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Post by Delaela Fenastra-Asiliari on Nov 7, 2023 0:10:40 GMT -5
Getting out of the metal tube was, indeed, more of a challenge than getting in. Chip had wedged himself in quite tightly to the tube in order to impress his new friend. Fortunately, his whiskers were outside the other end, so he could still shimmy his way out... while the metal tube rolled across the floor. And bumped into the counter. And the chair leg. And the broom which sent it toppling into a small bin of forged nails and sending them all scattering.
But he was free! Shaking himself off vigorously, Chip mewls and pads after Ebony, teeny tail high in the air as they approach.... The Door.
The Warm Lady often took Chip outside, to carry him to the Sharp Man's house with the many small two-legs, or to pop over to the market for a quick errand, but he was always with her the whole while. Never before had he ventured out of the forge on his very own! But he wasn't on his very own-- he was with Ebony, and he must accomplish this task. He was a grown flitten now! He'd escaped the tube and everything.
Chip paws at the door looking at Ebony with wide eyes. How would they get out?
Del catches, for that briefest of seconds, where Zarius hesitates before consuming the candy. It is over and done with quickly, but there is a reflexive pause she notices-- as if he had heard or remembered something that caused him to reconsider for a moment. Before she can ask if he is alright, though, Zarius consumes the candy, and the guts of the mimic swells with an unnatural and sudden heat.
Del flashes Zarius an encouraging grin, and then pivots on her foot, swinging it out in a wide arc as she launches a ball of fire off her extended leg. It collides with a repugnant hiss into the fleshy wall of the mimic's interior, filling the innards of the creature with the smell of burnt tissue and acrid smoke. The moment her foot is back on the ground, she turns again to throw a punch in the opposite direction she had been facing. Another ball of fire strikes some sort of dangling pseudopod along the ceiling, and the mimic shudders.
"It didn't like that I think!" Del calls, trying not to cough. The increase of heat was sweltering and disgustingly humid. Distantly, Del wondered how long it took to set digestive fluids to a boil? ...Best not try to find that out.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Nov 10, 2023 23:29:47 GMT -5
Ebony's whiskers twitch as Chip paws at the door. She looks at what exactly they're dealing with. A heavy wooden door with a lever handle.
Child's play.
The black cat stretches and squashes her neck, judging the distance between the window sill and the door. She can do that with no problem. She knows all too well that these kinds of doors are simple to open with just some well-placed weight. She shifts her weight back and forth, waggling her haunches as she bunches up like a spring. Her tail flicks before going rigid right before she launches herself through the air at the door handle.
She easily hits her mark and her claws scrabble against the wood and metal to get a hold on the lever. Her weight pulls down on the handle and...
It doesn't move.
It's locked.
FOILED! The audacity of that two-legger! How dare she attempt to stop the chaos cat from leaving. The nerve. The gall.
Ebony kicks her back paws at the door and mrowrs in annoyance.
The heat is intense and only grows the longer the pair of fighters stay inside the mimic's stomach. But it's working. The creature is clearly suffering some pretty significant indigestion right now. If it didn't want to be roasted from the inside out, it would need to get them out of it and fast.
Suddenly, the stomach lining all around them constricts, closing in the space around them as the 'floor' beneath their feet lurches. Zarius barely keeps his balance and slides into Del.
Shit.
Hopefully, he doesn't burn her. Cyran and Eameia would have his head.
The mimic tenses and twists which pushes them both into a tighter area until they're pressed up against the fleshy walls once again. The brief thought that the mimic might have the strength to outright crush them crosses Zarius' mind. But before the panic from a possible slow crushing death can settle in, he feels the wall behind him give and they both tumble backwards out into the ash.
Feeling the relatively cool air hit him, Zarius scrambles back, half-dragging Del away from the mimic in case it tries to swat them with its pseudopods.
"Are you alright?" He asks before looking back at the warehouse mimic.
The creature is still reeling in pain from the internal burns, and as it thrashes its disguise starts to stretch and contort into just a mass of organic matter with only a few pieces barely resembling the original building. It starts to retreat back from them, deciding that they're far too troublesome of a meal. There was easier prey elsewhere after all.
Zarius sees it pull back and start to slink off. While they just narrowly escaped before being digested, this thing is far too dangerous to let roam loose around the city.
