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Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 02-11-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
The Rabbit was gone from the scene the moment it felt the heat of Rong's flames. Rabbits are cowardly things, and even monstrous rabbits fear things bigger than it. The manikin went along with the rabbit's instinct's easily, recognizing instinct as a strong survival tool.
The body, on the other hand, stood up. It felt weaker, slower- it understood that splitting itself must have had reprecussions. It could faintly feel the other part of it, the rabbit, but not enough that it had any control over it. Perhaps if it could regain some strength...
The Manikin did not notice Rong's flames wash over it's body, not until it realized that it's mass was quickly disappearing. It scrambled backwards until it was out of the range of the fire, and regrew it's eyes. It noted that it was in a new place all together, and that several of the moving lives were now missing. It also noted the fact that there was a twoheaded Beast in front of it, one head which spewed fire wildly. How terrifying the dragons were... The Manikin admired the beast's ferocity, which made it's bug instincts wild with fear. Every inch of the manikin wanted to flee- however, it did not. It's desire to stay was greater than it's fear. It stayed for one reason- it wanted the dragons' existence.
The dragons amazed the manikin, fascinated it, for the exact reasons why they scared it. The dragons were a truly strong thing, something recognized by instinct, a pure impulse. Even at a base level, life recognized the dragons as great. The manikin wanted that. It wanted the exact quality that gave the dragons a high standing in life, that made it fear them. It was becoming clear now, what the manikin desired. It would explore every piece of life, and become the greatest of all- simply because it could, and because it wanted to- honestly, it had nothing else it could want anyway. The manikin was, at this point in time, simply a life- there were no layers, no secrets or desires. It could be considered a bit pathetic- However, that purity as a life also made it's determination infinite. It would throw everything it had to it's singular cause, simply because it's cause was all it had.
The desire to take the dragons' existence agitated a piece of the manikin. Realizing that this too was instinct, the manikin allowed the agitation to take it over. Instantly, the manikin became a glass man. Transforming into that glass was a logical instinct-To take the dragons' existence, a first step would be to take their form. In another instant, a glassy copy of the dragons appeared. The manikin felt empowered then- although nothing but it's form and density changed. Staring forth at the dragons, the manikin knew that copying form was not enough. Nature didn't fear just form, it feared... Well, the manikin did not know. Which is exactly why it intended to find out. It layered it's new form with the bug's exoskeleton, and opened it's mouths wider than they should have been able to open. Awkwardly but ferociously, the manikin charged.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 02-13-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"Ha! See? Nothing to worry about!" Rong gloated as Alex ran away. Right sighed, wondering if he should point out that they had been having trouble with the swordsman for the past, say, five minutes without even managing to wound him. But it seemed that Rong probably wouldn't listen anyways.
As far as he could see, Alex and the rabbit were running off down the hall of infinite cubicles. He doubted that would lead anywhere. It was probably best to just let then go. It seemed like Eemp wasn't willing to go after them anyways.
"Alright, where're the two other losers?" Rong snorted, trying to peer in a few cubicles even though Eemp wasn't moving to allow her any advantage points. She was almost immediately distracted by, startlingly enough, an apparently exact copy of herself (and the other two). "Wha?"
The copy seemed to just stare at them for a while. Right, who had been paying a little more attention, knew that the Manikin had just apparently transformed into glass and then into them (so it does do something other than eat!) but didn't say anything, instead concentrating on keeping the water up and moving.
And then it attacked...or seemed to be attempting an attack. The Manikin didn't seem used to much else besides running, and Eemp sidestepped it easily before Rong unleashed a fiery torrent upon it.
The exoskeleton mostly protected it, though the inside was heated enough for the glass to grow soft. Still, it didn't melt or collapse but ran to the side, away from the fire. Before it could get any closer, Right whipped the water around its feet before the water froze and the Manikin tripped over its spontaneous restraints onto its knees. Though normally the glass would have at least fractured, it was softened enough to absorb the brunt of the floor. It carefully stood up and tried moving its legs, testing the strength of the ice.
But Rong immediately shot forth and tackled it, making it shoot out and across the hall into the stairs.
"Ow, ugh," Rong wrinkled her snout, unable to rub it. "I shouldn't've done that. Ow. It's so creepy fighting that thing like that!" Right knew what she meant. All three faces were disconcertingly blank and the whole copy was rather stiff.
They followed it to the stairwell, but it was already gone. They could see where it landed. Some bits of plaster were still plunking on the floor. It seemed to have run away or something.
If they knew that they were on the second floor, they would have found it strange that there were no stairs leading down. But they didn't. Instead, they quickly checked on Jordan and Vasily.
"Damn, they must've snuck away when we were busy!"
"It's fine," Right said distractedly, wishing he could retrieve the ice. It was never good to waste water. After all, it took a while for him to find any. "Let's just go up the stairs. We can explore and maybe find that mannequin."
And so Eemp went up the stairs, walking a little stiffly, trailing a little hay as water danced around it.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 02-13-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
Clumsily, the Manikin (lower part) fumbled up the stairs. Much of it's mass had grown unresponsive, dead. The manikin had no time to waste re-eating it's former parts, so it immediately shed the dragons' form, leaving behind a hollow shell, and streamlining itself back into a manikin (with eyes). It quickly turned back around, looking down the hallway from the top of the first stairs. The dragons were there, and they began a quick approach.
Through this quick encounter, the manikin had learned something important: That it was not very powerful at all. Even imitating form was not enough. Clearly, The manikin needed more- it needed to take the dragons' intelligence, their internal systems. But how would it do it? The dragons had easily beat it down. What could the manikin use to surpass the dragons?
