CitW: Round 2: The Brave

Plot Notes · Tue Mar 05, 2019 7:11 pm

You're fighting for your life

Ahahahahahahahaha
It's close to midnight
Something evil's lurking from the dark
Under the moonlight
You see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream
But terror takes the sound before you make it
You start to freeze
As horror looks you right between your eyes
You're paralyzed
'Cause this is thriller
Thriller night

And no one’s gonna save you
From the beast about to strike
You know it’s thriller
Thriller night
You’re fighting for your life
Inside a killer thriller tonight, yeah
Ahahahahahahahaha
I'm gonna bring it tonight
Ahahahahahahahaha

You hear the door slam
And realize there's nowhere left to run
You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you'll ever see the sun
You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination
Girl but all the while
You hear a creature creeping up behind
You're out of time
'Cause this is thriller
Thriller night

And no one’s gonna save you
From the beast about to strike
You know it’s thriller
Thriller night
You’re fighting for your life
Inside a killer thriller tonight

Ahahahahahahahaha
I'm gonna thrill ya tonight
Get up, get up

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood
And whosoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

I'm gonna thrill ya tonight
Ooh, babe
'Cause this is thriller
Get up, get up (I'm gonna thrill you tonight)
Cause this is thriller

120th Ashan, 719. Midnight

The First Shard.

The Brave

The stream is shrunk — the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;

With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each jostling each along the bank;

And by one drouthy fear made still,
Forgoing thought of quest or kill.

Now ‘neath his dam the fawn may see,
The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he,
And the tall buck, unflinching, note
The fangs that tore his father’s throat.

The pools are shrunk — the streams are dry,
And we be playmates, thou and I,
Till yonder cloud — Good Hunting! — loose
The rain that breaks our Water Truce.

"How Fear Came"
by R. Kipling

Kesindir

Kesindir did something utterly insane. His body took over from his mind and he lost all semblance of sanity. Like a mad man, aware that he was going to die, unconcerned about his nakedness and no longer held by it. Instead, he committed suicide. He ran at them, naked and unarmed, wielding only a torch and sheer bloody determination. But he fought.

And so, combat happened. And, as he suspected, there was no way he was getting out of this unscathed. He swung his torch, they screeched away from the fire and then, Kes felt long, sharp fingernails like razorblades slice across his upper arm. It froze, sending paralysis all down his arm, immediately. Within one trill, his arm was dead and then, as the freezing reached his heart, it stopped.

The creature watched as Kes simply fell to the ground.

Toraj

Toraj was nearly helped by a miracle. For a brief, beautiful moment, a flimsy-looking barrier erected itself between Toraj and the creatures which attacked. But it wasn't stable, it wasn't specific and it was built with doubt, and so, it dissolved within seconds. And the creatures descended on him .

What happened then was horrific, in many ways ~ miraculous in others. Toraj fell and protected the hare. He was determined that he would do so. So, he felt the claws tear the flesh from his back, he experienced the blood pouring and yet, he did not die. It was horrifically painful and, if he simply stayed there, then he would die. Quickly, the long claws would rake through his flesh and find the bones. They would take longer, but, they would be ripped apart.

Unless he did something. He did, however, spot a small cache of what seemed to be weapons and armour. But it was quite far away.

Nir'wei

Nir'wei was, if he was nothing else, determined. Determined that he would not be beaten that, should he die this trial, he was taking Faldrun's spawn with him. And the tiny man threw sand at something easily twenty times his size. The grains of sand had shrunk with him, of course, and now were beyond minuscule.

Yet they worked.

And as the creature turned to glass and shattered ~ Nir'wei got to look around and see what was happening.

The Situation....

Kesindir had fallen, but as he fell so too did the Shadow Beasts attacking him. His eyes snapped open again, almost immediately. His right arm was pouring blood, he was still naked. Nir'wei ~ still tiny ~ was unharmed. But they were the only two. Toraj was in the fetal position, protecting a bunny. Nox and Mute were both injured and fighting the best they could. In the middle of them was a cache of weapons and armour - but they really weren't much.

You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination

Objectives & Rules

!	Message from: MUST DO OBJECTIVES
	Continue until someone dies.. Shadow beast, PC, whoever .....

!	Message from: OBJECTIVES MET LAST ROUND
	Nir'wei, Toraj & Kes met the objectives.

!	Message from: CAN DO OBJECTIVES
	There are 3 hidden objectives here. I'll let you know if you meet them.

Dates & Deadlines

You need to post here by Monday 11th March. If you have not done so, you've missed the round. I will be locking the thread at that time.
I will post on Tuesday 12th March.