He pulls Del up and pats her shoulder. "I know you're good at fixing things, but how about breaking them?"
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Post by Delaela Fenastra-Asiliari on Dec 28, 2023 3:12:54 GMT -5
Chip observes, wide-eyed, as Ebony performs what the Flitten can only process as a miracle. How gracefully she leaps onto the handle of the door, pulling it down in the very same way a two-leg would to open the portal to the outside. Except... it doesn't open. There is a definitive clunk that indicates the latch mechanism struck against the pins in the lock, preventing it from opening fully.
Seeing his mentor react in frustration, Chip fluffs himself up. He looks at the latch, made of wood, and up and around the room. This was his domain, after all, and he was tiny enough to get to where he needed to go almost at will. He scrabbles his way up onto the counter, galloping along until his tiny wings can start to flutter, buzzing vibrantly as he achieves lift off. He mewls to Ebony, beckoning her up, as he takes to the upper rafters.
Del had done an admirable job getting things fixed up after the violent quake. The loft that sat above the door was a perfect location for guests or for watching people come and go, and while it wasn't usable for that purpose at the moment, it was certainly stable enough for small creatures to walk on. Del was also deeply paranoid by nature, and had many exits in case someone unexpected should get inside her sanctum.
And as Chip shows Ebony the sneaky way out, he flies to the ceiling, clinging to it with his sticky paw pads and hanging upside down as he chews through the wooden clip that held back the rope. Now, dangling towards the beam below, a sharp tug would open the way to an escape hatch in the ceiling, leading to the roof.
She pauses for a split second as Zarius slides into her, rooting herself to give him a place to anchor, when the mimic decides to put up a hell of a fight. The tissues pressed against them swell as though either trying to crush or expel them, and for a moment, Del sees stars, fighting the compression with gritted teeth. As it gets harder and harder to breathe, flashes of being trapped in darkness, lungs filled with water ripple across the surface of her mind.
Gritting her teeth, strong fingers grip the fleshy walls of the mimic, searing with heat from her flaming hands. The heat Zarius exudes is intense, but not painful, if only thanks to her ability to endure great heat and that which she already can control from her hands[1]. Around her, a faint golden light shimmers as Del refuses to give in, despite he fact that the stars have started to blot out her vision. She strikes the creature again, flexing her fingers straight out abruptly from her hip and driving them forward, feeling the flesh tear from the pressure.[2]
A moment later, they are unceremoniously ejected from the mimic. Dazed, gasping for breath, she kicks herself back and away from the flailing pseudopods, gratefully taking Zarius' help as he pulls her back to safety.
"I'm alright!" she wheezes, letting Zarius help her up. They'd made it out; a relief, to be sure, but she still needed a moment to draw breath and get the spots out of her vision. Getting too old for this. "Are you okay?"
But now the creature was trying to retreat to safety, and that was not something Del could abide. And, apparently, neither could Zarius.
Zarius could not know that his question had an answer. Something within Del internally shudders, as she knows in the very same way she knows her own heart beat, where her true talents lie.
She gives Zarius wry look and says nothing. Actions spoke louder than words.
Undeterred by recently being consumed, Del moves forward, eyes lifting upward to the other buildings in the district. Nothing she could immediately use for their purposes, but this was a large creature with a strange means of absorbing its prey that had to be stopped. Conventional methods had not worked amazingly thus far due to those factors, but now that they knew what they were dealing with, at least they had the upper hand.
Snatching up a broken axle from a wagon in need of repair as she runs[3], Del quickly ascends one of the nearby buildings, kicking up its sheer wall to gain height[4] so she can drop down on top of the creature, driving the axle through its center. It's not long enough to run it through or to kill it, but it does cause the mimic to pause as it writhes in agony, shuddering and screeching as it flails the pseudopods at her. Hanging onto the axle, she kicks off the mimic's back over the right hand side, using her weight to drag the wood embedded in its flesh down its side to create a large hole on the left of the interior. Though, the damn thing, large as it was, was still kicking.
[1] Monk II - Myriad Barrier (fire) [2] Sting Like a Bee [3] Brawler I - Improvised Weapons [4] Cat's Grace
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Jan 9, 2024 20:30:08 GMT -5
Ebony's ears rotate to focus on Chip's mewls. She looks at the ceiling and her saucer-like eyes focus on the flitten's movements. Chip flies. Chip flutters. Chip...bird...must...chase.