Then, the manikin remembered that it was split. It attempted to commune with it's rabbit self again. Now that it's halves had grown strong enough, The manikin could feel itself communicating...with it's other self. The manikin quickly relayed information between itself, and came up with a crude plan. It would attempt a pincer attack.
The rabbit skidded to a stop and shot back the direction it came, silently. At this point, the halves ceased communication, devoting their thoughts to themselves. Scatterbrained as the manikin(s) were, they needed every thought they could have. The rabbit here, for instance, began thinking about what it would do when it reached the dragon. It wasn't doing a very good job of it, although to be fair attacking a dragon as a rabbit was fairly difficult and limiting in options.
On the other end, the manikin stood it's ground. Well, it did for a moment. Then, fear pervaded it's great determination and it decided that continuing to fight the dragon would probably end poorly, even though it did not understand what death was. Still, it's desire to eat the dragons was great, and it didn't quite like the idea of quitting the pincer attack, thereby breaking a deal with itself (rabbit).
Compromise! Compromise was the Manikin's solution. The manikin concentrated it's life again, this time to it's abdominal area. Then, it's upper body fell off, and it's legs continued to run away, exiting the stairwell. On the way, it grew another set of eyes on it's crotch area, aware of the practicality but not the innuendo.
The upper body, groggy from the sudden change, immediately was annoyed at itself. Being a torso was extremely annoying, and difficult to maneuver. But, an instant later, it regained some clarity of thought, and remembered that it had access to different forms. The body pulsated, shifted and finally settled on the form of a giant stag beetle. The Dragons were close now, it guessed, so it would need to act quickly. It recalled everything the beetle had stored in it's meager brain, all of the reflexes and instructions required to use the body. It was all extremely fascinating to feel all of that for the first time, but it didn't waste time dawdling. clumsily, it flew to the ceiling, and clung, waiting. It saw the dragons- they were close now, and had ascended a flight of stairs. It tensed itself to strike. But where would it strike? Instinctively, it decided on the body, where the dragon heads met, because it already had a bad experience with attacking and being attacked by the heads.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 02-13-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"I-I think we can stop running," Jordan huffed and the two slowed to a walk. Neither of then knew where they were going but if it was away from violent dragon heads, then that was fine by them.
Vasily and Jordan walked down the hall of cubicles, the boy watching out carefully for any signs of movement, the pirate muttering darkly about what he'd do to those traitorous wretches once he figured out a way to kill them and not get burnt to a crisp.
Suddenly, that deformed rabbit from before shot past them. They quickly turned around, but were unable to see where the rabbit bounded off to. What they saw instead was where they had started. It looked like they had made no progress whatsoever. But...that didn't make sense...
Soon after, they saw Alex pass. Apparently, he had not expected the rabbit to suddenly turn around. He looked a bit around before continuing down the hallway.
----------
Though Eemp seemed to be taking pains to stay quiet as it slowly went up the stairs, Rong seemed to have no such restraint. She talked loudly about how annoying chasing down people was and they should really just stand still so she could aim better and so on. Right wasn't really listening. It wasn't anything important anyways.
None of them were expecting a giant beetle to attack them from above.
With the element of surprise, the beetle-Manikin easily worked its mandible around Eemp's head. The cloth, unfit to resist a giant beetle, ripped easily. Eemp stumbled and finally fell back down the stairs. With a yelp, Right lost concentration and the water fell on everybody, making them all rather wet. The ball of tangled dragons and bug legs bouncing off the wall and down the next flight, trailing even more hay and almost crushing the rabbit-Manikin on its way up. In the struggle, Eemp's head almost ripped completely off so that when they finally landed and separated, it hung from a flimsy patch.
While Rong snarled at this giant bug and immediately tried to, what else, set fire to it, Right stared in horror at the nearly-headless Eemp. And then, suddenly, the hay in the neck and head seemed to be moving. After a bit of rustling, some small spiders revealed themselves before swiftly threading silk apparently through the fabric and carefully sewing the head back onto the neck.
Once the spiders were out of sight, Right said, "Where...where did those come from?" before suddenly remembering the giant spider made of spiders. He didn't know how he could have forgotten that. Though it did seem like such a long time ago.
He tried not to think about how creepy the thought of spiders being inside him was. Though technically it was just Eemp. But still.
Rong apparently was oblivious about all this spider crap, still trying to roast the bug. The pincer strategy having backfired, the beetle seemed at a loss of what to do. It settled for trying not to get set on fire.
Right tried to collect the water again, though with much of the water on a different floor and out of his sight, he ended up with less than before. It wasn't a very useful amount.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 02-15-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
The Rabbit was extremely terrified now more than ever. With it's newly attuned sense of smell and sight, it was assailed with three times the fear, which rabbits had in great quantity. As quickly as it came, it left, easily abandoning it's beetle self.
The beetle was strong enough now to be aware of it's rabbit self's cowardliness, but could not fault it. It's mental facilites were more than occupied with survival anyway. In the back of it's mind it calculated what it had just eaten- straw. The beetle was confused, as straw did not have the genetics to develop into dragons, nor did they seem to have any qualities in common. It's little thoughts were suddenly assailed with a new experience- pain. It was on fire now, you see, as giant beetles are very easy targets no matter how quick they are. Although the beetle did not seem to have any flamible qualities, it burned freely! It felt it's wings turn to ash, and colapsed to the ground, flailing it's legs. Pain was a new experience to a being that normally did not have nerves, and occupied it's mind fully. In it's conflageration, the beetle realized that it's body was becoming unresponsive, that it was dying. Desperately, it focused on comunicating with it's other selves. A connection was made linking the three of them mentally. The beetle's agony was shared three ways. Even then, the beetle managed to relay as much of it's information as it could. Then, the connection broke, as the beetle could no longer bear keeping it. Flailing desperately on the ground, it devoted all of it's thought to crawling away.
