Re: The Gradual Massacre (GBS2G4) [Round 3: Las Orbitas]
05-16-2011, 09:37 PM
Originally posted on MSPA by MrGuy.
Holly stared off into space for several minutes, trying to process what exactly happened. First, there were Ouroborites. That made sense. Then, Countess had… tried to kill her? Or the Ouroborites? Actually, in all probability, it was both. Then everything started floating, and then she was in space and probably going to suffocate, and then The Controller had—
No, he hadn’t. Every time a round had ended before, he’d shown up. Holly’s increasingly fractured mind, not helped by the fog she was carelessly inhaling, attempted to piece this together. If for each round there’s a speech by that guy, and this time there wasn’t… It could be either an illusion, or an escape, and Holly wasn’t going to take chances. She’d heard there was a way to fight illusions, back in school. She placed the claw on her right hand, and raked it across her left cheek. She placed a drop of the dark red fluid on her left index finger, and pressed it against her tongue. The familiar metallic taste was there.
So, if she was remembering correctly, this was really happening. That was a good thing, probably. She remembered how much she had been enjoying this at the start, how pleasant it was to get sensitive areas to tear at and dolts to confuse and roofs to blow up. She sighed as she looked out at the mist enveloping her surroundings. She’d gotten lazy, thinking it’d be simple, like always. It had never been much of a challenge, which was good, because the more she thought about it the more she realized she wasn’t even…
She frowned. Of course she was a good wizard. She’d graduated with top marks, or something, she was sure of it. More importantly, this fog was starting to irritate her. She couldn’t see her own arm in front of her. She waved her hand at it ineffectually, in an attempt to dissipate it. She could see a silhouette, though. Slightly hunched over, eating something. She bit her lip. Was hunched over bad? She didn’t think it was good. What kind of food is there in a swamp, anyway? Mushrooms? Crocodiles? Certainly nothing good, I’m sure. Screw that guy and his swamp food. She turned around and attempted to walk away. This resulted in her falling face-first into the muck, after which she realized she had been in a tree. She leaned against it, wiping her face off only to get a brownish-green glob affixed to her hand, and sighed, before properly trudging away from the man. Within five minutes, she managed to end up in the same place despite having gone in a straight line.
She blinked. She wasn’t sure, but she was almost positive this wasn’t how swamps were supposed to work. Unless it was, like… a magic swamp. She’d never been in a swamp, magical or otherwise, for reasons she was becoming increasingly aware of. It was difficult enough to move from all the sludge and water piling up in her shoes; the fact that moving didn’t even change where she was only made it more irritating. She sighed and headed over to Eating Man, bending down next to him.
“Hey. You. What are you eating?”
Eating Man turned to face her, his face covered in equal parts scars and filth, and scowled. “Don’t want what you’re selling. Get out.”
“Well, I’d like to, but I managed to walk back here.”
“You think you’re clever. Coming into my house with your vacuum cleaners, telling me you’ve got the deal of a lifetime, and then they sprout limbs and start slashing at me, and you laugh. I don’t want it, you hear me?”
Holly blinked. If he hadn’t lost her at “vacuum cleaner”, he would have lost her with the sprouting limbs bit. He let out an odd noise. She rolled her eyes. “Okay, mister. You want me to prove it?” She proceeded to walk away from him, only to end up right back next to him from the other side. “See? Can’t do it.”
The man responded by flailing at her with a crude shiv. “Out! Don’t want it!” He managed to slash the elf a couple of times on the arm, earning a faceful of flame for his troubles. Holly winced slightly as a tendril of fog snaked into her palm, the ring she wore futilely attempting to ward it off. Crazy man. Other crazy people? Need to get out while I still can. She halfheartedly kicked his corpse as the smell of burnt flesh mingled with the swamp gas in the air.
As it happens, with Otto Platz III dead, space stopped warping in on itself quite so much, and it was much easier to actually go somewhere. Holly was finding it hard to tell where she was going, but she was almost positive it was somewhere else. She narrowed her eyes, seeing a place where the fog was less thick, and began running. She reached the edge, and saw a hastily-constructed array of shacks, before tripping on the boardwalk and slamming her face to the ground. As she picked herself up and sucked in relatively fresh air, she quivered, her muscles barely supporting her.
She’d start new here. She’d help people, she could do that. They just couldn’t find out what she’d done. If they found out, bad things would happen to her. Then again, that seemed to be the order of the day for everyone involved. She wondered what had happened to Aic… no, what had happened to Acacia, dammit, and who cares about her anyway. She wondered what had happened to Algernon. She laughed a little at the idea of the poor sap flailing around with that worm on his head, then bit her tongue. That was not a good start.
