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Apocalypse How Mods ([personal profile] apocalypsehowmods) wrote in [community profile] apocalypsehowcomm2021-07-21 02:54 pm

Event - For Sport


For Sport

➥ Breaking It In


(cw: mentions of apparent mutilation of/violence against animals and animal death)

The conference room on the upper floors of ADI HQ is bright, airy, perhaps unnaturally so for the grim tidings that bring people here today. Those who have recently arrived will be ushered to the meeting by ADI employees or by Bonnie. It's not just the newest arrivals, but some other people who seem to be longer-term employees. The room is rather large and arranged like a lecture hall. Bonnie takes up a seat near the back, looking somewhat uncomfortable, but smiling at anyone who greets her.

At 9 AM sharp, a person steps into the room and heads to the front. They have curly hair and are wearing a gray business suit with a dark blue bow-tie. When they address the group at large, they speak in a calm, measured tone. "Good morning. I appreciate some of you may be here more reluctantly than others, but… there are matters of import to all of us to discuss. Some of you may have seen me already. I am Reyes Amador, assistant to Ms. Lehrer, the head of ADI. Earlier this week I sent out a message regarding some unusual activity at Coffin Beach. Thank you to those who investigated."

Their eyes seem to find the people who did, in fact, go looking, whether they found something or not.

"We have determined the creatures are shape-shifters. Some sort of, em... horse thing. In lieu of a term they might give themselves, we are referring to them as kelpies. Given the locations these were found, as well as other information into disappearances and deaths and mutilations of sea mammals in the area, we believe the kelpies are coming from the Essex Bay area to the north.

"For those willing to assist, we are mounting a reconnaissance mission. This is not intended to engage kelpies, just to find out where they are and how we might best approach an attack. All supplies, transportation, and monetary compensation will be provided. We will meet at ADI HQ in main lobby at 6 PM three days from now. Essex Bay is a remote site and conservation area, accessible only by boat, and not without a scientific permit. As you may guess, we will be traveling under cover of nightfall." Reyes smiles.

"I will be accepting questions about further details. I understand this is the first mission away for many of you, and you may have concerns. I will do my best to allay them. Bonnie also has some experience in these missions, if you would like first-hand accounts. Please also feel free to discuss amongst yourselves if this is a mission you think you are ready for. You will not be required to attend, nor penalized in any way if you do not. There is additional work to be done here, both with continuing examinations of the bodies we have and other efforts unrelated."


➥ Move the Goalposts


(cw: kidnapping, violence, sadism)

It happens away from the safety of ADI HQ one evening or so early in the morning, it's still dark, away from the potential for help, maybe. One moment, you (and possibly someone you're with) are walking, and the next, you will find someone has grabbed you and slammed you into the nearest surface. For those unable to fight back, a cloth will be held to their noses and mouths--chloroform, something to knock them out. For those able to fight or even to escape thanks to not actually being corporeal, they'll find that it is a trio of people who have attacked them. They wear jagged smiles and they're all much too sharp around the edges beneath their clothes. Those who saw the kelpies at Coffin Beach may recognize these people as something like them.

"Run, rabbit, run," one of the group says, voice rolling out like a gurgling tide.

Those who run will be chased and, if caught, chloroformed. Perhaps you're lucky, though. Perhaps you can race them back to safety. Or perhaps you'll find help along the way to protect you. Either way, the kelpies are relentless in their pursuit unless one of their number is injured or their prey can make it to ADI. The kelpies seem reluctant to actually enter ADI HQ or their housing, and will break off pursuit there, slinking back to the shadows.


➥ Curveball


(cw: kidnapping, violence/violence and mutilation against apparent animals, sadism, body horror, transformation, potential for claustrophobia)

For those unlucky enough to be caught, they'll find themselves waking amongst mud and bodies. Living, breathing bodies, thankfully. You have been tied up, but not gagged, and left with a group of other captives. A nearby fire casts light over everything, showing a large group of naked people with long, scraggly hair hauling a seal up out of the water. The animal fights them with a cunning that might seem odd, but the kelpies just laugh at it. They get it up near the fire, one raises a knife, and stabs into the seal, dragging the blade down its belly.