Then, Eemp stepped on it.
The other two parts could feel it, then, the part of itself dying. What a horrible sensation it was, death- losing one's ability to exist... Equivilant to being cast into the nothing that seemed so intent on following the manikin. The moving darkness, the beast... And now, actual death. The two manikin parts fell to the floor, cringing at the idea. It did not want to die... But a new idea was stirring in it's heads, now- aN awkardly formed desire to strike back at the dragons, to avenge itself.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 02-15-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.
Alex knew he lost the rabbit. as he had seen no sign of it for a while. he turned around to.... see he apparently had not gone very far. despite running past hundreds of cubicles. and right there, near the stairs, was the rabbit. Alex felt like a right dumbass but he decided against facepalming. he walked to the side and placed one hand on the wall and started just walking back making sure to pay attention to where he is. mind-scapes are tricky business and it seems not thinking about this place lead to you going nowhere.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 02-15-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Rong wrinkled her nose at the disgusting (yet somehow satisfying) squelch. "Ick." Eemp seemed quite unmoved, though, standing unflinchingly on the squashed, flaming remains of the giant beetle.
The smoke curled upwards, though it seemed to mysteriously dissipate long before reaching the ceiling. Right was silent for a moment, still rather pensive of the stowaways hidden inside Eemp. They would be helpful. But it was still unsettling. He couldn't shake the feeling that the spiders were waiting, growing, maybe even...laying eggs. Ugh. And then they'd come bursting out of Eemp's belly like a butterfly out of its chrysalis only less awe-inspiring and a bit more revolting.
Well. Hopefully he was wrong. Hopefully spiders would rather not burst out of magical straw dolls and instead would stay inside where it was warm and starve to death.
"Come on, let's go up again. I need to collect water anyways." Eemp walked up the damp stairs a bit more slowly and it seemed to be looking upwards. As Right got the water to float in a ribbon around him once more, he wondered whether he should tell Rong about their hitchhikers.
Then again, he didn't want to deal with obnoxious shrieks of disgust. Maybe not.
With a vacuum of words in the atmosphere, Rong inevitably had to start talking to fill in the gap. "Does it still have bug goop on its foot? That's groooss. I mean, ugh. But you know, that thing looked tasty. I bet it would've tasted really good since it was being cooked. If you put out the fire, I would've eaten it."
"Mm-hm." If only her mouth was full right now. But then she'd probably still talk, spraying bug bits everywhere including possibly on him. So scratch that.
"Although that sword guy's sword's probably much tastier. I used to have that stuff in my hoard and stuff...man, it's probably all stolen now. I mean, all those years of hoarding and then my head gets chopped off! I hate knights."
"Mmm."
The legs of the Manikin got up once more, the pain of death still lingering on its, ah, mind. Just as it did so, it caught sight of the head of Eemp rising slowly up the stairs. Thoughts of vengeance were also lingering on its mind, but so was the instinct for survival. With such a small mass, it couldn't possibly do much besides get killed. It needed to start eating again.
The legs started running off to a hiding place, settling on bursting into a room. The break room, to be exact. It found itself staring at a rather intimidating vending machine that was staring right back.
It wasn't much of a customer. Still, Snacktimeâ„¢ bellowed, "YOU THERE. YOU HAVE ENTERED THE DOMAIN OF THE ALL-SEEING SNACKTIMEâ„¢. FEAST YOUR GAZE UPON MY GLORIOUS WARES AND DESPAIR." It was good to assert your dominance, even if it was over a pair of legs.
Neither Right nor Rong noticed the Manikin's legs diving through the doors. They were more focused on someone else, a man who was incredibly short, around Eemp's height. He was staring at them with unease, obviously not used to seeing two dragon heads sown on a straw doll in a sort of strange parody of Cerberus. For some reason, the man was lugging around a morbid painting.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 02-19-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"Don't," Right quickly said, quicker than he usually did with the uncomfortable knowledge that, for whatever reason, Eemp would not prevent Rong from simply washing this whole building in flames.
"What?" Rong continued to glare suspiciously at the very stubby man, having learned from the previous round that the residents of the places they were sent to were not necessarily harmless. The man seemed to be very intimidated by her glare and backed away a bit into the room he just came from.
"I think this is Joe Peacock."
"Who?"
"The man whose very mind we are inhabiting for the moment." It was clear by Rong's expression that she had not been listening at all to the description of this stage. Still, she quickly brought back that ever familiar impatient scowl.
"So?"
"Soooo..." Right paused, hoping that for once, his companion would come to a conclusion herself. It was too much to hope. "So, this is Joe Peacock, or at least a mental projection of him. What do you think would happen if he were to 'die'?"
"Oh." Rong squinted at the cowering Joe once more. "He's so short. Hard to believe he's so important like that."
"Well, everybody's important in their mind, I'm sure."
"I'll say," Rong smirked, giving Right a sideways glance.
"I think we should stay close to him," Right continued, ignoring Rong's not-so-subtle hint. "It's his mind, after all. Maybe he has some sort of power or something in here."
Rong snorted. "I wouldn't use 'power' to describe him." Even so, she called out to the stubby man. "Hey! You!" He just seemed all the more terrified and ran around the corner down the hallway, dropping the morbid painting with a clunk.
There was a short silence. "That was rude," Rong scowled. Right kept his black kettle thoughts to himself.
"I suppose we'll follow him...there's not much else to do, right?" On cue, Eemp lumbered forward, following the path the stout Joe Peacock made. It was slow, though, and...to Right, it seemed...clumsier? Maybe?
