middaeg | [Open] August Catch-All

Entry tags:

[Open] August Catch-All

Who: Kaede, others, you!
When: August in general
Where: Within the city, Smugha Cave, others to be added
What: Thread holder for the month. Feel free to hit up my plotting post here or my plurk at

blueraven if you'd like to hash something out!
Warnings: Potential violence, others to be added as needed

I. Any District

[When Kaede crossed the city, it was usually in direct ways—or more aimless meanderings. But the city was busy and crowded and there was only so much the promise of free clothing could do to smooth over the prospect of dealing with that many people for so long. So, the former it was.

This also meant casually trespassing in people's yards. Empty yards—or at least ones that seemed empty on first glance, she wasn't stupid. Where possible, the Chimera walked along courtyard walls instead of actually straying in them, but sometimes that wasn't exactly feasible. She didn't take anything while she was pacing with purpose between rows of flowers, a garden, or otherwise—but the antlered Chimera was highly visible, her hair dark pink and her arms covered in bright scarlet feathers.

...well, okay. She did linger sometimes. Those flowers were pretty.

Or perhaps she's hovering near a patch of trailing honeysuckle, or perched conspicuously atop a wall with her head tilted—did she hear a dog barking?]

II. Caught in the rain

[Of course it'd be raining on the day Kaede had to return these books. Of course it'd do so while she was mid-transit. And of course she'd find that this newly purchased cloak leaked.

The worst of it seemed to be on her head, where the hood had been rather hastily modified to fit around her antlers. It looked nice in the store, and in cooler (not rainy) weather. But it let water in through those gaps, and the left shoulder seam had started to leak, too.

So Kaede slouched, under an awning outside a shop, a home, anywhere with a roof, the books tucked into the one dry spot still under the cloak.

Let this storm pass soon. Let this storm pass soon...]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[The caves were quieter than she thought. A little water dripped and echoed, distant voices became incomprehensible and only occasional whispers. The spell being woven within the cave was something more felt than heard, a buzzing tingle on Kaede's skin like an intermittent static charge.

There should at least have been animals down here—bats maybe, lizards, crickets, something. Their absence made Kaede's feathers prickle restlessly.

The only consistent sound was the echo of their own footsteps as they ventured further into the caverns, with the Chimera sometimes needing twice as many steps to catch up with the tall woman's stride.]

You've been here before, haven't you? What's this place like?

[Besides cold and vaguely unsettling, Kaede got that part.]

Cold. Dank. Full of spiders and salamanders. I'm not sure what all they did afterward - they would not take the volunteer of my services to actually set up the base within this cave last month. [Because she's Unbonded. And that sort of rankles. She is just fine, without being Bonded, it's not like she's at a risk for losing her mind and going feral.]

I'm sure the spiders and the salamanders are gone. There are hot springs that were cooled, but I believe they removed the spells keeping them that way. Further down, you can find evidence that this place was once inhabited - by some Wilders expedition that was... lost but never properly documented, as I understand. [Plip. Plop. Plip. Plop. Splish. Splash. Splish. Splash. The dripping water is an incessant noise in the background, and Maria wonders if it's the lower caves thawing out.]

Charming.

[Great place for a picnic. The dripping water and gloomy stone passageways with no natural lighting totally fit that aesthetic.

This corridor started to widen out into a larger cavern, and the Chimera craned her head up to look. The fissures there led to black nothing even she couldn't see through, and several tunnels led away from this one. It seemed warmer in this room, too.]

Mm. [That's her way of agreeing, as they continue down the winding paths and through the cave. As they arrived at the "room", Maria took a look around.]

It seems they have done a good job of cleaning out the pests that took up residence here, though. Before, you could hear the spiders skittering in the distance, and see the webs everywhere. They did some housekeeping.

[Kaede didn't have much of an opinion on spiders before--they were usually little scurrying things that drew her attention simply by moving, but weren't much of a problem unless they had gotten onto drying laundry.

From the sounds of it, these ones wouldn't have been so easily swept away. But there were no webs stretching from the walls now, no sharp little feet in the distance.

Just the endless sound of water.

The Chimera paced towards the large shadow in the center of the room; it reflected the light oddly, and a few steps in she could see why.]

Did any creatures fly up through this?

[Kaede could see the water far down below, and didn't kick anything into the sinkhole. She stood at its edge, tail speculatively curling back and forth.

Besides that maybe-entrance, there were three other tunnels to mind--one led to where the Wilders were casting their spells, one led back the way they came, and a third led somewhere Kaede wasn't sure of. And there were plenty of gaps and fissures that weren't person-sized riddling the walls.]

Just bats. There weren't any larger, flying creatures when we got here. [She does stop to consider it more fully now, though. There don't seem to be as many threats lingering about in this place, so she can appreciate the hole in bottom of the cavern. Perhaps a dragon or something could have made its way up the giant, gaping maw in the floor. Something that was alright with water.]