Thu Mar 07, 2019 2:36 am

Yep.

That happened. It totally happened. What he knew would happen the moment he made the decision. That single choice that cost him, well, his life. Was it worth it though? The Shadow Beasts that had plagued him were gone. His heart had stopped, his arm was deadened and bleeding ... badly. He chose though. He'd chosen to fight, and fight he did. So did they, exactly as he'd expected. His arm seized, frozen in place, then the poison hit his heart, and it too had stopped, and with it Kes fell. To the ground.

It didn't seem like he was gone that long. Much like when you fall asleep, he'd been aware one moment, then aware of the next moment of awareness, but not what was in between. What had been in that in between? Nothing. Nothing was waiting for him, to greet him or scold. It was just a moment of emptiness. Now though, now he was awake. He felt ...fine, which was weird given he was bleeding profusely from his arm. There were no creatures bringing their razor sharp claws down on him. And he was still naked. Of course he was.

Yet that didn't deter the Biqaj prior, and now that his shadow beast were no more, it definitely didn't deter him now. He lifted his head, then arms and pushed himself off the ground. He was bleeding and that needed to be taken care of, but others were in need, much sooner than him. Get UP! He screamed at his body to move. There was no time. Kes got to his knees and took the small plastic bottle in his hand, the label reading Drink Me and for the briefest of moments, he thought of consuming it himself. He didn't want to though. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of the .... well he really was a short man now. Palm sized. Adorable. Almost.

Kesindir's voice was dry, but he managed to call out, "Heads up short stuff!" He didn't have anything better to call him, and figured the name would at least make it obvious who he was speaking too, and so he lobbed the bottle to the short man. It landed safely near him. "Drink it, and grow!" Kes wasn't sure why he told the man to grow, but it felt like he needed to know to do it, "We need you." After all, Kes should, by all accounts, be completely dead, but here he was throwing bottles of ... stuff and preparing to do something yet again wholly stupid.

Not far from where Kesindir sat, another man, one of the ones from the cave, was hunched over ...badly injured. Shit. Kes picked up the burnt out torch in his left hand, got to his feet, took a deep breath, and charged. He wasn't good with anything in his left hand, but it was all he had, and he was going to give one of those shadow beasts the beating of its short life. So he leapt and he swung, and while he did, he screamed. Whether it was to inspire the others, or to boost his own courage, or to frighten the shadow beasts, who really knew. "Get up and fight!"

These weren't his beasts though, so he wasn't afraid of them, but he knew what that terror felt like. He also knew what it felt like to swallow that fear, face it, and fall to it. They didn't have to fall to it. They didn't need to fall to it. The shadow beats needed to fear them. They'd made some stupid mistakes as a group. Them being apart from each other, completely separated, gave the advantage to the shadow beasts. Kesindir knew, when you were with a group on a trail, you always stuck together. Always had a partner to watch your back, and you theirs. He knew that, and yet, he let the coldness of this place get to him. Now he knew.

He wasn't aiming to kill the shadow beast. He didn't have the skill, nor the hands to do such a feat. He was simply buying the protector some time to decide to be Brave, and also see if short stuff would drink the potion. It was a gamble, placing hope on complete strangers to pull together for the betterment of each of them, but Kes wasn't going to give up on them yet, and as long as they didn't give up, he'd fight till he couldn't fight anymore.

Sat Mar 09, 2019 12:34 am

For an impossibly long time he sat, staring at the smoldering stain on the ground that marked the last place the shadow beast had been standing. It worked? It worked?! Honestly, he couldn't have known, couldn't have conceived... of course it sort-of made sense, but at the same time it absolutely, completely did not, not even in the slightest. Also, what the hell were those things? Why did they appear out of nowhere and attack, why did they look like Faldrun...

"Okay, while I'd love to sit here and listen to you melt down, we need to keep moving." Greyhide nudged hard at his side with his muzzle, and again, briefly bringing him back to the waking world with a furious shake of his head. Finally he got a proper look at the cave, not just the few bleary shapes barely illuminated by the tiny candle he'd been holding. The ceiling stretched high above them, and even though there was no hole for the sunlight to shine through, the light was everywhere, comfortable and yet horribly eerie. Back the way he came, he could hear scrambling, scratching, yelling. The others, perhaps? Oh crap, did that mean there were even more creatures waiting for them further down the caves?

Instincts said to run, and Nir'wei scrambled quickly to his feet, wobbling unsteadily backwards a step or two, and the world suddenly came back into clarity. "Wait, if the light is back, doesn't that mean we did it? We've won?" He looked to the wolf, but there was only a blank stare to answer him. Archailist too. Technically, yes, but actually, no. Maybe? Who knew? None of them. "Did... did we do something wrong, did we... did we not find the right light, is that why the monsters came?"

