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Entry tags:
- +npc: jack frost,
- aziraphale,
- beckett mariner,
- bradward boimler,
- branch,
- elle bryant,
- loki (mcu),
- miguel o'hara (spiderverse),
- stacia novik,
- ✘ aiden price,
- ✘ barbara maitland,
- ✘ bunnymund,
- ✘ dean winchester,
- ✘ henry townshend,
- ✘ jennifer,
- ✘ mackenzie haynes,
- ✘ nico minoru (comics),
- ✘ nyara,
- ✘ peter b parker (spiderverse),
- ✘ rainbow brite,
- ✘ rowan heart-eater,
- ✘ sam wyldhammer,
- ✘ steve harrington,
- ✘ the grand elusa,
- ✘ tim drake (comics)
LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY
LET'S ALL GO TO THE LOBBY
For those that arrived early, the fearlings have been dissipated enough for the children to escape and go get help for the bus driver. For those that are just arriving, you arrive to see a crashed bus and a group of battered and exhausted myths, fresh off a fight. Before you have a chance to ask anyone anything there is chaos nearby.
Merely a street over, there's a fight that sprang up at the same time as the fearling attack. It seems chaotic. There's yelling and crashing and the sound of rending metal. A separate fearling cloud is circling above this other fight -
- until a distant figure with a staff rises up in the air to meet it. Energy crackles like electricity but there's no warmth to the color, it's white-cold. The fearling cloud freezes in mid-air and then explodes into something that looks like frozen sand before the frozen fearling particles start trickling off into the distance. The gust of cold is so chilling it can be felt all the way where the group is.
But then something is flung from the ground, knocking the figure out of the air.
For those curious for answers, the answers may lie that way. For those hesitant to go to another conflict (or a new conflict if you just showed up), there is now a whisper in your head that seems to come from above, urging you along. It's pushing into evening and the Moon has risen early, barely visible as the evening light starts to fade.
His name is Jack Frost. Please go to him; he fights the ones that attacked the children, that attacked you. They will hunt you until they kill or imprison you. He can bring you to safety, but only if he lives long enough.
The Moon warns you now because you deserve to be warned, regardless of how much Jack needs help and how true it is that you need Jack to help you:
You'll be walking into a fight but if you don't save him, they will never stop coming for you.
It's not a lie.
ENTER JACK FROST
The fight is taking place on a playground. The children there have long since escaped thanks to their savior, buuuut he's not doing so good.
Jack Frost, the last of the Guardians, had the situation handled - until his enemies told him about the bus, the Jersey Devil, and the cloud of fearlings a few streets over. The problem is that when you're desperate to end one fight and escape to another, you tend to slip up.
And he is so, so tired.
By the time anyone else gets there, he's down and nearly out. He doesn't look like much: a spidery-limbed white-haired teenage boy in a frosted-over blue hoodie, brown tattered pants looking ancient and bound to his legs with leather cords. He's barefoot and pale like someone who's recently died in the snow.
When you arrive, Jack is trying to extricate himself from the twisted wreckage of a metal jungle gym, a broken up geodesic metal cage. He's clearly battered and scraped up, his hoodie clawed and bloody in places, and bleeding profusely from a head injury.
He gets to his feet, sees there are new people and backs away from both you and the figures penning him in, staff held out and ready to fight. The two figures on the ground that were menacing him seem to be backing away slightly at the sight of the group. A terrifying woman with bloody claws, Bloody Mary, and the Trunchbull, a massive vicious-looking woman with a riding crop and stern school-marm-ish outfit that looks like she could bench press a steer, don't like the look of the crowd.
A red-haired man with sunglasses is staring down from above, where he stands on a floating cloud of fearlings. This is Mr. Benedict.
"Aw come on, Benny," Jack calls out. "Do you really need that much extra help to handle lil' ol' me?"
But a ray of moonlight casts down on Jack, and with it comes understanding, in an instant. He looks over at the group and slowly raises his eyebrows at what their existence might mean.
