Re: The Glorious Championship! [S3G5] [Round One: The "Denny's"]
04-24-2011, 06:51 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by engineclock.
Cailean sighed.
He’d never had a particularly clear idea of what a fair and logical world constituted, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t it. Not that he had any regrets about being torn away from the middle of a battle, not when he had just started to feel the pangs of a shattered collarbone and an opened jugular from some poor bastard a few meters off. He was perfectly content to miss out on that part of his ordinary life. Even if, by the sounds of it, he’d been pulled away from one fight just to be shoved into a slightly different one. At least this one hadn’t started to collect casualties yet.
Checking for his dagger, and shortly after for his flask, he wondered briefly if this was some sort of punishment on Maowyn’s part for whatever unspecified crime he’d surely committed against her. Had he not gotten to that last victim quickly enough? Had he neglected to explain more clearly that Maowyn’s mercy was upon him before he plunged the dagger down? Maybe she’d just figured he’d gotten complacent, taking all those lives for her, battle after battle. Maybe she didn’t need a reason and this was just her idea of a morbid joke.
But no, this wasn’t like her. Maowyn was a moderately powerful Tach, but Cailean had a feeling that this sort of thing was far beyond the range of her powers, which was terrifying in on itself. The… spirit that had introduced them to this Glorious malarkey must have been something far stronger. Distantly Cailean felt his entire worldview shatter, but decided to ignore it. It was never of much use to him anyways.
He didn’t recognize their surroundings, and judging by the dazed looks on the faces of the few people he could see, neither did the others. The building before him was simultaneously unlike anything he’d seen before and hideous, and flanked by awkward-looking men who were currently engaged with confronting an oversized insect holding a small metal machine. That Cailean had zero understanding of this was not as much of an obstacle as might be expected. The sort of work he did didn’t necessitate much thought and he was perfectly fine with having a rudimentary understanding of what was going on and why. This was just another war, after all. All he had to do was survive as usual.
Of course that meant getting past his enemies, though… Cailean glanced at the few he could see. The insect with the metal thing, now joined by an even larger collection of metal, floating in an unnatural way that was probably better left unexamined; a dully gray orb next to a man who seemed to be glowing and have an arm constructed out of metal. He dimly remembered hearing their names, but what was the point of that? You didn’t get familiar with people you were fighting against, you killed them before they got a chance to do the same to you and then maybe had a look at what the bodies had on them before leaving before their mates came back to get revenge. Not many of the others seemed to believe that, though. Hm.
One of the nearest people to him (he was starting to question what definition of “people” he was supposed to use here) looked a little less threatening than the others, if only because she was the closest to fully human that he could guess. Her name had been… Eli something? There’d been a bit about a weapon and some kind of power, but she didn’t look like the type to gut him at first go. Barring the odd clothes and some unusual strands of hair, the girl was relatively normal-looking. A black cat Cailean instinctively didn’t like was circling her ankles, and as it turned its head to look at him he saw it didn’t have any eyes, or other features for that matter. Pushing back a shudder and telling himself that he should be used to stranger things than this, Cailean called to the girl, “Hello, lass! I don’t suppose you’ve got three halves of an idea what this is about?”
The shocked stare she gave him surprised him for the single moment it took him to remember how new folk tended to react to his face. Turning it to the side to block the worst of the bloodstains, Cailean laughed halfheartedly. “Nevermind that, it’s just, ah, paint. I like to think it takes away from the freckles, you agree? Now, what’s a lovely lass like yourself doing here?”
Cailean sighed.
He’d never had a particularly clear idea of what a fair and logical world constituted, but he was pretty sure this wasn’t it. Not that he had any regrets about being torn away from the middle of a battle, not when he had just started to feel the pangs of a shattered collarbone and an opened jugular from some poor bastard a few meters off. He was perfectly content to miss out on that part of his ordinary life. Even if, by the sounds of it, he’d been pulled away from one fight just to be shoved into a slightly different one. At least this one hadn’t started to collect casualties yet.
Checking for his dagger, and shortly after for his flask, he wondered briefly if this was some sort of punishment on Maowyn’s part for whatever unspecified crime he’d surely committed against her. Had he not gotten to that last victim quickly enough? Had he neglected to explain more clearly that Maowyn’s mercy was upon him before he plunged the dagger down? Maybe she’d just figured he’d gotten complacent, taking all those lives for her, battle after battle. Maybe she didn’t need a reason and this was just her idea of a morbid joke.
But no, this wasn’t like her. Maowyn was a moderately powerful Tach, but Cailean had a feeling that this sort of thing was far beyond the range of her powers, which was terrifying in on itself. The… spirit that had introduced them to this Glorious malarkey must have been something far stronger. Distantly Cailean felt his entire worldview shatter, but decided to ignore it. It was never of much use to him anyways.
He didn’t recognize their surroundings, and judging by the dazed looks on the faces of the few people he could see, neither did the others. The building before him was simultaneously unlike anything he’d seen before and hideous, and flanked by awkward-looking men who were currently engaged with confronting an oversized insect holding a small metal machine. That Cailean had zero understanding of this was not as much of an obstacle as might be expected. The sort of work he did didn’t necessitate much thought and he was perfectly fine with having a rudimentary understanding of what was going on and why. This was just another war, after all. All he had to do was survive as usual.
Of course that meant getting past his enemies, though… Cailean glanced at the few he could see. The insect with the metal thing, now joined by an even larger collection of metal, floating in an unnatural way that was probably better left unexamined; a dully gray orb next to a man who seemed to be glowing and have an arm constructed out of metal. He dimly remembered hearing their names, but what was the point of that? You didn’t get familiar with people you were fighting against, you killed them before they got a chance to do the same to you and then maybe had a look at what the bodies had on them before leaving before their mates came back to get revenge. Not many of the others seemed to believe that, though. Hm.
One of the nearest people to him (he was starting to question what definition of “people” he was supposed to use here) looked a little less threatening than the others, if only because she was the closest to fully human that he could guess. Her name had been… Eli something? There’d been a bit about a weapon and some kind of power, but she didn’t look like the type to gut him at first go. Barring the odd clothes and some unusual strands of hair, the girl was relatively normal-looking. A black cat Cailean instinctively didn’t like was circling her ankles, and as it turned its head to look at him he saw it didn’t have any eyes, or other features for that matter. Pushing back a shudder and telling himself that he should be used to stranger things than this, Cailean called to the girl, “Hello, lass! I don’t suppose you’ve got three halves of an idea what this is about?”
The shocked stare she gave him surprised him for the single moment it took him to remember how new folk tended to react to his face. Turning it to the side to block the worst of the bloodstains, Cailean laughed halfheartedly. “Nevermind that, it’s just, ah, paint. I like to think it takes away from the freckles, you agree? Now, what’s a lovely lass like yourself doing here?”