After staggering to her feet, she shrugged, wiped herself off a little, and decided to see what she could do about getting herself some money.
Holly stared off into space for several minutes, trying to process what exactly happened. First, there were Ouroborites. That made sense. Then, Countess had… tried to kill her? Or the Ouroborites? Actually, in all probability, it was both. Then everything started floating, and then she was in space and probably going to suffocate, and then The Controller had—
No, he hadn’t. Every time a round had ended before, he’d shown up. Holly’s increasingly fractured mind, not helped by the fog she was carelessly inhaling, attempted to piece this together. If for each round there’s a speech by that guy, and this time there wasn’t… It could be either an illusion, or an escape, and Holly wasn’t going to take chances. She’d heard there was a way to fight illusions, back in school. She placed the claw on her right hand, and raked it across her left cheek. She placed a drop of the dark red fluid on her left index finger, and pressed it against her tongue. The familiar metallic taste was there.
So, if she was remembering correctly, this was really happening. That was a good thing, probably. She remembered how much she had been enjoying this at the start, how pleasant it was to get sensitive areas to tear at and dolts to confuse and roofs to blow up. She sighed as she looked out at the mist enveloping her surroundings. She’d gotten lazy, thinking it’d be simple, like always. It had never been much of a challenge, which was good, because the more she thought about it the more she realized she wasn’t even…
She frowned. Of course she was a good wizard. She’d graduated with top marks, or something, she was sure of it. More importantly, this fog was starting to irritate her. She couldn’t see her own arm in front of her. She waved her hand at it ineffectually, in an attempt to dissipate it. She could see a silhouette, though. Slightly hunched over, eating something. She bit her lip. Was hunched over bad? She didn’t think it was good. What kind of food is there in a swamp, anyway? Mushrooms? Crocodiles? Certainly nothing good, I’m sure. Screw that guy and his swamp food. She turned around and attempted to walk away. This resulted in her falling face-first into the muck, after which she realized she had been in a tree. She leaned against it, wiping her face off only to get a brownish-green glob affixed to her hand, and sighed, before properly trudging away from the man. Within five minutes, she managed to end up in the same place despite having gone in a straight line.
She blinked. She wasn’t sure, but she was almost positive this wasn’t how swamps were supposed to work. Unless it was, like… a magic swamp. She’d never been in a swamp, magical or otherwise, for reasons she was becoming increasingly aware of. It was difficult enough to move from all the sludge and water piling up in her shoes; the fact that moving didn’t even change where she was only made it more irritating. She sighed and headed over to Eating Man, bending down next to him.
“Hey. You. What are you eating?”
Eating Man turned to face her, his face covered in equal parts scars and filth, and scowled. “Don’t want what you’re selling. Get out.”
“Well, I’d like to, but I managed to walk back here.”
“You think you’re clever. Coming into my house with your vacuum cleaners, telling me you’ve got the deal of a lifetime, and then they sprout limbs and start slashing at me, and you laugh. I don’t want it, you hear me?”
Holly blinked. If he hadn’t lost her at “vacuum cleaner”, he would have lost her with the sprouting limbs bit. He let out an odd noise. She rolled her eyes. “Okay, mister. You want me to prove it?” She proceeded to walk away from him, only to end up right back next to him from the other side. “See? Can’t do it.”
The man responded by flailing at her with a crude shiv. “Out! Don’t want it!” He managed to slash the elf a couple of times on the arm, earning a faceful of flame for his troubles. Holly winced slightly as a tendril of fog snaked into her palm, the ring she wore futilely attempting to ward it off. Crazy man. Other crazy people? Need to get out while I still can. She halfheartedly kicked his corpse as the smell of burnt flesh mingled with the swamp gas in the air.
As it happens, with Otto Platz III dead, space stopped warping in on itself quite so much, and it was much easier to actually go somewhere. Holly was finding it hard to tell where she was going, but she was almost positive it was somewhere else. She narrowed her eyes, seeing a place where the fog was less thick, and began running. She reached the edge, and saw a hastily-constructed array of shacks, before tripping on the boardwalk and slamming her face to the ground. As she picked herself up and sucked in relatively fresh air, she quivered, her muscles barely supporting her.
She’d start new here. She’d help people, she could do that. They just couldn’t find out what she’d done. If they found out, bad things would happen to her. Then again, that seemed to be the order of the day for everyone involved. She wondered what had happened to Aic… no, what had happened to Acacia, dammit, and who cares about her anyway. She wondered what had happened to Algernon. She laughed a little at the idea of the poor sap flailing around with that worm on his head, then bit her tongue. That was not a good start.
After staggering to her feet, she shrugged, wiped herself off a little, and decided to see what she could do about getting herself some money.