The figure floating above shakes his head. "They're not ours, Mr. Frost," says Benedict, signaling some of the fearlings to quickly swoop down and scoop up Bloody Mary and the Trunchbull before anyone in the group can bring them to harm, shielding them from any possible blows. "But if that means they're possibly fresh faces that might join your side, well then I've clearly got to bring in some of the help to clean this whole mess up, don't I? It's worth the wasted ticket."
Before letting him follow through, Jack Frost blasts ice at the man but some of the fearlings rear up and take the hit instead. The second the wave of ice passes Benedict throws something down, something gold that strikes the ground like a blade and sticks there. It's a large movie ticket, solid like metal and glowing with golden light. In an instant, the ground under the group's feet starts to glow, too late for any of you to escape.
The fearling cloud and its three figures starts to whiz off. Jack fires off a few more blasts but the fearlings block them yet again.
"Ta ta!" Banedict calls out. "Enjoy the show!"
Jack clearly has seen this ticket thing before. And he is waaay past overwhelmed with this crap. In the past, he wasn't the type to curse. Now?
"Son of a biscuit-eating bulldog!"
Okay, so he's kept it kid-friendly but he's definitely expanded his vocabulary and found something he can use as invective.
He holds two fingers to his lips and lets out a very loud whistle. There is the sound of jingling bells coming from the distance, as merry and sweet as a child's laughter. Before Jack can explain what they're from, he's suddenly gone because the area around the group expands and suddenly has walls. Everyone becomes separated.
YOU'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT
Mr. Benedict's tickets can do several different things involving the movies, and fortunately take time to form, slowly growing in Kuk's base. That means he uses them sparingly. Buuut you've had the misfortune of this being one of those times.
You are now trapped in the Multiplex. It seems almost like a normal movie theater, but it's not formed right, with each of the rooms connected in odd ways, sometimes to each other, sometimes to hallways. It's almost as if a computer procedurally-generated its own twisted idea of a movie theater layout. There are nearly countless theaters, hallways, and concession stands - all of them dark, lit only by the dimmest of floor lights and the light of the movie screens, which are currently flickering with nothing on them.
Jack Frost's voice suddenly comes over the intercom - he knows where it is because of the last time he and the Guardians found themselves in here.
"I don't have much time to talk, but my name is Jack Frost and yes, those people were exactly as mustache-twirlingly evil as they seemed. Benedict's tickets create a magical pocket dimension. I've been trapped here before and things are about to get rough."
Hooray, sounds fun, right? (God he wishes he could do that "fun" thing instead of this.)
"Stay away from the screens and get out of the theater through any exit you can find! The exit signs are mostly real." Just...rare. "You're about to be surrounded. Don't try to stop your attackers, just fight your way through, because they'll just keep coming. And don't bother trying to get into the projectors, it's a waste of time. I'll try to help you all get out. Once you're out, I swear, I'll get you somewhere safe, and figure out how you're even here."
The intercom cuts out. The nonexistent movie projectors can be heard in their closed off rooms, starting to whir. They project onto the screens with a light that can't be physically blocked - it just goes through whatever's in its way. The screens themselves are also indestructible.
Movies start to play, usually cutting right into the middle of the action. The characters on screen can be seen doing whatever it is they're doing in the movie...and then looking right at the viewer. Then they walk towards the screen - and out of it, slowly passing into the theater aisles and becoming three-dimensional. This wouldn't be a problem if these were good characters, but no. No no no, the group is not so lucky as that.
They're all villains, every single one.
"Hi, I'm Chucky, wanna play?"
"Ba-ba-dooook."
"We all float down here."
"Heeeere's Johnny!"
And hidden in the theater among all these movie monsters is a surprise for everyone - one of Benedict's sentient allies, a follower of Kuk, slithering between the seats and taking advantage of the chaos. Kaa is Benedict's secret weapon.
PROMPTS
a) HORROR
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Countless horror movie villains are stalking the aisles now, ranging from classics like old school Dracula to modern slashers like the Scream guy. Some are fortunately not that powerful, like a certain axe-wielding inn caretaker who likes to shove his face through gaps in doors and talk about how all work and no play makes him a dull boy. All he's got is an axe and a bad attitude.