The seal bellows and then goes limp, seeming to collapse in on itself. It isn't long before a woman is drawn from the skin, shaking, fighting, wild-eyed with terror as her captors shove her around the fire in their own game. A few others turn their attention to the captives who are just beginning to wake and move about. They approach, one grabbing the skin the woman had come out of, others grabbing more skins from a nearby pile.

"Hush, hush... you'll have your freedom soon... while you can swim." The words come just before the kelpie slices your bonds and throws the skin over you.

The skin grapples your body, twisting tight around you, encasing and restraining. Your body is different now, thick and round, ungainly in the mud. Your legs have fused together and your arms have shrunk to thin flippers. This is not your body, you can feel how foreign it is, how you're crammed into the too-small confines of it... but you have instincts to go with it. Water is freedom! Or it's an attempt at freedom. It's either swim for your lives as some mockery of a selkie or stay and see how it feels to be cut open. Luckily for you, you'll find yourself psychically linked to the other selkies around you. Maybe you can do something together? Best think fast because the kelpies are setting their sights on new prey to chase once they've finished with their latest victim.


➥ Below the Belt


(cw: violence/violence and mutilation against apparent animals, body horror, gore)

The journey to Essex Bay isn't a long one, but it's somewhat treacherous as a small group of powerboats make their way into the refuge. The mission is simple: find where the kelpies are and see if there are any strategic points of-

Was that a seal? There are, in fact, many seals that pop up once boats enter the bay. The animals might seem to have an unusual cunning about them. Will they lead you somewhere useful? Perhaps try to flop themselves into your boats? The point is, there are seals accosting you in the middle of the night, and that's weird. Perhaps they have something they want to communicate.

Or was that a horse? A crocodile? There's something that seems to have noticed you, and it's smart enough that it's going to try to tip you and anyone else in your boat into the water rather than trying to engage otherwise. Sit down, you'll rock the boat.


➥ Sticky Wicket


(cw: potential for severe burns/injury, pain)

ADI is engaged in far more than one mission at a time, and for those not dealing with Essex Bay, or even before that, there are pick-ups to handle. Artifacts, you've been told as you're paired with someone else, whether you like it or not. The mission is simple: go to the Docks, collect a package from a locker there, and return with it to ADI. You've been provided an exact location and a code for the combination lock. The section of the Docks you've entered seems to be one with a lot of empty warehouses covered in graffiti, but the locker is there, something heavily reinforced and designed to be virtually impossible to get into. There's evidence that people have tried to gain entry without success.

Your code works, though, and you have your prize! You've been given strict instructions not to open the box the artifact is in… but there's nothing technically stopping you now, and there is a strange pull toward it.

Those who can't help themselves will find they have just picked up… some piece of sports gear! It looks wholly innocuous. Touch even a finger to it, though, and a horrific, searing pain will consume your entire body as 3rd-degree burns bloom across the skin where you've touched your artifact.

Or maybe you have a will of iron and sense enough not to touch strange, supernatural objects. What should be an easy mission is quickly derailed by some young punk darting out of an alleyway to try to steal your package. Or, at the very least, knock it from your hands. The youth is not alone, either. You've found yourself on someone's 'turf,' and they want what you've got. Are you cruel enough to let them have it?



➥ Mod Notes
  • BREAKING IT IN (21 July): Both Reyes and Bonnie will be available to answer questions that characters might have or listen to their complaints. Please put "NPC Requested" somewhere in your top-level response if you would like a mod response. For characters who can access their supernatural abilities and have some measure of supernatural spidey sense, both Bonnie and Reyes will register as off, but in different ways. Characters are welcome to attempt to use whatever powers they believe will work on the NPCs. There are potential IC consequences for this.

  • MOVE THE GOALPOSTS (23-24 July): Characters are welcome to capture or kill the kelpies. The only information they will be capable of providing to those who capture them and attempt to compel them for information is that they consider the entirety of the Massachusetts coast as their 'hunting grounds.' Whether that's true or not, it's what they believe.