... Though that is a bit curious if something other than nature made that hole. It is rather conspicuous. But all there were further down were... giant lizards, and corpses frozen in ice. Nothing so large as to make a hole that big so easily that I noticed.

[Hm. Interesting. No bats flew up through the sinkhole now, and nothing seemed to be fluttering down there. The sound of water was clearest here--but only the melting trickles. The streams of water draining from the pools that should have gushed over the edge were alarmingly silent.]

It could have been something smaller. A Witch, maybe.

[There was a sound that wasn't like the drip-drip of water--a distant rasping, maybe stones shifting off to the left. Kaede swiveled a long ear towards it.]

If you believe me, I could do something like this once. Before the mirror--

[That rasping sound again. And a third time--closer, like old plastic scraping rock.

Or scales.]

Something's there.

[The Chimera's head turned to face the sound sharply, and her posture tensed immediately from one of observant ease to predatory alertness.]

Hm, perhaps. [A Witch blowing a hole in the ground, maybe? In doing so, the magical backlash would create some of the oddities in this place, as well, and combined with the leyline they claim runs beneath the cave, it makes a certain amount of sense. She doesn't get the chance to inquire further about what Kaede is talking about - but then, maybe it's a good thing they both don't have to share what they were capable of before the mirror brought them over.

Hand on her sword, Maria turns toward the sound, though her ears are perhaps not as sharp at the Chimera's.]

... The cave should be cleared. [Though she wasn't there to witness it, herself, because they would not let her come along due to being unbonded, no matter how much it rankled that she was one of the ones to start the process of clearing the place.]

[It's fine, it's only murder.]

[Kaede's ears twitched marginally this way and that, until they locked onto the sound. One turned just slightly in Maria's direction to better hear what the tall woman was saying, but otherwise focused her laserlike attention on the sound.]

It's getting closer, whatever it is.

[Something moved in the dark, something that curled around a fallen stone that wasn't there before. It slipped away into a patch of shadow, but Kaede's eyes weren't fooled.]

A snake.

[It wasn't alone--there was a rattling sound from the corridor they hadn't taken in, the steps of something else attracted by the noise.]

... But a small one. [Which means it's not the same level of threat as, say, the Madaras twins' pet. That snake was quite the danger, and even she wouldn't go near them.]

... There were Shades here, before. Not just the salamanders and lizards. Shades that liked to run up to you and explode themselves. [Which, she thinks, is kind of an awful way for a Witch to relive their deaths.] Shades which casted ice magic. How are you with it?

That's small to you? [Kaede asked incredulously. Whenever she'd seen snakes before they'd just been little slithery garden hose sized things, or slightly bigger ones curled in a zoo enclosure.

This one was stretching into the dark still, though half of it must have wound into the cavern by now. And now she could see its head--two glowing white eyes peering back at her. It wasn't in range yet, but that gap was closing fast--along with the skittering of something with too many legs elsewhere.]

Haven't been hit by any ice yet. [This was probably going to be an obsolete statement in five minutes.] Cold doesn't slow me down as much as others.

[Thanks, fluff. You're good for something besides giving away her emotional states.]

It's not the one the twins fed until it became a gargantuan. [So yeah, this is small, and Wolf would have Opinions that it is rather tiny, considering what happens in his game.

... And Maria grips her swords, because she knows the cold, analytical look of predation.]

... How did they lose a snake this size in this place? It should've been amongst the first to die.

[Kaede could have lived a happier life knowing these snakes didn't come in Even Larger sizes.

The snake stopped advancing, withdrew its head--coiling its neck back like a loaded spring.]

Don't kn--

[And it struck, without any further warning. There wasn't any rattle, no hissing, no posturing--just a mindless aggression. If there was a mind in there, even an animal's, there wasn't anymore.

The snake's jaws burned as eerie white as its eyes, hurtling towards the Chimera first as fast as a thought.]

[Oh it's... definitely coiling back up to strike, and Maria acknowledges this, as she tenses, ready to go the other way. It's really over in a flash, and it's pure instinct that drives Maria back and actually up against the wall, when the flash comes after her.

Coincidentally, this takes her away from Kaede, but just as quickly, in a flash, her swords are out, and she realizes it's not paying attention to her. Whatever it did to her chimera... companion, she's going to go after it now, while it's distracted. Suddenly, and violently, and all over the place. It made a mistake putting its head within striking range of her. Maria has no qualms opening its throat right up with her blade, or as much as she can, no time to unsnap the two from each other.]

[Kaede didn't realize the thing bit her at first. Like ice cold razors, she felt numbness first--a curious feeling when her left arm, flung up in front of her face, stopped working quite like it should.

When cold blood splattered the front of her shirt, time resumed again. It did her, the stupid thing. The snake's head was still biting her arm, but the rest of its body was...not, there? Thrashing at her feet--but no longer attacking her and no longer a concern. Kaede wrenched the thing out of her arm, tearing some of its teeth loose in the shallow punctures. She hurled it into the dark--it hit flesh, not stone.