Instinct takes over and Ebony drops to the floor before jumping up various furniture until she can make it into the rafters of the building. She wiggles her haunches as she approaches Chip and goes for a pounce just as the flitten flies up onto the ceiling out of her reach once more.
FOILED!
She sits under Chip, eyes focused on the little buzzing bugger as if hypnotized as the flitten chews through the clip holding the rope. Ebony's focus snaps to the rope as it comes swinging down near the beam she perches on. Rope. String. MUST CATCH.
Bunching her muscles under her and with her tail flicking back and forth in excitement, Ebony judges the distance to the rope before launching herself into the air. Paws outstretched, claws unsheathed, she grabs onto the rope and clings to it as it swings back and forth. Her weight is enough to shift a few things and create a gap for Chip to squeeze through.
Zarius nods in response to Del's concern. "I am fine. But we cannot let that thing get into the city."
Judging by Del's posture and expression, she is more than planning on putting a stop to the gigantic mimic regardless of what he says. Not that he plans on suggesting they retreat. This thing could easily disappear if they lost sight of it.
He feels the effects of the candy he consumed starting to fade. The heat wouldn't last much longer which means the mimic will soon recover from its exhaustion. If they wanted to put an end to it, they had to do it now.
Watching Del leap into action gives him an idea. He follows her lead and gets to a higher vantage point by racing up the side of a building.[1] As she launches her attack and drives the piece of broken wood into the undulating creature, the fellblood carefully crosses a tethered line between two buildings to get over top of it as it tries to escape down the street.
The wagon axle isn't long enough to go through the whole thing, but with some extra force, it might go deep enough to hit something vital. Admittedly, determining where the vital organs of a mimic are was not one of his strong suits. It's worth a shot though, especially with Del having already done the heavy lifting.
He waits for an opening, watching every flex and stretch of the mimic's flesh. It recoils in pain from Del's assault and begins to form several pseudopods to bat the fighter away. While it's focus is on Del, Zarius bounces on the tether until he launches off it to get as much height on the creature as possible.
Flipping around in the air, he keeps his focus on the creature as he falls towards it. The acrid taste of smoke starts to well up in the back of his throat, but he doesn't let that distract him from landing a concussive blow to the exposed end of the axle.[2] The force of his cratering hit drives it further into the mimic's flesh, tearing through it and causing its blood to paint the nearest wall in ichor and viscera. A ripple of pain makes the entire creature shudder and it lets out an unnatural screech from various sharp-toothed mouths that appear from its skin.
Zarius twists and pushes off the end of the axle to try and jump clear of the creature as it goes into its death throws, but one of the pseudopods makes a wide swing just as he's in mid-air.
"Oh fu-" He sees the hit coming and raises his arms to guard his chest as it slams into his waist and flings him down the street.
[1] Spider Silk Boots [2] Guillotine Drop
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Post by Delaela Fenastra-Asiliari on Feb 9, 2024 3:16:21 GMT -5
It is, perhaps, for the best that Ebony's Grand Mistress of the Hunt Routine goes unnoticed by Chip, so engrossed is he in his Important Mission to Get Out Of The Shop that he is entirely unaware that for a moment, he was prey under the blown-pupil intensity of a true hunter. His plucky lack of self-awareness was very cute.
It was a little less adorable when one considered the streets of Darkveil waited outside for them, but only a little.
Better still that Ebony's attention was wholly diverted by the swinging rope! Success! This time, Chip sees the excited swish of the tail, the dilated pupils, the rocking back onto haunches as the distance was calculated, and the elegant launch that resulted in Ebony seizing the rope like a Chip bird out of the sky. It pops the latch open, creating a stream of cool, ashy air from the exterior.
FREEDOM!
Chip mewls excitedly, and jumps into the crack, squirming his way through the narrow space until he pops free on the roof of the Ironwood Ore and Timber. He prances in place for a moment, emminently pleased with himself... when he realizes something...
He lacks both the strength and the skill to get Ebony in from this side. What was more, he was alone!
"MREEEW," wails Chip. Forlorn! Forgotten!