Something sharp nipped at his ear and Nir jumped in shock, slapping the spot Archailist had been perched upon just moments before. "How about instead of asking us dumb questions we can't answer, you get a move on and help the others!" In theory, that sounded like the best place to begin. Perhaps they could find where the light had been found, or pull together a better plan. However, in practice, he was still so small that he was putting garden gnomes to shame. If helping meant nibbling at ankles, can-do, boss! Otherwise, he was as good as dead the moment he stepped back out into the maze of a cave, trampled to the death by the shadow beasts, perhaps even by the others. No bows, no swords, no armour, no weapons, what was even the point--

The light filling the cave had almost made him forgot, but thank Karem his eyes settled on the candle in its last moments before it snuffed out completely. He'd dropped the lamp as he'd shrunk, he remembered now. The metal cage that had once hung comfortably from one hand was now large enough to fit several Nir'weis, and the ebbing candle stuck in its middle was just a little bit shorter, and thankfully much thinner than him. The glass panes, instead of shattering, had slipped from their casings as the metal buckled on impact, and Nir'wei found he didn't even need to bend his neck to walk under the casing and pick up the melted remains of the candle in both hands. Was it flimsy, weak and probably useless? Without a doubt. But was it worth a shot? Hopefully.

"This is a terrible idea. We're gonna get stepped on and die. There's no reason to do any of this, we could just, I don't know, run in the opposite direction. Get the hell out of this place. Find another exit like last time," he muttered to himself as he hefted the partially melted candle and stepped back out of the remains of the lamp, starting to scurry towards the yelling and scraping sounds made from yet more of the horrid creatures. They seemed to be coming back from the way he'd came, and unfortunately on such tiny legs and hefting a candle nearly the same size as him, it was nothing short of a miracle he reached it in the time he did. Perhaps it was the growing sense of urgency he could feel in his gut. An in-explainable sensation that something horrible was going to happen, whatever the outcome of his involvement. He never should have trusted a shadow-man with wings.

Then, he turned a corner, and he saw it. Them. Someone familiar, from back at the beginning of the cave, though he could only identify them by their pajamas since they were curled up on the ground cowering while two beasts raked claws over their back, scraping away through blood and muscle like pigs at a trough. It was a wholly sickening sight, what little of it he could see from between dribbles of hot wax as the little candle he held rapidly disintegrated. Neither of the creatures seemed to have noticed him, and as he crept closer, they never seemed to turn away from their task... not until he strained mightily and overturned the candle onto one of the creature's feet, setting it ablaze as the flames caught and spread rapidly. In the havoc he scurried back, tripping over once in his haste to escape... and coming across another on his way out.

He waved an arm, apparently just as breathless, but instead he was thrown a bottle. Small for the man, massive for Nir'wei, though it didn't sound like that would be a problem for long. "Heh, thank Karem for that!" Immediately he popped off the cork and upended the whole bottle, gulping down liquid as it splashed over his tiny cheeks and soaked the chest of his pajamas. It tasted... anticlimactic... oddly fizzy in a way liquid most definitely shouldn't... but then again, this was no ordinary potion. Greyhide lapped the dribbles that escaped and Nir'wei leaned down to offer the wolf a healthy amount too, but he made sure to finish it off. The moment he felt the last dribble touch his lips he could feel something he'd lost rapidly flooding back, inches and then feet returning to his body as he grew, and when he turned to look, the wolf was shivering all over as it grew with him. "I... I think I got one, but I'm out of ideas here," he called to the other man, glancing over his shoulder quickly to shoot an uneasy look at the second untouched shadow beast. "We need... we need fire. A sword wouldn't go amiss. And where the hell are the others?"

Sat Mar 09, 2019 1:06 pm

“What the fuck?”

Nox covered his eyes as the room suddenly lit up like the sun was mere inches away from them. He tried to locate the source of light, a man seems to be enveloped by the sunlight.

There’s your sunlight, now to find a way out of this looney bin

Suddenly black creatures, the stuff of nightmares attacked him. He only got a quick moment to scan the room and saw that the other people stuck with him are all attacked by the same black creatures.

“Focus on what’s in front of you!” Lyn yelled

“Lyn, remember The Red Carnage” Nox said to Lyn before bracing himself for the attack.

Nox braced himself, with the letter opener in one hand and his token and the blue sphere that he found earlier tucked safely in his pyjamas. It was only for a brief moment but he knows who the person is standing in front of him. That face, one of the many faces that he could not forget since that fateful night when his mother was stabbed.