  • CURVEBALL (23-24 July): Kidnapped characters will become seals! Sort of. Psychic seals who are extremely ill-fitted to the skins they're in. The only way to escape their current state is to be cut open and pulled out. As soon as they start to flee, the kelpies will chase them. Those who are captured will be cut out, toyed with, and shoved back into a skin again and again to continue the chase until they simply can't go on anymore.

  • BELOW THE BELT (24 July - night): Characters may encounter their selkie-fied comrades! Unfortunately, while the selkies can communicate with each other psychically, they are incapable of human speech. They are also being actively hunted by the kelpies. Characters may kill any kelpies they come across. Capture will not be possible in this case while they're in their horse forms. If PCs do not eradicate the kelpie threat that night, NPCs who have joined the mission will do so. Unfortunately, reconnaissance has become engagement, whether they like it or not.

  • STICKY WICKET (21 July - 5 August): You may select any piece of sporting gear you'd like for your character to pick up as long as it can fit in a reasonably-sized box. The pain associated with the burning will last only as long as a character is touching the object. Holding onto it for more than a minute will likely result in coming very close to death. Characters with inorganic appendages will find that the artifact will start to melt that appendage, whatever it is made of and it will still, somehow, hurt while it does it.
doingmath: (unsure)

Cassandra Cillian | The Librarians | ota

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-23 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ooc: default to brackets but will gladly switch to prose if you answer to any to those in that format!]

i. Breaking it in

Hello! I'm Cassandra. I'm-- not from your world, I assume. Though, who knows! It's really hard to tell, isn't it? I wonder if there is a way that set us apart, a wavelength or dimensional signature countercurrent to this place, overlaying within this nexus event...

[She seems rather okay with all this. And excited. Chipper, even. Anyways! She starts counting off her fingers, clearly trying to follow some made-up 101 of small talk and How To Introduce Yourself to People.]

So, I am from Earth, the current year is 2017 and... oh! Magic is real where I'm from, too. ... So are apocalypses, unfortunately. Yeesh. What's up with that, huh?

[There's a bit of a forced laugh, what can you do right, then a pause and she looks at her fellow arrival expectantly. So what about you?]


ii. Curveball

a. cave

[When she comes to, her eyes move first, slowly growing wide and frightened, taking in details all around her. Hands, bound. Others, trapped. Then the seal, dragged forward, almost like a sacrifice and her mind is racing, trying to make sense of it, trying to remember all the sea gods and mythological creatures they had encountered before, either in the field or in literature.

When they cut she wants to cry out but then the woman is freed and that makes it so much worse. What? Why? How?

Her eyes are wide and frightened and she scoots over to the others stirring nearby.]


Hello? Can – can you move? We need to get out of here...


b. waters

[She's tired.

She's tired and hurt and scared and this is unlike anything she's experienced before. It's hardly her first rodeo. She's battled monsters and gods and faced all kinds of horrors, had her mind twisted and her body changed in horrific ways. But this? There's something primal about the kind of terror engulfing her now as she swims, disoriented, sick with fear, trapped and struggling. That one mission with the House comes to mind, and its inhabitant chasing her. What she's feeling now comes close, the utter horror of its enclosed space and running from the predator.

Focus, she tells herself, picturing herself taking a deep breath. You're a Librarian. You can do this. Four flippers. Hind flippers from side to side to propel forward, foreflippers for steering. D = kvn, where D is the drag force on the body and k includes the coefficient of drag and an area variable and v is the swimming velocity raised to an exponent of n...

That gives her the theory but what actually helps? Is when she sees a fellow trapped soul in the waters up ahead. It gives her a burst of energy, purpose, the wish to help and protect that breaks through the frantic flight response.]


Wait! Don't go over there! There's a pattern.

[She can almost see it even if she can't draw up her visual aids. Chasing them out, drawing them in, slicing, freeing, trapping, it's all part of a game, and games had structures and rules and invisible lines, keeping it all together, the skin, the knife, the cutting, the chase, the hunt--]

We need to break the pattern. Maybe we can confuse them if we disturb their hunting behavior.