There was no reason for Eemp to suddenly stop keeping Rong in check. The only reason would be that whatever spells the wizard used wore off. But that couldn't be the case, because then they all would become rather lifeless.
Or...if the spells were in the process of wearing out, then maybe you could ration the...the magic? This sounded a little stupid. But if Eemp was trying to ration magic to keep itself animated and its arms alive, then of course, keeping Rong in check would be quite low on the priority list. But such a powerful wizard wouldn't use spells that would wear out quickly. More likely, it would last hundreds of years, or maybe last until the kingdom fell or some crap like that. So the spells couldn't be wearing out and Eemp would have no excuse to ration anything.
It suddenly occurred to Right that the spiders hitching a ride on Eemp had no insects to eat, unless the straw doll was more infested than he thought, which he doubted. But...no, that couldn't be it. That was just stupid. The spiders were probably just eating each other. It couldn't be right.
Eemp staggered past the break room. None of them noticed the Manikin's legs inside, devouring the table as a vending machine with a disturbing eye berated it angrily.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 02-21-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
The great machine, Snacktime, was demanding a response from a pair of legs and recieved none. They were busy sinking their teeth into any viable surface, looking for the densest yet most digestable objects. The majestic vending machine stared intently at the legs' flagrant disregard, as if it's eye would destroy the legs if given enough time. The malevolent stare dissappeared, suddenly, as the mankin's mouth enveloped the front of Snacktime.
Idlely, the manikin felt that everything he had eaten had some sort of will, but disregarded it. The mankin was more than used to strange occurances by now- in fact, it's entire existence so far had been one. Finally feeling it had eaten everything worth eating, the legs plopped to the floor, digesting.
Elsewhere, the rabbit had made up it's feeble mind. It had observed. The humans more than enough, and needed to eat them. It had known that for a while, but only now had the will to overcome it's fears. It needed to grow more than just physically to slay the dragons- it needed it's mind to grow. The bitterness it felt towards the dragon was just enough impetus for it to finally decide to attack. However, even it's pathetic mind knew that it needed to strike carefully. The blue life, with the sword, had already displayed incredible ability. Although the mankin wanted those abilites, it knew it needed to grow incrementally. First, it would target the ones who had shown no ability what so ever- the boy and the pirate. It's attack needed to be swift, it knew. Carefully, it backed away, preparing to take as much advantage of it's speed as possible.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 02-21-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"Dead end," Vasily grumbled. "Th' whole place's a dead end."
"Then, uh, where...where do we go? How do we get outta here?"
As Jordan whimpered, twisting his hands around each other, Vasily stood silently for a few seconds. "We're apparently in some Joe's mind, which honestly don't make much sense t' me. But anyways, even if we tried goin' out th' front door, we wouldn't be escaping. I guess..." And here, the pirate looked towards the staircase, "...th' only way t' go is up."
Both hesitated to enter the stairways with the suspicious smell of smoke and burning beetles still in the air, and it was during this hesitation that the rabbit-Manikin sped up towards them and attacked.
----------
"...and out the windows are buildings arranged in an impossible perspective, which I assume is because of Joe Peacock's feelings of inferiority. The buildings all tower in an intimidating manner, making one feel smaller than they actually are..."
It was hard for Rong to resist the urge to attempt to behead Right (or maybe behead herself). His psychoanalysis had been going on for a while. It was driving her insane. All this blathering about windows and stature and endless hallways and god this was all so stupid.
"...a multi-layered subconscious, which explains the 'basement' warning as going down would just take us deeper into the subconscious into possibly some darker secrets..."
Rong's bloodlust was starting to peak dangerously once more. If only she could go back in time and kill every stupid Chinese philosopher that ever existed.
"...so if that's true, what do you suppose would happen if we went to the roof? It would be the closest level to the conscious part of the mind..."
"Idon'tknowIdon'tknowIDON'TKNOW will you SHUT UP ALREADY! WHO THE HELL CARES ABOUT SOME DWARF, HUH?"
Right grimaced, his antlers vibrating at Rong's sudden shriek. "You didn't have to be so loud...oh, look, I think I see the topic of our discussion right now."
"Your discussion," Rong grumbled.
As Eemp approached Joe Peacock from behind, Right tried to put up a friendly grin that didn't seem threatening in the least. It faltered once he saw what Joe was staring at now.
It looked somewhat like...a whale-lobster-insect. There was no other way he could describe it. "I-I guess this is what he meant by 'monstrosities.'"
"So, smartass, what does this symbolize?"
"I...have no idea."
"Can I kill it?"
It seemed by Rong's eager grin that even if he said no, she would go ahead anyways. "Just watch out for Joe."
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 03-01-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
This was so stupid.
Vasily couldn't help but think so as he swung his sword at the blood-thirsty bunny and missed again. The ugly lagomorph was just too quick for him to actually hit. It danced around tauntingly, looking for an open spot to sink its teeth into before jumping towards him once more.
The man grimaced and shook it off his arm, which now had a deep and rather painful gash. Seriously. What kind of pirate couldn't kill a bunny?
"Jordan!" he called back without taking his eyes off the hostile rabbit, but once he received no reply, he allowed himself to glance back.
The boy was gone. Probably ran up the stairs.
After Vasily said a few choice words about Jordan, he batted away the rabbit in the middle of another one of its attacks. It skidded on the floor a few feet away, its eyes glaring blankly up at the pirate. Vasily glared right back as he slowly moved backwards to the stairs. He needed to get some distance. And maybe get that bite on his arm checked.
