Whittling down the Wyrm's numbers
Apr. 1st, 2012 08:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shelbyrouIt is currently 13:49 Pacific Time on Sat Mar 31 2012.
Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (60% full).
Umbra: Harbor Park
The Umbral ground beneath your feet here is lush with vegetation, an oasis of life amidst the concrete and webbing of the scab. Trees stand proud and tall here, their branches full of leaves. Shrubs line the outer edges of the park, tangled with encroaching webs. The fountain stands out boldly from even the surrounding area, the sleek lines sharper and more pronounced. Clean pure water roars and cascades from the figure in the fountain's center, falling into a cold clear pool that looks quite inviting. Spreading out from the fountain, the rest of the park is a green veldt that seems to radiate life and strength. The river banks the east shore of the park, bridged by a massive rusty bridge. On this shore, the glade seems to have spread out on to it, vines winding around the supports. Further across the river, the bridge melds into the scab again, flaked with rust and covered in webs. The river itself is clean within a few feet of the shore, but black ooze seems to encroach menacingly from the murk of the rest of the river.
A walkway leads out of the Glade-like atmosphere of the park from just north of the fountain. Eastward, the dark span of the bridge stretches over the vile river. Dark streets lead west and southwest into the blighted Umbra of the city.
Obvious exits:
South North Southwest West Bridge
Cheese Doodle arrives in Harbour park early, the lupus practically brimming with energy. As soon as she's reached across into the Umbra, the walker takes Crinos, and goes about turning on her Fetish - soon after, metal merges with flesh, and the phildox's arms are rapidly replaced with cybernetic hulk-limbs.
Topsy shows up in the Umbra with a spring in her step, rubbing her hands in cheery expectation and calling out greetings once she's walked from the safe Reaching-point to the place where people are assembling. She's taller than her usual dumpy self, in Glabro, and even broader than usual. "Hello! Jolly good, all ready?"
Harbor Park is teeming, in the lucent Galliard-moon night. Occasional clouds drift across the moon, and the cool night produces very little breeze. For those used to the Harbor Park Umbra, there are a few more woodland spirits than usual -- a rabbit here, a deer there, a small wild water spirit in the fountain. It would seem some of the spirits fleeing the Caern have found a temporary home. Though given the way some of the more usual habitants of the Park are reacting to them, this may not be nearly as permanent as the former Caern spirits might like; a cat spirit has, for example, paused, and is staring intently at the rabbit.
Keir arrives in the umbra a little early, as well, and thus has found a spot to settle in hispo and quietly meditate while he waits. Topsy's greeting stirs him, though, and his ears turn forward as his muzzle turns partially towards the approaching Gaian. He huffs a greeting, unfamiliar but affable enough.
Bright Eyes likewise shifts into Crinos promptly after achieving the Umbra, her clothing disappearing into the cascade of white hair that becomes fur. ~Bright Eye Sees to the Heart of the Ambush~, she greets the others, ears flattening at the Walker's 'enhancements'. A moment later she recovers and adds, ~Fostern Ragabash of the Silver Fangs.~ Her scent is already fading away, or perhaps it was never there to begin with. (Scent of Running Water)
Cheese Doodle:
Nine feet, two inches tall, this bipedal monster is enough to set most humans into fits of delirium, and Garou a serious moment of pause. Her arms are replaced by glistening steel and titanium; a cascade of metallic wires, pistons, servomotors and plates that forms and encompasses everything in wicked looking metal. The steel flesh flows together near the shoulders, a shining rim going around her collar bone. Down her spine is covered with steel segments, finally ending with a disk that protrudes just past the shoulder blades, half of it not connected with flesh. The disk has a yellow bulldozer, scoop upraised and its grill warped into teeth, painted on bottom half. Writ large across one of the titanium biceps is "EAASy v3.0.2," and "Danger! This end up!" on the other shoulder, both in red lettering. The metallic skin flexes and 'breathes' like regular skin, as if it's the werewolf's flesh. It also makes her rather top-heavy looking.
The cybernetics aside, this werewolf is a tad pudgy, though not overly so. Her pelt is various shades of brown on the back, most of it a light brown/golden blond, except for some darker browns around the corners of the jaws, hackles, and a bit on the flanks. Her abdomen is a creamy colour. Black claws stick out her feet, and two triangular ears swivel this way and that.
Topsy:
This is a striking woman who could never be mistaken for beautiful. She is a shade over six feet tall and as broad as a bus, craggy-faced, with a wild mane of black hair and worryingly long fingernails. nevertheless, she also has a gracious, aristocratic air which demands that people sit up and pay attention, if they weren't already giving her worried looks. Her eyes are a shade of brown that is nearly black, peering beneath heavy black eyebrows. She moves with a brisk confidence of movement which suggests she is amply able to handle herself physically.
Sightless Faith:
This huge dire wolf looks like something that should have been extinct a long time ago. Fangs jut out from the upper jaw, the head is huge and broad, and the paws are massive. He's marked like a normal grey wolf, but one look at the wolf's head shows an abnormality: his eyes are just -missing-. There's no sign of trauma or scarring; it simple looks like they never were. The eye sockets are dark and smoothly furred within, sealed over, eyelids even missing.
~Hi! I'm Cheese Doodle Burns Chrome!~ The Walker Lupus says, tail wagging a few times. Cheese Doodle drops down into a knuckle walk, like a gorilla. ~I'm a Glass Walker Philodox!~ And then to Topsy, ~Hello, Upside Down-Rhya!~ The lupus lifts her crinos head, and sniffs at the air a few times. ~I think... this is about all we'll have here, today.~ She says, unhappily.
"Oh, jolly good!" And Topsy switches to a Crinos that would be big and cuddly and cheerful if it wasn't for the setback of being an eight-foot-tall killing-machine. ~Turns-the-World-Upside-Down, Athro Ahroun of the Children of Gaia, currently Anruth, paying Chiminage to join the Hidden Walk. Looking forward to fighting beside you all!~
The rabbit flees, quick as a flash, into a shrub. The cat spirit blinks slowly, and then starts washing itself. (It ignores the Garou completely. Overtly. Ostentatiously.)
Sightless-Faith's nostrils flare a little, and the ahroun seems amused. Perhaps the good moods are contagious. ~Faith-Leads-The-Sightless, twice-ranked full-moon, sin-born, and rited under Chimera.~
Bright Eyes looks from one to the other, her eyes not missing the blind Stargazer. ~Two ahroun, a philodox, a ragabash. We may not be the largest war party, but I think we'll do. We can whittle away a few, anyway.~ An ear flicks toward the cat-and-rabbit, but she otherwise ignores the spirits. ~Has anyone else seen spirits in the Realm? There was a cross between a monkey and a duck on Equinox territory. We managed to get it back across the Gauntlet to safety.~
~There was some sort of monkey-thing near that poor, fallen-down hospital," Topsy says. "It was scaring the car-drivers, silly thing. I told it off, and it hopped back into the Umbra. So, who's leading this?" she asks, looking expectantly around the group. ~Happy to offer, but of course I'm not a Sept member and I don't know the plan or the area, so I'm just as happy to fall on in and take orders.~
Skeinweaver arrives presently, late but energetic. The white wolf trots up to the little group she spies, as if she'd been out enjoying the Umbra for fun. The Get huffs a greeting. This one has many names, but know that she is Skeinweaver, Rited here, recently returned, and Skald of Fenris. A Get who gets to the point of introductions? This must be the Umbra.
Cheese Doodle reaches up, the metal arm scratching at the top of her head. She starts distributing the talens, giving a bag full of jars to the Ragabash. ~I think because Upside-Down-Rhya is here, She's leading things when we fight? Unless anyone is gonna challenge...~ She thinks, before adding, ~We just want to kill back the Banes. If you start getting hurt, go to Bright Eyes! She'll do you up good! And when we're all tired and spent, we should go home for pizza! Okay?~
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As promised, Ishmael has some healing Talens for Doodle. They are a milky ointment in four palm-sized glass jars, with three applications in each jar, for a total of 12 total applications. Each application heals 3agg, with no limit on how often they can be used per person. The ointment consists of crushed crystal, mountain spring water, aloe and mint, generally smelling very fresh and clean.
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Skeinweaver:
Songweaver is a white wolf, rather leggy for a garou but quite satisfactory for a normal canid. Her fur is silky, whispy, the bluish-white of icicles. Her snout is long and elegant, her ears sharp and pointed above her head, several chrome rings pierced into both. Her black rimmed eyes, slanted and wide, are a stark contrast: the blue irises contracted tight around her pupils, gems against the white fur. Her limbs are long, and lithe, her body built seemingly for speed and agility, her long black nails stark against the white fur of small paws. A patch of ragged fur on her left forearm belies a scar hidden beneath.
Sightless-Faith doesn't volunteer, and he gets up and shakes off his coat, repeats his introduction for Javen, and seems agreeable to Doodle. Each of the garou is snuffed at (one might get the impression that he's making note of their scents), and he muses to Doodle, ~So long as there's beer, too. Can't have pizza without beer.~
~If nobody is going to raise an objection then?~ Topsy straightens, assuming a mantle of jovial authority as naturally as any Fang. ~Well then, I say we go and kick some jolly old butt! Has anyone done any scouting?~ (Inspiration)
Skeinweaver has no objection to the ranked Ahroun leading, but she does look a little askance at the metal bits of Cheese Doodle, her eyes wary. No scouting here.
~I would follow you, Upside-Down-rhya,~ Bright Eyes agrees equitably. ~I haven't, but I can. Where do you want me to look?~ She turns to consider the various areas around them, eyes unblinking. (Eyes of the Falcon)
Frankie pages: There are, as ever, occasional spiders flitting around in that direction, some hand-sized, some crinos sized, and everything in between. You can also make out something further down toward where there's an old (40 years in business!) carwash. Something moves inside, glittering and black.
Peacemaker chuffs her arrival as she approaches the group, in hispo for now. ~I heard there was some Wyrm-combatting I could join in on? For those who don't know, I'm Peacemaker, Adren Ahroun of the Children of Gaia.~
~I haven't,~ the Stargazer replies, shifting up to his birthform and offering a third introduction (and a snuffling) towards Peacemaker. The ahroun seems fairly calm despite the moon, as well.
Cheese Doodle waves the garou on enthusiastically. ~The walkers know the area!~ She cheers. And, indeed, it's a commonly seen area. ~There's a bad wreck there too. Don't go inside the buildings too much, though, because I think there's lots of banes in those. More than we can do today.~ The Philodox starts heading in the indicated direction, enthusiastically.
~Stacey my dear! I've been trying to get hold of you!~ In a few Crinos-bounces, the Athro has reached the other Gaian Ahroun and swept her into a hug. ~So glad to have you hear, m'dear.~ Once Stacey has regained her paws, Topsy shoos the party after Doodle, glancing around the group thoughtfully as they travel.
~Spiders that way,~ the Fang reports, waving a clawed hand toward the city. ~Down there I can just see something moving in the car wash. It looks... bigger. What exactly are we looking for?~ She takes a moment to introduce herself to the newcomers as well.
As they head forward, outside the protective circle of the glade, the cat-spirit gives itself one more once-over lick, and then disappears up a tree. The street outside Harbor Park itself is not filled with web-strands, but as they keep going, toward the east, the webs grow, the occasional spider moving along them, some hand-sized, some Crinos-sized, some even larger than that. None of them threaten the Garou, though one or two make alarmed sounds when they get too close to their webs. Further back, in the skyscrapers stretching above, there's a looming sensation, but nothing moves inside, that can be seen, at any rate.
Skeinweaver follows without comment, her steps light, bouncy, and practically bleeding energy.