But others are nearly unstoppable. Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers just won't stay down, regardless of how much damage they soak up, and even worse: they've apparently struck up some kind of mutual non-aggression pact and are hunting in a pair.
But the worst one is a little bastard that keeps going around and stabbing ankles. Chucky is absolutely taking advantage of the darkness of the theater to try to take out some Achilles tendons and hit some arteries with a knife.
Only rarely can they be reasoned with, typically only in cases where their on-screen situation is truly tragic, like the blood-soaked teenage girl in her prom dress. Only then can someone perhaps talk their way out of a situation by offering kindness and de-escalation. And even then, they might only spare that person and who they're with before turning to attack others once more.
Mostly, though, they're all just being pretty stabby right now.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Countless horror movie villains are stalking the aisles now, ranging from classics like old school Dracula to modern slashers like the Scream guy. Some are fortunately not that powerful, like a certain axe-wielding inn caretaker who likes to shove his face through gaps in doors and talk about how all work and no play makes him a dull boy. All he's got is an axe and a bad attitude.
But others are nearly unstoppable. Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers just won't stay down, regardless of how much damage they soak up, and even worse: they've apparently struck up some kind of mutual non-aggression pact and are hunting in a pair.
But the worst one is a little bastard that keeps going around and stabbing ankles. Chucky is absolutely taking advantage of the darkness of the theater to try to take out some Achilles tendons and hit some arteries with a knife.
Only rarely can they be reasoned with, typically only in cases where their on-screen situation is truly tragic, like the blood-soaked teenage girl in her prom dress. Only then can someone perhaps talk their way out of a situation by offering kindness and de-escalation. And even then, they might only spare that person and who they're with before turning to attack others once more.
Mostly, though, they're all just being pretty stabby right now.
b) ACTION
Some of these villains are fortunately a little less of a handful. Hans Gruber and his armed thieves are at least just like...guys. They have guns but not much else. But they sure do seem to be taking things personally, calling out to you as if you've really ruined their day, and are really laying down some gunfire in your direction. No matter how many times they're corrected, they also keep calling you "cowboy." Hans seems to just never shut up, either, taunting you the entire time.
Some are a little less chatty. The T1000 mostly just keeps pursuing people in a standard Terminator-like fashion, transforming its arms into blades and trying to stab you. Or, worse, it imitates someone you know, even taking on their voice. Its smart enough to not chase everyone, observing some people in secret while transformed as objects to later morph into them and imitate their appearance and voice. Only a warning from the real thing might be able to save you if it dopplegangers to get in close.
And nothing seems to be able to damage it, just slow it down.
One of the most dangerous one of all at least has a musical cue to warn you it's coming.
DUUUN DUN. DUUUUN DUN.
Yes, that is a fucking Great White shark swimming through the air of the theater like its water. And it's a man-eater.
Some of these villains are fortunately a little less of a handful. Hans Gruber and his armed thieves are at least just like...guys. They have guns but not much else. But they sure do seem to be taking things personally, calling out to you as if you've really ruined their day, and are really laying down some gunfire in your direction. No matter how many times they're corrected, they also keep calling you "cowboy." Hans seems to just never shut up, either, taunting you the entire time.
Some are a little less chatty. The T1000 mostly just keeps pursuing people in a standard Terminator-like fashion, transforming its arms into blades and trying to stab you. Or, worse, it imitates someone you know, even taking on their voice. Its smart enough to not chase everyone, observing some people in secret while transformed as objects to later morph into them and imitate their appearance and voice. Only a warning from the real thing might be able to save you if it dopplegangers to get in close.
And nothing seems to be able to damage it, just slow it down.
One of the most dangerous one of all at least has a musical cue to warn you it's coming.
DUUUN DUN. DUUUUN DUN.
Yes, that is a fucking Great White shark swimming through the air of the theater like its water. And it's a man-eater.
c) SCI FI
The xenomorphs are some of the most dangerous of the sci fi bunch, slinking through the shadows and hiding in the rafters or between rows of seats, making it so you only see the occasional glimpse of shining black carapace.