Nox felled backward, the letter opener fell from his hands. It was as if he was transported back in time to that fateful night. It was like when he was a scared helpless little kid. The two creatures manage to get a hold of him, they tried to strangle him. It was this two same men who with several others stabbed his mother. He was just a helpless little kid who could not save his mother and now he have to die by their hands.

Nox was paralyzed. It was at this moment of helplessness that Lyn possessed Nox. A symbiosis possession. Nox saw the two man strangling him. Nox bit his lips until enough blood is accumulated in his mouth, then he sprayed his blood at the two attackers. Aukari’s blood a curse that have followed all Aukari from birth, their blood was hot and boiling, like the living fire within them. After spraying his blood, then he managed to grab both men by the neck. Fire slowly crept from his hands, until he was practically ablaze.

“Father have given me this power, I’ll show you fuckers what monsters really looks like!”

Snapped out of it!

No, those fuckers are the one who killed my mother!

Snapped the fuck out of it Nox!

Not until they turned to ashes

Push yourself longer and you’ll be the one to turn into ash

Then it’ll be my time to be reunited with her

Mon Mar 11, 2019 2:30 am

"Silence Reigns . . ."

I hadn't truly believed I would find the sunlight in this place. Not truly. And had I known what lurked, waiting for that exact moment, I wouldn't have been the person at all. No, I would've hovered close to one of the other explorers near the first part of the cave, groping about by torch light and finding nothing of import. Sometimes ignorance was a blessing, though that was a sentiment usual only acquired in retrospect. Alas I couldn't help it. These shadows creatures that frightened me more than anything I had ever stumbled across before made me think of my life five bits earlier. I couldn't even decide if these thoughts of my past were flashing by or moving at a normal rate?

One of the creatures swung its claws at my face, forcing me to duck away from the blow. I was able to evade the strike, but left myself open to the second monster's own raking blow. I felt the nails slice across my ribs, and a flash of white passed across my vision. I flailed wildly with the torch, which was my only weapon, which forced the creatures to move out of range, earning myself a few trills of reprieve. But what was I to do with such an opening? I was no warrior, and there were two enemies. If I stayed on the defensive, I was certain to succumb to the numbers advantage. Somehow, someway, I needed to make this a one on one fight while at the same subduing the claws.

With no better idea, I chucked the torch at one of the beasts.

The hope was that these creatures were flammable. Not pausing to see if the monster was caught up in flames, I charged into the second creature, aiming to tackle it to the ground. I was over six and a half feet tall; why not use that to my advantage? I wasn't the strongest person around, but I still had a lot of mass to move around. Hopefully the creature didn't have enough break free. If everything worked to plan, the first creature would be burning to death right now while I proceeded to choke out its twin.

Hopefully.

Mon Mar 11, 2019 6:58 am

The pain wasn't unexpected, but it didn't make it any easier to endure. Knowing that it's coming had never saved him before---it echoed distantly in his memory, so distant yet so familiar---and hadn't made it any more merciful. Pain and mercy were antonymous of one another, he'd learned that early on. Still, he held on to Spirit and defied the pain as it bit into his flesh, claws digging away and blood spilling as they dug depeer and tried to reach his bones. They were trying to tear him apart, bit by bit, and the pain was excruciating. Worse than anything he could immediately remember, so jarring that it numbed his mind to everything else. The Hare in his arms stirred, nostrils flaring in alarm and fright as it tried to wriggle its way out of the desperate Mortalborn's arms. Rapidly weakening under the onslaught, there was little Toraj could truly do as the Hare sprang free from his protection and leapt, perhaps more heroicly than the exemplar of Heroism himself, at the shades that loomed still over the Son of Light, determined to snuff it out once and for all.

The Hare's whimper of pain caught his attention and Toraj looked up. Only when he saw the creature bounding off, injured and bleeding from the bite of the creature's claw, did something click into motion in the boy's mind. He sprang to his feet and he followed the Hare, shoving his way past the nightmares in spite of the agony that held his senses, his feet moving on their own.

Clever Hare.

That cache was closer now than before, the Hare springing swiftly across the cavernous floor in hopes of reaching it before their eager pursuers caught up with them, both shades shrieking in anger as they gave pursuit with claws and teeth brandished to flash in the faint light of the cavern. Toraj, however, wasn't focused on the cache---his attention was on the trail of blood left by Spirit, and he could feel a desperate yearning welling up in his chest. It was oppressive and unbidden, but haunting all at once. A melody rang softly in the back of his mind, and like always, he couldn't help but hum as he stumble-ran after his companion, pushing the pain of his injuries into the back of his mind through an unlikely show of determination and strong will. He reached for the Hare, in spite of its headstart... and another pair of claw marks slashed deeply through the flesh covering his ribcage. The trail of blood beneath the Hare stopped suddenly, but the Hare himself didn't stop running. Neither did Toraj, whose body was wreathed fully in brilliant golden light, sparked by the equally golden claw marks that had been drawn on his body. He ran, as fast as he could, allowing the renewed vigor of his unique heritage carry him.