Peacemaker allows that hug, letting out a rumbling chuckle. ~I need a phone,~ she decides, then heads on after Doodle, keeping close to her tribemate. She remains quiet and cautious, trusting to those that know the area better.
~The target is the banes at the car-wash, but not all of them,~ Topsy says, plucking up a chunck of brick and sharpening her claws as she speaks. ~Bright-Eyes, was it, dear? Please scout on ahead and see if you can identify a group small enough that we can take them down, which can be drawn off without alerting the others. Cheese Doodle, as you know the area, perhaps you know of a good location as our combat zone? Is there anyone here unfamiliar with Umbral combat, and is anyone here in a pack together?~
Sightless-Faith answers a negative on the latter, making his way with the rest; only his ears turn towards odd noises and whatnot.
Cheese Doodle motions around, gesturing to some nice, open areas. The walker philodox falls behind, joining up with Keir in the group, to follow more closely to her teacher.
Bright Eyes flicks an ear toward Topsy. ~No, they aren't here.~ That said, she speeds up, moving slightly ahead of the group.
From afar, Frankie nods. The car wash is one of the sort that probably has drug deals going on at it, in the Realm -- gas station attached, convenience store, brushless wash. So Umbraside, it's got the gas and car wash mirroring the Realm, no convenience store, the gas part has many more hoses than in the Realm, some of them seem almost animate. There's at least one car spirit, that you can see, somewhat larger than cars in the Realm are, and definitely Tainted. There's also a bane, the size of about 5 Garou, tentacly mass of traditional tissue-and-ichor tentacles, and parts from the car wash. Dripping fluids, is shaped vaguely like a large round mass, seems to move a bit like a snail.
Skeinweaver follows Topsy's example, her tail waving in the air as she digs at the ground, finding a good rock to sharpen her claws on. She licks at her muzzle, watching the others.
Upside-Down picks a nice clear space from Doodle's suggestions, where nothing is going to sneak up on them. ~If all goes to plan, we'll have our Ragabash draw in a small group and lead them in to us. We'll close on two sides and then, I'm afraid my dears, we show them no mercy. Gaia will sort them out and send them back all squeaky-clean again when they're ready. If I call a retreat, Stacey m'dear, would you take the group and fall back? I'll be busy.~ She eyes the group again, as though assessing them. ~Any party-tricks we ought to know about?~
This one can make lights, Skeinweaver supplies, the slanting of her ears indicating just how useful she thinks that'll be. And this one can speak to beasts, but not spirits. Can speak with Ragabash in the mind if I can see them, so they can be silent.
Cheese Doodle looks like she's going to mention a party trick, but shuts her jaws instead. She heads off in the indicated direction.
Peacemaker chuffs her agreement to Upside-Down. ~Will do. And if any need healing afterwards, I'll be happy to lend a hand there.~
Sightless-Faith seems agreeable once a plan has been made, whuffs to Doodle, and then starts heading off in the agreed direction.
Upside-Down shuffles the Garou into two groups- Cheese Doodle, Sightless-Faith and Peacemaker to be one side of the bane-crush, herself with Skeinweaver on the other, and they have time to pick their spots, each group within sight of the other. They await Bright-Eyes return, who of course as yet has no instructions to bring any Banes in, just to scout.
Bright Eyes draws closer, closer, ever closer to the infested car wash, using what cover she can to remain out of sight of the banes. After a short while she returns, ghosting along a wall. ~Inside there are many hoses - too many. I saw some of them moving. At least one car spirit, possibly more. There is also a very large... thing. It looks like snot with tentacles and hoses. Probably the size of all of us put together, but it doesn't move quickly. I can try to pull the car to us?~
~Alright, m'dear. Okay! One large bane to be incoming!~ Topsy announces. ~If it's alone, we all pile in apart from Bright Eyes- you, my dear, need to be the one to keep your eyes open and make sure nothing sneaks up behind us while we're busy. If we end up with more than one, I'll keep the big fellow busy while the rest of you mop up the others, and I promise to save you some for when you've finished. Any questions?~
There's a distant honk. It's surprisingly annoying.
To (Skeinweaver, Bright Eyes), Frankie pages: (In fact, it grates a little. Sets your teeth on edge.)
Cheese Doodle flicks an ear, adding vocally, ~Nope!~
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears at the honk, looking fleetingly annoyed. ~Got it.~
~Sounds like a plan,~ agrees Peacemaker, and she takes the time to shift up into crinos while they're waiting for the bane to be lured out.
Skeinweaver sticks close to the Athro. She seems relaxed but excited to be a part of the action. When the car honks, she shakes her head forcefully and squints. This one will help with it? She asks the Athro, bulking up to Crinos.
Bright Eyes's teeth flash at the honk, looking (like Sightless-Faith) briefly irritated. ~None here.~ She heads back toward the car wash, taking the same care as when she first approached. Every so often she glances back to the others; once everyone's in place she pops out and throws a bit of umbral rock at the car-shaped bane. ~Your door is ajar!~ she yells at it, whether it understands or not, and waits for pursuit to begin before pelting back into the ambush.
The others can't see the car that distinctly, quite yet. But they do hear its indignant honk (this one not nearly as grating), and then a squeal of tires, as the car burns rubber after her. As it comes into sight, it becomes clear this is more a concept of a car, rather than a specific make or model. It's about as tall as a crinos, and three times as big, a melding of eras, looking one minute like an Edsel, another like a Model T, a third like a Civic. But in each moment, there's a wrongness to it, a lurking miasma of dark decrepitude. It drips oil, and other, less savory liquids; it leaves a path. Following in this path come zipping three smaller vehicles, somewhat like five foot tall children's toys except no child's toy ever sounded like this. Grating, annoying, whirring at just the right pitch to make teeth grit and ears become pained. They drip only water, and irritating menace. Slowly, behind them, the bane Shelby mentioned comes flobbing out of the carwash itself, but it's far behind them, moving at a glacial pace, and the only thing that can really be seen is its bulk.
~Remember your Falling Touch, m'dears, and give them ajolly good kicking!~ Topsy calls, closing her eyes momentarily and waiting like a cheerfully angry furry bouncy-razor-ball. Then she watches the incoming Wyrmthings, claws ready to help catch any smaller bane that comes within range until the bigger bane arrives.
Cheese Doodle looks at Keir a few times, like watching for what he's doing to follow his lead. And then she realizes something rather, well, obvious, and describes things for him instead. The philodox waits with pent up energy.
Peacemaker snarls as those banes approach, ready to pounce once they get close enough. Her coat takes on a shine to it as she activates Luna's Armor, wanting more protection against those vehicles.
Sightless-Faith, for his part, stands tall, looking surprisingly calm. One ear turns toward Doodle, but the other is pricked forward, flicking minutely at each new noise. His nose wrinkles a little - oil stinks. But, fortunately? It also makes things easy to pinpoint. He doesn't run for them, but he does advance a step or two, fully prepared to latch claws into something once it comes into reach (and also looking fully prepared to not be run over by a giant wyrmtruck, too).
Skeinweaver regards the cars with an appraising eye. ~Perhaps crushing,~ she suggests to the Athro. ~Metal has few weaknesses, immobilizing them might be beneficial for us.~
Bright Eyes keeps one eye on her pursuers but otherwise just pelts headlong back to the rest of the garou. ~Cars!~ she calls once she's in earshot, perhaps in case one or two were asleep. Only after she's back at Topsy and Skeinweaver's side does she add, panting, ~One big, and at least two small. Didn't stick around for details. Plus the snot-thing, but it's slow.~
The big car, now looking a bit like an SUV and belching smoke out the back, barrels toward Topsy and company, now, in fact, aiming right at Topsy, at high speed. The three other carlings zip along afterwards, focusing toward Topsy's group but straying near Keir and company by accident. The slime-beast, a few of the car wash's hoses embedded in it, is now just barely outside the car wash.
~You!~ Topsy calls out, stepping in front of the SUV-bane. Her stance is pure essence-of-schoolteacher, her voice crystalized indignation backed by the absolute certainty that the poor, misguided bane would mend its ways if only it was given the chance. ~Stop right there! You're dropping nasty oil everywhere!~
Sightless-Faith's ears turn fully forward, fixating upon that irritating whine of the little cars. He drops to all fours, nostrils flaring; and then, as one strays close, he goes for one, aiming to latch claws in it and haul it upside down. Or at least off balance.
Cheese Doodle still has her attention half on Keir, and when he takes off, the lupus goes after. When he tries to latch his claws into it, she seems to hesitate half a beat, before trying to catch it on the `flipside` with an upward blown from the claws.
Skeinweaver dances to the side as Topsy steps forward, circling the largest car menacingly, perhaps to help increase Topsy's menacing presence.
Peacemaker rushes forward towards another of those three smaller cars, trying to come in from the side as she lashes out with her razor-sharp claws.
~After the smaller ones! Leave the big one to Upside-Down!~ Bright Eyes calls to Skeinweaver as she dashes past, lunging at one of the smaller cars. There aren't any fancy battle tricks from the Silver Fang, just a slashing of claws toward headlight and hood while she continues past. The eerie ululation of the Dragonfly howl rises to combat the skree and whine of the cars' auditory attack.
At Topsy's admonition, the large car -- still looking an SUV, though it's looking more black than forest green, now -- tries as hard as it can to skid to a stop, fenders and bumper somehow managing to look ashamed. But it started to brake too late -- it rams into Topsy, slamming her a few feet away and spraying the aforementioned oil onto her with abandon. The little car attacked by Keir makes an alarmed noise and tries to speed away, but Keir latches the claws of one paw into it and they're soon engaged in a tug 'o war. Doodle's aid flips it over, and it starts making an an ungodly screeching noise, like a loose fan belt but far, far more annoying. Stacey slashes at the second mini-car, but it's too fast for her, zooming past her and then screeching to a stop, revving its engines at her challengingly. The third car had, in fact, just started to screech again, but Shelby's call melds with it, something in the rhythm or the pitch evening the car's whine. Shelby's slash lands, and the car's hood is opened up like a tin can; inside can be seen, rather than an engine, a pulsing heart.
Topsy's hind claws score lines in the Umbral ground as she keeps her feet through the collision. ~Down!~ she orders, putting out a hand with no force behind it to touch the bane that just collided with her. ~Bad bane!~ The Ahroun's ears twitch, keeping track of the others' actions and status, and the approach of the slime-bane still far behind.
Cheese Doodle tries to do a little loop around attack thing to follow up on her last one, but the attack falters midway through. Instead, the mechanically inclined philodox just drives her claws down, going for the undercarriage of the banecar. ~Blah!~
Skeinweaver heeds Bright-Eyes' call, shifting direction to the car revving up to go to Stacey. She ducks her head as she speeds up, aiming to ram into the car shoulder first and high enough to hopefully bowl it over.
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears, grumbles, and them bulls ahead. Hi, car, let's start dismantling things to see what makes you tick.
Bright Eyes slices and digs at the heart thus revealed, her other hand protectively up lest the hood slam down. ~Go for their fronts!~ she calls, the howl pausing while she communicates this.
Peacemaker growls back at that car in an answer to that challenge, and then she rushes towards it, aiming to reach it after Skeinweaver's rammed it so that she can rip into it with her claws once it's been hit.
