Re: The Phenomenal Fracas! (GBS2G6): [Round One: Afterparty]
09-05-2010, 09:57 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by Not The Author.
Miq wasn't lost.
Being lost generally requires one to have some frame of reference of where they are supposed to be. Miq, however, was always seeking out new places, in a constant state of "exploring." She wasn't lost because the concept of a specific destination or point of origin had never really occurred to her. However, she did sometimes get a feeling of being somehow misplaced, as though wherever she was somewhere she shouldn't be. The whole of Afterparty was beginning to give her these vibes - for such a seemingly endless city, she hadn't seen a single inhabitant anywhere, and it was starting to bother her.
And then, emerging from yet another alleyway, she did find someone. Three someones, in fact, though two of them were rather more of a something. The nearest was a large muscular creature somewhere between a panther and a brontosaurus, with maybe a bit of spider thrown in for good measure. The other two, a typical human lady and a black snake-thing, were vaguely familiar somehow, but Miq didn't have the greatest memory for faces. Or for species.
Or at all, really.
The pair seemed to be having their own little spat in between fighting the lizard... cat... thing. Miq did the sensible thing and sat very, very still.
"I was doing just fine before you showed up!"
The lady with the scarf didn't actually seem to be doing all that much damage to the catasaurus. There was evidence of a few attempts to bind the thing's legs together trailing in tatters from its ankles. The lady herself had some sort of cloth-whip-thing which didn't look as it should be cutting quite as deep as it did. Or at all, really. It wasn’t nearly long enough for the lady to be in a particularly safe position, either.
"Is that why your hand's bleeding?"
The serpent was causing significantly more injury to the beast with what elemental shadow magic. Or something. Miq wasn't sure you could cut stuff with shadows, but then she wasn’t exactly an expert in the field. To her, magic was magic; it could do whatever it wanted if you did it right. She just assumed the snake-lizard (snizard? ...lake?) was a trained magician or something. It didn’t really matter.
"Sh-shut up! I just tripped and fell on some glass, okay? Not all of us have crazy regeneration powers, y'know."
Despite her obvious disadvantage, Scarfy wasn’t doing that badly. Admittedly, slicing up eyeballs was easier than punching through scale and muscle and bone and whatever, but the thing did have a lot of eyeballs… and in the strangest of places, too. It seemed a tad unnecessary to Miq, but then she got by just fine without any eyes at all.
"Hey, I'm trying to help. I won't just leave someone in need."
She wasn’t entirely sure why Snake was so close to the catthing – most magic tended to be ranged, and throwing around giant shadow knives seemed to fall under the category of magic where one wouldn’t have to stand right next to the thing to hit it. On the other hand, he did have those savage claws, and looked more durable than that twitchy chick he was helping. Come to think of it, what hits he was taking healed up fairly quickly…
"Oh, is that your excuse? You're just a nice, caring shadowy snake-thing?"
"Excuse? Excuse for what?"
"You abandoned me for a goddamn trashcan! Some ally you are."
"I didn't abandon you! You ran off without me!"
"Oh, get a room, you two."
Miq would’ve turned, but it wasn’t exactly necessary for her. The newcomer was a tall woman with cropped hair in combat boots and a long coat, cradling a scary-looking machine in her arms. The other, shabbier lady dove into a side-alley as the vaguely-cylindrical mass of tubes and coils and cables swung around to bear on the catamajigger. Something was launched from the device too fast for Miq to hear, though she got a better view of the vicious, jagged spear as it punched though one of the thing’s several thighs. The cat beast snarled, and whipped around to face its new attacker, hampered somewhat by the thick cable running back to the speargun.
Miq wasn’t entirely sure what happened next. The catamaran convulsed violently, while Snake hissed and recoiled to the alley his ally had fled to earlier. The cat creature collapsed, moaning hoarsely. Longcoat sighed, set down her rifle and closed in on the beast. She tutted as it weakly gazed up at her, slipping some triangular slab of metal from her back that would cause every blacksmith Miq knew to cringe.
Upon reflection, the neck is not a particularly sturdy bodypart.
The lady wiped her blade on the hem of her coat, and struggled to extract the spear awhile as Snake and Scarf emerged from their hideaway.
“No, don’t bother helping, I’m… Hrrng!”
The javelin popped out, fading heartbeats forcing along a nice splatter of blood to decorate the killer’s coat. Muttering something about the cost of drycleaning, Longcoat trudged back to the speargun, collecting cable as she went. Snake started to say something, but was irritably hushed by Longcoat as she re-wound the cable into her rifle.
There was a snap as the javelin slotted back into place. Longcoat hoisted the gun over her shoulder and smiled for a moment, before turning to the other two combatants.
