Sigrun is an enthusiastic winged helmet wearing murder housewife. Keep her penned in for too long and she start climbing the walls, banging drums, and chanting skol over and over again. So she more or less grabs Teagan and Vorpal by the ears and drags them into the hedge to, as she puts it, "patrol", which is apparently Valkyrie for 'pick fights in the hedge'. Bring whoever you like! It'll be fun. Like a picnic, but with murder. So, in the fullness of time, that's how the party winds up on this particular stretch of hedge, navigating a narrow and rather precarious trod banked by curving walls of dense thorns which widens now and then into wider clearings which have all the hallmarks of marshland. Brackish standing water that tends to be about knee deep, with islands of peaty land and low curling bushes reaching up like gnarled hands. The low banks of fog don't help the sense of foreboding any, in general.
Sigrun herself has turned up in full battle kit. Golden mail, gleaming winged helmet, glistening spear, solid shield, and giant fuckoff bloody mawed wolf upon which to ride into glorious combat. Hopefully. So hopefully. She's practically beaming with the possibiity of just that. She even exlaims once everyone is assembled a little, "Yaaaay!"
The way that Teagan shows love is a little weird, sometimes. Sometimes a little... wyrd. So they grabbed Widget and said: "Come here, kid, baptism by fire. I have healing fruits don't run off, you won't die if you don't run off." And so. They pull Widget and Ziv along behindthe wolf. Except, of course, Ziv is riding Sigrun and Teagan is now invisible, not leaving footprints. "Zeebat, this is Sigrun, if you haven't met her. Sig, this is Ziv. And you know Wij. I sent Glitch a text, he might show.
Goddammit, Lightknight is NOT going to be allowed to be the only awesome warrior visible on the field. In direct and utter counterpoint, Vorpal's arrived clad in full-blown dark knight gear. Battered and worn and nonetheless imposing for it, Vorpal's armor looks more like black iron plate than gilt mail, though of course it isn't actual iron. It's complete with wicked full helm, and instead of knightly longsword, lance or otherwise, he wears a nasty Hedgespun butcher's knife on his hip, a wicked-looking dagger and hatchet on the opposite, and a brace of stabapple thorns clattering below the knife.
If you want a fight in the Hedge, Vorpal is the one to go with, because his presence dominates the local thorns. Shadows deepen, thorns sharpen to bladed protrusions of wood, and this goes on for dozens and dozens of yards in all directions. The whole Hedge knows Something Powerful is here, and most of the things that could have spread the word that the
Something Powerful isn't something to fuck with? They're already fertilizer.
->> +Fruit <<- Vorpal uses 30 of his pow Catseye Clover.
GAME: Glitch spends 1 Glamour
Ziv very politely asked the wolf AND the Valkyrie if she could ride along. Wolves are people too, afterall! Even if she can't necessarily talk to all of them the same way she can bats - most hedgebeasts talk. If not, she has a translator on her shoulder. Neville, apparently, speaks canid, and seems more amicable towards them than most humanoids. She's sitting on the back of the wolf, wings curled around Sigrun after introductions are made.
"Thank you, Sigrun! Think I've heard of Widget," the batling comments, looking down at the small mechanic. She's small too - even shorter - and very clearly of a chiropteran persuasion, likely Windwing. Her battle gear? Jeans and a hoodie, because she's a noob, still, herself.
Glitch shows, in time, the pixellated Wizened arriving in his normal outfit, as if he's showing up to hang out and watch TV or something. Same ratty black hoodie, same dark jeans and beat up shoes, same tape-wrapped dingy sword. He's left the backpack behind, for now, and the sword sits exposed on his back in its scabbard. His eyes scan across everyone there, and he joins at Teagan's side, glancing to Ziv and Widget with a tiny nod.
Widget tagged along, happy to do whatever it was they were going to do. She was pretty sure she couldn't actually fight any of those things, but she could watch, learn, and if need be run away as fast as possible. The only thing she's wearing is her oversized mechanic jumpsuit and a rusty welding mask with a cracked visor. A true warrior.