As Shelby's howl pauses, all three smaller cars whine at much higher pitch, overcompensating for the lack of a howl. Keir manages to upend the car she and Doodle are fighting; its wheels spin as it spews road dirt and liquid all around it; Doodle lays into it, ripping a door off and puncturing two of the tires. Its whine cuts off, as it looks like it's bleeding heavily. Shelby efficiently digs, though the car, still moving, clips her legs; they start bleeding almost immediately. Javen and Stacey go on a one-two punch, efficiently ripping the car up -- It looks to be extremely unhappy, with its antenna falling off and three of its four tires punctured. Topsy's SUV, meanwhile, doesn't actually fall over, but it leans over to the left, its tires slumping, unable to get power back to move out again. It bleeds acid on her. The slime bane undulates along, but it's not, yet, close.
Frankie pages: 2 agg. Owie.
[OOC] Frankie: The cars are muckin' distracting -- Very hard to do anything that requires a whole lot of concentration, lacking the howl, there. (You can do stuff that's not straight rip-tear, it just takes a WP.)
Cheese Doodle tries to do the loop-around-attack thing again, this time just powering through any faltering she does and pretending like that's what she intended to do all along.
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears, growls, and then starts digging into the car's innards. Or trying, anyway. (Do cars have innards?)
~Well done! Jolly good! Keep it up everyone!~ Topsy howls out, and finally lets the claws out, striking at the large SUV-bane from where she stands (still at the front of the spirit, where it screached into her). Two blows with her Crinos strength behind them.
Peacemaker focuses on making that car even more unhappy, tearing away at it with her sharpened claws, her attention mostly on the 'engine' area.
Bright Eyes manages to keep howling despite the blow, her claws rending and tearing at the throbbing musculature of the bane's heart. (Spend 1 WP)
Skeinweaver hops on top of the creature her and Stacey have toppled. And then she starts jumping up and down on it like a kid on a new mattress. Hop hop hop, trying to use her weight to smash the thing to even more pieces and have fun while she does it.
Topsy's blow separates bumper from car, and then starts in to pulping the grill. The car bleeds antifreeze, a coruscating, ill-looking green-blue fluid. It rallies, revving its engine, going into reverse briefly and then slamming back into Topsy, managing to push her back about 3 feet. It bleeds antifreeze onto her, which turns the oil already in her fur a florescent orange. Keir and Doodle combine to slam into their car from two different directions, as its wheels run out of dirt to spew. One wheel detaches and slams into Keir, sending him backwards with a thud, but the thing, with 3 wheels and rapidly bleeding out, looks on its last legs. Shelby manages to dig out the car's heart, which is attached via some kind of cord to the rest of the thing. It sputters and turns off, sound cutting out. (It doesn't actually look dead, yet, though.) Stacey and Javen tear at the car, jump on it, and then, after a slash from the Gaian, the car screams, deflates its final tire, and all five doors plus the hood pop open. It stops moving, and, after an inaudible sigh, disappears into the ether. Javen falls over onto the ground. The remaining two mini cars continue their grating whines, but Dragonfly's howl again serves to blunt it, evening it out.
The slime-tentacle-beast slithers closer. (In the way where while you look, it doesn't seem as if it's moving, but it's moved a foot between the time you look away and look back.)
Cheese Doodle moves to try and quickly dispatch small bane, just jumping in there with claws outstretched as she goes for what she hopes is the kill. No finesse, just angry ripping and clawing.
~Excellent work!~ Topys howls, face splitting in a delighted and very toothy grin, interspersing words with two heavy but effective blows with sharpened claws and all her bulky strength behind them. ~Hupsy-daisy, Skeinweaver dear, no harm done?~ The slime-bane gets a little of her attention, gauging its progress.
Sightless-Faith grunts, hefting himself upright and giving his head a slow shake. He wades in again, just wanting to make sure the thing is dead before he quits.
Skeinweaver lands in an ungraceful heap and with her luck probably facefirst. She pushes up and gives flashes a toothy smile at Topsy before she too, zeroes in on the booger monster. ~I do not look forward to touching the Wyrm's Sick,~ she notes.
Peacemaker gives Skeinweaver a snarly grin before looking around to see what else needs down. ~Need some help?!~ she calls to Topsy, starting to move in that direction.
With an almost negligent yank Shelby pulls the heart from its mooring, seeking to sever the cord that connects it to the bane. As the sounds of battle begin to die down so too does her howl.
With an almost audible pop, Shelby's car disappears, dead. Keir and Cheese Doodle combined destroy their car most effectively, detaching another door and the rear bumper before it gives up the ghost, disappearing, its screech cutting off in the blink of an instant. It manages to spray both of them with thoroughly unpleasant oil, before it disappears. Topsy slams into the still-SUV, the front now thoroughly crumpled, hood dented, scratched, and the entire car suddenly rusted and looking as if it's both been in an accident, and aged 20 years in the space of seconds. Now immobile, it sprays acid at her in a thready jet, and blows its horn, a formerly ear-shattering sound that now sounds more like a weak blat. The tentacly mass undulates closer, the sound a limpid squelch on the pavement.
Cheese Doodle follows Keir after the Topsy's SUV, the lupus breaking into a three-limbed knuckle walk as she goes after it. The cybernetic walker does a little jump thing, driving her titanium claws down at it.
Sightless-Faith takes a moment to pant, and then goes to help make the SUV dead.
Bright Eyes limp-runs to assist Topsy, shifting down to lupus as she goes. Like a four-footed version of Bo Duke she leaps through the broken driver's side window, and promptly burrows into the footwells to grab and snatch at any wiring or arteries she finds there.
Topsy looks a little sad as the fighters pile in on the SUV. ~I think we're almost done here. Poor thing. Let's finish putting it out of its misery, and then we can handle that last bane. ~ She points to the slime. ~There now, sweatheart.~ This last is said soothingly to the sorry-looking SUV-bane. ~Soon be over. Hush, now.~ And then, if needed, she aims for where the distributer would be, and drives her claws down through the hood.
Skeinweaver watches as the SUV is very well-dismembered by the others, straightening to her full height to peer at the goober, and even farther, into the garage.
Peacemaker moves to help slash at the SUV, too, because a little overkill never hurts. ...And that tentacle monster isn't the most appealing target...
Keir and Doodle attack, Shelby dives and disconnects (or, in one case, severs), and Topsy, once her speech is done, administers the coup de grace by removing the distributor abruptly but with kindness. The thing shivers and falls flat, and thence disappears. The tentacly thing is still some distance away, the size of possibly 5 or 6 Garou, undulating at speed. It looks alarmed. Or possibly irritated.
~Heal if you need it - She has the talens!~ Doodle pants, wiping off some of the muck that the bane had done to her previously. The lupus points a metal claw at Bright Eyes. She then looks to Topsy.
Sightless-Faith stays where he is for a moment, allowing some of his non-severe injuries to heal. His nose tips upward, obviously tracking where the tentacle-thing is.
The air leaves Bright Eyes's lungs in a *whump* as she falls through/from the fallen bane. The Fang picks herself up and shakes before returning to Crinos. ~I have four jars,~ she confirms, an ear skewing at Cheese Doodle - or perhaps at the Philodox' cyborg arms. That said, she takes herself off to the quiet corner where she'd stashed the jars and promptly applies the salve to her legs. ~Anyone else? There's lots.~
Topsy takes advantage of the pause to check the others for signs of damage. ~Bright-Eyes, good thinking there. Sightless-Faith, nice technique. Stacey m'dear, we must train sometime, you've got a thing or two to show me I can see. Cheese Doodle, splendid demolition work. Skeinweaver, some solid fighting. Anyone more than scratched?~ She herself has been well doused with acid, but there's no sign of any damage from when the SUV rammed her. She's checking for others in more need of healing than herself, to go first. If everyone is fighting fit, she nods to Bright-Eyes with regards to the Talen.
You paged Frankie with 'Healed 2agg, talens are down to 11 uses.'.
From afar, Frankie salutes.
~Just say when,~ says Peacemaker to Topsy, seeming pleased overall with the other Gaian. Her expression becomes more serious as she watches the approaching bane. ~This one is going to be messier...~
The creature (about 1/3 of a block away now) can be better seen -- it has at least 3 gasoline hoses attached as accessory tentacles, in addition to natural ones. It slumps along mostly like a slug does, on its own slime. It's an unpleasant green in color, pulsing with purple striations. It drips, blobs of glup dropping onto street and sidewalk alike. It extends one of its own tentacles toward Stacey, exploring; the pseudopod is at first thick, and gets thinner as it extends.
Cheese Doodle wrinkles her nose as the smell hits her, the lupus drawing her ears forward in annoyance at the oillywhatever bane. Heading to the edge of the street, she pulls up a parking meter, and begins focusing hard on the end of it.
Skeinweaver bares her teeth at the thing, but doesn't seem to think running in hacking and slashing is the answer here. So she waits, eyes flicking to Topsy. ~Disgusting~ she points out, needlessly.
Sightless-Faith huffs a bit, expelling the scent of the thing from his nose. ~It smells like oil,~ says he. ~Oil burns.~
As that tentacle reaches out towards her, Peacemaker tenses, her expression one of disgust. Almost instinctively, she reaches out to bat the tentacle away, using her gift of the falling touch along with the contact experimentally.
Once she's slathered goo onto her legs to jump start the healing process Bright Eyes takes a look at the various gathered Garou. It's toward Topsy that she trots, bringing a jar with her. ~You're the worst off,~ she says in a hushed voice, as if noise will attract the oil-thing's attention. Then, hard on Sightless-Faith's heels she adds, ~Anyone have something to start a fire?~
~I don't think I need to tell any of you not to bite it,~ Topsy says, just a touch dryly. ~If you have ranged weapons, stay back and use them. Those without hard hits, your job is to tackle any tentacles that capture anyone.~ She stands by on tentacle-repelling duty to give time for some Healing with the talen Bright Eyes brought over, and to look around lest anyone should respond that they have fire. If not, she points in to the attack.
The Walker's pole briefly flares red, up about half its length. Stacey's tentacle-touch results in the thing's pseudopod suddenly losing all cohesion, falling into a mass of liquid on the ground. It makes a querulous noise, of boiling blup, and starts extending a second pseudopod, as it squidges closer and closer to the Garou. (10 feet, now.)
Cheese Doodle hefts the now glowing hot parking meter, baring her teeth a bit. ~Yes, oil burns.~ She rumbles, with a bit of a feral grin. She flings the burning parking meter at the oil bane with her mechanically augmented strength. ~Your meter expired! Have a ticket!~
Skeinweaver squints as the thing starts creating tentacles. Having no projectiles, she seems happy to simply wait to see how Doodle's experiment turns out.
Sightless-Faith's jaws open and shut again in amusement despite himself, and the Stargazer just waits, ears forward and muscles slightly tensed.
Bright Eyes likewise stays back and doesn't rush into the fray. Rather, she begins to howl again in an attempt to distract the smelly thing.
Peacemaker's eyes widen as that burning parking meter is hurled at the oil-bane, and she backs away from it, trying not to be too close when the meter connects, just in case.
Topsy says suddenly, in a warning tone, ~It's an oily bane, and Cheese Doodle is about to try to set fire to it...~ her attention falls mostly on Sightless Faith, and she starts to step over to him.
And now, the letdown. It's apparently not oily all the way through, or it smells like oil and is some other substace, or the oil is distributed badly, or something of that sort; Doodle's spear lands with a glup, and the thing emits a scream, and some of it chars, but it does not explode. The second extended pseudopod switches directions in a flash, and whams at Cheese Doodle, slamming into her with surprising strength, given how far it's extended.
~Ah.~ Topsy watches the result, ad shrugs. ~Oh dear. Oh well. Never mind! I think the word is... Charge!~ And she follows her own command, barrelling in on the thing, trying to storm past tentacles and let her claws rip at the body of the bane.
Sightless-Faith remains tensed, but then nothing happens. Oh. Damn. His ears flap over to the side, then straighten up again. He heads in after Topsy, too.
Cheese Doodle, when she gets knocked back, does a little martial arts roll and springs back to her paws. She seems so amazed that that actually worked that it takes her a few seconds to realize she's still in a fight. The lupus charges back into the fight, driving her claws into the thing.
Bright Eyes hesitates for a moment after Topsy charges in. No, not hesitates: she doesn't follow the Ahroun's lead, period. She continues to howl instead and hangs back, watching for stray pseudopods and iffy tentacles.
Peacemaker charges in after the others once she realizes there isn't going to be an explosion, attempting to dodge or slice into any tentacles along the way.
Skeinweaver lags a little after the call to charge... she winces at the thought of touching the creature, but she follows the others in. Sharpened claws whip out to try and separate some pieces.
One of the gasoline hoses slips in to curl around Topsy's ankle. A pseudopod emerges, shooting out to slam toward Keir. The digging brigade of Topsy, Javen, Stacey, and Doodle dig chunks out of the creature, and it bleeds chartruse blood onto them, stinging and sticking unpleasantly. It tightens the hose on Topsy's ankle.
Some distance away, a large flying pterodactyl thing can be briefly seen. On top of one of the nearby skyscrapers, a horribly mutated spider, with some of its attached in entirely the wrong places, clambers up to stare at the Garou.
Cheese Doodle jumps on hose that goes after the Athro, clawing at it to try and separate it from Topsy; she also turns around, and lashes an attack out at the bane's body, too.
~Crocodiles!~ Topsy growls, apropos of nothing obvious. Ignoring the clutching at her ankle (unless it has something to do with a reptile), she unleashes a volley of attacks against the body, trying to open it up to the other's claws.
Skeinweaver staggers for a moment, her attacks slowing as she looks down at the "blood" covering her. A twitch, shake of her head, and her attacks are renewed. She seems to be focusing on separating large chunks of gunk from the creature, whittling it down.
The thing strikes at Sightless-Faith, and then - perhaps improbably when it comes to those watching - the ahroun hits the ground in a roll, narrowly missing being smacked by the creature, and then is back on his feet and lunging for the part where the pseudopod connects to the body.
Bright Eyes hasn't taken more than a step forward before Doodle's clawing at her target. Rather than join her the Ragabash takes that same step back and starts scanning the area for other interested parties. After a moment she thinks to look up, adding both the sky and buildings to her overwatch.
There is a brief whine from Peacemaker, too. ~Curiousity,~ she whimpers. That turns into an angered growl, however, as she slams her claws into the creature again, slashing through its icky form.
Javen and Stacey slash into it, reducing it in size (now it's about as big as four Garou). Keir does as well; he in fact slashes the pseudopod off, and it falls limply to the ground, melting into a puddle. Another pseudopod stabs upward at him, though, going right through his chest and out the other side, before (apparently from the strength of its own stab) it dissolves into liquid and bleeds into Keir's chest-wound. One of Cheese Doodle's attacks succeeds, and she digs satisfyingly deeply into the creature. But her claw glances off the hose, and the creature, whimpering in pain from the attacks and looking in somewhat rough shape, is able to whip Topsy around by the ankle, once, twice, three times, faster and faster, until it lets go and she rockets through the air, slamming into a building and sliding down it, unconscious but still breathing.
The spider makes a chittering, clacking noise, and other misshapen spiders start appearing at windows. The pterodactyl flies out of sight; soon after, there's a sonic boom near where it disappeared.
Cheese Doodle looks up in shock at something when Topsy is being slung around like an angry toddler with a toy, but it isn't the athro. She shakes her head, ignoring whatever she saw, and goes for the guts of the bane, clawing her way into the oilbane's cavity.
Skeinweaver redoubles her efforts as the Athro is taken out. Claws glint, and in her cutting the Get attempts to wrench out any hoses or pipes she encounters. She shuts her eyes against the hallucinations and digs from feel alone.
Hoorrgh, that doesn't feel good. The metis clutches at the thing and gouges claws in as he's speared, gritting his teeth and blowing out a breath in a fuzz of blood. And then, he proceeds to look thoroughly confused, his ears flattening back in a way that is reminiscent of a wolf pup getting scolded. The Stargazer looks completely thrown off kilter for an instant, and it's enough so that he doesn't immediately wade back in, though his claws are still dug in the creature for balance, making all appearances of looking towards certain things, jaws still tightly clenched.
~We're getting attention!~ Bright Eyes warns, baring her teeth at the spiders and letting the Dragonfly howl die away. She spares a moment to check on Topsy before swinging wide, around most of the Garou, to come at the thing from the side. Or a side. A different side. The Fang attacks not with tooth but with claw, kicking and slicing into the thing's center much as Skeinweaver and Peacemaker do.
~Keep up the attack!~ encourages Peacemaker as her tribemate is flung away from the fray. ~And avoid those firehose tentacles!~ She aims to continue to claw her way closer to what seems like the 'center' of this thing.
A gashose tries to wrap itself around Stacey, but she bats it away. One tries to wrap itself around Javen, but she cuts it, and it starts spraying pressurized puce blood in all directions. The creature whimpers again, crying out in pain, as Cheese Doodle reaches its center around the same time Stacey does, and they both hit a solidified central core of former glup. Shelby burrows in just after, and even without their hands on its heart, it looks to be on its last legs.
Several spiders disappear from the windows. From the direction the pterodactyl went, something sends a loud, bad tempered trumpet into the night air.
Sightless-Faith digs his claws in again, and gasps out, ~They're coming!~ ...weird. He also still seems quite off-kilter still, though at least now he's attacking.
Skeinweaver falters a little as she hears that trumpeting noise. She staggers back as the creature indicates he is nearly defeated, shaking out her fur, trying to get the sticky gunk off of her. Ick. At Keir's exclamation she seems surprised, peering about, apparently having missed out on seeing who was watching.
Cheese Doodle redoubles her efforts, attacks turning wild and unfocused as she attempts to rip bane-bits from other bane-bits with a snarl.
Peacemaker tries to punch or claw at that solidifies core, anything that might puncture it and further reduce the bane.
Bright Eyes concentrates on keeping the 'tunnel' open and perhaps even widening it lest it gloopily collapse upon Doodle and Peacemaker. ~Someone get Upside-Do-!~ she starts, abruptly stopping as a gelatinous blob drops onto her muzzle.
Keir slashes its outside, and Cheese Doodle Burns Chrome and Peacemaker seek to destroy the thing's heart; it sends one last stabbing tentacle at Stacey, deflecting off the Walker and stabbing through the Gaian. It holds her up as and she and Doodle crush its heart; it gives one last cry and disappears, dissipating into nothingness, only its gas hoses remaining.
Another trumpeting sounds, from a direction slightly different than the last one. Several car horns sound in response, and one ambulance starts sounding. Deedle deedle deedle doo! Continuously. Forever. Spiders start emerging from the skyscraper. Misshapen, malevolent, angry spiders.
Cheese Doodle shakes some of the ichor off herself, grabbing up gnosis to keep the bane properly dead. And then her ears slick back when she hears the approaching hoard. ~Time to go!~ She howls, before running over. She scoops up Topsy, cybernetics making the task easy, and begins to B-Line it back to a safe place.
Sightless-Faith falls onto all fours, starts to go over for Topsy, but pulls up short when Doodle goes over. He gives his head a hard shake, still seeming like the effects from the critter are still going away, and shifts down to lupus to head after Doodle. He's bleeding freely, and bleeding a lot, and this slows him a bit, though not enough to lag behind.
Peacemaker roars in pain as that tentacle stabs through her, and she falls to a heap where the bane was. She's scrambling back up the next moment, however, ignoring her wounds as she looks to see where the others are. ~Go, I'll take up the rear.~
Skeinweaver squints at the horrible city noises. For a moment, she simply stands upright, glaring down the multitude of spiders, her fur spiking. ~Now that's a fight!~ she barks. ~We can take......~ She glances back, having to do a double take to see that her brethren are not preparing, but fleeing. ~Guys?~ She whines, disappointed, turning towards them. ~You are hurt. I'll help you. ~ She says, offering a clawed hand to Peacemaker and a shoulder to lean on.
Bright Eyes shakes the goo from her face as the blob disappears around them. Sparing a moment to further wipe at her muzzle she bolts in the direction of the fallen Gaian, veering off as the cybernetic Walker catches her up. She swings wide to snag up the remaining talens instead, waving any injured on ahead. ~Go, go, go! They're calling reinforcements! We don't have the numbers. Everyone back to the Glade!~ She seems entirely unhurt, though her fur is sticky and matted in places.
Another mass of spiders burst out of the skyscraper, a roiling sea of spiders coming after them, as an old-style Jaguar, looking in pristine condition save for the lizard skin all over it, comes screeching around the corner. One of the spiders shoots a line and slides atop it, a claw sinking into the skin like a piton, as the Jaguar speeds toward the Garou, a small mass of spiders skittering and scrabbling behind it. As they head toward the Glade, the Jaguar, spider atop it like a surfer, slows, and the rest of the spiders also slow, ending up around and on top of the car. More cars, with various skin or fur adorning them, come around the corner, and several of them crash into each other. The Garou end up in the Glade, several blocks away, and can cross over without much problem.
Cheese Doodle sets Topsy down, the crinos panting a bit from the sudden jog. Wiping a bit more of the ichor off, she motions from the Fang to Topsy with a metal hand, hoping she could put together two and two. ~I did not see... that last part coming...~ She says, panting.
The Stargazer is in lupus, which prevents more creative cursing. But, just his unintentional lupine body language says a lot, and it's probably fortunate that he doesn't have the use of his tongue. Once they reach the glade, he's panting wheezingly from the hole in his chest (and the froth from his muzzle is tinged red) but he only flops down and tries to catch his breath. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Peacemaker lets the Get help her along, but seems to be resisting the pain, until they reach the Glade. Then she lets out a pained whine as she lowers herself to the ground. ~We'll all heal. It went well, overall.~
Bright Eyes looks between fallen Athro and panting Stargazer and with a one-moment nod to Cheese Doodle, tends to Sightless Faith first. Specifically, the gaping hole in his chest first, and after that, any other sucking wounds. ~Give that a moment,~ she advises, before crossing back to do the same to Topsy. Only then does she lift her voice. ~Anyone else?~
Skeinweaver crouches to let Peacemaker down, but then fidgets, as if her adrenaline were still pumping. She, too, looks unscathed but gross. Bright Eyes gets a gesture, however, for Peacemaker.
Some distance away, the ambulance sound cuts off abruptly. In mid-cry.
The hole seals, and the metis can breathe freely again. Sightless-Faith looks relieved, and shifts up to hispo to have use of a tongue. He starts to say something, and then the ambulance cuts off. His ears fall a bit. ~Sonuvabitch,~ he murmers. ~...probably a good thing we got out of there.~
Bright Eyes heads to tend Peacemaker next, an ear quirking. ~Very well, I thought. Cheese Doodle?~ She straightens as she calls, trying to pinpoint the Walker's location. ~Should I use these entirely, or save as much as possible?~ (Four doses used, ATM)
Cheese Doodle wags a few times, before shifting down to lupus. When she does, the metal and mechanical bits seem to sink into the skin, before fresh fur is sprouted. The wolf shakes herself off. It went good! She agrees, wagging. Don't use all, she tells Path Finder. For next fight! And I'm going to eat pizza instead, because that makes me feel better! Pizza and beer! She cheers.
Peacemaker blinks as Bright Eyes uses that talon to heal her, looking surprised at how much it heals. ~Damn! Need to get some of those.~ She looks amused at Cheese Doodle's declaration. ~Mind company in that? Sounds good!~
[Most characters scoot for pizza and beer; Shelby drives Topsy home.]
Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (60% full).
Umbra: Harbor Park
The Umbral ground beneath your feet here is lush with vegetation, an oasis of life amidst the concrete and webbing of the scab. Trees stand proud and tall here, their branches full of leaves. Shrubs line the outer edges of the park, tangled with encroaching webs. The fountain stands out boldly from even the surrounding area, the sleek lines sharper and more pronounced. Clean pure water roars and cascades from the figure in the fountain's center, falling into a cold clear pool that looks quite inviting. Spreading out from the fountain, the rest of the park is a green veldt that seems to radiate life and strength. The river banks the east shore of the park, bridged by a massive rusty bridge. On this shore, the glade seems to have spread out on to it, vines winding around the supports. Further across the river, the bridge melds into the scab again, flaked with rust and covered in webs. The river itself is clean within a few feet of the shore, but black ooze seems to encroach menacingly from the murk of the rest of the river.
A walkway leads out of the Glade-like atmosphere of the park from just north of the fountain. Eastward, the dark span of the bridge stretches over the vile river. Dark streets lead west and southwest into the blighted Umbra of the city.
Obvious exits:
South North Southwest West Bridge
Cheese Doodle arrives in Harbour park early, the lupus practically brimming with energy. As soon as she's reached across into the Umbra, the walker takes Crinos, and goes about turning on her Fetish - soon after, metal merges with flesh, and the phildox's arms are rapidly replaced with cybernetic hulk-limbs.
Topsy shows up in the Umbra with a spring in her step, rubbing her hands in cheery expectation and calling out greetings once she's walked from the safe Reaching-point to the place where people are assembling. She's taller than her usual dumpy self, in Glabro, and even broader than usual. "Hello! Jolly good, all ready?"
Harbor Park is teeming, in the lucent Galliard-moon night. Occasional clouds drift across the moon, and the cool night produces very little breeze. For those used to the Harbor Park Umbra, there are a few more woodland spirits than usual -- a rabbit here, a deer there, a small wild water spirit in the fountain. It would seem some of the spirits fleeing the Caern have found a temporary home. Though given the way some of the more usual habitants of the Park are reacting to them, this may not be nearly as permanent as the former Caern spirits might like; a cat spirit has, for example, paused, and is staring intently at the rabbit.
Keir arrives in the umbra a little early, as well, and thus has found a spot to settle in hispo and quietly meditate while he waits. Topsy's greeting stirs him, though, and his ears turn forward as his muzzle turns partially towards the approaching Gaian. He huffs a greeting, unfamiliar but affable enough.
Bright Eyes likewise shifts into Crinos promptly after achieving the Umbra, her clothing disappearing into the cascade of white hair that becomes fur. ~Bright Eye Sees to the Heart of the Ambush~, she greets the others, ears flattening at the Walker's 'enhancements'. A moment later she recovers and adds, ~Fostern Ragabash of the Silver Fangs.~ Her scent is already fading away, or perhaps it was never there to begin with. (Scent of Running Water)
Cheese Doodle:
Nine feet, two inches tall, this bipedal monster is enough to set most humans into fits of delirium, and Garou a serious moment of pause. Her arms are replaced by glistening steel and titanium; a cascade of metallic wires, pistons, servomotors and plates that forms and encompasses everything in wicked looking metal. The steel flesh flows together near the shoulders, a shining rim going around her collar bone. Down her spine is covered with steel segments, finally ending with a disk that protrudes just past the shoulder blades, half of it not connected with flesh. The disk has a yellow bulldozer, scoop upraised and its grill warped into teeth, painted on bottom half. Writ large across one of the titanium biceps is "EAASy v3.0.2," and "Danger! This end up!" on the other shoulder, both in red lettering. The metallic skin flexes and 'breathes' like regular skin, as if it's the werewolf's flesh. It also makes her rather top-heavy looking.
The cybernetics aside, this werewolf is a tad pudgy, though not overly so. Her pelt is various shades of brown on the back, most of it a light brown/golden blond, except for some darker browns around the corners of the jaws, hackles, and a bit on the flanks. Her abdomen is a creamy colour. Black claws stick out her feet, and two triangular ears swivel this way and that.
Topsy:
This is a striking woman who could never be mistaken for beautiful. She is a shade over six feet tall and as broad as a bus, craggy-faced, with a wild mane of black hair and worryingly long fingernails. nevertheless, she also has a gracious, aristocratic air which demands that people sit up and pay attention, if they weren't already giving her worried looks. Her eyes are a shade of brown that is nearly black, peering beneath heavy black eyebrows. She moves with a brisk confidence of movement which suggests she is amply able to handle herself physically.
Sightless Faith:
This huge dire wolf looks like something that should have been extinct a long time ago. Fangs jut out from the upper jaw, the head is huge and broad, and the paws are massive. He's marked like a normal grey wolf, but one look at the wolf's head shows an abnormality: his eyes are just -missing-. There's no sign of trauma or scarring; it simple looks like they never were. The eye sockets are dark and smoothly furred within, sealed over, eyelids even missing.
~Hi! I'm Cheese Doodle Burns Chrome!~ The Walker Lupus says, tail wagging a few times. Cheese Doodle drops down into a knuckle walk, like a gorilla. ~I'm a Glass Walker Philodox!~ And then to Topsy, ~Hello, Upside Down-Rhya!~ The lupus lifts her crinos head, and sniffs at the air a few times. ~I think... this is about all we'll have here, today.~ She says, unhappily.
"Oh, jolly good!" And Topsy switches to a Crinos that would be big and cuddly and cheerful if it wasn't for the setback of being an eight-foot-tall killing-machine. ~Turns-the-World-Upside-Down, Athro Ahroun of the Children of Gaia, currently Anruth, paying Chiminage to join the Hidden Walk. Looking forward to fighting beside you all!~
The rabbit flees, quick as a flash, into a shrub. The cat spirit blinks slowly, and then starts washing itself. (It ignores the Garou completely. Overtly. Ostentatiously.)
Sightless-Faith's nostrils flare a little, and the ahroun seems amused. Perhaps the good moods are contagious. ~Faith-Leads-The-Sightless, twice-ranked full-moon, sin-born, and rited under Chimera.~
Bright Eyes looks from one to the other, her eyes not missing the blind Stargazer. ~Two ahroun, a philodox, a ragabash. We may not be the largest war party, but I think we'll do. We can whittle away a few, anyway.~ An ear flicks toward the cat-and-rabbit, but she otherwise ignores the spirits. ~Has anyone else seen spirits in the Realm? There was a cross between a monkey and a duck on Equinox territory. We managed to get it back across the Gauntlet to safety.~
~There was some sort of monkey-thing near that poor, fallen-down hospital," Topsy says. "It was scaring the car-drivers, silly thing. I told it off, and it hopped back into the Umbra. So, who's leading this?" she asks, looking expectantly around the group. ~Happy to offer, but of course I'm not a Sept member and I don't know the plan or the area, so I'm just as happy to fall on in and take orders.~
Skeinweaver arrives presently, late but energetic. The white wolf trots up to the little group she spies, as if she'd been out enjoying the Umbra for fun. The Get huffs a greeting. This one has many names, but know that she is Skeinweaver, Rited here, recently returned, and Skald of Fenris. A Get who gets to the point of introductions? This must be the Umbra.
Cheese Doodle reaches up, the metal arm scratching at the top of her head. She starts distributing the talens, giving a bag full of jars to the Ragabash. ~I think because Upside-Down-Rhya is here, She's leading things when we fight? Unless anyone is gonna challenge...~ She thinks, before adding, ~We just want to kill back the Banes. If you start getting hurt, go to Bright Eyes! She'll do you up good! And when we're all tired and spent, we should go home for pizza! Okay?~
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As promised, Ishmael has some healing Talens for Doodle. They are a milky ointment in four palm-sized glass jars, with three applications in each jar, for a total of 12 total applications. Each application heals 3agg, with no limit on how often they can be used per person. The ointment consists of crushed crystal, mountain spring water, aloe and mint, generally smelling very fresh and clean.
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Skeinweaver:
Songweaver is a white wolf, rather leggy for a garou but quite satisfactory for a normal canid. Her fur is silky, whispy, the bluish-white of icicles. Her snout is long and elegant, her ears sharp and pointed above her head, several chrome rings pierced into both. Her black rimmed eyes, slanted and wide, are a stark contrast: the blue irises contracted tight around her pupils, gems against the white fur. Her limbs are long, and lithe, her body built seemingly for speed and agility, her long black nails stark against the white fur of small paws. A patch of ragged fur on her left forearm belies a scar hidden beneath.
Sightless-Faith doesn't volunteer, and he gets up and shakes off his coat, repeats his introduction for Javen, and seems agreeable to Doodle. Each of the garou is snuffed at (one might get the impression that he's making note of their scents), and he muses to Doodle, ~So long as there's beer, too. Can't have pizza without beer.~
~If nobody is going to raise an objection then?~ Topsy straightens, assuming a mantle of jovial authority as naturally as any Fang. ~Well then, I say we go and kick some jolly old butt! Has anyone done any scouting?~ (Inspiration)
Skeinweaver has no objection to the ranked Ahroun leading, but she does look a little askance at the metal bits of Cheese Doodle, her eyes wary. No scouting here.
~I would follow you, Upside-Down-rhya,~ Bright Eyes agrees equitably. ~I haven't, but I can. Where do you want me to look?~ She turns to consider the various areas around them, eyes unblinking. (Eyes of the Falcon)
Frankie pages: There are, as ever, occasional spiders flitting around in that direction, some hand-sized, some crinos sized, and everything in between. You can also make out something further down toward where there's an old (40 years in business!) carwash. Something moves inside, glittering and black.
Peacemaker chuffs her arrival as she approaches the group, in hispo for now. ~I heard there was some Wyrm-combatting I could join in on? For those who don't know, I'm Peacemaker, Adren Ahroun of the Children of Gaia.~
~I haven't,~ the Stargazer replies, shifting up to his birthform and offering a third introduction (and a snuffling) towards Peacemaker. The ahroun seems fairly calm despite the moon, as well.
Cheese Doodle waves the garou on enthusiastically. ~The walkers know the area!~ She cheers. And, indeed, it's a commonly seen area. ~There's a bad wreck there too. Don't go inside the buildings too much, though, because I think there's lots of banes in those. More than we can do today.~ The Philodox starts heading in the indicated direction, enthusiastically.
~Stacey my dear! I've been trying to get hold of you!~ In a few Crinos-bounces, the Athro has reached the other Gaian Ahroun and swept her into a hug. ~So glad to have you hear, m'dear.~ Once Stacey has regained her paws, Topsy shoos the party after Doodle, glancing around the group thoughtfully as they travel.
~Spiders that way,~ the Fang reports, waving a clawed hand toward the city. ~Down there I can just see something moving in the car wash. It looks... bigger. What exactly are we looking for?~ She takes a moment to introduce herself to the newcomers as well.
As they head forward, outside the protective circle of the glade, the cat-spirit gives itself one more once-over lick, and then disappears up a tree. The street outside Harbor Park itself is not filled with web-strands, but as they keep going, toward the east, the webs grow, the occasional spider moving along them, some hand-sized, some Crinos-sized, some even larger than that. None of them threaten the Garou, though one or two make alarmed sounds when they get too close to their webs. Further back, in the skyscrapers stretching above, there's a looming sensation, but nothing moves inside, that can be seen, at any rate.
Skeinweaver follows without comment, her steps light, bouncy, and practically bleeding energy.
Peacemaker allows that hug, letting out a rumbling chuckle. ~I need a phone,~ she decides, then heads on after Doodle, keeping close to her tribemate. She remains quiet and cautious, trusting to those that know the area better.
~The target is the banes at the car-wash, but not all of them,~ Topsy says, plucking up a chunck of brick and sharpening her claws as she speaks. ~Bright-Eyes, was it, dear? Please scout on ahead and see if you can identify a group small enough that we can take them down, which can be drawn off without alerting the others. Cheese Doodle, as you know the area, perhaps you know of a good location as our combat zone? Is there anyone here unfamiliar with Umbral combat, and is anyone here in a pack together?~
Sightless-Faith answers a negative on the latter, making his way with the rest; only his ears turn towards odd noises and whatnot.
Cheese Doodle motions around, gesturing to some nice, open areas. The walker philodox falls behind, joining up with Keir in the group, to follow more closely to her teacher.
Bright Eyes flicks an ear toward Topsy. ~No, they aren't here.~ That said, she speeds up, moving slightly ahead of the group.
From afar, Frankie nods. The car wash is one of the sort that probably has drug deals going on at it, in the Realm -- gas station attached, convenience store, brushless wash. So Umbraside, it's got the gas and car wash mirroring the Realm, no convenience store, the gas part has many more hoses than in the Realm, some of them seem almost animate. There's at least one car spirit, that you can see, somewhat larger than cars in the Realm are, and definitely Tainted. There's also a bane, the size of about 5 Garou, tentacly mass of traditional tissue-and-ichor tentacles, and parts from the car wash. Dripping fluids, is shaped vaguely like a large round mass, seems to move a bit like a snail.
Skeinweaver follows Topsy's example, her tail waving in the air as she digs at the ground, finding a good rock to sharpen her claws on. She licks at her muzzle, watching the others.
Upside-Down picks a nice clear space from Doodle's suggestions, where nothing is going to sneak up on them. ~If all goes to plan, we'll have our Ragabash draw in a small group and lead them in to us. We'll close on two sides and then, I'm afraid my dears, we show them no mercy. Gaia will sort them out and send them back all squeaky-clean again when they're ready. If I call a retreat, Stacey m'dear, would you take the group and fall back? I'll be busy.~ She eyes the group again, as though assessing them. ~Any party-tricks we ought to know about?~
This one can make lights, Skeinweaver supplies, the slanting of her ears indicating just how useful she thinks that'll be. And this one can speak to beasts, but not spirits. Can speak with Ragabash in the mind if I can see them, so they can be silent.
Cheese Doodle looks like she's going to mention a party trick, but shuts her jaws instead. She heads off in the indicated direction.
Peacemaker chuffs her agreement to Upside-Down. ~Will do. And if any need healing afterwards, I'll be happy to lend a hand there.~
Sightless-Faith seems agreeable once a plan has been made, whuffs to Doodle, and then starts heading off in the agreed direction.
Upside-Down shuffles the Garou into two groups- Cheese Doodle, Sightless-Faith and Peacemaker to be one side of the bane-crush, herself with Skeinweaver on the other, and they have time to pick their spots, each group within sight of the other. They await Bright-Eyes return, who of course as yet has no instructions to bring any Banes in, just to scout.
Bright Eyes draws closer, closer, ever closer to the infested car wash, using what cover she can to remain out of sight of the banes. After a short while she returns, ghosting along a wall. ~Inside there are many hoses - too many. I saw some of them moving. At least one car spirit, possibly more. There is also a very large... thing. It looks like snot with tentacles and hoses. Probably the size of all of us put together, but it doesn't move quickly. I can try to pull the car to us?~
~Alright, m'dear. Okay! One large bane to be incoming!~ Topsy announces. ~If it's alone, we all pile in apart from Bright Eyes- you, my dear, need to be the one to keep your eyes open and make sure nothing sneaks up behind us while we're busy. If we end up with more than one, I'll keep the big fellow busy while the rest of you mop up the others, and I promise to save you some for when you've finished. Any questions?~
There's a distant honk. It's surprisingly annoying.
To (Skeinweaver, Bright Eyes), Frankie pages: (In fact, it grates a little. Sets your teeth on edge.)
Cheese Doodle flicks an ear, adding vocally, ~Nope!~
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears at the honk, looking fleetingly annoyed. ~Got it.~
~Sounds like a plan,~ agrees Peacemaker, and she takes the time to shift up into crinos while they're waiting for the bane to be lured out.
Skeinweaver sticks close to the Athro. She seems relaxed but excited to be a part of the action. When the car honks, she shakes her head forcefully and squints. This one will help with it? She asks the Athro, bulking up to Crinos.
Bright Eyes's teeth flash at the honk, looking (like Sightless-Faith) briefly irritated. ~None here.~ She heads back toward the car wash, taking the same care as when she first approached. Every so often she glances back to the others; once everyone's in place she pops out and throws a bit of umbral rock at the car-shaped bane. ~Your door is ajar!~ she yells at it, whether it understands or not, and waits for pursuit to begin before pelting back into the ambush.
The others can't see the car that distinctly, quite yet. But they do hear its indignant honk (this one not nearly as grating), and then a squeal of tires, as the car burns rubber after her. As it comes into sight, it becomes clear this is more a concept of a car, rather than a specific make or model. It's about as tall as a crinos, and three times as big, a melding of eras, looking one minute like an Edsel, another like a Model T, a third like a Civic. But in each moment, there's a wrongness to it, a lurking miasma of dark decrepitude. It drips oil, and other, less savory liquids; it leaves a path. Following in this path come zipping three smaller vehicles, somewhat like five foot tall children's toys except no child's toy ever sounded like this. Grating, annoying, whirring at just the right pitch to make teeth grit and ears become pained. They drip only water, and irritating menace. Slowly, behind them, the bane Shelby mentioned comes flobbing out of the carwash itself, but it's far behind them, moving at a glacial pace, and the only thing that can really be seen is its bulk.
~Remember your Falling Touch, m'dears, and give them a
Cheese Doodle looks at Keir a few times, like watching for what he's doing to follow his lead. And then she realizes something rather, well, obvious, and describes things for him instead. The philodox waits with pent up energy.
Peacemaker snarls as those banes approach, ready to pounce once they get close enough. Her coat takes on a shine to it as she activates Luna's Armor, wanting more protection against those vehicles.
Sightless-Faith, for his part, stands tall, looking surprisingly calm. One ear turns toward Doodle, but the other is pricked forward, flicking minutely at each new noise. His nose wrinkles a little - oil stinks. But, fortunately? It also makes things easy to pinpoint. He doesn't run for them, but he does advance a step or two, fully prepared to latch claws into something once it comes into reach (and also looking fully prepared to not be run over by a giant wyrmtruck, too).
Skeinweaver regards the cars with an appraising eye. ~Perhaps crushing,~ she suggests to the Athro. ~Metal has few weaknesses, immobilizing them might be beneficial for us.~
Bright Eyes keeps one eye on her pursuers but otherwise just pelts headlong back to the rest of the garou. ~Cars!~ she calls once she's in earshot, perhaps in case one or two were asleep. Only after she's back at Topsy and Skeinweaver's side does she add, panting, ~One big, and at least two small. Didn't stick around for details. Plus the snot-thing, but it's slow.~
The big car, now looking a bit like an SUV and belching smoke out the back, barrels toward Topsy and company, now, in fact, aiming right at Topsy, at high speed. The three other carlings zip along afterwards, focusing toward Topsy's group but straying near Keir and company by accident. The slime-beast, a few of the car wash's hoses embedded in it, is now just barely outside the car wash.
~You!~ Topsy calls out, stepping in front of the SUV-bane. Her stance is pure essence-of-schoolteacher, her voice crystalized indignation backed by the absolute certainty that the poor, misguided bane would mend its ways if only it was given the chance. ~Stop right there! You're dropping nasty oil everywhere!~
Sightless-Faith's ears turn fully forward, fixating upon that irritating whine of the little cars. He drops to all fours, nostrils flaring; and then, as one strays close, he goes for one, aiming to latch claws in it and haul it upside down. Or at least off balance.
Cheese Doodle still has her attention half on Keir, and when he takes off, the lupus goes after. When he tries to latch his claws into it, she seems to hesitate half a beat, before trying to catch it on the `flipside` with an upward blown from the claws.
Skeinweaver dances to the side as Topsy steps forward, circling the largest car menacingly, perhaps to help increase Topsy's menacing presence.
Peacemaker rushes forward towards another of those three smaller cars, trying to come in from the side as she lashes out with her razor-sharp claws.
~After the smaller ones! Leave the big one to Upside-Down!~ Bright Eyes calls to Skeinweaver as she dashes past, lunging at one of the smaller cars. There aren't any fancy battle tricks from the Silver Fang, just a slashing of claws toward headlight and hood while she continues past. The eerie ululation of the Dragonfly howl rises to combat the skree and whine of the cars' auditory attack.
At Topsy's admonition, the large car -- still looking an SUV, though it's looking more black than forest green, now -- tries as hard as it can to skid to a stop, fenders and bumper somehow managing to look ashamed. But it started to brake too late -- it rams into Topsy, slamming her a few feet away and spraying the aforementioned oil onto her with abandon. The little car attacked by Keir makes an alarmed noise and tries to speed away, but Keir latches the claws of one paw into it and they're soon engaged in a tug 'o war. Doodle's aid flips it over, and it starts making an an ungodly screeching noise, like a loose fan belt but far, far more annoying. Stacey slashes at the second mini-car, but it's too fast for her, zooming past her and then screeching to a stop, revving its engines at her challengingly. The third car had, in fact, just started to screech again, but Shelby's call melds with it, something in the rhythm or the pitch evening the car's whine. Shelby's slash lands, and the car's hood is opened up like a tin can; inside can be seen, rather than an engine, a pulsing heart.
Topsy's hind claws score lines in the Umbral ground as she keeps her feet through the collision. ~Down!~ she orders, putting out a hand with no force behind it to touch the bane that just collided with her. ~Bad bane!~ The Ahroun's ears twitch, keeping track of the others' actions and status, and the approach of the slime-bane still far behind.
Cheese Doodle tries to do a little loop around attack thing to follow up on her last one, but the attack falters midway through. Instead, the mechanically inclined philodox just drives her claws down, going for the undercarriage of the banecar. ~Blah!~
Skeinweaver heeds Bright-Eyes' call, shifting direction to the car revving up to go to Stacey. She ducks her head as she speeds up, aiming to ram into the car shoulder first and high enough to hopefully bowl it over.
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears, grumbles, and them bulls ahead. Hi, car, let's start dismantling things to see what makes you tick.
Bright Eyes slices and digs at the heart thus revealed, her other hand protectively up lest the hood slam down. ~Go for their fronts!~ she calls, the howl pausing while she communicates this.
Peacemaker growls back at that car in an answer to that challenge, and then she rushes towards it, aiming to reach it after Skeinweaver's rammed it so that she can rip into it with her claws once it's been hit.
As Shelby's howl pauses, all three smaller cars whine at much higher pitch, overcompensating for the lack of a howl. Keir manages to upend the car she and Doodle are fighting; its wheels spin as it spews road dirt and liquid all around it; Doodle lays into it, ripping a door off and puncturing two of the tires. Its whine cuts off, as it looks like it's bleeding heavily. Shelby efficiently digs, though the car, still moving, clips her legs; they start bleeding almost immediately. Javen and Stacey go on a one-two punch, efficiently ripping the car up -- It looks to be extremely unhappy, with its antenna falling off and three of its four tires punctured. Topsy's SUV, meanwhile, doesn't actually fall over, but it leans over to the left, its tires slumping, unable to get power back to move out again. It bleeds acid on her. The slime bane undulates along, but it's not, yet, close.
Frankie pages: 2 agg. Owie.
[OOC] Frankie: The cars are muckin' distracting -- Very hard to do anything that requires a whole lot of concentration, lacking the howl, there. (You can do stuff that's not straight rip-tear, it just takes a WP.)
Cheese Doodle tries to do the loop-around-attack thing again, this time just powering through any faltering she does and pretending like that's what she intended to do all along.
Sightless-Faith flattens his ears, growls, and then starts digging into the car's innards. Or trying, anyway. (Do cars have innards?)
~Well done! Jolly good! Keep it up everyone!~ Topsy howls out, and finally lets the claws out, striking at the large SUV-bane from where she stands (still at the front of the spirit, where it screached into her). Two blows with her Crinos strength behind them.
Peacemaker focuses on making that car even more unhappy, tearing away at it with her sharpened claws, her attention mostly on the 'engine' area.
Bright Eyes manages to keep howling despite the blow, her claws rending and tearing at the throbbing musculature of the bane's heart. (Spend 1 WP)
Skeinweaver hops on top of the creature her and Stacey have toppled. And then she starts jumping up and down on it like a kid on a new mattress. Hop hop hop, trying to use her weight to smash the thing to even more pieces and have fun while she does it.
Topsy's blow separates bumper from car, and then starts in to pulping the grill. The car bleeds antifreeze, a coruscating, ill-looking green-blue fluid. It rallies, revving its engine, going into reverse briefly and then slamming back into Topsy, managing to push her back about 3 feet. It bleeds antifreeze onto her, which turns the oil already in her fur a florescent orange. Keir and Doodle combine to slam into their car from two different directions, as its wheels run out of dirt to spew. One wheel detaches and slams into Keir, sending him backwards with a thud, but the thing, with 3 wheels and rapidly bleeding out, looks on its last legs. Shelby manages to dig out the car's heart, which is attached via some kind of cord to the rest of the thing. It sputters and turns off, sound cutting out. (It doesn't actually look dead, yet, though.) Stacey and Javen tear at the car, jump on it, and then, after a slash from the Gaian, the car screams, deflates its final tire, and all five doors plus the hood pop open. It stops moving, and, after an inaudible sigh, disappears into the ether. Javen falls over onto the ground. The remaining two mini cars continue their grating whines, but Dragonfly's howl again serves to blunt it, evening it out.
The slime-tentacle-beast slithers closer. (In the way where while you look, it doesn't seem as if it's moving, but it's moved a foot between the time you look away and look back.)
Cheese Doodle moves to try and quickly dispatch small bane, just jumping in there with claws outstretched as she goes for what she hopes is the kill. No finesse, just angry ripping and clawing.
~Excellent work!~ Topys howls, face splitting in a delighted and very toothy grin, interspersing words with two heavy but effective blows with sharpened claws and all her bulky strength behind them. ~Hupsy-daisy, Skeinweaver dear, no harm done?~ The slime-bane gets a little of her attention, gauging its progress.
Sightless-Faith grunts, hefting himself upright and giving his head a slow shake. He wades in again, just wanting to make sure the thing is dead before he quits.
Skeinweaver lands in an ungraceful heap and with her luck probably facefirst. She pushes up and gives flashes a toothy smile at Topsy before she too, zeroes in on the booger monster. ~I do not look forward to touching the Wyrm's Sick,~ she notes.
Peacemaker gives Skeinweaver a snarly grin before looking around to see what else needs down. ~Need some help?!~ she calls to Topsy, starting to move in that direction.
With an almost negligent yank Shelby pulls the heart from its mooring, seeking to sever the cord that connects it to the bane. As the sounds of battle begin to die down so too does her howl.
With an almost audible pop, Shelby's car disappears, dead. Keir and Cheese Doodle combined destroy their car most effectively, detaching another door and the rear bumper before it gives up the ghost, disappearing, its screech cutting off in the blink of an instant. It manages to spray both of them with thoroughly unpleasant oil, before it disappears. Topsy slams into the still-SUV, the front now thoroughly crumpled, hood dented, scratched, and the entire car suddenly rusted and looking as if it's both been in an accident, and aged 20 years in the space of seconds. Now immobile, it sprays acid at her in a thready jet, and blows its horn, a formerly ear-shattering sound that now sounds more like a weak blat. The tentacly mass undulates closer, the sound a limpid squelch on the pavement.
Cheese Doodle follows Keir after the Topsy's SUV, the lupus breaking into a three-limbed knuckle walk as she goes after it. The cybernetic walker does a little jump thing, driving her titanium claws down at it.
Sightless-Faith takes a moment to pant, and then goes to help make the SUV dead.
Bright Eyes limp-runs to assist Topsy, shifting down to lupus as she goes. Like a four-footed version of Bo Duke she leaps through the broken driver's side window, and promptly burrows into the footwells to grab and snatch at any wiring or arteries she finds there.
Topsy looks a little sad as the fighters pile in on the SUV. ~I think we're almost done here. Poor thing. Let's finish putting it out of its misery, and then we can handle that last bane. ~ She points to the slime. ~There now, sweatheart.~ This last is said soothingly to the sorry-looking SUV-bane. ~Soon be over. Hush, now.~ And then, if needed, she aims for where the distributer would be, and drives her claws down through the hood.
Skeinweaver watches as the SUV is very well-dismembered by the others, straightening to her full height to peer at the goober, and even farther, into the garage.
Peacemaker moves to help slash at the SUV, too, because a little overkill never hurts. ...And that tentacle monster isn't the most appealing target...
Keir and Doodle attack, Shelby dives and disconnects (or, in one case, severs), and Topsy, once her speech is done, administers the coup de grace by removing the distributor abruptly but with kindness. The thing shivers and falls flat, and thence disappears. The tentacly thing is still some distance away, the size of possibly 5 or 6 Garou, undulating at speed. It looks alarmed. Or possibly irritated.
~Heal if you need it - She has the talens!~ Doodle pants, wiping off some of the muck that the bane had done to her previously. The lupus points a metal claw at Bright Eyes. She then looks to Topsy.
Sightless-Faith stays where he is for a moment, allowing some of his non-severe injuries to heal. His nose tips upward, obviously tracking where the tentacle-thing is.
The air leaves Bright Eyes's lungs in a *whump* as she falls through/from the fallen bane. The Fang picks herself up and shakes before returning to Crinos. ~I have four jars,~ she confirms, an ear skewing at Cheese Doodle - or perhaps at the Philodox' cyborg arms. That said, she takes herself off to the quiet corner where she'd stashed the jars and promptly applies the salve to her legs. ~Anyone else? There's lots.~
Topsy takes advantage of the pause to check the others for signs of damage. ~Bright-Eyes, good thinking there. Sightless-Faith, nice technique. Stacey m'dear, we must train sometime, you've got a thing or two to show me I can see. Cheese Doodle, splendid demolition work. Skeinweaver, some solid fighting. Anyone more than scratched?~ She herself has been well doused with acid, but there's no sign of any damage from when the SUV rammed her. She's checking for others in more need of healing than herself, to go first. If everyone is fighting fit, she nods to Bright-Eyes with regards to the Talen.
You paged Frankie with 'Healed 2agg, talens are down to 11 uses.'.
From afar, Frankie salutes.
~Just say when,~ says Peacemaker to Topsy, seeming pleased overall with the other Gaian. Her expression becomes more serious as she watches the approaching bane. ~This one is going to be messier...~
The creature (about 1/3 of a block away now) can be better seen -- it has at least 3 gasoline hoses attached as accessory tentacles, in addition to natural ones. It slumps along mostly like a slug does, on its own slime. It's an unpleasant green in color, pulsing with purple striations. It drips, blobs of glup dropping onto street and sidewalk alike. It extends one of its own tentacles toward Stacey, exploring; the pseudopod is at first thick, and gets thinner as it extends.
Cheese Doodle wrinkles her nose as the smell hits her, the lupus drawing her ears forward in annoyance at the oillywhatever bane. Heading to the edge of the street, she pulls up a parking meter, and begins focusing hard on the end of it.
Skeinweaver bares her teeth at the thing, but doesn't seem to think running in hacking and slashing is the answer here. So she waits, eyes flicking to Topsy. ~Disgusting~ she points out, needlessly.
Sightless-Faith huffs a bit, expelling the scent of the thing from his nose. ~It smells like oil,~ says he. ~Oil burns.~
As that tentacle reaches out towards her, Peacemaker tenses, her expression one of disgust. Almost instinctively, she reaches out to bat the tentacle away, using her gift of the falling touch along with the contact experimentally.
Once she's slathered goo onto her legs to jump start the healing process Bright Eyes takes a look at the various gathered Garou. It's toward Topsy that she trots, bringing a jar with her. ~You're the worst off,~ she says in a hushed voice, as if noise will attract the oil-thing's attention. Then, hard on Sightless-Faith's heels she adds, ~Anyone have something to start a fire?~
~I don't think I need to tell any of you not to bite it,~ Topsy says, just a touch dryly. ~If you have ranged weapons, stay back and use them. Those without hard hits, your job is to tackle any tentacles that capture anyone.~ She stands by on tentacle-repelling duty to give time for some Healing with the talen Bright Eyes brought over, and to look around lest anyone should respond that they have fire. If not, she points in to the attack.
The Walker's pole briefly flares red, up about half its length. Stacey's tentacle-touch results in the thing's pseudopod suddenly losing all cohesion, falling into a mass of liquid on the ground. It makes a querulous noise, of boiling blup, and starts extending a second pseudopod, as it squidges closer and closer to the Garou. (10 feet, now.)
Cheese Doodle hefts the now glowing hot parking meter, baring her teeth a bit. ~Yes, oil burns.~ She rumbles, with a bit of a feral grin. She flings the burning parking meter at the oil bane with her mechanically augmented strength. ~Your meter expired! Have a ticket!~
Skeinweaver squints as the thing starts creating tentacles. Having no projectiles, she seems happy to simply wait to see how Doodle's experiment turns out.
Sightless-Faith's jaws open and shut again in amusement despite himself, and the Stargazer just waits, ears forward and muscles slightly tensed.
Bright Eyes likewise stays back and doesn't rush into the fray. Rather, she begins to howl again in an attempt to distract the smelly thing.
Peacemaker's eyes widen as that burning parking meter is hurled at the oil-bane, and she backs away from it, trying not to be too close when the meter connects, just in case.
Topsy says suddenly, in a warning tone, ~It's an oily bane, and Cheese Doodle is about to try to set fire to it...~ her attention falls mostly on Sightless Faith, and she starts to step over to him.
And now, the letdown. It's apparently not oily all the way through, or it smells like oil and is some other substace, or the oil is distributed badly, or something of that sort; Doodle's spear lands with a glup, and the thing emits a scream, and some of it chars, but it does not explode. The second extended pseudopod switches directions in a flash, and whams at Cheese Doodle, slamming into her with surprising strength, given how far it's extended.
~Ah.~ Topsy watches the result, ad shrugs. ~Oh dear. Oh well. Never mind! I think the word is... Charge!~ And she follows her own command, barrelling in on the thing, trying to storm past tentacles and let her claws rip at the body of the bane.
Sightless-Faith remains tensed, but then nothing happens. Oh. Damn. His ears flap over to the side, then straighten up again. He heads in after Topsy, too.
Cheese Doodle, when she gets knocked back, does a little martial arts roll and springs back to her paws. She seems so amazed that that actually worked that it takes her a few seconds to realize she's still in a fight. The lupus charges back into the fight, driving her claws into the thing.
Bright Eyes hesitates for a moment after Topsy charges in. No, not hesitates: she doesn't follow the Ahroun's lead, period. She continues to howl instead and hangs back, watching for stray pseudopods and iffy tentacles.
Peacemaker charges in after the others once she realizes there isn't going to be an explosion, attempting to dodge or slice into any tentacles along the way.
Skeinweaver lags a little after the call to charge... she winces at the thought of touching the creature, but she follows the others in. Sharpened claws whip out to try and separate some pieces.
One of the gasoline hoses slips in to curl around Topsy's ankle. A pseudopod emerges, shooting out to slam toward Keir. The digging brigade of Topsy, Javen, Stacey, and Doodle dig chunks out of the creature, and it bleeds chartruse blood onto them, stinging and sticking unpleasantly. It tightens the hose on Topsy's ankle.
Some distance away, a large flying pterodactyl thing can be briefly seen. On top of one of the nearby skyscrapers, a horribly mutated spider, with some of its attached in entirely the wrong places, clambers up to stare at the Garou.
Cheese Doodle jumps on hose that goes after the Athro, clawing at it to try and separate it from Topsy; she also turns around, and lashes an attack out at the bane's body, too.
~Crocodiles!~ Topsy growls, apropos of nothing obvious. Ignoring the clutching at her ankle (unless it has something to do with a reptile), she unleashes a volley of attacks against the body, trying to open it up to the other's claws.
Skeinweaver staggers for a moment, her attacks slowing as she looks down at the "blood" covering her. A twitch, shake of her head, and her attacks are renewed. She seems to be focusing on separating large chunks of gunk from the creature, whittling it down.
The thing strikes at Sightless-Faith, and then - perhaps improbably when it comes to those watching - the ahroun hits the ground in a roll, narrowly missing being smacked by the creature, and then is back on his feet and lunging for the part where the pseudopod connects to the body.
Bright Eyes hasn't taken more than a step forward before Doodle's clawing at her target. Rather than join her the Ragabash takes that same step back and starts scanning the area for other interested parties. After a moment she thinks to look up, adding both the sky and buildings to her overwatch.
There is a brief whine from Peacemaker, too. ~Curiousity,~ she whimpers. That turns into an angered growl, however, as she slams her claws into the creature again, slashing through its icky form.
Javen and Stacey slash into it, reducing it in size (now it's about as big as four Garou). Keir does as well; he in fact slashes the pseudopod off, and it falls limply to the ground, melting into a puddle. Another pseudopod stabs upward at him, though, going right through his chest and out the other side, before (apparently from the strength of its own stab) it dissolves into liquid and bleeds into Keir's chest-wound. One of Cheese Doodle's attacks succeeds, and she digs satisfyingly deeply into the creature. But her claw glances off the hose, and the creature, whimpering in pain from the attacks and looking in somewhat rough shape, is able to whip Topsy around by the ankle, once, twice, three times, faster and faster, until it lets go and she rockets through the air, slamming into a building and sliding down it, unconscious but still breathing.
The spider makes a chittering, clacking noise, and other misshapen spiders start appearing at windows. The pterodactyl flies out of sight; soon after, there's a sonic boom near where it disappeared.
Cheese Doodle looks up in shock at something when Topsy is being slung around like an angry toddler with a toy, but it isn't the athro. She shakes her head, ignoring whatever she saw, and goes for the guts of the bane, clawing her way into the oilbane's cavity.
Skeinweaver redoubles her efforts as the Athro is taken out. Claws glint, and in her cutting the Get attempts to wrench out any hoses or pipes she encounters. She shuts her eyes against the hallucinations and digs from feel alone.
Hoorrgh, that doesn't feel good. The metis clutches at the thing and gouges claws in as he's speared, gritting his teeth and blowing out a breath in a fuzz of blood. And then, he proceeds to look thoroughly confused, his ears flattening back in a way that is reminiscent of a wolf pup getting scolded. The Stargazer looks completely thrown off kilter for an instant, and it's enough so that he doesn't immediately wade back in, though his claws are still dug in the creature for balance, making all appearances of looking towards certain things, jaws still tightly clenched.
~We're getting attention!~ Bright Eyes warns, baring her teeth at the spiders and letting the Dragonfly howl die away. She spares a moment to check on Topsy before swinging wide, around most of the Garou, to come at the thing from the side. Or a side. A different side. The Fang attacks not with tooth but with claw, kicking and slicing into the thing's center much as Skeinweaver and Peacemaker do.
~Keep up the attack!~ encourages Peacemaker as her tribemate is flung away from the fray. ~And avoid those firehose tentacles!~ She aims to continue to claw her way closer to what seems like the 'center' of this thing.
A gashose tries to wrap itself around Stacey, but she bats it away. One tries to wrap itself around Javen, but she cuts it, and it starts spraying pressurized puce blood in all directions. The creature whimpers again, crying out in pain, as Cheese Doodle reaches its center around the same time Stacey does, and they both hit a solidified central core of former glup. Shelby burrows in just after, and even without their hands on its heart, it looks to be on its last legs.
Several spiders disappear from the windows. From the direction the pterodactyl went, something sends a loud, bad tempered trumpet into the night air.
Sightless-Faith digs his claws in again, and gasps out, ~They're coming!~ ...weird. He also still seems quite off-kilter still, though at least now he's attacking.
Skeinweaver falters a little as she hears that trumpeting noise. She staggers back as the creature indicates he is nearly defeated, shaking out her fur, trying to get the sticky gunk off of her. Ick. At Keir's exclamation she seems surprised, peering about, apparently having missed out on seeing who was watching.
Cheese Doodle redoubles her efforts, attacks turning wild and unfocused as she attempts to rip bane-bits from other bane-bits with a snarl.
Peacemaker tries to punch or claw at that solidifies core, anything that might puncture it and further reduce the bane.
Bright Eyes concentrates on keeping the 'tunnel' open and perhaps even widening it lest it gloopily collapse upon Doodle and Peacemaker. ~Someone get Upside-Do-!~ she starts, abruptly stopping as a gelatinous blob drops onto her muzzle.
Keir slashes its outside, and Cheese Doodle Burns Chrome and Peacemaker seek to destroy the thing's heart; it sends one last stabbing tentacle at Stacey, deflecting off the Walker and stabbing through the Gaian. It holds her up as and she and Doodle crush its heart; it gives one last cry and disappears, dissipating into nothingness, only its gas hoses remaining.
Another trumpeting sounds, from a direction slightly different than the last one. Several car horns sound in response, and one ambulance starts sounding. Deedle deedle deedle doo! Continuously. Forever. Spiders start emerging from the skyscraper. Misshapen, malevolent, angry spiders.
Cheese Doodle shakes some of the ichor off herself, grabbing up gnosis to keep the bane properly dead. And then her ears slick back when she hears the approaching hoard. ~Time to go!~ She howls, before running over. She scoops up Topsy, cybernetics making the task easy, and begins to B-Line it back to a safe place.
Sightless-Faith falls onto all fours, starts to go over for Topsy, but pulls up short when Doodle goes over. He gives his head a hard shake, still seeming like the effects from the critter are still going away, and shifts down to lupus to head after Doodle. He's bleeding freely, and bleeding a lot, and this slows him a bit, though not enough to lag behind.
Peacemaker roars in pain as that tentacle stabs through her, and she falls to a heap where the bane was. She's scrambling back up the next moment, however, ignoring her wounds as she looks to see where the others are. ~Go, I'll take up the rear.~
Skeinweaver squints at the horrible city noises. For a moment, she simply stands upright, glaring down the multitude of spiders, her fur spiking. ~Now that's a fight!~ she barks. ~We can take......~ She glances back, having to do a double take to see that her brethren are not preparing, but fleeing. ~Guys?~ She whines, disappointed, turning towards them. ~You are hurt. I'll help you. ~ She says, offering a clawed hand to Peacemaker and a shoulder to lean on.
Bright Eyes shakes the goo from her face as the blob disappears around them. Sparing a moment to further wipe at her muzzle she bolts in the direction of the fallen Gaian, veering off as the cybernetic Walker catches her up. She swings wide to snag up the remaining talens instead, waving any injured on ahead. ~Go, go, go! They're calling reinforcements! We don't have the numbers. Everyone back to the Glade!~ She seems entirely unhurt, though her fur is sticky and matted in places.
Another mass of spiders burst out of the skyscraper, a roiling sea of spiders coming after them, as an old-style Jaguar, looking in pristine condition save for the lizard skin all over it, comes screeching around the corner. One of the spiders shoots a line and slides atop it, a claw sinking into the skin like a piton, as the Jaguar speeds toward the Garou, a small mass of spiders skittering and scrabbling behind it. As they head toward the Glade, the Jaguar, spider atop it like a surfer, slows, and the rest of the spiders also slow, ending up around and on top of the car. More cars, with various skin or fur adorning them, come around the corner, and several of them crash into each other. The Garou end up in the Glade, several blocks away, and can cross over without much problem.
Cheese Doodle sets Topsy down, the crinos panting a bit from the sudden jog. Wiping a bit more of the ichor off, she motions from the Fang to Topsy with a metal hand, hoping she could put together two and two. ~I did not see... that last part coming...~ She says, panting.
The Stargazer is in lupus, which prevents more creative cursing. But, just his unintentional lupine body language says a lot, and it's probably fortunate that he doesn't have the use of his tongue. Once they reach the glade, he's panting wheezingly from the hole in his chest (and the froth from his muzzle is tinged red) but he only flops down and tries to catch his breath. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Peacemaker lets the Get help her along, but seems to be resisting the pain, until they reach the Glade. Then she lets out a pained whine as she lowers herself to the ground. ~We'll all heal. It went well, overall.~
Bright Eyes looks between fallen Athro and panting Stargazer and with a one-moment nod to Cheese Doodle, tends to Sightless Faith first. Specifically, the gaping hole in his chest first, and after that, any other sucking wounds. ~Give that a moment,~ she advises, before crossing back to do the same to Topsy. Only then does she lift her voice. ~Anyone else?~
Skeinweaver crouches to let Peacemaker down, but then fidgets, as if her adrenaline were still pumping. She, too, looks unscathed but gross. Bright Eyes gets a gesture, however, for Peacemaker.
Some distance away, the ambulance sound cuts off abruptly. In mid-cry.
The hole seals, and the metis can breathe freely again. Sightless-Faith looks relieved, and shifts up to hispo to have use of a tongue. He starts to say something, and then the ambulance cuts off. His ears fall a bit. ~Sonuvabitch,~ he murmers. ~...probably a good thing we got out of there.~
Bright Eyes heads to tend Peacemaker next, an ear quirking. ~Very well, I thought. Cheese Doodle?~ She straightens as she calls, trying to pinpoint the Walker's location. ~Should I use these entirely, or save as much as possible?~ (Four doses used, ATM)
Cheese Doodle wags a few times, before shifting down to lupus. When she does, the metal and mechanical bits seem to sink into the skin, before fresh fur is sprouted. The wolf shakes herself off. It went good! She agrees, wagging. Don't use all, she tells Path Finder. For next fight! And I'm going to eat pizza instead, because that makes me feel better! Pizza and beer! She cheers.
Peacemaker blinks as Bright Eyes uses that talon to heal her, looking surprised at how much it heals. ~Damn! Need to get some of those.~ She looks amused at Cheese Doodle's declaration. ~Mind company in that? Sounds good!~
[Most characters scoot for pizza and beer; Shelby drives Topsy home.]