Del grits her teeth with effort as she tries to drive the axle of the wagon deeper into this mimic thing, but there is... an uncomfortable viscosity she can feel through the wooden shaft. As though she were mixing some horrible mess of molasses and gelatinized bone. Whatever this thing was made of, it didn't act like flesh.
At the very least, the damn mimic had been slowed down. It certainly couldn't go to ground with a large pole sticking out of its side. Still, this creature was far from giving up the fight. It thrashes wildly, pseudopods battering her furiously to dislodge the pest that was trying to kill it. It takes all of Del's strength to stay on the damn thing[1], doing her best to deflect and weather the blows as best as she could, though blood pours from her injured nose, her eye blackens, and her ears take on a shrill ring she knows she will be hearing for a week at least. But still, she hangs on; Del was confident Zarius hadn't abandoned her to this.
...Where was he, actually?
No sooner had the thought occured to her when movement out of the corner of her eye catches her attention. She turns her head just in time to see Zarius launching himself at speed towards the mimic, dropping the full weight of his body and his momentum on to the exposed end of the axle, driving it deeper into the mimic and rending it asunder. The creature produces an ungodly screech that instantly throws her into a migrane
"Zarius!" She yells, alarmed and worried as he is violently struck backwards and down the street. She curses under her breath, starting towards him-- and pauses, looking down at the Mimic. They had to make sure it was dead. It was still currently thrashing, but with the amount of ichor pouring out of its wound, it was bound to not be long for this world.
Still, Del was never one to take any unnecessary chances.
Using all the leverage she can, Del twists the axle and uses it to vault herself off the large body in the direction Zarius was thrown. There is a sucking, tearing sound that comes from the wound, not unlike that fetid bursting of a beached porpoise left to rot in the sun for too long. The gaping wound made all the wider, allowing for the viscera to flow out of the twitching, demainding corpse, Del twists the shadows around her hands to create shackles. They seize the ambulatory appendages of the creature, rooting it to the spot so it can die here in the street, while Del bolts in Zarius' direction to make sure her friend was alright. "Dammit, where'd you go..."
[1] Brawler Prestige - Iron Grip [2] Shadow Dancer Prestige - Shadow Binding
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Feb 25, 2024 22:52:29 GMT -5
Ebony dangles from the rope long enough for Chip to make his daring escape. Unfortunately, her strength only goes so far and is not enough for her to climb up and make an attempt to jump through the opening after the flitten. She releases her claws from the rope, ceasing her dangling and twisting in the air to land softly on her feet only for a dusting of ash to fall down on her back from the hatch returning to its closed position.
She shakes the grey powder from her pelt and goes into a fit of sneezes. Only once her ears pick up the distinct sound of Chip’s wails does she look back up at the ceiling. Her tail twitches back and forth, sweeping the ash on the floorboards to either side.
Well.
That plan did not go quite in her favor. Now her new adventuring apprentice was trapped outside alone, easy pickings for any nearby hungry birds.
Aaaaah, the flitten is doomed. Just a snack waiting to be snatched up. Poor thing.
Oh well. Easy come, easy go. Ebony starts grooming her fur back into its glossy luster, ignoring the cries from their distressed friend.
Zarius tumbled down the street a fair ways before eventually coming to a stop. His ribs ache and creak as he drags himself out of the open street and into a nearby alleyway. He manages to push himself up to sit against a wall as he recovers from having the wind knocked out of him.
Ugh.
He hasn’t been hit that hard in a while. A testament to how sloppy his combat skills have gotten lately.
The taste of iron lingers on his tongue while brimstone burns the back of his throat.
If the fight between the mimic and Del is still going on, he can’t tell. Between the sound of his own heartbeat pounding in his ears and the chorus of whispers flooding his mind he can hardly hear anything around him. He knows he’s pretty hurt as his vision goes in and out of focus. The awful thought of what might happen should he pass out crosses his mind and his fingers start to search for the vial of healing liquid which hangs from his neck.
Feeling the cool metal against his fingertips, he fishes the vial out of his coat collar and quickly downs the chilled contents.[1] As the healing magic works on mending his bruised ribs and internal bleeding, he clutches the vial in his fist and rests his head against his knees. With his eyes closed tight, he focuses on quieting the whispers in his mind and pushing down the heat and smoke rising from his lungs.
He knows all too well now that these symptoms lead to more trouble for others, and thus himself. Losing control of himself and possibly inflicting harm on Del is the last thing he can afford to happen right now. Cyran is too valuable of an ally to lose over a predictable accident.