They're definitely a handful. Their tails can spear people, their inner jaws can break through skin and bone, they can spit acid, and they spray acid when their exoskeleton is pierced - they also can sponge up quite a bit of damage, needing heavy gunfire or equivalent force to take down.
Even worse, they somehow found time to lay a few eggs...and the facehuggers are starting to hatch.
One of the other enemies from the world of science fiction is slower but unfortunately has strength in numbers. Figures appear in the humid fog spilling through one of the screens, from what looks like the twisted interior of a space ship. They're from one of the cinematic offerings in their particular franchise. Their voices sound out in unison from the fog as the red laser lights from their eyepieces pierce the fog in rapid arcs.
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
The Borg are slower and less cunning than the xenomorphs, but they have great numbers. They seem to never stop pouring through their screen, as if the entire ship's worth of them on the other side is invading, slowly and ponderously through the Multiplex. They are extremely strong, difficult to damage, and worst of all, have personal forcefields that slowly adapt to attacks over time, gradually becoming immune to some of them. The best tactic is retreat and laying down fire with different types of attacks each time they adapt.
If they successfully get their hands on someone, they're massively strong, with a strength many times that of a human. And that means it's a struggle to stop them from assimilating someone, piercing their neck with two nanotubules that puncture skin and pump nanites into the bloodstream that will eventually take over someone's mind and start to changing their body into something mechanical.
If they're not stopped, they'll try to drag an assimilated individual back into the screen to their ship for further augmentation - where they'll be forever lost, with no hope of a cure.
The xenomorphs are some of the most dangerous of the sci fi bunch, slinking through the shadows and hiding in the rafters or between rows of seats, making it so you only see the occasional glimpse of shining black carapace.
They're definitely a handful. Their tails can spear people, their inner jaws can break through skin and bone, they can spit acid, and they spray acid when their exoskeleton is pierced - they also can sponge up quite a bit of damage, needing heavy gunfire or equivalent force to take down.
Even worse, they somehow found time to lay a few eggs...and the facehuggers are starting to hatch.
One of the other enemies from the world of science fiction is slower but unfortunately has strength in numbers. Figures appear in the humid fog spilling through one of the screens, from what looks like the twisted interior of a space ship. They're from one of the cinematic offerings in their particular franchise. Their voices sound out in unison from the fog as the red laser lights from their eyepieces pierce the fog in rapid arcs.
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile."
The Borg are slower and less cunning than the xenomorphs, but they have great numbers. They seem to never stop pouring through their screen, as if the entire ship's worth of them on the other side is invading, slowly and ponderously through the Multiplex. They are extremely strong, difficult to damage, and worst of all, have personal forcefields that slowly adapt to attacks over time, gradually becoming immune to some of them. The best tactic is retreat and laying down fire with different types of attacks each time they adapt.
If they successfully get their hands on someone, they're massively strong, with a strength many times that of a human. And that means it's a struggle to stop them from assimilating someone, piercing their neck with two nanotubules that puncture skin and pump nanites into the bloodstream that will eventually take over someone's mind and start to changing their body into something mechanical.
If they're not stopped, they'll try to drag an assimilated individual back into the screen to their ship for further augmentation - where they'll be forever lost, with no hope of a cure.
d) FANTASY
Maleficent seems to be making the most trouble today, trying to blast at you with magical fire. If she's particularly pissed, she may turn into a dragon that fills up one of the theaters. Her fire may not burn the Multiplex itself but it will burn you.
Gollum, on the other hand, is a much smaller threat - but good at attacking with surprise. The wiry creature may hop out from behind something and try to strangle you to death, screaming about getting back his Precious.
Maleficent seems to be making the most trouble today, trying to blast at you with magical fire. If she's particularly pissed, she may turn into a dragon that fills up one of the theaters. Her fire may not burn the Multiplex itself but it will burn you.