The Mirrorskin's hand touches Glitch's -- still invisible -- and then Player One is holding a Particular Machete with Teagan's invisble hand over his. "Do the thing, please," they prompt the Wizened digital boy. But they don't let go of his wrist.
"You're welcome!" Sigrun is happy to have company atop her wolf, apparently. Or happy enough, in any case. "Just stay clear of my weapon arm, yeah? I'll need that for hacking and stabbing and stuff." She lifts her spear up with her right arm in indication before settling it back on its rest upon her stirrup. "We have two ways of approaching this, I figure. We can let the shadowy people lead the way and the lesser stealthy people-- or the impossible to conceal people like me --can pull up the rear. Or I can lead the way and flush out the nasties and give you guys an opportunity to leap out of the shadows and turn them into hash browns." Sigrun seems keen to go with the consensus opinion. "Either way, whoever goes in first looks to be getting wet. Or using contracts of separation, I suppose."
"I'm going to remind everyone, as if it's necessary," Vorpal explains, "That until I say otherwise, striking me, even in jest, is likely to result in immediate unconsciousness and possible death. So don't do it. This isn't a threat, it's something I am not in direct control over with direct instructions to fuck up anything trying to hit me -before- it makes contact. And touching me without making sure -this- stuff," he says, as shadows burn across his form for a moment, "-isn't where you're touching probably won't kill ya, but will hurt like an absolute son of a bitch." Vorpal's pacing along beside Leatherface's tiny, welding-mask'd sister, watching her dart along and generally fidget her way through the Hedge. He reaches down and plucks a thorn off its brace, offering her the dagger-length thorn. "Here, carry this, would you? It'll stab just fine if something gets too close. Stick close to me or Glitch- Glitch especially, if things get nasty around me, and yell if you need help or see something dangerous, alright?" This is aimed at Widget- he's been in the Hedge with basically everyone else, and trusts them all to handle their own shit.
"I don't know how stealthy you think we're really gonna be. I'm screaming my presence to everything within 500 feet, so. I think we can presume anything we come upon will be forewarned?"
"Yeah, Vorp's like a big neon sign that says 'come eat me. I taste like glamour'. So uh... probably not going to be stealthy," agrees Ziv, using her foot claws and her wings around Sigrun's middle to keep herself in position and try to keep out of the way of any weapons that are likely to come out. "I can probably get an eye in the sky, though, and swoop down to let you know where things are going. I'm pretty stealthy, too!" The last is said with a little bit of pride in Ziv's voice.
Glitch is content to follow orders. Vorpal has tasked him with guarding Widget, so he nods, placing his free hand on her shoulder to give it a comforting squeeze. When the invisible stalker grabs his wrist, he turns his hand out palm up and looks to the side. "I need to hold it to do it," he murmurs. "And like, see it."
"They can see you coming, as long as they don't see me coming," opines Teagan from their eternal invisibility. "And once I'm done with Glitch right here, trying to touch me will be -- a bad idea -- until I say otherwise." Baby was placed in Glitch's hand last time Teagan spoke to him, and is thus visible: rusted, old, falling apart, with drops of blood along the edge of the blade. Their hand stays on Glitch's wrist though, almost itchy.
GAME: Widget spends 3 Glamour
Glitch grasps the machete tight, without peeling Teagan's grip up, and focuses. He removes his hand from Widget to guide that along the blade, and then frowns quietly to himself. After turning it over, and moving it as much as the mirrorskin will tolerate, he slowly returns it to its previous position. "It's not...I can't. I can't feel it. I'm sorry." He looks around at the Hedge with a frown. "Bad luck today."
"Well, that ain't a fuckin' omen," mutters Teagan, and the machete disappears from view, probably back into the ring holster on their left hip. "All right. Are we looking for anything in particular, or are we just clearing the trod?"