-----
It was quite a big monstrosity. But it was no match for Rong's suppressed frustration. Eemp couldn't move fast enough for her, but the scratches were quickly patched up by the parasitic spiders. Rong didn't seem to notice. She just increased her reach a little and continued to fight. And in a short while, the monstrosity was dead. Its blood stained the floor and fire raged along the hall. During the fight, much of the water Right had been carrying around had evaporated. There wasn't enough to be particularly useful in a battle anymore.
Right was a little worried about the damage to the hall. He had no idea if this would reflect on Joe's psyche. He didn't try rebuking Rong this time, however, as he didn't particularly wish to ruin her good mood and, to be fair, if you fight in a narrow hall, you're bound to burn down a few walls.
He turned back to Joe to find that the short man had fled once more. Not surprising.
Well, since he couldn't have gotten around them during their fight... "Let's turn back," he said, trying to pull Eemp along, but Rong resisted.
"What? That John guy? C'mon, what are we, baby-sitters now?"
"Essentially. Considering what happened to that cathedral, I feel a little uneasy leaving him alone."
Rong sighed heavily but eventually conceded. As they turned back around the corner, they found...nobody. Again. "Maybe he went into one of the rooms..."
Suddenly, terrified little Jordan ran right into Eemp and they both toppled over, throwing a little straw into the air.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 03-08-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.
It didn't take long for Rong and Right to get their bearings while the spiders stitched Eemp, and once they did, Rong lurched toward the boy and breathed fire on him. Jordan rose immediately with difficulty, but he did so without getting burned to death.
He stumbled away from the trio, and dived under the space of the cubicles (they were the cheap ones made out of boards). Frantically crawling, Jordan tried to escape from the homicidal dragon(s) while actually weeping with terror, but they were close behind. Rong shifted above the cubicle and blew flames at the poor sod while continually debasing him with lines such as, "Come out and die already, you stupid wimp!" or, "What, did you leave your back-bone at home!?" Although Right was a little hesitant at first, feeling a little sorry for Jordan, he deliberately knocked the walls of the cubicle over, dedicated to killing the others and ultimately surviving.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 03-16-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by Lisawags.
Jordan continued to run away as Rong roared hysterically until he finally grew a tiny amount of courage to fight back or at least talk. Finally, he stopped crawling and pressed his back against the wall. "S-stop! There has to be another way!" Jordan yelled while trying difficultly to sound confident, and a small "Please..." followed.
Rong simply ignored the coward, and Right listened intently. "<font size="4">Maybe... Maybe there's a way out of here!" Jordan continued, clinging onto a glimmer of hope, "We don't have to kill each other! Nobody has to die. I don't have to die."
Although Right was incredulous to the thought that anyone could be saved at all, he still paid attention, supposing that's the least he could do to the poor kid before his demise. Then, Rong stopped to retort in a mocking manner, "Oh, how do you suppose we're going to get out of here?"
Thinking back to the short man he saw earlier, Jordan replied and eventually trailed off, "He, the man... Did you see him? Short guy, black hair..."
"Yes, we have," was Right's answer. He waited patiently for the boy to continue.
"He-he's probably the key to escape. This must be his mind! Maybe he's trapped here, like us."
"We were speculating that this must be a multi-layered subconscious a moment ago," Right thoughtfully said.
"You mean you," Rong muttered while shaking her head angrily.
After ignoring Rong, the sensible dragon continued, "The basement warning must mean that descending would take us into the deeper part of the subconscious, so ascending must mean that we would get closer to consciousness."
"Yes!" Jordan yelled a little too eagerly with his self-confidence going up by a couple of notches, "That means that if the man is trapped and we take him to the top, he, and we, will be free!" Maybe Jordan had a chance to survive after all.
Vasily's footsteps were heard in the distance, and Right contemplated on what to do...</font>
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 03-16-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Despite the sound of approaching footsteps (and some cursing and worrying thumps), Right felt no rush. While he thought, both Jordan and Rong fidgeted. Jordan thought this time could be better spent running. Rong thought it could be spent setting things aflame.
The logic was sound, but something was still bugging Right. Yes, if they got the stout man up to the roof, he would probably be brought to consciousness. But where would they go? As far as he could tell, they were foreign mental entities. They weren't exactly corporal...or...um?
So if they had no bodies to go to, what would happen if they went up to the roof? Although really, there was only one place to go...
...That wasn't much of an escape now, was it? Then again, it kind of was an advantageous position...sort of? Although nobody could really control their subconscious. But well...this was a strange situation, wasn't it? So it wasn't like he could say anything for certain.
Though it just might be interesting to go up there. Without Joe Peacock or Jordan.
Vasily suddenly burst into the scene, still fighting off the agile rabbit. Jordan got ready to dash but Right grabbed him by the collar and tossed him towards Vasily. The two men and rabbit tumbled into a pile. "Fire!" Right barked and Rong complied easily, aiming a blast towards the rather vulnerable group, but they all quickly moved back out of the way. Still, there was now a slight wall of fire between them and that was good enough, right? At least until the fire died out or they found a source of water or something.
Eemp started lumbering back where it had came from earlier, around the corner and over the monstrosity.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 03-16-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
The Rabbit eventually realized that this was getting nowhere. It could jump around as much as it wanted, but how was it going to actually attack the man?
Like a bolt from the blue, the obvious struck the rabbit- it could transform! There were several things it could transform into! The most useful however, offensively, was the beetle! So, it begun it's change.
The rabbit stopped, and then began melting, it seemed. Then, it became cohesive, forming an exoskeleton shape. It wasquite the grotesque process. Vaisly, not being stupid, took this chance to imbed his blade into his agressor.
Bugs are tenacious creatures, and really dont seem to feel pain. In this case, the manikin, then rabbit, now beetle, felt nothing but an impediment in it's transformation process. Instantly, by force of habit, the bug grew a large mouth and bit into the blade.