Gollum, on the other hand, is a much smaller threat - but good at attacking with surprise. The wiry creature may hop out from behind something and try to strangle you to death, screaming about getting back his Precious.
e) KAA
Kaa is Benedict's little surprise, originally intended to be left for Jack himself, but now a useful tool to kill some of them. The snake is able to split himself into many smaller snakes that slither and slink around the multiplex. A single one of them slithers to an exit to meet up with his allies outside. Back in the safety of Kuk's abode, that snake will regrow to full size. The others try to find good places to hide - and then strike, regardless of whether or not this leads to their deaths.
Though he was not venomous before, he is now, and his poison? Deadly to a myth in a way many normal poisons are not. Those that get bitten will start hallucinating wildly, either seeing frightening surreal visions, reminders of past regrets, or the embodiment of their fears. Slowly, the venom will kill them.
There is a cure, but it's back at the Pole, and you have to get there alive first.
Kaa is Benedict's little surprise, originally intended to be left for Jack himself, but now a useful tool to kill some of them. The snake is able to split himself into many smaller snakes that slither and slink around the multiplex. A single one of them slithers to an exit to meet up with his allies outside. Back in the safety of Kuk's abode, that snake will regrow to full size. The others try to find good places to hide - and then strike, regardless of whether or not this leads to their deaths.
Though he was not venomous before, he is now, and his poison? Deadly to a myth in a way many normal poisons are not. Those that get bitten will start hallucinating wildly, either seeing frightening surreal visions, reminders of past regrets, or the embodiment of their fears. Slowly, the venom will kill them.
There is a cure, but it's back at the Pole, and you have to get there alive first.
f) WILD CARD
Not interested in one of the movie villains listed? Pick another one! Use a movie villain from absolutely anything, whether it's horror, sci fi, action, or fantasy. Have multiple ones appear in a thread.
You can even have non-npc threats from movies start to appear for your characters the longer they're there. They may turn a corner and find the temple traps from Indiana Jones, for instance, or a marshy area from the Swamps of Sadness in Never-ending Story, threatening to suck your character down if they let their sadness consume them. Some of these hurdles may be in the way of the only exit they can see.
OOC DETAILS
❅ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc any villains from movies they want. They will be exclusively from movies, though these can be movies that are part of larger franchises based on shows, books, etc. Other events over time may deal with villains from other mediums so we're playing with just movies for now. Players can have them speak, with their best approximation of their dialogue. It is okay if this is slightly ooc if someone is mostly working off some basic perceptions and catchphrases of a character. These constructs are not sentient and therefore won't always be the most accurate to the characters. It is more like they are just animating as puppets. This means you can npc them without concern for being slightly off on IC-ness.
❅ Jack Frost: So that he can earn their trust Jack Frost may be popping in for the occasional save and extra bit of directions towards an exit. The mod will tap people in a thread to ask if it's a good place for it or you can request him for a brief interaction in the mod question comment.
❅ Enemy damage: Players can have their characters successfully kill the villain npcs. The problem is...they just keep coming. Every time they successfully kill one of the solo villains a new iteration will walk out from their screen. This means that players can at least successfully finish off a villain in their thread to get clear without ruining the timeline of other characters facing that villain too. You can even have a character kill a villain and have the same villain walk out of the screen and come after them again to make their day even worse.
❅ Status effects: Any injuries or damage that happens to a character will stick when they leave the Multiplex. That means that someone that gets facehugged by a facehugger will have an alien larva problem that may be causing some serious indigestion soon. Anyone that gets Borg-nanited through the neck will start having the nanites take over them. However the myth healing will slow these processes down until they can get to the Pole, and there are magical means at the Pole to help the characters survive this. For instance, the larvae can be poofed away before they cause any chest issues, Kaa's poison has a cure with some plants growing at the Pole, and the Borg nanites can be fought off by just the base myth healing, even if it takes time and is an unpleasant process of a character having a fever and being very ill until the nanite infection clears.