Widget took the thorn, scrunching up her face. She wanted to make it better and sharper and...nothing. Nothing happened. She shrugged slipping into the fabric of her baggy jumpsuit. Her hand stayed in, fishing out...an axe? Well, more like a hatchet, given her size. It was hard to tell exactly what it was anyway, seeing as it looked like it was made from scraps. She'd taken a novelty 8-Ball stick-shift and some bike gears and made the rustiest, most unpleasant looking weapon she'd ever held. Was...was that barbed wire holding it all together? With a fanbelt grip? The gremlin smiled at Vorpal, eyes glittering with impish glee. "I made this."
"By all means, Ziv, take to the skies. I've got my ravens up there, so you'll be in good company." Sigrun waits for Ziv to get all battified and flap away before she makes the decision for the group. "If it makes no difference, I'll go attract some moths, I guess." She clicks twice with her mouth, winks at the group, and starts her wolf forward at a lazy lope. It sloshes into the water without complaint, getting Sigrun's boots wet in the process. But she stays mostly dry as the water ripples away from her. Making it even more difficult to see through in the process. In order to fight off the gloom, she starts to grow brighter, illuminating the water and brush around her as though the sun were shining overhead. It is not, of course. Her head swivels about as the wolf continues forward through the marsh, on guard for ambush. Or possibly a starbucks.
Widget's proud little display pauses Vorpal for a moment- and immediately after, he bursts into delighted laughter. "Widget, that little thing is -terrifying!- You made that? I'll believe it- and I'll bet that anything you cut with that bastard dies of lockjaw if it doesn't bleed out from the ragged edge. You're a savant for destruction, you are. Let's find you something to wreck, shall we?"
As Sigrun starts to flare brighter, he flinches faintly and mutters to himself, and the darkness of the Hedge coalesces around him, fighting back her brightness to leave him in ambient shade a good touch less deep than he prefers.
At least he has his personal, hungry shadows to protect his tender eyes. "Did I hear right that the Wyrd ain't helping quite the way it should? You think we should really take it as an omen? Or just be careful?"
More or less everyone spots the problem at more or less the same time. Sigrun isn't the only thing disturbing the water. Little ripples and bubbles and upsurges of water can be spotted across the surface of the marsh more or less immediately after Sigrun begins to make her crossing. She sees it, too, of course, and stops her advance through the water until she can sort out what may or may not be threatening her at the moment. "Oh, nuts," she mutters as the water around her blasts upwards and three viney-tentacle type things straight out of some tentacle horror anime lash out at her. She manages to fend them off with her shield, or otherwise duck out of the way, but now the water is practically boiling with the things. "Awh, double nuts!"
GAME: Teagan rolled 10 - 2, putting themself on the initiative roster at 19.
GAME: Sigrun rolled 3 - 3, putting herself on the initiative roster at 7.
GAME: Vorpal rolled 7 + 14, putting himself on the initiative roster at 33.
GAME: Widget rolled 5, putting herself on the initiative roster at 12.
GAME: Glitch rolled 1 - 3, putting himself on the initiative roster at 8.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 1" on the initiative roster at 18.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 2" on the initiative roster at 17.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 3" on the initiative roster at 17.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 4" on the initiative roster at 16.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 5" on the initiative roster at 14.
GAME: Sigrun directly set "Tentacle 6" on the initiative roster at 12.
"There's a central creature down there," calls Teagan's voice; it's impossible to see where they are, with Smoke and Separation concealing their steps. And also the Smoke making them invisible. "Probably gonna have to find a way to go after the thing somehow. I can curse it, but only the once!" Their voice moves, and they don't go further than a handful of yards from the party.
