Angelic Fans? That's a new one. "You banished Legion." Sadie says, as though this explains everything. "As someone of your *former* position, I am sure that you're aware of your right to," Her youthful face darkens in such a way that Eliza wonders if it would be less scary to see it happen on Hesediel's true form. "The Legion's Holdings. Their Power. Their Armies. Below." She spits the word 'below'. "We would be greatly disappointed if you invoked that right." Despite the intimidation factor, Eliza's own face twists with an expression of disgust. She believes she has earned a bit of indignance. "Alright, hold on, sister!" she exclaims, "If you're an angel of freedom, you should know me better! The racket down below is a mug's game, and I don't need your disapproving school-marm's glare to tell me that! Besides, Legion's portfolio is everything wrong with Hell! I mean, if there's anything right with it". "Quite right." Sadie smiles. Eliza's realizes it was one final test. A confirmation. These types did always seem to gravitate towards those that resisted temptation repeatedly. "There will be a power vacuum and they will hunt each other, not you. For you did not fall, and in your renunciation of such a position, you may rise, if you so choose. Accept our gift--not payment, nor promise--and you will be Eliza the Risen, of the Living." xian fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Jan 10, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 07:36
|
|