Vaisly began cursing, now, and engaged the half formed bug in a tug of war. However, no matter how hard he pulled, the mouth locked around the blade direly. Doing the obvious, Vaisly simply let go, and drew his second sword, this time delivering an expert chop to the bug's head.
It is a good thing that bugs don't have much brain in their head, because if there was it would have been halved. However, the fact that it's eyes suddenly went haywire frightened the Bug, and it quickly turned around and buzzed off.
Elsewhere, the Manikin legs was still digesting, but also trying to learn at the same time. An interesting thing it noticed was, with it's life detection, there were much more than the normal amount of lives in the building- however, a good majority of them weren't quite whole. In fact, the Legs sensed the entire building as vaguely alive- it was starting to realize that things were not simple in this stage... However, it did not care! The Manikin on whole was not very goodat caring about things that it didn't want to eat. So, what it did care about was that there seemed to be another whole life, along with the others, but one that it wasn't familar with. It relayed it's newfound knowledge to the Beetle, who shared much experience right back at the Legs, chiefly that it was hurt and confused. Being the logical-er thinker of the two, the Legs wisely called for a regroup.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 03-28-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"What're these buttons for?" The trio were now standing right in front of a handleless door. There were numbers above it. The '3' was currently lit up.
"One button is an arrow pointing up and the other is one pointing down. I assume somehow this takes us up to different floors." And with that technological hurdle jumped, Right nudged the up button with his snout. The doors opened and they walked in to the moving room.
As soon as the elevator doors closed behind the trio, the lights flickered in a vaguely threatening manner and the Muzak that was spewing contently out of the speakers suddenly cut off. A shadowy figured appeared, looming and glaring. It looked slightly like the fellow named Joe Peacock except taller. And they weren't watching his retreating back going around a corner.
The dark figure could loom over Eemp quite easily, but both Right and Rong refused to let it be taller than them. They simply raised themselves to his eye level.
"You..." It looked surprise for a moment but continued anyways. "...You don't belong here..."
"Yeah, we already know that," Rong sighed, rolling her eyes.
"I think as dragon heads surgically attached as arms of a straw doll, we don't really belong anywhere," Right added. "If you're just going to stand there, do you mind pushing the button for the top floor?"
"I'm not doing anything for you, intruders..." the figure hissed. "...Why don't you just leave, hm?"
"We'd do that if you would just let us go to the top floor."
"Front doors, idiots."
"Too late. We've already been warned not to go down."
"This guy is getting on my nerves," Rong growled. It was amazing the smoke rolling out of her mouth wasn't setting off any fire alarms. Then again, it was just a subconscious. "Shadowman here isn't important for this Joe guy's brain, is he?"
"Judging by his appearance, I'd say his death would actually be beneficial to dear Joe. Fire away."
As soon as the flames finally died down in the small elevator and Right coughed out some errant embers and slightly regretted that decision, they saw that the rather evil-ish looking guy was gone. Either he had been turned to ash or disappeared before Rong's fire could burn him alive. Um, if subconscious entities could be considered 'alive.'
With that out of the way, Right simply pressed the button and they were on their way to the fifth floor.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 03-29-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MyifanW.
A useful ability that the Manikin parts have is that they always know where its other parts are. As such, regrouping was easy! Somewhere along the stairwell, the two parts met and joined together. Quickly, the two became one, and became the Manikin again.
Fully formed again, the Manikin tested out it's digets, unfamilar with them after so long without use. Pondering its fingers lead it onto another train of thought- why was it so inclined towards its manikin shape? Honestly, it did not know. After thinking about it for a while, it eventually decided that the reason it felt that way was
that the form was the most familiar, and closest to its perception of true self. Yes, that must be it, the Manikin thought, mentally congradulating itself on beginning to realize the philosophical instances of self perception.
Leaving it's own little mental world, it scanned the area for life again. Easily, the locations of the others appeared. The green one was still where it was, probably still wandering that infinitely large cubicle space... The dragons and the boy were above it somewhere, although it could not tell how far- it's ability did not work perfectly on the vertical plane. However, more pressing than the other lives was the life that it did not recognize, the one heading its way...
First, the Manikin felt fear. It had not previously known to fear the unknown, but upon facing death, the concequence of not knowing to protect itself properly, fear was indeliably engraved into the Manikin's psyche.
Then, it remembered hunger. It was pretty hungry now, and not because it wasn't full- it was actually very full- but because it realized that this was a chance to eat something new. Its hunger fermented inside the Manikin's simple mind, quickly overpowering its fear. Yes... It would eat this unfamiliar life.
But how? It had tried to eat two lives already, both to no avail. It had barely been able to even touch its targets. Yet, it had touched its target, once! The Beetle, the dead one, had managed to sink its teeth into the dragons' body. How... Right, it surprised the dragons. Surprise was the answer, with surprise the Manikin could disable the life before it reacted. Almost gleefully, like a child playing a trick on it's parent, the Manikin leaned against the wall of the stairwell, next to the door, hidden in the darkness. Absentmindedly, it formed the beetle's pincers on its arm, and anxiously waited for the life to pass by.
And then, Joe did pass by. And, the Manikin thrusted its arm out, and the pincers met each other with a "snip" sound. And with that, Joe's head rolled. Surprised at how easy that was, the Manikin paused for a moment before leaning over to take a bite out of the newly dead.
That pause ensured the Manikin never managed to eat Joe. Before the Manikin's razor teeth clamped down on Joe's body, the corpse melted into the floor.
Losing it's meal, the Manikin felt incredible dismay. However, the dismay was mitigated by fear, as it realized the floor was melting as well...