Well, there's the trouble they were expecting! Vorpal grins and flexes his one bared hand, flesh ghosting away to expose prehensile blades. "Widget, you might wanna stay on dry ground if this thing thinks Ulf is food-sized," murmurs Vorpal to the murdergremlin. That said, he leaps forward, laughing aloud as he sprints into battle, leaping at the nearest tendril and flourishing the curved damascus of his fingers, and an instant later, the severed appendage bucks and writhes as it falls into the water, spraying slick ichor in gouts into the air from the stump, gouts that Vorpal weaves around as Separation's absurd magicks leave him elegant as he is deadly. "Something NEW! -LOVELY!-"
The clipped tentacle begins to flail about, spewing an apparently harmless green ichor everywhere. It's apparently less dense than water, since it floats, serving to obscure the water's surface around the injured appendage. More tentacles burst from the water, swatting at Sigrun and clanging off her shield as she continues to fend off the worst of the attacks. A pair of tentacles swirl about Glitch, who manages to narrowly avoid the first tentacle, while the second coils around his left leg from knee to groin, coiling with the strength of a python. Oops. Vorpal very nearly suffers a similar fate, but something-- something unseen and powerful --knocks the tentacle away to splash in the water, momentarily dazed. A narrow thing, that.
Widget wanted to fight. She really, really, -really- did. She also wanted to -live-, which is why she decided to do her best to follow Vorpal's advice. She found a nook of broken roots and wormed into it, remaining stone-still while she watched her tougher friends fight. It felt bad. Really bad.
GAME: Sigrun spends 1 Glamour
Glitch is caught flat on his feet, for once, and by the time the tentacles have broken free he's quickly wrapped up tight in the crushing grip of one of them. He grits his teeth as it flails him around and constricts, his face scrambling wildly with pixellated corruption as he tries to break free. The tentacles refuse to yield to his shoving, though.
Sigrun tries to maneuver astride her wolf, and gain some distance from the flurry of tentacles waving at her. She manages to bring her spear to bear at last and thrusts it forward into one of the tentacles, skewering through it and giving the weapon a hard twist before tearing it free. There's a gurgling shriek from beneath the water that vibrates the legs of whoever happens to be standing in it. The tentacle, not quite dead, flaps about in agony as it sprays that same green ichor everywhere. Lovely!
GAME: Teagan spends 1 Glamour with reason: Cursing the Curse Curse
The Harbinger, invisible, brings their wrath to bear on the creature, twisting its fate sourly. "Player One, NOW!" they holler, and circle over toward Glitch, readying to cut him free next turn if he can't get himself free on his own.
Game: Glitch has a pumped "Strength" Attribute of 3.
In a rather ineffectual spasm of lashing tentacles, literally nothing happens for the most part. Several tentacles lash out at Vopral, drawn by his tasty glamour and general nauseating threat potential, it seems. Mind you, nothing actually manages to hit him. Several tentacles go flying backwards, slapped clear of the godling by some unseen force. The one previously so abused cracks right up the middle and just looks ... squashed. Like a melon that's been smashed, and ends up floating atop the water, twitching. The one that's been cut clean, however... rapidly grows two new lengths of tentacle which proceed to smack at Vorpal stubbornly, with equal lack of success. Several more tentacles lash at the air where Teagan was heard, but not seen, and cannot find anything to grasp on to.
Glitch on the other hand? It goes badly for Glitch. The tentacle coils tighter for a moment, and then jerks suddenly to the side, yanking Glitch from his feet. Both he and the tentacle disappear under the murky, ichor coated water.
Widget watched Glitch go under, gripping her hatchet so hard her knuckles went white. It took everything in her not to dive in after him, and a little more than everything to keep from screaming. She kept still, hating herself more and more.
GAME: Glitch spends 2 Glamour
GAME: Glitch spends 1 Willpower
The water churns where Glitch goes under, and then a moment of terrifying silence. Then a coil of tentacle breaches the surface, and a blurry, pixellated face emerges from the water a short distance away. Glitch flails wildly for the shore, trying to scramble back up onto land as quickly as possible and regain solid footing.
Sigrun responds to Glitch going under by dropping her spear to plunge into the mire, swinging a leg over the side of her mount, and sliding down into the muck herself. She whisks the axe from her back in one fluid motion and spins it up to the ready, smashing it against her shield three times as she begins to scream at the water around her. Briefly, the green mire on the surface of the water is pushed back by her suddenly explosive mantle. Steam rises from the water's surface as a chorus of unheard voices join her in her battle cry. "VALHALLAAAAAAAA!" She starts trudging forward towards the nearest cluster of tentacles, unable to truly charge through mud and water, but giving it her berserker best.