Del can handle herself against a wounded mimic. He’s not so sure if the same can be said against someone who is supposed to be an ally seemingly possessed by unknown forces. The risk of keeping his secret from his allies is significant, but to admit he doesn’t know how to help himself is hard, especially after all he’s done to appear trustworthy and reliable to those he values.
After a few more moments, the voices quiet and the heat radiating from his body eases. He sits back and takes a deep breath before opening his eyes. The sound of approaching footsteps catches his attention. He can only hope that it’s Del on her way to find him and not some opportunistic assassin after his head. Gods know this would be a good opportunity for any of his enemies to take advantage of.
“I am over here, Miss Delaela,” he calls to her just as she runs past the alleyway and he confirms it’s her and not an enemy.
[1] Essence of the North
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Post by Delaela Fenastra-Asiliari on Mar 23, 2024 17:06:15 GMT -5
The sound of Zarius' hoarse voice has her double back immediately to the alley she had just passed. She pokes her head around the corner, an expression of relief washing over her features. "Dust and ash, there you are," she jogs over, kneeling in front of Zarius to look him over. She winces in sympathy; he certainly looked like he had hit the stone, battered and bruised as he was. He had obviously had the wherewithal to pull himself to safety; the alley he had taken refuge in was not a straight-shot from the blow he had taken, rather, a hard right angle to the side. An opportune place to take cover in, but not where he had landed.
"I think it's dead-- if it's not yet, it will be shortly." she mutters, looking at his eyes-- difficult to tell if his pupils were dialated when he did not have any apparent. "I split it open, and last I checked, that tended to kill most creatures. It hit you pretty hard-- can you walk?" she enquires, shifting her posture to offer him her shoulder to brace against, if he should need it. "Should I bring you back to where you're staying? I can't imagine Eameia will be thrilled to see you like this... my forge is closer, though, if you need a place to rest."
Though she might be distantly concerned for how this might look to an outsider-- a relatively unknown and strange woman coming out of a battle with a giant mimic relatively unscathed compared to an upstanding and beloved member of the community where trust was in short supply-- her bigger priority was that Zarius, to her eyes, looked quite badly hurt. He needed care, and she was no physician, but she also didn't know enough about him to know where it would be best to faciliate his healing or care, especially in Darkveil, where people... needed to be vetted thoroughly.
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Post by Eameia (Zarius unavailable) on Mar 25, 2024 16:02:10 GMT -5
"My apologies. I did not intend to leave you to finish that creature off yourself."
All in all, Delaela looks like she escaped the encounter without suffering too much damage or gaining any significant wounds. Her resilience and hardiness are honestly impressive. She certainly seems like the kind of stable, sturdy woman a lightfooted and fragile-hearted man could rely on. The rock to Cyran’s feather. Gods. They’re like the ideal couples in the silly books his mother and sister read. Guess they aren’t as unrealistic as they seem.
His musings are interrupted by Del’s report on the current condition of the mimic they were fighting mere moments before.
"That is good."
It’s not surprising that Delaela has managed to fend off the creature given the skills he has observed thus far. She’s proven to be a formidable combatant.
But gods did she have to lean in so close to him? He looks away as she stares intensely into his eyes for some reason. Did she think he was lying or something?
"From my past experience, rending the body in any capacity is not something it can just reform and recover from."
He could hardly call himself an expert on mimics with only two encounters with the morphing beings under his belt. But two was enough for him to know that he did not want to become more well acquainted with them in the long run. Being eaten by them twice was more than enough to make for a full chapter in any memoir he might write one day. It’s certainly more than enough for Caedes to never let him live it down should the changeling learn about yet ANOTHER weird blob creature chomping down on him.
As she shifts her stance and returns to a more comfortable distance from his personal space bubble, he relaxes his shoulders.
"Yes, I had a healing potion on hand. I should be fine to walk now." He accepts Del's assistance in getting back up onto his feet, clasping her hand and hauling himself up to stand. Once he’s upright, he dusts himself off to little avail given that the potion only had an effect on his scrapes and bumps and not the tears in his clothes.
"Your forge will suffice. Besides, I have to remove the monster I left there. Hopefully, Ebony has not destroyed the place in our absence.”
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