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 03-30-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
The next step Eemp took sank a little into the floor. As it struggled to get its foot free, Right and Rong couldn't help but notice that the hall seemed to be...melting.
As the walls sagged and Eemp sank a little more, Right quickly stretched out in an attempt to grab the melting door to the stairs. Eemp tried to trudge its way through while Right tried to pull it out, but the door was melting in his mouth and soon, he wasn't holding on to anything. Just choking on mental slime.
They sank through the floor and fell into a black void (which seemed to be a recurring theme going on here). Right wasn't quite sure if they ever stopped falling. There didn't seem to be a ground and he felt quite weightless. But then again, he could see the others nearby and they appeared to be on the same...uh...'level'? Which wouldn't have been possible if they all started on a lower level once everything melted, right?
"Oh great," Right muttered. "This must be the 'basement.' Although I can't see why we should continue using an office metaphor when there is no more office."
"Wha-" Vasily stuttered, pinwheeling his arms around to get himself right-side-up...if there was any 'up' here. "Wha' happened?"
"Some idiot killed Joe," Right snapped back. "Now we're stuck in No Minds Land." Rong groaned heavily.
"Don' lookit me," Vasily said defensively.
"I-I didn't..." Jordan stuttered. Alex, floating next to the coward, shook his head as well.
Everybody stared at the Manikin, who seemed to be very alarmed at finding itself with no stable ground to stand on.
"Well--" Alex was cut off by a bright blast of flame that just missed the Manikin. Rong started choking, finally spitting out office slime and some spiders.
"What are you--"
"The only way to get outta here is by killing someone and since that...that stupid thing," Rong snarled, gesturing towards the panicking Manikin. "Since it got us into this mess, it's only fair that it help us get out, hmmm? Or are any of you willing to die?!" And she let out another angry burst of flame.
The spiders, meanwhile, had pedaled themselves towards a greater magical source - Alex's sword. Alex glanced down, feeling his magical reserves randomly dropping for no reason.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - GBCE - 04-01-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by starburst98.
Alex could tell SOMETHING was wrong, but he couldn't tell what it was. his sword seemed to have suddenly increased the draw rate of energy. he switches element to fire to get a better look at it and sees it covered in little spiders, the spots they were touching devoid of the magical fire. he switches to darkness to try and kill them by using dark energy, then switches back to see, still there. this led him to a single recourse, full shut down. he really didn't want to do that, as cutting off magic completely takes a while to reboot from. he sighs and shuts it down. magic flow to the sword stopping and the spiders leaving as the energy dissipates. he hopes none of the others know this happened and he is vulnerable right now. he places his sword back into the scabbard and begins the restart process, judging from the reaction it will take an hour before his abilities restart.
"it may have done something foolish but it doesn't mean it deserves death. let's all calm down and think about this. none of us are sure that the guy who sent us here will keep his word. winning here could just mean we are sent to another battle and forced to fight some more until you die as well.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 04-15-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
"Calm down? Calm down?! We're stuck! Don't you get it?! There's no--"
"Calm down," Right snapped, causing Rong to immediately turn upon him, smoking furiously.
"THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE CALM! Look, you stupid shiny sword guy, I may not know much about what the hell's going on around here, but I did pick up a few things! We're in the dead, decaying mind of some wimp! There is no exit! There is nothing! The only way is for one of us to die so that announcer guy thing can whisk the rest of us off to some other place which I'm pretty sure would be much better than sticking around here for eternity!" Rong panted heavily, smoke twisting up and blending into the darkness.
Right appeared to consider something. "Yeah, that's just about what I was going to say."
"Hate t' say it," Vasily added slowly, as though waiting for an idea to come at the last minute, "But th' dragon's right. Can't see a way outta 'ere unless someone dies..." The pirate tried not to tellingly glance towards Eemp and co., but failed.
"Don't you even think you can beat us," Rong snarled back. "Just let me kill that stupid mannequin."
Alex matched the intensity of her glare. "No."
Rong gave a twisted grin. "What, you're gonna die for some stupid magical marionette?"
"I don't plan on dieing."
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 04-17-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Rather predictably, Rong let off a stream of flames, forcing Eemp to spin a little. Alex, with no surface to jump off with, instead pushed the Manikin so that both went careening to either side and Rong's attack flew harmlessly by.
Right quickly realized that this was not a very good environment to be fighting in. Whenever Rong fired, it meant careening randomly around in space and, more importantly, being wide open for attacks. If he had some water, it wouldn't be a problem. But now he just had to hope that nobody would be able to take that advantage.
It looked like Jordan was trying to retreat once more, though very slowly. Vasily seemed to be hesitant about joining the fight or maybe he was trying to plan out a way to approach such a battle. The Manikin just seemed clueless.
Rong could notice an opening when she saw one. Without anybody nearby, the Manikin couldn't depend on someone pushing it out of the way again. As soon as she could get a good aim, she fired another fireball towards it.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - MalkyTop - 04-24-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Eemp was careening around once more. Vasily, also opportunistic, quickly swam over, sword in hand. Still trying to stay clear of any draconic limbs, he jabbed forward, which also had the unfortunate effect of pushing himself backwards. And to his surprise, his strike was blocked anyways by another sword. It seemed as though Right had transformed into a rather nice-looking broadsword.
The Manikin was still having trouble understanding why there was no solid floor now, but it was quickly learning how to move around, which is very good when a fireball is flying its way towards you. It pedaled furiously away and Rong's fireball once again harmed nothing.
Alex started moving towards the Manikin again. He couldn't really do much, still waiting for his sword to get back up to full power, but he could still at least help the Manikin not get killed. It was nowhere near an hour but still, he rested his hand upon the hilt.