When Teagan slices off the top of the tentacle that's grabbing at Glitch? It sprouts into two tentacles. "MOTHERFUCKER!" ejaculates the Mirrorskin, and then they yell: "WIJ! CAN YOU MAKE US FIRE? Get us some goddamned fire?"
Funny thing: cold iron can't be affected by contracts, which makes for a really weird image, the machete just sort of casually floating through the air on its own. Doot doot doot.
GAME: Sigrun removes "tentacle 6" from the initiative roster.
No more hiding. Time for fire. She could make fire! She'd done it before with a lot less! The gremlin scurried around in her hollow, grabbing whatever she could to make it. Moss for tinder, wood that was above water for the body, stones to keep it together. The darkness in the little grotto pulsed with light as she frantically ran her axe-head against the stone. It took, and soon there was a fire burning where she was originally hiding. Where was she now? Another bundle. Lots of places to hide in a swamp.
Having detected a weak link in the group, a trio of the tentacles twirl and slither under and over the water, coiling about in an effort to once more restrain Glitch before he can make it to the relative safety of shore. The first two slap harmlessly at the water near his back and shoulders, but the third twines around his leg again, keeping him from getting truly free of the tentacles.
The tentacles seem to be losing their appetite for Vorpal as yet another gets smacked away by the unseen guardian surrounding the shadowy godling.
Another vine tries to wrap around Sigrun's shield arm, but she smacks it away forcefully with the shield itself as she continues to wade towards the center of the roil.
The tentacle that Teagan just cleaved in half begins to regrow itself almost immediately, spraying green ichor about in the process. The bifurcated tentacle lashes around the harbinger's sword arm, now that there's something visible to be attacked. If one didn't know better, one might imagine it trying to keep that iron weapon at bay.
GAME: Glitch spends 1 Willpower
GAME: Glitch spends 2 Glamour
Glitch is almost onto land when the tentacle grasps his leg, and his eyes go wide as he falls forward onto his stomach. He's tugged a foot backwards towards the mire, and then the root pushes its way up the leg of his jean through the cuff, the sound of fabric ripping as it worms its way up his leg. He closes his eyes, grits his teeth, and arches in place as he struggles. One hand unsheathes his sword, and shoves it into the mud in front of him. Grabbing it with both hands, he uses it as a lever to sinuously twist and roll his body, flipping back over and tugging the tentacle free. Hopping to his feet with no wounds to show other than a torn pant leg, he raises his sword towards the churning mass. "Teagan! Widget!" he calls out, blindly hoping they respond as he prepares for the next attack.
Sigrun wades into the center of the tentacles, frothing with wratch. It's a side of the Valkyrie none present have seen up to this point. The brightly glowing battle maiden begins kicking and stomping her way through the water, trying to find that central structure that Teagan had alluded to, but without apparent success. Frustrated and shrieking, she hoists her axe overhead and slams it down into the water, causing a ferocious splash that sends waves towards shore and, apparently, strikes home into something beneath the water. She has to step her boot down onto whatever she struck to pull it free with a feral snarl. The astute may come to realize her shrieking is... words. Of some norse dialect or other. Likely an old one.
GAME: Vorpal spends 1 Willpower with reason: Saving Glitch from a Bad End.
Vorpal's been rather distracted by the increasingly aggressive tentacular assault on his person. None have been successful, but this is due almost entirely to the barely-there, briefly-visible guardian watching his back. In the shattering instants in which it manifests, a massive... dragon..? No, the proportions are off, the neck's too long, and it looks like it's falling to pieces... is visible. Its tail and wings and rotted paws SLAM away offending tentacles with prohibitive violence, sending them SMASHING into the water beside him in violent gouts of swampmuck. It's when Glitch is grappled for the second time that his focus asserts itself and he moves to act.