❅ Healing: Characters will lose Kaa's poison effect the second they get the cure but the bite will need to heal. They will have to rest for several days without putting stress on the bitten area to keep their bites from bleeding too much. Characters with no myth healing will heal from Kaa's bite in about 1 week. Characters with myth healing will heal in 2-3 days.
❅ Long-term effects: Players who go with some kind of status effect for a character can optionally have long-term consequences from it if they like, whether it's a curse, enchantment, or something else. The Borg assimilation, for instance, can be fought off but may leave characters with some mechanical body parts like reinforced spines, small mechanical growths on their faces, or permanent scarring in the shape of mechanical parts. (Normally myths don't scar but it can be permanent due to the sinister magic of the Multiplex.)
❅ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are lots of rooms to work with, curtains that can be pulled down (and set on fire, even if the whole building won't take), concession stands that have things that can be thrown at villains, butter substitute that can be poured on floors to make villains slip, etc. Chairs can even be ripped out and thrown at villains or used to barricade doors if someone is strong enough to do it.
❅ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding together to rescue an overwhelmed 3rd.
❅ Follow-up: There will be posts for escaping to the sleigh for characters to care for each other during the escape, and arriving/recovery at the Pole. After everyone has been healed and comms have been distributed, and after briefly conferring with some allies to get more info, Jack will talk to the group about what's going on. From that time forward, the standard welcome/intro will be fully in place where Manny is the one that infodumps the situation in new characters' heads. But for game start everyone gets to work through the confusion together.
Not interested in one of the movie villains listed? Pick another one! Use a movie villain from absolutely anything, whether it's horror, sci fi, action, or fantasy. Have multiple ones appear in a thread.
You can even have non-npc threats from movies start to appear for your characters the longer they're there. They may turn a corner and find the temple traps from Indiana Jones, for instance, or a marshy area from the Swamps of Sadness in Never-ending Story, threatening to suck your character down if they let their sadness consume them. Some of these hurdles may be in the way of the only exit they can see.
❅ NPCing: The mods won't be npcing but players are free to npc any villains from movies they want. They will be exclusively from movies, though these can be movies that are part of larger franchises based on shows, books, etc. Other events over time may deal with villains from other mediums so we're playing with just movies for now. Players can have them speak, with their best approximation of their dialogue. It is okay if this is slightly ooc if someone is mostly working off some basic perceptions and catchphrases of a character. These constructs are not sentient and therefore won't always be the most accurate to the characters. It is more like they are just animating as puppets. This means you can npc them without concern for being slightly off on IC-ness.
❅ Jack Frost: So that he can earn their trust Jack Frost may be popping in for the occasional save and extra bit of directions towards an exit. The mod will tap people in a thread to ask if it's a good place for it or you can request him for a brief interaction in the mod question comment.
❅ Enemy damage: Players can have their characters successfully kill the villain npcs. The problem is...they just keep coming. Every time they successfully kill one of the solo villains a new iteration will walk out from their screen. This means that players can at least successfully finish off a villain in their thread to get clear without ruining the timeline of other characters facing that villain too. You can even have a character kill a villain and have the same villain walk out of the screen and come after them again to make their day even worse.
❅ Status effects: Any injuries or damage that happens to a character will stick when they leave the Multiplex. That means that someone that gets facehugged by a facehugger will have an alien larva problem that may be causing some serious indigestion soon. Anyone that gets Borg-nanited through the neck will start having the nanites take over them. However the myth healing will slow these processes down until they can get to the Pole, and there are magical means at the Pole to help the characters survive this. For instance, the larvae can be poofed away before they cause any chest issues, Kaa's poison has a cure with some plants growing at the Pole, and the Borg nanites can be fought off by just the base myth healing, even if it takes time and is an unpleasant process of a character having a fever and being very ill until the nanite infection clears.
❅ Healing: Characters will lose Kaa's poison effect the second they get the cure but the bite will need to heal. They will have to rest for several days without putting stress on the bitten area to keep their bites from bleeding too much. Characters with no myth healing will heal from Kaa's bite in about 1 week. Characters with myth healing will heal in 2-3 days.