"Right. Now then, who the hell're you and what the hell're you doing all the way out here?"
Miq wasn't lost.
Being lost generally requires one to have some frame of reference of where they are supposed to be. Miq, however, was always seeking out new places, in a constant state of "exploring." She wasn't lost because the concept of a specific destination or point of origin had never really occurred to her. However, she did sometimes get a feeling of being somehow misplaced, as though wherever she was somewhere she shouldn't be. The whole of Afterparty was beginning to give her these vibes - for such a seemingly endless city, she hadn't seen a single inhabitant anywhere, and it was starting to bother her.
And then, emerging from yet another alleyway, she did find someone. Three someones, in fact, though two of them were rather more of a something. The nearest was a large muscular creature somewhere between a panther and a brontosaurus, with maybe a bit of spider thrown in for good measure. The other two, a typical human lady and a black snake-thing, were vaguely familiar somehow, but Miq didn't have the greatest memory for faces. Or for species.
Or at all, really.
The pair seemed to be having their own little spat in between fighting the lizard... cat... thing. Miq did the sensible thing and sat very, very still.
"I was doing just fine before you showed up!"
The lady with the scarf didn't actually seem to be doing all that much damage to the catasaurus. There was evidence of a few attempts to bind the thing's legs together trailing in tatters from its ankles. The lady herself had some sort of cloth-whip-thing which didn't look as it should be cutting quite as deep as it did. Or at all, really. It wasn’t nearly long enough for the lady to be in a particularly safe position, either.
"Is that why your hand's bleeding?"
The serpent was causing significantly more injury to the beast with what elemental shadow magic. Or something. Miq wasn't sure you could cut stuff with shadows, but then she wasn’t exactly an expert in the field. To her, magic was magic; it could do whatever it wanted if you did it right. She just assumed the snake-lizard (snizard? ...lake?) was a trained magician or something. It didn’t really matter.
"Sh-shut up! I just tripped and fell on some glass, okay? Not all of us have crazy regeneration powers, y'know."
Despite her obvious disadvantage, Scarfy wasn’t doing that badly. Admittedly, slicing up eyeballs was easier than punching through scale and muscle and bone and whatever, but the thing did have a lot of eyeballs… and in the strangest of places, too. It seemed a tad unnecessary to Miq, but then she got by just fine without any eyes at all.
"Hey, I'm trying to help. I won't just leave someone in need."
She wasn’t entirely sure why Snake was so close to the catthing – most magic tended to be ranged, and throwing around giant shadow knives seemed to fall under the category of magic where one wouldn’t have to stand right next to the thing to hit it. On the other hand, he did have those savage claws, and looked more durable than that twitchy chick he was helping. Come to think of it, what hits he was taking healed up fairly quickly…
"Oh, is that your excuse? You're just a nice, caring shadowy snake-thing?"
"Excuse? Excuse for what?"
"You abandoned me for a goddamn trashcan! Some ally you are."
"I didn't abandon you! You ran off without me!"
"Oh, get a room, you two."
Miq would’ve turned, but it wasn’t exactly necessary for her. The newcomer was a tall woman with cropped hair in combat boots and a long coat, cradling a scary-looking machine in her arms. The other, shabbier lady dove into a side-alley as the vaguely-cylindrical mass of tubes and coils and cables swung around to bear on the catamajigger. Something was launched from the device too fast for Miq to hear, though she got a better view of the vicious, jagged spear as it punched though one of the thing’s several thighs. The cat beast snarled, and whipped around to face its new attacker, hampered somewhat by the thick cable running back to the speargun.
Miq wasn’t entirely sure what happened next. The catamaran convulsed violently, while Snake hissed and recoiled to the alley his ally had fled to earlier. The cat creature collapsed, moaning hoarsely. Longcoat sighed, set down her rifle and closed in on the beast. She tutted as it weakly gazed up at her, slipping some triangular slab of metal from her back that would cause every blacksmith Miq knew to cringe.
Upon reflection, the neck is not a particularly sturdy bodypart.
The lady wiped her blade on the hem of her coat, and struggled to extract the spear awhile as Snake and Scarf emerged from their hideaway.
“No, don’t bother helping, I’m… Hrrng!”
The javelin popped out, fading heartbeats forcing along a nice splatter of blood to decorate the killer’s coat. Muttering something about the cost of drycleaning, Longcoat trudged back to the speargun, collecting cable as she went. Snake started to say something, but was irritably hushed by Longcoat as she re-wound the cable into her rifle.
There was a snap as the javelin slotted back into place. Longcoat hoisted the gun over her shoulder and smiled for a moment, before turning to the other two combatants.
"Right. Now then, who the hell're you and what the hell're you doing all the way out here?"