Vasily went in for another strike that Right managed to parry, despite being slow. Rong chose this time to fire again, forcing Right to turn along with the rest of Eemp and almost forcing Vasily's sword out of his grasp. Rong, uncharacteristically having an idea, twisted and fired again at the opposite direction, slowing their turn. The pirate now faced Eemp's tantalizingly open back and stabbed it. As he retracted his sword, more spiders fell out, but still the remaining managed to stitch the wound back up again. Vasily retreated a little from Right's reach. This might take a while...
Jordan stopped trying to escape as his arms were getting tired from waving about now. Instead, he watched the battle warily.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - SleepingOrange - 05-05-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.
It was the world's most unimpressive battle in the view of the world's greatest pirate; the fighters were spending more time spinning lazily through the air with little way of controlling themselves than actually fighting. A particularly strong parry from Right had sent the good captain pinwheeling backwards, too far away to strike back and with no recourse but to flail childishly until he began to approach again.
---
Alex, sword temporarily dead and near-useless, had stopped paying any real attenetion to the fight, reasoning that destroying the magical spiders that threatened to destroy his only real source of power was more important than dealing with a battle that no longer seemed to need him in it. A series of popping noises accompanied his dogged crushing of the little arachnids; the knight tried not to think about the texture of the little things and the way there guts kept getting under his fingernails, and a distraction soon afforded itself in the form of a loud, draconic laugh.
---
It looked like Stuffy Mctalktoomuch had finally done something right. Sending that irritating pirate hurtling backwards left the dragons with no threat in range, and gave the vengeful Rong time to line up a shot. Laughing as she twisted, sending her serpentine neck wrapping around Eemp, she felt better than she had since this nonsense had started. The fireball was bigger than any she'd spewed in recent memory, and hot enough that everyone in the void felt their skin tighten.
---
There wasn't time for a witty line, or a dashing dodge, or even a simpering maiden to kiss as the flames enveloped Vasily. A life of cinematic fights and thrilling intrigue and heated passion ended not with a bang, nor even with a whimper. It simply came to stop in a cloud of ash in the mind of a dead dwarf, himself only a figment of a higher power's whim.
It didn't seem... right.
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 3: Overtime] - SleepingOrange - 05-06-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by SleepingOrange.
The contestants found themselves disappearing again; unbeknownst to them, it would have happened soon even were it not for the untimely death of Vasily: as the real Joe's brain slowly shut down in death, even its subconscious was disappearing. From The Organizer's point of view, that little bit of anticlimax was just what the battle needed, before he had to pull them all out alive in an even bigger anticlimax.
As the survivors rematerialized, they found themselves alone in small, dark rooms; only a sliver of light coming through the crack in heavy double doors revealed anything about their surroundings. Before they could get much observing done, The Organizer's voice boomed out again:
"Contestants, contestants. Even with that last round's relative violence, I feel like it was missing something. The more I looked at it, the more I realize a common enemy makes you all much more exciting than pitting you against one another. And so...
Welcome to the Colossus Colosseum! The premise is simple: no half-truths, no dire warnings, not even a little healthy misdirection. If you want to live, you've got to kill that!"
The doors in front of each contestant swung open, revealing that they led onto a very large, circular stone room. The walls stretched higher than could be seen and probably higher than was possible. At the center of the enormous arena was a rough-hewn humanoid statue, some two-hundred feet tall. As the competitors stared, traces of lilac light began pouring out from runes and sigils carved into the stone, and the statue began to stir.
"I encourage you all to work together, but at the same time to remember what happens when someone else dies. I'll also hint that trying to find another way out of the arena might be fruitful.
Or it might not!"
Re: Pitched Combat [Round 4: Colossus Colosseum] - MalkyTop - 05-07-2010
Originally posted on MSPA by MalkyTop.
Right changed back to his normal form, now feeling heavy and sickeningly weighty. If Rong was also affected by the sudden change in scenery (world? Dimension?) then she didn't show it. She allowed herself a smirk of triumph before shouting loudly "What're we waiting for? We gotta kill that stupid animate firewood!"
Slowly poking his head out through the door, Right noticed almost directly across from him was Jordan. Unsurprisingly, the boy was trying to stay hidden inside his room. He was pressed into the corner, possibly even attempting to meld with the corner. The giant statue grabbed most of his attention though. "What about the ancient-looking mystical statue that could probably step on us without noticing?"
"We kill that mannequin and we won't even have to worry 'bout that stupid thing! It'll burn quick! Let's burn it!" Right stopped himself from looking back at his blue companion. Her tone of voice was really starting to creep him out and he didn't particularly wish to stare down a manic smile.
He stared up. Damn. Not an open area...looked like the light was not really coming from anywhere, really. Though it wasn't the strangest thing in this strange war.
He couldn't see the Manikin or Alex. Their rooms must have been placed out of sight. Right considered the idea that the rooms could be aligned with the cardinal directions, but decided that was irrelevant. "Alright," he sighed, drawing himself back in. There was no other way he could see.
Rong lengthened this time as Eemp strode out, looking around for any sign of the wild flailing or the rabbit or giant bugs that she associated with the stupid wooden doll but as soon as they stepped out, the statue's attention turned on them. It strode towards them with much more speed than they expected and so Eemp ran off to the side.
Rong grumbled, reluctantly conceding some attention towards the stone giant in the form of a fireball. It seemed to cause some minimal damage, to her consternation.
One of the glowing sigils on the giant's shoulder appeared to glow a little brighter and fired an even brighter laser that seemed to cause much more damage on the floor. "What?! This is so stupid!"
"I suppose those signs are more than simply animating this soldier..."