❅ Long-term effects: Players who go with some kind of status effect for a character can optionally have long-term consequences from it if they like, whether it's a curse, enchantment, or something else. The Borg assimilation, for instance, can be fought off but may leave characters with some mechanical body parts like reinforced spines, small mechanical growths on their faces, or permanent scarring in the shape of mechanical parts. (Normally myths don't scar but it can be permanent due to the sinister magic of the Multiplex.)
❅ Environment: Feel free to manipulate the environment. There are lots of rooms to work with, curtains that can be pulled down (and set on fire, even if the whole building won't take), concession stands that have things that can be thrown at villains, butter substitute that can be poured on floors to make villains slip, etc. Chairs can even be ripped out and thrown at villains or used to barricade doors if someone is strong enough to do it.
❅ Experimentation: We'd like to encourage people to experiment! Obviously ask other players if they're down first, but it could be fun to do something other than 2 person threads, like maybe 2 PCs banding together to rescue an overwhelmed 3rd.
❅ Follow-up: There will be posts for escaping to the sleigh for characters to care for each other during the escape, and arriving/recovery at the Pole. After everyone has been healed and comms have been distributed, and after briefly conferring with some allies to get more info, Jack will talk to the group about what's going on. From that time forward, the standard welcome/intro will be fully in place where Manny is the one that infodumps the situation in new characters' heads. But for game start everyone gets to work through the confusion together.
no subject
:Come on, kitten,: Need says to her, and her teacher's utter calm is grounding, making her suck in a breath tainted with the scent of blood. :Can't stay here. You've run from worse, and you were worse-armed at the time. Here's where you have to go.:
Need superimposes a ghostly arrow-shape onto her vision. There are some enemies in the way that might - :Yes, and if you can't take them, I can. Let's make this count.: That's right. Need can possess her again if she makes the wrong choice; she can do something wrong, or something bad can just happen, and it won't kill her. It... helps a bit. She's not paralyzed. She has to go.
Drawing the sword, trying not to quail, Nyara leaves cover at a dead run.
CW: violence
As Nyara runs, Elle starts backing up toward to the door as well. Best-case scenario, she's able to duck out after her and jam the door shut behind them before any of the nasties get out. Worst-case scenario... well, at least her new friend will probably make it out.
A bayonet pierces her side. Gaia, she's fucking sick of this. She grabs the musket and backhands the soldier holding, sending him flying across the room. He doesn't get back up. She snaps the gun she half and uses the sharp end to skewer one of the dog-things, pinning it to the floor. The other half gets used to block another's mouth open, allowing her to rip (what she can only assume is) its throat out with her claws. That one stays down too.
gah sorry I thought I'd responded but I had this open in a tab at my parents' house
She skids, hitting the door almost at full force, and scores it with her claws grabbing for the handle before she manages to yank it open and get through! Need spins her around, drawing and thrusting in a smooth motion. The shaggy monster that had followed them collapses in a heap in the doorway and the heavy door, swinging closed, is stuck half open on its corpse.
Nyara pauses, looking back the way she'd come with trepidation. She takes her lower lip between her teeth and worries it. Even without Need saying anything, she knows she should do something -
A hard breath, her pupils dilating, and her flying illusion-creatures multiply in number and smack purposefully into the faces or... equivalents of the men and creatures around Elle. Hard to keep focused when that's happening, even if they can't do any harm.
No worries!
Then more of those creatures appear and provide the distraction she needs. She barrels toward the door on all fours, inhumanly fast. She forces the door open, throwing the corpse aside, and slams it shut behind her.
It's quiet. Elle takes a few deep breaths and tries to slow her heartbeat-- she doesn't want to bleed out faster than she needs to. then she gives her new friend a friendly, sharp-toothed grin.
"Hi," she says between pants. "I'm Elle."
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She is quite scary. "I am. Nyara."
Need is still in her hand, the sticky, near-black fluid the shaggy creatures had for blood running in tiny rivulets off the blade as if it's been oiled. Her Mindvoice gentler than Elle's heard from her before, she says, :It's all right, kitten, she doesn't mean you harm.: In a more brisk tone she adds, :Elle, good to see you, let me at least stop the bleeding.:
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That's why the sword looked familiar!
