RE: Cloudsea
06-14-2017, 09:34 AM
Watching the 'ships' pass overhead... Is that a whale? You're not sure how you would describe it anymore. It's getting late, but the moon is still high and bright in the sky, and the flames of the burning city help to illuminate that... thing. Even from down here, you can see the way it moves. Flesh and Bone. Wires and Gears. Gasoline and Electricity and Sinew and Sails and Nerves and it is STARING down at you with what feel like a HUNDRED TINY LITTLE EYES and you're starting to remember why you hate going outside.
The sky whale, the skyship, the sky beast- beastship! That's- not a very clever name, to be fair. The beastship seems largely ignorant of the smaller airships flying around it, pelting it with weaponry. It seems to be largely ignorant of everything, really. The destruction is being carried out by much smaller fish-shaped bio-mechanical monstrosities floating overhead, flying in and out of the beastship's constantly open maw...
You aim up at it. The chances of you hitting it from here are not impossibly small, and you have been trained well in the handling and aiming of both siege weapons and firearms, coming together in a single handy unit of the Portable Artillery Rifle- An odd military weapon that resembles a blunderbuss with a barrel that collapses down in on itself when not in use. The sight lines up right on one of those invisible eyes you can feel staring at you. Standard ammunition for the PAR is a long range contact explosive. If you aim up a little- You really have no sense of scale. This is ridiculous. The gun feels a little heavy. The kick on this thing is horrendous. You're supposed to brace it, or use the screw-on stick...
You're starting to feel sick. Be honest with yourself. This is a dream, isn't it? You have read at least a few books on the science and mysticism of sleeping and that means you have at least a basic understanding of all this. Maybe. Never have you read anything about things like this! The fish-like creatures zipping through the air, spewing fire and lightning, the massive... flagship? Mother? Father? Gender-less progenitor? Gaze descending, you spy something else, emerging from the burning bakery. More flesh and artifice, metallic muscle and meaty gears, a large beast resembling some form of werewolf, but much larger than the standard werewolf and- of course- much more horrific.
Maybe you're just having a hallucinatory episode? This kind of thing only happens in books- of course! It's obviously a dream! It steps towards you. You instinctively step back. The gun is still loaded. You can't possibly miss. You were reading one of the Amethyst Wolf series! Her stories are full of the occult, terrible, imaginary creatures that couldn't possibly be real! But what if it is real?
Stop that! Nope! Nope! This is a dream! Gonna prove it. You're going to wake up right now! Right NOW! Gonna wake up and THEN gonna get something to eat and forget this whole thing over a nice cookie and some tea and maybe you should shoot it. It's seen you. It's big. But it looks slow. You could run. You could run and get help. But you have to pick one. Wake up, Run, or Fire?
The sky whale, the skyship, the sky beast- beastship! That's- not a very clever name, to be fair. The beastship seems largely ignorant of the smaller airships flying around it, pelting it with weaponry. It seems to be largely ignorant of everything, really. The destruction is being carried out by much smaller fish-shaped bio-mechanical monstrosities floating overhead, flying in and out of the beastship's constantly open maw...
You aim up at it. The chances of you hitting it from here are not impossibly small, and you have been trained well in the handling and aiming of both siege weapons and firearms, coming together in a single handy unit of the Portable Artillery Rifle- An odd military weapon that resembles a blunderbuss with a barrel that collapses down in on itself when not in use. The sight lines up right on one of those invisible eyes you can feel staring at you. Standard ammunition for the PAR is a long range contact explosive. If you aim up a little- You really have no sense of scale. This is ridiculous. The gun feels a little heavy. The kick on this thing is horrendous. You're supposed to brace it, or use the screw-on stick...
You're starting to feel sick. Be honest with yourself. This is a dream, isn't it? You have read at least a few books on the science and mysticism of sleeping and that means you have at least a basic understanding of all this. Maybe. Never have you read anything about things like this! The fish-like creatures zipping through the air, spewing fire and lightning, the massive... flagship? Mother? Father? Gender-less progenitor? Gaze descending, you spy something else, emerging from the burning bakery. More flesh and artifice, metallic muscle and meaty gears, a large beast resembling some form of werewolf, but much larger than the standard werewolf and- of course- much more horrific.
Maybe you're just having a hallucinatory episode? This kind of thing only happens in books- of course! It's obviously a dream! It steps towards you. You instinctively step back. The gun is still loaded. You can't possibly miss. You were reading one of the Amethyst Wolf series! Her stories are full of the occult, terrible, imaginary creatures that couldn't possibly be real! But what if it is real?
Stop that! Nope! Nope! This is a dream! Gonna prove it. You're going to wake up right now! Right NOW! Gonna wake up and THEN gonna get something to eat and forget this whole thing over a nice cookie and some tea and maybe you should shoot it. It's seen you. It's big. But it looks slow. You could run. You could run and get help. But you have to pick one. Wake up, Run, or Fire?