[Maybe. And of course they had to figure out how to do that...]


iii. Below the Belt

[There are boats! There are boats and they bring familiar faces and Cassie swims alongside them, keeps close to them even if it means drawing the kelpies in as well. But she trusts her – companions? teammates? whatever they were, or whatever they were going to be fighting together in this world – to bring equipment and weapons and be a lot more capable of besting these things than she was in her forced wet suit.

A wet suit she can use.

If she sees someone go overboard she's there in an instant, grabbing them and pulling them away from some greedy kelpie fangs, trying to get them back up on board or at least out of immediate harm's way.]



iv. the aftermath/cafeteria

[It's late and sleep is absolutely out of the question so Cassandra is drawn to the cafeteria for some tea. And snacks. Not that she's hungry. But it's nice to have something to occupy her mind with and if nibbling on breadsticks has to do the trick, well. She's nervous, twitchy, her hands coming up to rub up and down her arms and legs. She has to stop from time to time to tap into her body, reaffirm that it's hers. And that it's on land. And that it's safe.

When she sees someone else in the quiet hall she hesitates, then comes over.]


Hey.

[Her tone is kind, gentle.]

You were down there, weren't you? In the caves. The water?

[She lingers, not quite sitting down but not just passing by either.]

How are you holding up?


v. Sticky Wicket

[After the underwater debacle Cassie is glad to take on a mission that has her utilize her actual two feet and takes place on dry land. She'll just happily gloss over the docks being a part of this, will super ignore any kind of water and focus on the retrieved box instead.

It's simple enough: Carry it. Bring it back to ADI. Whatever was in there.

She walks, pursing her lips, works her jaw. Walks. Inspects the package. Walks.

Stops.]


Okay, now, what if we just-- What do you say we take a look?

[The box moves in her hands. Turn, turn, twist, shake, listen.]

Just to make sure the goods are... undamaged. We wouldn't want anything leaking wild magic right in the middle of headquarters, right? It would not be prudent! Yes. An absolute lack of... prudency. Unprofessional even. Are you unprofessional? Because I'm not!


vi. Wildcard

[For anything that strikes your fancy or comes up during plotting!]
doingmath: (sad)

closed to Meredith

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-23 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[She remembers her.

Even without a photographic memory Cassandra thinks she'd remember everyone from the cave. Their scared faces, their struggles, the way the seal suit engulfed them. She talked to some of them - in person or telepathically - tried to escape with some of them but now that they're back, now that the adrenaline and immediate need for survival are gone, it leaves her... winded. Empty. Feeling small and scattered and a bit lost.

If this had been a regular mission, she would be in the Annex now. Surrounded by familiar things. The people closest to her. The warm, protective glow of the Library. But she doesn't have that here, none of them do, and that's just... sad. Upsetting.

She hates not feeling safe.

There's a mug of tea cusped in her hand and she takes a shaky breath before sitting down opposite of Meredith.]


Hi.

[She's awkward. This is awkward.]

So that happened, huh. With the... you know.
henchgal: (in front of my salad)

Switching to prose

[personal profile] henchgal 2021-07-24 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, it happened."

Meredith doesn't have people she'd go to, to help her process, even back in her own world. The last time she got kidnapped, her boss gave her a brief 'if you ever tell anyone what you know, I will kill you' talk, and a small raise as incentive to keep his secret, but that was it. No one checked in on her, and she drank the feelings away.

She's pretty sure if she tried that here, her roommates would be weird about it. But she still doesn't want to burden them with what's going on in her head. So she's here, alone--no, not alone anymore--with a cup of cocoa, both hands splinted up after her stunt trying to get out of the ropes.

"Your first kidnapping?"
doingmath: (unsure)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-25 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"Not really."

Cassie gives her a wry smile, blowing at the steamy mug, her fingers tapping against the handle.

"Doesn't make it easier though."

She wonders if it should. If this counts as a professional hazard at this point and she should be experienced and cool enough to shrug it off. After all, it wasn't the first time this had happened and it probably wouldn't be the last. Librarians got into this kind of stuff all the time. So was she overreacting? Should she be able to shrug it off?

Maybe she doesn't want to live in a world where you're supposed to shrug that off.

"I keep thinking about that woman. The first one I saw after waking up... down there. I haven't seen her around the building, I just... hope she made it out okay. Like us."