:Good to see you too. Don't worry about it, I should heal soon:
Hopefully.
She gets a better look, and sniff, at Nyara now that they aren't being actively attacked. Her smile softens a little.
"Nice to meet you, cub. You doing okay?"
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Nyara's pretty human compared to Elle's massive form, but the feline aspects are strong and uneven. There's some tuxedo-patterned housecat in Nyara, and some cheetah. Her hands bear a lot of resemblance to the paws of hairless cats, though they do have a coat of very short hair. Nyara's fingers are knobbly and half-webbed, with visible pink pads and dark notches for fingernails, showing where claws are retracted.
"I-I am well enough," she says in a small voice, and tries to pull herself together and not shrink back. Today has been a lot, and it's not over yet. "Thank you for helping me."
Need prompts her, and Nyara shakes the sword a few times, flicking the remaining blood off and to the floor, before returning her to the sheath. She keeps one hand over the hilt because Need is a comfort to her, and just has to hope it doesn't look aggressive.
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"You're welcome. I'm glad I was there to help."
She looks around the hall, bares her teeth, and takes a few deep breaths.
"I think the exit is this way." It is if this theater is laid out how it should be, which is very much in question. But she doesn't smell more monsters in that immediate direction, so she's okay with taking the leap of faith.
She starts walking in that direction. She may not entirely trust Need's... whole deal, but she does trust her enough to leave her back open. She figures it might make Nyara feel less vulnerable.
"You two come here together?"
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"Yes. Need is my teacher, my friend. If I must be here, I'm glad she is with me," Nyara says fervently, following several steps behind. Elle isn't quite like something her father would make, but he does love to create huge, warped, monstrous animals. She is dreadfully afraid that at any moment Ell will whirl and savage her, or drag her back, and then -
:It's not going to happen,: Need tells her privately, with some heat. :She can't and she wouldn't, and I wouldn't let her if she could.: It's something. Need has a certainty that could dent iron.
"H-how do you know where the exit is?" Nyara asks in a meek tone.
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"Been in places like this before."
She's far more coherent when speaking in Crinos than, say, the wolves, but it's not exactly comfortable, and she knows her voice isn't exactly pleasant. She tends to keep her sentences short and to the point when she's like this.
"Don't smell more monsters this way."
Elle keeps her mouth slightly open to allow her to take full advantage of her senses. Her eyes flash in the dim lighting of the hall.
"Sorry, I know this is scary," she apologizes. Is she taking about her current form or the situation at large? Even she doesn't quite know.
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She can see more comfortably in the gloom of the hall than in brighter light and has eyeshine herself, some near-white gleam of blue or green. The unexpected kindness makes her blink.
"It is nothing. I am sorry to worry you - with Need here, I will not panic." Nyara exhales a little, not quite a sigh, not quite a bitter laugh. "I could never fight back until so recently, and she reminds me that it is an option." Need gives her a little not-touch of bracing warmth, and she squeezes her hilt.
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Hence the name "movies".
"Don't say sorry, there's no need. Fighting back is... hard. When you're not used to it."
It took Elle a while to internalize that she was even able to after her First Change. It only came after an intense and violent wake-up call. She hopes Nyara is able to make that transition more peacefully.
:I've met Henry, Tim, and Dan from the Wilderlands, along with some new people. And I'm pretty sure I've caught Stacia's scent a couple of times,: she informs Need.
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:Good to know. We've met Stacia, and I can sense Kerrigan out there. It's been - some years, probably less than a decade, for me. I was with Guts and Saturday for part of it,: Need says, conveying a dull ache, a kind of faded sorrow or regret. A lot of her emotional responses are blunted unless she's piggybacking off of a living person's feelings, so this is about as upset as she can get about however that had ended.
There is, though, a stronger and distinctly protective tone talking about Nyara, like spreading a wing over her. :Then I was back in Velgarth and met my girl, here. You ended up in this place without a stop in between?: