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Narration:
Casey scatters an impressive amount of metal, and quickly realizes that the piece he's holding is the closest thing to a weapon he's going to find.
Strength 3, +2B
LEL 15 [] | Casey 15 [] (dalu) | Christian 14 [] (dalu) | Caleb 5 [X] (dalu)
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Oh Fuck fuck fuckity fuck! He thinks, because... well, FUCK!
He spends most of what little essence he has, shifting into Urshul and coming up under the extended piece of steel that struck at Caleb, biting into the spirit and hoping that his teeth don't break.
Action
adjusted statistics
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Caleb isn't wasting time. This guy has to go down. Like yesterday.
He charges forward, a gutteral growl becoming a deep roar and he shifts into Gauru form, before diving onto the spirit.
[spoiler]2009-08-19 18:14:04 Bull Rush rolls 6 to str5+brl3+spec-def3 (10 Again) 3, 1, 9, 6, 10, 5, 7 2 successes[/spoiler]
He grabs the spirit, his claws ripping into its sides; spirit is grappled.
Christian's turn again.
((even though i got extra successes, my attack doesn't actually do any damage correct? Also, is the spirit's defence now 2 or back to 4?))
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Extra successes on a grapple have no additional effect. Def refreshes at the beginning of the round, so it's back to 4.
Christian 16 [] (urshul) | LEL 15 [X] (grappled) | Casey 15 [] (dalu) | Caleb 6 [X] (grappled) (gauru)
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Christian goes all out, grabbing a piece of metal in his teeth and ripping it off the grappled spirit.
This was fun. A tiny part of him was appaled at that feeling. but it was veeeeeery tiny and drowned out by the rest of him cheering him on.
Big Bad Wolf
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<<I will break you.>> The threat falls flat as its attempt to slash Caleb across the chest fails miserably.
whiff
Christian 16 [] (urshul) | LEL 15 [XX] (grappled) | Casey 15 [] (dalu) | Caleb 6 [X] (grappled) (gauru)
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Weapon in hand Casey runs over and puts all his power behind his swing. And if he had hit, it might have hurt, but all he managed was the air between the jagged composiontion that was the spirit.
Swing and a miss
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Caleb strains with his legs, lifting the massive spirit up, before falling with it to the side.
but the spirit keeps its footing, and Caleb is unable to slam it to the ground.we all fall down
((i should have rolled against 4 power, not 2 defence, but since i failed anyway, not rerolling))
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Christian
Bull Rush
Casey
Christian Tears into the train spirit, tearing another, larger chunk of spirit metal out of it's form. Whoo hoo, he thinks, having far too good a time for a life and death struggle.
The spirit howls in pain. <<I will not submit to you.>> It lashes out in a flurry, but only barely nicks Caleb.
Casey waits for a a clear shot before attacking. ((Holding action))
<<Then we will speak again when you are more talkative>> Bull Rush's maw of teeth rises up and he bites down, savagely ripping out the heart of the train spirit
The spirit explodes into thousands of shards of metal, which slowly fade is they are drawn across the Gauntlet.
<<Sacred Crap>> Christian was amazed.
Bull Rush shifts down into Dalu form. "And that, my brothers, is how you say 'Hello' in first tongue." He has a huge grin on his face.
<<Sacred Crap>>
"Damn," was all Casey could manage at the time. He felt not a little bit useless right now.
<<Sacred Crap>>
"OK, lets find this damn locus so we know where he'll come back again."
Christian, reluctantly, shifts back into Hishu "Is it wrong that I think that was so much fun?"
Bull Rush looks to Casey, before responding to Christian's question "Is it wrong to enjoy your job?"
"No, but paperwork was never so much excitement though." Christian replies a little giddily from all of the adrenaline.
Bull Rush just smiles as Christians comment. Mickey likes it indeed. "Speaking of which, where did you pick up boxing?" Casey asks. It was obvious Christian had some experience. "They teach to hand to hand in management?"
Casey shifts back being human, much to the relief of his clothing. "How soon is he going to come back?" reform might have been a better word form the visual display of shattering.
"A few days. We'll then ask if he'd like to do that again, and he should get the message."
Casey starting pacing around the building, zig zagging to feel the pull and release of the spirit world, but he couldn't feel too clearly where it began or ended.
"No, I used to play football in High School." Christian pinches the bridge of his nose "I feel something..."
Christian's attention is drawn to what used to be the furnace door.
"... here" He knocks at the furnace
Casey follows Christian over large oven and instinctively sniffed it.
Bull Rush approaches, and examines the furnace. "One of you, come here and hold my hand. I'm going to show you how to draw essence; assuming the spirit hadn't sucked it all dry."
The locus is drained of essence. Greedy little bugger.
"I haven't played in a long time though. You want to go Casey, or can I?"
"No point. We'll have to wait till tomorrow evening. This place is dry as a bone. When we come back tomorrow, we'll have it all sorted out." Bull Rush finally shifts back down to Dalu.
Casey walked around the furnace, testing the door to see what was inside
Christian's face sets into a disappointed frown. He had wanted to see someone shift and to feel it himself.
"We should check the other side?" he said "Make sure there isn't any cabooses sneaking around there." He gave a half smile.
"There might be more?" Far too eager, this Christian is.
"Yeah, we can do that. It'll be tough because its daytime though. Much easier at night."
His head cocked to one side, Christian asks, "Why?"
"I don't know. Rumor is that Helios, the Sun God, isn't exactly a good friend of the werewolves, and so he curses us to be less able to during the day. The easiest way across is to just force essence into yourself, concentrating on bring your spirit side out and putting your flesh side in. Its hard at first, but it gets easier."
Because everything has to be easier at night, Casey sighed to himself in thought. Honestly, did no other werewolves have night jobs when they made up these rules?
Christian bites his lower lip. "Is there more Essence on the other side? I'm almost out."
"I could try to be the pathfinder." Casey suggested "At least give it a try before we use our 'mana' up. And there has to be something shiny around here to help out in that regard."
Casey gives a quick glance around for someting reflective.
Christian also looks around for something useful
Bull Rush joins in the hunt for a reflective surface
Some of the better-preserved pieces of metal look like they'll do the job.
"Before we go. Casey, lets get those close to sit on you better."
"Ok, that sounds good," he couldn't express how good it would be to not be ending up naked all the time "How exactly?"
"I'll explore while you do that, if that's alright?"
"Go ahead, but don't wander too far; shouldn't take more than a minute"
"'Kay" Christian goes looking for any bits of the spirit that might still be solid
Bull Rush cuts Casey's hand with a jagged piece of metal, ignoring his protests. He then rubs the blood all over his clothes in large, circular patterns for 18 seconds. Then the blood soaks into the clothes and disappears. "Ok, its all done."
Caleb took his hand, then a knife like piece of shrapnel and right as Casey figured out what he was doing "Ow!" The wound closed up quickly but not till it had managed to soak the 'blade' "You could have warned me," he said, though he didn't sound especially angry, just surprised.
"Yeah, but then it wouldn't have been a surprise" He smiles at his little joke
"He came after me with a steak knife," Christian calls out from the pile of metal he was digging through
"Find anything Christian?"
"Nope, just trash. I can look later though."
"Alright then, Casey. Your idea, you lead the way."
"Yeah, thanks, I love surprises," he says sarcastically. Casey punched Caleb out of no where. Not hard, or in a mean way, but with a show of appreciation that he didn't have to go around without clothes all the time anymore. "Alright, hand me that, let's see if I can do this." he said indicating the mirrored metal.
Caleb hands it off with a smile on his face. Good, he's taking some leadership. I might just get out of this.
Casey took the metal and with his other took hold of both Christian and Caleb. He gazed recalling the feeling from when he crossed before, trying to bring it back, mimic it. Come on Casey you can't fail at this.
Casey pushes against the iciness of the gauntlet. Slowly it gives way till very suddenly the surface tension breaks and he pulls the other two along with him.
Caleb is quite impressed. He couldn't even bring across anyone besides himself, forget about it being day. "I'm impressed Casey." He says as he surveys the area
Christian rubs his nose with his free hand before sneezing. "Woah, that was cool."
"Glad to help," he says. He was very glad to have achieved it, even if it made him feel a little mentally drained.
You see a few motes here and there, but there appear to be no larger spirits in the vicinity.
"Just the one guardian then," Casey states. Thank god there isn't a pain spirit, he thinks to himself. He takes a few steps into the spirit world.
"The hell?" Bull Rush is quite confused. "Ok, normally this place wouldn't be too active, but there should be more than just motes here. Even some sleeping spirits. Where is everything?" He picks up his pace as he begins spiraling out, from the locus, looking for any spirits.
Casey looked a little confused. "It's not always like this?" he asked, clearly thinking it was as to be expected. "The last locus I went across by looked pretty much like this. Well expect it was a graveyard and had a creepy little girl guarding it."
"Maybe the Little Engine that Could chased them off?" Christian asks as he pokes around the dust.
Bull Rush is ignoring them. He is looking high and low for any spirits. Finally he ventures outside the building.
Casey jogs after him.
Christian follows, not really wanting to be alone in a parallel dimension.
Well, we need to explore this side anyway, now's as good a time as any, Casey thought.
"Am I going to need thumbs or a nose more?" Christian asks.
The rest of the railyard is much like the warehouse interior. Off in the distance, you can see some of the city's buildings, but they look slightly off, even for the Hisil. The edges aren't as crisp as one would expect, giving a slightly faded look.
"Go ahead," Casey said absently to Christian. He went over to Caleb, keeping pace if has to. "So if this is wrong, what could have driven out all the spirits?"
Bull rush says a few words that don't translate well into English. however, fuckshitcockdamnballs comes close "I don't know. We have to get you both initiated into tribes, and while that’s happening, I’m going to talk to some of the local ithaeur, and see if any of them are a little further along." The way he says it sounds less like an admission of failure, and more like he's just found something to do with his free time.
"Well we're already here and we need to explore anyway. Maybe it's just around loci?" There was a slight hesitation in that statement. It certainly didn't look localized.
Christian shifts into Urhan and sniffs around, looking for anything
"Can't hurt. Lets head north."
"Alright," he agrees. He starts northward, shifting to the near wolf. Stopping for a second to glance back at Christian, he gives an inquisitive bark, checking to see if he had found something before heading out.
Christian scents nothing
Christian shakes his head to indicate that nothing was found, and he trots ahead, nose alert
Casey lets Christian pass him. He's suppose to be the scout after all.
Bull Rush keeps going north until he reaches the river...
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Aha! As you reach the river, a smell finally hits your nostrils. Looking ahead, you see a duck paddling along the water.
Christian's ears snap forward, and he goes into sneaky mode, tail stopping in mid swing.
A duck? Of all the things.. Seriously? No other siprits expect pain and jagged metal and there was a duck just swimming along? Beneath the human suprise another part of Casey was yelling Chase it! Chase it!
"Before we get all crazy. I've told you about totems before right? Well, to me, that looks like a prime target."
Casey has a hard time taking his eyes off it but finally manages to and whisper in first tongue <<But it is a duck>> He hears a quack and reflexively refocuses his attention again. Chase it! Chase the duck!
<<Plan?>> Christian manages to express
"Yes. Focus. Ducks are like swans, but less ugly. Mean and vicious if you mess with them. Exactly how we are. Now, we just need to convince that spirit that we want it as a totem. It will probably need some enticement. So, just like last time, we chat with it, and then jump it if it doesn't play nice. Casey, your an elodoth, spirits like you better than guys like me. So could you try getting it to agree?"
Jumping it sounded like more fun. He didn't want to hurt it, just catch and hold it. Casey realized his tail was wagging and made an effort to stop it. He gave a low whine that translated to 'Sure, yeah, whatever,' in a way that showed he wasn't really listening to carefully.
<<Me... Catch?>> Christian really, really needed to learn the language.
The duck looks at you curiously, keeping a healthy distance between itself and the shore.
"Good spirit, we would have words with you.“ Bull Rush then steps to the side, putting Casey right in the limelight
<<It sees!>> Christian crouches down in the weeds to hide
...Bull Rush looks at his packmates. Pups he reminded himself. Repeatedly.
Casey ignored the happy prospect of reliving childhood memories of chasing birds and shifted to Dalu. <<I am Crescent.. a Crescent brother. Could I ask you are?>> Ok, he thought, ducks. How do ducks think?
The duck glances over Casey's spirit brands, looking quite confused. <<Crescent? You are a half, are you not?>>
Casey put his hands behind his back so the duck wouldn't see his claws as a threat. And he made sure not to smile broadly in a friendly matter to show the duck what be teeth he had. <<Yes. We are>> he indicated his packmates <<The Crescent brotherhood. Crescent is a way to say how I'm am called in another... Speaking. Our callings are all looking like Crescents when wrote.>>
Go Casey! Bull Rush feels like those fathers on the sidelines as their kid putzed his way up the field to kick the ball in the goal. Come on! Keep going! Don't get distracted by the snack bowl.
"Casey"<<what I am called>>
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk, thinks Christian in total mono-focus mode.
He really needed to master more verbs. <<We wish for you our family to be.>> Wait no that was wrong.
And then the ball gets stolen at the halfway line. Bull Rush waits for the spirit to react before jumping in
<<Our friend.. brother..>> he kept going through nouns <<pack... totem!>> he finally gets it and is very pleased with himself.
She glances nervously from him to his packmates, then behind her. <<How do I know you aren't going to eat me?>>
<<We wish you not to eat>> ok no was for the diplomacy << We know you smart must be, and have power, while we have seen no others here and there.>>
She seems to relax slightly, but is still visibly nervous. <<But what about you? Why would I want you as a pack?>>
Bull Rush is getting frustrated. Time for an infodump. Come Ithaelunim; I demand answers to my questions!
The Ithaelunim answer Caleb’s call and whisper in his ear that this spirit is named Mothering Duck.
<<We could you give thanks and help how you will. We have a water spring of power.>> dang what was the word. <<Locus.>>
<<You … Wise>> Christian chimes in. He wasn’t sure exactly what was being said, but flattery never hurt.
<<And, Mothering Duck, we would honor you and your commitment to children, thus making you stronger.>> OK, step 1 was tribal initiations, and then step 2 was going to teach them the goddamn language
Casey gave a very short glare at Caleb. That was what he had just said. Albeit, less articulately.
Bull Rush acknowledges Casey's glare, but doesn't say anything about it. If Casey has an issue, he'll say so later
He looked back at Mothering Duck <<We could be your kids>> He gestures around at the empty world <<There are so small a number here.>>
If you had ever wondered what an amused duck looked like, those thoughts are put to rest. <<I suppose, if you need care that badly.>>
Christian’s ears swivel forward as ‘So interesting’ replaces ‘Duck’ in Christian's mental vocabulary
While not quite the totem relationship he was hoping for, something was better than nothing
<<We would it greatly want.>> he says going down on his hunches, both as a sign of respect and to be smaller in appearance to help get rid of any doubts
Bull Rush follows suit. Best to show respect.
Christian sticks his head on his paws, and flattens his ears to his skull trying to look as respectful as a wolf looking at a duck can.
She flaps toward the shore. <<Okay, I accept you.>>
<<And we accept you, Mothering Duck. I am Bull Rush.>>
Casey really wish he had bread crumbs right now. Then he reminded him this wasn't a real duck and he had other things to offer. He took his hand from behind his back and made a tossing gesture. The essence within him channeled along the arm, through the hand, and pooled in his palm as a gesture of thanks. ((One essence spent))
<<I>> “...blarf“. Oh fuck, Christian had forgotten that he can't speak English like this. Christian shifts, very slowly, back into Hishu. <<I>> "Christian", he says.
<<This is my packmate Christian, he is still learning the language of his ancestors>> No real way to put a nice spin on it.
Christian blushes in embarrassment and mortification
She waddles over to Casey and pecks at his palm, taking out several chunks of his ephemeral skin.
Casey made sure not to wince. It's not that bad compared to showing respect to the pain spirit he told himself. It even tickles a little.
Mothering Duck's eyes sparkle in amusement at Bull Rush's and Christian's antics. <<It seems my new children have much to learn.>>
He may not understand exactly what she said, but the tone was unmistakable.
<<Indeed mother, First my two brothers will be initiated into Tribes. Although; I do not know which each one wants to join.>> He then repeats the sentence in english
<<Excuse>> (Christian points to himself) <<No Words>>. He doesn't want to offend Mother Duck by blabbering in English, but he can't express himself properly. "If the Bone Shadows," <<Hirfathra Hissu>> he clarifies in the First Tongue, "are the ones asking the questions, that's what I want to do."
Casey couldn't help but smile and partially ignore the other two. He'd caught the duck and he hadn't even had to chase it. He'd never accomplished that as a kid. It felt very satifying. He eventually drew his attention away from his new totem. "I haven't ever had them fully explained," he said.
"Storm Lords, the leaders, The guys who take shit and dish it out no problem. They don't have any weaknesses. Iron masters, me, "Adapt React Overcome" is the motto. Blood talons hit things. And hunters in darkness are like the boogeymen in the shadows who make sure that whats good and sacred stays that way."
Seeming bored by the exposition, Mothering Duck takes flight again and lands on Casey's head.
Bull rush does not seem surprised, or amused by the turn of events. Business as usual
Christian watches her very carefully. What wisdom was she imparting to Casey this very moment?
Casey seemed very pleased with himself "From that I'd have to say Storm Lords," he said decisively.
<<Then Mother, we must leave. Thank you for your totemage, we shall honor you, as our ancestors have honored all totems.>> "OK guys, we should probably head home soon. Then we can get you set up with someone to get initiated."
Mother Duck takes wing again, teasingly swooping low over Christian's head before returning to the water.
Christian bows his head in a gesture of respect to Mother Duck
Casey didn't want to leave, just yet, but Caleb was right that he needed a tribe. As the group started back he looked back at the duck totem. He went through his mind trying to find the informal title and managed to remember it <<Goodbye, Mom.>> he waved.
Christian committed that phrase to memory. It seemed appropriate.
End Scene
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