Once he reached the cache, he searched desperately for all of two seconds.

A small blade would have to do. It was all he was familiar with, and the weight of it in his hand drew the smell of sulfur to his nostrils. Memory was such an interesting thing, sometimes.

Whirling, he threw himself against the creatures with the same desperation that he'd thrown himself against Raven. It felt like so long ago now, but his body still remembered the desperate pumping of adrenaline just from wielding that blade, in that moment. The creatures reeled as they bathed in the brilliant light flaring from his body and he advanced without fear or hesitation, this time. He saw the images of the witches in the dark, shying away from light as if their lives depended on it---much to his surprise, the creatures ducked and hesitated in the face of the Son of Light's halo'd self. He lunged. There was no method, no skill, no real practice. He had held this blade exactly once before, and all he knew was this---go for the neck.

Off Topic

For the record, the glow is his MB power, "A Hero's Burden". He used it to take the wound from Spirit, now aglow as a result and effectively unable to "die" until the wound he took expires as per his power, if it works as intended in this thread.

Plot Notes · Tue Mar 12, 2019 7:57 pm

And so it goes, and so it goes....

In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along

I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense

And every time I've held a rose
It seems I only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose

But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break

And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

So I would choose to be with you
That's if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break

And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows

120th Ashan, 719. Midnight

The Moment.

The Brave

Master of human destinies am I;
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait.
Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late,
I knock unbidden once at every gate.

If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise, before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe
Save death; but those who hesitate
Condemned to failure, penury and woe,
Seek me in vain, and uselessly implore.
I answer not, and I return no more.

~John Ingalls~

Kesindir & Nir'wei

Nir'wei drank the potion, and he grew. He grew to his normal size. The two of them tried to make sense of what was happening and then, when Nir'wei spoke ~ and thought about ~ a fire and a sword? There, in front of them, there was a campfire and in his hand was a sword.

Toraj & Kesindir

Toraj was inspired, motivated to move and he did so. But Kesindir, who moved to help him, could see that Toraj was a mass of blood. The Mortalborn was only just managing to move and yet, it was the smallest thing which did it.

It was taking the injury from the Hare.

Toraj stood, ready to fight and with blood pouring down him. And then, the world slid from his view as he fell forwards, the blood loss and injury just too much for him. When he did that, the Shadow Beasts on him disappeared even as his body hit the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces, each one a spark of light.

Nox

They saw it - Nir'wei especially - Nox stood as though frozen and he spat, then burst into flames. His Aukari heritage allowed it, but he was terrified, emotional and completely undisciplined. And so, like a funeral pyre he lit and as his screams echoed throughout the room he, and the Shadow Beasts which had fought him, charred and burned into nothing.

Nothing except ash.

Mute

For what reason, it might be hard to tell, but Mute's tactic worked better than well. As the first creature screamed, and burned, Mute threw himself at the other. It was over quickly, he saw and felt it die as he choked it. Of course, it didn't breathe, but that really didn't seem to matter as it, and it's companion, died.

The Situation....

And then, there was silence.

It was almost deafening. However many had started, now only three remained.

And they had but moments before everything shifted before them.

Kesindir, Nir'wei and Mute.

And so it goes, and so it goes....

....and so will you soon, I suppose.

Objectives & Rules

!	Message from: Kes, Nir & Mute
	Please proceed to "The Dead 2".

!	Message from: Toraj & Nox
	You are out of the thread. Please wait for the review to learn the fate of your pc. Thank you for your contributions!

Knowledge

None.

120th of Ashan 719

Featured

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Staff

Miscellaneous

Events

Objectives & Rules

Dates & Deadlines

Contribution

Milestones

Miscellaneous

Featured

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Miscellaneous

Events

Milestones

Miscellaneous

Contribution

Milestones

Miscellaneous

Events

Milestones

Miscellaneous

Events

Featured

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Staff

Miscellaneous

Events

Objectives & Rules

Featured

Contribution

Milestones

RP Medals

Staff

Miscellaneous

Events

Overview

Points

Loot

Knowledge

Overview

Points

Loot

Knowledge

Overview

Points

Loot

Knowledge

Overview

Points

Loot

Knowledge

Overview

Points

Loot

Knowledge