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bookbrawler: (Smile1)

iv RIP

[personal profile] bookbrawler 2021-07-23 10:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jake looks up, a kind but tired smile crossing his face.

He pretty much has the same idea--there's chips and a ham and cheese sandwich on a plate but it doesn't look like he's made much progress yet.]


Yeah. It sucked.

[He's still smiling, but it's pained.]

I should be askin' about this to you. How you holdin' up, Cassie?
doingmath: (hmh)

hnnngh

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-25 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know.

[That's a lot of food, Stone. Sure you don't mind her leaning over and stealing some of your chips to nibble on. Are you eating that sandwich because here comes a knife, slicing off a good third. She's not hungry at all but it's the universal lure and delicacy of stolen food.]

I feel like I should know all this. Fighting evil, getting kidnapped, witnessing horrible things. I mean, we've seen so much, haven't we? Done so much. Fought so much.

[She slices off some more ham and cheese.]

But this time it's... different.

[She looks up, hopeful that he'll understand, a little scared that he might not.]

Isn't it?
bookbrawler: (Looking down)

Rip his sandwich too

[personal profile] bookbrawler 2021-07-25 08:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[He hardly reacts when his food is subsequently snatched, too worried about what she's actually saying.]

Yeah...it's not that different from one of our usual missions, right? I mean, I've never been, uh, a selkie before. But we've done...stuff like this before. You, and the mermaid thing. Me and the body builder thing. Or even the robot huntsman.

[He wasn't even that mad at being chosen to be the strongman and the robot thing was cool. The tree thing? That was terrifying, but he had to respect the forest and the Grandfather tree. But there was always that same sort of horror when your own body is warped against you, but there's another sort of horror here that seems to be a different brand.

Something beneath the surface. Unsettling.

He gets it.]


Cass... [He sounds troubled, and looks away a moment.] You remember what they told us when we first got here? About the cost of using magic and abilities?

it's delish thank

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graveyounglady: (sad | uncertain)

Curveball (a)

[personal profile] graveyounglady 2021-07-24 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Mercy's seen senseless violence in her day, even been on the receiving end of some of it when another young girl had been trying to prove herself in charge and a fighter. That hadn't been sadism, though, that had been fear. The terror of a person whose world is spun so far out of control she'll grasp for whatever scrap of it she can hold onto.

This? This is just... it's a pleasure in pain that's wholly foreign. This delight as she watches an animal gutted only for another woman to pop out. She has no stories of the sea in her little mountain town, none past what Crystal had brought with her as shanties from the Southern Shores.

She watches the kelpies shoving the woman around and starts quietly trying to work at her bonds, using the mud to try to slick her wrists and get them free.]


I can move. [The words are a whisper.] Not enough, though. I hear water, too. I can't swim without my arms. Roll towards me. I can try to get these ropes undone.
doingmath: (oh no)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-25 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her eyes are still transfixed on the awful spectacle when she rolls and robs over towards the voice.

It takes all of her self control to do that and only that. Everything in her is screaming to do something, to help that poor woman. She wants to cry out, wants to tell these creatures to stop if only to draw their attention away from the victim... but she knows she'll have a better chance with her hands free. Besides, now there is someone else and crying out would have put them in danger, too. No, they had to be smart about this.

But it doesn't stop the guilt from churning her stomach.]


Okay. Can-- can you reach them?

[She tries to lift her arms higher until her shoulders strain in protest. Ouch. Really ought to work on that flexibility there...]
graveyounglady: (uncertain | scared)

[personal profile] graveyounglady 2021-07-27 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
I think I can...

[Mercy goes quiet as she reaches, feels blindly until she finds the other woman's bindings. Her fingers search for a knot to untie as quickly as she can. It's slow going with the mud making everything slippery, though.]

I'm gonna get you out of here. [Focus on helping others. That's the safety of the Spring Tide, isn't it? A focus on other people so you don't have to worry about yourself. She starts muttering a prayer under her breath, but it's not the Spring Tide that rises to her lips.]

You are the earth, the sacred ground, a place for rest, for sleep.
You are the home for all things, all times, all places.
You are the quiet and the stillness, the calm that will always be.
Protect your children, Brother Earth, and only bring us to your soil when it calls.
Never before.
Praise to beneath as it feeds what's above.

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essenceofdeadlybeasts: (040)

iii.

[personal profile] essenceofdeadlybeasts 2021-07-25 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
[Zhao very nearly pitched into the water after a violent kelpie attack rocked the boat heavily. He practically came nose to nose with the selkie looking up at the boat as he tipped over the side and barely managed to catch himself on the railing and prevent himself from falling into the wet expanse. He blinked and then set to work pushing himself back upright.

He drew his gun. Kill the kelpie, then see about these strange seals swimming around. They didn't seem quite normal enough and with everything else going around he had an odd feeling they weren't. Normal seals that is.

One thing at a time. He focused his attention on the water around the boat but it was hard to see in the dark let alone under the water. He could barely keep his eye on the seal and it wasn't trying to hide from him. The unsteady boat didn't exactly help with things either as another underwater attack sent Zhao sprawling.]
doingmath: (magic)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-25 04:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Everything is happening so fast and she has to think really fast and has to make decisions really fast. Which isn't easy when all your mental energy is going towards navigating a body that isn't your own and not screaming internally and yelling at yourself instead not to panic and, well. Not getting yourself killed (well, gutted, again) as a consequence.

But she sees Zhao on the boat and she sees the gun. And that helps. Help is here. This isn't home but she is not alone. They can do this together, they can still work as a team.

Gun. When the gun is fired, the two masses move away from one another with velocities vg and vb respectively. Let mb and vb stand for the mass and velocity of the bullet, the latter just before hitting the target, and let mt and vt stand for the mass and velocity of the target after being hit...

She splashes and turns in the water to draw the kelpie's attention, dives lure it away from the boat.

She chooses her route carefully, sticking close to the surface. Some zigzagging is needed to avoid her attacker but she keeps in straight lines as much as she can, trying to give Zhao a clear line of fire.]
essenceofdeadlybeasts: (031)

[personal profile] essenceofdeadlybeasts 2021-07-25 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[Zhao knew an opportunity when he saw one. The kelpie was keen to go after the seal and thus distracted the gangster had a perfect chance to get some shots off. His aim was usually fairly good but all this boat rocking threw off his game. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to make it so bad he hit the seal by accident. But a few of his shots went wide and missed the kelpie.

But a few of them hit it, too, and he saw the water darken with its blood. He grinned viciously in triumph. So this was what it was like to shoot fish in a barrel. It'd be cruel if it wasn't for the fact that they started it first!

His eyes swept the water carefully, half his attention keeping up with the seal while the other half of him searched for kelpie--either to finish off the one he hit if it was still around or for others that might have joined in the hunt of the seal over here.]

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inlieuofadad: (GA_221)

i - breaking it in

[personal profile] inlieuofadad 2021-07-25 05:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[O no. She is young and chipper and awkward, which is a triple threat in the "hmm... I am a father now" equation. There's this thing that happens when Gil takes a shine to someone, a general softening of his everything from Tough New York Major Crimes Investigator to gentle German Shepherd.]

Gil Arroyo, Earth, 2021. No magic or apocalypses that I'm aware of, but who knows after what I've seen here so far.

[He gives her a crooked little smile.] How common is magic where you're from? And who common are apocalypses, for that matter?
doingmath: (brimming)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-25 06:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh! He's from the future! That's exciting and she brightens, leaning forward and extending an eager hand.]

Nice to meet you, Mr. Arroyo. It's, well. Complicated? Most humans don't know about it. The magic, I mean. Well, the apocalypses, too...

[So they might be from the same world after all!]

It's actually very common but being kept secret so it can't fall into the wrong hands.

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120vision: (in dying)

sticky wicket

[personal profile] 120vision 2021-07-25 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Gojou doesn't really care about being unprofessional or not, as long as the job gets done. But the honest fact was, if the ADI expected a job done, they had to give some sort of compensation. Money was fine, but something like getting to look inside the box was way more entertaining. He tilts his head as he listens to her, his eyes focused on that box - they haven't stopped doing so since it was retrieved, really. ]

If you think they might be damaged, we should definitely check. We need to know what we're dealing with.

[ A grin tugs at his lips. ]

Plus, it might be cool.
doingmath: (clippings book)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-26 11:04 am (UTC)(link)
Yes! That too.

[Because magic is cool. Magic is the coolest. Plus, if the ADI want them to play courier with potentially dangerous magic, don't they have the right to find out what that magic is? After all, there's no guarantee it might not be set off any minute now.

Cassie sets the box down carefully and starts opening it.]


Moment of truth! What do you think it is? A crystal? Magic potion? A cursed mirror?
lowficharm: (« [Surprise] oh. oh shit)

v!

[personal profile] lowficharm 2021-07-26 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
[Oh, they were so close to doing this normally and without anything going completely awry. Martin's been pretty quiet too after the selkie... everything, and is honestly just pretty keen on getting everything handled all well and good.

Which is why he sighs just a bit when she starts talking, bringing his hands up in a clear and practiced 'no' motion.]


It's-- I really, really don't think that's a good idea. Stuff like this, it-- it wants you to use it, and then you end up doing weird stuff.

[How does he know that? Well hmm hmm hmm, he's not specifying off the cuff.]
doingmath: (over there!)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-26 11:01 am (UTC)(link)
[Ugh. He sounds like Stone which immediately makes her defensive and a little pouty.]

First of all, we don't know if it even is 'stuff like this'. Because we don't know what's in there. So until we've checked if there really is any kind of mesmerizing magic woven into the artifact you can't make a generalized statement like that. Second, we don't have to use it. There's two of us and if one of us tries, the other can just stop them.

[See? Easy-peasy! She ticks off her fingers with a self-confidence that might hint at maybe her not being all that unfamiliar with stuff like that either.]

Third, a lot of us almost died and I don't know about you but I am pretty upset about that. Just imagine whatever is in there starts tearing people limb from limb, possessing anyone and turning them into a raging axe murderer or-- or-- or simply devouring us.

[There's a slight buzz in the End prickling behind her ears and in her head but she's too caught up in her excitement to notice.]

Come on. Clearly you've been thinking about it. If you know more about this, you should really help me determine if it's safe.

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sorry, missed the notif!

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you are so okay!

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the_archivist: (Curiosity)

i

[personal profile] the_archivist 2021-07-26 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's the mention of apocalypses which catches his attention, understandably. He isn't sure how many people would recognise him from their own world, but it would be good to know.]

What sort of apocalypse? And what sort of magic?
doingmath: ([visions] pathways)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-28 01:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Wild magic that has returned to the world, mostly. Set free by broken Ley Lines.

[She tilts her head quizzically, as if probing him for some sign of recognition as well.]

As for the apocalypses, umm... well, the most recent one was Apep, Egyptian God of Chaos, trying to tip the ultimate battle between Good and Evil in his favor...

[She lets that hang for a moment. Anything?]

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apodictic: (pic#14017079)

iv.

[personal profile] apodictic 2021-07-26 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Fine.

[ angelo digs in to his meal dispassionately. ]

It's just tiring work. We were there all evening.

[ he gives her a short glance. ] You don't look like you're doing well.
doingmath: (thinking)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-28 01:34 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm... okay, I guess? Like, we're all alive, back on dry land, nobody got eaten...

[That's a win, right? She knows it should feel like a win.]

But it sure was a lot.

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twistedbones: (Default)

i. Breaking It In

[personal profile] twistedbones 2021-07-28 08:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Is everyone here from the future?

[Whether or not she was actually talking to him, Thackery emerges from under a nearby chair to gaze at her. 2017, really. Of course, he's been told it's 2021 here, which...well, things don't seem that different to him.]
doingmath: (hyper)

[personal profile] doingmath 2021-07-28 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[A cat! A talking cat!

Not the first talking animal she has encountered but come on, there is just something about a talking cat that is special. Magical. Wonderful! Cassandra can't help it, she's clasping her hands together in excitement.]


I guess that means you're from my past! What is the year where you are from?

[Wait.]

Do you use calendars? I could see that getting tricky with the paws and the furs and where would you put it...

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