He slogs through the swamp separating them, watching the water for the base of the tendril trying its best to get all the way up the sprite's pant leg, and braces himself for the tiniest instant- before blurring into motion. He's been watching Teagan slash tendrils only to sprout into two, watched the tentacles crash into his guardian... and watched exactly one stop moving, crushed to a pulp by a second attempt to strike him. And so, it's experiment time- Vorpal lashes out not with blades, but with FISTS, in a mindboggling display of rapidity and violence, striking over and over and over in the space of a heartbeat. When he goes still, poised with his fists dripping with ichor, the tentacle POPS beneath him, a huge swatch of it reduced to goo and pulp left to splatter into the swampwater like the effluvium it is.
"You thinking this might be hydrish? HERE!" Vorpal rips the brace of thorns off his belt and throws what's left- four thorns in five slots- towards the flames, skitting to a stop nearby. "Light those up and SMOKE these fuckers!" Twisting in place, Vorpal braces himself, fully aware that if this thing comes at him in force, his guardian won't be able to fend them all off.
"COME ON YOU SON OF A BITCH! Y'AIN'T SHIT! I'M A FROM SOUTH PHILLY, THERE ARE RACCOONS BIGGER THAN YOU IN MY OLD NEIGHBORHOOD! COME ON IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH, YA PIECE'A'SHIT JAWN!"
And now is when Teagan appears, thrashing within a nimbus of angry, burning shadow, shoving their cold iron machete into the tentacle holding them. Between the burning of their Elemental Darkness and the cold iron machete, the tentacle burns away, and slinks back into the water, clearly chastened. "YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT! YA FUCKIN' FUCK!"
The tide of the fight seems to be turning. The tentacles flail about in a fury now, though nothing much comes of it. Two try to fend off Sigrun from her attempt to attack the central nexus of the creature, while another explodes like a pine tree struck by lightning as it tries to strike at Vorpal for a second time. Those reaching for Glitch and Teagan are swatted away, and in Teagan's case the tentacle is singed for its trouble.
Glitch is freed, and with Teagan and Vorpal pushing the attack, he's given enough breathing room to prepare himself. A quick diving somersault rolls him over to the stabapple seeds, and he sheathes his sword on his back as he pick up a flaming seed instead, holding its smouldering tip at the ready. Standing near the edge of the water, feet cocked carefully, he watches for signs of movement, ready to avoid the next wild tentacle and attempt to counterattack.
One of the thorns was removed from the brace. There wasn't a whole lot that happened for a few moments, until Widget decided to stop hiding. She didn't like seeing her friends hurt. Her friends had been hurt. No more running. No more running. Widget was going to *fight*! In this case, she burst from the undergrowth wielding a flaming thorn and cackling like mad. The gremlin pounced, straddling the tenctacle and driving the dagger home. Again. And again. And again and again and again and-
Widget /eventually/ stopped stabbing it, hopping off of the mutilated creature. Her kitten smile was nearly tiger-like in the way her canines reflected the flickering knifelight, her madness fully on display. She didn't speak, but the crazed impish gleam in her eyes said it all. That, and the fact that she was covered in ichor and tentacle bits.
Sigrun continues her furious kicking and stomping in the water, using her shield to try and clear the worst of the green sludge that obscures what's beneath the water from view. She finally manages to catch a glimpse of that central bulb that Teagan had spoken of prior, and a hungry-- nearly lecherous --smile splits her otherwise battle mad face. "Now I have you!" Swinging that two handed axe up and over her head with a single arm, she shrieks with the monumental force she brings to bear in cleaving back down with the weapon. It cuts through the water clean and lodges heavily into whatever resides beneath the surface of the marsh, thunking to a stop with a sound like a ship's mast giving way. She has to tug at the haft of her axe three times to dislodge it from the creature, but it's still flailing its tentacles about with continued life. "WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?!"
Oh. Oh, there is little so satisfying as not only seeing a clever plan brought to life in parts by you and your closest friends bear fruit- or, in this case, bear dead, mutilated, smoking tentacles. The only thing that could make this better? Seeing a tiny, fledgling little goblin drenched in ichor and grinning like a madwoman after making it happen, holding a smoldering magic thorn.
Vorpal erupts into delighted, approving laughter, lancing one finger on a hand dripping with the same mess in her direction. "THAT IS HOW YOU DO IT, WIDGET! WELL FUCKING DONE!" A scan of the others- Teagan's Neirin-brand Faesecticide is doing work- or hewing work, depending on how you wanna pronounce it- Glitch has armed himself with fire, Widget looks like she does this for a LIVING, and Sigrun is going after the... the what, the heart, the bulb, the nucleus? Whatever it is, Vorpal intends for her to finish, and has no intention of allowing the tendrils harrassing her to succeed in their tasks. He lunges in their direction and unleashes a casual storm of blows- nothing so unrepentantly vicious as his strike to protect Glitch, but it's more than enough- the tendril withers under the storm of blows and collapses into the muck. "STAY YOUR COURSE, FAIR VALKYRIE!"
Widget's not really there at the moment. She's in some stabby, burny, gremlin-y murderworld in that rusty little head of hers. So, when she bounds across the water and pounces on the tentacle, the steady stream of giggles isn't stemmed. In fact, when she clambers up the flailing limb and drives her dagger home, the laugh she lets out is...honestly kind of creepy. It's loud, jittery, and more than a little manic. It continues as she rides the dagger to the ground, leaving a grisly sizzling wound along the tentacle's length. The gremlin lands onto the mud with a splash, crouching on the sodden ground like the demonic little thing she is.
One of the downsides of Teagan fighting invisibly -- at least as far as they are concerned -- is that people don't get to see how fucking hot they look, both metaphysically and also literally. They don't do much damage this time because they can be seen, but they do elegantly hack at the tentacle. Thwack! It takes a lot to make a machete look elegant. It's basically a cleaver.
GAME: Glitch spends 2 Glamour
Glitch waits, and watches. The tentacles lash around him, leaving an opening as he gazes at the water with the stabapple grip in his hand. The corruption scrambles intensely across his face as his eyes widen, his lips moving wordlessly, until... "There." He sees it. His foot slams into the water in front of him and then pushes off in a short hot. Flickering through the air, he kicks off one tentacle towards another, then leaps directly over the center of the writhing mass. Twisting in midair, he drives the flaming seed straight down in a violent blur, the flame trailing through the air as he slams through the water and buries it directly into the boss's vulnerable core.
When Glitch strikes home there's a bubbling shriek beneath the water, and then stillness. All motion ceases, and only the ripples on the surface of the water and the remaining ichor slick tell the tale of the battle than transpired here.
When the enemy is finally slain, Sigrun is far, far, faaaaar from satisfied. Not because the team did poorly, no. Simply because she didn't get to slaughter nearly enough for her tastes. She looks even more frustrated than when she couldn't find the bulb under the water. All build up and no pay off. Like someone really bad at giving head had just wasted fifteen minutes of her time on a Friday night. Man, but is she pissed. She looks up at the sky and howls with such profound fury that her throat might go raw. Veins show thick on her throat, and she pops a few capilaries in her eyes in the process. She doesn't turn this on her companions, though. She turns her back on them instead and begins hacking wildly at the nearest scraggly low bush, reducing it to toothpicks and mulch.
GAME: Sigrun clears the initiative roster in this location.
Vorpal's laughter, thrilled and ecstatic, mingles with Widget's manic giggles and Sigrun's infuriated roar of frustration. It rises, crests, and swoops down, the caustic shadows hiding in the wake of his guardian melting away as he scans his companions. Glitch is on his feet and proven delightfully effective- Teagan is screaming rage and triumph- Widget is cackling like mad- Sigrun seems to... um... need a minute... so it's towards the others he goes, not quite aware of exactly why Sigrun is shrieking and beating her bush.
"Holy gods, ye lot, but that was MAGICAL. Teagan, Glitch, you guys fucking wrecked it, and WIDGET. Holy SHIT. I am so -tremendously- proud of your skinny little ass!! THAT WAS GREAT!"
All this with the backdrop of Sigrun howling madness and shredding her shrubberies.
"Let her be," Teagan warns Widget and Glitch -- mostly Widget -- returning their machete to its ring holster. "Seriously -- stay out of her path for a little bit. She's -- it's an Ogre contract, I know a little bit of it. It's rough at the higher ends. Just let her burn herself out, and then we'll go take her to Downtime and pour mead down her throat."
That flicker of screaming rage is just -- gone. It was there for just a moment, and then Teagan is just as placid as they always are. At least, they look that way, as if they just turn it off as soon as the fight is done. "That jawn was fuckin' hot, for sure," they agree with Vorpal, the cornerof their mouth curling up just a bit.
The water stills after Glitch plunges down beneath its surface. Moments later, a ripple approaches the shore. The sprite emerges head first at the shore, walking up out of it silently with a straight-forward stare of determination, the seed-dagger left buried in the now lifeless mass. He looks around quietly before beeping, "I need a shower."
In the background, Sigrun has found a new bush to turn into kindling and tinder. She's starting to swear in English, rather than in Old Norse, so odds are she's starting to come back to reality. When she switches from swears to 'gosh darn it', it will probably be safe again.
->> +Fruit <<- Vorpal uses 1 of his pow Stabapple.
Widget's still looking around for things to shank, breath coming out in raspy, hissing, squeaky growls. "We done? There more? We done?!" The thorn scrapes along the ground, digging into the soft mud as Widget's teeth grit in in excitement. That was so *fun!* Then Teagan snaps her back with a warning. Something in her blood-fogged brain listens to it, and the gremlin extinguishes the thorn in the muck. "Oh...haaah...ok." She rises, still a little twitchy. It's like a sugar rush, so it'll be a bit before she's fully calm. The filthy little thing pauses, stoops down, and scratches two marks on her thorn with a rock. Oh yeah.
"Is that what she's on about," muses Vorpal, glancing back at the deccelerating Valkyrie. "Well. Sure! Let her cool down a bit. Thought she was pissed Glitch got the telling blow at first." He's paying no heed to the gore coating his fists, as though he hadn't punched tentacles hard enough to explode a few seconds ago. "Showers. Yes, I think," Vorpal murmurs, looking over the messy crew, "That showers are in order." He nods firmly, agreeing with Teagan, then beams at Widget's tallies behind his helm. "Got the right idea, you do. We'll see about preserving that so you can keep it, Wij. Maybe work it into a bigger weapon later."
"FUCKING SHIT FUCKING ASSHOLE MOTHERFUCKING BITCH!! I WILL FUCKING TEAR YOUR FUCKING TITS OFF YOU PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!! GOD FUCKING DAMMIT YOU ASSFUCKING SHITFACE!! GOLLY GOSH DARN SCREW IT! YOU STUPID... STUPID! DANG IT! UGH!" Sigrun finally staggers down to one knee in the mire, resting on her axe handle with her shield half submerged, sucking in air as though she'd just reached the limit of her endurance. She spends a few moments collecting herself, then pushes back up out of the mire to her feet, coated in mud and that green sludge. (It smells a bit like pine and sage, so it's not as awful as it could be.) After a few more moments she swings her axe back over her shoulder and slides it into its strap, then sloshes her way back towards Ulf and her abandoned spear, which she tugs out of the muck and turns upright. She doesn't even bother trying to remount her wolf in the water, choosing instead to make the longer walk back to dry land first. Also, she's blushing, and muttering under her breath. Cleeeeearly embarassed.
The Mirrorskin with tally marks on their arms, marked in their skin, smiles lopsidedly at Widget, tipping their chin up at her, and then crosses over to ruffle her red hair. "Aight, y'all. Once she stops cussing," and Teagan hooks their thumb over their shoulder toward the Valkyrie, "We'll go get showers and chill the entire fuck out. Aaaand there we go. Aight. SIG! Bring your bad ass over here and lets go enjoy some motherfucking downtime." Which is what the Hollow is for, after all.
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