Or whatever chitin was if not either. Another monster had snuck closer to them with the commotion--it shrieked indignantly, and Kaede was able to pinpoint it exactly in the dark. The Chimera lunged, slamming into the creature's chest but not bowling it off its feet. It had too many for that to be simple.

One of the spider Monsters. Or...not a spider--a scorpion. And no longer a Monster, just a mindlessly violent beast. And if it was a scorpion, it must have a stinger--and Kaede didn't know where it was. Or if there were more of them in the dark.

Great.]

[There's not really much time to inquire if her companion is well - that was definitely a bite, but it didn't seem to do as much damage as it should have, considering the size of the beast's maw. She heard the impact on something else, though. She knows they're not out of the woods yet. It was salamanders and spiders before. Now, snakes and scorpions?

Maria presses her lips more firmly together, and turns back for the darkness, where Kaede seems to be disappearing into the inky void, and follows, but not before whispering a spell along her blades, allowing the flames to spring up. They'll provide additional damage - and light - as she delves into the darkness. When the flames splutter and flare as they hit the blood, Maria feels the corner of her lips twinge up.

They've got this. She follows Kaede into the darkness, raising a sword and letting the fire guide the way, illuminating the shadows and plates of chitin on the scorpion, as Maria dives right back into the fray, looking for a soft place to sink her blades in - the tail is a good target, but she needs to try to angle the swords into the gaps between the armor, where the joints are, and that proves a bit more tricky. At least, when the first bite of her swords hits, they carve a gash out of the chitin, but don't do any real damage.]

[The burn of adrenaline made the chilling bite a distant echo, and the dim illumination from Maria's blades lit up the cavern like a burst of daylight to Kaede's eyes. She could hear the taller woman's steps and the ripple of her coat, but couldn't spare the time to look away. The scorpion creature was bearing down on her with its pincer-armed limbs, eyes and mouth glowing as bright as the snake's had been.

The creature snagged Kaede's slower, wounded arm with one of the pincers—the Chimera snarled, yanking it back in an attempt to break away. The Shade didn't relent—not immediately.

The Chimera in its face had thoroughly distracted the creature, and it didn't seem to notice Maria's presence until the Witch's blades carved deep into its plates. They did little physical damage, but made the Shade respond with a blind animal panic. It bucked and kicked, shrieking like some overgrown cicada. One of the pointed legs hit Kaede in the gut, knocking the Monster back a few steps.

But like a goad, it didn't deter her. The scorpion beast was still holding onto her arm like a vise. She'd like it back now. Kaede hissed, a cold-water-and-metal sound, and reached with a long arm to grab onto the monster's shoulders. The claws hooked deep into the chitin plates, and the Chimera's strength dragged the torso down into immobility.]

[Can never say the Chimera doesn't make a good tank in this situation. Maria shifts again, this time closer, staying as far out of reach of the spindly little legs as she can, though it's more focused on Kaede than her, it doesn't mean she doesn't feel the thud and bruise of one of the back ones catching her across the thigh and hip and gut, but it doesn't matter, because that tail is curling to strike - again - and Maria needs to be faster.

And she is, arcing her swords toward the base of the tail, where the range of motion is at its least and her swords strike true. The thick cords of muscle and tissue, even between the bits of chitin, are difficult to cut through, but her motion, her strength, and the fire helps, as the blades sizzle and hiss with the ichor-blood of the scorpion spilling all over them.

And that's when Maria whispers another word, and, like oil, the blood ignites, flaring yellow-white and swiftly right up into the scorpion's body. Use blood to enhance the fire? Psh. Light the blood on fire.]

[The Shade screeched, bucking madly on its many legs as Maria's blades bite deep--and again, with a louder and more desperate note as its very blood ignited like oil. Shambling undead horror it might have been, but being set on fire from the inside out was hard for even a dead thing to ignore. Its pincers sprang free from Kaede's arm, and the Chimera sprang for the chance despite her arm responding slower than before. Both clawed hands cracked through its chitin plating this time, anchoring into the fissures and digging through the flesh beneath.

The Shade's barbed tail lashes at Maria, though its movements steadily weaken as the sinews powering it sever and burn. It was the only part of the creature that could effectively move, with the Chimera pulling its torso down. She couldn't quite turn it onto its side yet, but like a predator throttling its prey she didn't let up or let go. It could stay right there and burn.]

[It's almost a good thing Maria's sword can split into two, as she yanks the smaller blade free, turning to the side where the scorpion's stinger has a harder time reaching, and deflecting the blows with the parrying dagger half of the Rakuyo, and it works just fine, even as the feet continue to lash out, with ever-weakening strikes against Maria's side. She'll be pretty bruised up after this, but it'll be fine.

Just gotta keep burning this thing until it stops moving.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Open] August Catch-All

Closed - Maria

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

smh respawn timers

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject